Beth

"Is it supposed to do that?" I wasn't expecting such a kickback from the M4 assault rifle I was firing.

"It's supposed to," said Leo. Claiming to have been Delta Force and looking like it too, Leo had taken up the job of training me how to fight. "Now, you've been going up against the maimed walkers I prepared for you. But those aren't the ones you'll be up against. Let's take on some of the real threats."

Leo and I went to the open field near our camp. All our camps were makeshift, as we were on the move towards DC. A trio of walkers was stumbling on their way when they spotted us. "There. Those are perfect. Use your gun to take them out."

I managed to kill the first one easily enough, although I had probably spent too many bullets on it. The second, I kept missing. I tried closing the other eye (Leo and I couldn't decide which one was dominant) and fired again. This time, I hit the mark. The third was close enough for a point blank headshot.

"Not bad," said Leo, smiling and nodding. He rubbed his face and said "Can you do it again?"

I remember countless stories like these from my journey. They help to keep Leo's memory alive. Memories are all we have when people are gone from the earth.

As part of the plan for dealing with the Saviors, Rick had us go out and gather walker heads that looked like Gregory, and pick one that looked the most like him to fool the Saviors guarding their outpost. Meanwhile, Andy was giving Rick details on the outpost specifications. It had been decided to attack at night, to lessen the chances of resistance overall. Daryl and I were on one stretch of the road, looking for any suitable old male walkers.

"Whatever happened to Noah?" I asked Daryl. "I don't think I saw him in Alexandria."

"That's right," was the gruff response. "Got swarmed."

I looked down. Noah didn't deserve that, but I was curious for more. "Details?"

"Got killed when some coward left him for dead. He's dead too, so there's that." Daryl looked the other way. "That one. Looks like Gregory fairly enough. You wanna?"

I nodded, then shot the walker in the chest with the silenced pistol I'd found in the armory. Daryl cut off the head a minute later. "Let's see if this one suit's Rick's needs."

An hour later, we ended up picking another head, one with a broken nose that could easily be explained by a struggle. At least now, Andy and Daryl weren't fighting like before.

Daryl

That night, we rolled out. The plan was for Andy to dupe the night guards with the fake head, and then we would clean house in the complex room by room. We didn't know if this was the only Savior base but my hunch was that it wasn't.

Still though, better them dead than alive and kicking to give us grief.

Beth, Rick, and Carol all got in an argument over whether Maggie should have come along, considering pregnancy and such. Carol was against it, but Rick said it was her choice and that he needed every person he could, as he was not taking chances. Beth's comments all more or less said that she wanted whatever Maggie wanted. That was, Maggie helped guard the perimeter where the danger level wasn't so high.

If this had been Woodbury and the Governor, Beth probably would have wanted Maggie to stay home. But things were different. Beth carried her own weight now and had barely had her sister back for a few days. Best they not get separated so soon again.

Andy's part of the plan went as scheduled. He got the attention of the guards, and endured their taunts before they seemed satisfied with the walker head to go fetch the Hilltop hostage being held there. The first guard's neck was mine, and as soon as it was done the whole group cleaned up the mess like a well oiled machine. It was actually pretty impressive how much ten people could get done in fifteen seconds. The second guard arrived with the hostage, but got killed by Michonne with her katana.

After that, everyone began the real job: extermination. Carol, Maggie, Father Gabriel, Tara and Jesus covered the entry/exit points of the compound while the rest of us went inside to clear each room, one by one. Beth wanted to stay with Maggie but she insisted she go in, claiming she could handle herself.

The building was some sort of radio or TV station, from the looks of it and judging from the large satellite dish on the top. The first few rooms of the place looked like they hadn't seen habituation in years. Looks could be deceiving, however. Terminus was supposed to be a rest stop, not a cannibal meeting place.

"Split up," said Rick, quietly. "Check the doors, find the arsenal. We take them out." Pairs began fanning out: Abraham and Sasha, Aaron and Rosita, Glenn and Heath, Rick and Michonne, and Beth and I. I opened the first door I found to find two men sleeping away on bunkbeds, like at a camp.

"Let's do it," I said to Beth, getting out a Bowie knife.

"I'm all for killing them. But in their sleep…"

"Like I said earlier: us or them." I plunged the knife into the first Savior's neck, and was going to do the other one when a silenced round was fired. Beth didn't look to happy about it, but it needed to be done.

"Weapons," she said, picking up a shotgun at the corner of the room and draping it around her shoulder. I did the same with an Uzi on the man I killed.

The two of us met up with Rick and Michonne, who'd cleaned the room across the hall for us. We were about to do the next two rooms when an alarm began blaring loudly. People began coming out of every door, all of them looking very angry.

"Go loud," said Rick, who fired at the catwalk above him. Beth and I did the same. Our new priority was now getting out of here, and killing everyone who resisted. Hopefully, the people we left on the outside could pick off the stragglers easily.

The four of us moved and ran as one. Occasionally one of us had to go back and deal with someone coming up on our rear. This was usually Beth, while I kept moving forward.

The next locked door I kicked down let to some kind of game room, with darts, a billiards table, and even a firing range with various hunting and assault rifles. However, a Savior was waiting in there, and ambushed me. I tried to get the upper hand, but the man kept trying to stick a knife in me. It took all my strength to keep him busy, since the gunfire behind me signified that the others had their own troubles. I'd get out of this eventually.

Then, a much closer gunshot, and the Savior's blood was all over me. I dropped the body and found Beth right behind me.

"That's for all the times you saved me in Georgia," she said grimly.

"I had him," I told her back as I picked up my shotgun and headed towards the other door of the game room. But I truth, I hadn't. It just seemed unreal that the same girl who'd been dead weight was now a fighter on Maggie's level.

The battle raged most of the night. One by one the rooms of the Savior base were cleaned of resistance. The group cumulated at the collection of vehicles out in the back. By that time, it was somewhere in the late morning. Tara and Heath insisted on going on their planned two week supply run then and there, using one of the vehicles. Glenn tried to talk them out of it, but Heath insisted, saying he just needed to clear his head. I didn't blame him.

"Do you think Negan was any of them?" Beth asked me, regarding the dead.

"Doubt it," I said. "If they were good enough-"

A bike vroomed in the distance. A lone Savior was attempting to ride away – on what could only be my bike. "Son of a bitch!"

Rosita easily gunned him down, throwing him off the bike. I immediately began to give him an idea of what I thought of his attempted getaway. Namely, beating the shit out of him. "WHERE'D YOU GET THE BIKE?!"

The man spit out blood as Rick came beside him and placed a revolver at his forehead. "Go ahead, kill me. Just like all the others, huh?"

Before Rick or I could respond, a woman's voice began speaking through a walkie-talkie: "You with the Colt Python: lower your guns. Lower all your guns."

Everyone went into high alert mode. For all we knew, there was an army in the tree line that covered our fields of view. Maybe they'd caught Heath and Tara leaving the place.

"Come on out, and we can talk," said Rick. From his tone of voice, he thought the woman on the other side was bluffing.

"We won't come out but we will talk." A few nerve wrecking seconds later, and the woman came back: "We've got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that something you want to talk about."

God fucking damn it. I hadn't seen either of them all morning.

Fucking fuck.

Beth

I knew I should have stayed with Maggie. I should have been with her.

Now, she was in the balance, reduced to a hostage.

"Now, we're gonna work this out right now, and it's going to go our way." The woman on the other end seemed confident about her negotiation ability. Whether it was a bluff or reality, I didn't know. I was certain, however, that they could kill my sister if they wanted to.

Rick must have thought it a bluff. "You can see we have one of yours. We'll give him back for ours. You don't have another choice or you would've done something about it already. But first I want to hear Carol and Maggie. Make sure they're all right."

Both Carol and Maggie said they were fine, but they got cut off attempting to say anything else. "There's your proof. And we'll think about it. Two for one doesn't seem fair." Then, nothing but static.

I could see Glenn with the same fear and panic that I had. "Office," I thought. "Might have an idea of where they might be headed."

Glenn and I raided the only room within the complex that could be the office. Among the dead bodies and bullet ridden file cabinets was a map of the area, with several spots circled in red. "Any markers for indication?"

"That X has to mean something… as does that circle two and a half miles north of here."

"Wait, look at this.. it says emergency safehouse. And there's only one of it. My hunch is that's where they're headed."

Glenn agreed, but also disagreed. "That looks like the right kind of spot, but what about some of these other places? We should split up and investigate them one by one-"

"No we shouldn't." That was Daryl, walking in the office. "We have no idea how many more of them there are. Best to stick to numbers being on our side. You know it, I know it, and she knows it," he said, nodding at me. "We can use the extra vehicles, it's not like these shitbags will be needing them anymore."

"But Maggie-"

"Can handle herself. Same with Carol. We'll find them damnit."

I sure hoped so. I kept hoping as the three of us used a spare truck and began a convoy towards the marked safehouse in the distance.

As before, I hope everyone's in character, and would love some nice reviews.