Chapter 158-The Cave
Rosita's P.O.V
Rosita ran through the woods following the Whisperers and Alpha as they chased Lydia, Rosita watches as Lydia slides down a hill and runs across a river. Looking down, Alpha hissed "Damned girl."
"What is this?" Rosita saw one of the Whisperers turn, pointing at the river "Was that woman from before telling the truth? You let her live?!"
"I am your Alpha and you will obey-"
The Whisperer's Leaders snarl was trailed off as they saw a thrown knife hit the other in the back of the head, sending him down. Alpha and the arguing Whisperer turn, startled, seeing her run up. Rosita removes her other knife as the second Whisperer charges her, a knife already out. She ducks under his swing and stabs her knife into his back, right where his heart would be. He falls to the ground as Rosita looks at Alpha and grabs her knife out of the Whisperer's back, the two staring at each other...Alpha's lips curled as she drew a long machete.
Rosita stared at it, knowing the history of that weapon...what it did, and almost did to her and Kate. "You're protecting my daughter?" Alpha asks as they circle her.
"I am, do you remember me?" Rosita asks as she stares at the savage woman who was going to kill her, who caused devastation to her home and killed multiple friends of her's.
"I do. You escaped with the pregnant woman, the one who now takes care of my daughter." Alpha's lips twitched in noticeable suppressed rage as she then continued "After I kill you, I will put your head on the spikes. Where they should have been months ago." Alpha growls before she swings her blade at Rosita who quickly side steps the swing and swings her knife at Alpha who ducks and swings up cutting Rosita's arm.
Rosita growls as she swings and cuts Alpha shoulder then bringing her other knife down into Alpha's shoulder making the Whisperer leader growl in pain as she swings her knife and cuts Rosita's forehead. Blood goes down Rosita's forward as she swings trying to hit the monstrous woman, who pulls her shotgun out. Rosita charges forward, as it went off into the ground with a loud bang, tackling Alpha.
The pair roll down the hill and into the water. She stabs the woman in the side as Alpha punches her and brings her knife into Rosita's leg and punshes the woman back. Rosita falls on her back and breathes heavily as Alpha slowly starts to get up, barely seeing her eyes filled with vicious intent. Rosita then hears walkers and stands up. She could see the small herd as they move towards the two women. She looks at Alpha as she grabs her shotgun off the ground Rosita turns to the woods and heads into them as Alpha watches her, slowly with practiced ease moving with the herd.
Lydia's P.O.V
Lydia ran through the woods; she stops by a tree and looks behind her, seeing no sign of Alpha or the two with her. She breathes heavily as she hears a branch break, looking up and sees a Whisperer...taking a moment to realize it was Gamma looking at her. Lydia grabs her knife as Gamma stares at her in shock, muttering as Lydia paused "No no your...your supposed to be dead. She killed you."
"She lied to to you," Lydia said to her warily, knife still up and on guard. "She couldn't kill me."
Gamma stares at the teenager for a moment before she runs into the woods.
Staring at this, confused, Lydia refocused and stood back from the tree, now trying to find her way back to the group. She then paused, and heard something.
What sounded like cracks against metal in the air.
Rick's P.O.V
The group stared at the herd as they tried to grab them, arms raised but none climbing, showing no Whisperers. "This was a stupid ass plan." Magna says.
"That is kind of our specialty." Alden retorted.
"He's not wrong," Rick says as he sets a bomb against the wall. "OK that's another down, we have to move through this cave until we find a way out."
"If there is one." Gabriel grimely pointed out.
"There has to be," Rick says sternly, refusing to believe they all came from one entrance, as he shines his flashlight on the rocks across from them. "Alright, we use those to get across."
"I'll go first," Alden says. "Make sure it's safe."
Connie gave him a worried look, signing at him to be careful.
They stepped back as Alden jumps on the first rock and steadies himself, many walkers hungrily turning to him below. Alden looks towards the next rock and jumps. He then looks at the wall and takes a deep breath before he jumps and grabs the wall. He then jumps again landing on the other side, hugging the wall, gasping in relief. "Rick, next time I say I wanna come. Tell me no."
Rick chuckles. "You're next," Strand says as he looks at Rick who stopped laughing, giving a sigh and lept as well.
Javier's P.O.V
Javier sat against a chair in the main hall in Barrington, as Kate paced back and forth, a cigarette in her lips, causing him to comment "Those things will kill you."
"Don't fucking start." Kate hissed...then paused and her eyes softened "I'm sorry Javi, just I hate that Gabe made way too much sense."
"The Priest Gabriel not my Sobirno Gabe yes?" Javier smiled wickedly.
Kate pushed his leg and kept pacing "Stop trying to distract me."
Then they heard steps and saw Michonne, Maggie, Carol, and Madison come inside...
Madison paused, looked at Kate "Where did you get a cigarette?"
"Stole it from Daryl's stuff." Kate absently said "It was either this or weed."
"Rose?" Carol looked around.
Waving off absently again, Kate answered "She's with Arya, I think she wanted to get her and Robb for a 'playdate' I think."
Michonne's gave a snort at that, then said steadily "Rick will make sure she's fine."
Kate looked at Michonne accusingly "Well excuse the fuck out of me for not wanting her around a psycho! And god help us if Negan finds out before they get back, this is just like..." She paused and gulped "Like what happened with Laura...he let her go out and we know what happened."
Carol came up, a hand on her shoulder "Lydia is much stronger then she appears, you can't blame her for wanting to help in any way she can. You know that she still blames herself for last year."
Kate sat down, putting ash on a tray "Yeah I know...during the winter she woke from nightmares at least twice a week and she was real cautious around everyone, heck even me for the first few weeks. Only people she really trusted were Negan, Arya, and Clementine." She groaned and put her head on her hands "Fuck, I remember telling David I was never gonna be a perfect guardian."
"You mean a mother." Kate looked up at Maggie, who said softly to her "Don't deny it. You don't have to be blood to have children. Enid and Carl love Arya more then anything, and I would do anything to keep Noah safe."
Carol nodded and added "Same for myself and Henry."
"And Judith." Michonne finished coming up as well "Lydia is struggling I know with fighting her mother, but the fact she kept her humanity at all among those animals is a miracle in itself. We need to trust her and you do to."
Kate smiled weakly, rubbing her eyes "Thanks guys."
Then the door banged open and Javier looked from his chair as Kenneth rushed in, face pale.
"Whisperers?" Javier demanded, standing up strong.
"No uh...worse...Shane and Negan are back." He said worriedly.
"...Fuck." Kate was already out the door before he finished his sentence.
Rosita's P.O.V
Rosita stumbled into a gas station and slowly walked through it, after a minute she got behind the counter and sat against it. She breathed heavily, holding a hand over her mouth as she heard footsteps. She grabbed a pipe off the ground quiet as she could as Alpha entered the building.
The woman stopped and looked intent when she saw the blood. Turning she saw three walkers approaching, growling. With a sadistic smirk, she hit her shotgun against the wall as she sat down. The walkers entered the building and shuffled towards the back, growling. As they came around the counter, Rosita kicked the first one in the leg as it came, sending it to the ground, and she stabbed the pipe into the head. The next two come around the counter, drawn by the movement, arms already raised. She kicks the first one as it came around and stabs it in the head. But the third one grabs her arm, dragging it up to it's mouth with decaying teeth.
"Fuck!" She yelled as she punches it before reaching down and pulling the knife out of her leg. She stabs it in the head as blood starts to pour out of her wound and she falls on her back and breathes heavily.
For a moment there was silence, as Rosita grabbed her bleeding leg with a hiss and said lowly "Go to hell."
Rick's P.O.V
The group sat looking down a tunnel after a minute's rest. "You sure we can't go back?" Strand asks.
"No, we have to go through this, we get out and hopefully we find an entrance," Rick says as he sets another bomb. "We got four more."
"I'll go first." Magna offered as she slowly enters the tunnel and the rest followed, weapons raised. But then they saw the tunnel getting more narrow by the second as They crawl through. "Feels like we're rats in a damn maze" Magna says as she continues to crawl through the tunnel. The group slowly moves through the tunnel until they reach the other side. Rick crawled behind Alden in the back, but then paused as he heard movement behind him. He turned his head when he heard growls and sees walkers crawling.
"Go faster!" Rick shouts. The other starts to move faster as Rick kicks one of the walkers in the face and crawls behind Alden, one then grabbing his foot. Yelling, Rick grabbed his axe and was just able to push it into the head, using the body to block the rest of the walkers. They quickly get out of the tunnel and Alden helps Rick out as Strand, Gabriel and Daniel kick back the walkers that came in as they ran.
After a moment they came to a stop, Alden helping up a panting Rick.
"You, okay?" Alden asks Rick who nods, rubbing his head.
"Let's take a minute and then we keep going," Rick tells everybody who nods.
Negan's P.O.V
"YOU LET HER GO WITH THEM?!" Negan screamed in anger as he looks at Michonne, Kate, Maggie, Carol, Javier, and Kenneth. "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?"
"Negan-" Carol started.
"OF ALL THE FUCKING PLACES, YOU SEND HER OVER THE GODDAMN-"
"Negan, calm down."
They turned to see Carl coming behind him with a worried Enid holding Robert behind him and a sheepish Arya, waving at him nervously.
Worried, Shane tried to step in but Michonne held a hand up to him.
"What were you thinking?" Negan asks as he looks at him and then at the group.
"They needed her," Kate says. "I don't like it either, Negan. But Gabriel was right, Lydia is the other one who can lead the walkers out of that herd if they need too."
"This was Gabe's idea?" Negan asks them and Carl nods. "If that bitch sees her. Do you know what she'll do!?" Negan growls.
"Nothing, because she won't and if she does, they'll keep her safe, Alden, Gabriel, Dad, Magna, Connie, Strand, and Daniel will keep her safe. I mean Rosita is with them, do you really think she'll let anything happen to Lydia?" Carl asks him. "I understand your anger, but they needed her."
"Nothing better happen to her, Carl. If something happens…the aftermath won't be pretty." Negan growls before he storms past them.
There was a bit of silence, then Madison said "He...took it a bit better then I thought."
"Really?" Kate asks dryly.
Shane shrugged "He didn't punch anyone so I consider that him taking it well."
Rick's P.O.V
Rick walked in front of the group as they walked through the cave, Rick could tell a few such as Connie and Gabriel were becoming concerned with the growing lack of an entrance, but they froze seeing a trace of sunlight "There we go." Rick says as he looks at the rock in front. "Can you guys make sure this doesn't collapse on us?"
"Yeah, what are you going to do?" Alden asks.
"Set the rest of the bombs," Rick says as he walks away from them. He walks through the cave and looks over a cliff where he can see the herd. He pulls the bombs out of his bag and begins to set them along cliff. He set the last explosive and looked at Alden as he walked up to him.
"Jesus Christ," Alden says as he looks at the herd with a look of disbelief that there were this many in one place. "You and Daryl said it was big, but I never imagined this. You think this will kill all of them?"
"Honestly? Probably not, the cave's far bigger then I thought it'd be. But it will defiantly even the playing field, come on let's get back to the others."
Alpha's P.O.V
Alpha sat against the gas station wall looking inside at the trail of blood, but then she heard the woman speak. "What made you into this monster?"
"Nothing, this world just brought the monster out. I don't think you've noticed, but the world is ruled by monsters. So we must be monsters in return," Alpha says. "That is why I will survive. Because I understand this world, this 'New World' you have built and preached about? It is a lie, a sign of weakness, you adapt or you die. And now you and soon your daughter will die because of that lie."
"I'll die before my daughter does." Rosita growls. "You're wrong, our world, we built it for over a decade, hell since this whole thing started. We will never stop fighting, we will fight till our last breath, you've seen it, even after what you did, we continue to fight. You'll never beat us."
"We will see," Alpha says with a grin but her smiles falls after a moment.
Something was wrong, this one was here alone...and she came soon after her insolent daughter was right there at the cave. Slowly a dark feeling welled in her stomach.
"Why were you across my border?"
Rosita laughs and then coughs, getting dizzy from the blood loss from her leg. "You were so focused on Lydia, you didn't even think about the others outside your cave, the ones I came here with. Rick and the others I was with? They came here to destroy your herd you stupid bitch."
"No," Alpha muttered in disbelief, realizing this was a trap as she stood, that was it. She was going to kill this damn woman slow, her voice almost raising to a scream. "I will carve your eyes from your head."
"No, you won't." Rosita coughed and just looked over the counter to her at the entrance. "It seems like I'm going to die here today, but that's okay, cause you've already lost."
Alpha lets out a growl of rage as she stands up and moves towards the counter. "Stop." Alpha freezes as she turns and sees Lydia standing at the door now with her gun. "Get back."
"My bug, don't do this," Alpha says as she looks at her daughter through the haze of her own blood from her head.
"I already told you, I'm not your fucking bug, now back up," Lydia growls as she moves towards her mother who back away to the wall. "Throw your gun down."
Alpha throws her gun down, not breaking her gaze from her, the first time they met since that fair. The two stared at each other a moment before Alpha's lip curled to a defiant sneer "You will never be one of them."
"You're wrong, she is one of us, she's family," Rosita says as Lydia walks up to Alpha. Alpha's back hits the wall and she slide down it as her vison becomes blurry.
"I love you, bug."
"No, you don't, they do, they're my family."
At that, Alpha's eyes close as her world goes black.
Lydia's P.O.V
Lydia puts Rosita against the tree and wraps her leg. "You okay?" Lydia asks.
"I should be asking you that." Rosita quietly says.
Lydia tied it and looked away "...Should I have done it?"
Rosita coughed "No one should kill a parent Lydia-" But she froze and looked up.
"Behind you."
Lydia spins around and aims her gun at the sound of steps and saw it was Gamma again. "I'm here to help."
"Why?" Lydia asks angrily, not trusting another of them after what she heard from Dante.
"Because your mother lied to me. My sister is dead because of her." Gamma said pleadingly "She told us you were dead, please, please. The baby we left, he's my nephew and I want to see him."
Lydia looks at Rosita. "You wanna help? Go and get Beta, show him where Alpha is, find out what she has planned, and tell us, come to Hilltop. You do that you can see him."
Rosita hissed, not trusting her "Lydia!"
"If she dies, Beta will attack Hilltop right away, and we need time to get the others out of there."
At that, her eyes widened...Coco, Rose, Judith, and the children.
Turning back, Lydia stared for a long moment then sighed, gesturing with her gun "Go. Don't make us regret this."
Gamma nods as she turns and runs away.
Rick's P.O.V
Rick crawls out of the cave first and froze. He was staring right at an approaching group of Whisperers, who were likely guarding the back of the cave, staring back at him. One of them pointed "Hey!"
He quickly removes his Handgun, still halfway out and shoots two of them as Alden comes out and shoots two more. "Let's go!" Rick says as the others slowly climb out, hearing the groans and nearby shouts, the gunfire already attracting attention. "Into the woods. GO!" Rick shouts. They run through the trees,and stop as Rick removes the detonator, praying Eugene knew what he was doing with a trigger like this. "Here goes nothing," Rick says as he presses the button.
After a moment there was nothing then a flash of fire poured out of the entrance as a few of them ducked their head, the cave coming down as the rocks start to fall onto the herd.
Within a few minutes the cave had collapsed in on itself, Rick lifting his head and looking at the detonator, a car door alarm jury rigged "Dammit Eugene really is a miracle worker."
"What now?" Magna asks.
"We find Rosita and Lydia, we go home and we prepare for Alpha," Rick says as he starts to walk and the others follow.
No one's P.O.V
Alpha's eyes flutter open, groaning as she sees blond hair and a blond woman leans down by her ear. She looked vaguely familiar then she realized to her disbelief.
It was the blond pregnant woman killed, whispering down to her "I told you, we kill monsters." Alpha shoots up with a gasp and looks around...but pauses as she realized it was Beta and Gamma.
"Alpha are you well?" Beta asked, his voice concerned and leaning down, seeing the blood from her head and her wounds.
"Yes," Alpha says as she looks at them. "The cave?"
"They used some sort of explosives...they dropped it. About...half" Beta says and Alpha nods.
Beta growled ferally and stood, turning to Gamma "Gather the Pack and what's left of the herd! We go in immediately for this!"
"No." Immediately Beta turned to the speaking Alpha, as if confused.
In the woods Rick and Alden held Rosita up as they started to walk to the border. "Did we do it?" Rosita asks weakly.
"We did," Rick says. "We're going to win, Rosita."
"They have made their last mistake. I am no longer weak, Beta. We wait until I am rested and stitched, then we gather the rest of the herd and assault."
Alpha's eyes went murderous as she stood with Beta's help "Besides. I wish to watch them burn with my own eyes."
Thanks for reading. Next chapter the group returns to Hilltop. Alpha heals and starts to see people from her past, and the group prepares for a fight. There will not be any uploads next week. As always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.