Dixon's Baby Girls

Part 41: Leaving Farm

"Randall's missing." T replies. My eyes widen and I feel daddy squeezing my hand a bit tighter.

    "Missing? How?" He asks. We walk down to the shed where he was kept.

    "How long's he been gone?" Rick asks T-dog.

    I see the rest of the group walking up to us.

    "What's going on?" Lori asks.

    "It's hard to say. The cuffs are still hooked." T answers Rick's previous question.

    "He must' slipped 'em." Rick says.

    "Is that possible?" Carol asks worried, holding Maddie on her hip.

    "It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea answers Carol.

    "The door was secured from the outside." T-dog adds.

    "Rick! Rick!" We hear shouting and turn to see Shane coming out of the woods, his nose bloody. Daddy pushed me a bit behind him but I don't let his hand go.

    "What happened?" Rick asks his friend.

    "He's armed! He's got my gun!" Shane shouts.

    "Are you okay?" Lori asks him.

    "I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face." Shane replies.

    "All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us." Rick orders.

    "T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane says to T-dog and the man tossed him a gun.

    "Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol cuts in.

    "The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Rick says.

    "Don't go out there. Ya'll know what can happen." Lori says to the men.

    "Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick just orders her. She nods and grabs Carl's hand. And then she grabs my free one. I just look at her not moving or letting my dads hand go.

    "Let's go, back in the house. Okay." She says softly to me. I look to my dad scared.

    "Go baby. I'll be okay. I'll be back." He assured me. Then he let my hand go and went into the woods with the others, and me and the other group members go in the house.

    I sit beside Beth for a while as she's keeping me distracted and comforting me.

*Daryl's POV*

    "I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out. I'm not sure how long. He couldn't have gotten far." Shane says. "He's hobbled, exhausted. And armed."

    "So are we." Rick says back. "Can you track him?" He turns and asks me.

    "No, I don't see nothing." I say, then Shane cuts in.

    "Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking him, okay? He went that way. We need to pair up. We spread out, we just chase him down. That's it."

    "Kid weighs a buck-25 soaking wet. You trying to tell us he got the jump on you?" I question not buying it.

    "I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?" Shane glares at me.

    "Alright, knock it off. You and Glenn start heading up the right flank." Rick orders.