Destination Life or Death

28.

"Stop right there!" a man spoke from the top of the gate. "You gonna make us?" Daryl said quickly while we all raised our guns to the two men uptop. "Jesus, what the hell is this?" one of them spoke down to Jesus. "Open the gates Cal. Freddies hurt." Jesus said looking back to one of the men we had found earlier. 'Look." he paused looking at us then the men uptop again "They get antsy standing up there all day doing nothing." he said to us not moving his eyes from the two men. "They give up the weapons, then we'll open the gate." one of them spoke loudly. "Why don't you come down here and get em?" Daryl spoke, not lowering his gun. "Gentlemen, look we vouch for these people. All right? They saved us out there" Dr. Carson said while walking to the front of the group. "Lower your spears." Jesus added quickly. "Look I'm not taking any chances, just tell Gregory to come down here." Carl spoke to Jesus quietly. "No" Jesus spoke sternly, "Don't you see what just happened?" he paused while not moving his eyes from Carls. "I'm letting you keep your guns, look, we ran out of ammo months ago. I like you people, I trust you. Trust us." he said, looking at Carl then me. I put my hand on Carls back and nodded. Carl waved to the rest of the group as a form of confirmation we were safe. "Open the gates.'' Jesus spoke while turning to face the large steel gates that were now slowly opening. We looked in to see a large house set at the top of a small dirt hill. There were small buildings lining a trail leading to the Large brick mansion. As we walked in I looked to Carl who was examining the area. "There was a materials yard for a power company nearby. That's how we put up the walls." Jesus said while walking to the large house. "A lot of people came from a FEMA camp. Trailers came with them." Jesus spoke while gesturing over to a row of light gray trailers. "How did people find out about this place?" I asked while looking at Jesus, who was now turning to the large house. "That's called Barrington house. The family that owned it gave it to the state in the 30's. The state turned it into a living history museum. Every elementary school for 50 miles used to come here for field trips. This place was running a long time before the modern world built up around it." Jesus paused while looking over to me and Carl "I think people came here because they figured it would keep running after the modern world broke down." he paused again but looked back up at the house this time. "Those windows up there let us see for miles in every direction. It's perfect for security." None of us spoke, we just looked at him then back at the building. "Come on. I'll show you inside." Jesus said while walking toward the house with us following. When we walked inside there was a small table sitting in the middle of the room with a curved staircase to our right. The floors where light brown wood with light pink walls lined with old photos and mirrors, there was a glass chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling. I looked around and then at Carl, and as much as he wasn't showing it, I could tell he was just as blown away as I was. "Good gracious, ignatius." Abraham said, walking behind us. "Most of the rooms have been converted into living spaces. Even the ones that weren't bedrooms." "People live here and the trailers?" Carl asked while looking at the walls. "We plan to build. There's babies being born." Jesus spoke before a door to our left opened quickly. "Jesus, you're back." an older man spoke from the room that was now open to us. "With guests." He added to himself while looking around at us. "Everyone, this is Gregory, he keeps the trains running on time around here." Jesus spoke to us "I'm the boss." Gregory spoke quickly. "Well I'm Carl, we have a community--" "Why don't y'all get cleaned up, hmm?" Gregory interrupted Carl quickly while waving us away. I looked at Carl then Gregory confused, "We're fine." Carl spoke again. "Jesus will show you where you can get washed up, then you can come down here when you're ready. It's hard to keep this place clean." Gregory spoke while walking closer to Carl and speaking in his face. "Yeah, sure." Carl said nodding to him before looking at me, and then at Jesus. "Follow me." Jesus spoke from behind Gregory and started leading us all upstairs. "You clean up first and then you talk to him." I spoke to Maggie quickly while walking up the stairs. "Why?" she questioned, "Because Carl shouldn't." I said shaking my head while focusing on her then back on the stairs. "And you gotta start doing these things" I added quickly before reaching the top of the stairs and following behind Jesus.

"We want to generate trade, Gregory does, but ammo isn't something we urgently need." Jesus said to Carl while Daryl, Abraham, Glenn, Maggie and I all stood around. "Well, how's that?" I asked from where I was standing. "The walls hold, we just brought in more medicine, Gregory wants the best deal possible." Jesus added quickly. "Yeah, well, we want things too." Daryl spoke while pacing the room. "We need food, we came all this way, were gonna get it." Carl spoke with a deep voice. He was trying so hard to be like Rick he wasn't even sounding like himself and I think he knew it just as much as I did. "I will talk to him and we will work this out." Jesus said, looking at Carl. "Circumstances change. We're doing well now, and you will next. I will make him understand that. Can you give me a few days?" Jesus spoke while looking at Carl still. "We can." I spoke from the chair I was now sitting in, behind Jesus. 'Yeah, okay." Carl said looking over to me then at Jesus again. A man walked in the room quickly before Gregory walked out. "What's wrong?" he asked the man who had just come in frantically. 'They're back." He said, looking at Gregory, then walking out with Gregory, Jesus and the rest of us following. We walked out of the house to see three people walking up the hill towards us. "Ethan, what happened to everybody else? Where's Tim and Marsha?" Gregory spoke to a muscular man who had an angry expression, he had a beard and long hair slicked into a bun. "They're dead." Ethan spoke to Gregory angrily. "Negan?" Gregory asked. "Yeah." Ethan responded quickly. "We had a deal!" Gregory said putting his hands on his hips. "He said it wasn't enough." another man spoke from behind Ethan. "Was the drop light?" he added on to himself quickly. "No." Gregory said slowly. "They still have Craig." the woman they had walked in with spoke "They said they'd keep him alive, return him to us, if I deliver a message to you." Ethan spoke while walking up to Gregory and placing his hand on Gregorys shoulder. "Well, tell me!" Gregory spoke but didn't move his eyes off of Ethan. "I'm sorry." Ethan spoke before shoving a blade in Gregorys stomach. Carl ran up and pinned Ethan to the ground. "Get off of me!" Ethan was screaming. "I had to!" he yelled again. Carl punched him three times in the face before the other man Ethan was with pulled him off, but he was quickly tackled by Abraham. Carl got back on top of Ethan while the man Abraham was fighting had him pinned to the ground choking him. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." I said repeatedly while running up to the man and pulling his arm off of Abraham so he would look at me. "Oh, you're pathetic!" I said shaking my head before slamming his elbow against my knee and throwing him to the ground. I turned around to see Ethan on top of Carl holding a knife to his throat. Glenn started walking up but was stopped by Ethan speaking. "Stay Back!" he yelled while looking around. "Anyone who tries to stop me is killing my brother!" he yelled while focusing on Glenn then back onto Carl. "Drop it." I said now standing right next to Ethan with my hand on the handle of my katana. Carl stabbed him in the throat while he was looking at me, Ethans body fell limp on the ground while Carl stood up now covered in Ethans blood. Everyone stared at us and eventually focused on Carl. "What?" He asked squinting to see everyone looking at him. "Ethan! You killed him!" the man whose arm I broke before spoke while crawling on the ground. "He tried to kill Gregory, then me." Carl said, looking at the man before the woman they had been with came up and punched Carl in the face causing him to fall to the ground. I walked up and pushed her to the ground, before putting my foot on her chest. "Are you dumb?" I questioned angrily before pushing my foot off of her. "Don't!" I spoke again sternly to her. Carl stood up and pulled his gun out while two men with spears came rushing to him. "Put it down, now!" one of the men spoke while Carl raised his gun to them. "I don't think I will." he spoke angrily. "Everyone! This is over!" Jesus yelled while moving in front of Carl. "It's over." He spoke again while looking at Carl. "Ethan was our friend, but let's not pretend he was anything more than a coward who attacked us. He did this." Jesus spoke looking around to everyone. "And these people stopped him." Jesus said, pointing to Carl, who still had his gun drawn. "What can I do?" Carl spoke while looking at Jesus, "Put the gun away. You've done enough." Jesus spoke sternly. Carl put his gun away and looked at me with a nod. I walked up to him and put my hand on his back and nodded back to him. "You need to know," Jesus paused while looking at me and Carl. "Things aren't as simple as they might seem. Just give me some time." Jesus spoke while looking at both me and Carl before walking away. "What is going on?" I questioned looking at Carl before walking away to see Abraham. "You alright?" I asked looking at him. "I'm better than alright." He said laughing before taking my hand to help him up.