TO FIND MORE people willing to join the fight in the war to be waged on the Saviors, Tara had to break her promise. A promise to Oceanside. It was the only way they were going to win the pending war. The only way to stop all of the killing they endured for so long. They needed guns, Oceanside had those guns. Ella felt bitter for what they had to do. If anything, they were just as bad as the Saviors if they had to take the direction they didn't want to take. The direction being: taking over the place with just a few of their own people. Tara did promise to not tell anyone about Oceanside to keep them safe from harm, but what did promises mean anymore? Promises nowadays were always meant to be broken.
Hearing Tara tell them of Oceanside, hearing the plan, Ella offered her support. At first, people protested, asking, "what about the baby?" and what not. But when she broke the news, she watched as their hearts shattered. Rick gave her the longest hug ever. He told her, in a whisper, that he'd do anything to make it right. She just had to name it. The one reaction she won't forget was Carl's. She forgot he grew. He grew from being that murderous child. If he still was that murderous child, could she really blame him? He was a baby when the world ended. He still was a baby. He was trying to survive.
"The baby is gone. I miscarried." Ella broke the news.
A few gasps made Ella's skin crawl. She didn't like hearing gasps anymore, it reminded her of that night when everything fell apart and slipped through their fingers when Negan paid them a visit. Rick seemed to be frozen, so did Daryl. But watching as Carl almost fell to his knees, her own heart broke. She grabbed him, steadying him on his feet. "Carl-"
Carl broke down sobbing. "The baby was the one good thing you had left after Negan took Glenn. . . and-and," he sniffled, snot hanging from his nose. Ella held him in her arms. "We have to make him hurt." Carl's face darkened.
"We will," she grabbed his shoulders. "We will." she repeated.
Gerard and Jesus were wiring the dynamite by themselves when Daryl left them to go check up on Ella who stood a good distance away from everyone else. He stood behind her, his hands trembling. He stood for a good five minutes, trying to not break down as he tried to find his voice. Everytime he looked at her, he had to fight back the tears, but after hearing what happened to the baby, he couldn't contain it anymore. Glenn's death, the death he made happen, caused her miscarriage and it was all his fault. He thought she was angry at him for what happened up until that hug she gave him when he escaped Negan. "Ella," his voice croaked. She spun on her heel, seeing the tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry."
For a good minute, Ella held eye contact. She was dumbfounded. What did he have to apologize for? She was about to ask him what he apologizing for, then, it hit her. She knew what it was about. They never were able to stand aside and talk about it. Negan made it seem Brandon and Glenn's death was his fault, so Daryl thought it was his fault. "It's not your fault."
He cried. "It was."
Everyone heard the cries. They all looked in concern. But Ella stepped forward to keep this conversation between them. Her voice was not audible to the rest. "No," she brought her forehead to his, her arms holding his shoulders. "This was Negan's doing. He has broken you down so much that you think it was your fault. That night, you did what we all wanted to do, any one of us could have done that. You reacted to Abraham. He killed two of our friends from that reaction. Your reaction did not cause their death. My reaction did not cause their death. Rick's reaction did not cause their death. Please," she shuddered. "Please hear me when I say that it wasn't your fault."
He laid his head on her shoulder, falling into her arms.
"He killed people we loved. You reacted to that." she whispered.
He slumped further into her. "I just reacted."
"Yes."
It still didn't change his mind, but this was the first step to healing.
"We'll kill him. If I hesitate to kill him, I want you to do it." she told him.
He nodded.
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TARA GAVE NO signal they'd willingly speak to Rick. Without her signal, they blew up the area surrounding where Oceanside's aresenal was. Two women sprinted up, the group came out of hiding and pointed their guns as the women's backs were turned on them. "On the ground. Now. Those hands — put them on your head."
They obeyed after Jesus plead with them to get down. Daryl swung a rag around to let Michonne know it was handled.
They took the two women, the only ones who had balls to run toward the bombings outside their walls without any weapon, where the rest of the Oceanside prisoners were.
"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," he rubbed the top of his head. "Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won't take any chances. No one needs to get hurt. This is just about what you have, what we need." he explained.
"Nobody's taking anything!" an older woman held Tara close at gunpoint. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now," she paused. "Just walk away or this one dies!"
Ella sucked in a breath. She aimed her gun at Natania. She just had to wait for the clear from Rick to kill her to free Tara from the woman.
Rick nodded, "Yeah, we'll leave you alone. But we're taking your weapons with us. That's not gonna change," he blinked a few times to remember her name. "It's Natania, right? Put the gun down and let's talk about what we can change."
Natania shook her head. "No. Leave right now."
Tara looked up into the trees. "Michonne, don't!"
"We just want to be left alone." Natania practically begged. Ella could feel someone's presence behind her. She would have looked if she was in front of everyone but she was behind them all. All she had to do was look at the faces of the people in front of her and see it was Gerard.
Rick nodded. "Yeah, we'll leave you alone. Just let go of her. Now. Or we'll kill you. None of us want that."
There was a younger girl beside Natania, she spoke up. "They want us to fight the Saviors."
Natania shook her head. One look and Ella sensed Natania wasn't going to agree not unless they really convinced her. "We tried that. We lost too much. We aren't going to lose anymore — not our guns, not our safety, not after everything we've done to get here."
"We're gonna win — with your guns, with or without your help!" Tara spoke to the people being held hostage, basically.
"Natania, put the gun down." Rick asked.
"You kill me, and you die," Tara threatened. "And my people take the guns and nothing changes."
One of the girls they captured spoke up, "Maybe we should try." a hushed chatter fell upon Natania's group of women.
The younger girl next to Natania whispered to the elder, none of them could hear what she said. Natania snapped at the girl, "It's not over! They've forgotten. You've all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything?" Ella began to move toward the elderly woman holding Tara at gunpoint. She was visibly getting more unhinged and Ella did not want to lose one of her friends, close or not. "We can lose our guns, but us leaving this place to fight? After everything? I have to remind you! Yes. I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die. But 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!"
Michonne warned them there were walkers which took Natania's attention off her people and to Michonne hiding in the trees. Ella took the opportunity and whipped her rifle flat across the grandma's face, knocking her down. She silently apologized to the girl standing over the elder. The girl acknowledged her and nodded her head as a way of accepting the silent apology.
"Everybody up! Get the children behind us! They're coming!" Rick shouted over the groans of the undead. Ella turned on her heel, aiming one of the walkers down in her sights. They've seen bigger herds than this dozen, but it always scared Ella to have to dive head first into one.
The girl Ella apologized to for knocking their leader down began to yell out, "First shift, join them on the line. Knives out. Dead only. Dead only!"
Gerard moved in beside Ella, his own rifle aimed at the dozen walkers. Ella was surprised he wasn't beside Harley right now.
"Everyone, shots within ten feet of the line. That's it," the walkers drew near. Ella steadied herself. "Now!" The line of guns rang out, shooting one walker after another. Ella shot a mere three down before the walkers began to get too close. The ones with knives for weapons sliced through the ones that got too close to the group, closer than someone would like.
The gunfire lasted only a couple minutes. There weren't many walkers to begin with. Ella got a good look of the walkers. Their skin looked like it was melting off their heads, their hair not even there. Ella's hand shot down to her covered arm where she was bit a few months ago, the mark that reminded her of Tyreese's death everyday. He didn't survive his walker bite, but she survived hers. It wasn't fair. If she was just an ordinary person, she would be one of them.
"No," Natania walked away. "We're not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go."
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TAKING OCEANSIDE'S GUNS felt wrong, but it was necessary to take them all. They needed every gun they could get their hands on to win the war they'd start now that they'd had enough guns. All they needed was enough people but Oceanside wasn't fighting this fight with the other communities. Some wanted to fight, not all, but some. They'd never go against their leader though, or that's what it seemed like. To have some, or half, of your people go against you the leader meant you probably weren't actually the leader, or you weren't a good one and you kept making the wrong decisions.
In this case, Natania made the wrong call, the wrong decision. If they really lost the war then Negan would find Oceanside. Again. He would kill them and they wouldn't have anything to protect themselves with, only knives. And that knowledge of Negan murdering Oceanside if they lost the upcoming war was why it felt wrong to take all of their guns.
But it's necessary, Ella thought to herself. She already carried one box over to the RV, now she was carrying a second one. She didn't dare look at the faces of the Oceanside women. It would break her heart. If another walker herd, bigger than the dozen that came by, they might just all perish. Knives could only do so much for so long before you're suddenly overwhelmed by them. Guns did a much better job of controlling a crowd. It wasn't easy to be overwhelmed by walkers. Humans on the other hand was a different story. Humans were smart. Walkers weren't.
After all the guns were secured from Oceanside, they headed on back to Alexandria. Ella stepped outside the RV after everyone else ran up to Rosita and noticed a guilty expression on Rosita's face. Enid was quicker than Ella though and asked her if she was okay. Jesus asked where Sasha was. "There's someone here." was what Rosita replied with.
They — Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Ella, Tara, and Jesus — followed Rosita down to the jail cells. As Rosita unlocked the cell door, the person stood up in the light. It was a man. A man with one side of his face burned. Ella remembered him. He was there the night Negan murdered Glenn, Abraham, and Brandon. Dwight.
Without hesitation after Dwight showed himself, Daryl lunged at him. Everyone held him back before he could reach Dwight.
"He says he wants to help us." Rosita informed.
Rick lifted an eyebrow. "That true?" he asked. "You want to help?"
Dwight nodded, "I do."
"Okay," Rick pointed his gun at Dwight. "Get on your knees."