𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐔𝐌 (𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝐷𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛)

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝐹𝑖𝑣𝑒

I sat on a small wooden stool near the grand piano in Hershel's living room, hands folded in my lap in anticipation.

"So, how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn spoke up from his place on the purple velvet piano bench. The atmosphere in the house felt heavy today as everyone on the farm was gathered together to make a difficult choice.

"Let's, uh, just see where everybody stands first. Then, we can talk through the options," Rick assured Glenn with an uneasy voice. A couple of feet behind Rick, under a large doorway, stood Daryl. I noticed that he always preferred to be lurking on the outskirts whenever our group would gather.

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

"By killing him, right? I mean, why bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing," Dale retorted with disdain from behind me. He stood by me and Glenn as a way to show a united front, I suppose.

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

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

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl jerk his head around to look at me sharply. Earlier in the day, Dale approached me to know where I stood regarding Randall's situation. Right away, I told him I was on his side.

Seeing Beth standing in her bathroom with a bloodied wrist moved me to think about my brother. Even as a child, Kai struggled with depression and various other mental health issues. It escalated to something more dangerous after I went to live with my father. Since Kai was only my half sibling, he had to stay and endure the full extent of my mother's abuse. I went back to visit them during break one year, and the next morning I found him in the bathtub, floating unconscious in a deep red sea.

Later in his life, my brother did horrible things because of his affliction, and it ruined him in the end. I'd been drowning in regret and guilt for a while now, wondering if I could've done something different to change his fate. Maybe, I should've tried harder to save him from my mother's hold. I should've written to him more, called him more, visited him more. There were so many things that I should've done, but didn't. I didn't want to have the life of another young man be thrown away so carelessly, especially because I had the chance to do something about it. The only thing I felt Randall was guilty of was getting mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Glenn cleared his throat and craned his neck up to look at Dale with apologetic eyes.

"Look, I think you're pretty much right about everything. But this–"

"They've got you scared!" Dale pleaded with him.

"He's not one of us," Glenn sighed. "We've lost too many people already."

I was shocked that Glenn decided to jump ship at the last minute. I didn't think he was the kind of person to stand for an execution.

"All right, then I guess it's just me and Charlotte," Dale looked down at me desperately. I sent him a small nod to let him know I was still with him. My cheeks grew warm as I suddenly felt the whole room look at Dale and I.

Shane snorted from across the room and shook his head.

"Let's say we let him join us, alright? As soon as we let our guard down he might go fetch his buddies and then we're done for," he proposed.

"So, the answer is to kill him for a crime that he may not even commit?!" Dale exclaimed lividly. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. We're saying that the rule of law is dead and there is no civilization."