The group sat on their knees with glazed-over eyes as Negan rounded his men up and drove away. The moon shone high in the sky, glistening against sweat-drenched hair and hot blood on pavement. As the last tire squealed out of earshot, sobs bubbled out of chests and jeans scratched against the road as one embraced another.
With a determined resolve on her sickly face, Rosita pushed herself to Daryl, who slumped to the ground in front of him the moment the Saviors left. She held him in her arms, cradling his head under her chin as her body trembled with the grief seeping into her bones.
Glenn launched himself across the way at Maggie, tears rolling down his face as she cried into his chest, partly from the scene in front of them and partly from the searing pain in her stomach. Aaron slowly gathered the stretcher behind them and helped lay her across it once more, though her hand never left Glenn's and her eyes never once opened.
Michonne stood with shaking legs and first helped Daryl and Rosita into the RV, resting her hands on their shoulders in the only way she knew would give any sort of comfort. She helped lift Maggie alongside Glenn and Aaron, helped carry and place her on the bed in the back where a nestle of blankets had already been created.
Back on the pavement, she watched Carl trying to talk sense into Rick, who remained on his knees with his face blank and eyes unseeing. She watched Eugene fall to the ground with his eyes locked on the corpse only a few feet away, pure terror in the whites of his eyes. She watched Sasha stand on her feet with trembling fists at her sides, marching to Rick on the pavement and screaming as she rammed her knuckles into his cheek.
It took several seconds for the reality of the situation to sink in: Rick sat and allowed Sasha to beat into him, and beat him she did until Michonne watched Carl draw his pistol on her. She looked at him with wide, shocked eyes before turning back to Rick, broken under her still-clenched hands, not a sound escaping his lips but his expression louder than any noise he could make.
It didn't take much coercion to get in the RV, and the muffled crying was the sound to which Carl and Michonne wrapped Abraham's body in one of the sheets Aaron left folded haphazardly on the ground. No, they decided - they wouldn't leave him.
The ride to Hilltop was a stressful one, and the sun was beginning to shine over the horizon as they reached its gates.
a/n: this is part 1 of 3! hopefully the other two chapters will be up before tomorrow night, but i make no promises. i have two essays i've had a month to work on that i haven't even started and are due tomorrow oops. i hope you guys like it! and if anyone's interested, i have a new tumblr dedicated to twd+ftwd, the cast, and my jesus/daryl shenanigans lmao. it's thatsmygvn :)