Captive | The Walking Dead |

96

The next day, Rick and Michonne took Negan to  Alexandria once he woke. Isabella avoided them at all costs, she didn't want to see Rick or Michonne right now and she didn't want to see Negan just yet.

She wasn't going to avoid him, she wanted to surprise  him, wanted to see his face when he realized she was alive and with the  group. She knew she'd do that but seeing Rick was a whole other story.

Everyone else packed their belongings to go and rebuild Alexandria. They cleared the walkers from it and now they had to rebuild the devastation the saviors brought upon it.

Not everyone was going back to Alexandria  though. Maggie, Enid and Glenn would stay in Hilltop, Rosita, Eugene, and Daryl would move to the sanctuary and the remaining people would  head back to Alexandria.

Isabella didn't know where she would go.  Daryl offered her a place in the sanctuary if she wanted it, and she  knew that if he could go back to that place to try and make it better  than maybe she could but she didn't feel like she belonged there.

She knew she'd have a place in Alexandria but she wasn't ready to sleep in the same walls as Negan. Not yet.

She decided to stay in Hilltop for a bit, she didn't know if that'd be a  few months or even a few weeks. She just knew she needed to be around  the group for now while her body healed.

She stood on the balcony of the giant house, staring down at the courtyard as every prepared to  leave to their homes when she heard footsteps approaching her.

"Hey Carl," she plastered an empty smile for the boy.

"We're going back home, why don't- why don't you come with us?" Carl asked as he nervously got on the balcony closer to her.

"I don't-I don't think that's wise kid. I'd be a ticking time bomb," she softly shook her head.

"He'll be locked up, he can't hurt you mom. Please, come home with us. We could all be together, like before."

Like before.

Before she decided to be reckless in saving her friends and she was separated  from everyone for what felt like an eternity. Before she slaughtered an entire community. Before she continued killing saviors.

She sighed. "Listen kid, after your father did that, I don't think-"

"I  told him to do it. I told him to let Negan live," Carl suddenly said and it felt like the air from her lungs came rushing out.

"What?"

How could Carl, her son, the one who knew that Negan caused her to be separated from everyone, the one responsible for her 'death', wish for Negan to live.

She knew Carl had become hardened from the harsh  realities of the world so what made him suddenly have a change of heart and ask Rick to let the worst man alive live?

"I asked him to let Negan live. So we could have a future, one where we break the cycle and stop killing each other."

"Carl that's not how the world works anymore."

"You're right. It's kill or be killed right? But what, what if we changed that?  What if it didn't have to be survival of the fittest. We could be  better than them, go back to being...human."

"Carl-"

"Remember Dale? That's what he believed in."

"Of course I do. I think about him everyday, and I wish we could do what he wanted but it's not that simple."

"You can't know unless we try. So we are, dad's trying. You can't be mad at him for that."

"You're wrong. I can be. I have every right to be mad at dad after the shit Negan put me through. And even if he hadn't, your father making that choice alone without any of us was still fucked up."