TTWH 31

What has happened to Carl? What did Rick find in his tent? Was it Carl's body?

'No! Fuck, fuck, NO! Ya can't do this, please!'

Shane rushed in the tent when he heard the leader's screams. 'What is it, Rick? What's happened.

Daryl made to follow suit but his brother gripped his arm and held him back. 'But what if...'

He didn't finish his sentence but everyone knew what their greatest fear was. Rick finding the bloody, bitten corpse of his son or worse – Carl already turned as a walker. But there hadn't been any walker sounds coming from the tent. Not that they could hear anyway.

'Rick!' Shane called out to him as he unzipped the tent. 'What is it?'

That's when he found him clutching ….paper. He was shaking his head and crying.

Shane didn't ask him what he said but snatched it from him. Then he read its contents written in badly-formed script like the author wasn't used to writing and had a shaking hand.

'No! Fuck, fuck, NO! Ya can't do this, please!'

YOU TOOK A DYING MAN'S SONS FROM HIM

NOW HE'S TAKEN YOURS INSTEAD

Then chillingly, written underneath in lower-case letters:

Don't bother looking for us. Boy's dead or might as well be.

'Rick.' Shane sighed and threw the note disdainfully onto the floor, shook his head and put an arm around his shoulders but his friend angrily pushed him away.

'Come on.' He hastily dried his tears. 'Ain't got no time to waste!'

'But can't we stay and jus' recoup a little while? We only jus' won the battle.'

'Won?' Rick glared at him and if looks could kill, Walsh would have already dropped dead to the floor. 'You think we won? With Carol and Andrea and the half the group dead?'

Despite himself, the big man found himself backing off and stuttering. He'd never seen that look in his best friend from childhood – burning, cold, murderous fury.

'When I get my hold on that old man, he's gonna pray for me to make it quick. But I won't …I'll drag it out long and slow...'

'Rick! He's got Carl! He's our priority, not gettin' revenge. Though I wouldn't mind that too, 'course I wouldn't.'

'Exactly! And ya want to stay and rest...'

'I love him too! Like my own because he's yours, Rick! But we ain't gonna be good for nothin' if we don't take care of ourselves first.' Shane paused and took a long breath. 'I'm only talkin' about an hour or two...'

'An hour or two is all it takes for him to kill him. Or worse.'

Shane frowned at that but didn't ask him what he meant by it. No doubt his shrewd mind was already putting two and two together though.

'Let's tell the others. We said after what happened to Daryl at Woodbury, we weren't gonna have no secrets between us anymore.' He urged.

'Yeah, bein' all open and candid with each other didn't help any to keep us together though, did it?' Rick snapped back bitterly and wiped his sweaty brow with a rag he had in his pocket. 'Sorry, didn't mean to snap at ya. Ain't ya fault.'

'But it is yours!' Somebody yelled furiously and suddenly Daryl was there and the two ex-cops saw his brother with him. Of course. Merle trailed behind him like a second shadow these days.

Daryl quickly picked up the scraps of paper and read it, his eyes widening in fear and horror.

'Carol, Andrea and all the others and now Carl – ya killed 'em!' He yelled and suddenly lunged at Rick but Shane got in the way. 'Now, I know we're all upset...'

Merle merely stood behind him and smirked. Not intervening but enjoying the show. Rick hated him for that.

'If ya had agreed to go with'em instead of bein' so stubborn, if ya had listened to us about Dad in the first place and got rid of him instead of fallin' for sick, old dyin' man crap...' Daryl struggled furiously against Shane's hold but couldn't get at his friend. 'Let go of me!'

'Better do what he says.' Merle growled behind them, the threat in his voice was clear when his little brother was being touched against his will.

'Lemme go!' Daryl hissed again, panic starting to cloud his vision.

'Don't ya think he feels bad enough? Shane complied but looked ready to hold him back the minute there was more trouble. 'Besides, he couldn't stop Carol and the others from leavin'.'

'What...What do ya think he's gonna do to him?' Rick only cared about his son and brushed off the Dixon's accusations. The truth was that he couldn't make him feel more guilty or bad about how things had turned out than he already did. If only Daryl knew...

'What he did to us.' Merle came right into the tent with them instead of hovering half in and half out.

Rick shuddered.

'Then kill'im.' The older Dixon finished brutally. The underlying meaning was clear to the leader, not so to his best friend

'Unless we go after him. Jus' us.' Daryl proposed. 'It's getting' light already.' He glanced outside through the opening in the flap.

'But...'

'We know him, know how he thinks. Besides, we're the best trackers.'

Rick looked at Shane.

'But...'

'Let'em go.' His friend said. 'We can't...Everybody is exhausted,grievin'.'

'Fine.' Rick gave in. 'Please, please bring him back to him, unharmed and...'

'Oh, we can't guarantee that, Officer Friendly.' Merle cut in.

Daryl elbowed him when he saw the man's stricken face. 'Shut the fuck up!' He hissed at him.

'We'll bring him back.' He promised more honestly.

…...

With that, Merle went out the tent first,, then Daryl, Shane and finally Rick. He had an announcement to make to the anxiously twittering crowd – none of which had dared to intrude on his pain.

'What is it, Rick? What's happened?' Dale was first to speak while the Dixons went off to get their tracking gear and sufficient weapons.

'Will Dixon's got Carl.'

There were gasps of horror at this and Beth cried out 'No!' and started to sob while her sister did her best to comfort her. But it was what most people were expecting, after all. If the boy was still alive that was.

'But he's dying, right?' Glenn piped up. 'What can he do?'

'A whole lot.' Rick replied and left it at that. Everyone knew that men with nothing to lose were the most dangerous. So he let them make of it what they will.

'Anyway, the Dixons have volunteered to go and find their father and bring Carl back.' Shane explained but didn't elaborate on how they planned to deal with Will Dixon. Nobody asked, after all, their priority was the boy.

…

The brothers left the camp.

'Do ya ...Do ya think he'll do to him what he did to me when I was his age?' Merle asked his brother fearfully now that they were alone as they went along looking for signs. The boy would have been struggling unless – more likely – the old bastard had put him out before he took him. Was their father still strong enough to drag along a skinny but quite tall for his age – 12 year old? He was considering all this while he and Daryl were intent on looking for signs of a struggle along the forest trails...bent vegetation, broken branches or even bits of torn clothes.

They were also looking for their father's bootprint.

Daryl didn't answer.

'I mean - can the ole goat even still get it up?' Merle kept needling at his little brother. Desperate for attention and to break the tense silence.

'Merle – if ya don't shut – Look at that!' He ran over the fifth trail they'd investigated from the tent and hadn't found a print – nothing that was conclusive. The evidence was pretty all messed up from the walkead feared most was not finding any trace – no doubt their Daddy knew they would be the ones to try and track him down and he would try to hide his tracks as much as he could. But he was old, sick and weak...Might even be in agony if he'd run out of medication not that pain ever stopped a Dixon from doing anything.

Both of them were hopeful now, even Merle and they found themselves firmly on the path their father and Rick's son had taken and followed it with confidence. Of course, there were no footprints as such but the path was beaten underfoot with the long grass that grew up either side of it.