Make it Till You Don't

Secrets Out

"Has the swelling gone down any?" Lori looked at me, gesturing to my head. I instinctively brought my hand up to my head, feeling the fabric of the wrap around it. After the meeting ended, I had Hershel look at my head. He said I had a concussion and a gash that only needed a few stitches, but otherwise, everything seemed fine and the swelling should go down soon.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not entirely sure, it feels like it though." I moved my fingers to my eye, feeling swelling around it. "That's my luck, I heal from one injury only to wind up with another."

"You're lucky all you received was that gash and concussion." I glanced over to Dale, tilting my head. "Seriously, you got hit with a pickaxe for crying out loud. One wrong move, and Shane would've killed you."

I took in his words, catching on to how he said 'would've' instead of 'could've', making me think back on Shane's threat in the RV.

'You better watch your back.'

Surely he wouldn't kill me in front of the others, would he? Truth is, I wouldn't put it past him. He's been acting weird from what the others say, and it seems Dale can sense something isn't right too.

I tensed as I saw Rick and Shane making their way over to us. "So, what're you gonna do? We'd all feel better if we knew the plan." Lori spoke up as they neared us.

"Is there a plan?" Andrea added to what Lori asked.

Glenn glanced at the two. "We gonna keep him here?"

"We'll know soon enough." Was all Rick told us. Better sooner than later.

Hearing footsteps, we averted our gaze to see Daryl walking up. "Boy there's got a gang, thirty men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead." He looked to Rick as he explained the situation. "Our women, they're gonna- they're gonna wish they were." Daryl shot a glance in my direction at the end, causing me to tense.

"What did you do?" Carol asked him.

Daryl glanced down at his knuckles. "Had a little chat."

"No one goes near this guy." Rick finalized.

Seeing the discussion was over, I began to walk away, thinking of walking around the property for a while. "Hold up a sec."

I stopped walking, turning to Daryl confused. "What?"

"That uh- that Randall guy told me something..." He began, looking to the shed where Randall was being held. "He told me that one night his group found a campsite, had about twelve people." He paused, shifting on his feet. "That they made the men watch- killing them and taking the women hostage."

I turned my head away, giving that as my answer, knowing what he was asking. "I gotta go." I mumbled walking off.

———

Later in the day, as the sun started going down, everyone convened in the house to discuss what to do with Randall. It was rather quiet as no one wanted to speak first, as I opted to play with a string hanging off my shirt.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote." Glenn was the first to speak up.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea added on, glancing around the room.

Lori was the next to speak. "How about majority rules?"

"Well, let's- let's see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options." Rick pointed out.

"Well, where I see it, there's only one way to move forward." Shane stated, matter-of-factly.

"Killing him, right?" Dale looked at him. "I mean, why bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."