The sun came up on the drive back to the farm, making me more and more tired. I leaned back in the seat, my eyes closing almost automatically. The only reason I knew I was still awake was because I heard the quiet hum of the engine as we drove on.

No one spoke on the way back. Hershel had been checking in on Randall every couple of minutes, but the only one that knew what kind of vitals to check were him, so he did it in silence. Randall was out cold now, and he contributed to the silence of the car, too.

I was still wondering whether we should hide what happened with Tony from the group, the fact that only dying can turn someone into a walker. Rick said he wanted to wait until everything died down, but then when he finally decided to tell everyone, they would be mad that he kept it from them for so long. Still, he was in charge, and it was his decision to keep it a secret, and I would do what he said. I'm sure he better understood what was the best thing to do.

I did feel bad keeping it from Glenn, though. He told me about Lori and the barn, and now I was hiding one of the most important things we could understand about the walkers from him. But he would never be able to keep it a secret, and still, Rick would get in trouble for trying to hide it from everyone when Glenn told them about it.

The engine sound grew quieter as we slowed to a stop, which made me sit forward and open my eyes, running my hands up over my face and through my knotty hair. We had stopped outside a little while away from the farm.

"We're here," Rick said.

"I got it," I climbed out of the car, walked over to the gate and pulled it open, closing it again after Rick passed through. He waited for me to put the latch on and get back in the car so he could continue driving back to the farm.

I wondered for a while if the group were worried. They were bound to be, but Shane told me that if anything went wrong while we were out there, then he wouldn't come and save us. Part of me guessed that he was lying, just saying things to stop me from going on the run, but I wasn't so sure. He never went out after groups to save anyone because he wanted to hang back and protect the rest of the group.

The second gate was open, so when we returned, we just drove straight in and parked in front of the house. The thing that surprised me was that almost everyone was standing outside. Some gathered around a car. Were they coming out for us? They must have been, and it made sense because we had taken all night to get back to the camp.

We all climbed out, and everyone rushed to their family. Rick ran over to Lori and Carl, hugging each of them, and Maggie ran straight to Glenn. Everyone else gathered around, obviously wondering why we had been gone for so long. Even Daryl was in the group that was coming out to look for us.

Hershel walked back towards the house, "Patricia," he said as he passed her, "prepare the shed for surgery."

Lori, who has now been hugging Rick, started bombarding him with questions about the town, "Are you hurt?"

"No, but what happened to you?" Rick held her face in his hands, which drew my attention to the fact that she had cuts over her face, one very prominent in the middle of her lips.

"I was in a car accident," she said after a beat.

"Accident? How?"

"I went looking for you," she answered.

"Snuck out on her own," Shane added like Lori was keeping a big secret. "Brought her back."

Rick turned back to Lori, his body lowering down to stand face-to-face with her, "Are you crazy? You could've—"

"—Who the hell is that?" T-Dog asked aloud, interrupting Rick.

Glenn, who was no longer standing near Maggie, answered, "That's Randall."

Everyone was silent, but the silence didn't last long. After they all walked over to the car and saw that he was blindfolded and tied up, they all knew the reason because we didn't trust him. And then the questions came.

"What the hell is this?" Shane asked. "Why is he here?"

"I'll explain everything, but first, Hershel needs to do surgery on his leg," Rick said. "He impaled his knee on a barbed fence, and there is a good chance he'll bleed out if it doesn't happen soon."

Patricia looked apprehensive, but after a pause, she said, "I'll prep the shed."

"We'll get him moved over," Rick said. "Daryl, help?"

Daryl looked at him for a moment but nodded his head. He helped Rick lift Randall out of the car, carrying him towards the shed where Patricia had just left for. I wondered why they were taking him over so soon when neither Patricia nor Hershel was ready for the surgery just yet. Then I realised that it may not be the best decision to keep Randall hanging around the farm until they were ready, where everyone could look at him. And what if he woke up? Hiding him away would be better for the situation right now.

Hershel came out of the house moments later with a metal tray of things I assumed were for the surgery. It didn't seem like a lot, but I assumed that either he or Patricia would get what they needed after the shed was ready.

I watched them leave for the shed, wondering what I should do. Part of me thought that I wouldn't need to be there for Rick to explain what happened in town because I was there, I saw what happened, and I didn't really want to live through it again. The other part of me knew I should stay, everyone would have questions, and I knew that it wouldn't be easy on Rick to answer them all. He had just killed two people, and even if it was necessary, he probably wasn't in the best state of mind right now.

So I stayed.

Glenn leaned back on the car, crossing his arms. He looked as tired and upset as I felt, which concerned me a little, but his silence was understood. He just lived through the same night as me, and there were long moments when we were separated, where anything could have happened that I didn't see. The first one that popped into mind was the gunshot when Glenn had been sent down into the backroom alone.

I wanted to ask if he was okay or do something to make him feel better, but nothing came to mind. When Maggie tried speaking to him earlier, he walked away from her, and if she couldn't do anything to make him feel better, I had no faith that I would be able to do anything.

Shane stepped in front of me, interrupting me from my thoughts, placing both his hands on my shoulders. "You okay?"

"No," I shook my head, "I'm good."

"You're not hurt or anything?" He asked, turning my head to the side. "What happened?"

"Rick will tell everyone," I said, pushing his hands away. "Just let him."

Shane being this worried after he said he wouldn't help annoyed me a little, and his mood completely flip-flopped whenever he felt like it made him hard to keep up with. It was exhausting trying to tell whether Shane was angry with Rick or actually worried, and it only just made me angrier with him.

His jaw clenched, but he seemed to accept my answer, leaving me standing by the car while we waited for Rick to return.


Rick gathered everyone in the dining room so he could explain what happened in the town, and they were all very eager to hear his answer. He stood at the head of the table, silent for a moment, probably trying to work out the best way to begin.

I stood in the arched doorway next to Maggie, who was leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. She seemed a little upset, glancing over at Glenn occasionally, but he wouldn't meet her eyes.

"So, what the hell happened out there?" Andrea asked.

"There were these men that showed up, two of 'em," Rick started. "They—they weren't good people. Kept prying about the farm, where we were, our supplies, resources . . . among other things."

He didn't even have to say their names, and I still felt sick, remembering the looks Tony gave, the fact that they weren't planning on killing me if they killed the others only worsened my anxiety, making me wonder what they would have done to me if Rick hadn't killed them when he did.

"They got real mad, threatened to kill us, and when they pulled out their guns, I shot them."

"What about the boy?" Dale asked.

"He came with some others, people looking for their friends in the bar. They started shooting at us, and we killed another, and the walkers came. The other two were just gonna leave, but he—Randall tried jumping off a roof and impaled his leg on a fence. The other guy drove away and left him there."

"Why not just leave him?" Shane asked from across the room, leaning back against the wall like he was uninterested in the answer already.

"We couldn't just leave him behind," Rick said. "He would've bled out if he lived that long."

"It's gotten bad in town," Glenn quietly agreed.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea asked.

Hershel entered the room behind Rick, wiping blood from his hands into a white cloth. "I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Won't be on his feet for at least a week."

Rick nodded, quiet for a moment as he thought. "When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way."

I heard the door open and looked over to see Daryl entering the building. I didn't even realise that he wasn't here until he walked in, so I didn't know where he had been instead.

Andrea didn't look convinced. "Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?"

"He'll have a fighting chance," Rick said.

"We're just gonna let him go?" Shane piped up, turning from the window to look at Rick. "He knows where we are."

"He was blindfolded the whole way here," Rick argued, raising his voice. "He's not a threat."

"Not a threat," Shane scoffed. "How many of them were there? You kill three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?"

"They left him for dead. No one is looking!"

"We should still post a guard," T-Dog said.

"He's out cold right now," Hershel said, wiping his hand in a cloth. "Will be for hours."

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy," Shane waved a hand as he spoke before storming around the table and out to the door. He scoffed as he passed me and continued. "Look at this, folks! We back in fantasy land."

Hershel followed him. "You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet," he said. "Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all . . . This is my farm. Now I wanted you gone, Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favour: keep your mouth shut."

Shane sighed, turning away from Hershel and rubbing the back of his head with his hand. He stormed out of the house as he had done before.

"We're not gonna do anything about it today," Rick said, talking to Hershel mainly. "Let's just cool off."


After a while of being outside and speaking to nobody from my group, I remembered that Hershel would be trying to help Beth by now, and I wanted to see if she was okay.

I passed Glenn on my way into the house, but he didn't say anything and just continued walking towards the camp. Still, I was concerned about Glenn and wanted to talk to him, but there was nothing I could really do.

As I entered the house, I saw Maggie standing directly outside the room we brought Beth into when she collapsed. She had her back to me, but I could tell she was mad from the yelling.

"You left, and I didn't know what to do!"

There was no answer from inside the room, and I knew that Hershel was the one she was trying to talk to, but still, she got nothing. She deserved an apology or something after he up and left without telling anyone; I saw how scared Maggie was when she thought something would happen to Beth, or even Glenn when he offered to come and help Hershel.

Yet she did not get an apology in return because no other sound left the room. She turned to leave, and I saw that her eyes were watery, letting out a few tears run down her cheeks. Maggie saw me but said nothing, continuing further into the house and running upstairs to what I assumed was her bedroom.

I then entered the room where Beth was.

Hershel was sitting in a chair next to the bed, his hand over Beth's wrist and staring down at a small silver pocket watch in his hand. He looked up when he heard me enter the room.

"I just wanted to see if she was okay," I explained.

Hershel answered me as though I were another doctor, and he was describing her vitals from a chart. "She hasn't eaten, so I gave her a sedative to stop her body from working too hard."

I frowned, "You never said to do that at the bar."

I knew for a fact that he never said to give her a sedative because the only thing he told me was to get Patricia to put her on the drip, which Patricia had already done by the time we came back to the farm.

"I lost my way," he said. "I'm back now."

My lips pressed into a thin line, "As long as Beth will be okay."

Hershel nodded, "She'll be just fine."

"Okay, good."

I turned to leave, but I knew that was not the only thing I wanted to speak to him about. Maybe it would have been if he just came back immediately, but after everything that happened in the town, there was more I needed to say now.

"I-uh . . . I also wanted to thank you. After my mum . . . a lot of things happened, and I always got myself really worried or panicked over stupid things like exams or tests, revising. I've had panic attacks before, one or two, I just . . . I don't know, I wanted to thank you for getting me out of it. If you hadn't, I don't know what I would have done."

Hershel was quiet like he hadn't been expecting me to bring it up again. Maybe he didn't want me to or just didn't care, but eventually, he spoke. "I'm no stranger to them," he said. "Been through the same with Maggie on the rare occasion."

"Either way, thank you."

Hershel nodded, his eyes returning to Beth. I decided it would be best now to leave him with his daughter.

When I left the room, it was decided in my head that I would check and see if Maggie is okay. Even if I thanked Hershel, I knew that Maggie was in the right, and Hershel would not apologise for not being there for them.

The last I saw her, she ran upstairs, and so I followed in her path. I only knew which one Maggie was in because the door had been left open a little enough for me to see her sitting on her bed through the crack in the door.

I knocked on her door, waiting for her to come and open it herself. Maggie seemed a little shocked when she saw me on the other side like she hadn't just seen me come into the house downstairs. Maybe she never expected me to check on her, which I understood.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Maggie's eyes were still wet, but she rubbed tears away from her cheeks before she came out to see me. I could tell from the wet marks smeared around the neck of her shirt. She nodded either way. "Yeah, I . . . I'm fine."

"If not, I can talk," I said, giving a smile.

Hershel had ignored Maggie downstairs, at least after she had been yelling at him, and I understood her frustration or the need for some kind of explanation. But Hershel had helped me today, and I couldn't get too angry at him at that moment, so the next best thing I could do was try and help Maggie.

She shook her head. "I don't need to talk, I'm okay," she said. "Besides, I think I should be the one trying to talk to you. Glenn told me what happened."

He did?

When he was leaving the house, he didn't look very happy, and if he was talking to Maggie, it looked like they had just been in an argument. Then I had to wonder how much he even told her.

I shrugged. "I'm okay now."

If Maggie really didn't need my help, then I wasn't going to stay and keep winding her up, so I took a few steps back to leave, but she stopped me.

"I forgot to thank you, by the way."

"For what?" My face scrunched up, and I stood there a little confused.

"For going with them to get my dad back, for helping Beth," Maggie clarified. "You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to," it wasn't a lie. The only reason I wanted to go was to help Beth and Hershel, but I probably would have had a different attitude if I had known I would have been shot at. "It was nothing."

Maggie shook her head, "No, it wasn't."

"I just wanted to help, that's all," I said before trying to joke with her. "I also kind of felt guilty about the barn, so . . ."

Maggie smiled. "Guess you should've listened to me, huh?"

"Maybe," I said. "But my fear of the walkers outweighs my power of hindsight, so I'd probably do the same thing anyway."

"It was the right thing," Maggie agreed.

I was glad she agreed now because I really liked Maggie, but when she was arguing with me the other day, I couldn't have been more upset with her. Still, even if she agreed with opening the barn, a lot of bad things happened because of it, so I would have expected her to be a little mad about the barn.

"Okay," I said. "I'll leave you then."

Maggie closed the door behind her as I walked away.

I left the house, walking back to my tent to get some well-deserved sleep. I had to have been awake for over 24 hours now, and I planned on sleeping just as long.

A couple of people stopped me on my way to my tent, checking to see if I was okay. They were more worried about me once they heard about what actually happened in the town. I always told them I was fine and just really tired, so I could get back to my tent quickly. I didn't want to talk about what happened in the group, so I played it off as though I was okay.

One thing that worried me when I passed through the camp was that Daryl's things were gone, which made me turn to the others. "What happened to Daryl's things?"

"He moved his stuff out," T answered.

"He left?" I asked. "Is he okay?"

"He didn't leave, he just set up camp in the field over there," he said. "I'm sure he's fine."

"Then why leave?" I questioned.

T-Dog shrugged. "Maybe he didn't want to be around us anymore."

That seemed like Daryl, but I wasn't convinced that it was the only reason. Sure, he probably wanted to be away from the group because he was a very independent person, and we caused a lot of problems on the farm, but I'm sure there had to be some other reason he wanted to be away from the group. He must have moved his things yesterday, right after the barn, because that was the last time I remembered seeing his things around camp.

Yesterday was when we opened the barn, killed the walkers and found Sophia. Daryl spent a lot of time looking for Sophia, and I saw that he was crushed when he saw her coming out of the barn. Maybe he wanted to separate him from the group after what happened to Sophia.

I understood that because I wanted more than anything to just hide away in my tent and never come out. The only difference was that Daryl had the luxury of actually leaving if he wanted.

Then I wondered whether he would actually leave the group. He was practically one step away, so maybe he wanted to leave, and this was just the first step. I would have to talk to him because being all the way out there, away from the group, must have been very lonely for him. No one around camp really spoke to him if they had to, apart from Carol and maybe Dale, so perhaps they had already gone to speak to him.

When I realised that I hadn't answered T-Dog, the only response I could muster was a simple, "Oh."

I would have to talk to Daryl, it was still my mission to get him to laugh, and I couldn't do that if he lived miles away.

I yawned, which reminded me that I was actually on my way to sleep, so I told everyone goodnight and headed for my tent. After changing into some joggers, leaving on my woollen shirt, I laid down on the sleeping back and was out in less than three seconds.