Chapter 143-Consquences
Daryl's P.O.V.
The gates to the campgrounds opened, and the large group entered the community. The group inside the campgrounds watched as Shane, John, Madison, and Strand walked in first, followed by the others. "Take them into the big cabin," Daryl tells Negan, who nods as the four of them start to walk towards the big cabin.
"Guys!" They paused as they saw Arya running up, waving her arms as if to get their attention further.
"Arya Arya, what's happening?" Rick came up, putting a hand on her shoulder to relax her.
"It's...it's Lydia, she's been freaking out and-"
That was all she said as suddenly Negan ran past her, charging back to their cabin, Arya quickly following.
Daryl stared...then nodded at Morgan who took Negan's place as June walked up and asked softly.
"Were they there?"
"Alpha wasn't there." Carl answered. "But she left some scouts; she'll find their bodies, and when she does, she'll know we crossed the border; we don't have the element of surprise anymore."
"Ezekiel, maybe you should go home." Rick turned to the Kingdom's King,
"This is a matter involving all of our homes; I will stay until our next more is figured out." Ezekiel says, and Rick nods.
"Can we see them?" June asks softly, wringing her hands.
"After we're done," Daryl says as he walks towards the cabin with Ezekiel, Carol, Carl, Rick, Beth, Tara, Maggie, Morgan, Alden, and Alicia. The four were put on chairs in the front as they went on the front table.
"Anything you want to say?" Carol asks, arms crossed.
"We did what you wouldn't do because we aren't scared of that maniacal bitch." Strand said crossly.
"You should be." Daryl barked, pointing at Strand. "I am. I know Rick is, and the truth is you're terrified of her because you know what she can do. What she's capable of. You didn't help us, you made things worse, and when this war started earlier than it was supposed to, every person who dies, that is blood on your hands, not ours, because you let your emotions take control. We don't fight for revenge, ever. We fight for our future.
"You're a fucking hypocrite!" Shane shouts as he stands up, pushing the chair over as he does. Scowling, Morgan stood up to match him ready to shove him back into his seat, but Daryl held a hand up. "Cause you fought for revenge once too! That's why Glenn is dead! You got him caught, Daryl! You punched Negan! Hershel's father is dead because of you!" Shane says as he stands right in front of Daryl, standing face to-face with him.
There was silence as many stared at Shane in shock at those vicious harsh words.
"Maybe if you had let revenge consume you after the Governor killed Merle, Hershel wouldn't have died the way he had."
There was more silence until Daryl said coldly "Sit. Down."
"Or what?" Shane asks.
"I'll sit you down-" Daryl says. Shane growls as he swings at Daryl, who ducks and then punches him in the face. Shane scatters back, and Daryl kicks him in the chest, knocking him into a table and then on the ground.
"Shane!" Madison moved to get up.
"Don't." Rick pointed at her warningly as Shane lies on the ground breathing heavily.
"Sit down, Shane, you're in enough trouble already" Carl tells Shane as he pulls himself up. He glares at Daryl as he grabs a chair and sits down, clenching his chest.
"What you guys did put everybody in danger and was stupid." Rick says. "We should lock you up just for doing it. So give us a reason, and we will. You won't leave the Campgrounds. You will not carry a gun. Now go see your families while we figure out a way to fix your mess." Rick growls in a firm voice. The four of them slowly stand and leave the cabin.
John's P.O.V
John walked into his cabin and set his hat on the table as June came in behind him, already yelling at her husband. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"She killed my Father." John says as he turns to look at her.
"You put your son in danger!" June shouts at him, not backing down. "What if Alpha was there? She would have killed you! Do you want J.J. to grow up the same way you did!? With no father?!"
"Of course not!" John shouts back.
"That's going to happen if you continue down this path, John! You're going to die, and JJ needs his father, and I need you! I can't lose you too; this isn't what Dorie would want, you know that. Please, John, let go of this quest for revenge and think about your family 'cause we can't lose you." June says, then walked forward locking eyes with him. "If you can't get past this, then you need to leave because I won't have you around our son like this," June says before she leaves the cabin, and John stares at the door.
Alicia's P.O.V
Alicia walks out of the big cabin and starts to walk towards her cabin. "Alicia." Madison says as she comes up to her with Shane behind her.
"I don't want to hear it." Alicia says without turning to look at them.
"Alicia, please." Madison says, and Alicia stops and looks at her mother and stepfather.
"You put my husband, my kids, your grandchildren in danger; you put Mo in danger. Do you think Nick would want that? His daughter got killed because his mother and her husband couldn't put their revenge aside? I don't want to hear your fucking excuses because you don't have any. You don't have anything! You fucked up! I swear to god, Mom, if any of my kids or husband gets hurt because of this, you'll be on your own. You both will!" Alicia's voice kept raising, screeching and storming up to her pale mother.
The camp stared at the family as the group inside the big cabin came outside. "That isn't fair, Alicia." Shane says softly, trying to put a hand on her shoulder.
"And you," She growls as she looks at him with a look that almost resembled hate grabbing his hand "How dare you, how fucking dare you. How dare you say that to my husband, the best man I ever met, how fucking dare you!"
"I was-" Shane tried to explain
"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY YOU WERE OUT THERE! NICK WASN'T EVEN YOUR FUCKING SON!" She shouts at Shane, who flinches.
Alicia stepped forward into Shane's face hissing "Let me make this clear into your damn stubborn fucking skull. Nick was Never your son and I sure as FUCK am NOT your Daughter. Your just the asshole my Mom married."
With that Alicia turned and stormed off, leaving behind two emotionally destroyed family members.
Negan's POV
"Lydibug!" He called in as he marched inside, looking around...using the new nickname he got for her "Lydibug!"
"Negan!" Hearing from the other room, Kate came over hugging him saying "She's with Rose, she's starting to panic."
Cursing, he stormed to her room and saw the small girl against the corner...clutching a cooing Rose to her chest, muttering under her breath. "Walk in blood, we are free. Walk in shadow we are Free. No Mama, please Mama."
Seeing a panic attack from a former student at his former job, he knelt down in front of her slowly "Lydia...Lydibug?"
Hearing that nickname, she seemed to pause a moment "Papa?" Negan froze, staring wide eyed, but Lydia seemed to tear up as if realizing who it actually was "Negan?"
"Hey, hey it's me kid." Negan held his arms out "Come on, come on...easy girl. She's not there. She's not coming."
"What?" Lydia seemed to be in disbelief "Mama wasn't...there?"
"She went somewhere else when the storm hit, she's not coming anytime soon...at least during the Winter." He assured "Now...come on, give her over."
Lydia looked down, and handed Rose over saying "I'm sorry...I just-"
"You were scared kid. That means your human and not a fucking monster." Negan put his other free hand on her shoulder as the other hand slowly gave Rose over to the also approaching Kate.
"Negan language."
"Not now Katie." He said over his shoulder then back at Lydia...helping her up as she looked red eyed and drained "Come on just get some sleep kid, you look like you need it."
After a moment... nodding, Lydia went to her bed, and layed down...rolling over as she muttered.
Kate sighed "Thank god, I was worried she might hold Rose too tight."
Negan shook her head turning "Hh relax she wouldn't-" Then he froze.
The Twins were in the doorway.
HERSHEL was in the doorway. Kate turned to see what he was staring at and froze as well.
"Uncle Negan, is Miss Lydia ok?" Ofelia asked worriedly.
"...She's uh...fine...uh...just...panicked."
Hershel looked up at him and then nodded pleasantly "Oh. Your Miss Kate's boyfriend and their Uncle they mentioned? Hi! I'm Hershel."
"Negan." Was all he got out at the moment, but cleared his throat to keep his composure "But...uh thanks you three for being worried." He came up to them, leaning down to their level "Why don't you see your folks? They just got back and Lydia will play with you after. Ok? She needs to rest."
Merle thought for a moment, and nodded "Yeah, we should! Come on guys!"
Hershel smiled and held his hand out politely as the duo ran off "Nice to meet you sir!"
Negan just nodded, shaking the Asian boys hand "Yeah...you too Hershel."
Carl's P.O.V
Soon after the four left to their cabins, Daryl came back inside to see Carl, Rick, Morgan, Rosita, Ezekiel, Carol, Beth, Tara, Maggie, and Alden all waiting at the head table, saying "They're in their cabins."
Morgan nodded "No fighting?"
"No, Strand's grumbling, but Madison and Shane I think are too upset right now and June's already torn John a new one."
Walking to the table, Daryl sat down looking around "Where's Negan? Still with Lydia?"
He saw the silence, then Rick spoke up "Yeah...uh...Hershel told us."
Daryl stared as if trying to make sure he heard right, then nodded, looking at at Maggie "Alright listen, I promise you I'll sit right next to you when you...tell him, but can it wait?"
"Wait?" Maggie looked confused.
Beth frowned "Daryl, he's starting to have questions, hell I know Merle even asked me once why Hershel can't visit more."
"I know that." Daryl said steadily "Again I'll be right there when you tell them everything, but we have enough on our plate with Alpha right now. I just want to focus on taking that bitch down before we add more stuff to worry about."
Carol bit her lip "We'll talk about this more later, right now you do have a point. We need to get ready when winter's over."
"We don't know if that's even when Alpha will return. Maybe we could get lucky and the cold killed her...but we do need to start preparing." Carl looked at his father.
Suddenly the door opened and they turned seeing Negan walk in, hands in his pockets looking around "What'd I miss? Dammit don't tell me I missed a fight, I saw the shiner on Shane."
Alden rolled his eyes "Take a seat we're just starting."
Sitting next to him, Negan slouched back as Rick started to say "We don't have what we need to take on Alpha or her herd, and we don't know if the storm killed the rest or not."
"We can't even send Eugene and Arthur out in this, the horses will freeze, and then they'll die." Daryl scoffed. "Alpha left because of the winter; once the winter is over, she'll come back, and she'll be ready to fight; that's how long we got."
"So, how do we fight a herd of that size?" Carol asked rhetorically.
"We need to secure the communities better. Eugene has been making traps, but we're gonna need stronger ones. We need to arm every community, and every community needs to have an escape plan." Carl says.
"The college." Daryl says, making Rick look at him, eyebrow raised. "The one a few miles east of here. There were still buses there, we could take those, put some chains on the wheels, and they'll be able to get through the snow, and we can use them to load everybody up who can't fight and escape if we need to."
"Where would we meet up?"
"Richmond." Maggie says. "Alpha doesn't know anything about it or that it's occupied."
"Alright, that is our escape plan. How would we fight this?"
"We could send someone to see took over leadership of Meridian after Georgie's death. They had enough firepower to turn the tide against the New Frontier. They could have enough to help take on that herd or at least hold it back. They have a lot of firepower that Georgie collected while traveling with Midge, Tillie and Arthur." Beth says.
"When the snow melts, we'll send a group to talk to Elijah," Daryl says. "Until then, everybody needs to do an inventory of the weapons we have. We need to know what we have, and what we can use against Alpha. We'll use what we have left in the warehouse to reinforce the walls of the communities."
Rick stood and leaned forward "And before we leave I want to make something clear...we don't know what will happen in the next few months, we don't even know if Alpha will return or find the bodies of her people. We don't know if we'll win or her herd will destroy everything we built over the last decade...but...there's one thing we have to promise right here and now."
Negan raised a brow "What would that be?"
Rick's eyes darkened "Whether we win or not...she won't live to see it."
Rick's P.O.V
As they all left the Cabin, Rick paused and looked to the distance...seeing Shane at the small graveyard shoulder slumped, as if drained.
Rick stared for a moment then walked up to Shane as he stood in front of Nick's grave, for a moment there was silence as he saw Shane's red tearfilled eyes, then quietly asked
"You know, I never got it. Why you needed to be a father. Being a father is a pain in the ass." Rick finished with a slight joke as Shane gave him a half hearted smile...then back at the grave.
"I wanted to leave something good behind, a legacy. I wanted that bond, the one you and Carl have...I just...wanted it so bad. Nick and Alicia were in their twenty's when I met Madison, but...Alicia was right. I wasn't his father, but I saw him as my son, and when I saw him there, his head like that. All the anger from the farm, everything that I had pushed away, that I overcame, it came back." Shane bowed his head "And look what that led me. She hates me."
"The man that Nick saw as his father isn't the man standing beside me. I hope the man that Nick loved that I love will come back. And...give Alicia time, she'll come around." Rick says as he pats Shane's shoulder and walks away.
Strand's P.O.V
Strand sat on his porch, looking at the ground. "Cole kick you out?" He looks up at the voice and his face tightened seeing Daniel.
Odd...the man for the most part left him alone unless necessary, as Strand felt himself tense up.
"No, he did not, but I am sleeping on the couch," Strand says as Daniel sits down in front of him, not looking away.
Strand stared back, trying not to flinch at the stone look he was getting "...If you have something to say, Daniel, say it."
"You know, after Ofelia, after the dam, I wanted to kill you. It took all my willpower, but I didn't because I would have been the same man I was before Ofelia was born, and I was not willing to return to being that man because it would dishonor her, so here is my question, Victor. Do you want to be the man Nick met in Los Angeles or the man you were in that stadium, the man who got me at the warehouse? I know you are better than this, Victor, don't prove me wrong." Daniel says as he stands up. "If I see that man again, the man who got my daughter killed. I would finally have a reason to kill you, Victor." Daniel says before he walks away from him.
Strand looked after him and let out a shaky breath, wondering if he narrowly escaped getting killed.
John's P.O.V
John walks into his cabin and looks at June, who had his back to him as she was on the couch, knitting. A moment passed as John cleared his throat nervously. "Where's JJ?" John asks.
"Sleeping." June answers without looking up, and John nods as he sits down.
"You're right." John admitted heavily as she looked at him. "I don't want to lose you and JJ. I can't lose you and JJ, not after losing my Father. So I'll do whatever I have so I can prove to you that you and my son mean everything to me. I won't leave again. I won't go to the border again, I promise you."
"You have a lot to make up for," June said sternly. "Tonight, you're sleeping on the couch."
"Yes, ma'am," John says as June stands up and walks away, leaving behind a deflated cowboy who just muttered...
"Shit."
Thanks for reading. The next chapter will probably have the next time skip in it, I think we're close to getting back to the war, but I had a lot of fun with this small little arc and the border. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.