WHITE FLAG

chapter twenty-one : no more secrets
{ season two - episode seven }

THE OTHER SIDE of the door to the room Kloe was currently staying in produced a small, quiet knock. Her head darted over to the small pocket watch that Hershel left on the nightstand so she could check what the time was, and it was 11:15 p.m. She had gone to sleep, but woke up around fifteen minutes after and couldn't get back to sleep.

"Are you awake?" she heard a feminine, thick country accent softly call out to me. In an instant, she knew who it was. Maggie Greene. The eldest daughter of Hershel Greene's.

"Yeah," Kloe replied, also quietly. "For some reason," she added, unsure as to why she was actually awake in the first place.

The doorknob to the door slowly twisted, and the door creaked and screeched open. Maggie tiptoed inside, scrunching her face up to the loud sound that the door was making, and quickly closed it.

She was in her pajamas: a plain, white, low-cut baggy t-shirt and gray sweatpants that were way too small for her. She didn't look tired at all. She looked wide awake. Her short brown hair was a little messy, but not too bad.

Once she shut the door, she looked over at the brunette with squinted eyes. The soft, orange, caramel-colored light from the lamp next to Kloe shined on her face, which was the reason why she was squinting.

Noticing, Kloe gently extended her arm out to the lamp and placed her hands on top of the dimmer switch. She turned it, causing the room to get darker but still light.

"Thanks," she whispered, forming a smile.

"Of course," Kloe responded, nodding at the girl.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you. It's just- I saw the light from under the door, and I thought you were awake," Maggie apologized, stepping towards the side of the bed Kloe was currently occupying.

"No, no. It's fine. I couldn't sleep anyway," she quickly answered, shaking her head at the girl.

"Oh. I couldn't either," she sat on the end of the bed, still looking down at Kloe. "Why can't you sleep."

Kloe shrugged, "I- I don't know. A lot is just on my mind right now."

"Like what?" Maggie inquired, pity in her emerald green eyes.

Kloe stared at the white sheets that were layering on top of her as she fiddled with the ends of her hair with her hand. "Everything, I guess. Like, Sophia and her disappearance. It doesn't make sense. Then today at the pharmacy, and- and then Isabelle almost killed me, accidentally," she listed.

"I'm sorry for what happened at the pharmacy. We all heard about what happened, Glenn told us," she smiled supportively. "And I'm also sorry for being rude to you and Glenn, but you cannot tell anyone about the barn."

"It's dangerous," Kloe stated simply.

"I know, but- but the people in there mean a lot to us. And if you told the rest of your group, then you'll all be kicked out, and I don't want that," Maggie stuttered in her words, looking down at her hands that were placed on her lap.

"Look, I'm not the greatest at keeping secrets, but I'm also not bad at it," Kloe said, being quieter. "It'll most likely be Glenn who snitches on you, Maggie."

"Didn't you tell Zayn and Glenn about Lori's mystery pregnancy?"

Kloe's eyes immediately widened as she stared at the girl with confusion, "H- how did you know Lori's pregnant?"

"Glenn told me while you were getting stitched up. Speaking of..." she trailed off, a smirk playing on her lips. Kloe shut her eyes and sighed, ready for what Maggie was about to bring up. "You one hundred percent lied to me in the pharmacy about not having a thing with Glenn."

"What?" her eyes shot open, her eyebrows furrowing at the girl, "I didn't lie."

"Yeah, you did. Zayn told me what happened at the CDC," at first, Kloe was confused, but then it all came at her at lightning speed. Her lips parted with shock, and her eyelids widened. "Judging by the expression on your face, I'm guessing you thought he didn't know?"

No words formed, and she sat there in complete shock, looking like an idiot. When Kloe snapped herself back into reality, blood rushed up to her cheeks, and she covered her entire face with both of her hands, "Oh, God. That's so embarrassing."

"Embarrassing? I find it kind of cute," Maggie chuckled.

"Cute?" Kloe questioned, her hands falling into her lap, and she stared at the girl with a serious look. "How is my brother knowing that I slept with Glenn at the CDC cute?

"I'm not talking about your brother, silly. I mean the relationship between you and Glenn. Every time you guys look at each other, talk to each other, hell even if you're near each other, you'll always end up smiling like teenagers to each other."

"No, we don't, do we?" Kloe rushed her words, panic getting the better of her.

"You definitely do. Hey, take my advice, tell him you like him tomorrow," she suggested, the smirk never leaving her face.

"And if I don't like him?"

"Oh, yeah right, sorry. I chose the wrong word. Tell him you love him."

...

Kloe stared down at the soil on the ground. It was the next morning, and the only thing that was dancing around her mind was the conversation Maggie and Kloe had. Everything she was saying about her lying about having a thing for Glenn was true, but she kept denying it.

She didn't know why she kept denying it. It wasn't right to lie. But when it came to a situation like that, all she thought of doing was denying it.

Isabelle had come in once everyone had finished preparing breakfast and helped me make her way over. The stitches and antibiotics she was given helped, it felt like she was back to normal, kinda.

No one except Glenn and Kloe trusted Isabelle. She knew that the moment she could walk on her own, she could talk Rick into letting Isabelle stay. After all, she was only sixteen.

She couldn't even face looking at Glenn or her older brother. Zayn knew that his sister and best friend had slept together at the CDC, and Kloe was mortified. But so far, it didn't even look like he cared. Maybe because he trusted Glenn, he knew that Glenn wouldn't do anything to hurt her.

The one thing that was even more embarrassing was the fact that Kloe was sitting in between the two. Zayn was on her right, and Glenn was on her left. She just wanted the ground to form a hole and swallow her up and never return.

She noticed in the corner of her eye, though, that Glenn repeatedly glanced up at the farmhouse's porch, where there stood a female figure, Maggie Greene.

It caused Kloe to look up as well, and the eldest Greene daughter was shaking her head with a stern look. When she stopped, Glenn silently sighed and turned his head. He looked at the younger Schmidt, and she only shrugged and turned to Dale.

Dale's eyes flickered between Glenn and Kloe, and he only nodded very slowly. Kloe swiveled her head back around to Glenn, and he nodded back. They shared a glance before he abruptly stood up and stepped away from them.

Zayn's eyes shot up at Glenn as he walked away, and he looked back at his younger sister with confusion. She pursed her lips and shrugged as she averted her gaze from him, still having that looping thought of him knowing about it.

The siblings both watched Glenn as he came to a stop, peering over at them before dazing back over the rest of the group.

"Um, guys," he called out, rubbing his chin while catching the whole group's attention. "So..." he paused again, glancing back over at Kloe, and she only nodded her head, knowing that there was no going back now. "Uh, the barn is full of walkers."

Everyone's eyes stared at the boy with pure fright and horror.

Zayn spun his head around to face his younger sister with shock, his eyes wider than they had ever been before.

...

Isabelle kept her arm around Kloe's waist and her arm around the teen's shoulder as they stood in front of the entrance to the barn. Glenn was sticking close by her side too.

She gulped as a loud growl came from the barn, resulting in Shane, who was peeping through a small crack on the large locked up gate, stepping back away. He harshly turned around and stepped over to Rick.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this," he sneered, brushing past Rick with his police cap in his hand.

"No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land," Rick defensively replied.

For some reason, Kloe's heart budged a little and the look on Isabelle's face was unreadable. She was either scared, angry, or maybe even sad. Everyone stared at Rick in disbelief except Shane, who was about to lose it.

"Oh, God," he seethed through his teeth with frustration. "This is our lives, man!"

"Lower your voice!" Glenn shouted at Shane in a low tone, noticing more growls coming from the barn.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug," Andrea stated firmly, her arms folded over her chest. If anything, everyone knew that Andrea would always be on Shane's side, she always had been. So none of them wasn't even surprised that she was defending him. Although, in this position, she had every right to be.

"It ain't right. Not remotely," Shane rubbed his shaved head, exhaling through his nose loudly as he trod back over to the group. "We either got to go in there, we gotta make things right, or we just got to go," he pointed to the ground, listing the things the group could do as he flipped his cap back onto his head. "Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time-"

"We can't go," Rick interrupted his best friend, sharply stating those three words. If anything, Kloe certainly didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay until they found Sophia. Daryl and Kloe almost died looking for her, but if they all went as a group, maybe they'd had a chance.

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane narrowed his eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Because my daughter is still out there," Carol spoke up, stepping forward into the disagreements between Shane and Rick.

"Okay," Shane scoffed, rubbing his hands over his face with even more frustration than before. "Okay," he sighed. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"You need to take that right back, Shane," Kloe gritted her teeth, shooting him a death glare.

"We're not leaving Sophia behind," Rick sided with the youngest Schmidt.

"I'm close to finding this girl," Daryl stepped forward. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

Shane chuckled sarcastically at the man, "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll. And you, Kloe," he turned over to the girl. "You found nothing."

Kloe clenched her fists, wanting to punch the man across the face. Although, she held back, knowing that what he said was true. Except, Daryl thought differently and stepped closer to Shane.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Daryl fumed. Rick held out his arm to stop him from getting closer to Shane.

"Man, look, I'm just saying what needs to be said here! Now, you get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours!" Shane yelled, earning loads of shouts in return to be quieter. Shane spun back around to face Daryl, "Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all method out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction, man! And if she saw Kloe with a girl that she's never seen before and was covered in practically everything, she would once again, run in the other damn direction!"

Daryl and Kloe were about to go berserk at that point. The anger that was running through them at the speed of light took over Kloe and she broke out of Isabelle's arms and harshly stepped over to the man. Daryl had already lunged forward, everyone shouting in the background and Rick standing in between the two men.

Kloe's side only stung a little, but it was barely anything. Zayn quickly noticed that she was ready to strike the man across the face and hurriedly rushed over to stop his younger sister. He extended his arm out in front of her so she couldn't get closer. She grunted with every push, but she was still weak.

As she watched Daryl and Shane get closer and closer to fighting, it felt like something had clicked inside of her to gain a lot of strength. She pushed forward past her brother and walked over to the small crowd.

Once she was behind Shane, she gripped his arm and dug her nails into his skin with anger. He grunted, and his head darted over to her. She stepped back and, if looks could kill, Shane would be more than dead.

Then, Shane had his fiery eyes set on the young adult and harshly stepped over to her. That's when Zayn and Glenn stood in front of Kloe and began pushing the man away from her, along with a few others that were pulling him away from behind.

"Kloe, calm down. You're making things worse," Zayn muttered loud enough so his sister could hear over his shoulder as he pushed Shane away from her.

"Shane, back off!" Rick yelled once the whole 'fight' was over.

"Keep your hands off me," Shane pointed at Lori, who was the one that managed to pull Shane away from both Kloe and Daryl.

Zayn, Glenn, and Isabelle rushed over to Kloe and they whispered many things, but her attention was set on Shane. How she didn't punch him, she didn't know. Her eyes widened as pain rang through her once again on her side and she winced.

The three of them noticed and Isabelle and Glenn both wrapped their arms around her waist to keep her steadied. "Take deep breaths, Klo," Glenn softly whispered into her ear, and she listened. She breathed in slowly and exhaled.

Once Kloe was okay again, she looked up at the rest of the group and half of them were either staring at Shane, or they were looking at her with pity. As soon as she looked back at Shane, everyone's eyes landed on him and away from her.

"Look, just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out," Rick said, only to receive an enraged Shane spin back around and yell at the man.

"What are you gonna figure out?!" he roared.

"Enough!" Lori growled, placing her hand on Shane's chest to stop him from lunging at her husband.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land," Rick reasoned, staring into Shane's angered eyes.

"Hershel sees those things in there as people," Dale walked over and stood by Rick's side. "Sick people. His wife, his- his stepson."

"You knew?" Rick asked in disbelief.

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel," Dale answered simply and truthfully.

Shane stepped forward again, except this time he had calmed down, not, "And you waited the night?"

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did," Dale snapped back, turning back to Rick. "I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"I knew as well, for your information," Kloe added, except no one looked at her, which she was grateful for.

Shane exhaled heavily, "The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive-!"

"Just let me think!"

"No!"

Kloe immediately jolted back as the chains to the barn began to rattle, meaning every single walker that was in there was prying to get out. She swallowed thickly, watching the barn intensely.

Everyone stared in fright and horror, taking steps back. All hell was about to break loose.

...

"Where'd your baseball cap go?" Kloe questioned Glenn, who was sitting atop of the RV and was wearing Dale's fishing hat. It had been around two hours since everything had gone down, and everyone was now doing their own thing, including Isabelle. He glanced down at Kloe and shook his head.

"Maggie's mad at me, she crushed and wasted an egg on my head," he answered, tracing his finger over his forehead to check if he had completely washed off whatever was on his head.

"Damn," Kloe muttered, hauling herself up the ladder to sit with him..

"Hey," Glenn said, causing Kloe's head to look up at him, "was Isabelle by herself when you found her?"

She nodded, "Yeah, she was. I didn't want to ask why she was alone. Maybe something happened to her parents or something, I didn't want to make her sad." Kloe stared back down at her knees where her hands were covering them, beginning to feel a major amount of pity for the poor young girl.

Glenn, who noticed his best friend's sudden change of mood, laid his hand over her own. She glanced up at him, and he had that soft smile that would always make her mood happy. "Ask her when she's ready," he stated, barely above a whisper.

"But how would I know if she's ready?" she questioned the boy who looked deep into her eyes with his soft caramel brown ones.

"Trust me, you'll know," he responded, blinking a few times.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Glenn's hand still set over mine. Kloe's mind drifted over to the barn, along with my eyesight. She gazed at the barn, the unexpected thought crossing her mind, "What do you think Rick and Shane will do?"

Glenn looked into the direction where the barn was, and shrugged, "I don't know. But we'll have to make sure it doesn't get out of hand with whatever Shane has in mind."

"Yeah, I agree. That bastard needs to control his temper," she scoffed. The thought of Shane made her blood boil. She just had to give his face the back of my hand and she would've felt better.

She instantly looked back at Glenn, and he was already watching her. She grinned widely, and it was impossible to hold back, "I don't know why you always look at me like I'm some sort of goddess, but I don't mind."

Glenn sidesmiled, still not taking his eyes off the brunette, "Well, I think you're something worth looking at."

Kloe nudged her elbow into Glenn's side gently, earning a laugh from him, "You know you don't have to lie."

"I never lie. In fact, I suck at lying," Glenn threw back playfully.

"Yeah, no shit sherlock. But who knows, maybe you're different with me?" she reasoned, playfully rolling her eyes at the Korean boy. He only laughed in reply. A smile bloomed on both of their faces at their slight bicker.

"I have nothing to say except I don't regret it," he pointed out, grinning widely. Kloe's eyebrows raised and she nodded, avidly agreeing. She knew what he meant when he said that. He didn't regret announcing to everyone about the walkers in the barn. "Do you think it was the right choice?" he suddenly asked, referring to what she was nodding at.

Once more, she nodded, "I mean, yeah," she replied in a lower-tone, considering they were out in the open and anyone could hear the two, "it was a good choice. I don't think I would've felt okay if we kept it a secret any longer."

They gazed off into the distance, into the fields and trees. Kloe then spotted a familiar feminine figure with a basket full of something in her arms. "Hey," she tapped Glenn's arm and gestured towards Maggie, "should we talk to her? She seems mad and I really wanna reason with her."

Without hesitation, Glenn nodded. He set down the rifle that was in his grip and extended out a hand to help Kloe up. Gratefully, she took it and gently pulled herself up.

Once she was fully stood up, she stared over at Maggie, who was reluctantly approaching. "Hey," Kloe called out to her, catching the brunette's attention and tried her best to avoid eye contact as her pace began to quicken. "Maggie. Hey."

Kloe stepped over to the rusty metal ladder that was connected to the RV and began to crawl down, carefully. She leaped off the last bar and her boots smacked against the dead grass beneath her. "Maggie," she called out again, briefly glancing up at Glenn who was quickly stepping down the ladder.

He joined Kloe's side and they rushed over to Maggie. "Hey, Maggie," Glenn yelled quietly, attempting to get the girl to stop walking, "Maggie, just stop for a second." They joined her side and she hesitantly looked up at the pair.

"You both talked about it. You told Dale, fine," she finally replied, but in a harsh and hurt tone, "I- I asked you both. I- I told you! I just asked you both for one thing. One thing!"

"Look, first of all, this is my doing, so don't blame Kloe, please. Second of all, I couldn't do it," Glenn returned, breathing heavily at the quick pace the Greene girl was going.

"Please slow down, Maggie," Kloe breathed out, struggling to keep up, although she didn't listen and decided to continue yelling at them.

"My dad's gonna kick you guys out now!" she ranted. Now Kloe understood why she was mad and hurt. She wasn't mad at them for betraying her. She was just scared because she didn't want them to leave.

"No! Listen, Rick said he's gonna work something out with your father, okay?" Kloe reasoned, keeping her voice low as they got closer to the house.

"Yeah! I had to tell him, okay?" Glenn sided with his best friend, persevering in getting Maggie on their side.

"You did not!" Maggie snapped back, emotion breaking into her voice.

Kloe seized onto Maggie's arm once she managed to catch up, spinning her around. "No, he did. He- we wanted to," Kloe stated as she took the basket of vegetables and fruit that was in her arms and handed it to Glenn, who placed it onto the dry, dead grass.

The boy then took a few steps forward to join Kloe's side and they both stared into Maggie's almost teary eyes. "You see, I forgot. Okay? I forgot, or I stopped thinking about it, or maybe, I didn't want to think about it. I let them lower me into that well like it was fun, the only ones that didn't like the idea were you two and Zayn. It was like I was playing Portal- It's a video game."

"Of course it's a video game."

"Yeah..." Kloe absentmindedly nodded, remembering that Portal was the game her older brother used to play all the time which must have been with Glenn. Kloe unexpectedly became very light-headed from the quick movements and needed to sit down. "You know, uh, this very fast walking we just did has made me light headed, uh, I'm gonna go sit down over there," she gestured over to the porch steps and immediately left the two alone.

Although, while she was walking away, she could still hear them as clear as day.

"Look, yesterday the pharmacy thing happened. I told you everything that happened and I realized something," Kloe's whole body froze at Glenn's more quieter choice of words, but she couldn't make it look too suspicious that she could hear everything and continued to walk, focusing on the conversation over everything else. "Kloe almost got killed and I forgot that they were dangerous. I don't care if they're sick people or dead people, they're dangerous! You told me how much you wanted to be friends with her. Don't you feel just a little bit scared that the person you probably like the most here almost died?"

The porch steps were way closer than Kloe thought and she could still hear the conversation. She didn't exactly want to listen in since there was a thing called privacy, but she couldn't help herself. She sat herself down on the steps, rested her head on the side of the railing and shut her eyes.

"And then I realized something else," Kloe opened her eyelids, ready for what Glenn had to say, "that I don't want Kloe in danger ever. You even told me yesterday that I should say something, but I can't. But that moment when she almost got bit, it felt like my whole world had just fallen. When she cried, it just made me just want to cry with her. So I hate to blow your dad's big secret, but I'm sick of secrets. Secrets get you killed. And I'd rather have you pissed off at me than everyone else here dead. So that's why I told him."

Kloe's whole breathing mechanism had just come to a stop and her heart practically pounded out of her chest. Glenn really felt like that when that happened? She subconsciously glanced up at the two and spotted Glenn stepping away from Maggie and towards her.

Except he came to a tight stop when Maggie called out to him, "Hey, walker bait."

He squinted his eyes and turned around to face her, "Don't call me that."

Maggie then turned over to Kloe, causing Glenn to copy her and also look over at her. Shit, Kloe cursed to herself as a wide smirk grew on Maggie's face. The eldest Greene daughter leaned in close to Glenn's ear and began to whisper something so she couldn't hear.

Shit, shit. Double shit. It was then when she realized that Maggie noticed that Kloe had most likely been listening in the whole time.

She was most likely telling Glenn that Kloe had heard it all.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

Words: 4243

- 11th March 2022

longgg chapter i know 😭