After Lori and Louie had pestered Shane the previous night, the next day the rest of the male campers were getting ready to search for Rick, Hershel and Glenn. Louie was almost in tears when she heard that Glenn was apart of the missing team. She stood on the porch with Carl at her hip, watching the men (sans Dale) and Andrea pack one of the SUVs. Daryl was amongst the group surprisingly, crossbow dutifully on his back. He looked stoically at the girl who was sporting a nasty shiner on her cheek. She stared unemotionally back. The night she had fled from their tent was the loneliest he had ever felt during the entire apocalypse. She had crawled her way into his life and he had destroyed everything with a bout of anger.
Suddenly a cloud of dust started rising from the end of the road. A red van was pulling in and Carl looked at Louie with indescribable happiness. Louie gave him a tight smile. Lori had emerged from the house and grabbing Carl by the hand and approached the van to greet the homecoming husband. Carol and Maggie also exited the door behind Louie, who had only stepped off the porch and glued to the bottom on the stairs. Maggie suddenly sprinted past everyone and when Hershel was ready to open his arms to his daughter, she went straight towards the not so welcoming Glenn. Hershel, taken aback and angry ordered Patricia to prepare the shed for surgery. Glenn, looking angry with Maggie, pushed off her happiness and walked over to Louie, who in turn opened her arms and enveloped him. She couldn't ignore that Maggie was staring shocked and hurt as the two embraced tightly.
"Don't go anywhere like that again," Louie whispered to him.
"What…" Glenn asked grazing her bruise. She flinched.
"Just don't go," she repeated and he nodded slowly before hugging her again.
"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog suddenly shouted and Louie ripped away from their embrace to see the intruder.
"That's Randall," Glenn explained, his arms still around the girl. Everyone except her in pure confusion and curiosity started to approach the car to see a man blindfolded looking sickly and injured. Suddenly Hershel emerged from the house with Patricia ordering a few men to grab the patient and looked at Louie.
"I'll need your help," he said to her expectantly. Louie sunk back into Glenn's grip.
"Me?" she asked worriedly.
"Just an extra set of hands is all," he said as T-Dog and Shane pulled the sobbing man from the car. He was just a boy! Louie nodded sharply. Glenn gave her a solemn look before nudging her off to follow Hershel. The hours that followed the surgery made Louie more aware how badly the group needed a doctor. The amount of blood lost and pain endured by the boy was enough to kill him but Hershel, with the help of Patricia and herself got the boy stitched up and knocked out cold.
"We couldn't just leave him behind," Rick explained. Everyone was seated in the dining room listening to the gruesome story that he was relaying. He stood at the head of the table, Lori and Carl at his right; Louie, Glenn, Dale and Carol on his left. Louie gripped Glenn's hand as she heard the details of the shootout. "He would have bled out. If he lived that long."
"What do we do with him?" Andrea piped up from her spot in front of the window, next to Shane. Hershel entered the room suddenly.
"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can but he'll probably have nerve damage. He won't be on his feet for at least a week," he explained to Rick.
"When he is," Rick answered Andrea's question. "We give him a canteen, take him out to the main road and send him on his way."
"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea asked. At that moment, the door creaked open and Daryl entered the house quietly.
"It's a sacrifice," Louie spoke up keeping her eyes trained on Daryl. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms across his chest and gave a curt nod to Carol. "We're leading him to the slaughters if we do," she mused.
"He'll have a fightin' chance," Rick offered.
"Just gonna let him go?" Shane finally spoke up. "He knows where we are." Everyone looked back to Rick.
"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat," he retorted.
"Especially as a cripple," Louie mulled.
"Not a threat. How many of 'em were there? You killed three of their men, took one of 'em hostage, but they just ain't gonna come lookin' for us!" Shane sarcastically spat.
"They left him for dead. No one is looking," Rick roared.
"We should still post a guard," T-Dog added.
After a few more unhelpful snide comments from Shane and a severe reprimanding from Hershel, Shane had left the house in a huff. Rick immediately reassured everyone that no decision would be made today and dismissed the entire group. Everyone except Glenn and Louie stood up to disperse. The girl watched Daryl flee the house before Carol could get in a word. Carol immediately followed his path.
"You wanna talk about it?" Glenn murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was silent before her voice cracked.
"She's taking him away from me," she hoarsely managed.
"Carol?" Glenn asked incredulously. Louie sighed and bowed her head.
"She, I don't know. She's trying to replace Sophia and Ed with Daryl and… I just. Whatever," she said in frustration trying not to make a shitty situation sound worse.
"Can I talk to you?" a third voice asked. Maggie stood glaring at the two. Louie hesitantly let go of Glenn's hand and rose to get up giving him a nervous look. She left the room silently hearing their footsteps graduate somewhere else in the house. She moved to bask in the Georgia heat and sun but found it only irritating and bothersome. Normally she would go back to her own tent and wait for Daryl to get back so they could have dinner or do something productive. But she was no longer welcome there. Going to the larger campsite was also out of the question as long as Carol was lingering. She decided to go off and take a walk around the property to buy some time. When it was evening, she slipped off to the barn and went to sleep in some hay that was on the landing above. She watched Daryl's fire in the distance burn and watched the smoke rise into the sky before she went to sleep.
She spent the next few days sleeping in the loft, watching and observing everyone from her spot. She saw Rick and Shane return with Randall. She saw them drag him to a slaughter shed and heard his cries as he was shackled up. She joined the anxious group, everyone looking at her astonished when she joined.
"Where've you been?" Rick asked approaching her. His head craned back as he took a glimpse at her shiner. "Where'd this come from?" he asked briefly before cupping her ear and caressing the bruise.
"It ain't illegal to beat a woman no more, Rick. There ain't a law-" Shane started squawking.
"Why don't you just shut your damn mouth before I do it for you," Louie snapped back at the man, tired of him running around thinking he could do whatever he wanted.
"And how you plan on doing that?" he asked his tone turning dangerous, obvious that he didn't like her tone.
"Take another step and you'll find out," she gathered spit in her mouth and spat it ceremoniously at his feet. Rick placed a hand on Shane's chest, keeping him at bay. He turned to look at Louie.
"You alright?" he asked her as if she would give one word and there would be hell to pay. She rolled her eyes and patted his arm lightly before taking a stand next to Glenn, slipping her hand around his arm and hugging it close to her.
"It make you feel better if you told us the plan?" Lori broke the tense silence by pouring some coffee into the mug.
"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked skeptically.
"Are we going to keep him here?" Louie asked with raised eyebrows.
"We'll know soon enough," Rick drawled and with a single nod he alerted everyone's attention to the Dixon man approaching the group, a bloodied hand gripping his bow. He gave her a single glance, no more.
"Boy there's got a gang. Thirty men. Heavy artillery. And they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll through here, and our boys are dead."
Louie's blood went cold and she tightened her grip on Glenn.
"And our women. They're gonna… they're gonna wish they were."
Glenn returned the grip.
"What did you do?" Carol asked him.
"Had a little chat," he muttered.
"Noone goes near this guy," Rick barked. Lori approached him and asked him gently what he was going to do. "We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale guffawed.
"It's settled. We'll do it today," Rick stormed off with Dale trailing him. Glenn and Louie traded glances looking nervous.
"We can't kill him," she breathed.
"We can't let him live," he shook his head.
"Why not? Why can't we just keep him here? He'll earn his share of the work-"
"And what if he escapes?" Andrea added into their conversation. Louie licked her dry lips and sighed.
"I can't deny that it's risky. But killing a man? A boy? It doesn't feel right," Louie shook her head.
"Surviving feels right around here," she said before going to take her place on top of the RV.
Dale tried to reason with each member of the group, first going to Daryl.
"The whole point of me comin' up here is to get away from you people," he snorted when he saw the older man approach him.
"It's gonna take more than that," Dale replied.
"Carol send ya?" he hesitated.
"Carol's not the only one concerned about you," Dale hinted. "It's definitely not Louie after you put a number on her."
"Shut your damn mouth right now before I make you," Daryl stood up offensively. His guilt was eating at him continuously since she had left. He didn't bother confronting her. He knew he did wrong. He figured she was better off without him anyways. And he, her.
"You and her are more alike thank you think," Dale mused at his anger. "But especially you're new role in the group."
"I don't need my head shrunk. This group's broken. I'm better off fendin' for myself," he said adjusting his bows that he had been carving religiously.
"You act like you don't care."
"Cuz I don't."
"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?"
"Nope."
"Why not stand with me? Try to save the kid's life." He didn't respond. "It doesn't really matter one way or another."
"Didn't peg you as a desperate sonofa'bitch," he said adjusting his jacket as the weather was starting to turn cold. His shivers didn't need to get in the way of a hunt.
"Your opinion makes a difference."
"Ain't nobody lookin' at me for nothin'."
"Louie is." Daryl froze. "And I am. Right now! And obviously you have Rick's ear."
"Rick just looks to Shane. Let him," he trotted back to Dale before turning back around.
"You cared about what happened to Sophia," Dale finally said causing Daryl to stop once more. "Cared what it meant to the group. What it meant to Carol. To Rick. To Louie-"
"Use her name again one more time," Daryl warned.
Dale continued, "Torturing people? That isn't you! You're a decent man. So is Rick. Shane… is different."
"Why is that? 'Cuz he killed Otis?" he reveled in his observation to Dale making him freeze with shock. Daryl only made his final claim about the broken group and left the old man standing where he left him.
Louie approached the young boy who was sitting at Sophia's grave looking solemnly at the ground.
"Hey," she said nudging his bottom with the toe of her boot. He looked up at her, squinting. She took a seat next to him, leaning against her palms.
"Do you think she's in a better place?" Carl asked her. Louie almost laughed.
"At your age I would think about lunch rather than philosophy," she chuckled. He didn't laugh. "I think…" she trailed off trying to choose her words carefully. "I think she needs to be in a better place. We need her to be, that is," Louie finally said. He nodded looking back at the ground.
"You know we'll see Sophia again in heaven someday," a pleasanter voice said. Louie rolled her eyes and didn't bother to look up. "She's in a better place," she said. Louie felt like laughing. How fucking ironic. She wondered what Carl's reaction would be.
"No she's not."
That, apparently.
"Heaven is just another lie. And if you believe it? You're an idiot!" and with that he ran off. Carol looked at Louie's bemused face with shock as if she couldn't believe she had just heard the little boy tell her off.
"Kids these days," Louie finally said, her voice and face becoming serious. "Don't know what they'll say next."
Carol's lip turned as she saw the Grimes couple exiting the barn. "You need to control that boy!" she marched up to them in frenzy. Louie watched with a smug smile as the situation escalated with Carol's cries. Standing up and feeling a little better about herself, she treaded back to the campsite where Dale was pacing.
"No luck?" She asked. He looked at her wildly.
"You have to talk to Rick," he said desperately. "He'll listen to you."
She looked at him helplessly. "I don't know if he will," she said slowly and Dale's face fell. "But I'll try. I'm on your side Dale. I'm always on your side," she said and he melted.
"You are the one light that shines on this place Louie," he said cupping her cheek. She smiled and embraced him. They were called into the Green house for a group meeting. Soon everyone trickled into the house, until everyone was present and everyone was silent.
"So how do we do this?" Glenn piped up from the piano bench. "Just take a vote?"
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.
"Majority rules?" another asked.
"Let's just see where everybody stands," Rick cut in. "And then we can talk through the options."
Shane voiced his obnoxious opinion to which Dale rejected immediately.
"Kill him? Right? Why even bother to take a vote it's clear which way the wind's blowing," Dale said hopelessly.
"Well if people believe we should spare him, I want to know," Rick growled.
"Well I could tell you it's a small group," he said looking down at Louie. She took his hand delicately and gave it a squeeze. "Maybe just me, Louie and Glenn." He looked down at Asian who gave him a nervous stare. Louie's heart dropped.
"Look. I think you're right about everything all the time but this-"
"You're just scared!" Dale yelled.
"He's not one of us! And we've… we've lost too many people already," Glenn said weakly. Dale wrenched his hat nervously.
"How about you?" he asked pointing to the Greene clan. "Do you agree with this?"
"Couldn't we continue keepin' him a prisoner?" Maggie asked.
"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl muttered from behind everyone.
"Why'd we take me in then?" Louie spoke up to Dale's relief. "I was just another mouth." Daryl's lips tightened as he stared right at her.
"It could be a mean winter," Hershel spoke up.
"We could ration better," Lori added.
"He could be an asset! Give him a chance to prove himself!" Dale pleaded. That idea was quickly shot down due to the fact that he couldn't be left alone to walk around by himself and nobody was willing to escort him constantly.
"I'll do it," Louie offered. "I don't have enough to do around here anyways." Daryl stiffened.
"Nobody will go near him," Rick said staring her down. Soon other ideas of risking him as a member of the group were looking dim as well for fear that he would go back to his old murderous group.
"So we'll kill him because he didn't do anything yet?" Louie practically screamed.
"If we do this," Dale murmured. "We're saying there is no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." Shane rolled his eyes and muttered something sarcastic. Louie leaped forward to grapple at him, itching to bleed him under her fist. Everyone became erect as Glenn wrapped his arms around her waist from reaching him. After the fiasco had settled down, other ideas of abandoning the boy were also shot down due to risk of losing their own. Patricia asked what the method of execution would be if they went through with it. Rick and Shane went back and forth for the method until Dale piped up-
"Hey, hey, hey! We're talking about it as if it's been decided!"
"We've been talkin' all day. Goin' around in circles and we'll go around in circles again," Daryl shook his head.
"This is a young man's life!" Dale shouted.
"And it's worth more than a five minute conversation," Louie added dismally. Dale went on a rant about the way the group tortured and was willing to execute the young boy.
"We're no better than those people that left him," Louie muttered. Shane tried to coax her but Rick interjected by agreeing with them, causing her heart to lift. Andrea argued with Shane and Rick tried to say something once more making Dale cry out in anger.
"Stop it!" Carol cried, silencing everyone. "Everyone arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this,"
"Yeah you should've thought of that before you ruined my sanity, you fucking hypocrite," Louie spat causing Dale and Rick to calm her down. Daryl bowed his head.
Carol remained steadfast, "You can't ask us to decide for something like this. Please decide. Either of you, both of you. But leave me out," she shrugged.
"Not speaking out. Or killing him yourself. There's no difference," Dale's voice started to waver. Rick asked if anybody had anything to say. Everyone was silent for a moment.
"You said it yourself, we don't kill the living," Louie pleaded.
"That was before the living tried to kill us," Rick stepped towards her. Dale went on to talk about a world not worth living in if survival of the fittest is what it came down to. He asked for support. Everyone was silent again.
"He's right. We should try to find another way," Andrea said gently. Louie let out a breath of air in relief but nobody else spoke up. Dale left the house in tears mentioning to Daryl that the group was indeed broken. Louie gave everyone a disgusted look pausing at Rick who met her glare apologetically and followed Dale.
"I'm so sorry," she said to him as he leaned against the RV in an emotional wreck. He grabbed her hands and gave a weak smile.
"You have never done me any wrong Mary Lou," he smiled tearfully. He headed off by himself and Louie found no reason to follow, deciding to give him time off to himself.
An hour later. There were screams. Louie tried to break through the group but only managed to get captured by Daryl.
"Don't look," he rasped trying to contain her. This only made her more determined to see what had happened. Her mouth fell open into a scream but no noise escaped.
"No," she rasped, her voice hoarse and inaudible. Dale was on the ground, his organs falling out of his stomach, spewing everywhere. Daryl was still trying to grab her arms but she was at flailing and slipping away. She fell to his side and started sobbing. "Do something!" She screamed, her voice cracking and breaking. She could barely see Dale's face with all the tears gathering in her eyes. "No, no, no! Please, please," she sobbed, her voice unrecognizable. "Take me instead. Please, God. No. Take me," her wretched voice cried as she grabbed his face that was contorted in pain. She almost didn't hear Hershel claim that there was nothing that could be done. She heard Andrea scream for someone to do something followed by an "oh God." She heard the sound of metal and squeezed her eyes shut.
Suddenly she was launched in the air, a body pressed to her back strong and heavy. She looked up and saw Daryl's back in front of her holding a gun to Dale face. She only heard her own scream rather than the gun's fire.
I have a feeling I have one more in me guys. Next chapter will probably be the last. I'll try to get it out by Friday night? Thanks for your patience!