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SlumberingVoid — I agree, Hilltop's always felt like the heart and soul of the show's communities to me. Alexandria gets better after the time jump, but I sometimes feel like I don't know the layout very well. Hilltop never feels like that for me. And yeah, rip to poor Ken, I actually got quite attached to him writing this.

-Carl-

Dusk falls over Hilltop just before we get back. I wait outside the Sutton trailer while Rhys and Maggie are in there telling Tammy Rose and Earl about Ken. I can hear Tammy crying and shouting. When they come out, Maggie goes straight to Barrington house with a grey cloud hanging over her already hung head. Rhys has his hands in his pockets and looks exhausted behind the red bags under his eyes.

"I'm really sorry," I say.

"It's okay," Rhys mutters, trying his best to smile.

I hug him and say sorry again into his shoulder.

"Are you staying here for a while?" he asks, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah," I say. "Dad and Michonne have gone to Sanctuary with Daryl to deliver the news about the seeds."

"That's nice," he says quietly. "I told Mrs Sutton I would help with Ken's funeral."

"'Tis the last rose of summer

Left blooming alone

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone

No flower of her kindred

No rosebud is nigh

To reflect back her blushes

Or to give sigh for sigh

And so soon may I follow

When friendships decay

And from love's shining circle

The gems drop away.

When true hearts lie withered

And fond ones are flown

Oh, who would inhabit

This bleak world alone."

Alden and Rhys sing into the warm night sky, everyone sitting around Ken's handcrafted wooden coffin with glasses of home-brewed moonshine listening, some crying.

"I'm gonna miss you, Ken. Heaven's a better place for having you," Alden says, holding his drink up. "Cheers."

Rhys comes to stand by me, Enid, and Cyndie. I offer him a drink of moonshine that someone handed me, but he declines.

"Maggie doesn't like me drinking," he says. "Especially after something like this."

He looks up and behind us to the grand balcony of Barrington house, where Maggie is stood with Hershel in her arms, rocking him to sleep while she watches everyone. Tammy Rose made it clear that she wasn't invited to the funeral.

"Rhys," Jesus says, walking through the small crowd towards us and smiling softly. "That was beautiful."

Gregory stands beside the coffin next, clutching a glass of moonshine and addressing everyone. He seems different to how he was during the war. Wearing casual jeans instead of that cheap suit. Almost too different.

"Ken was a quiet, good-hearted young man. He wasn't a fighter. He tended to our animals. He shoed the horses. It's regular guys like Ken that keep a place going. He will be remembered as a son, a friend, a shining example of Hilltop's strength and fundamental decency, even in the face of this terrible tragedy. Cheers, Ken. Rest in peace."

When Gregory walks past us, Rhys smiles at him.

"Thank you for saying that."

"It was only the truth," Gregory says, nodding to him and patting his shoulder lightly. He turns to walk away but stops. "You don't happen to know if that bottle of whiskey in the office is still lurking about? I thought maybe Tammy Rose might appreciate the thought."

Rhys nods. "Yeah, it's still on the shelf by the bookcase. Just behind Maggie's desk."

Gregory smiles with a soft face. "Bless you, Rhys."

Alden and Jesus help Earl nail the coffin shut on his boy.

Marco takes Tammy Rose to find a seat.

Enid, Rhys, and I go off towards the vegetable garden behind the big house, where we sit and we talk and we drink moonshine deep into the night. Rhys decides to drink, too. Maybe everything just took a while to dawn on him, because he drinks deep.

"Where's Mikey?" Rhys asks, looking around and noticing his absence.

"He went to Sanctuary," Enid says. "Think he wanted to see Sasha."

Rhys looks disappointed but nods.

"You could come back to Alexandria," I say to him.

"Carl..." Enid says softly, shaking her head.

"I'm not trying to start the argument again," I say. "It might be easier if you get away from here for a bit."

"You know why I can't," Rhys says.

"Negan isn't getting out," I say.

Rhys flinches a little at the name. Even Enid does, too. Like they've almost forgotten it here in Hilltop in the year that's gone by, and the name shot them back in time.

"I know." He nods. "I just have a place here, and Maggie needs me to help out with Hershel."

There's suddenly a yell from Hilltop's graveyard. I can hear a baby crying. Rhys is staggering to his feet and sprinting in the direction of the shouting in a flash. Enid and I follow after him. I freeze when we get there. There's a hooded man with his arms around Maggie's neck behind the medical trailer. Enid jumps on his back but gets flung into a stone bench, where her head connects with a loud crack and she goes limp. I sprint and tackle the guy to the floor with a grunt, wailing on him with flying fists. The guy hits me in the gut so hard that I yelp and crumple into the dirt by Glenn and Abraham's graves. Then Rhys lunges on top of the figure, heavy fist after heavy fist slamming down on the hooded face. I hear a crunch and a crack, and Rhys doesn't stop even when the person under him goes limp.

Alden and Marco pull Rhys off when they come skidding around the corner searching for the commotion. I pull myself upright, sitting in the dirt and holding my side and calling out to Rhys, who is standing a few feet back with Marco's hand pressed against his heaving chest. His hands are dripping with blood, his eyes pale green flames. Alden holds the hooded figure down, despite him being stone still after Rhys' beating. Maggie tears the hood off their head and stares at the man under it in shock. Earl the blacksmith is lying there, nose dripping and face pooling with blood.

I scramble over to Enid on my hands and knees and scream for Siddiq.

Rhys suddenly snaps out of his daze when Hershel doesn't stop screaming. He tries picking him up but keeps apologising when he gets Earl's blood all over Hershel's onesie and Maggie has to pull him away, trying to calm both of them down.

Maggie glances at her boys, then at Enid limp on the floor. I worry she might kill Earl, but she passes me Hershel and marches past us in the direction of Gregory's trailer.

-Mikey-

Jerry opens the gates of the Sanctuary when we arrive. I walk alongside him, Ezekiel, and Carol... right into the looming, grey factory. Rick and Michonne walk ahead of us — Daryl ahead of them.

The factory floor is filled with ex-saviors, market stalls, and tents. Torches radiate the cold concrete walls in a flickering golden glow and fill the factory floor with the smell of wood smoke.

"Rick Grimes is here!"

People murmur and potter about, watching us as we walk in.

"That's the man that ended the war. Is Negan suffering? I hope he damn well is."

I keep my head down and walk, listening as Eugene appears and starts giving Daryl the run down. Then Laura's handing him a list of the stuff we brought back from DC, telling him he should let everyone know.

"I ain't gettin' up on a stage and giving a damn speech like him," Daryl hisses.

Laura hangs her head, and Daryl looks sorry.

"It's bad timing," he tells her. "We just lost someone out there."

Then Sasha enters the room and most of the idle chatter dies down immediately. She comes down some steps from the upper levels, nodding to a few people that smile at her or pat her shoulder as she passes through the crowd towards us. She looks more serious than usual, with her curly hair secured to one side in a tight bun, a heavy-looking denim jacket over her shoulders. The ex-saviors seem to either respect or fear her. She lets a small smile creep across her face when I wave.

"I got it, Laura," Sasha says, taking the manifest of her and scanning over it. "I'll let everyone know tomorrow."

"Thanks, boss's," Laura nods to Sasha and Daryl, who both look exhausted by that title.

"Daryl," Michonne barks, staring at a wall under the stairs leading to the catwalks above.

We all look at the graffiti written there.

SAVIORS SAVE US!

WE ARE STILL NEGAN.

Michonne points. "Does this happen often?"

"More and more since the crops have been dyin'," Daryl grunts. "Eugene, Jerry! You know who did that? Sasha?"

"I don't know, man," Jerry says.

"That would be a negative," Eugene sighs.

Sasha dips her head, shaking it as she grinds her teeth. "Whoever did, best hope I don't find out." She keeps her voice loud enough that people hear and back away.

Daryl points at an ex-Savior with long black hair and his feet up at a trading stall, his attention on a book in his hands. "Justin, clean that up!"

Justin looks lazily in the direction of the graffiti. "How?"

"What do you mean, 'how'?" Daryl growls. "Paint over it."

"We just used up all the paint..."

"Figure it out," Daryl barks.

Justin rolls his eyes and pulls himself up, mumbling something under his breath as he walks off in search of paint.

The same guy that asked about Negan pushes through the crowd of shaking hands to reach Rick. "You see our crops, Rick?"

Calling them crops is probably an exaggeration. More like sad and dead corn stalks that ravens like to perch on.

Rick nods. "I did."

"The spring storms will be here in a few weeks," the guy tells him straight, rubbing a hand against his bald head. "They'll help us out, but we need a boost in the meantime."

Everyone of the Sanctuary is gathered around and listening.

"And you'll have it," Rick tells the room. "We came back with farming tools, heirloom seeds. We're looking to the past to help us with the present. We're all gonna pitch in and make sure that Sanctuary has what it needs so you all can get back on your feet."

"Bless you, Rick Grimes," the guy says, finally shaking Rick's hand like the rest. "Thank you."

While everyone claps for Rick, Eugene pulls me aside with a deadly serious look.

"Were the pieces and parts from Smithsonian all in achievable locations?" he asks.

I nod, wincing a little. "Well... there was this glass floor thingy that almost killed Zeke... and we lost Ken, the blacksmith's son. But we got everything." I shake my head. "It wasn't a great day."

Eugene nods. "I hope the Suttons take pride knowing Ken died saving a whole community."

I'm wincing again, looking around this place. "Yeah, not sure they see it that way."

Eugene takes a moment and then asks, "Did you get a peek in the natural history section."

I grin. "Did I ever!"

"Holy moly," he gasps. "Tell me, how was it?"

"There was a whale and half a dinosaur head, and—"

"Mikey!"

I'm cut off by a firm strike to my back from Sasha's open hand. She folds her arms and grins down at me.

"I need to go speak with Daryl and Rick," she tells me. "But after, come on up to my apartment, and you can tell me everything."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

I don't ever try to eavesdrop. It's just a sure-fire way of hearing something you don't want to because it wasn't made for your ears. But I'm sitting on the steps under the catwalk while I try to fix a button that popped off my jacket today, and I just happen to be right under Rick, Daryl, and Sasha. And, y'know, since I'm already here—

"What's up, Daryl?" Rick asks the man who must have called the meeting.

Daryl sighs.

I hear Sasha quietly groan like she knows what he's going to say.

I stay quiet and unnoticed below them.

"I don't wanna be the one leading these people anymore," Daryl tells him. "I know it's a bad time for you, Sasha. I know you were planning to go back to Hilltop once we got shit stable here."

"Okay," Rick says calmly, and I hear him lean against the creaky railing a ways above me. "Why?"

"I don't know," Daryl says, and I can imagine his shrug. "Bein' here behind these walls again, it just don't feel right, man. I'm better out there. I always have been."

Rick sighs heavily.

Sasha's staying as quiet as me.

"I know you are," Rick says. "But so is Sasha. And I'm sure it isn't easy for her being back here either, leading these people. But you two have kept this place together. You kept people in line here. We can't just let the Sanctuary fail after everything that's happened."

"Man, it's gonna fail anyway," Daryl hisses. "Nothing grows here. It's a damn factory, man. Look... when Negan was around, he needed people to provide for him. It's still the same. Nothing's changed."

"No, It's different now," Rick says. "We give what we give willingly."

"How long's that gonna last?"

Rick scoffs.

Carol suddenly appears from behind the steps I'm perched on. She sits beside me and puts a finger to her lips.

I guess I'm not the only eavesdropper.

"He isn't wrong, Rick," Sasha says slowly. "Most of the bridges are down after the big storm. Highway's done. Every drop of gas for miles has already been picked up. And we can't make enough corn fuel to run the cars or the trucks. Not too long from now, it's gonna be more than a day's ride from one spot to another."

"Well, it's on us to figure out how to make it work," Rick argues.

"Man, there ain't no 'us' anymore," Daryl says. "Everyone's everywhere. That small group we had back in the beginning... we could do anything. That was right. That's what I know."

I try to read Carol's face, but it's stone.

"You feel that way, too, Sasha?" Rick asks.

I'm guessing she nods or shakes her head because her answer isn't direct. "Rhys and the baby aren't going anywhere. I wanna see them, sure... but if Daryl isn't right here, then he isn't right. I'll stay until you find someone else."

Rick breathes so heavily out his nose that I can almost feel it down here. "Well, you wanna come home to Alexandria, then, Daryl?"

"No," Daryl mumbles. "I'll go back to Hilltop, check on Maggie and the kids."

"And you're sure you're okay to stay, Sasha?" Rick asks. "Eugene and Rosita are headed to Oceanside next, so they can't relieve you. Maggie's sending food, but not people, and Kingdom's got its own problems rebuilding after losing its fighters. You might be here longer than you think."

Sasha sounds like she's really not okay with it, but she takes a few steps back from the railings. "I'll be good."

"I can send another person from Alexandria, but... Daryl, if I do that, I could use the help back home."

Daryl doesn't speak.

"Huh," Rick sighs. "We're not together because things have changed."

Daryl hums in agreement. "The thing is, you changed them, Rick. But I get."

I hear the heavy clanks of Daryl's boots as he walks away. Carol looks at me, still made of stone.

I want to go find Daryl before I see Sasha. We weirdly talk a lot when we see each other. Two people that couldn't be more different. But after Denise and the war and me getting kidnapped. He's always stayed close when he can.

He's outside smoking in the motor pool with his bike, but Carol found him first. It feels wrong to eavesdrop again, so I go upstairs.

Sasha's in Negan's old room, I think. She told me that she spent a long time burning all the animal skins and their mounted heads he had as decorations, and replacing all the black leather and sleek furniture — well, more just getting rid of it since she doesn't really want to live here. The room is pretty barren now. The only things she kept are the potted plants.

"So, how was it?" Sasha asks after letting me in and perching on a metal stool by one of the windows. I sit on a sofa next to her, a sleeping bag rolled out across it.

"You sleep on here?" I ask instead.

"Would be a pain in the ass getting a bed up here," Sasha says with a shrug. "Had Negan's bed scrapped for firewood."

I press my hands into the sofa, not certain it would be much more comfortable than the floor.

"I make do," Sasha says. "You didn't answer my question."

"It was cool seeing a city," I tell her. "Rhys was pretty upset you weren't there."

Sasha looks out the window, pressing her head to the glass and looking at the world below.

"He got why I couldn't, right?"

"Yeah, he said he was fine with it. I could just tell he was disappointed, you know?"

"I do," Sasha says sincerely. "He thinks he's good at hiding it."

I laugh.

Then she asks about the museum and puts up with the excruciating details I put her through over every exhibit I saw. And a little later, there's a knock on the door. Sasha gets up to answer it. I hear Carol outside, but I can't see her because Sasha just sticks her head out.

"Hey, Sasha," Carol says, sounding tired after today.

"Carol," Sasha says, and I can hear her smile.

"Tomorrow, you should go with Daryl to Hilltop," Carol says softly.

"I can't. I've got—"

"I'm going to take over here for a while," Carol cuts her off. "Don't argue."

"I'm not sure this is the best place for Henry," Sasha says.

"Oh, no, I'll— It's just me."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Zeke asked me to marry him today."

Rhys told me that he overheard Ezekiel ask Carol to marry him. He said she seemed tempted even though she said no.

"Oh," Sasha says, sudden and surprised. "Congrats?"

"Oh, no, I didn't say—" Carol trails off.

"Why?" Sasha asks then. "Why take over?"

"I'd do it for Daryl," Carol says slowly.

"I know," Sasha says, and again, I hear her smirk. "Why for me, though?"

"We've known each other a long time..."

Sasha laughs. "You can cut the bullshit with me, Carol."

I hear Carol laugh, too, a little more nervously.

"I guess..." Carol murmurs, sounding unsure of herself, "Rhys, after we lost the kid on the road today, he seemed... broke up about it?"

Sasha pulls back a little. "You're doing this for Rhys?"

She sounds as surprised as I feel.

"I'm doing it for a few reasons," Carol scoffs. I'm sure Ezekiel is on her mind. "In return, don't tell Rhys I said that. Any of it. I don't want him thinking that I'm, y'know, trying to do something nice to make him forget about anything or—"

"Thank you, Carol," Sasha says, leaning into the hallway to hug her.

Before Sasha shuts the door, Carol speaks again. "And, Sasha... we have known each other a long time. I would do this for you."

A/N

The song is from a poem by Thomas Moore called The Last Rose of Summer.

The title is a lyric from the song.