All of Us (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 33

That evening, a group of us stood in a circle in the town hall, trying to decide what to do. I didn't want to talk about it more, but I knew I needed to. I knew the most about this group, and I would help in any way I could to keep us safe from them.

I shook my head, trying to process everything and make sense of it.

"When they captured me, it wasn't even close to where we are now. I tried so hard to get as far away from them as I could. They didn't usually stay in one place, but I never thought they'd come this far."

"We need to go now," Rosita said, shocking everyone.

"No," Rick immediately said.

Rosita looked furious. "Are you kidding me? Why wouldn't we go?"

"We need to wait. Contact the Hilltop, the Kingdom and Oceanside. See if we can get some help," Rick said.

Rosita crossed her arms over her chest. "But that will be too long. We know exactly where that group is right now. We need to go and take them out. There weren't that many of them."

"But this could be exactly like with the Saviours. We take out the small outpost and get in trouble when there's a much larger group behind them. We still don't know how big they are or where they are," Rick said. 

Rosita huffed. "I don't care how big the other group is. We know where this small group is now. We know what they've done and what they're capable of. We go take them out."

Rick squeezed the bridge of his nose. He started to shake his head. "No. We talk to the other communities about this first. See what they say or if they've heard of or seen any other groups lately. We wait," Rick said with finality.

Rosita was furious and left. It was hard, I understood where she was coming from, but they also seemed to have gone through something like this before and had their reasons to wait. I trusted Rick's judgement.

Rick and Michonne went with Eugine to contact the other communities to see what they thought. It would take a while, but we would hopefully have an idea of what to do after that.

Everyone decided to leave after that. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to head home for the night.

Rosita ran up to me and stood in front of me. "Will you come with me to take out that outpost group?"

"What?" I asked in shock.

"Sloane, we can do this. We know where they are. We know what they've done. And we have dynamite. Rick and the others want us to wait, but that only gives them more time to become stronger if they connect with the larger group. We need to take them out before they can do that, and then they'll be weaker."

I thought this through. It was crazy. "How could we take them out just the two of us?"

"I've seen how good you are not only with a knife but a gun too. I have a plan. We could do this together."

I shook my head. "No, this is crazy," I said. Two people against a whole group was suicide.

Her face dropped, her eyes turned hard. "Sloane, I'm not losing the people I care about most again like last time." She looked into my eyes. "You told me you had nightmares about this group and what they did to you and your friends? Well, I have nightmares constantly about what the Saviours did to my friends. I won't let that happen again." I noticed tears form in her eyes, but before I could see much, she turned on her heels and walked away.

I stood there, shocked. I hadn't realized how strongly she felt about this. I understood what it was like to be haunted in your dreams. I had told her no, but I wondered if that was the wrong answer.

I needed time to think about this. I wanted all the same things as her, but could the two of us pull it off alone? It was getting late; I would find her in the morning and talk to her again about it.

I walked back to the house, exhausted from today's events. I had seen Daryl walk off with Gabriel so I knew no one was in the house.

I felt exhausted. I grabbed a granola bar and then walked upstairs and took a nice hot shower. Being alone made my thoughts go wild. I still couldn't believe it was the same group that had captured me, that had killed my friends, that haunted my dreams. It was scary knowing that there might be more of them and that they may want to take what's ours and hurt us. They had already tried to kill Daryl. I couldn't imagine losing anyone from Alexandria, from the people that felt like my family. I would do anything for these people. Maybe Rosita was right?

I stepped out of the shower and dried off, and then wrapped the towel around my body. I walked out of the bathroom and stopped when I saw Daryl sitting on my bed. His eyes snapped to me and he jumped up off the bed when he saw that I was only covered by a small towel.

"Uh, sorry," he muttered and looked away, starting to walk out of the room.

"No, wait," I said as I scurried to my dresser and grabbed my jammies. "You can stay. I'll go change and I'll be right back," I said as I walked back to the bathroom, my cheeks a little red. Daryl looked a little embarrassed too, but I didn't want him to leave. I just realized that after everything that happened today, I needed Daryl right now.

In the bathroom, I put on my sleep shorts and a tank top. I brushed through my long wet hair and decided to let it air dry. I didn't even care that it was wetting my shirt.

I walked back into the room and saw Daryl sitting on the bed again, but not looking at me. I sat down beside him.

"You okay?" Daryl asked quietly.

I paused a moment before speaking. "I think so. I mean, it's scary, knowing that it's those people that are out there and dangerous. Knowing what they can do," I said. I noticed Daryl clench his fist when I said that.

"Thank you," I whispered when he didn't say anything.

He looked at me, confused. "For what?"

I held his gaze for a moment, but then it became too much so I looked down at my hands. "For knowing what I needed today when I saw that guy. It was overwhelming and I knew everyone would want answers right away, but you knew I needed time to absorb everything and you gave me that. Thank you."

I looked at him again now, but then he looked away when our eyes locked. It was like we were doing a dance with our eyes, and took turns looking away when it became too intense.

After a moment, he spoke. "I wanted to kill 'im."

I laughed. "It's good you didn't. We might need him," I said.

"Lucky Rick was there. After what he did to ye..." he trailed off, his temper rising again. He had his fists clenched again, so I reached over from where I sat beside him and rested a hand on his forearm. 

"I'm okay," I whispered. I wanted to say more, but how do you tell someone that you're doing okay because of them? That they're the reason why you're living? If Daryl, Rick and Glenn hadn't found me, I would have gone crazy by myself. I could only fool myself for so long believing that I was better off on my own. Yes, caring about people was dangerous because it meant you had something to lose, but it also meant you had something worth fighting for. Before they found me, I didn't have anything left worth fighting for. I owed part of my life to Daryl. How did you tell someone that?

There was only one way I could think of. Since words weren't strong enough, I had to show him.