"Who the hell is Randall?" Zayla demanded as she walked in the Greene farmhouse where most of the adults were gathered. "Why has nobody told me about this Randall guy?"

"Rick and Shane picked him up that night they went to find Hershel in town." Andrea answered, explaining, "Rick said Randall was with a group and they attacked them, but he got hurt and they brought him back here. Now, Rick's saying Randall's a threat and we have to vote on if they're gonna kill him."

"He's just a scared kid." Carol spoke up from her spot on the couch. "Those other men that they saw at the bar were the real threats. They're dead now, we don't have another problem. We can let Randall go and take him somewhere far away from the farm, so he can't find his way back."

"I went to school with him." Maggie added. "He always ran with the wrong crowd and it was because he was too weak to stand up for himself. I rarely talked to him, but I know he's not like those other men. We don't have to kill him."

"Where is he?" Zayla questioned.

"Rick's got him locked up in the shed. None of the women are allowed to watch him, so if Daryl isn't talking to him, T-Dog or Shane should be on guard."

Zayla left the farmhouse and made her way over to the shed where Maggie said Randall was being held, but Shane was watching the shed and refused to let her anywhere near it, even after being threatened. Shane advised her to talk to Rick about the matter, but that was the last thing she wanted to do, so she went searching for Daryl. She found him tinkering with Merle's bike.

"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?" She questioned and that made Daryl stand, wiping his grease-coated hands on his bandana.

"Knew about what?"

"That kid y'all brought home when Hershel went out for a drink."

"I know what you're thinkin', but that ain't no innocent kid, Z."

She crossed her arms under her chest, not impressed in the least. "Oh? Enlighten me."

"You shoulda heard how his buddies were talkin'. Their whole group was a gang of sick fucks just lookin' for some helpless women to stalk and abduct." Daryl spat. "What if you and Maggie went into town and they snatched y'all up? The leader was one smooth-talkin' son of a bitch. Had you run into him in town, he would've made y'all think he was all peaches an' cream before he put a gun to your head and forced y'all into all kinda messed up shit."

"That gives you the means to kill that kid, to beat him half to death?" She argued. "Just because you and Rick think this kid could possibly hurt one of us, we have no other option but to kill him? Do you realize that none of us would be here right now if we all thought like that? If we killed every living person we came across, we wouldn't be here."

"You want us to let him roam around and just wait 'till he jumps on one of you? What're we gonna do when that happens, say 'I told you so' and keep pushin'? That's fucked." "We're tryin' to stop a big mistake before it happens."

"Daryl, try to believe me when I say I understand what you're trying to do. There's a bunch of women here and most of them don't know how to properly use a gun or weapon or their own fists to defend themselves, I get it." She tried reasoning with him, but still had a point to make as she continued, "I'm a no-prisoner kind of person and if I were there when you found Randall, I'd have left him to die or put a bullet in his head when I found him. If that kid does anything to anyone, it's Rick's fault for dragging him back to our home. That's the real problem here."

"We're havin' a meetin' about it later, see if anybody agrees with ya'."

"Guess that means you're not on my side anymore."

"Ain't say that."

"You said enough."

….

A little while later, Zayla was at the corral watching the horses run about with Hershel and Maggie. She had her eyes set on a black horse with the most gorgeous sky-blue eyes she'd ever seen and the only male horse on the farm.

"Hey, Mags." Zayla called to the brunette. "How come nobody's taken that stallion for a ride?"

"The black one with the spots on his back leg, blue eyes?" She asked and Zayla nodded. "He's untamed and he won't let anybody break him in. I usually tame all the horses we get and I've tried to domesticate him, but he does not want to be controlled and he's one mean thing."

"He's probably got a grudge against people from how he was treated before I found him." Hershel explained, overhearing the conversation between the women. "At first, I thought he was attacked by Walkers, but he had lash marks on him and it looked like some of his mane was pulled out. His wounds have since healed, he's healthy and he doesn't show any signs of impairment. I'm sure he'd be a great rider, but he's very distrustful."

Zayla smiled. "Can I try to break him in?"

"You know how to ride horses?"

"Lived in Georgia for years. Down there, we hunt and we ride for fun."

"If you can tame that stallion, he's yours to keep."

"Looks like I'm gettin' a horse today."

"Be careful." Hershel warned as Zayla hopped over the wooden barrier.

"Hi, pretty boy. Oh, you are so handsome. I bet you've got all the mares goin' crazy over you." She smiled at the horse as he stood about five feet away from her; his response was simply wagging his tail to swat at the flies. "I'm gonna name you Hellboy. That's one of my favorite movies and Maggie told me you gotta nasty attitude, so don't think I don't know. I don't do nothin' without bein' fully prepared."

"I got some yummy sugar cubes for you, Hellboy. Gotta whole pouch just for you to enjoy." She shook the bag of sugar cubes and saw the stallion's ears turn to the sound. She got a handful and held her arm out as she slowly approached, then dropped them on the ground for him to eat while she grabbed the saddle from the fence. "Don't mind me. I'm just gonna put this saddle on you…and if you kick me, I will kick your ass back. You have been warned."

Maggie and Hershel watched, stunned, as Hellboy allowed Zayla to mount him and the redhead looked at them with a surprised expression of her own. She was expecting the stallion to put up a fight and throw her off before trying to trample her. Hellboy just licked another sugar cube up from the ground and as he was crunching it, he sat down. Zayla slid down the horse's spine until she plopped on her ass in the dirt and Hellboy went back to eating the sugar cubes, but circled around the cubes to keep the human in front of him.

"You think you're funny, huh?" Zayla asked the stallion and she heard him snort at her. That only made her like him more because the animal had character.

Zayla stood and dusted her jeans off. When she started walking towards Hellboy, the horse backtracked. His ears were perked towards her, but his tail was swaying and he was still licking at his treat. They did that little dance for a minute, then Hellboy ran around her to get back to his sugar cubes. Seeing a new angle, Zayla set some sugar cubes near the fence and Hellboy was lured to them. As he was eating them, Zayla was balancing on the fence and she quickly climbed on him while he was distracted. This time, Hellboy reared and started bucking. Zayla clenched her thighs as tight as she could, but the stallion's powerful jerks had her grip wavering and she was thrown off after the fifth buck.

"Oh, you wanna play rough, huh? That's fine by me. I like it rough." She gathered her hair and knotted it on the back of her head. "C'mon, badass! I grew up with two drunken ass brothers, show me whatcha' got!"

"I don't know if I should be worrying about her or the horse." Hershel murmured.

…

All the adults were gathered in the living room of the farmhouse as Rick told them what happened that night at the bar. He believed that Randall's group was dangerous and that they had to deal with him as he posed a huge problem to their group. If they let him go, he'd find his way back and they'd attack the Farm, something they couldn't afford to allow happen, so the only option was to kill him.

"Those apposed?" He asked. Zayla, Glenn, Dale and T-Dog raised their hands. "All those in favor, raise your hand." He questioned and raised his hand. Following him was Hershel, Shane, Daryl, Lori, Carol and Andrea. "Majority rules…we kill him."

Glenn put his hand on Zayla's shoulder as she sighed. She made her way to the front door and dug in her pocket for a cigarette, lighting it as she sat on the porch. Daryl came out after a few minutes and sat next to her. He nudged her with his leg.

"Ain't no use holdin' grudges." He told her, knowing it was the tuth. "We're doin' the right thing for the group."

"He got Amy and all those people at the quarry killed." She reminded at him. "He abandoned Sophia in the woods and left her to die. He laid Merle on his deathbed and tucked him in."

"Merle ain't dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you forget to tell me that you found him and y'all just been meetin' in the woods to have tea parties?" She sarcastically questioned him.

"Nothin' can kill Merle 'cept Merle. He got off that roof, Z. He ain't livin' around the goddamn corner, but he ain't dead neither."

"Rick is changing you." She stressed.

"I ain't changed." He denied.

"Daryl, I've known you since Fourth Grade. I know how you are and this ain't you."

"It is me, Z." He told her and slowly went to grab her hand, looking down at their intertwined fingers. "Ain't nothin' changed 'bout me. I'm just acceptin' what is. Maybe you don't like that or you just wanna deny it 'cause you got hate towards Rick, but you know the truth."

"Yeah, I guess I do know the truth."

She stubbed her cigarette on the ground and stood, breaking their hold as he rose. Before she could leave, he grabbed her arm. If Daryl had been any other man, even Shane, Zayla would've slugged him in the jaw and told him to keep his goddamn hands off her. She didn't mess around when it came to men getting physical with women, likely due to witnessing how Ed used to handle Carol.

But this was Daryl and she couldn't hurt him, never wanted to bring him any pain.

"You ain't loosin' me, Z." He told her. He knew that with their opposing views on how to handle the situation at hand, she probably felt like he wasn't on her side anymore or that he was beginning to favor Rick over her. That wasn't the case at all. Daryl didn't put anybody over his brother and Zayla, they were the two most important things in his life.

The door opened again and Dale came out, seeming to be going on a walk because he disappeared into the nighttime air after a minute. They figured that Shane and Rick were going to do what apparently had to be done and if Dale couldn't convince the majority not to, nobody could.

They found Dale in the grass with his stomach torn open, his intestines exposed for all to see.

"There's no saving him." Hershel gravely informed Rick and the brunet slowly nodded as he pulled his gun, aiming it at Dale's head.

Dale held eyes with Rick and after a solemn minute, it was clear that the Sheriff couldn't go through with it. Daryl took the gun from Rick and told Rick that he would do it, so Rick went to Lori while Carl was crying with his mother.

"Sorry, brother." Daryl sadly told Dale as the older man smiled and closed his eyes.