"So what you gonna do?" Lori asked Rick as she poured some water into a cup and put the pitcher back over the fire. She, Carol, Glenn, Carl, Andrea, and Darcy all stood around the fire too, listening in. Rick stood tensely next to Shane. "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."
"Is there a plan?" Andrea cut in.
"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn questioned. Shane switched the weight on his feet and Rick paid him a small glance before looking back to the group.
"We'll know soon enough," Rick said simply, not knowing himself. After the events of trying to take Randall back out had failed, the group had put the boy back in the barn. Rick had no clue what to do with the boy, which was where Daryl came in. Daryl was currently in the barn using his own methods to get answers out of the boy.
Sure enough, as Rick finished speaking the sound of Daryl's footfalls came to the group.
Daryl walked to the group, his back crawling and legs slightly heavier. He didn't feel bad about what he did to the boy, no (he thought of it and his bloody knuckles holding his crossbow strap clenched). That boy and his group shot at Daryl's boys and threatened to take the camp. Rather what made his skin crawl was what Randall had told him about the story with the girls and their father. He didn't want to think about what would happen if those thirty-odd men found the camp. The men here would die and the women, well... His sister...Daryl lightly shook his head and focused on walking to the group.
Darcy turned to her brother as he approached.
"Boy in there's got a gang," Daryl began. "Thirty men, got heavy artillery and they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll though here, our boys are dead. Our women, they're gonna wish they were." Darcy's eyebrow raised.
"What did you do?" Carol inquired. Darcy and Daryl's eyes both fell to his bloodied hand.
"Had a little chat."
"No one goes near this guy," Rick said sternly.
"Rick, what are you gonna do," Darcy asked, her arms crossed and a furrow between her brows.
"We have no choice, he's a threat," he said to her, looking into her eyes. Darcy could tell they both thought of the conversation about Shane in the tent a little bit back. He continued, talking to the rest of the group. "We have to eliminate the threat."
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked.
"It's settled. I'll do it today."
Rick turned and walked away from the group, Dale following.
Darcy sighed out curtly, and followed her brother as he walked away.
___________________________________
Darcy and Daryl stood at their camp, getting their crossbows ready as they heard footsteps. They both glanced towards them, and Daryl scoffed out.
"The whole point of us coming up here is to get away from you people."
"Gonna take more than that."
"Carol send you?" Daryl asked.
"Carol's not the only one that's concerned about you. Both of you. Your new roles in the group."
"Oh man, we don't need our heads shrunk. This group's broken. We're better off fending for ourselves."
Darcy slung the katana over her back, looped her knife to her belt, and put her crossbow over her shoulders.
"You two act like you don't care."
"Yeah, cause we don't," Darcy piped. Daryl slung his jacket on. "Carl, sure. But he's got his parents, he'll be fine." She shrugged, swallowing maybe a little harsher than normal.
"So live or die, you two don't care what happens to Randall?"
"Nope," both twins said plainly.
"Then why not stand with me, try to save the kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other?"
"Didn't peg you as a desperate son of a bitch," Daryl murmured as he fixed his jacket collar.
"Your opinions make a difference," Dale insisted.
"Man, ain't nobody looking at us for nothin'."
Daryl picked up his bolts, and the twins started in the opposite direction of Dale.
"Carol is. And—And I am. Right now." The twins stopped. "And obviously you have Rick's ear."
"Nah, Rick just looks to Shane. Despite everything the bastard's done or said. And I say if he really still wants to, let 'im," Darcy said. Sure, she saw how the two looked at one another in spite and their words were stiff, but at the end of the day Rick still listened to him.
Both twins walked a few more steps before they were stopped again by Dale.
"You cared about what happened to Sophia. Cared what it meant to the group," he said desperately.
Darcy felt a scowl cross her face and her stomach slightly stirred in a bit of guilt. The twins walked closer to Dale. He looked to Daryl.
"Torturing people? That isn't you. You're a decent man! Decent people! So is Rick. Shane—he's different."
"Why's that?" Daryl asked. "'Cause he killed Otis?"
Dale shifted on his feet and walked closer to them, his tone changing.
"He tell you that?"
"He told some bullshit story—they got separated from the other three and Otis would cover Shane?" Darcy started.
"He showed up with the dead guy's gun," Daryl continued. "Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure that out, it's 'cause he don't wanna."
"Pretty soon it's gonna be one of us, too. If you wanna focus on a threat, let's focus on Shane for a second." Both twins turned around and started walking away again.
"It's like I said—the group's broken," Daryl said, not bothering to glance back. Dale didn't say anything in return.
Later that evening, when the sun was going down and the sky went pink, the group gathered in the Greene house again. Everyone was silent as they followed in. Carl went upstairs after a minute, and as soon as they heard the door click the discussion began.
"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked.
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea continued.
"How about majority rules?" Lori suggested.
"Well let's—let's just see where everybody stands," Rick said tiredly. "Then we can talk through the options."
"Well where I see it, there's only one way to move forward," Shane said from the fireplace.
"Killing him, right?" Dale said bluntly. "I mean why even bother to take a vote, it's clear which way the wind's blowing."
"Well if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."
"Well I can tell you it's a small group—maybe just me and Glenn."
Things were silent for a few seconds, and Glenn looked at Dale skittishly.
"Look I... I think you're pretty much right about everything all the time but this—"
"They've got you scared!" Dale protested.
"He's not one of us. And we've—we've lost to many people already."
Dale motioned to the Greene's desperately.
"How about you, do you agree with this?!"
"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" Maggie suggested.
"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl responded.
"It may be a lean winter," Hershel backed.
"We could ration better," Lori countered.
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself," Dale suggested with slight hope.
"Put him to work," Glenn said.
"We're not letting him walk around," Rick pointed out.
"We could put an escort on him," Maggie said.
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane quipped.
"I will," Dale immediately responded.
"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy," Rick stopped the idea.
"Rick's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," Lori said.
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor," Andrea said with her arms crossed.
"Look, say we let him join us. Maybe, maybe, he's helpful. Maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men."
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime he may never even attempt?! If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead, there is no civilization."
"Oh my God," Shane murmurs, running a hand over his shaven head.
"Could you drive him further out?" Hershel asks.
"You barely came back this time," Lori shook her head. "There are walkers, you could break down, you could get lost..."
"Or get ambushed," Daryl said quietly.
"And how much gas you wanna lose on that trip? What if he finds his barings no matter how far you drive and still comes back?" Darcy said, also quiet, next to her brother.
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk," Glenn said.
"If you go through with it, how would you do it," Patricia spoke up. "Would he suffer?
"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck," Shane suggested.
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane," Rick countered.
"And, uh, what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog questioned. Dale rushed in to stop the conversation once more.
"Hold hold hold hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided!" Dale protested, tripping over his own words in his haste.
"You've been talking in circles all day, going in circles. You just wanna go in circles again?" Darcy spoke.
"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Dale's voice rose, and a silence filled the group. "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."
Rick shifted the weight on his feet and looked away.
"How are we any better than the people we're so afraid of?" Dale finished.
Once again, another longer silence filled the room.
"We all know what needs to be done..." Shane spoke again.
"No, Dale's right. We can't leave any stone unturned. We have a responsibility—" Rick was cut off by Andrea.
"So what's the other solution?"
"Let Rick finish," Lori said.
Andrea continued, "We haven't come up with a single viable option yet." Shane shook his head. "I wish we could—"
"So let's work on it!" Dale says loudly.
"We are," Rick stated.
"Stop it," Carol's voice pipes in. "Just stop it. 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 of it."
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself. There's no difference."
"All right, that's enough," Rick put his foot down. "Anybody wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Once again, a silence.
Maggie and Patricia sat back down in their seats.
After a second, Darcy spoke up. "I think... we've all made clear where we stand. (She cast a glance around the room.) You know the people's opinions to make a decision."
"You once said we don't kill the living," Dale tried.
"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."
"I don't know if you all have caught on, the living are trying to kill us now."
Darcy and Rick spoke at the same time, and glanced and met eyes, clearly on the same page.
"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly, it's... Harsh! It's-It's survival of the fittest! And that's a world I don't wanna live in! And I don't believe any of you do! I can't! Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else that's gonna stand with me?"
After yet again another silence, Andrea spoke. "He's right." a relieved look from Dale was cast her way. "We should try to find another way." She glanced at Shane.
"Anybody else?" Rick glanced around the group. Another pause.
"Are you all gonna watch too?" Dale asked with tearful eyes. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa. I won't be a party to it."
Dale started walking to the door, but paused once he reached the Dixon's.
"This group is broken."
The sound of footsteps and the door closing was heard.
Darcy took in a deep breath that was partially shaky as she stared at her feet. Then, she glances at Rick, taking in the numb look on his face at Dale's words.
God, she thought tensely.
___________________________________
That night Shane, Rick, Daryl, and Darcy lead Randall out to the barn.
"Hold on, hold on, hold on," he started to catch on.
Rick opened the barn, then handed the lantern to Darcy who followed in after.
"Wait wait. Wait, ah."
"Put him there." Rick pointed to a spot and Daryl, who was leading him in, put him in the spot.
Shane stood behind him and started to put a blindfold on.
"It's all gonna be over soon.
"What? What's gonna be over soon?"
"Relax?"
Randall started to panic. Darcy rolled her eyes, exasperation written on her face, Shane just really has to relish in it, doesn't he.
The boy continues to panic, and Rick checks his loadout, possibly to distract his hands, or mind. Or both.
"Oh no. No..." Randall started crying.
"Would you like to stand or kneel?"
"Oh no. Please. Ple—Ah. Ah. Ah." Shane shoved him roughly onto his knees and Randall sobbed.
Shane stood behind. Rick, the executioner, stood in front of him, and the Dixon twins stood to the side, arms crossed and bodies facing one another but looking at the boy.
"Do you have any final words?"
"No please. Please don't. Don't."
Rick shifted on his feet, and aimed his pistol at Randall's forehead. He cocked the gun, and Randall cried harder.
Rick hesitated in pulling the trigger.
A voice came from the door.
"Do it, Dad. Do it." The Dixons gave each other wide eyed, flabbergasted looks, before their heads flew to the door.
Carl stood.
Rick looked on at the boy with alarmed and troubled look in his eyes, then his eyes looked to Carl's direction, though not at him, then to Shane. Darcy thought this was probably the hardest moment in Rick's life.
Shane, more than likely not wanting anybody to give Rick the chance to change his mind, walked over to Carl.
"Are you kidding me? What did I say to you? What did I say to you?" Shane grabbed Carl by the arm roughly (Darcy moved to walk over but ultimately stayed put, there were more important things at the moment) and Rick looked more troubled than ever.
He lowered his gun, "Take him away. Take him away."
"Get up," Daryl urged the boy. He started to lead him out the barn, and Shane scoffed and opened the barn door wider with a loud bang.
Carl and Rick stared at one another before Rick broke his gaze. If Darcy didn't know any better, she would say Rick looked like he was about to cry. He holstered the gun.
"Wait outside. I will see you out there. Do not go anywhere, Carl, and I mean it. Now's not the time to test me..."
Carl walked outside. Darcy wasn't angry at Carl, no. She was just... disappointed, to put simple, for a multitude of different reasons.
Rick bowed his head and Darcy put a hand on Rick's shoulder.
Rick looked up and met her eyes, which held a warm look in them.
She dropped her hand and headed to the door, slightly shaking her head.
She met Carl outside, and rather than voicing any of her thoughts, she stayed completely silent. She started leading him toward the group's tents, Rick met up not long after. No words were exchanged. The group was also silent, Maggie there as well, and the only thing heard was crickets and the fire.
People looked to Rick as he approached.
"We're keeping him in custody, for now.
"I'm gonna find Dale," Andrea said with a smile, and walked away.
"Go to your tent. Now, please," Darcy said quietly as she looked at Carl.
Carl started walking, and Lori locked eyes with Darcy before following, making sure he didn't get into any more trouble.
Carl had seen a multitude of the angry side of Darcy directed at others, but he decided this was the one he liked the least—the quiet, nothing said side. He decided yelling, anything, was better than this silent disappointment version he had seen tonight.
Darcy was about to walk to hers and Daryl's tent where she would wait for Daryl, who was sure to still be with the boy, before Rick spoke.
"He followed us. He wanted to watch."
"Hmm," Darcy hummed out, staring at the fire, though she guessed she wasn't really looking at it.
"I couldn't..."
"I know," she said simply, putting a hand on his shoulder once again. "It's fine. It's fine."
Rick nodded his head. Darcy took a step to the side, going to leave, her hand sliding down.
Rick's fingers brushed hers, and gripped her fingers, and she turned back to him. The two locked eyes, and Rick looked at her with gentle eyes. Darcy opened her mouth to speak.
Before more could be said, though, a male scream could be heard off from the distance.
Their fingers jerked apart and Lori and Carl came out of their tent in a rush.
"T-Dog, get a shotgun now!" Rick yelled over to T-Dog, who also came out of his tent.
Lori gave instructions for Carl to go to the house and lock the door, and Darcy and Rick rushed to the direction of the scream, T-Dog following behind. People met up with flashlights, and ran out into the field.
"Dale?!" Andrea screamed.
Darcy saw her brother briefly running in the distance, and heard a longer, more agonized scream.
Darcy's gut wrenched, and the corners of her eyes moistened just a bit more than usual. Oh, Dale.
"HELP, OVER HERE!"
The small group ran over to where Daryl kneeled next to Dale, who was laying on the ground.
"HELP! RUN! Hang in there, buddy." Darcy distantly heard the last bit.
"Who is it?!" Andrea asked in a panic.
"Oh God, oh my God," Rick murmured.
"Rick!" Lori screamed, just a little behind.
Darcy knelt next to her brother, and Rick knelt at Dale.
"All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me." Rick grabbed Dale's face and Dale moaned in pain.
Darcy stared at his torn open torso.
"Okay hold on now," Rick continues. "Get Hershel!" He screams to no-one in particular. "He needs blood. We got to operate now."
"Hang on Dale," Andrea said softly.
"Listen to me. Okay, listen to my voice. All right? Please. HERSHEL! WE NEED HERSHEL!" Rick screams out desperately."
Darcy lost track of the words next said between both Andrea and Rick and thought she felt her throat tighten.
"Mmm," she hummed out quietly, no one heard beside Daryl, who then pulled her into his side in an attempt at comfort. Obviously that was in vain.
"What happened?" Hershel's voice came as he ran up.
"What can we do?" Rick asked.
"Dale, it's gonna be okay," Glenn attempted to assure. Dale or himself, it was unsure.
Dale panted and gurgled his own blood.
"Can we move him?" Rick asks.
"He won't make the trip," Hershel denied.
"You have to do the operation here," Rick stands up. "Glenn get back to the house!" he shouts over.
"Rick." Hershel puts his hand on Rick's shoulder and shakes his head.
"No!" Rick shouted out desperately, and Andrea sobbed out an 'Oh God.'
Dale's gurgling continues. More people started crying.
"Dale, Dale," Darcy started in a whisper. He looked at her. "We-we didn't do it. The boy—mm-mmm, we didn't do it. He-he's in the barn. We didn't..." Darcy shook her head rapidly before locking eyes with the dying man once more.
He nodded his head just the slightest in understanding, and Darcy felt a sense in relief that he at least knew that before...
"Oh," Dale cried out. She heard Carl's quiet cries—When'd he get here? she wondered in possible shock.
"He's suffering," Andrea said. "Do something!"
Rick took out his gun.
"Oh God," Andrea cried and looked away.
Rick couldn't seem to shoot.
Darcy felt her brother stand up from next to her, and her head whipped over to him. She quickly stood up and watched as Daryl walked over to Rick, taking the gun from his hands. She took a rapid step back, and Daryl knelt down once more, cocking the gun.
"Sorry, brother."
No sleep was gotten on this night.
Just the slightest hint of fluff at the end and then ANGST!! Also... surprise!! I promise not to leave you guys hanging for two months again!! And this isn't proof read so I'm just gonna hope it's okay, haha. A trailer may be coming for this series too, because I've semi-figured out how to edit for that so stay tuned!!