KEZZ 1: Thanks again for your review!

Just in case y'all missed it, the author's note (117) was replaced with an actual chapter...

Carol held onto her head as her ears rang, unable to see clearly through the smoke. The pounding on her head slowly started to ebb as she heard the fighters from the Kingdom shout for their King. Growling from walkers could be heard as well, Carol barely able to prop herself on her elbows before having to draw her gun. She managed to take one walker down while squinting through the smoke and get back to standing. The others started fighting the walkers as the smoke began clearing, allowing those that had been closer to the grenade to regain their composure as Ezekiel was seen standing himself while drawing his sword.

"The dead are upon us," he proclaimed, Carol rolling her eyes at the obviousness of the statement.

"Protect the King!" Jerry shouted.

"Protect yourselves!" Ezekiel countered.

The fight couldn't have lasted more than a few minutes. Between their guns, Ezekiel's sword, and Jerry's battle ax, they made quick work of the walkers that had managed to escape the building in the blast. The problem Carol found was that they had been trying to stop one of the Savior's men from the outpost when he'd thrown the grenade, thus buying himself those precious few minutes. There was a chance he'd been hurt either in the blast or through the fire fight, but there was no way of knowing that for sure as she ran to check the other side of the car the man had ducked behind at the last minute.

"Anyone see where he went?" she asked. "He saw us. If he tells them we're here, it's over before it started."

"It is not," Ezekiel called out in that high and mighty way he spoke that she found both ridiculous and attractive all at the same time in spite of herself. "And he won't. For we together will find him, end him, and fulfill the promise of what we have begun," he told her, handing her her dropped weapon. "Trust the King," he said with a bit of twang and a smile.

"Outpost is due north, through the woods," one of his men told them.

"As that's surely his course, so shall it be ours," the King said. "If our comrades had already arrived, they'd have been here. Return to the staging area. Gather the others when they land. And if they haven't yet, release Shiva from her cage. Due north, we'll leave a trail for you. Ensure no enemies remain in these environs, and be not ten minutes behind," he told another man before looking to the rest of his troupe. "Onward!"

"Whoo!" Jerry cried out, making several chuckle and several more, including Carol, scoff while Ezekiel just shook his head at the man's antics.

"To our foe, to his compound!" he called out before looking at Carol with that same smile. "And then to certain victory."

They traveled through the woods silently, Jerry placing a marker down every once in a while so that the rest of the Kingdom's warriors could follow their path and join them in fighting at the outpost. Ezekiel kept a small smile on his face the entire time, something that had Carol both perplexed and irritated. How a person could smile in the face of uncertainty and possible death was something she just couldn't understand. And yet here was the King, treating the entire situation as if it was little more than a game. Perhaps it was in his mind, but even then, she wondered what the point in smiling in such peril would accomplish.

"Up ahead," Ezekiel said as Jerry stood from placing another marker.

"I see it," Carol said with a grimace.

"This is me," Jerry told them as he walked forward, raising his ax and slamming it down into the walker's head.

Carol couldn't help her curiosity, and neither could the King, as they walked towards the walker and took in its appearance. Not only were its clothes tattered and torn, but they had almost been eaten away, both the color and the fabric. Its skin was decrepit and even its blood was the wrong color for walkers normally. Everything about it was disgusting and putrid more so than normal, and it just added to the number of questions at the back of Carol's mind.

"What befell this creature?" Ezekiel asked only for Jerry to give him a cocky, but friendly smile. "I mean before you."

"We don't have time to figure that out," Carol pointed out. "Compound's not far off, if he made it, if they know we're coming, they're gonna be ready."

"Two possibilities, and only one fact," the King chided.

"And what's that?" she asked a bit perplexed.

"We shall be ready regardless," he told her.

Carol rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Ezekiel and chastising him, "What's about to happen, it's not just a few walkers. You know that, right?"

"Yes," he told her, giving her a look that held that stupid smile. "And yet I smile."

"Why?"

He looked at her and took a step towards her after looking at his people who walked ahead with uncertainty, asking her, "Do I feel the supreme confidence? Or is my lot, my job, to simply project such certainty? No and yes. Yes and no. And then finally yes to both. Fake it 'til you make it, baby," he told her a bit flirtatiously, dropping the theatrical speech and making sure his people had passed. "That's what I've done and what I do. I am King because I-I have provided a light to bring my people forward through the darkness and they have made my fictions realities. So, with all this and everything that's happened..."

"All of us may not make it," she told him quietly. "We may not even win."

"And yet I smile," he told her incredulously. "There will be no fantasies of failures this day."

"Hey guys," one of his men, Daniel, asked. "Is this blood from the wasted?"

Carol walked over and inspected it before looking up in surprise, "No. One of us hit him when we fired on him. Means he's movin' slow," Carol said, looking to the King.

"Hell's yeah!" Jerry said with enthusiasm. "We're back in business."

"Well done, Daniel," Ezekiel told the younger man. "Well done to us all. We move forward...as we move the very world forward."

He continued onward after smiling at Carol again, making her raise her eyebrows and shake her head. She just could not understand the guy. Okay, he faked it until he made it, but that didn't explain why he had to talk the way he did. The tiger explained how he became King, but damn his attitude was infuriating. At the same time, she couldn't help but want to laugh at his antics. He was quite the charmer, so his mannerisms and general attitude were hard to dislike. Everything he did made her either want to deck him or laugh with him, and she couldn't tell if she liked that or hated it. With a sigh, she shoved all those thoughts to the back of her mind and followed the King's trail, wondering what was next on the list of things to add to the King's special crazy list.

Carol tracked the blood from the man, using what she'd learned from Ani and Sophia when they had her helping them with herbs and the little bit of hunting she'd done with Daryl, Merle, or Rick to learn how to set snares. It wasn't the greatest skill she had, but it worked well enough as they moved through the underbrush. To be fair, the man they were following clearly wasn't being careful with his footing let alone paying attention to how he was bleeding. The footsteps were plain as day in some areas, other times leaves being smeared with blood. It wasn't a very hard trail to follow but Carol kept her eyes open and vigilant the entire time, hoping they would catch up to the man before he had time to warn the outpost of their existence in the woods.

"That way," she said as Ezekiel came up behind her.

Walking a little faster, she could hear the man following her before his own steps quickened and he exclaimed, "There!"

She quickly followed after him to see that his gun was lowered and therefore raised hers only for him to put a hand on the barrel and push it downwards, telling her, "Save your munitions, Carol. Our friends have arrived."

Just after he stated that, Shiva jumped out of the trees and attacked the man, his screams echoing through the woods as she growled and held onto his face. To say that it was grotesque watching someone die at the hands of a tiger was an understatement, but then again, it was quite excilerating to see an apex predator at work. The first time she had seen the tiger and met the King she hadn't been able to keep herself from laughing. She'd been told that Ani hadn't been able to contain her awe while Rick and the others stood on in shock. Carol could understand all three reactions when it came to seeing the tiger, though she couldn't help but wonder what their reactions would be to seeing the thing actually hunt. They'd been too busy in Alexandria to pay attention to the big cat's attacks, though Carol doubted it would be much different than those who stood with her. The faces of shock, awe, and disgust at what they were witnessing not even five yards from them reaffirming to Carol that she was, in fact, watching what she was watching.

"And there it is," he said when it was all over while petting Shiva's head. "Our certain victory. This...I am not glad for his death," he told Carol. "Or anyone's."

"I know," she responded.

Jerry held up the walkie the man had on him as it went off, everyone listening as a man's voice rang out over the comms, "Nelson, we're on the move, taking active measures. Just hold up, keep it elevated, and if you see us, stay out of the line of fire."

"Jig's up," Jerry said. "Gonna have to break chocks."

"No," Ezekiel stated. "This journey will not end in retreat."

"But, they know we're coming," David said.

"Indeed they do," Ezekiel told him before taking out his sword and smiling with a chuckle towards Carol, who smiled back, unable to help herself from respond to the goofball's theatrics.

Holding up the walkie, they listened as the men radioed back and forth, "How 'bout double time it, and meet us at the rally point?"

"Radio back as soon as you're on post."

"They are coming for us. They are coming for us at this very moment. A powerful force of bloodthirsty rogues and unrepentant cutthroats bent on nothing short than our pitiless destruction," Ezekiel informed them all as the radio kept chatting away. "And yet I smile. And yet Carol, smiles."

"Why, boss?" Jerry asked, his nerves getting the best of him in the moment.

"They probably have the numbers," Carol answered for him, "But we have strategy."

"Yes, we do," Ezekiel said after he laughed happily at her words. "Yes, we do!"

Raising his voice enough for all in the vicinity to hear, he laid out a plan that would allow them to fight fire with fire, so to speak. It was a very simple plan. The outpost would have a group of people in the woods looking for their people, therefore the Kingdom's forces would divided and concur. One group would remain out in the open, headed by Ezekiel himself alongside Jerry and David. Carol, on the other hand, would be lying in wait near the vicinity the Savior's were bound to attempt to ambush his group, therefore able to end the ambush with one of their own alongside Daniel. The third team, the one with the medics, would only be arriving after the signal was given or Shiva made her way back to them so that they could follow her back to the King.

"I am binding a hope to my heart," he said as he finished, "perhaps unwisely...but we have come this far, all of us, still here! If we follow this plan, if we keep to our training, if the Fates continue to shine brightly upon us, allowing us this...this dream?" he smiled. "We will lose not one of our ranks. We will lose not one of our ranks," he reiterated looking Carol in the eyes.

The King's group was ambushed by more men than they could take, as they had expected. Dropping their rifles to their sides, his entire group put their hands up, Ezekiel's face showing shock and surprise that could be seen even from Carol's distance. She had to admit that he was an amazing actor as the Saviors supposedly caught the Kingdomers off guard. It was then that their own ambush took place, Carol and everyone else jumped out of the nearby brush and shot out at the Saviors as Ezekiel and the others ducked and pulled their own weapons. Within seconds, all the Saviors were dead, not having been able to even fire a single shot in retaliation. They simply hadn't had the time between realizing what was happening and being gunned down. Ezekiel stood and looked around the battlefield, the corpses of the Saviors spattering the ground while every one of his people stood in the small clearing.

"Not one!" he repeated joyously to Carol who simply smiled at the idiot's enthusiasm, Shiva coming up behind him and roaring almost as if to embolden his words even more. "Make no mistake, those we've so swiftly extinguished are perhaps one death in a compound of three. But our first victory will allow our second. Our second will deliver our third."

They continued to move through the woods towards the outpost until they reached the guard shack. Taking out the two guards on top relatively easily, the better snipers having little issue getting a clear shot through the trees. Cautiously closing in on the small garage that housed an unknown number of Saviors, creeping in much like Shiva had her own prey. Carol couldn't help but inhale sharply as someone from the Kingdom manned each garage door and swung them open, the others not even bothering to take aim and instead opening fire to ensure no damage came to their side. Just as Ezekiel had said, a fact that made Carol return his stupid smile, they didn't lose a single member of their force.

In fact, the significant number of Saviors that had obviously abandoned this guard shack were barely able to make it to the chemical plant before the Kingdom set upon them. While the people had taken a longer route to their destination in an attempt to throw the Kingdom off of their trail, the Kingdom had simply proceeded straight through the woods to the outskirts of the compound. As such, they caught the Saviors in yet another ambush they were unable to retaliate from behind the cover of both wooden and metal pallets. They easily killed the reinforcements that were trying to reach the plant, their forces spread throughout the field around them making sure that the dead stayed dead. Unfortunately, their ambush on those incoming created an opportunity for the others in the outpost to come out, firing on the Kingdomers from the field they poured into. It didn't matter, though, as the Saviors attempted to make a run for it. Each one was gunned down as the Kingdom kept their position behind the pallets and remained unharmed. Another short fire fight and a few searches of the surrounding area later, and Ezekiel and Carol both were in high spirits.

"Everyone is accounted for, Your Majesty," Daniel told him.

"Ezekiel?" Carol asked.

"Not one," he told her on the verge of joyous tears.

"We need to sweep the compound," she warned him.

"Your counsel, your plan."

"Let me take a look," she said before walking off, heading towards the compound and finding an entrance as automatic fire rang out.

While her mind worried over what had happened with Ezekiel and the others, she had a job to do. The weapon fire that had rang out had to be the guns that they had been looking for and if she was right, then they would be taking them back to the Sanctuary to cut down the herd there. Carol had to make sure that the Saviors in the compound either remained in the compound or died. There was no option for failure right now which meant that whatever was happening with Ezekiel and his men would have to be taken care of by the King. The flickering hallway light did little to conceal her presence in the hallway she was in until she entered what might have once been a break room. Looking slightly out the door, she saw the barrel of a rifle before quickly looking around to try to find a place to hide as a man's voice rang out while getting closer.

"Asshats, get those guns loaded and let's screw the hell off now!"

"We need some help hear!" another man called from a room across the other hall from the break room.

Carol cowered between some boxes as the fat man from her original hallway hollered back, "What you need is to hurry the hell up. If you don't have those guns loaded by the time I round this corner, I am gonna flay your asses! It is real now!"

"We're almost done! Jesus!"

Looking around her, Carol saw a clear way to climb up. Where she was, she was a sitting duck just waiting to be pounced upon. But no one ever thought about an attack from above. That was something Ani had said about why she'd been on the roof of Terminus; people hardly ever looked up to see if there was a threat from above. And the ceiling of the place was just corrugated pieces easy enough to move. Quickly hopping to her feet, Carol climbed onto the counter and then up onto totes that were stacked on the counter all the way up to the ceiling and removed one of the sections of ceiling from next to the wall. She used the wall itself to climb up and wait, knowing the corrugated ceiling wouldn't support her weight otherwise, while leaving only one small opening for her to see below. With bated breath she waited for her opening.

"What the hell?" the first voice sounded from below her.

"What?"

"Those are the only .50-cal buckets we got?"

"Got the rest in the pool. This was just to tear them up. We got at least-"

Carol didn't wait as the movement below her stopped, firing several passes along the room below her just to make sure the men were dead. Cautiously opening the panel, she climbed down, jumping down onto the floor and shooting two surviving but heavily wounded Saviors dead before turning around. Before she even had a chance to check the guns, a door opened behind her. All she could do was grab the Saviors' weapons and run as more poured into the room behind her and fired. She managed to get through to the room where they'd used the guns previously, seeing all the shells as she heard the other men talk. They weren't interested in her, which was a good thing, though they were trying to get the guns to the Sanctuary.

Quickly and quietly, she made her way outside, managing to come out a different door right as the men passed by the large industrial bins that spotted the courtyard, giving Carol cover. She crept to the corner, spotting the men loading the guns into a truck. They talked about how much ammo there was at the Sanctuary, making sure they had enough to cut through and get into the place first. The Kingdom was no where to be seen, so it was her or no one. Carefully, she took out the empty clip and replaced it with a fresh one, thankful that the Saviors had a rifle that took the same kind of clip as the one she'd been forced to abandon. She loaded it as quietly as she could before making to move on the Saviors at the truck, only to be fired at from another direction. Firing back, Carol sprinted for the cover of yet another vehicle, feeling a bullet graze past her boot as she threw herself behind it. There were two of them, one of her, and she was soon pinned down from two different angles.

Carol couldn't even fire back as she hid behind the tire well and the glass shattered behind her. The only thing she could do was peek over the top of the truck she was hiding behind to look at what her surroundings, trying to find something she could use to her advantage. As soon as her head popped over though, more gunfire rang out and the only real thing she'd be able to see was that the gate had a number four on it. Looking around, she saw the entrance with a four not far from her, following the poles for the power lines until she caught sight of the button that would open the gate. Formulating a plan at lightening speed, Carol took off her rifle and hung it on the driver's side mirror as the gunfire ceased. She knew they were probably trying to move in on her, but she didn't have the ammo to take them all on.

Instead, she tossed her six shooter under the car towards the Saviors, calling out, "I can tell you where the others are! Just let me live! They're hiding out, waiting for other Saviors to show up!"

"Nice and slow!" came her reply, so she stood up just like that.

"I'm unarmed," she said with her hands raised, spinning in a circle. "Look."

"Your people...where are they?" the leader asked as one of his men began advancing closer.

"You can't tell them I told you," she said, doing her best to sound scared. "You have to promise. Please!"

"Hey, do you wanna die?!" the leader asked as the man inched closer. "I asked you where your people are!"

Carol wasted no time in smacking the man's gun away in a strike Ani had taught her before grabbing her knife and getting the man in a headlock with the knife at his throat. "Lower your guns, now!" she yelled as she inched closer to the button for the gate.

No one did anything other than the leader's expression turning sour for a moment as her hostage begged, "Yago, please, man!"

"Joey just pooched it," Yago responded. "Light him up!"

The Saviors opened fire, instantly killing their own man, but his presence buying Carol enough time to fall backwards and press that damn button. She crawled her way back over to the tire well and hugged the fallen Savior's gun close. When the Saviors stopped firing at her and started firing at the walkers that spilled in from the gate, she took the opportunity to search the fallen Savior, gaining a ring of keys in the process. Sliding those onto her wrist, she stood and started firing on the two Saviors who remained. They made it to safety before she could hit them, instead taking out several walkers in her attempt.

"We need to end this," Carol called out.

"You were lyin' to us about your friends, huh?" Yago responded.

"Yeah, I was," she said as she advanced on their position slowly. "Now, we need to end this."

"Okay. Walk away lady."

"You're not goin' anywhere with those guns."

"Nah. We are. They got someplace to be!"

"I've got your pal's ammo. How many bullets you got left after all those walkers? Three? Four?" she taunted.

"Why don't you come at us and find out? We're right here!" he stated back.

She was fully prepared to take them on, too, until a few shots fired from nearby, causing her to look away. Ezekiel and Jerry stood on the other side of the gate completely boxed in by walkers composed of the Kingdom's fallen warriors. While Ezekiel looked barely able to stand, she could tell that Jerry was beginning to tire, leaving both vulnerable in their already difficult predicament. Carol knew she had a choice to make that would mean sacrificing one or the other. She could continue to go after the guns and hope that the King and Jerry could hold their own until she was done or she could give up on the guns and save them.

"Honey, let's keep talkin'," Yago shouted, having noticed the situation on the other side of the gate as well. "We got all the time in the world!"

Her mind went back to before they had left the Kingdom that morning, and the conversation she and Ezekiel had had. He had talked about how he was trained, how he would be what he needed to be. The meek, theatrical zookeeper turned into a King worthy of his people's trust. His story about how he'd saved Shiva, the risk of approaching such a powerful predator and what would happen if he simply left it as it was. Then he brought up Benjamin. 'If you're asked to be the hero, be the hero,' he'd told her before asking her if she was always strong, or if she had decided to be strong. He had decided he was going to live, that he was going to be whatever he must, just as she had done. It had given her a perspective she hadn't had before. Before she could really comprehended what she was doing, she was at the gate firing on the dead before turning and firing at the Saviors as they drove away from the compound.

She didn't take on all the dead, but there was enough time for her to take the keys from her wrist and try to find the right one. "Are you okay?" she asked as she worked.

"Did they get the guns?" he asked in reply.

"Nothing we can do about it," she responded, trying another key and successfully unlocking the deadbolt on the chain, pulling the chain loose in a hurry along with Jerry.

"I've got the King," he said as he grabbed Ezekiel and brought him through, Carol quickly wrapping the chain through and locking it once again.

"We have to get word to Rick," Ezekiel warned as the sound of a motorcycle's engine roared from close by. "If they ferry those machine guns to the Sanctuary..."

Carol couldn't help the smile that formed on her face when she heard a second and then a third engine revving, turning to Jerry and Ezekiel and informing them, "They're not getting them to the Sanctuary. Come on, we gotta get you to the medics. They'll be able to treat that leg and if they aren't already on their way, they should be shortly."

They walked along, Jerry supporting the King and knocking back or down any dead that came close to them while Carol killed those in front. They managed to keep ahead of the dead Kingdom warriors for a time, but all the gunfire had attracted the walkers in the nearby vicinity too. It wouldn't take long before they were once again surrounded to a point where the three of them would not be able to hold out. Wherever the medic party was, they weren't here, and here was where they needed to be. It gave Carol little hope that they would find a way out before the walkers got to them, but she still pressed on. One thing Ezekiel was right about was that she had to become what she was needed to be, and right at this moment, he was too weak to be what he did, so she didn't have a choice. She would be the strong one to keep him going if that's what she needed to do. The Kingdom needed its King.

"Your Majesty!" Jerry cried out as Ezekiel tripped and fell once again.

"This ain't gonna work," Ezekiel told them, dropping his theatrical dialogue. "You gotta leave me. I'm slowing you down."

"No," Carol denied him before opening fire on the walkers catching up behind them. "You don't get to do that. Come on, I'm almost out of ammo," she told him, grabbing his arm and helping him up.

Between her and Jerry, they managed to get the King up and over the train tracks he'd stumbled on relatively quickly. They worked their way through the woods until they came to an putrid smelling sludge that expanded quite a large area. It came out of a drainage pipe and into a stream that had several barrels that showed toxic warnings and even more walkers trudging around in the waste. The King was obviously terrified and disheartened by the situation before them as much as he was the one that followed after. Throwing himself away, he told Carol and Jerry once again to leave him.

"I-I can't. You can," he told them. "You two have to just go."

Carol ignored him, climbing down into the sludge as she told Jerry, "Lower him down to me."

He did as he was told, only a grunt of protest escaping Ezekiel's lips as Carol took his weight and raised her rifle, haphazardly firing into the walkers that were slowly making their way towards them. Jerry killed a few walkers coming from behind before joining them in the mess. They fought their way to the other side of the bank, Carol climbing up it as Jerry took out another walker with Ezekiel's sword. He lost his grip of it when it stuck into the bank only for Ezekiel to grab it and kill a walker creeping up on Jerry.

"Ezekiel," Carol shouted.

"Just go! I can hold them off!" he told her.

"Ezekiel, we can get you away!" she insisted.

"You can't!"

"I'm not leaving you, Your Majesty," Jerry told him, only for Ezekiel to whip around and shout at him.

"C'mon, man, just go!"

"You're my King!"

"No I'm not!" Ezekiel roared at him. "I'm not your King. I'm not Your Majesty. Look at what's in front of us. That's what's real. Go. Go," he begged. "I ain't no king. I ain't nothing. I'm just some guy. Some guy who found..."

His voice had grown weaker as he spoke, which allowed for them all to hear Shiva's roar as she jumped into the sludge from the other side of the bank, a rally cry of, "To the King!" sounding behind her. Gun fire rang out as Jerry pushed Ezekiel up the bank, the walkers behind him being mowed down by the medic team who came from behind, following Shiva's trail. Together with Carol, they managed to defeat the immediate threat and get to the other side of the bank, the medic's guards forming ranks around the King as he got to work cleaning and field dressing Ezekiel's wound. It was a long journey back to the Kingdom where Ezekiel had to rely on Carol and Jerry for support most of the time, but they made it relatively safely. Shiva's ear had been shot off and she had a graze along her shoulder, but other than that, she was in relatively good health. The medic team was crowned as heroes for saving the King, along with Jerry and Carol. Those who had lost loved ones believed they had been lost for a good cause and set up a memorial to praise and remember their dead, not one blaming the King for his choice to go to war. And Ezekiel, he retreated into the thrown room with Shiva, refusing any entrance as the weight of what had happened, the people he had gotten killed on an endeavor he foolishly smiled his way through, the false hope he had encouraged, crushed him with guilt.