⌜ chapter nineteen ⌟

Rick walks out of the house and down the few porch steps to where MJ's standing. "Is everything okay?" He asks, and she glances at him.

"Do you remember when I told you about Crowley?" She asks, and he nods.

"Crossroads demon, king of hell."

"The last time I saw him, he said that I'd thrive in this new world. That I was more monster than I realized." She tells him. "The bit of what Dale said about our old selves and the old world being dead made me think of that."

"You think what we're doing is monstrous?"

"No, I think what we're doing is the best thing for our people." She says. "But maybe thinking that makes me a monster."

"You're not." He says, and she looks at him.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I know you." He says, and she takes a deep breath. "Shane and Daryl are getting Randall. We should go." He tells her, and she nods.

"Hold on. Hold on. Hold on." Randall's saying as they near the barn, but Daryl makes him keep walking.

The five of them head inside, and Shane ties a blindfold over his eyes. Randall's crying as he begs them not to kill him.

"Would you like to stand or kneel?" Rick asks, but he just keeps begging.

Daryl forces him onto his knees and then backs away from him. Rick looks at MJ, but her eyes are on the ground. He then looks at Shane, who nods.

"Do you have any final words?"

"No. Please." Randall cries. "Please don't. Don't."

Rick raises his gun and then clicks the safety off, unaware of the two kids who just snuck into the barn. He's hesitant, having a hard time forcing himself to pull the trigger.

"Do it, Dad." Carl says, gaining everyone's attention. "Do it."

MJ immediately turns toward the door to find her daughter standing beside Carl. "What the hell are you two doing in here?" She questions as she walks over to them. "Get out. Now." She ushers them both out of the building.

"We want to watch." Ellie says.

"Where's your dad?" She's pulling them both toward the house.

Shane storms past the three of them, and MJ turns to see Daryl taking Randall out of the barn, still alive. Rick didn't shoot him, there's no way he could do it after the kids walked in.

"Why didn't he do it?" Ellie asks.

"Get your ass in the house now. Go!" MJ yells, and Ellie starts walking. "Carl, go find your mom." She says, and he walks away from her. MJ goes to the house and quickly finds Matt. "Do me a favor, next time we have someone dangerous in the vicinity and me and Rick are trying to deal with it, make sure Ellie stays in the damn house."

"I thought she was in bed. What happened?" He asks as he gets to his feet.

"She and Carl went into the barn. They wanted to watch Rick shoot him." She tells him, and he's visibly taken aback. "Just...keep an eye on her."

MJ ends up back at the tents, and Dean walks over to his sister. "What's going on? Rick said that we're keeping Randall in custody." He says, and she nods.

"Ellie and Carl walked in before he could pull the trigger. They wanted to watch him die." She tells him. "I-I don't understand... I did everything I could to keep her away from all of this. How could I have failed so epically?"

"You haven't failed at anything." He says as he places his hands on her shoulders.

"My son is dead, and my daughter wanted to watch a man get killed." She says "I failed. I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be a mom. I... I just— I don't know."

They suddenly hear someone screaming in the distance, and everyone starts looking around to find the source. Rick quickly tells T-Dog to get a gun as Lori tells Carl to get to the house and lock the door behind him. MJ and Dean take off running at the same time as Rick, but they're ahead of him by quite a few feet.

The Winchesters are faster, especially with the adrenaline now coursing through their bodies. MJ slows down to open a fence, but then starts sprinting toward where Dale is still screaming out in pain. Their parents catch up as the screams get louder, and they all try to push themselves harder to move even faster, but Dale's pretty far out on the property.

MJ makes it there first and she immediately tackles the walker off of him, not hesitating for even a second. She stabs it in the head and then looks over at her brother, but his attention is focused solely on Dale.

"Oh my God." Mary mutters when she sees the condition that Dale's in.

MJ's now kneeling beside him, trying to see how bad the wound is. The walker tore his stomach open, and she knows that there's no way to save Dale, but she doesn't want to let go of hope just yet. Daryl and the four Winchesters are now surrounding him as the others finally make it to where they are.

"Hey, hey, listen to me." MJ's saying as she places her hand on the side of Dale's face, trying to bring him some comfort. "Just listen to my voice."

"Get Hershel!" Rick yells as Andrea kneels down on the other side of Dale. "He needs blood. We got to operate now."

MJ and Andrea are both trying to keep Dale as calm as is even possible while Rick keeps yelling for Hershel and Matt. Finally, the older of the two makes it over to them.

"What happened?" Hershel asks.

"What can we do?" Rick looks up at him.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay." MJ's voice is calm and steady as she talks to Dale, but Andrea can see the tears in her eyes. "It's gonna be okay, Dale."

"Can we move him?"

"He won't make the trip." Hershel tells them, and MJ sighs as she glances at him.

"You have to do the operation here." Rick says as Matt runs over to them with the kids right behind him. He couldn't make them stay inside with all of the commotion; they're too worried about their group to stay put. "Glenn, get back to the house—"

"Rick." Hershel puts his hand on his shoulder and shakes his head when Rick looks at him.

"No!"

"Damn it!" MJ hits the ground as Andrea starts sobbing over Dale's chest.

"He's suffering." Andrea says as she looks up at MJ. "Do something!" She pleads through her tears.

MJ pulls her gun from her waistband as she slowly gets to her feet. She aims the gun at his head, and Mary pulls Ellie back a few steps. Sophia turns her head into her mom's side, Carl's already holding onto Lori. Jack turns to face Jess and she pulls him into a hug. A few of the others turn away from the scene, Andrea included. Dale looks up at MJ, and she can faintly see that he's trying to nod his head, telling her that he's okay with what she's about to do. Only she can't do it.

Her hand starts shaking, and Dean moves to step around the crowd to get to her, but then he sees Daryl at her side. He places his hand over hers, and she lets him take the gun from her. MJ turns away as he kneels down beside Dale. The older man lifts his head to the barrel of the gun.

John walks over to his daughter then and places his hands on her shoulders. Her eyes are squeezed shut, but she reaches up and grabs his hand, holding onto it.

"Sorry, brother." Daryl says to Dale and then pulls the trigger. They all jump at the sound of the gunshot, and John pulls MJ into him.