MARCIE LEANED AGAINST THE DOOR FRAME THAT LED INTO THE LIVING ROOM AS EVERYONE GATHERED TO TALK ABOUT RANDALL'S FATE,
She glanced over at Daryl, who moved to stand on the opposite side of the frame. He gave her a short nod before turning towards Rick,
"So how do we do this?" Glenn questioned from the piano bench, "Just take a vote?"
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea added,
"How about majority rules?" Lori replied,
Rick stepped forward, "Well, let's... let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options."
Shane started the discussion, "Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward."
"Killing him, right?" Dale looked around at everyone in the group, "I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."
Vivian bit her lip from her spot on the couch. In her opinion, her and Dale are the only ones who want to let Randall live. They were really going to have to fight to keep the kid alive.
"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick defended.
"Well, I can tell you it's a small group." Dale replied, "Maybe just me, Vivian, and Glenn."
Glenn looked up at the older man nervously, silently letting everyone know that he wasn't on Dale's side, and disappointment quickly filled the old man's face,
"Look, I... I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"
"They've got you scared!" Dale exclaimed,
"He's not one of us." Glenn declared, "And we've- we've lost too many people already."
Dale looked over at Maggie across the room, "How about you? Do you agree with this?"
Maggie glanced around, looking nervous for being put on the spot, "Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"
"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl commented,
"It may be a lean winter." Hershel added,
"We could ration better." Vivian offered,
They could all go out hunting, not just leaving it to Daryl to deal with. Not to mention there's livestock on the property,
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale continued for her,
"Put him to work?" Glenn asked,
Rick shot the idea down, "We're not letting him walk around."
"We could put an escort on him." Maggie suggested,
Shane scoffed, "Who wants to volunteer for that duty?"
Vivian narrowed her eyes at him, "I will."
"No." Rick shook his head once, " I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy.
"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori added,
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea said,
She was right. That fate would be worse than death. Might as well put him out of his misery at that point.
"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane created a hypothetical, "Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men."
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale asked, "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."
"Oh, my God." Shane sighed dramatically.
"Couldn't you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked,
Lori quickly shook her head, "You barely came back this time. There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost." She listed all the things that could go wrong,
"Or get ambushed." Daryl added,
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn stated,
Patricia spoke up for the first time since the meeting started, "If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?"
"Is the answer to that question gonna affect your decision?" Vivian asked the blonde woman, glancing around at everyone's faces, who were waiting for Rick's response,
"We could hang him, right?" Shane made eye contact with the sheriff, "Just snap his neck."
"I thought about that." Rick sighed, "Shooting may be more humane."
"And what about the body?Do we bury him?" T-Dog spoke up,
Dale stepped forward, "Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided."
"You've been talking all day, going around in circles." Daryl began to pace, "You just wanna go around in circles again?"
"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Tears filled his eyes and Vivian stood,
"He's right, guys. Let's be honest, there's not a lot people left in the world. So why are we helping our kind go into extinction?"
Marcie fiddled with her ponytail. As if she didn't already feel bad about what happened in town, Vivian's and Dale's words made her feel so much worse.
No one spoke up and Dale continued, "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him?" Dale turned to Rick, "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?"
The entire house went silent and Vivian thought it was because everyone knew that Dale was right. If they did this, if they killed Randall... they were no better than his group.
"We all know what needs to be done." Shane stated,
"No, Dale is right." Rick shot him down, "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"
"So what's the other solution?" Andrea interrupted,
"Let Rick finish." Lori snapped at her,
Vivian shook her head, "No, she's right. We've already talked about killing him, how we're gonna do it. Now let's discuss the other side. If we were to let him live, what are we going to do?"
"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet." Andrea continued, "I wish we could."
"So let's work on it!" Dale exclaimed,
"We are."
"Stop it!" Carol snapped at the group, "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."
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself... There's no difference." Dale told her,
Rick raised his hand, "All right, that's enough. Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance."
There was a long pause, everyone glancing at each other to see if anyone would speak. After a moment, Dale spoke again,
"Weeks ago... you said that we don't kill the living."
Rick paused, looking over at Vivian, "Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." He repeated the words that he told her only a few hours ago,
Tears filled her eyes as she tried hard not to let them run down her face. If Vivian told herself months ago that they'd be killing breathing, living people... she'd say she was crazy. That's not who she is, she's not a murderer.
Liam began crying in the other room and Vivian quickly left, breaking eye contact with Rick.
"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were...The world that we knew is dead." Dale spoke after Vivian left the room, "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... And I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please." He begged, "Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?"
Marcie felt bad. Dale was so passionate about this, and if this was a few months ago, she would've been on Dale's side.
But after meeting Dave and Tony in the bar... they needed to keep up with this new world if they were going to survive.
After a moment, Andrea nodded, "He's right. We should try to find another way."
"Anybody else?" Rick asked,
The rest of the room stayed silent and Rick turned to Dale,
The answer was clear. They were gonna execute Randall. Three to eleven. It was hard to fight against that.
"Are y'all gonna watch, too?" Dale teared up again, "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa..." He shook his head, "I won't be a party to it." He began to walk towards the door, glancing at Marcie before placing a hand on Daryl's shoulder,
"This group is broken."