Reflections - TWD

97. The man who saved her.

Isabella and Freddie were both still sat in the tent on their own talking.

"Carl told us both to not cause too much trouble," Isabella pointed out. She still thought about him and that letter all the time. "I don't think we're doing a great job."

"Oh, come on," Freddie waved his hand. He thought about Carl a whole lot, too. He didn't speak to Carl for a while after everything with Ron, but then he realized that it wasn't Carl's fault. "He'd be laughing his ass off at us right now."

Isabella couldn't help but scoff a laugh at that. She decided to change the subject. "When do you think Daryl and Rick are gonna come back? Do you think Maggie's really gonna kill Negan?"

Freddie shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you'd be out there trying to stop her. You're his biggest fan these days."

"That ain't true," Isabella pinched her eyebrows together. She just wanted Negan to change, that didn't change the amount of people he hurt and killed.

"Yeah, it is," Freddie nodded. "You talk to him like he's your friend."

"I'm just nice to him," Isabella shrugged. Freddie was starting to annoy her now.

"He doesn't deserve kindness," he responded, rolling his eyes. Isabella snapped at him.

"What the hell is your problem? You're acting like a dick," she told him, scowling.

"I'm not. You're just too stupid to see past Negan's act. He tricked you, Isabella," Freddie told her, sighing and shaking his head.

"No, he didn't. I chose to kill Justin myself," Isabella argued back. He was really starting to piss her off. For some reason, people thought that because Isabella was a kid, she didn't have her own mind. That just wasn't true.

"Would you have done it if Negan hadn't said it was what Daryl would do?" Freddie raised his eyebrows.

Isabella had to think about that for a moment. "I don't know," she mumbled and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Go! Go to the bridge! Go!" Daryl yelled, interrupting their petty argument.

Isabella and Freddie ran out of the tent and looked around. Everyone was running towards the bridge, even Maggie. What the hell was going on?

"Daryl?" Isabella tried to yell, but he was going towards the bridge too and couldn't hear her from where he was, so she just ran after him. "What's going on?"

"Stick by me," was all Daryl had to say. So, that's exactly what Isabella did.

She let out a gasp as they reached the bridge. Rick stood there, holding his side where his clothes with a huge blood stain on them that was slowly growing and a walker coming up behind him. Isabella cringed as it reached it's hand out. Luckily, Daryl shot it in the head with a bolt. Another one almost got to him, but Daryl shot another bolt.

"What is he doing?!" Maggie yelled.

"He's hurt!" Michonne cried.

"That herd went right through Hilltop. He's tryin' to bring down the bridge," Daryl explained.

Isabella's eyes went wide. They'd worked on the bridge for so long. But she could only focus on getting Rick away from there. Fuck the bridge.

"No," Michonne whispered and got out her sword, running off into the trees.

"We turn 'em around. Fight 'em back!" Maggie yelled. Isabella's eyes couldn't help fill with tears. This was so scary. Something was going to go wrong.

"Fire your guns. Try to divert them," Carol told everyone and then ran after the other two women. Isabella stuck by Daryl, just like she was told to. Freddie ran after Carol.

Rick was muttering something, waving his hand at Isabella and Daryl. He wanted them to stop. They couldn't stop fighting. They had to help him.

Rick got out his axe and stumbled forward, slashing a walker across the face.

"We have to try," Isabella sniffled. Daryl nodded and kept on reloading his crossbow as quickly as he could, shooting down the ones he could see. Isabella didn't have anything on her to help him and it made her feel awful. She couldn't help Rick.

There was too many. There was hundreds. Maybe even close to a thousand. They didn't have enough of anything to take all of them out.

Rick slowly raised his gun, his eyes set on something on the bridge. It was too low for it to be a walker. His hand was covered in blood.

"What is he doing?!" Isabella yelled. She couldn't lose Rick. She couldn't handle another person she loved dying.

"Rick!" Michonne screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud that even Daryl and Isabella could hear it from how far away they were from her.

Rick adjusted his grip on his gun and his mouth moved, mumbling something.

BANG!

The bridge went up in flames. Isabella's mouth fell open. She wanted to yell something, anything. But she physically couldn't. Tears ran down her face as she let out shaky breathes. Daryl reached his hand to the back of her head and when she looked up, she saw that he was crying, too. But he looked proud of his brother.

Isabella could hear Michonne screaming, crying and begging for Rick.

The man who saved Isabella was gone. And she couldn't save him.

Isabella and Daryl were frozen in place, watching the walkers fall into the now destroyed bridge.

"What- what happened? I-I though he was going to- to Alexandria?" Isabella whispered through her short breathes.

Daryl just shook his head. It seemed like he couldn't talk much either, he turned around, interlocking his fingers with Isabella's and walking away. They could still hear Michonne screaming and begging.

The Grimes family that Isabella had once met, Rick, Lori and Carl, were all gone. They were all dead. Everyone was gone.

The two Dixons just kept walking, feeling absolutely helpless.

Rick Grimes was dead.

He died to give everyone else to have a chance. He died to save his family. Not just Michonne and Judith, but everyone who he had helped over the years. He had died as a brave man. The brave man he always was.

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sobbing

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sorry for the short chapter- I didn't have much to write

THANK YOU ALL SM FOR 66K READS!!! <3

you guys are NOT READY for Freddie after the timeskip...