Keep Holding On

"Andrea."

The blonde looked over to where she heard the voice to see Angela coming towards her.

"Hey Angela, need something?"

"Want me to take over watch?"

"Dale asked me to-" Andrea started but was cut off by Angela.

"Dale's fine with it, as long as it's not Shane."

"Okay, yeah. I'd like to be off prison duty." Andrea replied after a few seconds. "Got your gun?"

"I've got my knife, it'll be plenty don't worry." Angela stated.

"Alright thanks for taking over." Andrea said walking back to camp. Angela occupied the space the woman had once sat waiting for her to get out of sight.

"Haven't seen you yet." A voice called from inside the barn. Angela turned and peered through the boards to see the kid. Daryl did a number on him.

"Suppose you haven't locked up in there. I'm Angela."

"Randall."

"Nice to meet you. Sorry about Daryl beating you up earlier."

"Yeah he beat me pretty good. Gonna be sore for months, that is, if I live that long. You guys are gonna kill me aren't you?"

"Don't think like that. We don't know what you're doing yet. You've got people fighting for you." Angela actually had sympathy full her voice as she listened to his lost hope.

"Yeah right."

"You do, I promise. Why don't we talk about something else. What did you do before shit hit the fan?" Angela said changing the topic.

"Not much really, lived with my mom and would screw around on the Internet. Went to school and spent time with friends, you know the usual things." He said.

"Heard ya went to school with Maggie."

"Yeah, she didn't know me though. I was invisible to her. She seemed nice though and I know her dad was the vet to a lot of people in town that owned farms. I'd- I'd never hurt them though or any of you." He sad fearing what he would say would sign for his death penalty.

"Didn't think you would. What did you and your friends do for fun around here?"

"Ya know, we went to the movies, played sports, though I wasn't big on sports, and we played video games. That sort of fun." He said a small smile crossing his lips at the memories.

"I did a lot of the same things. Was in one of my college classes when all hell broke loose. First time I saw someone turn." Angela said looking off into the distance as she remembered the horrific event.

"Saw my mom turn and a few of my friends. It was horrible. I- I couldn't put them down, couldn't end it 'cause it just hurt too much ya know." Randall said pulling Angela from her thoughts.

"Yeah I know. I was lucky not to see any friends turn, but I saw my dad as one, he bit my mom. I had to kill both of them, my mom wasn't even dead yet when I killed her. Then my brother got bit and I had to do the same thing. My sister went missing and I stumbled across this group. They saved us both. We wouldn't have made it long just the two of us. I'm sorry about your mom and friends."

"I'm sorry about your family too. I was on my own for a while, just running and scavenging what I could. One day I ran into a few guys looking for supplies and they took me into their group. That's why I was with them, I didn't approve of a lot of the stuff they did, but I didn't want to die or be left alone." Randall explained and Angela could hear the sincerity in his voice. When she looked at him, he could see it in his face as well.

"I believe you. When I found this group I didn't want to leave, everyone needs someone in life. To have their back or just to talk to."

"Is that why you came and spoke to me?" Randall questioned.

"I was asked my opinion on you, what I think should be the final say on what happens to you. I couldn't answer them, just said I'd go with whatever Rick decided."

"Is he the sheriff guy? That kid's dad?"

"Yeah, anyways I came out here to get to know you and to see if I could make my decision. Now I'm glad I did. It seems like you needed someone to talk to."

"Yeah, back in my group we didn't talk much about who we lost. We just made sure to say alive and survive each day. It was nice being able to talk to someone about it, and just get it off my chest. Thanks.

"No problem. It helps to talk, I found that out a few days ago." Angela looked over towards the the house where she could barely make out people filing into the house. It was time for the meeting. "Randall, I enjoyed our talk, but I got to go join the others now." She said standing up.

"Wait, you said you came out here to make a decision, so did you?" Randall called.

"Yeah, I did." Angela said before walking towards the house everyone had disappeared into.

"What was it!? Come on you've gotta tell me!" Could be heard from the barn, but Angela continued down the path.

Coming down to the barn was a good idea after all. She enjoyed talking to someone new even if he did shoot at her group and coming helped make up her mind. She knew which side of this argument she was choosing and she hoped it was for the best.