✓ | SPITFIRE ¹ ✶ the walking dead

⠀⠀⠀𝒙𝒗𝒊𝒊. against the clock

⠀⠀⠀"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Dale exclaimed, finally catching Bianca's attention. She raised her head, staring at the old man as he ranted on the group's inability to allow the possibility of his opinion. "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him, and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"

⠀⠀⠀A heavy silence filled the room as they finally listened. Suddenly, Dale was making sense to them.

⠀⠀⠀"We all know what needs to be done," Shane stated, the only one to not seem to consider Dale.

⠀⠀⠀"No, Dale is right," Rick spoke up, turning with a steely gaze toward Shane. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility—"

⠀⠀⠀"So, what's the other solution?" Andrea asked, raising her hand.

⠀⠀⠀"Let Rick finish," Lori said.

⠀⠀⠀"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet," Andrea continued with a scowl, looking from Lori to Rick. "I wish we could—"

⠀⠀⠀"So, let's work on it!" Dale shouted in frustration. They just kept dancing around the issue without finding a better solution.

⠀⠀⠀"We are!" Rick snapped at him.

⠀⠀⠀"Stop it! Just stop it!" Carol yelled over them. She stood by the door, appearing small under their gaze as she skittishly looked over them. "I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide—either of you, both of you—but leave me out," she begged of them, her words breathy from exhaustion.

⠀⠀⠀Dale smiled at her, but it was in a disappointed manner. Tears began to prick at the corners of his eyes as he raised a finger and pointed shakily at her.

⠀⠀⠀"Not speaking out or killing him yourself. There's no difference," Dale claimed harshly, but he was right. Now, with everything happening, there wasn't much time to mourn.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca had to realize that. Carol might've lost everything today, but if she wanted to live, to survive, then these were the kinds of things she needed to be apart. Same for Bianca, same for them all.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright, that's enough," Rick barked, holding his hand out toward Dale to signal for him to back off. Then, he turned to the rest of them and said, "Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance."

⠀⠀⠀There was a moment of silence. Then, Bianca spoke.

⠀⠀⠀"What if..." Bianca began. Her voice was small as everyone's eyes turned to her in an instant. How Carol looked a second ago was how Bianca felt now. She stared down at her fingers in her laps and played with them to release the anxiety building. "What if he has people out there... That are worried about him, th-that think, that hope he's alive. That all they've got going for them is praying and hoping and wishing that he is, but then we kill him! And all that hope and all those prayers aren't enough anymore."

⠀⠀⠀Bianca let out a shaky breath and turned to Rick. Her dark eyes pierced into his, looking beyond and into his soul. She could see him shutter, but he kept her gaze, not backing down.

⠀⠀⠀"What if that was one of us?" Bianca asked him, her lip quivering. "What if it was one of us out there, left behind by accident and picked up by some group and going to be executed? You want this for us?"

⠀⠀⠀Rick's jaw clenched again. Bianca could see the muscles work, and his gaze narrow. He could hardly say a word, neither could the others. Finally, a few picked up what she meant, not that she cared for Randall but that most of this stemmed from her worry for her boyfriend.