A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters in any way, shape or form.
TRIGGER ALERT: While not in every chapter there are chapters that mention rape and/or abuse.
Chapter 12
It turns out Daryl had been leading her to a creek for her to wash up in before they headed back. She had even washed his filthy rag as best she could before she gave it back to him. It was close to sunset when they made it back to the farm. Neither Daryl nor Adrian had spoken a word since they left the creek, both lost in their own thoughts.
Adrian seen Rick standing on the porch as they walked up to the house. Adrian walked up the steps and over to Rick, sitting on the railing beside him, her back facing the yard.
"Dale spoke to you?" Rick asked her.
"Daryl." she said, her hands tucked into her pockets. "So, we're just going to kill him?" she asked him, keeping her eyes locked onto the white wall of the house in front of her.
"What else can we do, the boy's dangerous." he told her.
"No he's not. Any one of us around here with a few exceptions can take that kid on. It's the group he was with that's dangerous." she told him. "If you were just going to kill him, why did you stop Shane from doing it?" she asked him.
"I wanted to think about it. I felt like he deserved at least that much." he said.
"Don't give me that shit excuse. You knew yesterday when he said he knew where the farm is that you were going to have to kill him. You just didn't want to admit it to yourself." she told him, still not looking at him.
"I don't support this, Rick." she said.
"You don't have to support it, that's why I let Dale have to day to talk to everyone." he told her. "This is the right call, Adrian. He's a threat, and we have to eliminate the threat to our safety." he told her. Adrian finally turned to look at him, her face emotionless and eyes dull.
"Funny, I thought I came to talk to Rick but it seems I found Shane instead." she told him before she pushed off of the railing and walked inside.
Everyone was gathered in the living room except for Carl, Kale, and Jimmy. Adrian had put Kale on Carl duty with Jimmy because Adrian had heard that Carl had been wondering off a lot lately and didn't want Carl getting into things he wasn't supposed to by sneaking off. The tension in the room was heavy and thick and no one had even said a word yet. Adrian was standing across from Daryl behind Rick who was standing in front of everyone.
Glenn broke the silence. "So, how do we do this? Just take a vote?" he asked.
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.
"Or majority rules." said Lori.
"Let's just see where everybody stands." Rick told them.
"Well the only way I see it is there's only one way to move forward." Shane said.
"Yeah, Shane, we all know where you stand." Adrian told him, glaring at the man.
"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to vote, it's obvious the way the wind is blowing." Dale said, upset that they even had to have a meeting in the first place.
"Well, if people think we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick told the man.
"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn." he said.
"Me too." Adrian said from the back of the room. Glenn, however, got awkwardly quiet before he looked at the man. It appeared Glenn had changed his mind about sparing the boy. Peer pressure was a bitch like that.
"They've got you scared!" Dale told him.
"He's not one of us. And we've lost too much already." Glenn told him.
"No one is one of us until we let them in. Not even a month ago me and Kale weren't one of you, are you saying that you would've done this to us?" Adrian asked the young man. Glenn gave her a troubled look at her words. She and Kale were his friends, especially Kale.
Adrian felt for Dale. He was fighting hard for this boy's life but no knew what to do so they all chose the easy option, kill him. Adrian didn't know what to say to help convince the rest of the group to change their minds. A few people talked through the options of what it would take to keep him prisoner, rationing their food better to account for an extra mouth, even putting him to work, but Rick said that no one needed to be around the boy.
"We could put an escort on him." Maggie suggested.
"And who's gonna volunteer for that job?" Shane asked sarcastically.
"I will." both Adrian and Dale answered at the same time.
"Look, say we let this kid out, put him to work, maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice, maybe we let our guards down and he runs off to bring back his 30 men, then what?" Shane said.
"That's a lot of maybe's there Shane. Maybe we can all march off into the sunset and maybe we'll live out the rest of our lives in peace. You can't hang your life on a bunch of maybe's." she told him.
So she was still pissed at him for throwing her into a truck and leaving her for dead, sue her.
"So we're going to kill him for a crime he may not even try to commit?" Dale asked in disbelief. "If we do this, then we're saying there is no hope, the rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." Dale told them.
"Can you drive him further out?" Hershel asked.
"You barely made it back last time." Lori told Rick.
"No thanks to a certain someone." Adrian grumbled, glaring at Shane, who had heard her. Daryl looked over at her at the comment, thinking she needed to tone it down a bit.
Patricia finally asked a question no one else had been brave enough to ask. "If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" she asked him.
"We could hang him. Snap his neck." Shane suggested.
"It's not guaranteed that his neck will snap, and if it doesn't then he'll just suffocate." Adrian told him, not as hostile as she'd previously been.
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick told him.
"What about the body?" T-Dog asked Rick and Shane.
"Whoa, hey, hold on! You guys are talking about this like it's already been decided." Dale yelled at them.
"Been goin' around in circles all day, you wanna just keep goin' around in circles?" Daryl asked him, Adrian gave him an unimpressed look.
"This is a young man's life, and it deserves more than a 5 minute conversation!" Dale yelled at them all, very upset at how quickly they had all dismissed even considering keeping the boy alive.
"Is this what it's come to? We kill a man because we don't know what else to do with him? You saved him! And now look at us." Dale said to Rick. Rick heard Adrian make a noise behind him and he turned to look at her to see her starring back at him.
"We can't be afraid to take chances." she told him softly.
"We all know what has to be done." Shane said.
"No, Dale's right, we can't leave any stone unturned." Rick said.
"So what's the other option? We haven't come up with anything else to do." Andrea said.
"If you wanted to spare this boy, than someone would come up with something. But you all just want to take the easy way out." Adrian said loud enough for them to all hear.
"I haven't heard you back there making any suggestions." Andrea said to her, attitude clear in her voice.
"I said I'd guard the boy while we put him to work. Unlike the rest of you, I'm not scared of a child. You honestly think I wouldn't put a bullet in his head if he tried to betray us? What has that boy done to us since we first brought him here? Huh? I dare any of you to name one thing that has warranted him a death sentence." Adrian yelled, looking at everyone around the room.
"Stop it. Just stop it. Somebody decide, one of you, both of you, I don't care, just leave me out of it." Carol told them, clearly uncomfortable about having to make such a large decision. Adrian shouldn't have directed her anger towards Carol, she knew that, but the lack of courage in the woman caused her temper to flare.
"You can't stick your head in the sand about this Carol. Not speaking up is no better than pulling the trigger yourself." Adrian yelled at her. Daryl pulled her back a few steps, steps she didn't even remember taking, while Rick shot her a glare, thinking her words were uncalled for.
"Okay, if anyone wants the floor, now's your chance." Rick told everybody.
No one spoke up.
Dale was crushed that no one else would stand with him to fight for the boy's life. "You once said, we don't kill the living." Dale directed at Rick.
"Well that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick told him.
"You wouldn't let Daryl kill Jim after he got bit, a man who was a ticking time bomb, but you have no issue killing a perfectly healthy kid, current beatings aside?" Adrian asked Rick.
Rick turned back and glared at her, not appreciating her hostile tone. He overlooked the fact that what she had said was the truth.
Dale pleaded one last time for anyone else to stand with them, tears in his eyes as he did so. After a large silence Andrea finally spoke up. "Dale's right. We should find another way." she told everyone. Dale gave her a shocked look that she had changed her mind. But no one else changed their mind. Dale gave a defeated sigh, wringing his hat in his hands. Dale then gave a scoff of disbelief at them all.
"Y'all gonna watch too?" Dale asked. "No, of course not, you'll all hide in your tents and pretend like we're not slaughtering a human being." he said as tears streamed down his face at how far they had all fallen. Dale walked from the living room and stopped beside Daryl, putting his hand on his shoulder before he spoke.
"You're right. This group is broken." Dale told him before he left the house all together.
No one spoke as he left, the atmosphere heavier than before the meeting had started. It hurt Adrian to see Dale so crushed. She had had an emotional day and she had just enough anger in her from the meeting to be spoiling for a fight, and she knew just where to find one. She glared at Shane, knowing that he would give her the fight she was spoiling for, but it didn't mean that she wouldn't say anything she didn't believe.
"I hope you're fucking happy with yourself, Shane." she told her, her eyes hard as she glared at him.
"Me? How the hell is this my fault?" Shane asked in astonishment that she'd pin all of this on him.
"Do you want the list in alphabetical or chronological order?" she asked him, taking a few steps toward him.
"I told you, I TOLD YOU, that day in the swap when you took the guns back that you better be willing to take responsibility for everything that happened when you walked away with those guns and you told me you'd gladly accept the consequences, well now it's time to step up big guy." she told her, her anger clearly written all over her face.
"You gave out the guns, tore open the barn, killing all of the walkers, knowing that the bodies of Hershel's wife and stepson were in there, but did you care, no! You shot them in front of Hershel and his family! Because of your selfishness Hershel went to town to escape from what you'd done! And then Beth collapsed from shock, so we needed Hershel back here, not only for Beth but for Lori as well, but were you willing to go get him, fuck no! You left that to Rick and me and Glenn." she yelled at him, Rick now having to hold her back.
"And guess what douchebag, we met Randall and his dickbag friends there! The same people you're so afraid of. And because we actually have a heart instead of a stone in our chest like you do we saved Randall's life instead of leaving him there to be eaten alive!" she screamed at the man who had yet to say anything but everyone could see the rage in his eyes as he glared at her and started walking in her direction.
"Shane, no!" Rick yelled as he shoved Adrian at Daryl. "Get her out of here!" Rick said to Daryl. Daryl tried to get her to go without fighting him, but she was in no mood to be cooperative, so Daryl grabbed her around the waist and picked her up, walking her outside. Once he got down the the steps without either of them breaking their necks, he put her feet back on the ground.
"The hell is wrong with you, huh?" he asked before he roughly grabbed her upper arm and started to drag her away from the house.
"I didn't say a single word that wasn't true, I dare you to call me a liar!" she told him.
"Didn't your damn granddad ever tell you to know when to pick your fights? You seriously think right now is the time to pick a fight with someone who threw you into a damn truck just yesterday?" he told her, pulling her in the direction of his camp.
Adrian said nothing the rest of the way to his camp.
He didn't know why he brought her to his camp, but he did know that she didn't need to be around anybody with the mood she was in. He pulled her over to the log in front of his fire and forced her to sit.
"Just stay here. I'll come back when it's done, maybe you won't be spoilin' for a fight then." he told her as he started to leave.
"Are you going to help him?" Adrian asked, all of the anger gone from her voice.
Daryl turned back to look at her. She was starring into his unlit fire pit, a defeated look on her face.
"Rick shouldn't have to do it all on his own. Some things are too much for just one person." he told her before he turned to walk back to the house to help Rick and Shane with Randall.
TWD
It all happened so fast.
Adrian was starring into the flames in Daryl's fire pit, waiting to hear the gunshot, when the screaming started. She didn't know who it was but she knew it was close, somewhere in the field. She had never taken off her weapons, so she ran in the direction she thought the screaming was coming from.
She could faintly hear people yelling Dale's name before she heard Daryl screaming for help. She ran up behind Daryl and gasped in horror as tears filled her eyes. Dale was laying on the ground crying out in pain, his stomach ripped open. Adrian looked around and seen a dead walker a few feet away. Her eyes landed on Carl as he looked at the walker before he ran to his mother, something about the walker bothered him, and more than in the sense that it had hurt Dale.
Everyone was crowded around Dale, knowing that there was no saving him. Andrea cried at someone to do something, but everyone knew what had to be done. It was a mercy killing, they all knew that, but it didn't mean that it hurt them any less to do it. Finally, Rick took out his gun and aimed it at Dale, but he couldn't force himself to pull the trigger. Then Daryl walked up to Rick and took the gun from his hand.
Daryl kneeled down placing the barrel of the gun against Dale's forehead. Daryl looked Dale in the eyes as the gun sat there for a second. "Sorry brother." Daryl said, pulling the trigger, finally releasing Dale from his pain. The only thing any of them could hear were of the people crying as they all stood there, mourning Dale's death.
TWD
Daryl was laying in his tent, starring at the dark ceiling, too many thoughts running through his mind to allow him to sleep. They had brought Randall to the barn, Rick fully intending to go through with it until Carl showed up, urging his father to shoot the young man. Rick, after hearing the words his young son spoke, changed his mind about Randall, angering Shane.
Daryl had brought the kid back to the shed and had him handcuffed inside when he heard the screams from the field. Daryl had found Dale first, a walker on top of him. Daryl had tackled the walker off of Dale and stabbed it in the head before he got back to Dale to see him in bad shape. They man's stomach had been ripped open, causing the old man an unimaginable amount of pain.
After Daryl had shot Dale in Rick's stead they had brought Dale's body back to the house and wrapped him in a sheet. It was too dark to dig a grave, so it would have to wait until morning. It was as these thoughts were running through his head that he heard the the zipper of his tent move.
He lifted his head to see who would dare come inside his tent so late at night, but he should've known that only one person was either brave enough, or stupid enough, to do so. He watched as Adrian stepped inside and zipped the flap closed before she turned and just starred at him, saying nothing.
He had lost sight of her while they were taking Dale's body back. He had seen Kale follow after her to wherever she had gone, but that was hours ago. She looked at him for a minute more before she crawled down onto the floor beside him and got under the blankets, a foot or so separating them. She was laying on her side, facing him. He could feel her eyes on him in the dark, but she still said nothing.
"Why the hell you keep comin' back up here?" he asked her, his voice curious. She had her own damn tent back at camp but it seemed like she was in his camp more than he was these days.
"I didn't want to be alone tonight. After everything that's happened today I just...don't want to be alone. And I enjoy your company, as surly and moody as you are, you're good company. You don't feel the need to fill the silence with conversation, we can just sit in silence for hours, and you hardly ever ask questions about what's bothering me." she whispered in the quiet space.
"And I really need that right now. Someone who will just sit in the silence with me." she told him. Daryl didn't know what to say to that. No one had ever intentionally sought out his company because they enjoyed it before. Maybe this was what it was like to have actual friends. They both just laid there in the silence, neither knowing how long, before they both finally fell asleep in the early hours of the night.
TWD
They held Dale's funeral in the early hours of the morning, everyone feeling Dale's lose deeply. The group decided it was best to check the fences around the farm and fix any weak spots, along with killing any walkers that were found close to the farm. Daryl, Andrea, T-Dog, and Shane volunteered for the job.
It was everyone else's job to get everything packed up and to the house. With winter creeping up on them Hershel agreed with Rick about moving everyone inside. It would be a tight fit for everyone, but they would all make it work. Hershel was going to start packing the basement with everything they could need, but food most of all.
All of the first floor windows were being boarded up by the few people who weren't bringing things into the house. Adrian was still sad about Dale, they all were, but she was in better spirits today. Rick decided that they would spare Randall and take him out and leave him, like originally planned, only he was taking Daryl this time around.
Adrian was glad when he accepted to accompany Rick when the man asked him. Daryl had fought being accepted into the group ever since they had found Sophia, but it seemed that he was finally willing to admit that being a part of the group wasn't so bad.
Adrian was bringing some of her and Kale's bags inside when she heard Kale curse out loud from her left. She seen him sucking on his thumb, assuming he had hit it with the hammer he was using to help board up the windows, and laughed at the boy who sent her a mock glare. He was happy to hear her laugh again. He hadn't heard her laugh in days and he was really worried about her.
She had hardly been in camp or her tent since the day they found Sophia, always either going off somewhere on some mission with someone or at Daryl's camp. He knew them finding Sophia like they did had probably messed with her head, considering that she had lost her son also so it had probably brought back bad memories. He hadn't known how to help her so he had just told her that he was there for her if she ever needed him for anything. But she had started to go to Daryl for everything instead.
After Adrian had brought in and stored all of her's and Kale's belongings she went toward the barn to see if anybody needed help at the shed. Nobody had the time to spare keeping watch on Randall so she wasn't surprised when she didn't see anyone sitting out front of the shed, but she heard hammering coming from the back.
Adrian walked around and looked up to see Daryl boarding up the window of the loft. "My oh my, Daryl. If I'd known you looked that good while holding a hammer, I would've put you to work a long time ago just so I could watch." Adrian told him. Daryl looked down to see Adrian standing beside the shed, looking up at him with a teasing grin on her face.
They didn't talk much after they woke up this morning, but he had noticed that she was trying to be in a better mood today. And apparently that better mood included making fun of him. "Don't you ever do any work?" he asked her as he went back to hammering a nail in the board he had just been working on. "That's rude. I came out here to see if anybody needed any help and here you are calling me lazy." she said to him, not really offended by his words.
"If the shoe fits." he mumbled around the nails he was holding in the corner of his mouth. "I heard that." she said from the ground. Daryl hammered in the final nail and then turned and spit the last few nails out onto the roof he was standing on. "I'm all done here. Let's get back up to the house to see what else needs to be done." Daryl told her as he climbed down.
They were halfway back to the house when she spoke. "I wanted to thank you for last night, for letting me stay over." she told him quietly.
"Wasn't nothin'."
"It was to me. And I meant what I said last night, all of it. So you don't need to question our friendship, we've both taken and given in this relationship, as messed up as it's been, but we've both been there when the other needed someone. So thank you, for everything." she told him. Daryl could tell she meant the words she'd spoken, so he just accepted her thanks and moved on.
As Daryl had said, there was plenty to be done at the house. Supplies from their camp was still being moved inside and situated in whatever corner and cranny they could fit into and the vehicles were all being placed in places that they could all make a quick escape from if need be. Adrian was helping Lori set up her's, Carl's, and Rick's things in Hershel's room, Hershel had insisted that they take his bed, when T-Dog came in yelling that Randall was gone.
Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl were all investigating the shed to see how Randall had gotten out. Everyone had run outside in a panic that their prisoner was gone, wanting to know what they were going to do. It struck Adrian and everyone else that he had managed to get out with the door still locked from the outside.
Then they all heard Shane yelling for Rick as he came stomping out of the tree line. "He's loose and he's armed! Little bastard's got my gun!" he yelled as he walked up to the group.
That caused everyone to panic even more. Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and Shane were going to look for Randall and Adrian tried to volunteer too.
"You can't track for shit yet and this ain't no time to be teachin' ya." Daryl told her.
"He's right, besides, I need you here. I need you to keep everyone safe, to keep my family safe." Rick told her.
Words failed Adrian when she realized that Rick was entrusting the lives of his wife and son and unborn child to her. He was depending on her to keep them alive and safe until he got back.
"Okay." she told him, nodding firmly.
Rick gave her a quick nod of thanks before the four men took off into the woods. Adrian helped Andrea and T-Dog herd everyone into the house so they could get it locked down until the hunting party had come back. Night had fallen quickly and the men still weren't back from looking for Randall.
Everyone was downstairs, with the exception of Adrian and Carl, still unpacking. Adrian was upstairs with Carl keeping watch for when the men came back. Adrian had set up a little table beside the window so she could distract Carl with a game or two of Uno. She had an ulterior motive for being upstairs with Carl though. She had noticed his behavior lately and had heard of all of his little side quests and she wanted to talk to him, sadly she had been neglecting spending any time with him.
"So, is there anything you want to talk about?" she asked as she laid a few blue cards down.
"Like what?" he asked as he laid down a skip turn card before he started laying down a few yellow cards.
"Little shit." she grumbled as she started to draw for a yellow card, causing Carl to smile at her cursing.
"I seen you and your dad in the barn today. Why did he have to give you the gun back? I thought you wanted to help keep the camp safe?" she asked him, laying down a reverse card.
"Because...it's my fault that Dale died." Carl finally confessed. Adrian looked up from the cards in her hand to look at the boy.
"What do you mean? Dale was killed by a walker, how is that your fault?" she asked him.
"I was in the swamps yesterday and I saw that walker. It was stuck in the mud and I was throwing rocks and stuff at it. I was going to shoot it so I got close to it, but one of it's legs got unstuck and I got scared and ran away. And because I didn't kill it, it came back to the farm and killed Dale." he told her.
She could see him wearing that guilt like a coat and it hurt her to know that he thought himself guilty for the death of a dear friend to them all.
"I understand how you would feel that way. But Carl, if it was really Dale's time to go, than he would have died one way or another. If it hadn't been the walker from the swamp, than it would've been another walker than had found it's way onto the farm. You feel guilty, and nothing I or anybody else says will make you feel any less guilty, but know that none of us will ever blame you for Dale's death." she told him as she reached across the table and gently lifted his head until she could see his eyes.
"Do you understand?" she asked him. He nodded his head that he understood. "Good boy." she grinned, lightly flicking his nose. "Now, let's get back to this game I was whooping your tail in." she said, smirking.
"You wish." Carl said laughing.
Carl had won their game by a single card, causing Adrian to swear up a blue streak that Lori would probably wash her mouth out for saying in front of her son. Adrian and Carl looked outside to see the bright moon shining down onto the farm.
"Gotta go pee. Hold down the fort for me?" she asked as she stood up.
"I didn't need to know that." Carl said as he scrunched his nose in disgust.
"But I told you anyway." Adrian laughed as she walked out of the door. When she returned Adrian decided that from now on she was going to tie Carl down every time he had to be left alone, because when she got back from the bathroom, Carl Grimes wasn't in the room. She was going to go downstairs to see if he was there when something outside of the window caught her attention.
She walked to the window and picked up the binoculars that Carl had left behind and cursed as she threw the binoculars onto the table and ran as quietly as she could downstairs. She had gotten lucky to pin Kale in the kitchen alone and told him to keep an eye on everyone because she had just seen Carl running across the yard and she was going to bring him back.
"Is any of our stuff unpacked?" she asked him, grabbing his arm so he wouldn't walk away yet.
"No, not yet. Our packs and weapons bag are still packed up, why?" he asked her.
"Because I have a bad feeling that I can't explain, so keep them packed. If anything, and I do mean anything, happens then I want you to get our shit to the first vehicle you can get to." she told him.
"Adrian, what the hell is going on?" he asked her, starting to panic.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, I don't like it." she told him before she pulled his head down to her and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.
"Stay safe." she told him before she bolted out of the back door.
TWD
Adrian hated when her bad feeling turned out to be valid. She had followed Carl out into one of the fields farther from the house to see Carl holding his gun on Rick, who was pleading with his son to put the gun down. It was then that she seen Shane, who was a walker, stumbling toward Rick.
"Rick!" Adrian had yelled as Carl fired his gun, killing the walker that used to be Shane.
"Adrian? What are you doing out here?" Rick asked her as he hugged his scared son.
"Chasing after this little shit." she said, placing her hand on top of Carl's head.
"Let's get back to the house before Lori finds out Carl's gone." Adrian told Rick. They all turned and starting walking back to the house. "Were you bit?" Carl asked him. "No." Rick told him.
"Shane was." Carl said. "That wasn't Shane." Rick told his son. "It used to be. What happened?" Carl asked Rick. Rick stopped and stood there quietly for a minute. He opened his mouth to speak when Adrian slapped her hand over his mouth. Rick looked at her but she wasn't looking at him, she was looking behind them, a look of horror stamped on her face.
"Move. Now!" she hissed.
It was then that Rick noticed the walkers closing in on them.
"Go! Go!" Rick whispered to Carl. They managed to get close to the barn without being seen. "We can't get to the house, there's too many." Adrian told Rick, keeping her voice low. "We have to get to the barn, get in the hay loft." she told him again, looking at Carl. "Carl, you hold onto your father and don't you dare let go." she told him sternly. He nodded and quickly took Rick's hand, holding it tightly.
"You and Carl go ahead of me and I'll watch our backs." she told him, pulling out her machete.
"With just that?" Rick asked, looking at her machete.
"I'm sorry, I left my Gatling Gun in my other pants." she sassed.
"Guns draw their attention, so of the two of us who is more likely to go by unnoticed?"
"Point taken."
"Alright let's go." Rick said before quickly running to the barn. Thankfully Rick had let her take out the one walker that had gotten too close to them before they reached the barn.
They quickly ran inside, Rick closing the door behind them and shoving a metal bar in the handles so the walkers couldn't get inside. Rick and Adrian looked around for a minute before Rick walked off and grabbed a near by gas can. Adrian grabbed the other one and started to help Rick throw the gas around. "Carl, get up the ladder, now!" Adrian told him as he helped Rick. Once the cans were empty Adrian and Rick met at the ladder.
"Take this, light it, and throw it down when I say. The barn will catch on fire and might help to distract some of the walkers from the house." Rick told her, trying to give her his zippo lighter. "My ass, I will. You get up there with your son. If anything happens down here it's better for it to be me than you. Carl needs his father, not a stranger who's already lost one son." she told him, shoving the lighter back at him.
"Adrian, we don't have time to debate this." he hiss at her, frustrated that they were wasting time arguing. "You're right, we don't." she said as she quickly ran towards the barn doors. She heard Rick cursing as she reached the doors. "Hey! Hey! You want in here?! Huh? You want in here?!" she screamed, banging on the doors.
"Adrian, now!" she heard Rick yell. She pulled the bar from the handles and the doors flew open. "Come on!" she screamed as she jogged backwards to the ladder. "Come on, dinner's on! Come and get me!" she screamed again as she started to climb the ladder. Once they had enough walkers in the barn Rick dropped the lighter and the barn caught fire like dried leaves in the fall.
"Rick, we have to get out of here." Adrian told him, pulling him in the direction of the loft door. They stepped outside to see complete and utter chaos. There were walkers everywhere, and she did mean everywhere, all of the vehicles were driving around the yard shooting any walkers they came across. Adrian instantly prayed that Kale was safe and had gotten their supplies out like she'd asked, because after tonight, they were going to need everything they could get. She knew just by looking at everything going on around her that the farm was a lost cause.
They seen the RV driving in their direction and Rick flagged it down, telling them where to go. The RV pulled up beside the barn and the three of them carefully jumped onto the roof of the RV and climbed down. Rick and Adrian had gone first to keep the walkers at bay while Carl climbed down.
Adrian, who had swapped her machete for her gun inside the barn, no sense in being quiet about it now, seen a walker's hands get too close to Carl from the barn so she turned and shot it. Once Carl was down she heard Rick call her name and they ran off, trying to find a safe way to get back to the house now that the walkers were thoroughly distracted.
They had just rounded the house when they seen a walker creeping up on Hershel, who was steadily firing a shotgun. Rick raised his gun and fired, killing the walker and splattering blood all over the back of Hershel's head.
"Lori, did you see Lori?" Rick asked Hershel.
"I don't know what happened, Rick, they're like a plague, they just keep coming." Hershel told him.
"Did you see Lori?" Rick yelled.
"No." Hershel insisted.
"We can't stay here, we gotta go. We gotta go, now!" Rick told Hershel as he dragged the old man toward the red and white SUV that was parked for a quick getaway.
They got to the SUV, Rick and Carl climbing in the front while Adrian grabbed Hershel by his suspenders and jerked him away from a walker he was trying to fight and toward the back door of the car. "Get inside." she told Hershel, practically throwing him inside. Adrian climbed in after him and Rick sped off. Hershel starred forlornly out of the back of the SUV at his once thriving farm.
"I'm sorry, Hershel. It was a beautiful farm and that's how we'll always remember it." Adrian told him softly, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Hershel covered her hand with his and gave her hand a light squeeze, still starring out the back window. The sun had risen shortly after they drove away from the farm. The sun had been up for roughly an hour when Rick stopped the car a few yards away from the car they had left Sophia supplies on on the highway.
Adrian climbed out of the SUV and pulled her jacket tightly around her. She was glad she had thought to dress warm before going upstairs with Carl the night before. She had pulled on her yoga pants under her blue jeans, the matching tank to her yoga pants was underneath a white thermal shirt, which was underneath her thick black pullover and a grey sweater jacket she had picked up from one of her scavenging trips a while back. She even had on two pairs of socks in her boots. She hadn't been lying about getting cold easily.
"Where's mom? You said she'd be here." Carl asked looking around. Carl pleaded with his father for them to go back to look for Lori, but if Lori was smart she'd be long gone from the farm. Rick tried to explain to Carl that they couldn't go back but Carl didn't want to hear it and walked away. Adrian followed after him.
"Hey." she said softly, pulling an arm around his shoulders. "He won't go back for her. It's mom, so why won't he go back?" he said, looking up at her as if she had all of the answers. "Carl, if your mother is as smart as I know her to be, she'll be long gone from the farm. She might even be out looking for you and your dad, she might even come here to look for you, but if we leave before she gets here, then she might leave too." she told him, trying to explain it in a way Rick hadn't tried.
They had been on the highway for a while, trying to wait it out as long as possible. Rick wanted to stay longer but Hershel hit him where it hurt. Carl. Keeping Carl safe was more important than anything because they didn't know if the others were alive, but Carl was. Rick sighed in defeat when he tried to explain to his son that they couldn't stay there anymore.
Then they heard a wonderful sound.
The loud rumbling of a motorcycle.
They all looked to the opposite side of the road to see Daryl and Carol riding up on his bike, and then the rest of their vehicles pulled up behind Daryl's bike. Everyone got out of their cars and ran for each other. Glenn and Maggie got out of the light green car, Daryl and Carol had been on his bike, and T-Dog, Lori, and Beth pulled up in Hershel's old blue truck. Everyone was overjoyed to see each other.
"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl.
"Seen this guys taillights zigzagging all over the road. Figured he had to be Asian driving around like that." Daryl said, joking about Glenn's driving.
"Good one." Glenn laughed.
"Where's the rest of us?" asked Daryl.
"This is everyone who's made it so far." Rick told him.
"Shane?" asked Lori.
Rick just shook his head, letting her know he hadn't made it.
"Andrea?" Glenn asked.
"Where's Kale?" Adrian asked when she didn't see Kale on her second look around at everyone.
"Andrea and Kale saved me and then I lost them." Carol told them.
"We seen Andrea go down and we lost sigh of Kale through the walkers after that." T-Dog said.
Adrian could feel the color draining from her face at their words. Adrian quickly looked around, as if he would suddenly pop up before her eye's landed on the SUV she, Hershel, Carl, and Rick drove up in, quickly walking towards to.
She made it past Rick but not Daryl on her way to the vehicle.
"What the hell you think you're doin'?" he asked her.
"I have to get back there. I have to find him, I can't just leave him." she said franticly, trying to push past him.
"You can't go back there. I was the last one out, that place is overrun with walkers. You'd never make it back alive." he told her.
"I don't care! I have to go back!" she sobbed.
"Adrian, he's gone. Goin' back won't do nothin' but get you killed too." he told her softly as tears started streaming down her face, her breath coming out in sobs. Daryl could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't going to try to run off now, so when she pushed past him this time, he let her. She didn't go far, only a few cars away, that was as far as her legs would take her before she crashed into the trunk of a dusty red car.
She put her palms on the trunk of the car to steady herself, not that it helped much. She could barely see the car through her tear blurred eyes and her breathing could best be described as gasping sobs. She felt a pressure building up inside of her the longer she thought of never seeing Kale again. The pressure kept building and building inside of her chest until she could only think of one thing to release the pressure. She balled her hands into fists and banged on the car once before she threw her head back and screamed.
It was stupid, she knew that, but she needed to release the pressure inside of her somehow, and this was the quickest way. She had definitely caught everyone's attention now. She had stopped screaming by the time they had started running to her to shut her up but then she had replaced the screaming with beating the car with her bare fists.
Someone had a firm grip on her wrists and pulled her away from the car. She heard them say something but didn't hear what it was, just fighting whoever had a hold of her. But whoever it was was stronger than her, quickly releasing her wrists and pulling her into their chest and wrapping their arms around her tightly. Adrian didn't know when she had started to openly start sobbing, but she was.
She felt her cries rack through her body as her cries were muffled by whoever was holding her. It wasn't until she had gripped on tightly to the person who was holding her that it was Daryl, because she wasn't gripping a shirt, she was gripping a leather vest. Adrian didn't know how long they had allowed her to cry before deciding that they all needed to leave.
Daryl had managed to calm her down enough that her cries wouldn't attract any walkers near by, not that all of the noise she made earlier hadn't done that already. Maggie had somehow convinced Adrian to get in the car between her and Beth in the backseat while Glenn and Hershel were up front. The only sound in the car for a while was Adrian's heartbreaking sobs.
They had been on the road for most of the day when they heard a car honk behind them. All of the vehicles had stopped and everyone got out. Adrian was dragging behind everyone, no longer sobbing but the occasional tear still running down her face. Adrian was leaning against the guardrail that was a few short feet from the car. She heard people talking, but at the moment she could honestly care less about what any of them were saying.
Carl's voice managed to cut through her fog of grief, complaining that he was cold. Rick gave him his jacket but Lori looked just as cold. Adrian unzipped her sweater and walked to Lori, offering the woman her jacket. Lori looked at Adrian as she offered Lori her jacket. Lori wanted to refuse but she doubted the woman was in any mood to argue, so she gratefully took the jacket and put it on.
Adrian walked back to the guardrail, ignoring everyone. Then she heard Daryl say something that caught her attention.
"You know I found Randall, right? He was a walker but he didn't have any bites." Daryl told Rick.
Then Adrian seen something pass over Rick's face, a realization of some kind.
And then he dropped a bomb on all of them.
"We're all infected."
"What?" Daryl asked him.
"Jenner, at the CDC, he told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." Rick told them.
Everyone was shocked to say the least and angry that he never told them. Rick walked away and Lori followed him. Adrian walked up to Carl and weakly suggested that they help gather some firewood for the night. They had stopped in a beautiful spot, to bad that Adrian was in no mood at stop and admire the view.
Night fell quickly as Daryl started a small fire to keep them warm for the night, everyone but Rick and T-Dog was sitting by the fire. Adrian was seated to Carl's right and to her right Daryl was kneeling on the ground, putting a few more sticks on the fire to keep it burning. Adrian heard Carol quietly ranting to Daryl about Rick, trying to convince him that they meant nothing to Rick if he could keep such a secret from them all.
Maggie suggested they take their chances on their own before Hershel told her not to be foolish. A branch snapped somewhere outside of their view and every got panicky really quickly, all afraid it was a walker and that they should leave. Rick told everyone that they all needed to stay together, not running around in the dark.
But then Rick dropped another bomb that really made everyone want to leave. Rick admitted to killing Shane. Adrian couldn't manage to muster any shock at the admission. She had seen Shane try to kill Rick once already, so why wouldn't he try again? If Adrian was being honest with herself she didn't fault Rick for what he'd done. They had all seen how Shane had slowly descended into madness the longer they were all at the farm.
Shane had killed Randall to lure Rick into the woods so he could finally kill his best friend and take over Rick's role with Lori and Carl. Rick told everyone that they were more than welcome to leave if they really wanted to try their luck on their own, but if they stayed then from now on it was no longer a democracy, it was a dictatorship.
And thus started what Adrian lovingly called the Ricktatorship.