Chapter 71: Tomorrow
KPOV
~Roughly a year ago~
Looking up, on the RV, sat Dale, who told me that Shane had gone into the woods, thinking he saw something lurking around out there. Taking my bow, my machete, knife and gun, I was ready for anything. Or so I thought.
Hearing the sound of a branch snapping, I looked to the sound and didn't see anything. "Shane?" I called to him as I would walk deeper into the woods. I felt like something watched me, or like something was close.
Feeling a hand reach up behind me, holding my stomach and my mouth, it pulled me to hide behind a bush with it. "Shh," was Shane's instantly recognisable voice as he slowly let me go. When I finally relaxed and hid beside him.
His eyes went from me, to the walker that was strolling around the woods. "It's one of them," he whispered to me. Taking out his knife, he was ready to get it but when I saw him from the corner of my eye looking at me, he would dart his gaze between me and the walker.
"You got this one kid?" he asked me.
Feeling my heart pound, I never killed a walker, or a person before. So this was going to be a first time for me. "Yeah," I tried to be confident about it. "I got it," I tried to be sure of it as I tried to focus on my breathing. Trying to be brave, I took my knife and slowly walked out from between the trees.
When the walker spotted me, I froze a little, its blank eyes and drooling mouth, with lips no longer there, only teeth as it gnawed for my face, as it approached, his hands reached up to get me. Taking a step back, the heel of my foot collided against a risen root and I fell flat on my ass.
"Ah!" I yelled from the collision to the ground. "Shit!" I snarled when I felt the walker crawl onto me, as I began to panic, I tried to get to knife but the walker was trying to rip at my clothes. Trying to get a feast out of my face.
Pushing against it, I struggled to keep it back and to get my knife back. "Jesus Christ," Shane muttered as he rushed over to me. His knife driven straight into its skull before he tossed it to one side.
Crouching beside me, he looked me directly in the eyes as I sat up. "If you don't have what it takes, you'll die out here!" Shane yelled at me. "Do you hear me?!" he was lecturing me with an angry tone.
Shaking, I never heard him get this angry, ever. He must have seen the fear in my eyes but instantly, his expression softened and his voice became as soft as his face. "Look, I don't say it to be mean or to make you scared. I say it because...I just want you to live, to survive," Shane explained why he had yelled at me.
He was only worried for me, which I could fully understand. "I know," I mumbled, like a child who got scolded by their parent.
Biting his lip, Shane rubbed his fingers through his head. "No, you don't know," he disagreed with me. "You need to toughen up. To do the hard shit...otherwise, you're going to die out there," he threatened my life, the likelihood of what would happen.
"Carl's gonna die," he told me. "Your mom is gonna die," he added to the list. "I'm gonna die," he kept piling people I cared about onto the list. "But only if you don't suck it up and fight. You cannot hesitate. I repeat, you cannot hesistate," he was firm with his words. "Got it?" he questioned if I heard him or not.
Trembling as I sat on the ground, I swallowed hard and took in a shaky breath. "Yeah," I said after a few moments of me processing the words he said. I didn't want to lose Carl, mom or him. I had to be strong. I had to fight.
His hands clapped his knees once before he sighed and got to his feet. "Come on," he told me, offering my his hand to take.
As I took it, he hoisted me up to my feet and let me pat the dirt off my clothes. "Thanks," I appreciated the help and the fact he saved my life.
Hearing snarling from the distance, the walker didn't see us yet, as it wandered in front of us. Staring at it, both of us watched as it wandered the woods. "Go get it," Shane ordered, handing me back my knife that he had taken from the ground.
Using my knife, I took down the walker and did it without hesitation. Shane didn't praise me. But I could see how proud he was through his eyes and how he walked beside me. I knew I needed to toughen up, or Carl would die. Mom would die. Shane, would die. I had to fight for them.
PRESENT DAY...RPOV
Driving up to the gate, I heard some announce that we got back. Getting past the gate, we drove into the town and towards the houses. Stopping close to Sasha and Aaron, they stopped by my side of the RV.
Rolling down the window, I looked to Sasha and Aaron who were waiting for my news. "Get Olivia. She should inventory what we have. We'll meet her at the pantry," I gestured and told them where we would meet Olivia.
"You have food?" Sasha asked as Aaron went to deliver the message and Michonne climbed out of the RV to meet with her and help Aaron unload the RV.
Kat climbed out shortly after, to go find Judith and her brother. "Yeah. Enough for another month," Michonne informed Sasha just how much we had brought with us from the Hilltop.
Watching my daughter stroll off to the house, I didn't blame her. "I need everybody in the church in an hour," I announced to everyone that we needed a meeting as they all gathered around now.
Faces like Rosita, Tobin and Carol approached us. "What is it?" Sasha wondered what could possibly be so important.
"We'll talk about it," I answered her briefly, not wanting to give anything away so urgently. Starting my engine, I saw Carol stop beside my window.
Her soft eyes looked up at me. "Rick, what's going on?" she asked me. She was the only one I couldn't keep secrets from, not after everything we had been through.
"We're gonna have to fight," I revealed to her before I pulled out of my parking space and went to visit Olivia outside the pantry.
KPOV
After catching up with Carl and Judith, I was called upon to go to the church with the others. This was business that I was obviously roped into as-well. Sat on a pew with Daryl and Heath at the end of it, I watched Jesus sit on a chair at the alter with my dad at the centre. Jesus had made a small speech about his home, about what they could offer but had informed everyone of the kind of group the Saviors were.
Everyone seemed to be listening in carefully as I glanced around. "And we can work with the Hilltop. Maggie and Kat hammered out a deal. We're getting food...eggs, butter, fresh vegetables," dad gave us credit for where it was due.
"But they're not just giving it away. These Saviors, they almost killed Sasha, Daryl, and Abraham on the road. Now, sooner or later, they would've found us, just like those Wolves did, just like Jesus did," dad was trying to make them realise that threats out there, were real and could easily find us as these listed had.
Glancing at everyone in the room, I knew dad was really trying to sell it. "They woulda killed someone or some of us. And then they would try to own us. And we would try to stop them," he was so sure about this as he said it.
How his eyes then came to find mine, I kept my eyes firm and steady. "But by then, in that kind of fight, low on food, we could lose," he spoke directly to me on this part. Like he was trying to gain confidence just by looking at me.
"This is the only way to be sure, as sure as we can get, that we win. And we have to win," dad was determined as he spoke up to let everyone hear him. "We do this for the Hilltop, it's how we keep this place," how dad spoke, was like a true leader should.
The more he spoke, the more I admired him for his strength. "It's how we feed this place. This needs to be a group decision. If anybody objects, here's your chance to say your piece," dad put everything forward and waited for someone to say something.
The sound of a pew scraping a little, alerted us that someone got up from their seat. Both Daryl and I, along with a huge amount of others, turned around to see who it was who was going to speak up. "You're sure we can do it? We can beat them?" it had been Morgan to ask this question.
Dad looked at Morgan straight in the eye but I could tell Morgan was hesitating because of something. "What this group has done, what we've learned, what we've become, all of us..." dad began stating everything we had evolved to. "Yes, I'm sure," he was confident in this.
How he spoke about the group, it made me remember the conversation dad had with an unconscious Carl a few weeks ago. "Then all we have to do is just tell them that," Morgan spoke up, like this was an option.
"Well, they don't compromise," dad disagreed with him.
When dad heard this suggestion, his expression hardened at the thought we would negotiate with the tyrants. "This isn't a compromise. It's a choice you give them," Morgan corrected him. "It's a way out, for them and for us," this was what Morgan was trying to put across.
Having to sit back and listen to these two discuss our options, made me feel a little uneasy. "We try and talk to the Saviors, we give up our advantage, our safety," dad said as I shifted in my seat and stared at my feet. "No, we have to come for them before they come for us. We can't leave them alive," dad was determined to see this through.
Morgan though, was being stubborn about this. From the corner of my eye, Daryl's inside cheek chewing had stopped when he noticed my unease. "Where there's life, there's possibility," Morgan wasn't dropping his views.
As soon as those words came out of Morgan, Daryl's hand reached out to take hold of mine, to make me feel a little more relaxed at the thought of everything. "Of them hitting us," dad countered Morgan's words.
Glancing up at Daryl, the way he looked at me, made me realise he could sense that I was regretting what I did already. We are going to fight a group, we have no idea about, other than they are bad, greedy people. I was the one who made the deal.
"We're not trapped in this. None of you are trapped in this," Morgan was speaking out to all of us in the room with him.
Returning my gaze to my father, he had been too focused on Morgan to notice my unease, which was understandable. This conversation got intense far too quickly. "Morgan..." dad called out to him, who must have not been looking at my father. "They always come back," dad stated.
"Come back when they're dead, too," Morgan retorted, which made no sense to me other than when they became walkers.
Which, had been the same interpretation my father had from Morgan's words. "Yeah, we'll stop them. We have before," dad was certain we could stop another herd of walkers. We had done it before and we could likely do it again if we had to.
"I'm not talking about the walkers," Morgan's voice would continue to tennis back and fourth.
Dad on the other hand, understood it and when it clicked, it clicked for me too. When our souls are dead from everything we've lost, we can come back. "Morgan wants to talk to them first. I think that would be a mistake, but it's not up to me," dad gave his insight on this point of view.
Looking to each of us, I felt Daryl's thumb faintly brush against the back of my hand. "I'll talk to the people still at home. I'll discuss it with the people on guard now, too, but who else wants to approach the Saviors, talk to them first?" dad had asked as I stared at the motion of Daryl's thumb that had somehow soothed me further.
Last fight we had been in, we had lost a good bunch of people and the more fights we had, the more people we lost. I didn't know if I could take another loss. "What happened here, we won't let that happen again. I won't," Aaron stood up and spoke his mind.
When dad looked to Aaron, he seemed relieved to hear that someone was trying to pivot the other's thoughts on killing to what happened when the wolves attacked. "Looks like it's settled," dad declared. "We know exactly what this is. We don't shy from it, we live. We kill them all," dad announced what would happen.
His eyes met mine and I tried to keep firm about it. I needed to show him I had no regret over it but I did fear what could happen. "We don't all have to kill. But if people are gonna stay here...they do have to accept it," dad laid down what all this meant before he walked out of the Church.
The last part, I knew it was directed more to Morgan but I felt like it was hitting me too. As my dad walked past us, I slowly shifted in my seat and saw Daryl was looking at me. Gauging my reaction before I glanced at him and offered a pursed lipped smile. I don't feel right...
RPOV
Stood around a table, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Kat, Jesus and I were all surrounding Andy as he was to draw us a floor plan of what the building's layout was like. "Describe it," I encouraged him as he began to draw it.
"Rectangular building, big satellites on it," Andy stated as he began drawing an outline of what it looked like.
Kat leaned in a little, curious to find any way in if there was any. "Any windows?" Kat asked him, her arms crossed over her chest.
Briefly Andy looked up at us. "I don't remember any," he answered us. "I think they made it so there's only one way in," he assumed that there was only one entry and no other means of entry.
Glancing to Kat, I was becoming more and more proud of her as she stepped up to take a leading role that I was influencing on her. "Guards outside?" I asked him.
"Yeah, two of them, at least," Andy responded as he continued to draw.
Michonne was glancing to the paper and then to Andy. "And you don't know how many people they have?" she asked him, curious as to how that came to be.
Jesus was so quick to guess our amount and get it almost spot on. Then again, I had remembered that Jesus wasn't Andy."No. Uh, I mean, no," he stuttered, trying to remember it all. "I saw a place where they stored food. It wasn't that big, so..." he informed us as he continued to draw.
Squinting at him, I leaned in a little more to get a better look at the drawing. "You've been inside?" I was curious as to how that came to be.
"Yeah. They had us load in supplies one time," Andy revealed to us, which was just a good piece of information if we could get more detail out of that one time.
Glenn glanced to all of us. "Hmm," he hummed, deep in thought. "What do you remember?" he asked as he continued to draw what he could picture in his head once Glenn dropped another blank piece of paper in front of him.
As Andy continued to draw, we all stood around him and examined his work. "And you didn't see any other rooms?" Maggie was curious as to how he didn't go into any of the rooms in the building he was drawing.
All Andy drew, were a couple of hallways and a pantry. "No, it's a big place," he gave us an excuse as to why he didn't go in there as long as he could of to give us a more detailed layout. "This is the hallway I saw. There is more," he gestured to the paper in front of him, to one of the halls.
Michonne took a step closer. "And every time, they had you bring things into here?" she asked, pointing to the pantry in the shape of a box on the sheet. Andy nodded as he looked up at her.
"Jesus," I grumbled as we were getting almost nowhere.
Suddenly, a thought crossed Andy's face. "We brought a couple spears for them. Two of the Saviors took them down this hallway," he drew an arrow down one of the halls. "Now, they must've done something with them because they didn't come back with them," he explained why he remembered this. He drew another arrow too.
Jesus took a step closer to inspect the drawing. "Maybe a weapons locker, an armoury," he suggested where they might have gone that way and what we could find there.
Glenn looked to the rest of us as he was already coming up with a plan for us. "Okay," Glenn said softly. "We get in there, secure the armoury, that's how we end it," he declared that this was the best plan we had.
"That's how Carol ended it here," Maggie added, reminding us of what happened with the wolves.
Andy was a little confused as to why we were just going to go in there with a very vague plan. It's the only plan we have with the details he gave us. "But we don't know if they have an armoury or where it even is," Andy argued.
Daryl was the one who shuffled closer to the table to inspect the layout closer. "Well, we've got a lot of good guesses," Daryl gave the guy the sympathy of the doubt. "We've done more with less," he spoke the truth.
There had been many fights we were in where we had no idea where we were going and we still won. "We go in at night while they're sleeping," I told the others, as this was my part of the plan when it came to the fight.
Andy's eyes returned to me and away from Daryl as I spoke up. "The guards won't be sleeping," he countered my idea. "Like I said, I think there's only one way in and there's no way to bust through that door without waking up the rest of them," he was confident in this statement.
Funnily enough, I had a plan already in my head that would work out perfectly. "We don't need to," I assured him.
Andy was perplexed as to how we were going to get in. "They're going to open it for us, let us walk right in," I stated that this was what was going to happen. "They want Gregory's head, right? We're gonna give it to them," I suggested and declared that this would be part of the plan.
KPOV
Sat outside, on the porch, I could hardly sleep. I had been tossing and turning, thinking about the plan we had. It could easily go wrong and if we were outnumbered, we could die. It was something that kept me up. Made me fear for what was coming.
Uneasy as I felt, I left Daryl to sleep alone, even if it would be for a few minutes as I tried to regather my thoughts. What if I can't kill them? While they are sleeping...I. I could hardly think. Could hardly focus.
What if I hesitate? My mind ran in circles and I feared that I was going to be the one getting someone killed. Hearing a door open, I looked over my shoulder and saw my dad stood behind me as I sat on the steps.
"Hey, what are you doing out here?" dad asked me softly, his voice croaking a little from the sleep deprivation I must have given him.
Somehow, my father always had a sense for when I couldn't sleep. Especially in moments of stress. "Couldn't sleep," I told him honestly as I stared at my palms that were clasped together. "Can't stop thinking about tomorrow," I admitted to him.
Taking a seat next to me, we took up the majority of the steps together. "What about it?" he asked me with a small grunt as he fell on his ass to sit down beside me. His legs kicking out to rest on the lowest step he could reach.
My eyes were glued to my hands, to my feet as a thousand worries ran in circles in my head. "I'm scared dad," I was honest with him.
I knew being afraid wasn't an issue, it was letting it take over that was the issue. "What if something goes wrong?" I asked him as I looked up at him. He had been staring at me intently. A look of concern crossing his features.
I'm his daughter, of course he's concerned about me. "And with Maggie out there..." I shook my head at the thought of Maggie being on watch alone. My eyes were gazing off into the distance at the thought of Maggie on her own. "Let me be out there with her, to protect her," I pleaded with him as our eyes met again.
"We-" dad went to argue something I didn't want to hear.
In my gut, I knew dad was going to say something about us needing as many fighters as we could inside. I'm afraid I'll fuck up in there. Can't he see that? "Just in case," I cut him off. "We don't know if these people have people walking around their perimeter in case of people like us," I put one of my many worries across.
Thankfully, my reasoning had convinced my father slowly. "Okay," he agreed to it after a short time of debating it in his head.
His tone was soft, his expression softer as he spoke to me. As he got up and went to leave me there, alone, I felt my heart pounding. I have to say it. "Dad?" I called to him, looking briefly over my shoulder at him.
Hearing the door briefly open and then close, he had turned on the spot to look at me. "Yeah?" he called back to me.
Frozen in my seat, it was like I was paralysed. "What if...what if I don't have what it takes?" I asked him, stuttering to get my words out. "To be in there, with you guys," I elaborated the best I could. "If I don't have what it takes to-..."
As I trailed off, he sensed what I meant. What if I can't kill these people? What if I don't have to kill people like that? What if I can't kill at all after all that I did. The last time I had killed someone, it was with my bare hands and it had been kind of scarring to me.
Dad instantly understood what I meant. I knew he would, as he was my father and he knew me better than I knew myself, I felt he did, at least, sometimes. "You have what it takes," dad assured me. "I know you do," he was confident in this.
He had faith in this. As he walked away, headed back inside, I looked ahead and tried to focus on my breathing. As it kept getting darker, I knew I needed to get back to Daryl, before he thought I was giving up on us.
DPOV
With Kat being outside, as she had laid down beside me and not slept at all, I hadn't slept with her. We had both tried to sleep but how she kept tossing and turning, I knew something was wrong with her. I wanted to ask her but I didn't have the courage to let her know I too was awake because of her lack of sleep on her side of the bed.
After a few minutes of her leaving the room, I had sat up in bed and waited for her and thought over everything that happened these past couple of days, weeks. We had become closer than we ever were before. From the kiss we shared on the day of the party, to the morning we shared after Carl got shot.
Since then, everything had been so surreal to me and then, yesterday, the mention of babies. Of settling down, all of it. It was starting to get to me. Made me overthink it all. Made me want to shut my brain off.
As soon as I heard the door open and footsteps approach, I saw it was Kat. She finally returned from her few moments out there. I didn't say anything. Didn't ask her anything. Instead, I just let her do what she wished as I watched her.
Kat had slowly undone her belt, removing all her weapons that rest on it too with it and put it to one side. Climbing into bed, both of us fully clothed, she got onto her hands and knees. Her face hovering in front of mine.
Our eyes met for the longest time, before her lips pressed against mine slowly. As she initiated the kiss, I would return each kiss she gave me. Over time, our kisses intensified and my hand reached up to hold her there. Gripping her hair tightly into my grasp, when I laid her down, it was only the start to an intense session of love-making.
In truth, it had been something both myself and Kat needed. There was no guarantee either of us would survive the next day, but if we didn't, I wanted to be able to die happy. Knowing that, Kat had cared for me intensely and we shared a night of pure passion the day before.
RPOV
The next day, everyone got into the RV and in separate cars to get to where we needed to go. Those from the Hilltop had used one of their cars to use for this operation. As we drove out, a few miles away from where we needed to be, we parked up and were setting up to do a sweep.
As everyone honked their horns to draw walkers towards us and to alert each other we were stopping here, we climbed out and gathered around. "Aaron, Rosita. You start here," I gave them their order as everyone filed out.
"We'll peel off every quarter mile, meet back here in a couple of hours. See what we got," these were the instructions I was giving out as everyone knew what they had to do and in what groups they were going in.
Gabriel slowly approached me, which was a surprise in the first place as to why he decided to join us. He's a man of God supposedly and he was going to kill people tonight with us. "There's no turning back now," I warned him of the choices he was making if he was planning to back out at any point.
Gabriel had changed, kept his word more and began to make me trust him. "I could walk," he teased. "Maybe run a little, maybe a lot," he joked.
Although, none of this was funny to me. "I'm not going anywhere," he assured me as we stopped. "I wanted to learn and you taught me for a reason," he tried to reason everything for himself.
Every time I looked at him, I couldn't help but look at his neck. His collar symbolising he was still a member of the Church. He was still a priest. Aren't priests supposed to not kill?
"Why are you still wearing that?" I asked him, perplexed as to why he wore something with a religious meaning if he planned to do work of the devil.
Gabriel looked away, as he thought over his words. "It's still who I was. I think," he tried to express how he felt about his collar.
"And it'll be harder for them to see me in the dark," he reasoned, which made me let out a faint chuckle and pat his shoulder as I sent him on his way. He's got a point.
KPOV
Sneaking through the trees, myself, Glenn and Heath had done our best to round up a few walkers, killing the ones in our paths but doing our best to not stab them straight through the side of their skulls.
We needed to make sure their heads were as in tact as they could be, so it could be used to resemble Gregory.
"What do you two think?" Heath asked once we took out as many walkers that surrounded us and glanced to the ones on the ground by our feet. By the looks of it, only two could likely be used.
That is, if we did major work on them. "Maybe. If we, um, cut the hair...trim the beard," Glenn noted as he examined the head of the walkers we had just dispatched.
"Maybe if it's dark," I remarked teasingly, trying to at least gain a chuckle out of either of them.
Instead, I got a forced smile from Glenn. Moving to inspect the others, I crouched down by them. "We're gonna kill those people. Tonight," Heath brought up a topic that instantly made me freeze up. "Look, I've been lucky. I haven't had to do it before," he informed us he hadn't killed anyone before.
"Have either of you?" he asked us.
I could feel eyes glance at me. "I've been lucky, too," Glenn answered but I stayed silent.
Keeping my eyes glued to the walkers, this was a topic I would of rather had kept out of. "You nervous?" Heath had asked Glenn.
There was a moment where they hesitated, where Glenn was looking for the right words to say. "Have you ever seen something that, um...afterwards, you-you didn't want to sleep and you weren't hungry because when you close your eyes you could see it?" he asked him.
"And when you try to eat-" Glenn was trying to explain something in so much detail, that I knew what he was talking about.
Supposedly, so had Heath. "Yeah," Heath cut Glenn off from elaborating further in his example.
Thoughts of losing the ones we loved, or the vile way in which we saw them die. It all came to me. Noah, Hershel, Andrea, Nicholas, Beth. There were many on this list. "Me, too," Glenn had said as I kept my eyes down.
There was silence as I heard Glenn take in a large breath of air into his lungs. "Killing somebody has gotta be worse than that," he assumed. "It has to be," I heard him whisper. "So, yeah...I'm nervous. For the whole thing, man. For the whole thing," he admitted to Heath.
For a few minutes longer, there was silence that lingered up in the air around us. "What about you, Kat?" Heath drew attention to me now. "Have you had to kill anyone?" he asked me.
Feeling my body tense, I hated this question. "You'd think that with the dad I have...he'd do it all for me, right?" I laughed as I began to make work on one of the walker heads I was going to take to my father.
Neither said anything. "You're wrong," I informed them before they could make the assumption.
My father might have been a killer, but so was I. "I have. Many times," I informed them, letting them know just how many times I had to kill someone, up close and personal. I killed many back in the prison, which was where I was beginning to lose count.
"We've been in wars, with the Governor, his people but...that was self defence right?" I asked them, knowing Glenn would remember this time more than Heath would.
"It's a lot more different when its up close, personal. When you have to fight...or you die. There and then," I informed them how I had seen it.
"You don't have to-" Glenn tried to get me to stop, from talking about my experiences in killing.
Turning in my crouched position, I stared up at them. "I do," I stopped Glenn from trying to get me to stop talking.
Remembering all the times I killed, I had seen their faces. From men, to women, as they had attacked me. "If I didn't kill those that I had...I'd be dead," I stated the facts to them. "Back on the farm, I would have been raped and possibly dead," which had been my first.
The list after that, felt endless. "At the prison, I got jumped twice...I could have died there too," I remembered the guy, the girl I had killed. "The night of Joe's group, I would of been dead, as would dad, Michonne and Carl..." my voice quivered at the end.
Some nights, I could still see Carl, squirming, wriggling out of the guy's grasp as the belt buckle jingled. "He would have been raped," I revealed to them.
Glenn's jaw clenched and Heath's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I didn't know," Heath apologised to me instantly for bringing up this question.
"I know," I nodded, continuing my work on the walker, I sliced its head off cleanly.
Getting up, I cleaned my machete and knife with my cloth. "But know this," I started to tell them. "Maybe killing these Saviors...it'll stop that from happening to those that you love," this was the only positive thing I could think of to motivate them.
"Guys that are willing to kill kids...aren't good people," I had thought to Rory, a boy Jesus had mentioned and the thought shook me to my core.
As my eyes met theirs, they were listening to my every word. "Maybe this way, you don't have to witness or go through what I had to," I tried to encourage them that killing, was sometimes better than seeing our loved ones suffer.
"What I could of," I added, remembering that things could of been far worse if we hadn't killed.
My eyes fell to my weapons, now clean as I put them away. "And killing..." I went to explain what it was like but was looking for the right words. "It's worse than that," I informed them of what they'd been assuming.
"But eventually, it gets easier because that's just how your body shuts down. So you don't have to feel that constant worry, or sickness and then...that's when you wonder if something is really wrong with you," I explained what I had been going through.
As of lately, I felt like I was shutting down. Like maybe I didn't have the courage to kill again. "When you question if you can kill another person again," I stated the difficulty that came with killing people. "So yes, killing someone is worse than seeing something bad happen..."
Taking the head I had severed, I cleared my throat and looked to the floor briefly. Glancing between the boys, I walked past the gap they had made and made my way back to my father. I have nothing else left to say...
RPOV
Once everyone was done doing their jobs, I had them round up around me, in front of me were as many of them as they could. "We're gonna take a look around, try to get a feel for how many people are in there. We like how it looks, we go in," I gave out the next part of our plan.
"A couple of hours before dawn. The guards outside'll be tired. Everyone inside'll be sleeping," I had already decided this would be the best time to attack.
Should our scope out turn out to be negative, we would turn back. "We don't like what we see, we head back, make a new plan," I informed them of what would happen if we weren't happy with the way it looked.
"They don't know who we are," I stated a fact. "We'll keep Jesus in the shadows," otherwise, they would recognise him. "This is how we eat," I explained that this was the only way we would survive.
Even if it pained me to bring them in to fight. "This is how we eat," it weighed on me more the second time I said it. "We roll out at midnight," I announced as we all parted ways.
Now all we had to do, was wait. "Why is Maggie here?" Carol stopped me.
Stunned by her question, I understood her worry. Maggie's pregnant and willing to fight with us. "She's guarding the perimeter," I assured Carol that Maggie would be out of harm's way.
Her head turned to look at me but her body stayed planted where it was. "Yeah, but why is she here?" she asked me again.
"'Cause it's her choice," I answered her.
Her eyes were glued on Maggie, who was with Glenn and discussing something private, more than likely. "I want to stay out there with her," Carol offered to protect her, same as Kat had.
I knew what Carol was capable of, she was smart, strong and the fact she knew how to fight, we needed that. "Kat will be with her," I assured Carol that Kat would keep Maggie safe.
"And this, this whole thing's a race to the armoury," I was telling her the gravity of the situation. "We need as many people inside as we can get," we needed fighters inside, not people guarding the outside all the time.
Understanding Kat's need to protect the more vulnerable of us, I allowed her to stay out there. Especially with how her mind was right now. But Carol was capable of doing this. "Kat's smart, Maggie shouldn't be out there alone," Carol commented on both my daughter and the choices being made.
"She shouldn't be out here in the first place," Carol growled. "Let me be with them, in case it gets to be too much for them out there," she had pleaded with me. "Its the only way I'll feel at ease, Rick," she explained that she needed this more than the girls did too.
Knowing that Kat and Maggie would be safe with her, I had to have faith that the three of them would feel better being out there. "Okay," I accepted her request.
"Good," Carol grumbled.
Leaving Carol alone, I went over to the heads, seeing as Rosita and Kat had finished working on the heads. "She's done with the hair?" I asked Jesus and Andy as they inspected the heads laid out for them. "What've we got?" I asked them once they nodded to me.
"That one," Jesus pointed to the one in the middle.
Andy looked to be a little uncomfortable with this. "Yeah, that's it," he agreed with Jesus stiffly.
Examining it, it was a good enough walker head to fit the profile of Gregory. "Alright," I knew it would be a close match at least.
"Though, it's probably good we're doing this at night," Jesus remarked.
Staring at the head, it looked good to me but I didn't know Gregory like they did. "Something wrong with it?" I asked as I crouched in front of it.
Glancing to Jesus, he was the one who knew Gregory better than any of us. "The nose. Gregory's is a different shape," he explained why it didn't look exactly like their leader.
Picking up the head by its hair, I began punching the shit out of its face, hard enough to feel its bones break under my fist. "He fought back. He broke your hand, right?" I made the story up for Andy as I pointed to his hand.
"Guess there's no reason to be subtle about it," Jesus shrugged a shoulder as he glanced from Andy, to me.
Noticing them staring at me, Andy in particular looked mortified. "What?" I asked him, curious as to why he was looking at me like that.
Looking between the head, my hand and then me, Andy appeared to be stunned. "The Saviors, they're scary, but those pricks got nothing on you," he commented. I didn't know if I should have felt alarmed or amused by this remark.
DPOV
Sat outside all night, watching the perimeter, it was soon a couple of hours before dawn. Our plan, was to sneak around while the guards would be distracted with the head and Andy. As Andy arrived and showed them the head, we I sneaked out from the woods, into the bushes and waited for my chance.
One guy entered, with the head, pleased with the outcome they thought they were having. As the other guy kept watch and whistled Happy Birthday, I got up behind him and sliced his neck. Digging my knife into his skull, before I signalled the others, who helped me drag him into the bushes, away from sight.
As the other one returned, he held Craig and hadn't noticed the blood patch on the ground. Luckily for us, it was too dark for him to really notice. "Well, well, well. Look who it is," he said before Michonne's sword slid through him.
"Ahh!" was the last thing the guy said as he fell to his knees.
Craig gasped and was yelling from fear, thinking he would be next. Falling into Andy's arms, Andy held him up. "It's okay, it's okay. We're bringing you back. We're bringing you back," Andy assured Craig all would be fine.
RPOV
Once the two guards had been taken out and I made sure he couldn't come back, I tossed Daryl the keys. He opened up the building and it was ready for us to commence our plan. Sneaking in, we all had our guns up, ready to shoot anyone who was still awake.
"Check the doors. Find the arsenal. We take them out," I whispered the next part of our plan as we all sneaked around the building. Splitting up into different groups, we were making sure all our backs were covered. Opening doors, sometimes we found nothing and in some others, we found bodies.
Fast asleep as they were, I entered and took them out in their sleep. Making sure I was quiet and slow, I couldn't chance them waking up. The first life I took without them fighting me back, was...numbing. Thank God Kat wasn't here.
KPOV
The sound of an alarm blaring in the distance sounded. "They're in trouble," Carol announced as she began making her way inside. "Kat you stay here, protect Maggie," she ordered of us as Maggie followed behind her.
Knowing my father was in there. That Michonne was in there. That Daryl was in there. I couldn't sit back and let them die. "I'm going in there with you," I decided for myself what I was going to do.
"I said stay here," Carol repeated as she slipped past the trees.
The further we walked, the further away from the RV were were becoming. "No," Maggie argued back to her, her voice shaking from us chasing after Carol.
Seeing that neither of us were stopping, Maggie was a little faster than me as she was the one to initially not listen to Carol. "Damn it, Maggie," Carol stopped and tried to get a hold of Maggie.
"I have to," Maggie spoke up with worry.
Glancing to them as we slowed our pace. "We all have to," I agreed with her. Keeping watch, wasn't helping them inside right now.
Carol was exhausted with this argument already. "No, you don't," Carol argued with Maggie and myself. "You don't have to," she spoke mostly to Maggie than she did to me.
"Yes, we do," Maggie argued back, she was worried for her husband and it was understandable.
Carol stared directly into her eyes. "What the hell are you doing here?" she spoke in a low voice as she was facing off with Maggie.
Maggie looked confused by this question. Like it was obvious to her but not to anyone else. "What am I supposed to do?" she threw back at Carol.
This only made Carol more uneasy than I ever saw her before. "You're supposed to be someone else," Carol shouted at her.
The alarm continued blaring in the distance and we were still stood here. Staring at the building my father, my best friend and my partner were in, I needed to help them. "Maggie is right," I agreed with her. "They need our help," I was speaking seriously.
Hearing a walker growl in the distance, suddenly, a walker came up behind Maggie and as quick as a flash, I took my bow out and an arrow. Just as I aimed, Maggie jumped out of the way and my arrow shot the same time Carol's knife dug into it's skull.
Proving that we were both willing to do anything we had to, to keep Maggie safe. "You are staying here," Carol decided for Maggie as she stared at her. "Both of you," she then glanced to me. But...the alarm...
RPOV
As the alarm blared, everyone was getting out of their beds, getting their weapons and running down the steps or halls. Seeing a group rush down the stairs, I shot at them and when I saw them fall, I stopped shooting.
"Go!" I ordered as Daryl, Michonne and I raced ahead. Hearing shots get fired, I dodged them and hid behind the corner. When they stopped, I'd start. Daryl had shot gunned his way around the building, clearing a path for myself and Michonne to follow.
DPOV
Working in a team of three, we would hide around corners, shoot people that got in our way and when they fired, we kept ourselves together. If Kat could see us now. Michonne, Rick and I were fighting as hard as we could.
Firing all we could, as Rick and Michonne distract those that were shooting at us, I raced past and went towards another small group of guys that were racing past a door I had spotted. Knocking one in the face as he raced towards me, when he opened the door, he met with the butt of my gun.
Slamming my gun against his head repetitively, I didn't stop until he no longer moved. Eventually, we all met in the middle, after we had taken every one of them down. Jesus had joined in and everyone was still alive.
RPOV
Opening a rolling door, we were met with sunlight as it hit us like a warm, fresh slap to our eyes. Checking the area, Daryl kept close to my side as we made sure the coast was clear. That there were no other Saviors waiting for us.
Michonne followed closely beside us. Whistling, it brought Daryl over with me. So far, the coast was clear and we had arrived to our cars we had parked around their blind spot. Everything seemed clear and now that we were safe, everyone gathered around and began either leaving or getting ready to get back to Kat, Maggie and Carol.
MPOV
Saying our goodbyes to Heath and Tara, the coast seemed clear. We were safe and there was no more threat of the Saviors. Or so we hoped. After we had opened the gate, I felt an uneasy feeling in my gut. Like I was missing something.
"What is it?" Rick asked as he slowed to a stop beside me.
The moment he asked me, the moment I knew what was lingering in the forefront of my mind. I knew what I wished I had known. "Just-just want to know which one of them was Negan," I stuttered a little but explained what was going on in my mind as I looked to him.
But a sound caught our attention. Our heads whipped towards it instantly.
DPOV
The sound of a familiar engine roaring caught my attention. When I heard the tires screech and the motorbike appear, I recognised it instantly. It was my bike. "Son of a bitch!" I yelled as I ran after it. Luckily, someone shot him, sending him flying off my bike.
Running to him as he scrambled onto his feet, I tackled him to the ground and climbed onto him. My fist flying and connecting to his face a count of three times. "Where'd you get the bike?" I yelled, gripping onto his jacket.
That's my bike. The same one that prick stole from me. Hearing a hammer click, I knew Rick was close behind me. Aiming his gun down at him, the guy stared up at him as I gripped onto his collar and shook him with rage.
I needed to know where that asshole, Dwight was. If they killed him or if this was the group he was with. "Just do it!" the guy yelled, spitting some of the blood I had forced to escape from his mouth to splatter up at us.
"Like you did everyone else, right?" he challenged Rick, who was willing to kill another of them.
For a second, I wanted Rick to shoot. But I also wanted to know where Dwight was. If he was alive or dead because of my bike. Suddenly, something stopped Rick from killing him and I was perplexed by it.
"Lower your gun, prick," a woman on the walkie talkie radioed back to the guy I had under my grasp.
RPOV
Looking around the area, I was ready to blow the guy's brain in but clearly, Daryl wanted answers. Until a woman spoke to us. "You, with the Colt Python," the woman was talking to me. "All of you, lower your weapons right now," she ordered.
Daryl had got up, aiming his gun at the guy as we scoped the place, looking for any sign of the ones who could see us currently. Everyone was trying to get a look from where it came from but we all came up with nothing.
Picking up the man's radio, he seemed to fear me a little and I was glad because of it. "Come on out," I spoke back to her. "Let's talk," I coaxed her to find us, that way, we could end them there and then.
The woman though, had other plans. "We're not coming out, but we will talk," she gave me her own terms. "We've got a Carol, a Maggie and a Kat," she listed all the people she had but my heart dropped at the mention of my daughter being kidnapped.
"I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about," she said, making me meet eyes with Daryl, who looked just as worried as I was. Glenn's lip trembled in fear for his pregnant wife and I wanted my daughter back.
Gritting my teeth, I scrunched up my face and wanted to kill them for taking my daughter. For taking Carol and Maggie too. I swear...if they hurt a single hair on her head...I'll kill them all.
A/N: Another chapter! Would you look at that?! I know, insane isn't it? I did this all in under a couple of hours, which is insane as it is for me. This episode was mostly action but I wanted to bring a bit of that and a struggle for Kat. Last kill she had, it was pretty...intense. Which you all know.
Plus, I needed an excuse to make her be badass in the next episode when she has to fight that small Savior group with Carol and Maggie. Believe me, it will be...eventful. Between Carol stressing out, Maggie trying to be smart and Kat doing what she does best. It's going to be insane.
So, as I requested before. 5 reviews. It's all I ask for. It's not a lot. 5 REVIEWS, OTHERWISE, NO CHAPTERS. That's my deal. In just a couple of days, the following count of readers for this story is now 301. So 5 reviews, isn't much at all.
5 reviews, means next chapter out as soon as tomorrow. So...please, 5 reviews or no more chapters until I get them.
Questions to answer in the 5 reviews:
1) What did you think of this chapter?
2) What was your favourite scene in this chapter?
3) Thoughts on the flashback with Shane?
4) Thoughts of the conversation Kat had with Heath and Glenn?
5) What are your predictions for the next chapter?
Until those 5 reviews are posted...
Much love,
HeroJustInTime90
