There had been times when Caterina had been forced to be present for "enhanced" interrogations. They were some of her more unpleasant memories, but they had at least hardened her to the art. While she had never performed them herself, she was able to stand through one without changing her expression. After this whole apocalypse thing, she never would've thought that she would be forced to see another one again. But there she was, watching stoically from the back of Hershel's shed with her arms crossed while Daryl beat on Randall.
She had thought that the issue with Randall would be finished when Rick and Shane took him out yesterday. But they had returned with him that same night, saying that they couldn't just let him go like they had been planning. Apparently, Randall had grown up in this area. He knew Maggie and her family, probably knew where their farm was. Rick was worried that, if they let him go, he would find his group and bring them to the farm.
That was why Caterina and Daryl had been instructed to interrogate him. Rick wanted to know more about the people that Randall had been holed up with, so he could determine just how worried they should be about them, and he wanted the answers "by any means necessary."
Daryl punched Randall in the cheek, sending him crumbling to the floor. He punched him two more times while he was down, the boy sobbing the whole time.
"I told you—" Randall started.
"You told me shit!" Daryl interrupted him. He grabbed Randall by the shirt and propped him up against the wall roughly.
"Daryl," Caterina called. He looked back at her, and she motioned for him to back off. Daryl nodded and took a few steps back from the boy. Caterina lowered her arms and approached the boy from her place against the back wall. "Just tell us about these guys you were with."
"I barely knew 'em," Randall puffed. "I met 'em on the road."
"How many are there?"
Randall just shook his head, not wanting to say. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl. She went to grab her buck knife, but Daryl reached out and slapped her on the arm, shaking his head. He had insisted on doing the brutal part himself. Caterina felt bad leaving the dirty work to him, but she was also grateful. She wasn't sure how she would handle the guilt later on if she had been left to perform this interrogation on her own.
Daryl grabbed his own knife from its holster at his hip and stalked towards the boy threateningly.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. C'mon, man," Randall begged.
Daryl knelt down quickly and thrust his knife into the floorboard next to Randall's leg, just barely missing him. "How many?" he repeated forcefully.
"Uh, thirty! Thirty! Thirty guys!"
"Where?" Caterina asked.
"Uh…"
Daryl ripped off the bandage on Randall's calf, causing the boy to squeal fearfully.
"I don't know! I swear! We were never anyplace more than a night."
Daryl pressed his knife into the boy's barely healed calf. An ugly scab had formed over it, to the point that his leg almost looked deformed. Caterina was sure that it would probably look like that from the rest of his life. But she supposed he should feel lucky. Having scars that would never heal was better than losing one of your limbs.
Daryl dug the tip of his knife under the scab. "Scoutin'? Plannin' on stayin' local?" he grilled him.
"I-I don't know! They left me behind!"
"Did you ever pick off a scab?" Daryl asked.
"C'mon, man! I'm tryin' to cooperate!"
"Start real slow at first," he continued as if Randall hadn't spoken. "Sooner or later, you've just gotta rip it off."
"Okay! Okay! Th-th-th-they have weapons—heavy stuff, automatics. B-B-But I didn't do anything!"
"Your boys shot at my people, tried to take this farm. You just went along for the ride? You tryin' to tell me you're innocent?"
"Yes!" Randall shrieked. "These people took me in. Not just guys—a whole group of 'em"
Now that he was talking, Caterina reached out and patted Daryl on the arm. He glanced back at her before he pulled his knife up away from the boy's leg and stood up, returning his knife to its holster as he moved to stand next to Caterina.
"Men and women, uh, kids too—just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with 'em, you know? But…we go out, scavenge—just the men. One night, we…we found this little campsite. A man and his two daughters—teenagers, you know? Really young. Real cute."
"Jesus," Caterina muttered. She turned away and ran her finger through her hair. She already knew where Randall was going with this, and she was regretting agreeing to do this even more now.
Daryl froze before he could reach Caterina's side and slowly turned to stare at the boy, a blank look on his face. But it was obvious that he knew what Randall was getting at as well, and he was disgusted and angered by it.
Randall realized that they knew what he was saying, but he kept going, apparently feeling the need to get it all out, get it off his chest.
"Their daddy had to watch while these guys, they… And they didn't even kill him afterwards. They just—they just made him watch. As his daughters… They just-just-just left him there. No, b-b-but I didn't touch those girls. No, I swear, I didn't to—"
Before he could finish, Daryl kicked him hard in his injured calf. The boy yelped in pain.
"Please, you gotta believe me, man!" he sobbed. "I'm not like that. I ain't like that. Please. Please, you gotta believe me."
Daryl didn't seem interested in what he had to say anymore. He just kicked him again in the leg, this time causing the boy to cry out. Daryl got down to Randall's level and started beating him even more ferociously than he had been. Caterina watched him for a moment, surprised at how violently he was acting. She knew that he had anger issues—that much was had become apparent on the first day that she met him. But he seemed to have a pretty good hold on it most of the time. It was only when someone did or said something that Daryl didn't like that he let his self-control slip.
"Daryl," Caterina called, but Daryl ignored her. "Daryl," she said a bit louder.
When he still didn't stop punching the kid repeatedly in the face, Caterina reached out and grabbed Daryl's arm before he could hit Randall again. He glared back at her for stopping him, and she just shook her head, silently telling him that he had done enough. Daryl stared at her for a moment, and Caterina could practically see the level of his anger lowering in his eyes. Finally, when he seemed to calm down completely, Caterina released his hand. He stood up and backed away from Randall. Caterina grabbed Daryl's jacket and crossbow from the chair and handed them to him for him to put on. He nodded in thanks.
She waited by the door while Daryl got dressed. Once he was ready, she led the way out of the shed. She stopped to chain and lock the shed door before the two of them started up to the camp where the others were awaiting their report.
"It wasn't necessary to beat him like that at the end," Caterina pointed out.
"You heard him," Daryl barked. Apparently, he hadn't calmed down as much as Caterina had thought. "What they did to those girls…"
"He said he didn't participate."
He scoffed. "And you're just gonna take his word?"
"His word is all we have, Daryl."
"Yeah, well, it ain't enough. Those bastards…" he growled. "Just think of what they would've done if you hadn't been with Rick and them when you met 'em."
Caterina stopped. "Is that why you got so upset?"
Daryl stopped to look back at her, but he didn't say anything.
She sighed. "Daryl, you know I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, I know," he muttered. "But even you ain't invincible. If those men were packin' like he said, it wouldn't of mattered. They would've taken you down if you'd been by yourself. And if they didn't kill ya straight off…" He trailed off, his jaw tensing angrily at the thought of what they might've done.
Caterina stared at him for a moment before approaching him. Daryl watched her apprehensively, as if he were expecting her to hit him (honestly, he wouldn't put it past her), but she just leaned forward and kissed him lightly. Daryl seemed to relax slightly at the feel of her lips pressed against his.
She pulled away to smile at him. "Thank you for worrying about me."
Daryl nodded, looking a bit abashed.
Caterina grinned and walked past him, continuing towards camp. She could feel Daryl's gaze on her back for a moment before he started following her.
Everyone looked up as the two approached camp.
"Boy there's got a gang," Daryl said, diving straight in to what they had learned. "Thirty men. They have heavy artillery, and they ain't lookin' 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.
"Had a little chat."
Rick ran his hand over his face agitatedly. "No one goes near this guy."
Lori stood up and approached her husband. "Rick, what are you gonna do?" she asked lowly.
He sighed. "We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked, appalled.
"It's settled. I'll do it today."
Rick turned and started to walk away, and Dale took off after him. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl before she hurried after the two men. She could sense an argument coming on, and she had a feeling that she would want to be a part of it—either to give her two cents, or to act as a mediator.
"You can't do this," Dale said. "You don't wanna do this. I know you don't."
"I thought about it all night. Knowing what we know now, I don't see a way around it," Rick said.
"But you can't just decide on your own to take someone's life."
"The group seemed supportive."
"What, because they didn't speak up? You didn't let them."
Rick finally stopped and put his hands on his hips, sighing. Dale took this as a sign to keep going and say what he wanted to say.
"Rick, there's gotta be a process."
"And what would that be?" Rick asked. "We can't call witnesses, go before a judge."
"So he's automatically guilty by association and sentenced to death? He's just a kid!"
"Dale's right," Caterina jumped in. "When he told us about what his group did, he seemed genuinely ashamed. I don't think he participated in any of the facts that his group did."
Rick looked at her, thinking on what she had said, but he still seemed conflicted.
"Give me some time to talk to everyone," Dale pleaded, "try to figure out another way—"
"No!" Rick refused vehemently. "We can't drag this out. People are scared."
"Which is why they need time to discuss this."
He shook his head. "No. No, no, they need to be safe. I owe 'em that."
He started to walk away again, but Dale stopped him by calling, "You think about your son!" Rick stopped to look back at him, and Dale continued. "The message that you're giving him—shoot first, think later. I'm asking for one day to talk to everybody. You can give me that. Think about Carl."
"I am," Rick said. But he paused, thinking what Dale had said over. He looked at Caterina, silently asking for her opinion.
"Look, in the past, I've been ordered to shoot first and ask questions later," Caterina said. "I've had to kill people that I think were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've even had to kill people since this whole apocalypse thing started. I know how hard it is. So I think Dale's right. We need to talk it over with everyone."
Rick sighed heavily. "We reconvene at sunset," he relented. "Then what happens happens."
Dale and Caterina nodded in understanding, and Rick walked off.
"I'll take the others if you talk to Daryl," Dale offered as he turned to Caterina.
"Don't tell me you're afraid of him," she teased.
He chuckled. "Nah, I'm not afraid of him. But, if anyone's gonna convince Daryl of anything, it would be you."
She put her hand to her chin thoughtfully. "You might be right about that," she muttered jokingly.
"I have no doubt that I am."
She chuckled. "I'll talk to him. Good luck with the others."
Dale nodded with a smile and started walking back up to camp. Caterina turned and looked out at where Daryl was set up at the back of Hershel's land. She could just see him bustling around his little campsite, so she started the trek up to him.
"Hey," she greeted as she neared Daryl's camp.
Daryl glanced up at her from getting his hunting gear together. "You and Dale talk to Rick?" he asked.
"Yeah. He's agreed to wait until sundown to decide once and for all what we're going to do about Randall. We're going to meet again and take a vote."
Daryl straightened and stared at her for a moment contemplatively before walking over to the short brick wall and grabbing his jacket. "You don't think we should kill him," he stated instead of asked.
"I know more than anyone here what it takes to survive in a world like this. I've had to kill plenty of men since this whole thing started. Hell, I was the one who killed Dave and Tony, and I don't feel even an ounce of guilt over it. One of the reasons why is, no matter how many people that I've killed, I'm not like them. I kill for survival, not for pleasure and not out of fear or paranoia."
"And you think them wantin' to kill this kid is out of fear or paranoia."
"Yes."
Daryl scoffed. "Good luck tellin' Rick or Shane that."
"Rick just wants to protect the group. He's only doing what he thinks will keep us safe. Shane was the one who somehow convinced him that killing Randall is the best way to do it. You know what Shane did to Otis."
"Course I do. He told me some bull crap story—how Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. I ain't stupid. And neither is Rick."
"You're right. Rick knows what went down with Otis. He knows Shane's dangerous."
"And you still think Shane talked Rick into wantin' to kill Randall?"
"Yes. No matter how dangerous he is, Shane is like a fox—cunning and manipulative. He knows how to use logic and emotions in his favor. Look at how he talked everyone into taking care of the walkers in the barn."
Daryl paused and frowned at her. "We couldn't just leave 'em there."
"No, but it wasn't right to go in guns blazing knowing it was Hershel's family in there."
Daryl looked down, knowing that Caterina was right. He had felt guilty about taking in part in that slaughter like he had, but mostly because Caterina had the annoying ability to make him feel guilty about even the smallest of things. He didn't regret getting rid of the danger that the walkers in the barn had presented, but he did regret how they went about it.
"So, when we all gather later today, who are you going to side with? Me or Shane?"
Daryl rolled his eyes. "Is that why you're here? You tryin' to convince me to side with you and Dale?"
"If you think it's wrong, you should say so," Caterina said, neither denying it nor agreeing with it.
"To be honest, I don't care either way. Whether he lives or dies, I ain't gonna lose any sleep over it. Besides, it ain't like nobody but you cares about my opinion."
"Carol does," she argued. "Dale does. You even have Rick's ear."
Daryl scoffed at that. "Rick just looks to you and Shane."
"He would look to you too if you let him."
Daryl just shook his head and continued getting ready to go out hunting.
Caterina sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere by talking any more about it. "Just think about it, all right?" she asked.
"Fine. But I ain't promisin' nothin'."
"I know."
Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulder and took a step towards the trees, but he stopped as Caterina started moving towards him. She stepped up and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, just to give him it a little incentive to think more about what she had said and possibly decide to agree with her. When she pulled away, Daryl gave her a look that clearly said that he knew what she was trying to do. Caterina just grinned up at him, not at all ashamed.
He rolled his eyes and disappeared through the tree line.
As the sun started to set, everyone gathered back up at the farmhouse to make their final decision about Randall. Dale had spoken to everyone else like he had said, including Shane, but it didn't seem like he had managed to convince anyone to side with him. Caterina could tell from the way that his shoulders were slumped as he trudged up the porch steps to join everyone on the porch.
"Let's gather up," Rick said
"Come on, Carl. I want you to stay with Jimmy," Lori said as Carl approached the house. Caterina had noticed that he had been missing from the camp for a while, but she had just assumed that he'd gone exploring. The kid was probably bored out of his mind. And she knew that he was smart enough not to venture too far.
"But I wanna listen," Carl whined.
"Not this time. C'mon."
Caterina went to stand by a cabinet next to the front door. Daryl came and stood behind her, settling in close enough that she could feel the heat coming off of him, warming up her back.
Everyone else spread out in the living room. Rick stayed by his wife near the door, in front of Caterina and Daryl. He stood with his hands on his hips a moment before looking back in to the other half of the living room. Caterina looked back and saw Carl standing there. He looked around at them all before he walked off, his shoulders sagging.
As soon as he was out of range, they dove straight into the issue at hand.
"So how do we do this?" Glenn started off. "Just take a vote?"
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.
"How about majority rule?" Lori proposed.
"Let's just see where everybody stands. Then we can talk through the options," Rick said.
"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward," Shane said.
"Killing him, right?" Dale asked. "I mean, why even bother take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."
"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick argued.
"Well, I can tell you it's a small group—maybe just me, Caterina, and Glenn."
Glenn looked up at Dale hesitantly. "Look, I-I think you're pretty much right about everything all of the time, but this—a"
Dale gaped at him in disbelief. "They've got you scared!"
"He's not one of us."
"So we just kill him because he's not one of us?" Caterina asked, turning everyone's attention on her. "If that's your reasoning, you people are worse off than I thought."
Daryl reached out and placed his hand on her waist as subtly as he could, apparently in an attempt to calm her down, but she ignored it.
"When Rick and I rode back to that oasis with you, we weren't one of you either. When we found out that Lori and Carl were with you, it made Rick a part of your group automatically. But me? I didn't know any of you from Adam. I was just somebody that Rick found reading on a car on the side of the road."
"But you proved you were one of us when you helped save us in Atlanta," Andrea pointed out.
"That's because the opportunity presented itself. Randall has done nothing to prove that he is a danger to this group besides having been in a group with those assholes Dave and Tony. I was the one who killed them. I understand you need to kill in order to survive, dead or not. But killing just because you're scared doesn't justify it."
No one said anything; they just looked down. They knew that Caterina was right, and she knew that they knew. But that didn't mean that they were ready to outwardly admit it.
Dale nodded to Caterina thankfully. "Well said."
Caterina nodded back.
He turned to the group, looking at each of them individually, as if trying to decide who to start in on first. Finally, he motioned to Maggie and Hershel. "How about you?" he asked. "Do you agree that we should kill Randall?"
"Couldn't we continue keepin' him prisoner?" Maggie asked.
"It may be a lean winter," Hershel said.
"We could ration better," Lori suggested.
"Well, he could be an asset," Dale said. "Like Caterina said, give him a chance to prove himself."
"Put him to work?" Glenn asked.
"We're not lettin' him walk around," Rick rebuffed him.
"We could put an escort on him," Maggie recommended.
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane scoffed.
"I will," Caterina said challengingly.
"I don't think any of us should be walkin' around with this guy," Rick said.
"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," Lori agreed with her husband.
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor," Andrea said.
"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane presented. "Maybe he's helpful. Maybe he's nice." He scoffed at the last bit, earning him a glare from Caterina. "We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men."
Caterina felt Daryl tense behind her. She reached down and placed her hand over his on her waist in an attempt to soothe him.
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale said in disbelief. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."
"Oh my God…" Shane muttered cynically.
"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked.
"You barely came back this time," Lori said before Rick could even begin to consider it. "There are walkers out there. You could break down. You could get lost."
"You could get ambushed," Daryl added.
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk," Glenn agreed.
"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia wondered. "Would he suffer?"
"We could hang him, right?" Shane offered. "Just snap his neck."
"I thought about that," Rick said. "Shootin' may be more humane."
"And what about the body?" T-Dog asked. "Do we bury him?"
"Hold on! Hold on!" Dale cried. "You're talking about this like it's already decided."
"You've been talkin' all day, goin' 'round in circles," Daryl pointed out. "You wanna just go 'round in circles again?"
"This is a young man's life, and it's worth more than a five-minute conversation!" He looked around at everyone. "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him?" He motioned to Rick. "You saved him, and now look at us. He's been tortured; he's gonna be executed. How are we any better than the people that we're so afraid of?"
Again, everyone was silent.
"We all know what needs to be done," Shane said after a moment.
"No, Dale's right," Rick argued. "We can't leave any stone unturned her. We have a responsibility—"
"So what's the other solution?" Andrea interrupted.
"Let Rick finish," Lori tried to say, but Andrea just spoke over her.
"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could—"
"So let's work on it!" Dale encouraged them.
"We are," Rick reminded him.
"Stop it!" Carol spoke up for the first time in weeks, and everyone turned to her in surprise. "I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this." She looked between Rick and Shane. "Please decide—either of you, both of you—but leave me out."
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself—there's no difference," Dale said.
"Dale," Caterina said. Dale looked over at her, and she shook her head. He'd taken it a bit too far. People weren't obligated to speak their minds in situations like this. Oftentimes, people found it easier to just keep silent and let the chips fall where they may. Not everyone was as outspoken as she and Dale were, and that was no reason to accuse them of being bad people.
"Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance," Rick said.
Nobody stepped forward, instead either looking down or avoiding looking anyone in the eye. Dale looked around, silently beseeching them to support him. Caterina didn't step forward, instead deciding to lean back into Daryl. She had already spoken her mind, and the others had shot her down just like they had Dale. If they hadn't listened to her before, they wouldn't do it now, so there was no point.
"You once believed that killing the living was wrong," Dale reminded Rick.
"Well, that was before the livin' tried to kill us."
"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were—the world that we know is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's…harsh. It's survival of the fittest," he stuttered. "And that's a world that I don't wanna live in. And I don't believe that any of you do. I can't."
Still, no one said anything.
"Please," he begged. "Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me and Caterina?"
Everyone remained silent. Caterina could sense that a few people were starting to think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, killing Randall, but it didn't seem that anyone really wanted to speak up.
"He's right," Andrea said after a moment. "We should try to find another way."
"Anybody else?" Rick asked.
"We should give him a chance," Daryl decided.
Caterina looked up over her shoulder at him in surprise. He glanced down at her but seemed hesitant to meet her gaze. She smiled slightly. So her ploy earlier had worked after all, even after he had seen through it. She turned back to the group, feeling particularly proud of herself.
"That it?" Rick asked.
No one spoke up.
"Are y'all gonna watch too?" Dale asked tearfully before waving his hand. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being." He gave a shaky sigh. "I won't be a party to it."
With that, he walked out the side door.
Later that night, Caterina joined Daryl, Shane, and Rick in escorting Randall out of the shed. While she didn't agree with their decision to kill the boy, she stood by Rick in his decision now that it had been made. She didn't hold it against him, or anyone else (well, except maybe Shane). It took a certain kind of bravery to go against your fears and paranoia and do what you thought was right. There weren't too many people in the world who were able to do that. The only reason Caterina was able to was because of all of the things that she'd experienced so far. She hadn't been alive for long—only thirty-five years—but she had seen and done a lot thanks to the neighborhood that she'd lived in and her time serving in the military. She understood the world probably better than most people did, and that gave her the sense and the ability to decide what was right and stick to her beliefs, regardless of what others said.
Randall started to realize what they were doing when he noticed that they were taking him to the privacy of the barn.
"Hold on," he begged. "Hold on. Hold on!"
No one listened.
Rick opened the door, and they went inside.
"Wait… Wait! Wait!"
"Put him there," Rick instructed, motioning to the center of the barn.
Daryl placed Randall where he had instructed before letting Shane take hold of the boy. He took a blindfold from his back pocket and grabbed Randall to hold him in place so that he could tie it around his face.
"It's all gonna be over soon," Shane assured him.
"What? What's gonna be over soon?" Randall squeaked.
"Relax."
"Hey! Hey, no, no, no, no, no."
Shane shushed him, trying to get him to stop crying. But Randall continued to sob as he was left to stand in front of Rick on his own. Daryl walked over to where Caterina was standing and stood by her, knowing that she wanted to be there for the execution but that she was unsettled by it. He took her hand in his surreptitiously in the hopes of easing her discomfort, even if it was just a little. She squeezed his hand gratefully.
"Would you like to stand or kneel?" Rick asked.
"Oh no, please…" the boy begged fearfully.
"Just get on your knees, Randall," Caterina instructed softly.
Randall sobbed, but he did as she said, kneeling down in front of Rick. He continued to sob while Rick and Shane exchanged looks, the latter nodding his assent. Daryl looked down at Caterina from the corner of his eye, but she refused to look away from Randall.
"Do you have any final words?" Rick asked.
"No. Please. Please, don't. Don't," Randall cried.
Rick just stared at him, trying to appear uncaring. But Caterina could see the conflict in his eyes. He didn't want to do this, but he thought that it was the best way to protect his people, his family. So Rick was keeping himself hardened to it to the best of his abilities.
He raised his Python and aimed it at Randall's forehead, pulling back the hammer. Randall's sobbing intensified as he heard the click. Rick hesitated, watching Randall sobbing so hard.
"Do it, dad," an unexpected voice spoke up from the entrance to the barn.
Caterina spun around to find Carl standing in the doorway of the barn, watching them all expectantly.
"Do it," he encouraged.
Rick looked even more reluctant to kill Randall now.
He looked at Shane pleadingly, and he walked over to where Carl was and grabbed him by the arm. "Are you kiddin' me? What'd I say to you?" Shane snapped.
Rick looked at Caterina now, as if to ask her what he should be doing. But she had already given him her answer, and he knew it.
He looked back down at Randall and lowered his gun. "Take him away," he muttered.
Randall started panting, trying to calm himself down from the waves of fear that had been crashing over him just several moments before. Caterina nodded and walked over to Randall. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him onto his feet gently. She led him out of the barn with Daryl behind her. Shane stalked out ahead of them, obviously upset that Rick had decided not to go through with killing Randall after all.
Caterina and Daryl had only just shackled Randall back to the shed wall when they heard the screaming. They exchanged troubled looks before bolting out the door, pausing only to grab the lantern.
They seemed to be the first to be responding to the screams.
As they neared the source, Caterina realized that the screams belonged to Dale and, when they passed through the gates leading out to the field where he was, the frightened screams quickly turned to shrieks of pain.
Caterina was quick to pick up her pace as they neared Dale, and she tackled the walker on top of him. Once she had it on the ground, she snatched up one of her knives and stabbed it into the walker's head so hard that it became buried up to the hilt. She didn't bother pulling it out before she rolled off of the walker and crawled over to kneel at Dale's side with Daryl.
Her throat constricted and her stomach churned when she saw what the walker had done to Dale. It had literally torn open his abdomen, leaving his organs exposed to the air. Caterina swallowed and reached out to take Dale's hand before she looked up at her Daryl in horror.
Daryl jumped onto his feet and started jumping up and down, waving his hands over his head. "Help!" he shouted to the others as they ran out into the field. "Over here!"
"Where?" Andrea shouted back.
"Help! Run!" He knelt back down at Dale's side. "Hang in there, buddy."
"Who is it?" Andrea asked.
Rick and Shane were the first to join them, quickly followed by Andrea and the others.
"Oh my God…" Rick muttered.
"Oh God…"
Rick dropped down next to Dale's head and cupped the man's face, turning his head so that he was staring up at him. "All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me. Okay, hold on now." He looked up at the others. "Get Hershel! He needs blood. We gotta operate now."
"Hang on, Dale," Andrea said. "Hang on."
Dale just looked around at them all helplessly. He was panting and moaning, understandably unable to make any other sounds.
Caterina could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, and she didn't bother holding them back this time. Instead, she let them fall freely. A sob escaped her lips before she could swallow it back, and she quickly covered her mouth. She didn't want Dale to have to listen to her crying in his last moments. Daryl seemed to sense this, as he grabbed Caterina by the shoulders and gently pulled her away from Dale. He helped her onto her feet and pulled her into his chest. Unable to look at the condition that Dale was in any longer, Caterina turned and pressed her face into Daryl's neck, sobbing. Daryl wrapped his arms around her tightly, trying to comfort her without saying anything.
"Listen to me, okay?" Caterina heard Rick continue. "Listen to my voice. All right? Please. Hershel!" he shouted again. "We need Hershel!"
"Look at me," Andrea said.
"Dale, we're gonna help. We're here. Just hold on. Please, hold on."
"What happened?" Hershel's voice finally joined them.
"What can we do?"
"Dale, it's gonna be okay," Glenn tried to assure him.
"He won't make the trip," Hershel said.
"You have to do the operation here," Rick said. "Glenn, get back to the house."
"Rick," Hershel said before they all fell silent.
"No!" Rick shouted desperately after a moment.
"Oh God!" Andrea sobbed.
Caterina could still hear Dale moaning and gurgling on the ground. It seemed like everyone had just frozen, unable to do anything now that they knew Dale couldn't be saved.
She gripped the sides of Daryl's jacket while she tried to pull herself together. They couldn't just leave him like this. If they couldn't save him, then the least they could do was put him out of his misery.
Finally, she pulled away from Daryl. "We can't just let him suffer," she spoke up, her voice much stronger than she had expected it to be.
Everyone else seemed to realize the same thing.
Rick pulled his Python from his holster and aimed it down at Dale, all the while struggling to keep his face from contorting with sorrow. He hesitated, staring down at their friend. Daryl walked around Caterina to join Rick at his side. He put his hand over the Python and forced it down slightly. He took the Python from Rick's slackened grip and knelt down, aiming the gun barrel at Dale, who stared up at Daryl almost pleadingly.
"Sorry, brother," Daryl muttered.
Dale struggled to smile, as if to assure him that it was all right. Daryl fired.