Chapter eighteen: I've known better ways.
"There is no failure, except in no longer trying."
It had been three days since Rick and Shane had brought Randall back, they couldn't let him leave once he'd admitted to knowing Maggie; I was sat in camp, lost in thought as Daryl returned from the shed Randall was locked in, the others gathering.
"So, what did you find out?" I asked and he looked down at me as I raised my head. "I think we'd all feel better if we knew the plan."
"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men." He began, some of the others sucked in shocked breaths. "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 wish they were."
"What did you do?" Shane asked curiously and Daryl barely gave him a glance.
"We had a little chat." He replied innocently and I smiled as I stood up, stretching while Sophia and Carl began to talk.
"No one goes near this guy." Rick ordered and most of us nodded.
"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori inquired, shifting her weight from left to right foot.
"We have no choice, he's a threat and we have to eliminate the threat." He answered and I looked at him as Dale gaped.
"You're just gonna kill him?" He asked incredulously and Rick nodded as I noticed the satisfied look on Shane's face.
"It's already settled, I'll do it today." The others dissolved into their own chores as Dale stayed to argue. I followed Daryl back to our little camp and sighed, he looked up from his crossbow cleaning.
"Are you alright?" He nodded and stared at me. "This is gonna start a bigger fight than the damn barn did. I can feel it already."
All day, Dale went around pleading with people to support him, I had seen him canvassing Andrea, Shane and Daryl already, I was almost unfazed when he came wandering over to me; as he opened his mouth, I met Daryl's eye and raised an eyebrow.
"I might be a little late but I'm sorry about your mother." Dale began and I straightened up and nodded.
"Thanks…you wanna talk about Randall don't you?" The old man nodded and then sighed.
"Not one person in this camp wants to help me; Andrea is a female version of Shane. Shane who tells me that if I manage to convince the group to save Randall, he won't do anything to argue, but-"
"You know I have to wonder if the kid's even tellin' the truth about his group. I mean Rick said they killed three of his people and that they ain't comin' back or lookin', maybe they ain't got the numbers to launch an attack, maybe they ain't even got guns." I interrupted and Dale held his hand out and smiled.
"So you agree then, he should be spared." I shrugged. "I mean, if we rehabilitate him, he could become useful, he could become one of us."
"Maybe, but maybe not…tonight, when we talk about this, I'll say my piece."
"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn said softly, looking around at the rest of us, Daryl was leaning in the doorway, arms crossed.
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea inquired and Lori glanced at Rick.
"How about we say that the majority rules in the decision?" She suggested and Rick held up his hand and looked around.
"Well, let's-let's just see where everybody stands, and then we can talk through the options." He replied, Shane looked up at him, head tilted to the right as he raised his eyebrows.
"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." He admitted and I glanced at Dale as he removed his hat, spreading his hands and glaring at Shane.
"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." He snapped bitterly, Rick shook his head.
"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."
"I can tell you it's a small group-Maybe just me, Ellie and Glenn." I watched Glenn squirming uncomfortably as Shane turned to stare him down.
"Look, I-I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this…" Glenn shrugged and trailed off.
"They've got you scared." The younger man shook his head.
"He's not one of us and we've lost too many people already." Turning to Andrea, Dale raised his eyebrows and gestured to her.
"How about you, do you agree with this?"
"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" She asked, glancing at Rick, who refused to meet her eye.
"He's just another mouth to feed." Daryl argued from the doorway and Rick nodded, Hershel glancing at the pair before agreeing.
"It may be a lean winter."
"We could ration better." Lori argued, unfolding her arms to put her hands in her pockets.
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale continued, powering on with his argument.
"Put him to work?" Glenn said in disbelief, shaking his head.
"We're not letting him walk around." Rick snapped, shooting Dale down without taking a breath.
"We could put an escort on him." Shane sniggered.
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" He joked, looking around as Dale sighed.
"I will."
"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick decided and no one argued.
"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori added, nodding.
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labour." Maggie noted and 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 30 men."
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."
"Oh my God, are you serious?" Dale scowled at Shane, who looked pleased with how this was going.
"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked and Rick shrugged as Lori gaped.
"You barely came back this time. There are walkers, you could break down you could get lost." Daryl shifted as Lori spoke.
"Or get ambushed." He interjected and Glenn nodded.
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." He agreed as Patricia raised her hand and attention turned to her.
"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" She asked and the direction of the talk changed immediately.
"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Rick nodded at Shane, who smirked at Dale's shocked expression.
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." T-Dog nodded thoughtfully before wetting his lips.
"And what about the body, do we bury him?" As Rick opened his mouth, Dale stepped forwards.
"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided."
"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl demanded, glancing over as I rubbed my face and got up, pacing back and forth restlessly.
"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?" Dale jabbed a finger at Rick accusingly. "You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured, he's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"
"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said calmly as Rick sighed.
"No, Dale is right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"
"So what's the other solution?" Andrea demanded as she stood straight and stopped leaning against the mantel piece.
"Let Rick finish." Lori hissed, but the other woman ignored her.
"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could."
"So let's work on it!" Daryl nodded.
"We are." Carol let out a cry and cradled her face with her hands.
"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." She begged and it seemed that everybody was happy to let it happen.
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself. There's no difference." I said flatly, Rick looking over with a frown, like he hadn't really expected me to say anything. "You once said that we don't kill the living."
"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." He argued and I shook my head, throwing my hands up before letting them fall back to my sides.
"So why did you bring him back?" Dale shouted, Rick looking at the floor as I stared at him. "What was the point in bringing him back and fixing him up, just to kill him? It isn't right, getting up his hopes, and then just ripping it all away."
"If we kill Randall, we're no different to the Walkers, it'd be mindless murder, almost like punishin' him for the crimes his group committed…like executin' Daryl 'cause you didn't like his brother or Patricia 'cause her husband shot Carl by accident." I said softly and Andrea was looking at me like I had suddenly changed into a different person. "I have to wonder if the kid's even tellin' the truth about his group though. I mean, you said it yourself Rick, you killed three of their people and they ain't comin' back or lookin' for him. So maybe they ain't got the numbers to launch an attack, maybe y'all are fearmongerin' so we'll all agree with killin' him." Andrea nodded.
"She's right. We should try to find another way to deal with this." I smiled as the tide began to turn.
"Anybody else want to talk?" Rick asked lowly but no one spoke.
"Are y'all gonna watch, too?" Dale shook his head. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being." At least some of the group had the decency to look shamefaced, but not Shane, never Shane. Woah…I won't be a party to it." On his way out, Dale looked at Daryl and clasped his shoulder. "You were right, this group is broken."
