Carl and I wake up tangled in each other's limbs in a tent that's really much bigger than we deserve. After a quick game of rock-paper-scissors that Carl wins, I'm pulling on my hoodie and slogging my way from our tent, through the mud that formed on our hill from the rain last night, and towards one of the lean-to breakfast tents to get us coffee. Carl doesn't even like coffee, but he insists that we drink some since we don't start our shifts until midday, and he wants us to take a 'lie-in'.
Sasha is leaning against a table with the coffee pot under the canopy, sipping on her own and staring off into space.
I clear my throat.
Her head doesn't move as her eyes dart in my direction, and she smiles when they land on me.
"Win any hands last night?" I ask, scooching past her to grab two mugs from a wash rack.
"Against Eugene?" she raises an eyebrow and scoffs. "You know he cheats."
"Did he make you play with fourteen wild cards?"
"How'd you know?"
"Like you said... I know he cheats."
Sasha offers to pour the coffee if I hold out the mugs. While she's pouring the dirty black liquid, she tells me something.
"Maggie's on her way here."
"She is?"
Sasha nods, tapping the radio on her hip after handing me the Hilltop branded milk we brought with us. "Jesus radioed ahead about an hour ago. Michonne convinced Maggie to pay the Saviors in advance for the missing corn fuel."
I take a stale cracker from a blue tin on the table behind her. "Good," I mumble, munching on the cracker. "Why's Maggie coming here instead of Sanctuary?"
Sasha smirks. "Maggie has her limits. She and Kal are delivering it here. Saviors can take it the rest of the way."
I nod, finding that fair. Still pretty surprised that Maggie agreed to it anyway. Between the lines on Sasha's face, I can read that there's more.
"She's let Earl out to work on the broken plough from the museum."
I suddenly feel much better about going to Alexandria after the bridge is finished. Then I realise no one actually knows about that yet.
"Sash, I'm going to Alexandria after we're done here."
She frowns, slowly putting down her coffee cup behind her. "You are?"
"Yeah. Guess I can't avoid it forever."
"And by it...?"
"Yeah. I mean him."
"I'll come, too."
"But..."
"Rhys, if you're going, I'm going," Sasha says in a tone so final and decided that I can't speak. "I didn't leave Sanctuary because I'd rather live at Hilltop. Besides... can't avoid it forever, right?"
"You think you're ready?"
"Are you?" Sasha asks, frowning defensively, but lets her face soften with a sigh. "I can't lie... it's gonna take a lot for me not to just find something heavy, walk down those steps, and bash that asshole's face in until he isn't much more than a stain on the floor."
She looks at me like she wants me to agree, but I just hug her and then take the coffees back to the tent before they can go cold.
When I walk in, Carl is sitting up in the pile of blankets we've made in the middle of the floor. We tried the cot, but it definitely wasn't made for two people. I spent the first night here fighting just to stay on against the wrath of Carl's furious sleep attacks.
Carl's holding a walkie, putting it down when I walk in. He grins fiendishly.
"What?" I ask, handing him the coffee and then his shirt.
He takes the coffee and ignores the shirt. I don't complain.
"Michonne's plan worked," he tells me.
"Plan?"
Carl's grin doesn't fade. "Dad's meant to be coming back today. Michonne convinced him to stay for another day and rest— she said they're doing a family fun day just to get Judith to see Siddiq."
"Why does Judith need to see him?"
"She's got a cough." Carl twists his grin into a frown. "Maybe now's not the best time for you to come to Alexandria. What with the bug."
"Nah," I say, shrugging. "I don't get sick."
"You do," Carl groans. "You just refuse to admit it."
"Still alive, aren't I?"
"Don't jinx it."
I laugh, cupping the small metal coffee cup in my hands and sitting with him in the mess of blankets, leaning my back against the pole holding the middle of the tent up. "Hershel's had a cough, too."
"He okay?"
I grin. "With Doctor Wyatt, how could he not be?"
Carl nodded, smiling softly. "Enid did good yesterday."
"She always does."
He nods to that, too.
"How'd Michonne convince your dad to take the day?" I ask.
Carl's grin creeps back. "We've worked out that you've got to make them think it's their idea."
"Oh," I gasp, giggling. "That's what last night was, was it? You hustling me into saying I'll come to Alexandria."
Carl just sips his coffee and wiggles his eyebrow, but starts coughing violently at the taste.
"Man, that's nasty," he chokes.
"I'll drink it."
When Maggie arrives, everything is less happy. Carol comes running into our tent to tell us we're needed, and when we get down to Maggie's wagon, we see why.
"Fuck," I gasp, still pulling my jacket on as we arrive.
Justin's mauled corpse is in the back, food for Sanctuary pushed aside to make room for it.
"What happened?" Carl asks.
Kal sighs. "We got stopped on the road by a bunch of asshole Saviors... when they finally went, this guy came wandering out of the woods."
"Looks like he was shot," Maggie says, pointing at the hole in his chest.
"That's Justin," Carol tells them. "He was fighting with Daryl yesterday... it's not gonna look good."
Carl hands me the radio and says to call his dad.
"You sure?" I grimace.
"Things are about to turn ugly," Carol says in agreement. "We need Rick here."
I nod, turning away with the radio.
"Alexandria relay one, this is Rhys Washburne, come in."
"This is AR-one. Go for Minnie."
"Hey, Minnie. Pass on a message to Alexandria for me? We need Rick at the bridge camp ASAP."
"Awe, that's a shame. Michonne sounded so happy about getting him back for—"
"Minnie... we've got a dead Savior, and it's not looking like an accident. It's the guy Rick sent back to Sanctuary last night."
"Sorry, Rhysie. I'll pass that on to Scott now."
"Thanks. Make sure it gets to Rick and Michonne."
An hour or so passes, and we move Justin's body to the edge of the camp, but by this time, a crowd has grown. Most of them are Saviors — Jed at the front, screaming at the head of the mob. Two sides have formed. Saviors on one, the rest of us on the other. We're standing between them and the gun shed.
Jed points a finger at Carol. "Guess they're gonna execute every last one of us! Just like Justin."
"Not if we have guns, too," Regina barks.
"That's not happening!" Carl yells. "Everyone needs to calm down."
"Or what, buttercup?" Jed sneers.
Sasha steps forward, hand on her gun as she yells for the Saviors to back up. Gabriel shoves someone away. Rosita catches a woman that charges forward in a headlock, throwing her back.
Laura and Arat push to the front of the Savior mob, pushing Jed and some others back.
"No, no, no, no! Calm down!"
I keep my hand on my pistol so no one snatches it in the chaos.
Just as it's about to turn into a free for all, Alden jumps between the two sides.
"Hey! Hey! Stop this shit. Stop it!"
People fall quiet to Alden's yells.
"We're gonna find out who did this," Alden barks, "and we're gonna make sure it never happens to us again, all right?"
"Us?" Jed roars. "You're not one of us anymore."
"'Us' mean all of us."
Jed lunges forward and punches Alden, sending him back into our crowd. "Go shovel that horse shit to whoever killed Justin!"
I throw my own punch back, clocking the much bigger man across the face. Jed laughs, holding his jaw and raising his fist when Carl pulls me back, and Sasha gets between us. But then Carol puts a hand on Jed's neck, her other resting on her gun.
Jed smirks at her, lowering his fist. "I thought you were supposed to be our leader?"
"Enough," Carol hisses at him. Then she addresses the rest of the crowd. "Turn around, all of you!"
No one moves.
"No can do, see," Jed tells her. "Why don't you go ahead and yank that roscoe— pop me right here? It's better than worrying about getting it in the back."
Carol does pull her gun. The rest follows her lead. I hesitate when Carl doesn't draw his beretta.
"We don't want this!" Laura jumps forward, scratching the barcode tattoo on her neck before holding her hands out. "Hey, we just need to protect ourselves."
"NO GUNS!"
Daryl's voice booms from behind us, and we all turn to look.
He's standing by the gun shed with his crossbow loaded.
"That 'cause you're the one that took out Justin?" A Savior that I think is called D.J. yells.
"Nah," another smirks. "My money is on garbage lady."
Regina nods, staring at Anne while Gabriel stands between them. "Revenge for Simon killing all her people, sure."
"No, it's him," D.J. says, throwing his head at Daryl again. "Finishing what he started." He walks over to a tree and grabs an axe.
I pull my gun now.
"What's to stop Earless from picking me off next," Jed sneers.
Carl pulls out his beretta.
Arat tries to grab D.J.'s axe. "Hey, stop. It's gonna go too far!"
Daryl points his crossbow at them. "Nah, it won't."
"Maybe it's both of them," D.J. says to the other armed Saviors. "Come on."
Gabriel rests his machete on his shoulder, not flinching as the Saviors walk forward. The rest of us keep our guns up.
But that's when hooves beat against the forest earth, and Rick rides between the waring side. His silver python is drawn and waving at the sky.
"Everyone, back off!" Rick bellows. "Right now!"
Arat quickly takes D.J.'s axe off him. Laura pushes Jed back, telling him to back down.
"I'll talk to Rick," Alden calls to the Saviors from our side, where he finds himself standing. "I'll try and find a way to make everybody feel safe, all right?"
Rick paces back and forth on his horse between the two groups until they start to disperse.
"Start the redirect," Rick tells everyone. "Pair off to work the grid."
Carl and I stay where we're standing until the only people left here are us and Alden. Maggie comes over from the mess tent, and after talking to Gabriel about Anne, Rick comes to us, too.
"You boys okay?" Rick asks, rubbing a thumb between his eyebrows.
"We're good, Dad."
"Hey, thanks for that," Alden tells Rick. "You thought about what I asked? Couple guns with the right people might calm things down."
"Or make things worse," Rick sighs, grimacing at the thought. "And it wouldn't have helped Justin. No way I would have let him near one."
"No guns for any of them," Maggie growls at Alden. "That wasn't part of the deal."
"You trust me, don't you?" Alden asks her with a high brow. "How about trusting a few other people who've made a change?"
"You're not them," I say, feeling all bothered and stubborn.
"I was," Alden tells me. "You didn't trust me then, remember?"
"First," Rick says, "we try to figure out what's happening— who killed Justin. If we can, then I'll think about it."
Alden fiddles with the hilt of his curved axe before he nods. "Okay."
When Alden's gone, Rick gets the rest of us to walk with him to Justin's body.
"Is that true?" Maggie asks.
"It's not what I want," Rick says. "But the deal you and Rhys cut has made the Sanctuary the majority of the workforce. They're rebuilding this bridge for all of us, so isn't it on us to keep them safe?"
Maggie grimaces.
"It is," I say in her place. "I don't like 'em. But Arat and Laura, they stood up against Jed. They seem like they're trying."
Maggie nods, and Rick lets out a relieved little breath that Carl seems to mirror.
"Who do we think did this?" Maggie asks, looking at Justin's decomposing corpse.
Rick studies the body like I imagine he used to do when he was a cop. Then he watches Daryl walking off into the woods. He taps Carl's shoulder.
"With me, son."
Maggie squeezes my arm after they've left and smiles. "C'mon, we gotta join the grid if we wanna find who did this. You can be my search buddy."