All Nightmare Long

Chapter 462

Author's Note: I think we need to go check on Alexandria before we get everyone back together. Of course I'm going to do them coming home. Summer is not going to be happy that Negan wasn't there. So I had this chapter half written, then I watched season 8 finale, and what I had written didn't seem to flow with the original idea I had. Please review

Jewel and Carl's POV:

Jewel climbed up on the guard tower and looked over at Carl. "Hey, what are you doing up here? You should have been relieved by now," she told her son.

"I'm good," Carl said.

"Everyone has jobs to do, and your job ended about 45 minutes ago," Jewel told him.

"I told Noel that I'd stay up here for a while," Carl said. "I'm good," he assured his mother.

"You keeping watch isn't going to make them come home any faster, you know?" Jewel questioned. She saw him tilt his head, very much like Rick did. She gave a small laugh. "You are so much like your dad. Don't look to surprised that I figured that's why you wanted to stay up here. You figured that if I wasn't up here, you would be. I wish that staring would bring them home sooner, but it doesn't," she reminded him. "I stopped by Noel's before coming here, he's going to come up in a few minutes," she said.

"Mom, I'm fine," he reassured her.

"I'm sure you are, but your shift ended. It won't do anyone any good if you are exhausted tomorrow and we need you for something else," Jewel reminded him.

Carl nodded. "Do you regret staying behind?"

Jewel shook her head. "I'm always going to worry about anyone that's out there. And I always feel better if I'm out there with your dad, but this time I needed to stay back. I'm tired," she said as she looked out past Alexandria. "I'm tired of losing people, I'm tired of killing, I'm tired of constantly fighting. And, I got to thinking about Summer's hesitation about going after Negan and how she thinks we should wait, get ready for him. I don't know whose right, but it started getting me to thinking about how we would have never done this three years ago, even a year ago. And when Quinn said she wanted to go, it gave me a reason to stay behind, just this one time. I need to spend more time with Judy, Hope, Mika, and even you," she joked as she playfully hit his shoulder with hers. "I almost lost you, I almost lost Summer," she reminded him.

"But you didn't," Carl told her.

"But I could have," Jewel repeated. "I don't need to be out there all the time, even though I feel like I should be, for your dad, for Daryl, for Maggie, for Glenn, for everyone. But sometimes, I can't be, sometimes I need to be here, for everyone else, for you guys. I think staying behind is one of the hardest things I've done."

"Like if you aren't out there something bad will happen," Carl reasoned.

Jewel nodded. "But bad things happen even when I'm not there," she said with a smile. "Here comes Noel, so this means we can go back to the house, I can check on the girls and you can read comics," she said as she started to climb down.

Carol, Maggie and Mar's POV:

Mar tore the tape off her wrist and reached over and hugged Carol. "We have to find Maggie," she said as she got up. "Are you alright? I've never seen you act like that before."

"It was just that, an act," Carol said as she went to the door. She looked at Mar and nodded as she opened the door and went out with her. Mar pushed Carol back as they heard steps.

"Just a sec sugar," Molly said as she bent over breathing hard looking at a walker then finishing it off.

Mar nodded to Carol as Molly went the other way. Mar took one side of the hall way and Carol the other. Carol opened the door. "She's in here," she whispered to Mar. Carol went in and helped Maggie getting her hands free.

Maggie hugged her. "Are you OK?"

"Have to be," Carol said.

Mar waited looking out the door and turned and hugged Maggie. "Are you alright? The baby?"

"We're alright," Maggie assured her.

"They're spread out but I think we can make it pass them, we have to try," Carol said.

"What are you talking about Carol? There's people still alive," Mar told her.

"We can't leave them alive," Maggie said.

"Every time we leave people alive, they come back, worse than before," Mar told her.

"We should just go," Carol said as they looked over Donnie's body.

"Carol we have to finish this, we have too," Maggie said. "He was already dead, he's turning," she said.

"We should go," Carol repeated.

"Carol, we are finishing this," Mar said.

"We need a gun," Maggie said. "Give me the rope," she told Carol. Maggie ties him up to the pipe. The three woman stood behind the door.

Molly opens the door, Donnie going to attack her. "Eat shit and die, Donnie," Molly said as she finished him off. "Where are you Magnolia? I wanna bloody up that nice..." she said as she gurgels Maggie stabs her repeatedly.

"That's enough, Maggie, she's dead," Mar said as she pulled Maggie away. "Go," she told Carol as they walked out into the hallway. Paula opened the door, sees the carnage.

"They're using them to keep us in and the others' out," Carol said as she saw the walkers' on spikes.

"Come on we have to find 'em," Maggie told her.

"Carol we don't do this, the people will find us, find our families, so we are going to finish this," Mar said. "Carol," she said as gun was firing.

Carol turned and saw Paula. "Just run," she told Paula.

"Shoot her," Maggie told her.

"Go on do it, you've killed Donnie, you've killed Molly. You're people have destroyed my home," Paula said.

"How many people homes have you destroyed? How many people have you killed?" Mar asked.

"Carol," Maggie said.

"You have no idea the things I've done, what I've given up, what I had to do," Paula said.

"Once again, you think you are the only one that had to do things?" Mar asked. "Carol shoot her or give me the gun," she hissed at her.

Carol ignored her. "Just run," she said.

"Carol, shoot her," Maggie said.

"Go ahead, I've already lost everything," Paula said.

"Paula, Paula? Molly?" MIchelle called as she came around the corner. Mar ran toward her as Michelle raised the gun and hit her over the head as it knocked her down. Michelle approached Maggie and started fighting her. "You lying bitch," Michelle said as she hit Maggie in the stomach with a knife. Carol ran toward her and shot her.

"Take care of Mar,"Carol said as she got up and went toward Paula. "I can do it now," she told the other woman.

Paula started laughing. "You're good, nervous little bird You were her, but not now right? Me too," she said.

"I told you to run," Carol told her.

"If you could do all this, what were you so afraid of Carol?" Paula asked.

"I was afraid of this," Carol said as they started fighting, Paula getting impaled on a stick, Carol finishing her off.

Maggie helped Mar come up to her.

"Are you alright?" Carol asked.

"Got one hell of a headache," Mar responded as the walkie talkie came to life.

"We're at the perimeter, you copy?" a male's voice asked.

Carol picked up the walkie talkie. "Meet us on the kill floor," she answered as the the three woman went into a room. "I think it might have killed eighteen people, maybe twenty. I should've killed Donnie too, in the woods. I had a clear shot, I didn't miss. None of this would have happened if I just killed him," she said.

"Don't think about it," Maggie said.

"I can't stop," Carol told her.

"We're almost done,"Maggie said.

"Is it ever over?"Mar said as they heard footsteps, Maggie closed the door, leaving it cracked.

"Careful, floors slick," a man warned.

"You sure this is it?" the man asked.

"She said the kill floor," the first man responded.

"Hey this ones locked," the second man said.

Carol lights a cigarette, closing the door, throws the cigarette in, catching the gasoline on fire, trapping them.

The three woman looked at each other, before they started walking down the hall.

TBC