Better Days

Chapter 333

Author's Note: I'm debating what to do about Glenn and Nicholas. I may leave them out but who knows. Right on with our story. Some Alexandrian thoughts for this chapter. Please review.

Eric and Emily's Pov:

Eric looked at his sister. "You want to back Quinn, don't you?"

Emily turned and looked at her. "Don't you?"

"I do, I believe in Rick and his group, but," Eric started to say.

"You can't make the decision without Aaron. I get it, I do. But don't you think Aaron would be on there side? He believes in them. Quinn isn't going to let Rick be exiled. All she is asking is for people to support her. The more people that support her, that back her, well, it'll make it harder for Deanna to kick Rick out. You've been out there, Eric, you know how bad it can be. Do you honestly think that Jessie deserved to be beaten? Do you think it was right that Deanna tried to blame someone in Rick's group for grabbing Summer? I don't. I don't think Jewel needed Rick to come to her rescue. I think Pete would have been out that window, with her. Do you think if it was her instead of Rick, Deanna would have the audacity to blame her?" Emily asked.

Eric gave a small smile. "You just want something juicy to post in that newsletter of yours."

The younger redhead shook her head. "I just want to do the right thing. I want to be able to live with myself. And seeing someone who has only been here a month doing what we should have all done, well it made me realize we were wrong. I'm just glad that Jessie and the boys weren't killed. We would have had to live with that Eric. Each and every one of us. I'm not willing to live with that possible guilt anymore. I'm not going to live with the guilt of Rick being thrown out, because you know his group will go with him, including those babies. Deanna isn't thinking about that. She hopes that they'll let Rick go, and we both know that is never happening. I'm going to go over to Quinn's. If you want to, you can meet us at the meeting, if not, then go to the meeting to listen to Deanna spin some kind of story about how this is all Rick's fault. She won't mention Pete, she wants to forget his part in this. Quinn's right," she said as she kissed the top of his forehead.

"You were always the one who said what needed to be said. You always stood up for me against mom and dad. It shouldn't have been you that did that, I was older," Eric told her.

"We are siblings, and they were wrong," Emily said. "I'm heading over. Love you."

"Love you too," Eric said as he thought about what his little sister had said.

Francine, Jill, Betsy, Barbara, Mrs. Neudermeyer, Stacy and Phoebe's POV:

Barbara, Betsy, Mrs. Neudermeyer, and Stacy looked at Jill, Francine and Phoebe as they sipped coffee. "You three can't be serious about following him," Stacy told them.

"His name is Rick," Phoebe reminded her.

"Rick brandished a gun at the whole town," Betsy reminded her.

"I know Pete was beating on his wife, but I don't see that a good enough reason to do what he did," Mrs. Neudermeyer informed them.

Phoebe sighed. "Once again his name is Rick."

"Pete wasn't hitting Jessie this time, he was beating on Jewel, Rick's wife. If it was me, and it was Brad who saw it, he would have done the same thing. If Brad wasn't out with Heath, he'd be agreeing that it was time someone stood up to Pete," Jill informed them as she leaned against the counter with her arm's crossed.

"Rick's group knows what to do out there. If Abraham and David wasn't out there, I wouldn't be alive right now. Tobin would have left me," Francine defended the group. "I don't think Rick would have seriously shot anyone," she told the other women.

"You can't know that for sure," Barbara told them.

"The man had a gun, a gun he wasn't supposed to have. He stole a gun from the armory and he pointed it at people," Stacy reminded them.

Phoebe hit the table with her hand causing her coffee to spill a little. "He has a name, it's Rick. Rick Grimes. Rick has a family to protect. You don't get it, none of you do. You haven't been out there, you haven't had to do the things they had to do, things I had to do to survive. You've all been living in a fairytale, behind gates and haven't had to get your hands dirty. You haven't had to inspect your children for bites because they were so covered in blood you couldn't tell if it was there's or other peoples'. You haven't had to walk away from somebody you loved after you put them down after they were bit, you didn't have time or a place to bury them. You haven't had to kill someone because they were going to rape you in front of your nephew," she told them. "No, for over two years, you've been surrounded by gates, not even going out there. You're only worry is about a damn pasta maker," she told them as she glared at Mrs. Neudermeyer. "What about you Stacy? You're a mother and your first thought is that Jewel has to be a terrible mother because her children were armed? You thought we should have just taken the children and send the rest away? You still think that, don't even try to deny it. You think, not only Rick should be exiled, but the rest of them too. But, oh we'll just keep the children. Which one of you can nurse a baby? Which one of you have the guts to stand up and tell Jewel that? She could have killed Pete yesterday, when he grabbed Summer. She could have thrown that knife at Pete's head and killed him on the spot. But she didn't, she spared his life. Why? Because after all they've been through, after all they've had seen, after all they've had to do, they are still holding on to a bit of humanity; which is more then I can say about some people at this table," Phoebe informed them. "How many times did you think Liam should be taken away from me and that I should be sent out? I'm just the same as them, I was out there. I lost part of me, Liam lost a part of himself. You can't be out there and not turn dark," she told them as she stood up. "I'm with Quinn on this, the rest of you can do what you all want," she said as she slammed out of the house.

Stacy looked at them and started to open her mouth to say something. Francine held up her hand. "Stop, just stop, don't say anything. None of you," she warned. "Phoebe is part of this community, yet some of you never have accepted her. You've never once had her over for coffee or tea, until now. You look at her like she's a monster, the same with Enid. Your nightmares can't come up with scenario's like what they've had to face. I've actually talked with Phoebe, with Enid. I've seen the same determination in them that I saw in Abraham and David when they saved me. They've lost so much, but somehow they still care what happened to other people. They carry death with them, it's never far from there minds. They remember every single name of the people that they've lost. I don't think many people in here could go through what they've gone through and survived. If something, or someone came through those gates, you'd all push the person down in front of you and run over them to get away. Rick's group and Phoebe, they wouldn't. They would pull the person in front of them or in back of them to help save them. That's who I want watching my back."

Jill nodded. "You know that Brad and I came in here with Quinn, Chloe and Gus. We were all in Walter Reed. We saw soldiers, killing patents, other brothers' in arms. I was injured, my shoulder, not a life ending injury, and I had a soldier, a soldier that I served with, that I knew, put a gun in my face and said he had his orders. The government had ordered soldiers to kill other American soldiers, injured soldiers, to keep this thing from spreading. I'm sure that soldiers around the world had the same orders, for hospitals, including civilian hospitals. I would have died by another soldier's hand, if it hadn't been for Brad coming in that instant and shooting the man. I had to take the gun that was going to kill me, and with a bum shoulder fight my way out. Quinn, Chloe, Gus and about six or seven others, we escaped. We took a lot of guns, we managed to get medication, and we learned real quick that the only way to kill those bastards is by destroying the head. I remember the first person we lost, every time I close my eyes, she haunts me. She was 16, her name was Elsie, her father had two of his legs blown off in Iraq, was recovering. She was visiting him, when everything happened. Her mother had went into the hallway to see what was going on and got bit. Elsie opened the door to let her back in, but she was already one of those things. Her father had yelled at her to get under the bed, he let himself get bit so she could live. She ran out of the room, and ran into me. The second night we were out, still figuring out how to survive this new kind of war, we were holed up in a family residence. We had three kids under the age of 17, they were our top priority. We all fell asleep, we didn't know at the time, light attracted them. Elsie wanted to read, she went into another room, turned on a lamp. The house had a generator, one of those quiet ones. The door was cracked just the tiniest, she didn't notice. Three of those things saw the light, got in, attacked her. We heard her screams, screams that no one could ever get out of there head, and we killed those things. Elsie was still alive, but in God Awful pain. She had been gnawed at….bitten…several times. She was begging us to kill her. No one wanted to put down a 16 year old girl, even a 16 year old who was in agony. After ten minutes of her screaming, of her begging, I knew I had to do it. I took a gun and I held it to her head and I said I'm sorry, over and over. It was all I could do," she said as she wiped her eyes. "I imagine Quinn heard those same screams when Aiden was bit, when Noah was being torn apart. Yeah, I'm with Quinn," she told them.

Jill nodded. "Me too," she said as both women walked out of the house leaving the other women to think about what they said.

Author's Note: Next chapter, maybe the next two or three, will be the meeting.