The Road Ahead of Us - TWD Season 2

SARAH

They were sitting around the table, listening to Rick telling them that once they had found Hershel, another group had shown up. They were dangerous, and soon, there was a shooting. They luckily made it out alive when they found Randall with his leg skewered by a railing.

"And he is part of that group?" Sarah asked, turning to Glenn next to her. He nodded quietly in response. Sarah eyed her friend; he was pale and acting quite strangely. Did something else happen out there? But it seemed like Rick had told them everything. So what could be wrong with her friend? She could only turn to Maggie. The girl was standing not far from the table, and her eyes were observing Glenn as well. So Maggie had also noticed something was off.

"But we couldn't just leave him behind; he would have bled out," Rick explained. "If he lived that long."

"What do we do with him?" asked Andrea from next to Shane.

That was a good question, for sure.

"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can," Hershel said, making his entrance into the living room. "But he'll probably have nerve damage." That didn't sound good at all.

"Is it permanent?" Nicki asked from next to Sarah.

"No," Hershel answered, shaking his head. "But he won't be on his feet for at least a week."

So, this Randall guy couldn't leave for a week, but what then?

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, and send him on his way," Rick said to try to reassure them, but Andrea frowned.

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" That was true, too. How could someone survive alone? Sarah wasn't sure that it was the right choice, but she wasn't sure making him stay was the right choice either. She really felt confused.

Suddenly, the sound of the door being opened made Sarah look up and see Daryl entering the room. She saw him nodding shyly towards Carol, and then his eyes met hers from across the room. Sarah felt her lips turn up in a little smile, but he diverted his gaze, laying his back against the wall to listen to what the others were saying.

"Just gonna let him go?" Shane was asking, "He knows where we are."

The way he said that actually worried her. He was implying an attack. Fighting, shooting. Her eyes moved towards Nicolette; was her sister in danger? Were her friends in danger?

"He was blindfolded the whole way here," Rick argued back. "He's not a threat."

That group had shot at them, though, with no apparent reason. Why would they attack someone without being threatened if they weren't dangerous? She felt her hands shaking.

"Not a threat. How many of them were there?" Shane chuckled mockingly. "You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?"

What were they getting into? They were in the middle of an apocalypse for God's sake, now they were going to have a war with another group of survivors?

"They left him for dead," Rick argued back. "No one is looking."

"We should still post a guard," T-Dog suggested, and Sarah felt her eyes going wide as her hands kept shaking. They were not in a fortress; that was a farm. And they were a large group, but what if those men outnumbered them? She must have been shaking visibly because, at some point, Nicki took her hand, squeezing it. Her sister wasn't looking to her, she was observing the people around her, focusing on the words they were saying. She didn't seem scared. She was doing her best to understand what was going on.

"He's out cold right now. Will be for hours," Hershel said, probably trying to make some kind of peace.

But it didn't settle well for Shane. "You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy," he mocked again, starting to make his way out of the room. "Look at this, folks. We are back in fantasy land." Sarah turned to Carol, who looked down at her hands resting on her lap. That was uncalled for.