Chapter 88-Anger and rage
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl and Elijah look at Reilly, Arat, and Anna as they walk up to them. "Where are they?" Daryl asks him, straightening out to give them his attention.
"They are in a hospital about three hours from here, East," Reilly says. "It's remote. Well hidden, it wasn't easy to find."
"How well are the defenses?" Elijah asks him.
"Not great. It seems like they are trying to help their injured soldiers." Arat tells them.
"Could we push them out of it?" Daryl asks.
"We could, but we'll lose more people than it is worth. They can hold it if they get up on the roof. We could take the building down, but it would be loud, and for all, we know it could attract a horde or two." Anna says. "We need to draw them here."
"Not yet," Daryl says. "We are still preparing."
"Is the herd ready?" Reilly asks them warily.
"Yeah, they're getting antsy but they're behaving, go get some rest. We'll continue preparing." Daryl tells them. They nod as they leave the church.
"Now what?" Elijah asks.
"We call a meeting. We set a trap, and then we push them back to Richmond. Badger has an ego. If he gets our location, he'll take the chance to get back at us for beating him at Hilltop." Daryl says. "Meet back here in an hour," Daryl tells Elijah before he leaves the church.
Maggie's P.O.V
Maggie walked into the house and looked at Al, sitting in the living room, looking outside steadily. "How are you doing?" Maggie asks as she sits down beside her girlfriend.
"Not great," Al says softly. "I keep thinking about what he said to me. He called me a monster."
"You are not a monster," Maggie says softly as she takes Al's hand. "You are a beautiful and kind person. You have risked your own life to help your family on multiple occasions."
Al was about to speak when there was a knock at the door, causing her to look up. "Come in."
Beth walks into the house and looks at them. "Daryl's calling a meeting at the church, they found where Badger and his troops are." She tells them.
"I'll meet you there." Maggie tells Beth, who nods as she leaves.
"Go. They need you there." Althea reassured her.
"I can stay." Maggie offers.
"I'm going to try and sleep. I haven't done much of that since I killed him." Al tells Maggie softly. Maggie nods. She kisses Al's head and stands up to leave the house.
Sitting for another moment, Althea sighed and just rubbed her head
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl, John, Alicia, Jesus, Aaron, Enid, Carl, Alden, Shane, Negan, Elijah, Beth, Ezekiel, Carol, Daniel, Maggie, Reilly, David, Javier, and Clementine stood around in the church, several sitting down and a few hunched over the maps. "We found them in this abandoned hospital about three hours from here," Reilly says as he points to it on the map. "There were a few guards on the roof and one on each door. But they didn't switch much. I think they have a lot of injured people from the fight at Hilltop."
"So how do we push them back? We could take our entire army there, but they would kill a good amount of us before we get inside the building." Ezekiel says.
"Daniel had a plan before everything with Jesse went down. He wanted to use Jesse and Max as bait to lure Badger and his people into the quarry." Negan tells them, grimacing as he realized they were down a hostage now "But they might not go for it. Would they risk their lives just to save Max? If it was both of them they could go for it."
"Not if Badger is in charge. He'll want to kill you. He'll see a trap coming," David says. "He may have an ego and he's a borderline thug, but he is still smart and knows how this works."
"Did you guys have a way to send out a distress signal when you were on runs?" Aaron asks David curiously, who nods.
"Yeah, most of our people carry flare guns, you would shoot that up into the air, and if you didn't have that, you would shoot your gun three times." David tells him. "Why?"
"Some people must have gotten lost during the fight. It was chaos and all the gunfire and people running. They could have gone different directions." Aaron points out. "What if we drew them in thinking they are helping their friends?"
"You want to ambush them?" Daniel asks Aaron, who nods. "We couldn't do that here. They would see the walls and may never see the flares."
"What's around the building?" Alicia asks Reilly, pointing at the surrounding area.
"Not much. There were a couple of houses. Must of it was just woods."
"Daryl remember how we got the Governor out of the prison the first time?" Carl asks him, Daryl looking at him confused a moment, then his eyes lit up with a smirk.
"We made him think we left." Daryl says. "I imagine Badger has a radio of some sort."
"Probably, why?" Reilly questioned, not sure where they were going with this.
"We're going to trap them inside Alexandria." Daryl says, this plan giving many wide eyed stares at using the community as a trap. "We put the walkers in her and shut the gates. We'll lure them here, trap them with the herd, and when they try to escape, we'll shoot them down from the wall."
"You think Badger will send all of his men here?" John asks.
"No, that's why there will be two groups. One killing the soldiers here, the other group will push them back towards Richmond. The second group will meet up with us."
"How do we get him here?"
"We shoot flares. Make him think we screwed up. He won't be a part of the group that comes here. He'll send another group to investigate it."
"Who will run the group here?" Ezekiel asks.
"Carl will." Daryl says as he looks at the young leader, clearly pleased with the idea. "Him and Jesus. Negan and I will lead the group going towards Richmond."
"Does he send patrols out?" Negan asks Reilly, who shakes his head. "Good, let's start making this place into a trap."
Everybody nods as they leave the church.
Negan's P.O.V
Negan walks up to the shed they were keeping Max in and pulls it open, being told to bring him out. He looks inside and stops when he sees Alden standing there with his gun pressed to Max's head. "What the fuck are you doing?" Negan barked as he walks into the shed, realizing their other hostage was now at risk.
"Getting information," Alden growls, not looking at him.
"We have all the information we need. What could he fuck possibly tell you?" Negan asks him, looking between the furious Alden and terrified Max, the barrel pointed inches from his nose.
"Hideouts they may have. Places they may go after we push them back. I want to know everything about Richmond!" Alden yelled. "We underestimated them already. We're not doing that again."
"You're going to give me the gun, Alden," Negan says steadily. Pausing, Alden looks at him with disbelief and then laughs.
"Or what? You're going take it from me?" Alden challenged.
"If I have to. I get it, you're hurting. You aren't thinking clearly. I've been there." Negan paused and said knowingly "After I lost my wife, My Lucille, all I saw was red, and I killed every motherfucker who stopped me from getting that medicine to my wife. Now, as fun as it may be, killing Max, it won't help us. Now give me the damn gun."
"I don't need your opinion, Negan," Alden growls. "Let me deal with this."
"Alden-" Negan growled, stepping forward.
"Get out!" Alden shouts as he turns to face Negan. He raises his gun. "Leave me alone!"
"Okay." Negan says as he raises his hands. "You win, I'll go just relax," Alden nods as he slowly lowers the gun. Negan then grabs his arm, pulling him in, and elbowed Alden in the face, dazing him. He takes the gun out of his hand as Alden falls and his back hits the wall.
"Thank you," Max says, relief on his face.
"You shut up," Negan says as he unloads the gun. "This isn't the way to deal with this."
"Then how do we deal with this, Negan?! Come on. You have all the answers!" Alden stood up, wiping his face, now red "Should we wait for more of them to come and kill someone else?! Maybe this time they'll get Alicia! Carl. Daniel. Anyone else!"
"They won't touch her or anybody." Negan says calmly. "We have to play this smart, or we'll end up dead, and everything we've done would have been for nothing. Kenny and Luciana dying would have been for nothing." Negan exclaims. "You're angry. I get that. I have felt that anger. So-" Alden punches Negan in the face, cutting him off, slamming his former leader against the wall, punching him over and over, several times, coming to a stop. He breathes heavily as he stares at him, Negan lying there the blood off his face, an eye starting to swell up...the two staring at each other. Alden soon slumped next to him, eyes closed in grief.
"The hope I felt, that I had all these years, it's all gone. Even if we win this, there is just another fight, so what is the point?! What's the point of fighting anymore? Are we going to just keep killing each other?" Alden asks, emotionally and mentally exhausted.
"I don't know, because you're right, there will be another fight. Maybe it will be a herd or even another set of asshol3w. All I know is that if we don't fight, then what's the point of living. What else are we going to do?" Negan asks. "So you yell, cry and shout and when you're done. You grab your guns, your wits, pack up your nuts, and you get that hope back, and we kill these fuckers. Then we will live until the next fight and rinse and repeat until the end of the line. Until the Dead don't walk anymore."
Alden nods as Negan hands him his gun. After a moment, Alden quietly thanks him as he picks up the clip and leaves the shed, followed by Negan. He looks at Daryl and Shane, who are standing outside. "Everything okay?" Shane asks, clearly seeing the bruises on Negan's face and Alden's hands, both looking sheepish.
"Just fine, he's all set," Negan says as he walks away from them.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl and Beth were carrying bags of guns to the south wall. "Luring them in here was a good idea," Beth tells him.
"It worked on the Governor, and he was much smarter than Badger, just hate the clean-up after," Carl tells her, causing her to lightly snort. "You doing okay? A lot happened while you were gone. Hilltop has to be fixed. Lucy is dead."
"We knew stuff like this would happen," Beth says, resting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Now we just have to accept it and keep going. We can rebuild Hilltop, and we can mourn Luciana later. But first, we have to survive this fight."
"We'll be fine, we have to be," Carl says as he sets the gun down, then he paused looking at the younger Greene in curiosity. "What do you think will happen to Richmond when this is all over?"
"I think we'll try to turn it into the place we thought it was when Jesus found it. A safe community with good people and a community we can help and trade supplies with," Beth answers. "Joan is the bad apple in that group according to what Max told us. Badger and Joan need to die for all of this to work, but when we execute them, I'm confident we can get Richmond to join us."
"I hope so," Carl says. "...Man things have changed since we met."
"You still whine too much," Beth says with a smirk, causing Carl to look at her out the corner of his one eye.
"I do not," Carl protested, but this just got her to look at him amused. "Ok, every once and a while, I feel like I'm allowed to whine," Carl says as they walk back towards the truck. "I have to deal with you people."
Badger's P.O.V
Badger looks at two of his men as they walk into the hospital, down into the ruined lobby. "Where the hell have you two been?" Badger growled warnignly.
"We got separated after the fight. But we found something that will interest you."
"And what is that? Unless it's where those fuckers are hiding I don't want to hear it!" Badger yelled at them, the frustrations of the last few days boiling away at him, a vein throbbing with warning on his head
"Another group." Pausing, the New Frontier commander stared at them, curious now "This group has an ax to grind with Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon. The two people Joan wants us to kill."
"They tell you why?" Badger asks, guarded, wondering if this could be a trap.
"Something that happened a few years ago. It doesn't matter. They know where their communities are. We'll take you if you want."
Badger stared at them, weighing his options...but then nods, knowing this was a long-shot but it was better then hiding here. "Show the way, gentlemen."
Thanks for reading. I think we all know who this group is. It's the only other group in the area. Our group has set up a plan, but how will Badger's meeting affect their plan, and what will be his next move? I had a lot of fun with the Negan and Alden scene. I think those two could relate to each other when it comes to losing the women they love. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.