The Place That Remains

Delaney got up from her spot at the table when she heard shouting outside. She followed her uncle out onto the porch and saw T-Dog leading Daryl and Rick down to the barn where Randall was locked up. It was obvious there was something wrong so she jogged down to the barn after them with Maggie and Lori on her heels.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked them as Rick and Andrea stepped inside to look around at the empty space. The only sign left of their young prisoner was a pair of bloody handcuffs.

"Randall's missing," Glenn informed the three women.

"Missing? How?"

"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked from behind them.

Delaney peeked inside the empty barn then turned on her heel to look at the rest of the group. "How could he have gotten free?"

"The cuffs are still hooked," Rick announced. "He must've slipped 'em."

"Is that possible?"

Andrea followed Rick out of the barn, shaking her head. "It is if you've got nothing to lose."

"The door was secured from the outside," Hershel said, pointing out the combination lock that had previously held the door. "He had to have gotten out some other way."

"There's no way he could've escaped! It's just impossible!"

As the others asked each other question after question about the apparent escape, Delaney looked around at the group, noticing that something was off. "Guys?" she said unsurely and they all turned to look back at her. "Where's Shane?"

"He has to be around here somewhere," Lori immediately answered in his defense.

The group launched into their theories and they were all talking over one another. Delaney turned her head, immediately hearing the noise before everyone else and she shushed Glenn, who was still giving his scenario of what may have happened. The yells were coming from the edge of the woods, just below where they were standing at the barn.

"Rick!" Shane appeared just past the treeline and he stalked toward them, his face bloody and bruised while the rest of the group watched him, obviously alarmed.

"What happened?" Lori shouted back at him.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!" he yelled as he jogged toward them.

Carl was obviously worried about the condition of the man who'd been a father figure to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. Clocked me in the face!"

"Alright, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house!" Rick commanded authoritatively. "Glenn, Daryl, come with us."

The men prepared their weapons and began heading for the woods, despite Carol's attempts to stop them from doing so. It was dangerous for them to go out into the woods, not knowing where Randall was, especially since the young boy was armed and probably scared.

"Get everybody back in the house! Lock the doors and stay put!" Rick led the way into the trees while T-Dog and Hershel began shifting the women and Carl back toward the house. Lori watched worriedly as her husband disappeared from sight before running back into the house after Maggie.

It was quickly getting dark outside, which would only make things worse for the men who were out searching for Randall in the woods. Delaney attempted to occupy herself by helping Maggie and Andrea make up some beds, but her mind still wandered as she kept thinking of all the bad things that could happen to them out in the dark forest.

Eventually, she couldn't take just sitting there waiting anymore so she went upstairs to take a quick shower, hoping that she could periodically take her mind off of things. She got dressed in some clean clothes and pulled her boots back on then brushed her damp hair before putting all of her things back into her backpack. When she returned downstairs, she stuck her handgun into the back of her jeans and left her machete by the door before rejoining the group.

Glenn and Daryl were walking out of the sitting room when she passed and Andrea was right behind them. Maggie, Hershel, and Jimmy were walking toward her on their way out the front door. "What's going on?" she asked her cousin.

Maggie didn't answer as she stepped out onto the porch and Delaney followed right behind her, letting out a surprised gasp when she saw what was before her. There were walkers everywhere, shuffling across the vast fields around the house. "Oh, shit," she muttered to herself. It was already well into the night and Rick and Shane still hadn't returned. This was going to end badly.

"Patricia, get the lights," Hershel whispered to the woman behind him.

"I'll get the guns," Andrea said before rushing back into the house.

"Maybe they're just passing through. Like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn offered, hoping to himself that that wasn't completely impossible.

Daryl frowned. "Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about. A herd that size would rip the house down."

The porch door swung open and Lori rushed outside, worry written all over her face. "Carl's gone. He was upstairs. I can't find him anymore. He's supposed to be upstairs!" she said, panicking. "I'm not leaving without my boy!"

Carol attempted to calm her down with soothing words. "Come on, we're gonna look again and we're gonna find him," she promised, taking her hand and pulling her back into the house.

Andrea brought out the bag full of guns and Maggie helped her pass them out. Delaney took the one Glenn handed her. She knew that the group wouldn't be staying at the farm any longer so she hurried inside and grabbed her backpack, along with her machete at the door. Hershel decided that the best course of action was to get the cars in order to distract the walkers away from the house and to kill as many as possible while doing so.

Delaney jumped into the back of Shane's car with Maggie and Glenn, shrugging the pack off of her back. Maggie drove while she and Glenn shot at walkers out the windows. It wasn't easy since both they and the walkers were moving, but Delaney was able to take out one with every bullet she had in the gun. The barn was going up in flames and most of the walkers were preoccupied with the distraction, which must've been the work of Rick or Shane.

After awhile, Maggie noticed that the old blue truck was heading away from the farm and she looked over at Glenn. "Where the hell are they going? Should I follow them?"

"I'd say yes," Glenn confirmed, glancing back at the farm worriedly. "Swing it around here," he directed her and she did as he said, but was forced to stop by the number of walkers that were walking directly toward them. They began beating on the windows as they growled and snarled at the people inside the car.

"Oh my God," Maggie gasped. "I can't get through!"

Glenn stared at the dead through the windshield and shook his head. "Head out."

"What?" she asked surprised. She couldn't believe what he was suggesting.

"Get off the farm now!" he shouted. "Maggie, it's lost!"

"The others-- we can't leave them," she whispered sadly.

Delaney reached up to rest her hand on her younger cousin's shoulder. "Maggie, he's right. We have to get out of here. There's no saving the farm."

One of the walkers lunged at the window, causing Maggie to scream, and she immediately reversed the car then drove off in a different direction without hesitation.

The three drove out into the woods, attempting to get as far as they possibly could from the overrun farm. It felt like hours that they had spent shooting at walkers and they were finally far enough away that Delaney felt like she could breathe again.

It was already nearing dawn when Glenn suggested that they circle back to the highway in hopes of meeting up with the others in the group who may have had the same idea. Maggie was still extremely stressed out and scared as she clenched the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles began to turn white. "Did you see my dad? Did he make it?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Did you see?"

"I couldn't see anything," Glenn muttered sadly.

"And Beth. I lost Beth; we gotta go back there."

"We can't go back, okay? There's nothing to go back to." His eyes closed for a moment and he exhaled loudly. "I-I think she was with Lori."

"Did they make it? Patricia? Jimmy? What if they didn't make it? What if nobody made it?!"

"Mags, calm down, sweetie. I'm sure they're okay," Delaney said, interrupting her cousin's panic. "They're probably just as worried about us right now."

"They made it, okay?" Glenn finalized. "Now let's just circle around to the highway where we left supplies for Sophia."

"No. The herd came from that direction," Maggie choked out, her eyes welling up with tears.

Glenn gave her a sympathetic look and sighed. "Stop the car." Without questioning him, Maggie slowed down to a stop and put the car into park. "Let me drive," he offered.

He got out of the car and walked around to the driver's side while Maggie crawled over into the passenger seat and began to sob. Delaney leaned up in her seat and wrapped her arms around her cousin from behind to console her while Glenn held her hands and gave her reassuring words. "Hey, we're alive. We made it okay? I'm sure they are too." She nodded slowly, accepting his words. "Maggie, I love you."

Delaney looked at him surprised and retracted her arms, sitting back in her seat and looking out the window, doing her best to give the couple a private moment. She smiled sadly as she heard Glenn's words to her cousin and she just hoped that the rest of the group was alive and well as they were. It would destroy Maggie if Hershel and Beth didn't make it.