All Nightmare Long
Chapter 458
Author's Note: I'm not even near where Carl dies, so I don't know what I am doing yet. I hate the idea of killing him, but I need to see how the season goes on. Just like Sophia's death changed Carol, I'll have to see how they do it with Rick. Review please.
Tara and Quinn's POV:
Tara sat in the middle of Quinn and Heath, Heath was driving. Tara looked between the two of them, and took a breath. "So, are we just going to ignore the elephant in the car" she asked.
Quinn looked at her, then back out the window. "What do you mean?"
"Well, something big just went down and it's good to talk about it," Tara informed them.
"I don't want to talk about it, I just want to forget it," Heath mumbled.
"You aren't going to be able to just forget about it," Tara said.
"How do you know? You weren't even in there, you were outside during the whole thing. So how could you possibly know what Quinn and I are feeling? There's no possible way that you could even guess how we are feeling," Heath said.
"Heath, enough," Quinn said.
"No it's alright, Quinn, I was the one who brought up this conversation. You feel guilt, you can't get the faces of the people you killed out of your mind. You wonder if there was any other way you could have done so you could have avoided it. I was part of something like this, not as out right as this, going in and killing people. The man in charge of my group, he gave Rick an ultimatum," Tara explained.
"Rick? Our Rick?" Quinn asked.
Tara nodded. "I was part of the reason they lost there previous home. I didn't know what he was, what he was capable of," she said. "They destroyed the prison, we were the cause of people's deaths. Jewel was pregnant with Hope, she was forced to give birth on the road. I am lucky that I found a family with these people. I never wanted to do it again, I never thought we'd have to do something like that. So yes I know what you are feeling, and it's not going away especially if you don't talk about it, accept it. You can't go on by blaming yourself, by thinking it over. It happened, accept it, move on."
"Move on? That's your suggestion?" Heath asked.
"She's right," Quinn said.
"I am?" Tara asked.
"She is?" Heath questioned.
"Yes, she is. We never thought that we would ever need to do something like that. But if this prevented them from coming into Alexandria, prevented them from hurting our family, then I can live with it. I don't like it, I don't want to do anything like that again, or even think about doing it. But to protect Bri, Spencer, Chloe, Gus, and everyone in Alexandria, I would. If this prevents Negan from hurting your mother and aunt, it's worth it right? It's worth us preventing something from happening to those we love, it's worth it," Quinn reiterated.
"You can tell yourself that, but we killed innocent people who had done nothing to us. And we did it in there sleep," Heath said.
"The world isn't black and white anymore, good people or bad. I wish it was, I wish we had the choice. Last time I didn't know what I was getting into, I didn't know that I was following the wrong person. This time I knew who it was I was following and who I was fighting for. They would have killed us, they would have came into Alexandria and they would have hurt us. I know that because Summer saw it happen," Tara said. "You did what you had to do, what we had to do. You feel bad because you still have your humanity, that's what separates us from them. It doesn't make us bad people, it makes us survivors," Tara said.
"Is that what you tell yourself to be able to live with yourself?" Heath asked.
"Heath, that's enough. We've done this so they get to live. Let's do this, and get back home. I want to see Gus and the girls again," Quinn said.
Carol, Mar and Maggie's POV:
The women get put into a van, Paula climbs on the passenger seats. "Omega, Omega, saviors down go to gamma code five," she said as she wraps Maggie and Mar's wrists with duct tape. "Alpha channel is now clear, we follow the protocol. Where the hell are you guys?" she questioned.
The voice came in broken.
"We're heading to the break point, switch to the pheta channel, same code. If I'm not there, toggle to Alpha listen in," Paula says.
"Copy that," the male's voice said.
The vehicle stops, the three of them getting pulled out while Paula uses the keys.
"I hate this damn place, psychopaths. Aint nothing safe about this place," Molly says.
"This place is going to save our asses," Paula says.
One of the woman uncovers Mar, Carol and Maggie's eyes, a walker growling in Maggie's face, Paula taking care of it, looking at Maggie. "Get on the ground, you there," she said as she points to Maggie. "You over there," she said as she points to Carol. "And you, by that far wall," she tells Mar. Paula puts duct tape on there legs and mouths and takes there weapons. "You're wondering if there's a way out of this. There isn't, not unless I say so," she said as she dragged the walker out.
The second woman looked at Paula. "We need back up."
Paula looked at the them. "I want to kill all three of you right now. It's taking all I have not to, go ahead try something. I dare you to try something, see what happens," Paula warned as she went out the door.
Mar looked between Maggie and Carol, keeping her calm, having faith in Rick, Daryl and the others. She saw Maggie standing up then lowered herself to the ground, rubbing her arms up and down trying to get the tape off. Carol using her feet to grab the crucafex and putting it in her pocket, the fighting stopping outside the door and Maggie quickly crawled back to her spot. Mar took a breath, waiting.
Jes, Summer and Joey's POV;
Jes looked at the five other people in the room. "Let's break up in 3's, Zihayr, Emily and me. Summer, Joey and Aaron. Don't separate, keep in reach of each other. Make sure everyone of them has a head wound, we don't want any surprises. Gather radio's, gather season's. Listen to the radio channel's, keep an ear out for that woman. They'll be changing channel's, I'll play with the radio find the channel, tell Rick which channel to turn too," she said.
"We need to make this quick, meet up with the others, they may need help getting our people back," Aaron said.
"I like that you just said our people," Joey said. "Let's go, we'll start up top, you guys start at the bottom, we'll meet in the middle."
"What if some of them turned?" Emily questioned.
"You take them down," Summer responded. "Most will probably have head wounds, but can't be to careful," she said as she went up the stairs with Joey in front of her with Aaron behind.
"How does someone get this many people to follow them?" Aaron asked.
"By fear," Summer said. "I saw Negan, I was face to face with him, he is scary. I bet no one ever opposed him before. I'm just hoping that we find him, he has to be in here."
"We'll find him,"Aaron assured her as he looked up and down the hall. "How do you want to do this?"
"Check the hall way first, put the weapons in one central location, then go room by room. I doubt there's many people left in the rooms," Summer said.
"They would have heard the commotion, coming out of the room, being taken out by Sasha and Abraham," Joey said. "You're the one who knows what this Negan looks like, start from the steps, Aaron and I will be right behind you, I'll take the first guys weapon, then you'll move down to the second person, and Aaron will follow you, get the weapons, and so on," he said. "But first, let's make sure we don't have any unwanted guests," he said as he banged against the stair railing waiting for any growls.
"That just means they haven't turned yet," Summer said.
"So be extra careful,"Aaron said.
Joey nodded as Summer took out her knife and bent down to the first guy and checked the face and shook her head, noticing that he had a gun shot wound to the head and she moved to the next body. She continued going to each of the bodies. She bent down to one near the wall to one body and went to move his head so she could see his face. She was caught off guard when a hand went up to her throat, causing her to drop the knife. The male looked at her trying to reach his gun, her trying to remove his hand from her throat. Aaron ran up and stabbed the man in the head. Summer crawled back tot he other wall, taking a few breath's.
Summer, you alright?" Joey asked.
Summer nodded as she looked around and coughed a little.
Aaron handed her his water bottle and she took a sip of it. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. At least he wasn't a walker," Summer said. "He also wasn't Negan, none of them are," she said.
"Come on, let's go to the second floor," Joey said as he helped her up.