"Psst! Wake up."
Carl felt a slap on his cheek and opened his eyes to see a blurry-faced Paul looking down at him.
"Huh?" Looking around, Carl saw that it was still dark outside
"It's too early, go back to bed." Carl waved him off, but felt Paul slap him on the head
"Alright, alright, I'm up." Carl, used to being woken up by Paul, knew that Paul would slap him harder and harder until he got up.
Who the heck even woke someone up by slapping them anyway?
Getting up, Carl slipped into his usual jeans and jacket before buckling on his gun and knife before stepping out into the still dark morning and seeing the shadow of Paul, who had gotten dressed into his usual Trench Coat.
"Here, eat up." Paul tossed him an apple, which Carl gladly took a few bites of while they walked out of the still-sleeping camp.
"What are we doing up this early anyway?" Carl asked while wiping the apples juices off his chin.
"We don't know these people, we don't know this farm. What did I teach you?" Paul asked
"Know your surroundings, know your enemy, but they aren't our enemy, right? They helped Sophia." Carl asked while looking at Paul
"Just like you should know your enemy, you should know your ally even better; a bad teammate is worse than a bad enemy," Paul said, and Carl nodded, absorbing and trying to understand everything Paul taught.
"Why's a bad teammate worse?" Carl asked
"Because you may never see the danger coming."
Carl's eyes widened a little, and he felt he understood Paul's reasoning.
"Shh. You hear that?" Paul put a finger to his lips, and they both stopped
A low growl could be heard along with the shuffling of feet, making them look at each other before they glanced at the barn where the noise was coming from.
Slowly, they both crept closer to the barn before they tried to glance inside, but it was too dark to see anything but faint shadows.
But they didn't need to see anything to hear the groans and moans of walkers, and it sounded like a lot.
"Wha-
"Sh." Paul stopped Carl from talking, and they both walked away from the barn before Carl couldnt hold it in anymore.
"Why do they have a barn full of walkers?" Carl asked while nervously looking back at the barn.
Paul thought it over and came up with two reasons.
Walkers could be used as a weapon, and Hershel was keeping them there to use later on, but he didn't exactly seem like that type of guy, so Paul scratched that one out.
Or even worse, Hershel was keeping walkers alive because he couldnt bring himself to kill them, meaning he saw them as people still.
In Paul's eyes, that was on par with psychopathic behavior.
Watch a walker tear the flesh from your family member, and tell me, are they still people?
"Hershel, he's still holding on to a hope that isn't there. He thinks those things are probably still alive in some way, is what I would imagine." Paul shook his head while thinking of the group and even Rick himself.
"Actually, it's still in a lot of them, even your dad," Paul said
"My dad?" Carl asked, wondering what Paul meant
"He still wears his sheriff's uniform, I can see it, they're trying to cling on to a civilization that doesn't exist anymore, Carl."
Carl felt his eyes widen, and he understood what Paul was saying. The others were still living in the old world.
"You didn't tell them about those two men I killed, right?" Paul asked
"No…" Carl shook his head. He had left that part out of the story, along with a few other things.
"Good, they won't understand. Not yet, but they will in time."
"So, what do we do about this? Leave it?" Carl asked while looking at the barn.
Paul shook his head.
"Of course not. We use this to wake them up."
"Wake them up?" Carl asked
"Wake them up to reality, Carl. Hershel, his wife, and their kids are useful, they have knowledge that can be of use.
So we can be the good, innocent people who let them live in their little bubble until the day comes when a walker horde blows through, or worse, another group of humans, and they're killed off.
Or we can be the bad guys for a minute and pop their little bubble, if they can live with the reality, then we got ourselves a doctor, if not, not our problem." Paul shrugged
Whether people killed themselves or not wasn't up to him, and he didn't really care.
When he was trained in the barracks as a kid, along with the hundreds of other kids, he saw many children who decided to kill themselves.
He had considered it, but it wasnt who he was, hed have to be killed before he gave up a single day on earth, no matter how shitty the day.
"Okay. So what's the plan?" Carl asked
"We will tell everyone that there are walkers in the barn. I'll ask Rick to have a chat with Hershel, meanwhile, we'll get everyone riled up and to the barn." Paul said, and Carl nodded
Carl didn't really see the need for a whole elaborate plan, it was just a bunch a walkers, kill the things, but he knew Paul was thinking of a bigger picture, so he went along.
"Let's head back. The others should be up by now."