I think this chapter's pretty cute, and sorry if this story drags on a little too much, but I'm doing my best. And good news team! I didn't fail my first two days of high school! Woo-hoo!

Reviews are always welcomed, as are criticisms, corrections, suggestions, and ideas. Any kind of feedback is greatly appreciated and accepted.

Do you guys actually like this story? I feel like I'm not doing a very good job with it, but eh. It's FanFiction, right?

This chapter's song quote is actually in the chapter!

Nicole POV

I sat on the picnic table bench, glaring in the direction of the barn. The sun was now completely set, the only light coming from the fire that was glowing in front of me. I wasn't mad about the fact that we were killing Randall. I knew it needed to be done. No. I was mad about the fact that Shane wouldn't let me go in there with them. I was just as strong and capable as any man in this place, so why did he treat me like such a little kid? Sure, I had been here for a little over a week now, and yeah, I was small, but that was no excuse for him to treat me like a baby.

The others were sitting around me, mindlessly chattering with one another. The boys had been gone for a few minutes, which confused me, because I figured it would have been one shot then done. But I hadn't heard a shot yet, and that worried me. I looked around me, taking roll of the people around me. Glenn, Maggie, Lori, Carol, T, Hershel, Patricia, Beth, Jimmy, and Andrea. I knew Shane, Daryl, and Rick were with Randall. Dale was refusing to sit around with us. There was only one person unaccounted for.

Where was Carl?

I opened my mouth to ask, but was cut off by the sound of yelling, and barn doors slamming. Instantly, I stood up, sprinting to the crest of the hill. I could see Rick trudging up the hill, gun in one hand, the other dragging Carl with him. Shane and Daryl were following behind, their faces dark.

"Is it over?" Carol asked quietly, coming to stand beside me.

"No." Rick grunted, coming to a stop right in front of us. "I was just about to pull the trigger when Carl showed up." He looked towards his son, who was focusing intently on the ground.

"What the hell Carl?" Lori stepped forwards. "You told me you were going in the house." She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at her son.

"Well anyways," Rick continued. "When I saw the look on his face, it made me rethink everything. Dale was right. The only thing that separates us from the animals is the fact that we show mercy, and if we stop doing that, what does that make us? No. We are not giving in, we are not becoming heartless, soulless monsters. If we do, how are we any different than all the walkers around here?"

He took a step closer to Lori. "He wanted to watch." He hissed. His face was utterly defeated. Lori frowned and put a hand on his cheek.

"It's okay." She whispered. "It's okay,"

The air around us was heavy as we all sucked in a breath, contemplating his words. For the first time, we all understood what Dale was trying to tell us. I shot a glance at Daryl, and he nodded slowly, in agreement with whatever Rick was saying. Shane on the other hand, he looked pissed.

But then again, he hadn't not look pissed since I had arrived.

"Well then, what are we going to do now?" Glenn asked. "We decided that we couldn't leave him, but now we decided that we can't kill him either, so what do we do?"

"I guess we-'

"Aaagh!" A scream cut through the air like a knife. All of our heads whipped towards where the horrible sound was coming from. It was from somewhere in the field. "Aaagh!" It came again, this time louder than before.

"What the hell?" Andrea cried.

Instinctively, I reached for my bow, as did Daryl.

"What is that?" Glenn yelled.

All at once, everything started to blur together. "

"Carl go in the house, and stay there!' Lori yelled forcefully at her son. People began to run around, grabbing their various weapons.

"T! Get Nikki's AK!" Rick ordered. Instantly, the man bolted towards the house, where Maggie and Hershel had made their way onto the porch.

Daryl ran up to me, bow loaded and in hand. "I"m gonna go check it out. You comin?" I nodded and we ran off towards the field. We fell into stride next to one another, and I could hear the others following us, not far behind. "This way!" Daryl hollered, taking a sharp left. I followed swiftly.

Suddenly, when the sound was at its loudest, Daryl stopped, and I almost plowed into him. After I had steadied myself, I looked around, trying to figure out why Daryl had stopped. Then, I saw it.

"Oh god." I hissed. There, lying in front of us, was Dale. He was screaming and grunting, writhing on the ground in pain, a gaping hole in his abdomen. There, next to him, was a walker, with his entire face covered in blood. Dale's blood. The walker snarled at us. He was a huge, ugly man, in a pair of old coveralls. Daryl hissed and released an arrow, nailing it in the head. It fell backwards, buts of its brain splattering everywhere.

In a moment of stunned silence, I locked eyes with Daryl. The fear in his gaze was small, but it was there, surrounded by anger. "Over here!" He screamed, waving his arms in the air. 'Over here. Come here!" I started yelling too, trying to help the others find us.

They came running up to us, Rick, Shane, T, Glenn, Maggie. The whole gang, each of them looking completely terrified. I ran over and knelt beside dale, reaching for his hand.

"Shh. Shh, it's okay." I cooed, trying to keep my voice steady. His screams had stopped, and had given way to pained whimpers, which in a way were almost harder to listen to. "It's okay Dale." Rick suddenly knelt down beside me.

"Oh god." He muttered. He looked behind him, towards all the others. "Get Hershel! Get Hershel!" He looked down at Dale, his eyes watering. "It's okay Dale. You're gonna be okay. It's okay."

Andrea threw herself down on the other side of the older man, leaning over him, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Dale." She cried. The pain and sadness in her voice put a weight on my heart. From only having observed the two for a few days, I could tell that they shared some weird kind of father daughter bond.

"What is it? What happened?" I heard Hershel's voice behind me.

"Walker." Daryl grunted, kicking the already downed monster in the head.

"We need to do surgery." Andrea cried.

"We can't move him though." Rick yelled. "We need to do it here."

"Rick!" Hershel called, trying to get his attention, but Rick just ignored him.

"Maybe we can bring the supplies out here. Maybe we-"

"Rick!" Hershel yelled again, this time more forcefully. The cop raised his head to look at the older man. "Rick, there's nothing that can be done."

"No." Rick argued. "No there has to-"

"No Rick. There is nothing that can be done." He said lowly, looking from Dale to Andrea to Rick. "I'm sorry son, but it's over."

Rick looked down. He knew that Hershel was right. A silence fell over the crowd, except for Dae's whimpers, and the sobs that were coming from Andrea and Carl. We all knew the man was right. There was no coming back for Dale. His intestines were everywhere. Even if it hadn't been a walker bite, an injury like that still would have been fatal.

" . NO. No." Andrea sobbed, leaning closer to Dale. "Oh god Dale." Shane came over and wrapped a strong arm around the woman, pulling her up, tearing her away. When she tried to pull away, he just pulled her closer to him. I shakily stood up, turning towards the rest of the group. Rick slowly stood up, his hands trembling. "He's in pain." Andrea moaned. "He's in pain."

Carefully, Rick pulled his pistol out of its holster, turning the safety off. I turned to look at Daryl. His eyes locked with mine, and the sheer amount of pain in his gaze nearly broke my heart. A single tear fell from the corner of my eye as Rick raised his weapon, aiming it at Dale's head.

We all held our breath, waiting for the shot. Andrea looked away, closing her eyes. Lori hugged Carl tightly, and he buried his head in her shirt. The others just stared from a few feet away, their faces sullen. We waited, and waited, but the shot never came. Rick held the gun in his trembling hands, but he couldn't pull the trigger.

"I'll do it." Daryl came forward, taking the gun from his hand. Rick sent him a look so silent gratitude. Slowly, He raised the weapon. He knelt down next to Dale. "I'm so sorry brother."

And then he pulled the trigger.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Over the night, T and Daryl had dug a grave for Dale, next to the ones for Sophia, Annette, and Sean. Everyone was deadly quiet the whole night. None of us had slept at all. Most of the group had gone to their respective beds, but not me. I had sat underneath the tree by the fire pit the whole night, watching the men dig his grave. I had only known Dale for a little over a week, but he was one of the kindest people I had ever met. He didn't deserve to die, especially not that way.

As I sat there, I thought about all the people I had lost. My father, my friends. It was hard to think, but they were all gone. I had lost them all, and none of them had deserved to die.

And the only person that was still standing, Shane, well….. I had lost him too.

Ever since I had got here, one thing had been clear. This Shane was not the Shane that had raised me. He wasn't the kind hearted, goofy, clumsy older brother I had come to know. No. This Shane was cold, deadly, dangerous. Out of all the people I had lost, all the people I had seen die, before and after the epidemic, the loss of him hurt the most,/because I knew that he wasn't in a better place. He was in the worst place of his life, and there was nothing I could about it. There was no way I could save him.

Maybe not me, but there might be one person that can talk some sense into him. Lori. Maybe Lori could talk some sense into him. I had been harboring so much anger for her, that I hadn't stopped to think about how she could help me, help us.

"Hey." Daryl grunted. I looked up to see his face looming above me.

'Hey." I muttered, placing my hands in my lap. "You okay?"

He scoffed. "I don't think anyone's okay anymore."

"Got that right." I huffed. I looked at his face. "I'm so sorry about Dale."

Daryl slid down and sat next to me. "He was a good man. I don't have much of a frame of reference of what a 'good man' should be, but he seems like the type."

"I barely knew him." I sighed. "But he was so kind, so loving. He didn't deserve it." We sat in silence, listening to the hum of the insects around us. My eyelids felt heavy, and after a while, I stopped trying to force them open. Daryl was asleep against the tree next to me, and the sun wouldn't be up for hours, so I decided to a least try and sleep. Staying up all night wouldn't bring Dale back. After a few moments, my eyes slipped closed.

Daryl POV

I woke with a start, my head lurching forwards. It was still dark outside, but it looked to be close to dawn. A cold wind bit through the air, making me shiver a little. I was still leaning against the tree, where I had sat down last night. My hands were still covered in dirt from digging the grave. My entire body was wracked with exhaustion. And then, I noticed the warm pressure on my shoulder. Utterly confused, I looked down. Instantly, a small smile crept its way onto my face. Nicole was dead asleep, her head leaning on my shoulder. Her face looked so peaceful, so calm, more calm than I had ever seen her.

I sat there like this for a few minutes, and it was becoming more and more apparent that I was not getting back to sleep. I couldn't just sit here until dawn, which was when the funeral was. I had too much on my mind, and I had never been good at sitting still in the first place. Slowly, I pulled away from Cole, making sure she didn't fall over. Then, when I knew she was upright, I stood up, using my hunting skills to keep my steps silent. I looked down at Nicole again. She looked so small in this position, so delicate and fragile, like a little kid, like Sophia had looked. Her entire body was trembling in the cold wind. In her sleep, she pulled her arms more closely around her. She was only covered in her normal clothes and a light jacket. She looked like she was freezing. I looked around and saw a blanket lying on the bench by the picnic table. Slowly, I picked it up and draped it over her small form.

Quietly, I walked towards the well, wanting to clear my head.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Dale could get under your skin." Rick said. "He sure got under mine. That's because he was never afraid to say what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare, and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale and he'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about us losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. So we'll set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety, our 're not broken. We're going to prove him wrong. From now on, we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

There was a small murmur of agreement that rippled through the group. We stood in a small semi-circle around the grave. Lori and Rick had both said things, and everyone else had said their own, silent prayers.

Nicole had woken up a few hours after I had. She hadn't said anything to me, just kept shooting me glances. She still had the blanket wrapped around her. The blanket had been Dale's, and it seemed appropriate to have it today.

"That was beautiful." Andrea whispered, her face red and blotchy.

"We need to start doing it his way." Rick sighed. "I'm just sad it took him dying for us to finally see the truth."

I stood with Rick facing the grave, while Nicole stood across from us, so her back was towards the east. The others were scattered around.

The light of the rising sun shone from behind Nicole, so the light framed her body, giving her an angelic glow. Her golden hair was brilliantly bright in the sun, and her skin looked dark and smooth. She gave me a sad smile, pulling the blanket closer to her body. She sighed and looked down, studying the grave. In the soft back light, she looked like an angel. She opened her mouth, and a beautiful song came out.

"I'm just a poor, wayfaring stranger,

a travelin' through this world of woe.

And there's no sickness, toil, nor danger

In that fair land, to which I go.

I"m going there to see my mother.

I'm going there, no more to roam.

I'm just a goin' over Jordan,

I'm just a goin' over home."

Her voice was quiet, but deeply emotional. We all stood in silence, absorbing the meaning in her lyrics, taking in all that had happened.

She continued to sing, and I closed my eyes, breathing steadily, listening to her beautiful voice wash over me.

Could I get a review up in here? The make my day in a major way!