This story takes place during season 6, after the raid on Negan's outpost, and after Richonne became canon, but before the group realizes that there are more Saviors.
It was a beautiful day, and Rick and Carl were on a run in a neighborhood a few miles away from Alexandria. The community was running low on supplies, and there were other runs happening simultaneously as the residents tried to stock up for the winter. Rick had chosen to go on the run with Carl because he and his son had not had much time to spend together or talk after Carl accidentally found out about Rick's relationship with Michonne. Although Carl had told Rick he was cool with it, Rick hadn't had time to talk to Carl in any depth about it.
After the raid on Negan's compound, the capture and retrieval of Maggie and Carol, and the destruction of the rest of Negan's men, the people of Alexandria were elated. They had defeated Negan without any major casualties, and they would be getting most of their food from Hilltop as payment for getting rid of the Saviors, but they still needed other non food supplies, one of them being toothpaste. Rick was most desperate to find that one item because he happened to have a girlfriend who was obsessed with dental hygiene. And, if he gave her toothpaste, she'd give him a whole lot more.
As Rick and Carl pulled up to a particularly large home, Rick looked over at Carl who was watching the scenery out the window of the car.
"Hey, you ok?" Rick asked. "Yea" Carl mumbled, staring out the car window. Rick was a little nervous that Carl was somehow upset about him and Michonne. "Are we still cool?" Rick asked, eliciting a small smile from Carl. "Yea, we're cool dad" Carl said, slightly chuckling at his father. Rick nodded, relieved. He couldn't believe how much the opinion of a 15 year old boy mattered to him.
"So we're looking for things like toilet paper, sheets and blankets, maybe some toys for Judy, board games, obviously any medical supplies, toothpaste..." Rick started listing, but Carl suddenly burst out laughing, startling Rick a little.
"The toothpaste is definitely for Michonne" Carl laughed, giving Rick a knowing glance. Rick smiled, "Yea, you know she goes through them so fast".
Carl nodded his head. "I'll look for toothpaste first" he said, winking at his father.
Rick laughed out loud, glad he brought his son along. "Try to use the knife if you come across a walker, we don't want to draw any attention" he reminded Carl, as he stepped out of the Car. Carl followed him as they walked up to the house, Rick knocking loudly to draw any walkers to the door. They waited for a while, but no walkers came to the door, so they entered cautiously. Rick and Carl communicated silently, Rick taking the downstairs rooms while Carl went upstairs.
As Rick checked the living room and kitchen downstairs he didn't find much, it seemed that the house had been picked through by people already. As he approached the downstairs bathroom and opened the door he was shocked to see half a tube of toothpaste sitting on the bathroom counter. Rick quickly checked the front of the tube for the flavor. Spearmint and Baking Soda, Michonne's favorite. Rick grinned like it was Christmas and quickly stuffed the tube in the pocket of his jeans. His girl would be getting her toothpaste tonight.
Upstairs, Carl rummaged through a child's bedroom, looking for something useful to bring back to Alexandria. He found a box of crayons and a box of cards, and quickly stuffed them into his bag. He also took the sheets off the bed in the room which were covered in Disney Princesses.
Judith may like these when she's older.
He left the room and walked down the upstairs hallway, moving to the master bedroom door which was closed. He knocked on the door to the room to check for walkers and he didn't hear anything. He cautiously opened the door and entered the room which was a mess. The sheets were hanging off the bed as if a struggle had taken place and someone or something was dragged off of it, taking the sheets with them. There was a bucket of what looked and smelled like urine by the bed, as well as another bucket of what looked like vomit. It looked like the buckets had been there for quite a while, but they still smelled, and Carl was disgusted.
He saw a few mens shirts in the closet, as well as some women's clothes, so he quickly stuffed the clothing into his bag, when he noticed an unlocked gun box. Carl quickly opened the box and saw that the gun was gone, but there was still a box of bullets inside, with 3 bullets remaining. Carl took his gun out of the holster to see if the bullets would fit his gun, and was relieved to see that they did. Carl quickly shoved the extra bullets into his pocket and turned to leave the room when he noticed the bedroom had an attached bathroom. Thinking of Michonne and her toothpaste obsession, Carl, still clutching his gun, opened the bathroom door and almost crashed into a walker. The walker instantly turned on Carl, falling on top of him, trying to bite his face.
Carl screamed in shock and surprise and quickly pushed his arm with the gun up towards the walkers mouth. The walker struggled on top of Carl as Carl shoved the gun into the walker's mouth as a barrier between it's mouth and Carl's face.
Carl fired, sending the back of the walker's brains splattering into the air, creating a stinking red mist. Gagging from breathing in the remains of the walker's brain, Carl rolled himself out from under the corpse. He could hear Rick running up the steps full speed screaming his name. "Carl?! Carl!"
"I'm here dad" Carl called "I'm ok".
Rick burst into the room panting, his eyes wild. "What happened?" Rick screamed, but then he saw the walker on the bathroom floor. "Are you... are you ok?" Rick managed to get out, calming down a little. "Yea, it just caught me by surprise" Carl replied, pulling himself off the floor. Rick nodded, calming down just a little more.
"You scared me" he admitted "I... I'm glad you're ok". Carl patted Rick on the back and they both headed downstairs.
"So what'd you find?" Rick asked Carl. "Some clothes, some stuff for Judith, and 3 bullets" Carl shrugged.
"There wasn't much downstairs" Rick admitted, "except this". He proudly held out the tube of toothpaste. "I win" he said, taunting Carl childishly.
Carl laughed. "Good. Maybe she'll cook us something really nice tonight".
Rick smiled, as he stuffed the toothpaste into his jeans pocket, but he wasn't thinking about dinner. If bringing her mints got him the best sex of his life, he couldn't even imagine what would happen if he brought home her favorite type of toothpaste.
"There's another house down the block that looks like it's in fairly good condition, we should check that place too before we move on" Rick said. Carl nodded and they left the house, walking down the block to the next house.
Suddenly they heard the sound of a car engine coming towards them quickly. Rick pushed Carl down behind some overgrown bushes, just as a van sped around the corner. Rick quickly ducked down behind a hedge as well, but the van screeched to a stop directly in front of where Rick was hiding, and six men hopped out.
"Get out here" one of the men demanded. Rick didn't move, but he took his gun out of his holster. "Get the fuck out here now or we'll shoot" the voice shouted. Rick looked into Carl's eyes and held a finger up to his lips. Carl nodded understanding that the men hadn't seen him. Rick slowly stood, and walked over to the men, trying to draw their attention away from where Carl was.
"What are you doing out here?" The man asked.
"I'm just looking for some food" Rick answered, trying to sound desperate. "You have some food?"
The man looked at his buddies who chuckled. "Looks like you've been eating pretty fucking well to me. And taking showers too, not a fucking stain on your shirt, so you've been washing it. Alexandria must have some pretty fine washers and dryers huh?" The man asked.
Rick gaped at the man in shock. This man knew where he lived? Rick didn't know what to say. So he kept silent.
"Yea I know you" the man continued. "You're the leader of that place. We've been scoping it out for a week since y'all slaughtered our buddies".
Rick went pale. He had no idea there were any more Saviors left. They had thought they were finished. Safe. They were wrong.
The man read the horror on Ricks face. "What, you thought that was all of us?". The other men started laughing. "Oh boy, you people don't know shit do you?".
He moved closer to Rick. "Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna come with us back to Alexandria, have your people open the gates, and we're gonna take some supplies back to Negan. Now, we're gonna have to kill one of you, that's just how this goes, but after that, we can be business partners".
Rick just stared, narrowing his eyes.
"The stuff we take, will go to Negan as a peace offering. It will be your first tribute to us. After that, you'll be required to give us a tribute every month. Half your supplies."
"And what do we get out of this deal?" Rick asked, just to humor the men.
"Protection. From us."
Rick bust out laughing, startling the men a little. They stared at him until he calmed down.
"No, see that's not gonna work for me. Or my people. So you can go run back to Negan if he's still alive, and tell him we won't be giving him shit".
The man shook his head. "You see, this ain't really negotiable. It's what's gonna happen. Now I'm trying to be real nice here and give you a chance to just go with the flow, but if you don't cooperate there's gonna be some real consequences"
Rick tensed up the hand holding his gun and said "that's not gonna happen". The man shook his head and turned to one of the men behind him. Without warning, the second man aimed his gun and fired at Rick.