Chapter 139-Tensions boil

Two weeks later

John's P.O.V

John stared at his father's grave for a long minute as the air grew darker and cloudier signaling the approaching winter. This was...just wrong. It was only his head, they couldn't even give his father a Proper burial and now-

"John?"

His face darkened, turning around and looks at Lydia, who was quietly approaching him

"What?" John asks curtly.

"Daryl is looking for you." Lydia tells him. John nods as he walks past her as she looks at him then spoke "I'm sorry about your Dad."

John stops and looks at her. "You should be; your mother came after them because of you," John growls before he walks away from the teenager who stares at him then down trying not to cry.

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia watched Merle and Ofelia as they played in a rare warmer day as she looked worriedly at the ground. "Hey lica" She looks at Negan as he sits down beside him.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you be with your daughter and girlfriend?"

"They are sleeping, so I have a little bit. Swear to god that baby has a set of lungs" Negan tells her.

Chuckling, she nodded "Try imagining those two." She gestured as Merle threw a snowball at a screeching Olivia.

"You've become the babysitter?"

"I have. Daryl is making sure we have everything we need to make it through the winter. It's gotta get worse. We've been pretty lucky." Alicia says as she looks at the couple of inches of snow on the ground.

"I'm glad that it's not me, I had to do it last year, and I think I would have rather fought a herd." Negan says with a smirk as Alicia watches Shane as he walks out of the gate.

"Can you watch them?" Alicia asks Negan, who nods, looking at her then where Shane just left with a confused look, also wondering what he was doing walking out alone.

"Sure, everything okay?"

"I don't know yet." Alicia says as she goes towards the gate.

Shane's P.O.V

Shane walks through the woods with a machete in his hands. He hears walkers, looking to see a small group of them moving towards him slowly. Their feet went through the snow, and one fell to the ground. Shane slams his machete down on the closest one's head. He quickly removed it and cut the second one's head off. He jabs the machete through the third walker's head. He looks at the last one, which is starting to pull itself up. He kicked its leg, breaking it. He walked up to the walker and then started to stomp on its head. After a couple of minutes, nothing was left besides red mush. "Shane!" He turns around and looks at Alicia as she stands behind him, soon walking towards him with a scowl.

"What are you doing out here?" Shane asks as he wipes the blood off a walker's shirt.

"Following you. Does my Mom know you are doing this?" Alicia asks Shane, who shakes his head.

"I tell her I'm going to do something. Always different. She's been helping so much with Rose that she hasn't noticed." Shane says as he puts the machete in his sheath.

"This isn't what he would want." Alicia says, knowing the reason he was out here.

Shane stiffened at that then looked up to her darkly, Alicia just staring back "I don't care. Almost every day, I come out here looking for those skin freaks, and every day I find just walkers. But one day, one of them will be stupid enough to cross those borders, and I am going to make him scream and beg for death, and then I'll let his fucking guardians tear him apart."

"Shane, don't go down this path again. You don't want to do this. You don't want to become that man again." Alicia says softly as she walks closer to him.

"If I had stayed that man, Nick might still be alive." Shane argued, marching away not wanting to have this conversation

"You wouldn't have been able to change what happened to him, to any of them." Alicia tells him as she lays her hand on his shoulder. "My Mom didn't fall in love with this man."

"She's the one that told me to let him out!" Shane growls, turning back to see Alicia's slack jawed expression. "You can choose to bury the anger, Alicia. Watch your kids play, but deep down, you wanna become ruthless again, like you were after the stadium. You want to hunt Alpha down and kill her as you did Mel."

"You're right, I do. But I have more to think about. I have Daryl, Ofelia, Merle, Charlie, and Mom. We have a family that needs us. We need to stay ourselves and trust that Rick and Daryl have a plan" Alicia says.

"Go home, Alicia." Shane batted her hand off."I'm going to continue."

"Shane-" Alicia doesn't get to say anything else as Shane walks away, causing her to sigh and leave.

Sherry's P.O.V

Sherry watched Mo as she slept, eyes tired after another restless night. She looked at the door hearing the sound of knocking "Come in." She says softly. The door opens, and Jerry walks in.

"What's up, sister?" Jerry says with a grin, but he smile fell as Sherry just stares at him from her chair and looks back at Mo.

"What do you want, Jerry?" Sherry asks.

"I just wanted to check on you and Mo." Jerry said softly, trying to step forward cautiously.

"We don't need checking on." Sherry bitterly spat back, looking at him crossly.

"I disagree." Jerry says after a moment. "You need your family right after-"

"My family is dead. Nick is dead. Dwight is dead. My sister is dead. My family is gone. I don't need checking in on." Sherry bit back "Now please leave."

"Alright." Jerry says as he turns around and walks towards the door. He stops at the door. "If I have learned anything since the end of the world, it's that family doesn't end in blood. You still have family, even if we weren't one of your husbands or your sister, and so does Mo. If you don't want to be with your family for yourself, do it for Mo." Jerry says before he leaves.

Sherry looked at the door angrily for a moment, then softened as she looked down covering her face in her hands.

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia stormed into Madison's cabin and saw her mother on the couch, staring at a picture of Nick, Alicia, and her when they were children, tearing up. "Mom!" Alicia says, making Madison look up at her daughter startled.

"Alicia, what's wrong?"

"Do you know where Shane is?"

"He's helping Daryl." Madison answered, confused

"No, he isn't. He's been leaving the campgrounds and killing walkers, hoping one of them is a whisper. You told him to release his inner demons. You want to lose Shane too what the fuck is the matter with you!?" Alicia snapped angrily

"They killed your brother." Madison growls standing up defiantly.

"I know that," Alicia waved her hand back and forth. "I think about it every day. I think about what he was thinking about in his final moments. Was it painful? I think about the fact that we never got to say goodbye. I think about him every day, and I want to kill Alpha just as much as the rest of you do, but if we let ourselves go, they all died for nothing."

"She killed my son!" Madison screamed at her daughter. "She killed Nick! Took Mo's father away from him! Yet she gets to live while he is dead!" Madison says as tears start to go down her face. "She killed my son." Alicia walks up to her mother and hugs her as Madison cries into her shoulder. Tears start to go down Alicia's face as she holds her mother harder and lays her head on her shoulder.

"I miss him too."

John's P.O.V

John sat on his porch cleaning his guns when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, looking up to see a furious Negan glaring at him.

"Negan?" The former deputy stared, rearing back.

"You and I are going to talk." Negan growls at the man who looks at him.

John scowled "Hey hold on-"

"That ain't a goddamn suggestion Dorie." Negan growls. "Get up!"

John stares at him for a moment before he stands up. "Watch your tone." John growls, not sure what he was angry about and not liking it.

"Lydia told Arya what you said this morning, and she told me. Let me make something clear to you, John. You ever say anything like that to that girl again, and I will knock your teeth out and make you swallow them. Are we clear?"

"Her Mother killed Laura, killed my Father, killed our family!" John growls. "You let that girl in. Maybe she was a mole for her Mom the whole time. She might have been playing you the entire time, and because of that, Laura is dead! John hisses. Without another word, Negan punches John in the face making him stumble back into the door. John's hat fell to the ground as John tackled Negan.

Coming out of the cabins hearing the noise, Kate screamed "Negan!?"

"What the hell are you two doing!?" Morgan roared as him and several others started to run up.

The two men tumbled down the porch. John punched Negan in the face, and Negan kneed the man in the stomach. Negan threw John on the ground and climbed on top of him as he started to punch him.

"MOTHERFUCKER, I'LL FUCKING BREAK YOUR DAMN JAW!"

"Negan!" Strand shouts as he runs up to him and grabs him. Daniel runs up to them, and the two men pull Negan off John, who coughs as laid on the ground. Blood was coming out of his mouth, and his head was bleeding.

"You ever say anything like that to me again, and I'll fucking kill you!" Negan shouts as Strand and Daniel hold him, and Morgan knelt next to John who layed there, coughing and looking half conscious.

"What the hell is going on!?" Daryl screamed as he walked up to them. June went over to John next to Morgan with a pale look, glaring at Negan. After a minute of silence, Daryl snapped angrily. "One of you start talking."

"He blamed what Alpha did on Lydia." Negan says as members of the camp were coming out hearing the yelling and fighting. "I confronted him, and he said that Lydia might have been a mole and that Laura's death might have been her fault and I socked him."

Daryl stays silent for a moment before he sighs. "I know we are all dealing with what Alpha did in different ways, but this isn't how we do it. We're family. We don't blame each other for shit." Daryl says as he looks at Lydia, who is standing by Arya with the girl looking half ready to jump on John herself, but a stern look from Daryl stopped her cold. "Lydia is now a part of our family. What happened to our family is not Lydia's fault or anybody else's here. It is Alpha and Brandon's. Brandon died for it, and I promise you, Alpha will too. Now June, make sure John is okay, and then check on Negan. This shit is over! Is that understood?"

Negan mumbled, as he slumped...Strand and Daniel letting go "Fine boss."

June just nodded as she helped John up, groaning.

Negan's P.O.V

Looking at the ceiling...Negan just said as Kate looked on their chair nearby as he laid on the couch "...You mad?"

Kate said bluntly "I'm mad you didn't tell me so I could have kicked him in the balls."

"...That's kinda hot."

Rolling her eyes, she leaned over pushing his feet off a cushion "Don't be a pervert."

They then heard steps and looked at the door as June came in. "You're already done?"

"I checked on him, and Tobias is patching him up," June says as she sits down beside him. "Gonna need some stitches above your eye."

Kate sighed and kissed Negan's head saying "I'll leave you two to it. Now I need to make sure Arya doesn't get a crack at him."

"How is he?" Negan asked as she knelt down.

"Needed some stitches on his eye, lip, and above his left eye. He'll have some bruises and a black eye. He also has a concussion."

"I'm sorry, June." Negan groaned.

"Don't be." She stated as she put a pack on his head. "He shouldn't have said that, but you also shouldn't have punched him. Neither of you is innocent in this, ok you look fine just need to get rest. Don't worry I'll deal with John."

Negan nodded and laid back as June stood and walked out, leaving him with his thoughts.

And hoping no one else would do anything desperate to her...

He failed so many people, he wouldn't fail Lydia.

John's P.O.V

John opened his eyes and looked around. He looked at Daryl as he stood by him staring down at him. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a Train." John says.

"Good, cause I would have clocked your ass. You shouldn't have said that," John stays silent. "This shit with you, it's done now. Because I'm not having fights like this happening in my camp, so you're either gonna figure this shit out or go to the Kingdom or Alexandria or even fucking Hilltop until you figure your shit out. Lydia is a part of this family now. You need to accept that because she's staying," Daryl tells the man before he leaves. John stares at the ceiling, thinking about what Daryl had said.

Madison's P.O.V

Madison looked at the door as it opened as Shane walked in. "Alicia told me what you've been doing." Madison says.

"You gonna try to talk me out of it?" Shane asks his wife, who shakes her head.

"No, I'm going to join you." Madison says. Shane opens his mouth. "Don't argue with me. He was our son. I'm helping you kill whatever whisper crosses that border, understood?"

Shane nods. "Yeah, I got it."

Thanks for reading. This chapter was very focused on the campgrounds, and I had a lot of fun writing it. I think the next chapter, we'll get to the storm. I know I have been off and on these last few weeks and that is not because I have quit these stories. My Dad got cancer and yesterday he passed away. So for now these stories won't be updated as a spend time with family and figure out the next step. I hope to be back to these stories in a couple of weeks. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.