I shuddered as I poured the nails into the tin can I had claimed as a makeshift bomb beforehand. Brutal. I tried to focus on something else, but nothing stopped the flash of the mangled body I killed in the same way from entering my mind, his screams resonating in the back of my head.

Isaac was gone. I only realised when I looked around for his face that I was one of the only people left by the RV, sitting on a tarp on the ground to leave no trace of what I was doing. Carol told me he'd gone with Martinez to scout out the outpost as she passed by.

I had an assortment of items in front of me: nails, fertiliser, bottles, tins, sugar, a wing mirror car keys and the electric locks I swiped from the car with batteries attached to them. I had a plan for the last two, but I hadn't gotten the chance to test it yet.

Footsteps drew me away from my work . . . work, is that what this was to me now? I ignored the guilt clenching at my throat and looked up to see Glenn standing over me, casting a shadow over the tarp I was using to keep my things together.

"Need any help?" He asks.

I shook my head. "No."

He nodded but continued standing there. "Are you making enough for everyone?"

"Just for me." Killing people this way was a burden I was willing to bear, and I had a plan.

He seemed to understand.

Glenn took a seat on the tarp in front of me, his knees out as he rested his arms up on top of his legs. I can feel his eyes watching my movement, taking note of what I was using to make the bombs even though I didn't let him help.

"I'm a little worried about today," he admitted, taking over the conversation when I failed to start one. "I've never . . ."

"I know," I said as he trailed off. "I liked it better that way, knowing you've never had to."

"It should be the other way around." Glenn went quiet after that because there was nothing to be said on the idiosyncrasies of our actions anymore. We were so far beyond that point. He dug the palms of his hands into his eyes, rubbing away the tired expression on his face.

"Just because you didn't get the chance doesn't mean you didn't protect the group." Glenn has done more work than anyone. "You didn't have to kill anybody to scare the Governor's army away."

"And they came back," he argued. "We let them go and they came back, and they killed Hershel—" he choked off, shaking his head. "And with what happened the other week, it's better that we deal with the threats before they become a problem."

I paled under my tan, my eyes dipping to the ground. "You don't have to use what happened last week as an excuse to do this if you don't want to."

"You almost—" He stopped himself, swearing under his breath. "You could've died. "

"I know, I was there."

He winced, nodding to himself. "Sorry, it's just if my getting involved today is going to keep you or Maggie safe then I have to do something today. It can't just be you or Rick to do the hard things when they need to be done."

I said nothing because, in truth, he was wrong. Glenn had been safe from the consequences and horrors of killing someone. One day, maybe the conflict would end and we would all be free of death and killing, but he or Maggie did not have to be there today.

His eyes drifted back to Maggie who was leaning against one of the cars. "Things are different now."

"You and Maggie can still head back," I said. "Convince her that she doesn't have to be here for this."

"We already discussed it."

The panic snuck up on me, filling my chest with heavy air that made my chest constrict. The feeling—the finality in his words made my fingers unconsciously curl around the next empty can, as I started making the next bomb.

I was not going to let them die. Glenn and Maggie were not going to die.

Maggie looked over from her place leaning against the car, pushing herself forward when I caught her eye. My gaze quickly returned to the ground in front of me, counting the bombs I had already made for the fight, giving a quick nod as she sat down beside Glenn.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Maggie asked.

Glenn kissed her temple. "The baby."

"Well," she drawled, a smile crossing her face. "That can't be true, or you'd both look a lot happier."

He breathed out a laugh and put his arm around her, pulling Maggie so she was sitting kneeling, the weight of her body held up by Glenn's frame.

"Have you been thinking of any names?" I asked them.

Stupid question, I scolded myself immediately. What a thing to ask when we were about to do something really dangerous. My chest squeezed impossibly tighter that I considered opening a hole up like in the hospital programs.

"Not too much, with everything going on we wanted to wait until closer to the date," Maggie answered happily. "We were thinking maybe Hershel, for a boy."

I rubbed my hands over my thighs as I tried to hide the grimace that threatened to cross my face.

Glenn smiled, tilting his head. "No?"

"I just don't like naming kids after people who—" I corrected myself quickly, "anyone, really." I swallowed, "But it's good. If that's what you're going to name it then what I think shouldn't mean anything."

"We'll think about it," Maggie promised. "We have time."

"Yeah," Glenn agreed. "And it might be a girl."

"That too," Maggie chuckled.

There was a moment of silence that I kept myself from filling,

"I should go help Heath move the bodies," Glenn said, waiting for Maggie to move before standing up.

Maggie waited until he was out of earshot before turning back her me, her eyes almost

"You okay?" Maggie asked softly.

I tried to box my opinion of her being here in the first place because that became my biggest concern at the moment. "Fine."

Her brows flicked up. "Really, because you're over here alone and the whole thing about the names—"

"I really don't like it," I offered. "It's weird."

"You don't think it's honourable?"

"I don't know, guess it's hard for people to make a name for themselves."

Hershel, especially, was a hard name to live up to, and I don't think anyone could have done it justice. God, I missed him. Reminiscing about him then, I just wished I could have spent more time with him before the Governor attacked.

Maggie nodded, not necessarily agreeing with me but as a way of acknowledging my statement while pushing the conversation forward. "We can talk, you know."

"About what?" I asked.

"Tonight." There was a moment of silence between us before she said, "I want to make sure you're going to be okay going in there. I made the deal, I knew how people would feel about it, but I made the deal anyway. I'd be in there myself if I could."

I didn't want to make her feel bad about the decision, because I know if Rick was in that position he would have done the same thing—hell, Rick would have taken more from Hilltop after Jesus made us lose everything on the run. But we didn't even think about this decision once, what would happen if we lost if someone was killed or caught. This needed more scouting, more planning, and more thought. We didn't have the people or resources to jump back in.

"Nobody wanted this," I offered. "I know the Saviours are bad and what it would mean for us if we take them out. Something just doesn't feel right, the maths doesn't add up."

"I know," she said, coming to sit beside me. "But we don't have the food to wait much longer."

I knew that too, which made this situation a lot harder.

"Don't worry about it." I shook my head finally. "I'm probably just a little more wired about killing again."

"Okay," she nodded. "I'll leave you alone, okay?"

"Yeah." I was really easy to read.

It had been around thirty minutes before I glanced up to see most of the group had returned. I had zoned out for most of that time, not working or even attempting to move from my spot as I stared out across the field. It probably looked like I was just keeping watch, but my mind had been completely blank for that time.

Someone had cut the hair of the walker heads they collected behind me, and they looked a lot more like Gregory now. Part of me wished they could have brought the real head, that Andy or Nathan had succeeded in the assassination attempt. Just wishful thinking that someone I wanted dead would die.

Behind the RV the group had collected, some sat on the car's bonnet, others just standing around until we had something to do. Rick was at the periphery of the circle, gun hung low in his hands as he prepared for a speech.

Everyone turned to face him as he began to speak. "We're gonna take a look around, try to get a feel for how many people are in there. We like how it looks, we go in. A couple of hours before dawn, the guards outside'll be tired. Everyone inside'll be sleeping."

Hopefully, I added from where I was sitting on the tarp, taking a break to listen to what Rick had to say. Even if the Saviours weren't expecting Andy to come back so soon with the head, the guards they put on watch at night would have rested in the day.

"We don't like what we see, we head back, make a new plan. Isaac and Martinez are scoping the place out now, they can tell us whether something looks wrong, out of place. They don't know who we are. We'll keep Jesus in the shadows."

Again, I tried to keep my complaints to myself, Jesus was only useful in the shadows until the guards outside were killed. I knew the second we kill someone, we don't have the option to change our minds and get out. Then Jesus should follow us inside to prepare for the fight.

"This is how we eat," he concluded quietly. "This is how we eat."

We are the walking dead, the mantra went off in my head, his tone sending me back to the hopelessness we felt at the barn.

"We roll out at midnight," he said finally.

Ace went back to staring down the road where Carol told her Martinez and Isaac had gone. She hoped they'd be back soon, that they could get some rest before this inevitably went down. Even if Rick acknowledged that we didn't need to fight today, it was still going to happen. I wasn't naive enough to believe we'd get off easy.

"She's done with the hair?" Rick asked as he approached Jesus and Andy who stood over the collected heads of walkers. "What've we got?"

"That one," Jesus pointed to the middle.

"Yeah, that's it," Andy agreed.

"Alright."

"Though, it's probably good we're doing this at night," Jesus said.

Rick knelt to look at the head, picking it up by the hair. "Something wrong with it?"

The nose. Gregory's is a different shape.

"He fought back," was his explanation. "He broke your hand, right?"

"Guess there's no reason to be subtle about it," Jesus agreed.

Rick turned to see Andy looking at him, almost the same way he was getting stared at when he killed Nathan in Hilltop. And Rick responded the same way, "What?"

"The Saviors, they're scary, but those pricks got nothing on you."

Night had fallen before we gathered in the woods around the satellite station, blocking off the front exit of the building. We had to work under the assumption that it was their only way out because vaulting the fences and running across a field to get in was far too open.

We got in position before Rick gave the signal for Andy to ride in, him giving us the distraction we needed to get people down the side of the building to be close enough to kill the men on guard without drawing attention to the people inside.

The roar of the car crescendoed as the car grew closer, Andy pulling around the corner and bringing it in front of the large white building with the round silhouette of the satellite behind it. As he parked up out front of the building, ominous spotlights almost blinded us, casting a blanket of red over the sky above us.

A man's voice booms out over the silence, "Stop right there! Announce yourself, asshole!"

"It's Andy from Hilltop!" He stayed in the car as he yelled back. I didn't blame him. From everything I heard, it was always better to be safe than sorry dealing with these people. "It's done!"

"Step out!" The man yelled again.

The engine stopped, and it was a few seconds before Andy could gather himself to step out of the car with the head, concealed in a brown rough bag we decided to hide it in. The less they got to look at it, the better, according to Jesus.

"Is that it?" One of them asked.

"Yeah!"

"Bring it here, shit brain!"

The door opened at the radio tower, and I could tell they were talking, but now the shouting had stopped and I couldn't hear a thing they said anymore. I kept low behind the bushes, turning my head away to see if I could pick anything up.

"Two guys," Isaac relayed looking through the scope.

"You sure?"

"I don't see anyone on the roof, so they could have a button inside for the lights," Isaac said. "But only two came out front."

Rick nodded. "Good."

He watched them for what felt like minutes, and Isaac sucked in a sharp breath. "He's looking at the head."

"Tell us if they start anything," Rick said. "Then we'll rush in."

"No, it's okay, they're believing it," Isaac said.

"You sure?"

"Only one of them is going back inside, I think he's going inside to get his friend."

"We don't have to make this move," I told Rick. "We have at least until they come back to Hilltop, and even then we can hide Gregory at Alexandria. We can keep scouting. We don't have to kill them now, Hilltop gets their man back anyway."

"If they find Gregory, someone else from Hilltop dies," Rick says. "This ends now."

He lifted the radio to his mouth, giving the signal for Daryl to move in and kill the man. Ace could see the shadow moving along the building wall, disappearing behind the man only for a second before he slit his throat. When the man dropped to his knees he stabbed him in the head.

"Move in!" Rick waved his hand to signal to the others too.

I clenched my teeth before running after them, keeping pace with Isaac. My eyes remained fixated on the door, watching for the return of the other man before we could hide the evidence that we'd been there. It was too late now, we had to finish it now the first body was gone.

We had cleared up the murder scene with the efficiency of forensic cleaners, carrying away the body before blood could even noticeably hit the ground. I ducked behind Andy's car as the others rushed off into the bushes and around the corner of the buildings.

One of them came back out with a man in front of him who looked out of it, his eyes glazed and his hands tied up. "Well, well, well. Look who it is."

The sword came straight through his chest and Andy caught Craig before he could fall. "It's okay, it's okay. We're bringing you back. We're bringing you back."

Jesus, Tara and Gabriel help him to the car.

The rest of us run into the building, guns raised in case there's anyone else inside. I was just behind Glenn, my heart racing as I expected there to be someone waiting around every corner. That was the only way you could truly be ready to take them out.

"Check the doors, find the arsenal." Rick didn't speak above a whisper as he reminded us of our jobs. "We take them out."

I took the first left to go upstairs.

"Ace," Rick whispered to stop me.

"Go." I waved a hand for him to follow the others.

He narrowed his eyes at me, and I reached around to shake my back to wordlessly tell him what I meant: I had a plan. His chest decompressed as he blew out a breath through his nose, leaving me alone to my own devices.

There was no one in the hallway at the top, I would have killed them before starting my plan. I reach for the wing mirror in the drinks pocket on the side of my bag, angling it to face down the hallway, keeping an eye out for anyone who might come out of their rooms.

Then I backed up to the stairs.

I took the bomb that didn't have a fuse out of my bag, they were like that for a reason. Next was the car locks, pushing the keys once to make sure the wire I cut sparks when I pressed the button to unlock it, and it did.

The tin can blended in where it was at the top of the stairs, barely visible in the shadows from the faint light in the hallway. Good. There weren't many things I could do upstairs, not being able to set them off if I didn't know where the people were.

I glanced up, my eyes checking the mirror in front of me just in time to see one of the doors opening. The feet were the only thing I could see, watching as they turned away from the mirror. I sighed, for a second, before they whipped back around.

He'd seen it.

I climbed the step and kept my body low, slipping into the shadow behind the open doorway I'd been watching. I waited, my eyes on the mirror, trying to judge the skewed distance in the seemingly endless hallway.

My fingers tighten around the handle of my knife, and I lunge for him, my knife digging into his neck with practised ease at this point. It slices through his voice box before he can say or do anything. Then I catch his body before he hits the ground with a bang.

"Fucking hell," I breathe, barely managing to bring the body back to the stairs and dropping it over the railing. Deadweight was a thing.

I rush back for the wing mirror, bagging it before vaulting the railing and landing downstairs where I'd just dropped the body. Glancing around, I looked for somewhere to hide it when I saw a gap behind the stairs, shadowed enough to conceal him.

The foot just came under when someone rounded the corner.

"What the hell?" The man sounded groggy, but he'd seen me—the body, at least.

Fear struck in my chest and I froze up for a second. The man had his gun ready, he had to, and this was just going to be a battle of who could get the first shot off—I was not ready to die because of a 50:50 chance.

He rounded the corner, the shotgun aiming down at me. Before either of us could get a shot off, Isaac wrapped his arms around his neck, squeezing tight. It shocked me that he managed to overpower him and keep the upper hand, only faltering when he tried to reach for the man's knife to take it away from him.

"Ace!" He gasped, his right hand pulling up for his left to grab and pull tighter.

It took me a second to jump in and help, grabbing the knife before the man even realised that was an option.

"Take it easy. That's it," he whispered as turned them around, pulling him back behind the wall where I killed the first person. I watched as the life faded away from his eyes, he slowly knelt to lay the body on the ground behind the wall.

He then reached for his knife and stabbed the man in the temple.

"Almost lost that," he breathed after a moment.

"No, I should have done something sooner." I took responsibility for Isaac almost losing control of the man because I should have stabbed the man the second Isaac grabbed him. My head was full of static, I could barely think anymore.

He didn't deny it, but didn't push any blame, "Are you okay?"

"Fucking brilliant."

Isaac knew that meant no.

He kept low and leaned back against the wall next to me, reaching behind his back to pull his notebook out of his bag. There were two X's over two rooms. "Every room I thought could be the armoury has bedrooms inside."

"You've checked these?" I ran my finger over the paper

"Yeah, just some of the beginning rooms. There were some people asleep down here too that I . . ." He trailed off, his face hardening as he shifted on his feet. "Just means that these assholes can be anywhere down here, which is what I was worried about with all these rooms that just go nowhere."

"Alright, we just have to keep heading this way." I tapped the page and nodded my head down the hallway to clarify, following the rooms he hadn't got to before needing to come and save me.

"Lead the way," Isaac put his notebook away.

We made our way out of the stairwell and back into the main hallway of the room, following it around one of the corners as Isaac went to check the first door. He stood beside it and peeked inside, taking in the room before relaying that information back to me. Two fingers, two guys.

I pulled out my knife ready and we slipped into the room. They were both asleep on beds on either side of the room, to my surprise, unaware that we were even in the room. Isaac took the one in the bed on the left and I walked over to the right.

I heard the metallic sound of a knife hitting bone as Isaac killed his guy.

Just as I stood over mine, and I was about to slam the knife down, an alarm echoed through the walls. The man's eyes snapped open, and I practically jumped out of my skin. His palm slammed into my chest, hitting the gauze that stuck out from under my shirt.

I yelped, stumbling back as Isaac spun around. He pulled out his gun and sent a shot into the man's head before he could move.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, rubbing my chest.

"I don't know, fire alarm?" Isaac said. "They must have caught someone."

"Fuck," I snapped, switching to my gun. "This place is like a maze, I don't know if we're gonna find that fucking armoury before we get cornered somewhere."

"We do what we can," Isaac said. "There's no going back now, right?"

Right . . .

Isaac pulled the rifle back around to the front of him, checking the bullets in the chamber before stepping back to the door. He listened for a second before opening it just in time to see a man sprinting past, rounding the corner back towards the entrance to the building.

We chased after them, checking where he came from for more of them before trying to stop him from getting out. I didn't know where he was going, didn't care. We couldn't let any of them get away, give them the chance to come back.

He slipped out of the front door.

"They're trying to get away!" Isaac chased them down, passing the doorway to the stairwell I had rigged when bullets came flying out of it—my chance.

Sprinting after him, I reached into my pocket for the car key, "Get back from the stairs!"

I pressed the unlock button as I dove on Isaac, throwing us both past the doorway before the car lock mechanism could spark and set off the nail bombs. The men screamed, gargling on their blood as shrapnel was thrown into them, tearing open their bodies in a gruesome display of blood that made it across the whole room, small speckles landing in an ever-widening shape through the doorway.

Even Isaac recoiled at the sounds, his hand tightening around my shoulder as he squeezed his eyes closed.

Isaac lay there panting for a second, before shooting up into a sitting position to check to make sure he was clean, which he was. The wall had protected us from being covered in blood—that and not getting impaled by a stray nail was always a bonus.

Isaac stood and ran to the front door while I sat there, replaying the sounds in my head. Again. I'd done it again. I knew what was coming, the sounds they'd make, and I still used it again. My hand clutched my chest as I gasped for air.

"Gabe got 'em." Isaac came back, kneeling in front of me. "Ace?"

"Yeah," I answered, telling him I'd heard despite my silence. "Fine, good."

I didn't have it in me to be surprised that Gabriel had killed someone.

I stood as gunfire still echoed around the concrete walls, cocking my handgun ready. "We have to find the others, make sure they're okay."

Isaac nodded, and we took off running further into the building. Bodies littered the floor, the walls covered in blood smears and spots from the gunfight this had turned into. I knew we could never have killed this many people quietly.

We rounded a corner at the back of the building to find Glenn and Heath standing in front of a bullet-riddled door, in front of six or so bodies that were mangled into a horrific shape on the ground. Jesus stood in front of them, glancing back over his shoulder as he heard me and Isaac approaching.

"We, uh, we found the armoury," Glenn said quietly.

But the gunfire had ceased, and I heard him clearly, the devastation in his voice. I just stared at him for a second, his face dropping as he avoided our gaze. He did it, he killed . . . I ran over to him, wrapping my arms around him, one of my hands on the back of his head as I pulled him down into a hug.

"What happened?" I asked

"They were chasing us, we had to . . ." He choked off, his words catching in his throat. "It doesn't matter now. It's done."

I pulled back, seeing the bitter face he made at the taste of the words. "Yeah, it's done."

Rick, Michonne and Daryl rounded the corner where we were standing outside of the bullet-riddled door. Rick glanced down at the bodies on the ground, but instead of asking about it, his hand flicked to the room behind us.

"That's it?"

"Yeah," Heath nodded, he looked just as broken up over this as Glenn. "This is it."

"So we're done here, right?" Jesus asked, his face miserable.

I had to remind myself that he didn't want this fight, didn't agree to it.

"I'll find the others, see if they're— if they need any help," Michonne said.

If they're alive, was what she was going to say. "Who's still inside? Aaron, Martinez," I listed.

"Abraham, Rosita and Sasha," she finished. "I'll find them."

"I'll take the car back," Daryl said as she walked away. "I need some people to come with me and get the others, load this shit up."

"Yeah," Glenn agreed, gesturing for Heath to follow him. "Tara's still outside, right?"

"And Gabriel," Jesus nodded.

"That should be enough," Daryl said. "Rest of y'all start moving this stuff outside, check the rest of the building for any survivors."

"We will," Rick said.

Everyone knew what they had to do. I moved past everyone into the armoury, checking to see if there was anything inside to help transport them. Some were already in gun racks and crates. I reached for the smallest box which was still a lot heavier than I expected.

Jesus helped next, and Rick started giving directions for the others to look at the rooms and check for any Saviours that could have survived the attack. I heard his voice faintly echoing down the hallway as I turned back to the entrance.

Just behind me, Jesus stopped and looked into the stairwell that was now painted red, his eyes landing on me. My head tilted as if to say that was me, and there was no need for further questioning. He looked just as horrified as I felt over the whole ordeal.

"This is the next world," he muttered, more to himself.

"Is it good for you?" I asked.

"No."

Didn't think so.

The sun was up by the time we had gone through the building and taken everything to the RV, the cars. What surprised me was how little food they actually had there, which, now that I thought about it, was why Negan had wanted Hilltop's supplies in the first place.

I only realised as Glenn hugged Tara goodbye that she and Heath were still heading out on their run in the RV, heading out further than we'd travelled to look for supplies so far. I assumed that was on the back burner since we had to do this, but they jumped in the RV and drove off.

Martinez waved an arm goodbye to Tara and grabbed my shoulder as he headed out into the field, taking a look around at the building in the daylight.

The air was still cold as the sun started to rise behind the clouds, and it was quiet, almost silent until an engine revved behind us, and I whipped around to see a man on a motorcycle riding out from a garage door that blended into the white of the building.

"Son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled.

Rosita was quick to the draw, aiming the gun and shooting the man off the bike in milliseconds. He fell backwards as the bike carried on without him, the wheel spinning out to flip it backwards before it landed on the ground, the engine still revving.

Daryl sprinted to the man, tackling him to the ground before he could do anything.

I neared them, aiming my gun down at his head as Daryl beat him.

"Where'd you get the bike?" Daryl snapped.

I only then realised that was his bike, the one Aaron had given him to fix up and was stolen from him when he got sidetracked taking the herd away from Alexandria. I whipped around, making sure nobody else was trying to escape, but it was just him.

Rick snapped down the hammer of his gun and pointed it at the man's head.

"Just do it!" The man yelled. "Like you did everyone else, right?"

"Lower your gun, prick." I jumped as a woman's voice came over the walkie-talkie. Daryl stood and pulled out a gun, aiming it down at the man on the ground, and everyone was on edge as she started again. "You, with the Colt Python. All of you, lower your weapons right now."

Rick raised the radio to his lips, pressing the button, "Come on out, let's talk."

"We're not coming out, but we will talk."

Isaac raised the scope to his eyes, looking around the woods that surrounded us. There were so many blindspots—it was the same reason we got the upper hand when we worked our way into the outpost. His eyes met mine in a wild and panicked stare as the woman spoke.

"We've got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about."