Keep Holding On

Dale's words still lingered after he left the house, most likely to go keep watch, and everyone stood silently those words hanging heavily in everyone's mind. Even Shane was deathly silent, which was rare.

Rick cleared his throat gaining all eyes. "Alright, so everyone has made their decision right?" He leaned on the back of the couch and ran his hands down his face. "The decision is we kill him?" He voice was weary and made it known that he wasn't fond of this idea, but would go through with it for the sake of the group, for his family.

Everyone avoided eye contact. A few nodded their heads slightly. The decision was made.

"Alright everyone stay at camp or here at the house, no one get near the shed. Shane, Daryl, I'd like the two of you to come with me." The two men nodded and things were set in motion.

Angela didn't know what to do. She wanted to apologize to Randall and say she was fighting for his side, but at the same time she knew she couldn't handle seeing another death up close. So she stood in the same spot, not knowing how to feel about this decision.

"Hey." Came a low, gruff voice and a nudge to her shoulder. She looked up to see Daryl by her side.

"Hey." She said her voice cracking a bit.

"We need to talk." He said. Angela nodded before following him out and onto the porch. He leaned on the railing and let out a sigh.

"Please say something." Angela whispered after a moment of silence.

"The fuck were you thinkin' Angel? Ya should have stayed away from that kid." Daryl started off almost yelling at her, but quickly lowered the volume of his voice.

"Everyone wanted a decision, I couldn't do that without knowing something about him first. This is a person's life Daryl, it's not that simple to make a decision on that!" A few tears slid down Angela's face as she spoke. "Doesn't look like it mattered anyways, he's still gonna die."

"Why's he matter to ya anyway? Ya didn't know him."

"He's a person Daryl. He watched his family and friends for and has lived with the guilt of not putting them out of their misery. I was the first person he's opened up to about that since shit hit the fan. I feel like I should be there for him at least but I-" Angela paused, her emotions getting the best of her.

She couldn't hold back the tears as she looked over at the tents. No one was paying attention to them, they were all trying to forget what was about to happen. About a rather innocent life soon to be ripped from this world. Angela was so preoccupied with looking at the group and trying to find the words to speak, she didn't realize Daryl stepped closer to her util his strong arms encircled her, pulling her tightly to him.

"This ain't your fault. Ya didn't owe that kid nothin' and ya shouldn't feel guilty. Ya tried your best." He placed an unusually gentle kiss to her head before stepping away. She wiped her tears and gave him a sad smile.

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but I'm still not happy with what's about to happen."

"None of us are, Angel." Daryl said.

They stood there for a moment before the front door opened and Andrea stepped out.

"Hey Angela, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, did you need something?" Angela replied wiping a stray tear from her face.

"I shouldn't have gone against you and Dale, y'all are right. We shouldn't kill the kid and I know it's too late to really make a choice but I had to at least let you know."

"Did you tell Rick?"

"Yeah, he said it was too late to change anything." She said sadly

"Well at least you tried and let him know."

"Yeah Daryl he was looking for you by the way." Andrea said nodding at the two before walking off.

"Gotta go, you alright?"

"Yeah, gonna go find Layla and sit by the fire, or in the tent, or something." Angela said. Daryl nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze, before walking off.

Angela stood on the porch for a minute longer before going back to camp. She sat at the fire for a while with Layla, but the night air was getting to be too much. She slipped off her jacket placing it around Layla and stood up to go grab the other jacket they had in their tent.

She just stepped foot out of the tent, slipping the jacket on when she noticed Daryl walking back to the barn, Randall by his side. Instead of going back to the farm, she ran to them. Daryl heard the footfalls coming towards him and turned to see Layla.

"What's going on?" She asked when she was close enough.

"We're not killin' him." He responded.

"See Randall I told you there were people fightin' for you." She said a small smile gracing her features.

"Carl came in, Rick couldn't do it." Daryl explained. The made it to the barn and he sat down the lantern he had so he could tie up Randall once again.

"Well still, we can't kill him. It's not right." Angela said a and Randall began to try and talk around the gag. "Take that off of him for a moment." Daryl was hesitant, but did as asked.

"Angela? That's you right?" Randall asked in a panicked tone.

"Yep it's me."

"Thanks for caring about me."

"You're welcome. I had to fight for your life. There's too much death as it is." She said and he nodded out of words to say. Daryl replaced the gag and began to check the rope that bound his wrists until a terrified scream rang out.

Angela didn't wait to see what Daryl was going to do, but ran towards the fields. Se found out Daryl was doing the exact same thing as she when he passed her. They neared the source of the screams to see a walker hovering over its next meal. A meal that was putting up a fight.

Daryl tackled the walker to the ground, killing it with his knife. Angela had fresh tears streaming down her face as he kneeled down by the body of a good man, of Dale. Daryl called for the others and soon everyone was there.

They were all debating on what to do, but there really was nothing to be done. The walker tore into his stomach, the only humane thing would be to end him. Andrea sat holding his hand. Angela was too numb to do anything, but hold onto Layla who fell into her arms in tears.

"He's suffering." Andrea stated. Rick was grabbed his gun and sadly aimed it at Dale's head, but he couldn't pull the trigger. He couldn't kill this kind man. Daryl took the gun from Rick and knelt down by Dale's head.

"Sorry brother." He murmured and the shot rang out.