Chapter Seven
Daniela sat down in the bed of the truck next to the kid, who was on his side writhing in pain. She slid the truck window open, "Is there something I should be doing so he doesn't bleed out?"
Glenn repeated her question to Hershel in the front seat, and turned back to her, "Hershel says just keep pressure on the wound." Daniela nodded and slid the window closed again. She grabbed a dirty rag that lay beside her and shook bits of hay from it.
"I'm gonna need you to move your hands," She murmured. He hesitated a moment then withdrew his hands and dark blood welled out of the hole in his leg. She pressed the wadded up rag against the wound and pressed down. He groaned again and grabbed at her wrists.
Daniela sighed and sat back prying her arms from his grip, his hands flew immediately to his leg again holding the rag in place. Sweat plastered his dark curly hair against his brow, and his face was twisted up in pain. He wasn't quite as young as she initially thought, only a few years younger than her really. The truck bounced over a pothole and his head slammed into the bed of the truck.
"Here." Daniela wiped her bloody hands on her jeans and scooted closer to him. She lifted his head so it rested in her lap, he didn't resist, probably figured if any one of them was going to hurt him it wasn't going to be her. She lay one had on his head and rubbed his shoulder lightly with the other. "What's your name?" she asked.
"Randall." He gasped, saliva splattering her pants. He groaned again, suddenly remembering his pain and scrunching his eyes closed.
"Shhh, where are you from Randall?" She asked, hoping to distract him. He only grunted in response. She wracked her brain for something she could ask him, but the usual small talk questions were now off limits. She couldn't ask about a job, or school, and definitely not family. Suddenly he went limp.
"Shit." She pressed her fingers into his neck and felt a faint heartbeat against her finger tips. Still alive then. She opened the window again and Glenn turned to look at her, dark bags stark against his pale face. "His name's Randall, just passed out." Glenn nodded and leaned forward to murmur to Rick.
"You think you can blindfold him?"
"Yeah." Daniela pulled the red scarf out of her bag and folded it in half before carefully tying it around his head.
"We're stopping in a little, to figure out what to do with him." Glenn said and gave her shoulder a squeeze.
When they pulled over they decided to bring him back to the farm and fix him up, then decide what to do long term with the others. Daniela wasn't sure what they could do exactly, he wasn't likely to want to join them after what happened at the bar, but they couldn't just leave him him on the roadside. That was as good as leaving him back in town. She and Randall traded seats with Glenn, and the rest of the car ride was spent in tense silence. Hershel glanced back at them occasionally, his brows furrowed. Rick took the long way back, taking side roads and going in circles in case Randall managed to memorize their route. When they finally pulled up to the farm the sun was already climbing into the sky. Lori and the others ran out of the house to greet them. Victoria pulled her into a tight hug the second her feet hit the ground.
"When you didn't come back last night…" Lori said, looking more relieved than anyone. She was sporting a few new bumps and scratches of her own.
Victoria let Daniela go and frowned. "Who the hell's that?" She asked pointing to the slumped over figure still in the truck.
"That's Randall." Glenn said.
Everyone started talking at once and Daniela felt a throbbing headache coming on. She weaved out of the crowd and the crush of questions making a beeline for her tent.
T-Dog called to her from the top of the RV, "What happened out there?"
"Ask Rick." She said waving him off. She ducked into her tents and zipped up the door behind her. She tugged her bloodstained jeans off and collapsed onto her sleeping bag. The minimal padding didn't do much to soften the ground beneath her, but now it felt like heaven. Muffled voiced carried over from the cook fire.
"- all that over there?"
" – brought back some guy, one of the group that attacked them.."
"Why?"
"-Couldn't just leave him to die-"
Daniela curled onto her side and grabbed at her chest where her medallion usually lay. She covered her ears and drowned out the voices while she drifted off into sleep.
"Hey Lori!" Daniela called as she stomped over the dry brush, her hands tucked into the pocket of her sweatshirt to fend off the nip in the air. The pretty, dark haired woman and her son looked up from the textbook laid across the table in front of them. Carl blinked at her with his big blue eyes and she smiled back.
Daniela looked back at Lori and bit her lip, "You know when Shane and Rick were supposed to get back?" Lori glanced down to her son before meeting her eyes.
"Sorry, you know as much as I do." She said with a tight smile. Lori wasn't the only one worried about how long they'd been out. They left early, around sunrise, while Daniela still slept and the rest of the camp went about their chores. She nodded and resigned to waiting, maybe Patricia needed help with something.
She turned to walk away and paused, "Oh, almost forgot." She pulled the plastic bag out of her back pocket and tossed it to Lori. The older woman looked at the pills and glanced back to Daniela. "Multivitamins, pulled them out of the jeep." Specifically prenatal vitamins, from when Victoria still wanted kids, a lifetime ago.
"Thank you." Lori said gripping the bag tightly in her hand avoiding Carl's curious glance.
Daniela nodded and her gaze was caught by a cloud of dust down by the tree line. The green hatchback rolled up the dirt road, two figures in the front seats. "Guess they're back." She said. The three of them jogged up to the car as it parked in front of the house.
"What happened?" Lori gasped when Shane and Rick got out of the car, her eyes darting between the two. Both of them were sporting visible injuries and Shane avoided eye contact. Lori's eyes narrowed.
"Did Randall do that to you two?" Daniela asked doubtfully.
Shane rubbed his head, "Nah man, got jumped by a couple of walkers before we cut 'im loose. Kid's still in the back."
"He knew Maggie." Rick said in explanation. Daniela heaved a sigh, that didn't bode well. She walked around the back of the car and popped the hood. She reached for Randall and he thrashed and whimpered through his gag. He couldn't see her through the blindfold.
"Hey," she said gently and reached for him again, "Remember me? I'm not going to hurt you, just trying to help you out." Randall let her pull him out of the car and she helped steady him on his feet.
"Take him back to the shed," Rick commanded tossing a key to her, presumably for the sets of cuffs on his wrists and legs, "Shane'll help you."
Daniela released the cuffs around his ankles so he could walk and Shane grabbed him roughly by the arm. Randall flinched as Shane started dragging him across the property. She had to jog to keep up.
"How'd you get so banged up?" Daniela asked eyeing the gash on Shane's forehead.
Shane glanced at her, "Couple of geeks came at me all at once."
"and they cut your head open?"
He scowled, "You know it happened pretty fast, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit fuzzy on the details."
Daniela decided to let it go, she didn't have anything to gain from pissing Shane off, even if their story sucked. If that's what he and Rick wanted to tell people she'd go along with it. She opened the door to the shed and Shane pushed Randall through. He uncuffed him and recuffed him to a beam, before stalking off to god knows where. Probably to kick puppies.
"Forro." She mumbled under her breath. Randall slumped against the beam and breathed heavily. She crouched in front of him and reached for his head. He yelped and pulled away from her. "Just me." She said and she pulled the blindfold off him. He blinked at her and glanced around the shed. His shoulders slumped when he realized they were alone. She pulled the gag out of his mouth and let the damp handkerchief hang around his neck.
"Don't let 'em kill me!" He begged.
"no one's killing anyone, okay?" she said, her heart twinged at his desperation. "What happened today?"
His voice had a sharp southern twang when he wasn't in complete agony, making his sound different than she expected, "They started arguin', the bald one still wanted to kill me and-" He stopped suddenly as a shadow filled the doorway.
Daniela turned to see Daryl scowling down at them. "Need something?" She asked, unable to keep the irritation from creeping into her voice.
"S'pposed to see what he knows." Daryl said.
Randall's eyes went wide and Daniela strode over to Daryl and pushed him lightly out of the shed. Daryl recoiled from her touch and she quickly drew her hand away to close the shed door behind her. "You're going to torture him?"
"Not gonna touch him if he talks."
"And if he doesn't?" She asked folding her arms across her chest. Daryl didn't respond. "Rick can't be okay with this." She said.
"He's the one who sent me."
"You don't have to do whatever he tells you to." She snapped. Daryl was the resident dirty-job-doer, and the others took full advantage of it, while still getting to maintain the moral high ground. If you're going to make that kind of decision, you should at least have the guts to carry it out yourself.
"Y'know why don't you mind your own damn business?" Daryl snarled getting up in her face, "Your boyfriend in there probably woulda killed you the second he got a clear shot, same as his buddies. Or are you so dumb you think he's different than the crew he rolled with?"
A smarter woman would have walked away, instead Daniela stepped closer, fury overtaking her. "Don't you dare, Daryl Dixson." She jabbed him in the chest with her finger, and he took a step back. She followed him.
"Don't you dare mistake my kindness for weakness. I haven't gone through all this shit and still come out with compassion in my heart for you to tell me that it is anything but strength." She turned on her heel and stomped off before he could respond. There was someone else who needed a piece of her mind.
"You can't tell me you're okay with this." Dale said from outside her tent.
Daniela sighed, "I'm not." she said as she rifling through her things. Talking to Rick had been a dead end. She stood and faced Dale, "If it comes down to it I'll stand by you." She walked past him over to the jeep and popped the back.
Dale's shoulders sagged in relief, and she turned to dig through the boxes piled high in front of her. He had his work cut out for him, the others weren't going to be so easily won over, her sister included. Rick already told them about Dave and Tony. "You've got to help me convince the others." Dale urged. She pulled on a small plastic box wedged between two larger ones.
"You've known them longer, there's nothing I could say that would mean more than if it came from you. Besides," The plastic box came free and she jiggled it in front of his face. "I've got more pressing things to attend to."
She strode across the field like a woman on a mission, the wind blowing her long hair around her face. "Great." Daryl muttered. He wiped the blood off his fists with his bandana and tucked it into his back pocket. Daniela walked up and he put himself in between her and the open doorway.
"Ya shouldn't be alone with him."
She glared at him, and crossed her arms. "And why's that?"
Because Daryl couldn't shake the thought of what happened to those girls and their dad, but he said "Because you might set him loose." Her frown deepened and she pushed past him into the shed. She stilled when she set eyes on him, on what Daryl had done. She didn't say anything, just knelt and started dabbing at the kid's face with an antiseptic wipe. She shot him a glare when she saw the fresh blood on his pants, but Daryl just leaned up against the doorway and watched them.
The kid, Randall made a big show of groaning whenever she touched him, and she was eating it up. She talked all quiet and cooed at him like he was an injured kitten. He wasn't as stupid as he looked. He wanted to ask if the first aid kit was her own, or if she was wasting more of the group's supplies on this douchebag, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything to her. Besides, he had a pretty clear idea from the sloping handwriting on the inside of the lid. Some kind of checklist it looked like, the the kit was a lot less stocked now than the list suggested it'd been.
Randall watched Daryl over Daniela's shoulder and looked back at her, "Please, don't let them kill me."
She stood and dusted off her pants, then fixed Daryl with a steady gaze, "I won't, not if I can help it."
Daniela stood next to Dale facing down all of the others gathered in Hershel's living room. Most of them looked uncomfortable, which told her enough about what they'd each decided. Most of them never even saw Randall, let alone spoke to him. He wasn't real to them, which made it easy. Cowards.
Glenn sighed, "So how do we do this? Just take a vote?"
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked and crossed her arms.
Lori chimed in, "How about majority rules?"
"Well, let's- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick said, taking charge of the conversation. "If people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."
Dale took his hat off and rubbed his head, "Well, I can tell you it's a small group- Maybe just me, Daniela, and Glenn."
Glenn squirmed and Dale gaped at him, "Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this—"
"They've got you scared!" Dale said in disbelief.
"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already." Glenn looked down at his hands.
"Neither were Vic and me." Daniela cut in, "We even pointed a gun in your face." She said turning to look at Rick.
"That was different." Victoria said.
"How?" Daniela asked. "Is this how were going to handle every stranger we come across from now on?"
Maggie shifted and Dale jumped at the opening, "How about you? Do you agree with this?"
"Couldn't we continue keepin' him prisoner?" she asked Rick.
"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl spoke up from behind Rick.
"We could put him to work." Glenn suggested.
"We're not letting him walk around." Rick said.
"Give me a gun, and I'll watch him." Daniela said.
Rick rubbed his jaw, "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." Lori shot her an apologetic smile.
Andrea cut in, "We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor."
Shane sighed, "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 thirty men."
"What about second chances?" Daniela said ignoring Shane's eye roll, "I think we can all say we've done things we aren't proud of to keep alive."
"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia finally spoke up, "Would he suffer?"
"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane suggested.
"I thought about that," Rick said, "Shooting may be more humane."
"And what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked.
"Who's going to do it?" Victoria said, and everyone grew quiet.
"Hold on, hold on!" Dale interjected. "You're talking about this like it's already decided."
Daryl's eyes skimmed over Daniela and landed on Dale, "You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?"
"I dare each of you to go in there and talk to him for five minutes, then come back and say you're okay with this. If you don't have the guts to tell him to his face you want him dead then you shouldn't be making that call. Aren't we better than that?" Daniela asked trying to meet someone's eyes, anyone's, but she only saw Daryl. They had already made up their minds long before now. "If we do this we're just like them." She growled and pushed her way through the people blocking the doorway. She didn't need to hear the end of the conversation to know how it was going to go. It was wrong and they knew that, this was just easier. Ignorance she could overlook, but apathy? Knowing better, and not caring enough to do anything; that was unforgivable.
Daniela stomped down the porch into the night, but she stopped in the middle of the field when she realized she didn't know where to go. She didn't want to lay down to sleep, and she couldn't go check on Randall. Yet another person she was going to fail. Soft footsteps sounded behind her and she didn't have to turn to know who it was.
"Why do you care so much about this kid?" Victoria asked, sidling up beside her.
Daniela ran her hand through her hair and sighed, "Aren't you tired off all this death? We have a chance to save someone's life, but instead we're going to kill him." The other's filtered out of the house walking past them to the campsite. No one was safe from Daniela's scathing glare. She watched Daryl, Shane, and Rick heading for the shed.
"You can't save everyone Dani." Victoria murmured. Daniela's eyes stung and she tilted her head back to keep the tears from spilling over. Her hand went to her neck and dropped. Carol watched her from over by the campfire.
"I didn't mean what I said about Mike," Daniela sniffed turning to face her sister instead, "Of course I'll go with you, I'd follow you anywhere."
"I know." Victoria said pulling Daniela into a gentle but firm hug. Daniela gripped her sister tightly, but pulled away when she saw movement near the barn.
Daniela wiped her eyes and pointed, "Something's going on."
Victoria whirled and watched Shane drag Carl back to the tents, Rick close behind them.
"I'm gonna go see what up." Daniela said as she jogged for the other two figures. Daryl dragged Randall by the back of his neck to the shed. She caught up as Daryl hooked him back up to the beam. He turned when a twig cracked under her sneaker. Daryl fixed her with a stare and she resisted the urge to wipe at her eyes again.
"What happened?" she asked, her eyes going to the very alive Randall, squirming against his restraints.
"Rick called it off." Daryl answered, his voice clear of all the animosity it bore earlier.
"Oh." She said lamely. Daryl looked like he was going to say something when a scream pierced the silence. "What was that?" Daniela asked panic clawing its way into her throat.
"Came from that field over there." Daryl said. He ran and vaulted over the cattle fence sprinting across the open field. Daniela followed after him clumsily, her shirt snagging on the fence. Daryl tackled someone to the ground and as she neared she realized it was a walker. She pulled her knife out of her belt while Daryl stabbed it in the head, but the gasping she was hearing was coming from…
"Dale!" She dropped her knife and knelt by her friend. There was a gaping hole in his stomach, his internal organs exposed.
"Hey! Over here!" Daryl jumped and waved his hands as lights bobbed across the field. Daniela fumbled her hands over the the wound, but it was too big, she wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding. Boots crushed over the grass around them and Andrea dropped to her knees beside her.
"Get Hershel!" Rick yelled.
"Dale," Andrea sobbed, she grabbed his hand and Dale's wide eyes went to her face.
"Can we move him?" Rick asked.
"He won't make it, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." Hershel said gently.
Daniela gasped, and the unshed tears from just moments ago rolled freely down her cheeks. Dale looked over to her, he gasped and gurgled. Lori clutched Carl to her chest, and Glenn cried quietly.
"He's suffering," Andrea sobbed, "Do something."
Rick pulled his gun and pointed it at Dale's head, the barrel started to shake. Daryl took the gun from Rick's hand and pointed it inches from Dale's head. Dale lifted his head pressing against the barrel of the gun.
"Sorry brother." Daryl said, and pulled the trigger.
Forro- asshole
Notes:
I love playing with perspective, because depending on who's telling the story, what's right and wrong changes. Like I wonder if the show focused more on Lori would as many people have hated her? Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you did fave/follow:)
