It's Over When It's Over

Daryl just stared at me; not answering. He signed deeply as he looked down.
“Well then.” I sighed, “I’m going back to camp.” I walked confidently out the store and got on my horse. I went at the horses pace back to the farm. I keep looking back to see if Daryl was following but he wasn’t. I did that until I got back to the farm. I put the horse away and put the saddle back in its place. I started walking back to camp until I saw the group heading to the house so I joined them to see what was happening. We all walked in one by one taking our place in the living room. I stood beside Jack as I watched Lori take Carol and Daniel to the back with Jimmy.
“What are we here for?” I whispered to Jack.
“Talk about Randal again.” He whispered back.
The group started to talk about what to do with Randal. Let him go or kill him. Dale started ranting about how we shouldn’t kill Randal and I agreed with him but the rest of the group didn’t really. As Dale talked Daryl walked in and quickly smiled at me. I pressed my lips together smiling back before I went back to listening to Dale talk.
“Why even bother to take a vote. It’s clear which way the wind’s blowing.” Dale said.
“Well, if people believe we should spare him, I want to know.” Rick said sounding stressed.
“Well, I can tell you it’s a small group,” Dale said before pausing, “maybe just me and Glenn.” It was quite and Glenn slowly looked up at Dale not backing him up. Glenn went on saying he agrees with Dale but he’d rather do what’s best for the group. Dale looked around asking Maggie and Hershel but they were quite. He then looked at me, “Lora?”
“I’m with ya.” I said as I nodded. He smiled giving me that hopeful look he gets. The group continued to talk or I should say debate on what we should do. The group talked about hanging him, snapping his neck, or just shooting him which was all hard to hear. They were all considering to kill a boy over nothing really. I mean I do understand he was dishonest with us but they are planning his death/faith over crimes he may never attempt.
“You’re talking about this like it’s already decided.” I spoke up. Not really wanting to but the words just came out.
“We’ve been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?” Daryl asked. I was quite. Dale looked at me before he spoke up for me.
“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?” Dale yelled. “How are we any better than those people that we’re so afraid of?” The group was quite but I was glad Dale was the voice of reason. Then Shane started talking and the arguing continued.
“Just stop it! I’m sick of everybody arguing and fighting.” Carol said continuing about how she doesn’t want to be a part of this.
“Not speaking out, or killing him, there’s no difference.” I told her. The group continued and I blanked out just staring at the ground as they all continued this argument that shouldn’t even be happening. We should just throw Randal away real far instead of thinking about kill him. If we do kill him that won’t even make us people anymore, it’ll make us monsters and I couldn’t be able to live with myself knowing we killed someone who wasn’t a threat to us. The two men Rick killed the other night that Hershel told me about; they were a threat. There was a reason for their death.
Dale said his final word on this before he walked out, sad that not more people agreed to let the boy live.
. . .
It was night out and most of the group was outside waiting for the men to come back after they dealt with Randal but I went to bed in Jacks tent to stay with Daniel. I was disappointed that Jack and Daryl were going to be a part of dealing with Randal but they wouldn’t listen to me.
Daniel was asleep on my side. I was dozing off myself before I heard screaming; Dales screaming. I jumped out of bed and told Daniel to run into the house before we ran out the tent. I ran ahead of the group to the screaming. When I got there Daryl had tackled a walker to the ground and stabbed him. I looked beside him and nearly fainted at what I saw. The walker had ripped into Dale’s chest. I stood in shock as the rest of the group joined. Rick kneeled down beside Dale telling him to hold on. Rick started to yell out for Hershel then he noticed me, “What do we do? We need to operate, get him blood, right?” Rick panted. “We need to help him.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, “He won’t make the trip.” I cried as Hershel ran beside us. Rick looked at Hershel with pleading eyes but Hershel shook his head. Rick stood up screaming no over and over again as he rubbed his face. I kneeled beside Dale holding his hand as he looked at me chocking on his blood. I couldn’t look at Dale like this. My heart was racing and I was crying like hell. I don’t want Dale to die. “He’s suffering. We can’t let him turn.” Rick looked at me as he took out his gun. I told Dale to close his eyes and relax. I looked away but there was a long pause. I looked at them and Rick couldn’t do it so Daryl took the gun.
“Sorry, brother.”