Chapter nineteen: Small mistake.

"Let your conscience be your moral compass, that way you will never lose yourself."

I stood beside my tent that night as Rick, Shane and Daryl went to deal with Randall; Dale was down in the field, walking off the night and the failed argument we'd launched. It was colder than usual, I could see my breath fogging in front of me, it was late when Rick and the others came storming back to the camp, muttering about how Carl had followed them and that the execution hadn't gone ahead in the end. Angry, I turned away as a scream lashed out, it was chaos, people running back and forth like headless chickens.

"Help, over here!" Daryl shouted, waving his arms as we grabbed weapons and ran to him. As we reached him, Andrea called out to ask who had been attacked; on the floor with his stomach ripped open was Dale, groaning and in pain.

"Get Hershel, someone get Hershel," Rick ordered, holding Dale's hand, "just listen to my voice, hang in there, we need to operate now." I looked over as Hershel ran down, medical bag in hand.

"What's happened?"

"Can we move him?" Rick shook his head at Shane, who ran a hand over his head.

"He won't make the trip; we'll have to do it here." He replied as Hershel took one look and shook his head sadly.

"Rick, there isn't anything I can do." He said gently, putting a hand on Rick's shoulder comfortingly.

"Oh God, he's suffering!" Andrea cried, stroking Dale's head. "Someone do something." In answer, Rick pulled out his gun, Daryl taking it as Maggie turned her head to avoid watching.

"I'm sorry brother."

Dale's death loomed over us like a black cloud the next morning; we held a funeral for him, near where we'd buried the others from the barn and the empty grave for Otis.

"It'll be tight, 14 people in one house." Hershel said apologetically as we stood around, basking in the announcement that he was letting us move into the house for safety. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up and with 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell. We should've moved you in a while ago." Rick nodded and started to direction jobs.

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house, keep track of everyone coming and going." T-Dog nodded and Shane came forward.

"What about standing guard?" He queried and Rick nodded.

"I need you and Daryl on double duty." Both men nodded in acceptance.

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be." Maggie added helpfully and Carol and Patricia volunteered to help her with the task.

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked and Rick waved at her dismissively.

"Let's get this area locked down first." She held her tongue and nodded, leaving the gathering with those that had jobs to get on with. "After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose."

"We're back to that now?" I muttered and Rick nodded sadly, recalling that I had stood up for Dale the previous night.

"It was the right plan first time around, it was just poor execution."

"That's a slight understatement." Shane laughed.

"You don't agree, but this is what's happening, so swallow it and move on." Rick snapped impatiently, face turning pink.

"You know that Dale's death and the prisoner…that's two separate things, right?" Rick nodded as Shane imitated it. "You wanna take Daryl as your wingman, be my guest."

"Thank you." Rick said shortly, turning away to find a map of the area as I sighed, heading back to camp, away that Daryl was following.

"You think this is a bad idea?" He asked and I shook my head.

"No I think it's the right thing to do but…what if you get attacked? What if you break down? What if Walkers swarm you and you run out of arrows?" I listed, feeling nervous as I paced and the redneck simply watched. "What if that little shit gives you the slip steals your car and comes back? I just…I will not feel calm until you're back safe, okay?"

"I can handle Walkers." He argued and I nodded.

"I know you can but like I said, they ain't the only threat out there and I'm not sure they're always the worst either." I looked over my shoulder before hugging the redneck, who seemed less uncomfortable than he had the first time I'd done this. "Don't take stupid risks, come back alive. Please?" After a few minutes, Daryl slowly put his arms around me.

"We'll be fine." He muttered and I nodded.

"Do you promise?" He did.

Later on, T-Dog went down to the shed to collect Randall, ready to send him off on his merry way with Rick and Daryl, only to discover that the shed was empty and he had escaped.

"What's wrong?" I called, backed up by Rick and the rest of the group.

"Randall's missing." T replied and I frowned.

"Missing? How-how long's he been gone?" Rick sighed, entering the shed.

"What's goin' on?" Hershel asked, looking for clues outside the shed as Rick, T and Daryl looked around inside.

"It's hard to say." Rick replied as Daryl touched the cuffs.

"The cuffs are still hooked, he must' slipped 'em."

"Is that possible?" Maggie asked with a frown and Andrea nodded.

"It is if you've got nothing to lose." She responded as Hershel looked intently at the lock.

"The door was secured from the outside." He noted and I frowned.

"Which means it was opened before he escaped and re-locked to throw us off." I added as the trees to our left rustled and revealed a bloodied and dishevelled Shane.

"Rick! Rick!" He called, lurching about dizzily.

"What happened?" Rick jogged over and suddenly Shane had an audience.

"He's armed! He's got my gun! Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face." He recounted, rubbing at the blood on his chin as Rick nodded.

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us." As people began to move, I grabbed Daryl's sleeve and pulled him to the side.

"Be careful, remember what you said Dale suspected, about Shane killin' Otis?" Daryl nodded and narrowed his eyes. "Well, Dale told Lori he thought it was only a matter of time before Shane killed someone else. With all the shit that's happened in the past two months, I wouldn't be too surprised if he doesn't try to kill you or Rick."

"T, I'm gonna need that gun." I lowered my voice as Shane took T-Dog's gun and stowed it in the back of his pants.

"We'll find Randall, that'll answer these questions." Daryl replied while avoiding the suspicion I'd brought up in him.

"Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol said before wrapping her arms around Sophia as Rick shook his head.

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." He spat as Lori stopped him.

"Don't go out there. Ya'll know what can happen." But her husband pointed at the house.

"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Defeated, she nodded as the men entered the forest; I sighed and copied Carol's pose.

"Let's go, back in the house." T-Dog said sharply, conversing with Andrea about her gun and whether or not it was loaded.