As soon as Amelia felt the trucks begin to slow, the adrenaline began to rise in her chest. the sun was high in the sky, and the warmth seemed to ignore the cold of the metal truck enclosing several boxes and the girl herself. Amelia began to get ready as she loaded her gun and crept towards the back of the trailer near the door.
Before the truck could come to a complete stop, she had slipped out and crouched on the dirt road, eyes glued to the vehicle. When it stopped, however, Amelia knew she had to move.
She scurried as quick as her feet's would allow to the edge of the trees and crouched behind a bush. The girl watched as the driver got out and began looking under the truck.
"What the hell are you doing?" One of the other men asked. The driver grunted, placing his hands in his hips.
"We hit a bump. I thought I heard one of the pipes draggin'... I guess not."
"Well hurry up and get in. We gotta go fast if we're gonna make it to Richmond in time."
Amelia furrowed her eyebrows. Alexandria wasn't too far from Richmond. She looked around for a sign of location before glancing up at the sun. It was early noon, the sun just now beginning to warm the ground. She knew the walk would be at least a day long.
Watching as the driver got back into the truck to drive away, Amelia slowly stood up and walked back to the road. She needed to head east.
--
Back at Alexandria, a panic had settled in. Amelia had been gone for going on four days, and no one had a clue as to where she was other than Enid. Maggie had been in a constant state of stress, hiding away in her room with the occasional visit of Sasha. It seemed that the only other Green had disappeared.
"What are we supposed to think? She could be dead for all we know." Michonne sighed, resting her hands on her hips. A group of people had gathered in the church, attempting to form a plan about what to do about Amelia going missing.
"We can't assume that. Amelia could still be out there." Aaron stated. He hasn't been extremely close with the girl, but he did know she was a fighter, and most definitely stronger than the others seemed to think.
"She said she was going back to clear her head. But she just...disappeared. I don't know where she could have gone off to." Enid sat in a pew, eyes focused on her lap. She felt slightly responsible for letting Amelia go off alone like that. And now she was gone. "This was all my fault, I should have just gone off with her." Enid sighed, shaking her head.
"This ain't anyone's fault. We had no control over Amelia or her actions. None of us can blame ourselves." Rick said.
"What do we do?" Gene asked.
"We find her." Rick nodded. Daryl only scoffed, causing the others to look in his direction. A silence fell over the group before the man turned and began to leave. "Where the hell are you going?" Rick took a few steps towards him. Daryl spun on his heels and strutted towards the curious group of people.
"I ain't doin' this 'gain. I ain't!" Daryl threw his hands out in exasperation. "I ran after too many damn kids only t'find 'em dead in goddamn ditch!" He sighed, not sure what else to say. "I can't do this again."
"We go together on this." Aaron added, exchanging looks with the two men.
"Okay, what, so we go'ff t'get the kid, maybe save 'er, maybe get close, then what? Watch 'er die again 'cause she couldn't handle 'erself out there? We wind up with 'nother Sophia? Another Beth?" The room was quiet once more.
Rick lowered his head.
"I say 'nuff... No more. 'm done. If she wants t'survive, she can do it on 'er own. I ain't tryin' to save no more lives." Daryl looked at everyone one more time before leaving the church.
The group didn't speak. They only watched each other in silence for what felt like hours. But then a thought began to worm its way I to Carl's head.
He thought back to the night the two had been cooped up in the attic space of he and his father's house. Amelia had brought over a few older comic books she had found on a scavenge, and the two were eating a bag of microwave popcorn. It was late into the night, the only sound really being the buzz of cicadas.
A yellow glow emitted from the lamp Carl had plugged in next to where the two were sitting. A pile of batman and poison ivy comics lay scattered in front of Amelia, and the two read quietly, trying to regain some of their child like attributes.
Amelia broke the silence.
"I hate Negan." She said simply. Carl looked up after a moment.
"I think everyone does." Was all he answered with. There was quiet a moment more before Amelia spoke up again.
"I think I want to kill him." She sat her comic book down and crossed her legs, resting her hands in her lap calmly. Carl laughed.
"If you tried, you'd be dead." He told her. Amelia shrugged.
"I know."
Carl furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her for a while. "Amelia, my dad is gonna find a way for us to get out of this. He's going to be the one to kill him eventually. Besides, if someone else had to kill Negan, besides my dad, it would be Maggie. O-or Sasha... I mean, Rosita could too, but like--"
"I'm going to kill him, Carl." She loomed him in the eyes. "I'll kill that bastard if it's the last thing I do. He ruined Maggie. She won't ever be the same. Glenn was all she had left." The boy gulped, growing suddenly uncomfortable by the tension in Amelia's voice.
"Am, you can't kill Negan... y-you aren't being serious, are you?" He asked her. Amelia had to think.
"I don't know if I am." The quiet fell over the two of them like a heavy blanket of discomfort. There was more Caro wanted to say, but he didn't. "Just forget I ever said anything." She huffed before going back to her comic.
Carl's throat tightened as he realized Amelia could have been serious. She couldn't have actually tried to go after Negan on her own, right? She had to have known that was complete suicide. Amelia wasn't that stupid.
He let the conversation of the others flow by his ears like the dull swish of water. Carl's mind was instead focused on the fact Amelia could have done something beyond stupid. She had disappeared from Alexandria not even four days after the encounter, and here he was wondering if she had been serious.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Sasha asked softly. Carl looked over, struggling to find the words to speak.
"I-I..." He trailed off, furrowing his eyebrows. "I know where Amelia is."