school's out --- alice cooper
♮♮♮
It'd been a week. JJ felt relief when she saw Rick and Shane drive off with Randall. He'd been gone for good at the end of the day, or so she thought. When the two returned with Randall that night, she felt sick. She couldn't tell if she was worried, angry, disgusted or just embarrassed.
Daryl was given the job of interrogating the college boy, and he was doing a damn good job of it in JJ's opinion. She sat outside the barn doors listening in to everything that was being said.
"I told you-"
"You told me shit!" Daryl sat him up against the wall after the multiple punches he'd thrown.
"I barely knew those guys. I met 'em on the road."
"How many in your group?"
Randall was taking too long to respond, so Daryl threatened his knife, "No, no, no, no, no, come on, man."
"How many?"
"30, uh, 30, 30 guys."
"Where?" Daryl slammed his knife into the floor.
Randall started panicking, "I don't know. I swear. We were never any place more than a night."
"Scouting? Planning on staying local?" Daryl held the knife to Randall's leg.
"I- I don't know. They- they left me behind."
"Did you ever pick off a scab?"
"Come on, man. I'm- I'm trying to cooperate."
"Start real slow at first. Sooner or later, you just gotta rip it off."
Randall groaned, "okay, okay, they have weapons. Heavy stuff, automatics. But I didn't do anything."
"Your boys shot at my boys, tried to take this farm. You just went along for the ride? You're trying to tell me you're innocent?"
"Yes!" Randall snapped, "these- these people took me in. Not just guys, a whole group of 'em. Men and women, uh, kids too. Just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? But we go out, scavenge- just the men." Daryl took a step back, "One night, we found this little campsite. A man and his two daughters- teenagers, you know? Real young. Real cute. Their daddy had to watch while these guys- they- and they didn't even kill him afterwards. They just- they just made him watch as his daughters. They just- just left him there. No, but- but I didn't touch those girls. I swear!"
Daryl didn't let him finish. He ended his sentence with a kick to the abdomen.
"Please, please you gotta believe me man. I'm not like that. I ain't like that."
Daryl figured he'd had enough and walked out of the barn, being stopped by JJ.
"Daryl, wait." She stood up, brushing off the back of her legs from where she was sitting on the ground. "He's lying."
♮♮♮
[JJ]
"The hell you talkin' bout?"
"I just...can I talk to him?"
Daryl scoffed, "You're out of your damn mind."
"Let me rephrase." I snapped, "I am going to talk to him."
He reluctantly opened the barn door again, glaring, "just don't come out crying cause he said somethin' that hurt your feelin's."
"No, man, please, I can't stand anymore." Randall closed his eyes, laying on the floor.
"It's not him."
"Holy shit." He leaned himself against the wall, breathing heavily, "JJ, I thought you were dead."
"I'm sure you did." I went and crouched in front of him, "Now, unless you want another visit from backwoods butcher out there, you're gonna tell me everything."
"I already told him everything I know about the group."
"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the night in the bar."
Randall gave a smug laugh, "which night in the bar are we talking? The one where I was kind enough to buy you a drink, or the one where you killed my brother?"
I stood up, almost falling backward, "I--uh, what the hell are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You and your best friend Maggie beat my brother into a coma, which he never pulled out of. Lucky for you, your brother's a cop. So, you got off scott-free."
"Your brother was going to do to Maggie what you did to me."
"Which was what, JJ? Buy you a drink? You know, you were really fucked up that night maybe that's why you're having such a hard time remembering."
"No," I moved back in front of him, lowering my voice, "you drugged me. At the bar. Then you and your buddies took me to that motel room and did God-knows-what."
"You killed my brother."
"It was an accident."
"And now we're even. My friends and I, we let you off lucky."
"That was lucky? I woke up confused, alone and naked in some run-down, dirty ass motel with your worthless friend overdosed in the bathtub."
"Please, looking like that, you were begging for what we did."
I grabbed his collar, "I swear to God, if you mention any of this to any of them, I'll finish you off myself."
"Like you did with my brother?"
I let go, throwing him against the wall, "nah, I'll make sure it's much more painful."
I marched out, not realizing Daryl was standing right outside the door where I had stood before.
"What the shit was that all about?"
"I thought you left." I sighed, noticing he wasn't backing down, "look, it was just a miscommunication. That's all."
"Didn't sound like no damn miscommunication." He snapped.
"Well, it was. And you're not gonna tell anyone about this, especially my brother."
"Didn't that prick just say somethin' about your brother?"
I huffed, "The night he's talking about- I didn't call Rick. I called Shane. Rick- Rick can't know any of that."
"Why the hell not?" Daryl didn't let me respond. "You really think I'm gonna let that son of a bitch live another day after what I just heard?" He started to walk back up to the house.
I grabbed his forearm, stopping him, "Daryl, please." My eyes were watery. It was embarrassing, honestly. "If you tell my brother, it'll ruin everything. He'll know about what I did, what he did, and what Shane did." I bit my lip, and took a breath, "if they find out about this, I- I don't know what they'll do. What they'll think of me."
"You did what you had to."
"Yeah, and what if they don't see it like that?"
"Then, they're a bunch of damn fools. Look, I ain't gonna say nothin', but I swear to you, I will kill that bastard."
Daryl and I went back up to where the others were.
"JJ? What were you doing out there, too?" Shane asked.
Before I could answer, Daryl did, "I asked her to keep watch. Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna-" he side-glanced to me quickly, "they're gonna wish they were."
"What did you do?" Carol motioned to his bloodied fist.
"Had a little chat."
"No one goes near this guy." Rick announced.
Lori lowered her voice, "Rick, what are you gonna do?"
"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."
Dale looked taken back, "you're just gonna kill him?"
"It's settled. I'll do it today." Rick walked off, but Dale followed closely.
♮♮♮
Maggie sat in the dining room when JJ hurried in. "Mags, you remember last summer?"
"Hardly. Why?"
JJ looked around, "Remember that guy, at the bar?"
"If this is what I think it's about, we swore to never talk about it again."
"That's his brother." JJ blurted. Maggie's eyes widened. "He came to see our last show. He was looking for us. I didn't know who he was."
"Does he know? He knows what happened?"
JJ nodded, "Yeah, he does."
Maggie shook her head out of worry, "my dad, he can't know. What happened stays between us and him."
"And Shane."
Maggie's eyes widened, "Shane?"
"I called him.... after I told you to leave. He helped me cover it up."
"JJ, I would've helped you."
"I know, but I wasn't going to let you go down for something I did." JJ told her, "I was the one who picked up that bottle and started it. If anyone was going to go down for it, it would've been me."
"But you called Shane?" JJ nodded in response. "And he covered it up? But- I mean, I- how? Did he- was it called in as self-defense?"
"Mags," JJ looked at her friend, "it was never called in."
"I don't-"
"Shane and I burried the body. Twenty miles outside of campus, right off Ridge Road."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because the less you knew, the better. In the end, it was me who killed him. Only me."
♮♮♮
[JJ]
The time had come for the vote on what to do with Randall. Carl begged my brother to stay but was ultimately sent away for his own good.
"So, how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn questioned.
Andrea asked next, "does it have to be unanimous?"
"How 'bout majority rules?" Lori suggested.
"Well, let's just see where everybody stands." Rick decided, "then we can talk through the options."
"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." For the first time, I agreed with Shane.
"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to take the vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." If only Dale knew...
"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."
Glenn looked uneasy, "look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"
"They've got you scared!"
"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already." Glenn justified.
Dale motioned to Maggie, "how bout you? You agree with this?" If it was anyone else, Maggie wouldn't agree. However, under the circumstances...
"What if we continued keeping him prisoner?" Lori stepped in.
Daryl shook his head, "just another mouth to feed."
"It may be a lean winter." Hershel mentioned.
"We could ration better." Lori said.
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale continued.
Glenn looked to Rick, "put him to work?"
Rick disagreed, "we're not letting him walk around."
"We could put an escort on him." Lori convinced.
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane commented.
Of course, Dale did.
"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." Maggie intervened.
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea crossed her arms.
"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane imagined.
"So, the answer's the 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."
"Could you drag him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel proposed.
Lori shook her head, "you barely came back this time. There are walkers, you could break down, you could get lost."
"Or get ambushed." Daryl muttered.
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn stepped up.
"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia asked. "Would he suffer?"
Rick was caught off guard, but lucky for him, Shane advised, "we could hang him, right? Just snap his neck."
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane."
T-Dog continued the discussion, "what about the body? Do we bury him?"
"Whoa, hold on. You're talking about this like it's already decided."
"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl sassed Dale.
"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five-minute conversation! 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?"
Daryl looked to me. I knew what he was thinking. If I told them about it all, this could all be over with. It would be the end of the conversation.
There was silence, a perfect opportunity for me to step in. But I didn't.
"We all know what needs to be done."
Rick differed, "no, Dale is right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"
"So, what's the other solution?" Andrea asked him. "We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could-"
"So, let's work on it!" Dale exclaimed.
"Stop it. 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." Carol spoke.
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself- there's no difference." Dale told Carol.
"Alright, that's enough. Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance."
Once again, I could feel Daryl's eyes on me as I looked to Maggie. Everybody remained silent except for Dale.
"You once said that we don't kill the living."
"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."
"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 survival of the fittest. And that's a world that I don't wanna live in, and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me? JJ, Maggie, didn't he go to school with the two of you?" Maggie didn't speak, instead she looked to her father. "You two would just let someone who you know, who you went to school with...die?"
I shook my head, knowing Maggie wasn't going to say anything. "I don't know him, and frankly, I don't care what happens...I think this decision can be made without me." I walked outside.
Daryl stepped in front of the door, mumbling, "If you say something, there won't be a decision to make."
I pushed past him, "I'm not, and neither are you."
♮♮♮
JJ was sitting by the fire, looking out at the barn when Maggie came to join her.
"Did we do the right thing? Voting for Randall to be killed?"
"He's not a good person."
"We don't know that. All we know is his brother wasn't."
JJ shook her head, "no, he's the same."
"How can you be so sure?"
"He just is. Okay? What's done is done."
The rest of the group soon joined them, not sure if they should feel guilty or relieved.
There was no shot heard, instead Rick came up to the group, Carl next to him. "We're keeping him in custody for now."
Andea smiled, "I'm gonna find Dale."
Lori looked to Carl, "JJ, would you take Carl inside please?"
She nodded and as they were walking to the house, they were met by Daryl.
"Go on, Carl. I'll be there in a minute."
"JJ, if you just tell Rick-"
"We're not telling my brother anything."
Daryl shook his head in disappointment, "Just stay the hell away from him."
"Look at you, acting like you care." JJ semi-joked.
"Just have no respect for bastards like that."
JJ nodded, "thanks...for not telling."
Their conversation was cut short by distant yelling.
"T-Dog get a shotgun now!" Rick shouted.
Carl ran out of the house, "JJ, what happened?"
"Go back inside, Carl. Lock the door and stay put."
The group booked it to the field, but they were too late. Daryl and JJ were the first ones to make it to him, ripping the walker off and stabbing it in the head. "Over here! Hang in there." Daryl said.
"Hold on. Get Hershel!" Rick demanded. "He needs blood. They have to operate, now! Hershel!"
"What happened?" Hershel ran over, "what can we do?"
"Dale, it's gonna be okay." Glenn comforted.
"Can we move him?" Rick asked.
Hershel sadly looked up, "He won't make the trip."
Rick didn't give up, "you have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house and-"
"Rick." Hershel stopped him, shaking his head.
Andrea sobbed as Dale groaned in pain. "He's suffering. Do something!"
Rick couldn't bring himself to do it, so Daryl took over.
"Sorry, brother."