Our Extinction Event {Daryl Dixon}

Fighting For What's Right

When Shane and Rick returned from taking the boy away from the farm, the group was surprised when he was still in their care. They locked him in the barn, which Daryl spent most of the night 'watching.' Morning came, and everyone was gathered around the fire as they waited to hear Rick's plan. Lori, pouring herself a cup of tea, looked at Rick. 

"So what you gonna do? We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."

"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked.

"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn added to the list of questions.

"We'll know soon enough," Rick responded, nodding toward Daryl, who was walking toward them.

"The boy there's got a gang, thirty men," Daryl said. "They got heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, the boys are dead. And our women," He looked at Parker, concern shining in his eyes for a fraction of a second. "... they're gonna.. they're gonna wish they were."

"What did you do?" Parker asked, noticing Daryl's bloody knuckles.

"Had a little chat," Daryl answered bluntly.

"A little chat?" Parker asked incredulously. "Let me guess, you asked the questions and when you didn't like what you got, you beat him?"

"No one goes near this guy," Rick announced.

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Parker asked. "You can't keep him locked up. Not forever. It's not fair."

"We have no choice," Rick responded. "He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"You're just going to kill him?" Dale asked.

"It's settled" Rick looked at his sister knowing she'd have something to say about it. "We'll do it today."

"What? Did i miss the vote? When the hell did that get decided?" Parker asked, looking around as Rick walked away. "So everyone's just going to sit back and wait for Rick to kill an innocent boy?"

"No," Dale told her, shaking his head. "No, we won't." Parker found Daryl later that day at his small campsite. He was busy with his crossbow when Parker approached with Dale, they were talking, and they agreed that they couldn't let this boy die. He was just a kid. He couldn't have been more than twenty, Maggie's age. Nobody deserved to die like this. When he saw her coming he whispered nonsense under his breath.

"The whole point of me coming up here is to get away from you people."

"Sounds like a problem for another time. Besides it's gonna take more than a five-minute hike to keep me away. Gosh, it's like you don't know me at all." Parker winked.

"You worried about me? Carol send you?" Daryl asked.

"They're not the only ones concerned about you," Dale answered. "And your new role in the group."

"Oh man, I don't need my head shrunk. This group's broken," Daryl said, stuffing hand-crafted arrows into his bag. "I'm better off fending for myself.".

"You act like you don't care." Dale pointed out.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed. "It's cause I don't."

"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Parker asked.

"Nope."

"Then why not stand with us? Help try to save a kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other."

"Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch," Daryl said before nodding to Parker. "You neither."

"It's not being desperate," Parker scoffed, looking off into the distance. "It's human. Something the rest of us seem to have forgotten."