WE ALL WENT OUTSIDE to meet Leah and her men in the main yard. We had found a crutch beforehand for Elijah to walk, whilst I stayed next to Leigh. I kept my gun hidden in my pocket as my dad took Carver, who was gagged and tied up and forced into the middle for Leah to see since she demanded to see him first.
"Throw your weapons on the ground!" Dad ordered as they came walking towards him, standing away slightly.
"What are you offering?" Leah firstly asked, keeping a hand on her weapon in her belt.
"Lose the weapons and we let you leave." My fist tightened when I heard that we were gonna just let them leave. Leigh held my hand comfortingly, making me untense my hand.
"Is that all?" Leah quipped.
"You head north, don't turn back. I see anyone, anyone at all, I'm gonna kill him. Once we're far out enough, I'll let him go." Carver then attempted to speak through his gag, which created a muffle, however dad told him to, "Shut up."
"You expect me to trust you now?" She said, "Same with Leigh and Jess?"
"Yeah. We do. We're doin' this all wrong." Dad told her. "We survived everythin' for what? To keep fighting' and killin' each other?"
"If that's what it takes. "
He shook his head. "Don't have to. I'm givin' you a chance to save what's left of your family. And mine."
Leah pondered for a moment before speaking through her radio. "No more lies. Jenson." A gunshot then went off right near my dad's feet, making him look around frantically whilst also keeping a hold of Carver. I looked up in a rush, trying to see up to the top of the roof to try and spot 'Jenson', but it was no use.
"That was a warning. The last one." Leah then looked over to our direction, as we were hiding back. "Everybody out!" She ordered. Leigh clenched his jaw before moving forward with me. Negan and Maggie supported Elijah as he hobbled. "Lower the knife, cut the rope." Dad hesitated. "Jenson. The women."
Dad huffed, "Fine." He pulled his knife away from Carver's throat so he could take off his ropes and gag before shoving him forward. Carver walked away, giving a fake smooch at Elijah to rile him up. He looked at me and winked before going over to Leah, I saw Leigh glare when he did. Elijah then started to get out of Maggie's grip and move forward towards Carver angrily.
"Elijah, don't." Maggie whispered, however he ignored her.
"Elijah..." Leigh warned, as he knew what Leah would do if he didn't stop.
"No one moves!" Leah shouted.
"Elijah." Maggie tried again. I would've attempted to stop him too, however I also agreed that Carver deserved to die.
Leah threatened, "He takes one more step, he dies!"
"Josephine!" Elijah's voice cracked as he spoke his sister's name.
Carver started to mock him despite Leah telling him not to. "Carve, don't. Stop." Once Leah noticed that Elijah wasn't going to stop she yelled, "Jenson, pull the trigger!"
"Her name was Josephine." Elijah repeated before losing his balance and falling over. Carver laughed before a gunshot went off, shooting him in the leg. He fell to the ground with a yell.
Leah rushed over to Carver, speaking into her radio again. "Jenson, what the hell?! Jenson!"
A familiar voice spoke through the radio,"Nope. No Jenson here. Call me Gabriel." Gabriel told her. "The other two better back off or they're next."
Leah sighed in defeat and looked at the two men behind her, "Stand down." They relaxed as she looked back to us. "Your deal still stands?"
"Oh you think we're gonna be nice now?" I scoffed and tilted my head, "Not a chance."
Maggie shook her head, "You had your chance. You would've killed us. Picked us off one by one, right? Now Gabriel does the same thing to you."
Leah's eyes nearly darkened as she stood up. "Maybe you're right. Your friend has the rifle. But I bet we take a couple of you down before he takes us all."
"I bet." I rolled my eyes before Leigh gave me a small nudge.
Leah glared at me, "You can have your town. We walk." She then looked at my dad. "You save your family. I save mine." Dad nodded in agreement before looking behind him to Maggie.
"Negan?" Maggie muttered.
"You know what I think." Negan spoke. His ideas are never good anyway.
Maggie looked at me, I recognised her knowing look. There was no way she was going to let these guys off easily. I understood it straight away. And I was with her. I gave her a small nod, which she understood too.
"Drop your weapons and go." Maggie then ordered.
A pause from Leah, "Not without Carver."
Maggie just whispered, "No."
Leah slowly looked at her men behind her. "Do it." She demanded, but they hesitated at first, "I said do it." Their weapons clinked as they were placed on the ground whilst Leah bent down to Carver for a few seconds before standing back up.
I caught Maggie's eyes before she went over to Elijah, bending down to make sure he was alright. I followed and bent down next to him too, placing a hand on his arm.
"Elijah?" I whispered.
He didn't look up. He only spoke, "For Josephine. For all of them."
Maggie and I looked up at the men and Leah walking away, we couldn't let them get away. As my dad was lifting Carver up Maggie looked at me, "Are you with me?"
I nodded. We both stood up and silently followed them, my hand sneaking into my pocket for my gun. I noticed Leigh's confused face however I had to ignore it, lifting my gun up before perfectly shooting one of them in the head. Maggie shot the smaller guy in the shoulder and leg, making him fall. Leah heard the gunshots and saw her men dying so she started to run.
As Maggie went to finish of the other guy I heard my dad, "No! What the hell was that?" I continued to follow Leah and the blood, which dropped on the ground from when Maggie must've shot her. "LILIA!"
I had to ignore him, all I focused on was Leah's heavy steps, which I followed towards the wall. My gun is still firmly in my hand, loaded with only a couple of bullets, that I was certain I would make count. I could already hear my dad scolding me for this, but I didn't care. I'm not a defenceless seventeen year old anymore.
There was some blood on the ground, which led to some pieces of metal and rubble, that I assumed she was hiding behind. A glimpse of blonde hair appeared behind it, making me lift up my gun and shoot between the gaps. Unfortunately I missed it. Leah didn't have any guns as she dropped them on the floor, so I crept around the side to get her from behind.
I moved past the metal with my gun raised, spotting Leah clutching her bloody arm and holding a knife in her free hand. She looked up at me with wide eyes. For once, she had nothing.
I would've just shot her and got it done, but she opened her mouth to say, "So, Lilia huh? Don't tell me it's just a coincidence." Her eyes looked at me up and down before letting out a small breath.
"You really want that to be your last words?" I asked, my gun was still raised.
"You lied, to all of us." Leah snarled. "Did you really expect me to just come with you and leave my family?"
"Did you really think that we were on your side when we had family too?"
"Daryl told me you were dead." Leah stated firmly, her eyes narrowing to show her glare. She sighed harshly as her hand slightly moved over her wound. "He told me good things about you, when we first met."
My eyes slightly widened, my dad had never mentioned Leah before. But Why?
I briefly looked around for a moment before looking back at her gaze, "You said you wished you could've met me, so here we are." I clenched my gun in my hand, my finger grazing over the trigger. If my dad didn't kill her before, she must mean something to him. But why didn't he tell me anything about Leah if he told her about me?
The thoughts were running through my head rapidly. I huffed and lowered my gun, making Leah's face relax before turning slightly confused.
"I better not see you around here again. But if I do," I slowly stated, resting my arm by my side as she looked up. "you'll wish that I had killed you before." I turned around to leave, my feet stomping onto the ground below me. I heard rustling behind me, when I turned around, Leah had vanished.
I let out a small sigh as my head was still full of confused thoughts. Did I do the right thing?
Another figure appeared in front of me, I realised they were my dad, who looked very unhappy. There was no feeling inside of me that portrayed guilt, I didn't bring myself to care for the first time in a while. He didn't say anything, just gave me a disapproving look before jogging past me, full of hope about finding Leah.
I didn't bother to call out for him, he ran towards the woodland area whilst probably following the small blood trail. I went back over to the other at the square, seeing that Carver was dead alongside the others who Maggie and I killed. I noticed Leigh sitting next to Elijah, making sure he was alright until he spotted me. His face was unreadable to me when he stood up and quickly approached.
"What were you thinking?" Leigh exclaimed, nudging my arm. "You could've gotten yourself hurt by doing that!"
My brows furrowed in annoyance, "And here I thought you didn't give two flying shits about them!"
He shook his head, rubbing his hand under his jaw as it clenched. "You don't know Leah like I do. She'll come back eventually."
A scoff, "Oh please, I made sure she won't."
"Lilia, what the fuck did you do?!" He questioned quickly as his voice went to a hushed tone.
"Calm down she isn't dead. Why are you so concerned about her?" I rolled my eyes, going to walk past him, however he grabbed my forearm and pulled me back.
"I'm not concerned for her, I'm worried for you." He replied after a pause, looking softly into my eyes to get through. I slapped his hand off me, pushing him away.
"Well I'm not five, I don't need lookin' out for." I started. "It's annoyin' enough that my dad is gonna be pissed, I don't need your lecture either."
"I'm not trying to lecture-"
"Then shut up about it!"
He stopped dead in his tracks, a questionable look on his face. It looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped himself. Part of me felt some sort of guilt for saying that, however I hated being treated like I couldn't defend myself, especially by someone I thought I could trust.
"Sorry." He muttered, before stepping back and walking off, not bothering to look back.
I regretfully sighed quietly, watching him walk away for a second before I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned slowly to see Maggie, who briefly saw Leigh walk off. "Hey, I'm headin' out to find Alden. You wanna tag along?" I didn't need to think about it, so I nodded my head with ease. I was eager to leave this godforsaken place, it had an off-putting vibe I didn't like.
•
After I got my weapons together I followed Maggie along a path near the woods. She said they had left Alden safely in an abandoned church nearby, since he couldn't walk properly after getting slightly injured from a Reaper. I hoped he was okay, it would be nice to see him after a while.
"What happened between you and Leigh back there?" Maggie spoke up over the silence, briefly looking at me, but being careful where she stepped in the unknown greenery.
I didn't exactly want to get into it, "What do you mean?"
"I saw what I saw, Lils, you can talk to me." Maggie reassured me, stopping for a second to let me catch up and walk beside her before we continued the trek. "Just because I've been gone doesn't mean I can't keep a secret." She playfully nudged me, making my thin mouth peak up.
"I just...you know I hate being questioned about why I do things without thinkin'." I began, Maggie hummed. "I hate it when people think I can't protect myself. I know he doesn't know that, but...I-"
"But that's what he wants to be able to do."
"Do what?" I quipped confusedly.
"He wants to be able to protect people, includin' you. I've seen how he acts around you y'know." Maggie then began to smirk. "He likes being around you, so he wants you to be careful."
I looked up, still having a lot of feelings rushing through my head. In a way I understood, but at the same time it was like she was speaking in a different language to me. "Why me though? There are plenty of other people he can spend his time on."
She gave a knowing smile, looking down for a minute and opening her mouth to say something, but she stopped at the last second.
"What is it?" I then questioned, noticing her hesitation.
"It's not my place to say, but what I can hint to...when he lost the only person he cared about, it broke him. He can't go through that again. And right now, from what I've been seeing, he cares. About you." Maggie explained, before going back to being silent again to allow me to think.
"When he lost someone...who?" I thought, until it struck me. Like a lightbulb moment or a flick of a switch inside my head. His brother. I remembered him briefly telling me about him, but not the whole story.
"We're here." Maggie informed me, snapping me out of my daze. I looked up to see the old building, also noticing a large wooden cross nearby. "C'mon." She said, and we walked over to the rusty door, which looked like it hasn't been cleaned in years.
"Alden!" Maggie then yelled, placing her hand on the handle. No response. Maybe he can't hear us? She pushed the door open, expecting to feel the force of the barrier she put behind, but the door opened with ease. I could feel Maggie's confusion, but also nervousness as she got out her knife.
I took out my knife and began to follow her inside, looking around just in case. But when I was looking at the dusty floors and broken glass windows in the area, Maggie was suddenly scared by a walker that appeared around the corner. She managed to take it down, but it left us fumbled.
Why on earth is there a walker here?
Where's Alden?
Is he okay?
"Alden?" I called out, striding forward as Maggie pulled her knife out of the walker's head. I went to the front of the abandoned seats, noticing a corpse on the floor.
I assumed it was another dead walker, but once it growled and started to shuffle I snapped my head back it again. Maggie was then behind me, gasping as she saw the walker. I didn't understand at first, I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me from the lack of sleep and exhaustion. But my hand shot to my mouth once I realised.
It was Alden...his face was already rotting and grey. His eyes had become lifeless and empty, just looking at us as if he never knew us. He tried to drag his nearly dead body towards us, grinding his teeth and snarling.
"No..." I whispered, tears glossing up my eyes. "Not Alden...please, no."
Maggie brushed my arm as she walked past slowly, bending down and allowed Alden to drag over to her. She put his head in her hands before sliding the knife into his temple just after I looked away.
Afterwards I looked back, his body was stiff. Hopefully now he was at peace, up there with everyone else. Maybe now he was with Enid and all his other friends... I bent down next to his body, a tear fell down my cheek, but I rubbed it away. I still couldn't believe it, I didn't want to. My shaky hand made its way to the back of his head, trailing up to his head. I could barely take it anymore, my hand shot up to my mouth to cover the sound of my sobs, tears running down my eyes as I pressed my head onto Alden's arm.
Please just be a dream. A horrible nightmare and this will all be over.
"W-we have to bury him." I stuttered. "We can't leave him here..."
Maggie rubbed the top of my back, giving me a simple nod. "We can...we can keep him with the others..."
•
We buried Alden next to the other graves, right at the front. I didn't realise how many people we had lost to get here. There was Frost, Duncan, Cole...It made my heart want to drop.
As we sat near the grave for a while Negan eventually found us, and long story short, he said he was leaving. At least it was one less person to worry about, but part of me hoped he would be okay on his journey. Maybe he can find another group to annoy.
It unfortunately started to get late, so Maggie and I had to say our final goodbyes and make our way back to the others. The journey lasted for a while, we were stuck with our thoughts as we trailed past the trees, previously full of hope to find our friend, but only to realise he's gone. I hope that whoever killed Alden is suffering right now.
When we got to the group it was pitch black outside, the fire in the middle of their small camp illuminated everything. Gabriel asked where Alden was, but the small shake of our heads explained everything.
I didn't say anything, neither did my dad when he hugged my shoulders comfortingly. As I sat down opposite the fire, Dog came trotting up to me. He laid down, putting his head in my lap and whimpering for a second. It was as if he understood. I scratched behind his ears as he panted.
I looked to my right and saw Maggie next to Elijah, near them was Leigh, who had his head ducked down and eyes staring at the fire continuously. I didn't have the energy to say anything. I just left us at that.