WELCOME TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END, part one-126
Cassidy sat on the floor of the wagon with her baby brother on her lap and RJ pressed against her side. She was still angry with her dad, she wanted to help and didn't understand why this mission was any different.
She was stabbed, fought with Alpha, and almost fell into a pit full of walkers and now her dad wouldn't let her help fight the Whispers and Alpha.
Currently, the wagon was being lead by her dad to Oceanside, in order to keep the children safe. She glanced over to her friend, Edith, who was sitting next to Ezra with her knees up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them.
Cassie feels guilty about neglecting her friend, and the missions wasn't an good excuse on why she did that to her friend. Once this was all over, she was going to make it up to Edie.
Feeling the wagon come to a stop, Cassie broke her gaze away from Edie and looked over at Judith, making eye contact with the older girl.
"Why'd we stop?" Carl had been the one to ask, his hazel eyes darted between his sister's and aunt's.
"Dunno." She muttered as she nudged him off her lap and stood up.
Her and Judith opened the flap of the front of the wagon, which Dianne and Lydia were sitting, and looked at why they stopped. In the middle of the road was a fallen tree, blocking their path to Oceanside, and in the trees were to walkers dressed in the Kingdom's armor.
Two of their people were dead.
"All the roads are gonna be like this now." Her father spoke, standing in front of his bike. "We ain't getting through. It's Negan. He's with her now."
Back at Hilltop, Gracie was the first out of the wagon, calling for her dad, and running towards him when Aaron came out of the house. Cassie hopped out, helping Carl and RJ out as Max and Violet rushed over to them.
Violet took Edie in her arms, the frighten girl buried her face in her aunt's shoulder, while Max took his siblings' hand in each of his as Aaron came towards them.
"What happened?" The man questioned after sending his daughter into the house with the rest of the children.
"She blocked all the roads. Means they're closing in on us." Daryl explained. "If we had a window to get out we just missed it."
"But we can't stay here." Kelly says, looking at Daryl and her voice breaking. "You said...you all said we can't stay here."
Cassie reached out and grabbed the woman's hand, squeezed it. Kelly glanced at her with the smallest smile, as Luke spoke. "We can...We can call Alexandria, right? Call Alexandria, and w...they're get freaks fighters here, right? And...and...and it's not just gonna be us. It's not gonna be just us, right?"
"If all roads are blocked, Oceanside can't get here, then neither can Alexandria." Max pipped in.
Dianne nodded, agreeing. "Not in time. Not after what happened. We're on our own."
"Divvy up your arsenals." Earl orders. "We got catapults up on the walls. And a damn good militia. This is what you've all been practicing for. Come on, now, people! Do whatever you need to get your heads on straight! This is gonna be the fight of our lives."
As everyone was preparing, Cassie sat on the stairs of the pouch of the house, watching her brother play in the dirt in front of her. They were out of the way of everyone, so they didn't disturb anyone. She leant against her elbows against her knees, her hands laced in front of her as Max came up beside her and sat down.
"You two should be inside." He murmured, sitting in the same position as she was.
Cassie didn't say anything for a few seconds, just watching her baby brother play like nothing was happening. "He doesn't understand what happening."
"I know, but that's why you need to be him safe." Her brother says, his emerald eyes locked on their baby brother.
"But when I was his age, I knew what was happening." She watched as Carl looked up from his dirt drawing and spotted their brother. He smiled, running into Max's arms. "Why doesn't he?"
Max held his brother as he glanced at his sister. "He thinks a little different than us, Cas. His mind is more innocent and childish than when you were his age. From what I've seen and learned since he got him, Carl hasn't been conditioned for stuff like this. He's never been in a situation like this. A war."
Cassie nodded, understandingly. "That makes sense. I'll keep him safe, Maxie. I promise."
"I know you will." Max smiled as he stood up. He stuck out his hand, pulling up his sister as Kelly and rest of them came out of the house. "Alright, take C inside and do not leave that house, unless an adult tells you or it's life or death. Got it?"
"Got it." She says, grabbing Carl's hand and walking inside house. As she was leading her brother into the office with all the other kids, she made eye contact with her dad, who was standing on the balcony of the staircase.
She ushered Carl into the room, whispering something in his ear as he went before turning back towards her father, who was coming down the stairs and was talking with the King.
Cassie spotted Judith sitting on the couch, walked over to her and stood in front of her. "You want to fight, too?"
"Yeah, but Uncle Daryl wouldn't let me, or you." Judith replied, fidgeting with her knife holder.
"Hey, you two." Cassie's father says as he wobbled over to them. "You should be with the other kids."
Judith stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wanna help. So does Cassie. We can fight."
"I know you can't. I'm sorry about today. You two didn't need to see those bodies like that." Daryl says, his eyes glancing between his daughter and niece.
"They were just walkers. I've—we've killed plenty of walkers."
"I know. But they weren't just walkers."
Judith shook her head. "I'm not scared." She glanced at Cassie. "Neither is Cas."
"Maybe I am, a little bit." Cassie's father revealed, making Cassidy look at him through her lashes.
"If I was scared, maybe I'd be scared for RJ and Carl because they're so little." The youngest Grimes girl says, making Daryl nod.
"Yeah. I got that."
"Maybe I'd be worried about my mom. Maybe I'd be scared that you'd get hurt, or Max, and I'd lose you both. And aunt Carol, too." Judith confessed.
"There ain't no shame in that. You know who you're fighting for." The redneck says as Judith took his vest off the couch and handed it him.
"I made you something. It's for luck."
Daryl smiled, looking at the tan and blue wings before putting it on. "No way. I love it. How do I look?"
Judith chuckled. "It looks good."
The man chuckled, before bending over and looked between his girls. "There's one other thing. If, during the fight, Ezekiel comes looking for you two, RJ, and Carl, you go with him, whether you know where I am or not. Okay?"
Cassie felt all the anger she had for her dad melt away and was replaced by sadness. She looked down at her hands, twisting her shirt between her fingers.
"Hey. You gotta promise me."
"I promise." Judith says, before hugging her uncle.
Daryl looked over at his daughter, seeing the heavy-hearted look on her face. "C'here Cassie."
Cassie walked into her father's awaiting arms, wrapping her own around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry, dad. Al I want is to fight, but I have to protect Carl because he's little."
"I'm sorry, too. Shouldn't have lost my temper with you." Her dad says, as they pulled away a bit. "Just wanted you safe. Now, you gotta promise me, too."
"I promise." She kissed his cheek before pulling away. "Love you, daddy."
"Love you too, baby." With that her father walked away and out of the door.
Cassie glanced at her aunt/sister, before heading towards the room where her baby brother and the rest of the children were. Inside the room, she was almost barreled over by Carl but steadied herself and picked the little boy up in her arms. Carl wrapped his small limbs around her like a koala bear, as she took a seat on the couch next to RJ, who immediately pressed against her side.
***
Max stood next to Violet as their people were lined up in front of the barbed wired fence like they had practiced in Oceanside many of months ago. This was what they had practiced for, the never ending wars, enemies after enemies. It never stops.
It seemed to him that there was nobody in this world they could truly trust, for years they been stabbed in the back by people they had trusted, some of them lead to death of their family members.
Max felt his father come up beside him, with a chain mace in hand and walked in front of the group, looking out into the open field where Alpha and the Whispers were supposed to meet them. Behind them, Kelly had crouched to the ground, placing her hands on the dirt and felt the vibrations, indicating that the horde was coming and so they Alpha and her group.
Coming out of the dark woods, the horde started tumbling out, snarling viciously and slowly made their way towards them.
Aaron commanded. "Formation!"
The walkers started to walk through the wire trap they had up, but when the horde piled their way on the wire, it snapped and broke, now letting the walkers free stumble towards them without one less obstacle in the way.
Max glanced at Violet, making eye contact with her and saw the troubled look in the woman's eyes. He took her hand in his and squeezing it, giving a sense of reassurance. He didn't let go of her hand not even when the horde had split in two, each other them took their weapon, the sword for Vi, and the spare for Max.
"They're splitting into two!" Aaron shouted as the rest of them pulled out their weapons. "They're gonna load up! On my command, splitting ranks! And break!"
Their hands pulled apart, Violet going with the one of the group, while Max went with the other as the horde started to barrel down the fence. He and his family started taking out as many walkers as they could, he thrusts his spare upwards and into several of the walkers' heads before repeating that over and over again.
Max was fighting next to his father when his spare got stuck in one of the walker's head, he took out his mother's hammer and stabbing it into the head of the Walker as he pulled out his spare. His heart crumbled into a million pieces when the hammer's head broke off, still lodged in the creature's head.
"No." He whispered, forgetting that he was in the midst of battle.
"Max!" Her father says, swinging his chair mace into a Walker that had reached out of his son.
Max snapped out of his state of shock and anguish, sticking the handle of the hammer back into his pocket and angrily impaled several walkers. Suddenly the fence became severely unstable and was about to collapse.
"The fence isn't gonna hold!" Someone screamed as it collapsed.
As they were trying to keep the walkers from getting over the collapsed fence, a type of liquid came down on them, soaking all of them.
"What the hell is this?" Max says as he moved a now soaked hair out of his face.
"Smell like a Christmas tree." Jerry shouted in response. Suddenly a fire broke out near them, causing someone to scream as they were lit on fire. "It's like gasoline!"
Max looked around in horror, realizing that they all were covered in the liquid. He heard Aaron shout something before his father yelled. "Back inside! Come on!"
He and rest of his family started to retreat back inside of Hilltop, he met with Violet and grabbed her hand, following his father and the others. They abruptly stopped when serval other fire had started from the flaming arrow Alpha and her people had fired.
The walls of Hilltop quickly went up in flames and everything around it. They hurried inside, Daryl instructing they need to block up the entrance, jamming the horde up. Max, Violet, and the rest of them took out the ones that had gotten through the barricade.
Cassie followed Ezekiel and the rest of the kids, with her baby brother following her. They came to a stop, the King counting all the kids head before saying. "Where's Judith and Carl?"
She whipped around to where Carl was supposed to be following and saw that he wasn't there. Panic flooded her as she spun around, screaming for her brother.
"Carl! Carl!" Cassie went to take off, but the King had caught her around the waist lifted her up. "Let me go! Please, I got to find my brother! Let go of me!"
Ezekiel held the struggling girl to his chest, not letting her go. "Cassie, Cassie, stop, stop! We will find him, but I can't let run off like that. It's not safe."
Cassie kicked and screamed in his arms, demanding to put down. "Put me down! It's not safe for him! He's so little and he doesn't understand what's going! Put me down, I gotta find him!"
***
Carl stood in the midst of the chaos, petrified with his poor knees cut and bleeding. He was following his sister, but got left behind when he had tripped and fell, leading to his knees being scraped up.
Tears streamed down his face, sobs hiccuping from his mouth as he spun around, looking for his daddy, or sister, or brother. But he couldn't see anyone, it was smokey from the fire and the pure chaos of everything around him.
The snarling of monsters made him whip around and see a few of them stumbling towards him. He whimpered, before taking off running and called out for his daddy, or anyone who would hear him.
Carl blindly ran through the chaos, before he tripped over something and fall on his hands and knees. He let out a cry as he already scraped knees meet the fought ground again and crawling a few inches. He sobbed when he saw what he had tripped over, it was one of the monsters.
"Mommy!" He cried as he stumbled back way the dead monster. He was scared. He wanted his mommy to hold him and took away the scariness of the world. "Daddy! Help me!"
As he became hysterical, a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and lifted him away from the monster. Carl freaked out, not knowing who was holding him when the person's familiar voice met his ears.
"Carl, Carl, hey, I got you." Alice says, trying to console the hysteric boy. "It's me, it's Ally, I got you, C. I got you."
"Ally!" Carl sobbed as he wrapped his limbs around her for dear life.
The redhead tried soothed the boy as she tried to find a way out of Hilltop, but at every corner an explosion of fire erupted causing her to go a different. She sprinted toward the secret exit near the cellar, dodging a few of the walkers that reached out for them and then went through the exit. Coming out, she took off into the woods and didn't stop running until she knew they would be safe.
***
A/n: For Max's relationship, would you rather have Alice or Violet? Or have a love triangle type thing between them? Or no relationship for Max, and just have Alice and Violet as friends?