Death do us part

Another funeral

"Dale could... could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us... the truth... Who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives... our safety... our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on... we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale." Rick stood in front of Dale's grave. The rest on the group stood around, crying.

After the funeral, Hershel told us that he was moving us inside the house.

  We were all packing our things together, and thankfully I didn't spread out too much, so I just needed to put a few things in my bag and pack up my tent.

  We all packed out things in the back of the truck and T-dog drove it over to the house. Surprisingly, I saw Daryl on his motorcycle, driving to the house.

  I walked over and grabbed my bag off of the back of the truck, walking it inside. I set my bag on the couch, seeing that no one had claimed it yet.

  T-dog grabbed a box and hauled it up stairs and right after, Hershel walked in, "I got the couch." I looked at him confused look.

  I opted on just putting my bag next to the wall that partly separates the dining room and the living room.

I went out and helped wherever I was needed. I saw Daryl and Rick looking at a map and planning something. I decided to stay out of that and go make myself useful somewhere else.

It was starting to get cold out and, so I had on a dark blue hoodie and everything else I usually wear.

It was quite peaceful, Rick and Daryl were walking around getting ready to let Randall loose.

I watched Rick walk into the barn and up to where Carl was dangling his legs out the large window.

I kept walking until I got to the chicken coop.

Maggie was already in there gathering eggs, and I just joined right in.

After a while if that, we took the eggs to the house to clean them, then heard screaming.

We ran to the source of the shouting and found Shane by the shed that Randall was in, but the door was open and Randall was gone.

"What happened?" Lori yelled to Shane. His nose was bleeding and he was furious.

"He's armed." He said, walking closer to the group. "He's got my gun."

"Are you okay?" Carl asked.

"I'm fine, he snuck up on me and clocked me in the face." He shook his head angrily.

"Alright, Hershel, T-dog, get everyone back in the house. Melody, Daryl, come with us." He motioned everyone to the house and I got my gun out. Daryl loaded his bow and I rushed up, checking my ammo.

"Just let him go!" Carol said. "That was the plan wasn't it? To let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here. Not at our front step with a gun." Rick said.

"Don't go out there, y'all know what will happen." Carol argued.

"Get everyone back in the house." Rick said. Lori got Carl and everyone started to head back to the house. I followed Rick and we went into the woods.

"I saw him head up in the trees that way before I blacked out." Shane pointed up on a hill.

"He couldn't have gotten far." Rick said. I quickened my pace to keep up with them. "Can you track him?" He asked Daryl. We stopped.

"Nah, I don't see nothing." He said, confused.

"There ain't no use in tracking him, he went that way, we need to pair up. We spread out, chase him down. That's it." Daryl kept watching the ground, confused.

"Kid weighs a buck 25 soaking wet. You're trying to tell us he got the jump on you?" Daryl questioned.

"I would say a rock pretty much evens it out." Shane said.

"Alright, you and Melody start heading up the right flank, Shane and I'll go left. Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there." He said and we split.

I followed Daryl and kept quiet. I wasn't going to talk to him after what he said to me.

After a little while if searching the sun went down. Daryl stopped and sighed.

"This is pointless, you got a light?" He looked at me. I handed him my flashlight and he started to look around. He let out an irritated sigh and put the flashlight down.

"Come on." He started walking again.

We basically went in a circle and he still couldn't find any solid tracks.

"We're back to square one." I muttered.

"Yeah, well if you're going to do a thing, might as well do it right." He said. He started to follow something.

"There's two sets of tracks right here. Shane must have followed him a lot longer than he said." He pointed to the tracks in the ground. He pointed the flashlight up and walked up to a tree.

"There's fresh blood on this tree." He pointed it back at the ground. "There's more tracks. It's like they're walking a tandem." He kept walking. I looked up when I heard some kind of animal call. I kept walking and he stopped, which made me bump into him. He looked back and I muttered a sorry. He pretty much ignored it.

"There was a little dust up right here." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean something went down." He pointed. I had absolutely no idea what he saw, but I just went along with it.

"This is getting weird." I whispered.

"Had a little trouble." He pointed the light a a piece of fabric and I bent over to pick it up.

We heard a large twig snap behind us and I looked back. He grabbed my arm and ushered me behind a tree. There were two trees about a foot apart.

I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing. He whistled softly and I opened my eyes and looked at him. He threw the flashlight up and I caught it, then he raised his bow, looking around the tree.

I crept my head around and saw that there was something walking around out there.

It got closer and Daryl got ready to shoot. I grabbed my knife and held it up. I turned and held my knife up, shining the light on it's face.

  I gasped at the walker and it held it's arm out, pushing me back. I stumbled on a root and fell.

  Daryl got out from behind the tree and tried to shoot it, but couldn't get a clear shot. He shot at it, but missed.

Daryl fell back onto a tree and reloaded his crossbow. I tried to search around on the ground for my knife, but could find it. The walker was getting close to Daryl, so I rushed up to the it and grabbed it, bringing it down to the ground. I stepped on the back of it's neck and took a rock, slamming it onto the top of it's head repeatedly.

  I stood up and examined the walker. It was Randall.

***

  I'm ending here.

-Kenz