NO ONE'S POV
LEIGH WOKE UP to a bunch of troopers slamming the door of the shitty living quarters open, shining flashlights in their faces whilst yelling at everyone to get up. He forced open his bruised eyes, which was painful enough, but being dragged off the bed was the cherry on top for him as he 'wasn't moving quicker that he should've been'. He looked around in confusion, wondering why the troopers were forcing everyone to move outside and over to the windmill.
His face was red and purple in some areas, his lip was cut and the swelling in his cheek had finally gone down after the beating he had gotten a few days prior. One of the reasons he got targeted was due to the fact he used to be a trooper, which led to him receiving a 'simple' busted lip. Tyler Davis, the ex-soldier who caused a bit of chaos that night at Pamela Milton's 'party', said the same thing happened to him on his first night. That luckily led to Tyler being onboard with the plan that Ezekiel, Kelly and a few others were trying to cook up in order to escape.
After all, they were in Alexandria, they knew the place, but all they could do was suffer the consequences of doing hard labour in a place that many Alexandrians used to call home. It was another thing that enraged Leigh, but he kept his mouth closed about it. Whilst working, he always had the feeling that people were watching him. The feeling was correct, since every time he looked over his shoulder he always had a trooper glaring at him before moving past him.
Other times when he looked at the woods he swore he saw a figure, which looked like his brother, but he shook it off and looked away. Sometimes, when he lifted his head up to check if Ryan was still there, the figure had gone, but other times it had moved to a different place.
Either way, them vacant eyes and pierced bullet holes still haunted him dreadfully.
Another reason for the beatings was after he demanded to know if CJ was alright. Leigh thought back to his awakening on the bus when they first arrived and how the Warden said that they were eventually allowed to see their kids. But Leigh was told he couldn't see CJ or even know the boy's 'status' due to Leigh not being the boy's actual father.
And did Leigh walk away quietly? Fuck no. After spitting a few words at the man's ridiculous excuse, Leigh earned more than a few punches for being disrespectful. He recalled Tyler and Ezekiel telling him to not draw attention to himself as it'll only make things worse for himself and possibly even CJ, so Leigh took their advice and did his best to keep his head down and avoid many troopers as possible who recognised him.
But hey, at least Negan of all people gave him a pat on the back for sticking up for himself and CJ, despite the boy not being his son, but why should that matter? Leigh knows that the kid ain't his, it's pretty obvious. He loves Lilia and CJ equally, he wants to be there for her and help raise CJ as best as they could in a shitty world like this.
Who knows, maybe they'll have their own kid together?
He just prayed they were both okay.
Leigh was pushed by a trooper to walk faster as he watched how Ezekiel and Annie were being grabbed by soldiers unlike everyone else. The bright light up in the windmill shone down at everyone on the ground since it was dark, but it also made the situation more eerie.
He stood next to Tyler near the front, "What's happening?" He whispered to him, noticing the Warden walking over to the front of the windmill. Tyler just shrugged, looking confused too, "I don't know.. nothin' like this has happened before whilst I've been here."
"There is a traitor in our midst." The warden spoke, capturing everyone's attention, especially Ezekiel's since he was staring directly at him. "Someone who thinks he's above the rules." Then he turned to the side, another man was being dragged by troopers. Negan. "This prisoner has admitted to spearheading a rebellion. Any co-conspirators will be given the benefit of the doubt. I trust they were not acting of their own free will. So only he will be punished!"
Negan just spat at the ground as the Warden glared at him.. amusedly. "But it's important that you're all here to see. To remember." Annie then rushed out of the trooper's grasp, trying to get to Negan and help him, but she was eventually pulled back.
The Warden ignored this temporarily, "Get him on his knees. This is what happens when you forget your place." Negan was dragged in front of the windmill, which had bullet holes in and black and red marks all over the wood.
Has this happened before? There's no way the Commonwealth can do this.
"Take your positions."
Suddenly, the air itself felt dark and cold. The Warden then looked over at Annie before grunting to Negan, "There are no martyrs here." Annie was dragged on her knees next to Negan, and the troopers had their guns aimed at her rather than Negan.
Leigh looked around at everyone else, fear, worry and disbelief. He locked eyes with Ezekiel for a moment, who appeared to be slowly stepping forward. What was he doing?
"No! That wasn't our deal! Take me!" Negan yelled beggingly, but The Warden seemed like a different kind of evil that Leigh hadn't seen before. He would rather have Annie, an innocent, pregnant woman, be shot in front of all these people?
"Ready! Aim!"
"Please-"
Ezekiel had stepped forward with his hands in the air to show that this should all stop. Leigh could tell that some troopers thought this wasn't right either, but all they knew what to do was follow orders. Some faltered, whereas some held their stance, but their faces said otherwise. Ezekiel stood bravely in front of Negan and Annie, protectively.
More people surprisingly joined in too, stepping forward from their bystander position and putting themselves between the trooper's guns and Negan and Annie. Kelly looked over at Leigh, fear in her eyes at the whole situation, but she too also stepped forward and nodded her head. Leigh inhaled sharply, stepping forward too and walking over alongside her, Tyler followed behind too.
The Warden sighed, looking at all the people who were standing against him. At first, people thought he was going to back down, but they were dead wrong. "I admire your bravery, prisoners. Shoot them all."
Leigh could tell by the soldiers' faces that they thought it was wrong. Many of them didn't even cock their guns, some of them looked at the Warden in disbelief.
"You don't have to do this! This world is broken, but we don't have to be!" Ezekiel called out, hoping to get through to those who still had their guns pointed at them.
Swiftly, one trooper turned to the side with his gun raised at the Warden. His finger was about to squeeze the trigger and Leigh watched things go by so fast. One moment his mind was spinning out of control, thinking about Lilia, CJ and everyone else who was standing near him.
The trooper who was about to shoot their gun suddenly dropped dead as The Warden shot him first and went to grab someone in the group who was retaliating against him. That person was Kelly, who yelped at the contact of the gun being pressed against her temple.
"Kelly!" Many people yelled after her, including Leigh. She seemed so terrified, her eyes were wide and her lip was quivering profusely.
The warden dragged her backwards, nearly into the shadows as Kelly squeezed her eyes shut to prepare herself for the blow, which never came. Instead, a few figures emerged from the darkness and a certain woman stabbed The Warden in the back, twisting their knife into his flesh, but not to far so they wouldn't kill him.
All of it happened so fast as well, Warden was on the ground, Negan went to get a rock and smash his head in whilst Lilia and Leigh rushed over to each other.
Lilia let out a sigh of relief, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his chest for a moment, "You're here.. you're here.. you're alive." Once they pulled back a little bit, she noticed the mess they made of his face, "God, what did they do to you?"
"I'm fine, honest." He reassured her, his hands cupping her cheeks to take a good look at her. "You really came."
"I couldn't just leave you here.. L-Leigh, I need to- I need to tell you somethin'.." She shook her head in his hands before her eyes widened in realisation, "CJ.. where is he? Is he here?"
Leigh regretfully shook his head, lowering his gaze for a moment as he couldn't bring himself to watch her face falter. "I don't- They wouldn't let me see him-"
"NEGAN DON'T!" A female voice shouted, followed by quick and heavy footsteps over to the man. They both looked over their shoulders to see Rosita run over to the Warden on the ground. "Where's my daughter?!"
Lilia's stomach dropped when she heard Rosita question Coco's whereabouts. If Coco wasn't there then where is CJ? Where are the kids? She watched the other mother held a walker, who was the previously dead trooper, over the man's face, demanding answers as she darkly spat at him.
Lilia thought about marching over there and demanding answers too, fueling the fire even more, but before she could even breathe a younger voice caught her off guard. Leigh looked up and saw who it was, feeling a smile tug the corners of his lips in relief as he nudged her to look.
"Lia.. look." Leigh breathed out, capturing the woman's attention. Lilia turned her head over to the direction Leigh was looking at and she instantly felt the air in her stomach fly out for a second whilst she questioned if what she was seeing real.
In the distance was Maggie, holding Hershel's hand and walking down the steps of a house, and behind them was Carol.. with CJ. Lilia had almost forgotten that two had snuck into the houses, feeling a rush flood through her entire body that caused her to let go of Leigh and quickly head in their direction.
"Mom!" CJ called as his mother came over to him, engulfing him into a hug Lilia wrapped her arms around her son, his head in her shoulder whilst she squeezed and exclaimed exasperatedly, "CJ!"
She pulled back after a couple of minutes hugging him, holding her hands up to his face, noticing a red mark under his eye and some rope-looking burns around his wrists. "You alright? Who hurt you? What did they do-"
"I'm okay mom, I promise!" CJ reassured her with a smile.
Lilia grinned at her son's bravery, rubbing his cheeks with her thumb, "Of course you are.. my brave boy."
•
A few hours later the sun had came up and everyone was getting prepared to go to the train where they will be able to get closer to the main part of Commonwealth where they can deal with Pamela and her remaining army of soldiers. Lilia was still nervous of what was to come. She was frightened about the violence that might occur, praying that there wouldn't have to be any in the first place so everyone could live in peace. If this was seventeen year old her talking, then she'd want to attack.. but now all she wanted was safety with her family.
Her pregnancy scared her too. What if something bad happens to Leigh and once again she was going to raise a child without their father?
She didn't get chance to talk about it properly with Connie in the tunnels, as literally five seconds after she told the woman her dad then swooped around the corner to tell them that the tunnels were clear. Of course he was concerned about her behaviour, as she was wiping her tears by the time Daryl saw her, but all she did was shake her head and walk off, leaving him to try and get answers out of Connie, which he didn't get.
Lilia was carrying a box full of ammo some people found in one of the houses, handing it to Maggie at the back of the bus full of people. She rubbed the bottom of her back subconsciously and then shrugged her bow on her back before turning around to be faced with Connie, looking at her with a raised brow.
"Are you sure about going? You should stay here." Connie signed to the woman.
Lilia tilted her head, thankful about Connie's concern, but it wasn't needed. She had to go with everyone else, if not then she'd be worried and overthink everything too much. "I have to. I can't stay here, not with the amount of people going too." She spoke and signed in response.
"Lilia, but with your-"
She held up her hand for a second to stop her from continuing just incase anyone else was trying to understand what they were saying. "I need to make sure they're alright. Even if I stay it'll be the only thing I'll think about."
Connie nodded slightly as she understood. She turned around and saw Daryl sat with Leigh, Carol, RJ and CJ, before looking back at Lilia. "Have you told anyone else yet?"
Lilia shook her head, her arms over the top of her stomach, "Not yet. It's bad timin'."
"When's better timing then?" Connie then quipped, catching Lilia off guard as she genuinely didn't know at this point.. no one really knows how everything will play out.
"Any time other than right now." Lilia shrugged in response, sneaking her way out the conversation to then go over to Leigh and the others, putting her arm around CJ's shoulders and knocking RJ's arm as the kids looked nervous.
CJ looked up at his mom, "Are you going too mom?"
"I'll be back before you know it kiddo, don't you worry 'bout me." She reassured him with a small smile whilst Leigh had has hand around her waist, "We both will be."
Judith then came over, a bag and her sword over her shoulder, looking all prepared. "I'm coming."
Daryl looked up at her, shaking his head immediately, "No. I need you here."
The girl's face twisted at first, "That's crap." Lilia tilted her head the the girl's words in surprise, "This isn't what my mom and dad fought for. Not yet. What we're doing could help everyone. Not just us, but maybe everybody everywhere. I want to be part of that. To make what my family believed in real."
"Judy.. it'll probably be dangerous." Lilia trailed off, biting the skin off her bottom lip nervously as she didn't want her sister in danger.
Judith's eyes showed the hidden desperation of how much she wanted to help and live up to her family's name of helping others, "This isn't the future my brother wanted, you know that better than anyone Lia. I gotta go."
The younger girl, who wasn't so young anymore, was right. Lilia did know better than anyone that Carl didn't want this sort of future for his family or anyone else in the world. It was unfair to break that, especially for Judith and CJ, who were going to live up to that when they grow up.
Carol spoke up after her eyes flickered from Lilia and down to Judith, helping her out, "We've all been so focused on what's right in front of us for so long. You're thinking about what's after. It's a good thing. Maybe we could all do a little more of that."
Judith smiled at Carol for understanding and then looked at the two adult Dixons. Daryl looked at his daughter and they both silently agreed. "Alright, but you stay with me, okay?" He spoke and Judith nodded.
"Can I go too, mom?" CJ asked.
"Nope. C'mon." Lilia replied, guiding her son and RJ over to some people who were staying and offered to look after the kids.