Tomorrow Will Come

Twenty

"I can't breathe with this thing on." Mary mumbled, her face sweating due to the mask someone had placed over her face. She'd gotten away without the gag- her breathing was bad enough already - but even the mask was irritating her too much. Magna couldn't reply, but squeezed the girl's arm gently to show her understanding as they stood in the crop fields of Hilltop, ready for the exchange.
"I am Alpha," the woman called loudly, her voice strong and simple, "and we only want one thing from you. My daughter."
"Our community is more than capable of defending itself." A voice replied, that Mary identified as Tara's.
"I show you my face because we mean you no harm. I just want my daughter. I know you have her."
"You should turn around," Daryl snapped, "leave now and no one gets hurt.
"Wrong answer." The woman scoffed, and she held up an arm, a dozen Whisperers coming to her side.
"Did you see a girl out there," a man - Jesus - called suddenly, "a young girl. Injured. She's with a woman. Did you... Did you kill our people?"
"No. We did not kill them." Alpha retorted, and Mary chewed her lip anxiously, realising that even Jesus didn't know for sure if she was alive. "Which one of you leads these people?"
"I do." Jesus' voice boomed, and Mary saw Alpha's head nod through the towers of wheat.
"Your people crossed into our land. There will be no conflict. Your people killed our people. There will be no conflict. I'm done talkin'. Bring me my daughter, or there will be conflict."
"No conflict?" A shaky mans voice asked, and Mary let out a sigh of relief when she realised it was Siddiq's - her Uncle Sid was there, "One of yours stabbed one of ours. A girl. She's just a girl, and one of yours stabbed her, and she could be dead. Don't talk to us about not wanting conflict. Because you hurt her. Badly."
It took all of Mary's willpower to not speak up then, to not put the pain Siddiq's voice to rest, to tell him she was alive. That she was still holding on.

As Mary and Magna got lead out of the crops, Mary began to cling to Magna's hand, suddenly not feeling like the strong young woman she often felt she was, but feeling like a little girl, scared and alone. She couldn't see who was in front of them, but when the mask was removed from her face, she let out a small smile in her pain filled state.
"Mary! Mary!" Siddiq screamed suddenly, running towards the gate, desperate to see her, but Daryl held up a hand, stopping the young man; him coming over would only get himself hurt.
"I wanted to kill them. Hell, it would have been easier to let that little one die. I wanted to let her die, and kill the other. But I want my daughter more. And turns out, the one we found, this girl right here? She's your leaders daughter. One of mine, two of yours. It's a good trade which is why you're gonna take it. Now. Bring me my daughter."
Mary chewed on her lip, getting painfully aware of her surroundings - Walkers were getting even closer to them all, and a baby, the baby of a Whisperer, was screaming louder by every minute.
"The baby. It needs to quiet." Mary panicked, as Alpha threw the mother a knowing look, a look that churned Mary's stomach, and eventually the woman placed her baby on the floor.
"Hey! Her baby! Her baby! Do somethin'!" Mary shouted to anyone and everyone who would listen, as the baby's drone lured the Walkers to them.
"To live with the dead means to live in silence. If the mother can't quiet the child, then the dead will. Natural selection." Alpha half smirked, as the people on the gates of Hilltop shouted out, calling for the Walkers to come for them, and not the innocent baby, the pale child laid on a ratty blanket in the field.
Suddenly, before anyone could react, Connie ran out of the fields, killed a few Walkers, grabbed the baby, and ran back into the crop field, some Whisperers following her, knives ready.
"Uncle Jay," Mary shouted suddenly, gaining the man's attention, but also an additional gun to her head and a slap, "you can't do it. Don't do this trade. Don't!"
"Shut the hell up." Alpha hissed, but Mary kept eye contact with Jesus the whole time, her eyes pleading for her to take him seriously.
When Daryl came back with the girl, Mary's heart sank. The girl made her think of one person, and one person alone - herself. When she looked into the girl's eyes, she recognised the girl thag she saw in the picture Saffy Carter had given her. The girl, Alpha's daughter, had the same lost, scared, abused look in her eyes that Mary once had, before she lived with Rick, and at that moment, Mary knew for sure that Alpha couldn't get her back.
"Don't! Don't do it!" Mary screamed, fear flooding her eyes, resulting in a gag being put over her mouth.
"Mary," Daryl whispered, so close that he could almost touch her, "I have to. I have to get you back."
"No. No," Mary shouted over the gag, "no! She's evil! They're bad, Uncle Daryl. They're hurtin' her, I can see it in her eyes. She doesn't even have a name."
"It's Lydia." The girl muttered quietly, and Mary made eye contact with her.
"Don't do this to her. Don't. She's not safe there! Don't! Don't! I refuse. I refuse to be in this trade! I refuse. Take me back. Don't hurt her."
"No deal." Alpha whispered quietly, her lips by Mary's ear, and without another word, she pushed Mary away from her, towards Daryl. Mary fell to his feet, and by the time Daryl had pulled her up, Lydia had been exchanged for Magna.
"No. Don't! Don't! Don't send her back!" Mary urged, crying as she watched Alpha hiss to Lydia, then slap her. Mary sobbed as Daryl held her up, and she cried until she passed out on the Hilltop infirmary bed, her injuries horrific, and her mind in tatters, haunted by what they had just send Lydia back to.