Chapter 156- Second Wave

The night before

No one's P.O.V

The Campgrounds were silent except for a few voices around and a small group beside a fire. None of them saw as a hand emerged from the ground and clawed it's way out...soon Beta emerged from the grave of John Dorie Sr. The large man stood and watched the men by the fire as they talked, silently making his way towards the cabins, walking behind them He stopped behind Daryl's cabin, glancing inside through one of the windows. He then went to the door, pushing it open. He paused as her stared at the pictures, lips curling in disgust, and walked forward until he reached Daryl's room and saw a man and a woman sleeping in the bed. He walked forward and removed his knives before he slit their throats. Their eyes open as Beta covers their mouths, as the life drained from their eyes.

Beta walked into the next room, stabbing and slitting the other sleeping man's throat. He walked out of the cabin and looked at the fire as the men walked away from it. Beta watched as a man walked behind a cabin and started to pee. Beta walks up behind him.

He turns to look at Beta his eyes widening before Betas shoved his knife into his heart. He grabs the AR off the man as he puts his knife away, but then saw it on the man's belt.

A grenade belt, Beta's lips curling to a fierce grin...as he grabs a grenade off the man's hip and opens the window to John's cabin, and then he throws the grenade inside. He moves away from the cabin as it blows. Beta stands beside Daryl's cabin as men run over to the cabin and look around.

"What the hell is going on?" An older man yelled as he comes out of the big cabin and looks at his men as they look around.

"It just blew up! Elijah I think-" A Male says to the man as Beta aims the rifle and shoots. The woman fell to the ground as Elijah looks around the campgrounds as his men were cut down one by one. Beta walks out from behind the cabin and Elijah looks at him. Beta aims the rifle at the man who goes back inside the big cabin as Beta walks forward. He walks up to the door and kicks it in, The door flies open and Beta walks in. Elijah comes from beside him, behind the door, and tackled the large Whisperer Second into the head table before he punches him in the face. Snarling, Beta knees the man in the stomach and Elijah stumbles back, thrown to the ground as they both stood

"You goddamn freak, I'm gonna kill you." Elijah growls as he removes his machete.

"You will try," Beta growls as he removes his knives. Elijah charges the giant man and swings his machete down. Beta moves to the side and swings his knife at Elijah who rolled under the swing and swings his machete at Beta's stomach cutting into his shirt and grazing his stomach. Beta growls as Elijah backs up and tilted. "You are a strong warrior. Know that you have my respect before you join us."

"Go to hell!" Elijah just snarled swings his machete at Beta who ducks under and drops one of his knife, grabs Elijah's arm and slams his knife into Elijah's stomach. Elijah grunts in pain as he stares at the man. "Your life is not over, you will serve, Alpha." Beta says as he removes his knife and kicks Elijah to the ground. Elijah coughed up blood as Beta bends down beside him and stabs him in the heart, Beta clutching his own chest.

Cursing, realizing the man cut deeper then he thought as he headed into the nearby shed and grabs gasoline cans. He walks around the Camp throwing gas on each cabin and the barn as the walkers start to rise. Beta watches the walkers as they begin to walk, and he pulls a lighter out of his pocket. He lights a piece of cloth on fire and throws it onto Daryl's cabin lighting it on fire as he walks to the gate. He pulls the gate open and looks at the Whisperers waiting. "Burn the buildings to the ground." Beta tells the men who nods as he leaves.

Shane's P.O.V

Shane, Negan, Alden, and Connie stare at the Campgrounds as they listen to the walkers. "Negan pull the truck up to the gate!" Shane ordered Negan who nods as he pulls the truck up to the gate. Shane climbs on the truck. "Oh, my god," Shane says as he stares at the campgrounds. Every cabin was burned, the barn still had embers. Shane grabs his radio. "Daryl."

"Are they okay?" Daryl asks him.

"They're dead, all of them, the barn, the cabins... It's…gone." Shane says as he stares at his home for the last decade. "They burned it all."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Daryl says as his radio goes silent.

"What now?" Alden asks, staring numbly at the sight.

"We wait." Shane says as he sets down.

Negan stared then sighed "One thing good for us, thank god we moved the kids out of here."

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl sat in his room staring at a picture on the wall. He looked at the door as Rick comes in. "Hey, we're about to talk about the herd." Rick tells him. "Shane radio back yet?"

For a long moment, Daryl was quiet then he said softly "It's gone, they're all dead." Rick stays silent as he stares at his brother.

"Daryl, I'm so sorry." Rick soon said in sympathy knowing how much the Campgrounds meant to him.

"I'm going back." Daryl says. "Clear it out, see if anything is salvageable. Do the meeting without me."

"Take who you need to clear it." Rick tells Daryl who just nodded as he heard Rick leave the room.

Daryl Punching one of the walls and slumping down, face drenched and exhausted.

Rick's P.O.V

Rick walks into Beth's office and looks at Ezekiel, Carol, Maggie, Beth, Madison, Alicia, Clint, Frankie, Strand, Daniel, Morgan, Gabriel, Rosita, Magna, Yumiko, Luke, Carl, Lydia, and Kate. "Where's Daryl?" Alicia asks.

"The Campgrounds's gone. Elijah and all of his men are dead." Rick says to his sister in law sadly and the rooms goes silent as they all stare at Rick in shock. "Daryl is going back, if you want to go back with him, go." Rick says as he looks at Alicia who nods as she leaves the room followed by Madison, as soon as they could.

Rick looked at Morgan "Morgan-"

"No. I'll grieve later." Morgan stated, Rosita and several others nodding in agreement "Right now we need to hit back."

"Rick." Alden says over the radio, Rick looking over at it before he grabs the receiver.

"Alden, Daryl is going to be there soon with Alicia and Madison, they're bringing help so stay put."

"Daryl radioed us, told us that you are making a plan about the herd." Alden says.

"That's right." Rick says.

"When they get here, Connie and I are going to come back, we'll join you. It's time we hit that monster where it hurts." Alden said firmly.

"We will." Rick responded with conviction. "See you soon."

Putting it down, Rick put his hands on the desk looking around "I know we're upset but it's time for us to hit back."

"So, what's the plan?" Maggie asks.

"Because of Strand, Daniel, and Lydia, we know where Alpha is keeping the herd. It's in a cave, about an hour and half from the border. Strand Daniel, you two would remember where it is?" Rick asks.

Strand gave a coy smirk, clearly one of those who would grieve later "With our eyes closed."

"So...how do we deal with a herd in a cave?" Beth asks.

"We drop the cave on them." Daniel answered with a dark look in his eyes "Get some dynamite, drop it in and bring tons of rock down on their heads."

"That could work, but if we do that, we don't know if we'll make it out." Rick grimaced. "I don't plan on dying in that cave."

"We could light them on fire, as a plan B. It'll spread." Strand offers.

"What if we lead them out? Use the bodies to block the entrance as they come out." Lydia offered.

"You think someone can lead a herd of that size?" Ezekiel asks, remembering Rick's remarks of how large it was.

"I can." Lydia says.

"No!" Everyone looked at Kate as she stepped forward "You are not going near that border, ever or near your mother. If Negan heard you say that, he would lock you in a room."

"But-" Lydia tried to protest.

"She's right." Rick cut her off sternly. "You can't come. Here's what we are going to do, we'll go to the cave and if we can find another way out, we'll bring it down. If not, we'll figure something out, but we'll need a group. Alden, Strand, Daniel, and Connie are already coming, who else?"

"I'll go," Magna volunteered.

"Me too," Gabriel stood.

"I'm in," Rosita says, and Morgan looks at her. "I'll be fine, stay here with Coco."

Rick stated as Morgan frowned in concern "Alright, that settles it. Gabriel, Rosita, Daniel, Strand, Alden, Connie, and Magna will leave tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow?" Beth asks.

"Alpha is going to be expecting us to attack, after the Campgrounds and the bullet shop. She'll be waiting for us, we need to wait." Rick tells the group who nods. "If you aren't doing anything else, Daryl could probably use help at the Camp."

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl stops his bike outside the Campgrounds and climbs off his bike as two trucks stop behind him. Daryl stares at the gate as Alicia climbs off the bike, Carol, Morgan, John, June, Beth, Madison, Lydia, and Arya climb out of the trucks behind them.

"So, what's the plan?" Daryl saw Negan waiting in front, leaning against the gate.

"We'll need to open the gate." Daryl says, then turned to the others. "Negan and I will go around the back and head in through the back entrance. I'll lure the walkers over and Negan will open the gate."

"If you got your bow, get on the truck and shoot the walkers." Shane pointed out.

"Let's go." Daryl tells Negan who nods as he follows him...after a moment, Negan looked over "You okay, boss?"

Daryl grimaced, knowing Negan wouldn't leave him alone and pester him so decided to get it out of the way "Everytime, we get a victory against these assholes, we lose something else. The Sanctuary, Reilly, Elijah, the Campgrounds. We lost our home." Daryl says, shoulders slumped "I guess all of this, all this fighting. It's wearing me down."

"Maybe after this, you step down, let others take over." He stopped, glancing at him "You've done enough. Everybody, alive and dead, owe you a debt that cannot be repaid. You've done enough Daryl," Negan says. "Once this is over, let someone else lead."

After a second, Daryl shot back "You?"

"Oh fuck no, I'm good being the chipper asshole!" Negan laughed.

Daryl doesn't laugh back as he opens the hatch and climbs inside. Negan follows him and they come out the other side, pausing to look around their home. "We grieve when the war is over," Daryl tells him. "Now go."

He then walks forward and looks at the herd as they gather by the gates. Beth looks at him and he nods, and she drops down as Daryl withdraws his handgun and shoots a walker in the head making the herd look at him, moving towards him as he continues to shoot them in the head. He starts to move back as he sees Negan get to the gate, pulling it open. The others came in and began to shoot the walkers, some using their melee weapons as they came close to them. Daryl withdraws his knife as he sees Elijah, coming out of one of the ruins, his shirt bloodied and teeth gnashing. Bowing his head, he grabs Elijah's walker by his shirt, muttering "I'm sorry."

"So now what?" Beth asks as he looks at him.

"We'll get the bodies in the truck. Burn 'em at Hilltop." Daryl says as he looks at where his cabin once was. "Start loading 'em up. I need a minute."

Seeing this, Alicia came up and held his hand, with a comforting stare.

"We'll be okay," She tells him.

He made no response, staring at the ruins.

"We still got a war to win and she has more wins than we do."

"We'll get her," Alicia says. "We have to."

Thanks for reading. This chapter was supposed to have Eugene leaving in it but it took longer than I thought, hopefully next chapter Eugene will leave and Rick's group will go after the herd. As always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time