Blessing or a Curse? ➳ Daryl Dixon

9. Into The Woods

“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.” 

Sydney had stood around, watching as the body had been lowered into the ground and covered with dirt. Beside the other two graves, which were perfectly outlined with rocks, but no headstone to match— they didn’t get that privilege anymore. He told himself he should probably help, probably do something, but all he could do was stare and watch as they patted the dirt down and outlined it with rocks to match the others. He told himself he shouldn’t be so broken up about a guy he only knew for a couple weeks, that everyone else deserved to be the ones who stood around and stared, but he couldn’t will himself to snap out of it no matter how hard he tried. 

All he could think about was how hard they had worked together, to save Randall’s life, how passionate the older man had been. 

As it turned out, the only thing that would save Randall’s life, is another life. 

He had stood by as Rick made his speech, arm wrapped tightly around the shoulders of Sophia, who cried softly for the older man she had loved so much. Sydney found himself annoyed that all of a sudden they were doing it Dale’s way, listening to what they had said, only because the older man had died. It had taken the life of Dale for them to finally listen to reason. 

He would never say anything about it though, as he looked over the mournful faces of his new friends. Now was not the time to say anything.

Nobody had to be able to read minds to know what Shane thought, what he thought about how they were going to cut Randall loose, after how hard he had fought to get the boy killed. 

You could see the shift in power, how quickly Shane was no longer the second hand man to Rick— even within a night, Sydney had caught onto it. He figured Rick was serious about the things he told them, and that meant that his old best friend would not be calling the shots anymore, but it would be Daryl. 

He didn’t know how Shane felt about that, but he knew it wasn’t good. 

His eyes had drifted to the barn one two many times, where he knew Randall was. He would have to try and sneak off, to talk to Randall, assure the boy that he wasn’t going to be executed. He feared what would happen once he was let loose, unsure if the kid would even know where to go— but he knew there was no point in discussing allowing the boy to stay. He wasn’t stupid enough to push for more than he had already been given. 

He remembered the gun that Shane had pointed at Randall, after they had caught Carl in the barn. He was sure no one knew about the incident besides those involved, because no one had bothered to mention anything to him. It’s not as if him and Shane would say anything, and if Carl did that would mean he would have to admit guilt to being in the barn in the first place.