Newly Revised
Carol held onto her head as her ears rang, unable to see clearly through the smoke as the pounding in her head slowly started to ebb while the fighters from the Kingdom shouted for their King. She barely had time to prop herself up onto her elbows before she had to draw her gun as walkers began appearing in the smoke. There was no way to tell how many were near them, no way to tell how many were coming let alone if the Savior that they had been chasing was still in the area. He'd thrown a grenade at them creating time for him to get away by breaking open a building full of the dead. There was a chance he'd been hurt either in the blast or through the fire fight, but there was no way of knowing that for sure until they dealt with the dead. Between their guns, Ezekiel's sword, and Jerry's battle ax, they made quick work of the walkers, Ezekiel rallying his forces and telling them to protect themselves. Carol had ran over to the car the Savior had ducked behind just before the blast only to find it empty once the dead had been dealt with and the smoke cleared.
"Anyone see where he went?" she asked. "He saw us. If he tells them we're here, it's over before it started."
"It is not," Ezekiel called out in that high and mighty way he spoke that she found both ridiculous and attractive all at the same time in spite of herself. "And he won't. For we together will find him, end him, and fulfill the promise of what we have begun," he told her, handing her her dropped weapon. "Trust the King," he said with a bit of twang and a smile.
"Outpost is due north, through the woods," one of his men told them.
"As that's surely his course, so shall it be ours," the King said. "If our comrades had already arrived, they'd have been here. Return to the staging area. Gather the others when they land. And if they haven't yet, release Shiva from her cage. Due north, we'll leave a trail for you. Ensure no enemies remain in these environs, and be not ten minutes behind," he told another man before looking to the rest of his troupe. "Onward!"
"Whoo!" Jerry cried out, making several chuckle and several more, including Carol, scoff while Ezekiel just shook his head at the man's antics.
"To our foe, to his compound!" he called out before looking at Carol with that same smile. "And then to certain victory."
They traveled through the woods silently, Jerry placing a marker down every once in a while so that the rest of the Kingdom's warriors could follow their path and join them in fighting at the outpost. Ezekiel kept a small smile on his face the entire time, something that had Carol both perplexed and irritated. How a person could smile in the face of uncertainty and possible death was something she just couldn't understand, and yet here was the King, treating the entire situation as if it was little more than a game. She couldn't understand how he was acting like nothing was wrong, like they weren't marching into enemy territory under threat of being killed. There was literally no reason for the man to be smiling at the moment and it was rather annoying how he wouldn't stop. Perhaps it was in his mind, but even then, she wondered what the point in smiling in such peril would accomplish for them.
"Up ahead," Ezekiel said as Jerry stood from placing another marker.
"I see it," Carol said with a grimace.
"This is me," Jerry told them as he walked forward, raising his ax and slamming it down into the walker's head.
Carol couldn't help her curiosity, and neither could the King, as they walked towards the walker and took in its appearance. Not only were its clothes tattered and torn, but they looked like they had almost been eaten away, both the color and the fabric. Its skin was decrepit and even its blood was a different color than the greenish-dark mess that usually came from the walkers, but an almost vile brown. Everything about it was disgusting and putrid more so than normal, and it just added to the number of questions at the back of Carol's mind. What if there were more walkers like this one and they set upon them in droves? Where did it even come from for it to look so grotesque that every single one of the people present were looking at it in confusion? All she knew was that they couldn't search around to see if there was anything in the area that might offer an explanation. They had a plan that they had to stick to along with a time line they needed to keep.
"What befell this creature?" Ezekiel asked only for Jerry to give him a cocky, but friendly smile. "I mean before you."
"We don't have time to figure that out," Carol pointed out. "Compound's not far off, if he made it, if they know we're coming, they're gonna be ready."
"Two possibilities, and only one fact," the King chided.
"And what's that?" she asked a bit perplexed.
"We shall be ready regardless," he told her.
Carol rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Ezekiel and chastising him, "What's about to happen, it's not just a few walkers. You know that, right?"
"Yes," he told her, giving her a look that held that stupid smile. "And yet I smile."
"Why?"
He looked at her and took a step towards her after looking at his people who walked ahead with uncertainty, asking her, "Do I feel the supreme confidence? Or is my lot, my job, to simply project such certainty? No and yes. Yes and no. And then finally yes to both. Fake it 'til you make it, baby," he told her a bit flirtatiously, dropping the theatrical speech and making sure his people had passed. "That's what I've done and what I do. I am King because I-I have provided a light to bring my people forward through the darkness and they have made my fictions realities. So, with all this and everything that's happened..."
"All of us may not make it," she told him quietly. "We may not even win."
"And yet I smile," he told her incredulously. "There will be no fantasies of failures this day."
"Hey guys," one of his men, Daniel, asked. "Is this blood from the wasted?"
Carol walked over and inspected it before looking up in surprise, "No. One of us hit him when we fired on him. Means he's movin' slow," Carol said, looking to the King.
"Hell's yeah!" Jerry said with enthusiasm. "We're back in business."
"Well done, Daniel," Ezekiel told the younger man. "Well done to us all. We move forward...as we move the very world forward."
He continued onward after smiling at Carol again, making her raise her eyebrows and shake her head; she simply just could not understand the guy. Okay, he faked it until he made it, but that didn't explain why he had to talk the way he did. The tiger explained how he became King, but damn his attitude was infuriating while at the same time she couldn't help but want to laugh at his antics. He was quite the charmer in both looks and mannerisms but the added amount theatrics just made him seem all the more comical to her. Everything he did made her either want to deck him or laugh with him and she couldn't tell if she liked that or hated it. With a sigh, she shoved all those thoughts to the back of her mind and followed the King's trail, wondering what was next on the list of things to add to the King's special crazy list. Carol tracked the blood from the man, using what she'd learned from Ani and Sophia when they had her helping them with herbs and the little bit of hunting she'd done with Daryl, Merle, or Rick to learn how to set snares. It wasn't the greatest skill she had, but it worked well enough as they moved through the underbrush, though the man they were following clearly wasn't being careful with his footing let alone paying attention to how he was bleeding. The footsteps were plain as day in some areas, other times leaves and shrubbery that had been smeared with blood. It wasn't a very hard trail to follow but Carol kept her eyes open and vigilant the entire time, hoping they would catch up to the man before he had time to warn the outpost of their existence in the woods.
"That way," she said as Ezekiel came up behind her, both pressing forward quickly.
"There!" he exclaimed.
She followed after him, stopping her from firing after lowering his own gun, telling her, "Save your munitions, Carol. Our friends have arrived."
Just after he stated that, Shiva jumped out of the trees and attacked the man, his screams echoing through the woods as she growled and held onto his face. To say that it was disturbing to watch someone die at the hands of a tiger was an understatement, but then again, it was quite beautiful to see an apex predator at work. The first time she had seen the tiger and met the King she hadn't been able to keep herself from laughing. She'd been told that even Ani hadn't been able to contain her joy at seeing it while Rick and the others stood on in shock. Carol could understand all three reactions when it came to seeing the tiger, though she couldn't help but wonder what their reactions would be to seeing the thing actually hunt. They'd been too busy during the fight in Alexandria to pay attention to the big cat's attacks, though Carol doubted it would be much different than those who stood with her. The faces of shock, awe, and disgust at what they were witnessing not even five yards from them reaffirmed to Carol that she was, in fact, watching what she was watching. It didn't take very long at at all for the tiger to finish in its task before walking over to Ezekiel and nuzzling his hand.
"And there it is," he said while petting Shiva's head. "Our certain victory. This...I am not glad for his death," he told Carol. "Or anyone's."
"I know," she responded.
Jerry held up the walkie the man had on him as it went off, everyone listening as a man's voice rang out over the comms, "Nelson, we're on the move, taking active measures. Just hold up, keep it elevated, and if you see us, stay out of the line of fire."
"Jig's up," Jerry said. "Gonna have to break chocks."
"No," Ezekiel stated. "This journey will not end in retreat."
"But, they know we're coming," David said.
"Indeed they do," Ezekiel told him before taking out his sword and smiling with a chuckle towards Carol, who smiled back, unable to help herself from respond to the goofball's theatrics.
Holding up the walkie, they listened as the men radioed back and forth, "How 'bout double time it, and meet us at the rally point?"
"Radio back as soon as you're on post."
"They are coming for us. They are coming for us at this very moment. A powerful force of bloodthirsty rogues and unrepentant cutthroats bent on nothing short than our pitiless destruction," Ezekiel informed them all as the radio kept chatting away. "And yet I smile. And yet Carol, smiles."
"Why, boss?" Jerry asked, his nerves getting the best of him in the moment.
"They probably have the numbers," Carol answered for him, "But we have strategy."
"Yes, we do," Ezekiel said after he laughed happily at her words. "Yes, we do!"
Raising his voice enough for all in the vicinity to hear, he laid out a plan that would allow them to fight fire with fire, so to speak. It was a very simple plan in which the outpost would have a group of people in the woods looking for their people and therefore the Kingdom's forces would divided and concur. One group would remain out in the open, headed by Ezekiel himself alongside Jerry and David, roughly two thirds of their forces going with him. Carol, on the other hand, would be lying in wait near the vicinity the Savior's were bound to attempt to ambush his group to end the ambush with one of their own alongside Daniel. The third team, the one with the medics, would only be arriving after the signal was given or Shiva made her way back to them so that they could follow her back to the King. Carol had to hand it to them, Abraham, Merle, and Ani really knew how to form ranks and formations that gave them the best advantage.
"I am binding a hope to my heart," Ezekiel said as he finished, "perhaps unwisely...but we have come this far, all of us, still here! If we follow this plan, if we keep to our training, if the Fates continue to shine brightly upon us, allowing us this...this dream?" he smiled. "We will lose not one of our ranks. We will lose not one of our ranks," he reiterated looking Carol in the eyes.
The King's group walked along pretending to be overly cautious until they were ambushed by more men than they could take, as they had expected. Dropping their rifles to their sides, his entire group put their hands up, Ezekiel's face showing shock and surprise that could be seen even from Carol's distance. She had to admit that he was an amazing actor as the Saviors supposedly caught the Kingdomers off guard and without hope of winning. It was then that their own ambush took place as Carol and everyone else jumped out of the nearby brush and shot out at the Saviors while Ezekiel and the others ducked and pulled their own weapons. Within seconds, all the Saviors were dead, not having been able to fire even a single shot in retaliation; they simply hadn't had the time between realizing what was happening and being gunned down. Ezekiel stood and looked around the battlefield, the corpses of the Saviors spattering the ground while every one of his people stood in the small clearing.
"Not one!" he repeated joyously to Carol who simply smiled at the idiot's enthusiasm, Shiva coming up behind him and roaring almost as if to embolden his words even more. "Make no mistake, those we've so swiftly extinguished are perhaps one death in a compound of three. But our first victory will allow our second. Our second will deliver our third."
They continued to move through the woods towards the outpost until they reached the guard shack and took out the two guards on top relatively easily, the better snipers having little issue getting a clear shot through the trees. Cautiously closing in on the small garage that housed an unknown number of Saviors, Carol couldn't help but inhale sharply as someone from the Kingdom manned each garage door and swung them open. The others didn't even bother to take aim and instead opened fire to ensure no damage came to their side. Just as Ezekiel had said, a fact that made Carol return his stupid smile once again, they didn't lose a single member of their force. In fact, the significant number of Saviors that had obviously abandoned this guard shack were barely able to make it to the chemical plant before the Kingdom set upon them. While the people had taken a longer route to their destination in an attempt to throw the Kingdom off of their trail, they had simply proceeded straight through the woods to the outskirts of the compound. As such, they caught the Saviors in yet another ambush they were unable to retaliate from behind the cover of both wooden and metal pallets. They easily killed the reinforcements that were trying to reach the plant, their forces spread throughout the field around them making sure that the dead stayed dead. Their ambush on the Saviors created an opportunity for the others in the outpost to come out, firing on the Kingdomers from the field as they attempted to make a run for it. Each one was gunned down as the Kingdom kept their position behind the pallets and remained unharmed in yet another short fire fight that left both Ezekiel and Carol both in high spirits.
"Everyone is accounted for, Your Majesty," Daniel told him.
"Ezekiel?" Carol asked.
"Not one," he told her on the verge of joyous tears.
"We need to sweep the compound," she warned him.
"Your counsel, your plan."
"Let me take a look," she told him.
She headed towards the compound and found an entrance as automatic fire rang out, her mind immediately becoming worried over what had happened with Ezekiel and the others. She had a job to do, though, and the weapon fire that had rang out had to be the guns that they had been looking for. If she was right, the Saviors would be taking them back to the Sanctuary to cut down the herd there and allow them to escape. Carol had to make sure that the Saviors still in the building either remained in the compound or died; there was no option for failure right now. Whatever was happening with Ezekiel and his men would have to be taken care of by the King while she did what she had to to keep those guns from Negan. The flickering hallway light did little to conceal her presence until she entered what might have once been a break room. A man's voice rang out while getting closer as she searched for a place to she could take cover behind.
"Asshats, get those guns loaded and let's screw the hell off now!"
"We need some help here!" another man called from a room across the other hall from the break room.
Carol cowered between some boxes as a man from the hallway hollered back, "What you need is to hurry the hell up. If you don't have those guns loaded by the time I round this corner, I am gonna flay your asses! It is real now!"
"We're almost done! Jesus!"
Carol saw a clear way to climb up into the ceiling because where she was, she was a sitting duck just waiting to be pounced upon but no one ever thought about an attack from above. That was something Ani had said about why she'd been on the roof of Terminus; people hardly ever looked up to see if there was a threat hanging over their heads. And the ceiling of the place was just corrugated pieces easy enough to move and given that it was by a wall, she knew she'd have something to stand or sit on that would support her weight. The corrugated tiles wouldn't hold her if she tried using them and the beam from the wall allowed her to put tile back into place. She waited with baited breath as she crouched down as low as she could while being able to aim downwards while the men talked to each other and entered the room. Carol didn't wait as she heard the movement below her stop before she fired several passes along the room just to make sure the men were dead. Cautiously opening the panel, she climbed down, jumping down onto the floor and shooting two surviving but heavily wounded Saviors dead before turning around. She barely had any time to grab the Saviors' guns before more men came charging into the room and she was forced to flee. Carol managed to get through to where they'd used the guns previously, seeing all the shells on the floor as she heard the men talking about their plans. They weren't interested in her in the slightest even though she had killed some of their men; they were only interested in trying to get the guns to the Sanctuary.
Quickly and quietly making her way outside, she managed to come out a different door right as the men passed by the large industrial bins that spotted the courtyard and gave Carol men talked about how much ammo there was at the Sanctuary, making sure they had enough to cut through and get into the place first as she crept closer. The Kingdom was no where to be seen, so it was her or else the Saviors would be able to easily escape from their confinement. Carefully, she took out her empty clip and replaced it with a fresh one, thankful that the Saviors had a rifle that took the same kind of clip as the one she'd been forced to abandon. She loaded it as quietly as she could before making to move on the Saviors at the truck, only to be fired at from another direction. Firing back, Carol sprinted for the cover of yet another vehicle, feeling a bullet graze past her boot as she threw herself behind it. There were two groups of them, one of her, and she was soon pinned down from two different angles making it to where couldn't even fire back. She hid behind the tire well and the glass shattered above her while she bided her time to peek over the top of the truck to look at what her surroundings, trying to find something she could use to her advantage. As soon as her head popped over though, more gunfire rang out and the only real thing she'd be able to see was that she was close to the gate she had a button for close by. Formulating a plan at lightening speed, Carol took off her rifle and hung it on the driver's side mirror as the gunfire ceased and she took a chance.
Instead, she tossed her six shooter under the car towards the Saviors, calling out, "I can tell you where the others are! Just let me live! They're hiding out, waiting for other Saviors to show up!"
"Nice and slow!" came her reply, so she stood up just like that.
"I'm unarmed," she said with her hands raised, spinning in a circle. "Look."
"Your people...where are they?" the leader asked as one of his men began advancing closer.
"You can't tell them I told you," she said, doing her best to sound scared. "You have to promise. Please!"
"Hey, do you wanna die?!" the leader asked as the man inched closer, coming within reaching distance. "I asked you where your people are!"
Carol moved quickly to knock the gun out of the man's hands and get him into a headlock, her knife pressed to his throat as she shouted, "Lower your guns! Now!"
No one did anything other than the leader's expression turning sour for a moment as her hostage begged, "Yago, please, man!"
"Joey just pooched it," Yago responded. "Light him up!"
The Saviors opened fire, instantly killing their own man, but his presence buying Carol enough time to fall backwards and press that damn button. She crawled her way back over to the tire well and hugged the fallen Savior's gun close and waited for the walkers that had to be out there to come in. It didn't take long for the gunfire to stop being aimed at her and instead being directed at the walkers, Carol taking the opportunity to search the fallen Savior. She managed to find a ring of keys and slid those onto her wrist before she stood and started firing on the two remaining Saviors. They were able to take cover before any of her bullets hit them and she ceased fire to conserve ammo. Carol knew she only had a half a clip in the gun and one more on her vest and then the fight would be over. She had to get these two to give up before she ran out of bullets trying to get a single shot. The Kingdom still hadn't shown up yet, which made her worry about whether or not the others were safe. She worked through her worry, though, not having the luxury of doing anything but stop the guns from getting to the Sanctuary. Whatever was delaying the King and his people, it would have to be dealt with after the fire fight she was currently in ended.
"We need to end this," Carol called out.
"You were lyin' to us about your friends, huh?" Yago responded.
"Yeah, I was," she said as she advanced on their position slowly. "Now, we need to end this."
"Okay. Walk away lady."
"You're not goin' anywhere with those guns."
"Nah. We are.They got someplace to be!"
"I've got your pal's ammo. How many bullets you got left after all those walkers? Three? Four?" she taunted.
"Why don't you come at us and find out? We're right here!" he stated back.
She was fully prepared to take them on, too, until a few shots fired from nearby, causing her to look away. Ezekiel and Jerry stood on the other side of the gate completely boxed in by walkers composed of the Kingdom's fallen warriors. While Ezekiel looked barely able to stand, she could tell that Jerry was beginning to tire, leaving both vulnerable in their already difficult predicament. Carol had thought that they would have to deal with it on their own, knew that the guns were the more important issue at hand, but it didn't help matters any. She knew she had a choice to make that would mean sacrificing either stop the guns from getting to the Sanctuary or losing Ezekiel. The man shouted at her to keep talking as she stood there staring at the situation just past the gate. Her mind went back to before they had left the Kingdom that morning, and the conversation she and Ezekiel had had. He had talked about how he was trained, how he would be what he needed to be, the meek, theatrical zookeeper turned into a King worthy of his people's trust. His story about how he'd saved Shiva, the risk of approaching such a powerful predator and what would happen if he simply left it as it was and the respect he'd gained from the creature afterwards. 'If you're asked to be the hero, be the hero,' he'd told her before asking her if she had always been as strong as she was, or if she had decided to be strong. He had decided that if he was going to live, he was going to be whatever he must, just as she had done, and had given her a perspective she hadn't had before. She didn't even really think about it before she was at the gate firing on the dead before turning and firing at the Saviors as they drove away from the compound. She didn't take on all the dead, but there was enough time for her to take the keys from her wrist and try to find the right one to get the gate unlocked.
"Are you okay?" she asked as she worked.
"Did they get the guns?" he asked in reply.
"Nothing we can do about it," she responded, trying another key and successfully unlocking the deadbolt on the chain and pulled it lose, opening the gate quickly.
"I've got the King," Jerry told her as he grabbed Ezekiel and brought him through, Carol quickly wrapping the chain through and locking it once again.
"We have to get word to Rick," Ezekiel warned as the sound of a motorcycle's engine roared from close by. "If they ferry those machine guns to the Sanctuary..."
Carol couldn't help the smile that formed on her face when she heard a second and then a third engine revving, turning to Jerry and Ezekiel and informing them, "They're not getting them to the Sanctuary. Come on, we gotta get you to the medics. They'll be able to treat that leg and if they aren't already on their way, they should be shortly."
They walked along, Jerry supporting the King and knocking back or down any dead that came close to them while Carol killed those in front. They managed to keep ahead of the dead Kingdom warriors for a time, but all the gunfire had attracted the walkers in the nearby vicinity too. It wouldn't take long before they were once again surrounded to a point where the three of them would not be able to hold out. Wherever the medic party was, they weren't there, and right there was exactly where the three of them needed the medics to be to be. It gave Carol little hope that they would find a way out before the walkers got to them, but she still pressed on. One thing Ezekiel was right about was that she had to become what she was needed to be, and right at this moment, he was too weak to be what he did, so at the moment she had to be. She would be the strong one to keep him going if that's what she needed to do; the Kingdom needed its King to lead it. Carol wasn't going to stop trying or leave the man behind simply because he was too afraid to try and wanted to give up.
"Your Majesty!" Jerry cried out as Ezekiel tripped and fell once again.
"This ain't gonna work," Ezekiel told them, dropping his theatrical dialogue. "You gotta leave me. I'm slowing you down."
"No," Carol denied him before opening fire on the walkers catching up behind them. "You don't get to do that. Come on, I'm almost out of ammo," she told him, grabbing his arm and helping him up.
Between her and Jerry, they managed to get the King up and over the train tracks he'd stumbled on relatively quickly. They worked their way through the woods until they came to an putrid smelling sludge that expanded quite a large area. There was a drainage pipe spewing decrepit water into a stream with barrels of toxic waste laying next to it. It wasn't the water alone that caused the stench to hang in the air, but the numerous walkers stuck in the thick sludge in various stages of toxic decay. Most of their clothes had been sucked of any and all color and were starting to fall apart while the walkers themselves were both bloated and sickly all at the same time. The King was obviously terrified and disheartened by the situation before them as much as he was the one that followed after and the thought of losing the rest of his people consumed him. He threw himself away and told Carol and Jerry once again to leave him where they were so that they could escape.
"I-I can't. You can," he told them. "You two have to just go."
Carol ignored him, climbing down into the sludge as she told Jerry, "Lower him down to me."
He did as he was told, only a grunt of protest escaping Ezekiel's lips as Carol took his weight and raised her rifle, haphazardly firing into the walkers that were slowly making their way towards them. Jerry killed a few walkers coming from behind before joining them in the mess while they fought their way to the other side of the bank. Carol climbed up as Jerry took out another walker with Ezekiel's sword only to lose his grip. It got stuck into the bank only for Ezekiel to grab it and kill a walker creeping up on Jerry, determined not to get any more of his people killed. This entire loss, all those lives, he was the one who had sent them to their graves and the last thing he wanted was for Jerry and Carol to die as well. Carol had come into his life out of the blue, someone like him who had faked it until she became who she was pretending to be. Only now, she wasn't playing pretend; Carol had done what he as the King had not and had become a true leader. He'd only been playing pretend all this time, playing like he knew what was going to happen, what was the right path to take. Ezekiel realized now that he had been nothing but a fool who had let a friendly tiger give him the position of leader.
"Ezekiel," Carol shouted.
"Just go! I can hold them off!" he told her.
"Ezekiel, we can get you away!" she insisted.
"You can't!"
"I'm not leaving you, Your Majesty," Jerry told him, only for Ezekiel to whip around and shout at him.
"C'mon, man, just go!"
"You're my King!"
"No I'm not!" Ezekiel roared at him. "I'm not your King. I'm not Your Majesty. Look at what's in front of us. That's what's real. Go. Go," he begged, pointing his sword at the walkers. "I ain't no king. I ain't nothing. I'm just some guy. Some guy who found..."
His voice had grown weaker as he spoke, which allowed for them all to hear Shiva's roar as she jumped into the sludge from the other side of the bank, a rally cry of "To the King!" sounding behind her. Gun fire rang out as Jerry pushed Ezekiel up the bank, the walkers behind him being mowed down by the medic team who came from the rear following Shiva's trail. Together with Carol, they managed to defeat the immediate threat and get to the other side of the bank as the medics' guards forming ranks around the King as they got to work cleaning and field dressing Ezekiel's wound. It was a long journey back to the Kingdom where Ezekiel had to rely on Carol and Jerry for support most of the time, but they made it relatively safely. Shiva's ear had been shot off and she had a graze along her shoulder, but other than that, she was in relatively good health. The medic team was crowned as heroes for saving the King, along with Jerry and Carol. Those who had lost loved ones believed they had been lost for a good cause and set up a memorial to praise and remember their dead, not one blaming the King for his choice to go to war. And Ezekiel, he retreated into the thrown room with Shiva, refusing any entrance as the weight of what had happened, the people he had gotten killed on an endeavor he foolishly smiled his way through, the false hope he had encouraged, crushed him with guilt.