Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
"What do you think?" Daryl asked me
"Umm..Rabbit?" I asked him looking at the tracks
"Why do you say that?"
I pointed at the tracks, "Rabbits keep their back feet together so they can hop faster away from danger."
"Hmm" He grunted and we silently moved forward, "What way did it go?"
I looked around at the lower branches trying to find any disturbances, "That way." I pointed seeing a continuing path.
"Good, come on" He says and we walked slowly as we came up on the rabbit, I smiled at Daryl and he raised his crossbow then shot it.
"How can you aim at a small target with that?" I asked him and he looked at me then reloaded it and stood behind me handing it to me, it was heavier then I thought so he helped me lift it
"Put this here" He instructed placing the stock against my shoulder, "Now like with your gun you use your dominant eye through the scope." He says and I closed my left eye and looked through, "Now aim at that bush over there" he tells me and put his hands on my hips
"It's hard for me to concentrate when you do that." I tell him with a smile and he kept his hands there but pulled me closer to him
"Gotta make you nervous" He says in my ear and my skin tingled, "Just relax"
I looked through the scope again and focused, I took a breath and pulled the trigger feeling the crossbow spring in my hand as the arrow flew to the bush, "Nice!" I said and looked at him, he took the crossbow away and pulled me to him
"You did good for your first lesson."
"Do I get a reward?" I asked and he moved me backwards against a tree then lifted my legs up wrapping them around his waist, he looked at me silently asking if it was ok, I nodded my head and he kissed me then shoved his tongue in my mouth. I moaned into the kiss and he gripped my thighs and I fisted my fingers in his hair. I could feel the bulge in his pants grow bigger and I moaned at the thought of it. I felt him smile into the kiss as he moved his lips away from my mouth and made their way down my chin to my neck, he bit my neck lightly which caused me to groan and move my head back allowing him more access. As his hand wondered up under my shirt squeezing my breast and I moved my hands from his hair to his shirt and started to undo it and he took mine off. He put me down and we worked on each others pants then he lifted me again and pushed into me
"Oh god" I moaned and he started off slow then picked up the pace gripping my thighs again as I gripped his shoulders
"Oh Pheebs" He moaned into my ear sending chills down my spine, "Tell me you love me"
"I love you"
"You want me?" He asked and I was more turned on then ever
"I want you, I always want you" I tell him and he lightly bit my ear pounding into me even harder and faster.
"Say my name"
"Daryl...oh! Daryl!" I moaned as I finished and he kept going
"Mmm...Phoebe" He grunted and followed, we stayed there panting trying to catch our breath and he kissed me, then he put me down and got ourselves dressed and straightened ourselves out, "My girls kind of wild" He says pulling me to him
"Oh shush you" I tell him smiling
"Let's head back" He says and kissed me then grabbed the rabbit and the arrow I shot then we walked back to our tent to see Rick standing there.
"I need you" He says to Daryl and walked away, Daryl looked at me and we followed.
"So, what you gonna do?" Lori asked Rick as we gathered around their camp, I didn't like what Rick asked Daryl to do, "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."
"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked
"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked as well
"We'll know soon enough." Rick tells us and I see Daryl walk over with bloody knuckles as he stood next to me
"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women," He paused and looked at me, "they're gonna- They're gonna wish they were."
"What did you do?" My mom asked him
"Had a little chat." He says and I shook my head
"No one goes near this guy." Rick tells us
"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asked him
"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked
"It's settled. I'll do it today." Rick says walking away and Dale followed him
I went over to Daryl and grabbed a rag wetting it down then started to wipe his hands, he flinched when I got to his knuckles, "Sorry"
"It's ok," He tells me and I continue, "You ok?"
"I just don't..like seeing that side of you, I mean I know I didn't see it but to think about it I just..."
"Hey," He stopped me and I looked at him, "I'm sorry, this was the only time, i promise"
"I know" I said with a small smile and finished cleaning his hands then he kissed me
"I love you"
I love you too" I replied and he pulled me into a hug
"The whole point of us coming up here is to get away from you people." I hear Daryl say and I turn to see Dale walking over to us
"Gonna take more than that."
"My mom send you?" I asked him
"Carol's not the only one that's concerned about you or you Daryl, your new role in the group."
"Oh, man, I don't need my head shrunk. This group's broken. We're better off fending for ourselves." Daryl tells him
"You act like you don't care."
"Yeah, it's 'cause I don't." Daryl mentioned
"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Dale asked him
"Nope."
"Then why not stand with me, try to save the kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other?" Dale asked
"Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch."
"Your opinion makes a difference, yours too Phoebe" He says to us
"Man, ain't nobody looking at me for nothing." Daryl told him
"Carol is, and I am. Right now. And you obviously- You have Rick's ear."
"Rick just looks to Shane. Let him." Daryl says
"You cared about what happened to Sofia. Cared what it meant to the group." Dale pointed out, Daryl may be hiding it from everyone but me but he did care, "Torturing people? That isn't you. You're a decent man. So is Rick. Shane- He's different."
"Why's that? 'Cause he killed Otis?" Daryl asked and I looked at him
"He tell you that?"
"He told some story- How Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure that out, it's 'cause he didn't wanna. It's like I said- Group's broken." Daryl told him
"Phoebe, you were a cop with Rick and Shane, you swore to protect people. You can't think this is right."
"That was before we found out this kid has a group of 30 guys who would kill all the men here and...I just don't want to imagine what they would do to the rest of us. I did swear to protect people but not if those people are a danger to us. I'm sorry Dale but I can't put the people I love in danger including you." I said to him then me and Daryl headed into the woods.
"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked
"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea adds
"How about majority rules?" Lori asks
"Well, let's- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick tells us
"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane mentioned
"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale says
"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick said to him
"Well, I can tell you it's a small group- Maybe just me and Glenn." Dale says and I saw Glenn look at him
"Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"
"They've got you scared." Dale tells him
"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already."
"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale asked Maggie
"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"
"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl pointed out from behind me
"It may be a lean winter." Hershel adds
"We could ration better." Lori mentioned
"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale brought up
"Put him to work?" I asked
"We're not letting him walk around." Rick says
'We could put an escort on him." Maggie suggested
"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked
"I will." Dale answered
"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick interjected
"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori agreed
"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea pointed out
"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane says
"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." Dale defended
"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" I asked Rick
"You barely came back this time. There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost." Lori says
"Or get ambushed." Daryl adds
"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn says
"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" Patricia asked
"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane suggested
"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick says
"And what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked
"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale interrupted
"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl asked him
"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation! 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 pointed out
"No, Dale is right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"
"So what's the other solution?" Andrea asked cutting Rick off
"Let Rick finish." Lori tells her
"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could." Andrea says
"So let's work on it!" Dale tells us
"We are." Rick tells him
"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." my mom said
"Not speaking out or killing him yourself- There's no difference." Dale says to her
"All right, that's enough. Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick told us and everyone stayed quiet
"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale mentioned to Rick
"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."
"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were- The world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's... Harsh. It's- it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in, and I don't- 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 and looked at Andrea
"He's right. We should try to find another way." Andrea mentioned
"Anybody else?" Rick asked but nobody spoke up
"Are y'all gonna watch, too?" Dale asked trying to fight tears, "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa... I won't be a party to it." He says and headed for the door but stopped in front of me and Daryl, "This group is broken." He tells Daryl and walked out
I was standing with my mom and the others when Rick walked over with Carl, "We're keeping him in custody, for now"
"I'm gonna go find Dale," Andrea says standing up and I looked at my mom
"I'm gonna tell Daryl" I told her and she nodded then I walked away heading to the shed we were keeping Randal in when suddenly I hear screaming coming from the field so I ran over
"Dale!" I hear Andrea yell
"Help! Over here! Help! Run!" I also hear Daryl yell and I ran faster as we all arrived seeing Dale on the ground with his stomach ripped open, I put my hand over my mouth and my mom wrapped her arms around me
"Oh, my God. Oh, God." Rick says bending down to Dale
"All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me. Okay, hold on now. Get Hershel!" He yells, "He needs blood. We gotta operate now."
"Hang on, Dale. Hang on. Listen to me. Come on." Andrea tells him kneeling down holding his hand
"Okay, just listen to my voice. All right, please. Hershel! We need Hershel! Look at me. Dale, we're gonna help. We're here. Just hold on- hold on." Rick said trying to calm him down
"What happened?" Hershel asked rushing over and my mom pulled me into a hug as I cried
"What can we do?" Rick asked him
"Dale, it's gonna be okay." Andrea say
"Can we move him?" Rick asked Hershel
"He won't make the trip."
"You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house." Rick tells him
"Rick."
"No!" Rick yelled and we all start to cry
"He's suffering. Do something!" Andrea tells him, I see Rick slowly lift his gun but Daryl walked over to him taking it then knelt down next to Dale and pointed it at him
"I'm sorry, brother." He says and shoots Dale
Dale could- could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us- The truth... Who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, st feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives... Our safety... ...our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on... We're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale"
"It'll be tight, 14 people in one house." Rick tells Hershel as we get our stuff packed up to move into the house
"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..."
"With 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie pointed out
"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago." Hershel added
"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road. Just leave it there. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sight lines both sides of the property. Phoebe, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going." Rick told me and I nodded my head then went to grab mine and Daryl's stuff
"What about standing guard?" T-Dog asked him
"I need you and Daryl on double duty."
"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be." Hershel says
"What about patrols?" Andrea asked Rick
"Let's get this area locked down first. After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose."
I walked over to our stuff and Daryl put his hand on my shoulder, "You doing ok?"
"I can't keep losing people Daryl, it's to much"
He took the bag I was holding out of my hand and pulled me into a hug, "I know, but I'm here, I ain't going anywhere."
I pulled away and smiled at him, "You better keep that promise, I don't think I'd survive if I lost you." I tell him and he kissed my head then we got back to packing stuff up.
"What's wrong?" Maggie asked us as they came over to the shed Randall escaped from
"Randall's missing." Glenn told her
"Missing? How?"
"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked
"It's hard to say. The cuffs are still hooked. He must' slipped 'em." Rick answered
"Is that possible?" My mom asked
"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea says
"The door was secured from the outside." Hershel pointed out
"Rick! Rick!" Shane yelled walking over and I saw blood on his face
"What happened?" I asked him
"He's armed! He's got my gun!" Shane tells him and I looked at Daryl who put his hand on my arm
"Are you okay?" Carl asked
"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."
"All right, Hershel, Phoebe, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us." Rick tells them and Daryl kissed my head
"T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane tells him
"Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" My mom asked
"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun."
"Don't go out there. Ya'll know what can happen." My mom says and I wrapped my arm around her
"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick demanded and Daryl nodded at me then I grabbed my mom's hand
"Let's go, back in the house." Lori tells us and we moved to the house
I sat in the chair in the house tapping my foot while picking at my nails, "I'm going after them" Andrea says standing up
"Me too" I added standing up as well
"Don't, they could be anywhere. And if Randall comes back, we're gonna need you both here." Lori tells us and the front door opened, I see Glenn and Daryl walk in and I walked over to Daryl hugging him
"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked us
"No." I told him
"We heard a shot."
"Maybe they found Randall." Lori mentioned
"We found him." Daryl told her
"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked him
"He's a walker."
"Did you find the walker that bit him?" I asked
"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn answered
"His neck was broke." Daryl added
"So he fought back." Patricia pointed out
"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together." Daryl pointed out
"Would you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori asked Daryl walking up to him
"You got it."
"Thank you." She says and Daryl nodded at me to follow him
"What's going on?" I asked him
"I think Shane staged this whole thing, when I found his tracks there was blood on a tree nearby."
"So you think Shane's lying? Why would he do that?" I asked
"He doubts Rick as a leader, could've made this up to try and kill Rick"
I looked at him then sighed, "I knew for a while now that Shane seemed like he was losing it but I never thought...then you mentioned Otis...I can't believe it, I've known him for years I never thought he would be capable of this." I tell him and he put his hand on my shoulder and was about to say something but he looked out into the field, I followed his gaze and saw a herd of walkers coming towards us and the others walked out as I grabbed Daryl's hand.
"Patricia, kill the lights." Hershel tells her and she headed inside
"I'll get the guns." Andrea says and followed
"Maybe they're just passing, like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?' Glenn asked
"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about. A herd that size would rip the house down." Daryl tells him
"Carl's gone." Lori tells us walking out
"What?" I asked her
"He... he was upstairs. I can't find him anymore."
"Maybe he's hiding." Glenn told her
"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy."
"We're not. We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him." My mom tells her and they head inside as Andrea came out with the guns handing me mine then Maggie handed one to Glenn
"Maggie."
"You grow up country, you pick up a thing or two." She says to him loading it
"They got the numbers... It's no use." Daryl pointed out
"You can go if you want." Hershel says
"You gonna take 'em all on?" I asked him
"We have guns. We have cars."
"Kill as many as we can, and we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm." Andrea pointed out
"Are you serious?" Daryl asked him
"This is my farm. I'll die here."
"All right. It's as good a night as any." Daryl says and I look at him, "Stay with Glenn. I love you" He tells me then I kissed him
"I love you too" I said and he hopped over the railing heading to his bike, "Come on." I tell Glenn and Maggie and we head to Shane's car.
I sat in the back seat of Shane's car while Maggie drove with Glenn in the passenger seat as we shot at the walkers, "Keep it steady!" Glenn says to her
"I'm trying"
"Glenn, up!" I tell him and I lifted myself to sit on the car window holding onto the handle and continued shooting then Glenn did the same then we get back inside, "We can't keep doing this we're gonna run out of ammo" I tell them putting my last clip into my gun
"Where the hell are they going?" I hear Maggie ask and I see the blue truck pulling away, "Should I follow them?"
"I'd say yes." Glenn told her, "Swing it around, swing it around here," He directed and she stops, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." We see a group of walkers heading to our car
"Oh my god. I can't get through" Maggie says
"Head out" Glenn tells her
"Get of the farm now"
"Don't say that." She said to him
"Maggie it's lost"
"The others, we can't leave them" She defended
"We have to Maggie" I reassured her and she backed the car up
"Get off the farm now!" Glenn tells her and she drives forward, I kept looking out the window through the walkers trying to see Daryl or my mom but I couldn't see anything and we drove away
"Oh my god, Oh my god" Maggie repeated and I put my hand on her shoulder
"Alright let's just...Let's just circle back to the highway." Glenn told her
"Did you see my dad? Did... did he make it? Did you see?"
"I couldn't see anything." He says
"And Beth... I lost Beth. We've gotta go back there."
"We can't go back, okay? There's nothing to go back to." I tell her
"But Beth..."
"I-I... I think she was with Lori." Glenn mentioned
"Did they make it?" She asked him
"I don't know."
"Patricia? Jimmy? What if they didn't make it? What if nobody made it?" She asked
"They made it, okay? They had to." I said trying to calm her
"All right, let's just circle around to the highway where we left supplies for Sophia." Glenn says
"No, the herd came from that direction." Maggie pointed out
"Just stop. Stop the car. Stop the car." He told her and she stopped, "Let me drive." He gets out and she moved over then he got back in and looked at her, "Hey hey hey hey. Hey, Maggie, look at me. Look at me. Hey, we're alive. We made it. Okay? I'm sure they are, too. Right? I love you. Maggie, I love you. I should've said it a long time ago and it's been true for a long time. We're gonna be all right, okay? We'll be all right.€" He tells her and I gave a small smile
"Okay. Yeah." She says and he put the car in drive and continued, I looked out the window, I didn't know if Daryl was alive, or my mom. I needed them to be, I can't lose them. Then suddenly I hear something and I looked out the front window, I saw Daryl and my mom on his bike, I chuckled and felt tears in my eyes as Maggie grabbed my hand. We followed him to the highway and I see the red truck sitting there as we pull through the middle, before Glenn could stop I opened the door
"Mom!" I yelled running to her and I hugged her with tears going down my face as she cried into my shoulder
"Thank god" She cried in my ear and I pulled away then rushed over to Daryl who pulled me to him and I cried into his shoulder
"I was so worried" I tell him and he moved my face to look at him
"I told you I ain't leavin' ya" He says and I kissed him then hugged him again
"Oh thank god" I hear Lori say and Carl rushed over to her followed by Rick
"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl
"Well, this guys tail lights zigzagging all over the road... figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." He answered and I smacked his chest smiling as he held me to him
"Good one." Glenn says
"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked
"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick told him
"Shane?" Lori asked and I looked at Rick who shook his head.
"Andrea?" Glenn asked
"She saved me, then I lost her." My mom said and I grabbed her hand
"We saw her go down." T-Dog mentioned
"Patricia?" Hershel asked
"They got her, too. Took her right in front of me. I was... I was holdin' onto her, daddy. She just..." Beth said and cried into Hershel, "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"
"He was in the RV. It got overrun." Rick told her
"You definitely saw Andrea?" I asked
"There were walkers everywhere." Lori answered
"Did you see her?" I asked again
"I'm gonna go back." Daryl says moving away from me to his bike
"No." I told him
"We can't just leave her."
"We don't even know if she's there." Lori pointed out
"She isn't there. She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her." Rick says
"So we're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asked him and I see a walker moving towards us
"We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here."
"I say head east." T-Dog brought up and I see Daryl grab his crossbow
"Stay off the main roads. The bigger the road, the more walkers, more assholes like this one. I got him." Daryl says and shoots it
Everyone loaded up into the cars and I got the back of Daryl's bike, I wasn't leaving his side ever again.
As we drove one of the cars honked at us and Daryl stopped then I got off, "You out?" Daryl asked Rick as they walked over
"Running on fumes."
"We can't stay here." Maggie pointed out
"We can't all fit in one car." Glenn says
"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning." Rick told
"Spend the night here?" My mom asked
"I'm freezing." Carl says and Rick took his coat off and put it on him
"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori tells him
"You go out looking for firewood, stay close. Only got so many arrows. How you doing on ammo?" Daryl asked Rick
"Not enough."
"I'm on my last clip" I added
"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out." Maggie says
"Watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick." Hershel tells us
"All right, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."
"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie tells Rick
"No, we stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car."
"Rick, we're stranded now." Glenn said to him
"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure... I really wasn't... but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."
"Rick, look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." Glenn says
"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it."
"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe." Maggie pointed out
"We won't make that mistake again. We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day." Rick told us pointing to what looked like a broken down bridge
"Does this feel right to you?" My mom asked me and Daryl
"What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?" Beth asked
"You know I found Randall, right? He had turned, but he wasn't bit." Daryl pointed out
"How's that possible?" Beth asked
"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asked him
"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to." I answered
"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked
"We're all infected." Rick told us and I looked at him confused
"What?" Daryl asked him
"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."
"And you never said anything?" My mom asked him
"Would it have made a difference?"
"You knew this whole time?" I asked him
"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that mo..."
"That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone." Glenn tells him
"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." Rick told us and walked away, I sighed and shook my head
"Come on" Daryl says to me after loading his crossbow and we headed into the trees to get firewood.
Later that night we all gathered around the fire as Daryl put more wood into it, I saw my mom rub her arms and I took my coat of and gave it to her, she resisted at first but I wasn't backing down and she took it putting it on then Daryl sat behind me and wrapped me in his arms then kissed the back of my head.
"We're not safe with him." My mom whispered to us and we looked at her, "Keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down." She says to Daryl
"No. Rick's done all right by me."
"You're his henchman and I'm a burden. We deserve better." She says
"What do you want?" I asked her
"A man of honor."
"Rick has honor." I said
"I think we should take our chances." Maggie adds
"Don't be foolish. There's no food, no fuel, no ammo." Hershel says and we hear leaves rustling, Daryl stood up and we followed
"What was that?" Beth asked
"Could be anything. Could be a raccoon, could be a possum." Daryl mentioned
"Walker." Glenn says and Rick walked over
"We need to leave. I mean what are we waiting for?" My mom asked
"Which way?" Glenn asked
"It came from over there." Maggie answered
"Back from where we came." Beth adds
"Yeah."
"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot." Rick tells us
"Don't panic." Hershel says to Maggie
"I'm not... I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move, now."
"No one is going anywhere." Rick said
"Do something." My mom told him
"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!" Rick tells us and I looked at him in shock, "You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean. Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe... maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe... maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you... Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." He says and we all stay quiet, "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore."