Chapter 40
Taken
Bianca's voice rang through the speakers of our radio as we all gathered round for the evening show. Two costars by the name of Bert Crystal and Stacy Jones joined her tonight.

"You ever play a game of Monopoly?" Bert asked, for the Light Talk segment of the show. "That is one of the most time-consuming games ever! If you ever start one, make sure there's nothing you need to do for the next three days."

"Ohmygosh! Tell me about." Stacy groaned.

"Did you know that the original version of Monopoly was actually created in protest of monopolies?" Bianca added.

"Oh really?"

"Oh yeah. It's inventor Elizabeth Magie, believed in a system of shared land value and designed the game as a teaching tool to address the problems of land monopolies—but she only made about $500 off it, because some guy stole her idea, sold it to Parker Brothers and kept all the royalties for himself."

"Ugh, why do guys have to ruin everything?" Bert sighed.

"I don't know, Bert, but we kind of do." Stacy responded with a defeated sort of chuckle.

Bianca laughed into the mic.

"All the war!"

"All the war and this too!"

"You know something though, I've never actually played Monopoly." Bianca admitted.

"What? No!"

"It's true. Me and my siblings—our grandmother had it and when we went to visit her we would take out the game, but we wouldn't play it. We'd just play with the game pieces."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I liked the dog. I was always the dog—Toyota."

Both men laughed. "Toyota?!"

"I was a little kid!" She said defensively. "I thought it sounded like Toto! I used to pretend that he was his brother."

"But I don't understand; Why would you take out a game and not play it?" Bert asked.

"Well we were all pretty little at the time and couldn't really grasp the rules, or the concept of private property, just ask our neighbor, Mr. Freeman—or I guess you can't really."

"Ooh!"

"Geeze."

"It was before, he choked on a Krispy Cream when I was fourteen. Anyways I was so terrible at math—still am!" She laughed. "But when our grandma realized, you know, we were taking out this game but we were only playing with the pieces, she got us a tin of just a bunch of different metal… what would you call them—figurines? Or no, they were pewter. Anyways, they were about the size of my thumb nail and I don't know where they came from but there were all sorts of things in there; army guys, animals, little cars. They were like Polly-Pocket sized, maybe a little bigger."

"Oh, I remember Polly Pocket. My sisters were obsessed with them." Stacy said, a bit off-track.

"I was too and I used to play with these figurines with my Polly Pockets! Yeah, I had them go on candy land adventures and under the sea with the mermaids."

"My sisters had the cloud castle and the undersea mermaid castle." Stacy said.

"You know they stopped making them because they were choking hazards." Bert informed.

"Oh yeah, I can see that happening."

"But then they brought them back with what—a reboot? And they grew her to like a Barbie doll sized?"

"They were a little smaller than that."

"My daughter had like a hundred different rubber dresses and clothing items with those dolls. They were cool, but they got everywhere! And then they'd collect like hair and dust."

"Ewe."

"And of course, she had to play with them in the sandbox so they'd get worn out even quicker and then like crumble in your hands."

It was relaxing to listen to a perfectly normal conversation for once. It was a short segment but calming either way. It was just to fill time, anyways. Eventually they branched off to discuss the birthdays for various famous people today before wishing their own viewers happy birthday as well before beginning few minutes of uninterrupted music.

Just then there was a loud blaring honk outside. Our heads rose and we all looked up from our projects to exchange confused and worried looks.

"What on earth?"

Curiously, we got up to look out the window, seeing three Savior trucks pull through the gates all of a sudden.

"Judith, stay inside." Dad ordered, fearfully. His concern was not misplaced. The Saviors had a pickup just two days prior and it was late in the day, which meant this was not a typical visit. My heart went in my throat and I stepped away from the window, feeling it really might have been best to stay out of sight.

I remained where I was, watching from the living room window as the Saviors filed out of the truck. Negan, surprisingly, wasn't with them today. Instead, Simon approached Dad, wearing a smile that set me on edge and made me lower to the ground, watching the scene in a crouched guarded position. The window was opened to let me hear their conversation.

"Hiya Ricky-boy, how's it going today? I'll bet you're wondering why we're here." His tone was very unsettling.

"It crossed my mind," Dad announced, sincerely confused for this visit. Everyone was. It wasn't certain they were here for me, so it was best to just play dumb until we knew for sure.

"What's this about? Where's Negan? I'd prefer to deal with a leader." Dad said, but certainly not because we preferred their commander in any sort of way. One Savior wasn't much different from another. He only said it to stab at Simon.

"Bossman's a little busy today." Simon told him without going into detail, and the man stepped up to Dad, licking his teeth in a very predatory manner. "You'll have to put up with me today. Now, I want everyone out in the center of town. Round 'em up boys! This is a town meeting and everyone will be present!"

The front door burst open with two men carrying guns, ordering me out. I joined everyone in the town square, standing near Rosita, Michonne and Carl. The Waifs were escorted to the circle not long after and found their way towards me. Mari's hand clutched mine and we held tight to one another as Dad addressed Simon in the center.

"I bet everyone here would like to know why we dropped by so suddenly."

There were mixed expressions of suppressed panic as everyone exchanged looks. A few people looked over at Mike uneasily, while the man himself tried not to let himself unravel with growing terror. No one answered Simon though, because other than a few select people, they really didn't know what was going on.

"Well, we had a little trouble the other day." Simon announced. "You see, one of our guys ran into some people at the Hilltop and he and one of their guys over there got caught up in some pretty savage biters. Our poor guy didn't make it through the night. Tragic right? Only weird thing is, that other fella from Hilltop, he was bit too, in a pretty inconvenient spot, some place you can't exactly chop in that type of situation, and the crazy thing is… he lived."

Oh no!

There was a terrifying ringing in my ears, drowned out only by the uncontrollable beat of my racing heart. So, it was finally time, then. The Saviors knew. My eyes swerved over to gage Dad's expression, wondering how he wanted to approach this. However way this turned, I would take my cue from him.

Simon went on. "I know, right? So far as I know, there isn't a single person alive that's been able to survive one of those bites. But they got him back to their town and the guy was right as rain within a day. That's a fucking mindblower, right? So, we started asking a few questions to the doctor, wondering how he had managed it. He was looking awfully guilty but it didn't seem like he could duplicate what he did, or maybe he didn't want to. I couldn't really tell.

"So, we tried to encourage him to tell us, but… didn't seem to work very well. And you know we're down to so few options there so then we started asking around the town a bit and my old pal Gregory—the former leader of Hilltop before he was demoted—told us we might just find what we needed here in Alexandria. Said you and Jesus were acting a bit suspicious and there was some whole business involving another citizen by the name of—oh what was it—Dave something. Anyways, the guy said we should talk to you about this situation."

I took slow tentative breaths, trying to stay focused on this conversation.

"So… is there anything you need to tell us, Rick?"

My heart was pounding in my ears and my neck was sticky with growing perspiration. I shouldn't have been standing there. I was giving too much away. Dad, on the other hand… Dad was a regular superhero. He didn't so much as react to their words, other than to scoff.

"I don't know what you smoke in that Sanctuary all day but everyone outside knows there's no way to survive from a walker bite. Maybe he wasn't bitten by any walker. Did that ever occur to you?"

"It did. But we both know that isn't why he survived."

I swallowed. They weren't looking at me, but they still knew we were hiding something. Before anyone could say anything, Simon's fist slammed out, aiming for Dad's gut. He saw it coming though and caught his wrist just in time, hissing in the man's face furiously. "There isn't anything like that here. Take your men and get out!" Then he shoved the smaller man away.

Simon's eyes flashed with unrestrained wrath and the Saviors looked every bit as vengeful for the disrespect. Everyone knew he was going to pay for that. Dad didn't look a trace regretful for the move, not even concerned. He just faced him like it were any typical brawl growing in a hotheaded asshole.

No one saw the Savior come forward and strike Dad hard in the jaw with the butt of his rifle. Dad staggered, falling to his knees on the ground. He was stunned but it apparently wasn't hard enough to put him out.

Just then I saw from of the corner of my eye someone move suddenly. I turned to watch Tara pull a gun, aiming it at Simon. Even before she had time to pull the trigger, a shot split the air and a spurt of blood trailed from her hand. The firearm fell to the ground and she cried out, holding her hand where the bullet had shot it from her grasp.

A second Savior came over and hit her with his own weapon, sending the woman to the ground in one blow.

"A gun!" Simon said, picking it up from the ground. "Now where did you get something like this? You know guns are banned from your town." His own gun pointed to her temple. "So, start talking."

"There are guns everywhere outside these walls. First amendment, asshole!" Tara hissed, with vengeance. "I just fucking saved one!"

"And wasted it to try and kill me? You didn't account for our sniper in the area, did you dyke?"

Through my fear I felt a sting of fury.

"Now back to what we were talking about." Simon said, strolling over to my dad. Two Saviors grabbed his arms, hoisting him into a kneeling position. He struggled, looking furious and defiant. If this was going to be his final moments, he would spend them defying this small monster to the very last. "I heard it from a little bird that you guys are keeping a cure all to yourself. I could go through these houses, strip them dry and burn every last fucking one to the ground. But even if I did that I have no idea what it looks like. So, I'm going to save us all a lot of trouble and ask you one more time. Where is it?"

Dad looked the man in the eye, mouth trailing blood and a gleam of pure defiance stoked in his eye. "There is no cure." He said with concrete certainty in those words. "You people are stuck in a make-believe land. You're looking for a fairytale. No one survives bites from the dead. I don't know what you heard, but it was a lie."

Simon turned from Dad, pointed his gun and shot Tara right through her skull. Several screams split the air. Mari and I both gripped hard to one another, trembling and whimpering right where we were.

I couldn't believe it, only a few seconds before and that woman had been alive. She had… been alive, with rage and fury boiling in her stare, furious to kill every last one of them. And now she was… there was only blood… so much blood…

There had been blood to soak this pavement once before, too. Spencer's face flickered in my vision, his expression helpless and horrified while the red pooled on the ground. But it wasn't Spencer's face right now.

Tears began to trickle from my eyes and I could tell similar expressions were on every other Alexandrian face.

Simon wasn't in the least bit disturbed by what he did as he strolled back over to Dad. "Let's not keep doing this, Rick. There are kids present. Every time I have to ask, I'm going to shoot another one of your people. First shot is a love-tap, second shot is lethal. Now where is the cure?"

"There. Is. No. Cure." Dad said with a certain sort of finality.

Simon turned, pointing his gun.

"It's me!"

The words escaped me before I even considered them.

Simon fingered the trigger of his pistole, but didn't shoot. Everyone looked back at me with various expressions of shock and horror.

"Judith!" My father shouted, angry and desperate. "SHUT UP!"

I didn't listen. I wasn't going to end up talking to anyone else as a ghost, too. "It's me. I'm the cure! I'm the one you want!"

There was silence. Then Simon laughed a cruel mirthless giggle. "Well fuck me sideways and call it salsa. Rick's kid? The cure, seriously? This is—this is too fucking unbelievable!" He crouched down to my father's face grinning all the while. "That true, Dad?"

Predictably, he shook his head. "No. No, she doesn't know what she's saying. She's just upset by the rough treatment is all."

The man's grin never wavered.

"Haul her in the truck. We'll take her back to Negan. If it's true," he laughed darkly, "well damn, we just hit the jackpot when we found you guys. But if it's not…" His smirk widened showing off all of his teeth. "Well… either way you won't exactly be getting her back. Negan's had his eye on her for a while."

Maybe I should have fought more to make it harder for them to take me. But I didn't. I stayed calm to keep my father and everybody calm to prevent them from doing something stupid that was most likely going to get a lot more people killed. The look Mari cast me when I turned towards her just about killed me, though.

This was the moment I had feared for more than three terrifying years. Now that it was happening, it didn't even feel real. Somewhere deep inside, everyone knew a secret like this wasn't going to be kept secret for long. I knew that and my dad knew that, too.

I was scared. The moment the men grabbed my arms, my heart was in my throat. This was how it would end, they would drag me away in that instant and I was never going to see my family again.

This was the moment I had been afraid of since I made the discovery. It was happening and I was paralyzed.

My father let out a rumbling war cry, rushing at the ones that had hold of me, but two others stepped in his way, taking the tackle while I was dragged to their truck. He rammed his fist into one of their temples, sending the man into unconsciousness. Then he turned, grabbed the other by the collar and slammed his knee so hard into his gut the man vomited on the ground. More men ran up in an attempt to overpower him, but he looked like a wild animal, reduced with the most basic of instincts; protect his child.

More people got into it. I saw Rosita slug one of them in the gut and Olivia brandishing a knife. Even Mari's face grew dark with that predatory glint in her eye as she prepared for a fight. The Saviors were pulling their guns forward and I knew I had to get control of this situation before anyone else could be killed.

"NO! NO STOP EVERYONE!" I screamed it at the very top of my lungs and everyone stopped. I turned to my father, struggling to keep my voice as calm as possible. "Dad! Dad, it's okay. Remember what I said! Th-they're not going to hurt me." I managed to force a pained smile as I looked over. "I-I'll be fine. I'll see you soon."

I turned away only when I saw them stop fighting, wincing with it all.

Then my eyes caught on Carl and Enid looking very close to rushing at the men as well. Enid had to almost physically keep Carl from going at them. Our gazes met and I realized quickly that I needed to make some last-minute preparations. "It'll be okay. Take care of the garden!"

The men's grips on me were almost painful and when one of them squeezed too tight I suddenly became very conscious of what was happening. My heart was back in my throat and I felt adrenaline pulse through my veins when I suddenly realized I was rushing in exposed. I wanted my cloak, I wanted my pack and spell ingredients. I was going into a pit with rabid beasts unarmed. I wanted something at my side. Even if that something was only a book and a poncho, I wanted it!

"Wait, wait. I-I want my cloak." I said, struggling. "I want to get my cloak!"

They didn't ease their grips and they didn't let me go to fetch my things. I was hauled inside the truck wedged in the back between the two men that had hold of me. I was walking into a hell without a bible and I couldn't recall a moment I felt more vulnerable.

"Please, I just want a few things!" I concentrated on my breathing, focusing my energy into not having a full-blown panic attack.

I was being taken away—taken away by our biggest most dangerous enemies and it was highly probable that I wasn't coming back. I didn't even know what they were planning for me. Sure, I was the cure, but that didn't mean they wanted or needed me. They had all the fire power they could ever use so they didn't have much to worry about with the walkers. Men like this took to cripple the opposing team. They crippled us by killing Abraham and Glenn. They crippled us by breaking my dad. They crippled us by trading our right to survive in exchange for half, to most, to all of everything we had. Now they were crippling us again by stealing the one thing we had to even the playing field against the living and the dead.

They were stealing me! And they'd make sure I'd never be able to help anyone without their say so. To make it all a hundred times worse they wouldn't even let me take the little bit that was actually mine.

A spell! I thought. The calming spell, what was it?

My hand went to the chain of charms and held it where it circled around my neck. I recited the chant in my head.

Protect me, protect my own, and protect my space. Protect me, protect my own, and protect my space.

I repeated it over and over again, and as I repeated it I could feel the lingering presence of a new spirit just then.

Tara may have stayed with me, I could feel her new presence even now, wondering in confusion for her abrupt end in life. Glenn, if he was near, wouldn't follow me. I couldn't ask him to. His murderer was where we were going and I wouldn't let him be hurt by that monster again. He was already falling too deep into that dark pit of vengeance and I feared anymore would knock him over so far, he wouldn't be able to climb out again.

So, he stayed, lingering between the space of life and death, switching from his home as he lived to his final resting place. As for Mom's spirit… I wanted her to come, but I didn't know where she was anymore. If she was still around, I hoped she would follow me. Dad may have been devastated with this loss, but he had Michonne and Carl to support him. Mari too; she promised after all. But me… as selfish as it was, I would be alone there. I was going to be on my own and the strength of her presence would be the only crutch I had to lean on.

As we were pulling away, I became intensely panicked, but focused all my energy into not breaking down around these monsters.

I can do this! I can do this! I repeated to myself. Maybe if I pretended this wasn't a kidnapping situation I would get through it in one piece and un-violated. Maybe I could pretend that I was a spy, or an undercover agent, infiltrating a base to feed information back to my commanding officers for a building attack against them.

That seemed to work, because my heart beat calmed slightly. I needed to be brave and smart to get through this.

Yeah. That's what I was. That's what was happening. I could do this.

I could do this!

It seemed so strange to believe that hardly twenty minutes earlier the day had been so normal. We were working on projects and listening to the easy-going voice of Bianca Swan over the radio.

How could things change so fast?

Author's Notes: I know, I killed Tara and I totally suck! It's so weird I didn't even mean to do it. I was just polishing this chapter up a bit and somehow, I ended up killing a wonderful character and don't even know how it happened. I had intentions to beat Rick up again and Tara, brave sweet Tara, just had to step up and try and take a shot at Simon before that could happen, and the fucking bastard straight up killed her! When I realized what just happened I was so confused and I was desperately trying to reverse it, yelling, "Shit, what did I just write! Undo! UNDO DAMNIT!" But I couldn't and I can't figure out how it happened!

Sometimes, I think that this story has gotten out of my control here and has just grown a mind of its own.

Seriously! I don't know how this happened!

On another note, I guess the secret is out in the open now. Lots of pain and suffering to follow.

Sorry.

See you for next update! I'm super excited! Luv ya lots, guys!