Chapter 155- Interrogation
Daryl's P.O.V
Eugene's arm falls to the ground as Daryl grabs him, holding him steady, yelling to the others "Get him back to Hilltop!" He tells Siddiq, who nods as Jerry climbs into the driver's side of the truck and speeds out of there. Daryl looks at Al, Alicia, and Clinton as they start to stab the corpses under the fire of the factory, but he then hears twigs crack and raises his crossbow to see Shane pushing a cuffed Dante forward in front of him.
"Daryl, it's me," Shane says as he leads Dante up to him with Daryl putting his bow away and punches Dante in the face. Shane holds onto his shirt as he grunts.
"Come on, Daryl. Kill me." Dante growls.
"Not yet. Take him to the wagon. If he tries to run, cut off his foot." Daryl tells Shane, who nods as he looks at Clinton. "Start loading our dead into the wagons. We'll take them back in the morning."
"How do we know Alpha doesn't have anymore spies?" Alicia brought up a point.
"We don't." Daryl grimaced as he grabbed his radio. "Rick."
"I'm here. What's wrong?"
"Shane was right. Dante was a spy; Eugene got bit on the arm and Siddiq is coming back with him. We need to get everybody who has joined us in the last five months and interview them. We need to make sure Alpha doesn't have any more spies among us."
"Alright, I'll tell the others and have our doctors ready for Eugene," Rick tells Daryl.
"We'll be back by morning. We gotta load our dead up." Daryl tells him.
"How many?" Rick asked concerned.
"At least three dozen, only three of the workers are alive. Dante got us good. The bullet shop is done, we fight with what we have."
"I'll see you in the morning. When you get back, we get what we can from Dante, and we deal with him then."
Strand's P.O.V
Strand and Daniel walk into Hilltop, removing their masks, stopping to see Rick coming down from Barrington, asking "Did you find it?"
"We did." Daniel nodded firmly. "The herd is in a cave a couple of miles north of the border. Where's Daryl?"
"Dante's a Whisperer spy." The two men stared, taken aback as Rick continued. "The good thing is he didn't know about the plan, but he attacked the bullet shop, and set it on fire. It's gone, most of the workers there as well, and Eugene is in the infirmary missing part of his arm."
"Jesus," Daniel says. "So what's next?"
"First, we deal with Dante; second, we figure out if Eugene can still do our mission, and then we get the herd," Rick tells the men.
Strand looked at Daniel "Sounds like a plan, you said you got an idea for it?"
Daniel gave a single nod and looked at Rick, eyes ablaze "We still got some bombs?"
Rosita's P.O.V
Rosita sat inside the infirmary, holding Eugene's hand. "How's he doing?" Morgan asks as he comes into the room, touching his wife's shoulder.
"Siddiq said that as long as he wakes up, he'll live." Rosita tells him.
"He's strong," Morgan says. "He'll wake up. Daryl just got back with Dante."
"Watch him," Rosita says before she leaves the trailer, Morgan looking after her. She walks outside and walks up to Rick and Daryl as they talk on the steps. "Where is he?"
"In the cell downstairs," Daryl tells her, then holds a hand up at her. "I get it. You wanna kill him."
"Eugene might die because of him. I know you two need to get information out of him, but when you are done, he is mine. Understood?" Rosita asks both men.
Rick said softly "Rosita..." He paused then sighed, looking at Daryl who nodded...then Rick looked at her back "Alright."
Letting out a breath from her nose, she nodded and went back to the Infirmary with Eugene.
"That woman scares the hell out of me," Daryl says.
"Same, brother," Rick says as he lays his hand on Daryl's shoulder. "Let's go."
Rick's P.O.V
Rick and Daryl walk into the basement and look at Dante, who is tied to a chair. "The brothers, the leaders of the New World. I'm so honored." Dante says sarcastically.
"So, was this always the plan?" Daryl asks him darkly.
"The plan was for me to kill you," Dante says as he looks at Daryl. "But I could never get you alone, and I didn't want to die, so I gained your trust. I was hoping maybe I could get a moment alone with your wife or one of your two beautiful children," Dante says. Daryl punches him in the face, sending him to the ground. Rick grabs the chair and lifts it back up.
Rick then took over "You've been at the Camp for months. Why haven't you done anything?"
"Cause Alpha was gone," Dante says. "She left and just told me to gather information. Like where it is."
Daryl grabs him by his shirt and presses his knife up against Dante's neck. "Does she know?"
"Oh yeah, dear leader, she knows. She's known since she returned." Dante chuckled through a bloody lip and grinned. "There is nowhere safe for you to hide your kids."
Daryl growls in anger as he pulls his knife back and stabs Dante in the hand, making the man cry out in pain. "Daryl," Rick says as he grabs his arm. "Let's take a minute. Now,"
Daryl nods as he takes his knife out and follows Rick out of the cell as Dante laughs behind them. Rick shuts the door to the basement as Daryl paces beside him in anger, rubbing his brow in aggravation "She's been playing us the whole fucking time." Daryl growls. "Our kids aren't safe anymore, man. We can't hide them. She knows everything."
"Why didn't she send herds to the campgrounds then?" Rick asks, then pauses "Wait...and something doesn't add up."
Daryl looked at him, as Rick stated "Alpha said that Lydia was killed by her, to have the Whisperers fear her if she's willing to kill her own daughter. Dante must have seen Lydia, Why didn't he do anything?"
At that, his brother and best friend stared at him then looked away, troubled now.
"Let's go find out he knows, but we have to keep our cool, understood?" Rick asks his best friend, who nods as he follows Rick downstairs again.
Rosita's P.O.V
Rosita sat with her head lying on the bed, then suddenly heard a familiar dry tone "I do hope you are not sleeping." Rosita shot up and looked at Eugene as he looked at her with a weary smile
"Thank god you're awake," Rosita says, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't want to find a new BFF."
"Good, 'cause you're stuck with me." Eugene coughed a laugh out, then gazed around the Infirmary. "Dante?"
"In the basement, Rick and Daryl are getting information from him. Only three of the workers survived." Rosita tells Eugene, who bows his head and then looked up.
"I have to go."
"No!" Rosita tried to lay him back down. "Eugene, you just lost part of your arm."
"Doesn't matter. I have a meeting with Stephanie and her people." Eugene protested.
"I know, but it hasn't even been a day. Stay here today, rest, and tomorrow morning, you leave if you want. That will still leave you eight days if you leave in this state. You'll never meet her because you will die on the road. Please, Eugene."
"Alright, but I leave at first light," Eugene says after a moment's pause.
"First light." Rosita then asked, "So how much do you like her then?"
Eugene looked down with a blush "Rosita-"
Rosita chuckled "Just saying if you still want to leave even in the state you're in you must be impressed."
Carl's P.O.V
Negan, Maggie, Beth, Shane, Ezekiel, John, Alicia, and Carl stood in Beth's office, as they had for hours, as the last person they had brought into the area since meeting Alpha left.
Carl looked at Negan, sitting against the wall looking bored but he knew was listening keenly, being the best at reading and sizing people up "Well?"
"None of them were lying." Negan shrugged.
"We thought the same of Dante," Ezekiel argued.
"They all had proof," Carl said sternly. "Dante told us a good sob story and that he was a doctor and we didn't need to hear anymore. We knew we needed his skills cause he was a doctor, and I think that was all true. We just didn't know Alpha was this patient."
"Why is he still following her?" Maggie asks, making them look at her. "Alpha told all of them that she had killed Lydia, but Dante hasn't been affected by it."
Negan sat up immediately eyes hard, as Shane raised and put a hand on his shoulder to settle him saying "Maybe she gave him a reason."
"The question is why the Campgrounds," Negan says. "He had choices in all the Places. If she wanted to do the most damage to our supplies, she should have hit here. Most of our food comes from here, but she chose the Camp for him to go to, and it wasn't just for the location."
"There was another reason," Shane realizes. "What could Dante have done that we didn't know about?"
"I don't know. Has Daryl talked to Elijah?" Negan asks.
"No," Maggie answers.
"May I?" Negan asks as he looks at the radio, and Maggie nods, he goes over and picks it up "Elijah, this is Negan. Do you copy?" They all stay silent as they don't hear anything. "Elijah?" Silence. "Elijah!"
"Let's go," Shane says as he grabs his shotgun. "Negan, let's go!" Negan nods as he drops the radio and follows Shane outside towards the truck.
"What's going on?" Alden asks as he looks at them.
"The Camp's silent." Shane hastily said, getting into the driver's seat.
"I'm coming!" Alden offered as he looked at Connie, who nodded as she followed him to the truck, making a hasty departure.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl and Rick stared at Dante as they came back down, Dante leaning back "Oh so now what?"
"How did you know the order of the victims?" Daryl asks.
"Cause I was there as they died," Dante says with a smirk as he leads forward. "I put Nick's head on."
Daryl growls as the door opens, and Alicia comes down. "What?" Daryl asks, looking over at his wife.
"The campgrounds are silent, nothing," Alicia tells Daryl, who looks at Dante, his fists tightly clenched.
"What's going on here?"
"It's a surprise!" Dante says with a smirk and chuckle. "I'm glad I get to see your reactions to it."
Daryl grabs him by his neck. "What the hell is going on?!"
"Fuck you!" Dante spat at him.
"We're done, Daryl," Rick says. "Let's go," Daryl nods as he follows Rick out with Alicia, worry clenching his gut at what Alpha had planned, They then look at Rosita as she walks out of the infirmary. "Eugene?"
"He'll live." Rosita just said as he marched past them downstairs.
Rosita's P.O.V
Rosita walks down the stairs and looks at Dante. "Hey, Rosita," Dante says with a smile. "God, I wish I got to know you better. How's Eugene? Is he dead yet?"
"He'll live." Rosita says as she glares at him "You hurt my best friend. Took away a part of him."
"Sorry?" Dante shrugged.
Staring for a moment, Rosita then asked a nagging question in her head "...Why?"
"Why what?" Dante raised a brow.
"You knew Lydia was alive. Why did you do it?"
Dante chuckled "Oh Lydia? You know, I remember when Alpha ordered us to train her, make her strong. A lot of us really liked such a pretty little thing, but Alpha never let us play with her like some of the others. I actually asked Alpha if I could take her face...and she agreed."
Staring blankly at this, Rosita swings the machete down, taking off Dante's right hand. He screams in pain as he tries to move his arm, and blood flows on the floor. "You bitch!" He growls as Rosita her knives and stabs him in the stomach.
"You're a coward, trying to beat up and kill a girl. You've got no guts," Rosita says as she cuts his stomach open, and his guts fall to the ground. He stares at her for a moment before he dies. "I've spent too much time around Negan." Rosita absently says as she stabs her knife into his head and walks out. She walks upstairs and looks at Daryl and Rick. "Someone needs to clear that up." She says as she walks back to the infirmary.
"Still scared?" She overheard Rick ask Daryl.
"Terrified," Daryl says, making Rick chuckle.
Eugene's P.O.V
Eugene looked at Rosita as she walked in. "Who's blood is that?"
"Dante's," Rosita says as she sits down.
"Normally amigo I am not one for unnecessary violence, But I will admit that that particular SOB did deserve it," Eugene says, and Rosita smiles. "I guess I won't be as useful now," Eugene says as he looks at his hand.
"Yeah, we don't need you because of your hands. We need you for what's in your head," Rosita says as she takes his hand. "Even if you didn't have either. I need you because you're you, so come back, please."
"I will," Eugene says.
Shane's P.O.V
Shane stops the truck in front of the Camp gates, and they climb out, then they hear it from inside, causing their blood to run cold.
Walkers
Walkers were in the Campgrounds itself.
Negan just muttered, "We are so fucked."
Thanks for reading. Dante is dead, and something has happened to Elijah and his people inside the campgrounds. In the next chapter, what happened to the campgrounds is revealed. Eugene leaves, and the group talks about their next move and plans to take down the herd. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.