Abnormality || Glenn Rhee [1]

23| Inevitable

CHAPTER TWENT THREE » INEVITABLE
"This? This we have a choice about."

♔

It was later that evening when we were all gathered around the room, ready to discuss Randall. One look at everybody's pale, almost guilt-ridden faces, showed that nobody really wanted to make this decision.

"So how do we do this?" Glenn was the first to ask, relieving the tension just slightly. "Just take a vote?"

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea questioned.

"How about majority rules?" Lori suggested.

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

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward," Shane spoke up.

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

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick said.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group," Dale replied. "Maybe just me and Glenn."

Everybody's eyes moved towards Glenn, who let out an audible sigh. "Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"

"They've got you scared," Dale interrupted.

"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already." Glenn finished, his eyes flickering over to mine briefly.

"How about you?" Dale looked towards Olivia and Maggie, who were both quietly stood in the corner. "Do you both agree with this?"

"I do and I don't," Olivia replied first. "But how come none of you were this worried about me when I first came?"

"Because you didn't try to kill us," Glenn stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But I could have," she turned, looking between Daryl and I. "If they didn't take my weapon, I could have tried something."

"But you didn't," I pointed out.

She shrugged, leaning back against the wall again. "Y'all still took the risk."

Olivia had a really good point. We did all take a risk on her. Sure, she didn't propose to be an immediate threat, and both Daryl and I had asked her questions. In fact, even Rick hadn't seemed that worried about her, just leaving me to deal with it instead.  But we could have never been totally sure.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" Maggie asked, breaking the silence.

"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl argued.

"It may be a lean winter," Hershel added.

"We could ration better," Lori suggested.

"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself. Put him to work."

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick shut down immediately and I agreed. I doubted anybody could feel safe with him walking around.

"We could put an escort on him," Maggie replied, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked sarcastically, saying exactly what I was thinking.

"I will," Dale offered, unsurprisingly. He really was certain about not killing Randall.