I woke up with something warm pressed against my side and opened my eyes to find Jamie snuggled up against me. I smiled and used my uninjured arm to run my fingers through his hair. I looked at the clock on the night stand and saw that it was around noon.
"Mommy?" Jamie asked, opening his eyes.
"Hey baby." I whispered.
He started crying and buried his head in my side.
"Oh, sweetheart, don't cry. Everything's okay." I said, comforting him.
"You were really hurt, mommy. I was scared."
"I'm okay now. Where is everyone?" I asked.
"They're in camp. Hershel is downstairs. Should I get him?" Jamie answered.
"Yeah, sweetie. Then we'll go to camp." I told him.
Jamie nodded before getting up and running out of the room. A few moments later, Jamie ran into the room with Hershel behind him.
"Good to see you awake, Violet." Hershel greeted.
"Good to be awake. How long was I out?" I asked.
"You've been in and out of it for about a week." Hershel answered.
My eyes widened. "A week!"
"You lost a lot of blood. And the painkillers I gave you were strong."
After he checked my wounds, Hershel gave me a crutch to walk with for a few days and a sling so I wouldn't move my shoulder. Jamie grabbed his stuffed moose and we slowly left the house. The stairs were the hardest, trying to get off the porch. But I got off, and hobbled into camp where everyone but Tyler and Daryl greeted me.
"It's good to see you up and around." Rick said, walking up to me.
"Yeah, but I have to use these for the rest of the week." I said motioning to the crutch.
"Better than what happened to the other kid." Rick replied.
"Other kid?" I questioned.
"One of the kids from the group that attacked us ended up having his leg going through a fence. Hershel had to fix it." Rick answered.
"Where is the kid now?" I asked.
"In the shed. Daryl's talking to him right now." He answered.
I nodded before sitting down on the chair by the fire. Carol gave me a sandwich and I thanked her before I started eating it. I was starving. Jamie sat next to me on the ground, playing with Carl.
"So what are you gonna do?" Lori asked Rick. "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."
"Is there a plan?"
"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn questioned.
"We'll know soon enough." Rick answered, looking behind everyone.
Daryl was walking over with his crossbow strapped to his back and bloody knuckles. He looked at me before looking at Rick,
"Boy there's got a gang, thirty men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna wish they were."
"What did you do?" Jamie asked, looking up at him.
"Had a little chat." Daryl answered.
"No one goes near this guy." Rick ordered.
"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asked.
"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat." Rick answered.
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale questioned.
"It's settled. I'll do it today." Rick left and Dale followed him.
As I ate, Glenn told me what happened while I was out. Then when I was done, I decided to go back into the house to get a shower. After I was done, I decided to give Jamie a bath. Then we both walked back to my tent. I read to him that book Glenn found. We spent most of the day in the tent, around five in the afternoon I fell asleep.
"Vi, wake up." I heard someone whisper.
"No." I whined.
I then felt my blanket being taken away and I opened my eyes and saw Daryl looking down at me and my blanket was thrown across the tent. I pouted before throwing the pillow at his face.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"the group's gonna talk about Randall." He answered, throwing the pillow back at me.
I huffed before standing up and following him out of my tent with my crutch.
"Where's Jamie?" I asked.
He's with Carl." Daryl answered as we walked inside the house and I sat down beside Glenn.
"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn questioned.
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.
"How about majority rules?" Lori offered.
"Well, let's just see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options." Rick said.
"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane said.
"Killing him, right?" Dale asked, "I mean, why bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."
"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick replied.
"Well, I can tell you, it's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn." Dale said.
"Look, I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-" Glenn started.
"They got you scared!"
"He's not one of us." Glenn responded. "And we've lost too many people already."
Dale looked at Maggie, "How bout you? Do you agree with this?"
"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" Maggie asked.
"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl said.
"It may be a lean winter." Hershel commented.
"We could ration better."
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale said.
"Put him to work?" Glenn asked.
"We're not letting him walk around." Rick stated.
"We could put an escort on him." Maggie offered.
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked.
"I will." Dale said.
"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick said.
"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori added.
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea commented.
"Look, say we let him join us , right?" Shane began, "Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let out guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men."
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime he may never even attempt?" Dale questioned. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."
"Oh my god." Shane sighed.
"Could you drive him further out?" Hershel asked. "Leave him like you planned?"
"You barely came back last time. There are walkers. You could break down. You could get lost." Lori pointed out.
"Or get ambushed." Daryl added.
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn said.
"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia asked. "Would he suffer?"
"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane said.
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick replied.
"and what about the body? Do we bury him?
"Hold on, hold on." Dale interrupted, "You're talking about this like it's already decided. "
"You've been talkin' all day, goin' around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl asked.
"This is a young man's life and it is worth more than a five minute conversation!" Dale yelled, "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"
"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said.
"No, Dale is right." Rick replied, "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"
"So what's the other solution?"
"Let Rick finish."
"We haven't? come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could." Andrea said.
"So let's work on it!" Dale yelled.
"We are." Rick replied.
"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide, either of you, both of you, but leave me out." Carol said.
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself, there's no difference." Dale said.
"All right, that's enough. Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick replied.
Rick looked around at all of us, and no one stepped up.
"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale said.
"That was before the living tried to kill us." Rick responded.
"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew if dead. And this new world is ugly. It's... harsh. It's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't want to live in and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?" Dale asked.
"He's right." Andrea said after a moment. "We should try to find another way."
"Anybody else?" Rick asked.
When no one spoke up Rick looked at Dale.
"Are y'all gonna watch, too?" Dale asked, tears in his eyes, "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. I won't be a party to it."
Dale walked past us but stopped next to Daryl, "This group is broken."
That night we all waited by the fire for Rick, Shane, and Daryl to come back. When we didn't hear a gun shot and we saw Rick coming back with Carl, we knew something was up.
"We're keeping him in custody for now."
"I'm gonna find Dale." Andrea said before running off.
I put Jamie to bed before going to find Daryl. I was at his tent, but he wasn't there and I heard a scream. I grabbed my knife from my waistband, dropped my crutch, and started running, more like limping, towards the scream.
"Dale!" I heard Andrea yell.
"Help! Over here!" I heard Daryl yell.
I stopped when I saw Dale. His stomach was ripped open and his intestines were laid out around him.
"Mommy!" I turned around and saw Jamie running towards me.
"Stay back baby." I told him.
"Get Hershel!" Rick yelled. "He needs blood. We got to operate now."
Andrea and I sat down on either side of Dale and held his hand. I felt a small hand on my shirt and I knew it was Jamie.
"Hang on, Dale." I whispered and he looked at me with scared eyes.
"What happened?" Hershel asked, running over.
"What can we do?" Rick asked. "Can we move him?"
"He won't make the trip." Hershel answered.
"You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house." Rick started.
"Rick." Hershel stopped him and shook his head.
"No!"
I let out a sob and I looked up at Rick who took out his gun.
"He's suffering." Andrea said. "Do something!"
Rick pointed his gun at Dale's head, but he wasn't pulling the trigger.
"Don't look, baby." I told Jamie and he buried his head in my back.
I watched Daryl take the gun from Rick,
"Sorry, brother."