Better Days

Chapter 322

Author's Note: I had four pages written, got up for the night and came back and Jewel decided she was not happy with it at all. So, I'm trying this again. She's making me. But, she's right this is better. Plus Quinn is putting out battle lines.

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Alexandria POV:

Jewel stood and watched Deanna give orders to take Rick and Pete to separate vacant apartments. She felt like she was in a fog, everything going on around her, but her not being a part of it.

"Mom?" Summer called to her. "Mom are you alright?"

Jewel looked at her then looked at Deanna as she was walking away. "Why did you bring us in?" she asked calling after the shorter woman.

Deanna stopped and turned to look at her, causing both the Alexandrian's and her family to do the same. "Excuse me?"

"Why did you bring us in? Why did you let us through those gates? Why did you want us to be part of this community Deanna?" Jewel asked.

"I told you, we needed you here," Deanna told her. "What happened with Rick and Pete, it doesn't change anything for the rest of you, Jewel. You and the babies will be safe."

Summer glanced at Carl who had also came out of the house. Jes moved next to Jewel who stepped closer to Deanna. "You say you need us here, that you want us here, but actions they speak a lot louder then words Deanna. What have you done besides throw a party, to show us that you wanted us here? Actions speak louder then words Deanna. Let's be transparent here, in front of everyone Deanna, you've already decided Rick needs to go. You don't want to here the truth, you don't want to see it."

"Aren't you going to do something to call the pit bull off?" Nicholas questioned Glenn and Joey.

Summer and Jewel both looked over there shoulder and both glared at him. "Shut your mouth, sunshine," both told him.

"The answer would be no," Glenn answered as Joey chucked.

"Mom, answer her," Quinn told her mother.

"This isn't the place to be having this conversation," Reg told them.

"It's the perfect place, dad," Quinn told her father as she stepped up beside Jewel. "We've all turned our backs on what Pete was doing to Jessie and the boys. We've always made excuses. We are all responsible for it and if he had killed them, that would have been on us too," Quinn told him as she turned to face the others, she wanted the Alexandrian's to understand. "He grabbed Rick and Jewel's daughter yesterday, he left a hand mark on her arm. Summer tell them what my mother said to you," she said as she nodded at Summer.

"She asked me if someone from my group, my family did it. She didn't want to hear the truth, because that would mean she had to face the fact that she made a mistake," Summer answered.

Jewel didn't take her eyes off Deanna. "You want us to forget what's out there and be grateful that you're giving us a chance to live here. And we are, but we also knows what happens when we forget what's out there, whose out there. I don't want to see anyone else die, I don't want anyone else buried out there in that graveyard. You blame us for Aiden? Who was the one who decided to keep him and Nicholas in charge of the supply runs? Who went against her own daughter's advice to remove them? Who ignored her way before we got here Deanna? Not Rick, not me, but you Deanna. You are as responsible for his death and Noah's just as much as you are for not doing anything about Pete."

"Mom didn't know," Spenser told them.

"But she did, because I told her. I told her several times that they were cowards. They were responsible for Bill, Kay, Jack and Roger's deaths. Aiden admitted it to me before he died yesterday, but I already knew the truth. Then Nicholas over there asked me to lie for him, asked me to blame it all on Glenn, Tara and Noah, to make them look like the bad ones. But I refused, and I told mom, on camera what happened," Quinn told them.

"There's a threat right outside these gates, has she told you about that? Jes," Jewel ordered with out more than a word.

"This isn't the time," Deanna told them.

"Then when is Deanna? You're all about transparency, Deanna, so here it is, me bringing transparency into Alexandria. They need to know everything that's going on, what is lying beyond those gates," Jewel told her. "Jes," she said.

"There's walkers' out there with W's carved in there heads. We first saw them at Noah's home with warnings painted in blood, Wolves Not Far, on the walls. There was a truck full of body parts, another truck of just heads. They were stab marks, they were tortured. Things were taken out of houses, and thrown out on the street," Jes told them.

"Someone decided that they wanted to take a grandfather clock out for a stroll," David told them.

"There were no survivors, and from what we could tell, those people had no weapons to fight with either," Jes told them.

Jewel still kept her eyes on Deanna. "That's what's out there, and they aren't far from here."

"One of the walkers' were found out about two miles back with a W on it. Do you think you all don't need a full time guard up in that tower or do you want me to put the dummy back? Because if Rick is exiled, most of us will leave," Jes stated.

"We were safe before," Tobin told them.

"You all got lucky," Jewel stated. "You want to know what's out there? You really want to here all the gory details? Is that what it's going to take to make you see that you're all living on borrowed time?" she asked, still watching her. "Fine. First my family all move behind me, the rest of you stay where you are," she instructed. "You too Deanna," Jewel told her.

Glenn put his hand on Quinn's arm as she tried to move. "No, you proved yourself."

"Alright, look to your left and your right," Jewel told them. She watched as the others' did the same thing. "Nicholas step back," she told him. "And since Mrs. Neudermeyer and Olivia are standing beside him, go on and step on back. Mikey, you're standing in front of your father, he'd run over you to get out, you're dead too, step back."

"What the point is this? It's stupid, you can't know anything," Nicholas told her as he moved to go inside.

"Don't move," Glenn told him. "She is going to get to the point."

"Phoebe step forward, Emily too. Both of you are young, strong, can be taught to fight, you'd have a chance. Glenn?" she asked.

"We'd be able to take care of the kids, so they'd be safe for a while," Glenn said.

"Sam's to scared of the monsters'," Liam answered.

"If Mika could learn, he's got a small chance," Summer told her.

"That's enough, you're scaring people Jewel," Deanna told her.

"Good, because they need to be scared. Go on take a step back, Deanna, you aren't willing to change. You'd try to talk to the wolves', try to appeal to them," Jewel told her. "Spenser and Reg would both try to protect you and die in the process, so step on back," Jewel told them. "Enid, come up front. You've already survived, so I'd be happy to make you part of the family. Gus, congratulations, you're our first guy to make it to this side of the living, come on up," she told him. "Jill, up front."

"Tobin, he can see when things need to change," David told them. "Francine knows how to fight, isn't afraid to back down because of fear."

"Alright, you two, come on up," Jewel told them. "Stepford wives, back with all of you, I think you'd all faint at the site of a walker."

"What about Carol?" Mrs. Neudermeyer questioned.

"None of my family is in this little demonstration because we're here," Jewel told them. "Noel, you gave up alcohol, as long as you keep off of it, you'd be able to hold your own, come on up," she said as she looked back at the rest of her group who nodded. "Congratulations, Phoebe, Quinn, Emily, and I'll include Eric and Aaron, Enid, Francine, Tobin, Noel and Jill, you are the only ones that we all think may have a chance if this place falls. For the rest of you, you all shouldn't be living right now. You can't make the hard calls, you've proven that Deanna. Mar want to tell them about the first group you were with?"

"I wasn't with them voluntarily. They raped women, repeatedly, said it was so they could be saved. We were also the first ones that they sacrificed to the walkers'," Mar told them.

"Rick, Hershel and I ran into two of them, Tony and Dave, in a bar. They came in while the three of us were there, and I knew from the moment they walked in, they were trouble. All Tony wanted was to know if there was any cooch, his word not mine, where we were staying other then me. He hadn't had any in a long time. Summer was fifteen, Beth sixteen, so there was no way in hell these two were coming any where near my family. Plus we had Maggie and others that aren't with us anymore. I didn't even know Mar was with them. Dave wanted to know where we were holding up, he jumped behind the bar and Rick saw in the mirror he was going to take the gun from underneath the bar, he shot him and I killed Tony with one knife to the head. He was my first human kill but it was either him or us and I wasn't going to let it be us. This was less than six months into this thing, six months and people had already gone down hill. There people came looking for them, of course, and we had to shoot our way out. They left one of there's behind because he wasn't fast enough. He wound up impaled on a metal gate. Maggie and Beth's daddy Hershel, he wasn't going to let him die out there like that. I had been shot, and I even tried to help him. Randall begged us not to take his leg, so we took him back to the farm and we tried to help, but he couldn't stay with us. We were going to let Randall go, but walkers' attacked the farm and it got over run," Jewel told them not mentioning Shane and Randall's broken neck. "We were on the run, looking for somewhere safe, and we found Mar. One bullet in a gun, shot, and not even strong enough to pull the trigger. We save people, that's who we are, who we have to be. Joey and Jes came from Woodbury, where a crazy man kept heads of his victims in a fish tank. He wanted mine and Michonne's heads in there. Luckily that didn't happen. We fought him twice, the first time we won, the second time our home was destroyed by the same man with different followers. Did I mention a tank? Yeah he had a tank. And, he was like a kid, if he couldn't have the prison, no one could and he destroyed it. We lost a lot of men and women, and children. Mika and I were on a bus that crashed, we were the only survivors. I went into labor and we all found signs leading to the same damned place," Jewel told them as she closed her eyes. "Those who arrive, survive. Sanctuary for all, community for all," she said as she gave a cold laugh. "We all saw the signs, and we all knew if we followed them, we'd all find each other, and whatever happened, we'd be able to handle it. They forgot there other motto, but I guess that one wouldn't draw people to it."

"You're either the butcher or the cattle," Summer and Carol answered.

Jewel looked around at the faces. "Ah, you're figuring it out are you? That they ate people? They stole everything they had, and put them in train cars waiting to slaughter them. That's where I gave birth, with just Mika by my side, and three of them. They seemed normal…." she started to say. "But, they fucked with the wrong family, and Glenn had picked up Tara, Rosita, Eugene and Abe while we were all separated. They put us all in the same train car. That's what brought them down, that's what took down that hell hole. But not before I saw Rick, Glenn, Daryl and poor Bob, who would later die from a bite wound and his leg getting cut off and ate in front of him, on there knees and bound and gagged like pigs ready for slaughter," she told them.

Jes gave a small smirk as Stacey and Mrs. Neudermeyer both threw up.

"But we had some family members, including Joey and Summer," Jewel told them as Carol shook her head wanting to be left out of it, "that rescued us. Hope, Mika and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Jes," she told them as she met Deanna's eyes again. "That is what's out there, that is what is waiting to get inside and you all need to make a decision, what's best for you. Because all of us can go back out there, and wait until the wolves' or walkers' or something worse, come into these gates and slaughter you all, and then we can come back and take care of the human threat and walker threat. And, while we bury you, we'll be saying this could have turned out differently," she said as she saw Mika on the porch with a screaming Hope. "That is the end of today's lesson, ladies and gentlemen, I have a very hungry baby to look after. Summer, Carl, Lexi, I want the three of you to go check on Jessie. Jes you and one of the Alexandrians take guard duty tonight. Abraham, make sure Sasha comes back tonight, if you have to throw her over your shoulder then do it. Mar, you mind looking at Pete's face?"

"I need to look at yours first," Mar told her.

"Please, I've had worse from my father," Jewel answered as she took Hope from Mika. "What is this all about?" she questioned as she left the rest of the group to go inside.

"Did she just threaten us?" Nicholas questioned.

Glenn, Carol and Carl all three responded with, "Dixon's don't make threat's, they make promises."