Chapter 154-Traitors
Eugene's P.O.V
Eugene grabbed the radio and stood with wide eyes. "Where?"
"Charleston, West Virginia. Southern rail yards. About a mile south of the Kanawha River. In 9 days. Can you be there?"
"Yes, I will be there!" Eugene says. "Over and out."
"Over and out."
Eugene looks at Shane, more lightened but remembering their topic. "Now, back to our friend. Shane, maybe he just heard it from somewhere, You weren't the only one there compadre."
"He didn't. I'm telling you, Eugene, we never told anybody, not the order. He was there." Shane implored.
"We need to be sure before we take action. As I said, maybe someone slipped something. But...very well keep an eye on him." Eugene says.
"Fine, but I'm having the ammo taken to Hilltop. Who is the hell is going with you?"
"We'll work the details out at Hilltop. Until then, get the ammo ready. And Check every bullet as I said."
Shane nods as he walks out of the room.
Strand's P.O.V
Strand and Daniel walked through the woods, slowly checking and almost jumping at every branch, every moment they knew a moment that a Whisperer could spot them. "If this goes back, I'll make sure we don't turn," Strand says as he shows Daniel a grenade.
"Good," Daniel grunted as they heard the herd. "You ready?"
"Unfortunately yes," Strand says as he puts the mask on, and Daniel follows, moving towards the herd.
And Strand prayed a rare prayer for this to work.
Jerry's P.O.V
Jerry walks into Ezekiel's room to tell him of Shane and Eugene's return only to see the man in the mirror looking at a lump on his neck. "What the hell is that, dude?"
Ezekiel turns around and looks at his best friend and long-time right hand with a frustrated scowl wrapping his neck back up. "Dammit, Jerry, knock!"
"What is that?" Jerry repeated.
At the silence, Jerry stepped forward "Zeke, come on man it's me."
"It's cancer, thyroid cancer," Ezekiel says as he sits down on the bed. "My father and grandmother had it. Carol knows about it, but Henry doesn't know yet. I was waiting to tell him until everything with Alpha was over. You can't tell anybody, Jerry. You have to promise me."
Jerry shook his head "Ezekiel-"
"Jerry promise me." His King looked at him sharply.
"...Yes sir."
This was broken as Carol came inside after a knock, pausing "...Everything ok?
"Fine my love, what news?"
"Rick needs us. Eugene's back." Carol looked between the two in concern.
Jerry nodded but gave Ezekiel a sharp look telling him this was not the end of this and walking out.
Rick's P.O.V
Rick, Daryl, Carol, Jerry, Frankie, Maggie, Beth, Ezekiel, Clinton, Al, Elijah, Arthur, Alicia, Carl, Enid, and Madison stood in the office, Rick got in front to start. But as he looked around, he noticed Jerry in particular scowling...but brushed this off as he started "Eugene has set up a meeting with a new community in Charleston, West Virginia. There will be a meeting in nine days. He has asked for a person from each community."
"He made a list, didn't he?" Maggie asks.
"Yes, he will go for Alexandria, Arthur will go for Meridan, he would like Frankie to go for the saviors, Elijah for the Campgrounds, and he said sent whoever for Kingdom and Richmond." Rick says.
"I'll go for Richmond." Clinton smiled and raised his hand. "Javi will be able to handle any problems here."
"I'll go for the Kingdom." Jerry says, making Ezekiel look at him wide eyed.
"You'll leave for the workshop tonight and head for Charleston tomorrow." Rick informed.
"Daryl, Alicia, Carl, stay." Rick says, and they nod as Jerry shuts the door. He waited to make sure they were away from the door and looked at the three grimely "Eugene told me something else. Shane thinks that Dante is a Whisperer."
"What?" Daryl asks as he stands in shock, looking at Rick bug eyed. "Why?"
"He was talking to Dante. He knew the order of who was on the spikes." Rick tells Daryl and Carl. "Did either of you tell anybody?"
Carl frowned in concern "what? No."
"Hell no." Daryl shook his head negatively.
"He hasn't even told me." Alicia says. "I don't want to know either. Dante shouldn't know."
Carl said "but wait if he was at the Camp, he knows about Lydia...he knows she's alive then?"
"Son, we'll find that out later. Right now I want you two to go with the group to the workshop. Take Siddiq." Rick says to Daryl and Alicia. "If something is wrong with Dante, kill him and leave Siddiq there to help."
"We're on it," Daryl says as he leaves with his wife.
Rick looked at Carl "alright come on, we need to help Shane double check all those bullets."
Carl nodded, shaken a bit but gave a wry smile "like those times you two took me to the Armory."
Snorting, Rick and his firstborn left "don't remind me, your mother pitched a fit whenever she heard."
Jerry's P.O.V
Jerry was packing with a bag as he heard footsteps and then silence. As he finished he sighed and turned. "You've been standing behind me for five minutes, Boss." Jerry said annoyed as he turns to look at Ezekiel.
"What the hell are you doing, Jerry?" Ezekiel asks angrily. "You have a family here."
Jerry pointed "oh no don't bring Nabila and the little ones into this, you have a family too."
Gritting his teeth, the King continued. "You shouldn't be going on a mission with Eugene to a community we know nothing about."
"I have to!" Jerry protested.
"Why?" Ezekiel asks.
"To save you." He saw the taken aback expression on Ezekiel's face "they may have the medical equipment to save you, stuff we don't have. It's worth a shot. You've saved my life a hundred times. Let me repay the favor." Jerry says. "Please, dude?"
"Alright, Jerry, but only if Nablida is okay with it. Your wife scares me." Ezekiel says, and Jerry nods with a smile. "If they have cobbler, you better bring me some."
Jerry smiles and nods hugging him fondly. "Of course, boss."
Strand's P.O.V
Strand and Daniel led the herd as they crossed the border, both not saying a word. Both men were silent as they listened to the groans of the walkers. "They're coming," Daniel whispers. "Left." Strand moved his eyes to his left and saw three whispers moving towards them. Daniel and Strand start to slow down and get lost in the middle of the herd, seconds passing by with what felt like hours until...
"Lead the guardians to the cave." They hear as they walk. Daniel and Strand share a look as they continue to follow the Whisperers, Strand realizing one of them was only a few feet in front of him..
"Why do I do stupid shit like this? You're just embracing the madness, Victor," Strand thought as they walked.
Shane's P.O.V
Shane walked outside and saw Dante walk onto the street, staring ahead. "Dante." Shane says as he walks up to him.
"Hey," Dante says as he looks at him. "I saw movement, someone standing there watching us." Dante says.
"Oh really?" Shane just stared back at Dante, reaching for his gun...seeing this Dante quickly reached behind his back and swung just as Shane drew.
And all Shane remembered was the pipe coming for his head.
An hour later
Shane opened his eyes and looked around, realizing he was in the woods, but he could still see the buildings. "I knew you figured me out." Dante says as he bends down in front of him as he tied his hands. "Said too much, didn't I?"
"Are you going to kill me?" Shane growled icily
"No I want to. I wanna watch you turn; your face would be a good mask, but Alpha told me not to. She wants one of Rick and Daryl's friends. Someone high up." Dante says, the mask of the good doctor gone and showing the monster within. "She'll probably be happy that it's you. You did kill her people. You will wish I had killed you."
"So what now?" Shane asks.
"I gotta get rid of your workshop, don't worry, we'll be on the road soon." Dante says as he puts a gag in Shane's mouth and moves away. Shane glares at him as he grabs the knife that was tucked under his sleeve and starts to cut the rope, seeing the sun start to lower.
Maggie's P.O.V
Maggie walked up behind Al and wrapped her arms around her. "I hope you aren't leaving to get away from me." Maggie says as she kisses Al's head. Al grabs her hand and leans her head on Maggie's shoulder.
"I'm not. I understand why you told Hershel. I'm going with Eugene because I want to make sure this place is safe for our family. And I need to make sure they're good people."
"You sure you aren't going for the story?" Maggie asks with a smirk as she looks at Al's camera.
"That is also part of the reason." Al says. "But making sure this place is safe for you and Hershel is more important."
Maggie nodded "ok...just also keep an eye on Eugene. From the sound of it, he's gotten a bit sweet on the girl on the other end."
Althea chuckled "yeah noticed that too huh?"
Sharing a chuckle, Maggie kissed her. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Strand's P.O.V
Strand watched as the walkers started to enter a cave. He looked at Daniel and nodded as they fell to the back of the herd and slowly left it. The two men went into the woods quickly and stopped, taking their masks off as they huddled behind it. "We're clear," Daniel says. "We wait till dark, and then we go home."
"She's keeping them in a damn cave." Strand says as he looks at the man. "It's smart, but it is not going to be easy for us to get in there and wipe that herd out."
"We don't know how deep they are, but we're going to have to go in there." Daniel paused then frowned in thought "If they are deep enough, maybe we can drop the cave on them. Bury them alive under tons of rubble.
"That is crazy. Even by my standards, someone would have to be in there with them.".
"If it means that herd will be gone, I'll do it. Let's stay quiet. We don't want them to know we are here." Daniel says as he sits down.
Eugene's P.O.V
Eugene was sitting by the radio when he heard shouting. "Fire!" Eugene looked up in shock and ran out to see fire starting to spread among the walls of the factory and quickly spreading to the machines.
"Everybody, get out!" Eugene shouting as they started to head to the exits. He came to be the last one out as he starts to hear gunshots. He looks around and sees walkers all around the building. "Fight back!" He grabbed a nearby hammer and swung it to a snarling walker, then another, but felt someone tackle him.
He gasped, and looked to see Dante on top, smiling almost crazily, realizing Shane was right...he was a Whisperer.
"I'm sorry, Eugene. I like you a lot," Dante says as he raises his knife. Eugene knees Dante in the stomach and punches him in the face. He pushes Dante off of him and stands up...
Just as his world exploded in pain, a walker's jaw clenched around his hand.
Shane's P.O.V
Shane stands up, getting the ropes off of him and runs towards the town, seeing the fire. He stops when he sees a figure running towards the woods as he sees a car pull up, seeing Daryl in the others running out in shock. "Help them!" Shane shouts as he runs after Dante, who runs into the woods. Shane runs behind him and withdraws his gun. He aims and shoots Dante in the leg, causing the man to cry out in pain as he falls to the ground. Shane then ran up, holding the gun to the growling Dante's face.
"Come on, man. You know you wanna kill me!" Dante challenged.
"You'll die soon enough." Was all he said as he whipped Dante across the face.
Eugene's P.O.V
Eugene looks at Siddiq as he runs up to him. "Shit." He says as he motions Daryl over as Alicia and the remaining workers kills the last walkers. Siddiq removes his machete as Daryl ties his belt a couple of feet above Eugene's right hand.
"Do it." Eugene tells Siddiq. "I got a date to get, too."
Daryl looked at him in surprise, just as Siddiq raised the machete and brought it down.
Thanks for reading. Eugene had lost a better part of his arm but is still determined to see Stephanie. In the next chapter, Rick and Daryl interrogate Dante. Eugene recovers and prepares to leave, and Rosita makes a choice as Strand and Daniel return. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.