Chapter Twenty Five: There Are Rules

"That wasn't okay Dwight, that kid could die." I ranted, pacing around the room we were staying in.

"I know darlin, there's nothing we can do though." Dwight repeated.

We'd been having this conversation for a while, since we'd made it back to the outpost, I was practically a mess and had been repeating the same things over and over. Dwight was doing his best to calm me down but it wasn't working, the longer I stewed on this the angrier I got. There had to be consequences for this, this couldn't be over looked, I needed to talk to Gavin.

"I want to talk to the leader here." I demanded.

"That's not a good idea." Dwight said, standing up from the chair. "Do you know what happens if you go against orders?"

"He deserves to die for what he's done." I stated, growing all the more angry.

"Darlin." Dwight had his hands on my shoulders, looking down at me with a serious expression in his eyes. "Please, you need to think this through."

"I have." I responded. "I want to talk to Gavin."

"We have to follow orders." Dwight told me, I narrowed my eyes.

"So we're ordered to shoot and kill kids?" I argued. "I'm not going along with that." Dwight sighed softly and bowed his head, he knew I'd made up my mind and I wasn't going to stop until I got my way. There had to be consequences, Jared deserved to die and if he was going to, I wanted to be the one to do it. "I know what I'm doing, trust me."

"Darlin...fuck." I could tell how defeated he sounded, he didn't want me putting myself in jeopardy but he knew I wouldn't give up. I felt strongly about this and I wasn't just going to stand by and ignore it. "Okay, fine."

"Thank you D." I whispered, finally calming down a little. "I love you." I pressed my lips against his forehead, smiling when he placed a kiss on my nose.

"I love you too."

He straightened up and took my hand, pulling me to follow him. He opened the door, leading me by the hand out into the hallway. I shut the door behind us and we began walking, taking a few turns before finally running into another Saviour. Hopefully he'd know where Gavin would be right now.

"Where can we find Gavin?" Dwight asked.

"Right about now he'd be counting rations for Negan." the other Saviour responded.

Dwight thanked the man and we continued down the hallway, Dwight leading the way. We eventually came to an open door, it looked like some form of a stock room, Gavin was inside and giving out orders on what needed to be done to some of the Saviours. Gavin looked back over his shoulder, eyeing the pair of us before moving closer to the doorway.

"Angel would like to talk to you." Dwight told him, Gavin nodded a little. He moved out of the room and shut the door behind him, looking down at me curiously.

"What can I do for you dear?" he asked calmly. "Did you have a question?"

"I did." I agreed. I glanced over at Dwight, he nodded and released my hand after pressing a kiss to the side of my head.

"Be back in ten." he told me. I smiled a little and nodded, watching him head back down the hallway before looking back at Gavin.

"Do you condone the murder of kids?" I asked, getting straight to the point. "Because that bastard probably killed that boy."

"I do not Angel." he answered. "There are rules."

"Then there should be consequences." I stated.

"So you think Jared should be punished if that boy is dead." he guessed, I nodded in agreement.

"I do." Gavin gave me a serious look, seeming as though he were searching my eyes before he said the last thing I expected.

"Then do it."

Dwight parked the bike next to the truck, shutting off the engine. I climbed off the back of the bike, watching as Gavin moved out of the driver's seat. Dwight moved off the bike and took my hand in his, we started walking forward to meet Ezekiel and his men. We stopped a few yards away from the group, I stood between Gavin and Dwight like before. I looked away from the Saviours, finding Morgan's face. He looked distraught, he had a staff in each hand and was pacing, finally stopping when he saw our group. I looked around the group, my heart dropping when I didn't see the kid.

'Did he make it?'

"How's the kid?" Gavin asked. No one from Ezekiel's group spoke, all of their eyes were sad, I felt anger bubble up inside me. "He's dead." Gavin said, he didn't sound very please.

I looked over at Gavin, my free hand resting on my handgun, I felt Dwight squeeze my other hand. I'd told him what Gavin and I had talked about so he knew what was coming. Gavin bowed his head for a moment and turned his head in my direction, nodding at me.

"Angel, do it."

I whipped my handgun off my side and without needing to look, pulled the trigger. A loud bang rang out in the area, a scream of pain following. Jared dropped to the ground, holding his knee where I'd shot him, howling in pain. I holstered my handgun and released Dwight's hand, walking over to where he laid. I leaned over him, narrowing my eyes.

"What the fuck you bitch!" he screamed.

"There are rules." I said calmly. "And you broke one."

"I'll kill you, you bitch!"

"Shut up!" Gavin screamed. "Or instead of a bum leg, I'll order her to put the next bullet in your head. There are rules!"

Jared was twisting around on the ground as he held his injured knee, blood was quickly soaking through his jeans. He was glaring at me with the utmost hatred, I easily recognized that I'd made an enemy in this group but I didn't care, this prick deserved more than what I'd done. I bent down, resting my arms on my knees as a I stared at him, a serious look in my eyes.

"You know, I wanted to kill you." I started, a smirk coming to my lips. "You did a shitty thing but Gavin, well, he told me not to. We decided this would be a good wake up call for you." I chuckled softly to myself, Jared was glaring darkly at me. "Next time you think about shooting a kid, remember that this was your only warning. Next time, I'll kill you."

"Get him in the truck." Gavin ordered.

I moved up from my crouched position and went back to stand in between Gavin and Dwight. A couple of the Saviours had went to Jared's side, helping him stand so he could go back to the truck. I took my place between them, Gavin nodded approvingly.

"Well done Angel, I'll make sure to let Negan know that you stepped up."

"Thank you."

Dwight took my hand in his, squeezing it once. I wasn't sure what he was thinking, if he was proud of me for holding onto my morals but I'd find out once we were back home. Gavin turned his attention back to the people of The Kingdom, looking fully collected once again.

"Do you have it?" he asked.

One of the Kingdom's men pulled a small crate out of the back of the truck, a single cantaloupe inside of it. He walked forward, carrying it over to our group, I glanced up at Dwight. He had a serious expression on his face but I could see something behind his eyes, something that told me something was going on in his head. He needed to talk, I could see that. There were things we needed to discuss, what we were going to do about Negan was one of them.

I didn't think I could just stand by anymore and let innocent people die, watch people starve to death, I had made my choice. I couldn't run away, I couldn't try to escape. I had to stay in the ranks of the Saviours, I had to be the inside person for my people, their eyes and ears in foreign territory. I could help overthrow Negan from the inside, maybe rally some of the other Saviours against him, the workers would more than likely fight against him. If I could just hold out a little longer, gather some information and get it back to our people, the war could begin.

"I just want to say, we get it." the man started.

I blinked dumbly when Morgan strode forward, tossing one of the staffs aside and hit the man over the face a couple of times with the other. Dwight raised his gun in time with the other Saviours, I copied his actions, trying not to aim at anyone in particular. What was Morgan doing? I watched as he knocked the man to the ground, getting on top of him and wrapped his hands around his throat.

"Morgan!"

Ezekiel was screaming his name, telling him to stop but that didn't break Morgan's focus. He continued strangling him, even as the man struggled against him, he still didn't have the strength to get Morgan off of him. Morgan held onto his throat and began slamming his head against the concrete, using all his strength to choke the life out of him. I swallowed the lump in my throat and glanced at Gavin, he had a serious expression on his face as he observed. I moved my eyes to Dwight, as calm and collected as he looked, I knew he was in shock. I'd told him about Morgan, how he had a code to not end a life, this was completely unlike him. Why was he doing this? The man made a few gurgling noises finally, attempting to breathe but in the end, Morgan's strength had been superior. He'd killed him. I lowered my gun slightly, watching as Morgan moved off the man and sat in the parking lot on his knees, finally looking back towards his people.

"He set it all up. He blocked the road yesterday, made us late." Morgan started, trying to compose himself. "It was all him. And we had your offering, when we left. Had it all. He took one from the cargo and he hid it, when we stopped. He wanted to get something started between The Kingdom and the Saviours."

Ezekiel and his people had shocked looks on their faces but I could see that they believed Morgan, that they trusted him. The man that Morgan had killed, he'd caused that young boy to lose his life, all because he wanted to start something with the Saviours. I could feel my heart breaking at the thought, how could one person be so selfish? Why would that man risk all his people's lives, everyone back at their community to start a war? As much I didn't agree with his methods, I understood why a war needed to happen. The Saviours didn't care who they hurt to get what they wanted, at least Gavin was enough of a man to have some kind of a code. I watched as Morgan turned back to our group, looking up at Gavin.

"Hey." He moved up to his feet, moving to stand in front of Gavin. "Hey." he repeated. "I wanted to show you, I wanted to show you that we get it. That we understand what it is we need to do. That we know, how to go on."

"Good." Gavin replied. "Next week, same time." Morgan nodded.

"We, we understand." he said, his breathing was finally calming down.

Gavin nodded at the rest of us, I took that as a sign that it was time to go. I holstered my gun and took the hand Dwight offered me, walking side by side with him to our bike. I sat on the back of the bike, waiting for him to start the engine so we could go. We needed to get back to the Sanctuary, I was sure Negan wasn't going to want to wait much longer for an answer from me. My bike roared to life, Dwight revved the engine a couple times before Gavin grabbed my attention.

"You all can head back to the Sanctuary, I'll be giving Negan my report once I'm back at the outpost. You did good kid, I'm impressed." I nodded a thank you and wrapped my arms around Dwight's waist, he gave the bike some gas and we sped out of the parking lot.

"Hey babe?" Dwight glanced back over his shoulder at me, before turning his attention back to the road. "Did I do the right thing?"

"Yeah, you did." he agreed. "That asshole deserved worse." I smiled a little, glad that he was siding with me and leaned up, kissing the side of his face. "Darlin, we can't let this go on."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Negan, the Saviours, it all needs to end." he responded, taking a turn down another road. He wasn't speeding or even going what the speed limit would've been, we were just coasting down the road at possibly 25 miles per hour. What was he thinking about?

"What are we supposed to do then?" I pressed.

"I think it's time." he started, I blinked curiously. "To switch sides."

"We doing this?" I asked, he nodded.

"Oh yeah."

We definitely had a lot to talk about back home.

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait!