Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
After we got back to the group at the church we get told that Maggie, Glenn, Tara, Eugene, Rosita and Abraham left to head to DC, and that Bob got bit at the food shelf then the survivors of Terminus got him but he died. I stood there and watched Sasha cut up some pews with an axe and I looked at Daryl.
"It was- it was good you weren't here for it." Tyreese told me and Daryl as he handed us pipes from the organ
"She hanging in there?" Daryl asked him
"No."
I looked over at Sasha then looked at Daryl, "I don't blame her" I said and Daryl looked at me then I walked out of the church with Daryl behind me and we set the pipes down
"Are you gonna take the cross too?" He asked us
"If we need it" Daryl told him sticking one of the pipes into the ground and I looked at Gabriel
"I know this hard, but this is how we protect ourselves"
"It's just..this is God's house" He says and I looked at him
"God's home is in your heart, not a building" I told him, I never believed in God but I figured I would try and make this better for him
"Thank you" He says and I nod my head then walked back inside.
We sat in the back of the truck Daryl drove back to the church and I leaned my head on Daryl's shoulder, "We'll get her."
"We'll get both of them" I reassured him and he kissed my head then held my hand
"At sundown we fire a shot into the air. Get two of them out on patrol. Then once it's dark enough that the rooftop spotter won't see us, we go. We cut the locks on one of the stairways, take it to the fifth floor. I open the door, Daryl takes the guard out." Rick tells us as we gather in an abandoned building
"How?" I asked him
"He slits his throat. This is all about us doing this quiet, keeping the upper hand. They're not expecting us. From there, we fan out. Knives and silenced weapons. We need to be fast. Tyreese, Sasha, take them. Daryl, Phoebe, you take care of whoever is in the kitchen. I got Dawn. If they're smart, the rest of them will give up. Then it'll be five on three. Six on three once we get a weapon to Beth."
"12 on three. The wards will help." Noah tells him
"That's best case. What's worst case?" Tyreese asked, "All it takes is one of those cops going down the hall at the wrong time. Then it's not quiet. All hands on deck. We're talking about a lot of bullets flying around."
"If that's what it takes." Sasha says
"It's not. If we get a couple of her cops alive out here, we do an even trade. Theirs for ours. Everybody goes home." Tyreese pointed out
"Yeah, I get it. And it might work. This will work." Rick tells him
Daryl looked at me and I sighed, "Nah, that'll work, too. You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together, right?" He asked Noah
"Trying and doing are two different things."
"You take two of her cops away, what choices does she have? Everybody goes home. Like he says." Daryl says to Rick and I nod
As we stood there waiting for Noah to lead a couple of the cops to us Daryl put his hand on my shoulder, "You sure you wanna do this?"
"It's my mom and Beth, I'd do anything." I tell him and he gave my shoulder a squeeze then we hear the car approach and we made our way over
"Where are those rotters you were shooting at?" One of the cops asked and Rick whistled at them while we walked up with our guns raised
"Hands."
"What do you want?" The female asked
"Whatever this is, we can help." The other pointed out
"You do what we say, we don't hurt you." Rick tells them and they lower their weapons, "Good. Now turn around." Rick ordered, "Put your guns on the floor and kneel." They do so then Daryl and Sasha move over, Daryl takes their guns then Sasha hands him a zip tie, "We need to talk. There's water if you need some and food."
"Mind if I ask you something? The way you talk... the way you carry yourself... were you a cop?" The male cop asked Rick and I looked at him then back at the cop, "Believe it or not, I was, too."
"That's Lamson. He'll be down for this. He's one of the good ones." Noah tells both of us then suddenly a car approaches us and Daryl fires his gun at it then Rick and I do, the car got closer and Daryl pulled me out of the way then Tyreese shoots out the windows. The two that we had taken hopped in the back and we continued firing then they drive away, Sasha walked forward and hit the back tire then we ran after it
Rick stops us as we round the corner seeing what looked like skinned walkers on the ground and the car was empty and we moved forward then see the two cops run, "Two, on me" Rick tells us and we run after them but then I noticed Daryl wasn't behind us so I ran back and Daryl hitting the guy with a walker skull, as he got off him I shot the walker Daryl was by and the cop looked at me.
"Get the fuck away from my husband" I tell him pointing my gun at him and he looked at me
"Okay, you win" He says and slowly stood up but I kept my gun trained on him
"Phoebe, Phoebe" I hear Daryl say but I didn't move, "Phoebe, three's better then two" He says moving behind the guy and I lower my gun then Daryl zip tied his hands
We walked into the abandoned building we were hiding in with the three cops, "Your friend, what's his name? I need to talk to him. Your plan is going to get me and my friends killed." THe female says
"We're gonna make it work." Sasha tells her
"It would work if you had different cops to trade. Dawn's running Grady into the ground. A bunch of us want her out and she knows it. Pretty sure she knows we want Lamson to replace her, too."
"Dawn doesn't know that." Lamson tells her
"She might. And she's smart. So there's a good chance you can't make this deal work and that'll leave us all dead. But if you let us go, we'll take care of Dawn ourselves and then we'll let your friends go and this is over."
"No, we're not gonna do that." The other male one says
"Do you want to die?" She asked him
"No. I just need you to shut up right now. You can make this work. But you've got to be able to talk to her."
"Noah told us all about her." I tell him
"I've known her for eight years, ma'am. I know this woman. And my only interest is peaceful resolution, not dying, and sleeping in my bed tonight. So, please, let me help you. Please."
"Hey, Rick. You're gonna want to hear this." Daryl calls to him
"She'll tell you she won't make a deal. She'll tell you she won't compromise. But she will. She always does. Just- just know who you're talking to." Lamson says to Rick
"Probably heading out in the next 10 minutes or so. Anything you need before we leave?"
"Actually, water would be great."
"Will do. Thanks, Sergeant Lamson." Rick tells him
"My name's Bob." He tells him and I see Sasha look over
"You're still a cop." Rick pointed out
"No. No, the real ones are all gone."
"I will tell you this, I trust you and that doesn't come easy, but if they try anything, or hurt my mom or Beth in anyway that trust goes out the window" I tell him and start to walk away
"Were you a cop?" He asked me and I looked at him
"Doesn't matter anymore, like you said, all the real ones are gone" I told him and walked away
"Sasha!" I yelled as we ran over to her on the floor, I see a cut on her head and look up at the window
"Whoa, easy, easy" Tyreese told her and she looked around
"Son of bitch tricked me, said some sob story about his friend, I offered to help that's all I remember" She says and I take off
"Phoebe!" Daryl yelled but I kept going
I ran down the street following Lamson and slashed a walkers stomach as I passed it, I get into the cop car and continue to follow then grabbed the radio, "Stop." I said over it but he kept going, "Stop right now. Stop. I won't ask again" I warned but he kept going so I sped up then hit him and he fell forward. I got out and walked over to him
"Help me. Help me. You crazy...You crazy bitch. I think you...I think you broke my neck."
"Didn't have to be like this. You just had to stop." I told him
"I couldn't. I don't know you. But I think...I think I'm getting the idea."
"You just had to stop. I did warn you" I said to him
"Take me back." He begged and I hear walkers, "Take me back to the hospital. I did it for your friend."
"Not after this, no. Can't go back, Bob." I tell him
"I was gonna iron it over. She's under it. And you've been out here too long. You'll die. You'll all..." He says but I shoot him
"Shut up."
"Are you crazy?" Daryl asked me when I got back to the others, "You could have been killed" He says and I sighed
"I'm sorry, I couldn't risk it" I tell him and he pulled me into a hug
"I don't want to lose you"
I put my hand on his face and smiled, "Never gonna happen" I said and he kissed me, "He wouldn't stop." I told Rick and Daryl
"This change things?" Daryl asked
"It has to." Rick says
"Maybe not." Daryl pointed out
"Well she said the plan won't work. The guy who did is dead." I told them, "Maybe we gotta rethink this."
"They also said the cop in charge didn't have any love for him. Maybe you did her a favor." Daryl told me
"I don't know if they'll play ball." Rick mentioned
"Let's find out." Daryl says and we walk over to the others
"He was a good man. He was attacked by rotters. Saw it go down." The female cop told us and I looked at her
"Huh." I said searching her face, "You're a damn good liar." I told her
"We're hanging by a thread here. He was attacked by rotters. That's the story."
"You said the trade was a bad idea. What changed?" Daryl asked her
"Lamson was our shot. So it's this or you go in guns blazing, right? You don't want that."
"If this is some bullshit you're spinning and things go south..." Daryl started to say
"I know. I know the good ones from the bad. Let us help you."
"What about you? You wanna live? How much?" Rick asked the other one
"Dawn's afraid she'll look weak in front of us. Thinks it'll tip things against her. Hell, it will. She'll see this trade as a rip-off if she thinks you took out one of our guys. So it's a good thing Lamson got aced by rotters."
"You okay?" Daryl asked me as I looked out the window
"I've killed...4 people..I think, since this all began" I tell him and he put his hand on my shoulder, "I keep trying to not lose myself Daryl, but then the people I love get put in danger and a part of me comes out that I don't know who it is"
"Hey," He turned me to look at him, "I'm not gonna let you fall and if you do I'll catch you," He says and rang his thumb along my ring, "For better or worse right?" He asked and I smiled then kissed him
"For better or worse"
Daryl and Sasha looked down at the street from the roof we were on with the 2 cops while Rick was down below, Daryl snapped his fingers and Tyreese grabbed the radio, "They're headed towards the vantage point."
"Okay. Copy that." He says
"We're gonna get her" Tyreese tells me and I smile at him
The other 2 cops lead us to the hospital and unlock the doors for us and we head in moving up the stairs and through the halls until we get to a set of double doors
Holster your weapons. the lady tells us over the radio and I put my gun away then we head inside, I see Beth standing there behind my mom who's in a wheelchair
"They haven't been harmed." Rick told her
"Where's Lamson?"
"Rotters got him." The female we had told her
"We saw it go down." The other added
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. He was one of the good guys." She says "One of yours for one of mine."
"All right." Daryl says and nodded to Daryl
"Move." Daryl walked him forward and one of theirs wheeled my mom forward handing Daryl her bag and he pushed her over to me
"Mom" I whispered bending down and hugging her then helped her stand up, "I got you" I tell her and Tyreese helped me support her then Rick moved forward with the female and walked back with Beth
"Glad we could work things out." The lady tells Rick
"Yeah."
"Now I just need Noah. And then you can leave." She says and we look at her
"That wasn't part of the deal." Rick told her
"Noah was my ward. Beth took his place and I'm losing her, so I need him back."
"Ma'am, please, it's not..."
"Shepherd!" She says cutting the female we had off, "My officers put their lives on the line to find him. One of them died."
"No, he ain't staying." Daryl told her moving forward
"He's one of mine. You have no claim on him."
"The boy wants to go home, so you have no claim on him." Rick says to her
"Well, then we don't have a deal."
"The deal is done." Rick said and Noah moved forwards
"It's okay."
"No. No." Rick tells him stopping him
"I got to do it." Noah tells him handing Rick his gun
"It's not okay." Beth says and I nod to Tyreese to keep hold on my mom and I walked up to her
"It's settled." The lady says and Noah moved forward
"Wait!" Beth says and walked over hugging him
"It's okay." Noah tells her
"I knew you'd be back." The lady tell him and Beth moved forward
"I get it now." She says and everything happened so fast, Beth stabbed her in the shoulder then I guess on instinct the lady shot Beth in the head and I stood there in shock, then Daryl pulled out his gun shooting her and we all draw our weapons on each other
"No! Hold your fire! It's over. It was just about her. Stand down." Shepard tells us and I moved over to Daryl putting my hand on his shoulder as he looked down at Beth and cried then he turned to me and I hugged him, "You can stay. We're surviving here. It's better than out there."
"No. And I'm taking anyone back there who wants to leave. If you want to come with us... just step forward now." Rick tells them but no one moved
We all walked out of the hospital one after the other, me and Rick were first, then Tyreese with my mom, then Sasha and Noah, I look and see the rest of our group walking towards us and I see Maggie then feel my heart break even more when Daryl walked out behind us carrying Beth. Maggie screamed and fell to the ground crying as Daryl continued walking, I started to cry too and my mom pulled me into a hug. Then we just stood there, mourning another lost member of our family.
A/N: Damn onion cutting ninjas. Excuse me *starts crying*