𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑
beware of... well... just beware

NADIA STANDS IN the doorway of the little shed as she watches Daryl beat the absolute shit out of Randall. She tilts her head and tsks, nodding her head towards Randall's injured thigh.

Daryl startles, not knowing she's been standing there. Randall's eyes flutter over to her and Daryl lurches forward, grabbing the boy by his chin roughly and slamming his head against the wall.

"Don't look at her." He turns his head sharply and narrows his eyes at the teenager. "Get out of here."

Nadia rolls her eyes. "Rick sent me to make sure Randall wasn't giving you too hard of a time in here."She pushes herself off of the threshold and takes two steps into the small building. "It looks like you got it handled."

"Please—"

Randall's short sentence is cut off as Daryl whips around and practically growls in his face, "Don't talk to her! Don't even look at her!"

The Slayer's brows rise at the statements before giving Randall a mean smirk, turning around to leave them alone.

Don't get her wrong—she doesn't fully condone torture, but the boy and his group had been aiming to kill her, Rick, Glenn, and Hershel. There's also something about him that makes her skin crawl.

She knocks her knuckles against the threshold as she leaves, beelining straight for Rick who raises his brows at her.

"He's got it handled." Nadia shrugs, turning around on her spot to lean against a tree. "Pretty sure he's got some answers because Daryl is going rabid in there."

"So, what you gonna do?" Andrea asks as the group stands around Rick, waiting for answers and wanting to discuss the new 'member' of the group.

"We'd all feel better if we knew the plan," Lori states as she pours some water into a cup which she hands to Carl.

"Is there a plan?" Andrea's head tilts forward and her eyebrows raise.

"Are we gonna keep him here?" Glenn asks as he shifts on his feet, glancing at Nadia before slipping his hands into his front pockets.

"We'll know soon enough," Rick says, glancing around at everyone.

As Carl walks away from the group, head tilted down, Nadia watches him with a slight frown until her eyes are drawn upwards by Daryl approaching. His knuckles are bloody and bruised, and he doesn't look happy. If anything, he looks downright disgusted and concerned.

"Boy there's got a gang, thirty men," Daryl informs, his eyes cold and hard. "They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women," he hesitates briefly, eyes flittering up to Nadia and then back down to the ground, "they're gonna—they're gonna wish they were."

Nadia clenches her jaw and straightens herself, eyes steely. She thinks about Beth—the girl with the sun-kissed blonde hair and a smile that lights up the room. No one is coming near her.

After the whole fiasco with Randall and everyone finding out that she almost injured Andrea by throwing her off the RV, Nadia had found her way to Beth's room where she sat with her for a few hours.

At first, it was just complete silence until Beth turned to her with wide blue eyes and asked, "Did you ever try to... commit?"

And honestly, Nadia wanted to not answer, but something about the look in the blonde's eyes told her to speak the truth. So she did.

Nadia went into detail about how she felt hopeless and depressed after certain events in her life where she felt like she shouldn't exist. She admitted that she could see the appeal of ending it all, but she also told Beth that if she had gone through with it, who knows what would've happened to the people she had cared for or saved. What if her death caused too many drastic changes and endings? Beth had simply nodded and turned away, sniffling.

What she didn't tell Beth was that she still thinks about ending it sometimes...

"What did you do?" Carol pipes in, her voice small and weak.

Daryl looks down at the knuckles on his right hand before lowering them out of everyone's view. "Had a little chat," he states lowly, looking up into Carol's disapproving gaze.

"No one goes near this guy," Rick announces, his voice firm and stern.

Nadia purses her lips and gazes down at the ground. The Slayer genes inside tell her that killing is wrong—that it's against all moral codes and she'll be a monster once she kills. Buffy and the others had understood that her first kill, of her abusive stepfather, was an accident to never be repeated. And she had agreed. But now, the world and everyone in it is changing. Maybe it's time to let the moral code go.

She looks at the bigger picture; keeping Randall at the farm is a huge risk and setting him loose is also a risk. If they kill him, they wouldn't have to worry about him coming back and killing them in their sleep. Or worse. It was simple, really.

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asks, her voice low and frightened.

Ever since Rick found out about the baby and all the lies and secrets Lori had been hiding, he's been looking at her differently and Lori didn't like it one bit.

"We have no choice," he states, barely glancing her way. "He's a threat," he says loudly, gaining everyone's unwavering attention. "We have to eliminate the threat."

Dale stares, mouth open. "You're just gonna kill him?" He asks, looking disapproving and disgusted.

Nadia shuffles on her feet and looks over at him, finding him looking around at everyone, affronted. She can see his point of view, but Randall admits that his group is dangerous and willing to do whatever they want to whomever they want. Threats need to be eliminated—something Nadia herself is good at doing.

Rick's eye twitches. "It's settled. I'll do it today," he says firmly and walks away, Dale immediately in pursuit to convince him otherwise.

Nadia shakes her head and turns around, face to face with Glenn's worried expression. She eyes him silently before raising a brow. "What? You agree with Dale?"

Glenn swallows and shrugs. "I'm not sure." He shifts his weight on his feet and tilts his head. "What about you?"

She shrugs and looks away. "Just like anyone else, I don't want to kill, but..." She slowly moves her head to make eye contact, and they just stand there for a second in silence.

"But..." Glenn trails off, looking down to the ground. "Andrea?" His eyes flitter back up to her. "The way you shoved her off the RV with no second thought..."

Nadia crosses her arms. "You've seen me throw a glass cup so hard it broke on a guy's face, and seen me literally threaten people and beat them up, but Andrea is where you question me?"

The Korean boy sighs and avoids her eyes. "You got a point. But still..."

Nadia rolls her eyes so hard she thinks they might pop out. "I do not like Andrea—everyone knew this before I shoved her ass off the damn RV. She left Beth to her own devices while knowing that Beth was in a vulnerable spot. And you want me to what?" She scoffs. "Apologise for hurting her ego?" She shakes her head. "As if."

Glenn nods slowly. "Fair enough."

Nadia stares at him, and gives a quick nod, turning around quickly and walking away.

NADIA SIGHS LOUDLY the moment she sees Dale approaching her. "Dale, don't." She leans her head back against the tree that she's been sitting under for the past twenty minutes.

"What? You're annoyed that I'm trying to save a kid's life?" He asks, still approaching her. He stops merely two feet away from where she sits. "Come on, Nadia. I know you're a tough kid, but you're not a killer."

Her eyes narrow and she looks up at him sharply. "You don't know anything about me, Dale, so don't try to act as if you do."

Dale sighs and crouches down to her level. "Come on, you can't tell me that you're okay with killing a kid who hasn't actually done anything to us."

"He shot at us," she argues. "Aiming to kill."

"After Rick killed two of their men!" He argues right back and Nadia clenches her jaw and looks away from him. "You were there. I heard it from Glenn. Rick shot those men point blank. No wonder their men were gunning for you guys."

"One of them was threatening to do stuff to me, and the other tried to pull on me, but Rick was faster!" Nadia snaps and stands up quickly, almost knocking Dale down. "Goes to show how much you know!" She storms away from him, emotions swirling around in her gut, making her feel sick.

She's been trying to forget what Tony shouted at her a few nights ago, but of course, Dale has to remind her of it all again—his words making anger, disgust and fear swirl around inside her until she lashed out. Her only regret that night was not being the one to kill Tony. His words made the little girl inside her scream and thrash.

Nadia picks up her pace, the scenery around her becoming blurry and wet. She runs around the house only to be suddenly snatched back. She startles and turns around, not expecting to come face to face with Glenn as he grabs her biceps and pulls her against him.

She freezes, chest heaving up and down in rapid movements as she feels his hands slowly let go of her arms just to wrap around her. Her hands slither upwards to grip the cloth of his shirt and she rests her head on his chest, closing her eyes tightly and breathing in and out deeply.

Glenn's right-hand moves upwards into her hair, cradling the back of her head while the other one rubs at her back.

A COUPLE HOURS later, the whole group is gathered around in the living room to discuss the Randall situation. They take their places in various areas and stare at each other in awkward silence. No one knows what to say or do.

It's the type of silence that Nadia despises. It was the silence she was used to when she was sitting in front of some agents as they tried to come up with a reason why the foster parents didn't want her anymore. It was the silence when she would be standing in front of potential foster parents and they were scrutinizing her.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn speaks up, everyone staring at him and looking more stressed than they previously did seconds ago.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asks, crossing her arms.

"How about majority rules?"

"Well, let's—let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options," Rick announces, standing in the middle of the room so that they turn their attention to him.

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward," Shane says, taking a step forward, a hard look in his eyes.

Nadia hates the fact that she agrees with Shane on something. The hatred is probably up there next to awkward silence.

"Killing him, right?" Dale pipes in, looking at Shane with disgust. "I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick tells him, growing agitated.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group—maybe just me and Glenn," Dale says, making Glenn look up at him with a guilty look.

"Look—" Glenn cuts himself as he swallows. "I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this—"

Dale stares at Glenn, appalled. "They've got you scared!"

Glenn frowns. "He's not one of us. And we've—we've lost too many people already." He glances at Nadia who is at the far back wall with a faraway look in her eyes.

It's the first time he's seen her in a panic, and the first time she's let him touch her like that. He doesn't know how to take it other than the fact that he doesn't want any harm to come to her, and if that means killing a boy who could potentially bring harm to the group—to her—then so be it.

"Come on, son!" Dale exclaims, eyes wide as he stares around at everyone.

Nadia clears her throat gently before taking a step away from the wall she's leaning up against. She turns to Dale specifically. "We have to get rid of the problem." She narrows her eyes and holds up her hand to silence Dale when he opens his mouth. "I get it. It's morally wrong to kill anyone, but let's face it—this world has changed for the worse. It was already terrible to begin with, but with the walking dead, well... we need to start doing questionable things whether we like them or not, and whether they're easy or not."

Everyone is staring at her now and she has to hold herself back from shuffling awkwardly.

"He could be an asset!" Dale exclaims, trying to get his point of view seen. "Give him a chance to prove himself."

"Put him to work?"

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick states, shaking his head.

"We could put an escort on him."

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asks with a smug look on his face, rolling his eyes.

Nadia wants to wipe that smug look off his face but knows to do that, she would have to stand with Dale and let someone like Randall walk around free. It's almost worth it if only to see Shane's smug look fall from his face.

"I will," Dale suddenly says, bringing everyone's attention back to him.

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy," Rick states, glancing around at those who agree with him.

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," says Lori from her place at the doorway.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labour," Andrea states with a huff.

"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane smacks his lips together, hard eyes on Dale. "Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men." He runs a hand over his buzzcut.

"So, the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale rhetorically asks, shouting now. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

"The rule of law has always been dead," Nadia can't help but spit out.

After who knows how many foster families got away with abusing Nadia and others, and the way her baby brother ended back up in the clutches of his mother after the whole court case was foul. How many bad men got away with doing disgusting things to women?

Nadia can feel her anger thrashing against her rib cage as she continues, "But we can always hope for better things. And this... saving Randall when he admitted what his," she says, choking on the rage and disgust. "what his men have done to countless people, to women, to young girls like Beth, while he just watched... it's not the right move, Dale."

"Could you drive him further out?" Andrea inquires, crossing her arms. "Leave him like you planned?"

Nadia shoots her a look.

Lori shakes her head. "You barely came back this time." She looks up to make eye contact with her husband. "There are walkers. You could break down. Y—you could get lost. Or get ambushed."

Nadia narrows her eyes at Andrea. "He knows Maggie, remember? Sooner or later he would find his own way back, and he would know where we are because—like I said—he knows Maggie." She rolls her eyes, done with dumb people.

Patricia hesitantly speaks up, "If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?"

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

Nadia snaps her head to him. She wants Randall dead, yes, but of all the easy, painless options, why choose that?

Rick licks his lips and looks down. "I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane."

"And what about the body?" T-Dog asks, frowning. "Do we bury him?"

Dale looks aghast, holding up his hands and shaking his head. "Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided."

"You've been talking all day," Daryl speaks up for the first time. "Going around in circles." He twirls his finger around in the air to prove his point. "You just wanna go around in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life!" Dale snaps, his eyes wide. "And it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" He shakes his head, disappointed. "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's been tortured. He's gonna be executed!" He pauses but no one speaks up. "How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"

"We all know what needs to be done," Shane says.

"No, Dale is right." Rick holds up a hand. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility—"

And of course, Andrea has to interrupt, "So what's the other solution?"

"Let Rick finish."

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet," Andrea says firmly, annoyed. "I wish we could—"

Dale snaps, "So let's work on it!"

"Stop it!" Carol cries out. "Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting." She shakes her head, clutching at her chest. "I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide—either of you, both of you, but leave me out."

Nadia scoffs at her.

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself—" Dale shakes his head, pointing at Carol who looks ready to burst into tears at any given second. "There's no difference."

"Alright, that's enough," Rick snaps, shaking his head. "Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." No one moves forward—if anything, Maggie takes a quick seat.

Dale begins to wring out his hat in his hand. "You once said that we don't kill the living."

Rick huffs. "Well, that was before the living tried to kill us!"

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were—the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's..." Dale stutters over his words. "Harsh. It—it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in, and I don't—and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?"

Nadia swallows around a lump in her throat. Something in his rant triggers her. "The world has always been survival of the fittest," she speaks up, clearing her throat once she realises it came out a little warbled from holding herself back. "It's just showing it on the outside now." She shrugs. "I have... been fighting in this world since the day I was born, so this..." She gestures around, shaking her head. "This isn't any different." She looks up into Dale's eyes. "I'm sorry, Dale, but..." While her heart is aching because he's so emotionally in this, she knows what needs to be done, so she says, "This kid is going to be a bigger pain in the ass to us alive than anything."

Dale shakes his head, tears gathering in his eyes. "Are y'all gonna watch, too?" He's shaking now, trying to hold back the tears. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being." He shakes his head again as multiple people shuffle on their feet uncomfortably. "I won't be a party to it." He moves up to Daryl and lays a hand on his shoulder. "This group is broken."

And with that, he walks out.

NADIA STARES UP at the moon in the dark sky, multiple stars scattered around it. She's expecting a gunshot to ring through the yard at any moment now.

Instead of a gunshot, a piercing scream pierces the night.

The Slayer doesn't waste another second as she leaps from the wooden swing hanging from a tree branch, sprinting towards the screaming.

She can hear the beat of her heart as she quickens her pace, faster and faster as the person's voice grows louder and louder the closer she gets.

Nadia pushes herself farther as she sees other members of the group running towards the screaming.

She can't help but panic. Multiple thoughts run through her mind, but the moment she sees a walker on top of someone, they all leave her mind as she ploughs right into the walker, sending both of them to the ground.

She twists and flings the walker off her, jumping up into a Spider-Man position. Quickly, she scrambles on top of the monster, grabbing each side of its head and bashing it into the ground. She keeps doing it over and over again until its head is nothing but mush.

Nadia whips around, hair flapping her in the face. Her breathing stops immediately as she sees who the walker was on top of.

Dale.

His stomach is torn open, guts and blood everywhere. He's gargling up blood, his eyes wide, full of pain and fear.

"No, no, no." Immediately, Nadia's looming over him, grabbing his intestines and trying to put them back into his stomach. She yanks off her flannel and starts pushing it against his stomach, trying to close up the gaping hole and to stop the bleeding.

She knows... she knows deep down that there is no saving him at this point.

His shaky hand reaches up and sits atop hers, stopping her movement.

"D—Dale," Nadia gasps out and holds his hand as everyone else finally makes it to them. Her eyes are on him as the group screams and tries to fix the problem. "I'm so sorry," she rasps out, tears sliding down her face and onto the dying man. "You didn't deserve to die like this."

Suddenly, Nadia is being pulled away from Dale and into a tight embrace. Blinking through her tears, she looks up to see Rick giving her a devastated look. She chokes out a sob as she grips at his hands around her stomach, turning to watch as Daryl holds Rick's signature gun up to Dale's face.

"Sorry, brother," Daryl says softly before a gunshot rings out.

Nadia flinches at the sound due to the proximity, numbly staring down at Dale's lifeless body.