Danielle's POV
"Go through it again." I growl at Tara. I tighten my hands into fists as I try to contain my anger. It's all I can do to try and not shove past Rick and Michonne to let my fist hit Tara's jaw. Daryl knows though as he moves so he's in between me and her while she tells her story.
Smart man.
Tara had selfishly endangered us all and even worse she doesn't seem to understand.
Daryl is leaning against the kitchen island, to any one he looks like he's listening casually. But his arms are crossed over his chest as he listens and I can see the tension in his shoulders. He's just as infuriated as I am, he's just doing a better job of hiding it than I am.
Tara flinches at my words. Her eyes land on my face for a few seconds before she turns her wide eyes back to Rick. Rick clears his throat and licks his lips but doesn't disagree with my request. Though he looks a lot more patient than I am. He nods to Tara telling her to tell it again.
She tells us about this woman's colony. She tells us about their resources, their food stores, the layout of their huts and their guns. All of their guns. An entire armoury of guns. She explains how they tried to kill her and how, despite that she made a promise. I don't know where she got this loyalty from because they had tried to kill her and yet she was willing to not say anything about them.
"I-I know I screwed up." Tara stutters once she's finished telling the story. Her eyes turn to mine imploringly. "I know that okay? Just...." She clears her throat and looks back to Rick. "Please, try not to hurt anyone if you can help it okay? Promise me."
I've had enough. "Promise you?" I snarl stepping towards her. Daryl straightens, not exactly stopping me but making it so I would have to step around him to get to her. "Promise you? You caused me and Daryl to have an unnecessary argument all for a bunch of people who tried to kill you. Do you understand what you've caused?"
Tara's eyes widen in shock before they narrow in anger. "Off course I understand what I've caused. I'm not an idiot...."
Could've fooled me.
"....Our lives are on the line but so is our humanity! We don't just have to fight The Saviours, we have to be better than them." She argues.
I roll my eyes at her as Rick answers. "Tara we will come up with a plan that will allow us to do this with the least amount of damage." He promises. "Okay?" He asks glances between all of us.
Tara sighs and drops down onto one of the kitchen stools, pressing her forehead into her hands. "What do you need from me?" She asks, her voice muffled from her hands.
Rick pulls out a pad from one of the drawers and sets it a few inches from her. "I need you to start over." He says motioning to the paper. "But this time, I need you to draw it out for me."
******
It's another three days before we had a plan in place and the man power to execute it. The morning we planned to leave I was dressed before dawn. Somehow I had managed to slip out of bed without waking Daryl but Jesus stayed over and is asleep in the spare room. I didn't want to wake anyone up so I stayed in the living room to throw my knives.
I throw my knives over and over again until I hear the bedroom door click open behind me. I throw the last one in my hand and stalk up to the target, sheathing my knives.
I turn around and see Daryl leaning against the door frame watching me. I can't help the small smile that graces my face. He's dressed to go with his backpack over one shoulder. His hair hangs down in his face and my fingers itch to brush it out of his eyes. In this instant I'm so overwhelmed with the need to touch, to feel him.
I cross the room in rapid strides and he must of recognised my intent because he drops his backpack and catches me by the waist as I press my lips to his. I deepen the kiss, pressing myself against him. A low chuckle vibrates through his chest.
"Morning darlin'." He drawls, pulling back from the kiss but not so far that I can feel him smile against my lips. "You're up early." He points out.
"Couldn't sleep." I tell him honestly. "You?"
He tips his head to the side and looks into my eyes, a small, pleased smirk on his face. "Slept like the dead."
I shake my head with a small smile and wrap my arms around his waist, snuggling my face into his chest. Daryl reaches up and cups the back of my head, holding me tight against him. He brushes his lips against my hair.
"Ya don't have to go if ya-" he starts to say before he cuts himself off. I feel him shake his head as he hugs me closer to him. "Never mind. Forget I said anything." I chuckle, nodding.
"Ya ready to do this?" He asks and I can hear the worry in his voice. "Not really, but we don't got a choice." I say looking up at him with a small smile. He rubs the back of knuckles against my cheek. "Alright darlin'." He agrees stepping back. He bends down and picks up his backpack before he threads his fingers through mine and leads me outside of the house.
I ride with Daryl on his bike. It's a couple of hours ride but I didn't want to sit in the RV with Tara because I'm still pissed at her. She caused so many problems and didn't even realise it.
When we arrive we all gather in the woods. Rick sends the others out to their groups. When it's just him, Tara, Jesus, me, Liam and Daryl left, he glances over at Tara who's leaning against a tree, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes. The ability to keep this from turning into a fight is entirely on Tara's shoulders. As angry as I am with her, I do sympathise. It isn't going to be easy to go back in there, facing them again after she made a promise and then try to convince them to just let us walk in and take their guns.
Ricks expression is grave as he studies the layout of the huts. "Are you prepared if this goes south?" He asks.
"It won't." She says resolutely, drawing in a deep breath and standing up a little straighter. I can see the unshed tears in her eyes. "If it does, you don't need to feel bad, it's not your fault." I say softly.
I may still be mad at her but it's not nice feeling guilty.
"I do feel bad, I will." She draws in another breath. "So I guess I better not mess this up huh?" She asks with feigned lightness.
"Tara, you don't have to. This isn't on you. It's on us. On me." Rick says looking at me and Daryl. He still feels guilty over everything.
Tara nods but I can see she doesn't believe him. "Right, well see you guys in five minutes one way or another."
"Clock starts as soon as she's in." Rick comments as we watch Tara walk away. I can hear the nerves in his voice and I don't blame him. "You guys get moving."
I nod and set off through the trees with the boys behind me. We have one charge to set near our hiding spot. Jesus buries the dynamite while Daryl and I run the fuse.
Jesus picks up the crate and follows along behind us as we work. "I should've tried harder to stop Rosita and Sasha, if I had just waited one more day...." He trails off.
Daryl shakes his hair out of his eyes and keeps working. "Well, Sasha's a good shot and Rosita knows how to take care of herself. Probably back at Hilltop right now. Least I hope so, we're gonna need 'em. There's a whole lot of people still got to die."
Daryl hands me the line of fuse as he held what we had already run down. It's tangling in his hands and I take it from him, giving of him an annoyed smirk. He meets my eyes with his own darkened ones and my stomach tightens. I look down at the fuse and force myself to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.
Jesus looks back and forth between the two of us but I can see that Daryl's words haven't done much to assure his guilt.
"Look," I start to turning round to my ninja silent friend. "Them leaving wasn't on you J. I knew they were leaving and I didn't stop 'em. I don't think any one could have stopped 'em." I squeeze his arm in reassurance and he gives me a soft smile.
I look back down to the wire. "There, that should make a hell of a bang. Let's move." I say leading the way once more heading through the trees.
When we are in place I glance down at my watch. Five minutes, she had exactly five minutes before we set of the charges whether or not she talked to them.
After the longest five minutes, I look up at Daryl. "Now." I tell him. He nods grimly and denotes the charges. They go off one by one, cascading down the line like we planned, funnelling the group from the huts.
Daryl, Jesus and I all run to towards the entrance of the colony. Most of the woman are already fleeing into the woods, heading straight for the rest of the group. We hear Michonnes sniper fire ahead of us, preventing two woman from reaching the armoury. It surprises me that only two woman would think to protect their weapons. These people are clearly not fighters.
"On the ground now." I call pointing the rifle in my hands at them. Yes, Daryl made me bring a goddamn gun. I don't like it, I don't like the feel of it but for some reason guns always intimidate people more than knives.
I will never understand that.
The first woman meets my gaze for a few seconds before she immediately drops to her knees.
"Those hands." Daryl growls from beside me. "Put 'em on your head." He says as he stares down the shaft on an arrow.
The second woman looks across all of our faces, her chin set defiantly.
"Please." Jesus adds, taking a step towards her. I can see the defeated sag in her shoulders and she follows suit. I hand my rifle to Daryl who swings it across his back. I step forward and search both the women. When I'm satisfied they don't have any weapons I nod to Jesus. He steps up, holding out a couple lengths of rope.
Once we have them tied up, Daryl waves his bandana to signal Michonne we have control of the armoury. Daryl and Jesus both help the woman to their feet and we start walking them back in the direction the main group had fled.
We only make it ten feet into the woods before the second woman makes a break for it. Before either men could react I snap out one of my knives, sinking into the tree in front of her at eye level. She flinched and falls backwards, unable to catch herself as she tries to avoid the knife that is only inches from her skin. She lands roughly with her hands tied behind her back, she couldn't catch herself.
I stalk towards her and wrap my fist around my knife handle, and jerk it out of the tree. I slide it away before I crouch down and meet her eyes. "My friend said please. See he's the nice one and I'm not. If you do that again, I won't miss next time."
She nods frantically looking scared. Now she's definitely more scared of my knifes than of my gun. A small satisfied smile graces my lips. Jesus pulls her to her feet and pushes her ahead of him. Jesus glances at me, looking at me pointedly and I just shrug at him. Daryl passes me and lightly bumps my shoulder, smiling at me like he knew I was going to do that.
By the time we had caught up to the rest of the group, they are all huddled up in the middle on the forest floor.
"Everyone please remain calm." Carl calls out loudly to the group. "We don't want anyone to get hurt. Stay down and please listen to what we have to say.
"We want this to go as simple and peaceful as possible." Gabriel adds. "All of you can make it that way."
"Down." Daryl growls to the woman he had been leading. "Get down over there and keep quiet." He orders.
He's hot when his bossy.
Rick steps out of the trees, swinging his rifle over him. "Now we made a lot of noise. We want to wrap this up quick so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way. Tara said your forests are relatively clear, but we don't want to take any chances. No one needs to get hurt." He says stepping in front of the group. "This is just about what you have, what we need."
"Nobody's taking anything!" An angry voice calls out from behind us. Daryl and I swing around together and I sigh as I spot an older woman using Tara as a human shield while she holds a gun to her head. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now!"
No I don't think so.
"Just walk away." She warns heading towards Rick. She has target fixation. She hadn't noticed me grab my claw or Daryl pointing his crossbow at her. "Or this one dies." She warns pressing the gun into the back of Tara's neck. Tara winces but for once she keeps her mouth shut. She's glaring and I can tell she angry with the woman behind her.
Rick steps forward, so the woman's attention stays on his. "Yeah." He agrees as I take a step closer to the woman who still hasn't noticed me. Dangerous. "We'll leave you alone. But we are taking your weapons with us, that's going to change." Rick warns. "It's Natania, right?" Rick asks and I'm impressed he remembers her name. "Put the gun down and let's talk about what we can change."
"No." Natania says determinedly. "Leave, right now." She orders.
Tara tenses at he words as she winces. She lifts her eyes to the trees and I know she's looking at Michonne like an idiot. What's the point of having a sniper if your own people are going to give it away? "Michonne, please don't!" She calls loudly.
"We just want to be left alone." Natania says.
Rick nods in agreement. "And we'll leave you alone, just let go of her. Now. Or, we'll kill you. None of us want that."
The young woman beside Natania turns to the group. "They want us to fight The Saviours."
Natania shakes her head. "We tried that, we lost. Too much. We're not gonna lose anymore. Not our guns, not our safety, not after everything we've done to get here."
Tara shakes her head and I can tell the tension is getting to her. "We're going to win." Tara says determinedly. "With your guns, with or without your help."
"Natania put the gun down." Rick says firmly.
"If you kill me, you die." Tara says. "And my people take the guns and nothing changes."
"Maybe we should try." The second woman from earlier says. The one I had scared. She glances at me and meets my gaze steadily. "I think they can win." She says firmly. "We should try."
"Grandma stop." The young woman standing next to Tara and Natania implores. "It's over. Just talk to them okay?"
"It's not over!" Natania bellows. "They've forgotten. You've all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything? We can lose our guns but us leaving this place to fight them? After everything? I have to remind you? Yes, I am going to do this, and then I'm going to die. Buts it's that important. This is your life, all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this, open your eyes!" She screams.
Alright Winston Churchill, calm down.
We are never going to convince her. She actually believes killing Tara is the right thing to do. But doesn't that make her just like them?
"Rick! Walkers!" Michonnes voice echoes through the woods. Everyone flinches as the young woman uses it as an opportunity to punch her grandmother. Natania fell and the young woman snatches up her gun. As soon as Tara stumbles away I turn to help the group.
I swing my claw in my hand and grab my hunting knife. "Everybody up!" Rick bellows orders. "Get the children behind us! They're coming!"
No shit Sherlock.
"First shift, join them on the line!" An authoritative female voice calls out from behind us. "Knives out. Dead only, dead only." She orders.
"Everyone, shots within the ten feet line." Rick orders as our group raise their guns. The small herd arrives and I cringe as I see them. These look like they have gills growing out of them. Everyone starts moving and firing. Me and Liam slash and stab our way through.
When the last one drops, the forest goes silent. All you can hear is the panting and harsh breathing of everyone.
"Okay, it's over." Rick calls to the group. I hear a rustling next to me from the tree I'm leaning against and I turn my head to see Daryl stepping towards me. "Ya good baby?" He asks as his hand comes up to my shoulder. I nod. "I'm good. Promise." I say pecking his hand that's on my shoulder.
His hand moves to cup the back of my neck and he leans down pressing a soft kiss to my lips. I moan softly gripping his bicep. He pulls back and smiles gently at me. "Good." He smiles and pulls me along with him back to the group. Daryl stops and I move stand beside him, letting my shoulder brushing against his.
"No." Natania says desperately. "We're not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go." She orders walking away from us. No matter their feelings, the group doesn't seem to want to go against Natania so they stand in silence as they watch our people clean out the armoury.
I felt guilt as I watch them. It would have so much easier if they fought us because just watching somehow made it so much worse.
Once we have everything, Gabriel nods to us as he steps out of the hut. "Let's go." Rick calls to our group and we leave making our way back to our vehicles. Daryl and I hang back to hold up the rear.
Tara is standing beside the trail, waiting for Daryl and I to catch up. I don't know why she waited. "Hey." I call to her. "You okay?" I ask her as we walk side by side.
Tara looks at me and I can't catch the expression on her face. "Yeah." She responds tightly and I can tell she's lying. "You're right." She says after a moment. "I don't have to feel bad."