Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update. Part of it had to do the with holidays, but mostly I was just dreading having to revisit my grief over the losses of two of our beloved characters that I just didn't want to write it. But, here I am again, and hopefully I can get to the next hurdle now. As always, please R&R!
xoxo - Holly
"Everything changes and, somewhere along the line, I'm changing with it." — Eric Burdon
"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."
All Rick heard, without having to see it happen, was the initial, sickening thud of someone's head being struck with the bat. The shocked gasps and sobs beginning to escape everyone's lips were making the situation they were all in that much more real. The nightmare of the world they lived in just got that much worse. Because of where Rick was kneeling, further down the line from where Georgie ended up, he had been unable to tell if Negan had stopped and chosen her or Abraham since the two had been kneeling closely beside each other. However, when the bat came down and Abraham dropped forward, a part of Rick sighed a breath of relief, while the other part of him felt like it was dying. Because, while his girlfriend was safe, his friend was being murdered and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
After the first swing knocked Abraham down flat on his stomach, he somehow found it in him to pull himself back up as blood began pouring down the front of his face from his scalp.
"Oh! Look at that! Taking it like a champ!" Negan bellowed excitedly.
"Suck…my…nuts," Abraham managed to speak.
Georgie was hunched forward, keeping herself up by bracing her hands on the ground, much like Rosita. Kneeling upright was too painful and this position for her was the only thing to alleviate that. She was turning to her left, watching Abraham as tears burned at her eyes and blazed a path down her face. She wanted to reach out to him and pull him back toward her, to somehow stop all of this. If Negan just stopped now, Abraham could be fine. They could take him to Hilltop and get Dr. Carson to give him some medication and stitch him up, she was sure. Or, at least, that was what she hoped. Abraham was like this big brother to her and now she had to watch someone else she cared about get brutally killed right in front of her eyes.
The second swing of the bat came down hard on Abraham's head and then so was his entire body as he fell forward onto the flat of his stomach again. He didn't move after that. Each swing came from Lucille in rapid, bludgeoning succession; utterly destroying the ginger-haired man's head to the point where it was impossible to tell what color hair he'd ever had.
Georgie cried out, shaking and crying like those around her; watching as the bloody decimation before her. When Negan was finished, he turned slightly away from the others, staggering slightly like a drunk. Blood dripped from the end of Lucille and Georgie found it was easier to stare at the bat than at Abraham.
"D'you hear that?" Negan chuckled. "He said, 'suck my nuts.'" Without warning, he hauled off and began to strike down against what was left of Abraham's head about a dozen more times.
Georgie closed her eyes, but she couldn't drown out the crunching sound the bat made against the mix of blood, skull bone and brain matter.
"Oh, my goodness! Look at this!" Negan held up Lucille, inspecting how much more coated it had become with Abraham's blood. With a chuckle, he gave it a slight swing in Rick's direction and some of the blood splattered across the right side of Rick's face. "You guys, look at my dirty girl! Sweetheart, lay your eyes on this."
He was holding the bat in front of Georgie's face now. She could sense it inches away, but she chose to keep her eyes closed even then. Her chin quivered and when she began to open her eyes anyway, she briefly glimpsed Abraham's body and fresh tears began to fall. Negan took a step forward and touched her hair with his free hand which caused her to noticeably tense up.
Backing up, Negan frowned. "Oh, damn. Were you—was he your brother? That sucks. But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this. Red—and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red. He just took one or six or seven for the team! So take a damn look." The blood was dripping from Lucille, but Georgie still refused. So, when she instead closed her eyes again and fresh tears began to run down her cheeks, Negan growled at her. "Take a damn look!"
With a grunt, Daryl threw the blanket around him off his shoulders. Within seconds he was on his feet and swung his fist, successfully connecting it with Negan's jaw. While he kept trying to reach for Negan, Daryl was quickly apprehended by one of the many Saviors standing idly by, and then a second to assist.
Negan smiled faintly, as if he was impressed by the insurrection and then charged forward a bit, aiming the end of his bat down at Daryl. "No! Oh no." Taking a few steps back and spinning subtly around like some sort of showman, Negan chuckled again. "That? Oh, my! That is a no-no. The whole thing; not one bit of that shit flies here." He crouched down beside Daryl who was being held down upon the ground and kept the blood-soaked end of Lucille close to Daryl's face.
The Savior with the burn mark on the side of his face – Dwight – came hurrying up, holding Daryl's crossbow and wearing Daryl's leather vest with the angel wings. He aimed the crossbow at Daryl and one of the Saviors pinning Daryl down got out of the way.
"Do you want me to do it?" Dwight asked. "Right here."
Georgie's eyes were open again at that point and watching what she believed to be Daryl's last moments in this world. Her chin was quivering so much that her teeth were beginning to clack rapidly together as if she were cold.
Negan gripped a handful of Daryl's hair that had been covering his eyes, causing Daryl to grunt in pain. "No," Negan spoke to Dwight. "No, you don't kill them, not until you try a little." As Dwight and the other two Saviors dragged Daryl back into line, Negan stood back up. "And anyway, that's not how it works. Now, I already told you people — first one's free — then what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions. Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with but I'm a man of my word." He cast an eye down toward Rick, and then back over toward Daryl. "First impressions are important. I need you to know me. So…back to it."
Without warning, Negan raised Lucille and spun around so quickly there was no time for anyone to prepare for when he suddenly brought the bat down upon Glenn's head.
Blood seemed to spray immediately from the wound Negan had just created and Glenn dropped forward like a sack of potatoes. Poor Maggie, who was already weak from whatever was ailing her, let out a heart-wrenching sob as she was forced to watch her husband, the father of their unborn child, meet the same fate as Abraham. Everyone else seemed to gasp in sheer horror at what was now happening.
Upon a second whack, Maggie cried out, "No!" and it was the most agonizing exclamation any of them had ever heard. They all loved both Abraham and Glenn, but Maggie had loved Glenn the most and shared the deepest connection with him. He was her other half and now she was losing that forever.
Slowly, Glenn found the willpower to pull himself upward. The top of his head was concaved, blood covered his face and his left eye was popped halfway out of his skull. He was groaning and gasping to breathe and speak when he turned toward Maggie. There was no chance for him now. Even if Negan stopped there, Glenn would not survive that injury.
"Buddy, you still there?" Negan inquired, leaning in and very obviously amused. Glenn was sputtering; his brain severely damaged at this point, but he was trying to communicate to Maggie regardless. "I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!"
"Maggie, I—I'll find you…" Glenn finally managed to say.
She was sobbing, trying not to break eye contact with him.
Everyone was sobbing. They all found it hard to see Glenn like this, but they didn't want to look away and let him die with their heads turned away from him.
"Oh. Oh, hell," Negan muttered, giving the impression that he actually felt bad about what he was doing. "I can see this is hard on you guys. I am sorry. I truly am. But I did say it. No exceptions!"
And with that, he struck Glenn's head again. And again. And again. And again.
It almost seemed like it was going on forever.
"You bunch of pussies," Negan taunted. "I'm just getting started." With each blow, there was no doubting Glenn was already dead, even though his left hand was twitching; likely the last ditch effort from his nerve endings. "Lucille is thirsty. She's a vampire bat." Amused at his lame joke, Negan finally stopped and walked over before coming to a stop in front of Rick. "What? Was the joke that bad?"
Slowly, Rick lifted his head and looked up at Negan. "I'm gonna kill you," he spoke, his voice raspy.
Negan stepped forward and crouched down. Lucille, covered in blood and a piece of Glenn's scalp stuck to it, was very close to Rick's face. "What? I didn't quite catch that. You're gonna have to speak up."
Rick looked down, adjusting himself on the ground and then brought his gaze directly up at Negan's face, maintaining eye contact. "Not today, not tomorrow…but I'm gonna kill you."
Negan stared back, considering those words and smiling a bit as he inhaled sharply to the point that it almost sounded like a low and faint whistle. "Jesus," he chuckled. "Simon…what did he have, a knife?"
"Uh, he had a hatchet," Simon replied from behind Rick.
Clearly amused, and as in disbelief, Negan questioned this. "A hatchet?"
"He had an axe."
Negan smiled more noticeably, chuckled and licked his lips as he brought his gaze away from the Savior and back down to Rick. "Simon's my right-hand man. Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without 'em? A whole lot of work. Do you have one? Maybe one of these fine people still breathing? Oh. Or did I—" Waving Lucille slightly in front of Rick's face, he clicked his tongue. As Rick glared up at him and clenched his jaw, Negan sighed. "Sure. Yeah. Give me his axe."
The sound of footsteps followed as Simon handed Rick's hatchet to Negan, who took it and held it up while studying Rick's face for what felt like ages. Inhaling deeply, he stood up and slid the hatchet under his belt to keep it in place.
"I'll be right back," he announced, grabbing Rick by the collar of his jacket and dragging him forward without hesitation while Rick was scrambling to try and stand, all to no avail. "Maybe Rick will be with me. And if not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we?"
Georgie gasped out, and began to cry all over again, for the fear of losing Rick on top of everything. And all she could do is stay there in line with everyone else, watching as Rick twisted around, fumbling to right himself while Negan continued to drag him forward toward the RV.
"I mean, the ones that are left," Negan continued, shoving Rick inside the RV through the opened door like a ragdoll. As he climbed in after, he slammed the door shut and everyone was left just sitting or kneeling where they were, surrounded by all those Saviors, and sobbing.
Georgie's mind was running wild, thinking of what was going to happen in that RV, when the engine sputtered a few times but didn't seem to be turning over. After a moment, there seemed to be some sort of sudden movement inside the vehicle, but everyone outside was blind to what exactly had just happened and that made it harder for Carl and Georgie especially; not knowing if his father and the man she loved had just been injured or worse; killed. Less than a minute later filled with stillness, the RV shook slightly again and a muffled grunt could be heard.
Georgie was imagining the worse.
When the engine suddenly revved and came to life, the RV lurched slightly and then began to drive off, just as the faint light of sunrise was reaching up from the ground beyond the trees, giving hint to the new day that was officially beginning.
And what a horrible way the day had begun.
The sun eventually had risen high enough that the flood lights were deemed unnecessary and the Saviors had begun turning them off and packing them up while the rest remained in position, keeping guard around the rest of Rick's group. It could've been minutes, an hour, maybe two. The passing of time was difficult to discern as they all sat there, slumped forward; lost in their grief and fear, waiting to see if Negan would ever return with Rick. In the meantime, all they wanted to do was hold onto one another, but they still weren't allowed to move. When Aaron had made the simplest move toward Sasha, simply to place a hand upon her shoulder, a Savior had barked at him to sit still unless he wanted a hole in the back of his head.
Soon enough, the RV appeared on the dirt road and came to a stop in the same spot it had been parked earlier. After a minute or two, the door was thrown open and Rick was tossed out onto the ground with his hatchet in hand. For the briefest of moments, Georgie feared that how limply he'd fallen out meant he was dead, but then Rick had let out a grunt of breath and that fear subsided, but not completely.
Out walked Negan, joining everyone once again. Like before, he grabbed Rick by the collar of his jacket and dragged him forward as Rick struggled to gain any traction and merely walk on his own. Negan brought him in front of the others and dropped him unceremoniously to the ground and then smiled at everyone.
"Here we are," Negan announced. "Let me ask you something, Rick. Do you even know what that little trip was about?"
Rick climbed up onto his hands and knees and scanned everyone's face as he appeared to still be struggling to grasp everything that had transpire over the course of the last few hours.
"Speak when you're spoken to," Negan demanded.
"Okay. Okay."
"That trip was about the way you looked at me. I wanted to change that. I wanted you to understand," Negan continued as Rick turned his head and looked up at him. "But you're still looking at me the same fucking way, like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna fucking work. So…" He crouched down beside Rick. "Do I give you another chance?"
Shaking and breathing raggedly, Rick nodded; keeping his head down. "Yeah. Yeah. Yes."
Negan patted Rick on the back and stood up. "Okay. Alright. And here it is — the fucking grand prize game. What you do next will decided whether your shit day becomes everyone's last shit day or just another shit day. Get some guns to the back of their heads."
Without any hesitation, Saviors stepped up behind the rest of Rick's ground and pointed the barrels of their respective guns to the back of everyone's heads as ordered.
"Good. Now, level with their noses so if you have to fire—" Negan mimicked the sound of an explosion paired with the gesture of the front of his face bursting. "It'll be a real mess."
Rick looked up, glancing over at Georgie; guilt upon his face for leading everyone to this. He couldn't stand the grief and fear in her eyes, so he looked back toward the ground.
"Kid, right here."
Rick looked up and over toward his son and felt his heart beating so hard and fast it was resonating in his ears.
Leave my son out of this! he wanted to scream out loud.
"Kid, now." Slowly and defiantly, Carl stood up and walked forward as Negan slipped his belt off. "You a southpaw?"
"Am I a what?" Carl questioned; attitude oozing from his voice.
"You a lefty?"
"No."
"Good," Negan remarked and proceeded to tie the belt around Carl's left arm and pulled tight as everyone looked on nervously. "That hurt?"
"No."
"Should. It's supposed to. Alright. Get down on the ground, kid, next to Daddy. Spread them wings." Grabbing Carl's hat, he took it and tossed it over his shoulder before guiding Carl, roughly, down to the ground to lay upon his stomach. "Simon…you got a pen?"
"Yeah."
The Savior pulled a black Sharpie out of his pants pocket and tossed it across to Negan who caught it with little to no effort. Removing the cap with his teeth, Negan grunted as he knelt down beside Carl and proceeded to roll the teenager's shirt sleeve up.
"Sorry, kid. This is gonna be as cold as a warlock's ballsack, just like he was hanging his ballsack above you and dragging it right across the forearm," he rambled, drawing a line across Carl's arm, just below the elbow. "Gives you a little leverage."
"Please." Rick seemed to understand what was going on all at once. "Please, please don't," he begged; shaking his head and looking up at Negan.
"Me?" Negan chuckled and gave a slight shake of his own head. "I ain't doing shit." Standing up, he gripped Lucille in his left hand and gestured to Rick with his right. "Rick, I want you to take your axe, cut your son's left arm off, right on that line. Now, I know — I know. You're gonna have to process that for a second. That makes sense. Still, though, I'm gonna need you to do it, or all these people are gonna die. Then Carl dies, then the people back home die, and then you, eventually. I'm gonna keep you breathing for a few years, just so you can stew on it."
"You—you don't have to do this. We understand. We understand," Michonne began to plead with tears in her eyes.
Negan looked over at her. "You understand. Yeah. I'm not sure that Rick does," he replied with a grin while Rick already looked traumatized by what was being asked — or rather, demanded — of him. "I'm gonna need a clean cut right there on that line. Now, I know this is a screwed-up thing to ask, but it's gonna have to be like a salami slice — nothing messy, clean, forty-five degrees — give us something to fold over. We got a great doctor. The kid'll be fine. Probably." He smiled grinned again; enjoying this way too much. "Rick," he lowered his voice and crouched down, "this needs to happen now — chop, chop —or I will crush the little fella's skull myself."
"It can—it can—it can be me. It can be me," Rick began to bargain. "W-w—" He stuttered and sniffled. "Y-you can do it to me. I ca—I can go with—with you."
"No. This is the only way," Negan solemnly denied and stood up. "Rick pick up the axe. Not making a decision is a big fucking decision," he added when Rick hesitated. "You really want to see all these people die? You will. You will see every-fucking-thing." Off the onset of Rick's panicked sobs, Negan rolled his eyes. "Oh, my God. Are you gonna make me count? Okay, Rick. You win. I am counting. Three!"
"Please, please," Rick sobbed. "It can be me. Please!"
"Two!"
"Please, don't do—"
Negan crouched back down and slapped Rick and then grabbed his face in his hands to make sure he had Rick's full attention. "This is it," he muttered and guided Rick's face toward his son's arm.
"Ahh!" Rick cried out in anguish.
Georgie sat there, several feet away with her hands covering her mouth to muffle her sobs as best as she could. The tears that burned her eyes were nowhere near as terrible as the tightness in her chest as she began to prepare herself to watch the man she loved forced to dismember his own son for the sake of all their lives being spared. She grit her teeth, unable the sheer terror both father and son must be feeling in this very moment.
"One!" Negan shouted.
Rick took hold of Carl's hand and gripped his hatchet as he continued with his utterly heartbreaking sobs. Carl appeared quite still and seemed resigned to his fate, whispering words only Rick seemed to hear. Whatever was said was enough to give Rick the balls he needed to do this horrible thing. Raising the hatchet up, his sobs became more panicked as he began to aim the blade for the line on Carl's arm. But then Negan tapped the hand Rick was using to hold the hatchet and once again crouched down beside him. Rick, confused, just looked over his shoulder at Negan, and paused.
"Rick. You answer to me. You provide for me," he spoke as Rick began to nod. "You belong to me. Right?"
Rick nodded his head more adamantly and hunched forward toward the ground, looking down at it.
"You fucking speak when you're spoken to!" Negan shouted, grabbing Rick's face in his hands and forcing eye contact. "You answer to me. You provide for me."
"Provide for you," Rick mumbled.
"You belong to me, right?!"
Breathing heavily, Rick nodded. "Right."
"Fucking right." Removing his hands from Rick's face, he pointed at him. "That is the look I wanted to see." Standing up, Negan leaned over merely to grab the hatchet up. "We did it, all of us, together. Even the dead guys on the ground. Fuck, they get the spirit award, for sure. Today was a productive fucking day! Now, I hope, for all your sake…that you get it now; that you understand how things work. Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you — that is over now. Ah. Dwight!" Negan smiled and gestured to Daryl with Lucille. "Load him up."
Everyone turned and watched as Dwight grabbed Daryl and dragged him over to the van Daryl, Michonne, Rosita and Glenn had originally been pulled out of when the others first reached the clearing and were made to kneel. Though Daryl struggled, he was still shoved into the back of the van while Maggie sobbed for him. Dwight lifted the crossbow up and aimed it at Daryl to keep him at bay until another of the Saviors closed the doors.
Negan crouched back down beside Rick. "He's got guts — not a little bitch like someone I know. I like him. He's mine now. But you still want to try something? 'Not today, not tomorrow.' 'Not today, not tomorrow'? I will cut pieces off of…" Negan trailed, looking over at Simon. "Hell's his name?"
"Daryl."
"Wow," Negan chuckled. "That actually sounds right. I will cut pieces off of Daryl and put them on your doorstep—or, better yet, I will bring him to you and have you do it for me." Negan chuckled again and stood up while giving Rick a few pats to the back. "Ah! Welcome to a brand-new beginning, you sorry fucks! I'm gonna leave you a truck. Keep it. Use it to cart all the shit you're gonna find me. We'll be back for our first offering in one week," he informed, tossing Rick's hatchet over his shoulder, which bounced when it hit the ground. "Until then, ta-ta."
And, like that, The Saviors began to leave.
No one paid attention to which vehicle in particular Negan left in.
It didn't matter at this point.
It's not like anyone in Rick's group could follow after and retaliate without losing all their lives.
The Saviors loaded up into all their vehicles, and began driving off, one by one. Dirt was stirred, causing some dust clouds which seemed to envelope around Rick's group while there was one Savior who found the need to take Polaroid pictures of what was left of Abraham and Glenn's heads.
Rick's group just sat there in silence; lost in thought, lost in grief, lost in guilt, and lost in the dread of what their lives would be like now.
When the last of the Saviors' vehicles had gone, suddenly the only sound was that of insects chirping in the woods surrounding them.
Slowly, Maggie began to pull herself up to her feet.
"Maggie…Maggie," Rick called to her as she sobbed and staggered over toward Glenn's body. "Maggie, you need to sit down. Maggie."
"No."
Rick stood up and reached for her. "We need to get you to the Hilltop."
"You need to go get ready," she parried.
"For what?"
"To fight them."
"They have Daryl. They have an army. We would die — all of us."
"Go home," she barked, breathing heavily. Take everybody with you. I can get there by myself."
Rick reached for her again; this time touching her arm ever so faintly. "You can barely stand up."
"I need to go," she pleaded in between sobs. "You need to go to Alexandria. You were out—out here for me."
"We still are," Georgie assured from where she still sat on the ground.
As she began to sob hard, Maggie turned and looked around at Rick and the others. "I can make it now. I need you to go back. I can't have you out here. I can't have you all out here anymore. I need you to go back."
"Maggie," Michonne whispered, slowly approaching. "We're not letting you go. Okay?"
"You have to," she sighed.
"It's not gonna happen," Rick insisted with a shake of his head.
Sasha stood up then and walked up to Maggie. "I'm taking her," she quietly announced. "I'm gonna get her there. I'm gonna keep her safe. I'm not giving you a choice."
Maggie seemed to nod and accept this as she turned and briefly touched her forehead against Sasha's. "I'm taking him with me," she insisted, looking back toward Glenn's body.
Georgie was fumbling to stand up, wincing in pain from her gunshot wound in the process as Aaron came over and helped her; giving her his arm to lean on. Once she was upright enough, he moved over toward Maggie and crouched down beside her at Glenn's body. Georgie turned her attention toward Rick, who looked back at her as if sensing her eyes like heat-seeking lasers.
With the most dejected expression, he moved over toward her and pulled her into his arms for a brief hug. "Are you okay?" he whispered.
"Are you?"
After a moment, he replied, "No." Wrapping an arm around her waist, he let her use him as a crutch as they walked over toward Maggie.
"I need to do this," the newly widowed brunette sniffled. "Please."
"We need to help you," Aaron insisted.
Carl walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I got it. I got it," he muttered soothingly.
"No. No."
"Pl—pl—please let us," Rick spoke like everyone else; his voice barely above a whisper. "He—he's our family—he's our family, too."
Maggie nodded, giving in, and began to sob again.
As Eugene walked over to help Sasha and Rosita life Abraham's body, Maggie stood up and turned immediately into Carl's awaiting arms to cry very briefly on his shoulder. When she stepped back Rick stepped back from Georgie and more or less passed off his crutch duties to a willing Michonne, who sidled up beside Georgie and helped her walk onward toward the RV. Rick then crouched down with Aaron and Carl; the three males lifting Glenn's body up off the ground, while Maggie just stood there alone, sobbing into her hands.
Once both bodies were loaded up into the RV, laid out on the separate twin beds in the back, Maggie had finally made her way into the RV while Rick went back to grab up his hatchet; the only weapon left to him now that his trusty, ol' Python had been taken by the Saviors.
It was like the end of an era, all the way around.
Before he climbed up into the vehicle, a shirtless walker wandered out of the woods, but Rick merely looked around with no intent to kill it. After all, in this new world, the living were far more dangerous than the dead.
Without another look, Rick stepped up into the RV and shut the door behind him. He made eye contact with no one; not even his son or Georgie. He sat down in the driver's seat, previously occupied by Abraham that evening before, when they still had hope that things would be okay.
Turning the key still in the ignition, the engine came to life without hesitation. Turning to look out the passenger window, Rick saw the walker staggering closer as he began to drive the RV forward onto the road. On a second glance, this time into the side mirror on the passenger's side, he saw the walker had dropped down to its knees and was about to eat the bloody, brain matter that was left behind and had belonged to either Glenn or Abraham.
With tears stinging his eyes and sweat rolling down his face, Rick tried to maintain focus on the road ahead and they drove off toward Hilltop.
"You're gonna be right as rain," Dr. Carson remarked, finishing the last of the stitches on Georgie's leg he was redoing; after determining that, while Aaron's quick sew job wasn't bad, it wasn't great either.
He had sterilized it and given her something for the pain. When he insisted on giving her something extra to take with her back to Alexandria to manage the pain further, Georgie denied it; telling him to keep it for some Hilltopper who might need it at a later date. Alexandria had their own supply of meds she could see herself to. Dr. Carson had even offered her an actual crutch to use, but she turned that down as well but thanked him nevertheless for the offer. She didn't want to be too unkind after he'd properly tended to her wound.
When she hobbled out of his medical trailer, Rick was waiting for her outside; offering her a hand as she stepped down the couple of stairs that were present.
Maggie had been tended to first when they arrived and passed out almost immediately and was left to lie down in a bed in the medical trailer, all while Georgie had been only a few feet away, being tended to next. Rick's group had been informed that Maggie had suffered Abruptio Placentae, a separation of the placenta from the uterus, but that her baby would be fine.
"Is Maggie still asleep in there?" Rick asked.
"Yeah," Georgie nodded. "Carson thinks it best if she stays here for a while to recuperate and I agree. She needs the medical care he can give her here that we can't back in Alexandria, and if something goes wrong, I don't think lightning will strike twice and let us get her here in time. Despite, what we've just lost, we were lucky she made it through." She was just standing there, looking up at Rick, who was looking down at the ground between them and still seemed shaken to the core about everything, and justifiably so. "We need to get home, though. Everybody needs to know what happened. We need to prepare for what happens next."
Rick nodded in agreement. "I know," he replied; his voice small.
Seeing him this broken made losing Glenn and Abraham the way they did even worse.
If a strong and capable man like Rick could be broken down and weakened like this, how did any of the rest of them stand a chance to — hopefully — someday retaliate against Negan and The Saviors?
"Jesus said he has a spot for us to bury Glenn and Abe," Rick muttered, almost as if he were distracted by a very difficult math problem. "It won't be ideal to bring them all the way back to Alexandria with us. Jesus also said he has some extra fuel to help us get home."
"Okay. We'll do that. We'll bury them, we'll top off our gas tank, and then we'll go home," Georgie agreed. "We'll come back in a week, after that monster comes to take supplies from us. Once he's gone back to whatever hellhole he calls home, we'll come back here and bring Maggie home, as long as she's doing better and Carson thinks she'll be okay."
Rick nodded. "Yeah. Okay."
Slowly, he leaned his head forward and pressed his forehead to hers. After a few moments, when he leaned back, he studied her face and frowned. Bringing his right hand up, he rubbed dried blood off of her left cheek with his thumb. He knew it belonged to Abraham. She'd been kneeling right beside him when he'd been killed. It made sense she'd have a considerable amount of splatter on her, and she did. Not just on her face, but also on her neck, her shirt, her hands and jeans. Rick still had his own splatter of Abraham's blood still dried across his right cheek, which Georgie felt the need to reciprocate the gesture in rubbing most of it off with her fingers. They stood there like that for a few more moments, like two monkeys grooming each other.
Turning at the glimpse of movement out the corners of their eyes, they both sighed when they saw a few Hilltoppers helping to carry Glenn and Abraham's bodies. Without a word, they began to follow in the same direction, but at a slow pace to accommodate Georgie's limp due to her gunshot wound. The medication given to her hadn't fully kicked in enough just yet to allow her to put her full weight on that leg.
Gregory seemed to be keeping a distance; with Jesus asking as unofficial liaison while helping Sasha, Aaron and Carl dig the two graves. Rick and Georgie had approached when the graves were already halfway dug, and it appeared the graves wouldn't be too deep; just deep enough.
When the graves were finished being dug, the bodies were wrapped in bed sheets, which were quickly being soaked through with blood from underneath where the remains of Glenn's and Abraham's heads were. The others tried not to focus on that and merely on the bodies being lowered into the graves.
"Does anyone want to say anything?" Aaron asked.
"What is there to say?" Rosita questioned; her face sad and angry at the same time.
"Glenn and Abraham were our friends," Rick spoke, ignoring Rosita's comment. "They were our family. Our brothers. They fought for us, protected us, cared about all of us. Countless times they risked their lives for us, but they…they always made it out alive. Until today. Everything's changing. They should still be here, but they aren't. We should be back in Alexandria, safe. But we aren't. Losing them is the nail in the coffin that none of us are safe anymore. We might not have the means to fight back right now, but we have to do whatever it takes now to live for them. We need to stay alive and protect our own now, for them. That's how we honor them, how we honor our dead; by living."
Rick chewed the inside of his cheek and then looked away from the graves. Grabbing one of the shovels, he proceeded in tossing the soil into Glenn's grave. Sasha followed his lead, taking another shovel and tossing soil into Abraham's grave, which Rosita helped with. Carl helped his father, taking the fourth and final shovel, to bury Glenn.
There were no crosses available but there were large stones nearby that Jesus gave and two long sticks that could be used to place at the heads of the graves as markers.
Afterward, Rick's group gathered by their RV, preparing to leave and return to Alexandria now that they had enough fuel in the RV. Gregory came out of the big house for that, but still kept his distance; waving politely while looking at them with slight disdain.
"Thank you for your help," Rick said to Jesus.
The younger man nodded. "I'm sorry things didn't work out the way we'd hoped. I'm sorry for your losses."
"A few of us will be back in a little over a week to get Maggie, as long as she's able to travel. Tell her we'll be back for her."
"I will."
"No," Sasha muttered. "I will. I'm staying here to look after her. I said I'd keep her safe and I meant it. And…I don't think I'm ready to go back to Alexandria just yet anyway."
Rick looked at her and considered what she was saying before nodding with understanding. "Alright. You take care." Leaning in, Rick hugged Sasha goodbye. "We'll be back for you in a week, too."
Sasha smiled ever so faintly. "Okay."
The others took turns hugging Sasha and saying a temporary goodbye to her before gradually filing back into the RV. Jesus stood in the doorway and wished them safer travels home than it took for them to make it to Hilltop. Shutting the door for them, he stepped back from the vehicle and joined a few of his fellow Hilltoppers as the RV's engine sputtered to life after a moment.
Inside the RV, Rick sat in the driver's seat and Georgie had joined him in the passenger seat, and for a moment it reminded her of when the RV had stalled and they had to make a run for it home to Alexandria after they'd been trying to lead the herd of walkers away. It seemed like eons ago, already. So much had happened in the last two and a half months since. Carl and Eugene sat on one side of the table while Michonne and Aaron occupied the other side. Rosita chose to sit alone, across from them, on the sofa.
The drive was silent the entire time back to Alexandria.
Not one person spoke.
When they eventually did make it home, the RV sat idling just outside the gates to their community until Spencer pulled it open so they could pull in. Slowly, Rick careened the lengthy vehicle along the road to the right, passed the solar panels and then careened to the left, onto the road in front of the townhouses; bringing it to a stop just in front of the house the pantry was based out of. Turning off the ignition, Rick just sat there.
In fact, no one else made much of a move to get up and get out either.
They just sat there, mentally composing themselves for the people that would soon be bombarding them with questions about how it all went and where Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Daryl and Sasha all were. The idea of have to explain that two out of the five had been brutally murdered was already draining.
Nevertheless, they soon found they couldn't sit inside the vehicle forever.
Aaron stood up first and walked over to the door. After opening it up and climbing out, he was greeted by Tobin first, and then it seemed the rest of the community was slowly coming out of the woodwork. Rosita got up next and walked out without a word to anyone as she continued up the road.
Before long, only Rick, Georgie and Carl were left. The three of them looked between each other and then at the opened door. Carl stood up and patted his father on the shoulder before turning and exiting. After letting their gazes follow after the boy, the couple turned their attention to one another.
"We gotta deal with this," Georgie muttered with slumped shoulders.
"I know."
Standing up, Rick made his way for the door first and then stepped down out of it, but waited there as Georgie got up more slowly and walked more slowly after him. Extending a hand, Rick helped her step down the same he did at the Hilltop medical trailer and then shut the RV door behind them.
"Hey, Rick, what happened? Is Maggie okay?" Tobin inquired, standing there patiently outside the RV with his hands in his pockets. "I see Michonne and Rosita are back. Where's the others?"
There was no beating around the bush, and Rick new Tobin was one of the few tolerable people he honestly liked in Alexandria. "The Saviors caught up to us. They took Daryl," Rick explained as he began to walk slowly up the road with Georgie. "Maggie's at Hilltop with Sasha. She's gonna be okay."
"And Glenn and Abraham?"
"Negan killed them."
Tobin stopped, stunned. "What?"
"I'll explain more of it later. I—I can't do this right now, okay?"
"Okay," Tobin nodded, sympathetically. As he watched Rick and Georgie continue to walk away from him. He called out, "Wait, Rick…"
Rick stopped, as did Georgie, and turned slightly but only looked back at Tobin with her peripheral vision. "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about Glenn and Abraham; Glenn, especially. I know you two were like brothers."
Rick looked forward and at the ground. "He was my brother."
Blood didn't always make family, after all.
Without saying anything further, Rick and Georgie resumed walking up the road, somehow managing to dodge any further questions from anyone else. When that were in the home stretch of reaching their house, Gabriel was walking up the road to meet them halfway, with Judith in his arms. He was smiling; relieved to see Rick and Georgie were alright, but then that smile faded when he saw the blood on them and their downtrodden expressions.
"Judith was fine," he assured for them. "She ate well and slept through the night without any problems. She was a perfect angel."
With a nod of appreciation, Rick reached out and took his daughter into his arms and she readily threw her much smaller arms around his neck; finding instant comfort in having her daddy home as she rested her head down upon his shoulder. Rick leaned into the gestured and closed his eyes; reveling in the moment of peace if offered him.
"Is it safe to assume not everything is fine beyond the walls for us?" Gabriel asked.
"That's the understatement of the year," Georgie muttered.
"Oh, Lord," he sighed. Looking down he noted the bloody hole in her jeans. "Were you shot?"
"Yeah. It's been taken care of. I'll live."
"Is Maggie—"
"I'll explain everything later," Rick interrupted, reiterating what he'd said to Tobin mere minutes before. "Just do me a favor and let everyone know there'll be a meeting in the church."
Gabriel nodded. "Of course. When?"
"Give us about two hours. Let us get home, shower and eat. We need some time before we get hit with too many questions about what's gonna be changing here."
"That doesn't sound good."
"It's far from good," Georgie assured.
Gabriel looked at her, and then back at Rick. "I'll get right on that then; on letting people know about the meeting that is."
Rick watched as the priest stepped past the couple and the little girl to make his way to each household and spread the word about the meeting without questioning the couple any further, and of that they were grateful. They were grateful for more than that, too, though.
"Gabriel," Rick spoke, drawing the other man's attention back to them.
"Yes, Rick?"
"Thank you for keeping Alexandria safe while we were gone. Thank you for keeping my daughter safe."
Gabriel smiled. "Any time." Without another word, he turned back around and continued on his way.
Looking upon Georgie, Rick sighed deeply and then began to walk home with her; finding that Carl had already made it there with Michonne, and both were waiting for the couple to show up before heading in themselves.
"Do you think we'll ever be okay; that we'll be safe?" Georgie asked him quietly, before they reached their front porch and were within earshot of Carl and Michonne.
Rick glanced at her again. "I hope so," he replied, sadly.