Holy crap this chapter did not wanna get written! Probably because we're actually on the next to last chapter before we end the Season 2 part of this story (yay!) and I just wanted to get it done, so its probably not my best work by far. But anyway, speaking we are about to get done with this season, I need you guys to PM me or review or whether or not you want me to continue season 3 in THIS story or end this one and create another one. I can do both, which is why I'm so torn, so what I really need is you guy's input. So please, do that for me and it'll majorly help me along :)

missy7293 - Yeah, its super fun to write Daryl when he's being all fluffy and protective, probably because we virtually never see that side of him but it also challenging to keep the balance between writing HIM and then being a little OC. Glad you like it though :)

HaloHunter89 - Yeah, I'm not entirely sure if I wanna expand on Rick's feelings for Tess (of course them being one sided) but I guess it all depends on how much drama I wanna put in the next part.

PS - Sorry, sorry, a thousand times sorry for the extreme shortness of this chapter. Again, this chapter did not wanna be written and every time I would sit down to actually write the damn thing I would people calling and wanting to hang out and/or need me to do something. The next one should be more the length you guys are used to.


Favorite Line(s):

"Rick ain' a stupid man. Hopefully he knows tha' Shane is 'bout to majorly show him his true colors and he'll be ready for it."

"And if he isn't?" Glenn asked, hesitancy appearing in his eyes and Daryl heaved a sigh and a hard swallow.

"Then I guess I'll have to prepare to become tha new group leader, eh? Hell, fuck Lori - Tess is already practically Den Mother!"

Randall was gone.

Randall was actually gone.

"What's wrong?" Maggie asked, her voice alarmed, as everyone filed out of the house and Glenn pursed his lips as he connected eyes with Rick and then briefly, Daryl.

"Randall is gone." He told her and everyone's eyes widened in horror.

"Missing? How is he missing?" Maggie demanded and everyone shrugged.

"How long has he been gone?" Hershel asked, trying to restore some semblance of stability to the group and they shrugged weakly again.

"It's hard to say for sure," Rick told him as he exited from the shed. "The cuffs are still hooked, though. He must have slipped then."

"Is that possible?" Carol asked and Rick nodded as Andrea exited the shed as well.

"It is if you got nothing to lose!" She answered her with a shake of her head as Hershel closed the shed door back.

"The door was closed and secured from the outside. I don't know how this could have happened." He spoke and Tessa shook her head as her fingers flew to her necklaces. Daryl took his side next to her.

"Well then, how could he have gotten out? He's not fucking David Copperfield!" She reminded them and Rick opened his mouth to say something, however, he was interrupted by Shane suddenly shouting out his name. When the man walked out of the woods, the front of his face covered in blood, everyone immediately gasped in shock and worry, including Tessa and Daryl.

"What happened?" Lori yelled to him and Shane shook his head as he continued on his way towards them.

"He's armed!" He shouted to them "He's got my gun!"

"Are you alright?" It was Carl that spoke this time and Shane nodded.

"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me is all. He clocked me in the face before I even knew what was happening." Rick nodded as he turned back towards the group.

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back to the house. Glenn, Daryl, Ethan – come with us!" Daryl and Ethan turned one last look back at Tessa but she simply told him to go and hurriedly pushed them in the direction of Rick and Shane. They nodded and immediately took off at a jog for him as Tessa was prodded gently back in the direction of the house by Carol and Lori.

"T, I'm gonna need that gun!" Shane told him and T-Dog nodded as he handed it to him. Carol simply shook her head.

"Just let him go," She spoke. "That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here," Rick told her. "Not on our front step with a damn gun!" He glanced back at them as they marched towards the woods. "Get everybody in the house – stay put – and lock all the damn doors!"

"I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out," Shane told him as they entered the cool shade of the woods seconds later. "I'm not sure how long I was out but he couldn't have gotten far with that leg of his." Rick nodded in agreement.

"He's hobbled and exhausted."

"And armed." Glenn added but Rick glanced back at him.

"Remember: so are we," He pointed at Daryl and Ethan who were already busy studying the leafy forest floor. "Can you guys track him at all?" Daryl shook his head.

"No, I don' see anythin'. Ethan?" He glanced back at his son and he shook his head.

"Yeah, I don't see anything at all, deddy. Actually . . ." His eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion as his eyes continued to scan the forest floor. "I don't even think he's come through here."

"Look, there ain't any use in tracking him, okay?" Shane spoke up, his voice adopting a tone that immediately made Daryl's hair stand on end. And judging by the sudden tenseness in Ethan's body as his gaze immediately flew onto Shane, he sensed it as well. "He went that way. We just need to pair up and spread out and chase him down. That's it!"

"Tha kid weighs a buck-25 soakin' wet. Hell, Ethan's years younger than him and prolly weighs more," He turned a highly skeptical gaze onto him. "Are ya tryin' to tell us tha' he got tha jump on ya? Forgive me if I call bullshit on tha'."

"I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?" Shane replied with venom lacing his tone and hatred filling his eyes.

"All right, knock it off!" Rick interrupted them before it could get even worse and turned towards Daryl. "You, Glenn and Ethan start heading up the right flank. Me and Shane will take the left," Daryl nodded as Rick held him back. "Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there, especially so close to dark! Keep an eye out for each other."

They all nodded as they went their separate ways then, Ethan running to catch up with his father and best friend. "You really think Rick's okay being with just Shane?" He asked them, Daryl in particular, and he gave a shrug.

"Rick ain' a stupid man. Hopefully he knows tha' Shane is 'bout to majorly show him his true colors and he'll be ready for it."

"And if he isn't?" Glenn asked, hesitancy appearing in his eyes and Daryl heaved a sigh and a hard swallow.

"Then I guess I'll have to prepare to become tha new group leader, eh? Hell, fuck Lori - Tess is already practically Den Mother!"


They had to admit, as the three of them moved as quietly as they could (Daryl and Ethan moving substantially quieter than Glenn was) that the gloom and darkness of the forest was a tad bit unsettling. It was like something out of a horror movie: three friends walking through the woods when all of a sudden they're set upon by a couple of inbred, cannibalistic maniacs wearing coveralls. Even if they were armed, the thought still sent shivers down their spines.

Daryl and Ethan's eyes were trained perpetually on the ground as they walked, straining to find even the slightest clue as to where the kid had gone while Glenn served as their lookout – constantly gazing around them to be sure they weren't about to find themselves in the middle of a walker herd.

A bird that squawked and immediately took of - his wings beating against the leafy forest floor - was what caused Glenn to jump. Ethan shot him a grin over his shoulder. "Easy Glenn; I think birds are the least of our worries right now." He told him and Glenn nodded.

"Y-yeah, I know. It just . . . it startled me, that's all." He replied and Daryl glanced at the both of them.

"Stay focused ya'll. If tha' kid is as dangerous as Shane says he is – which, again, I severely doubt it – then we wanna keep a lookout." Glenn nodded in agreement and so did Ethan as he returned his eyes to the forest floor underneath their feet. They once again descended into a silence that was only punctuated by the sounds of their feet against the ground, croaking frogs and crickets.

Eventually, Daryl heaved a sigh as they came to a stop. "This is fuckin' pointless. Glenn, give me a light." Glenn nodded as he handed him the flashlight. Daryl cut it on and began shining it on the ground. "Maybe we'll be able to actually find somethin' now tha' we have some light!" He muttered and eventually, when that proved fruitless as well, he let out an impatient groan. "Goddammit – come on ya two, let's try over here." He spoke and Ethan and Glenn glanced at each other before they nodded and followed him.

"I can't shake the feelin' that something bad is gonna happen. Do ya get that?" Ethan asked after a moment, glancing at them and while Glenn immediately nodded, it took a moment before Daryl did.

"Ya mean aside from Rick and Shane?" Ethan nodded and he pursed his lips. "Yeah . . . don' know why though, but I get tha feeling tha' this night is only gonna get worse. Which is why I wanna find this damn kid and then get back on home," He shook his head. "I don' wanna leave ya momma alone when I got this feelin' 'cause ma feelin's are almost always correct."

"Yeah, but we're back to square one." Glenn spoke up with a slightly irritated sigh when they found themselves looped back to where they had been five minutes earlier. Daryl shook his head.

"Yeah, well, if there was one thing ma old man taught me tha' I actually took to heart, its if ya gonna do somethin', ya mine-as-well do tha' somethin' right. Now tha' we have light, we might pick up somethin' tha' we previously missed."

"Which is entirely possible . . ." Ethan muttered as the bright beam of the flashlight swept the floor in front of them. After a few minutes of doing this, Ethan slapped a hand on Daryl's chest before pointing down at the ground.

"Look, there's two sets of tracks right there," He spoke and Daryl nodded that he saw them as he bent down to get a closer look.

"Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said . . ." He spoke and Ethan glanced at him as Daryl got to his feet and they began following them.

"Does that surprise you, though?" Daryl shook his head.

"Nothin' with tha' snake surprises me anymore," He replied as the beam of the flashlight settled onto a tree in front of them, "There's fresh blood on this tree, too – ya see tha'?" Ethan nodded as all three of them stepped closer. Glenn continued to keep a good watch around them as Ethan pointed to the ground again.

"There's more tracks going off this-a-way . . ." Daryl nodded.

"Looks like they're walkin' in tandem too . . ." An animal howled in the distance then, drowning out Daryl's voice in his ear as Glenn shot another nervous look over his shoulder, accidentally bumping into Daryl as he did so. Both Dixons came to quite a sudden stop and turned back to gaze at him, Ethan fighting to hold back a grin as Daryl simply shot him an expressionless look. Glenn blanched slightly and quickly backed off of him.

"S-sorry!" He immediately apologized and Ethan let out a snort of a laugh as Daryl shook his head and went back to what he had been doing.

"There was a little dust-up right here . . ." Daryl spoke up as he moved closer to where the flashlight beam was now trained.

"What do ya mean?" Glenn asked him, anything to get his mind off of the weird animal sounds that were starting to pick up around them and Daryl gave a half-hearted shrug.

"I mean tha' somethin' went down here." Ethan's eyebrows rose.

"Yeah, and it was pretty big too!" He added and Glenn swallowed heavily.

"This is starting to get weird." He spoke and Ethan turned the same look onto Glenn – eyebrows raised in slight disbelief.

"Man, this has been weird since Shane came walkin' out of the forest a while ago!" He spoke and Daryl nodded in agreement as he continued walking, following the tracks they had so recently found. Daryl paused for a minute before quickly walking forward.

"They had a little trouble . . ." He told them as he bent down and picked up the length of black cloth lying on the ground. He held it up in the flashlight beam and Ethan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Isn' that the dude's blindfold?" He asked and Daryl nodded.

"I'd bet ma last dollar, it was." He replied but a rustling and cracking in the trees not far away caused them to jump and immediately take cover. The cracking was much too big for an animal. Glenn's breathing came out hard as he peered around his tree, only to see the form of a human walking slowly by two trees not far away from them. He turned to face Daryl and Ethan standing behind two more trees when he heard the 'psst'. Daryl tossed him the flashlight and Glenn caught it expertly as the two Dixons peered around the tree, already tracking the walker's movements.

Glenn nodded, hefting his ax aloft as he slowly moved out from behind the tree. The beam of his flashlight caught the kid's now decayed face and he opened his mouth and let out a creaking moan as his hands outstretched towards Glenn. The younger man froze underneath the walker's milky white gaze, dropping his ax as he did so and Daryl cursed under his breath as he aimed his crossbow and pulled the trigger. Glenn hit the ground, hands scrabbling uselessly for his ax and the crossbow bolt missed the walker by inches as his hands grabbed onto Daryl and wrested him to the ground. Ethan let out a shout of alarm and drew back his bow, quickly settling his sights on the walker. His arrow missed too as Daryl let out a grunt, trying everything in his power to keep the walker's jaws and hands from biting him or digging into his stomach like Dale.

Daryl felt the walker fall to the side as Glenn slammed into him with his shoulder, where he reared back and slammed his ax into his head. The walker let out a gurgle and then fell silent, his eyes gazing lifelessly up at him. Ethan quickly helped his father to his feet, Daryl breathing hard as he quickly checked himself for bites or scratches. When he was satisfied that he was completely clean, he bent down beside the walker and gazed at him for a moment as Ethan went in search of their arrows.

Yup, it was the kid.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he gently tilted his head this way and that. "Tha kid got his neck broke . . ." He spoke, and Glenn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as did Ethan's when he finally found his arrow and Daryl's crossbow bolt and returned to them. Daryl flipped him over and checked his body for the customary walker bite and when he spoke, his voice was clearly confused.

"Yeah, none ya can see!" Glenn spoke as Daryl continued to search the walker and Ethan let out a snort of a laugh as he made his way back to them.

"Yeah, sorry Glenn, but I don't exactly think the guy would be having walker bites on anywhere embarrassing!" Glenn shot him a look over his shoulder and Daryl shook his head.

"Naw, I'm tellin' ya two – he died from this!" He pointed to the kid's snapped neck and Glenn shot him a confused look.

"How is that possible? It doesn't match what Shane told us." He asked it was then that the three of them shared a stricken look.

"Unless Shane was lying . . ." Ethan added slowly, quietly and Daryl nodded.

"Which means Rick's in some pretty deep shit right now!"


"Hey honey, what's wrong?"

Lori jumped slightly and glanced back at Tessa as her best friend moved to join her. She smiled a small smile and shrugged weakly as her hand splayed out on her collarbone. She had been staring out one of the second floor windows facing the woods that the guys had gone off into in search of the missing kid, and shrugged again.

"Nothing, I don't guess. It's just . . . I'm worried about them, ya know? I can't help but feel uneasy – like something bad is gonna happen soon." She spoke and Tessa nodded slowly in agreement.

"Yeah, I know, I've been feelin' it too. It has me uneasy as well," She shook her head as she heaved a shaky sigh, crossing her arms in front of her chest as well as she moved to join her friend by the window. "I just want Daryl and Ethan to come back, ya know? I want them to be here in case some shit really does hit the fan – so I know they are safe!" Lori nodded in agreement as well.

"I know what ya mean honey, I really do."