Chapter 95-Working together
Negan's P.O.V
Negan sat in the back of the truck with Kate. Shane and Madison were in the front. Negan looked at Kate, who was staring out the window. "So why did you decide to come with us, not Javier, David, and Gabe?" Negan asks Kate, who glances at him for a moment.
"We're having a disagreement," Kate answers flatly before she looks back out the window. Negan nods, knowing that she doesn't want to talk to anybody right now.
Negan looks at Shane as he stops the truck. "We're here."
"Thank god, was ready to fall asleep," Negan says as he climbs out of the truck. The cars had shortened the drive, but it still took them a little while to get to the edge of the city. Negan climbs out of the truck and looks at everybody as they leave and get out of their cars. Negan watches as Carl and Jesus says something to Tripp and Conrad before they motion for everybody to follow them and walk towards the woods.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl, Jesus, John, Shane, Negan, Shane, Nick, Sherry, Maggie, Ezekiel, Reilly, and Tara walk through the streets towards Richmond. Soldiers around them watched the walls as they got to the wall. "Stop!" The man on the wall shouts. They stop as they lay their hand on their guns. "What do you want?"
"I'm Carl Grimes. We want to speak with Joan," Carl says.
"He's the leader of one of those communities who came here. Go get Joan," The head soldier whispers to a soldier, who nods as he quickly leaves the wall. A few minutes later, the gates open, and Joan walks out with six guards behind her and ten on the wall.
"They're dead, aren't they?" Joan asks first as she looked down at Carl, who nods.
"All of them are dead because of you. You started this, Joan." Carl growls.
"I did no such thing. You attacked our men!" Joan says firmly.
"You know that is a lie!" Jesus called up. "We came here in peace, and you sent Badger to attack us. He killed one of our people, a man named Kenny."
"You tell lies to try and turn my men against me!" Joan says. "But they're all lies!"
"I'm giving you one chance, Joan. Give yourself up now. Only you need to die. Save your people from death!" Carl offers.
Joan sneered "Absolutely not! You think you can threaten me, I can have you all killed here and now!"
"There are two dozen men around here with rifles. You can shoot us, but you'll be dead before you can get back inside those gates," Negan added with a grin. Joan and her men look around, clearly growing anxious, some of them looking at each other nervously.
"We're going to walk away, and you will stay right here while we send someone here. If you move, you will die," Carl tells her before he turns around to leave with the others behind him.
They return to everybody in the woods and look at them. "She won't accept, David and Max. You're up," Jesus says. David nods as he grabs an AR off the ground and walks away with Max following him.
Tara looked worried "Your sending them alone?"
"David was one of their leaders and Max one of their commanders, they won't shoot them."
"Wait what?" Kate looked at them in horror then back "Oh fuck."
It was clear she was worried her estranged hothead of a husband was going to do something stupid.
David's P.O.V
David walks towards Richmond with Max beside him. They walk up to Joan as her men look at them in shock, many lowering their guns seeing the supposedly dead leader of the New Frontier clearly alive. "David, I was told you were killed, that both of you were killed," Joan says with a frown on her face. David could tell that the woman was tense and nervous, eyes darting around at the men on the wall. "You as well, Max. I am glad to see you both alive."
"Cut the shit, Joan," David says loud enough for everybody to hear him. "We know why we're here, Joan has been lying to you. Carl Grime's group did not attack Badger and his people!"
"He's lying. He has betrayed us. He fights with the enemy!" Joan says as she looks at her men, who were growing more anxious and looking at her with every word.
"He's not lying!" Max says, making Joan turn and glare at the men. Max takes a deep breath as he looks at Joan. "Badger came to me and told me we had a direct order to kill the group that had just come in, find the camp they came from so we could kill everybody there. After she sent us to kill a community of people, Badger killed a little girl."
Joan's men stare at the two men as David speaks again, the men on the wall muttering to themselves. "She sent an army of your friends and families to fight multiple communities North. Alexandria, Hilltop, the Kingdom, the Sanctuary, and the Campground, and they lost. But first, they killed a pregnant woman and almost killed a woman with two young children."
"He's lying!" Joan shouts, her eyes frantic now. "They are both lying! David has never loved any of you. He just wanted the power! He didn't get you through that winter! He was weak; it was me!" Joan shouts as David grips his handgun as his anger builds, in front of his old friend who tried to kill him, and the woman who set loose the man who killed his daughter.
"She has been sending us to kill communities for years!" Max shouts.
"They are both against us. They are liars and cowards! They will lead to our-" A gunshot goes off a David withdraws his gun and shoots Joan in the eye. Joan's body falls to the ground as men on the wall and the Miltia's men start to shoot at each as David runs towards the woods. David gets to the woods as Max is shot in the leg.
"David, help!" Max shouts as David turns around and runs away from the man who is shot in the head by a Richmond soldier. David runs back to the nearby woods, as the Militia members began to shoot, as they start to move towards Richmond. David grabs Gabe before he can leave.
"Dad, what are you doing?" Gabe asks, clearly stunned and not sure what going on.
"We're leaving; where are Kate and Javi?" David asks Gabe, who gulps and pointed to a nearby bush, his wife and brother looking at him in disbelief, not sure what he did "Come on. We need to go!"
"David, what are you talking about?" Kate asks as the Militia leaves the woods, and they hear gunfire on the streets.
"We need to leave. This is not our war anymore. Leave them to die! We can get out of here, be a family again, just the 4 of us! Joan's dead, Marianna's fully avenged! I gave my fucking blood and sweat for these people and they sided with that murderous bitch and these fuckers up North killed nearly all my friends. FUCK ALL OF THEM!" David ranted at them, grabbing her shoulders. "I'm not asking."
"You don't just give us orders, David! We are not your soldiers!" Kate says as she pulls her arms out of his hands, glaring at him realizing he planned on having all of them killed.
"Kate I'm Not asking we are leaving!" David shouts as they hear the gunfire stopped, the former leader pausing and looking over. "What the hell?"
Kate and Javier look behind them as well, and in the silence, they can hear it.
There had to have been hundreds of them...running back in horror Javier and Kate run, but David bits his lip...grabs Gabe and starts running in the opposite direction, to his son's protests.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl lowered his gun as the Richmond soldiers stopped shooting. "Carl. I think I got why they stopped," Negan says as he points behind them. Carl turns around, his one eye widen. Behind them was one of the largest herds Carl had ever seen, easily bigger than the one that attacked Alexandria, but smaller than the one at the bridge.
"Everybody, get inside!" Carl ordered as he stands up. He looks at Richmond as the soldiers push the gates open. The Militia run for Richmond, with Carl and Jesus as the last two. Carl looks at one of the soldiers as he walks up to him. "You in charge?"
"Well, David killed Joan, so I guess. I sent men to get Paul and Clinton."
"You opened the gate for us, thank you." Jesus says.
"We didn't choose this war. Joan did. You fought back, but if we want to survive that herd, we have to work together." The soldier says. "I'm Brian."
"Carl, this Jesus." He answered, shaking the man's hand
"OK good, we're friends now." Negan cut in, a bit hasty "This wall won't last long, kiddo. Especially after Conrad and Tripp drove a truck into it."
"Okay, get everybody who doesn't know how to fire a gun and get them inside. Let's go!" Carl shouts to everybody, who nods as they start to move. He turns around as the walkers start to hit the wall.
"I give that wall three hours, maybe four." Negan says as he walks up away beside him.
"Then we better get to work."
Negan glared then and looked around "Where the fuck is Garcia, I'm giving him another fucking black eye!"
Jesus's P.O.V
Jesus walks down the stairs behind a guard as he opens up the Lockup. Paul and Clinton stand up, and their eyes widen when they see Jesus. "Jesus, we know the truth now," Clinton begged, hoping he wasn't here to kill them
"I know, Joan's dead," He cut over their stunned expressions "David killed her, but we have a problem, there is a herd outside of Richmond. A big herd, we need everybody, so let's go!" Jesus says as he goes up the stairs with Paul and Clinton. They get to the top, where Carl and Negan were waiting.
"So, what's the plan?" Clinton asks as they start to walk.
"We don't have much of one, you sent a lot of your guns and ammo to fight us, and we have a lot with us but not enough to take out that herd before it overruns us." Jesus says.
"We've started to put everybody who doesn't know how to shoot a gun in your apartment buildings!" Carl tells the two of them. "Do you have any explosives left?"
"No, Joan sent them with Badger and his army," Clinton growled, rubbing his forehead, clearly blaming himself for being fooled by her.
"We have some, but they are in the cars. We didn't think we'd need them." Jesus says.
"Has that herd surrounded the entire place yet?" Carl asks Jesus, who shakes his head. "Negan get John, Alden, Clementine, Beth, and Tara. Go out through the east side before the walkers stop you and get the weapons at the cars," Carl tells Negan, who nods as he runs away, already calling out for the others.
"What about the rest of us?" Paul asks.
"We wait in those buildings." Carl tells them. "We'll shoot at them from the top of the buildings and try to clear out as many as possible. We can't fight them on the streets. We'll lose. Tell everybody, go," Clinton and Paul nod as they walk away.
Carl looked to see Kate and Javier running up to him now, Kate saying "Carl, we have another problem!"
"Fuck, what now?" He asked.
After Javier's explanation, that David planned for this to punish the Militia as well as the New Frontier, Carl went stiff then said coldly "David's gone then?"
"Yeah." Javier nodded, his face tight at what his brother did "I think he's using this as a distraction and getting Gabe and him out of here, he wanted the two of us to come with him."
"Find him." Carl ordered then marched off to help with the evacuations.
Negan's P.O.V
Negan, Beth, Tara, John, Alden, and Clementine follow Jesus to the east wall. They walk up to the wall, and the gate opens. "Go, now. We're relying on you guys," Jesus tells them. They nod as they quickly leave, and the gates shut behind them. They walked away from Richmond, and three minutes later, the herd arrived at the gates.
"So you have a plan?" Negan asks John, who looks at him.
"Yes." John answers. "We better get a move on. That herd will be in there before we get to the cars."
"Well this is a hell of a day to die. If I die, I want to be buried in this." He pointed at his jacket.
"This isn't funny Negan." Tara growled.
Negan just chirped "Not with that attitude!"
David's P.O.V
David and Gabe walk through Richmond after sneaking in to escape the herd. "Dad, where are we going?" Gabe asks, clearly concerned after they ran
"We're leaving, Gabe. I know ways out of this place. These people aren't going to survive the next 24 hours," David says as they walk past the front gate. They both stopped when they heard a bang, and the wall fell to the ground, knocking them to the ground. Dust flies off around them as they back up, two of them quickly stand and start to run with the walkers following behind them.
Running, they were able to get to the closest apartment building and try to open it, but the door is locked. "Open the door!" Gabe shouts as the walkers get closer. A walker grabs David's leg and pulls him down the stairs as another grabs his army. David grabbed his knife as the door was pulled open by Javier.
"David!" Javier stabs as David stabs the walker grabbing his arm in the head and then stabbing the one beside his side in the head. Javier and Tripp help David up and into the apartments. Javier shuts the door as the walkers start to hit the door. "David, what the hell were you doing out there!? What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I was trying to get Gabe out!" David says as he breathes heavily.
"You were running!" Kate says from behind Tripp.
"Yes, I was running!" David stood snapping "if you two didn't side with them we could..." His yell trailed off as he saw his brother's pale face.
"Dad." Gabe says as he looks at David's side, which was bleeding. The hallway went silent as David lifted his shirt to find a bite on his side. He looks at the others as they stare at him in horror.
Thanks for reading, the war is technically over, and now the Militia and Richmond have to come together to defeat the herd. David has been bit. The next chapter will focus on David as he dies. Negan and his group at the cars and things in Richmond. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.