The RV was coming to a stop. Jesus had convinced us to go to this Hilltop place. It was me, Maggie, Glenn, Sophia, Rick, Michonne, Carl, dad, Abraham, Eric, Aaron and obviously Jesus. On the way there, we'd had to make a stop to save a few of Jesus' friends from walkers when they'd been cornered in an old store.

"A storm must have passed through. We're stuck." Rick announced to us all.

"No worries. We're here." Jesus responded.

Dad stepped out of the RV first, into a very large and very muddy pile of, well... Mud. He turned around and put his arm around my waist to carry me with one arm, before placing me on the dry grass. He went to do the same for Sophia, but she was already two feet in the mud, staring up at the wooden walls on a small hilltop in front of us.

"That's us. That's the Hilltop." Jesus stated.

We started walking along a path, up to the gates. Weapons in hand. "Stop right there!" A man ordered us, as he and another man were clearly standing on platforms, hidden behind the wooden walls. They pointed their spears at us, so we pointed our guns at them.

Jesus put his back to them, facing us with his arms out. "Woah."

"You gonna make us?" Dad questioned.

"Jesus, what the hell is this?" The same man asked.

"Open the gates, Cal. Freddie's hurt." Jesus ordered, still with his hands up, but now standing sideways so he could see both his people and our people depending on how he angled his head. He then turned to us. "Look, sorry about these guys. They get antsy standing up there all day doing nothing."

"They give up the weapons. Then we'll open the gates." Cal replied.

"Why don't you come down here and get them?" Dad suggested, his tone clearly showing that he was suggesting a fight, not a peaceful hand over.

One of the men we rescued, who's a doctor, stepped forward. "Gentlemen, look, we vouch for these people. They saved us out there."

"Lower the spears." Jesus ordered.

Rick stepped forward to talk to Jesus. "Look, I'm not taking any chances. Tell your Gregory guy to come out here."

"No." Jesus instantly denied, turning back to Rick. "Don't you see what just happened? I'm letting you keep your guns. Look, we ran outta ammo months ago. I like you people. I trust you. Trust us." Jesus tried, Rick seemed hesitant but he nodded. Jesus turned back to his men. "Open the gates, Cal."

The only part of the wooden walls that was metal, was the gates. They slowly squeaked open and revealed this new community. In the centre was a large brick house, more like a mansion, probably did class as a mansion. Around the outskirts, was metal caravans, not sure what they're called, but it seemed to be people living in them. To our left I saw wooden shelters, they seemed to have a blacksmith. Then, I saw them... The chickens. "Oh my god, the chickens." I said happily, trying to run forward to them, but dad grabbed my shirt and pulled me back, a subtle shake of his head was enough for me to not pull out of his grip. "But I wanna see the chickens." I muttered.

As we passed the chicken coop, there was a nice looking lady inside who was feeding them. She smiled at me when she saw me gawking at the little clucking animals. "You can look at the chickens later, El." Sophia gently pushed me away from the chickens.

"But they're so cute." I complained, as we continued walking up a path towards the big brick mansion. 

I had missed most of was Jesus had said about the walls, but I tuned in eventually. "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 use to come here for school trips. The place was running a long time before the modern world built up around it. I think people came here because they figured it would keep running after the modern world broke down." He then pointed to the very top of the house where there seemed to be a miniature tower. "Those windows up there let us see for fifty miles in every direction. It's perfect for security... Come on, I'll show you inside."

Once we walked in, it was hard not to be impressed. I'd never walked into a room that fancy. A grand staircase led up to another floor, a patterned carpet hid some of the glossy wooden tiles, art work and fancy vases littered the room. "Good gracious, Ignatius." Abraham commented. He looked down to me as I stood next to him. "You ever been anywhere this fancy, little one?"

"Nope. Not even before the world went to Hell, big one." I looked up to him. He smiled at me before we both looked back to the over decorated room at the same time.

"Most of the rooms have been converted into living spaces." Jesus started speaking again. "Even the ones that weren't bedrooms."

"People live here and the trailers?" Rick asked. 

"We plan to build. There's babies being born." Jesus nodded.

A door opened to mine and Abraham's side, I nearly took a step back, but decided against it. "Jesus." The man stated. He wore a suit, I looked him up and down with a questioning and slightly disgusted look on my face. The man also had a bald spot in between his grey hairs. "You're back." He continued.

"So is Chris Evans, he wants his suit back." I commented.

The man who I assumed was Gregory looked down his nose at me, giving me a distasteful look before speaking. "Okay, Shakira." He scoffed.

"You really just name the first Latina you could think of, you bald twat?" I raised an eyebrow. I knew either I spoke first or my people would, and I didn't want my dad to start arguments with people, Gregory would take it less personal if I argued with him.

"Excuse you, I-" Gregory started but Jesus stood in front of me.

"Let's not start arguments with nine year olds." Jesus suggested, a slight harshness to his tone.

"She's ten." All of my people said in sync. I wasn't sure if they were mocking me because they knew I was about to correct him, or if they were sticking up for me. Either way I smirked to myself before going over to stand by my dad.

Jesus let out a sigh. "Everyone, this is Gregory. He keeps the train running on time around here?"

"Do people know the time from what angle the sun is reflecting off his head?" I asked. Dad slipped his hand over my mouth so I wouldn't say anything else.

"It means I'm the boss, little girl." Gregory said to me. Man, I wish I could've said something back.

"Watch it." Dad said, his voice a low and warning tone.

"Well, I'm Rick. We have a community-" Rick started.

"Why don't y'all go upstairs. Go get cleaned up?" Gregory interrupted.

"We're fine." Rick responded after a couple seconds.

"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 continued.

"Yea. Sure." Rick begrudgingly agreed.

Even though I was one of the first to "freshen up", I was downstairs last because I had been exploring the upstairs rooms. It was very fancy considering we were living in the end of days.

"They're back." A man said when he entered the house.

I just followed everybody else outside, because... Well, I had nothing better to do. Gregory started speaking as we approached a man who was being followed by another man and a woman. "Nathen, what happened to everybody else? Where's Tim and Marsha?"

"They're dead." The bearded man (Nathen) who had been leading the three stated.

"Negan?" Gregory presumed as he stood in front of the bearded man.

"Yea." The stranger nodded.

"We had a deal." Gregory put his hands on his hips.

"He said it wasn't enough. Was the drop light?" The man from behind the bearded man said.

"No." Gregory denied.

"They still have Craig." The girl spoke.

"They said they'd keep him alive, return him to us, if I deliver a message to you." Nathen took a couple steps closer to Gregory.

"So, tell me." Gregory insisted.

Nathen put his hand on Gregory's shoulder. "I'm sorry." That's when I watched the blade in the stranger's hand smoothly entered Gregory's abdomen. My eyes widened as Maggie, Jesus and Glenn helped Gregory to lay down while Michonne and Rick pulled back the guy who stabbed him. "Get off of me! I had too!" He started swinging, he got Michonne to the ground so Rick started fighting him. I was going to go and help but I didn't want to get between Rick's fist and the guy's face because Rick had it sorted.

The other man yanked Rick off so Abraham pushed him away, just before Rick then got back on Nathen to make sure he couldn't hurt anyone else. The woman went to help the other man so I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She pulled back her first and swung at my face. I dodged, just before Sophia came and kicked the woman's middle so she was on the ground. Me and Sophia both pulled out our guns and aimed it at the woman. "Stay down." Sophia ordered.

"Or what? You'll shoot me?" The woman taunted.

"Swing at my sister again and I will." Sophia confirmed.

Carl came and grabbed her knife from her waistband before pointing it at her. "Three against one. She was going for her knife, make sure you pay more attention to their body language next time you aim at someone." Carl ordered. I hadn't realised that her fingers were slowly going towards her knife.

"Sir, yes, sir." Sophia said sarcastically.

Carl laughed quietly. "You've been spending too much time with Ellie."

"Hey, you can never spend too much time with me." I complained.

"Nathan! You killed him!" The man screamed. I looked over to see the bearded man dead and Rick covered in blood.

"He tried to kill Gregory, then me." Rick protested.

"Drop them now." Cal came over, holding a spear. He was looking at me, Sophia and Carl.

"No, don't think we will." I moved my arm so I was aiming my gun at him instead of the woman while Carl and Sophia kept their guns trained on the woman.

Jesus ran between me and Cal. "Everyone! This is over!" He took a few deep breaths. "It's over!... Nathen was our friend, but let's not pretend he was anything more than a coward who attacked us. He did this. And these people stopped him."

"What can I do?" Rick asked.

"Get your children to put their guns away." Jesus ordered. I looked to Rick who nodded, so I holstered my gun, Sophia doing the same, Carl gave the woman her knife back. "You've done enough. You need to know that things aren't as simple as they may seem. Just give me some time.

We were sitting in the main office. Me and Sophia were sitting on what was supposed to be a two person fancy looking sofa, but I'd sat on rocks more comfortable than that sofa. All of our people were in there with Jesus. Gregory would live, the doc patched him up well.

"What happens now?" Michonne asked.

"Things like that don't usually happen here." Jesus admitted. "But uh... It's settled."

"We heard the name Negan." Rick started. "A while back Daryl and Abraham had a run in with his men. Who is he?"

"Negan's the head of a group of people he calls the Saviours. As soon as the walls were built, the Saviours 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. They beat him to death right in front of us. Said we needed to understand, right off the bat. Gregory's not exactly good at confrontation. He's not the leader I would've chosen, but he helped make this place what it is, and the people like him."

"He made the deal." Maggie nodded.

"Half of everything. Our supplies, our crops, our livestock, it goes to the Saviours." Jesus informed us.

"And what do you get in return?" Sophia questioned.

"They don't attack this place. They don't kill us." Jesus admitted.

"Why not just kill them?" Dad asked.

"Most of the people here don't even know how to fight." Jesus responded. "Even if we had ammo."

"Well, how many people does Negan have?" Rick raised his eyebrows.

"We don't know. We've seen groups as big as twenty." Jesus replied.

"Now, hold up-" Dad started, walking behind mine and Sophia's sofa, placing his hands on the back before continuing. "So, they show up, kill a kid and you give them half of everything? These dicks just got a good story. The bogeyman, he ain't shit."

"Well, how'd you know?" Jesus asked.

"A couple months ago, we took these guys out PDQ. Left them in puddles and pieces." Abraham responded.

"You know, we'll do it." Dad volunteered. "If we go get your man back, kill Negan, take out his boys, will you hook us up? We want food, medicine, one of them cows and a few of those chickens."

Jesus looked to Rick for assurance. "Confrontation's something we've never had a problem with."

Jesus looked around us all. "I'll take it to Gregory."

"Make sure to emphasise on the chickens." I nodded.

A smile twitched at Jesus' lips before he left the room.

"Emphasise, that's a big word for you." Carl smirked at me from the chair across the room he was sitting in.

I flipped him off. "That a big word too?"

Carl just grinned at me while Rick spoke. "Will you two behave?"

"Can I go look at the chickens now?" I asked.

"Yes, darling, you can go look at the chickens now." Dad sighed.

"Thank god." I jumped up from my seat.

"Want me to babysit?" Sophia offered.

"I don't need a sitter." I complained.

"Oh, yes you do." Carl agreed with Soph.

I was sitting in the chicken coop with Mrs Cooper. Carl and Sophia were just outside the coop, watching me be thoroughly entertained. "How many are you taking?" Mrs Cooper asked.

"Dunno." I shrugged, feeding one of them some seed from my hand.

"Well, we currently have seven roosters and eleven hens. As far as I'm concerned you can take two hens and two roosters so they can mate. One of our ladies is currently pregnant so you can take her and her eggs to get you started on your own mini chicken farm." Mrs Cooper kindly explained.

"Really?" I smiled widely.

"Of course. Us survivors got to stick together, right?" She grinned.

Maggie had gone for an ultrasound so she got a photo of her baby printed out. Gregory had agreed to the deal. My chickens were currently locked in the bedroom part of the RV. We couldn't take the cow yet, but we were promised her. We took a bunch of food back with us as well.

We had to borrow a car because the RV was so full, not all of us could fit in it. In the RV was: Jesus, Rick, Abraham, Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, Michonne, me and my dad. Due to limited seating, I was sitting on my dad's lap. The others were in the car. Maggie passed my dad the photo of the ultrasound and he smiled at it. "How did the baby get there?" I asked in the silence, looking at Maggie.

Her eyes widened, she cleared her throat and shifted in her seat. "What?"

"How did you put the baby in your stomach?" I pushed.

Maggie and Glenn glanced at each other before Glenn spoke. "Ask your father."

I looked to my dad who shook his head. "I dunno."

"Yes, you do, Isabella got me here somehow." I reminded him.

"Uhm... Ask your mother when we get back." Dad nodded.

I furrowed my eyebrows before looking at Michonne. "Will you tell me?"

Michonne pursed her lips together. "Rick, you wanna tell her?"

"No... Just... No." He shook his head.

"Daryl, you gotta tell her." Carl stated.

"Why?" Dad complained.

"Because you're her father." Abraham chuckled.

"Thanks, big one." I called to the front as he was driving.

"No problem, little one." I heard him chuckle.

Dad shifted in his seat. "Okay, uhm... When two people love each other very much. They uh... Like to show each other."

"Like hugging?" I asked.

"Kinda... Sorta... Yea, sure." Dad nodded.

"Sophia hugged me this morning. Does this mean I'm gonna be a mother?" I asked, panicked, wide eyed and my hands on my stomach.

"No, no, no." Dad chuckled. "Uhm... To make the baby it has to be a boy and a girl... And uhm... It's kinda more... Intense than just hugging."

"I don't get it." I shook my head.

"Me neither. Go play with your chickens." Dad pushed me off his lap.

I shrugged. "Okay."