Flash Fiction #30
Almost done with Flash Fiction month! Part of me is really sad - the rest of me is really tired *g*
This could be triggering so, if LJ will let me, I'll cut it. If not, the few of you that are reading these anyway, skip it if you have abuse triggers!
Title: Flash Fiction #30
Fandom: The Walking Dead
Word Count: 1212
Characters: Ed Peltier, Shane Walsh, mentions of others
Warnings: Abuse, could be triggering.
Author’s Note: This probably makes Shane out to be more heroic than he was but I could see this happening under the right circumstances. By Godric, someone needed to do it.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters associated with The Walking Dead - I just like to take them out and play with them from time to time. This is unbeta’d and unedited - all errors are my own. If you see anything that needs correction, please let me know! Concrit is always welcome!
***
“Fine! Go on then! I don’t need y’all anyway.” Ed Peltier rolled over on his side, his face bruised and bloody from the beating Shane had given him earlier. His eye was swollen to the point he could barely see. He heard his wife and daughter leave the tent, zipping it shut behind them. He muttered to himself, “Ungrateful little bitches. You just wait 'til I’m better. There won’t be no fuckin’ partying then.”
As he lay there in pain, cursing the lack of painkillers, he thought back to his first confrontation with Shane Walsh. Nosy bastard never did know when to keep his nose out of other people’s business.
***
Shane drove into camp, bringing a load of water from the quarry in the back of his Jeep. “Just a reminder, folks! You’re going to want to boil this before you use it.” He helped Dale and Glenn unload the containers and took one of the smaller ones back to Lori’s tent. He set the container down outside the tent and walked over to the table where Lori was tutoring Carl and Sophia. It amused him that she refused to let the kids go without at least some schoolwork each day. “Poor kids,” he thought with a grin. “Not even the end of the world could get them out of homework.”
He sat down next to Carl as he said, “Lori, the water’s here. I can keep an eye on the kids for a bit if you have something you need to do.” She smiled and nodded. “Make sure Carl finishes those fractions. He keeps trying to skip ahead. He thinks he’s sneaky.” Carl looked over at Shane and rolled his eyes as his mom walked away. Shane laughed and looked at Sophia. “And what has she got you working on?” He patted her shoulder as he spoke, not hard but she flinched as though his touch had burned her. “Sophia? What’s wrong?”
She just shook her head as she said, “It’s nothing. Just… I fell.” She refused to meet his eyes, refused to even look at Carl.
Shane frowned and said, “OK, I’ll be right back.” He stood and walked over to Lori. “Lori, I need you to go and check Sophia’s back for me. I touched her shoulder and she jumped like I’d hit her. I think Ed’s been hitting her, but I want you to look, make for sure, before I go kick his ass.” Lori looked over at the kids, pain in her eyes as she nodded. She walked over to the table and sat down with Sophia.
“Sophia, honey, I need you to let me see your back, ok sweetie? Just for a second.” Sophia jumped up from the table, keeping her back well away from Lori. She shook her head, tears in her eyes, as she said, “It’s nothing, I swear. I just fell, I promise.” Lori tried to take Sophia’s hands to calm her down but Sophia turned and ran back to her own tent as fast as she could go. Lori looked at Shane, her eyes wide. “Well, that went well,” she muttered. “What are we going to do now?”
Shane stood and grabbed his rifle. “I tell you what we’re going to do. You’re going to keep Carl here for a bit. I’m going to go find Ed, put the fear of God into him. He can’t keep doing this, Lori. It’s wrong.” He smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile at Carl. “I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t worry, it’ll be ok.” Lori said, her voice low, “Are you sure about that? He’s a big son of a bitch, strong too.” Shane looked offended. “Are you sayin’ that I can’t handle him? Lori, I’m still a cop. This is my job, whether I get paid for it or not. Ed is a bully and I’m damned tired of it. Something’s got to be done.”
He stalked across the camp and over to the Peltier’s tent. “Ed, you in there?” he called out. “I need to talk to you a minute.” He waited until Ed poked his head out of the tent, a snarl on his face. “What do you want?”
Shane shouldered his rifle and motioned for Ed to step out of the tent. “I just need a word with you in private. Won’t take long.”
Ed rolled his eyes but came out of the tent. He stood before Shane, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in a mean glare. “What the hell do you want with me? I ain’t done nothing.”
Shane dropped all pretenses of a friendly discussion as he dropped his rifle and grabbed Ed by the shirt front, slamming him back against the Peltier’s car. “Everyone here knows what you do, Ed. You think you’re a big man, huh? Beating up your wife shows how strong you are?” Ed started to speak but Shane slammed him against the car again. “Shut the fuck up. You’re gonna listen to me now, got it? Your little girl? She’s got bruises. Says she fell. Probably into a doorknob huh? Or down the stairs? So fuckin’ original. I’m not stupid, Ed. I’ve seen this shit before and it pisses me off as much now as it did then.”
He took Ed’s chin in his hand, forcing Ed to look him in the face. “I tell you now, Ed. You hit that little girl or your wife again? You so much as raise your voice in their presence, and I will take you out in the woods and kill you myself. I swear it. I’ll beat you to death with my bare hands.”
Shane shoved Ed against the car and backed away, grabbing his rifle off the ground. When Ed started forward with his fists raised, Shane pointed his rifle in Ed’s face. “Or we can do this now. How do you want it, Ed?” Shane could hear Carol and Sophia inside the tent, trying to keep their sobs quiet. It infuriated him that, after all Ed had done to them, they could still manage tears at the thought of his death. “How do you want it, Ed?”
Ed lowered his hands, glaring at Shane. “One of these days, Shane, I’ll get you for this.” He turned and walked back in the tent, zipping it shut behind him. Shane stood for a moment, listening. When he didn’t hear anything coming from the tent, he turned and walked away, shrugging off the questioning stares of the others in the camp. “Nothing to see here, people. Go back to what you were doing.”
***
The sound of footsteps approaching the tent dragged Ed back to the present. He struggled to sit upright, muttering, “Goddammit, I told them to leave me be.” He stood and unzipped the tent, his face a grotesque mask of rage. “What the hell do you-?“ His words were cut off as he realized he was staring into the face of death itself, come to take him. His rage quickly turned to fear, his rants turned to screams, as the walkers invaded his tent. As their teeth tore into his flesh and his blood soaked the tent, he had a moment to wish he could take it all back before he knew no more.