The Alexandrians and co. stay rooted through the night. They had rounds of people go on watch, but the darkened Sanctuary doesn't stir much. After midnight but well before dawn, they heard some shouting and some gunfire. The walkers all got riled up. Started beating against the doors and smashing themselves against the walls to get to the sound. After a brief few hours of turmoil, it fell silent again.

Lupe feared for the worst. Though this place was once her prison, there are so many people still at risk to Negan's violent rages. The short period of gunfire and shouting didn't do much to quell those nerves. Without all of the careful back up that Negan put in place, the Sanctuary is rightfully screwed. She knows Negan would rather die than give up his power, she just hopes others won't be as foolish.

"You think the people are okay?" Lupe asks, her voice quivering. She huddles next to Daryl, in the hours not long before dawn. They just got off watch, but there's no real point in going back to sleep. She is too wound up and simultaneously exhausted to even try. She can't stop thinking about the gun shots. It was near automatic fire, but she can't discern if it was back and forth, or directed one way.

Daryl shrugs. "Don't know. Negan's officially lost his control. We took it. I know he's a ego obsessed asshole, but I didn't think he'd be evil enough to gun all his people down." Lupe flinches at his words. "M'sorry. I hope that ain't the case, but we can't know until we get in there. Hopefully Negan will come back out again today and Rick can negotiate."

"Should we?" Lupe bites out. "Should we bother negotiating? Or the next time he pops his fuck-pile head out, should I just plant a bullet in it?"

Daryl grins at her despite the honest and justified anger. He doesn't want to condescend, but he thinks she's like a valkyrie, gorgeous all hopped up on rage. "Hell, it's not like I'll try and stop ya." He peeks out past the barrier at the expanse of silent, shambling corpses all swaying in the burgeoning grey of pre-dawn. "Fact is, Rick wants to help people. I know you want to help people. So we gotta try to help them before we fight. We can't keep thinking killin's our only option. Maybe we can finally slow it all down since the world fell apart."

Lupe nods, but it's petulant. It's especially annoying because she knows he's right. She knows this plan of theirs was designed to try and negate the loss of life Negan has already incurred. No foundation of bones was wanted here. "I'm exhausted."

Daryl wraps an arm around her and replies, "You should be. You've been powering through at 200% since we started this shit."

Lupe snorts. "It definitely felt like 300%. I don't know how much I have left to enjoy what comes after."

Daryl tugs her closer. His nose brushes her hair as he leans in to rumble in her ear, "Ain't no benchmarks for surviving. Just is. You put in the effort you can, the rest of us will be there to back you up. Y'aint survivin' alone no more." He presses a kiss to her cheekbone. "Y'aint gotta punish yourself for not saving the whole goddamn world."

Lupe nods and leans into Daryl's embrace. She presses her lips against his shoulder, covered by a hoodie beneath a faded and maybe too well worn bomber jacket. He chuckles softly at the kiss and holds her closer.

"You close yer eyes a second, alright? Just rest a bit. I got you, and so does everyone else," he grumbles into her scalp.

"I'm barely functional after a nap. If action happens I won't be able to help," she mumbles back.

"Then I'll toss ya in the big cab with Shiva and Barbacoa. Ain't no one gonna mess with you in there," he replies harshly, but there's still a humor to it.

Lupe shakes her head. "You just think of everything."

"Shit do I try." Daryl laughs, it's quiet, but it shakes his whole form. The low sound and movement isn't nearly lullaby territory. But for whatever reason, it quells Lupe's static mind and eases her into safety and calm. Daryl holds her tight and that likely has something to do with it too. "We'll make it right."

Lupe nods into him, snuggling closer. "I hope so."

"Hey…" Abraham's voice comes over the radio. "I think we got something."

Sasha's voice chimes in, "Lower window, might be second or third floor, near the eastern side."

There's the gentle sounds of many people scrambling as they adjust behind the rigs' defenses. The sea of dead still shambles on. In the second story window, where Lupe remembers a stairwell is, a thin pale arm sticks out. It holds a white scrap of fabric through the broken pane, waving it frantically.

"We wanna talk!" The voice is nasally, but immediately takes no shit. Lupe's heart races at the sound. "We've got people here who want to surrender peacefully!"

Rick gets up with Maggie, slowly rising with the dawn at their backs. He hands her the megaphone. Maggie speaks, "Say your piece."

Another calls out, this voice a little deeper and more stern, "We've got non combatants, elderly, sick, and children. How do we know you mean what you say? How do we know you won't harm us?" Lupe just about stops breathing at the tone, righteous and kind.

"If you come out unarmed —,"

"There's millions of those things!" the nasally voice goes off. "I ain't comin' out without a fuckin' tank!"

Maggie chuckles softly and responds, "We'll take care of them for you. You'll be safe. You can come out armed if you want, but we'll ask you to lay them down before you join us." Several rigs away, Lupe is trying not to cry.

There's a long beat of silence. Then the deeper voice speaks, "How can we trust you?"

"Because we're not Negan. We aren't here to save you. We're here asking you to join us. We're asking you to save yourselves," Maggie says and she sounds absolute. Her tone goes hard as her eyes narrow, "The Sanctuary will fall, but you don't have to take it on your knees."

The silence reins again.

"Clear out the dead and we'll come out!" the nasally voice replies. "All of us wanna get out of this shit hole!"

Maggie chuckles and looks back at the other leaders. Glenn smiles and laughs. Ezekiel looks on proudly and eagerly with a wide, beaming smile. Rick even grins, and nods to Maggie. Maggie lifts up the radio to her lips, "Call them back."

It takes some effort, but the crews get one person safely to the truck's cab. Once inside they all fiddle with the switches and tabs Eugene muttered about. The people on top press the green button and the gate lift lowers all the way to the ground to make a ramp. After the gears groan and settle, booming pop music fills the space and lights start flashing from inside the trailers.

All undead heads turn and stare. The exodus reverses. All of the walkers start piling into the backs of the trucks via the ramps. They congregate by the speakers and lights that are wedged up in the corners of the container. Once they are all sufficiently occupied and the area is clear, the teams lowered the trailer doors. They turn off the music and lights and wait.

"How do we know you won't kill us?" A shaky voice asks. Lupe recognized that voice too, and her chest shakes with the effort not to call out.

Rick looks over to Lupe, but she shakes her head. They talked about her showing her face to Negan again, but she worried about the consequences with so many lives at risk. She keeps shaking her head. Rick nods to her, respecting her wishes, and replies, "We've taken in refugees before. People hiding from those who would hurt them. We don't harm the living unless they harm us first."

The wind whistles through the trees and they can hear tinkling on its tails. The chimes play a melodic tune of chaos, giving a voice to the air.

"O-okay…" the deep voice responds. "We're coming out. We have some people with weapons to fight off the dead, but we won't shoot unless necessary!"

"Most of the walkers are wrangled up. We've got a few sharp shooters here that'll watch your backs and keep the path clear." Rick signals to Sasha, Lupe, Daryl, and Abraham. They all take positions to be on watch for the stray dead. "Pass straight through the rigs, we'll be there to greet you."

The rest of the Alexandrians climb down and ready to take in a whole boat load of refugees. They clear the area of the dead and set up a perimeter at their back while the four leaders and a few others spread between the trucks. They've got their spotters in place when the main doors open and people start flooding out. There are less than a hundred, which is concerning, but the group is large and hovering somewhere above sixty heads. A few of them are grey, some of them are young, but most of them are just running for their lives. Tucked in tight next to each other, they sprint across the clearing towards the New World.

Glass breaks in the distance. Not a strange sound during the apocalypse. Lupe looks up at the wall of windows spanning the top fifteen floors of the Sanctuary. Her eyes are frantic as they search. Then she finds the long barrel of a rifle sticking out. More glass breaks.

"Scatter! They're gonna fire!" she screams.

Bullets explode through her warning and litter the ground surrounding the fleeing people of the Sanctuary. Lupe drops her gun and runs straight for Daryl. He's firing off hundreds of bullets per second and just trying to keep the Saviors from poking out their heads. Lupe swoops down next to him and sifts through their weapon's duffle.

"Lupe —!" Daryl starts, but then bites his tongue. She's got the right fucking idea.

Lupe marches over and plants herself on top of the semi truck. She rips down the bandana covering her face and shoulders the rocket launcher. Without hesitation, she aims and fires off the RPG. It zooms towards the center of the windows where the Savior's fire from. There's bullets whizzing and people screaming down in the yard when the face of the building bursts. The exploding tunnel of flame leaves the remaining structure charred.

Everyone freezes for a second and no one fires a shot. They all just stare at the flaming devastation in awe. The people in the yard scramble into movement soon enough. They manage to get behind the rigs before the Saviors start firing again with far fewer shooters.

Lupe scales down the rig like an uncoordinated squirrel. She lands on her ass, but she doesn't really care. As she gets to her feet and rounds the front end of her truck, she hears the deep voice again and knows exactly who it is. She always did.

"Some workers and Saviors approached Negan about surrendering. Negan and his crew shot us up. We tried to fight back. We got them cornered on the top floors and managed to block off the lower ones. That's when we reached out to —,"

Lupe freezes. The dark brown eyes that center on her are too quickly filled with tears. Her mouth hangs open as she stares back at Lupe, totally and completely breathless.

"H-h-hi Arat…" Lupe says weakly. Her own eyes flood with tears so fast she doesn't see Arat charge at her. Several Alexandrians, including Daryl, jump in to try and stop her. But no one can keep her from ramming into Lupe and wrapping her in a blisteringly tight hug as she starts to sob. Arat pulls back to look at Lupe, eyes, mouth, even nostrils flared wide. She grabs Lupe's head and immediately pulls her in for a kiss.

"I'll knock yer ass back into the ice ages if you don't git'yer filthy Savior hands off my woman!" Daryl shouts and has to be held back by Rick and Abraham. Everyone else watches with rapt attention, in shock.

Arat pulls back slowly from the tame kiss. Her entire head quivers as she holds back tears and admits, "I always promised myself I'd do it if I ever saw you again."

Lupe's face splits into a smile as tears spill over. "I'm so sorry Arat…" She shakes her head and her hands gently place themselves over the warmth of Arat's touch on her cheeks. "I had to. You know I had to."

Arat's hands are gentle in redirecting Lupe's face. She doesn't force eye contact, but she leans in and presses her forehead against hers. "I know. I know you had to survive and you couldn't, not with him." She shakes her head against Lupe's and sighs. "There's only one thing I can't forgive you for…" She opens her eyes and glares at Lupe from two inches away. "A gringo? Really sweetie?"

Lupe sobs and snorts. "He's really sweet once you get to know him."

Arat smiles wide through her tears and pulls her in for another hug. "I think there's some people who need to know you're alive. Hopefully, Frankie doesn't kill you."

"I'm more worried about Tanya. She'll use the rocket launcher on me." Lupe snorts. They turn around to the gathering group of mixed Alexandrian's and refugees. "Hey, everyone. Uh, this is Arat. She's a very good friend." Her teary eyes widen, and she turns to Arat. "Oh jeez, my name is Lupe by the way. I lied my face off to Negan about my real name."

Arat snorts, her tone acrid, but playful, "Figures."

"Uh, hey!" Lupe smiles as she faces the group again and her vision clears. She sees Frankie, Tanya and Henry, Amber, Lisa, Dolores, Marigold, Huang, Lozano and his wife Hortencia, and even Joey. There's a smattering of a few Saviors, most of the ones with families in tow that just wanted to protect them. They're most of the decent ones. The rest are workers that she never got close to, but was starting to put faces and names back together. "So, I don't know if you all remember me…"

"Course we fuckin remember you!" Tanya growls at her and then rushes forward to hug her too. "You scared the shit out of us!" The rest of the wives rush in and the elderly ones shuffle after. Lupe is stuck in a revolving door of tears and hugs, but she doesn't quite mind.

Once they're all done blubbering together, Lupe steps back and tries to address the group. "You all probably remember me as Dita. The one who killed a bunch of saviors, got punished a lot, and had to become another one of Negan's victims to save her sister's life. The Dita that escaped…" she's rather monotone, clinging to neutrality to stop the rush of chaos inside her. "Well, that is me, but my name is Guadalupe, and I go by Lupe. I did all that stuff at the Sanctuary to survive. Stuff I wouldn't do on a normal day of my life, but I had to do it. A lot like you all did." She is tense and trying not to shake with regret and grief.

"I was really saved after I escaped. By all these people you see around you. And there's more. There's so many more people out there, really good people, who want to make this life more than just our basest survival. They want to make a future and I do too." Lupe smiles warmly at the fearful faces. "We want you to join us because people are important. Not as resources. Not as bargaining chips. But because you are inherently you. We want to build communities, not an empire. We want to form families and create something better than this. I stayed with these people because I believed we could be more than what we lived through at the Sanctuary. We are more than what Negan forced us to be. We can be better, but we have to do it together."

The heads around her nod, some stern and some enthusiastically agreeing.

Rick steps in. "We'll start planning for trips back to Alexandria. You can group up however you like. The leaders will speak to everyone once we all get organized."

Lupe nods to him. "If we can get back out to the highway we can probably scavenge some cars and siphon off gas from some of the rigs to make it back home."

"We could just take the ones in the garage," Joey speaks up. "They keys are all in there too."

"You'd have to pass through the yard again," Arat says. "And whoever is left perched up there isn't going down without a fight."

"I think we should end this," Daryl interjects. He looks to Lupe. "Yer friend Arat said they trapped'em in the upper levels. We could infiltrate and take'em down."

Arat shrugs with an appreciative nod. "It's possible. They are cornered and likely running out of ammo. The top floors don't have gun caches. Negan never wanted weapons within reach of the wives." Everyone grimaces at that.

Lupe turns to stare back out at the smoldering Sanctuary. Negan's top three floors were left undamaged by the blast. She turns back to Rick, "We still have some smoke bombs?"

Rick squints in thought. "I'll have to ask Carl, but I think so."

Lupe looks back at the Sanctuary and grins. "I have an idea."