7:05 AM

"Say hello, everyone, to our unexpected guest!" Negan thrust his bat forward over the table in Gregory's direction. "Now Gregory, would you like tell the whole class why you've joined us here today?"

Gregory pushed aside the glass of water before him and sat forward. "The Hilltop is mine," he said. "I let a fox into my henhouse when I took in Shane Walsh. He took advantage of my generous nature. I see that now, and I will fix it."

Gavin looked around. The other lieutenants seemed to have a better idea of what was going on than he did.

"It's why I came to Gary," Gregory continued, "came to him at his outpost after his crew retreated from the Hilltop yesterday."

"Retreated?" Gavin asked.

Gary swallowed and looked uneasily at Negan before answering Gavin. "When my crew went to collect last night, Hilltop guards opened fire from the fence line. I lost Paula and Primo. And having only seven men, I thought it best to make a retreat, come back here to the Sanctuary, and get more men for a counterassault. They had sixmen with guns on that fence and five more men on the roof of the mansion with rifles. While we were licking our wounds back at the outpost, Gregory slipped out and made his way to us."

The Hilltop wasn't supposed to have any guns. When the Saviors established dominance, they took all the guns and ammunition on the first day, and then fifty percent of the produce from then on out. The only exception was Gavin's special deal with the Kingdom. He'd left them their guns and agreed on twenty percent of the produce in return for cooperation and keeping the populace settled through ignorance.

"The same thing happened at Hallowbrant," Simon said. "We were shot at from the roof of the recovery center when we came to collect. They had guns. At least a dozen. They killed Arat. And they killed Derek. I pulled us back before we could lose anymore, so we could regroup here."

"And the library," Regina said from beside him. "I lost my captain, too. Mara. And we lost Huck. And we pulled back before we could lose more."

"Alexandria, as well." Jed took the toothpick from his mouth and rolled it between his fingers. "They were shooting from the church bell tower and a platform on the fence. We lost Duke and Norris before we could pull back. We laid down a lot of fire, but I don't know if they lost any or not."

Negan turned his cool eyes on Gregory. "Where did they get the guns?"

Gregory shifted in his chair. "Like I said, the fox in my henhouse. Now, I handed over all the guns Walsh initially brought to the Hilltop when he first arrived. I wanted to cooperate with you. But then I was deposed. And I was not privy to the going ons on the leadership level after that." He took a handkerchief out of his blazer pocket, wiped his mouth, and cleared his throat. "They've kept me in the dark. It wasn't until last night I learned that, at some point, Walsh looted the NRA museum in Fairfax."

"The Saviorscleared that NRA range and the store back in September," Gavin said.

"Not the range," Gregory clarified, "the museum. The National Firearms Museum they have there. Many of the guns in those exhibits are still functional."

"Muskets?" Gavin asked.

Gregory laughed. "No. Not just muskets. That museum had hundreds of guns on exhibit, some from World War II and Vietnam and beyond. I don't know how many are still functional, but apparently enough to arm all the communities. And as for ammunition, I've learned that Walsh raided police armories and shooting ranges all the way up the east coast when he was moving this way. He didn't bring most of that into the Hilltop. He has a cache of extra ammunition hidden somewhere. Maybe at multiple locations. But he's the only one who knows where, except maybe Jesus. At some point – again, I don't know when - he must have armed the communities. He and Jesus have been out on a lot of supply runs lately, but they kept coming back suspiciously empty handed. I think he coordinated with all the communities to rebel against paying tribute last night, at the same time."

Negan smirked. "And you went to Gary to tell him all this out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Shane Walsh is an arrogant ass. He swaggers" Gregory walked his fingers through the air "around the Hilltop like he owns that place. I built that place! I made it what it was! I kept the peace, and now he wants to bring the wrath of the Saviors down on us with this foolish insurrection." Gregory shook his head. "No, sir. I know which side my bread is buttered on, and I trust I'll be well rewarded for the information I supply." He reached for the glass of water before himself.

"Rewarded?" Negan asked. "If you're lucky, I'll reward you by letting you leave this room with your head still attached to your neck." Negan raised his voice: "Why didn't you tell us this sooner?"

"I didn't know," a wide-eyed Gregory insisted. "I swear to you I didn't know all this until last night."

Negan lowered his voice to a hiss now. "You're not a useful puppet to me Gregory if you can't even control your own people."

"I can, I assure you. Once that fox Shane Walsh is out. And his righthand man – Jesus. Once those two are gone, I assure you, I will have that community back in line."

Simon tented the fingers of one hand on the table. "We start with the Hilltop, because Walsh is behind this. We go in with a show of force, kill whoever we need to kill in the gun battle to disarm them, execute Walsh and Jesus on the spot and reinstall Gregory. We do that, and everything returns to the status quo there. Then we take the whole force and together roll into Hallowbrant, teach them a lesson for rising up against me and killing my captain. We kill every man there. Leave only the women and children alive. They can plant and grow for us without their rebel-rousing men. And when we do that…when we wipe out all of Hallowbrant's men, the other communities will get the message, and we achieve equilibrium. That's – "

Negan smashed his bat down suddenly on the table. The lieutenants all flinched, while Gregory leaped partway out of his chair.

"People are a resource!" Negan roared. "Money on the table," he said with a lowered but still thick voice. "We don't wipe out all the men in a single community. People are the foundation of what we're building here. Who the hell do you think you're talking to, Simon? Are you confused about who's in charge?" He lifted his bat back to his shoulder and smiled. "Are we backsliding, Simon? Please tell me we're not backsliding."

"We're not backsliding," said Simon, trying to look calm. "This is a pronounced event, and a fragile moment."

"Yes it is," Negan agreed. "And in response to this pronounced event, at this fragile moment, we need to take the instigator alive. We don't roll into the Hilltop at all. We send dozens more scouts to watch the roads. We set up roadblocks where necessary. And while Shane and Jesus are out collaborating, while they're out running guns or looking for supplies, or digging up ammunition, we take them alive. Then we roll into Hallowbrant. We take their leader Anton alive. And we take Anton's family alive. His mother Natania. His daughter Cyndie."

"We said no kids," Gavin said. "We've always agreed, no kids."

"Cyndie's eighteen," Simon said.

"Anything above sixteen is an adult in this world," Negan told Gavin, "or damn well ought to be. At the same time, on the same day, we roll into Alexandria, and we take Deanna Monroe alive. And we take her family –her husband Reg, and her pissant sons Spencer and Aiden. Simultaneously, we take James alive from the Visckoll Public Library. His wife Emma. And we take Ezekiel alive. And his adopted son, Benjamin is it? You told me he's seventeen, didn't you, Gavin? Not a kid."

Gavin sat suddenly forward at the table. "Why Ezekiel? What's he got to do with this?"

"We take the leaders alive," continued Negan, ignoring his question, "and we take their most precious loved ones alive, and then we torture their beloveds until we get the information we need from the leadersabout where all the guns and all the ammunition are hidden. They tell us all their plans, and they kneel before me! And then we take all the guns and ammo. And only after we've found and taken all the guns and ammo, and only after they've begged for mercy on their knees, do we execute those leaders. We make them dead in a very public way. A very instructive way."

"Why Ezekiel?" Gavin asked again. "He's cooperated. He hasn't rebelled. He's not any part of this."

"We don't know that," Negan said.

"We do know that!" Gavin insisted. "I made my collection. It's here, in the marketplace!"

"This was a coordinated, simultaneous uprising," Negan said. "You collected earlier than all the others. Ezekiel may not have wanted to tip Walsh's hand by changing your agreement or by opening fire before the others. So, he handed over the produce."

"No," Gavin insisted. "Ezekiel has kept up his end of the bargain." He stabbed his finger down on the table. "I gave him my word."

"For all we know," Negan said, "Walsh gave him guns like he gave to the others."

"They already have guns!" Gavin reminded him. "And they haven't rebelled. Not once. They've cooperated this entire time!"

"I would thank you not to raise your voice to me!" Negan roared, and Gavin fell silent. "We take the king. We take Benjamin. And if after we torture his adopted son before his eyes the King doesn't talk and tell us what part he has in this uprising, then we kill Benjamin in front of him and tell him we'll do the same with his other adopted son – what's his name? Henry, did you say?"

"You said no kids," Gavin practically whispered. "That one's only eight or nine."

"We aren't going to kill Henry," Negan reassured him. "We're just going to make Ezekiel think we'll kill Henry if he doesn't tell us everything he knows."

"None of this is necessary," Gavin said. "Not in the Kingdom."

"Gavin, Gavin, Gavin…" Negan shook his head. "You never made an example there. If they aren't already wound up in this rebellion with the rest of the communities, they soon will be."

"We don't have to worry about the Kingdom," insisted Gavin, looking at the table as he said it, seeing his word to Ezekiel, his word, which was the only honor he had left in this world, the only honor he hadn't already sold to survive, unraveling before him.

Negan rested his bat on the table and leaned forward, his face close to Gavin's now. "Are you questioning my judgment here, Gavin? Is that what's happening?"

That bat was on the table, inches from Gavin's own outstretched hand. In an instant, Negan could lift it, might lift it, might bash it into his skull for suspecting him of treason. "No," he answered.

"I hope not. I hope that's not what's happening here, Gavin. We make examples." Negan stood straight again. "And when we make examples, the communities learn. They learn their lessons and they fall in line." He pointed his bat at Simon. "We don't slaughter indiscriminately. We don't exterminate the entire male half of our resources." He swung his bat to point it at Gavin. "And we don't foolishly show unlimited mercy to our subjects either. We don't roll over like a dog and show our belly. No!" He slammed the bat down on the table. "We torture the right people," he roared as he slammed his bat down again, "to get the right information!" Slam! "and then we execute the right people," Slam! "in the wrongest way possible way" Slam! "and we make them all watch!"

Everyone at the table was utterly still. Not a muscle, not a hair moved.

"A handful of people is all it will take and the communities will all fall in line," Negan told them. "We take the leaders, and we take their beloveds, and we torture them until we know what we need to know!" He turned his cool eyes on Gregory. "Who is Shane Walsh's beloved?"

"I'm not sure I gather…"

"Who is Walsh fucking over at the Hilltop?" Negan clarified.

"No one that I know of."

"There must be someone. A name, Gregory. Give me a name."

Greggory swallowed. "Well, he spoke of leaving a woman behind when he came north. A woman pregnant with his child. Her name was Laura, I think. Or Lori. Laurie, maybe. He's spoken of going back to Georgia for his child one day."

"Thank you, Gregory," Negan told him. "Thank you for some timely information for once." He looked at Gavin. "Georgia? Isn't that where you said that transmission was from?"

"Woodbury," Gavin muttered.

"Is that where Shane Walsh is from?" Negan asked Gregory. "Woodbury?"

"He said he was from King County, Georgia."

"But he probably lived in that camp in Woodbury," Negan speculated. "What do they call it when they aren't slipping up? In Rome. Either he lived there or in Egypt or Paris. And his woman is in one of those three camps. Simon, I want you to leave tonight to lead a squadron of forty men to Woodbury, Georgia. I want you to find this pregnant woman, Shane Walsh's beloved, and I want you to bring her to me at the Sanctuary by the end of the week."

"All the way to Georgia?" Simon asked. "That's six hundred miles through we don't know what – "

"- Are you questioning my judgment?" Negan relaxed his posture, making a U-of his back as he stood, grinned, and looked from face to face. "What's going on at this table? Are my lieutenants questioning my judgment?"

"No, sir!" the lieutenants chorused.

"That's what I like to hear. You find this woman, Simon, this Laura/Lori woman, and you bring her to me. While Simon is doing that, the scouts take Shane and Jesus the next time they're on the road. After the scouts have successfully done that, however long that takes, we regroup our forces, we wait until nightfall, and we take all the other leaders and their beloveds. Jed rolls into Alexandria, Regina into the library, Gary into Hallowbrant – "

"- Hallowbrant's not my route," Gary interrupted him, and then immediately looked like he wished he hadn't.

"Do you think I don't know which of my lieutenants is in charge of which outpost?" Gary remained deadly silent. "Simon's going to be busy in Georgia! So you'll roll into Hallowbrant."

"Yes, sir," Gary replied.

"And Gavin will roll into the Kingdom," Negan continued, "and you will all bring me my betrayers! In the meantime, we lay low. We let those wannabe revolutionaries think their weak little insurrection worked. We gather our strength. We gather our army. Each of you choose your men! Forty to a squadron, not the seven- or eight-man crew you rolled in to collect with. We use all our fighting men and women for this mission. You invade simultaneously all four of those communities on a sleepy night, when they least expect it. You surround them, disarm them, and kill as few as possible – remembering that people are resources. You take their leaders and their leaders' beloveds alive. And you return them to me here at the Sanctuary." Negan spread his arms wide. "And then let the interrogations begin!" He lowered his arms again. "And after the interrogations, the executions. And after the executions, finally, a return to balance." He looked directly at Gavin. "Am I heard, Gavin?"

"Loud and clear," Gavin replied.

9:00 AM

Carol kept busy. It was the best way not to think about that little baby-turned-walker, or about the too-fresh grave in the growing Fun Kingdom cemetery. That was why, she thought, Daryl had gone hunting alone this morning, without Dixon. It always made her nervous when he hunted alone, outside the gates, but she also knew he needed to do it. He needed silence today, to be able to go to that place in his head where he didn't think at all about anything except the sounds of the forest.

At the moment, she was doing laundry in the lake with Maggie and Patricia. It was just barely warm enough now to do that again, instead of doing small loads in the kitchen sink as they had throughout the winter. Meanwhile, yards away on the dock, Sophia was fishing with T-Dog.

"Glenn said Daryl's been collecting boxes of condoms," Maggie noted. "That he has four?"

Startled by the somewhat intimate question, Carol asked, "Pardon?"

"It's just…I know you're on the pill until mid-May. It's a small house. And…Glenn and I had been letting things take their course, but now…" She sighed. "I was thinking, maybe I'm lucky I haven't gotten pregnant yet. And maybe we should start using birth control again."

Carol understood. But at the same time, understanding made her sad.

It must have made Patricia sad, too, because she said, "Eileen did deliver safely, you know, in Woodbury. She's doing great. Lori was a special situation. She had twins. She already required a C-section in the past. They came early. And you're young, you're fit, healthy. It wasn't the baby that killed her. It didn't really damage her. It couldn't…" Patricia winced. "Puncture anything."

"But the horror of it," Maggie said. "In you. I don't think I could endure that if I had a miscarriage."

"You'd be surprised how much tragedy you can endure when you really want a child," Patricia said quietly. "I had three miscarriages before I had my little girl, and then she died in infancy. I know it's not the same as what happened to Lori, but…the spirit presses on."

"I'm sorry you went through all that," Carol said softly.

"I get to be auntie to Mika and Luke and Andre these days." Patricia smiled. "Even Sophia a little bit."

"I guess we know children aren't immune now," Maggie said. "Part of me had held out the hope they were."

"Me, too," Carol admitted. She'd even begun to think that if Glenn and Maggie were letting nature take its course, when the pills ran out, maybe she and Daryl should, too.

"So…" Maggie asked. "The condoms? Think Daryl would trade a box?"

"I'm not sure he'd be willing. There's only about two months' worth."

Patricia stopped scrubbing on her washboard. Maggie blinked. "How much sex do you and Daryl have?"

"Well…" Carol tried to do the calculations. There were twelve in a box. That would be…She laughed. "I may have miscalculated there. We only do it about three or four times a week."

"Still," Maggie said, "impressive. For your age."

"For her age?" Patricia exclaimed. "You must think I'm ancient."

"You're not old!" Maggie insisted. "Either of you. I know Carol's only…forty."

"I'm not quite forty yet. Don't let the gray hair fool you."

"I just mean I'm in my early twenties still," Maggie said. "Or my mid-twenties. When do your mid-twenties start exactly?"

"Never, if you keep talking about my age," Carol quipped and Maggie and Patricia both laughed.

It felt good to laugh.

"Well, Glenn and Dixon are on that run today to loot that community college," Maggie said. "It has two dorm buildings and a cafeteria. I bet they find a ton of condoms in those dorms. Assuming it's not too overrun to clear."

Sophia came walking down the dock now and then around the shore of the lake, a fish dangling from her line. "Look, Mama!"

Carol stopped her scrubbing and smiled. "Well done, Sophia. Well done!"