Chapter 57-No Mercy

Two weeks later

Negan's P.O.V

Negan woke up as the sun came into his tent, groaning and stretching his arms. He stood out of bed and grabbed his coat and mace. He put his mace on his back and walked outside of his tent. The sun shined through the trees, and there was a gentle breeze as Negan walked towards the campfire Shane sat at. He had been back in the camp for a few days now. "Hey." Shane greets as Negan sits down and takes a plate of food.

"How long until we start working?" Negan after he takes a bite.

"An hour, give or take." Shane answers. Negan sighs.

"I miss being able to lay in bed all day," He complained. Shane chuckles.

"We'll be done pretty soon, give or take a few days." Shane reassured. "Then we can all go home and lay in bed all day."

"I bet you want to go home." Negan says with a grin. "Go to your nice bed and hold a beautiful woman in your arms."

"I will enjoy it." Shane with a smirk, and suggestive eyebrows as he stands up and walks towards the bridge.

"Dick," Negan mumbles as he stands up and follows him.

"Shane," Alden called out..noticing, Shane walks up to Alden, and Negan follows him. "More Saviors are missing," He whispers.

"They haven't shown up at the Sanctuary?" Negan asks Alden.

Alden shook his head "No, 2 of them had families, one had a new kid, there's no way they just upped and left."

For the past few weeks, walk offs of Saviors were happening, that would make 5.

"Reilly sent Norris to look. There was nothing." Alden says. "The guns are helping but not much, their getting restless and worried. Reiley's doing what he can, but he says if anymore happen, one of them might do something stupid."

"Can you get me a list of who's gone missing?" Negan asks Alden, who looks at him, eyebrow raised. "I know them."

"I'll ask Reilly." Alden says as he walks away. Shane looks at Negan.

"We're going to need help," Negan says. Shane looks around, soon seeing Dwight leaning against a tree keeping an eye out "Dwight!"

Dwight looks over at him and walks over to him. "You're in charge until Rick gets here. I'm going to Hilltop."

Dwight raises an eyebrow at the tone, but nods as Shane walks towards the cars. "You have your suspicions?" Dwight says as he looks at him. Negan looks at Cyndie a few yards away, who was speaking with Beatrice. "You think Oceanside? There's no proof of that yet."

"If I'm right about who's missing. It's them." Negan says firmly. "Let's go." Negan says as he walks towards the bridge.

Charlie's P.O.V

Charlie walked towards the bridge with Henry and Rachel beside her. "How did we become water boys?" Rachel asks.

"We're kids." Charlie answers rolling her eyes, not being too fond of this either. "There's your answer."

Rachel and Henry smile as they get to the bridge. "Who gets Justin?" Henry asks.

Needless to say the Savior's jerkish attitude was off putting to the children of the group.

"I got him yesterday." Rachel says "isn't it Clem's turn?"

Henry groaned "She's with Daryl, something about practice. Lucky."

"My turn, I guess," Charlie says as they walk onto the bridge. The three of them split up and begin to hand water out. Charlie walked up to Justin and poured him a cup. She holds it out to him.

"Thanks, kid," Justin says as he grabs the cup and drinks it. Charlie reaches for the cup. "I want more."

"Sorry, everybody gets one cup." Charlie says. Scowling, Justin grabs the jug out of her hand and pushes Charlie back "I said I want more you brat!" Charlie kicks him in the leg and then punches him between them.

She grabs the cup and jug as Justin drops them. She turned around as Justin stands back up and lunges at her with a murderous look, growling with one hand clutching his balls while the other reached out, ready to throttle her "you little shit your De-"

He is cut off as he's grabbed by the back of his shirt and turns around. He is punched in the face as he is pushed into the wood. He is hit a total of six times in the face.

"Negan!" Dwight called out as he grabbed the large man by his shoulder. Negan pushes him back, sending him to the ground. He grabs Justin by his throat as everybody watches.

"You ever move towards that girl or anybody else, I'll kill you." Negan growls. He punches Justin again and throws him down. Justin coughs and spits the blood out of his mouth, holding his face.

"Take him to Siddiq," Dwight orders a Savior who helps Justin up. He grabs Negan's hand. "Jesus."

Negan's hand was bruised and bloody. "Not all my blood," Negan says as he goes over to Charlie. "You okay, kid?"

"Yeah." Charlie says. Charlie picks the jug back up.

"Go fill that back up," Negan ordered Charlie, who walked away.

"Go see June and Tobias, everyone else show's over back to work!" John tells Negan as he walks away from them, then ordered the onlooking crowd sternly.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl stood behind Clementine, who had asked him to teach her to use a bow on her day off. Having taking a liking to the kind yet strong kid who sorta reminded him of a younger female Carl, he had accepted gladly. "I thought you always used a crossbow?" Clementine says as she grabs an arrow.

"I do now." Daryl says in a fatherly tone as she puts the arrow in as he instructed, kneeling next to her. "But as a kid, I couldn't pull the string back, so I used my Dad's bow that he kept outside. I made my own arrows with wood. When I was strong enough, I started to use a crossbow. OK now try to aim higher this time...higher...right there."

Clementine nods as she lets the arrow loose, and it goes into the side of the target. "At least I hit it that time." She says.

"Don't worry you'll get the hang of it." Daryl says as Tammy walks up to him with Merle. Daryl looked at her and smiled as he grabbed Merle. He kissed his head. "Thanks," Daryl says to Tammy, who nods as she walks away.

"Where is the other one?" Clementine asks.

"Nick wanted some time with his niece, mother, and sister. The Clark's are having a day. I'm taking him up to them pretty soon." Daryl explains as Shane drives into Hilltop. Seeing the look on Shane's face, Daryl turned "Can you take him up? Next time if you practice enough, let's see if you can start learning to load one."

Clementine nods eagerly as she sets the bow down and takes Merle into her arms. Daryl walks away from them and walks towards the car. Shane climbs out of the truck. "Where's Madison?"

"With her children and grandchildren," Daryl says. Shane nods. "I'd prefer if they weren't bothered."

"I get it." Shane says. "More Saviors are going missing."

"Got any leads?" Daryl asks Shane, hearing about this offhand, who shakes his head.

"We could use your help." Shane says.

"You know, I can't." Daryl says firmly. "I won't leave."

"I get it, I do. I hate being away from Alicia, Nick, Madison, Carl, and Judith. But I don't have a choice. We need someone who can track. John can but not very well. People are going to keep dying, Daryl. It's only a matter of time before they go after anyone else Negan or Laura, or even Rick."

"What?" Daryl suddenly went still at the last name, looking at Shane.

Shane said "You know damn well people still think Rick should have let him bleed out." He looked significantly at the House then back "Who's to say how far people can go for revenge?"

Daryl sighs and slams his fist on the hood of the car. "I wanted out."

"I know," Shane says. "But I don't know who else to go to."

"Two days, I'll stay two days. Then I'm coming back." Daryl says. Shane nods accepting that as he walks towards Barrington house. He walks upstairs and pushes the door open. They look at him.

"What's wrong?" Nick asks.

"More Saviors have gone missing," Daryl says.

"They want you to go to the bridge, don't they?" Alicia guessed , who nodded.

"What do they think is happening?" Madison asks as she looks between Daryl and Alicia.

"These Saviors aren't running. They had no reason. We all know what's happening. We just won't say it. Someone's killing 'em," Daryl says flatly. "And they'll keep climbing. They'll get to Arat, then Reilly, then Laura, then Dwight, and then finally Negan. I won't go if you don't want me to. They can find someone else," Daryl says as he walks up to Alicia and bends down. A part of him hoped she told him not to go. Alicia nods.

"I don't want you to go," She pauses. "But you have to. There is nobody better than you. You know the woods. You know how to track. We can't let more people die. We can't let our friends die."

Daryl nods as he stands up and starts to get his things together.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were worried about him." Madison teased to lighten the mood.

Daryl paused for a moment, then snorted "More like I'm worried that all this effort to find his dumbass after he got shot would go to waste."

"Sure." Alicia just smirked, not buying that.

Daniel's P.O.V

Daniel walks into the medical tent and looks at June and Negan, who had just finished wrapping Negan's hand. "Can we have a minute?" Daniel asks June, who nods as she leaves the tent.

"I swear to God, I hope you aren't here to say some shit about how I overreacted," Negan scoffed.

"I would have killed him." Daniel says, causing Negan to look up in surprise. "I had a daughter when this all started."

"I know, Ofelia. Alicia named her daughter after her." Negan says, staring at him blankly. He was confused about why Daniel brought that up.

"I love Charlie, she may not be blood, but I will protect her just as I did my own child. You protected her today, thank you," Daniel says before he leaves the tent with Negan watching him.

At times he couldn't help but wonder what he used to do before All this shit

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia walked outside with Merle in her arms. Daryl stood by the truck with Ofelia. She walked up to him. "You sure about this?" Daryl asks her.

"No, but I also know that if we don't stop this, more people are going to die," Alicia says. Daryl nods as Madison and Shane come over. Daryl kisses Ofelia's head and hands her to Madison. He kisses Merle's head and then looks at Alicia, who kisses him. "I love you."

"Love you too. I'll be back," Daryl says before he climbs on his bike. Shane climbs in the truck, and they leave Hilltop. Madison lays her hand on Alicia's back.

She stared after him for a moment, then her eyes narrowed in thought to something Daryl once complained about...

And looked over at Barrington House.

Charlie's P.O.V

Charlie sat on the bed of her tent with her guitar in her hands, strumming absently. "Can I come in?" Rachel asks from outside.

"Yeah." Charlie says. Rachel pushes the tent out of the way and looks at her. "They get rid of the herd?"

"Yeah, nobody died though. Justin fucked up again. Aaron almost got crushed, but he's fine." She looked at the guitar wide eyed "Where did that come from?"

"It was Daniel's." Charlie answers as Rachel sits down. "I heard John and Amanda talking. More Saviors are missing."

"You worried?" Rachel asks lightly.

"Not about me, but I'm worried about Negan and Laura. I'm worried about Troy. He was a part of the Saviors for a little bit. I'm worried they might try and hurt Daryl because he let Negan out."

Rachel waved this off "hey no one said they're getting hurt, maybe they just ran off?"

Her face fell as she saw Charlie's flat look, clearly not buying it.

Rachel decided to change the subject. "Daryl's safe in Hilltop. Nobody is getting him," She reassures her.

"Yeah, you're right," Charlie says as they hear a car and a bike. They looked at each other, confused, then both stood up and went outside.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl climbs off his bike and grabs his crossbow as Shane climbs out of the car. Walking up, confused as to why he was here, Rick asked "Daryl what are you doing here?"

"Fixing the problem you people can't see." Daryl growls as he walks past him, to Rick's befuddlement, trying to catch up to him. He walks up to the top of a slope and looks around, letting out a Sharp whistle. The crowd gathered hearing the bike stopped and looked at the archer, who started to shout "We all know what's been happening. Saviors have been going missing. We like to think that they are just disappearing, leaving, but we all know that ain't true," Daryl locks eyes with Cyndie. "Someone with a grudge is killing them."

"How do you know?" Cyndie challenges.

"I don't, not for sure, but they aren't seen or heard from again. Some of these people have families and friends. They wouldn't leave," Daryl says. "This is your one chance. Give yourself up because when I find you, there will be no mercy," Daryl says loud enough for the entire camp to hear. "This shit ends now."

He looks around the camp, and nobody says anything, so he walks down. Rick grabs his arm. "What are you doing, man? This could rile things up even more now."

"Trying to stop more people from dying." Daryl says as he pulls his arm free. "You know it, Rick."

Rick stared at him for a moment...then sighed, nodding. "Alright, I trust you, we'll do it your way," Daryl nods in thanks back as he walks away.

Rachel's P.O.V

Rachel walks into Cyndie's camp after everybody has gone to sleep. "How'd you know this was happening?" Beatrice asks.

"I'm not dumb." Rachel says. "What's the new plan?"

"The plan doesn't change. We got two more, Justin and Arat. Rick is exiling Justin. We'll kill him on the road. Then we gotta kill Arat," Cyndie says.

"Come on, Cyndie. It was different. They didn't say it. They know they're dying. Hell, I'm pretty sure Daryl already suspects you. He was looking right at you. He can track. He knows the woods," Rachel argues. "We should wait until this cools down."

"We won't get another chance." Cyndie says. "I already said it if he or anybody else gets in the way, we'll deal with them. This is what we've been fighting for. We're killing Arat."

Thanks for reading. Next chapter John, Negan, and Daryl work together to find the killers. Cyndie makes her next move. Rachel is forced to choose a side. Also, if you noticed, Jed being dead means he doesn't drop the log on Aaron, who now has both of his arms in this world, just to clear it up. We are getting closer and closer to the climax of this part of the story. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.