A teenage girl by the name of Ayla Meadows is held against her will and experimented on by a crazed scientist. Although she manages to escape the horrors with the help of a sheriff and his group, she is forever haunted by the memories of her torture...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
———
"I am not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen.
———
Rick, Glenn, and Hershel return to the farm the next day with a new addition: a teenage boy called Randall. According to Rick, the group he was with left him for dead after he became injured and bringing him to the farm was the only option to save his life. The decision immediately sparks outrage from Shane which makes Carl and Ayla's plan so much easier.
Randall is to stay at the farm for a week to allow him time to recover. Since the boy was blindfolded on the way to the farm, Rick believes he doesn't pose a threat and therefore can be dropped off a couple of miles away and it'll be fine. However, this decision divides the group as a select few (Shane and Andrea) feel killing him is the safest option.
Over the week Randall is at the barn, Ayla and Carl set their plan in motion. They're not obvious about it. Instead, they are cunning and crafty. It is the small things they do that increase the distrust and wariness around Shane. Something goes missing around camp? Ayla mentions that Shane was the last to be seen with it. One of Daryl's arrows breaks? Carl saw Shane carelessly testing the crossbow out earlier. These lies build up over time until Ayla can see the tension between Shane and everyone else.
Sometimes she feels bad, like this isn't the right thing to do. The deception makes her feel dirty. But all it takes for her to continue is to remind herself of all the times Shane manipulated and hurt her. How his actions made her claw at her neck in panic. When his manipulation meant she wouldn't leave Carl's bedside for days in fear that he would harm her again.
At one point during the week Carl even mentions his worries about Shane to Lori. He tells her that Shane frightens him and that he doesn't think he's a good person anymore. Later that night, Carl and Ayla eavesdrop as Lori repeats these worries to Rick. She even brings up her own suspicions of Shane's involvement in Otis' death which shocks Ayla. The girl hadn't realised that Lori had caught him out on his lies as well. It seems that the plan really was working.
———
The week passes quickly and soon enough, Rick and Shane leave to drop Randall off somewhere far, far away. Ayla and Carl spend their day as they always do; out in their field laughing and talking. They head to the house at lunch for food and drinks when they find out that Beth tried to kill herself. They don't laugh anymore after that.
"I just don't understand why she would even try." Carl says perplexedly. "We fight so hard to stay alive and she's just ready to end it?"
Ayla shrugs her shoulders. "Sometimes the world we live in is just not worth the pain it causes." She explains. "Beth just lost her mother and there's monsters that lurk around every corner we turn now. She might not wanna live through all that. It's understandable."
