Chapter 96- His Choice
David's P.O.V
David lay on a bed in one of the apartments staring out the window. He looked at the door as it opened, and Javier walked in with a bottle of water. He walks over to David and sits down, emotions rushing across his face. "How are you feeling?" Javier asks his brother. David looks at him and coughs, taking the water bottle from Javier.
"Like I'm dying," David says truthfully. "Gabe?" David asks before he coughs again. "Is he okay?"
"He knows what's happening, David. He's still processing it," Javier looked out the door for a moment then back to him
"I did this to myself, Javi," David tells him. "I should have followed the plan."
"You should have," Javier tells him bluntly. "But we can't change that now. Just relax, David."
"Javi, you have to promise me that you won't let Gabe be the one to do it. When I die, you stop me from turning, you Javier, not Gabe or Kate."
"David-" Javier's face was pained at this request, likely remembering their father's own turning.
David reached out and grabbed his little brother's arm, saying to him sternly "Promise me dammit."
"I promise I'll do it, David," Javier swallowed tightly.
Negan's P.O.V
Negan, Beth, Tara, John, Alden, and Clementine go through the streets of Richmond killing walkers as they run into them. They had stopped inside of a building as a bigger group of walkers went towards Richmond after hearing the gunshots. "We're not moving fast enough!" Alden says.
"We can't run through these herds, Alden," John calmed him. "We're no use to them if we die or if we're trapped in the car."
"Herd's gone," Beth says as she walks away from the window. They nod as they grab their weapons and exit the building as they continue to head for the cars.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl stood on the roof of one of the apartment buildings, watching the herd as it walked through Richmond. "Have you ever seen this many?" Paul asks as he walks up beside the young man.
"Once or twice," Carl answers. "We got rid of that herd. We can get rid of this one."
"How did you get rid of it?" Paul asks, clearly impressed at the idea.
"We blew up a bridge," Carl answers after a moment. "Well...not we really, my Dad did, almost died because of it."
"I'm sorry," Paul says after a moment. "This is our fault."
"This was Joan's fault, not yours," Carl reassured the man. "She attacked us. She's the reason so many are dead."
"We should have realized the truth sooner," Paul shook his head stubbornly. "You came here with good intentions. You were trying to make Richmond better. You lost good people."
"So did you, all that matters right now is getting ride of that mass of dead and moving ahead," Carl tells him as the door opens and Maggie walks up.
"David and Gabe are in Javi's building," She tells them.
"They're okay?" Paul asks Maggie, who shakes her.
"David's been bit," Maggie tells Paul, who paled a bit at likely losing another friend now...but nodded all the same...
"Do you have the radio?"
"No, Al does. She's downstairs," Maggie tells the man, who nods at him in thanks as he walks past Maggie. Maggie walks up to Carl and leans against the edge of the building. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, we're just waiting for the others. They're gonna do it."
"They better cause that is the only way we are getting out of here."
Al's P.O.V
Al sat in one of the apartment rooms with Clinton, Strand, Cole, and a few others. She looks at Clinton as he walks up to her. "You're Jesse's sister?" Clinton asks Al. "I don't mean to pry. Your friend told me."
"My friend shouldn't be talking about my brother," Al says as she looks at Strand, who was pointedly looking across the room when he felt her eyes on him and then back at Clinton. "The man I killed wasn't my brother."
"I was the one that found him," Clinton tells Al softly. "About a year after all this started, I was on a run with David, Ava, and a few of our men, and we went into one of the buildings near here. We found him in a room, half dead already, he was skinny, sick, and pale. I thought he was a walker at first, be he wasn't. We nursed him back to health, and he became my best friend, like a brother." Clinton tells her as he pulls a necklace out of his shirt and takes it off, Al freezing at the sight of it. "He gave this to me. He told me it was given to him by his sister, and he wanted me to have it. So just in case something happened to him, and we ever found her. I could give it to her," Clinton says as he holds it out to her. Al takes the necklace and holds it in her hand.
"I gave this to him when he turned eighteen," Al tells him quietly.
"I don't know what he said to you or who he was in that war, or even what he did. But the Jesse I knew was a good man. I choose to remember him like that, not the way I have heard. I hope you do too," Clinton tells her before he walks away, leaving Al to stare at the necklace.
David's P.O.V
David looked up at the door as Gabe pushed the door open, causing David to look over with a grimace. "Gabe, I don't want you to see me like this."
"I've seen people die from bites, Dad. You still have a little while before it kills you," Gabe tells him, voice close to breaking but trying to be strong, as he walks into the room and sits down.
"I won't wait that long, Gabe. I'll let Javi be the one to stop me. Once I know Richmond is safe, I'll end it. While I still can." Gabe nods as tears to form in his eyes. "No, no crying, Gabe. This was my fault. You have to be strong, son, for your Mom and Javi. This place is going to need you guys to rebuild. I know we didn't get much time together. But I'm proud of the man you are becoming," David tells his son. "I'm trusting you to help them rebuild Richmond, keep these people here safe. You going to do it?"
"Yes," Gabe tells him as tears go down his face.
David pulls his Dog tags off his neck and holds them out to Gabe. "Take care of these for me, son."
Gabe nods as he takes the necklace, and when they hear a crash and shouting. They hear gunshots as the door opens, and Javier comes in. "They knocked down the front door. We have to go."
Gabe nods as he quickly stands up and helps David up, Tripp comes into the room, and they hear the incoming growls. They get into the hallway as the walkers come towards them and go towards the stairs.
Negan's P.O.V
The group stopped in front of the cars, and John went to the back of one of the trucks and pulled out an RPG. "Okay. We'll attack them from the east wall, hopefully, the noise will draw them all there," John says.
"What about the front gate?" Beth asks.
"That is where a lot of them will be," Tara informed her.
"We need them to draw them all to one place," Clementine tells them as Negan looks at the big truck that Elijah had brought, mind racing as an idea started to form.
"How do we do that? There are too many!" Alden tells them.
John said firmly "That's why we use these explosives and the noise will bring them..." he trailed off as he saw Negan going to the back of the truck and pulling out a couple of grenades.
"Negan, what are you doing?" John paused, eyes furrowed, as Negan goes to Elijah's truck and opens the door. He looks in the visor and finds the keys. "Negan!"
"I'm going to take a move from Daryl and Rick's book." Negan tells them as he turns around, to many confused faces. "You guys go attack the east gate. I'll drive through the front gate and blow that herd to kingdom come."
"You're going to get yourself killed," Beth tells Negan, who smirks.
"Don't start caring now, Ms. Greene." Negan tells her. "You all got someone waiting for you, and Darling little Clementine's right," He grinned a bit as said girl rolled her eyes at that. "We need to draw them to one place. I'll take out a lot of them and draw them to the truck. I'll jump out, don't worry, I ain't planning on dying today."
"Get everything ready," John ordered them, the rest looking at Negan again and nodded as they prepared, as he walks closer to him as the others get the guns and ammo. "Are you sure about this?"
"Fuck No." Negan tells him honestly. "But Carl and Shane are in there if this goes wrong, and I die saving them, I'll die happy. Don't worry about me; I'm like a cockroach or even a fucking cat. I just keep coming back."
"Okay," John says hesitantly. "Good luck."
"Same to you," Negan tells John, then paused for a moment, looking at him grimly. "And if the worst comes to pass? You damn well make sure Carl knows this was my choice."
John nods as he walks toward the others. Negan climbs into the truck and sets the grenades beside him. Negan waits for the others to climb into the cars with the guns and then starts the truck and drives as they head towards the east gate.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl looks at Jesus as he ran onto the roof beside the building he was on. "CARL! They're in!" Jesus tells Carl. "We're slowing them down, but there are too many."
"We'll get you something to get across!" Carl tells Jesus as he goes to the staircase. He goes down the stairs and into one of the rooms as he starts to search for something to use. After finding nothing, he leaves the room as Strand and Daniel carry a ladder to the roof, Carl followsingthe two men to the roof. They lay the ladder across the gap and hold it.
"Start sending people over." Strand tells Jesus, waving him over, who nods as he goes back down the stairs.
"Carl!" Shane says as he looks over the roof. Carl goes over to the man, who points towards the road where they see a truck.
"Is that ours?" Carl asks Shane, who nods. Carl pulls out his radio. "John."
"We're almost there, Carl," John tells him, his voice a bit strained likely from running.
"Who's in the truck?" Shane asks, seeing it rapidly coming up.
John was silent for a moment, as Carl asked again "John, answer, whose in there?!"
"Negan. He's going to use it as a bomb." John said resigned.
Carl stared for a moment, then just asked "...What?"
"He's going to get himself killed!" Shane tells him.
"We told him that!" John tells them firmly. "He insisted. Get ready. When that truck blows up, we move."
"John-"
Shane grabbed Carl and said firmly "He's right, the people here are screwed if we don't help them, stay focused."
Carl looked at Shane stonily, then nodded heading back to the ladder.
Negan's P.O.V
Driving the truck to the gate, rapidly approaching...he hummed under his breath "You...are...so...beautiful...to me..."
Pressing his foot harder onto the gas pedal, he saw the noise attracting the herd at the gate, many of them starting to turn to him as he continued "You're everything I hoped for...you're everything I need."
Taking a grenade, he hummed one last time as he pulled the pin "You are so beautiful...to ME."
And he threw it onto the seat and opened the door, hurling himself out of it, rolling on the ground, Grimacing as he felt himself landing hard then shoved back down as he felt the shockwave of an enormous explosion...Walkers by the borderline hundreds and body parts splattering all over the ground.
Pushing himself up with his mace, he pulled out his pistol to shoot two nearby Walkers as he hears gunshots from Richmond. Figuring that John and his group had made their way to the East Wall. Hearing a nearby growl, he saw another walker approaching, but before he could react it was shot in the head. Staring at it dumbfounded, he heard a voice over his radio, Carl's coming in "Negan head to the woods, we'll pick you up when this ends!"
Sighing, knowing he would be a burden with this injury, he limped hastily to the woods...using the mace as a cane...
Then he soon realized that he now had Rick's injury, looking at his leg and the mace he using...then just started laughing, knowing Rick would get a kick out of hearing that.
Thanks for reading. The next chapter will be the group clearing Richmond and the aftermath, as well as David's final goodbyes. We are getting close to the end of this. As I said in the last chapter, the schedule is going to be weird. But I will be trying my best to always get two chapters out a week. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.