𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 || ᵈ.ᵈⁱˣᵒⁿ

XXVII

—/<3/—

"Do you think that kid will survive out there alone?" Mikey asked. Rick had gone out with Shane to take Randall away from the farm since his leg was healed.

"He'll survive, probably find another group to run with." Archie ashed his cigarette and adjusted the backpack he was using as a pillow.

"He'll be fine. You didn't know him anyway, why're you so hung up on it?" Daryl rolled his eyes, stealing the cigarette from Rory's lips and taking a drag. Rory glared at him and took it back as soon as he was done before handing him her packet so he could light one for himself.

"Right," Mikey nodded. "Still feels wrong though."

"Oh, that's them now... Why is the kid still with them?" Niamh questioned with a frown.

"Somethin' must of happened," Daryl said, his gaze following Rick and Shane as they led Randall back to the barn. They were coated in walker blood and they looked furious, so anyone could guess what happened.

"Looks like the place they took him was overrun," Archie said, pushing himself up on his elbows to watch.

"Hershel won't be happy." Mikey winced, taking the cigarette from Niamh.

"Since when do you smoke?" Rory asked him.

"Since when do you question my decisions like you're my mother?" Mikey asked sarcastically.

"Woah, what's up with the attitude?" Niamh frowned. Mikey looked awkwardly between his girlfriend and Rory who didn't look affected by his words in the slightest.

"No but seriously, why are you smoking all of a sudden?" Archie questioned. "You were always so against it."

Mikey shrugged, trying to hide the way he grimaced at the taste. "You all sneak off together to smoke, you did it on tour and you're still doing it now."

"You know you don't have to smoke to join us? You never followed so we assumed you just didn't want to breathe it in." Rory frowned.

"That's what Jonah said, but it still feels like you're in some exclusive club." Archie, Niamh and Rory bristled at the mention of their dead friend.

"Don't force yourself to smoke just because we do, just follow us when we go off to smoke. They only reason we don't smoke in camp is because it's inconsiderate, we weren't leaving you out on purpose." Niamh took the cigarette back and put it out on the grass.

"Okay." Mikey nodded, his shoulders dropping as if a weight was lifted off them.

"I love you," Niamh said sweetly. She grabbed Mikey's face and angled it towards hers.

"Seriously?" Archie groaned. He stumbled to his feet and grabbed his bag.

"What?" Daryl asked, confused.

"They're gonna start making out," Rory whispered to him as she got to her feet. Daryl grimaced and followed the siblings over to Archie's car where the three of them settled down to finish their cigarettes.

—/<3/—

"Randall's escaped!" Shane called as he jogged into camp.

"What?" Rick's eyes widened and the two of them rushed off towards the barn. The rest of the camp looked around at each other, alarmed.

"How would he escape? He's tied pretty tight." T-Dog frowned.

"Is that really important right now? He knows where the farm is and he might go running back to the guys that shot at us." Rory bit her lip.

"If he went through the woods I can track him," Daryl said. He grabbed his crossbow and then ran after Shane and Rick.

"Should we follow?" Archie asked, not really knowing what to do.

"No, just stay here. We can't all be out looking for him and Daryl would get frustrated with all the new footprints. Let's go look at the barn and try figure out what happened," Rory said. Archie nodded and they, along with T-dog, Glenn and Dale, all jogged towards the barn to investigate.

"This doesn't look like he got free on his own..." Glenn said as he observed the chains and blindfold on the ground.

"You don't think that Shane's got something to do with this?" Dale frowned. He made eye contact with Rory and by the look in her eyes, he could tell she had the same suspicion.

"Come on, let's head back to camp," Archie said.

It had gotten dark and still, nobody had returned. Daryl was still with Rick and who knows what Shane was up to. Dale had wandered away from the main camp after seeing a figure walking towards them, assuming it was one of the boys coming back.

It wasn't, and Dale realised it too late.

Rory's head shot up at the screams. She immediately scrambled to her feet and ran towards the noise with a knife in hand. The rest of the camp followed and Daryl and Rick ran out from the forest, obviously only just getting back.

Rory dragged the walker off of Dale and put it down before dropping down on her knees next to her friend. There was absolutely no way they could save him. The walker had ripped his stomach open and his intestines were exposed, spewing blood and bloodying the grass below him.

Rick raised his gun and pointed it at Dale's head with teary eyes and shaky hands. Dale's eyes pleaded with him to pull the trigger and put him out of his misery but Rick couldn't do it so Daryl did. Andrea sobbed as she looked at Dale's mangled body and the group dispersed, not wanting to look at the scene any longer. They'd bury him as soon as they could.

"I've gotta go find Shane, he still isn't back." Rick wiped his eyes before he sped off into the fields.

Daryl pulled Rory aside and waited for her to finish scrubbing Dale's blood off her knees and hands before he started talking. He knew in the back of his mind that this probably wasn't the right moment to talk about anything other than Dale so he tried to make things better by placing a cigarette between her lips and lighting it for her before doing the same for himself.

Rory mumbled a quiet 'thank you' and ditched the damp towel she was using on the grass.

"We found Randall," he started. "He was dead but somethin' didn't add up. The tracks were off, it looked like someone was walkin' beside him. I think Shane took him out to the woods an' killed him."

"Dale said the same thing when we went to to look at the barn."

Daryl hummed. "Ya think he's gonna try somethin?"

"I think he was trying to lure Rick to the woods so he could kill him and then he could try win Lori back but then you tagged along and his plan went to shit," Rory said curtly, her eyes drifting to the field they left Dale's body in.

"I can't find Carl!" Lori shrieked, running up to the pair.

"When'd you last see him?" Rory asked.

"After...Dale. I don't know where he went after that, I thought he was in our tent," Lori cried.

A gunshot echoed across the fields a moment later.

—/<3/—