A few days later the Randall problem still wasn't solved. My father and Shane had left the other day to drop Randall off 18 miles away, but that trip apparently didn't end well. After that trip, Shane has become even more unhinged, more unstable. His nickname 'Captain Unstable' definitely applies now.
I've been trying not to focus on the fact that Randall is still here, but he seems to be the only thing people want to talk about. Now it's getting harder and harder to avoid listening to the conversations about what to do with him, since now everyone lives inside Hershel's house. Hershel offered for all of us to live in his house because winter is soon coming, and we quickly accepted it not wanting to freeze to death once the temperature drops.
Beth had offered for me to stay in her room. That lasted one night until Jimmy snuck in. I don't really want to get in the way of their bed shaking midnight routine. However Glenn was refusing to sleep in Maggie's room. I don't know why, everyone knows they're 'bumping uglies'. So I've been staying in her room.
It is weird not sharing with Daryl anymore, honestly I think I'll miss it. Not that I don't like Maggie. She's nice but oh boy does she like to talk, especially about Glenn. He may be my best-friend, my brother, but I do not need to know about his sex life. At least he has one though.
My father and the men decided that they would just try to drive Randall away again. They barely came back last time, so I really don't like this plan. It doesn't matter what I think though, whenever I try to express my opinion my father shuts it down, along with Captain Unstable. He may be unstable but killing Randall is the best choice, it won't put anyone here at risk.
I also hated this new rule my father made where I can't leave alone. I'm not going to run away again. I care about everyone here too much to leave again, and even though they won't admit it, they need me. I'm the only girl here who can actually defend themselves. Andrea isn't too far behind, but her cocky attitude gets in the way of her actually being able to defend herself well.
I am so tired of being cooped up on this farm, and I'm tired of constantly having a babysitter every time I go out. I left the house while everyone was still inside and walked to the woods. I'm not planning on being gone long, but I need to get out for a while. I need a moment for myself, I need a moment to breathe.
I found a big tree and started climbing it. I got to a high-ish branch that was sturdy enough for me to sit on it. I sat there for maybe about an hour with my eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the wind blowing leaves around. It was peaceful. Until it wasn't.
I heard a twig snap, I originally thought it could be a geek but when I opened my eyes I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Shane was leading Randall away from the farm through the woods. I heard Randall say something. "Oh man, you're gonna love it with my group."
Wait was Shane running away with Randall? That can't happen. I don't particularly enjoy Shane, but he is still part of my group. I slowly started making my way down the tree. I followed them for a little bit, before I decided to speak up. "Shane..." Both Randall and Shane turned around to meet my gaze. "Look, I know and you know that I don't really enjoy having you around. But it would hurt my family if you leave with him." I nodded towards Randall, who then spoke.
"Shut up bitch. When we get back, we'll be coming for you. We'll kill everyone you love and take you. In case you've forgotten you're mine now."
My mind traveled back to that night where the leader of Randall's group told me that I now belonged to Randall and that I was now his 'Toy'. I took a deep breath before calmly looking at Shane. "Is that the type of group you really want to be with? They will come here, kill every man. They'll kill Carl, and before that they will rape all of our women. I know you probably don't give a shit about me, but what about Andrea, or Lori? Do you really want that to happen to them?"
Randall spoke again. "I said shut up bitch! He will have more fun with my group than yours. Maybe after we take you, I'll let him have a night with you. It may be fun watching someone else make you screa-" Randall's sentence was cut off by Shane snapping his neck. Randall fell to the forest floor with a thud, falling in a pile of leaves.
My eyes widened as I fell to my knees. Randall was officially dead, he couldn't hurt me anymore. Tears started falling from my eyes. I had wanted this for so long, I wanted him to suffer, I wanted him dead, so why am I so upset now that he actually is?
I didn't even notice that Shane was now kneeling in front of me. "You alright?" I nodded. "I wasn't really going to leave with him, I just wanted to get him far enough away from camp to kill him. Clearly that plan didn't fully work because you showed up."
"I- I'm sorry. I was already out here...."
"Yeah, you're not going to say anything are you?" He asked.
"What do you mean? I wanted him dead too. So whatever bullshit story you come up with, I'll help you tell it." I said. I don't want to lie to my family, but I wanted Randall dead, now he is.
Shane looked at me for a second before responding. "Well see the problem here is, the story I was gonna tell kind of requires I'm alone when I get back to the farm."
"What do you mean? Can't we just say he got a hold of me and you killed him or something?" I questioned. We both stood up.
"I could, but that will hinder future plans."
"Future plans? Shane, what are you-" I was cut off by him grabbing me and pushing me up against a tree. He turned me around and grabbed my wrists so hard they are bound to bruise. I could feel him take my gun and knife, before he tied my wrists together tightly. "Shane please stop."
He pressed his body against mine as I tried to wiggle free. I felt his head next to mine, so I swung my head back and head butted him. He backed away for a second which was all I needed to run. My hands were still tied, and I didn't have any weapons but I needed to get away from him.
I tripped over a log and fell onto the ground. That was all it took for Shane to catch up to me. He was now on top of me. He whispered in my ear. "I wish we would've found you years ago. I would've had more fun with you than Lori. She never made me work this hard. It honestly turns me on." He kissed my neck.
I started to cry again. "No please.. Don't."
"Relax. Stop fighting this."
I tried wiggling away from him again, and it didn't work. So I did the only thing I could think of. "HELP! HELP! HEl-" He put his hand over my mouth. We are close enough to the farm that I hope someone heard me. He then lifted his hand that was covering my mouth, and lifted it high into the air.
*SMACK*
"Shut up!" He said right after smacking me so hard my vision started to blur. "Get up." He grabbed me by my arm and led me to a tree close to where he killed Randall. He grabbed more rope and tied me to the tree.
"How much fucking rope did you bring with? Damn I knew you were unstable!" I yelled at him. He rolled his eyes, and then pulled out some duct tape. "Fuck you were ready for a full kidnapping weren't you?" He ripped some duct tape off the roll. With one hand he grabbed my hair and pulled my head back, with the other he placed the tape over my mouth. I let out a bunch of muffled curses.
"I'm sorry sweetheart, I didn't hear you." He laughed, his hand still in my hair. He pulled on my hair to move my head so he'd have better access to my neck. He kissed and sucked on it until it was obvious he left a hickey. Then his mouth traveled to my ear. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna kill you. I'll be back for you later." I let out more muffled cries as he pulled his face away from my ear. He was now looking into my eyes. He stood up, and walked away.
He left me. He left me in the woods, tied up to a tree, with no weapons. I can't even scream for help because he taped my mouth shut. What the hell? And what the hell are these other plans he's talking about? I would've been more than happy to make up a story about what happened with him, but now all I want is to be out of these woods and safe.
I can't see Randall's body from where I'm tied up. Wait, did Shane get Randall's head? No I don't think he did, Fuck! I am now stuck in the woods tied to a tree with no defense against Randall's future reanimated corpse. I've seen people come back before. That is why after I kill anyone I always make sure to get their head, no matter where I had shot or stabbed them before.
A little while later I heard groans. I tried to stay as silent as I could so that hopefully I don't lure it to me. That plan didn't work however. I watched Randall's reanimated body approach me. I'm surprised I was really able to see him at all since it was getting dark out. I was really hoping I wouldn't be able to be detected by it, but Maggie's raspberry scented shampoo gave me away.
Randall's undead body approached me. I was officially scared. I was now letting out a bunch of muffled cries. it climbed on top of me and tried to take a bite out of me, but I kicked it away. This whole song and dance continued for a few minutes until it was completely on top of me. I couldn't kick it away. This is how I was going to die. I closed my eyes as it started to bite at my chest. Luckily I have Liam's leather jacket on and zipped up. It will take a while of it biting or scratching to actually rip open the jacket.
My life started flashing before my eyes, starting when my mother told me my father was dead, all the way to this moment right here. I had finally discovered my father isn't dead. I gained a family. I gained friends. I gained Daryl.
I'm not even close to being over Liam, I loved him so much. However when I think of Daryl, I get butterflies. He makes everything so easy. I've only known him for a short period of time, but he has grown on me significantly. He is definitely one of the people on that farm I care about most. And now I'll never see him again. I let out more muffled cries. My eyes still squeezed shut.
All of a sudden I felt Randall's weight off of me. I know I didn't fight him off, so what happened? I opened my eyes to see Daryl and T-Dog standing there staring at me. They saved me. Daryl saved me. I looked into his eyes and I saw tears, actual tears. Neither of their eyes were on my face. I looked down to see all the bite marks on the jacket. They think I was bit. Oh fuck. Technically I was, but none of his teeth had poked through the jacket. I looked back at him and violently shook my head as T-Dog started aiming his gun at my head. My eyes widened as I tried more to get their attention. Daryl finally kneeled next to me and ripped the tape off my mouth. "Daryl, T, please! I'm not bit!"
Daryl had tears falling down his face. "Nora.... I...."
"NO! Listen here Robin Hood! I'm not bit! I know what it looks like, but I promise I'm not! You can strip search me if you absolutely need to. None of his teeth got through the jacket. Please!" I cried.
Daryl untied me and slowly took off my jacket. T-Dog still had his gun pointed to my head. I get why, If I was bit I would want to be put out. I do not want to turn into one of those things. Daryl inspected every inch of my body. Well almost, He didn't inspect my lady part, and I was thankful. He did however find the hickey on my neck, but he was smart enough to know what that was. I heard a sigh of relief come from his lips. He commanded T-Dog to lower the gun.
I tackled Daryl in a hug. "Thank you. I thought I was going to die. I was afraid I'd never see my family again. I was afraid...." I almost said I was afraid of never seeing him again, but how would he take that?
I pulled away from the hug, only to be pulled back in. "Ye scared me." He said softly. He pulled away and looked into my eyes. He then slowly leaned back in and kissed me. I was shocked. Here I was thinking that this man didn't like me. Clearly he did. I could feel him pulling away, I don't want that. I'm not over Liam, but damn it I know he would want me to be happy. I grabbed Daryl's leather vest and pulled him closer as I met his kiss with my own.
We were broken from our kiss when we heard T-Dog fake a cough. Honestly I had forgotten he was also here. Daryl and I both looked at him. "Look, as sweet as this is. Let's head back." we both nodded as Daryl helped me to my feet. We started walking back to the farm. "So Nora what happened?"
Oh boy a lot of shit happened. Where do I even start? "I came out here on my own. I needed a moment alone, all the talk about what to do with Randall was getting to me, I wanted to be as far away from him and any conversation having to do with him. I was only planning on being gone for an hour or two......." I started thinking about what happened after and started crying again.
"That doesn't explain what happened." T-Dog said.
I nodded and continued telling them what happened. "I was up in a tree just kind of chilling out, when I heard Shane and Randall walking by. I heard Randall talking to Shane about how much he'll love living with his group. I climbed out of the tree to beg Shane not to leave the group. I never really liked him but my family does so I wanted to talk to him. Convince him not to leave. Then he snapped Randall's neck right in front of me."
"What?" Daryl asked. "Tha's not what he told us."
"Yeah well, it's what happened. After he asked me if I was going to tell anyone. I said no because I wanted Randall dead more than anybody, but he said, his story that he came up with to tell everybody 'required' him to be alone when he went back to camp. He pushed me against a tree and tied up my wrists. I managed to escape for a minute by headbutting him, but I tripped and he caught up to me. When I tried screaming for help he smacked me. Then he tied me to that tree, and kissed my neck." I covered the hickey with my hair. "He told me he would be back for me later." I looked up at Daryl. "What did he say happened?"
"Tha' the kid escaped, kidnapped ye, took all Shane's weapons, and hit him wit' a rock."
"More like Shane killed Randall, Kidnapped me, Took all my weapons, and when I see him again I'll hit him with a rock." My tears are streaming down my face.
"Don't worry we believe you." T-Dog reassured me and Daryl let out a grunt of agreement.
When we got back to the farm Sophia ran to me and gave me the biggest hug possible. I almost fell from how fast she ran to tackle me in that hug. When Carol saw me a soft smile crept up on her face. Lori, Maggie and Glenn all ran over to me as well.
When Glenn finally hugged me, he hugged me so tight I could barely breathe. "I thought I lost you again."
"Glenn... Can't breathe....." I patted on his back to let him know to let me go.
He let me go. "Sorry I...." His eyes trailed to the many bite marks on my jacket. "Nora... Are you bit?" His eyes widened and tears started flooding his eyeballs.
"No. The jacket stopped that from happening. I promise. I'm okay." I reassured him.
He then pointed to my face. "What happened there? Your face is bruised. It looks like.... a hand print?"
I was about to tell the story of what happened to me again when I heard a scream. It came from Lori. I looked over and saw her pointing to the clearing behind me. When I turned around I saw hundreds of geeks. "Oh shit! Get everyone out of the house! We need to leave!"
Glenn nodded and ran to the house.
"Rick and Shane aren't back yet!"
"Where did they go?" I asked Lori.
"They went to look for you!"
Oh shit. Is this what Shane meant when he said he had future plans. I would run to try and find them in any other circumstance, but right now we were all about to be geek food. I need to worry about Lori and Carl and get them out of here! Wait.... "Lori, where is Carl!?"
Lori looked around before getting more frantic. "CARL!" She called for him. He wasn't here. Where the hell would he have gone? Wait, if I know my brother he probably went out looking for Dad, and has already probably found him. If he's with Dad he'll be okay. That is the hope I have to cling to in order to keep me and Lori alive.
"Lori, we gotta go." I told her.
She snapped at me. "My baby is out there! I can't leave him!"
Daryl, T-Dog, Carol, and Maggie all left me and Lori now, trying to collect as much as they possibly can before leaving. I looked at Lori. "Lori when we find Carl he will need his mother! You will be of no use to him if you are dead! We need to go!" She nodded and followed me. We ran back in the house for a brief minute just to grab anything and everything we can, before leaving. I grabbed the humongous bag of guns Shane kept, and I also went upstairs. Luckily Liam's knife was still there, I grabbed it and ran downstairs. We all now had everything we could carry with us. We all ran out of the house, but the horde was now on top of us. We will need to fight our way out.
We all ended up getting separated after a geek took Patricia down. I saw that Maggie, Glenn, Sophia and Beth were all together while Lori was with Hershel and T-Dog. Wait where is Daryl? I don't see him anywhere. I don't see Andrea either. Maybe they escaped together. I was now with Carol.
I looked behind me and noticed that the barn was now on fire. I'm hoping that is my Dad, Carl and/or Daryl.
I watched as Sophia was pulled into a car. She was screaming for me and her mother, but Glenn shoved her ass in the car. Thank you Glenn. I wouldn't be able to handle myself if Sophia died.
I lost track of Lori, I'm just hoping T-Dog and Hershel are protecting her at all costs.
The horde was now swarming around Carol and I. We aren't going to make it out of this. Carol looked at me. "Nora. Remember when you said you owe me one?" Oh God, that felt like so long ago now. I had told her I owed her something after she convinced Lori to let Carl learn how to shoot. But I don't understand, why is she asking me this right now? I nodded. "Take care of Sophia."
My eyes widened. She's planning on sacrificing herself. "No Carol! You can take care of her! I am not her mother, she needs you!"
Carol looked at me with sad eyes. "She loves you, You will be able to protect her better than I ever can. Please Nora." I looked at her in disbelief. She then said. "Tell her how much I love her." before running and screaming the opposite way from the horde. I started to cry as I watched the geeks rip her apart. I will not let her sacrifice be in vain.
I started fighting my way through the horde, shoving my knife into so many of their skulls. Then I noticed him. Daryl. He was on his motorcycle. He looked at me. "Come on. I don't got all day!"
I ran to him and hopped onto the motorcycle. I wrapped my arms around him as he started driving away. I placed my head onto his back and cried. Carol sacrificed herself for me, she's entrusting me to care for her daughter. What do I even tell Sophia when I see her again? What if I never see her again? And what about Lori, Carl, Glenn, my father? All I can do now is hope.
Daryl and I have now been driving for a hot minute. Then we noticed a car in front of us. zigzagging all over the road. Glenn. He's a terrible driver. I slightly smiled as we approached the car that was now slowing down and pulling off to the side of the road.
We hopped off the bike, I don't know who all is here but I hope at least some of my family survived. I at least now knew though from the way Glenn was driving, that he was here a long side Maggie, Beth, and Sophia. God, now I really need to figure out how to tell Sophia her mother is dead.
I slowly started making my way towards everybody as I saw my father with Carl and Lori. They made it. They are alive. "Daddy?" I cried out.
He looked at me and ran to me. I met him halfway. When I met his embrace I collapsed. He held me and stroked my back as I cried into his chest. "How did you guys find us?"
"Saw the headlights zigzagging all over the road, and I knew it was my Korean best friend." I said with a smile on my face.
"Ha Ha." Glenn pretended to laugh.
Carl soon came up and joined in on our hug. Our hug was broken up by another small voice though.
"Where's my mom?" My heart dropped. How am I supposed to do this. I pulled away from my father and Carl to see Sophia's distraught face. I looked at her trying to hold back tears. She noticed. "NO! She can't be dead! She can't be!"
I could hear the audible gasps and crying. "Soph..."
"NO!" She ran away from me crying. Maggie ran to her to keep an eye on her.
I looked back at my father. "Carol sacrificed herself for me. We were surrounded. She ran screaming in the other direction to draw them to her after she told me to take care of Sophia.."
"Where's Shane?" Lori asked. In hell hopefully. My father gave her a look to let her know Shane didn't make it. Lori was now crying and walking away.
"What about Andrea?" That I didn't know of. I hadn't seen her the whole time.
T-Dog responded. "I saw her go down." Damn, not another one.
Hershel now asked. "Patricia? Jimmy?"
"I was holding onto Patricia, they got her Daddy. Right in front of me. I couldn't do anything." Beth said as her father pulled her close.
"Jimmy was in the R.V. it was overrun." My father said. Beth's sobs got even louder. "Guys we need to keep moving, There's walkers crawling all over here."
T-Dog leaned on a truck. "I say we head east."
"Stay off the main roads." Daryl grabbed his crossbow. "The bigger the road, the more walkers, more assholes like this one." He said before shooting the geek behind him.
We all agreed to get as far away as we could. I jumped back onto Daryl's motorcycle. I would go with Sophia in a car, but she needs time to process what has happened. I wrapped my arms around Daryl's waist as he started driving again.
We've been on the road for a couple hours now, until we noticed my father pulling his car over. We pulled over with everyone else. Daryl and I both walked over to my father. "Ya out?"
My father nodded. "Running on fumes."
"We can't stay here." Maggie said.
"We can't all fit in one car." Glenn added.
"We will get gas in the morning." My father said.
"And spend the night here? I'm freezing." Lori scoffed.
"We can build a fire." I suggested. My father nodded. "Daryl and I can go look for firewood." Daryl grunted in approval.
"We can not just sit here with our asses hanging out!" Maggie yelled.
"Language!" Hershel scolded his daughter out of habit. "We need to stop panicking and listen to Rick."
"Alright, we will set up a perimeter, and in the morning we'll find gas and supplies. Then we'll keep pushing on." My father said.
"Glenn and I can go for a run right now, try to scrounge up some gas." Maggie suggested.
My father shot that idea down. "No, we need to stay together. God forbid something happens and we get stranded without a car."
"Rick, we are stranded right now." Glenn spoke up.
My father looked at him. "I know this looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse. But we found each other. I wasn't sure, I really wasn't, but we did. We are together. We need to keep it that way."
I noticed Sophia shivering so I took off my jacket and put it over her shoulders. She turned to look at me, and gave me the world's weakest smile. Daryl then gave me a strange look as my father continued speaking. "We will find shelter somewhere, There's gotta be a place."
Glenn stepped up to my father. "Look around Rick. There are walkers everywhere. It's like they are migrating or something."
My father then said. "There's gotta be a place, not just where we hole up, but we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, and build a life together." Daryl gave me a look when my father said that last part. I've never seen that look before. I started shivering, but at least Sophia is warm. My father continued. "I know it's out there. We just need to find it."
"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe," Maggie started making everyone look at her, "We can never be sure for how long. Look what happened to the farm. We fooled ourselves into believing that was safe."
"We won't make that mistake again." Hershel said. Everyone was quiet for a little while after that.
My father finally broke the silence. "We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day."
Beth then asked a fantastic question. "What if walkers come through, or we find another group like Randall's?" I could see the genuine fear in her eyes.
"Ye know when I found Nora, I also found Randall right?" My father looked at us. "He had turned, he was trying to eat her. When I pulled him off of 'er, noticed he wasn't bit." Okay now I'm genuinely confused, how does being bit matter? "Shane killed 'im just like he always wanted to."
"How'd he turn though? If he wasn't bitten." Lori asked. Do they all seriously not know?
My father sighed. "We're all infected." Everyone gasped but me. How did nobody know? "At the CDC Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."
"Well I could've told you that." I scoffed. Everyone's heads spun to look at me. "Oh don't look at me like that. I thought it was common knowledge. I thought everyone knew." Everyone took their eyes off me and they were now back on my father.
Glenn spoke up. "You knew this whole time?
"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy Jenner wa-"
Glenn then cut my father off. "It wasn't your call whether or not to give us that information. When I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone."
"Well I thought it was best that nobody knew." My father added calmly.
Everyone went silent for a minute, and we eventually broke away to do our own things. Daryl nudged me. "Let's find some wood." I nodded and followed him into the woods. I was holding my arms and shivering. He then stopped and took off his leather vest, and the flannel he was wearing underneath. He handed it to me before putting his Leather vest back on.
"Daryl, You'll freeze." I shook my head.
"I spent 10 days in the cold with no jacket, wipin' my ass with poison oak. I'll be fine." I hesitantly took the flannel from him. As I put it on I was met by the warmth that was still on it from when he took it off. We then continued looking for wood.
After we found some wood, we made our way back to the rest of the group. I sat down next to Sophia and cuddled her into me as Daryl made a fire. I kissed the top of her head as my father sat down next to us, putting his arm around me. He looked at my bruised face and put his hand over the hand-print left on my face. "Shane do that?" I nodded. He then looked at the hickey on my neck, his eyes narrowed onto Daryl. He had noticed I was wearing Daryl's flannel, so I guess he just assumed that this thing on my neck came from him.
"Dad, no." He looked back at me. "Also Shane." My father looked confused, but dropped it and nodded, before kissing the top of my head.
"What was that?" Beth jumped as we all heard some rustling.
"Could be anythin'." Daryl replied "Could be a possum or a raccoon."
"Walker." Glenn added. "Which way did it come from?"
"Where we came from." Maggie replied to her boyfriend. "We can't stay here."
My father decided to speak when he heard Maggie say that. "The last thing we need is everyone running around in the dark. We don't have the vehicles, and no one's traveling on foot."
We then heard a branch snap. When the branch snapped, so did Maggie. "I'm not going to sit here and wait for another herd to plow through. We need to move now."
"No one is going anywhere." My father said with authority but still as calmly as he could.
"Do something." Maggie said to him.
My father now stands up. "I am doing something!" He said harshly. "I'm keeping this group together, alive! I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people for Christ's sake!" Everyone was shocked. "You all saw what he was like. How unhinged he had become, how he threatened all of us. He staged the whole Randall thing. Tied my daughter to a damn tree and left her for dead." I put my head down. How did he know the whole story already. I looked at T-Dog who when I looked at him gave me a small smile. So that's how Dad found out I guess. "He led me out there to put a bullet in my back, He gave me no choice. He was my friend but he came after me, and my daughter."
I heard Carl and Lori start crying. Mostly everyone had the same look on their face, fear. Except for Daryl. My father continued. "My hands are clean. Maybe all of you are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe it's just a pipe dream. Maybe I'm just fooling myself again. Why don't you go find out. Send me a postcard." He yelled at all of us. "Go on there's the door. Think you can do better? Let's see how far you get."
He let that statement stand for a minute, waiting for anyone to move. When no one moved he then decided to continue. "No takers? Fine. But let's get one thing straight. You are all staying. This isn't a democracy anymore."
All eyes stared at him as he walked away. I decided not to follow him, he needs a minute to cool down.
_____________
Well this is the beginning of the Ricktatorship!!!
I hate that I killed off Carol but for what I have planned for future chapters, she unfortunately needs to be gone! Sorry to all of those that severely love her. She will be missed!
I don't want to jump right into the prison life either, so there will be a few chapters that take place between season 2 and season 3.