"Dale could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end he was talking about loosing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honour him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety. Our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honour Dale."
This was the third funeral we'd had, the fifth person we'd lost. I looked over to my family and then around at Rick's group, Daryl standing back as he always did, and then back to Dale's grave that rested beside Sophia's who was beside Annette and Shawn.
I didn't want to have to come back out here, to bury anyone else, maybe not even Shane, but I felt it inevitable. Dale was not the first person we'd lost and he would not be the last. As I looked around the only thing I could think was 'who's next.'
Just like last time we all slowly made our way back to the house and the camp.
"Kat, we were wondering if we might borrow your truck?" T-Dog asked me, apparently being the one who drew the short straw as I looked behind him and saw Andrea, Shane and Daryl. "We're going to do a perimeter check, make sure there's no more walkers on the land."
"Alright." I agreed, somewhat reluctantly and handed over the keys after taking them off the ring that attached them to my other fifty.
There wasn't much to do that morning aside from basic tidying. "Katherine, we need to talk." My father stated as he found me finishing up in the kitchen.
"Oh no, you used Katherine, that's never good."
"I use Katherine all the time." He defended.
"Yeah, when you're giving orders regarding a surgery of some kind. The only other time you use it is when I'm in trouble, same goes for the others. For example I don't recall you calling Maggie Margaret since she was fourteen and rebelling and you haven't referred to Beth as Elizabeth since she told you she had a date with Jimmy." The realisation of this last point suddenly made me nervous, thinking that he had found out about Daryl.
"You're not in trouble, but I've just spoken with Rick and Lori and we've agreed to see if we can move everyone into the house. It's getting colder now and after last night we agree that it'll be safer."
"Everyone?" I questioned.
"Yes, everyone. Including Shane and Andrea." I went to protest, but he held up his hand. "Katherine." And that was the end of it.
We then spent the next hour making room in the house to accommodate for the now 15 people that would be living inside. Once we had done all we could I made my way outside to see that T-Dog and the others were now back with Betty and I went to grab my keys. Rick was standing with Shane, Maggie, and my dad with Beth and Daryl nearby, discussing the moving.
"Gonna be tight, 15 people in one house." Rick said.
"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..." Dad listed.
"With fifty head of cattle on the property we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie stated.
"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago."
"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out towards the road. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property."
"Keys." I stated, holding a hand out to Shane, knowing that he would have been the one driving the truck. Sure enough he pulled them from his pocket and placed them in my hand.
"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be." Dad informed.
"After we have this place locked down, Shane'll assign shifts for patrols while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose." Rick stated.
"We're back to that now?" Shane asked.
"It was the right plan first time around. Poor execution." Rick stated.
I didn't want to hear any more so I walked away, taking a few bags off Carol's hands and helping her move them into the house. It wasn't long before everyone had been moved inside, even Daryl. Shane went to building the lookout on the windmill while Daryl went to the barn. They were finished before long and next thing I knew Rick was asking for a map so they could decide where to drop off Randall.
I met him and Daryl out on the deck, handing over the map of the county. "I recommend Senoia." I stated as they unfolded it. "It's roughly an hour there and back, though."
"No, that's good." Rick nodded, looking at the page. "We may loose the light, but we'll be halfway home by then." He noted.
"This little pain in the ass will be a distant memory. Good riddance." Daryl spoke.
"You going to leave him with anything?" I asked.
"Carol is putting together some provisions for him, enough to last a few days." Rick answered, folding up the map. I nodded in approval. "You alright with this?" Rick asked, at first I thought he was asking Daryl, but when I looked up I realised he was looking to me.
"Yeah... I guess."
"He said that his group kept moving, night to night, and the two we met at the bar said pretty much the same thing. It's been a while, they're probably not in the same area anymore." Rick felt the need to explain to put me more at ease.
"I know." Was the only thing I could say. "Let me know if you need anything else before you leave."
I grabbed a hammer and began helping Jimmy and Beth boarding up the windows. I didn't like it, but we had to be cautious. The boards secured the house more and prevented any walkers from seeing inside.
Once that was done I turned to see Daryl standing by Betty, him and Rick not having left yet. I headed down the stairs as he finished loading up the supplies Carol had put together in the back.
"You'll need the keys." I stated, throwing them to him as he easily caught them. "Where's Rick? Though you would have left by now."
"Went to speak with Carl." Daryl answered.
"Daryl." T-Dog caught his attention as he walked over, holding out a pistol. "Only got so many arrows." He informed.
"Is that Dale's gun?" Daryl asked.
"Yeah."
"Wish I knew where the hell mine is." He said, putting it in the back of his belt as T-Dog and I lifted up the tailgate.
"You loose it?" I asked, not at all liking the sound of that.
"Probably just misplaced it." He shrugged, but it didn't make me feel any less uneasy, knowing an unaccounted for gun was floating around somewhere.
"Ready?" Rick asked, finally joining him.
"I'll get the package." T-Dog stated, referring to Randall.
I left them by the truck and went back inside to help some of the others set up, but not five minutes later I heart T-Dog yelling.
"Rick! He's gone!" He was saying, loud enough for everyone inside to hear. Maggie followed me out onto the deck to find out exactly what was happening. "Randall's missing." T-Dog continued.
"Find dad." I said to Maggie as Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and Andrea, who had been standing not to far from them, took off for the barn.
I waited until everyone else had gathered before walking with them to see for myself, but taking my machete just in case.
"How long's he been gone?" Lori asked.
"Hard to say." Rick shook his head. "The cuffs are still hooked. He must've slipped them."
"Is that possible?" Carol asked.
"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea responded.
"The door was secured from the outside." Dad added.
"Rick!" Shane's voice screamed from the woods as he came out, his nose busted with blood running from it. "Rick!"
"What happened?!" Lori yelled over to him.
"He's armed! He's got my gun!"
"You okay?" Carl asked.
"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face." Shane explained. I looked over to Daryl to see if he believed Shane and didn't seem to show any sign of not doing so, so I did as well, trusting his judgement.
"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house." Rick commanded. "Glenn, Daryl, come with us."
"T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane said as T-Dog handed over his.
"Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol asked.
"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Rick shot back. "Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick yelled as he and the others began to walk away.
I grabbed eye contact with Daryl and prayed that he understood what I was trying to say, which he seemed to... at least I think he did. Daryl tugged on Rick's arm, pulling him aside a bit before saying something quietly to him. Rick's line of sight flicked over to me and then back to Daryl before nodding once and turning back to the group.
"Hershel." He looked over to my dad. "Might I also take Kat with us?" He asked, proving that Daryl had in fact received my silent message. "With the sun going down it would be better if we had someone who knew the land better."
I looked over to my father who didn't seem all that happy about it, but when he looked back at me I gave him a stern 'I can take care of myself' look which on occasion worked better than Beth's eyelashes.
Dad turned back to Rick and nodded in agreement. "Here. You'll need this." Lori spoke up, holding out her gun for me to take.
I'd never actually seen her use it or in fact hold it, it never really left her belt, but I was grateful to have something other than my machete and through her a "Thank-you."
Rick and Shane took the lead with Daryl right behind them and then Glenn and I walking together just behind him.
"I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out. I'm not sure how long." Shane explained as he made it into the cover of the woods and began heading in the direction Randall had apparently gone.
"He couldn't have gotten far. He's hobbled, exhausted."
"And armed." Glenn added.
"So are we." Rick counteracted. "Can you track him?" He then asked Daryl.
"No, I don't see nothin'." Daryl shook his head. I wasn't exactly the best tracker in the world and was nowhere near as good as Daryl, but I did no the basics and there was certainly nothing to follow around here.
"Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking him, okay? He went that way. We just need to group up. We spread out. We just chase him down. That's it." Shane spat.
I looked around a bit, but still saw nothing and then looked over to Daryl to see him already looking back, having still found nothing. I managed a half shake of my head that only he saw, indicting that I didn't like this especially with Shane's reputation. Daryl simply responded with a slight nod in agreement before turning to face Shane.
"Kid weighs a buck-25 soaking wet. You trying to tell us he got the jump on you?" He asked.
"I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?"
"All right, all right, knock it off." Rick ordered. "Daryl – you, Glenn and Kat start heading up the right flank. Me and Shane'll take the left. Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there. Keep an eye out for each other." Rick finished before he and Shane parted ways from us.
Daryl took the lead and I waited until I knew for sure that we were well out of earshot of Rick and Shane before speaking.
"Can either of them track?"
"Nope." Daryl answered.
"Does Rick know I can?"
"Yep."
"Seem odd to you?" Daryl replied with a simply agreeing look.
"What are you two talking about?" Glenn asked.
"Doesn't make sense to put two trackers in the same group. I mean, I'm not exactly an expert, but if neither of them know what to look for, then logically..."
"You should be with them." Glenn finished for me "Well are you sure Rick knows?" He asked.
"He does." Daryl answered. "That's what I told him before, it's why he asked Kat to come."
"Well, Shane saw what direction Randall ran in." Glenn argued.
"Mmhmm." Daryl hummed, not all that convinced, before we continued on in silence.
The sun set quickly and it became harder to see, but despite Glenn having a torch we didn't want to turn it on until we had to as not to draw attention to ourselves.
"This is pointless." Daryl stated with a sigh before turning to Glenn. "Give me that light." Glenn handed it over and Daryl shone it on the ground, looking around us, but still not seeing a thing. "Uh-ah." He grumbled a no, turning off the torch and marching back the way we came.
"We're just back to square one." Glenn observed as we made out way back to the edge of the woods in sight of the barn.
"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right." Daryl shot back.
Following the tree line for a bit, Daryl finally found the tracks we had been looking for as we began to follow them back into the woods. I stepped closer to Daryl, wanting to see a little better with the light what exactly we were following. "Wait... is that two sets of tracks?" I asked.
"Mmhmm. Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said." Daryl replied. "There's fresh blood on this tree." Daryl noted as he raised the light and shone it on the trunk of a thick tree just in front of us.
"That's about Shane's height." I stated. "He said he was clocked with a rock."
"There's more tracks. Looks like they're walking in tandem." Daryl moved our attention now back to the ground.
I heard an owl hoot not to far from us which made Glenn look over his shoulder, but keep walking just as Daryl stopped causing the two to bump shoulders. At the impact, Glenn quickly jumped back a step and held up his hand. "Sorry." He said right away as Daryl shook his head and turned back to the ground again.
"Yeah, there was a little dust up right here."
"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.
"I mean something went down."
"This is getting weird." Glenn whispered.
"Is that Randall's blind fold?" I asked, pointing to a piece of black fabric in the ground. Daryl picked it up and held it in the light before handing it over to Glenn just as we heard the sound of twigs breaking under a foot coming from behind us. We quickly moved to stand behind some trees to wait and see what or who it was. Daryl turned off the light and threw it over to Glenn as he prepared his crossbow.
The steps got closer and closer, causing my grip on the machete hanging in my hand to tighten. I would use it before I used the gun to keep quiet. As the noise got closer we realised it was closer to Glenn and once it got close enough he jumped out from behind the tree, his knife in hand.
Unsurprisingly it was a walker, but what caught Glenn of guard was that it was Randall. He hesitated and missed his chance to swing the knife, stumbling back. Daryl shot an arrow, but just as he fired the walker had stumbled and it went straight over his head, only missing by an inch. The firing of the arrow drew Randall's attention to Daryl as he spun around and leapt at him, not giving him enough time to reach for his knife or reload the crossbow.
Knowing I couldn't swing the machete without risking hitting Daryl, I had to grab the walker by the hair and one shoulder, ripping him back as hard as I could just as Glenn jumped to his feet and drove the tip of his blade through its head – his knife being smaller and therefore safer than the machete.
Daryl recovered quickly, getting to his feet and reaching for the flashlight to turn it on and have a better look at the now dead walker version of Randall.
He knelt down, inspecting for any bites, but found none. "Got his neck broke." Daryl stated before gripping him tight and rolling him onto his front to check the back. "He's got no bites."
"Yeah, none you can see." Glenn added.
"No, I'm telling you, he died from this."
"How's that possible?" Glenn asked.
"Had to start somehow, right?" Glenn and Daryl looked over to me. "The virus. The first few people to die and come back... they couldn't have been bitten."
"You saying that you don't have to be bitten?" Glenn asked.
"Maybe not." I replied, shaking my head.
Daryl stood, ripping his arrow from the trunk it had lodged itself in. "Come on." He said, gesturing for us to follow him back to the house.
So close to the end of season 2, but season 3 will be in this same book.