It took about two hours to reach the city where Greenbrier was located. As I sped past a dirty, green mile marker sign, I gripped the steering wheel and tried to refrain from turning back. The closer I got to the mall, the more I started to regret my decision to try and talk to Derek. Once he learned I had harbored Negan, he would never trust me again—and I needed him to listen to me now more than ever.
At first I was afraid I'd pass by it, but as I came down the highway I realized missing it would be pretty damn hard to do. Taking an exit and driving by a group of walkers that were stumbling through a ditch, I came down a road leading to the mall.
It was massive.
When Derek and Charlotte had talked about their home, I had assumed it would be in a little strip mall with a few shops. Instead, as I pulled into a large parking lot, I stared at the huge structure with wide eyes. Name brand stores with their lettered signs were still hanging over doorways, but most of the entrances had been barricaded with cars, tables and chairs.
As I took in the large building before me, I was surprised Negan hadn't evicted them and moved his people from the factory to Greenbrier. The mall seemed much nicer than the Sanctuary, but it was located in a fairly populated city; I had passed by numerous walkers on the drive.
I drove around the backside of the mall through the empty lots until I found a place where a few cars were parked near an entrance. Pulling up next to the vehicles, I took a few deep breaths and mentally prepared myself. I had no clue how Derek would react to me showing up on his doorstep, and needed to be careful about how I handled this.
Stepping out of the car, I shoved the car keys into the pocket of my gray hoodie and then checked to make sure my gun was at the ready in the hostler at my hip. I closed the car door and then began walking across the parking lot to the entrance. My eyes were locked onto the multiple black doors as I came near. I watched as they opened before I was even halfway to them and Charlotte came out.
"Elle?" she asked surprised, as she closed the distance between us. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes went from me to the damaged car, and she became instantly concerned. "Oh my god! What happened?!"
"I'm okay, Charlotte. Really. Everyone is okay," I reassured her, coming to a stop just outside the entrance and underneath an awning, "I just need to talk to Derek."
"He's inside. What the hell happened to your car?" She studied the damage vehicle with a worried look.
"We had an accident. No one got hurt." I knew I shouldn't continue to lie, but I needed to speak to Derek before coming clean about how our car actually got wrecked. I wasn't sure if Charlotte knew about our bent gate, or if Derek even told her about his late night visit a few days prior.
"How's Amy doing?" Charlotte asked conversationally, turning to walk with me towards the front doors. "I've been wanting to come see you, but we've been expecting the Saviors to pounce any second."
"Amy's fine. And actually, I'm here to talk to you about that…"
Before I could continue speaking, the doors to the mall flew open and Derek came out. Immediately, I could see he was pissed; his fists were clenched and he had a scowl on his face. I stopped dead in my tracks and Charlotte froze next to me.
"Elle… how did you find us?" she asked in a quiet voice, turning to look at me and ignoring her approaching brother. The next thing I knew, Derek whipped out a pistol and pointed it at my forehead. I slowly raised my hands up and gulped.
Fuck.
"Woah! Derek!" Charlotte exclaimed, staring at her brother alarmed. "What the fuck?!"
"I know how she found us." Derek pressed the barrel of the gun hard into my forehead and my entire body froze. The irony of my situation was not lost on me in the moment—the first time I had met Derek, I'd pointed my Ruger right at his head. Now the tables were turned, except now Derek had even more incentive to shoot me. "Negan told her."
Derek glared and Charlotte studied me, confused. I didn't know what I could possibly say in the moment and noticed my raised hands were shaking. I had hoped the friendship we had formed in the last few weeks would be enough for him to hear me out. Now, as I saw the red hot anger in Derek's eyes, I was starting to think this little mission had been a big mistake.
"You had him the whole time!" Derek asserted with a growl. "I asked you if he was at the school and you said no! You LIED to me!"
I shut my eyes, expecting to hear the sound of the pistol firing that was pressing hard into my skin at any second when Charlotte's voice made me open my eyes.
"Drop the gun, Derek," she urged, giving him a stern look.
He shook his head and glowered at me.
"I should have never trusted you."
I took a slow breath, hoping that me opening my mouth wouldn't get me killed. "I'm here because I don't want to see you guys get hurt."
Unimpressed with my words, he narrowed his eyes and cocked the pistol. I winced at the sound and Charlotte stepped towards him.
"Put the damn gun down! We can either hear her out, or we can keep standing out here in the open like idiots and wait for the Saviors to come gun us down." Her voice was harsh—she was trying to convince him, but he didn't appear to want to hear any of it.
"She's armed," Derek observed, gesturing to my Ruger that was holstered at my hip. I was about to open my mouth to explain it was only for walkers when I looked over at Charlotte. She seemed to be the only person willing to listen to reason in the moment.
I licked my lips before finding my voice and spoke directly to her.
"Take it."
Very carefully, Charlotte removed my gun from my holster while Derek continued to point his pistol at my forehead. I didn't dare move. Once my Ruger was in Charlotte's hands, she stepped in front of me and placed a hand on Derek's outstretched, armed hand.
"Stop pointing that thing at her. She's not a threat to us!"
Derek finally lowered his arm, but the anger never left his face. He looked at me in disgust, and then, without saying anything else, he turned his back on us and stormed into the mall.
I let out a gasp of relief and felt my eyes watering. I had expected Derek to get angry, but thought that rage would come when I actually sat down and confessed everything. I didn't think that me showing up at Greenbrier out of the blue would be a huge red flag, but it was. I could only imagine what was going through his head, and knew then that I couldn't tell him how close I really was with Negan. He would never understand.
"Come on then," Charlotte said, her voice void of emotion as she headed up towards the mall entrance.
As I slowly approached the large building, I realized I had probably just lost all of their trust. Derek hated me, though I couldn't tell how much he already knew. Charlotte still seemed willing to listen, and I was grateful for that.
Going through the doors, I looked around at the large room as I entered. Most of the first floor entrances and escalators had been barricaded off with an assortment of items including what I assumed had previously been kiosks, tables and chairs. The second floor had lights and people—people who were all looking over the edge at me as I walked in. The first floor shops had all been completely raided, but I could see some of the stores on the second level looked practically untouched. Some of them even had lights, which meant Greenbrier had some sort of power supply.
"We've been searching for Negan for almost two weeks," Charlotte explained as we came upon a makeshift elevator. It was a large metal slab with raised sides on the bottom for safety, and it was connected to a pulley system that was controlled from the second floor. As we stepped up onto the platform, Derek was already standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. He avoided my gaze as I took my place next to him on the lift.
"We've been struggling," Charlotte continued, "We have some supplies from the mall, but we've gone through most the food stores. We haven't been able to scavenge because we've been fighting off the Saviors." She turned to look right at her brother. "We won't last much longer," she said solemnly.
I didn't feel like I could speak with Derek standing so close, so I just nodded sympathetically. I was glad they were still okay, but that meant this meeting was even more important than I thought. As we were pulled to the second level, I stared at some traps that had been set up with wire on the first floor, and then glanced up at the skylight above our heads that illuminated the mall. Once the elevator stopped, I stepped off on the second floor and glanced around.
Greenbrier was a fairly tiny community for living in such a large structure. Although I didn't know how many members they had total, there were about twenty people standing before me. I recognized some of them from their visits to Doveport. They all had worried expressions as I passed by, as if my arrival was some sort of bad omen.
"This way," Charlotte said, directing me into a large area with the words 'FOOD COURT' over it. There were still a few tables and chairs inside the open area, but a few mattresses had been brought in and set up throughout the individual restaurant chains. Charlotte led me over to a small table and gestured for me to sit down. I noticed she was still holding my Ruger, but wasn't aiming it at me.
Once I sat down, Charlotte took a seat across from me and nodded to the chair next to her for Derek to sit. He hesitated, eyes trained on me in a hard glare, but eventually he pulled the chair out from the table and sat.
I needed to tread carefully. Getting my bearings, I looked from Derek to Charlotte and spoke.
"I'm here to broker a deal between Greenbrier and the Saviors."
I decided to cut right to the chase and not sugarcoat anything, hoping Derek would respect my candor. Charlotte raised her eyebrows in surprise and Derek scooted his chair back and stood up abruptly.
"You can leave now," he grumbled, and Charlotte's head whipped to the side.
"Sit your ass down!" she snapped, reaching over to grab her brother's arm and yanking him back towards the chair he had previously occupied.
Derek narrowed his eyes at Charlotte, but he did as she said, taking the seat again.
"I know you're angry," I said in a quiet voice and staring down at the table. "I don't blame you for not trusting me."
"How long was he with you?" Derek demanded to know.
I slowly met his gaze, at first not entirely understanding what he was asking. I wasn't with Negan. At least, we hadn't labeled it yet. Then I realized he wasn't talking about my relationship—he couldn't possibly know about that.
"Negan came to us the day you shot him," I explained. "He crashed into our gate. That's why it was damaged."
Derek's scathing look remained, but he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"So I did hit him." It wasn't a question, but an observation. A hint of a smile formed on his lips as I confirmed that Negan had been shot.
"We wrecked our car to cover it up. We didn't feel like we had a choice." I turned to look at Charlotte who wasn't glaring at me like her brother, but she appeared shocked to learn about this news. I knew Derek wouldn't like this next part.
"Negan saved us from Caleb. We couldn't just let him die. Everyone at the school agreed to patch him up and keep him hidden, but not at your expense. I begged him to let me come here because I don't want to see you guys get killed." I shook my head and stared down at my hands. "There's been way too much violence."
"Because of Negan!" Derek roared. He was looking at me like I was out of my mind. "He killed one of your men, Elle! He's a violent person!"
"We're all violent. This new world makes us violent, but it doesn't have to be like this. We don't have to kill each other. We can survive together," I insisted.
"How?" Charlotte's voice surprised me and as I turned to see her worried-filled eyes.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at them both. This was why I was here, why I had begged Negan to give me directions and to give me a chance to make things right. I had convinced myself this would work, but now that I was sitting with both of them, I wasn't feeling very confident.
Still.. I had to try.
"I want to set up a meeting at Doveport. Negan and Derek can sit down and work out a deal." As soon as the words left my lips, I could see the doubt on their faces.
"I'm close with Negan, so I have some pull on him," I added.
"Of course you do," Derek mumbled, rolling his eyes and leaning back in his chair, and then let out a sigh of frustration. I ignored him and turned my head so I was talking directly to Charlotte.
"No weapons allowed inside. I'll mediate the whole meeting." It was the best thing I could think of. If I could just get these two men to sit down and talk, they'd have to come to terms. I knew I could get Negan to listen to me. Now it was just a matter of getting Derek and Charlotte to agree to it.
"We're not sitting down with Negan," Derek snarled, shaking his head.
"Derek…" Charlotte, said, giving him a critical look.
"What!? This is insane! She wants us to walk right into a fucking trap!" He held his hand out towards me and I frowned. I had thought he would at least trust me more than that.
"I know you're mad she lied to us, but she didn't have a choice, Derek. Elle is trying to help us here, and we need to start thinking about putting an end to this insanity."
Derek stared at his sister for a long time. She held his gaze and the two didn't say anything for a few minutes. I held my breath, waiting for their answer. When they didn't speak, I took a deep breath and hoped I could still convince him.
"I'm sorry that I lied. I really don't want to see anyone get hurt. I know you don't trust me, and even though you don't consider me one anymore, I still consider you my friend. I want to help. I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about you guys. Please, Derek. You need to trust me."
Derek's eyes met mine as an intense look washed over him. I wondered what was going through his head. Sure he was acting like an asshole, but I really couldn't blame him. I was asking him to put everything on the line—to put the lives of his people at risk—to sit down with a man they all fully despised in the name of peace, something that even now seemed virtually impossible.
So much to my surprise, Derek's brows formed together in a serious expression, and after a very long silence, he nodded slowly.
"Okay."
I mirrored his earnesty and reached across the table, offering my hand. Derek was hesitant, but eventually he reached out to extend his hand to mine and we shook.
"If Negan tries anything, I will kill him," he declared.
"Thank you for trusting me," I said. Derek's grip tightened on mine and for the first time since I had arrived at the mall, his features softened and I saw the man I had come to be friends with.
"We can't beat them, Elle. I almost had him, but we lost it. I'm trusting you with my life."
I placed my other hand over his and patted it, nodding again and again. I understood the severity of the situation. There was no room for errors.
"I will get Negan to agree to the sit down. No weapons." I reiterated the fact, wanting to make sure my rules were fully understood. "We'll meet at Doveport in one week from today, and I'll convince Negan to get the Saviors to back off for the week so you guys can gather some supplies."
"Good luck with that," Derek said, voice laced with doubt. He pulled his hand from mine and pushed up from the table to stand. Charlotte, who had been very quiet the whole time was staring at me with an unreadable expression. We both stood together and she held my gaze.
"I'll walk you out," she said, rounding the table to leave the food court.
Derek turned to face me once we out in the open where the other members of his community had gathered to watch us curiously. He was less angry, but I could see how worried he was as he stared at me straight-faced. He nodded once, and with that, Derek disappeared into another shop. Following Charlotte towards the makeshift elevator, we both got onto the metallic platform.
As I stared down at my feet, I remembered what Derek had said about his brother-in-law. Charlotte's husband had created this lift, and as we rode it down, I glanced up at her face. I couldn't tell what she was thinking; she was staring straight ahead and seemed emotionless. I wondered if she thought less of me for trying to negotiate a peace treaty. Charlotte had only recently reunited with her brother and would never have been caught up in any of this if she had stayed in that treehouse.
We reached level one and Charlotte led me towards the front doors. Once we were outside, she spun to face me and held my gun out to me. I took it from her and holstered it, only to look up and find her sticking her hand out to me.
"Thank you, Elle," she said it with such conviction that I furrowed my brow, but took her hand into mine nonetheless. "My brother is as stubborn as a mule, but he just wants to protect his people."
"I know," I said shaking her hand. Greenbrier was just trying to survive. We all had that in common with one another.
Charlotte smiled at me, and I couldn't help but grin back. Knowing that she, and maybe even her brother, didn't hate me made me feel a huge sense of relief. Their friendship was important to me—it was why I had made the trip.
"See you in a week, Elle," Charlotte said, letting go of my hand and turning to head back inside her home. As I watched her disappear, I let out a long breath.
Derek doubted things would go well, but Charlotte believed in me. She had been the key factor in convincing Derek to listen, and I wondered why she was willing to trust me.
I still hadn't been completely honest with the two of them. They still didn't know about my relationship with Negan, but it was looking more and more like I would be able to use that very relationship to fix things for them.
Would Derek have reacted differently if he knew I was romantically involved with his enemy?
Deciding I didn't need to entertain the what-ifs, I got into the car and headed back down the highway towards Doveport. As I sped down the road past the same group of slow moving walkers I had seen before, I pondered how this could all play out. I felt optimistic that I could help broker an agreement and that everyone would be happy, but I was nervous about both Derek and Negan. I knew I'd have to set up precautions so they didn't break my rules, and I'd need to convince Negan to back off Greenbrier.
A few hours later, I began to recognize the trees and buildings I was passing and knew I was close to the school. Slowing down and coming to a stop near a familiar road, I reached into the pocket of my gray hoodie and retrieved Negan's walkie talkie.
Staring down at the black rectangular contraption, I studied the different controls until I finally held down a black button. Static roared, startling me a little as the device came to life. Pressing the talk button, I raised the radio up to my mouth.
"Um… I need to talk to Negan?" I sounded so unsure of myself and grimaced at my awkwardness. "It's.. It's Elle."
It was quiet for a few moments, and I wondered if it was even on the right channel. Then a loud burst of static came through and a deep voice answered me.
"Hang on."
I leaned back in my seat and glanced out the window as I noticed the sun was starting to set. I smiled at the lovely shade of pink and orange that decorated the horizon, and then something else caught my eye.
Glancing over to some trees, I spotted an approaching walker. It's entire body was shrunken—it looked like they had starved to death before turning into one of the living dead. It was a man, and he was wearing a tight fitting tan jacket and black skinny jeans. As he came up to the car window, I stared into his glossy, yellowish eyes. The walker's jaw clenched and unclenched as it began to scratch against the window, and I double-checked to make sure the car was still locked, not wanting to be his next meal.
I don't know how long I sat there staring at the biter as I waited for the walkie talkie to buzz. Bringing my hand up to the window, I watched as the walker became even more animated as it tried to grab my fingers through the thick glass. I felt like I was at the zoo taunting an animal. It was thrilling, and yet I felt completely safe inside the locked car.
As I studied his clothes, I noticed they were in good shape, making me assume his death was fairly recent. My eyes trailed over his body, trying to find a bite mark, but couldn't. My initial assumption appeared to be correct—he starved. I frowned as I remembered what it felt like to be so hungry. We had gotten lucky when we found Doveport, but before then, we were struggling. Amy, Eric and I wouldn't have been alive if it wasn't for Philip and the school.
I was picturing Philip's friendly face when the radio hissed to life. I grabbed it just as a familiar voice came through.
"Are you callin' to talk dirty to me?" I could hardly hear him—the static was thick, and he sounded far away, meaning the connection was weak. Pushing the talk button, I brought the walkie to my lips.
"Can you come to Doveport tomorrow?" I ignored his silly question and got right to the point. There was a very short silence and then Negan answered me.
"Give me an hour."
I furrowed my brow in confusion and pushed the little black button.
"The sun is setting. It'll be dark soon." I hadn't expected him to want to come out at night, and thought doing so would be too dangerous, even for him.
"Guess I'll have to spend the night." His voice came back thick and gravelly, but he raised his voice at the end as if asking my permission. I shook my head and smiled to myself before pushing the button one last time.
"See you soon."