Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Part 22 (Stand By You)

Despite going out there to send Randall away, Rick and Shane returned to the farm with the kid still in tow. Apparently, he'd mentioned knowing Maggie from school, which made leaving him somewhere risky. Or at least that's what the men had told the group.

Daryl was in the barn with a tied-up Randall, sending punch after punch to try and get him to talk about where his group was and who they were. But all Randall was doing was crying and begging, which really pissed Daryl off.

"I... I told you..." Randall pleaded breathlessly.

"You ain't told me shit!" Daryl grunted, grabbing Randall by his shirt and harshly shoving him into the wall.

Randall spat blood out onto the floor before talking; "I barely knew those guys! Met 'em on the road!"

"How many people in your group?" When Daryl got no response, he pulled put his knife and knelt down in front of the boy. "How many?!"

"Thir-thirty! Thirty guys!"

"Where?" Daryl started poking at Randall's recently stitched leg wound with his knife.

"I don't know, I swear!" Randall yelled, hissing in pain. "We were never any place more than one night!"

Daryl continued to poke and taunt Randall, refusing to let up until he had all the information and answers he wanted. Eventually, the pain was too much for Randall and he talked.

"Okay! Okay, they have weapons," he started. "Heavy stuff. B-but I didn't do anything!" he cried out.

"Your boys shot at my boys. Tried to take this farm? You're tryna' tell me you were innocent?!" Daryl shouted.

"YES!" Randall snapped back. "These people took me in. Not just guys a whole group. Just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know?"

Daryl stood up straight and slowing walked away as the young man spoke, allowing him to keep talking. Something more was off about this kid, and he was about to find out what.

"We'd go out, scavenge. Just the men," Randall began. "This one guy, Carver. He was soemthin' of a leader. He'd go off alone a lot. Come back with... folks he'd found. Mostly girls... women... some of 'em real cute, y'know?"

Daryl slowly turned his head to face Randall again, but he didn't move from his spot. Carver. The man CJ had come across in the woods.

"The women if-if they were with others, he'd make 'em watch whilst he did what he wanted and send 'em on their way," Randall went on, angering Daryl even more. "If they were alone... meant they had no reason to be let go."

As Randall kept talking, Daryl's rage only grew stronger. The man in the woods didn't want to rob her and kill her like she'd told them. If CJ wasn't as strong as she was, if she hadn't done the thing that he knew was haunting her mind every day since it happened, she would have been taken by these people to live in a nightmare with no escape. He turned his whole body around to face Randall, a blank expression across his face with the anger clear in his eyes.

"B-but I never touched those girls," Randall was quick to say when Daryl took a step towards him with clenched fists. "I swear, man! Carver went missin' like a week ago! He went out, never came back. The others they... they haven't brought anyone back like that! I promise! I never did nothin'!"

Daryl approached Randall slowly, ignore his pleas as he threw punches and kicks at him, torturing him until he could barely keep his eyes open.

**********

Meanwhile, everyone was by the campfire waiting to see if Randall had talked during the night. CJ had noticed a tension between Shane and Rick since they returned but she kept her questions to herself, considering that it didn't seem like anyone else had noticed.