"Alden!" I call, catching his attention as he helps the other Saviors take down the prisoner pen; it's just become a waste of space now that Maggie's given them asylum in Hilltop. "It's Alden, right?"

He nods, glancing up at me from one of the fence posts and slowly putting down a hammer like he's worried that I'm worried he might try something. "And you're Rhys?"

"The Saviors that left last night," I say, ignoring him, "where'd they go?"

His eyes go a little wider as he looks me up and down, noting the rifle on my back. "We already told Maggie everything," he murmurs.

"So tell me," I say.

He looks unsure.

"Listen, man," I sigh. "Maggie's already on the fence about letting you guys stay here. Maybe now's a good time to be helpful."

"Exactly my thoughts," he says in a soothing voice that tells me he really doesn't want to start an argument. "If Maggie finds out that I told you— and then you get—"

"If you don't tell me," I cut in again, "I'll make sure she doesn't let you stay."

He thinks about it.

He sighs.

"Sanctuary is our best guess. It's pretty much our only guess."

"Okay, but that's far on foot... anywhere between here and there that they might be hold up at?"

His eyes flicker.

"Tell me," I say.

Alden hangs his head, rubbing his wrist together uncomfortably. "There's an old dive bar three miles off Edgehill Parkway. Some of them took me there once... they wanted my expert opinion on what it'd take to turn the place into an outpost."

He grimaces a little, chuckling nervously. I squint back at him. Then I nod and turn on the spot.

"Hey!" Alden calls after me.

I stop.

"I don't know if this is any kind of a lead, but if you're going out there... it's not for nothing— can you do me a favour?"

I do laugh now.

"Please," Alden sighs.

I wait.

"You seem like a capable kid," he says. "If you do happen to find 'em... don't kill any more of them than you have to. When it went bad last night, they made a choice. It was the wrong choice. Some of them... probably hasn't hit 'em yet. You could show 'em... by bringing 'em back. I know you've all lost a lot, but... you could do that."

My eye twitches once or twice. I hang my head, nodding a few times. I bring myself to look him in the eyes. "They made their choice."

I'm glad for the secret tunnel Sasha and Mikey dug out of Hilltop when I get the feeling Kal and Eduardo aren't going to just let me stroll out the main gates. I write Carl a brief note and stuff it in the front pocket of his backpack, worried he might try to stop me if I tell him. I did consider staying. I really did. But the thought of staying somehow felt worse than the thought of leaving, so I just go.

I follow Powder lane all the way down to a crossing that splits off between Marshal road and Edgehill Parkway. Marshal was the same road we used all those months ago to re-direct the herd away from Alexandria. I find it funny how close we've always been to Hilltop. The Saviors, too. I guess we should count ourselves lucky we found Hilltop first, even if Gregory was a complete ass.

Eventually, following the road becomes impossible when I catch up to a shallow horde, maybe a hundred walkers deep, on the road ahead. Weighing my options, I decide to follow alongside it in the cover of the woods, hopeful that I'll be able to overtake it in a mile or so.

I study the horde as I follow it, just in case the Saviors know the smearing themselves in guts trick that I've only had the displeasure of doing once. Most of the walkers look old, though, just migrating through like they do.

Maybe fifteen minutes later, I stop when I reach the front of the horde, taking cover behind a tall oak tree and peeking out for any sign of the Saviors. I see a pair of rusted cars on a quiet road branched off from the walker's path. They remind me of before Alexandria, those cars where Tara found her tinted sunglasses and Abraham found whiskey that tasted like cough medicine. Then I'm angry because I remember why Tara's dying and Abraham is dead.

There's a sound behind me.

I spin, gun raised, Morgan at the end of my sights, his staff up with pointy end aimed at me.

"Woah," I pant, holding my hands up, rifle to one side. "Just me, dude."

He inches closer, spear still raised.

"Morgan?" I say slowly. "You okay?"

He stops, looking around and shaking his head like he just roused from some strange hex. Beads of sweat drip from his forehead. I'm only just realising that he's wearing Benjamin's armour. I probably wouldn't have realised if it wasn't too small for him.

He lowers his stick, glancing at me. "I'm not right."

"Where's Carol?" I ask, choosing to move on. "Did you guys find Henry?"

"He's dead," Morgan says. "Or he will be. Either way, no point looking."

"Is that what Carol's doing?" I ask. "Looking?"

He nods briefly, looking over my shoulder at the cars I was studying. "You out here for the boy?"

I dip my head and shake it, feeling guilty about my answer. "I should be— I just can't stop thinkin—"

"Then we're out here for the same reason," Morgan says, nodding like I hadn't spoken. "To kill those Saviors that escaped."

"You should go back."

We both jump at the voice, even though we both recognise it. Sasha steps out from behind a tree, rifle hanging off her shoulder, and a frown knitted into her brow as she glances me up and down.

"You should both go back," she says.

"How did you—?" I start.

"You're easy to track," Sasha sighs.

"I'm not going back," I hiss, shaking my head. "Jared is out here."

"It's not safe out here, Rhys," Sasha says, wincing and shaking her head at me like I'm stupid for not taking that in.

"It's not fair!" I growl at her. "Everyone that's dead, and he gets to live?"

"Shit's not fair, Rhys," Sasha tells me.

"He's right," Morgan tells her. "We can do it... the three of us. We can."

Sasha glares at him. "Or we can go back."

"Just him," I tell her, sounding desperate. "We just need to get Jared."

"No," Morgan says. "We get them all. We finish it."

Sasha grits her teeth and sighs through them. "We're not doing anythin—"

Morgan starts walking, so I follow, ignoring Sasha as she walks alongside me and promptly explains how I'm being beyond stupid.

We get pretty far ahead of the horde when we hop back out onto the road. There's a car missing three wheels and holding onto a flat one in front of us. Beside the car lies a freshly severed leg and arm.

I'm about to comment when I hear Morgan drop his gun. I spin around, but we're already surrounded. Jared's here. Holding a rifle to the back of Morgan's neck.

"Hey," he grins and hisses, his tongue sticking through his teeth like the snake he is. "Nice to see ya, earless!"

I got the impression from Alden, but the dive bar really is a shit hole. The doors are hanging off their hinges, dust particles catching in the back of my throat as we're marched inside. Parts of the ceiling hang down, rotted away from dampness, and the whole place reeks of spoiled milk.

They took our weapons back on the road, pointing them at us now as they tie us up with our backs against a half-wall dividing the seating area from the bar and a stage.

A guy in a loose-fitting blue shirt moves around to face me when he's done tying my hands. He has sad blue eyes and curly brown hair that matches his short scruffy beard.

"Not too tight?" he asks me, his eyebrows arching together. "Just let me know if they are okay, kid?"

I spit at his feet as he stands up.

He shakes his head, looking at me with those bottomless blue eyes. He nods again and says quietly. "Just let me know."

"Thank you," Sasha says to him dryly.

He lets a smile flicker across his face, letting it die out as he glances behind him to the other Saviors. "My name's Reilly," he tells us. He looks nervous before he asks something. "Was everyone okay? Back at the Hilltop, I mean... things went bad, and we thought it—"

Morgan cuts him off, laughing at him. I suppose I find it funny, too. Since it's their fault anyone died to begin with.

Sasha shushes Morgan, turning her head back to Reilly and smiling a fraction. "We pulled through."

He nods, taking a few steps back towards the other Saviors. They're all panicking. Two of them are missing limbs.

I guess that explains what we saw on the road.

Jared has my rifle over his shoulder as he paces around the seating area before us.

An older-looking guy with short hair and a bushy grey beard is watching the two with missing limbs. They're coughing and shaking, and he's watching them like he's worried.

"We had to get off the road," he says out loud to the others, "out of the forest, and still... maybe we didn't do it in time."

The guy that tied me up— Reilly —he shakes his head, stepping between the sick and the others. "Yeah, but maybe we did! Maybe they don't look so hot 'cause we hacked off part of them. We're not just gonna leave them here."

Jared pushes past him with the rifle, pointing his hand at the limbless and staring at Reilly. "Look at them," he sneers. "They're dead already."

Another Savior I didn't see before, standing off to the side behind the bar, agrees with Jared, pointing at the two on the floor. "He's right. They knew the rules. You pooch it... nobody carries you."

I notice now that there are more of them, three or four behind us.

"After everything we've been through?" Reilly hisses. "Things are shaky, man, let's not—"

The Savior behind the bar shakes his head. "Look, we got the rules so somebody going down don't take the rest of us with them!"

"Cause in point," Jared nods. "We could've been halfway home by now."

"Say we make it," Reilly shrugs, kicking a broken chair leg by his foot. "Huh, what then?"

A young guy with buzzed black hair steps out from behind a tall and angry-faced Savior. He throws his arms up and nods. "He's right, Jared. What do we got waiting for us back there?"

All the Saviors are pitching in now.

"Maybe we go our own way, be done with the Saviors!"

"We pooched it. Simon wasn't going to carry us."

Jared raises his eyebrows at that last guy. "That's right. Because we lost." He points at us. "But things have changed! Delivering the kid that killed Paula and the chick that pulled the whole coffin stunt back at Alexandria to Negan is a win. We wiped our own asses on this one, and the big man is gonna recognise."

"You sure about that?" I ask.

I feel like I've gotten better at this. Being a hostage. Being terrified and at gunpoint. I am terrified. But this time, I can keep myself from showing it. Jared's not nearly as frightening as Paula or Molly were.

Jared struts across the room and squats in front of the three of us. "Oh, yeah, sure am. You ready to do some walking?"

"Are you?" I ask, sneering at him. "Or would you rather I put you down after we kill you?"

Jared's face explodes into a grin. I consider kicking him, but figure I best not.

"Oh, you're still fun!" he laughs. "Yeah, of course you are."

Then he kicks me.

I yelp out by the third kick.

Reilly rushes in and yanks Jared away, getting between us like he had with his friends.

"Jesus, Jared!" he yells. "He's just a kid!"

"Oh, but he'd kill us all if he had a chance," Jared laughs. "Wouldn't you, sport."

I start wishing he was still in kicking range.

"Some assholes just deserve it," I shout back.

"Please shut up," Reilly hisses at me.

"Listen to the man and shut up, Rhys," Sasha whispers.

Jared considers the fight but decides to spin around to face the others.

"Pack it up, boys! We're ditching the dead weight and moving on." Jared jumps up onto the stage and grabs a heavy-looking mic stand, walking back to the Savior missing his arm and raising it high above his head. "This is a loose-end sort of thing, that's it. It's gonna be better for you, better for us."

"Wait!" Sasha shouts at him. "I brought a truck. It's not far. We can get them to the doctor back at Hilltop."

Jared looks over his shoulder at her, shaking his head.

"They could come back with us," Sasha says slowly and convincingly. "You all could."

Morgan and I look at her the same way the Saviors do. Everyone but her left confused.

"You made a split-second choice last night, and you chose wrong," Sasha says, glancing around at them all. "But it's not too late. You cut us loose, you come back and you play along... I'll talk to Maggie and Rick about giving you a fresh start."

Some of them look on the fence while others are talking under their breath with each other. Sasha glances at me for help, but I can't find any of the same words that she's saying inside of me.

How could we do that?

They're killers.

Cutthroats.

They burnt our home and butchered our family.

Why do they get a second chance?

Glenn doesn't. Abraham doesn't.

Sasha sighs. "You'll get a chance to be a part of our community, to become one of us."

Jared looks around at his people, standing in the centre of the crumbling room. "You asshats aren't dumb enough to believe that."

"We can hear them out!" the older Savior stutters. "We— we could talk it over."

"Evan's right," Reilly says. "Can't hurt to talk."

"There's a herd on the way," I tell them then. "Probably headed this way."

Sasha nods. "So you guys really need to make a choice."

"WAKE UP, EVERYBODY!" Jared stomps his foot and slams the mic stand to the floor with a loud crack. "There isn't any herd. There isn't any 'deal' waiting back at Hilltop. You think these asswipes came here to save us? They came here for blood." He points at Morgan and squeals, "Hell, this one strangled one of his own guys to death with his own hands."

Morgan, who has been incredibly quiet up until this point, starts nodding. "You know, you're right. Rhys and I came here to do what we were supposed to. To kill every last one of you."

Jared points my gun in Morgan's face.

Morgan smirks.

"You should save your bullets because you're gonna need 'em," Morgan whispers, his voice deep and menacing. "That herd, it is comin'. Maybe they'll hear the moans or coughs, you know? Maybe they'll just stumble in through the open walls, but they are comin'. And then after... after, when you're just torn skin and loose teeth and blood— when you're nothing but the stuff that they didn't eat... well, that'll be a damn shame. Because there won't be a single one of you left for me to kill."

I knock my head back into the wall behind me, Sasha glaring my anger for me at Morgan.

"We're done," Jared sighs. "Let's dump them and bounce. I want a sandwich."

"See?" Morgan yells up to him from the floor. "It doesn't change. It never changes. And I don't die. I don't. Nobody dies! 'Cause everybody turns! Everybody turns!"

Jared points the gun at him again, but Reilly snatches it down and hisses at him.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asks, holding Jared still. "You'll ruin our chances of getting back to Hilltop!"

But then it doesn't matter.

Because I guess Morgan's right.

Everybody turns.

And now, hundreds of them are coming through the doors and the walls. Walkers trickle through in numbers as the horde that followed us here hisses and snarls.

"Walkers!"

"We're surrounded!"

Saviors start screaming as a few of them trip over knocked-over tables and slip on discarded beer bottles. Screaming when the dead crash down on them. The guy missing his leg is eaten alive. Some Saviors try to save him, but they get eaten, too.

"You're too weak to take this herd on alone!" Sasha yells over the gunfire. "Cut us out! Give us our weapons and we can help you!"

"No!" Jared barks. "Nobody's cutting anybody loose! I'm killing these pricks right now!"

Jared aims his gun at me.

I pull back violently, slamming my head against the way, but there's nowhere to go.

The Savior missing his arm cracks Jared over the head with the mic stand he was almost beaten to death with. Jared collapses and drops the gun. The Savior is eaten by the herd. Woozy and on his hands, Jared scrambles under a table and disappears behind the bar.

Reilly and Evan cut us loose. The guy with the buzz cut tosses Morgan his stick. Reilly hands me my hammer and knife. Sasha snatches her rifle from Evan.

Sasha joins Evan and the young guy with the buzz cut as the three start to mow down the walkers. Morgan bashes one across the head, and I claw one through the eye while Reilly holds it still for me. Another grabs my arm, but Reilly grabs my rifle that Jared dropped and shoots it through the head. We share the briefest of nods before turning back to the herd.

Sasha finds my pistol on one of the dead Saviors, snatching it up and handing it to me.

I shoot, and three walkers drop.

The six of us are separated from the others, but we keep fighting and the dead slowly start to run out. We're winning. Only, then Morgan sticks his sharpened spear-tip through Evan's throat, blood spraying across my face when he yanks it out.

I choke on my own gasp.

Reilly spins around when he hears Evan's body drop. He's holding my rifle. Everything is so loud. I panic. So I shoot. I shoot, and he crumples into the floor as his gut starts bleeding out of his stomach.

I stagger back.

He had his gun down.

He wasn't going to shoot.

But then the kid with the buzz cut is aiming his gun at me and shaking and crying something out. I try to say sorry, but he doesn't hear me. He can't hear me, not when his head bursts open into pieces of cartilage and chunks of brain that are flying over me after Sasha's bullet travels through the side of his head at a million miles an hour. Then she disappears behind a wall as more walkers trail in.

Another Savior jumps up from behind the bar and tackles me, clasping his hands around my neck and squeezing me into the floor. I find my knife and slice at his face and arms relentlessly until he lets go and then I drive it into his neck. Blood gushes like a waterfall of red over me. Drowning me in his insides as the guy pulls off shakily, crawling for his gun, leaving a trail of blood from me to there. He only makes it halfway before he goes still.

By the time the other Saviors notice, I see Morgan grab a pistol and shoot the last three left in succession. They all drop. The dead trip over them, some stopping to feast on their bodies.

Sasha's finished off the last of the horde now. I see a few left at the back of the building. I see them chasing Jared as he runs towards the kitchens at the back, behind the bar. Morgan takes off after him at a sprint. I try to do the same. I really do try. But I end up beside Reilly doing my best to stop the blood coming out of his stomach, but it just fills my hands and spills between my fingers. Inky red staining my skin.

"No!" I hiss at him as he tries to splutter something over gurgled breaths. "That's not fair. No!"

"We— could— we could have... lived after," he stutters.

"Fuck you," I scream at him, wiping my face when tears start streaming down it. "You don't get to be this! You're not us! You killed them. You killed—"

I can't keep speaking. I look up, watching Sasha finish off the last few walkers in the room.

Reilly's hand clutches my arm, and he's looking at me like he might have more to say, but then he goes limp, and his breaths stop coming.

I stagger to my feet, finding a corner of the room with no bodies in it. I puke all over the carpet.

Sasha's behind me, rubbing circles on my back. I shove her off.

"Did you mean it?" I ask weakly. "Were you going to let them come back?"

She pauses. She nods.

I'm sick again.

Morgan comes back from the kitchen. He's drenched in blood, same as me.

"I did it," he tells me. "I got him."

He got him.

"Morgan..." Sasha says quietly. "Stay with Rhys? I'll go get the truck. We shouldn't leave all these guns."

Morgan nods. "There's some food in the kitchen, too."

Sasha nods, glancing at me a few times, but I'm just staring at my corner.

Then she's gone.

Morgan leaves too, muttering something about checking the perimeter.

I don't really get why.

They're all dead.

I kneel down and quickly make sure Reilly won't come back. Not as a walker, at least.

I can't stand up again, my limbs heavy and hopeless.

I sit down on the floor in the room of bodies we created. Blood is soaked over and into my clothes. My hair is matted with red slime and chunks of people.

I think this is what I am now.

Then I hear a voice that I know isn't real. It's so sweet and warm that it can't be.

"Hey, little man."

"Don't," I whisper back, clutching the hammer in my lap. It's cold and rusty.

"Don't what?"

"You know what."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"You want me to go?"

"You're not here."

"I know, but still... do you want me to go?"

"Please stay."

I want to lean against him, but I know I'd just fall if I tried.

"You've been talking to me more and more."

"Ever since Mikey died."

"He seemed like a good friend."

"You would have liked him if you lived long enough to meet him."

"I'm sure."

"Does this mean I'm crazy?"

"I have no idea. I only know as much as you do. I'm in your head, after all."

I don't know what to say, so I say the obvious. "I miss you."

"I know that."

"I'm probably crazy," I say.

"Doesn't everyone talk to themselves?"

"Not like this."

"How do you know that?"

"Guess I don't."

He chuckles. It's warm, familiar, and old.

"What do I do now?"

"You know what you have to do."

I stand up, collect all the guns and leave them by the door, then find a plastic bag behind the bar for the scraps of food in the kitchen. I walk out the front door. Morgan is standing on the edge of the dusty road outside the dive bar.

I move to stand beside him. "You saved me, Morgan," I whisper.

He makes a small dismissive sound in the back of his throat.

"I would have died..." I'm nodding. "If you hadn't sent me to the prison, I would have died."

Morgan's mouth curls down, like remembering that town of his is too painful and especially wrong right now.

"You didn't know me. Didn't need to..." I go on anyways. "So why? Why did you do it?"

"Sasha should be back soon," he murmurs.

"Tell me," I plead, a gritty lump in my throat. "Why did you save me?"

He shakes his head.

"You'd already lost everything," I whisper.

He growls under his breath.

"You lost your son."

"No," Morgan snipes.

"You did," I stutter.

"Hey, no..."

"Why?" I demand, needing to know why he did it. "Why did you save me, Morgan?"

"Because," he snaps in a whisper, staring at me with all that's left of Jared smeared across his face. "Because I lost my son... and he was there... you were there. You reminded me of what he was... he was so—" Morgan's eyes are wet, and his voice is shaking.

I hesitate.

"Do I still remind you of him?" I ask.

He looks me up and down. All the blood and misery soaked into my skin.

"No," Morgan says. "No, you don't. Not one bit."

Then he turns and leaves, just disappearing into the thick cover of the forest. When Sasha gets here with the truck we load up the guns and I tell her we need to go somewhere else before Hilltop.

She asks where.

"To talk to Negan," I say.

A/N

Sorry for no chapter last week, just could find the time to edit this longer one. Hope everyone enjoyed getting Ty back for a brief moment. It's been fun giving Rhys Rick's bloodlust/vengeance storyline from the show, but the boy's just too soft and sweet for it me thinks.

Thanks for reading!