RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

come back to us

DARYL KNELT beside Randall's body, turning his head underneath the flashlight. "Got his neck broke." He flipped his body over, lifting up his shirt and pant legs. "He's got no bites."

"Yeah, none you can see." Glenn crouched beside him, lifting up one of Randall's arms and examining it before dropping it.

"Nah, I'm tellin' you, he died from this." Daryl gestured to Randall's neck.

"How's that possible?" Willow stood to the side with her arms crossed, trying to warm herself up.

None of them could come up with a reasonable answer.

"Come on." Daryl stood up, ripping the arrow out of the bark of the tree from when he missed Randall.

Halfway back to the farmhouse they heard a gunshot followed by another one shortly after.

"What the hell was that?" Willow asked frantically. She sped up her pace, getting ahead of Glenn and Daryl as she pushed forward through the woods.

They got to the clearing and looked around, but they couldn't see anyone outside. They continued quickly to the farmhouse, immediately going into the living room where the group was.

Daryl looked around them. "Rick and Shane ain't back?"

"No." Lori said in fear.

"We heard a shot." Willow stepped beside Carol, letting out a sigh of relief to see her and Sienna safe.

"Maybe they found Randall." Lori suggested.

"We found him." Willow spoke up, holding Sienna tightly.

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked.

"He's a walker." Daryl answered smugly.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel stood beside Maggie.

"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn said from beside Daryl.

"His neck was broke."

"So he fought back." Patricia proposed from the couch.

"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together." Daryl confirmed what Willow and Glenn had been suspecting.

Lori stepped up to Daryl. "Would you please go back out there, find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?"

Daryl glanced over to Willow, seeing she obviously didn't want him going back out there, but he still responded. "You got it."

Willow sighed as she leaned against the wall watching Daryl head out the door. Glenn stepped over to her, sensing how she was feeling. "He'll be fine." He whispered to her kindly.

She looked at him strangely but nodded.

"Oh my god." Andrea spoke by the window.

The group paced over to peer outside as Andrea swung the door open, Glenn and Willow following behind her to the porch. Daryl stood ahead of them by the railing, looking out into the field in front of the farmhouse. Hundreds of walkers were traipsing through the field towards the house.

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

"I'll get the guns." Andrea said before quickly heading back inside.

"Maybe they're just passing like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn reasoned.

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about." Daryl responded, still watching the walkers. "A herd that size will rip the house down."