Eyes scan the surrounding area anxiously awaiting for someone, notably Lee and Clem to those who knew, to speak up. Lee could feel sweat forming under his hair. Clem swallowed and clutched the walkie talkie in her pocket, ready to pull it out. Lee was too caught up in the moment to realize she was doing so, trying to think of an excuse or maybe a different plan.

"One." Bill counts, his voice strained and growly.

"Two."

…

"Thr-"

Clem starts pulling the radio out. "I have i-"

Chuck grabs the radio from her hand and lifts it up. "s'all right, I got it."

Eyes widen. Molly nearly shrieks out a loud 'no!' but Jane catches her, gripping her arm to shut her up. Carver lays his hand out with his brows furrowed, staring Chuck down. The old man looks behind his shoulder at Molly, feeling her gaze on him.

"It's alright." He nods at her, but her nervous expression tells her otherwise. Nick migrates towards Lee's group to hold Molly's hand. She's unresponsive, simply squeezing it as she watches her best friend waltz towards the greatest dictator she ever got the chance to meet. Every step echoes throughout the prison yard, even the birds seem to stop chirping with bated breath as the exchange was performed. Lee wanted to say something, to yell out and protest Charles' selfless act of heroism, but he knew it'd just further complicate things. At this point, nobody could speak at all. Clem already felt guilty before anything even happened.

Chuck stops in front of Bill. "Sorry about that. Must have grabbed it by mistake." His voice is unwaveringly bold, eyes shooting daggers into him. Bill's fingers wave, commanding him to drop the radio. He does so.

"Three."

More quiet. Chuck never takes his eyes off Carver, and Carver never takes his eyes off Chuck. Surprisingly, the older of the two takes another step forward, leaning into his ear as Bill holsters his gun. "In truth, I wanted to go for your gun so I could blow your brains out, you tyrannical fuck."

Bill feels a fire in his stomach as rage courses through him. A line snaps. He raises the walkie talkie and punches him in the nose with it, sending Chuck to the ground on his hands and knees.

"NO!" Molly yells, reaching for him. Carver pulls him up by the collar and hits him again, blood spurting out of his new facial cuts. And again. And again.

"Jesus Christ, stop!" Nick protests, fear in his, and everyone's eyes. Well, everyone but two: Molly and Kenny.

Chuck laughs, looking up with one closed eye and blood pouring from his face. "That the best you g-" SMACK!

Molly jumps to action, but Nick, Lee, Carley, Jane and Clementine hold her back from getting herself in any danger. "You piece of.. Filth! Let go of me! I'm gonna fucking kill him!"

Jane refuses. "You can't get close to that! Troy will kill you, if Carver doesn't first-"

"I don't fucking care. CHUCK!" Molly squeals desperately. The group gets her on the ground. For the first time in a long time, she starts crying, watching helplessly as the 'homeless' man she's spent years with is beat down in front of her with the same radio she retrieved. The speaker is soaked with blood and at this point all noise has ceased from Charles.

Kenny can't stand to see this. He balls his hands into fists and charges forward. Carlos grabs his hand and pulls him back. "Hands off, quack."

Carlos rejects him. "You're going to get killed! Ben, help me!" Kenny just barely gets out of his grip.

Ben rushes towards him and locks him into a full nelson. "Kenny, no!"

"Get off me! I ain't lettin' anyone else die!" He cries out, elbowing Ben in the chin, causing him to fall back and clutch the pained area. He's referring to Travis and Matthew. The kid knows that.

"Fuck 'em up, dad!" Duck shouts. Sarita pulls her son back.

"NO! KENNY, STOP!" She sobs, anguished.

As Kenny sprints forward to save his friend, Troy suddenly appears and gives him a reality check, hitting him in the eye with the butt of his rifle. He falls like a ragdoll on his stomach, slowly looking up at him while holding his eye. Chuck continues getting beat into the ground whilst Troy, Tavia and Stan hold their guns to the prisoners.

"Back! Everyone get the hell back!" Tavia demands. Troy pulls Kenny up by his collar and takes his hand off the eye.

"Goddamn! Hey, Bill, I think I bursted something over here-" Kenny's fist clashes into Troy's throat, causing him to sputter and cough. He kicks his boot into Kenny's head for revenge, repeating the process over the damaged eye until a pair of arms throw him back.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Shawn boldly proclaims over Kenny's unconscious body. Alvin holds Rebecca close as she trembles, Carlos holds Sarita back as she tries to run towards the action, Sarah can't stop but hyperventilate as Luke hugs her to his chest. Troy is shocked by the farmhands' bravery, but insulted as well, shoving past him to aim at the group. Sarita escapes Carlos' grasp and coddles her unconscious boyfriend. Duck and Ben join her. She cries into his chest.

Bonnie shakes her head, getting herself out of the shock before approaching the scene. "BILL! THAT'S ENOUGH, BILL! PLEASE!" He looks up momentarily, panting. "Bill, there's Reggie, and then there's this! Look at what you're doing!" Carver growls before throwing one more punch into Chuck's skull, a loud crunch following the hit. The group is devastated. Molly can only sob into her hands awfully, her throat hitching. Chuck doesn't come back as a walker.

"Where's the other one?!" He demands, slowly pacing in front of the corpse. Bonnie gets down to help Carlos inspect the wound on Kenny's eye. Shawn notices Lee reach for his walkie talkie.

"I have it! Alright?" Lee exclaims. Carver looks even angrier, reaching for his gun slowly like he was out of a western.

"Why.. in God's name do you have the other one, huh?"

"I gave it to him." Shawn says simply, walking up to Bill. He slowly turns to look at him.

"You what..?"

"I gave it to him. He wanted to speak to Clementine at night while still remaining in the pen so he could speak to his group, so… I gave him a radio." A few Howe's members hold their breaths, others facepalm.

"Then why did Charles here have the other one?" Carver growls, venom in his voice.

"He.. he must have stolen it. I don't know when, but he must have taken it off of me. I was going to give the other one to Clementine." He mutters, rubbing his arm.

"And you didn't tell me.. why?"

"Because I didn't think you'd allow it." Shawn replies. Lee walks up and gives Shawn the radio. He places it in Carver's hand, which snatches it away suddenly.

"You're fucking A right I wouldn't. Now get the fuck outta my sight while I think about what to do with you."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry." He walks away, back to the ER. Lee gives him a look of acknowledgment, nodding. Shawn nods back, uneasily.

"No supper for y'all tonight. Maybe an empty stomach will teach you a lesson or two." Carver huffs, walking away from the others. As he does, Molly, Clem, Lee and Carley run towards Chuck's dead body, all holding him close as they mourn him, none with dry faces.

"I'm so sorry, Chuck.. I'm so fucking sorry." Molly shakingly stammers. Carley holds her close, but it's Nick who steps up and gets down beside her, holding her hand. She again squeezes it back, falling over to close his eyes permanently, her fingers stained with his blood.

Carver suddenly stops. "Oh, hey.. One more thing." He turns around, pulls his revolver out and fires, hitting Alvin in the forehead. Without a blink, he falls on his face dead. The sound of the bullet is nothing compared to Rebecca's anguished scream.

"NO, ALVIN!"

"Alvin!" Luke and Pete yell in unison, the cabin group (minus Sarah, who is absolutely shaking, and Carlos, who immediately jumps up to hold his daughter) running towards the corpse. They all hold Rebecca to comfort her and prevent her from any stress induced labor. She can only cry against his warm body as it slowly turns cold.

"Clean shot. You can thank Daniel. He came into my office shaking something fierce. Think he was scared of something. He told me about Big Al's little secret, and, well… Somebody clean this mess up. Clementine, Carley, back in your bedroom, now." The two women stand and glare at him through their tears. He points at Troy. "Lock the pen down. All the prisoners are here. Make sure nobody gets out." He leaves for his office. Everyone gives Danny death glares. He takes a few panicked steps back, turning to Carver as he leaves.

"D-do I get moved somewhere else, boss?" He gets ignored. Slowly, he turns back to all the unhappy faces staring him down and swallows.

Bonnie walks up to the cabin group, primarily next to Carlos, biting back tears. "Get Kenny patched up soon, doc. 'Cause we're leaving tonight." The prisoners look at her. "We're leaving tonight."

Two hours later, the pen is quiet. Somber, of course, for various reasons, but more to the point, the wheels are spinning. On the medical bed, instead of Duck, it's his father, a blood soaked eyepatch over his left eye, his iconic cap by his side. There's bruising and dried blood along the bridge of his nose and a nasty purple bruise of his left cheek, with a small cut over his chin from Troy's boot. He doesn't look good, immobile in his bed with Carlos tending to him with Duck unable to leave his side and Sarah trying to comfort him, to no avail.

Sarita sits by the fireplace, hugging Rebecca as the two women cry into each other's shoulders. Molly sits across from them, no longer crying. She just stares at the flames and crackles of the fire, with Nick sitting next to her on her left and Jane on her right. "What are you thinking about?" Jane asks.

Molly's voice is broken. "What I'm gonna do to that fucker when we get outta here. I wanna be the one to deal the final blow. I want him to suffer."

"I could say the same for Troy." Jane replies. "You don't blame yourself, right?"

"Of course I do. I got those radios, I put everyone in danger."

"If it makes you feel any better, Lee signed off on the choice."

"I would have done it regardless to get everyone out of here."

"That's noble." Nick comments.

"Sure." Molly sighs.

Pete sits in his chair next to his nephew. Luke is by the gate with Mike, talking to Bonnie through the door. Lee paces, unable to sit down with how shaky his legs get when he has to. He can't stop thinking about all of the unnecessary deaths today. He told the group about Walter shortly after the radio incident and they did not take it well. Especially not Sarita. And Christa.. Whatever was happening to her right now, he could only blame himself and that asshole that manipulated him into believing his ways for even a second.

Ben sits on the floor by the fire, just across from Jane, focused intensely on the stars. Danny sits in the corner of the pen, hugging his knees in fear whilst looking out the fence, occasionally looking back at the others. Any time they'd catch him, they'd glare back and tell him to mind his own business before they kick his ass. That scared him almost as much as Carver did.

Luke and Mike return to the group after his talk with Bonnie, who walks a few feet away from the fence before pacing with her gun out, acting as the guard of the pen for tonight. Everyone looks up at the farm boy with somber eyes, while Mike sits down across from Rebecca. "What did she say?" Ben asks, noticing everyone else was either too strained or too sad to speak up.

Mike answers. "She said she can get us out of the pen if we can get the PA system going. Second she hears it, she and Shawn will run over and spring us. Oh, and Shel and Becca are on board with escaping as long as we are. She persuaded them, or Shel came up to her."

"That's great." Lee replies. Rebecca sniffles and wipes her eyes so she can participate in the conversation, letting go of Sarita, who instead begins crying into her hands.

"It's not great." Luke mutters, shaking his head.

"We can't stay here underneath their thumbs, Luke." Pete replies.

"Look, I hear what you're saying, and I understand that no one is to blame here," Luke says, looking up at Lee with a hint of assurance. It doesn't assure Lee. "but it's risky."

Mike scoffs. "Risky? Did you see what that son of a bitch just did? Look, the plan works: nothing needs to change. It's all set up. The hard part is done, this guy's fucking crazy. Who knows what he'll do next?"

"Yeah, but now we're dealing with a guy beat to shit, Sarita in no shape to do anything, Rebecca's got days before she's gonna pop and Duck's a goddamn mess. Look, we should rest up, okay? We should bide our time and wait for an opening." Luke replies.

Mike shakes his head. "Look, Bonnie's agreeing to get us out tonight. Do you realize how lucky we got with her and Shawn?"

"That doesn't mean she can't help us some other night!"

"I dunno, guys, Luke's speaking some sense. Maybe we should wait." Nick says. Rebecca looks up, her eyes red and puffy.

"We're not waiting."

"Damn right." Molly agrees, letting go of Nick's hand to clasp her own together.

"Well where would we go? Ain't no way Parker's Run ain't been picked clean, we can't go back to the cabin with the herd and even if we could I seriously doubt it hasn't been ransacked by Carver's people, and in any of these scenarios, how is Pete getting out of here in a wheelchair? I'm just saying, we gotta be sensible about this." Luke questions. Nobody really knows what to say, so Lee changes the subject.

"How's Kenny?"

Luke looks down solemnly. "It.. it don't look good."

Right on cue comes in Carlos, his hands raw and bloody from the patch work. Duck and Sarah stand to his sides, both looking just as cumbersome as him. Sarita peaks her head up, still crying, waiting for an answer. "Is he.. Gonna be okay?" Ben questions.

Carlos speaks with a scratchy, tired voice. "His orbital is crushed. I don't think there's much hope for the eye. I got him as stable as I could, cleaned it, got some of the swelling down, bandaged it as best I could.. But until he wakes up, we won't know if there's any damage to the brain." Sarita can't help herself anymore, spilling over in tears. Rebecca rubs her back.

Lee hangs his head. "Fuck.."

Luke sighs. "Alright.. Alright, well, maybe I'm playing devil's advocate here, but.. damnit, if y'all are serious about going tonight we're gonna have to start talking about maybe.. Leaving some folks behind."

"No!" Sarita whimpers, her voice wavering.

"There is no other way."

"This is bullshit!" Ben calls out.

Luke shakes his head."I don't like it either. But think about it: our hole is patched. The only way we were able to escape last time was because we weren't a big group of around twenty people, everyone was able bodied and we had that breach. Now we have over twenty people if we're serious about taking Shel and Becca, half of us are crippled or wounded or otherwise unfit to cross the horde, and we have no breach. We'd have to leave through the garage in the stockroom, which is a huge door. If we wanna leave with the bare minimum casualties-"

Sarita interrupts him. "My group is ONLY here because of you people! And because of your recklessness, we've lost two incredible men and my family has been.. Beaten! You don't get to decide if you leave us behind; we are NOT staying here!"

"Damn right. I can't let these people stay here, Luke. Not after everything I've done to them today. I'm.. I'm so sorry, about Walter, and about Kenny. We're not leaving any of you behind." Lee adds, standing tall. Sarita just looks down.

"Nobody wants to leave Kenny behind, Lee, but.. We may have to." Luke says.

"...No. No you won't." Kenny appears, limping toward the group. Everyone turns to face him, shocked at the strength in him. Sarita jumps out of her seat, slowly approaching him until they're face to face. She breaks down, hugging him tighter than he had ever felt before. He hugs just as tightly. "I'm alright, hun.." She slowly departs from him. Ben smiles, punching Kenny in the shoulder. "You too, kid." He smiles back.

"Not bad, old man." Nick says, smirking.

"Thanks, asshole." He looks down at his son, who immediately breaks down upon seeing him. "C'mere, boy. It's okay." Duck flies into his arms, embracing his father strongly. "Ooh.. got a grip on you, buddy. Careful there."

"Sorry, sir.."

"None of that sir nonsense, now." Kenny replies, rubbing his back.

"You are one tough bastard." Lee states, smiling at him.

"Do tough bastards get their ass kicked in front of everybody?" Kenny asks rhetorically.

"Yeah, and live to tell the tale."

Mike nods at him. "Sweet eyepatch, too."

"Thanks. Now, about the plan: it doesn't change from last night. It's perfect already." Kenny says, his voice gravelly.

Jane stands up and walks up between Lee and Kenny. "Lee, are we taking this thing over or are we leaving? Not gonna lie, I'd prefer taking our metaphorical shit and hitting the door, but technically speaking you are the longest lasting leader among us. Plus, there's the question of your friend up there in Carver's office and how exactly you're gonna communicate with Clementine and Carley."

Luke stands up along with everyone else. "Bonnie's got that covered. Her and Shawn know the plan. All we gotta do is set off the PA and they'll meet us in the stock room."

"Alright then. It's your call."

"Why should Lee be the only one makin' the call? If Chuck were here, he'd know that a vote is the best course of action. Same with Alvin. And Walter… that man was a strong leader. He knew that democracy was the key to a good group. It's what held us together." Kenny says, dampening the mood with memories of the recently passed, but making a solid point. What was Lee to do?

Choices

A: Let's put it to a vote

B: I say we leave

C: We take over

Relationships

Clementine: 15/15 (You don't blame her for what happened to Chuck)

Carley: 14/15 (Carley wants to stay and help the innocent people living in Howe's, but she's alright with whatever you choose)

Christa: 3/15 (She feels betrayed and endangered from your character change)

Molly: 15/15 (She just wants to get out of here and kill the man who murdered her best friend)

Kenny: 5/15 (This may decide how much Kenny trusts you later on. He wants to leave. He doesn't like what you did to Walter, but he has to put that aside for now, because he knows you were 'forced' into it)

Ben: 7/15 (You did kill his friend and leader. He's not sure if he should trust you)

Duck: 1/15 (Walter's murder and the subsequent consequences of the radio decision have made him hate you)

Sarita: 1/15 (The murder of Walter has made her despise you)

Luke: 11/15 (His opinion is clear. He doesn't blame you for everything that happened and understands why you did what you did, but he can't deny it's a little messed up)

Pete: 12/15 (He understands why you did what you did, but he doesn't like how close to Carver you actually got)

Nick: 14/15

Carlos: 10/15

Sarah: 8/15

Alvin: 14/15

Rebecca: 14/15

Mike: 6/10

Jane: 6/10

Danny: 2/15 (He knows you hate him and is scared of you and your group)

Bonnie: 7/15 (She's close to trusting you to help with your plans)

Carver: 7/15 (Bill isn't sure if he can trust you anymore)

Tavia: 6/15

Stan: 7/15

Shawn: 8/15 (He's paid off the favor. Now he wants to leave and get far away from any consequence Carver has brewing)

Troy: 3/15 (He knows your feelings on him)

Justin: 4/15

Wyatt: 5/10

Eddie: 6/10

Shel: 7/10 (After that display in the pen, she feels this place is Roman's group all over again. She wants to leave)

Becca: 7/15 (After that display in the pen, she's scared of Carver)

Sam: 7/15 (He can sense Carver's trust in you fading)