I'm back everyone! Had a hectic few weeks of college but I finally got around to writing the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Beth
Gregory still seemed to blame us for everything, but was willing to let Maggie and I stay for a few days, as long as it took for her to recover. In the meantime, Abraham and Jesus went over the hidden weapons caches throughout Hilltop, all taken from the satellite outpost.
"There's several rifles under my floorboards," said Jesus, letting Abraham take an M4 for the journey back. "You sure you don't want to stay a few days?"
"I'm needed back home," was the red-haired man's stern reply. "With Rick out of commission for the foreseeable future, I'll be the one in charge. Besides, someone needs to have the sense to hide some of our own weapons, should Negan want them for himself."
"He will," said Jesus. "The Saviors took what little in firearms we had on their first collection. They made sure to make their own lives easier."
Abraham and Sasha left an hour later. Dr. Carson came out of the medical trailer to update me: "Lots of trauma, but the baby will be fine."
"Thank God for that."
"I'm very sorry. About Glenn, I think his name was. I barely knew him but he didn't deserve that."
I nodded. It was all I could do.
"You can go check up on her if you want. She's still asleep but it shouldn't be very long."
Maggie was still sleeping soundly inside. Someone had placed some blue flowers in a vase nearby. I grabbed a chair and just started uttering some things: "Maggie, if you can hear me, I just want to let you know how brave you are. You've endured so much, and this too shall pass. I love you, and I know daddy and Glenn loved you just as much. Stay strong, sister."
The Saviors came not two days after. The night before, they'd set a cruel trap for the Hilltop: they set a car blasting music right in front of the broken gates, and walkers came bursting through. It wasn't until Maggie came up with the brilliant idea of using a tractor to destroy the car, since the doors of it were melded to be shut tight. After that, it was just a matter of knifework.
"Where'd you learn to drive that?" I asked my sister when it was all said and done.
"Did dad ever tell you about that time when I ran over that one boy's car?"
I had forgotten the hilarious tale. The good thing was that some good came out of that pre-apocalyptic fiasco.
In the present day, Maggie and I were talking with Gregory about what was going to come next between Rick and the Hilltop when Jesus came in the room urgently. "Saviors. At the doors."
"We need to hide you," said Gregory to Maggie. "You know, plausible deniability. Beth, they've seen you before, find a closet for your sister to hide in."
I hid her in a utility room on the second floor of Gregory's house while the Savior leader named Simon and about twenty men crowded the lobby, all of them armed to the teeth. After a few halfhearted greetings, Simon leaned on closer to Gregory.
"We need to talk, and it's getting a little claustrophobic in here, so let's go to your study. Don't know if you heard what happened."
Simon had quickly changed from falsely charming to dead serious. I didn't know if "what happened" referred to the satellite base, Negan's introduction, or both. Gregory, whatever his knowledge, pretended to play dumb.
"Some of the other people you were dealing with, our brothers and sisters in arms… well they've been removed from the field of play. "
"W-What does that mean?"
"I think you know what that means. It means we need to talk!" Simon suddenly grabbed Gregory by the shoulder and forced him into the study. "Privacy time, boys. If blondie or Jesus here try to leave, shoot them, would you? There's some good fellows."
Gregory began to lean on a sofa while one of the Saviors closed the doors to the study and locked it. With little else to do, some of the others Saviors began fanning throughout the house. I just prayed none of them reached where Maggie was.
Daryl
Where's Alexandria?
How many people do you have?
Tell us more about Rick.
On and on it went. Several Saviors and Dwight kept bringing me to this alternate cell for torture and attempted to get answers out of me. I had already resolved not to give it, but it hurt like a bitch.
I had nothing on save for some ratty boxers left for me. Every inch of my skin was covered in either scars, blood or dirt.
But I didn't care. This was my punishment for Glenn's death. If Maggie didn't blame me, I did. I'd get out of here eventually, but until then I'd go with whatever they had in store.
Dwight was pulling out a knife from my shoulder when Negan himself walked in. He ordered everyone else out and pulled up a chair for himself.
"You're not the talking time, are you Daryl?"
Silence. His goons weren't worthy of answers, and neither was he.
Negan grinned. "Ok then. Let's try a different kind of question: why weren't you the one in charge of that sorry band of circus clowns? You were the only one with guts back there in that forest. Oh, and Big Red, but even his stopped fighting after a while. You just don't know when to fuckin' quit, do ya?"
No answer. I didn't want to answer. He'd just go on about how Rick was a pussy or something if I told him how much Rick meant to the group as a leader.
"No answer? Alright then. Dwight tells me you you've not been cooperating. So maybe you'll tell me something. Where's Alexandria? I know Dwight has an idea, but not the actual route."
After another five second silence, Negan stood up. "If you don't fuckin' answer, I'mma beat the shit out of you with my bare knuckles."
"Try."
And he did. He got up and began beating me up. After a minute, seeing that it wasn't having the effect he wanted it too, he left the room, slamming the door after him. A few minutes after that, he and two guards came in with two walkers. They were pressed against my face, just an inch from biting.
Admittedly, I did flinch a bit. But it would take a lot more than that to break me.
"Boss, I don't think it's working," said one of the guards, looking bored holding his pet zombie from a leash.
"Special one, this guy is," said Negan. "Joey, go through Daryl's personal belongings again."
Joey left and came back with a picture of Carol. It was the only one I had of anyone in the group. It used to belong to Ed, but now was in my possession.
"Daryl, do you have a special lady in your life?" Negan asked. "No answer? Well, that sucks. Because if this is her, my oh my, she looks like a MILF."
"Hmm. Maybe not her. Maybe one of the others in that lineup. It wasn't the short haired brunette, the Asian kid had her ass locked up. Wasn't dreadlocks either, given how Rick got all teary eyed over her death. They definitely were together. Maybe it was that hot little Mexican next to you?"
Negan paced around some more. "Or maybe it was blondie? She seemed a bit younger than you, but she was super-hot. I'd totally understand. I would love to fuck her senseless."
I actually wanted to get up and give Negan another kick in the balls. But I had to play this smart. He's just trying to get a rise out of you. Piss him off again and he might take another trip to Alexandria.
"You and blondie definitely had a thing. She was lookin' like she was begging me not to take you away. Ha ha ha. Oh well. She'll get over it. Maybe you too."
I wasn't too sure about that.
Another beatdown, and it was back to the cell and more of Easy Street. The next time Dwight came with a dog food sandwich, I had him drop it on the ground.
"You should be dead," said Dwight with contempt. "But Negan's taking a liking to you. Don't forget it." He then took some sort of Polaroid picture and taped it to the wall before leaving.
The music that came on next wasn't Easy Street, but rather a Roy Orbison song of sorts:
I was all right for awhile
I could smile for awhile
But I saw you last night
You held my hand so tight
As you stopped to say, "Hello"
I'd seen similar photos at the satellite base. The picture was of Glenn's bashed in head. The man I'd caused the death of.
I cried.
I cried a lot, godamnit.
I cried over Glenn, who'd been like a brother and would have never done anything to harm me. I also found myself crying over Maggie and Beth. Maggie because of the pain and devastation I caused her (she'd blame me eventually), and Beth because... well, because. She'd been the only person to make me cry before, if you didn't count mourning over Merle's zombified corpse as crying proper.
Did I have feelings for her? I didn't really know.
But all I could think of right now was Glenn. Poor fucking Glenn.
Beth
It was a close one. Simon and Gregory eventually came out of their office and went straight for a closet. Jesus and I watched as Gregory looked around, and eventually gave Simon some whiskey that was boxed up in the closet.
My initial thought was that he thought that was the closet Maggie was hiding in and was trying to rat her out as a way of appeasing Simon. That coward. I knew he'd been easy on the Saviors before but this was unacceptable.
From the look on his face, Jesus was thinking the same thing.
After the Saviors left the house, Jesus and I went straight to where Maggie was hiding. The door hadn't been touched, and the secret safe with us. Gregory followed shortly, furious. "I thought you were in the main closet on the first floor! What if they'd came up here-"
"Before you tried to give her up?" I demanded angrily. "They would have killed you as well."
That shut him up. Jesus went into damage control mode, trying to talk Gregory out of his accommodating style. Eventually, however, it was no use. "We'll be one, big happy, dysfunctional family," was his ending sentence.
Gregory smirked. "So we will be. You know, I made progress with them just now."
"Literally bowing to them was progress?" I asked. Before going out the door, Simon had made Gregory kneel before him, like Simon was lord of the Hilltop and the residents owned him fealty.
"Yes, that's what it was. We play by their rules, and they play nice. They can be reasonable if you think about it-"
Maggie couldn't take Gregory's bullshit anymore. Out of nowhere, she socked him pretty hard, enough to make his nose bleed. Not two seconds after that, she took Daddy's pocket watch from him. Gregory must've taken it from the grave.
"It's a fine watch, didn't want them stealing it." Gregory was lying through his teeth and he knew it.
"You'll start calling me by my name," said Maggie, ignoring the watch. "Not honey, not dear, but Maggie. Maggie Rhee."
The decision to use Glenn's surname as her own surprised me a little. There'd been no official wedding (although everyone who knew them knew that Glenn and Maggie had claimed each other). But Glenn's death and seeing him disgraced in little ways like Gregory taking the watch must've made my sister more dedicated to his memory than before.
Later, when Gregory left to do another tour of the Hilltop, Jesus, Maggie and I went to Andy's home. He had one of the trailers next to Dr. Carson.
"Beth, what happens here doesn't reach Gregory's ears, alright?"
"Of course. Not like he'd do anything useful with the information. So what is it?"
Andy gulped.
Jesus began: "Maggie asked me earlier about scouting out where Negan lives…"
"And?" I said.
"And maybe we could get Daryl out in the process."
My heartbeat rose up a little bit, but I had to remain cautious. "But how? Wherever he's at, it's got to be heavily armed. And wouldn't they notice?"
"Not to worry," said Andy, grinning. "We have a man on the inside."
Daryl
"What's your name?"
Negan had just asked the question. I'd been subjected to his henchmen chanting "Negan" for long periods of time, as well as a recounting of Negan's history with Dwight. Turns out he was trying to flee, but ended up coming back, hence the half burned face. Not to mention having his wife belonging to Negan now. Merle would have called Dwight a "cuck".
I weighted my options. If I said "Negan", I'd have an easier life for the short term. Negan would finally be off my back and I'd maybe even be able to help with lightening the load off of Rick and the rest at Alexandria. Maybe even the Hilltop and whichever survivor communities the Saviors were terrorizing, if any.
On the other hand, I'd be insulting the memory of Glenn and Michonne. Not to mention I'd probably never get to leave serving Negan.
So the answer was "Daryl".
"Wow, you really are that fucking stupid. D, take him back for another round of Easy Street. I want him effectively neutered when we head back to Rick's front door."
So it was. Another five hours in the cell. However, I did get a note halfway through:
You're not alone here.
So to clarify, Simon's visit to Hilltop is taking place before Negan's early visit to Alexandria. Carl still will sneak in one of the Saviors vehicles like he did in the comics. I'll also be switching a few things we've seen and not yet seen on the show (using the Spoiling Dead to my advantage, lol).
What did you think? Leave a review and let me know!
