Chapter eight
"You're going to want to put pressure in a triangular pattern when dealing with head wounds." Denise was whispering to herself.
She was bent over her books on the infirmary porch as I sat next to her cleaning out the new cut on my forearm from falling off the guard post, "I feel like that shouldn't be right for some reason if it's bleeding enough."
"It displays equal pressure since heads are soft," I chimed in and she nodded, noting it down on the page, "Heads are different than the rest of the bodies, girl."
"Who's body?" Tara came up, sitting next to Denise and going her a sweet kiss, both smiled and blushed before Denise returned to her book, "I wish I could have gotten your fall on tape."
"Ha ha, let's all laugh at the clutz." I glared at her and Tara laughed again.
"Maggie fixed the post though, you were right. It was pretty loose."
"Glad my fall saved another's life then." I mumbled, finishing patching up. I looked to the gate to see Sasha in my position, "Remind me to give Sasha a present for taking over."
"They're back." Tara got up immediately as the gates opened and sure enough, Rick and Daryl came driving in...not looking like they had anything.
Tara took off towards them and I hung back, not really curious but Denise got up and peered out as Rick and Daryl started struggling with somethings the back of the car. I went inside the infirmary, putting back the supplies I had basically stolen and turned to see the men dragging a body to us. Denise came back in and started organizing the gurney for the dude, wordlessly handing me her books to put away as Rick came in, sweaty mess along with Daryl and all but threw the man on the chair.
"Well...let's not all be violent if we can." I joked as the men huffed in exhaustion as Denise started checking over the guy.
"He ain't staying' though." Daryl was saying as I propped myself behind the guys and Denise on a seat, swiveling as she got to work. Rick gave Daryl a look, fanning himself.
"We'll see." Rick nodded to me in greeting, "We'll be back to lock him up later, let me know when you finish here."
"I'll play messenger then." I smiled and Daryl came over, kissing my temple before walking out with Rick, planning to go out again tomorrow.
"He's knocked out pretty bad, what the hell did they do to him?" Denise was covering his head, blocking him from my view as she inspected his eyes.
I got up and retrieved the guys beanie from the floor, dusting it off and then I frowned looking at it, I looked back to Denise as she moved away from the man and to her medicine cabinet, mumbling to herself.
I don't know how I got so close to him, but one second I was by the door and the next I was brushing the long hair away from his face to get a closer look.
This had to be a fucking joke.
"Melaney?"
"Huh?"
I turned around in what I thought was slow motion, but I guess I had jumped because Deise jerked back and almost dropped her tube of neosporin.
"Damn, you alright?" She was staring at me, concerned, and already putting her hand up to reach for my forehead.
"I'm fine, I better get back to guarding, I'll send Tara in to help you though."
"Oh...okay." she watched me flee the infirmary, I flung the beanie away from me, not caring where it touched down.
I made a beeline for the guard tower, one hand gripping the hilt of my machete, palms sweaty.
"You alright?" Sasha waved down to me and I nodded, walking past the guard tower to the gate and unlocking it angrily, "Hey-"
"I'm fine, I'll be back in five minutes. I gotta blow off some steam.." I waved her off and Eugene pulled the gate back but put an arm out to stop me, "Uh...Eugene..."
"Should we alert Daryl?"
"I'll be fine, Eugene..." Sasha and I shared a look before she shrugged and turned away.
"I'll come with you."
"Eugene that's not nece-"
"No lady should be left alone out there, I am also advancing my accuracy of killing those things out there as well. You won't even know I'm there, I'll stay five steps behind you."
I stared at the mullet hired man for second before giving in and sighing.
"Alright. Let's go then. Back in fifteen, Sasha."
"See you in an hour." she smirked and waved us off. I always took longer than what I said.
The gates clanged shut behind us and we set off, Eugene dutiful stayed a few steps behind me. I'd be lying if I said some part of me wasn't pleased that I had a silent companion.
We stayed on the road for a few minutes before venturing onto some paths that criss crossed across the road every so often, I was having fun leading Eugene everywhere, trying to get at least one complaint form the science man, and being lost in my thoughts.
We stopped in the woods for a moment, I was picking a rock out of my shoe when a hobbling Walker came stumbling past, the leg bone sticking out of the bottom and splintered. Eugene raised his gun but I tapped his arm away with my machete.
"Guns are too loud, try this."
"I don't...Uh..."
"Here's a tip Carl can't teach you. Let them run into it," I held the weapon away and waited until the Walker literally ran into the tip and let its guts fall out, "Then when it's close enough take out the smaller knife and kill it."
Eugene watched me grab my other knife from my back holster and stabbed the past lawyer-suit-Walker in the eye and into the head like butter. It dropped to the ground like a sack f bricks and off my machete. I handed the weapon to him and pointed to another Walker that was coming from behind, this one was a little bit faster.
"Try that one, hold the smaller knife in your less dominant hand and when it gets to close for comfort stab him."
"He'll grab me." Eugene was shaking, but switched hands and stood still, waiting. I started tying my shoe on again.
"Let them. They're going to be stuck in the blade, they can't exactly do a whole lot unless they don't have a stomach to get stuck on."
Eugene met the Walker halfway and the blade got stuck in the ribcage, keeping the Walkers' teeth a good distance away. He struggled for a moment trying to keep a good grip on the hilt, but then he reached out and slammed the knife into its face before dropping everything and stepping away back to me, breath coming short.
"That was amazing Eugene." I smiled, retrieving my weapons and wiping the guts on a nearby tree "You're definitely improving, no doubt."
"I waited too long."
"Just because you're not good at something the first time doesn't mean you won't be a professional at it by the end of the day if you want it." I shrugged and we started walking again, Eugene was silent for a minute.
"You weren't good at killing these things before like me...were you?"
"I was like you, really reluctant, relied on others way more than what I should have honestly. I could run though, that was my best ability."
"But you kill easily now."
"...Yeah, not exactly something I'm proud of you know. It's something nobody should be proud of. Killing humans and Walkers alike, it's not worthy of a medal."
"You've killed people before."
"I have, yeah."
"Was it justified?" Eugene was knocking branches out of my path as we made our way back to the road to Alexandria.
"Most of the time, no...it really wasn't."
"Well that certainly is a mistake."
"How?"
"Anyone who comes across you probably didn't survive." he held out a polite hand as we jumped across a small puddle of...something not pretty, "But I've learned in my recent travels that life's not fair. It's gonna try to kill you and you might as well learn how to shoot something in the head."
I laughed at that and Eugene managed to cracked a very small smile for once.
"Exactly, Eugene."
We became silent again, he fell back behind me a couple steps and I started focusing on the way my feet hit the ground and how much i didn't like my shoes anymore.
I remember killing a couple men from Hilltop just because of Negan's orders, I remember doing it in front of a man with long hair and a beanie. I remember watching Steven punch that same man in the face; I watched him spit on the beaten man and walk away laughing.
That same man was lying in the infirmary back home.
"You need some actual sleep." I sat next to Daryl outside the jail cell where the man was being kept. Daryl just shrugged and took the couple sandwiches I had made for him, "I'm serious. Rick's had you out here all night."
"I don't mind it."
"But I do. I brought some water and snacks for myself, go back and sleep. It's only a couple hours until morning anyways, I can handle it." I bumped the redneck off the steps and Daryl groaned, getting up.
"Don't go inside, rick doesn't want him getting out and going back wherever the fuck he came from." He gave me a kiss on my cheek as I set myself up on the steps where he was, "Heard you went out today by the way."
"Yeah, Eugene went with me on a little walk."
"Eugene?" Daryl raised an eyebrow and tossed me the key to the door and I let it fall onto the step before picking it up, lazily.
"You guys need to start giving that guy some credit. There's more to him than what he lets on, you know."
Daryl shrugged and walked away, I could hear him ripping into the other sandwiches and I sighed, leaning against the wall and started counting to one hundred.
Daryl never really slept, but I needed him gone to get into the jail and see the man.
After my walk with Eugene yesterday afternoon, I needed to see the man they brought in...and kill running to the infirmary with every intent on killing him to keep him silent, Denise said they moved him to the jail where Morgan guarded then Maggie and then Daryl. I had a better chance of moving Daryl than anyone else to get in.
If he started talking, if he recognized me then I'd be done for. Rick would know everything about me, know who I had been with and what I did.
I peeked out from the steps to the jail cell and looked around. Nobody around, nobody walking on dumb night walks anymore.I hopped down the steps and softly unlocked the door, listening for any sounds inside and behind me.
I went inside quietly, shutting and locking the door behind me, one hand gripping the knife on my back holster as I moved towards the lamp light on the ground in the other room. I saw a foot on the ground and as I turned the corner I saw a very awake man, sitting there and staring at me with a blank expression until I moved into the light and stood over him.
"...Laney, right?"
"Melaney, not Laney. Jesus, right?"
"...So Negan got another community, are you killing everyone here too?"
"Watch your mouth."
Jesus stood up and I moved accordingly, watching him dust himself off before looking at me up and down again.
"Door's 've got a hand on a weapon, Negan tell you to kill me?"
I stopped for a second at that and frowned...
"No...no, he didn't." I let go of the knife and Jesus followed my every move as I leaned against the wall, "I'm not...I ran away from the Saviors actually."
Suddenly I felt lost in this jail cell with him, I couldn't decipher whether me killing Jesus was me wanting to do it or if that was Negan in the back of my head today telling me to eliminate all sources.
"...I've been out for a long time now, I've been living here, hiding from them." I looked up at him and shook my head, "I'm so sorry. I-I came in here thinking I was going to kill you to not tell anyone who I was or where I've been...I-I..."
"I won't tell." Jesus was looking at me, "I never told anyone that you were the one that saved Kelly from being shot in the head by taking the fall."
"...I remember that." I looked down at myself and Jesus stretched, "They're not happy with what you did. the guy her win charge, Rick , said you stole a truck of food then ran it into the river?"
"That was an accident, I didn't expect your people to put up such a fight." Jesus smiled and then made a face, "Kind of strange to say 'your people' when I'm so used to seeing you in Negan's arms."
"...He tried to kill me." I swallowed a lump in my throat, "After I was mouthing off in one of his meetings, he had Steven beat the hell out of me and then he got in with Lucille. that night, one of the Wives helped me out and I ran."
"We knew something was wrong, he started demanding more and more things. Hilltop's almost run dry because of him, he wiped out a couple of their other supplier's from what I was told."
"How dry?"
"Dry enough to try and steal food from another group that needs it as much as we do." Jesus gestured around us and I nodded, "I want to speak with Rick."
"About what."
"We both have big communities, and by the looks of what you're carrying you have the firepower...Hilltop could use an ally against the Saviors to take them down."
"That's impossible. Negan's arsenal is ridiculous."
"Against Hilltop alone, of course. We have sticks, they have guns...what do you have."
I thought back to the armory and then realized his point, Jesus laughed at my expression.
"Exactly."
"Taking on the Saviors is insane, Jesus. It'll take a miracle to work perfectly-"
"But could you guys do it?"
"...I don't know." I shook my head at first but then thought back to the wall crumbling and everyone's fight for survival; the raw power everyone exerted to keep Alexandria safe, "...Yes, they could."
"That's all I want to talk to him about, you know I'm not going to try anything."
"That's true...Well this basement might not help much with that." I pushed away from the wall and checked my watch, "I'll make you a deal."
"Go ahead."
"I'll let you out, crack of dawn and lead you to Rick. Don't tell anyone about Negan and my affiliation with them...and don't kill Rick."
"Deal. How much longer until dawn?"
"I'll give an hour and a half I'll get you some food really quick, stay here." I left and grabbed some of the snacks I wasn't going to be able to hold down and returned, "I'm o sorry about everything that's happened, Jesus. With Negan...I don't know who I was."
Jesus took them and in a flash he grabbed my arm, I made a move to grab my knife but his grip softened.
"At least you mean it this time...running away has made you a healthy woman. Thank you."
"Yeah..."
I left him at that and went back outside, locking up the door before planting myself on the steps again, lost in more thoughts.
If Jesus was resorting to going out and cheating others out of food then the Saviors were doing worse than they ever had.
When I let Jesus out in the morning and directed him to Rick's house before going back to my own where Daryl was waiting, I had a feeling that I would be seeing the Saviors sooner than I ever wanted to.
Two Hours Later, Mid-Morning
I stood silently in front of Daryl as Rick stood outside talking; Jesus was standing next to Rick and Michonne and he was looking happier than I had ever seen him.
"There's another community, Hilltop." Rick was saying but I was barely paying attention.
I couldn't even focus on Daryl's hand on the small of my back behind me, I could barely remember why I even bothered to wake up and attend this. I already knew the plan, Jesus had gone into detail on the way over this morning before I left him and by the sounds of it, all that was left was take them to Hilltop, convince that bastard Gregory to join forces to survive and then convince everyone to attack the Saviors.
I shifted my weight as the meeting ended and someone left to go bring around the RV, Jesus and I locked eyes as everyone departed to pack up and came closer to me.
"You're not coming."
"I don't want to risk Gregory bashing me in the head for hitting him that one time." I turned away, acting like I was just inspecting my gun.
"The others are going to find out anyways."
"Not today."
"Not your people, us." Jesus began to walk away as the RV came up, I nodded.
"I know, I know...just not yet." I whispered as he walked away, Daryl came up, bag in his hand.
"...you staying?"
"Someone's gotta watch Judith and everyone else...and I'm getting carsick now. You guys will be back tonight, right?" I asked, Rick came up to us and looked around.
"We're gonna try. We don't know who these people are yet, If we're not back tonight or tomorrow, take Judith and Carl and go." He whispered and I nodded.
"Be safe. Figure out what's going on." I smiled and it seemed too fake but Daryl noted anyways, giving me a brief kiss on my head before everyone loaded up.
As soon as they were out of the gate I ran back to my house and locked up before diving for the bag of guns and extra ammunition I had stashed away.
For three hours I loaded and unloaded and cleaned and bleached every weapon that was in that bag. I was sweating so much, lost in my own world I didn't notice the folded up letters I had stashed in my jacket, Negan's name scrawled over and dripping with the future blood that was going to be spilt.
sorry about that weird chater guys, i updated it so it wouldn't come out all funky. Thanks for letting me know about it!