Hey Guys! I hope you have been enjoying the new chapters getting posted recently, as they've been a lot of fun to write. I do want to apologize for this, but as per Fanfiction's rules and guidelines, I have had to edit this chapter a bit from its original form. It is in attempt to keep this account and this story from ending up on any unwanted communities or getting taken down. I do not have any control over this. Because of this, future chapters will also have to be edited for safety reasons.

I am posting the full original versions on AO3, if you wish to go over there and read them. They are slowly getting posted over there.

I don't have any shout-outs to give for this chapter, so I am sorry to you guys about that.

Let's get onto the story!

Glenn POV

"We need to figure out a plan" I told Daryl and Maggie that night, after Joe and his gang went to sleep. "Where do we go after this? What do we do?"

"I don't know yet. I'm trying to think of a way for us to leave without them trying to kill us, but even then we have nowhere to go. Plus the lack of weapons, other than knives and my crossbow, doesn't really help us either." Daryl says.

Maggie laughs at us quietly, "We're not thinking of this correctly. These people are ruthless killers; we need to think the same way they do. It's the only way we're gonna get out of this without paying for it with our lives."

"And we do that how, exactly?" I ask my wife.

"If we have to bolt from them for whatever reason, then we need to do so at night. Either that, or find a way to make them take each other out before they take us out"

"Manipulate the manipulators" Daryl says and Maggie nods.

"Exactly"

We follow the group until Joe says that we're stopping to eat, to rest and recollect ourselves. One of his men makes a fire while another one digs around for food in a bag that he carried around. We remained apart from them, keeping guard around the group. Were we hungry? Yes, ravenous. However, we didn't trust any of their food considering how easily they could kill us with it. We stayed standing around the group and whenever a walker would appear, whoever was closest would take it out with a knife to avoid the noise of a gunshot.

The group sat around talking after they ate, telling of where we would go next. Maggie and Daryl took up positions a little further ahead of me to guard, only needing one of us to stay near the group. I kept enough distance so I could hear them talk, but not close enough for them to know that I could hear. I circled the group, keeping an ear on their conversation spoken in whispers and an eye for anything popping up around us.

"We need to find them and take them out before they can find us" one of the other guys, Ryan, said.

Joe nodded, "If the girl is as dangerous as they say then she's the first one we need to take out. She could be the one who killed our people for all we know, the other one her accomplice. She kills our people and then her partner so no one can rat her out? Sounds like it would work."

"So we take out the girl and the group? Or focus on the girl?" Ryan responded.

"If the girl is that dangerous then the rest of their group could be just as dangerous. We need to take them all out" Joe's second hand man, Tony, butted in. "I say we kill the group and take the girl. If we can keep her around long enough then maybe we can turn her and make her one of us."

"I get what you're getting at" Joe said, "but we can't risk her. We take the girl and try to turn her, then she could slit our throats in the middle of the night. We need to take the girl out first so we eliminate the biggest threat. Then we are able to take out the rest of them, in order to make it quicker and easier."

"Do you think we can turn these three to join us? Help us take them out?" Ryan asked.

"How would we do that? Even if we could, how and why would they help us" Tony interrupted.

"If we can go and kill some things, make them think their group is dead then they could stay with us. As per the girl, we could have them lure her out. If she trusts them and wants to protect them, then she'll come out to help them" Ryan replies.

"No. You know how quiet they've been since they joined us, most likely murmuring about their group and how to find them. They won't stay with us if their group is alive, but even if they're dead, they won't turn on them. We need to end them all. Soon." Joe states.

He stands after a minute and raises his voice, "Let's go!" he yells to Daryl and Maggie. They heard him and came back over, all of us helping to pack up the lunch stuff. We start walking and I stay kind of close, listening for anything else, but nothing important comes up. One man brings up his dead wife and another one brings up how he hasn't gotten laid since the world fell down around us.

After a couple hours I pull the other two back, "They're planning to kill everyone" I murmur after we're far away enough. I waited in order to remove any suspicion from them that I could've heard their conversation.

"What do you mean?" Maggie asks.

"They were discussing what to do with us and how to make us remain in this group. They were talking about finding ways to make us turn on Rick and the rest of the group. When that fell through, they mentioned killing everyone."

"They really think they could take everyone down? Even Chloe?" Daryl replies angrily curious.

"They mentioned kidnapping her and finding a way to make her become one of them. Then they mentioned just killing her in one way or another. Finally, they brought up using us to lure her out in order to kill her. They want everyone in our group dead so they can have a way to make us remain here with them." I say.

"So what do we do now?" Maggie mentions, "Just wait around until they find our group and then take our shot?"

"No. They have a feeling we've been discussing our group and they aren't wrong, but they don't know that. No. We wait until nightfall and we make our move."

"Our move? Do you mean what I think you mean?" says Daryl.

"We need to take them out before they take us and our group out. I don't like that this is the only way for us all to make it out, but it's the only way to ensure that our people live" I finish. Stepping away from them I start up a random conversation with Joe, attempting to waste time and raise our position with them until nightfall comes.

When night does come, the group stays up around the fire while we take watch again. They has attempted to convince us to join, but we didn't. Claimed that some people needed to be alert enough to take out anyone or anything that comes for us, so we took that spot. We heard them howling like hyenas and saw them getting drunker than they ever had. They weren't even trying to be quiet: like a siren to any and all walkers in the area.

I walk over to Maggie and Daryl comes over quickly, looking like we're switching positions, "If anything, we can wait until the walkers come and just leave these idiots to them."

"If they don't stop howling and drinking soon, they I say we do it" Daryl says walking by us.

The group knocks out an hour and a half later. Surprisingly, no walkers came to try and kill us. We all laid down at the same time the others did, in order to lower any suspicion they could have had about us. Laying there, doing nothing for a couple hours, to ensure they were all asleep, was one of the most boring things I've ever done.

They were asleep.

It was time to move.

Slowly sitting up, I took a long look around at the others to be completely sure. I picked up my knife and angled the moonlight off of it, pointing it at Maggie and then Daryl, our sign that we were clear to go. We gave Daryl the 'go' at Joe, considering how much Daryl had been glaring at the man since we first joined them.

Standing up, I made my way to Ryan while the others went to their first moves. I quietly knelt down beside him as he turned to lie on his back, moaning as he did so. I quickly looked at the others and saw them taking out their first targets. Turning back to mine, I push the knife in and drag it across his throat. I quickly pushed the knife into his skull, to make sure that he doesn't turn into a walker.

We moved to the other three; the last three remaining of this group. We could leave them alive, but they would only have more reason to kill us and our group. I moved to my second target as the other two did too. I took him out quickly, making it so the knife pierced his brain and killed him, but without the mess of blood to around us.

We all went over our kills, taking all weapons and clothing that we could carry. We took the bag full of canned and expired food, but left all the crap they gathered during their time on the road.

"You two okay?" Daryl asks us.

"I'm fine." I say and look to Maggie.

"The only reason I'm okay with this is because it was either them or us and our group. I'm not happy that it came down to this, but I'm happy that we protected our people." She says. I pull her into a hug and rub her back to soothe her.

Double checking that we have everything, we start walking away from the scene. Maggie and I pull out knives while Daryl prepares his crossbow, being prepared for anything to come for us.

"What's the plan?" Daryl asks.

"We walk. We look for our people and we look for any form of shelter we can find. We survive. It's what we do" I say.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please leave a review and let me know what you thought. I love to read and respond to your reviews!

Question for you guys: Who do you think will be the next to die in this story? I will not give hints. I want to see if anyone can guess it.

With that, I will see all of you in the next chapter!