Lori panicked when Beth sobbed and locked her door, Austin sprinting up the stairs and yanking on her door. "Beth! Beth, hey! Open the door, it's gonna be okay."

She sobbed from the other side, the trio trying to get the door down. Maggie twisted the door knob. "Beth, don't do this. Please. I left her with Andrea."

"Where's a key?" Lori looked her way as Maggie rummaged through things.

"I don't know." the Greene woman said back.

"Beth, hey." Austin spoke softly from the other side of the door. "It's gonna be okay, right? I know you think this is the only way, but it's not. You're in pain, I can see that. But, you can get though it. There is so much life left, it's your job to make the best of it. You don't wanna die like this. You don't."

"Beth, honey, please. Open the door. I'm not mad." Maggie tried as well.

"Maggie, Austin." Lori grabbed the fire poker in the corner. "Hang on."

The two backed up as Lori shoved it in the doorway, getting as deep as she could before yanking back and forth. Austin pushed on the door as she did so, the force causing it to open up. Beth turned around with a gasp, holding her wrist as blood poured.

"Oh my god, Beth." Austin gapped as he hurried into the bathroom.

"I'm sorry." Beth sobbed.

"It's okay, it's okay." he reassured her quickly in his best gentle tone. "Maggie, get a wrap to stop the bleeding!"

She hurried off. Beth cried as she held her wrist, Austin wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay. It's not your fault. We're gonna get you fixed up, okay?"

"So, whatcha gonna do?" Lori asked as she boiled water at their camp. "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."

"Is there a plan?" Andrea spoke up, Austin leaned on the tree as he pulled at the bark, pulling his eyes away from the Greene farm.

"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked curiously with his hands in his pockets.

Rick exhaled. "We'll know soon enough."

"Refreshing." Austin mumbled under hie breath.

Daryl walked over, his bow over his shoulder. "Boy there's got a gang, thirty men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna-they're gonna wish they were."

"So, how do we stop them?" Austin came off the tree, walking closer toward the group.

"We're tying to figure that out." Rick said his way.

"What did you do?" Carol asked Daryl, picking at her fingers.

"Had a little chat." was all he said.

"No one goes near this guy." Rick warned the group seriously.

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori looked for any form of an answer.

He shook his head. "We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"Agree." Austin nodded, Lori looked disappointed. "Drop him somewhere, far from here."

"That's not what he meant." Shane looked his way.

Dale gapped. "You're just gonna kill him?"

"It's settled. I'll do it today." Rick announced with a single nod.

Austin exhaled, watching his dad walk away. "I'm gonna go check on Beth, see if she wants to get out."

"Okay, stay close." Lori rubbed his back as he walked past her, back toward the farm house.

"So, this is the infamous orange tree." Austin grinned as him and Beth walked a little far back, coming to the orange tree she'd told him about at Otis' memorial.

"They're better when in season." Beth answered as they picked a few. "It's should work."

Austin looked around. "It's so beautiful out here."

Beth gave a small smile as she looked around. "It is."

He looked at her wrapped wrist. "Does being outside make you feel any better?"

"I don't know." she said back, looking around. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, putting an orange into the basket she held.

"Staying with me." she exhaled with a nod. "Sleeping on the floor."

"It's a pretty decent floor." he nodded his head. "Don't worry, I wasn't doing that for you."

Beth cracked a grin at his joke. "When I was little, I use to want to sleep on Maggie's floor because I was scared of my room."

"Why were you scared of your room?" Austin squinted from the sun hitting his eyes. Beth realized how much he favored Lori, their eyes the same exact shade and shape.

"There was this branch outside my window that would tap on it every time the wind blew." Beth explained to him, grabbing the final orange. "I didn't know that, though. And i'd get so scared, thinking someone was out there. I'd run to Maggie's room, screamin and begging for her to go look. And she would, but it would never be there when she went and looked."

"How'd you figure out it was just a branch?" he looked curiously her way.

"Comin home from school and happened to look up. It was just right there, and I knew I was just being a big baby the whole time." she explained, standing still as they spoke.

"I don't know, i'd probably be scared too if it sounded like someone was trying to get in." Austin pointed out, sensing they were done here as they started to walk off together, going back the way they came.

"You don't seem like you're scared of a lot of things." the blonde admitted honestly.

Austin laughed. "Believe me, I definitely am. I just try not to show it, for Carl and my mom."

"What are you afraid of?" she asked him curiously, picking at her bandages.

"Tigers." Austin admitted with a half grin. "When I was little, I stumbled across this article about some kid that was my age falling into the lions den at this zoo in Atlanta. Had these horrible dreams that it was me, for, like, at least two months. Been scared ever since."

"Tigers." Beth confirmed, holding back a laugh. "That's-"

But, she laughed before she could say anything. Austin grinned. "Go ahead, laugh it up."

"Just, unexpected." she explained, still laughing. "I was thinkin you were gonna say something sweet, like loosing your family."

"Oh, no. Tigers definitely top that." Austin joked, squinting his nose to show he'd been joking. Beth continued to laugh as they headed back to the farm together.

Rick walked into the crowded living room after calling the meeting. Austin stood near Carol, close to the window. His dad looked around. Carl tried to stay, but Rick gave him a knowing look as he left. Glenn exhaled. "So, how do we do this? Just..take a vote?"

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea spoke up curiously.

"How about majority rules?" Lori suggested.

"Well, let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick shook his head to avoid chatter from spreading.

"Well, way I see it, only one way to move forward." Shane leaned on the fireplace.

"Killing him, right?" Dale mocked as he looked around. "I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the winds blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick said honestly.

"Is dropping him off still out of the question?" Austin cut in. "Because that could avoid us killing anyone but also keep his people from killing us and hurting the girls."

"He knows where's on a farm. It won't be hard to track us down." Rick shook his head his way.

"It's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn." Dale went back to his previous statement of sparing the boy.

Glenn looked over to Dale. "I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this..."

"They've got you scared." Dale cut him off.

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

Dale tossed a hand toward Maggie and Hershel. "How about you? Do you agree with this?"

Maggie looked to Rick. "Couldn't we continue to keep him prisoner?"

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl pointed out.

"Barley feeding the ones we have now." Austin had to agree with him.

"It may be a lean winter." Hershel pointed out.

"We could ration better." Lori agreed with him.

"Well, he could be an asset." Dale defended the prisoner. "Give him a chance to prove himself."

"Put him to work?" Glenn suggested.

"And have him jump and kill one of us when our backs are turned?" Austin looked curiously.

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick cut in quickly.

"We can put an escort on him." Maggie pointed out.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked sarcastically.

"Beth, maybe. She could use the company and getting out of the house." Dale volunteered the blonde.

"Absolutely not." Austin cut in with a stern head shake.

"I don't think she should be walking around with this guy." Rick rose his hand as he spoke.

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori agreed.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea mocked with crossed arms.

"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane nodded as he looked around. "Maybe he'd 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 he may never even attempt?" Dale looked in disbelief. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

"Oh my god." Shane mumbled in disbelief.

"Could you drive him further out? Like Austin said." Hershel suggested, going along with the youngest earlier suggestion. "Leave him like you planned?"

"You barely came back this time." Lori rubbed her chest with a worried look. "There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost."

"Or get ambushed." Daryl agreed.

"They're right. We shouldn't not put our own people at risk. Plus, like Rick said, they'll know to look for a farm." Glenn agreed as Austin nodded in agreement.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia spoke up curiously. "Would he suffer?"

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

"Dude." Austin cringed his way. "A bullet to the head will be the only way we go if that's what it comes down to. It's the only way i'll stand with anyone."

"More humane." Rick agreed with his son.

"And what about the body?" T-Dog asked.

"Woah, hold on, hold on. You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale cut them all short with a wave of his hand.

"You've been telling all day, going around in circles." Daryl mocked him with a knowing look. "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 called loudly to get his point across, nodding to Austin. "What if it was him?"

"Well, it's not." Austin defended himself. "I'd never group with people like he was saying."

"Even if you were forced?" Dale rose his eyebrows.

"I'd rather die." he said in return with his own sassed look.

"Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him?" he asked in disbelief and agony. "You save him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"'

Silence fell over the the living room before Shane spoke up. "We all know what needs to be done."

"No, Dale is right." Rick nodded his head. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea cut in, clearly overly annoyed with how long this was taking.

"Let Rick finish." Lori cut in.

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet." the blonde woman went on. "I wish we could."

"So let's work on it!" Dale hollered.

"We are." Daryl defended Rick.

"Stop it. Just stop it!" Carol cut in for the first time. "I'm sick of everyone arguing and fighting. 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."

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself-" Dale started toward Carol. "There's no difference."

"Oh my god, leave her alone, Dale!" Austin yelled at him to defend and protect Carol.

"Anybody who wants the floor, before we make a final decision, has the chance." Rick spoke as he backed up toward Daryl and Lori.

No one bother, silent and staying in their places. Dale pointed toward Rick. "You once said that we don't kill the living."

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick gave a knowing and stern look.

"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....harsh. It's survival of the fittest." Dale went on, waving his arms as he spoke. "And that's a world I don't want to live in 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 that's gonna stand with me?"

But, like so many times before, it was silent and still before Andrea spoke. "He's right. We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick looked around.

But, no one agreed. Dale laughed slightly as his eyes watered. "Y'all all gonna watch too? No even gonna hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa. I won't be a party to it."

As he walked, he stopped next to Daryl. "This group is broken."

•

kylie speaks

greenstin picking oranges🥰