God's Gonna Cut You Down ⋙ f o u r t e e n

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Katherine and Rick arrived back at camp to see people already working to clean up the remnants of the last night. Lori was sitting by Andrea trying to console her. Kat and Rick walked up to her. "She still won't move?" Lori shook her head. "She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Shane walked up to where the majority of the Grimes family was standing. Rick sent an unnoticed glare his way. "Can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it same as the others." Kat sighed. She knew that Andrea was hurting, but Shane was right. Rick sighed as well. "I'll tell her how it is." Rick began to move towards Andrea, who in turn pulled a gun on him. Katherine gasped and Rick stopped dead in his tracks. He took a deep breath and then spoke. "Andrea." Before he could say anything else, he was cut off. "I know how the safety works." Rick nodded and began to back off. "All right. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

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Rick, Lori, Katherine, Shane, Dale, Daryl, and Carol all stood around the fire. They could not figure out what to do with Amy's body, especially since Andrea was guarding her fiercely. Daryl was obviously pissed. "Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girls a time bomb." "What do you suggest?" Daryl looked to Rick with anger in his eyes. "Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." Katherine crossed her arms and stepped closer to Lori. Kat couldn't imagine watching this go down. The Grimes child was still on edge after last night. Lori threw an arm around her daughter's waist and pulled her close. "No. For God's sakes, let her be." For the first time in a long time, Katherine agreed with her mother. Kat glanced over at Shane just in time to see him staring at her. He gave her a sympathetic look, but her concentration was broken when Daryl stormed by her.

"Wake up, Jimbo. We've got some work to do." It was the first time Kat had really noticed Jim today. He looked tired and out of it. With this being said, last night was terrible for everyone, so she didn't give it too much thought. Daryl walked over to where Morales was struggling to pick up a body. Daryl bent down and grabbed the other arm, helping Morales drag it towards the fire. "Thanks. Thanks." Glenn walked up behind the duo and tried to stop them, obviously concerned. "What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there." Glenn pointed to another area of the camp. "What's the difference? They're all infected." Glenn wasn't having any of his shit and continued to speak. "Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there." Glenn was passionate in his argument. Daryl and Morales glared at him, but started to drag the body of the former group member to the other area. "You reap what you sow." Morales had had enough at this point. "You know what? Shut up, man." Daryl basically threw the body down at this point and began to storm off. Before the redneck could get very far he looked back over his shoulder at Morales. "Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming." 

Kat turned away from the outburst, not really sure where she was needed. She looked over and saw that Jim and Jacqui were crouched over a body having a conversation. From the looks of it, it wasn't a pleasant one. Jacqui's body was tense and Jim had fear all over his face as he whispered something to Jacqui. The two stood up and Jacqui began to back away from Jim. "A walker got him. A walker bit Jim!" Katherine's heart sank and her mind raced with questions. How is he still alive? Shane, Rick, Daryl, Morales, and T-Dog circled the frightened man. "I'm okay! I'm okay!" He begged. Daryl stepped up, pickaxe still and hand. "Show it to us! Show it to us!" Shane tried to calm the frantic man. "Easy, Jim." Daryl yelled for someone to grab him. Jim reached down and picked up a shovel intended to be used as a weapon. Shane started yelling at Jim to put it down, but Jim just became more and more frantic. T-Dog ran up behind him and pulled his arms back, forcing Jim to drop the shovel. Daryl took this chance to lift up Jim's shirt. This revealed a large bite on his side. It was bloody and to Katherine it looked horrifically painful. Jim looked heartbroken as Daryl backed away, disgust painted all over his face. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Shane walked away from the scene, planting himself next to Katherine. Kat glanced up at him with her big, gold eyes and he looked back down at her. "It's okay, Baby. It's okay." He threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. Kat leaned into him, seeking comfort and safety. Katherine and Shane were oblivious to the glare coming from Katherine's father.

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The majority of the camp was now standing off to the side as to avoid Jim. They were having a debate about how to handle this situation. Daryl obviously went straight to violence. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Katherine frowned at the mention of the 'dead girl.' Kat was safely tucked in-between Lori and Shane. She didn't want to be too far away from her family or Shane. Katherine loved her father, but she felt far safer around Shane. After Daryl's comment, Shane looked up with disgust painted all over his face. "Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Daryl made eye contact with Katherine briefly and then looked back to Shane, a smart ass remark coming out of his mouth. "Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." Dale was the next one to speak. Katherine wasn't sure where she stood on this issue, but she knew that Dale would be able to give her some guidance. He was by far the most levelheaded member of the group, which is why his answer shocked her. "I hate to say it... I never thought I would... but maybe Daryl's right." Rick spoke up finally. "Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." "I'm not suggesting..." He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick looked at Lori and Katherine to see if they had anything to say. Kat was normally quiet in group discussions, but that wasn't the case today. "Look. I get what we need to do to Amy. We're just waiting for her to turn. But Jim, Jim is still coherent. He's still a human. I can't rationalize that. So, I agree with Dad. Where is the line?" Rick nodded at his daughter and so did Lori. Shane reached down and squeezed her hand. Daryl scoffed at the girl. "The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Rick wasn't having any of his shit today. "What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Shane interjected, ready to back his friend up. "I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Rick looked briefly at his best friend and his daughter before speaking to Shane. "What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Shane sighed and looked down. "Man, that is a stretch right there." Rick was starting to get a little heated. "Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection..." Katherine knew that this whole conversation was about to go to shit. She had seen the two men fight on many occasions and it was never pleasant. She knew her father's thoughts about her 'relationship' with Shane were gonna escalate this as well. "Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Katherine looked up at Shane before speaking. "That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Her brows furrowed as he looked down at her. "That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there." Rick wasn't going to back down from this. "The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Daryl briefly looked back at Jim before speaking. "You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl turned and stormed over to Jim, ready to plunge the pickaxe into his skull. Shane pushed Kat behind him to keep her out of view. "HEY HEY HEY!" He yelled as Rick stomped up behind Daryl. What Rick did next shocked Katherine. He pulled his gun to Daryl's head. "We don't kill the living." Kat bit her lip and grabbed Shane's arm. This was going to be a rough day. 


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