Chapter 14
Everyone gathered by the vehicles, the group was Rick, Michonne, Tara, Rosita, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Spencer, and a few others from Alexandria who knew their way around weapons; twenty people in total.
"Now, when we get there, Maggie, and Charlotte, I want you two to scout ahead. You'll have radios, you sit on that place and scope it out, and we'll all wait back here for word. If you don't think it's safe, say the word and we'll leave, they'll never know we were here." Maggie and
Charlotte nodded, their faces mirrored the same determined expression.
"I hate that you're doing this." Glenn said as he embraced Maggie.
"Well, what else am I supposed to do? You won't let me go in with you, and I have to do something, I just can't sit home like a lump on a log … as daddy used to say." She said as she gave him one final kiss before releasing her to join Charlotte, who was waiting at the tree line.
"Charlotte!" Daryl called as she was about to disappear into the forest.
Charlotte barely had time to turn around as Daryl strode up to her and pulled her into a spontaneous, passionate kiss right there in front of everyone.
Charlotte was so shocked at his move that she didn't respond to his kiss right away, their relationship had never been an outwardly affectionate one, so this was the last thing she expected from him.
Apparently everyone else was as shocked as she was, because they all cleared their throats awkwardly and looked anywhere but at them. Even Maggie shifted uncomfortably on her feet and averted her eyes.
"You take care of yourself, ya hear?" He growled into her ear as he released her and watched her and Maggie disappear into the dense forest.
Rick and the group had gotten as close as they dared with the vehicles, but thankfully, they are able to get close enough so that they didn't have to hike too far through the dark woods.
"Here. Let's set up here." Maggie said as she climbed a small hill overlooking the compound. Aaron was right, the place was locked up tight, even with binoculars, it was hard to see what was going on inside.
"Anything?" Rick's voice crackled over the radio.
"Not sure, but I can't see anything going on, the place looks locked up tighter than a drum, it's your call, law man." Charlotte replied.
"Watch our backs from there, if you see anything fishy, let us know, we're moving in." Rick said as the radio fell silent.
Charlotte's heart pounded in her ears as she scoured the compound through her binoculars, watching for anything.
"I'm pregnant." Maggie said abruptly into the silence.
Charlotte almost dropped her binoculars in shock.
"You're what?!" She said as she pinned Maggie with that intense one-eyed stare of hers.
"Pregnant." Maggie said with a sad smile. "I track my cycles, you know? It's just something I've always done, and when I was a week late, I picked up a pregnancy test and sure enough, positive."
Does Glenn know?" Charlotte asked in a hushed, excited voice.
Maggie shook her head. "I only just found out about a week or so ago, I've been trying to think of a way to tell him." She said as tears welled up in her eyes.
"I am sure he'll be thrilled, Glenn's a good man, and he really loves you." Charlotte replied as she turned back to stare through her binoculars.
"Have you ever thought about … if it happened to you? What Daryl would do?" Maggie asked.
"Oh, sure it crossed my mind, but I don't have to worry about that, I got a tubal three years before all this shit happened, my career was on the upswing, and the last thing I wanted was a pregnancy ruining everything … I know how that must sound, but when you are a model, your body is essentially your way of making money. Kind of ironic right? Because that's all fucked now." Charlotte said as she gestured to her ruined eye.
"I think you would've made a great mother, you're great with kids." Maggie said with a smile.
"Kids yes, babies, no." Charlotte said with a laugh as she looked through her binoculars.
"Here we go." She said as she watched their group gather at the tree line.
"Do you think you can hit them from here? I know I can't." Charlotte whispered to Maggie.
"No time like the present to find out." Maggie replied a she got into positon and aimed through the scope, if she made it, this would be the furthest shot she had made to date.
"What if she can't make the damn shot?" Daryl hissed.
"She'll make it." Glenn replied from behind them as they laid in wait.
No sooner had he spoken, the two guards out in front crumpled to the ground where they stood, dead before they even hit the ground.
"Two headshots, not too shabby!" Daryl said as they moved forward with all the tactical precision of a seasoned SWAT team. Rick and Daryl entered first and gave the okay for the others to file in behind them; they infiltrated the compound like angry ants.
They went door to door, killing everyone they found as they slept, the poor bastards never knew what hit them.
The group, led by Rick and Daryl, found the armory and loaded up as much of the Savior's stash of weapons as they could, including three AK 47's with extra magazines, and a belt of grenades.
They met heavy gunfire from what was left of the Saviors greeted them as they exited the armory … Daryl pulled a pin out of one of the grenades and hurled it at the small group of Saviors.
Rick and the others ducked behind the corner as shrapnel and bits of various body parts went flying past them down the hallway, once the blast cleared they pushed past, choosing not to look at the resulting carnage as they made their way to the exit.
"Here they come!" Charlotte said, relief washing over her as she watched Daryl slip through first, followed by Rick, Glenn and the others.
"Glenn's okay!" She said..
"Thank god!" Maggie replied, tears welling up in her eyes.
Just then, they heard a rustling in the surrounding forest.
"Maggie get back!" Charlotte said as she pushed Maggie out of the way and aimed her desert eagle just as a man burst out of the tree line. They both discharged their weapons at the same, time; but only this time, Charlotte's aim was true and the man crumpled where he stood, as the bullet from her desert eagle exploded out of the back of his skull.
"One more move, Missy, and You're dead." A rough female voice said as Charlotte felt the cold steel of a gun press into the back of her head.
Cursing inwardly, Charlotte dropped her gun and raised her hands into the air as she saw Maggie doing the same, a gun to her head also.
"Now turn around, both of you." A second woman's voice said, both Maggie and Charlotte did as they were told, as always, the woman with the gun to Charlotte's head reacted to the sight of her ruined face, the Frankenstein like nature of her of her scars were rudely accented by the light from the full moon.
"Holy shit! Jesus Christ! What the hell happened to you?" the woman who held a gun to her head exclaimed, she had fiery red hair and a coral and cream complexion.
"The same thing that's gonna happen to you if you don't get that fucking gun out of my face." Charlotte replied as she held the woman's hard expression without wavering.
The woman chuckled, then without warning, she struck Charlotte across hard across the face with the butt of her pistol. Charlotte stumbled back, spitting up blood.
"Why you little …!" Charlotte said as she rounded on the woman.
"Charlotte, don't!" Maggie pleaded, tears in her eyes.
"You'd better listen to your little friend, missy, unless you want your pretty little brains splattered all over this forest." A second woman said as she pointed her gun at the other side of Charlotte's head as the redhead picked up her radio.
"Hey you, asshole, the one with the cold pipe." She watched through her binoculars as Rick froze, his 357 aimed at a man who called himself 'Primo'. He grabbed the man's radio.
"All your people are dead, unless you want to be too, I'd come out of wherever hole you're hiding in." Rick said.
The redhead pointed her gun at Charlotte and Maggie. "What are your names?"
"I'm Maggie, she's Charlotte." Maggie said, her voice stony.
"Well … my name is Paula, and me and my comrades have a Charlotte, and a Maggie here … I assume that would be something you'd want to talk about." Her voice crackled over the radio on Rick's end.
Glenn and Daryl's expressions mirrored each other in a look of panic and horror as they both looked at Rick, who ground his teeth as he squeezed the radio so tightly that his hand started to ache.
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Suddenly, sacks were forced over their heads and they were forced to walk, Charlotte didn't know for how long, until their heard were uncovered and they found themselves in a dank, damp room. Charlotte tried to move her hands and her feet and discovered they had been hogtied.
Suddenly, the radio at the Paula's hip crackled.
"We have your man, the one who calls himself Primo, how about an even trade, your man for ours." Rick's draw was barely audible over the static.
"Two for the price of one doesn't seem like a fair deal to me." Paula said smugly.
"That's the choice you got, or else we kill the rest of you right now, starting with your man, here." Rick said, his voice cold and emotionless.
"We'll get back to you." Paula said as she cut communication.
"He'll do it, you know." Charlotte said casually."
Paula snorted. "What, kill us?" She sneered.
"Yeah." Charlotte replied in the same smug tone, mocking her as she knelt in front of her.
"You want to kill me, I can tell, too bad, because there is no way out of this, not unless I say there is."
Charlotte smirked as she held Paula's gaze. 'We'll see about that, bitch.' She thought.
Suddenly all of them heard some sort of commotion outside.
"What the hell?" The older woman with who's name they had learned was Molly Paula said as Paula drew her weapon.
"Let's move." She said as they exited and in their haste, Charlotte noticed they forgot to lock the door.
Charlotte looked to Maggie and a unspoken line of communication passed between them, Maggie scooted over to Charlotte and charlotte placed her hands and feet where she could reach the knot with her teeth, once Charlotte was free she untied Maggie and they crept to the door.
"Shit, they took our weapons though." Maggie said in a hushed voice.
"I bet they took them to the armory, we'll just have to find it, and get them back, I ain't going anywhere without my eagles." Charlotte said, her hands patting her empty holsters as they eased the door open and crept down the hall.
They could hear the familiar growls of walkers and the sound of gunfire coming from somewhere in the compound, they took the advantage of what was left of the Saviors being occupied and they searched the compound for the armory, after what seemed like a fortnight, they found it.
"Ah!" Charlotte exclaimed as she grabbed her gleaming, golden, and engraved custom desert eagles and slid them into their holsters after checking their clips.
"It's nice to have ya back, girls." She said as she patted them.
"Ready?" Maggie said as she handed her an AR 15 and an extra magazine.
"I was BORN ready!" She said as they exited the armory to come face to face with Paula and her two cohorts.
"Son of a BITCH!" Paula said as she punched Charlotte with all her might and shoved her against the wall, as her companion did the same to Maggie. A scuffle ensued and suddenly, Paula's eyes went blank and her jaw went slack as she stumbled back, Charlotte's knife sticking out of her chest.
Charlotte bent in close as she pulled the knife out.
"What did I tell ya?" She said as she tapped the bloody blade against the right side of her head as Paula collapsed, dead.
"You okay?" She asked a breathless Maggie as they looked down at the two dead women, Maggie stepped forward with her knife ready, but Charlotte stopped her.
"Fuck that, let the bitches turn, let's get out of here." She said as she readied their weapons and filed down the hall with military precision.
They made their way to a door at the end of the hall, and threw it open and game face to face with Rick and the rest of their group.
"Glenn!" Maggie said, finally breaking down as they ran to each other.
"Aw shit, Charlotte, look what they did to ya … you okay?" Daryl said as he tilted her face to look at the large swelling and cut on the side of her face where Paula had hit her with her gun, and the, and the black eye on her opposite side where she had punched her.
"I'll live, come on, let's just get the fuck out of here." She said.
"You're lucky, Charlotte, it looks like it's only a hairline fracture." Denise said as she checked her over.
"Only?" Charlotte quipped humorously.
"Considering you should have shattered it … especially since that side of your face is already weakened by your previous injury, yes, I consider you VERY lucky." Denise replied.
"What about Maggie?" Charlotte asked in ernest.
"Other than some minor scrapes and bruises, she's fine." Denise reassured her as she finished cleaning her wounds and rolled back in her chair, signaling she was finished.
"And the baby?" Charlotte asked in a hushed voice, Denise's expression fell.
"Without an ultrasound it's hard to tell, but everything to me seems like no harm was done. Glenn is with her now." She said as she handed Charlotte a bottle of pills.
"Antibiotics … take one every twelve hours with food of some sort, unless you want to puke them back up, that is." Denise said in dry humor.
"Thanks, I'll try to remember that." Charlotte said with a laugh as she exited the infirmary.
Daryl was waiting outside for her.
"Everything check out okay?" He asked, his eyes swimming in concern.
"Yeah, just gotta take these every twelve hours til they're gone with food." She said as he put his arm around her shoulders and they walked home.
"I was scared shitless, Charlotte, I thought they were gonna kill you … and Maggie."
Charlotte snuggled closer to him.
"So did I."
"They WHAT?!" Negan roared, furious at one of his saviors as he told him what had become of the east compound, the smaller man cowered in fear.
"Just … just what I said, they took down the whole east division compound … killed every fucking body and took almost all the weapons, and they left Paula and Molly to turn.
A morbid smile crossed Negan's weathered face as he stroked Lucille's handle.
"Damn, so they are a bunch of bad ass sumbitches after all. Well, I think another … discussion might be in order with Alexandria; I think they need to be reminded just who the ramrod is around here." Negan said as he rose from his seat at the table.