All Nightmare Long

Chapter 575

Author's Note: I really don't mean it to be two weeks between updates. Life happens, work happens, depression happens. I'm sure you all understand. Please review it helps.

Team family POV:

Rosita sighed and paced. "We shouldn't be going back to Alexandria, we need to stay out and look for guns to steal."

"Rick is hurt, Aaron is hurt," Tara said.

"I'm more nervous about what Eric will say when he sees my face like this again," Aaron admitted.

"We have people out already, looking for weapons. Jes said she had a line on weapons right?" Gus asked.

"She wasn't very open about where she was going to go look for these guns," Rosita said.

"People back home need food, Rick and Jewel wants to bring supplies back and regroup. So that's what we're doing," Tara told her.

"Then I'll go on my own," Rosita said.

"Woah, isn't there some kind of rule of your guys not to do things on your own?" Gus questioned.

"Yes, there is," Tara answered. "We're sticking together, and that's it."

"What is your problem?" Rosita questioned.

"We're not looking for a fight right now, Rosita. We're getting ready for one," Tara pointed out.

"It's always a fight Tara," Rosita said. "I'm not letting anyone get in our way or slow us down. If we got to stop people from taking from us or we got to take from other people, I don't care, we win. Grow up," she said before she walked away.

"Guns soon," Jadis told the group.

"Soon or else," one of the other members told them.

"Yeah, we know," Jewel said as she sighed as she walked away.

"Once we get you stitched up, we can go back out and find the guns, right?," Michonne said.

"That's right," Rick said.

"Do we have any idea where to start looking? I mean I know Jes is out there, but I don't know how she's doing or how many guns they have," Jewel said as she lowered her voice. "And we aren't giving them the guns we have hidden."

"No, I don't but that hasn't stopped us before," Rick said as he kissed Jewel's cheek. "Tara you've been out farther then any of us, at least you can tell us where not to look," he said.

"Yeah, sure thing," Tara said with a small smile.

"Let's go already," Rosita said.

"She's not in the best of moods," Gus stated.

Jewel walked over to Rosita. "We need to talk when we get back to Alexandria."

"No we don't," Rosita told her.

"Yes we do, and we will. This is not up for discussion. Before we head out, you and I are going to sit down and have a conversation, like family. Understood?" Jewel questioned.

"Yeah, I understand," Rosita said as she looked at her.

"Good," Jewel stated.

"Alright let's go," Rick said to the group.

Daryl and Mar's POV:

Mar sighed. "Morgan isn't going to help us get this King on our side," she pointed out.

"I know," Daryl told her. "We're going to have to do it ourselves," he told her as they walked up to where Richard was practicing with a bow and arrow.

"Practicing, we're going to have to start using these more," Richard said. "Savior's are smart enough to know that I shouldn't have a gun around them. Morgan said you were a bowman," he said as he handed him a bow.

Daryl hesitated before taking it. "Why?"

"Daryl, this is where you say thank you," Mar said.

"No it's ok," Richard said. "Cause we want the same things. I need your help," he told them.

"With what?" Mar asked as Daryl looked at the cross bow.

"We need something to move Ezekiel, this is it," Richard said as he walked with them. "Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom hitting first, hitting hard and we wipe the savior's from the Earth. Keeping people, dozens and dozens of good people, keep them safe," he said as he handed both Mar and Daryl rifle's from a stash. He walked down the road with them, past a cemetery sign. Mar looked at Daryl as Richard kept looking back. He went behind a truck. "They ride this road, we see cars, it's the savior's. They've been coming in packs of two or three lately," he informed them. "That's why I need you. I can't take them alone. We'll hit them with the guns first, then the mal toz's then the guns again."

"Why the fire?" Daryl questioned.

"Needs to look bad. The Savior's who discover what's left, we want them to be angry. I left a trail from here to the weapon's cache I planted, to a cabin that someone Ezekiel cares about is staying at," Richard explained.

"So you're setting up some innocent person to die? I don't know how I feel about that," Mar said.

"It has to be done, something to catch Ezekiel's attention," Richard said.

"Who's that?" Daryl asked.

"It's just some loner he met," Richard said. "Sometime's he brings food," he said.

"Why don't they live in the Kingdom?" both Mar and Daryl questioned.

"I don't know. She lives out there, she'll die out there," Richard responded.

Mar looked at Daryl before Daryl spoke. "It's a woman?" Daryl questioned.

"What does it matter?" Richard asked. "She's got more balls then you and me," Richard said. "She's going to die either way," he told them.

Mar looked at Daryl. "How long has she been here?" Mar asked.

"When the savior's come and find there buddies dead, if they know their elbow from their asshole and can follow an obvious spoor, they're going to the weapons cache and then to the cabin, and they're gonna attack this woman," Richard told them.

"What's her name?" Daryl demanded.

"Maybe they kill her, maybe they don't, but it's gonna show Ezekiel what he needs to do," Richard told them.

"Her name," Daryl repeated. "What is it?"

"Tell us her name," Mar repeated.

"She's tough, maybe she'll live," Richard told them.

"Say her damn name!" Daryl growled.

Mar kept her hand on her gun as she watched Richard.

"Carol," Richard answered with a sigh. "I hoped you didn't know her but I didn't think you'd care. Cause you know what needs to happen."

"She's family, so we care," Mar said as Daryl took a step forward.

"Mar come on," Daryl said as he walked past her. "No," he said.

"We're not letting this happen," Mar said as she walked past Richard.

"Maybe she'll live," Richard stated. "Look this is how…this is how it could happen. This is how we can get rid of the Savior's, how we all can have a future. She's living out there on her own, just waiting to die."

"No!" Both Daryl and Mar said as they picked up the guns and started to leave.

"If we don't do anything, a hell of a lot more people are gonna die, people who want to live!" Richard exclaimed.

"You stay the hell away from Carol, you hear me?" Daryl demanded.

"That goes for me too," Mar said. "We just lost a member of the original group, we're not losing another, not like this. Doing this, it makes you no better then the Savior's," she said as she heard vehicles approaching.

"It's them," Richard said as he looked past the truck. "Look, we can wait for things to go bad, and lose people, maybe even your kid, or we can do the hard thing…and choose our fate for ourselves," Richard said.

"Don't ever threaten Mitch," Mar said as she balled up her fist.

"No," Daryl said.

"Sorry," Richard said as he turned to shoot at the cars.

Mar and Daryl both lunged at him, Daryl getting to him first, throwing him to the ground, hitting him as the cars passed. Richard grabbed a canteen off the ground and hit Daryl in the head and grabbed a rifle, as Mar pointed her rifle at him and Daryl pointed the cross bow at him while he pointed the gun at Daryl.

"Put it down," Mar warned.

"They'll be more," Richard informed them. "Or those, they'll be heading back this way later. We'll have another chance," he said. "But we're running out of time. If you and your people want to move against the savior's, you need to do it soon. And you need the Kingdom. What we have to do requires sacrifice, one way or another. People like us, we've already lost so much."

"You don't know us," Daryl told him.

"We're not using Carol as a scape goat. It's not going to happen," Mar informed him.

"I know that Carol living on her own like that, she might as well be dead right now," Richard said.

Daryl lowered his gun. "She gets hurt, she dies, she catches a fever, she's taken out by a walker, she gets hit by lightning, anything. Anything happens to her, I'll kill you," Daryl warned.

"And I'll put your walker form down," Mar told him.

"I would die for the Kingdom," Richard told them.

"Then why don't you?" Daryl questioned.

"It's better then being a coward and putting the blame on someone else," Mar said.

"Let's go," Daryl told Mar as they walked away.

"We going to find her?" Mar asked.

"Yes," Daryl simply answered.