They waited in a room for Jesus to come down and when he did he explained about their deal with the Saviors. She felt Daryl get restless beside her so she placed her hand on his arm reminding him that she was there. After they had heard everything Daryl stepped forward, "You know, we'll do it."
Angel looked at him with a confused look but he continued, "If we go get your man back, kill Negan, take out his boys, will you hook us up? We want food, medicine, and one of those cows."
"Daryl." Angel said but no one stopped. She looked over to Glenn and Maggie and Glenn had a face like hers.
"Confrontations something we've never had trouble with." Rick told Jesus.
"I'll take it to Gregory." Jesus responded and left the room.
Angel shook her head and walked out of the room and the house. Everyone watched and Daryl soon followed her out, "Ang, what's goin on?"
"What's going on is we didn't even talk about this." She pointed to where the house was, "We just offered to go and kill people we don't know for other people we don't know."
"They tried to kill us first, take half our shit first." He told her, "We gotta take them out before they take us out."
"Do we? Since when?" She asked.
"Since I don't want anything to happen to you, to any of our people. You're a soldier Ang, it aint like you haven't done something like this before." He put a hand on her shoulder.
"You're right. I am a soldier. Not a mercenary for hire." She sighed, "Look I get it we need the stuff and they, they don't seem like the nicest of people, but I just don't like it when we don't know everything."
"I know. I know you like knowing all the angles but this aint the time for that." He moved his hand up to cup her neck, "I know I said you aint gotta fight the war but we're gunna need you in this."
"I know." She reached into his pocket and took out the pack of cigarettes and lit one, "I'll do it. I'll follow orders just like I used to, even the ones I didn't like. So just know I don't like this."
Daryl nodded and she nodded back, turning to walk away and finish her cigarette.
On their way back Glenn passed around the sonogram picture and Angel and Daryl looked at it. As she stared down at the little dot that was going to be a person, she realized why Daryl was so insistent about getting rid of the threat and even though she understood, it didn't make her like it anymore.
She sat in the church listening as Rick spoke, knowing he was right and Daryl kept his hand on hers and she didn't object when Rick asked and went along with the plan. Once everything was said and done they returned to their houses and Angel went to take a shower. Once she was done she returned to the room and Daryl walked in seeing her sitting on the edge of the bed staring out of the window. He moved around the bed and sat next to her. Her voice was soft, "I've gotten used to this."
"I know." He said back.
"Just like every other time." She let out a small smile, "Every time I was on leave, I'd forget what it was like to see a body drop right in front of me. Then I would go back, and I'd forget what it was like to have a drink on the back porch."
"You won't forget what it's like." He took her hand.
"I know. I was really good at switching back and forth." She looked at him, "I can do it with this too."
"Ang, what's goin on?" He moved his arm to be around her.
"I made a promise that I would never sacrifice who I am again, that I would protect people that couldn't protect themselves…What happens when those two things contradict themselves?" She sighed, "I'm not afraid of fighting, of going back to war, but how long until we turn into the people we've been fighting?"
"We aint like them."
"Not yet. But going in at night and slaughtering them while they sleep?" Her eyes looked sad, "It's not war, it's not self-defense, it's murder."
Daryl nodded, he understood where she was coming from and he felt bad doing this to her, "If you wanna watch the perimeter-"
"No, you were right, you guys need me on the inside. I just wanted to let you know where I was at." She said before giving him a kiss.
"I…I ain't gunna lose you again am I?" He asked holding onto her face.
"No." She gave a slight laugh and kissed him again, "No, you're not gunna lose me ever again. I promise."
"Kay." He continued kissing her before gently pushing her back on the bed.
She stood by their car with Daryl cleaning her gun when Glenn came over, "Hey Angel, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what's up?" She looked at him with a smile.
"What's it like? The…the first time you kill someone?" Glenn asked and Angels smile faded slightly.
"I…Once I was safe I threw up. Hands were shaky. Cried." She answered him honestly, "Killing someone isn't a natural thing, that's why police and military have to be trained to be able to do it, even then though it'll still effect you."
"Does…does it get easier?" He looked at her.
"It gets harder…then after a while it gets easier." She told him.
"How many does it take to get easier?" Glenn seemed worried.
"Hopefully you never get there, but a decent way into double digits." She patted him on the shoulder.
As the man walked away Daryl watched Angel, and it was like they were back at the prison again, but her actions, her smile, it was all more subdued.
They made their way through the compound and Daryl couldn't help but watch as she was silent and precise, no extra moves or flourishes as they killed. When the alarms went off she was even more effective, but he couldn't see the small smile on her face as she shot people because of the banana over her face. Angel had seen the pictures on the walls, heads bashed in, people sleeping below them as if they were pictures of their friends and families that comforted them. She knew they were bad. She noticed a group making for an exit and she called out, "Keep going! I got 'em!"
"Kay!" Daryl yelled back covering her as she went.
They made it to an emergency exit and shot one down as they ran through the field. She followed them shooting as she went, making sure none got out alive. When she made it to the tree line she heard a voice, "Put the gun down or we kill them."
Angel turned around to see a gun against Maggies head. She sighed, "Well shit."
Daryl was looking for Angel outside before getting distracted by a guy riding off on his motorcycle. They shot him off and he began hitting the guy before a voice came through the guys walkie. Daryl got off of him as Rick spoke to the woman on the other end. He wanted to let out a scream as he heard the woman say, "We've got a Carol and a Maggie, one named Angel came right to us too. I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about."
"Fucking shit!" Daryl pointed his gun closer to the man's face before Glenn helped him pick the man up and Daryl held the barrel of his gun right to the back of the mans head.
They spoke for a moment and Rick asked to know that their people were okay. Carol spoke first then Maggie, then Angel with just a "Angel, we're good."
When her jacket was forced over her head, her hands tied together, and a gag placed in her mouth she had to keep her breathing steady, she counted their steps trying to keep her mind focused on anything but what was happening. She tried to keep her mind away from the memories. Angel knew she could fight off whoever was holding her but she didn't want to risk getting Maggie or Carol shot so she didn't do anything but concentrate on the present.
Once they were in what the people called a safe house their jackets were removed and they were told to sit away from each other. And their ankles were tied. She watched them as they talked and moved around, her breathing steady and calm now that she could see. When they were all out of the room Angel looked around, there had to be something nearby she could use to free her hands, Maggie was doing the same thing but she was closer to a corner than Angel was, so instead she just sat there, trying to use one of her nails to get through the tape, something she could do even when the Saviors came back in the room.
Carol was hyperventilating and Maggie was trying to get their attention so instead Angel just worked on getting her gag out of her mouth as well as cutting through the tape, but she could feel her thumb nail beginning to crack and break. Once Carol calmed down after getting the rosary Angel knew she was playing her game of hiding in plain sight. Her gag had been the only one not removed so she still worked on it and when one of the women lit a cigarette Carol looked at her, "Please, even Angels quit smoking around Maggie."
The woman looked at Angel and she shrugged with a slight nod and the woman finally did put out the cigarette. Time went on and her thumbnail had ripped halfway off so she started working with the other one and when the man Carol had shot walked over to her and ended up hitting the woman in charge, Paula, Maggie kicked his leg knocking him over. When she stood up he grabbed Maggie by the hair and Angel lunged forward despite her ankles being tied and hit him in the hip with her head as Maggie head butted him. Carol managed to grab one of his legs as Angel wrapped her arms around his injured one and he let out a scream while kicking Carol before punching Angel in the mouth to get her off of his arm. It knocked the gag lose when he hit her a second time but Paula knocked him out before he could hit her a third time.
Angel spit the blood out of her mouth and just sat where she was left as Maggie was taken from the room to be questioned. After a while the woman named Paula walked up to her, "You're quiet, much quieter than the others. I wonder what it would take to make you talk."
Angel just smiled at her but didn't say anything. The woman continued, "You wanna tell us where you're from? Who you people are?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Angel Addison. United States Army." Angel started and the woman looked down at her, "Battalion two Bravo Infantry. Company Delta seven. Squad six six five. Reapers."
"What the hell does that mean?" The older woman asked and Angel just smiled.
"That's who I am." She answered.
Rick came through the walkie and the two spoke for a moment and Carol told them that they didn't have to do this, that they didn't fight. The older woman, Molly, said that their people had killed all of her people. Carol told them that we didn't want to kill them and explained how they had been attacked on the road and Molly sighed walking away to light a cigarette. She looked down at Angel and laughed, pulling out her pack motioning if she wanted one while Paula spoke. Angel nodded and the woman pulled one out, put it in her mouth and lit it. They looked back to the conversation, "You were just defending yourselves. But you see your people killed them on the road, right? Blew them to pieces. So why not stop?"
"Would you all have?" Angel asked, "Would you have stopped at that?"
Molly let out a laugh, "She has a damn point."
"They said they were working for Negan." Carol said.
"And what do you think you know about Negan?" Paula asked.
"He sounded like a maniac. We were scared we had to stop him." Carol told them.
"Sweetie, sweetie." Molly inhaled, "We are all Negan."
Angel put her head against the wall when she heard this, it was like a damn cult.
They had listened to the woman's story and then she decided to make the trade. But they planned on leaving them in there, her thumbs were bloody but she was almost through. Once it was just her and Carol in the room she looked over, "Carol you good? I almost have my hands free."
"I'm…I'm okay. I'll work on it too." Carol stuttered a bit before beginning to sharpen the cross she had gotten. Angel managed to get a hole in the tape and brought her hands up to her mouth to pull on the tear with her teeth while Carol sliced through her own tape with the cross. Once their hands were free they undid their ankles. Carol looked at her, "Go find Maggie."
"Okay, be careful." Angel said heading out the opposite door from Carol. When she found Maggie she was trying to cut through the tape on her hands and Angel helped her get it the rest of the way off. Angel looked at her, "You okay?"
"Yeah…Yeah I'm fine." Maggie responded, "You?"
"Come on we have to get back to the other room. Carol's gunna meet us back there." Angel said and they made their way back. Carol and Maggie argued about killing them or just leaving and Angel looked at the women, "We finish it, we can't let them have the chance of following us back home."
They tied the man up and waited for someone to come back to the room and when she did Molly got bit and they killed her, Maggie bashing in her skull, before the left the room again.
After Carol had shot Paula in the arm Angel helped Carol up and began getting rid of the walkers in front of them so that they could leave and when she heard Maggie fighting with the other girl she moved around the corner in time to see the woman slash at Maggies stomach, cutting her shirt. Angel growled, "You fucking bitch!"
Angel grabbed her from behind and smashed her face into the wall multiple times, brain and blood running down her hands as the girls skull shattered. Angel turned to look at Maggie and Maggie nodded that she was okay and Angel went back around the corner in time to see Carol struggling with Paula before impaling her on a spike where a walker started eating her. A man came through on the radio and the three of them looked at each other. Angel spoke, her voice angry, "We finish this."
Carol nodded, and spoke into the walkie, "Meet us on the kill floor."
They put gasoline on the floor of the room and they waited in a side room. Carol told them she'd killed twenty people and that she couldn't stop thinking about it. Maggie told her they were almost done and Angel looked at Carol and had a slight laugh, "Trust me, you got nothing on me. I was higher than that before all of this."
They heard footsteps and Maggie moved the door to being almost closed and they listened as the men went inside. Carol lit a cigarette and inhaled and Angel held her hand out for it and Carol gave her a look of thanks. She took a drag before leaving the room and shutting the door on the men, throwing the cigarette in lighting the room up, burning the men alive. She locked the door and Maggie and Carol sat there listening to the men scream. Angel turned and looked at them, but her eyes not meeting theirs, "Come on. Let's go."
Once they made it to the exit and opened the door they saw their group their friends on the other side. Glenn rushed to Maggie and Angel walked past them and Daryl looked at Carol, "Hey you okay?"
"No." Was all Carol responded.
Angel walked out into the rain and felt the water on her skin. After she heard a gunshot from inside everyone came outside and Daryl walked up to her, "Ang, you alright?"
She looked down at her hands covered in blood that was being washed away by the rain, "Yeah…I'm still me."