Chapter 107-Rest in peace

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia sat on her porch watching Merle and Ofelia when John came up to her. "Daryl radioed. He found them." Alicia nods as she stands up.

"Who does he want?" Alicia asks her.

"Negan, Shane, Madison, Dad, Laura, Troy, Daniel, Rosita, you, and me." John tells Alicia, who nods. "June said she would watch the kids."

Looking up, Alicia mumbled a few names, then asked "Anybody from the other communities?"

"No, he doesn't want too many people going through the woods. Daryl said that he wants us to handle this on his own. And if we catch them off guard, we should have no problem taking them out," John tells her before he walks away. Alicia nods as she goes to get her weapons.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl stood by his bike, sharpening his knife. "You really think it was a good idea not to bring anybody from the other communities? I know Alexandria and Hilltop would be more than happy to help." Sarah asks Daryl, who nods.

"We don't need to put anybody else at risk of these fuckers. We can deal with them; they're our problem." Daryl tells him.

"They aren't. They're ours. We brought them here." Deacon says, clearly still more than guilty that they went all this way looking for him.

"Them being your problem makes them our problem. You're our people." Alden says.

Deacon nods gratefully as they hear a car engine. They turn around and look at two trucks as they stop at the entrance of the outpost. The group climbs out of it and grabs two bags from the bed, and walks up to them. "Don't worry, boss. We have enough guns and ammo to tear these assholes apart, Hell I think we can blow their asses to the Kingdom and back." Negan says as he sets the bags down.

"Hope not, Carol would tear me a new one." Daryl snarked back as he opens the bag and starts to hand out guns to everybody. He grabs two hand grenades and looks at Negan with a raised eyebrow and a blank look

"John said grab anything that will kill someone fast. And I wanted to make someone go boom." Negan says with a smirk as Daryl hands one of the grenades to Shane.

"We move slowly and quietly, stay in formation, and when we get there, we'll surround them." Daryl tells everybody, who nods as they enter the woods.

Negan then asked, "Before or after we throw the grenades?"

Laura asked exasperated "Really?"

"Hey making sure."

Carl's P.O.V

Carl sat in front of the church. He looked up at Rick as he walked over to him and sat down beside him. "You okay?" Rick asks Carl.

"June radioed me. Daryl called a group out to help with the rippers," Carl tells Rick, who nods but then frowns.

"I haven't seen anybody leave." Rick says.

"Only people from the Campgrounds." Carl tells him. "I get why Daryl thinks it is his problem to deal with. He brought Deacon in. I'm just worried." Carl tells him. "I've heard stories about these guys from Rikki and Addy. They are unpredictable."

"Don't worry about it, Carl. It's Daryl, he'll be fine." Rick said to his son reassuringly, then patted his shoulder. "Come on, Trade day is coming up soon. Let's make sure we are ready." Rick says as he stands up, Carl sighing but nodding as he follows his Father.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl stops just outside of the camp with Alicia, John, and Deacon beside him, Everybody else having split up to surround the group. Daryl grabs out the hand grenade and looks at Deacon, who nods, taking his own grenade out.

The two pull their pins and threw the explosive into the camp. They hear shouts, and then the grenades go off to a loud boom. The group starts to shoot into the camp, and they hear Shane's grenade go off as the Rippers scramble for their guns in a panic. The camp is gunned down in a matters of minutes, with only a few of them getting shots off. Daryl looks around after the gunfire stops. "Let's make sure they are all dead." Daryl tells everybody, who nods as they begin to enter the camp.

Daryl withdraws his knife and walks up to a Ripper crawling toward a gun. He grabs him by the back of his shirt and stabs him in the back of the head. Daryl looks at Deacon as he flips a ripper on his back. The Ripper looks up at him and chuckles.

"Deacon St. John. We've been looking for you for a long time." He growls.

"Looks like I found you first. How did you know we were here?" Deacon asks calmly, pointing his gun right at him.

"Found the people you left at Lost Lake, they talked pretty quickly. You should have heard them as we killed them, Deacon. As the men begged for the life of their children and wives. The screams of the women as we raped them and their families begging us to stop. All of them were crying and pleading for us to spare them as we hung them up and called the freaks to get them. Then-" The ripper growls but is soon cut off by a matching growl, as Deacon grabs the Rippers shirt and starts to punch him. Deacon climbs on top of him and beats the man with the group watching. Deacon climbed off the man a couple of minutes later after the rippers were covered in blood and unrecognizable. Deacon looks at his hands, which are covered in blood.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asks him softly as she lays her hand on his shoulder. Deacon nods as he picks his hat up.

"Let's finish these fuckers off," Deacon says curtly as he walks away.

Negan's P.O.V

After the group got back to the Camp, Deacon went to the infirmary so June could look at his hands, and Daryl took Alicia, Ofelia, and Merle to Alexandria to talk with Carl. Negan looked at Deacon as he came out of the infirmary. "Deek," Negan says, making the man look at him. "Come with me," Negan says as he walks towards his cabin. He walks inside, and Deacon follows with a furrowed brow, shutting the door behind them. He sits across from Negan and looks at him, scratching at His wrapped hands. Negan got up and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey out of the fridge and two glasses.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Deacon asks.

"I stole it from Richmond last time I was there," Negan says with a grin as he sits down and fills the glasses. He pushes one over to Deacon who took it with a sigh. "Seems like you could use it."

"Thanks," Deacon says in relief as he takes a drink, thinking back to the camp attack and what was the Ripper was saying.

"Sorry about your friends." Negan says after a moment.

"I should have never left them. I should have convinced them to come." Deacon says sadly as he sets the glass down and Negan refills it.

"You can't blame it yourself for what happened to them. They made their decisions, Deek. Those assholes are dead, that's what matters." Taking another shot he continued "You can't change the past, but you can change the right now."

"When he finished talking, all I saw was him...and red, man. I wanted him dead, and I wanted it to be painful for him." Deacon said in shame

"I know the feeling. I've been that mad before." Negan tells him.

Deacon looked at him, curious as Negan shook his head "Some other day. But the important thing is, they're dead, the rest of your friends are safe and the threat's dealt with. Now we keep going and honor the dead."

Deacon nods as he finishes his second glass and stands up. "Thanks for the drink and the talk." Deacon says before he leaves. Negan nods as he finishes his glass and laying back in the chair, looking outside.

Carl's P.O.V

Carl looks at the truck as it comes into Alexandria. He walks up to the truck and looks at Daryl as he climbs out. He nods to Carl as he gets Merle out of the car, who beamed and waved happily at Carl.

The two kids follow their mother as she leads them to Rick's house, Ofelia waving to him now. "How'd it go?" Carl asks him.

"Good, they're all dead. They did some bad things to Deacon's people. He beat one of them to death." Daryl tells Carl, who grimaces.

"Jesus, but nobody got hurt?" Carl asks Daryl, who nods. "Daryl, I understand why you didn't ask anybody from the other communities for help, but I hope you know that regardless of who they are after. They are all of our problems."

"I know," Daryl tells him. "Good to know you worry about old uncle Daryl." Daryl says with a smirk.

"Fuck you," Carl says with a chuckle.

"Language, Mr. Grimes."

Carl then grinned "Well guess they're is a comedian inside you maybe Negan's rubbing off on you."

He turned chuckling, as Daryl's face turned to a dumbstruck luck...and heard his shout "Oh son of a Bitch!"

Al's P.O.V

Al walked out of Beth's office and shut the door as Maggie came down the stairs. "What were you guys talking about?" Maggie asks with a grin.

"Don't worry about it," Al says with a smile. "But she's watching Hershel. Tonight, we are going to Oceanside."

"Okay... why?" Maggie says as she leaves. Al nods with a smile as she follows her out.

"It's a surprise."

Oceanside

Al pulls the MRAP into Oceanside and stops it. Maggie and Al climb out of the MRAP and look at Kathy. "Good to see you guys," She says. "We got a trailer set up for you. I'll take you to it."

"Thanks," Al says as they follow Kathy.

"How have things been?" Kathy asks.

"Good, the Saviors that were a problem, are gone," Maggie tells her.

"Dead?" Kathy asks, with a twinge of hope but stopped as Maggie gave her a hard look.

"No, they are just gone. If they do come back, they'll die, and they know that." Maggie tells them as they get to the trailer. Kathy nods as she leaves. Maggie and Al enter the trailer.

*Night*

That night Al led Maggie out to the beach. "So, are you going to tell me why you brought me here yet?" Maggie asks Al, who shakes her head as she continues to lead Maggie along the water. She stops after a couple of minutes and looks at Maggie.

"When I came here with Daryl all those years ago, I came because I wanted a story and nothing else. I didn't plan on making friends. I didn't even know if I would stay. I just wanted the story about these places. But I got so much. I have a family. I have you and Hershel. I couldn't be happier," Al says as she pulls a ring out. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes," Maggie says in joy before she brings Al up and kisses her hard. Al smiles as she puts the ring on her finger. "Is this what you talked with Beth about?"

"Yes." Al answers sheepishly before she kisses her, and the two fell onto the bed.

Thanks for reading. We will go into another time skip in the next chapter. Just to clear up the timeline, it has been about four and a half years since the bridge explosion and five and a half to 6 years since the end of the war. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.