damnation → the walking dead ⁴

[ 004 ] we, the hilltop, welcome you.

DAMNATION.

chapter four, we, the hilltop, welcome you.
[ season seven, episode five ]

WHEN MAGGIE RHEE AND Sasha Williams show up at the gates of Hilltop, Cori is both scared and confused. When the gates roll up and Sasha drives the truck in, Cori and Jesus are already there and asking what happened.

Cori and Jesus help Sasha get Maggie to the infirmary. Then they help her bury the bodies of Glenn and Abraham. There is one grave there already. Sasha doesn't ask questions.

As they sit on the steps of the infirmary trailer, Sasha begins to explain what happened. She starts from the very beginning when Daryl left to go after some Saviors. Odessa, Michonne, Rosita, and Glenn left on their own suicide mission to stop Daryl from his. Then Maggie collapsed in her dining room in a fit of pained screaming.

As they made their way to Hilltop, they were stopped by a different group of Saviors on every road. It went on like that until they were left with no choice but to travel on foot. Eugene took the RV in attempt to trick the Saviors. But it didn't work like they planned. They were led straight to a clearing.

Eugene was already there with the RV, his face newly bruised from the beating he took. They made them get on their knees. Then they pulled the others from a truck.

They were in a lineup. Then Negan came from the RV followed by a woman named Kathleen. She was supposed to be their friend and someone else's girlfriend. She never really was. She was Negan all along.

Negan told them he wanted half their stuff, that they worked for him now. Them he told them he was going to kill one of them. Sasha told them about how Odessa offered herself to Negan and that was exactly what saved her. Negan played a game to decide who he would pick. In the end, it was the ginger. Abraham Ford.

Then Daryl hit Negan. And Negan killed Maggie's husband, Glenn Rhee. Then when morning came, they told Odessa to cut her own brother's arm off. She didn't have to. Negan stopped her. But then he took Daryl and Odessa back to their home. Wherever that was.

Cori stares at the ground. She fiddles with blade of grass. She looks at Sasha and asks, "he used the bat?" Sasha nods. "That's what he used when he killed Silas."

"Your brother? Is he the other grave around back?" Sasha asks. Cori nods solemnly. "I'm so sorry. I lost mine, too. I didn't have to watch it happen though."

Cori quickly wipes away her tears. Jesus and Sasha look away from in respect. She sighs and plops her chin in her hands. "Maggie will be okay. Harlan is a good doctor. He's gonna take good care of her." Cori tells Sasha.

It takes three days for Maggie to wake up. When she and Sasha round the corner to visit the two graves, someone unexpected sits beside another. A little boy sits with his chin resting on his knees.

Sasha quietly whispers to Maggie, "that's Flynn, Cori's little brother. That's their brother buried there."

Flynn looks at the two. He stands, "oh, sorry." He says. "I'll go if you two want to be alone with them."

"You can stay," Maggie says softly. Flynn nods and slowly sits back down in the same position he sat in before.

"He comes here every day at 2:00 like clockwork. He sits here for an hour and just talks to his brother. Sometimes he's completely silent." Sasha tells her.

Maggie nods because she isn't really listening. She stands by the grave Sasha tells her is Glenn's. Maggie slowly crouches beside it.

Sasha pulls two things from her pocket and slowly drops beside Maggie. She holds them out for her. Maggie takes the pocket watch.