CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE,
the pike victims.
Aiden and Daryl watched as their kids ran off towards Connie. They looked at their bracelets. Aiden's had 'D' and a 'W' intertwined and a oak tree.
The tree was a symbol of survival.
Daryl's was more like a chain like Elliot's with a small heart with 'D', 'B', 'E', and 'A' carved into it and a motorcycle.
"Huh," Daryl huffed. "Them kids are somethin' else."
"Yeah, but we made those kids." Aiden smiled.
"And we did damn good," Daryl said with a small grin. Aiden kissed his lips quickly before the two made their way to his motorcycle.
The gates to the Kingdom opened and the Dixon couple led the convoy out of the community.
»
Aiden followed the Highwaymen she had heard about while at the Kingdom. The leader, Ozzy, led them towards what they had found.
"We were clearing the roads. Spotted tracks leading here." Ozzy explained to them.
Aiden liked the Highwaymen already.
They were badass and someone you wouldn't wanna mess with at first glance.
Ozzy had the most amazing hoarse, southern voice.
"It's from Hilltop," Magna said as she picked up something up off the group.
"Dead didn't do this. People did." Ozzy said.
"The skins?" Michonne quizzed. "You know about them?"
"We got the download. Strange times, strange ways to cope. Anyway, yeah. That'd be my guess. If anyone else was out here, my patrols would've seen 'em. Something else... they put up a fight." Ozzy said to them all.
"Hey. Drug 'em out this way," Daryl pointed.
"Let's go," Cal spoke.
"We can't all just go rushing in there." Aiden looked at the man. "Too dangerous."
"They could still be alive," Dianna said her piece.
"But if those skin freaks followed them from the Hilltop, the whole community is in danger right now." Marco said.
"So we split up." Michonne suggested.
"Michonne, Payton, and I can go with Daryl and Aiden. We'll track 'em. The rest of you, go on to the Hilltop." Carol said.
"We'll keep up our patrols around the Kingdom. Just in case," Ozzy reassured. "'Course, this means you owe us a couple movies when this is done." He said to Carol.
"I'm sure I can work that out," she replied to him. Aiden grinned.
"Hey. Wait up." Aiden heard Yumiko's voice.
Aiden turned, "come on."
»
The dark of the night sky hung over the six like a storm cloud.
Daryl picked up a bloody stick before looking around.
Aiden had a sickly feeling.
"I don't know if there's a happy ending here." Carol said when they started walking again.
He stopped the walking, "the trail... it goes off in three different directions. Don't make sense." Daryl informed. The sudden sound of twigs snapping causing Aiden to rip her Beretta out of its holster.
"Come on. Come on. Head back. Let's go." Daryl said.
"Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah." They heard Yumiko say. Two walkers walked out of the woods, "they're from Hilltop."
"Yeah, they were." Aiden mumbled as Daryl and Yumiko both released a bolt and an arrow at the same time.
"Watch their hands. They could be skins," Michonne instructed them as more walkers came from the trees.
"Back to the road. Come on!" Aiden shouted. They all turned but saw more walkers. "Oh, fuck." Aiden mumbled once they all realized they were cornered.
Michonne took the first swing. Everyone else started killing the walkers. Aiden's Bowie knife in one hand and Carl's in the other.
"Hands!" Aiden reminded them.
The walkers were all dead.
"Oh, holy shit." They heard Payton exclaim.
This was his first interaction with the new enemy.
The skins walked out of the woods, Aiden's nose flared and her grip tightened on her knives. Once again, they were surrounded. They stood back to back.
"Drop them." Aiden's eyes widened at the familiar voice.
She kneeled next to him and whispered, "you die now." She stabbed him in the side of the head.
"As do you," Aiden heard a deep voice from behind her. She stood and turned quickly. Her eyes widened at the sight of Beta standing in front of her. She sliced as him but he dodged it.
She and Daryl both turned and saw the insanely tall man.
Beta.
"I won't ask twice." He glowered at the group.
The five heard Aiden's growl.
Beta looked at the woman, she saw his lip twitch.
How did he survive the fall down the elevator shaft?
Aiden Dixon allowed her knives to hit the ground.
All eyes shot to her.
Aiden Dixon had never been the first to drop her weapons. They knew... that's how they knew they were fucked.
The others followed suit.
"You just had to give me the girl," Beta said to Daryl and Aiden, "no one else had to die. Now that deal... is done."
"What the hell did you do!?" Aiden snarled.
Beta stared down at the woman before he grabbed her hair and yanked her head to the side. Aiden grimaced at the pain but her eyes remained locked with Beta's.
Never showing fear.
He examined the bruise on her face.
She yanked away from him after he pressed on her bruise with his thumb.
Her eyes were wide, her mouth open. She stumbled back into Daryl who swiftly caught her.
His eyes never strayed from Beta who eyed the two Dixon's.
He was going to be a problem.
»
The group of six were all bound to a tree. Aiden in between Daryl and Payton. She glared at the leader of the skins as she approached them.
"You ain't getting her back." Daryl said immediately.
"He's right." Aiden growled, "wicked bitch."
"You think this is about my daughter?" Alpha asked the duo, "I ran into some trouble on the road. It was unavoidable." Aiden heart dropped to her stomach. "Do you like my new camp? My people like to keep moving, keep roaming."
"We've granted Lydia asylum. Any attempt to take her by force will result in retaliation." Michonne calmly spoke.
"What's your name?" Alpha asked her.
"Michonne." She replied cooly.
"Does she speak for you both?" Alpha asked the Dixon's.
"We speak for each other." Aiden responded, her lips curling.
"My daughter isn't a concern anymore. She was weak. She never lived up to expectations," Alpha said.
"Was?" Daryl asked. "What the hell does that mean?"
"What the hell did you do to her?" Aiden growled.
"To be clear..." Alpha pulled out her small double-barrel shotgun and aimed it at Daryl. Alpha's eyes shot over to Aiden when she struggled against her bonds, "your group is in no position to threaten me. That is a habit that needs to be broken. Come with me. Just you two." She said to the Dixon couple. She motioned to the side. The two walked off. Aiden nodded at Payton while Daryl did the same to Carol.
The couple walked in front of Alpha. The sun had risen. "Where you takin' us?" Daryl asked her. She didn't respond.
The two walked onto the rocks and saw where she was taking them. The biggest heard Aiden had ever seen was below them.
Aiden gasped at the sight.
Thousands upon thousands of walkers.
Aiden looked at Alpha and then back at the herd in shock.
"My people are among them, steering them. The only reason you and your friends are alive is because I let you live." Alpha said to the duo.
"What do you want?" Aiden asked harshly.
"Nothing. You don't got a single thing to offer me. I've seen how you live. I've walked your streets. It's a joke. Your communities are a shrine to a long-dead world. My people, the Whisperes- we live as nature intended." Alpha explained to them. So that's what the were called, the Whisperers. Made sense.
"That's just all the bullshit you feed your sheep so they'll follow you." Daryl insisted harshly.
"They follow me because I am the Alpha. And if the Alpha doesn't assert herself, then there's chaos." The woman sniffed and looked at the herd, "so that is what I've done."
"What did you do?" Aiden asked her in a oddly calm, dangerous, and terrifying tone that only four people have heard her utter.
The Governor, Rick, Merle, and Negan.
And now Alpha.
"Your friends back at the camp are fine. Tell them the next time they cross into my land, my horse will cross into theirs. The land between broken interstates and the river in the south is like. I've marked the border to the north. You'll see it as you leave." Alpha said and Aiden furrowed her eyebrows.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Daryl asked her.
"You'll see it as you leave. Go. Your friends will be waiting for you in a field due north." She said.
Daryl stepped closer to the psycho, "did you kill Lydia?" He asked her. Her glassy eyes looked down.
"I don't think you two can't protect my daughter. But I hope I'm wrong." Alpha said.
"You are." Aiden said.
As Aiden and Daryl began to leave Alpha said, "keep your children close."
Aiden stopped dead in her tracks. Both she and Daryl whipped around. "Excuse me?"
"Keep your children close." Alpha said, looking at the herd, "never know when you may see them last."
Aiden went to lunge at her but Daryl caught her wrist. She turned to him with wide, teary eyes. She could see his own worried eyes.
He shook his head.
»
The two walked back to the others. Carol and Daryl hugged while Payton ran to Aiden. He wrapped his arms around her small figure. "You okay?"
She nodded, "you?" He nodded.
"Here's your weapons." He handed her the four weapons. She placed all four in the respective holsters.
"Thanks," she nodded.
The six walked through woods until the heard muffled yelling. Aiden gasped when she saw a beat up Siddiq. "Siddiq!" Michonne cried and they ran to him. She pulled the gag from his mouth and cut him loose.
"What happened?" He pointed towards a hill.
"I... I... I-" Was all he could muster. Aiden rushed forward and saw eleven heads on pikes.
"Oh, my God." Aiden whispered.
The now group of seven walked forward. Aiden was the first over three hill. Following closely by everyone else.
"Oh, God, no." Aiden cried.
Eleven heads.
Eleven people she knew.
Eleven people she cared for were dead.
Ozzy, Alec, and DJ were the first three. Aiden covered her mouth at the sight.
Frankie was the next.
Tammy Rose was the fifth. Aiden felt her heart shatter seeing the older lady. Rodney and Addy were the sixth and seventh, two teens ripped away from their lives.
Aiden's sharp gasp hit everyone's ears.
Enid.
"No." She whimpered, she stumbled backwards, her heart beating wildly and her hand covering her mouth.
Enid who had taught Aiden's children to peel potato because Elliot saw Jesus do it.
Enid who was there when Aiden gave birth to a Elliot.
Her baby sister.
Her tears didn't hold back.
They flowed freely down her face as she looked to the next person.
Tara.
Tara who had saved Glenn all those years ago.
Tara who had shown Aiden that you can always be a good person.
Her sister.
Aiden hit her knees when she saw the next person.
Macy Bivens.
She heard Payton let out a yell that shattered her soul ever further.
Macy was the woman who threatened Aiden and everyone she loved.
But Macy was also the woman who redeemed herself and loved Aiden and her children.
Macy.
The final person was Henry.
Her children would be crushed.
Daryl ran over to Carol, "no! No!" He moved her attention away from her dead son.
The group stayed where they were.
Siddiq and Michonne grasped each other tightly, Daryl held onto an sobbing Carol, Yumiko stared at the heads with her hand covering her mouth, Payton had hit his knees not far from Aiden, a heart wrenching cry leaving his throat.
The only sounds heard were their sobs.
Four more people she lost.
Four more people she loved with her entire being.
Four more people she considered family.
Enid, her children's sister and her's.
Tara, her sister.
Macy, one of her closest friends.
Henry, a boy she swore to protect.
Four people.
Four more names added to her list.
»
Aiden, Nathaniel, and Payton all stood together with Beth and Elliot standing in front of them. Small cries leaving both their mouths.
They just lost so many people. Their Aunt Macy and Aunt Tara. Their sister Enid and their cousin Henry.
"I was there." Siddiq said to everyone who gathered around the stage, "and I saw... I was supposed to die with them. I was ready to. Then, Alpha whispered in my ear, "tell them." Something hit me and everything went black. And when I woke up, I was alone. What happened was evil. It was evil. And I think she left me alive to tell you that story. To show you and to drive us all apart again. But I wanna tell you a different story."
Beth turned around and shoved her face into her mother's stomach. She picked up her heartbroken daughter. Beth laid her small head on Aiden's shoulder before looking at her Uncle Siddiq.
"See, before the end... Ozzy, Alec, and DJ found us... they gave us an opening. And everyone fought back... they fought like hell. And what they did... was more than brave. Cause they defended each other. And they sacrificed for each other. And some of them- they didn't even know each other, but they still fought like they did. Like they were family. 'Til the very end. And, uh... and in the end, they- their time was cut short, but ours keeps going. So we have to keep going. For them and... for all of us. We need to honor them. We need to honor them and we need to remember these friends, our family, died as heroes. That's the story that I want to tell you. That's the story that I want us all to remember."
"And in the end... their time was cut short."
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word count: 2,372
episode: the calm before
and here's one of the saddest edited chapters i've had to edit. this actually broke my heart to edit i'm not even kidding. their deaths were so sad.
☹️💔☹️💔☹️💔💔☹️💔💔💔💔💔☹️💔☹️💔☹️.
rest in paradise everyone.
rest in paradise enid.
rest in paradise tara.
rest in paradise henry.
rest in paradise macy.
well guys.... we just lost so many people. macy bivens. a woman changed for the good. i didn't like her at first but she grew on me and i decided her and aiden would be friends in the end and after everything macy and aiden went through together. aiden loved the woman.
but the aiden/beta/alpha rivalry is just beginning. her and beta's rivalry will be like dwight and daryl's. just no... leaving in the end.
this was one of the hardest chapters i've ever wrote in this series, truly.