Walking Dead: Building Your Own Hope

Chapter 5 of my Walking Dead story, enjoy.

Reviews:

Boris Yeltsin: Yes, indeed, it's not looking good, even with hope peeking over the horizon.

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or its characters.

Season 4: Episode 5

The tension in the air was palpable, the only good news they had right now was this was indeed the right place, the Saviours that had escaped the initial raid were already confirmed to be inside. They had no confirmation yet however and would not be able to until they got inside as to if this was the location the hostages were indeed being held at. Michonne looked around at her team before walking over to Rick and his men, all ready with their weapons drawn and preparing for the raid.

"I know this is a joint operation, but I'd like you to follow my lead, Rick." She explained. "This is personal for you, that's why."

"I...I understand." Rick said with a sigh.

Michonne nodded sympathetically. "I get it, but I need you focused, leave the hostage rescue part to me and my unit, the rest of the agents will be going through to make sure they get them all...help them, please."

Rick nodded back. "Understood."

Soon they were ready, everything gathered together, now they just needed to wait for the signal to begin the raid. This was the part most fraught with tension.

'We don't have proof, but we have to believe, Carl's is counting on me to bring Jamie back, along with Andrew and Beth.' Rick thought to himself.

But he focused, the signal was given and the raid began.

It was a surprisingly familiar rehash of the previous raid, only with fewer Saviours to offer resistance. The stun grenades doing their jobs as they all got to work, moving throughout the whole base as quickly as they could to secure the place and take down the Saviours, in the midst of shouting and before long gunshots could be heard, further bangs and shouts and soon they were discovering, while the Saviours had again been expecting an attack, they once again hadn't been expecting something this big, they therefore did have the element of surprise once again and now they had an even bigger advantage, allowing them to progress more quickly. This time however, they had a harder time subduing and making arrests, these were Negan's most fanatical followers and were more willing to fight back and die in the attempt. But luckily, to Rick's relief, they were able to get the drop on them before any of the Saviours could seriously injure any of them, until finally, the last one was taken down and Rick lowered his gun.

"Clear." He called out."

Several other team leaders who had scoured the building all called out the same. The only team that remained was Michonne's team.

"Clear." Michonne finally called. "Rick, get down here!"

He was startled but did so and entered the room that Michonne was next to.

"MMMMMMMM!" The three hostages cried out, in pain and suffering but relived, seeing they were saved.

Rick felt the tension leave his heart, they had done it, with one exception, Negan had still escaped.

XXXXX

"Jamie!"

Jamie looked up and smiled as Carl rushed over to him, he wasn't alone, Marissa and Brian were also rushing in and hurrying towards the beds where Andrew and Beth were seated. All of them smiled too, glad to see their respective boyfriends and girlfriend again.

"We thought, we thought we'd never see you again." Marissa explained as she instantly hugged Andrew close, as if terrified to let him go.

"Ow, Marissa, still sore." Andrew hissed, but smiled warmly at her. "We were so afraid too, I love you, I can never say it enough."

"I can never hear it enough." Marissa replied as she sheepishly let him go.

Brian and Carl were a little more gentle in hugging their loves but yes, everything was looking better for them now, they were being treated for their injuries, recovering and now had been reunited with their loves and their families who came rushing in at that point too and began fussing over their respective kids, Rick did hang back a little though as he had to stay focused on the job for the moment. But his expression said it all, he was overjoyed and relieved that his son was safely reunited with his boyfriend. Their friends all arrived too, overjoyed and relieved. Everything was now looking up, the physical nightmare was over for them, but Rick knew it wasn't completely over yet.

'They still need to recover...to say nothing of Negan still being on the loose, that needs to be dealt with.' He thought sadly.

Still, he didn't want to upset the happy reunion and knew that thankfully, Negan's power was much reduced, it would give them a chance, an opportunity to deal with him before he tried anything desperate. He just hoped to do this quickly before anyone else got hurt, but he had a nasty feeling that there was something else going on, something that was going to get worse before it got better. Despite everything that they had already had to endure, he had a paralysing fear that the group would end up being the ones to suffer for it, no matter what he did.

With the happy reunions continuing, Rick left the hospital and walked over to where Michonne was waiting.

"So...how are things going-?"

"All good, they're recovering well, getting better and we've got all the evidence, we know exactly what was done to them...but with Negan gone, having escaped again…" Rick replied warily.

Michonne nodded. "I know, he's always been a difficult one to collar, a slippery customer for sure...I just don't know how we can deal with this any more than we already are."

"So we what...just leave things?" Rick asked, some heat slipping into his tone.

Michonne shook her head. "I don't intend to leave this at all, I will find him and bring him down, I swear."

Rick sighed. "I hope so...I have to keep looking for him too, for Carl's sake...for all their sakes."

Michonne smiled. "Yeah, I can understand that...We really do need to step things up. We have a lot of things covered, Negan is stuck laying low, but he can't do it forever and then we will get him."

"What are the chances he's already fled town, is it even possible he's no longer here?" Rick wondered.

"Maybe...but I don't want to chance it." Michonne replied. "We need to be absolutely sure he's not here before we let things lie."

They both agreed they would do so, they were not going to rest until Negan was taken down and they could be sure people were safe, for Rick this meant especially that Carl and Jamie would be safe.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.