Wow. Crazy, my best guy friend and are going to the WINTER BALL! Yes! Anyways, here's today's chapter! Please review! ;)
"Everyone's going to stay around the barns today- Hershel needs help filling the racks with hay. Carl, Jamie- you both wanted to help out, you might be able to..." Hershel had said she could walk again, and the wounds from the porcupine were starting to heal.
Jamie nodded, already standing and moving to her place. But it soon become clear the men were much better at carrying the bales, though Jamie tried her hardest and kept pace for them for a few minutes, but she started slipping...
"Why don't you go see what Carl's doing, Jamie?" Rick asked. "Or- go see if Maggie needs help with the horses. We can handle this."
She nodded, grateful Rick hadn't just told her to 'go play'. Carl was nowhere to be found, and the barn was empty, Maggie had already finished with the horses.
T-Dog drove back with another pickup full of hay. "Alright. We're getting there. Keep going, guys..." Rick ordered. He noticed Daryl not paying attention, staring off into the distance.
"Daryl?" he asked.
"Hang on a minute." Daryl ordered setting down his crossbow and jogging toward one wood fence, jumping easily over it. He was near two pastures that shared a fence side, and he'd spotted Jamie balancing on the fence rail, walking across it, right by the water trough.
He slunk silently forward before pushing her slightly- right into the water trough.
"Daryl!" she yelled, surfacing. Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog had seen it all go down and were chuckling quietly.
Daryl started to run, laughing as he went, but she sprang up and was after him in an instant.
"You're gonna get it, Daryl!" she yelled, but she was grinning, gaining on him fast.
"Oh crap. I think she's gonna catch him." Glenn said, watching. A moment later she'd sprang forward and tackled Daryl to the ground. He'd almost made it, too, he'd been twenty feet away from the fence.
"Holy crap." T-Dog said. They heard them laughing as they wrestled in the dirt, rolling over and over...
Andrea had come over to watch, now, and she smiled.
They kept rolling around for quite a bit until Carol walked over. "Alright, hillbillies, you gonna get anything done? she asked, hands on her hips.
"Huh?" both Daryl and Jamie said, looking up.
"Remember- we were working." Glenn said, smiling.
Daryl scrambled to his feet with Jamie, nodding to her. "We'll practice knife throwing later..." he said, and she nodded, dripping wet, before headed off towards the direction of Daryl's camp.
Daryl was covered in mud, but he set back to work as easily as he'd left, though he was muddy, and they could see him smiling as Jamie turned and ran off.
"I swear, those two are going to accidentally kill each other some day." Carol shook her head, but she was grinning.
Carl stood in the forest, staring at the walker stuck in the mud. He wanted to shoot it, but he found a rock in his hand and was throwing it, then. He smiled as it hit the creature, who moaned and frothed and hissed- It couldn't get to him.
He walked around it, circling, smiling, throwing another rock. He raised the gun to its head, finally ready to shoot. If only Jamie could see him- he was about to kill his first, become a man... The walker broke free and he stumbled back, dropping the gun. It grabbed his leg- one foot was still stuck in the mud. He kicked it and freed himself, turning and running.
"There. Again." Daryl ordered. She threw, striking the tree trunk, at least. Finally. It'd taken hours of practice, but she could consistently hit a target.
"Go get 'em." Daryl ordered, and she hurried to retrieve the knives before standing ready again.
"You seem to have forgotten tonight there's going to be a meeting, and possibly a killing."
Both Jamie and Daryl turned to see Dale.
"I haven't forgotten. But is there any other way, Dale? No good one." Daryl said. "Jamie- go hunt something." he said, wanting her to leave.
Jamie nodded, sheathing her knife and sticking the other in the log, grabbing her hatchet from the table and her bow from where she'd hung it on a tree and starting for the tree line.
"Now you can say what you want to." Daryl said.
And Dale let it all pour out. "We can't loose OUR humanity. What if that were Jamie, when she was older..."
"Jamie wouldn't stand by and let somebody RAPE somebody else." Daryl said.
"Fine. He's made mistakes, but we all have... Daryl, just say you'll think about it, for my sake." Dale pleaded.
"Fine. I'll think about it. But don't expect anything else." Daryl said.
"Daryl. Please, you KNOW this is wrong." Dale said, as they stood in the living room of the farm house with Hershel's family and the adults of their group.
"All I know is I don't want him around. It's about protecting the group." Daryl growled.
"Look, it's settled. We'll shoot him in the barn tonight." Rick said. There was a silence, as everyone looked apologetically at Dale.
The sun was setting, and Rick, Shane, and Glenn moved out to the barn. Shane shoved Randal in in front of them.
"Please, please don't... Please don't kill me..." Randall pleaded. He was blindfolded, but his pleas turned frantic as he heard the gun cock.
"Please- Please... don't..." his body was shaking with sobs.
"Do it, Dad." Rick looked over to see Carl standing in the doorway and felt shock ripple through him.
"Take him away." he said, voice husky with distress as he jammed the gun back into his holster.
Shane kicked the ground. "I can't believe this."
Daryl moved to take Randall back to the wood shed and tired him up.
Jamie sat on a log by Daryl's camp, waiting to hear the shot. She would rest easier when she did- though she hated to admit it. Not much could scare her, but there was Lori, Carol, Patricia, Beth, and Maggie to think about here, too. People had tried to rape her before, but Ryder had never let them. Still, this boy... he'd be better off dead. They'd be safer...
She stood and started running when she heard the screams.
Dale had wandered off, repulsed, not wanting to hear the shot that would take Randall's life. As a result, he was now trying to shove a walker off him. He had the walker by the shoulder, but nails pierced his abdomen and the creature tore open his stomach. He screamed in agony.
"Dale!" Rick yelled, running through the pasture gate. Daryl was there first, knocking the walker off him and stabbing it, before turning to Dale.
"Over here! Help! Run!"
The others had gathered around, by now...
"Dale! Dale, hang on, please hang on..." Andrea pleaded. She held his hand and Rick stroked the man's forehead.
Lori and Glenn ran up, both staring at Dale's abdomen, which was ripped open.
Dale looked confused, and Hershel came out.
"Can we move him?" Rick asked.
"He won't survive the trip." Hershel replied.
"We'll have to do the operation here. Glenn, run back to the house..."
Hershel placed a hand on Rick's shoulder. "Rick!" he simply shook his head.
Rick placed a hand on his forehead, smoothing his hair back, shocked...
Jamie had run over by now, and she stared at the scene before her, falling to her knees.
"Dale. Dale, please..." Andrea pleaded.
Jamie reached out to stroke the silver beard.
"Dale. Randall- we didn't kill him." She whispered. Dale looked relaxed when she said that, and his eyes fluttered closed for a moment. He continued to make awful sucking noises as he struggled to breathe.
Rick raised his gun before putting it back into his holster. He couldn't do it.
"He's suffering." Andrea said, tears falling down her face.
Daryl pulled his own gun and took a knee beside Dale, gun drawn, pointed at the man's head. "Jamie." he growled. "Get back up to camp."
Jamie obeyed without question- she knew what was going to happen. Daryl was going to kill him, and he didn;t want her to see it. It was the onyl thing they could do, she knew, but it didn't stop the tears from rolling down her face as she ran back towards Daryl's camp.
"Sorry, brother." And he fired.
Patricia, Maggie, and Beth had wandered out by now, and everyone just stood, some crying, some just shocked that Dale was dead.
Daryl, who looked down, face void of all emotions. Only she could see what he was hiding behind the mask- he hid his regrets well.
Carl just stood, silence of the night all around him, but time had stopped when he looked over and saw the walker- the walker HE'D thrown rocks at- laying a few feet from Dale.
He'd done it. He was responsible for a death, but it wasn't a walker. He'd killed his first. And he felt like anything but a man.