Hey again. I've noticed that feedback has gone down a bit for the last chapter. Don't know what it is, maybe it's because Daryl and Beth aren't together at the moment, and that I have to go though the show story fast. Rest assured, the story will start to divert in my direction and Daryl and Beth reuniting will happen very soon (and smut down the way). Anyways, if you enjoyed, go ahead and leave a review. Feedback only motivates authors to write more.
Daryl
"Little pig, little pig! Let. Me. In!"
Negan had gone to Alexandria three days earlier than expected. No doubt to piss off Rick and make it clear to him that Negan was to be obeyed no matter what. I was out in clear view and with a gun to my head, no doubt as insurance if Rick tried to retaliate.
Spencer and Rosita were the ones at the gate. "Who are you?" asked Spencer. He should have known by now.
"Oh, you better be fucking kidding me. Negan, Lucille, I had to make a pretty strong first impression, didn't I?"
Rick then arrived. "You're early. You said a week." Although obedient to Negan, Rick still had that flair of defiance. It just needed the right time to show off and now wasn't it.
"Well, what can I say? I missed you." Negan stepped in, followed by me and two dozen Saviors, along with all their hauling vehicles. "Hot diggity damn! This place is magnificent! Oh I know you're going to have some good stuff for me!"
While Negan began to gloat in the faces of Spencer and Abraham, Rick looked at me with concern and tried to talk, but Negan got in between. "Nope. You don't look at him, you don't talk to him, and I don't make you chop anything off of him. Negan then went to Abraham and got in his face. "Same goes for everybody."
At least Rick had tried. It was worth a shot.
After ordering his men to start searching Alexandria for supplies, Negan forced Rick to give him a tour, with myself and Dwight in tow. Rick had to be fuming on the inside, but had to endure it. To do otherwise at the moment was suicide. "Whatever happened to that sick girl? Hell of a night for her if I recall correctly. The way she was moving and moping about, she was married to the Chinaman, wasn't she?"
Rick gave Negan the look. The look he'd given Gareth, Pete, and others who'd crossed his path. So did I. But Negan was having none of it. "Careful. Careful how you're looking at me."
Satisfied, Negan went on. "Widows like that, they're often empty inside… in more ways than one. But usually not for long…"
The sick fuck. He really thought he had a chance of getting in Maggie's pants. Of all possible times.
"Would you care to pay her respects?"
Father Gabriel came out of nowhere, giving off a smile that rivaled Carol's bullshiting abilities (where was she, by the way?). Negan turned to him and said, "Holy shit! You are creepy as shit, coming at me with that creepy-ass smile."
He then turned to Rick, putting two and two together. "She didn't make it?"
Fuck. That was another person on my watch, if true. Rick didn't say anything.
"Take me to the grave."
The grave that was shown to Rick was in face Denise's. That led me to believe that Maggie was still alive somewhere. Probably at the Hilltop. But if the Saviors found her there, Negan would come back and kill someone else.
Hopefully, he' just chop off one of my arms instead.
"A damn shame. You know Rick, I was going to ask her to marry me and join my other wives. I know what you're thinking: how could a guy like me have a chance? After bashing in Chinaman's head. But you know, I've done it before. So it's possible. And what about her super-hot sister? She's not dead too, is she?"
"She's out with some of our other people getting more supplies." Another lie, but hey Negan said for me not to talk.
"Oh. Maybe I'd ask her too-"
A gunshot. In one second, Negan went from happy-go-lucky to dead serious. "Watch him," said Negan to one of the guards while he and Rick went to investigate the gunfire. The guard, who had a beard and was wearing a knit cap of some sorts, kind of just looked around, almost as if bored with the whole thing.
The rest of Alexandria's subjugation went as bad as can be. Negan proceeded to take what seemed to be most of Alexandria's firearms (although I'm sure they hid some in the fresh graves) as well as every luxury and miscellaneous item they could find. He did let Rick keep all the canned food, as a gesture of showing "how reasonable we are, once you get to know us".
Reasonable, my fucking ass. The only thing going for me was that my babysitter guard wasn't dragging me everywhere like Dwight or Fat Joey would.
Beth, a day earlier
"An inside man?"
"Yeah," repeated Andy. "The two of us – Jesus and I – are the only ones that know about it. Well, Ethan did too, before…"
"Rick did what needed to be done," said Maggie sharply. "If he was willing to do that to Gregory he'd do it to you too if that was what Negan wanted."
Andy stopped looking down and began about the inside man again: "We don't know much about him other than he hates Negan just as much as you do."
"Then why does he stay with Negan?"
"He thinks he can do more damage on the inside," said Jesus. "From little things to making Negan's prisoners' lives easier to not killing survivors on the road and giving us heads up to future Savior collection days. That kind of thing."
"Have you talked to him since Negan killed Glenn?"
"Not yet, but we do have a radio for contacting each other. He told us earlier that Negan and his men have gone to Alexandria earlier than planned, so he's laying low with Negan's crew and scouting out the area."
Maybe he could help with Daryl. "Can we meet him tonight?"
"Probably. He's one of the main night guards and he's given bribed and sleeping pilled the others into being free for the night."
"Good," I said. Daryl needed to be broken out. God knows what he's going through right now. He deserved the least of all people.
The next stop was Craig's home, a small cabin behind the Barrington House. Craig was the hostage freed from that satellite station, and his house hid about half of the Hilltop's guns that were taken from the dead Saviors.
"Terribly sorry to hear what happened," said Craig, massaging his arm. It had been broken by the Saviors and was still recovering.
"Don't be," said Maggie. "Guns: we need some. Now."
"W-Why?"
All eyes turned to Jesus. He was going to be the one doing the explaining. "We want to break one of Negan's hostages out, maybe more. No one else knows but the people in this room, not even Gregory, and we want it to stay that way. Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure, it's just… How are you gonna do it?"
So another person learned about the inside man. I wanted to keep it secret but Jesus said it was time for Craig to know, considering how he had a personal stake in this as well.
When it was all said and done, there were ten people in total who we could rely on for Daryl's breakout. A couple were ex-soldiers, and one was a former National Guard officer. Not a bad lot, but not a group to take on the Saviors' main base. Maybe a Savior convoy, and maybe we could work from there.
The last step was meeting the inside man. That was going to have to be tonight.
I'd wait. For Daryl.
Daryl
Eventually Negan decided to stop harassing Alexandria and decided to leave. But before he did, Rick actually asked a question: "Now that you know we can play by your rules, can Daryl stay with us now?"
"Nope. Not a chance. Unless… he wants to. Do you wanna stay, Daryl?"
I wanted to say yes. But Negan was likely toying with Rick again, to get his hopes up. Besides, my penance for getting Glenn killed was over yet. So I was silent.
"Well, Rick, at least you tried. In case you haven't noticed yet, I just slid my dick down your throat and you thanked me for it. Buh bye Rick."
I was put back in the van I arrived in. Two Saviors, the bearded man and another asshole called Davey, sat there with me. The bearded one was silent for most of the ride, but Davey was more harassing. The SOB was trying to fuck with my hair.
"Why's it so damn long?" Davey said, barely an inch between our faces. "Ever heard of a thing called a shower?" A few seconds of silence, and then Davey went on: "I don't know how you got laid like that. Negan think's you're hot shit, but I don't. You really are one dirty motherfucker."
"Ok, Davey," said bearded man. "You're just rehashing every insult in the book. Besides, we can force Daryl here to take a shower whenever we want to. Right?"
I didn't nod, but if a thank you could be telepathically sent, I sent it.
"Exactly. Davey, don't get worked up because the boss likes him better than you. Leave it to him to deal with him for you."
Davey just humphed and went back to being silent. It was like this for the next ten minutes when the convoy of trucks finally stopped and a commotion took place. I went outside to see Carl with a rifle and the bodies of several Saviors at his feet. "I only want Negan!"
I couldn't say anything. Doing so would distract Carl and get him killed. Negan, however, seemed more amused than angry. He used one of his men as a human shield and began talking to Carl: "You picked that gun because it looks cool, right? Wow! You really are a badass!" But while talking, Negan motioned for Dwight to surprise Carl and disarm him, Dwight seemed to want to kill the kid, but Negan stopped him.
"Don't be rude, D. Is that any way to treat our new guest?"
A fate worse than death was what that probably meant. How I wished to take his place.
Beth
Now that it was nightfall, Jesus made his radio call to his contact in the Sanctuary. Using flashlights, Maggie, Jesus, and I all walked what was assured by Jesus to be a safe path to a moonlit area not too far from the Hilltop. It looked like one of those rest stops at a National Park, from the looks of it.
"Now we wait," said Jesus. We sat at a park bench and waited.
A few minutes late a lone figure with a beard and knit cap appeared. He sat down opposite of us.
"Good you could make it tonight," began Jesus.
"First of all, I was never here, and we never spoke," the man said bluntly.
"Fair enough," said Maggie. "Give us something about yourself."
"Gideon. Not my real name though. No one alive knows my real name. I like to keep it that way. Sorry about the Asian, by the way. I can't control Negan, obviously."
Gideon's grudge against Negan and the rest of the Saviors happened to be fairly big: he'd lost family to them. His nephew that he'd adopted before the turn had been Rory, the sixteen year old boy first killed by the Saviors to assert their dominance over the Hilltop. He'd been separated from the kid during the turn and subsequently joined the Saviors' ranks, looking to survive in the new world.
"Wasn't there when it happened. God knows what I would have done. Still haven't actually done anything about it to this day. But maybe getting your dirty friend out can help."
"It will," I blurted out. "Can you give us anything that we could use?"
Gideon thought. "Negan wants to move him tomorrow to an outpost. Things he'll get to uppity if he stays in one location for too long. It'll be me and a few others taking him there. Now here's what your people are going to do…"
As Gideon, Maggie and Jesus discussed the details of the plan, I said a silent prayer: We're getting you out, Daryl. Your time in hell is over.
Gideon is based on one of the Savior extras that I've seen in several episodes. He's at Glenn's death, Negan's first trip to Alexandria, the scene where Mark gets the iron, and most recently pointing a gun at Father Gabriel when Rosita shoots at Negan. Can't describe much more of him besides the beard and knit cap, but if you rewatch the scenes I mentioned you might be able to spot him out.
