It Comes With The Name

Chapter 30: Our Old Friend Death

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked, finally breaking the silence that had overtaken the room for the past few minutes.

"Well, let's-- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick said. Almost everyone was gathered in the Greene family's living room, excluding Jimmy, Carl, and Tank, who were upstairs with Beth, to discuss the fate of their prisoner.

Shane shrugged from where he was leaning against the mantle. "Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward."

"Killing him, right?" Dale scoffed, the disgust clear in his voice. "I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

Rick held his hand up. "Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."

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

Glenn froze, looking at Dale like he was dreading what he was about to say. " Look, I– I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this..."

Dale's face fell. "They've got you scared!"

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

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale turned to Maggie.

Maggie crossed her arms, shrinking into herself. "Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl shook his head.

There was a bit more back and forth within the group before Shane finally spoke up again. "Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men."

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale asked, growing more and more frustrated. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. The rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

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

Lori shook her head. "You barely came back this time."

"Yeah, but whose fault was that?" Lauren muttered to herself, the only person who seemed to even register her comment was Daryl who gave a slight smirk.

Lori continued. "There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost."

"Or ambushed." Daryl added.

"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn said. The conversation somehow morphed from 'Should we do it?' to 'How will we do it?'

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane suggested.

Rick nodded. "I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane."

"And what about the body?" T-dog questioned. "Do we bury him?"

"Hold on, hold on!" Dale held his hands up, pausing everyone. "You're talking about this like it's already decided."

Daryl rolled his eyes, leaning against the doorframe. "You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?"

" This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Dale raised his voice. " Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us." He said, turning to Rick. "He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed."