Something To Fear | Glenn Rhee

[열넷] The End of a World

"Well, look at that, dawn is breaking. It's a brand new day."

~ Negan

Sasha sighed as she put her head down on the polished desk. These past days had been very stressful for her. She let herself rest for once in Gregory's office, remembering when she had announced to the Hilltop residents she would be their leader...

The citizens looked at Sasha glumly as Jesus explained that Gregory had been killed and Sasha would now be in charge. He assured them he would be an advisor to her, something Sasha was grateful for due to the tense situation.

Jesus understood she didn't need any help, it wasn't like she couldn't handle things on her own. But she did need to know the ropes of how things worked here and of course how to handle The Saviors.

That issue was immediately asked by a citizen, which Jesus answered they would tell Simon and the rest of The Saviors that Gregory had killed himself. It's not like it would be out of character for the coward he was.

"But won't Simon be suspicious of a random woman in charge?" The citizen continued on.

Jesus opened his mouth to respond, but Sasha had already stepped forward with an answer of her own.

"Look, you all barely know who I am so I'm going to spare you all the sentiments of an inauguration speech. Your leader, Gregory, was a coward who only looked after himself. He didn't care about you as long as it meant his survival. He had been lying to you, so I am going to finally put an end to all that bullshit. He made a deal with my people from Alexandria to protect you all from the Saviors and take out Negan in exchange for food. To make a long story short, we failed. Negan cornered us and killed two of our people, the woman who proposed this deal and a man who had previously fought the Saviors. He killed them the same way he killed the teenage boy who lived here. I was a witness to this- I had to watch my friends be brutally murdered in front of their loved ones." Sasha paused.

"Jesus had hoped for our communities to live in peace. And that is still possible. But not with Negan alive. Not with Saviors. Or people like Gregory who threatened to turn my friend and me over to the Savior with a gun. My friend fought him and it ended with Gregory dead. I know you all are distrustful of me and I don't blame you. But I promise I will work alongside someone you do trust to ensure Negan will be defeated."

Jesus applauded Sasha with the Hilltop Colonists slowly doing the same. "I was the one who saw behind Gregory's fake concern and proposed Sasha become the leader here. She genuinely cares, is highly intelligent, and has all the other qualities a great leader should have. Yes, Simon has seen Sasha before so he will figure out that our two groups know each other. Unless... when he comes I can 'pretend' I am the new leader. Just to be safe," He looked at Sasha curiously.

She knew this was a critical time and they needed to account for any variables. She nodded her head in agreement. He could be her stand-in as a leader, a figurehead of sorts while she was the one behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

"In order to win this war, we will need everyone's cooperation. You have mine and Jesus's completely. We are willing to die for this cause. I ask you all, are you? This will be a bloody and dirty fight with very high stakes. We cannot afford to fail, but we can only do that if everyone is willing to fight," Sasha said firmly. Everyone gazed at her for a while before raising their fists in the air. Sasha looked worriedly at Jesus, thinking they were refusing. However, Jesus's blue eyes brightened and his lips gave Sasha a reassuring smile as he nodded his head.

A hand nudged Sasha out of her daze, startling her.

"Sorry," Jesus grinned. "But there's something you need to see..." His tone suddenly turned serious. They walked out to the front walls; Jesus motioning for the gate to be opened.