Ch.68

Even Carl wanted in while Carol agreed to participate. Daryl asked if there was any point and I disarmed him, tapping a blade at his throat. "The point's right here."

He grunted. "That's a good point."

I nodded and released him, gauging those that remained while Carl was dragged off by Lori. Beth stayed and Dale said he was too old to learn something like that. I shrugged, telling him I wasn't expecting him to learn, I'd just hoped he'd learn to shoot a bow and use a sword to make things quiet in case of walkers and hopefully how to conserve and recycle his bullets.

I taught them basics and for the more advanced, I moved them through hand to hand combat skills, both armed and unarmed with swords and knives. They got hurt, got back up and got their asses kicked, by each other, by me and by themselves. They learned to shoot the crossbows, reload and keep going. I worked them like it was a standard drill, helping them, teaching them.

Hell, Daryl learned a thing or two about tracking when we brought down a few deer for food. When Shane and Rick returned, Lori no doubt said her peace, but I didn't particularly care what her opinion was. They hadn't left the asshole and they hadn't killed him yet, but the decision to do so was up in the air because he knew about the farm and the Greene's through Maggie and school.

The next day I made sure to do the chores, teach those willing to learn and continue on with everything. Daryl interrogated him and I watched until he mentioned raping and said he didn't touch the girls. I moved and drove my sword into pants, cutting the head of his manhood off. He screamed and I told Daryl. "Bring me the blow torch and metal plate."

He did so and I castrated the boy before cauterizing the wound. He screamed and when I finished, he passed out. I went outside and Daryl closed the door following me. I told Hershel and everyone. "They have thirty men, armed with automatics and possibly military weapons, a town or more people besides including women and children. The men go scavenging and it isn't good for any women they find."

They flinched before Dale asked what happened. Daryl told him. "He just told us about his group raping two teenage girls and making their father watch before leaving them for dead. The poster boy for calm here cut his pecker off and cauterized the wound."

They looked to me and I grunted. "He lied about not participating. Even if I could tell it was a lie from the way he described it, his reaction to hearing about it or the fact that a group like that doesn't form without all members joining in, I'd know because the little fucker got a hard on describing it."

I turned to Dale. "By all means, tell me he didn't deserve it, but don't expect me to apologize for it. He's already damned lucky I didn't shove a sword up his ass and cut him in half by impalement."

I cleaned my bloody sword and Rick turned to Hershel. "I hate to ask it, but can you give the boy something for the pain. We'll get more out of him if he's not screaming or crying."

Rick turned to me. "You're done."

I sheathed my blade. "That'd better be a question because I believe we talked about you giving me orders."

Shane about stepped up but Hershel asked me. "Are you done with him?"

I nodded. "He's not going to give me anything else unless I go in there ready to cut more off of him. Still, it'll be useful as a deterrent if he believes you'll leave him alone with me even for a few minutes."

Andrea asked. "How are we going to deal with him now?"

They looked to Rick and he ground his teeth before asking me. "You gonna weigh in?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not interested. Just know that if you let him go, they will come and we will be forced into a war unless we leave the farm."

I turned to Hershel. "And if we do, you'd be smart to come with us cause if he brings those men back here, your daughters will wish you'd put a bullet in their heads while they make you watch."

I turned to Rick before looking at Dale. "Make your own decisions. I don't rightly give a damn. If you let him go though, I will leave and take whoever wants to come with me, including my weapons and ammo in the truck. I'm not fighting a war over some rapist prick and his life no matter what morals you live by."

Shane told me I ain't taking those guns and I told him coldly. "You tell me what I am or am not doing again and you won't live long enough to argue your point. I know what you did to Otis. I saw the bullet wound in his leg that dropped him and I know you couldn't of outran a horse on a twisted ankle. I don't give a fuck what your reasons were or why you did it, but I sure as hit ain't taking orders from you, let alone putting my life at risk because you say so."

He got in my face and I knocked his ass out with a single blow. I turned to Rick. "When he wakes up, you tell him to stay the hell away from me or you won't get the chance to put him on trial or think about it, I'll break his legs and leave him for a horde just like he did Otis."

I went to leave and Dale said I'd become just like him and I shook my head. "No, cause I won't wait until he's out of bullets or defenseless to shoot him. I'll beat his ass and break his legs while he's awake and able to fight back before I drop him off for a horde to have lunch on while I pick them off until I bury a blade in his walker corpse which is a damned sight better than what he did to Otis. You all can keep him alive and in line or the moment he comes at me again, he's done even if I have to go through you to do it."

I turned to the group. "I can fight walkers, I can kill asshole rapists all damned day, but I refuse to wait for someone to shoot me in the back the moment I'm fighting to save your asses. He's a fucking snake and I'll make a belt from his bones if I have to so that I can stay alive and keep those I give a damn about alive as well."

I threw the sword I carried into the tree beside Rick, burying it through the tree half way. "If you feel the need to help him, by all means do so. If not, you keep this piece of shit away from me."

I left and headed to the RV where Hershel asked if I could help him keep his daughters safe and alive. I told him he needed a better vehicle, a bus or RV and a lot more training. I told him to wait a few hours and I can help him with the training part, but if he wants some magical way to keep his family safe he needs to prepare for the worst, and I wasn't talking writing a will. I tapped my RV and told him it can comfortably fit six people and if he gets one like it or a bus, I can customize it to his needs because defending this farm was becoming less and less possible with them letting threats go.

He said he wasn't going to weigh in on that and I nodded. "Then you need to prepare even more because there's only so much I can teach you between now and whenever the hell they decide what they want to do. This farm has thin fences, wood mostly and a horde the side of the one I destroyed at the school could walk through here killing everyone and destroying everything."

I leaned against the side of my table. "The walkers in Atlanta were moving out further and further in search of food. It could take weeks or months, but eventually they're going to be here, sweeping through in a horde thousands strong. It's not a prediction, it's a fact based on the evidence of their behavior I've seen. All the while you have smaller hordes out by the highway that can tear through here and at the very least force you and yours to flee with whatever you can carry."

He sighed and looked solemn, but I shrugged. "Our arrival isn't slowing or speeding up this fact, it's simply coinciding with it because they've forced us to flee one camp already."

He sighed. "I'll see what I can do about preparing. Can I count on you to do what you can to keep my family safe should it come to it?"

I nodded. "So long as they know I will leave them here if they refuse to come when and if things get bad. They have to know I'll do what I can to get them and you out safely so long as you prepare and they listen."

I rubbed my neck and grunted as he said he'd make sure they did. "I already have another bad feeling, just like when I learned of the walkers in the barn, I knew she was in there, she had to be. Something's coming and I don't know if it's walkers or asshole rapists."

He said he'd best get to it then and I nodded before emptying out a good portion of the weapons and ammo from the military truck, telling Dale to split it between him and Hershel. He agreed and I took half the tank rounds, setting them in my room in stacked boxes. The rest were given to Dale to make into bullets after taking them apart and reforging the metal, repurposing the gunpowder.

A few hours later, I was teaching crossbow lessons when Dale came to me trying to get me to reconsider my position and save the rapist. I told him I won't say a word more than I have. I explained to him that I gave him the extra guns and ammo not because I want him have to use it, but because he seemed to be the only one willing to use words before weapons. I shook my head. "I don't know if I'm a good man or not. I've killed a man myself and mutilated a guy out of rage and moral issues you yourself are overlooking."

I shook my head. "I won't touch the guy again, one way or another, and because I won't, I won't cast a vote either way. But I will keep my word and leave if he's freed. We may have the guns, but you think about what'll happen even if we win this war. Those people in his group will lose their only offense against the walkers or similar groups with similar proclivities and that blood, the raping and everything, that'll be on our hands, my hands if I stay."

I sat back on the fence while the others continued to fire their bows. "I can live with killing one rapist who damned near killed Glenn. But I won't be responsible for a massacre of potentially innocent people who may or may not know what the men that would die by my hands have been up to."

Dale sighed. "You are a good man, despite your cold demeanor. But who says we have to let him go?"

I grunted. "That's not an option either. His a sick and twisted asshole and we don't have a prison to hold him, let alone a way to keep him quiet if walkers come through. We can't spare the gas to drop him far enough away that he can't contact his group and pretty much every other option available to us is a death sentence either slow or fast."

I got off the fence and sighed. "I've already thought of every option and him being alive, even in a makeshift prison is too dangerous and costly. We can't spare the manpower to keep him under guard indefinitely Dale and there aren't any better options. He either goes free or he dies and since I won't be the one releasing him or killing him this conversation is moot because as I've said, I've weighed in and I won't change what I've said."

He nodded slowly and I stopped him. "You aren't wrong to want to have a trial, but you're wrong to think it'll change the two options available when there aren't anymore than that. Even if he's given a trial here and now there's only his words verses what he's done and what he's told us. We can't prove anything else and even if we could it still leaves just those two options. The only thing it'll change at this point is who decides which."

He nodded slowly and left while I continued to teach the crossbow class. They were good enough to keep them except the one crossbow I had for myself now. Then it was on to hand to hand combat and self defense training. I saw Shane watching with a welt on the side of his face, but he kept his distance and argued with Rick, Hershel and Otis's wife.

While the others were gathering, I went to my RV and got stoned with some pretty powerful magical herbs.