"We survive this by pulling together." - Rick Grimes
Alexandra's *POV*
"You look pretty hot when you fix things." I smiled, looking at Daryl fix up a part of the RV.
"Yeah well, you better get used to it and the dirtiness that comes with it." He laughed. I shot my head up and raised my eyebrows, giving him a smirk. "Didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, sure you did. Denise! Hey."
"Alex, hey." She smiled, as she stood next to Daryl as I approached them near the RV.
"You have a bandaid on you? I peeled a cuticle and it's bleeding." I laughed. "Have done this ever since I was little."
"Yeah I do." She laughed, giving me a bandaid. "Oh, here." She handed Daryl a bag of something.
"Homemade oat cake. Complex carbohydrates, omega-3's." She said.
"Nah, I'm good." Daryl said. "We're gonna make a pit stop. I'll pick something up then."
"Like... Rabies?" She said, as I started to laugh.
"Is this cause I tried to get you this stuff?" Daryl asked.
"Yeah." She looked away. "And... You remind me of someone I used to know."
"Well..." Daryl took the bag from her, shoving it down his pocket. "I hope it taste better than it looks. Cause, it looks like shit." He tried lightening up the mood, but she stood quiet.
"Shits still better than road kill." She snapped back, giving a smile. "Okay, maybe- just eat it." She stumbled over her words and turned and walked away.
"She's adorable. I like her." I smiled, pushing Daryl in the arm. I saw Rick talking to Carl, then walking away towards us near then entrance to the RV.
"I'll see you in a minute." I said to Daryl, walking towards Rick.
"Yo, Rick." Sasha and Bob are staying back?" I asked Rick. I laughed at myself saying 'yo', making me feel like Daryl for a second.
"Yeah, Carl and Carol too. We need people here." He answered. "Ryan as well. He's done good in my eyes."
"Yeah. Judith's okay?" I asked.
"Never been better." He smiled, looking at Carl holding Judith.
"And Carl?" I smiled.
"I think he'll be fine. Just fine." He kept his smile on, the looked back at me. "Get ready to leave in a few." I nodded and walked away.
"Let's chew up some asphalt!" Abraham yelled.
We entered the RV, taking our weapons with us. I sat down next to Daryl, thigh to thigh. His hand made its way to hold on my thigh, as we sat there, waiting for Rick to come and drive.
"Wait...wait a minute. When did that happen?" I asked, looking at Rick putting his hand on Michonne's, while driving the RV.
"Hm?" Daryl mumbled, looking at me while his hand was resting on my thigh.
"Those two." I laughed.
"I don't even know. When Jesus was sitting in their house on the steps, we saw Rick with his shirt off and Michonne standing next to him." Daryl said, with no emotion.
"Well, shit." I smiled. "I- Daryl? Whats going on?" I saw Daryl leaning over and looking out the window.
"I don't- yo Rick! What's going on?" Daryl called out.
"We got a crash ahead." Rick answered. "Look like it just happened."
"It's one of ours..." Jesus said, looking out the window near Abraham. Rick pulled over and we all got out of the RV, and followed. Rick pulled out his gun, pointing it to Jesus, who stood there.
"If this is a trick, it won't end well for you." Rick said.
"My- my people are in trouble." He looked behind him then at Rick. Jesus caught my eyes, then walked toward me. I backed up a little, when he approached me.
"You get it, right? They don't- we don't have a lot of fighters..." He grabbed my wrist, making me widen my eyes in surprise. I tried to pull away, but his grip wouldn't budge.
"Get off." I gritted through my teeth.
"I suggest you take your hand off her and step back." I heard Daryl's low intimidating voice and saw his gun against his head.
"I'm sorry- I just- someone needs to believe me. I know how it looks, but it'll play out." He let go, and stepped away, back near Rick.
"You good, right?" Daryl mumbled, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me close to him.
"Could've handled it." I said, squeezing his hand that was holding my waist, with my left hand. I felt Daryl's face get close to mine, turning his head.
"I know, but you're my girl." He whispered.
"Can I borrow a gun?" Jesus asked. Daryl walked away from me and towards Jesus.
"No... We got tracks right here." Daryl pointed to the ground.
"Let's go." I said.
Rick pounded on the glass door, waiting for any walkers to come forward so we wouldn't have any surprises.
"They gotta be in there." Jesus said.
"We moving in, or what?" Abraham said, as we put down our weapons.
"How do we know this ain't firecrackers in a trash can?" Daryl asked.
"Firecrackers in a trash can?" I mumbled to myself, but Daryl heard me and gave me a look from the side. Sorry, I mouthed to him.
"You don't!" Jesus raised his arms.
"We'll get your people. You're staying here with one of us." Rick said.
"I'll stay back." I volunteered.
"No." Daryl said.
"Really? You're going to do this now? Right here?" I said, earning looks from everyone.
"I'll stay back too." Maggie said. "With her. We'll be fine." Daryl looked at me, then at Maggie. I saw him roll his eyes as he walked to Rick.
"That's the deal." Michonne said, as Jesus looked at everyone.
"You'll be okay?" Glenn asked Maggie.
"Yeah. Y'all go. Just be careful." Maggie said.
Rick threw on some handcuffs onto Jesus, and pushed him over to us. "Yeah, we're gonna be careful." Rick said.
"Just hurry." Jesus breathed.
"You hear me whistle, just shoot him." Rick turned to us.
"Got it." I said. I raised my weapon along with Maggie, keeping it pointed at Jesus. Daryl was holding the door for everyone as they entered the building. Daryl, was the last one in, giving me a nod, and following in.
-
After a while, the guys and Michonne rushed back out, pulling two strangers with them. Me and Maggie didn't even question who they were. We just got on to the RV and Rick drove off.
I had fallen asleep against the couch I was sitting on in the RV, as soon as we got in here. Daryl was sitting next to me, but I didn't bother laying on him, until I felt his hand push under my back and pull me into him, making my head rest on his shoulder.
"Dammit. A storm must've passed through." I woke up to the RV stopping the the engine revving.
"We're stuck?" I said, coughing afterwards to clear up my voice.
"Yeah-"
"No worries." Jesus said. "We're here." We followed Jesus out of the RV one by one. Daryl stepped out before me, and waited for me to step down, taking my hand so I wouldn't fall in the mud that got us fucking stuck. As soon as I stepped down, I slipped, causing me to fall on my side.
"Shit. Sorry." Daryl cursed, helping me up.
"Reminds me about all those times I would fall on the runs we went on." I laughed. Once I did,
I couldn't stop. "Like that time I hurt my ankle, and-"
"Alex?" Rick said, giving me a little smile as he raised his brows.
"Sorry." I smiled, and stopped laughing.
"You're something else." Daryl said, taking my hand.
"That's us." Jesus said, as we stopped and stared at some type of wall. "That's hilltop." We walked after Jesus towards the wall, following him to go to the entrance, which was a long walk.
"I just need to get home and all cleaned up." I sighed. "This really doesn't feel good."
"You'll be alright." Glenn said, patting my shoulder.
"Stop right there!" A man yelled from the wall. We all stopped walking, and raised our guns up to the two men.
"Whoa-"
"You gonna make us?" Daryl yelled.
"Jesus, what the hell is this?" One of them asked.
"Open the gates, Cal. Freddie's hurt. Look," Jesus turned around. "Sorry about these guys. They get antsy standing up there, all day doing nothing." Turning back around, he lowered his arms.
"They give up the weapons. Then we come there and get them."
"Why don't you come down here and get 'em?" Daryl threatened.
"Gentleman! Look, we vouch for these people. They saved us out there!" The man walked up behind Daryl and stood in between us.
"Lower the spears!" Jesus said.
"Look... I'm not taking any chances." Rick said.
"I don't want to either." I agreed with Rick.
"Tell your guy Gregory to come out here."
"No." Jesus said, turning around. "Don't you see what just happened? I'm letting you keep your guns. Look, we ran out of ammo months ago. I like you people. I trust you." He looked around. "Trust us."
No one spoke after Jesus. Instead, Rick turned his head around and waved his hand over his head, signaling an okay to us.
"Open the gates, Cal."
The gates opened, revealing a giant mansion, and a bunch of little areas where people stood, working and walking around. There was very few animals, some trailers which I'm guessing people lived in there. There was plants and some chickens and even a cow.
"There was a materials used for a power company nearby." Jesus explained to us, as he walked backwards. "That's how we put up the walls. A lot of people came from a FEMA camp. Trailers came with them."
"How did people find out about this place?" Michonne asked.
"That's called Barrington house. The family that owned it, gave it to the state In the thirties. The state turned it into a living history museum. Every elementary school for fifty miles used to come here for field trips. The place was running for a long time before the modern world built up around it." Jesus answered.
"Why do you think they came here though? Out of all places...?" I asked.
"I think people came here because they figured it'd keep running after the modern world broke down." Jesus turned back around to look at me giving me a soft smile.
"Those windows up there let us see for miles in every direction." Jesus said. Daryl turned to me, and I gave him a little look of confusion. "It's perfect for security."
"Oh yeah." I sighed.
"Come on, I'll show you inside." Jesus said, walking us toward the house. When we stepped into the house, it was clean. The floors were wood and looked new. There was paintings all over without a spec of dust on them.
"Good gracious, Ignatius." I heard Abraham say, causing me to laugh.
"Most of the rooms have been converted into living spaces. Even the ones that weren't bedrooms." Jesus spoke.
"People live here and the trailers?" Rick asked.
"We plan to build. There's babies being born." He said. A second later, a door to our left opened up, revealing an older man walking out.
"Jesus! You're back. With guests..." The man said.
"Everyone, this is Gregory." Jesus said. "He keeps the trains running on time around here."
"I'm the boss." Gregory said, putting his arms up.
"Well I'm Rick. We have a community-"
"Why don't y'all go get cleaned up, hm? You look like you could need some new clothes." He looked at me.
"We're fine." Rick said.
"Uh, actually-"
"Yeah, we're fine." Daryl interrupted me. I rolled my eyes at him, and walked away from him, leaning against the wall.
"Jesus will show you where you can get washed up. Then, come back down here when you're ready. It's hard to keep this place clean." Gregory said, getting up in Rick's face.
"Yeah sure." Rick said.
"Come with me." Jesus raised his hand, catching my attention. "I'll get you some new clothes." I walked over to Jesus and thanked him, followed by Daryl and the rest of them.
"You clean up first, you talk to him." Rick said to me.
"Why me?"
"I shouldn't."
"Neither should I. We all know I can't-"
"Okay. Maggie."
"Yeah?" She said.
"You talk to him." Rick said. "Maggie, you need to start doing these things. Lex, you need to learn."
-
I was about to walk down the stairs till I heard Abraham and Daryl talking about some stuff. Yes, I was about to ease drop, but come on, who doesn't?!
"You ever think about it?" I heard Abraham say. "Settle down?"
"You think shits settled?" I heard Daryl answer. I walked down the stairs, and earned looks from Abraham and Daryl.
"Hey." I said, feeling awkwardness creep on us. Daryl mumbled something and walked away, leaving me with Abraham. "What's up his ass, right?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Abraham looked at me and then walked to a a mirror near him. I left him alone and went to just sit on a chair, waiting for Maggie to finish her conversation with Gregory.
"Daryl... I heard you talking with Abe. About settling down..." Daryl approached me and rested his back on the wall. "Not going to answer me?" He looked down at me and scoffed.
"Okay, what now? One minute you're all lovey dovey and the next your acting kind of an asshole." I said, standing up to look at him better.
"Now isn't the time." Daryl spoke.
"To talk?"
"Yep."
"Okay, so then when?" I crossed my arms.
"Interrupting?" I turned to see Rick and Jesus walking down stairs. When they did, everyone else returned to the main part of the house.
"No." I said. I walked over and stood by Jesus and Rick near the stairs.
"We want to generate. Gregory does. But ammo isn't something we urgently need." Jesus started talking.
"Well, how's that?" Rick asked.
"The walls hold. We just brought in more medicine. Gregory wants the best deal possible."
"Yeah, well, we want things to." Daryl snapped.
"We need food. We came all this way, we're gonna get it." Rick said.
"I will talk to him." Jesus said. "And we will work things out." I smiled at him after the way he was talking. He wasn't a bad guy. He didn't want any trouble. "Circumstances change." He turned and looked at me. "We're doing well now, and you will next. I will make him understand that. Can you give me a few days?"
"We can." Michonne answered to our group.
"Yeah." Rick said.
"Thank you." I said, catching Jesus's attention.
"Of course." He smiled.
"You look different without all the leather- ninja looking and all." I laughed.
"Ah, well-"
The door opened and a guy came walking in, then Maggie walked out of the room with Gregory.
"What's wrong?" Gregory asked.
"They're back." The guy panted. We followed the guy outside and towards the gates, where three people entered looking upset.
"Nathan! What happened to everybody else?" Gregory yelled out. "Where's Tim? Marsha?"
"They're dead." The guy answered.
"Negan?" Gregory asked.
"Yeah."
"We had a deal."
"He said it wasn't enough. Was the drop light?" The other man spoke.
"No." Gregory answered them.
"They still have Craig." The girl said.
"What's going on?" I whispered to Jesus.
"They said they'd keep him alive." The taller man said. He asked us if I deliver a message o you." He walked closer to us, to Gregory.
"So tell me."
"I'm sorry." Next thing I knew, Gregory was stabbed by the man, causing him to fall, but getting caught by Maggie and Jesus. Rick ran up to the guy, so did Michonne, and pushed him back.
"Get off me! I had to!" He yelled, pushing Michonne off him. Rick started to beat him up, both on the ground. A guy got on top of Rick, but before he could do anything, Abraham tackled him to the ground. The guy managed to get on Abraham, starting to choke him.
I ran up to the guy and kicked him hard in the side, causing him to fall over, but get back up. He charged over to me, swinging his right fist, but missing me as I ducked. I quickly punched the guy in the face, and even kicked him in the balls.
After that, I quickly received a hard punch to my left side of the face, knocking me over to the floor, but thank goodness he didn't knock me out.
I fell beside Abraham, and winced at the pain in my face and even my right hand. I watched Daryl run over at the guy who had gotten back on Abraham, choking him. He took his arm and heard the guy scream, hearing the crack in his bones, as Daryl broke his arm. As the guy fell over, I stood up quickly, still feeling pain, but that did not stop me from doing something else.
I kicked the guy in the side numerous times, making him scream some more.
"Lex! You can stop now." Glenn yelled. "Alex!" I kept kicking him. He hurt me. He hurt Abraham, and was going to hurt more of us if he wouldn't have gotten a broken arm from Daryl. "Alexandra, just stop!" I stopped when I heard Glenn say my full name. I got off of him, and sat against a tree, trying to catch my breath, as I watched Rick and the other guy fighting.
Alex, control yourself. I thought to myself. I was getting worried as I watched Rick on the ground and the guy raising a knife to his throat.
"Hey!" Glenn yelled.
"Stay back! Anybody who tries to stop me is killing me brother!"
"Drop it!" Michonne yelled.
From far away, I saw Rick had did killed the man with something, as he was bleeding a lot out of the neck.
"Holy fucking shit." I sighed. I stood up with the help from Daryl grabbing onto my waist, and walking me over to everyone else. Everyone stood around and watched Rick as he stood up, covered in the guys blood all over.
"What?" Rick asked.
"Nathan! You killed him!" The guy I kicked around, yelled.
"He tried to kill Gregory, then me." A second later, the woman came up to him, punching him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Michonne being Michonne, went up to the girl and pushed her to the ground.
"Don't." I heard Michonne said.
"Drop it now!" A guy said with a spear walked over to us.
"I don't think I will." Rick said, walking with his gun.
"Everyone! This is over!" Jesus yelled. "It's over! Ethan was our friend, but let's not pretend he was anything more than a coward who attacked us. He did this." He was defending us. Jesus, a stranger, someone who barely knew us, defended us, against people he knew. This was great.
"And these people stopped him." Jesus finished.
"What can I do?" Rick asked.
"Put the gun away." Jesus answered. "You've done enough. You need to know that things aren't as simple as they seem." Jesus said to Rick. I ignored there conversation by leaning my head into Daryl's neck, groaning at the pain.
"Are you okay?" Glenn asked.
"Take her please. Get her help from that doctor over there. She'll need some pills probably." Daryl said, as I felt Daryl kiss me on the side of my head, and then Glenn taking a hold of me.
"Where's he going?" I asked Glenn.
"To Abraham." I nodded my head, as I was guided to the house, along with Maggie, Jesus, the doctor and a wounded Gregory.
--
"You okay?"
I turned around in the chair and saw Daryl standing in front of me. "I'll be fine." Giving him a smile. He bent down in front of me, putting his hands on both my knees.
"You really kicked ass out there." He laughed.
"Yeah well, I've might've picked up some things from you and even Rick since the prison." I said, smiling.
"That's my girl." He said. I placed my hands around his face, looking into his eyes.
"You know I love you." I said.
"I know. And I hope you know that I do too, okay? No matter what kind of shit mood I'm in." He said, speaking about earlier with Abraham, him and I.
"Yeah, I know." I smiled.
Moments later, everyone joined back together in the house. There was silence among us, as we waited for Jesus to talk to us and give us an update on Gregory.
"Dr. Carson was able to patch Gregory up." Jesus entered the room. "He's in pain, but he'll live."
"So what happens now?" Michonne asked.
"Things like that don't usually happen here, but uh, it's settled." He said. Ugh, not that word again. Settled. I thought, rolling my eyes to myself.
"We heard the name Negan," Rick began to speak. "A while back, Daryl and Abraham had a run with his men. Who is he?"
"Negan's head of the group of people he called the saviors. As soon as the wall was built, the saviors showed up. They met with Gregory on behalf of their boss. They made a lot of demands, even more threats. And he killed one of us. Rory. He was sixteen years old."
I shut my eyes at what Jesus had said. I thought about my niece, who had turn along time ago when all this first started happening. I thought about Carl, who's around that age.
"They beat him to death right in front of us." Jesus continued speaking. "Said we needed to understand, right off the bat. Gregory's not exactly good at confrontation... He's not the leader I would have chosen, but he helped make this place what it is and people like him."
"He made the deal." Maggie said.
"Half of everything. Our supplies, our crops, our livestock, it goes to the saviors."
"And what do you get in return?" Glenn asked.
"They don't attack this place. They don't kill us." Jesus said.
"Why not just kill them?" Daryl said.
"I don't think it's that simple." I muttered.
"She's right." Jesus said, hearing me. "Most of these people don't even know how to fight. Even if we had ammo."
"Well, how many people does Negan have?" Rick asked.
"We don't know. We've seen a group as big as twenty-"
"Now, hold up. So they show up, kill a kid, and you give them half of everything?" Daryl said, leaning off the wall. "These dicks just got a good story. The bogeyman, he ain't shit."
"Well how do you know?" Jesus asked.
"A month ago, we took his guys out PDQ." Abe said. "Left them in pieces and puddles."
"You know, we'll do it." Daryl said. I stood up from the chair and looked at Daryl, giving him a death glare. "If we got get your man back, kill Negan, take out his boys, will you hook us up? We want food, medicine, one of them cows."
"Daryl!" I said. Jesus looked at me, then at Rick.
"Confrontations never been something we've had trouble with." Rick said. I couldn't believe my ears.
"I'll take it to Gregory." Jesus said, walking away.
"Wait, are you all kidding me?" I said, looking at them. "We don't even know this Negan guy!You want to go and kill this person, knowing nothing about him, except for his name?"
"Alex-"
"No, Glenn. Don't Alex me. You all want to go in blind, doing something for these people? I don't care if it's for medicine and food, we can fend for ourselves. We barely even know Jesus! I don't care if we can trust him. This is not our problem, Rick!" I lashed out at them.
"We have to do this. We need to survive." Rick said.
"How are you so sure we will all survive? You're willing to risk your life? Our lives?! You have Judith, and Carl. Fuck a trade! Fuck this, Rick! I can't even believe you would all go in blind willing to do this." My mouth was open, and my eyebrows were raised and my face was still hurting from before.
"Alex, we may not know anything but his name, but we can do this. We have to." Daryl said.
"How are you so sure? All of you. I don't want to give up hope on us and I don't want to doubt our abilities, but come on." I sighed. I felt like I was about to cry.
"I'm so sure because we are all strong. We're all brave, smart and capable. We survive this together. We need to do this." Rick said.
-
"Gregory's up." Jesus said, catching all of our attention. "He wants to talk." Rick began walking towards the door until Jesus stopped him. "To Maggie. He wants to talk to Maggie."
"You got this." Glenn said.
"Deanna was right about you." Rick walked to her. Maggie walked away with Jesus, leaving us all outside on the balcony still.
"Alex." Rick said.
"What?"
"I know you don't think this is a good idea- the trade. But you're gonna have to-"
"If it means surviving, fine, whatever. But like Maggie said before, it will cost us something. Alexandria. A life." I said.
-
I sat in the RV waiting for everyone to finish packing stuff and bringing things into the RV to take back to Alexandria. I didn't want to be bothered.
Glenn and Maggie were the last ones on the RV. I sat on the corner of the couch, with Daryl sitting next to me, but there was enough space to be by myself. I saw from the corner of my eye, people passing around a picture. I saw Daryl take a hold of it from Michonne, and turned my head to see him look at it.
No smile. No emotion. Nothing. He tried passing it to me, until I turned my head and shaking it.
Maybe there is no settling down. Maybe I have to fight with them, even if it did mean going in blind, not knowing who this person is. But if it meant a chance at survival, and no future problems with this guy, then I'll take it.
And I felt that feeling again. Fear, and no more hope.
---
A/N:
Long ass chapter because I love you guys lol. I'm really really proud of this chapter, especially those ending "paragraphs". Man oh man, I loved the very last line to this chapter.
LOL there was so many cute and funny moments between Alex and Daryl in this chapter!
Uh, bad ass Alex in this chapter. She has gotten so brave and lil bit tougher. How do you think her character will develop!? who do you think she'll become as a person in this apocalypse? Someone like Rick? Daryl? Maggie or Michonne? Even maybe Carol? COMMENT your thoughts, please!!!
Oh and Michonne in this episode at hilltop when Rick got punched in the face by that girl and then she pushed the girl down! Her face was like "DONT TOUCH MY MANS!" LMAO and when Rick turned around saying "What?" 😂
OK JESUS IS SO ATTRACTIVE. HIS VOICE, OH MY GOSH. I CANNNNT.
Vote! Comment! Follow! Love you all.
Xox