𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄, 𝐉𝐔𝐑𝐘, 𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑

𝟐𝐱𝟏𝟏

AFTER Lori led me back to the room I was residing in I had actually slept yesterday night. Probably due to over exertion. When I had woken up, I had heard the door being knocked on.

"Come in." I groaned tiredly. The door sprung open and in came my brother with a tray of food. I smiled at him and he returned the smile while setting the tray on the dresser. "I'm so glad your awake. How are you feeling?" He asked while sitting down next to me.

"I'm breathing. Hey, what happened after I got shot? What is going on with everyone?" I asked, referring to the arguments that occurred between Andrea and Lori and Beth and Maggie. Everyone seemed on edge from what I've seen. I saw a look of hesitancy on his face. He knew something I didn't and I don't like that.

"Glenn. I need you to tell me what the hell is going on." I ordered. He sighed before grabbing my hand.

"One of the guys who were shooting at us the day you got shot is here on the farm. He was injured and we had to take him back here with us. He was blindfolded the whole time on the way here. This morning, Daryl tortured him to get information out of him about his people. We're all gonna reconvene at sunset to decide his fate." He confessed.

"Well I'm gonna be there when you guys decide his fate." I stated.

"Ara, you just got shot. The only place your gonna be is in this bed, where your safe and I know you won't get hurt."

"It's not your job to-."

"To what? Look out for you? Your just as much my responsibility as I am yours. We take care of each other. You have no idea how scared I was. I thought you were gonna die! I thought you were dead and I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I don't know what I'd do without you either. Probably become some psycho and live the rest of my days angry. I'm sorry I put you through that, but Glenn you gotta understand I was not gonna let anything happen to you. I'd die for you because I love you okay?" I told him as a tear slid down my face. He was crying and his eyes were red.

"I love you too." He said to me as I wiped the tears from his face. He stood up and rubbed his hands over his face. "Eat. I'll come back later." He ordered before kissing my forehead and walking out of the room. I wiped the tears from my face and exhaled deeply.

I was definitely gonna be there at their meeting later. I'm apart of this group also, these are my people and no one is endangering them.

╚══ ≪ °❈° ≫ ══╝

I was getting a few visitors, the usual, T-Dog, Maggie, Glenn again, Lori, and lastly Carol.

I had heard another pair of soft knocks against the door. "Come on in." I yelled. Carol came in through the door and hugged me really tight.

"Carol." I strained while calling out her name. I had felt the pressure of her arm against my abdomen, where my stitches were. "Oh god. I'm sorry." She apologized. "It's alright. How are you?" I asked while holding her hand.

"Hangin in there. How about you?"

"I'm breathing. So, why'd you come and visit me?"

"I just needed to talk to you. You were right. Everyone either avoids me or they treat me like I'm crazy. They pity me and I don't like it. I needed to talk to the only person who isn't walkin on eggshells around me."

"I told you, it's just human nature. I'm sorry. I also meant what I said that day when I told you your gonna get through it, because you are. Just keep pushing."

"Has Daryl talked to you?"

"We had a sort of argument yesterday. He's kinda just avoiding me now. You?

"He's avoiding me too. He has this weird way of taking down his walls and showing that he cares sometimes and then he'll be cold and distant. He do that to you?"

"Yeah, until he ends up apologizing. Believe it or not Carol, I've never had feelings this strong towards anyone but him. Every time I feel like we're getting somewhere it's like he's scared. Scared of opening up his heart to me, scared to let his guard down and get comfortable. I want to love him but he won't let me and for the life of me I don't know why." I confessed as I sighed.

"I think your right. He's scared. I don't think he's had someone to be affectionate towards him or tell him that he's loved. I think these feelings are new for him just as much as they are for you. He'll come around, and when he does he'll let you love him and he'll love you."

"You think so?" I questioned. My voice had croaked at the end against my wishes.

"Yeah, I do." She told me while squeezing my hand. She stood up and walked toward the door to make her exit, closing the door gently on her way out.

╚══ ≪ °❈° ≫ ══╝

I looked out the window to see the sun coming down. I had already known what that meant. The guys fate was getting decided and she was gonna be there to cast in her vote.

I had heard everyone's feet shuffling when they entered the house and cautiously made my way down the stairs. I made my way to the bottom at the same time I heard Glenn's voice.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" He questioned confused on how this was supposed to go.

"Why not." I said as slowly made my way towards the group. They all looked at my figure, alarmed at the thought of me out of bed. "Ara, I told you-." Glenn started.

"I know what you told me, but I need to be here for this. It's only fair, his people shot at us." I cut him off before leaning against the wall in pain. I made sure to have my back against it instead of my side.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.

"How about majority rules?" Lori suggested.

"Well, let's-let's just see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options." Rick informed. "Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane piped up. "Killing him, right? I mean why bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale said. "Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick voiced. "Well, I can tell you it's a small group, maybe just me and Glenn." Dale told Rick. My brother looked up towards Dale in an apologetic way. He hadn't known how he felt about it. This guy had 30 men on his side that could come back and infiltrate the farm. Not to mention, his people also shot his sister.

Dale looked at Glenn in disbelief.

"Look, I-I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-." Glenn started before Dale cut him off with his arms raised. "They've got you scared." Dale raised his voice. "He's not one of us. I almost lost my sister yesterday because of his people, and we've-we've lost too many people already." Glenn defended himself. Then Dale pointed in Maggie's direction and brought her into it. "How about you? Do you agree with this?" He asked her.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" Maggie asked looking in Rick's general direction. "Just another mouth to feed." Daryl opposed the idea. I looked at him before Hershel spoke.

"It may be a lean winter." Hershel agreed with Daryl. "We could ration better." Lori suggested looking at Hershel. "Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale argued. "Put him to work?" Glenn suggested.

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick told us in disagreement, with his mind already made up.

"We could put an escort in him." Maggie chimed in.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane questioned.

"I will." Dale spoke.

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick opposed that notion also.

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori said.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea spoke.

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane said.

"Wait this dude has 30 men? Why are we even talking about this?" I questioned.

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." Dale stressed to all of us.

"Oh my god." Shane groaned.

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked.

"You barely came back this time. There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost." Lori voiced her disapproval.

"Or get ambushed." Daryl added.

"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn said.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" Patricia asked.

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane suggested.

"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick said.

"And what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked. "Hold on, hold on. You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale cut him off waving his arms in the air.

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl questioned as he paced.

"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? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?" Dale exclaimed and questioned us. He didn't like the situation entirely and we all could tell.

"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said looking at Dale.

"No, Dale is right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-." Rick said before he was cut off.

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea cut him off.

"Let Rick finish." Lori said to Andrea quickly.

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could." Andrea continued.

"So let's work on it!" Dale exclaimed.

"We are." Rick said.

"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide, either of you, both of you, but leave me out." Carol interrupted.

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself, there's no difference." Dale said facing his attention to Carol.

"All right, that's enough. Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick said. The group had just remained silent. Maggie and Patricia even sat down from their standing positions. Rick looked at all of us to see if we had anything further to add. Dale looked at all of us anxiously hoping that one of us, any of us would say something.

"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale quoted Rick back to the time he held a gun to Daryl's head as Daryl tried to kill Jimmy.

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick retorted.

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's...harsh. It's-it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world that I don't wanna live in and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right." Dale begged us at the end of his speech. His eyes had been glossy and features were desperate for someone to agree with him.

"Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?" Dale questioned.

"He's right. We should try to find another way." Andrea agreed.

"Anybody else?" Rick questioned, looking all of us over again. Then, when he heard nothing further, he turned to Dale and raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"Are y'all gonna watch too? No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa. I won't be a party to it." Dale said shaking his head as his eyes were filled with tears. He walked toward the Dale and when he got by Daryl he said something. "This group is broken." Dale told him before continuing to make his way out the door.

We all just stood there in silence pondering Dale's words. We all made our way outside by our tents except for Daryl, Shane, and Rick who had the guy and were leading him to the barn. All four had made it to the barn and we waited outside until they all came back out.

Except, everything was cut short due to Carl making his way to the barn in the middle of it. Rick then walked over to the rest of with Carl walking in front of him. We all looked to him expectantly, waiting for the news.

"We're keeping him in custody for now." Rick told us. "I'm gonna find Dale." Andrea said with a smile on her face as she walked off. "Carl, go inside. Now, please." Lori told Carl while maintaining eye contact with Rick. Carl walked off into the tent.

"He followed us. He wanted to watch. I couldn't." Rick said.

"That's okay. That's okay." Lori assured him before pulling him into a hug.

Rick then looked over at me and I nodded my head at him reassuring him also.

All of us then heard screaming and popped up.

"T-dog, get a shotgun now!" Rick ordered.

"T get me one too!" I yelled. I ran after Rick to the best of my ability knowing good and well I shouldn't be on my feet, but that scream wasn't just any scream, it was Dale's. My side hurt a whole lot but I wasn't stopping. I heard Andrea yell out Dale's name as I heard her running also.

"Help! Over here!" Daryl yelled. "Help! Run!" Daryl yelled again. "Who is it?" Andre asked. I made it behind Shane and Rick to see Dale on the ground with his stomach torn open. "Oh my god." I muttered while panting. "Okay, hold on now. Get Hershel!" Rick yelled as he kneeled down by Dale. "He needs blood. We got to operate now." Rick demanded.

Tears had been welling up in my eyes as I saw Dale lying there groaning in pain. Glenn and Lori had made it over to us, Rick was still shouting for someone to get Hershel. "All right? Please. Hershel! We need Hershel!" Rick shouted.

"We're gonna get you help Dale." I said shakily as I put my hand on his shoulder. "What happened?" Hershel asked hastily as he ran over. Hershel bent down to take a look at him and looked somber. "Can we move him?" Rick asked. "He won't make the trip." Hershel informed. "You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house." Rick said hastily. "Rick." Hershel stopped him, putting his hand on Rick's shoulder while shaking his head.

"No!" Rick shouted in protest. Andrea and I were crying and looking at Dale to see him gurgling in pain. Some of us were crying, some of us were just distraught and couldn't cry. "He's suffering. Do something!" Andrea cried out. "I'm so sorry Dale." I whispered as he looked over at me. Rick held out his gun towards Dale but he couldn't do it. Daryl then took the gun from Rick and aimed the gun at Dale's head. As Daryl was bending down he looked at me and I nodded in confirmation to what he was thinking.

"Sorry, brother." Daryl spoke before the loud gunshot pierced Dale in the head.

Man oh man. I hated this episode. It was so bloody sad! I miss my boy Dale ngl. He deserved better...I love you guys 3000.
-brayla❤️❤️