Light cascaded through the trees as the sun climbed over the horizon. Lucy rubbed her eyes and stretched. Caan had calmed down after nightfall, and they'd taken turns getting some rest. Lucy had only gotten about four hours of sleep. It wasn't much, but it would have to be enough under the circumstances. Luckily, the entrance to the cave was steep enough to ward off any "walkers" and discourage any humans. At least until morning, Lucy thought wearily.

Lucy's nose had become accustomed to this world's stench, which was a small mercy. The smell of rotting corpses had given her a terrible headache, and even now she felt, at best, uncomfortable. Nudging Caan, she got up from her resting place. Hopefully, the next world would be less apocalyptic, and a bed would be nice. Caan moved around hesitantly as Lucy looked outside. There was a single zombie in the distance, but it didn't seem to be a threat.

"The next gate will open soon," Caan said, surprising Lucy.

"That's great, but where?"

"Past the ones we met before."

"Oh, great," Lucy replied with an emphasis on her sarcasm. That could only mean "The Saviors." They were surprisingly pretentious for a bunch of rough-looking biker dudes. That Arat seemed to be a decent tracker. If Lucy and Caan were going to sneak past them, she'd have to find a way to cover their tracks. Flying would cause too much noise. Even moving around them would be difficult as Lucy had no idea how many of them there were.

The best solution would be to trap Negan and Arat somewhere. The men would be too busy trying to free them, and Lucy and Caan could just fly to the breach without really worrying about the noise level. But where would be a good place to trap them? The graveyard had a fence. Caan could seal it with a laser once Lucy had gotten Arat and Negan inside. The mausoleum had been just tall enough for Lucy to jump onto the fence and climb over to the other side.

Lucy quickly whispered the plan to Caan, whom let out a giggle of excitement. The men were likely still patrolling; Negan didn't seem like the type to give up easily. He'd said that he'd wanted excitement. Grabbing the bag, Lucy left the cave. The walker noticed her and stumbled toward her, but Lucy quickly took off her glove. Without hesitation she dusted him. That was getting too easy for Lucy to do, and that bothered her. Even though it was definitely the right thing to do, she could tell that she was becoming numb to it. She didn't want to go back to those days. Where everything felt numb. No, she was better now, and she had a goal. To get back to Missy and no biker jerks were going to stop her.

With a newfound sense of confidence and motivation, Lucy led Caan to the mausoleum. She threw her backpack on top of the mausoleum and made sure that she could climb on top before she went to check the gate. Negan's men had messed up the lock beyond saving. Lucy muttered a curse under her breath and checked the chains; they were still usable. Caan could likely seal the gate itself closed if he needed to. She took another deep breath and looked out to the forest and through the trees. She couldn't hear anyone. Hopefully, Negan and his men had left, but Lucy knew that all of Caan's predictions had been right so far. They were likely going to have to deal with those creeps.

Lucy noticed Caan maneuvering around some bramble bushes. He finally wheeled himself into one to hide, which was a pretty good idea. The bushes were thick enough to hide him, and the thorns would discourage anyone from poking around in there. Lucy took another moment to calm herself before she walked into the surrounding forest. What was she doing?

These guys were clearly after her, and she was going after them. The good news was that even if they shot her it wouldn't be that big a deal. She'd died twice now. Death just didn't seem to stick for her. She'd been shot in a previous world and had awoken without even a spot of blood on her clothes. She'd felt cold before a golden light started pulling her back into Time. After fighting against it, she had awakened to find her very surprised shooter crossing himself before making a getaway. It was one of her few regrets, not chasing that jerk down and making him pay, but she hadn't known where Caan was. That was far more important at the time.

Lucy wondered if Negan and his men had simply left the area when a snapping caught her attention. Negan smirked at her with about twenty men behind him. They were now in between her and the cemetery. Great.

"Come on, kid," Negan said as Lucy quickly evaluated her options. "This was fun but now… it's getting to be a pain. I'm not going to hurt you, and we can talk about where you got those sweet new kicks."

"I'm good," Lucy replied and bolted for the narrowest path.

It would force them to follow behind her one by one, and she could outmaneuver them in between the smaller trees. She made a hard right and heard at least one of the men slip on the foliage. They were bigger than she was, so if she kept running in an erratic zigzagging pattern, it would be harder for them to make the sudden turns. She saw the gate in the distance and sprinted for the cemetery. Her lungs were burning, but she could see the mausoleum in the distance. And the sound of Negan's cursing behind her gave her the motivation to keep running. She bolted through the gates and ran for the mausoleum, but as she climbed a hand grabbed her leg.

Arat held her leg with a smug, triumphant look on her face. D'Artagnan shifted into a snake and wrapped himself around her arm as she screamed in terror. There was a nauseating, popping sound. D'Artagnan climbed back to Lucy as Arat fell to the ground with a scream of pain, but Lucy was able to finish climbing the mausoleum. As Negan and his men rushed into the cemetery, Lucy looked pleadingly to where Caan had been hiding. The gates needed to be sealed before she jumped. Her leg hurt from where Arat had squeezed it in pain, but she was pretty sure that she still could make it. But then so could Negan.

"Whoa, girl! You are just a whole basket full of crazy!" Negan said with a mixture of frustration and admiration. "But there's a problem here. You've got nowhere to run now."

A gun was now in his hand, and he fired off a shot. The bullet grazed Lucy's leg and caused her to drop to her knees. There was no way she could make the jump now, and by the look in Negan's eyes, he knew that as well. He made a move to climb the mausoleum, but D'Artagnan began to hiss.

"Hey, now. Fair is fair. Sorry, but you did hurt one of my people. Be glad that you're interesting enough for me to forgive."

Lucy glared at Negan with seething hatred. At least Caan was safe, but she didn't see a way for her to make it out of this. A loud cackle gave her hope as Caan flew in from overhead. Negan's men fired at him, but the bullets did nothing as he swooped to the top of the mausoleum. Lucy grabbed her bag and quickly leapt to him with her good leg. D'Artagnan looped himself around Lucy's neck, and Caan took off into the clouds.

After looking into the distance, Lucy looked back to the cemetery below. Negan was bellowing order as his men failed to open the gate. Caan cackled again and flew them further away over the forest. Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as he piloted them into the breach. This world looked much friendlier; Lucy noted as she looked around. They were in a park at night. Lucy saw the tall buildings surrounding them when a cough shook her back to her senses. A homeless man sat on a bench and stared at her with large, unbelieving eyes; he cast a glance at his booze in a bag before setting it warily onto the ground.

Caan landed on the ground, and Lucy fell. Her leg would heal sooner than a normal person's, but it would still take a while. The man had gotten up and knelt beside her. Lucy remembered that the woman had put some white material in the bag before Lucy had left. Gauze was in the bag, and Lucy smiled with relief. Clearly, that woman was more prepared than Lucy would ever be.

Lucy pulled up the leg of her pants to survey the damage. Negan had gotten a good shot, but it was far more of a nuisance than a danger. The man immediately started wrapping the gauze around Lucy's injury to slow down the bleeding. Lucy glanced at the contents of the bag. She didn't really need the food as she still had some jewelry to sell. Her new friend could have it. Maybe even a hotel for the next week if Lucy could get enough cash.

Through her travels, Lucy had met all kinds of people, both good and bad. She had been sheltered, hunted, stabbed, and shot, but nothing had scared her more than the thought of those men catching her. After all she'd been through, it felt good to be shown some kindness, and Lucy could only hope to give enough in return.