CHAPTER 25: Deal With The Devil

The RV pulls into Alexandria from the visit of Hilltop. The group in the car made a deal with the other community. They had to kill these men called Saviors and a man named Negan for enough food for their community. It was like old problems for Rick's group and it was like old Jobs Daryl and Annabelle use to do. All they had to do now is get the people of Alexandria to agree on the plan and put the plan in motion.

"They're back!"

They all hear from inside the car, Rick slows the car stopping the engine for the moment. He sticks his head out a tells Sasha, "Get Olivia. She should inventory what we have. We'll meet her at the pantry."

"You have food?" She asks in hope.

"Yeah. Enough for another month." He answers then glances to his sister before adding, "I need everybody in the church in an hour."

"What is it?" Carol comes up to the RV with everyone still inside.

"We'll talk about it." He sighs and starts the engine back up.

"Rick, what's going on?" She asks alarmed.

"We're gonna have to fight."

The two Grimes talked it over on how they were going to explain to Alexandria when needs to happen if they want to survive. Rick and Annabelle have rounded up everyone in town, only ones who weren't in the church are the ones on guard watch. They were now in front of everyone, Jesus and the man who has talked to the Savior before are behind them sitting down. Michonne, Abe, Rosita, Aaron, the pastor and a few other were seated on one side of the church. Daryl, Eugene, Morgan, Tara, Carol, Glenn, Maggie, Heath, Denise, and some others were on the other side of the place. They all watched the two Grimes, the leaders or Alexandria, patiently waiting for what happened in Hilltop with Jesus.

"We can work with the Hilltop. Annabelle hammered out a deal." Rick announces to the people in front of him, "We're getting food- eggs, butter, fresh vegetables. But they're not just giving it away."

He looks to his sister who then explains, "These Saviors, they almost killed Sasha, Daryl, and Abraham on the road. Now, sooner or later, they would've found us, just like those Wolves did, just like Jesus did."

Daryl, Michonne, Aaron, Glenn and Jesus all nod agreeing with what they were saying. Annabelle looks to her man and he looks to her encouragingly. She didn't notice Jesus watching her with admiration from behind. Rick and Daryl could though, they could see how he still wanted her. They couldn't say anything about it now because of everything that is going on.

Annabelle then continues, "They woulda killed someone or some of us. And then they would try to own us. And we would try to stop them. But by then, in that kind of fight, low on food, we could lose."

Daryl watches his woman in pure loving compassion. If only Merle could see her now, standing in front of people that trusted her with their life. She didn't even notice how important she has become to Alexandria but he could, the community could. When they first met they were nothing and here he is getting prouder by the day of what the two have gained.

"This is the only way to be sure, as sure as we can get, that we win." Rick then looks to everyone confidently.

"And we have to win. We do this for the Hilltop, it's how we keep this place. It's how we feed this place." Annabelle adds beside her brother with her hands on her hips determined.

This was it she thought, this was the last job they might have to a decent future. And that was the only thing on her mind since seeing the picture of Maggie and Glenn's unborn child. She wanted what they had and she believed with they did this they would be one step closer to it for her and Daryl.

Rick then waves at their people with the other hand on his belt, "This needs to be a group decision. If anybody objects, here's your chance to say your piece."

"You're sure we can do it?" Morgan stands up dead serious, "We can beat them?"

"What this group has done, what we've learned, what we've become, all of us-" Rick nods declaring, "Yes, I'm sure."

"Then all we have to do is just tell them that." He then suggests to the people making them all turn back to Rick and Annabelle.

"These people aren't like that." Annie sighs and waves to him knowing he just wants to keep the peace, "They don't compromise."

"This isn't a compromise. It's a choice you give them." He thinks out loud in a calm and steady voice, "It's a way out, for them and for us."

"These men. They're doing things not to survive but to grow, to get more." She shakes her head trying to get him to see, "People who want to survive get a choice, people who do things to just have more than others don't. And that is what the Saviors are, men who want more than everyone else."

"We try and talk to the Saviors, we give up our advantage, our safety." Rick then adds to her point, "No, we have to come for them before they come for us."

"They didn't give Hilltop a choice, they don't deserve a choice." Annabelle stresses not to lose her temper, "We can't leave them alive."

"Where there's life, there's a possibility." Morgan preaches.

Annabelle grows impatient as she snaps at him, " Of them hitting us."

"We're not trapped in this." He looks around to everyone in the room, "None of you are trapped in this."

Daryl looks to Annabelle noticing the anger in her fists. This was more than just a debate to her now he could tell by the emotionless posture. Morgan must have said something that triggered an old memory. No one could notice though, they were all too wrapped up in the matter at hand.

Rick rubs his face trying to get his friend to understand, "Morgan... they always come back."

"Come back when they're dead, too. "

"Yeah, we'll stop them." Annabelle grunts out glancing at her brother, "We have before."

"I'm not talking about the walkers." Morgan sends the Grimes siblings a look.

Rick sighs and waves to their people, "Morgan wants to talk to them first. I think that would be a mistake, but it's not up to me."

"We'll talk to the people still at home." Annabelle blurts out looking around the room, "We'll discuss it with the people on guard now, too, but who else wants to approach the Saviors, talk to them first?"

Aaron abruptly stands up then announcing, "What happened here, we won't let that happen again. I won't."

He nods to Anna and she smiles in gratitude before looking to everyone else, "Looks like it's settled."

"We know exactly what this is." Rick explains making Morgan sit back down, "We don't shy from it, we live. We kill them all."

"We don't all have to kill." Annabelle steps down to ground level and begins walking to the doors while looking to Morgan, "But if people are gonna stay here... they do have to accept it."

As she leaves she can see Carol's concerned look for her but didn't know how to react to it so Annabelle just kept walking to the doors.

Carol is walking around Alexandria in the middle of the night with a cigarette in hand. Annabelle gave her a pack when she noticed her smoking after the wolves attacked. She couldn't sleep tonight, so many things were going on in her mind. The plan for tomorrow, the number of people she has killed, Maggie being pregnant. Too many things went through her mind and she didn't know how to happened it, she had no idea how the Grimes sibling could.

"Those things'll kill you."

Carol turns and sees Tobin sitting on his porch steps watching her with a friendly smile. She sends him a look before holding up her smoke, "Tell that to Daryl and Annabelle."

"And get a finger cut off, no thank you." He jokes remembering a story they told Alexandria once, he then asks, "You got another one?"

"Not for you."

"And why is that?"

"'Cause, asshole." She teases while slowly walking over to him.

"Okay." He chuckles and moves to make more room for her on the steps, "Couldn't sleep either?"

"I never could sleep." She answers honestly before handing him her smoke for him to take a hit.

"Worried about tomorrow."

"You going?"

"No. You are." He thinks out loud as he let the smoke come out of his mouth, "You can do things that- that just terrify me."

"How?" She asks as she thinks about the people she has killed, "How do you think I do those things?"

"You're a mom."

"I was."

"You are." Tobin hands her back the cigarette, "You sure are to Annabelle. She doesn't even know it."

"She never knew what a mother is like so how is she supposed to know now." She defends Annie as she looks ahead of her.

"Yeah, I know."

"How can Anna do the things she does?" Carol then questions, "She's not a mom."

"No.. Annie is just different. She has been surviving since she was born, she grew into doing the things she does." He explains his point of view, "Which is why she can't tell when you're motherly to her. Not that it matters."

Carol sends him a confused expression and encourages him to keep going.

"It- it's not the cookies or the smiles. That Annabelle respects about you," He begins to tells her as he takes the cigarette back, "It's- it's the hard stuff. The scary stuff. It's how you can do it. It's strength. That she notices in you."

She smiles and looks down to her feet knowing what he meant now. She was a mother to Annie but she didn't see it like that since she never knew how a mother acts. It's the strong, hard motherly thing she does that Annabelle respects even if she doesn't realize it's motherly.

"You're a mom to most of the people here."

"To you, too?" Carol then looks up and takes her smoke back for the last hit.

"No." Tobin smiles knowingly, "You're something else to me."

"Describe it."

"Rectangular building, big satellites on it."

Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Jesus, Rick, Daryl, Andy, and Annabelle are all surrounding at the table at the Grimes house late at night. Merle and Lori, the dogs, have been jumping on Anna since she walked into the house. They had to let them out to stay focus. Judith and Carl were in bed asleep by the time they got home.

They were trying to get the basics of the plan down tonight so all they do is set it up tomorrow. Andy, the man who knew the most about the place the Saviors were holding up in, has a sharpie and paper to sketch out what he knew. He is doing a piss poor job but it's better than nothing. They all are in a circle around him as he drew the building for them.

Rick looks at the paper asking, "Any windows?"

"I don't remember any." Andy answers while drawing a single door, "I think they made it so there's only one way in."

Annabelle then questions, "Guards outside?"

"Yeah, two of them, at least."

Annie leans on the table as he labels where everything is. She didn't realize Jesus beside her with his hand lightly touching her lower back. She's too focused on getting the map done to see anything else going on.

Michonne blurts out curiously, "And you don't know how many people they have?"

"No." He sighs thinking out loud, "Uh, I mean, no. I saw a place where they stored food. It wasn't that big, so…"

Rick folds his arms, "You've been inside?"

"Yeah. They had us load in supplies one time."

Glenn then puts a clean sheet of paper in front of Andy asking, "Hmm. What do you remember?"

Maggie then adds, "And you didn't see any other rooms?"

Andy sends them a look like they need to stop stressing him out, "No, it's a big place. This is the hallway I saw. There is more."

He draws a closest in a hallway leading into two different hallways. Michonne then points on a room on the paper Andy drew, "And every time, they had you bring things into here?"

"Jesus." Andy sighs as he tries to think of anything else.

"We brought a couple spears for them," Jesus speaks up finally making Anna realize how close he is to her.

She straightens up and glances beside her to find Jesus's head closer to hers. He smiles at her and before she can react she feels someone grabbing her belt loop and pulling her back. Her back hits something hard and she looks behind her to find Daryl holding her protectively. She can feel his chest rise and fall from breathing and his muscles moving. He has one hand holding a belt loop and the other holding her hip. Jesus looks between the two making Annabelle blushes lightly. She glances behind her and sees Daryl not giving a fuck how he held her in front of them after the way Jesus stood next to her. Feeling the warmth of his breath she leans back slightly distracted. Daryl notices her shifting in front of him and the way she bits her lip. Realizing what has her face flushed he smirks leaning closer to her.

"Two of the Savior's took them down this hallway."

Everyone is so focused on the paper on the table the didn't notice Daryl's hand move to Anna's high and rubbed circles near where he knew now she won't want him. Her breath goes shallow as she stays completely still.

"Dixon, what are you doing?" She whispers suppressing a moan.

"Now, they must've done something with them because they didn't come back with them."

He kisses behind her ear before breathing out, "Punishing ya'."

Her knees grew weak from the thought of a punishment. His hand now cups her heated spot making her close her eyes in lust. No one could see where his hand is from the height of the table, plus the complete focus everyone is giving the papers of sketches.

"For what?" She whimpers out as he begins to rub her clit through her pants.

"Maybe a weapons locker, an armory."

"Okay."

Daryl's face is completely natural as he presses harder on her covered folds. She bit her lip trying to act calm. He then moves his mouth to her ear whispering, "For letting Jesus get too close."

She bites her lip painfully trying to act normal but at the moment all she wanted was Daryl to pound her like there's no tomorrow. Which there might be. She is so close when her man finally pulls away making her miss the contact. She didn't even realize the reason he pulled his hand was because her brother asked her something.

"Annabelle. You think it will work?" Rick repeats himself looking to his sister worried.

She glances at Jesus and Daryl before blurting out, "What will work out?"

"Us getting in there," He answers confused on her dazed expression, "We secure the armory."

"Yeah." She nods like she got her second wind, "That's how we end it."

"That's how Carol ended it here." Maggie points out.

"But we don't know if they have an armory or where it even is." Andy thinks out loud."

"Well, we've got a lot of good guesses." Daryl then speaks up shrugging, acting like he never even touched Annabelle, "We've done more with less."

"We go in at night while they're sleeping." Rick then suggests.

"The guards won't be sleeping." Andy explains to them seriously, "As I said, I think there's only one way in and there's no way to bust through that door without waking up the rest of them."

"We don't need to." Annabelle speaks up more confidence than before, "They're going to open it for us, let us walk right in."

"They want Gregory's head, right?" Rick asks thinking the same thing his sister is.

Everyone looks between Annabelle and Rick curiously, only the Grimes sibling knew what each other were thinking. Anna smirks at Daryl before folding her arm smugly.

"We're gonna give it to them."

"You got a lot of nerve, Dixon."

"A man has needs."

"My man does have a lot of needs."

Daryl growls predatory like and pulls Annabelle into their room with the dogs following after them. He shuts the doors after Merle and Lori get in, he pins Anna in the process on the door. They just left the dining room after they planned for tomorrow. Everyone else is going home or to their rooms for the night.

"All I need is ya', Sunshine."

Tugging at Ms. Grimes belt Daryl devour her lips with his. She melts at his touch as she holds onto his shoulders for balance. Grinding into him she hears him grunt in approval before lifting one of her legs up to get closer. She tugs his hair desperately, he begins to kiss down to her uncovered neck. Annabelle growls impatiently and shoves him away. He looks at her confused until he sees her send him a sexy smirk. She pushes him back so he plops onto their bed. Once he leans back on his elbows she flicks her shirt off. One by one the rest of her clothes come up until she is completely naked for him. He takes in all the flesh uncover for him before whispering.

"Beautiful."

"Damn right."

She breathes out with a light laugh before getting on top of him. His hand instantly roam her body in at the places that make her shiver. She leaves marks on his neck as she tries to take off his clothes impatiently. Daryl smirked at her frustration when she rips his shirt open. He then sits up straight and moves his hands to the curve of her ass. Giving it a squeeze he pushes her down on him to show her how much he wants her. She moans softly at the friction and kisses him demanding. His hands begin to massage her breast when she pulls away dramatically. He growls at the loss of her lips and tries to pull her back to him.

Putting a hand on his chest she pants out, "Hold up. This isn't if we die tomorrow sex, is it?"

"Wha'?" Daryl speaks up not thinking straight, "This is, I want to fuck my badass woman. Now, shut up."

Taking one of her breasts into his mouth he sighs in relief. She laughs and shoves him away to look at her. She points at him trying to think, "I'm serious. I want this to be daily sex. Not, if this is the last time sex."

He pushes his hair out of his face to fully look at her and realizes she looks worried. She's worried they might not make it tomorrow or get split up, or worse. She's worried they're going to have to go through everything again to get back to each other. And it felt like they kept repeatedly trying to find their way back to each other. Daryl puts his hands on her hips softly and sends her a stern expression.

"Sunshine, I promise you. You gonna be safe, I'm gonna be safe, and both of us are gonna come back to this bed tomorrow and have victory sex. Okay?" He pulls her closer whispering, "I ain't gonna let anythin' bad happen to ya'."

She wraps her arms around his neck and offers him a wide smile, "Victory sex?"

"Wha' ever ya' want to call it." His face goes to nuzzle her neck.

"Making love?" She blurts out shyly, they never used the word love before.

He pulls back to get a good look at her face, she's blushing shyly at the vulnerability she just now showed. She looked so upon to him at this moment. Like she put her life in his hands. He's made a lot of mistakes in his life but this girl will never be a mistake to him. So he decided to say the one thing he never thought he would. Biting his lip before nodding he whispers like what he's about to say is a secret.

"Okay. I'll make love to ya' tomorrow."

Annabelle smiles brighter than he ever seen her smile before. She looked so happy from his words he wanted to take a picture of it to prove the world they could be as happy as everyone else. He has never said something more intimate than what he just said to her. He's glad he did say it too, she needed to hear it. He felt like the weight on his shoulder were now lifted from the smile she gave him.

"Victory sex tonight?"

"Ya' bet ya' sweet ass."

"Damn, I really got ya'."

"They don't hurt, so no worries."

"Ya' look like Dalmatian."

"They're love bites."

Annabelle smirks and glances to her man while driving. They were talking about the hickeys Daryl gave her last night. They're quite a few and she couldn't hide them all. But to be fair he had some too. Dixon liked teasing her about them though.

"Just be glad they ain't walker bites." Daryl points out while putting his cigarette up to his mouth.

"Wow, very romantic Dixon." Annie snorts while looking at their surroundings.

Daryl and Annabelle drove in her car down the highway behind the RV and a few other cars packed with people. Lori and Merle were in the back seat with their head sticking out the window. It's earlier in the morning and they had to do a few things before killing Negan and the Saviors. The RV stops and honks its horn really loud, the next cars do the same followed by Annabelle doing it too. People begin to leave the cars and stretch from the drive here. Daryl grabs a gun from the back seat and jumps out, Annabelle turns off the car and goes out with him. Letting the dogs out of the back seat they begin sniffing the area Annabelle is in. She watches her brother talk to the priest and walks over to Heath and Glenn.

"Y'all look over there for a similar walker, Daryl, Jesus and I will check out over here." She suggests while taking out a machete.

Heath nods and glances to her neck, he then looks between Daryl and Jesus before going over to the car and getting a gun. Glenn looks to his wife nervous to leave her out here without him. Annabelle couldn't blame him, the girl is pregnant for god sake, she shouldn't even be here. But Glenn told her she insisted on coming since she was apart of this deal.

"Okay, be safe." Glenn finally speaks up while taking out a knife.

"Always." She smiles and sets a hand on his shoulder before walking toward her Dixon, "Ready?"

Daryl gets off the hood of her car and nods, he whispers to get Jesus attention, "Ya' comin' or what?"

"Yeah." Jesus jogs over to the couple and they all silently go into the woods.

"We're gonna take a look around, try to get a feel for how many people are in there. We like how it looks, we go in." Rick announce to his people, "A couple of hours before dawn."

Everyone is by the cars circled around Rick and Annabelle listening in on what they have to say. They had rounded up a few heads already to decided which one looked the most like Gregory. Annabelle looks around to her people explaining, her dogs were laying within five feet of her.

"The guards outside will be tired. Everyone inside will be sleeping." She tilts her head then, "We don't like what we see, we head back, make a new plan."

"They don't know who we are." Rick looks to his sister like he's saying mostly to her, "We'll keep Jesus in the shadows."

"This is how we eat." Annabelle sighs look around to each person before staring directly at her brother, "This is how we eat."

"We roll out at midnight." Rick nods, he looks to her sister for her to follow him to the front of the RV.

As they make their way Carol stops them saying while glancing at Glenn's wife, "Why is Maggie here?"

"She's guarding the perimeter." Annabelle shrugs like it's no big deal but knowing why Carol is worried.

"Yeah, but why is she here?" She asks again.

"'Cause it's her choice." Rick sighs knowing that he couldn't have stopped Maggie from coming if he wanted to.

"I want to stay out there with her." She blurts out making Rick rub his eyes.

"Well, this whole thing's a race to the armory." He tries to stress the importance of her being here, "We need as many people inside as we can get."

"She shouldn't be out there alone." She argues, "She shouldn't be out here in the first place."

"Okay." Annabelle sighs looking to her brother seriously, "Stay with her."

"Okay." Rick nods thinking if his sister thought it was okay then he did too.

"Good."

As Annabelle and Rick keep moving to the front of the car Jesus and Andy stand side by side looking at the heads. They had them all lined up staring at each of them intently. Rick calls out to them while reaching their sides. The dogs come up to the heads and sniff them for a moment before circling around Anna.

"She's done with the hair? What've we got?"

"That one." Jesus waves to the one in the middle, they had three head lined up.

"Yeah, that's it." Andy agrees.

Annabelle nods looking at the middle one that they thought looked most like Gregory, "All right."

"Though it's probably good we're doing this at night." Jesus thinks out loud while waving to the head on the ground.

"Something wrong with it?" Annabelle folds her arms while glancing at Jesus and the head, she then kneels down picking the head up by its hair.

"The Nose. Gregory's is a different shape." He answers while sending her a disbelief look, Annabelle tilts her head thinking of an idea.

Hitting the head a few times she sets it back down and turns to look at the three men, "He fought back."

"He broke your hand, right?" Rick waves to Andy's arm while sending his little sister an impressed look.

"Guess there's no reason to be subtle about it." Jesus sighs while giving the Grimes siblings a weird expression.

"What?" Annabelle stands back up giving the Andy guy an intimidating look.

"The Saviors, they're scary," He looks between Rick and Annabelle then begins walking away, "But those pricks got nothing on you."

Annabelle and Rick turn to look at each other of a moment thinking of how he's right. After a moment Anna shrugs knowing how scary they could be. Rick tilts his head as he stares at the head his sister just punched. Maybe the Grimes family is crazy after all.

Daryl walks up to the two like he had something to say that would piss them off. He stands between Rick and Annabelle staring at the same head as them. After a moment he blurts out.

"Gave Carol and Maggie heads up that ya' will be watching the perimeter, Sunshine." Soon at that was said Daryl leaves their sides.

Annabelle's eyes go wide, "What?"

"You heard me."