The next morning came around and I continued to lay next to Daryl in his tent, playing his hand, tracing imaginery lines on his palm. He watched me closely, worried about me not getting any sleep last night. How could I when images of Dale gasping for breath, struggling to stay alive and his stomach ripped open kept flashing through my mind? I wanted to cry more and I wanted Daryl to hold me in his arms while I cried longer but I didn't have the energy to cry anymore. I was done. I was now...numb. My attention left Daryl's hand and I looked up into his blue eyes. He pushed a few strands of hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek in his hand.
"Are you hungry?" He asked in a hushed whisper. I slowly shook my head, never taking my eyes from his. "They're going to be burying Dale today. Do you want to go to the service?" I slowly shook my head, never taking my eyes from his. Daryl sighed. "Are you tired?" I slowly nodded my head, never taking my eyes from his. "Come here." His arms coiled around me and pulled me tightly against his chest. I sighed and closed my eyes at the feeling of being safe and warm. His arms were a fortress around me and I felt even more tired now that his arms were around me. I buried my face against his chest and started to drift to sleep as I took in his smell.
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After forcing me to eat a squirrel, Daryl and I made our way back up to the farmhouse where Rick was talking to Hershel.
"Gonna be tight." Rick said. "Fifteen people in one house."
"Don't worry about that." Hershel reassured him. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..."
"With fifty head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie finished.
"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 toward the road." Rick ordered. "We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going?"
"What about standing guard?" He asked.
"I need you, Daryl and Sutton on double duty."
"Gotcha."
"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there for a few days if need be." Hershel said.
"What about patrols?" Andrea asked.
"Let's this place locked down first." Rick said. "After that, Shane'll assign shifts while Daryl, Sutton and I take Randall offsite and cut him loose."
"We're back to that now?" Shane questioned him.
"It's right plan first time around. Poor execution." Shane laughed.
"That's a slight understatement."
"You don't agree, but this is what's happening. Swallow it. Move on. You know Dale's death and the prisoner-" I glared at him as he mentioned Dale's death and he closed his mouth but soon opened it back up to speak. "You wanna take Daryl and Sutton as your wingmen, be my guest."
"Thank you." Rick said as he turned to walk away.
"You got it." Andrea loaded up the blue pickup truck and I threw my bow and quiver into the back too and Jimmy drove the truck up to the house. Daryl revved his motorcycle and I slowly made my way to him and climbed onto the bike backwards, my back pressing up against his and my feet on the pegs and he drove up to the farm with Rick, Hershel and Andrea following us.
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Daryl and I stood by the pickup truck, loading up on our arrows, getting ready to take Randall when T-Dog walked over to me and handed me a gun.
"You only got so many arrows." T-Dog said. I gingerly took the gun from him and examined it closely. It was a colt revolver. Much like the one-
"Is this Dale's gun?" I asked him as I checked the bullets and closed it back up.
"Yeah. Thought Dale might want you to have it." I looked up at him.
"Thank you." I slid the gun into my belt and turned back to my arrows.
"Yeah."
"Wish the hell I knew where mine is." Daryl growled and T-Dog pulled out a Beretta 9 mill and handed it to him.
"Here's an extra." Daryl took it and put it in the back of his pants.
"Ready?" Rick asked walking up on us.
"Yeah." Daryl answered, grabbing a bottle of water and a crossbow.
"I'll get the package." T-Dog said and he headed to the shed to get Randall. "Hey! Rick! Daryl! Sutton! You better come look at this!" We all started running to the shed and climbed inside to see Randall gone. The rest of the group joined up with us and a conflict began to form.
"What's wrong?" Lori asked Rick.
"Randall's missing." Glenn explained.
"Missing? How."
"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked.
"The cuffs are still hooked." Rick said. "He must've slipped 'em."
"Is that possible?" Carol asked.
"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea answered.
"The door was secured from the outside." Hershel said.
"Rick!" Shane's voice sounded from the trees and we all turned to look in that direction. "Rick!" Shane came out of the forest with a cut on his nose and blood covering his mouth, chin and dripping down to his neck. He was breathing heavily as he stormed to us.
"What happened?" Lori yelled to Shane.
"He's armed! He's got my gun!"
"Are you ok?" Carl asked.
"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."
"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house." Rick ordered. "Glenn, Daryl, Sutton, come with us.
"T, I'm gonna need that gun." T-Dog handed Shane his gun.
"Just let him go." Carol said. "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 front step with a gun." Rick said.
"Don't go out there. Y'all know what can happen."
"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" T-Dog and Hershel began to usher everyone into the house as the rest of turned to the forest and stormed off to it. I unbuckled my bow and nicked an arrow onto the bowstring, pulling gently on the string, ready to fire.
"I saw him head through the trees that way before I blacked out." Shane explained. "I'm not sure how long."
"He couldn't have gotten far. He's hobbled, exhausted."
"And armed." Glenn said.
"So are we. Can you track him?" Daryl looked at the ground around him and slowly shook his head.
"No, I don't see nothing." Daryl answered.
"Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking him, okay?" Shane said. "He went that way. We need to pair up. We spread out. We just chase him down. That's it."
"Kid weighs a buck twenty five soaking wet. You trying to tell us he got the jump on you?"
"I say a rock pretty much even those odds, wouldn't you?"
"All right, knock it off." Rick ordered. "Glenn stay around this area, make sure he doesn't come back and get near the house. Daryl and Sutton, 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." We all nodded our understanding and split off from each other.
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Night fell over the forest as I stayed close to Daryl who was looking closely at the ground trying to pick up Randall's tracks. Owls hooted in the distant and the wings of birds flutter in the silence of the eerie air. I listened to any moans or growls from walkers nearby but didn't hear any. I gripped my bowstring tightly, my knuckles turning white as I got more worried that something was going to jump out and get us. Maybe Daryl's Chupacabra...Daryl stopped and let out a sigh.
"This is pointless." He growled. "You got a light?" I pulled out a flashlight from my left pocket and handed it to him. He turned it on and shined it on the ground, looking for more tracks. He let out an irritated sigh and took a sharp right. "Come on."
"We're just back to square one." I muttered after a few more minutes of walking.
"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right. There's two sets of tracks right here. Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said." He raised his flashlight up to a tree trunk and discovered a red strain on nature's bark. "There's fresh blood on this tree. There's more tracks. Looks like they're walking in tandem." An animal called out in the shadows of the night and I jumped in shock straight into Daryl. He looked down at me and I quickly took a step away, embrassaed by the reaction from the noise.
"Sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for, Sutt." We continued to walk on into the forest of death. "There was a little dust up right here.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean something went down."
"It's getting weird."
"Had a little trouble." Daryl crouched down to the ground and picked up the black blindfold that was supposed to be tied around Randall's face. Rustling sounded behind us and Daryl quickly turned off the flashlight and we hid behind two trees. I peered around the tree to see a walker trodding through the woods about ten yards from us. Daryl whistled softly to me and he tossed the flashlight and I caught it with ease, storing it back in my pocket. We waited for the walker to get closer to us and when the noise of its dragging feet was about a yard away, I moved out from behind the tree and raised my bow ready to shoot but the walker's face surprised me. Randall growled at me and shoved into me. I dropped my bow and arrow and fell to the ground. Daryl took a shot at Randall but missed and Randall attacked Daryl, pushing him against a tree, the crossbow stopping Randall's teeth from sinking into Daryl's flesh. I quickly got up and positioned myself behind the walker and flung my right leg up and slamming it into Randall's head, knocking him off of Daryl. I fell on top of him, grabbing an arrow from my quiver in the proccess and slamming it into the walker's head. Daryl and I both panted heavily as he helped me up to my feet and I pulled my arrow from the head and wiped it clean of the blood before putting it back into my quiver. "Oh. Nice." Daryl leaned down and kissed my cheek and I sighed and nodded before bending down to pick up my bow and arrow. Daryl bent down next to the walker and started to examine it. "Got his neck broke." He turned it over and checked his back but saw nothing so he turned it back over. "He's got no bites."
"Yeah, none you can see."
"No, Sutt, I'm telling you he died from this." We exchanged looks.
"How's that possible?" Daryl didn't answer. He got up and started back to the farmhouse and I followed closely behind him.
