For the first time since the nights were cold, Alex slept all through the night. Daryl was sleeping soundly as she gazed upon the man whose arms wrapped around her. This was the first time she had seen him look so innocent and peaceful, she wanted nothing more than to stay like this forever. She nestled her head back into his chest hoping to fall back asleep when there were faint footsteps and a knock at Daryl's tent.

Daryl's eyes shot open, carefully wrapping his from Alex stood up to go to towards the entrance to find Rick standing there.

"G'mornin'," Rick nodded, noticing Alex getting up from Daryl's bed, "Can I have a word with you?" He motioned over his shoulder to Daryl. Daryl nodded and pulled on his boots and stepped outside with the sheriff.

They walked out far enough to be out of hearing range, "About Randall, things happened yesterday and he admitted knowing Maggie, he knows where we are, Daryl. I—I don't feel right about letting him go anymore. I was wondering if you could go talk to him."

Daryl chewed on his lip; he understood where Rick was coming from. He wasn't stupid; he knew exactly what Rick was asking of him. He needed to get Randall to tell him more about his camp, see how dangerous they really were.

"Thank you," and then Rick walked off.

Daryl headed towards his tent to find a grinning Alex still in his bed, "Morning."

He only nodded and chewed on his lip, Alex could sense how awkward he was feeling all of a sudden. She definitely didn't want to push her luck with him, so she figured it was time for her leave him to himself.

She nodded then got off his bed to start gathering her belongings. "I'll see you later then," she calmly said through her grin. She began heading for opening in the tent, "One more thing," she said before placing a gentle kiss on Daryl's cheek and she continued her way back to her tent.

Still lost in his thoughts, unfazed by Alex's affection, Daryl grabbed his crossbow and knife and headed towards the shed.

Most everyone gathered around the fire eating the breakfast Lori and Carol had made by the time Alex had put yesterday's find in her tent.

Lori offered Alex her plate of eggs and meat, "Oh no thank you, I'm not hungry."

"Sweetie, you need to eat." Lori's worried expression burned through Alex.

"I'm not hungry—"

Rick had just walked up to cut off Alex announcing to the group, "Yesterday when we went to drop off Randall, the place was overrun. Some other stuff had come up. Well, Randall—he admitted to going to school with Maggie. I—I just couldn't let him go knowing he could show back up."

"Where is he now?" Alex asked.

"He's in the shed, locked up. Daryl is—having a word with him," his voice hinted at what Daryl was really doing to the prisoner.

"So what are you gonna do? We'd all feel better if we knew the plan," Lori asked her husband while pouring Carl a drink.

Andrea became more concerned, "Is there a plan?"

"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked before Rick had a chance to answer anyone's previous questions.

"We'll know soon enough," Rick calmly replied and nodded towards Daryl who was approaching them.

Alex noticed his bloody knuckles instantly and Daryl's worried expression, not daring to look at her. "Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna—they're gonna wish they were."

"What did you do?" Carol asked Daryl in a displeased manner.

He looked down quickly at his knuckles, "Had a little chat." He gave Alex an apologetic look and walked away as Carol went back into the RV.

Lori was overcome by concern, "So what are we gonna do?"

"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat," Rick replied firmly.

Dale looked at Rick with disbelief, "You're just gonna kill him?"

"It's settled. I'll do it today," answering Dale's question he walked off, Dale following close behind.

Alex just sat in her chair with eggs Lori had handed to her. She definitely didn't feel like eating anything now after learning that they were going to kill a boy who could be no older than her younger brother. They couldn't do this to another human, it wasn't right. The world had killed enough of them, why was it their turn to finish the job?

'This isn't right,' she sighed quietly to herself. Her head was spinning from the thoughts that sprinted across her mind; she needed to get away from everyone. She started walking the yard heading to the woods behind the house, when she looked up Daryl was sitting wiping the blood from his hands. She began walking up to him, when he noticed he gave her weak smile. She stood there looking at him with water filled eyes as he stood up.

"Alex, what's—," he was cut off by her embrace. Her sobs where barely audible, but he could feel her shake underneath his arms that wrapped around her. He just held onto her as tightly as he could, he figured this was the first time she had let go of her emotions since this all started. She clutched onto the back of his shirt when she took gasps of air between her cries. After a while, he started stroking her hair in attempts to comfort the woman. They heard small footsteps come up behind them; she broke away their embrace to find Carl. She quickly wiped dried her tears and forced a smile at the boy.

"Hey Carl," she said hoarsely.

"Hey, Alex. Are you okay?" His eyes danced back and forth between Alex and Daryl.

"I'm—I'm okay. What's up?" Alex needed to change the subject quickly while she could.

He turned his attention fully on Daryl, "Did it hurt to punch the guy?"

Daryl glanced down at his bloody knuckles then back up at the boy, "I've had worse. You too, buddy."

Carl just nodded his head with a smile on his face and pointed at Daryl's crossbow, "Can you teach me how to shoot that?"

"Your arm ain't long enough."

"Yeah it is!" he extended his arm to prove to Daryl he could. Alex laughed at the boy's innocence.

Daryl scoffed, "Stick to guns, takes less skill." He looked behind them and saw Carol coming up, "Where's your old man? Why don't you go pester him?"

Alex shot a glare at Daryl for being rude to Carl, when she noticed Carol coming up. "Come on Carl, let's go play a round of cards yeah?"

The boy nodded as she held him away from Daryl and Carol, Daryl nodded her away.

Once the two were gone, Carol handed Daryl a new cloth, "Here do you want it? Approval, thanks. Couldn't hit me so you beat up a kid is that who you are now?"

Daryl took the rag from Carol, "He ain't no kid. He'd do a lot worse than hit you if you gave him a chance."

"This is not what this is about, you know it."

He glared up at Carol, "What do you want me to do? Huh? I don't need this. I didn't do this for any of that."

"Don't pretend like you don't care. You want your friendship back, fine take it. Every kind and smart thing you've said, take it back. I don't care I've lost worse. But don't sit back here and tend to your bloody fist and pretend you don't care." Then Carol turned her back on him and stormed off.

Alex went back to her tent and started picking up her tent. She began sorting through her belongs. She owned one backpack and a larger duffel bag she got from Andrea. If anything ever happened and they needed to get out fast there was no way she was going to be able to take all her things. So she packed her smaller bag with a change of clothes, a sweatshirt, a lighter, half a pack of smokes, and a couple of granola bars. She looked towards her makeshift bed at the picture of her family, she grabbed the frame, smiling as she removed the picture from it and folded it to put in her bag. She knew that this was a good idea, she would have everything she needed. Alex began to lose her thoughts into life before the outbreak when she heard a knock at her tent.

"Come in," half expecting Daryl.

"Hey Alex, what are you up to?" Dale made his way into her tent, kneeling beside her.

"Just going through a couple of things. What about you Dale?" She knew what was coming.

"Randall—I just don't think,"

"I understand where you are coming from, I do. I had a little talk with him earlier, and honestly I don't know what to think. I don't feel right killing a boy not much younger than myself."

"So then why not tell Rick that? He needs to know that someone else doesn't agree with this."

Alex let out a heavy sigh, "The thing is I don't think Rick will be doing the execution. You saw Daryl earlier today."

He shook his head, "That's not Daryl, you and I know that."

"We do, but Daryl sees it has looking out for the group. I know he's willing to do things like this for the group. And I'm not going to go against him for trying to protect us the only way he feels like he can."

Dale sighed deeply, "But—,"

"—but I will let everyone know I don't like this idea. I'm on your side, Dale," she halfheartedly smiled.

"Thank you," he whispered as he left her tent. Alex knew that wasn't what he was looking for, but it's all she could give him if Daryl was going to be the one to kill that boy.

She couldn't take being in her tent after that, she need to go for a walk, to think about what's really going on. Her mind wandered back and forth between what was the right thing to do for Randall, when she heard Rick calling for everyone to come in for the final decision.

She was the last person in the house, everyone had taken their spots, and Alex found her place near Daryl.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked, unsure of the silence.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea questioned.

Lori offered, "How about majority rules?"

"Well, let's—let's just see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options," Rick said.

Shane decided to open his mouth, "Well, where I sit there's only one way to move forward."

"Killing him, right?" Dale spoke up, "I mean why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me, Glenn and Alex," Alex nodded her head agreeing with Dale.

Glenn looked up at Dale unsure of what he was about to say, "Look, I—I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-,"

"They've got you scared."

"He's not one of us. And we've—we've lost too many people already."

Dale pointed towards Maggie, "How about you? Do you agree with this?"

Maggie hesitated a moment before asking Rick, "Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"

"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl pointed out. He didn't know what to say or do with Alex now on Dale's side, it didn't want her to be upset.

"It may be a lean winter," Hershel agreed.

"We could ration better," Lori suggested.

"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself!"

"Put him to work?" Glenn asked.

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick said firmly.

"We could put an escort on him," Maggie shot back.

Shane snorted out, "Who wants to volunteer for that duty? Alex?"

She shot him a dirty glare as Dale spoke up, "I will."

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy," it was clear Rick didn't want this guy around us.

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," Lori spoke on behalf of the women.

Alex zoned out, not caring what Shane had to say about the matter. All she had to do was let know Rick she didn't feel right about this, and support any decision that Daryl would make. She knew he wanted her safe, but would he go so far as to—

"What about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked.

"Whoa, hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided!" Dale was still fighting this losing battle.

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five-minute conversation! Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You save him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed," Dale was in tears at this point and Alex saw how much the word tortured stung Daryl. "How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"

"I agree with Dale," Alex had finally found her voice. "I want us all to be safe, and I'm not so sure Randall's being here is the right thing to do. But I know that killing him on no evidence is not right. I know not all of you feel that killing him is the right thing either, so what we need to do is figure out a way to deal with this without murdering him."

"We all know what needs to be done," Shane chimed in.

"No, Dale and Alex are right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility—,"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea asked. "We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could."

"So let's work on it!"

"We are," Rick was desperate to find another way.

Carol spoke up, "Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide—either of you, both of you, but leave me out."

"Not speaking out, or killing him yourself—there's no difference!"

"Alright that's enough. If anyone wants the floor before we make the final decision has the chance."

No one spoke up, and Alex was trying to come up with a solution good enough to work.

"I still say this isn't the right thing to do," Alex whispered.

In a last attempt Dale spoke up, "You once said we don't kill the living."

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."

"But don't you see? If we do this the people that we were the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's…harsh. It's—it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right."

Everyone was silent, "Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with Alex and I?"

"He's right. We should try to find another way," Andrea finally realized what Dale had said.

"Anybody else?" Rick asked.

Silence again.

Dale's eyes were full of tears, "Are y'all gonna watch too? Nah, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa," he shook his head. "I won't be a party to it." He went towards the door, stopping at Daryl and said, "This group is broken."

Once Dale had left, the group had made their decision. Alex and Andrea still trying to come up with better solution, but all had failed.

Alex turned around before the final decision and grabbed Daryl by the sleeve so she could talk to him in private, and he followed her to the back door.

"I don't agree with this, but I understand what you have to do to keep this group safe," she whispered to him in the hallway.

He nodded, "I'm keeping you safe, Alex," he whispered back and she gave him a small peck on the check before walking out the door.

Rick, Daryl and Shane brought Randall to the barn to execute him. Rick had his gun to Randall's head, the whole time the boy cried. Then Carl came in tell rick to "Do it." And Rick couldn't. Daryl had taken him away for Rick. And put him in the shed, and began tying him up to finish what Rick couldn't.

Rick came back to the camp and said, "We are keeping him in custody for now."

Andrea went off in search for Dale.

Daryl had Randall's hands tied above his head and a rag in his mouth to keep him from yelling. Daryl was about to make the blow, when all of a sudden there were blood curdling screams of someone being attacked.

Daryl quickly ran after the screams, and found a walker on top of Dale. He tackled the walker off dale and putt his knife through its skull and then screamed for help and wailed his arms around so the others could help. He was so shaken up he didn't know what to do, he just kept telling Dale, "hang in there, buddy." And yelling for help from the others.

The others came up sobs began to burst out, as Rick yelled to get Hershel that they had to get Dale back to the house. Everyone attempted to console Dale, but once Hershel informed that nothing could be done to save Dale's life, everyone let their sobs go uncontrollably.

Unfortunately, the walker had torn up Dale so bad that nothing could be done to save his life. He was just lying there moaning from the pain, unable to speak. Once Hershel confirmed that nothing could be done, Andrea asked for someone to do something. Rick took his revolver and pointed to his friends head to end his suffering.

But he hesitated; he didn't want to kill a boy he didn't know let alone his friend. Daryl gently took the revolver from Rick's hand, knelt beside Dale and said "Sorry brother" before he ended Dale's suffering.

The ringing from the gun drowned out everyone's sobs. Alex stood over Dale's body trying to comprehend on what had just happened. Dale, the Dale that they had seen no less than an hour ago had just died.

Everyone stood around sobbing for what felt like hours, until Rick had decided to move the body toward their makeshift graveyard.

Daryl had ran to go chain up Randall once more because he wasn't going to be responsible for taking two lives that night.

Alex didn't move, although everyone around her had scattered back to their tents. Not a tear had yet to shed from her eye, her mind was too caught up in the disbelief that Dale was really gone. She suddenly felt a familiar hand on her shoulder,

"Alex, come on," his husky voice whispered to her.

She nodded with water filled eyes; she stood up and walked towards her tent with the help of Daryl. Alex was unable to snap out of her state of bewilderment even back in her tent.

Daryl helped into her tent and made her sit down on her makeshift cot. He began looking through her bag for a t-shirt and sweatpants for her to change into. Once he found her Army shirt, he carefully lifted her shirt above her head, making sure not to pull her hair. He pulled up just long enough to get her shoes and jeans off her legs and sat her back down again. He had never really looked at her body until now, but he wasn't filled with the sexually desire he would normally be; instead he just wanted to hold her against him and let her know that things will be alright.

Daryl pulled her t-shirt over Alex, her arms found their way through the holes. Then he pulled out her sweatpants and helped her slip them on. The whole time he had debated what he should do after he helped her get ready for bed. He knew he wasn't ready to be alone, not after a night like this, so began to unbutton his shirt, took off his shoes and jeans and crawled in beside her. Daryl wrapped his arms around Alex pulling her back into his chest. He rested his lips near Alex's head and blew out a soft sigh.

Alex snapped out of her dazed trance and turn around to face the man who had just so gently taken care of her, "I'm sorry," she whispered to him.

He nodded to say "Me too."