XIX: But A Whimper

~Carol~

Ezekiel is all smiles as he greets Fairgoers, making his way through the crowd as he approaches. Kelly came to me after Clary failed to meet her this morning, not wanting to wait any longer to go searching for her sister. We gathered a few others, mostly her group, and I volunteered to go along as well.

Ezekiel reaches me, and I tell him, "You sounded great up there."

"I should be going with you," he argues, trying once more. "It's my duty to go with you. I'm his father."

"Yeah, you're also the King," I reply. "You have a duty to be here. It's bad enough I'm leaving. If you go, too, everyone's gonna want to know why. We put months of work into this Fair. The Kingdom needs you here."

"Are we going or what?" Kelly questions, bouncing on her feet. "My sister's out there somewhere. Daryl's out there somewhere, your son is out there somewhere."

"No, they're not," Magna says with a smile. We all turn as the gate opens, Dog running ahead of the wagon pulling in. Kelly runs to greet her sister, the rest of their group following behind her.

"Holy shit," Ezekiel breathes as we see who's steering the wagon. "She came."

"I don't believe it," I add, watching as Michonne climbs out once the wagon has stopped. Henry climbs out from the other side, and Ezekiel and I rush to meet him. I pull him into a tight hug, fighting tears. I hold him for a moment, relieved that he's safe, before pulling back to look him over. "You can't ever run away like that again. Not ever again."

"Okay, I won't," Henry swears. "I promise."

Ezekiel pulls both of us into a hug, and I press a kiss to Henry's head before pulling away. I turn to Daryl, scolding, "And you… You had me worried sick."

The corner of his mouth quirks up in a grin before he extends an arm. I wrap him in a hug, Daryl holding me tight and wiping my tears off my cheeks when we break apart. He questions, "Where's my girl?"

"I take it you and Clary have made up, then?" I question. "Dixons back together again?"

"For the most part. I made a comment about Alden, and she got pissed, then we made up, and I promised not to leave her again, then your kid ran away…"

"Oh sure. Blame my kid."

Daryl chuckles. "I promised her I wouldn't leave again, and I left. I need to make it up to her."

"She's somewhere. You can make it up."

Daryl dips his head in a nod, and I overhear Ezekiel greeting Michonne behind us, Michonne telling him, "I was in the neighborhood, so…"

Ezekiel laughs, shaking her hand as I rejoin him. I look down at the young girl by her side, and I can't believe how big she's gotten since I last saw her years ago. I look to Michonne to make sure I'm right, asking, "Judith?"

Michonne nods, and I turn to Judith. "Do you remember us? It's been so long."

"I've been drawing pictures of you since I was little. You're Carol, and you're the King. Your hair got really long."

I can't help but laugh. "It did."

"I assume Clary's here," Michonne says. "Do you know where she is?"

"I'm sure she's around somewhere," I reply, surprised by Michonne's sudden topic change and the coolness in her voice. "Why?"

"No reason," Michonne says. "Just needed to ask her something about Negan is all."

"The plan was to bring Henry," Tara says from behind me. "Just Henry."

I glance towards the girl standing a few feet behind my son, realizing that this is Lydia.

"Gather up all the leaders," Michonne decides. "We have a lot to talk about."

~Tara~

Michonne sighs from where she stands at stage right, her back to the wings. "I know I haven't always seen eye to eye with everyone in this room," she states. "But I never stopped caring about any of you." Michonne glances down to where Judith sits in the audience with Henry and Lydia. "I was just trying to protect my family and do right by my people. Alexandria's future is here. Together, with you. And we lost sight of that for a while. But… I'm here now. We're here now."

"I've taken an informal vote with the other Council members at the Fair, and we all agree," Gabriel says, having followed behind with a few other Alexandrians after Michonne decided to come. "Alexandria is willing to grant asylum to Lydia. She's one of us now. We hope the rest of you can join us in doing the same."

"Thank you," Lydia says, lacing her fingers through Henry's as he gives her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'll do whatever I can to earn my keep and pay you back."

"If her mother retaliates, it's gonna be against Hilltop, not Alexandria," I state. "I have to do right by my people, and everyone here knows that Clary would be agreeing with me right now. I thought we were on the same page."

"We were," Michonne says, a little tense now that I've mentioned Clary. "And… look, when she came to my gates, I asked her to run away. And when she didn't, I was angry."

"Then you know why I'm not okay with this."

"I do. I also know why Rick didn't trust me when I showed up at the gates of the prison. And how people didn't trust you after seeing you on the other side of the Governor's firing line."

"I was gonna kill you on sight when you washed up on our shore," Rachel chimes in.

"Okay, fair," I acknowledge, nodding.

"Lydia didn't choose where she came from," Michonne continues, "but she chose where she wanted to be. Just like everybody in this room."

"I left some of my best fighters at Hilltop, but if Daryl's right about these skin job numbers, it's not enough people."

"We should take a group to Hilltop to protect 'em," Daryl decides. "Just in case."

"It's a good idea," Carol agrees. "I'll take some from the Kingdom."

"Oceanside can spare some fighters," Rachel offers.

Gabriel adds, "Alexandria can, too."

"So we head out in the morning?"

"No," Carol argues. "They could take advantage if we wait. We should go today."

"Agreed," Gabriel says with a nod. "But sending more people is only a short-term solution."

"In order to face this threat, the four communities need to present a united front," Michonne declares. "Which is why I'm proposing a mutual protection pact. An attack against one community is an attack against all of us."

"Together, we can make these people think twice before moving against Hilltop."

Ezekiel and Carol share a look before Ezekiel announces, "The leadership of the Kingdom is very amenable to this idea."

Rachel agrees with a nod, and I smile, asking, "Okay, so how do we seal it? Spit and shake? Blood oath?"

"I have just the thing."

Ezekiel disappears into the wings, returning a moment later with a large paper that I can't help but chuckle at when he shows me what it is. It's the charter that I took when I left Alexandria years before, not trusting it in the hands of Michonne. He lays it out on the table on center stage, the leaders gathering around it.

Michonne takes one look at it before questioning, "How did you get this?"

"Well, he's magic, obviously," I say, then turn to Michonne. "I may have taken a few things with me when I left. I did what I thought was right. I'm sorry for the way it went down."

"Me, too," Michonne agrees. "And thank you. You were right."

"You were, too."

"I knew this day would come," Ezekiel says. "Never doubted it for a moment." He signs it first in the spot for the Kingdom, his signature large but leaving enough room for his queen. "John Hancock, eat your heart out."

He passes it to Carol next, who signs it below him. Carol passes the marker on to Rachel, signing for Oceanside. Rachel turns the charter to me, handing over the marker. I pause as I lean down to sign the charter, looking up at the other leaders around me. "You know," I say, "it should be Clary signing this with me."

"Kelly couldn't find her this morning," Carol recalls. "But Slick's still in the stables, so she's gotta be here. It is a bit odd, though, not having seen her yet."

"Well, come to think of it, I haven't seen Alden all day, either."

"No shit, they finally got together?" Rachel questions.

"They're not very good at hiding that Clary's spent the night in Alden's room every night since Aaron left."

"Even if she's… with Alden," Daryl says, albeit a little tense, "it doesn't matter. Clary doesn't want to lead Hilltop. That's your job. It's for you to sign."

I sigh softly before signing my name on the charter. I purposely leave enough room so that Clary can sign it later once we find her. I give the marker to Michonne last, who looks at it for a moment before shaking her head. She passes the marker to Gabriel, deciding, "It should be the Head of the Council."

Gabriel takes the marker, signing his name and sealing the deal.

~Alden~

Despite Luke losing our bet, he and Enid managed to pressure me into singing with him at the Fair tonight. Then, Enid left me alone with him, allowing Luke to badger me with questions about what I wanted to sing.

I got a momentary reprieve when Kev, the bassist for the Kingdom-based band, approached me, asking if I knew where Clary was because he wanted to talk about a possible reunion. Luke turns to me as Kev sets off in another direction, saying, "You didn't tell me Clary was in a band."

"R.O.C.K. kind of fizzled out about a year ago," I tell him. "She wasn't even originally a part of the band. Their frontman got sick and she took over for a show, then stuck with it. Clary and Aaron used to make more trips to the Kingdom, but they couldn't make it as often and R.O.C.K. fell apart. I'd love it if they did a reunion show—they were awesome. You should've heard the first time they did 'Welcome the Jungle.'"

"Hey, we could open for them," Luke suggests. "Maybe do some classic rock, too."

I let out a chuckle, but it's short and forced. I see Kev in the distance, regrouping with the other two members, Ringo and Olivia. He gestures in my direction, and I realize that they've all been searching for Clary. They can't find her, and that's starting to worry me.

I keep walking with Luke nonetheless, but a moment later, I spot Kelly with her sister up ahead. I don't know why, but the sight of Kelly within the Kingdom while I haven't seen Clary since she left last night is making me uneasy. I leave Luke behind, approaching the sisters. "Kelly, please don't take this the wrong way, but why the hell are you here?"

"Connie came back," Kelly answers as if it explains everything.

"I see that, but you're here and I haven't seen Clary since last night."

"I wish I could help you, but I can't. She stood me up this morning when we were supposed to go searching."

And finally, I can pinpoint the cause of my uneasiness. The way Clary stopped to look back at me one last time, telling me she loved me. It all makes sense now. Clary didn't leave last night to go see Kelly before they went searching. Clary left last night.

"Oh, God, no," I say, the lump in my throat it hard to speak. "No."

Kelly looks like she already knows what's going on, but nonetheless she asks, "What is it?"

"She lied to me last night. She said she was going to see you before you two left this morning."

"She never came to see me."

"I know. Clary took off on her own last night to look for Daryl, and she doesn't think she's gonna make it back."

Connie, who had been watching Kelly sign everything we said, jumps into the conversation. She taps Kelly's arm to get her attention, then signs, pausing here and there to allow Kelly to translate. "Connie says Daryl was getting ready to go to Hilltop," Kelly tells me. "They think there's going to be a fight there and they want to be ready. He was by the gate. She doesn't know if he's still there or not."

"Thank you," I tell Connie before taking off for the gate. When I get there, it's just Ezekiel and Henry. I slow to a stop next to them, questioning, "Where are they? Where's Daryl?"

"You just missed 'em," Henry answers.

"They left a few minutes ago," Ezekiel adds.

"He doesn't know," I say.

"Know what?"

"She's out there. Clary's out there, Ezekiel, on her own. I don't know if she's looking for Daryl or hunting the skins or both, but she's alone. And Daryl doesn't know."

~Daryl~

"We were clearing the roads," Ozzy tells us, leading us to the overturned wagon. "Spotted the tracks leading here."

Magna picks up a wooden coin, declaring, "It's from Hilltop."

"Dead didn't do this. People did."

"The skins?" Michonne questions. "You know about them?"

Ozzy nods. "We got the download. Strange times, strange ways to cope. Anyway, that'd be my guess. If anyone else was out here, my patrols would've seen them. Something else. They put up a fight."

"Yeah, there was a struggle," I chime in, pointing to the scuffed dirt. "Someone put up one hell of a fight. Look at all this, all around here. Got some kind of hit in—there's blood." I look around, seeing more of the trails leading deeper into the woods. "Drug 'em out this way."

"Let's go," Kal decides.

"We can't all just go rushing in there."

"They could still be alive," Dianne argues.

Marco says, "But if those skin freaks followed them from Hilltop, the whole community is in danger right now. We'll have to split up."

"Michonne and I can go with Daryl," Carol volunteers. "We'll track 'em. The rest of you, go to Hilltop."

"We'll keep up our patrols around the Kingdom," Ozzy promises. "Just in case. Course, this means you owe us a couple of movies when this is done."

Carol chuckles. "I'm sure I can work that out."

"C'mon," I urge, and we break off. Yumiko joins the three of us a moment later, stealing one last glance back at Magna as the two split up. We keep going into the night, following the trail left behind as the skins dragged our people away. I kneel next to a stick splattered with blood, glancing up at Carol.

"I don't know if there's a happy ending here," she says as I get up, leading us on.

"The trail," I say, pausing. "It goes off in three different ways. Don't make sense." I glance around as twigs snap, knowing now that it's a trap. They're trying to break us apart, waiting in the woods for us. "Come on. Head back. Let's go."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Yumiko rushes, gesturing for me to stop as Carol shines her flashlight on the approaching walkers. "They're from Hilltop."

Yumiko and I each fire, a bolt and arrow sinking into the two walkers' heads. Michonne turns as more growling comes from the other side, warning, "Watch their hands. They could be skins."

We take out the ones surrounding us, and I order, "Back to the road. Come on!"

We turn to go back the way we came, but more walkers are approaching. They're surrounding us, and we all draw our weapons, no choice but to fight. We circle up, backs to each other, walker bodies piling at our feet. The last one falls, and that's when the whispering begins.

"Daryl," Yumiko whispers.

"I see 'em," I reply, drawing my second knife.

Our circle closes in, our backs pressing together, as the skins surround us. They all draw their knives, one aiming a gun at us. From within the shadows, I hear that son of a bitch's voice once more.

"Drop them," Beta orders, his voice a low growl. "I won't ask twice."

We throw our weapons to the ground, knowing that there's no fighting our way out now. "That knife," Yumiko murmurs, staring at a blade on Beta's belt. "I know it."

Beta stops in front of me, growling, "You just had to give me the girl. No one else had to die. Now that deal… is done."

They tied our hands behind our backs, too many skins around for us to try to make a move to escape. I don't know how much time passes before I see that bald-headed bitch approach, a knife in hand. Alpha slows in front of me, and I growl, "You ain't gettin' her back."

"You think this is about my daughter?" Alpha questions, then shakes her head. "I ran into some trouble on the road. It was unavoidable." So it was her people—the skins were the ones that attacked the wagon. "Do you like my new camp? My people like to keep moving, keep roaming."

"We've granted Lydia asylum," Michonne speaks up. "Any attempt to take her by force will result in retaliation."

"What's your name?" Alpha questions.

"Michonne."

Alpha glances towards me. "Does she speak for you?"

"We speak for each other," I answer.

Alpha nods. "My daughter isn't a concern anymore. She was weak. She never lived up to expectations."

"Was?" I question. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"To be clear…" Alpha unholsters her sawed-off, double-barrel shotgun, pointing it at me. "Your group is in no position to threaten me. That is a habit that needs to be broken. Come with me. Just you."

Great. This shit again. At least no one has been beaten to death in front of me yet.

The sun is up by the time I decide to speak, Alpha untying my hands once she's made it clear that she has the shotgun. I question, "Where are you taking me?"

Alpha simply gestures towards the edge of the cliff, following me up onto the rocks overlooking the ravine as the growls hit me. Below are hundreds, if not thousands, of walkers.

"My people are among them," Alpha tells me. "Steering them. My people make up the horde after their deaths, too. Without their death, their pain, without their sacrifice, we would have nothing. My horde would be nothing. The only reason you and your friends are alive is because I let you live."

"What do you want?" I demand.

"Nothing. You don't got a single thing to offer me. I've seen how you live. I've walked your streets. It's a joke. Your communities are a shrine to a long-dead world. My people, the Whisperers—we live as nature intended."

"That's just all the bullshit you feed your sheep so they'll follow you."

"They follow me 'cause I am the Alpha. And if the Alpha doesn't assert herself, then there's chaos. So that is what I've done."

"What'd you do?"

"Your friends back at the camp are fine. Tell them the next time they cross into my land, my horde will cross into theirs. This will be the way your world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. A whisper. The land between the broken interstates and the river to the south is mine. I've marked the border to the north. You'll see it as you leave."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Alpha repeats, "You'll see it as you leave. Go. your friends will be waiting for you in a field due north."

I start to turn to leave, but I have to know now. I have to hear it from her. I turn back to Alpha, asking, "Did you kill Lydia?"

Alpha pauses for a moment before she says, "I don't think you can protect my daughter. But I hope I'm wrong."

I tell her, "You are."

Carol runs to greet me first when I arrive in the field, my crossbow in her hand and my knives on her belt. We embrace, Carol whispering, "I thought she was going to kill you."

"I'm alright," I promise her. We break apart, Carol passing me my weapons before we join Michonne and Yumiko, continuing back to our land. We have to cross through another set of woods, still not at the border that Alpha mentioned. We start up an incline, nearing another clearing, when we can hear muffled shouting.

We all pause, hands on our weapons, looking around. Michonne spots him first, crying, "Siddiq!"

We follow her as she runs for Siddiq, who is gagged and bound to a tree. He's been beaten, his face splattered with blood. She removes his gag, Siddiq whimpering as he frantically scans the surrounding area while Michonne cuts the ties around his wrists. She questions, "What happened?"

Siddiq is only able to point to his right, to the north, as Michonne gets him to his feet. He tries, "I… I…"

He starts to fall, and Michonne catches him. She loops one arm around his waist, putting one of his around her shoulders. I take the lead, Michonne supporting Siddiq as we trek up the hill. His voice shakes every time he tries to speak before falling silent. Ahead of us, a row of pikes line the crest of the hill. And at the top of each pike, a decapitated head rests.

So this is what Alpha meant when she said I'd know the border when I saw it.

As we near, we can better make out who the heads belong to. We can hear the growls, Alpha and her Whisperers killing these people and letting them reanimate, a fate worse than death. I don't recognize the first two, but I do recognize the third head.

DJ, a former Savior who turned his life around within Alexandria's walls.

A redhead follows him. She's one of Negan's former wives, Frankie. She adopted a kid that was left orphaned from the war.

An old woman, her hair wrapped in a headscarf. Her husband had once attacked Maggie, but it's Tammy Rose's head on the pike.

The next two are just children, two of the Hilltop's teenagers. Rodney and Addy.

"Oh God," I whisper, recognizing Enid's head atop the eighth pike. "No."

Michonne and Siddiq both let out sobs. Yumiko falls to her knees, hands covering her mouth. Tears come to my eyes as I come to Tara's head atop a pike. Tara, one of my closest friends, decapitated by the latest enemy.

When I see who's on the next pike, I know I can't let Carol see him, but I fear she already has. "No! No!" I shout, running to Carol. I block her view, hands on her shoulders. "Just look at me. Look at me."

But Carol looks around me nonetheless. She screams, a scream of raw emotion and pain. I turn over my shoulder to look at Henry's head again, but I realize that he's not the last one. He's not the one Carol's screaming for.

"I didn't mean it," I hear Michonne sob. "I didn't mean it!"

"No!" I wail, falling to my knees. I can't block Carol's view anymore, not when no one can stop me from seeing Clary's decapitated head on the end of the row, right next to Henry's. Carol follows me down, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face in my shoulder. I wrap my arm around Carol, holding her as we both wail over the family that the Whisperers took from us.

"Daryl," Carol whispers after a long while. "We can't leave them there, like that."

"I'll do it," I volunteer myself. "I'll do it. Stay here."

I get myself to my feet, Yumiko meeting me as I approach the heads of the two men that I don't know. "They saved us," Yumiko tells me. "Ozzy and his group, the Highwaymen. They helped us get to the Kingdom."

Together, we put down the heads of the Highwaymen. We move on down the line, but once we reach Enid, I stop her. "It has to be me," I tell her. "From here to the end, it needs to be me."

"Of course," Yumiko replies, resting her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Daryl."

I give her a nod of thanks, stepping up to Enid's growling head. I can't let myself break yet, not when there's still more to do. I close my eyes, plunging my knife into Enid's head. Yumiko stays close by, gently removing Enid's head from the pike as I move on to Tara's.

"I'm sorry," I tell her, putting my knife into her head. And then it's on to Henry. I was supposed to keep watch over the kid—Carol had trusted me to keep him safe. I feel the weight of my failures as I put the kid down, taking his head off the pike myself.

Carol sobs, and I turn to find her standing behind me, arms extended for Henry's head. She takes it from me, cradling it in her arms.

And then, I'm face to face with my dead sister. Undead, I correct myself as her head growls at me. Sensing my proximity, she snaps at me. "I'm sorry," I sob, reaching towards her. "I'm so sorry, Cheyenne."

Her once grey eyes are clouded over, milky white and following my every movement. Her skin is cold as I brush my fingers along her cheek, stroking alongside a cut that wasn't there the last time I saw her. She fought back, but she lost.

I gently run my fingers through her hair, searching for a suitable spot to plunge my knife. I can't destroy what remains of her like I did when I put down Merle, having driven my knife into his head over and over. I hide the wound in her hair so we don't have to look at it, though we'll all know it's there.

I sob as Clary's growls cease, dead forever now. I take her head off of the pike, dropping my knife as I hold her head close to my chest. I fall to my knees, clutching the head of the one person I never wanted to outlive. I stroke her hair, tears streaming down my cheeks as I mourn my sister, not with a sob or a cry, but a whimper.

~Negan~

In all the years that Clary and Aaron would come to Alexandria as ambassadors from Hilltop, it was always Clary that would come and see me. I think I only saw Aaron the one time he came to visit after Clary was nearly killed saving my life. He came to thank me—once they knew that Clary would be okay—for my part in keeping her alive.

It's been nearly seven years since Aaron last came to see me.

Aaron doesn't say anything, just puts the key in the lock and turns it. He pulls the cell door open, holding it open for me to exit. I don't even move from where I sit in the corner by the bookshelf, instead asking, "The hell are you doing?"

"Come with me," he simply replies, not explaining any further.

I shrug, getting to my feet. I'll gladly take any chance to stretch my legs. As I pass him on my way out of the cell, I notice his eyes are red and raw, like he had been crying. I don't think this is just a walk around Alexandria, I think to myself. "Where are we going?"

"Daryl said you should be there."

"Daryl's back?" I question, following him through Alexandria. "Clary must be happy about that. She said it's been three years since she saw him. Say, where is my favorite tiger?"

Aaron doesn't respond, and I look around, realizing he's led me to Alexandria's cemetery. A group of people have gathered, but for some reason, I can't bring myself to make a quip about how this is one hell of a place to have a party.

They stand around an open grave, one that was dug next to a grave marked with a C. Carl's grave, I think. Who the hell are they burying next to Carl? Oh God, did something happen to Judith?

But Judith is there in the crowd, right next to a stone-faced Michonne.

Over the grave, a face I haven't seen in years stands. "Alden?" I question. "Clary told me you were back at Hilltop. What the hell are you doing here?"

Alden spares me a glance, his eyes also red from crying. "Alright, what the hell's going on?" I demand. "Daryl's here, Aaron's crying, Alden's crying. Who the fuck died?"

"Would you like to pay your respects?" a voice asks from behind me.

"Jesus Christ," I exhale, turning to find Gabriel behind me. "Wait. Pay my respects?"

Aaron lets out a sob, hugging Gracie as she wraps her arms around his waist, burying her face in his stomach. Something is wrong. Something's very wrong. Aaron doesn't go anywhere without both of his daughters. I scan the crowd for Clary, thinking, She has to be around here somewhere.

Instead, I find Daryl sitting on the ground next to the open grave. There's a small casket in front of him, like one that would house an infant.

I step forward, no one moving to stop me. When I look down, I gasp in horror at its contents.

I almost would prefer there to be an infant in the box.

"Oh my God," I breathe. "No. Oh, Clary, no. It wasn't supposed to be like this."

Daryl glances towards me as I fall to my knees. "She would've wanted you here. Aaron said you two had a bond." He shakes his head. "Oh, hell, Negan, she told me about why she went to the Sanctuary. She told me what you did for her. So you deserve to be here."

I let out a shaking breath, reaching forward and brushing Clary's hair back, just as I did when we were stuck in the blizzard. This time, my fingers are met with cold skin. "It was a group, a new enemy," Daryl tells me. "The skins."

"I know who they are," I hiss, my fingers curling into a fist. I spin, facing Michonne. "You did this. You killed her."

"It was the skins," Michonne argues. "Not me."

"You could've prevented it!" I exclaim. "I begged you to let me go to Hilltop, to save her. You let her die, Michonne." I kneel beside the box once more, glancing up at Daryl. "She wrote me a letter, said that she didn't think she'd make it out alive. I tried, Daryl. I tried to save her."

"I did, too," he whispers. "I've always tried to save her, and I never did."

"You did—she told me about the times you saved her," I assure him, but he's not listening to me anymore.

"I…" Daryl begins, then takes a breath. He looks down at his sister, speaking to her, stroking her hair. "I never told you, did I? That day, the one before we left to go hunting on that mountain with Will and Jess. I was going to tell you we were finally going to be okay. We were going to get out of that place. I was going to get you out of that place. You could be okay. I could be okay."