Chapter 120-End of the trail
Daryl's P.O.V
The gates to the Kingdom open, and Daryl drives the bike into The Kingdom and stops as the people start to come toward them, Daryl froze as he climbs off his bike. He cursed under his breath as Laura and Negan came towards them, Negan stopping already seeing the truck and the expressions. "Laura." Daryl muttered, making the woman look at him, wide-eyed. She freezes when she sees the look on his face.
"No." She says shaking her head. "No, no no he promised."
"I'm sorry," Daryl bowed his head. "I'm so sorry."
Laura starts to walk forward, and Daryl tries to grab her arm, but she hits it away as she half ran to the back of the truck, lifting the coat off Troy's face. She lets out a gasp as she backs up and puts her hand on her stomach. Tears start to stream down her face as she lets out a cry and falls to her knees beside the truck, gripping the sheet tight enough to cause the knuckles to grow white. Negan goes up to her and grabs her as she cries into his shoulder, looking at the body grimly and then at Daryl.
"Who is that?" Ezekiel asks as he looks at the girl as Shane pulls her off the truck, drawing everyone's attention drawn to the frightened girl that was looking around everyone with a wide-eyed panicked expression
Daryl looks at everybody. "The things that attacked, Oceanside! They weren't walkers. Walkers aren't evolving. They were people wearing the faces of walkers. Walking with them, they attacked Morgan, Rosita, Brandon, and Mark. They killed Mark, and they killed Troy. She is one of them, and she is going to tell us everything about them, and then she'll die," This caused a few of them to turn their heads to him as he continued as the girl tried to scream, causing Shane to grip her arm tighter. "She'll die for what happened to Troy. Lock her up, I'll talk to her soon," Daryl says before he walks away.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl looked at the gate as it opened, and Georgia and Arthur came through the gate with a bus behind them, stopping stop the cars, and Georgia steps out. "Carl, it is good to see you!" Georgia says with her regular warmness.
Carl nodded "Georgie, Arthur, nice to see you both. Been gone a while now."
Arthur signed, which Georgie easily translated "We had trouble along the border involving the bus behind us."
Carl looked over to it, seeing a black young man and a woman with braids in her hair around his age climb off the bus, and saw some eyes looking through the windows.
"Yeah, this is Elijah. We found his sister Stephanie and him. Those children are all that's left of a community we found in Illinois, I promise to explain later." Georgia says.
"Carl!" Jesus yells, making the boy look at them, Georgie and Arthur looking as well. "They're back."
"All of them?" Seeing Rick fast approaching them, likely attracted by Georgie's arrival and the worry on Jesus's face.
"No." Carl saw the tight look on Jesus's face, rubbing his face.
"Who?" Carl asks as everybody stares at the man.
"Troy." Jesus says "They said they have a prisoner though."
"We're going to the Kingdom. Radio Maggie, tell her to get there ASAP" Carl says. "Michonne and Eugene will explain everything to you." Carl tells Georgie, who nods as he runs away.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl walks towards the cell they were keeping the girl in, but heard footsteps behind him. "Daryl!" Daryl looks as he saw Ezekiel fast approaching his face in a grimace. "Let me talk to her first."
"Nah." Daryl says as he turns around.
"Daryl, you are not in the right headspace right now," Ezekiel says, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. "You are angry, and you are hurt. You have lost someone you love. Let us do this. Let me remind you that this is my community, let myself and Carol handle it.."
"Man, that don't matter!" Daryl shouts at him, shoving the arm away with a bark. "Troy, he was my people! That means that this girl is mine to take care of!"
"You will not touch that girl." Ezekiel says calmly.
"If I do, what are you gonna do? Lock me up? Her people are the reason Troy is dead, the reason Laura's baby will never meet his father. Don't get in my way, Zeke." Daryl warned before he walks away from him, leaving Ezekiel standing there, then leaving with haste.
Daryl walks into the building they were keeping the girl in, walking down the hallways till he entered the room. He turned his head through the makeshift cell, seeing her already scrambling to a corner, looking up at him in terror still. "Your name," Daryl growls. She stays silent, still staring at him. "What's your name!?" He shouts at her.
"Lydia," She says quickly "My name's Lydia, please-"
"Your people, they killed one of mine, we just buried him. He was a brother to me and I loved him. He was a part of my family. He had a wife, a pregnant one," He growls, making Lydia look at him, eyes if possible widening further.
"You're gonna tell me everything about your people. Or I'll kill you."
Lydia gulped saying "I- I you killed all of us-"
"Bullshit, I saw the size of that herd out there, no way only a handful can herd them. Who's your leader?" She doesn't speak, shaking her head rapidly. "Who is it!" Daryl shouts, and she just looks at him.
"Please I can't." Lydia begged.
"Fine," Daryl says as he pulls the cell open. He walks up to her and pulls her up before he presses her against the wall and pushes the knife against her throat causing her to scream. "You're gonna talk, or I'm gonna slit your throat!" Daryl yells at her as she was pale as a ghost, choking and trying to regain her breath.
"Daryl!" Daryl looks at Alicia, who was standing by the door. He lets the growl go and leaves the cell, pushing past his wife as he walks outside.
"What are you doing?" Alicia asks as she follows. He looks at Laura, Nick, Negan, Carol, Jerry, Ezekiel and some of the others are looking at him. "Daryl, this is not the way to handle this."
Daryl stared then looked Ezekiel in disbelief, realizing Ezekiel had gotten Alicia and likely some of the others "You got my damn wife!?"
Ezekiel said stonily "I figured the woman you married would be the best one to reason with you in this state. And here in the Kingdom we don't torture children."
"How do you wanna handle it, huh? Talk to her, give her an apple pie, take her to dinner!?" Daryl shouts. "Her people killed Troy, they almost killed Morgan, Rosita and that kid Brandon! If we don't get some more information out of them, they're gonna kill more of us! I ain't gonna let that happen! I'll kill that girl before I let that happen!"
Alicia stares at him as Negan grabs her arm, leading her back. "Step back." He says softly to her. Alicia nods as she takes a step back causing Negan to come forward. "Daryl, I know that you are mad, Boss. I'm pissed, too. I wanna kill all of them. She took away Laura's baby's father. But she is a girl, she's scared, she's just trying to make it, we don't know how she knows these people, she could be a recruit or just trying to survive. We can't hurt her, we're supposed to be better then this."
"She's with them! They killed Troy. If she doesn't tell us anything, I will kill her! Anybody who tries to get in the way of that is gonna regret it!" There was a moment of silence, as the group stared at him, then Negan just nodded "OK I understand."
"Good-"
All of a sudden Negan punches Daryl square in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. Negan stands over him as Nick tries to move toward them "Negan what the fuck are you-"
Cutting him off, Negan looks at him and points right towards him. "Nick, I like you, but do not test me. I will lay your ass out next to him." Negan growls before he looks at Laura with a warning look, who just looks down.
Nick sputtered "What are you- she's with the people who killed Troy why are-"
Alicia grabbed her brother's arm.
"You need to cool the fuck down," Negan growls. Daryl stares at him as he breathes heavily. "I know that you are mad, but we need you to keep your head on straight. That is how we win, keep people alive, your wife and kids alive. You go down that damn road there's almost no turning back. Now you gonna take a fucking breath or are you and I finally gonna have that tussle?"
Behind them, Ezekiel and Jerry started to step forward, as if to separate the two men if thing further got physical.
Daryl's breathing starts to slow down, and he nods with a long drawn out breath. Negan holds his hand out to Daryl, who takes it and allows to be helped him up. Daryl looks at him. "Thanks. And another thing." Daryl says, making Negan look at him as his tone dropped to a warning. "Punch me again, and you better hope I stay down," Daryl says, making Negan chuckle.
"Everyone!" They turned to see Carol walking downstairs saying "Rick, Carl and the others are he- Daryl what happened?"
Likely seeing the bruise on his face, Daryl saw the look of brief panic in Negan's eyes so he said "I fell."
"Fell?" Carol said dryly "Oh forget it, we have to talk to the others.
"Let's take a minute to plan, okay?" Alicia says to Daryl, who nods as he gave a last look at the girl, who was looking at them all with fear still.
Clementine's P.O.V
Clementine and Arya watched as all the adults talked in the middle of the Kingdom, a few raising voices as Arya sat on one of the car's swinging her leg. "When are we going to fight?"
Kneeling on the ground, Sharpening one of her bolts, Clementine side eyed her best friend "Arya we might go to war, don't act so eager."
"I'm not just...well I just like action not standing around talking." Arya shrugged, crossing her arms. Then she perked up and looked down at Clementine
"Wanna go see her?"
"Who?" Clementine didn't look up from her bolts, absently thinking she was talking about Kate and see her 'new little fave kid to be' or 'Grandma Carol' although she was standing there with the others.
"The prisoner." Arya explained, Causing Clementine to look up in surprise "Come on, it sounds like she's even younger then us. Maybe we can get something."
Clementine looked around in worry, hoping no one was listening "Arya-"
Arya said further "Look just for a few minutes. That's all."
Sighing, knowing Arya wouldn't let this go, she nods as they slip away without anybody noticing. Walking up to the door, Arya stared at the guard "Oh Henry hey."
Beaming, the 'Prince' of the Kingdom blushed lightly "Uh hey Arya."
"Sup golden boy!" Arya grinned ear to ear "Listen we sorta need a favor."
"Not we. Her. I have nothing to do with this." Clementine rolled her eyes.
Arya elbowed her "You hush the fuck up. Henry we want to talk to that prisoner, just us."
Shifting a bit, Henry looked at them warily "Uh Arya, Clem I don't know. Mom told me-"
Arya pouted, clutching her hands together "Pretty please?"
Henry deflated "OK, 2 minutes alright?"
After thanking him, the girls then walk into the building with the cell and look at the girl, who jumped and looked at the two. "Hi, I'm Arya," Arya says to the girl who looks at her. "This is my BFFF Clementine."
Clementine paused "What?"
"Best Fucking Friend Forever, keep up!" Arya scoffed as if that explained everything.
"Lydia." She says warily, walking to the door. "It is true? What your man said, that the man who was killed is going to be a father?"
"Yes it's true" Arya says. Lydia walks closer to them, and Arya notices a marking by her sleeve. "Can you lift your sleeve?" Arya asks the girl, who looks at her warily.
Clementine said gently "We're not gonna hurt you, neither of us."
Biting her lip, Lydia lifts her sleeves, and the girls see lashing markings up her arm.
"You can't win." Lydia says softly "These places, they never last, not when she comes."
"Who's she?" Clementine asks cautiously.
"Alpha, my mother." Lydia says, making the two of them look at each other.
"Wait wait, the leader is your mom?" Clementine asked in slight horror.
"You're scared of her." Arya says in understanding.
"She's a monster."
"Tell them that these people can help you," Arya says, clutching the bars. "I know it. Daryl, he isn't a bad man, but he cares about his people more than himself. Give him a bit to calm down. If you do as he asks, he'll let you stay. My Dad and Grandpa can help, Uncle Daryl always listens to them both."
"You'll die here."
"We're the ones who live." Arya tells her. "We don't die. Let your Mom come. She'll die, too, just like everybody else who has tried to destroy the new world. You can be a part of that, Lydia. Just trust us."
Henry then spoke down "Girls, two minutes are up."
Clementine called up "Coming! Arya we have to go."
With a last comforting look at Lydia, the two turned and walked out of the cell.
Negan's P.O.V
Everybody stood together as Morgan marked where they ran into the herd onto one of the cars, a map layed out. "Gabriel and Anna, they stopped about a mile away from here. I wanted to make sure we were clear." Rick informed, making them nod as Carl looks at Daryl.
"What happened?" Carl asks.
"It was a trap." Daryl rubbed his head with a frustrated look. "They were using Morgan and Rosita as bait, they led us to a graveyard, and the gates were locked. Alden and Rosita were able to get them open enough so one person could go through at a time. Troy and I were last. We stayed to make sure everybody else got out. He died a hero."
Laura bit her lip and nodded as Negan patted her shoulder, asking "So how do we deal with these skin freaks?"
"We can't fight walkers up close until we know more." Rick says.
"They travel in groups with herds. Groups are the only things we have to worry about." Alden says.
Carol then poked her head up "I have an idea for the girl downstairs."
Ezekiel looked curious as well as the others, Carol turning to Negan "Talk to her."
"Wait wait, me?" Negan pointed at himself as the rest looked surprised.
"You're excellent with kids and your one of the best at sizing people up. You can tell if she's a threat or not. Talk to her, see what she can tell us about these people."
Negan blinked, as he said "Well...fuck, sure thing." He turned to the pale Laura, who was still reeling, saying to her softly "Ok get your ass to the Infirmary I'll be there in a bit."
"I'm fine-"
But a single stern look caused her to wilt and she nodded, turning and trudging off.
Laura's P.O.V
Sitting in the Infirmary as Addy sat her down, Laura just looked at the wall of the place, clutching her stomach. She gritted her fists and slammed on the bed, cursing herself for a moment.
Fuck what was she thinking? A kid? She was supposed to be better than the person she was before, who They were before...and thinking past her grief and anger. She remembered the terror on that girl's face.
Her eyes welled up, and she clutched her stomach harder, processing that Troy is dead. Her baby not able to know his father-
"I'd ask if you're okay, but we know that's bullshit."
Laura paused and looked at the doorway to the voice, and her face tightened.
Maggie was standing there.
After a moment, Laura looked away. "What do you want?"
Sitting on the bed across from her, Maggie said softly, "Daryl wanted me to check if you were okay?"
"And me."
The woman looked up and saw Kate there, her much more swollen stomach protruding as she looked between the two. "Uh uh...sorry if you want-"
"It's fine."
Laura looked over, surprised at Maggie's response. Her body was tense, but at least that's all it was, not that Laura could blame her. The father of Kate's child killed the father of Her child.
Kate didn't notice or, if she did, didn't comment as she sat next to Laura. "You heard Daryl. He died like a hero saving them. Be proud of that and tell your child that. When...when Marianna was killed, I was in shock and numb for a long time. But Javi reminded me that you keep living, no matter what."
Maggie turned to her. "She's right, Laura. The priority right now should be keeping your child safe and you. If anything happened to you, god knows how Negan would react."
Kate sighed, rubbing her eyes. "I heard the stories, Maggie. I'm not an idiot. I'm fully aware, and Laura will be fine, right?"
Laura stared, then nodded, looking down and away.
Maggie saw this and then said, "...Chocolate."
"What?" Laura and Kate both asked, looking up.
With a twitch of her lips, Maggie said, "When the hormones act up, go for chocolate."
Kate groaned. "Oh god, don't remind me. I think Daniel almost freaked out when he saw me trying to eat a fish raw, and you know how serious he is. God, I can't wait to push this thing out."
Laura chuckled weakly. "You guys had it easy when I found out I was pregnant and told the Camp? It took Daryl, Shane, and Alden to pull Negan off Troy. Asshole had him in a damn headlock."
And for a moment, all three women in the Kingdom Infirmary just laughed.
Alpha's P.O.V
Alpha sat down, staring at the trees when she heard footsteps coming up to her, and she stood, face menacing in a hiss. "Did you find her?"
"We found the group she was with. They were dead." The scout answered. "Her mask was on the grounds. Tracks went back towards those people's cars." He says.
"Are you saying my daughter was taken?" Alpha said icily, and he nods. "Get a group together. We get her back."
"Alpha, she is not-" The man is cut off by Alpha withdrawing her neck and slitting his throat. He falls to the ground gurgling on his blood as the others look at him and up to her in terror "We get my daughter back. Don't question your Alpha."
Gabriel's P.O.V
Gabriel and Anna walked through the woods. Gabriel killed a walker and looked at her. "Seems like we aren't dealing with people. We should get back and meet them at the Kingdom."
Anna nods as they turn around and see another walker as it comes towards them. "I got this one." She says as she pulls her knife out, but the walker stops. The two of them look around back to back as Gabriel tried to draw his gun as more people in walker masks stare at them. They look at a blond one as it comes up to them and withdraws a shotgun, and aims it at them.
"Trail ends here." Alpha says.
Thanks for reading. Gabriel and Anna have been caught. Daryl lost his temper, but Negan helped him gain it back. Next chapter, Negan talks with Lydia. Lydia chooses and side and bonds with Arya, Laura grieves her husband, and A visitor arrives to the Kingdom.