The day after the funeral, in the morning, Alyssa sits in my arms on the ground. She lays her head on my chest and sits in between my legs.
Hershel has agreed to let us stay in the house-at least for the winter. Everybody has begun to bring things into the house but Alyssa seemed off so I got permission from Rick to sit with her for a moment.
My back is up against a tree I'm sitting on the dead grass below. Alyssa's body heat is keeping me warm. Damien is helping bring stuff in.
"We never told him that Randall is still alive." She whispers. I don't respond, I just hug her a little tighter.
"Where's dad?" She asks. "I dunno." "I want dad." I sigh, "He doing...stuff." "Well what's he doing?" She quickly stands up and looks at me. "I don't know 'Lyss." I shake my head but don't look at her.
"Well why not?!" She says somewhat loudly. "Alyssa I-" "What is going on with you two?! With him?! Dale just died and you guys still can't even be around each other!" "That's not why he's not here. He's working on-" "What? He's working on what?! Are we even still a family? It feels like I've got a sister and a father. Not a sister and a father."
Ouch.
That hit me right in the heart.
"He cares more about Carl and maybe me than he does you at all." "He cares about me." I can't tell if I'm trying to convince her or myself that.
She scoffs, "Right." My heart breaks at her words. I stand up, "You think he doesn't care about us?" "Not really." She mumbles.
Our eyes lock, her ocean blue eyes glossy with tears. "I want dad back." Her voice cracks. "I know." I wrap her in a hug. "I do too."
I look up and see Damien standing there, watching us. "Stalker." I smile.
He chuckles, Alyssa and I break the hug. She turns and sees Damien; a smile grows on her face.
He takes his red Red Socks hat off and holds it out to Alyssa. He looks at her red shirt and says, "Red is totally your color."
I don't think I've seen Alyssa smile such a big, genuine smile. "Really? But I've never seen you without it! Minus like...when we first met you." He smiles, "I think you'll look good with it."
Her eyes widen and she puts the hat on, posing like a statue of a warrior. She puffs her chest out and puts her balled up fists on her hips. The hat plus her bottom of her ribcage-length platinum blonde hair looks amazing on her.
I smile, "You look pretty sick." She giggles, "Thanks!" She runs up to Damien and hugs him, "Thank you!" She breaks the hug and turns to me, "Think dad'll like it? Him and I are matching hats! Kind of. His is blue but-still! I'll go find him."
She zooms off to the house, my guess is to ask where dad is.
I look away from her and look at Damien. "Jesus, she loves you." He chuckles, "Feeling's mutual. She's the sweetest thing ever." I put a hand on my heart and act offended, "And I'm not?"
He laughs, "You're kind of a bitch-in a good way! Like- you don't take anyone's shit. I love it. She...she'll go to you if she doesn't like what someone says or does." I scoff, "I don't know if I've ever heard something more true."
T-Dog runs to Damien and I. "Randall is missing."
Damien and I look at each other. "Fuck." We say in unison.
"C'mon." T-Dog says, waving me to the barn. When we all get there, including Damien, Andrea is already there. Everyone runs out of the house and to the barn when I get there.
"What's wrong?" Lori asks. "Randall's missing." Glenn answers her. "He's missing? How?" "How long has he been gone?" Hershel asks.
Rick steps out of the barn, "The cuffs are still hooked. Must've slipped 'em."
"Is that possible?" Carol asks. "It is if you've got nothin' to loose." Andrea says, walking out of the barn as well.
Hershel closes the door behind her, "The door was secured from the outside."
"So then how the fuck did he get out?" I ask. "Wait." My heart stops, "Where's my dad?"
Almost as if it was on cue, my dad's voice comes from the left. "Rick!" He screams, "Rick!"
We all look over and see my dad, his face bloodied and scratched.
"Oh my god." I mumble, running over to him. Everybody follows after me.
"Dad!" I yell, "What the hell happened?!"
"He's armed!" He yells, "He's got my gun."
Shit, he's definitely going to get his group on us.
"Are you okay?" Carl asks.
"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me, he clocked me in the face." Rick turns to the group, "Alright, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us." "T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane says.
"Just let him go." Carol says, looking around. "Why the fuck would we do that? He tried to kill my dad!" I narrow my eyes at Carol. "Yeah, but that was the plan, wasn't it? To just let him go?"
"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our doorstep with a gun!" Rick shouts through gritted teeth.
"Don't go out there, y'all know what can happen!" Carol yells, her voice high pitched.
"Adrian, dad looks really bad." Alyssa taps me on the arm. "I know, he'll be fine...he always is. Remember that one time when he got jumped by a group of those criminals when he was a cop? He looked like shit, but he was fine, it's the same in this scenario."
"Get everybody back in the house, lock the doors, and stay put!" Rick yells without looking back at us.
Everybody begins to rush into the house, running for safety.
After we get into the house, everybody begins to set up refuge to keep their minds off of the escaped convict.
As Alyssa and I are setting up our sleeping area and laying our sleeping bags down, Damien comes up to us.
"Shit, I didn't know your dad was a cop." He says, helping me get my sleeping bag out of its bag by pulling on the bottom of it.
I scoff, "Why do you think he's such a cocky asshole?" "Adrian!" Alyssa warns. "Sorry, why do you think he's so persistent." Damien chuckles, "I see who you get your attitude from though." "Asshat! I don't have an attitude you-oh." Alyssa and Damien laugh.
"I saw the realization in your eyes." Damien says, chuckling.
"Psh, what realization. I'm as nice as they come." "Adrian can you help me with my sleeping bag?" Andrea asks. "No, do it yourself." I roll my eyes.
Alyssa and Damien laugh again. "Yeah... 'as nice as they come'." Alyssa giggles.
"Fuck off." I say, smiling.