Chapter Six: Taunting Echoes

Note: So just in case some of you haven't read the prequals to this, Kelly was in an abusive relationship when she was in college and right out of college until Rick and Shane showed up one day and got her out of it. This is going to sorta be important in the coming chapters with her reactions to things. Kelly is dealing with some trauma and mental health kinda takes a back seat in the apocalypse.

The hospital was cold and bright. Lori was sleeping in the chair off to the side, wrapped up in her jacket to ward off the chill in the air. Rick and Shane were outside talking to the police officers who had shown up for my statement, as well as theirs. I shifted in the uncomfortable bed and cringed at the tug of the IV in my arm. I was dehydrated apparently. Dehydration, a broken rib, and an orbital fracture. Not too bad all things considered. Last Christmas I had a broken leg and dislocated shoulder. I swallow and reach over to the plastic cup of water that was on the try and I shakingly brought it to my lips and drank until I felt my middle roll uncomfortably. Before I could put it back the door slides open and Rick is at my side, taking the cup from my hands and putting it back on the tray.

"They said as soon as you finish that IV I can take you home."

"Where is he?"

"He's in another hallway, then he'll be taken to jail."

"What about you guys?" I ask looking at Shane as he shook the officer's hand.

"Right now we're okay. We'll see what happens in a few days, but right now let's focus on you." He says as he brushes my hair from my face. "Baby why didn't you tell me what was going on? I would have gotten you outta there."

"I couldn't Rick. I don't know why. I just couldn't." I break my gaze away from his as I was flooded in shame. I had wanted to go to Rick for months. The first time Philip had hit me I had left him, didn't talk to him for a week, but it was a week of flowers, calls, gifts, apologies. I went back to him after that, then I was too afraid to leave him again. I blinked back the tears and then Shane came in, he was less bandaged than Rick was since Shane spent most of him time getting me out of the house while Rick kept Phillip on the ground.

"Sorry to ruin your day off." I say with a smile, trying to change the mood in the room.

"Rick and I have been planning to stop by for a few days now, ever since you missed his birthday after missing Christmas we knew something was up. Wished we would have shown up when you missed the Fourth of July."

"Can we not talk about this now. Please? I'm tired, I just wanna go home. But I guess it's not really my home, is it?" It wasn't my home; it was Philip's home. He had never let me forget that the year and a half I lived there.

"We're taking you to Rick's house for tonight. You'll rest. Tomorrow we'll talk."

"One day at a time Kelly. We can't fix this all at once. One day, one battle at a time." Rick says as he takes my hand in mine and kisses the top of my head. I close my eyes trying not to see how shaken my brother really was. I had seen Rick looking so many ways, but I think this was the first time I had ever seen him this scared and this unsure.

His blue eyes were wide, red-rimmed, his body shaking under his calm demeanor. I hated seeing him like this, and it was worse since he was like this because of me. I had brought him to this state. I never wanted him to look this lost again.

*/*/*/*/*/*

The headlights were bright and I shivered as the sweat cooled on my body in the night air. I couldn't really see much past Maggie's slumped form. I knew Rick was next to her, but I didn't have a clear line of sight to him or anyone past him. But I could see Daryl and I didn't want to look at Daryl. I wasn't strong enough to look at him and not react like Glenn had when he saw Maggie. I clenched my nails into my palms as tight as I could to ground myself and keep my breathing under control. I squeezed my eyes tight as the man's voice rang over my ears.

It was smooth, dark, and mocking. "Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close. Yep. It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon." I risk glancing up towards where the voice was, he was over closer to where Carl was on his knees. He looked like he was wearing all back, there was a bat slung over his shoulder as he swaggered in front of the group. "Which one of you pricks is the leader?" He asks, his steps echoing louder than normal in the clearing.

"It's this one." A voice says it sounded like mustache maybe. "He's the guy."

His steps still and I drop my gaze back to the ground as he addresses my brother. "You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men." His voice went from smooth to rough as he spoke, and I had to swallow the bile that rose in my throat. My words ringing in my mind about how attacking that outpost was a mistake and would cause problems for our group. Looks like I was right, even more right than I was expecting. My teeth started chattering as my shaking grew worse, blood pounding in my ears, causing Negan's voice to swim in and out.

"Pay attention." Something flashes out of the corner of my eye and I see he has swung the bat off his shoulder close to Rick's face, there was something wrapped around the end of the bat. "Give me your shit or I will kill you." He pauses, then starts walking in front of us all, waving his bat close as he walks and talks. "Today was career day. We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do." There was barbed wire wrapped around the end. "You work for me now. You have shit, you give it to me. That's your job."

I closed my eyes when the bat swung into my line of vision. I pulled my arms in tighter around my middle as I swallowed the bile that my stomach was trying to bring up. I was not used to being on the front lines when shit went wrong. I was always in hiding or a peripheral member of our group whenever something like this happened. I always had the option to run if something happened that I couldn't handle. I wanted to run. I wanted to run all the way back to Georgia and pretend that Alexandria had never happened.

"You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you?" I snapped my eyes open and looked up at the mad man. "I don't want to kill you people.

Just want to make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you?" He was back close to Rick and I clenched my teeth and sniffled as I saw how badly he was shaking under the man's gaze. "But you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with. And for that, for that you're gonna pay."

The last zillion times we showed up guns blazing it always ended up with us in serious trouble. Everything with Brian Blake springing immediately to mind. We all just loved how that whole fiasco turned out. Not to mention Terminus and even Alexandria when we first got there. It all ended badly. That's what I had thought at the Hilltop right after they talked about cutting a deal with them. Looks like this one was going to spring back harder than any other had.

"So, now I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you."

"And he killed one of us—Rory. He was sixteen years old. They beat him to death right in front of us. Said we needed to understand right off the bat." Jesus' voice popped into my mind, the realization, the impact of what he meant finally meaning something as the man swung the bat in a fast, well-practiced motion. "This- this is Lucille," he reminded me of coach Sawyer, he was the middle school baseball coach and he always made my skin crawl. "And she is awesome." He swaggered around in front of the group again, swinging the bat with the same confidence Sawyer had. "All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor."

The man, Negan I corrected myself, stopped in front of Abraham, I tensed my muscles at his proximity, wishing I could be as brave as Abraham who straightened his posture, glaring at Negan, he wasn't going to show any fear.

"Huh." Negan inhales sharply as he rubs at his face. This was the closest I had seen him since he stepped out of the RV and I could only look for a second, too afraid to make eye contact. "Ugh, I gotta shave this shit." I relax a little as he walks away, but I immediately tense back up as he addresses who had to be Carl at the far end of the line-up. "Shit, kid, lighten up. At least cry a little."

His steps come back towards me, I was relived he was away from Carl, but now he was back in my direction. I felt like my brain was going to shut down from all the emotions and straight terror I was feeling, then he stopped in front of Maggie. "Jesus. You look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery right now." He raises his bat and I feel a scream build in my throat, but Glen's panicked voice carried loud over the clearing.

"No! No!" He yelled as he tried to get to his wife, only to be beaten down by Dwight, Daryl's crossbow aimed right at his face as Maggie yelled to.

"Nope, get him back in line." Negan calmly says.

Glenn is drug back to his place, sobbing and trying to yell "No" as he's dropped back into place. I can't look at him, but I can hear the pain in his voice, I can hear Maggie's quiet sobs on the other side.

It's all interrupted by a cruel chuckle from Negan. "All right, listen. Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it."

I glance over at Daryl for the first time since they pulled him from the van. He's closer than I thought. I can see how hurt he is, I blink my tears back as he locks eyes with me as Negan continues his never-ending monologue. I reach over and grip the ring he slid on my finger a day ago and I wish that I still had my necklace that he made me so long ago on the farm.

"Hey!" Negan's sharp voice breaks through the calm fog that had settled over me as I had stared at Daryl. "Do not make me kill the little future serial killer. Don't make it easy on me. I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order."

He starts whistling the tune we had heard in the woods. His steps start crunching on the gravel again. I drop my eyes to the ground again and close my eyes. If he picks me I don't want to see it coming. I had been beaten before; I knew I could get my mind elsewhere until it was over. At least in this case I would be dead.

"I simply cannot decide." He chuckles. "I got an idea."

"Eenie" He steps, "meenie" says another word, "miney" I feel air rush by my face, "mo." He was playing a game with us. "catch" I squeezed my eyes tighter closed. "A tiger" cleared my mind. "By his toe." I would see Shayla again. "If he hollers" More air wishes by my face. "Let him go." Hershel would be there too. "My mother" All the people we lost would be there waiting. "Told me" I wouldn't be here anymore. "To pick" It would hurt, I knew it would hurt. "The very best one" But after the hurt it would be over. "And you" I would be free. "Are it." Air rushed by my face again and I opened my eyes.

But I didn't see a bat, just the man, with his bat aimed at Abraham.

I felt my calm rush from my mind into panic. I was going to have to watch Abraham, my best friend, get beaten to death because of Rick's stupid choice. I sucked in a breath and squeezed my middle tightly as Abraham pulled himself up even higher.

"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that." He brings the bat down with a sickening thump. I scram as Abraham hits the ground from the force of the blow. I cry more as he sits back up. I just wanted it to be over for him. He didn't deserve to suffer.

"Oh! Look at that! Taking it like a champ!" Negan yells as Abraham almost brings himself back into the position he was in before the hit.

"Suck my nuts." He manages to spit out before another hit sends him back to the ground. This time he doesn't get up. Each swing of the bat echoes off his head, then the ground, blood sprays, lands on my legs with each blow. I curl over to the opposite side the bile finally can't be held back anymore at the sight, at the feel of his warm blood landing on my clothes.

"Did you hear that?" a sick, gleeful voice chuckles. "He said, "Suck my nuts. Phew." He laughs as he turns and lands blow after blow on what was Abraham's head. I couldn't look anymore, but the sounds were louder than gun shots in my ears, with each blow Negan would grunt with the exertion.

I didn't know what was worse though, the blows landing or Negan's laughter at what he had done.

"Oh, my goodness! Look at this!" He swings his bat sending blood splattering with the motions. His laughter continues. "You guys, look at my dirty girl!" Suddenly the bat is shoved in my face and I recoil with a cry at his words. "Sweetheart Lay your eyes on this." He sighs heavily. "Oh, damn. Were you - Were you together?" That sucks." He says as he finally pulls the bat away, I suck in a breath, trying to keep the blackness that was forming around my eyes away. "But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this.

Red - and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red. He just took one or six or seven for the team!" The bat was back in my face. "So, take a damn look." I cringed as his voice raised in volume, causing me to turn my head from the bat.

Then something breaks through my brain fog as Daryl tosses off his blanket. "Daryl No!" I yell as I throw myself to the side and grab his middle as he tries to throw himself at Negan. If he hadn't been hurt and if I hadn't already been fighting off my flight or fight instinct, I don't think I could have taken him down, but down we both went, his grip on Negan faltering as we went down. He struggled in my grasp. "Daryl stop!" I cry as I struggle to get a tighter grip on him, suddenly hands are on me, pulling me away from Daryl, I can't help but struggle as I'm pulled away from him, crying out as I'm slammed on my back on the gravel, I roll a bit to my side and curl into my middle, seeing through my hazy eyes as Daryl is held by two men, Dwight aiming the crossbow at his face.

A dark chuckle sounds in my ears as a boot steps close to my face. "That?" He says as he crouches down, reaching a hand out and forcing me to look at him. "Oh, my! That was something else, sweetheart." He smiles, his teeth flashing in the headlights. "I've been doing this for a long time and I have seen some stupid shit, but I have never seen someone go after their own person like that. Why did you do that?"

I open my mouth a little, but all that comes out with a small cry and I close my eyes to clear the tears, the hand in my hair pulls my face back up with a sharp tug. "Come on sweetheart."

"He was going to do something stupid." I choke out, not knowing if he could even hear my words since I wasn't even sure I had said them out loud. But his smile seemed to grow as he laughed again.

"He was going to do something stupid." Another chuckle. "Get he back in line." He stands up and I'm drug pulled sharply up and dropped back in line, but I was closer to Abraham's body than I was before. I curl back into the ball I was in before, breathing faster than I knew was healthy.

Negan's voice echoed off to the side but I couldn't look anymore. I felt myself sinking further into myself, going as small as I could.

"The whole thing - not one bit of that shit flies here. And now we have a bit of a problem. She fucking gets it. That pretty thing right there fucking understands the new world order apparently. And it only took one dead guy. But you. You created another problem for me."

"Do you want me to do it? Right here." Another voice said, I didn't look to see who it was, I couldn't. I couldn't watch them kill Daryl too."

"No. No, you don't kill them not until you try a little." There is more grunting and shuffling, they must have gotten Daryl up from where they had pinned him to the ground. Negan started walking around again, his steps crunching again as he talked and walked around. "And anyway, that's not how it works. Now, I already told you people - first one's free, then - what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions." He is standing right over me again, "It's a damn shame that I have to do this shit to you again sweetheart but everyone has to get it." He starts walking again. "All of you pricks have to get it." His steps get further away from me. "Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with but I'm a man of my word." His steps stop, he sounds like he's far off on the side opposite of Daryl, but I couldn't open my eyes anymore. "First impressions are important." I just wanted to sink into the darkness I was used to when dealing with Philip. "I need you to know me. So, back to it."

A horridly familiar sound of the bat hitting something echoed through the clearing again, a startled, high-pitched scream broken off with the thump, followed by the cries of the ones around me. Like when Abraham was murdered the thumps continue, one after another, in quick succession until the bat was thumping off more gravel than human. "Lucille is thirsty" His voice loudly laughs as the thudding stops. "She is a vampire bat." My head hurts as I try to force my eyes open when I hear Rick's voice for the first time since this started. It's hard and but still shaking. It sounded like the Rick that was seeing Lori haunting the walls of the prison.

"I'm gonna kill you."

I turn and suck in a breath at the sight before me. Where Sasha once knelt is just a body with no head, just a pile of red meat. He had gone after Sasha for Daryl's actions.

At least her and Abraham went together a voice echoed inside my brain, I shook my head at it as I watched Negan crouch down in front of my brother.

"What? I didn't quite catch that. You're gonna have to speak up."

"Not today, not tomorrow but I'm gonna kill you."

I look back down at the dark gravel under my knees, surprised that I was somehow still in this position. Abraham's blood had soaked into one of the knees of my pants. There was a time to stand up to the crazy that was currently taking a baseball bat to our lives and it wasn't while we were all still at his mercy.

And if Negan's reaction was anything to go by the man himself was a little taken aback by Rick's words. Jesus had said the Hilltop had bent the knee without much of a hassle and if the Saviors had other communities in thrall, then they probably didn't fight back this much either. "Jesus." He says with another soft chuckle. "Simon what did he have, a knife?"

"Uh, he had a hatchet. An ax." Simon said, sounding a bit more bored than he had the last time I heard him talk. How many times had they done this to people if he was bored?

"Simon's my right-hand man." Negan explains, still in Rick's face. "Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without them? A whole lot of work. Do you have one? Maybe one of these fine people still breathing? Oh. Or did I" he clicks his tongue. "Yeah. Give me his ax." A few moments and I hear some footsteps and then nothing.

"I'll be right back." I open my eyes again at the new sounds of a scramble and I see Negan dragging Rick by the collar of his jacket to the RV. I rock forward just a little before my brain caught up with my body. It would do me no good to even attempt to move to help my brother. "Maybe Rick will be with me." It would just result in someone else being brutally murdered. "And if not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we? I mean the ones that are left."

*/*/*/*/*/*

"What are you doing when these attacks happen?" the soft voice of Dr. Dryer always seems to softly fill his office, he was so different than the few dozen shrinks I had been to see over the last several months.

"Just day-to-day stuff." I say as I pull the tissue apart on my lap. "Just doing dishes a certain way and it's like he's right behind me. Correcting me. I find myself purposefully putting the glasses away up-side-down just to spite the man even though he's not even there."

"He controlled every aspect of your life for a year, it's a hard jacket to take off."

"That's just how long I lived with him. I met him when I was 19, just this kid right out of high school. I spent five years with this hand around my throat, just subtly directing me, how to act, how to dress, you know I almost let him talk me out of getting my teaching degree? Said it would take up too much of my time."

"But you didn't give into everything he asked of you, which means that not all is lost here Kelly. You have made great strides since I've met you. You've been in AA for four months, went on a date, stopped making the bed every morning." He says with a soft smile that I have to return. "Everything takes time. Even these moments where you feel his hand around your neck will get further and further away from you. Remember what we discussed when you feel an attack coming on. Your ground techniques."

"5,4,3,2,1." I say nodding my head. "Look at 5 things that I can see around me. Look for 4 things that I can touch with my hands. Pay attention to 3 things that I can hear. Identify 2 things that I can smell. And acknowledge 1 thing that I can taste."

"And at the end of it?"

"Support system. Call Rick, Lori, Shane, Dad, Kristina, even you as long as it's not two in the morning." I say with a smile.

"Exactly. We're almost out of time, before our next session I want you to work on going out to restaurants with someone and order whatever you want. You're a 26-year-old woman and you can decide what you want to order at a restaurant."

*/*/*/*/*/*

I hadn't thought about Dr. Dryer in a long time, but it had been a long time since I felt some invisible hand tighten around my neck. But as the RV drove off with my brother locked inside with the man that had just bashed Abraham and Sasha's heads in I felt a panic attack come on stronger than I had felt one in a long time.

What if he doesn't come back?

What if Negan bashes his head in too?

"What if neither of them comes back?"

I shakingly grab at the collar of my shirt as my vision swims in and out. "5,4,3,2,1" I gasp out as I force my eyes open, trying to focus on something other than the growing fear gnawing on my neck as the pressure squeezed tighter. "5, look at five things." I force my head up, I see people, too many people. Close my eyes again and tug at my collar again before I open my eyes again. Cars. I saw cars, trees, boots, Abraham's- Don't look at that! – I squeeze my eyes and restart. Focus. 5 things I can see. Cars, trees, boots, my ring, and Daryl. I can see Daryl. 4 things I can touch: my ring again, the gravel under my knees, the hair tie that is around my wrist, and the rip in my shirt from all the tugging I had been doing. 3 things I can hear, walkers, breathing, and crickets, 2 things I can smell, dust and gas. 1 thing I can taste, blood. Blood that was on my lips when I licked them.

With each item I listed, each number I worked through I felt my heart slow back down, the grip on my throat disappeared, each breath felt easier than before. Even after all these years it still worked. My head was pounding and I couldn't help it as I slide from my knees to my bottom in a sinking motion. I was still shaking, but I wasn't in danger of passing out anymore.

*/*/*/*/*/*

My attack had taken up more time than I realized as when I full came back to myself the sun was peaking over the tree line. As I forced my crusty eyes fully open, I was able to slowly look around the clearing. The saviors all looked like each other. Black leather or jean material covered them, grey t-shirts and black boots. They looked like all the groups that had been on the road, the group that ambushed Daryl on the tracks. The Savior's were like a rag-tag military group. They all wore hard and yet somewhat boarded expressions like they were annoyed at still having to be waiting around for their boss to come back.

But they weren't making any moved to dispose of us like Negan had said before he left.

I wondered how much time we had before Negan was due back and they started shooting their guns that were all held loosely in their hands.

I wasn't the only one who had abandoned being on their knees this long, even the sobs from before seemed to all be dried up, just leaving a haze of disbelief hanging over us as we waited.

The rumble of the RV breaking that heavy fog, and even though Rick looked awful as he was kicked out of the RV, crawling, and shaking as he was drug along, he was alive. An alive Rick was the best sight I could have seen at the moment.

"Here we are. Let me ask you something, Rick - do you even know what that little trip was about?" Rick didn't say anything, just looked at us, I felt the relief at seeing him alive die a little at the look in his eyes. "Speak when you're spoken to."

"Okay." Rick says, breathing heavily. "Okay. Okay."

"That trip was about the way that you looked at me. I wanted to change that. I wanted you to understand. But you're still looking at me the same damn way like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna work. So do I give you another chance?"

As scary as his endless speech from the night was, seeing him in the daylight, seeing Negan for the first time while hearing him talk was even scarier. Suddenly all the calming down I had done, forcing myself to focus back into my current reality seemed like the biggest mistake as Negan chucked again at my brother's words. Asking for a second chance? From Negan? What would a second chance look like since his first involved killing Sasha?

"And here it is - the grand-prize game. What you do next will decide whether your crap day becomes everyone's last crap day or just another crap day. Get some guns to the back of their heads."

The sound of all the guns cocking rang in my ears, I even felt the one held to my head brush against my hair a little and I closed my eyes again, twisting my ring around my finger, trying to keep from freaking out again. "Now level with their noses, so if you have to fire" He imitates an explosion. "It'll be a real mess. Kid Right here. Now." I open my eyes at that and the fear that had been laying bitterly in my belly all night was back to trying to claw up my throat as Carl stood, walked over to Negan. "You a southpaw?" He says as he pulls off his belt.

"Am I a what?" Carl sounds more angry than afraid, as Negan explained when he meant, not even reacting when he tied the belt around his arm. "That hurt?"

"No."

"Should. It's supposed to. All right. Get down on the ground, kid, next to Daddy. Spread them wings." He says, flicking his hat off his head and asking for a pen. He's going to cut Carl's arm off! The voice inside my head echoes loudly in my ears and it rings loudly until Negan's voice cuts through it. "Me? I ain't doing shit. Rick, I want you to take your ax cut your son's left arm off, right on that line."

Unlike when Abraham was being killed or even Sasha, I couldn't look away. This was my brother and my nephew. My sweet, snarky, stronger than life nephew who was laying on the ground. I stared right at him, hoping that I was helping him somehow. Michonne's voice sounded far away as she said "You - You don't have to do this. We understand."

As loud as Negan's voice was, nothing was louder than Carl when he looked at Rick and said "Dad just do it. Just do it." My vision tunneled as Rick let out a sound that I had never heard from him before, the ax falling through the air in slow motion towards Carl's arm.

Before it was suddenly grabbed mid-air. Negan was on Rick faster than anything I had seen, gripping his face in a hold that was probably not hurting as much as it should, Negan was yelling in his face, Rick was sobbing, nodding, agreeing. It was all over.

Negan managed to do something no other person we had come across had been able to do. They had broken Rick, broken something deeper inside him than even Lori's death had. Would he start seeing Abraham and Sasha wondering around Alexandria now?

"That is the look I wanted to see." He stands up with a smile, pulling the ax from Rick's limp grasp as he waved it at our group. "We did it all of us, together even the dead guys on the ground. Hell, they get the spirit award, for sure. Today was a productive damn day! [Sighs.]

Now, I hope, for all your sake that you get it now that you understand how things work. Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you that is over now."

Negan smiles, his teeth gleaming even more in the sun than it had in the headlights. "Dwight load him up." He says pointing at Daryl, I flinch as Daryl is roughly pulled up from the ground beside me and shoved into a truck. As the doors are closed in his face I can't help the cry that escapes my mouth. He was taking Daryl away from me. Taking him to who knows where. I shove my hands against my mouth to stop myself from saying something, just out of instinct like Glenn had when Maggie had been threatened. He couldn't take Daryl away from me.

"He's got guts - not a little bitch like someone I know. I like him. He's mine now.

But you still want to try something? I will cut pieces off of Hell's his name?"

I don't take my eyes off the van he was shoved into; the windows were tinted; I couldn't see him but I knew he could see me if he was looking out of them. I needed him to know I wasn't going to turn away from him. My hand slides over the gravel to where his body had been just a few moments ago, the ground already losing its warmth from where he had sat.

"Daryl." Moustache said.

"Wow." Negan chuckles again. "That actually sounds right. I will cut pieces off of Daryl and put them on your doorstep - or, better yet, I will bring him to you and have you do it for me." He stands up and pats Rick on the back with a huge smile on his face. "Ahh! Welcome to a brand-new beginning, you sorry shits! I'm gonna leave you a truck. Keep it. Use it to cart all the crap you're gonna find me." The saviors around us start to disperse as Negan walks away, tossing the hatchet back at Rick. "We'll be back for our first offering in one week. Until then ta-ta."

Everything seems to move in slow motion as the Saviors walk away, getting into the various vehicles, I just stare at the van that holds Daryl as it drives away. I fall forward after if, reaching my hand for it until it disappears over the hill taking Daryl out of sight. I feel the gravel digging into skull as my body loses its ability to hold itself up anymore.

"Maggie." Glenn sobs as he walks / crawls over to her, wrapping her in his arms. "Maggie." He says again as she sobs. This seems to get everyone else back to the present Rick stands up first, his voice sounding closer to me than before. "Maggie, we need to get you to the Hilltop."

"You need to go get ready." She says, her voice still full of tears, but sounding stronger than before.

"For what?" Rick croaks.

"To fight them." Maggie says through a loud hiccupping sob.

"They have Daryl. They have an army. We would die - all of us."

"Go home." Glenn says, "take everybody with you. We can get there by ourselves."

"You both can barely stand up." Rick says, and he was right, Glenn had looked awful, he was no doubt beaten when they were picked up by the Saviors.

"You need to go to Alexandria." Maggie says. "You were out - out here for me."

I pull myself back into a sitting position. Looking at the long since settled dirt trail from the van wasn't doing anybody any good, let alone me.

Glenn is on his feet, his arms wrapped around Maggie who looks like she is about to collapse. Aaron and Rick are the only ones who are on their feet right now.

"I can make it now. I need you to go back. I can't have you out here. I can't have you all out here anymore. I need you to go back."

"Maggie." Michonne gets to her feet. "We're not letting you go."

"You have to." She sobs as her balance gives out and she falls against Glenn who wobbles to keep them upright.

"Maggie, we're going to the Hilltop, right now." Glenn says.

"I'll help you," Rosita says as she stands up. "I'll help get you there, help keep her safe."

"We'll take them home." I say as I force my legs under me. "Abraham and Sasha, they deserve to be together. We'll take them home."

"Kelly." Maggie gasps as she holds an arm out to me, I stumble over and wrap her up in a hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,"

"Shh, you have nothing to be sorry about. You and Glenn get to the Hilltop, check on the baby." I say as I pull back and give her a small smile before she nods and Carl comes over and stands beside me as we watch the three of them get into the truck that was left behind.

Once they are out of sight I walk over to Abraham. I drop to my knees and grab his hand and give it a small squeeze. "I'm gonna get you home." I say to my dearest friend before Rick and Aaron walk over to me. Rick gets one side, Aaron gets the other as I grab his feet while Michonne, Carl, and Eugene carry Sasha to the RV. We lay them on the floor in the bedroom and close the door.

Rick pulls me into a hug tighter than any I had felt from him in a long time as I try to keep the sobs locked inside. He leads me to the couch and sits me down next to Aaron who doesn't even hesitate to wrap his arms around me as I try to stop crying. Rick gets into the drive seat and starts the RV and heads back to Alexandria, leaving two blood stains soaked into the white gravel of the clearing that had just taken everything away from us.

*/*/*/*/*/*

Chapter Six

That was a doozy.

I had to watch the season 7 premiere episode like five times to get this thing and good grief does Negan chuckle A LOT while he's monologuing to the Alexandrians. My love for Abraham is real and it hurt to say goodbye to him.

I went back and forth and back and forth on killing Glenn and I just could not do it. I always felt it was cheap and just for shock value on the show the first time I watched it. Now I can see the justification for in on the show but I JUST COULDN'T DO IT!

So, Glenn and Merle can hang out in the YOU DON'T DIE CLUB.

A big thank you to my new subscribers and everyone who has reached out over messenger and my commenter!

Next chapter our sad little group gets back home, time to break the news to Merle, bury the dead, and will the ASZ be a bit more prepared for the new mess they find themselves in now?

I always enjoy comments, helpful criticism, and tolerance for all the typos in this.

Thank you all for reading!

Maxy