"The Walker People girl and the boy need to come with us" James said.
"No" Carl said. "And their names are Lydia and Tommy. Look, I know you want to talk to them, but they don't know you, and they've been through enough. You can question them right here in the house. They haven't done anything wrong."
James looked at Carl and could see he was serious. Even though James was in his late thirties, Carl had trained him as a member of the defense team, and he had great respect for the teen. Out of his respect for Carl, he agreed.
"Ok, Benny will come back to talk to your family right here." James agreed.
Carl nodded and turned to follow his escorts back to the big house. Rick watched them walk away, concern written all over his face. He knew his son could handle himself, but he was still worried about his little boy.
He turned and entered the house, Lydia right behind him. Enid was pouring water into Michonne's mouth. She turned to Rick.
"Her fever seems stable. I need to get an actual thermometer to see how high it is, but it doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. She needs to stay hydrated and she must eat. Try to get her to drink a half glass of water every hour if she can, and she can have some broth or soup, but she and the baby need nutrients. If she can eat something solid like crackers, even better. There are some in that cabinet over there."
"I need to get off this table" Michonne said, "My back hurts even worse than my stomach".
"Can I move her?" Rick asked.
Enid looked down at Michonne. "It's gonna hurt like hell, but yea, a bed would be much more comfortable. You can take her to my room, just be very careful with the stitches. I'll wait for you to move her before I leave."
"Where are you going?" Michonne asked, confused.
"They took Carl for questioning, and I'll be damned if my husband goes missing again."
"Questioning? For what?" Michonne asked.
"Carl killed Gregory. They may have a trial. They're going to come back and talk to everyone here about what happened and how the Walker People got into Hilltop." Rick explained.
Michonne sighed and rolled her eyes. She then turned to Enid. "It'll be ok Enid, Carl can handle himself, and they know how much Carl does for this town, and how crooked Gregory was."
Enid nodded.
"Ok, I'm ready to get off this table" Michonne said, looking at Rick.
"Do you need help?" Lydia asked.
"No, I got her" Rick responded, wrapping one arm underneath Michonne's upper back, and the other under her upper thighs, "Just hold my neck ok?" he asked Michonne.
She nodded and braced herself for the pain.
He lifted her as slowly and carefully as he could, but the act of shifting positions caused shooting pain in her abdomen, and Michonne bit her lip, trying to hold in the scream that was bubbling up inside her. She buried her face in Rick's chest as he moved her to Enid's bed, gently laying her down again. He looked at her face. Her eyes were closed and her brow was furrowed, with beads of sweat running down from the fever. There were teeth marks in her lip where she had been biting them almost until they bled.
"Michonne?" Rick called. She let out a breath and then opened her eyes to look at him. "I'm ok… that… was just intense. I'm not gonna be able to go home for a while will I?" she asked.
He rubbed her hand. "I don't know. But what's important is that you keep eating and drinking to keep up your strength, and for our baby."
Enid entered the room. "Are you ok?" she asked Michonne. Michonne managed a smile. "Yea. Go find out what's happening with Carl", she said to Enid. Enid passed Mhare to Rick and left.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So what happened Carl? From the beginning." James said, taking a seat in front of Carl. They were in Gregory's old office, but it looked very different from how it used to be. There were still blood stains on the floor even though it had already been mopped, it seemed the stains were there to stay. Many pictures had been knocked off the walls, either by walkers or Walker People, and Carl could count at least three bullet holes in the wall.
"After the funeral, Timothy, who I now know was one of Gregory's cronies, came to me and said that Gregory wanted to talk to me about sharing leadership of Hilltop. He said that his people would never accept me as leader, but if I partnered with Gregory, we could bring everyone together. I didn't trust Gregory for a second, but I decided to give him a chance, just in case he was serious." Carl shook his head. "I wish I listened to my wife."
"So Enid was there when Timothy said this to you?" James asked. Carl nodded. James scribbled something on to a piece of paper and then looked up again. "Ok, continue."
"I went to Gregory's house. There was a group of his followers there. Some of them were on the defense team, people I never suspected of being in league with him."
"Do you remember who was there?" James asked.
"Yea, I can give you a list" Carl said. "Anyway, Gregory said he was willing to share power with me. He said we had traits that the other lacked, and we could unite everyone… Something like that. I told him I'd think about it. He offered me some tea, and I took a sip… just a sip. Right after I drank it he let me go. I thought it was a little weird, but I wanted to get out of there anyway."
James nodded his head, scribbling a little more onto the paper.
"When I was walking home, I could feel something wasn't right. I realized I was poisoned. I tried to make it to the infirmary but I passed out, but before I did, Timothy and Maxwell showed up like they were just waiting for me. Timothy told me to 'just pass out already', and they dragged me off."
"So in your opinion those two men were waiting for you to pass out from the poison Gregory gave you?"
"Yes, they were. There was no other reason for them to be out there. And like I said, they dragged me off afterwards. I woke up in the Walker People camp, and Gregory was negotiating with Alpha. He told her that if she killed me in front of everyone, he would give her Omega… uh, Tommy. He wanted it to look like he had nothing to do with my death."
James' eyes widened. "Gregory said that?"
"Yes. The man was a snake." Carl said, getting angry.
"What did Alpha say?"
"Even she didn't trust him. She let him go, but I saw her send someone after him. Alpha stabbed me in the shoulder and gave me this cut on my face. She wanted me to give up Tommy, but I wouldn't agree."
"How did you get back here?" James asked.
"Alpha decided to attack Hilltop. She herded one of their walker herds to the tunnel, but Lydia, she helped me escape from them. I guess that person who followed Gregory figured out where the tunnels were. But I… oh shit!" Carl cursed, startling James a little. "I think I heard her say to divide the herd in half. This was only half the herd… and there are still Walker People out there with the other half…"
James' eyes widened. "They can bring the other half of the herd in here!"
Carl leaped out of his seat, done with the questioning. They had bigger problems. "Go get the rest of the team now!" Carl said, "we have to go looking for those people before they come back. We need to end this. I'm going to gather as many fighters as we can, we can't do much with 5 people."
James nodded his head and ran off, listening to his leader.
Carl raced back towards home, meeting Enid who was walking towards the big house. She saw the look on Carl's face and stopped in her tracks. "What? What is it?" she asked.
"The Walker People may attack us again, they have more walkers, a second herd."
"What?!" Enid yelled.
"Go back to the house and tell my dad and Lydia I need them to come with us, I'm trying to gather everyone who is able bodied, we need to go find the rest of them. We need to end this now."
"O…Okay" Enid said, turning around and jogging back to the house. She opened the door, and walked past the kids who were playing another game of Candy Land in the living room. She knocked on her bedroom door, not wanting to interrupt Rick and Michonne. She heard Rick say "come in", and opened the door to see Rick feeding Michonne spoonfuls of soup from a bowl.
Rick looked at Enid and already knew something was wrong. "What is it?" he asked.
Not wanting to alarm Michonne, Enid gestured for Rick to come outside. He kissed Michonne's cheek and put the bowl down, following Enid out into the hallway.
"Carl said something about the Walker People having another herd, and they could possibly attack us again" she whispered, "he wants all able bodied people to go out there and find them before they come back. Where's Lydia?"
"She ran over to the infirmary to grab a thermometer, she'll be back any minute" Rick said, rubbing his eyes. "Ok, let me tell Michonne."
He went back into the room and Michonne was staring at him, she knew something bad was happening. "Is something wrong? With Carl?"
"No. He's fine. He thinks there's a chance the Walker People will come back. They have more walkers." Michonne's eyes got large. "We're gonna go out there and find them, and make sure they don't bring the walkers back here. You and Enid are gonna stay here" Rick said, pointedly looking at Enid. "No protests this time. You're the only doctor now, we can't risk you or your baby", Enid nodded.
They could hear the front door open and Rick knew it was Lydia coming back. She came back into the room and noticed the grim looks on everyone's faces. "What is it?" she asked, holding out the thermometer to Rick.
"Lydia, we need your help" Rick said.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The team that was leaving the Hilltop was gathered outside of the big house. They had managed to gather 14 people in total, many of them had never fired a gun before, but they were picked because they weren't injured or too traumatized to go. They were discussing where the Walker People may have gone.
"I know where they might be" Lydia said. "The warriors who have escaped would surely have gone to collect the lowers and the herd from that clearing and moved elsewhere, that's what would happen if Alpha were still alive. But with Alpha, Beta, and Gamma dead, I don't know what they'd do now. Our society is based heavily on rank, and losing the top three uppers… It's never happened before. Technically, Epsilon is in charge."
"What can you tell us about Epsilon?" Rick asked.
"She is as vicious as Alpha, but not quite as smart. I think she has a fairly low IQ, but she is ranked so highly because she is strong and she respects authority. I don't think Alpha ever intended for Epsilon to be in charge." Lydia offered.
"How many people are left in this… tribe?" Iona, one of the defense team members asked.
"I'm not sure how many warriors were killed, but I'd say about 15 lowers were left behind."
"What's a lower?" James asked.
"They are those deemed too weak or sick to be of use to the group. Men who cannot defend themselves, women who are sick or injured, and children, although Tommy was our youngest."
"Are the lowers a threat to us?" James asked.
"If they feel you are a threat." Lydia said. She paused for a moment and looked around at the people gathered. "I know this group… my group, has hurt you. I understand you must make sure they will never attack you again. But I just ask that you treat them fairly. They are made up of people who were just looking for some place to belong. They didn't want to be alone out there. Like me. If they surrender, will you spare them? If they promise to never return, will you let them go?"
The group just stared at Lydia.
"Hell no!" Benny yelled. "Are you kidding me? I thought you said this girl was on our side!" Benny directed the last statement towards Carl.
"She is" Carl said, defending Lydia. "She saved my life. But she's right, about the lowers at least. If they surrender, we will show them mercy."
"They didn't show our people any mercy." Benny mumbled
"And if they promise to never return?" Lydia asked Carl, staring into his eyes.
"A promise doesn't mean shit" Iona said, "they could promise to never return and be back here tomorrow. In case you haven't noticed, a huge chunk of our population is gone and they know it. They could murder us all in our sleep."
"What if I had a way to guarantee they'd never be a threat again?" Lydia begged. "Then would you spare them? Alpha was misguided. She was cruel, and she taught them to be cruel too. But what can be learned can be unlearned. If I could guarantee they'd never attack again, would you spare them?"
Carl stared at Lydia. He didn't know why she had such a change of heart. Just that morning she seemed completely prepared to become a member of Hilltop and be one of them, and now she was trying to defend the Walker People.
"What kind of guarantee?" Carl asked her, but she didn't respond.
"Lydia?" he tried again, but she looked down at the floor, seemingly lost in thought.
"Um… Anyway" Benny said, dismissing Lydia's weird behavior. "I say we go back to that big clearing where the herd was, and start from there. Walker Girl here said that's where they'd go back to…"
"Her name is Lydia" Carl interrupted, but Lydia didn't even look up when her name was called. Carl was concerned, something was bothering her.
"I think It'd be wise to start from there" Rick cut in. "But we also need to find a way to destroy that tunnel. Now that they know it's there, it will always be a danger to everyone who lives here. I think we should leave through there and then collapse it behind us."
"We have a few grenades in the armory" Carl said.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The team quickly prepared to leave to go searching for the Walker People. Carl jogged over to Lydia who was sharpening her knife with a rock.
"Lydia? What's going on with you?" he asked. "Why are you defending them all of a sudden?"
She continued to sharpen her knife, chewing on her lip. Carl waited patiently until she was ready to speak.
"If I didn't make that decision, to save you, I'd still be one of them. I would still be me, who you know me to be, I'd still be the person you called family today, but I'd be one of them. If Tommy hadn't run, he'd still be there too with the lowers. And you would slaughter us. Us and them, it's the same thing." She paused.
"They aren't all bad. They are just like your people, except Alpha found them first. I know that they have done horrible things under her orders, but I can stop it. I know how. I know how your family and they can both be safe."
Carl stared at Lydia. "How?" he asked.
Lydia ignored his question. "You have been kind to me Carl, kinder than anyone has been to me in a long time. I want you to know that you are family too."
Carl opened his mouth to respond to Lydia when James called "Carl, we're all ready, let's go!"
Lydia walked towards the rest of the group, and Carl followed behind her.
They made their way through the underground tunnel leading from the big house. After they came out the other side, Carl tossed two grenades into the tunnel, and everyone got as far away as they could. The explosion caved in the entrance to the tunnel. They would have to completely seal it off later, but for now that would have to do.
Lydia led the group through the forest, back to the clearing where her people had the herd. As they trekked, everything was silent. Eerily silent. The team of 14 was on high alert. Lydia listened for the calls that her people used to communicate with each other, various chirps and whistles that sounded like birds. She didn't hear any of the calls or the moans of walkers. It seemed like they were gone. As they approached the area, she could feel something was wrong. She held up her hand to stop the group. "Wait" she said. She searched the area with her eyes, and then looked up into the trees and her heart stopped.
Her people were in the trees, staring down at the group, bows and spears raised.
The Hilltop team raised their weapons. "No!" Lydia yelled, "don't shoot. Where is your Alpha?" she said to the Walker People.
"I am Alpha" Epsilon said, leaping down from a tree. "You and your people killed the uppers. I am Alpha now."
Lydia nodded. She put her knife into her sheath and motioned for the Hilltop team to do the same, although no one listened. "Alpha. Your conflict with the Hilltop people is done. Your former Alpha wanted Omega back, but she is dead now. She risked all of your lives for that little boy. Now that she is no longer here, you have a chance to be different, to do better. You don't have to carry on the way that she wanted. You can make your own way now."
Alpha stared at Lydia. "Alpha was good. She was strong. I will carry on her wishes. We will not stop attacking your people until they are dead. Until you are dead, traitor."
Lydia took a step back and pulled her knife again. "As you wish, Alpha. I challenge you."