My Desire - Daryl Dixon (1)

Goodbye Dale

Chapter 53

Later that day, we all gathered inside the house to discuss the 'Randall issue'. We made sure that the children were away for this part, due to Rick seeing Carl becoming darker when he began talking about how Randall will die.

"So how do we do this? Do we just take a vote?" Glenn asked, finally breaking the silence.

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

"How about majority rules?" Lori asked.

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

"Hell, the way I see it, there's only one way to move forward," Shane said.

"Killing him. Right? I mean why even bother to take a vote, it's clear to see which way the wind is blowing," Dale said.

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

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

Glenn then began to very guilty as he looked up at Dale.

"Look, I... I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-" Glenn said before Dale interrupted him.

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

"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already," Glenn said.

"How about you, do you agree with this?" Dale asked Maggie.

"Couldn't we continued keeping him prisoner?" Maggie asked Rick.

"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl said.

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

"We could ration better," Lori said.

"Or he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself," Dale said.

"Put him to work?" Glenn asked.

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick said.

"We could put an escort on him," Maggie said.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked.

"I will," Dale volunteered.

"All day and night?" I questioned.

"I don't think any of should be walking around with his guy," Rick said.

"He's right, I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," Lori said.

"We exactly put chains around his ankles and sentence him to hard labour," Andrea said.

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe- maybe he's helpful. Maybe he's nice. We let our guard down, maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men," Shane said.

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead, there is no civilisation," Dale said angrily.

"Oh my god," Shane sighed.

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked.

"You barely came back last time. There are walkers, you could break down, you- you could get lost," Lori said.

"You could get ambushed," Daryl added.

"Or worse," I said.

"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk," Glenn said.

"If you go through with it. How would you do it? Would he suffer?" Patricia asked.