salvation → g. rhee

judge, jury, executioner

Daryl delivered another punch to the kid's face. He'd lost count on how many, but the state of his face showed it was a lot.

"C'mon, man, I told you," he panted.

"You ain't told me shit!" Daryl growled, grabbing him by the collar and roughly sitting him back up again.

"I barely knew those guys! I met 'em on the road."

"How many in your group?"

Randall panted heavily, stalling for an answer. "No, no, no," he said quickly, as Daryl unsheathed his buck knife. "C'mon, man!" he whined.

"How many?" Daryl demanded, lodging his knife into the floorboards between Randall's legs.

"Ah! Thirty! Thirty guys!"

"Where?"

"Uhh - ah!" Randall screamed as Daryl ripped off the duct tape Hershel had plastered over his stitches. "I don't know, I swear!" he spat through clenched teeth. "We were never in any place more than a night!"

"Scoutin'? Plannin' on staying local?" Daryl snapped sardonically, getting in the kid's face as he slipped the tip of his knife under a stitch.

"No, they left me behind!"

"You ever pick off a scab?"

"Come on, man, I'm trying to cooperate!"

"Start real slow at first, but sooner or later ya just gotta rip it off," he said darkly.

"Okay! Okay, they-they have weapons. Heavy stuff - automatics. I-I didn't do anything!" Randall whined, as Daryl slowly pulled the stitch up.

"Shot at my boys, almost hit the girl. Tried to take this farm. Just went along for the ride, you tryna tell me you were innocent?" Daryl growled.

"Yes!" Randall panted. "These people took me in. Not just guys, a whole group of them! Men and women - kids, too! Just like you people! Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know?"

Daryl removed his knife from the stitches and stood up.

"But, we'd go out, scavenge, just the men. One night, we found this little campsite. A man and his two daughters - teenagers, y'know? Real young, real cute li-like that girl, uh-"

Daryl, who had his back to the kid and knew he was about to talk about Aubrey, turned slowly, glaring, daring him to continue that sentence.

"They had to watch while these guys, they.... and they didn't even kill him afterwards! They just - they just made 'em watch. His-his daughters... they just left him there. No, but I didn't touch those girls! I swear! I -"

Daryl lunged forward and kicked him hard in his good leg.

"Please, please, you gotta believe me, man. I'm not like that, I ain't like that..." Randall whimpered.

Daryl kicked him again and delivered
another blow to his face.

〄

"So, what're you gonna do? We'd all feel better if we knew the plan," Lori said, as she crouched next to the fire and poured water from the kettle into her cup. She, Carol, Glenn, Aubrey, Carl, and Andrea looked at Rick, and Shane, who stood slightly behind him, looked at the ground.

"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked, rather rudely, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"Are we gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked, leaning his back against the tree trunk.

"We'll know soon enough," Rick replied, jutting his chin slightly.

Aubrey looked over and saw Daryl walking into camp, fisting the strap of his crossbow with some seriously bloodied knuckles.