The start

I get it now

"You guys get down their first. I'll stay up here to make sure they don't do anything to Rick while y'all are on your way down." Daryl nods his head as he walks back to the others.

They all head down to ground level. Once they got to ground level, five Walkers came up to the parking lot they came in the same way as the last one did. Before any of them could draw their weapons toward them, I shot the walkers. Each headshot.

Target.

I aim my sniper back at everyone getting their reaction. Daryl looks straight in my direction and winks. I shot a couple of inches away from his foot. He stood completely still as a smile formed on his face. I sling the sniper over my shoulder and head to ground level.

"A girl? She is your sniper?" The driver side cop asked.

"Got a problem with that?" I ask.

"Not at all." The cop looks down.

"Good, I'm better with knives." I laugh casually.

We head straight to the hospital walking through a couple doors and hike up some stairs. The hallways are empty and it gave me a unsettling feeling. I stood close to Daryl. It made everything feel safe again. We made it to the main hallway waiting on the other side of the door were four cops and a doctor. There was a young girl directing Carol in a wheelchair. Must be Beth. Those cops must have messed Carol up really bad for her to be in a wheelchair.

"Holster your weapons." A voice came through the walkie.

"You, too." Rick tells us. I shove my revolver in my pocket.

"They haven't been harmed." Rick tells them as the cops we met with walk over.

"Where's Lamson?" The woman I guess is named Dawn asked.

"Rotters got him." The girl cop says.

"We saw it go down." The guy cop says. It didn't sound believable.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. He was one of the good guys. One of yours for one of mine." Dawn nods her head.

"All right." Rick says.

"Move." Daryl walks forward pushing the guy cop. My hand rested on my gun in my pocket. If they try anything to hurt Daryl, it will end badly for them. One of the cops roll Carol up to Daryl has that one cop took the other cop. Daryl rolls Carol back to us.

"Carol." I look down at her. Her pupils were very dilated. Heavily medication. Tyreese helps her out of the wheelchair. Dawn grabs Beth and pulls her over to us. We traded Beth for the girl cop.

"Glad we could work things out." Dawn says as we turn to walk away.

"Yeah."

"Now I just need Noah. And then you can leave." Dawn says. What? The deal happened there is nothing else to it.

"That wasn't part of the deal." Rick walks back to them as we all turn around.

"Noah was my ward. Beth took his place and I'm losing her, so I need him back." Dawn rolls her eyes.

"Ma'am, please, it's not," the girl cops starts but Dawn cuts her off.

"Shepherd! My officers put their lives on the line to find him. One of them died."

"Everyone dies." I scoffed.

"No, he ain't staying." Daryl walks up next to Rick. I take a couple steps forward.

"He's one of mine." Dawn says in a matter of fact tone.

"You have no claim on him. The boy wants to go home, so you have no claim on him."

"Well, then we don't have a deal." Dawn says.

"The deal was your two officers for our two people." I look at her.

"The deal is done." Rick says angrily.

"It's okay. I got to do it." Noah tells us.

"It's not okay." I could hear Beth mumble.

"It's settled." Dawn smirks. I wanted to shoot her in the face.

"Wait!" Beth hugs Noah.

"I knew you'd be back." I could hear Dawn whisper. Beth let's go of Noah and walks up to Dawn.

"I get it now." Beth says. Beth pulls out a pair of scissors from her cast and stabs Beth in the chest. Then shoots Beth in a split-second as we all pull out our guns and aim it toward her. She looks at us speechless shaking her head no as Daryl and Rick shoot her straight in the forehead. The other cops pull out their weapons and aim them at us. I was ready for war.

Target.

"No! Hold your fire! It's over. It was just about her. Stand down." The girl cop tells them and us. The cops put their weapons away as Carol walks over to Daryl. They all started crying. I've never seen Daryl cry before. This girl must have meant something to him. Even though I don't know her, I knew she didn't deserve to die, not like this.

"You can stay. We're surviving here. It's better than out there." The cops tell us.

"No, not after this." I step forward and pull our people back closer to the end of the hallway.

"No. And I'm taking anyone back there who wants to leave. If you want to come with us just step forward now." Rick tells them. Noah walks back over to us. We all head out the door as Daryl carries out Beth. We get out side and see Abraham, Rosita, Tara, Maggie and Glenn, Michonne, and Gabriel reveal themselves.

Daryl shows Beth to everyone as Maggie falls to the ground screaming and crying. It breaks my heart. She's just like me. An older sister trying to protect her baby sister. I don't think I would be able to handle myself if I lost my Jaybird. It would kill me.