BEFORE any of us could process it, even though it felt like a whole century had passed us by, Negan opened the casket door, and Sasha came out... But she was now a Walker and belonged to the dead. I screamed out in pain as tears did not even have time to escape. Then, I began to open fire.

I could not see much, rather or not if Walker-Sasha got Negan or not, but I was really hoping that she did. At the moment, I was just trying to focus on surviving. I was dodging flying bullets left and right.

"Rosita! Watch out!" I screamed at her right before she was suddenly shot in the shoulder. Tara immediately goes to her aid and escorts her away. "Be careful, you two! I'll cover you!"

Tara nodded and sped away with Rosita in tow while I shot at every outsider that even came close to us. They ran away to our left, taking shelter inside, while I was not about to go down that easily.

With them gone, I ran closer to the entrance and stood beside Daryl. We began to shoot directly at the Saviors now that were still outside of our gates. I got close enough before I noticed Sasha all over Negan, and, satisfied, I began to shoot the Saviors that were coming to his aid.

One Savior, who I remember being named Roy, removed Sasha off of Negan, but — to my surprise — she then proceeded to devour Roy's face. I was disgusted but fairly happy that she could still help us out somehow.

This is when I saw Negan take ahold of Simon, and they ran, trying to hide from the gunfire behind one of their trucks. I shot at them but could never deliver an actual shot to get them. Arak started to shoot my way, so I quickly slid behind a wall for safety.

Up above our heads stood Rick and Jadis on the post, and this is when I noticed that she had actually shot him in the side and pushed him off of the platform. I was about to go to his aid, but not before I noticed Daryl, Carl, and Scott. Carl and Scott were shooting from between the dump trucks while Daryl took cover behind the wall.

I decided to try my luck by getting to Carl as soon as I could, so I ran straight to him. Just as I arrived, Scott took off and left just us two there together. "I'm running low on ammo," Carl yelled to me. "You got any?"

"Yeah," I answered and threw him a magazine-full. "There. Take it."

Suddenly, just as Carl reloaded, two Saviors swept up and pointed their guns at us. "You're going with us. Let's go."

"Fucking hell," I cursed and dropped my weapon, signaling for Carl to do the same. He did, but he did not like it, though. None of us did.

The Saviors led all three of us to the overgrown field of grass next to one of the houses. Simon and Dwight were there, waiting on our arrival. We were told to kneel and we did, especially Carl and myself — who were kind of used to this by now. It reflected from the night that Glenn and Abraham died.

We looked ahead and noticed Rick, who was holding his side that was bleeding from being shot by Jadis earlier, while she stood behind him at gunpoint, making him walk our way.

This time, however, I was not shaking or crying with fear for mine or anyone else's life. I did not care anymore. I was pissed and I was livid. I knew that Negan was about to walk up and kill me in front of God, Dwight, and everyone else... But I just did not care anymore. Let me have it.

I looked up at Dwight, who was currently holding Lucille for Negan, and he could see just how pissed that I was. He tried to look away, but I kept staring him down until he would look down at me again. I truly wondered if he was going to let this fly or not.

Just as Rick was about to approach us, Negan popped up with his usual smirk across his face. "Hello again," Negan said to Rick before taking Lucille from Dwight.

Jadis led Rick to stand beside Carl, when she somewhat whispered in his ear, "Down, or again." So, he kneeled — or, really, she practically shoved him down to the ground.

Negan hovered over Rick and grunted out, "Well, shit, Rick. You just couldn't stick with us, huh? You had to go with these filthy garbage people? No offense."

Jadis glared back at Negan for his last comment. "Deal is for twelve, yes?"

"Ten," Negan countered, having to make this little arrangement with Jadis right here and right now. I do not know why, though. "People are a resource."

"Twelve," Jadis calmly said, referring back to her original payment. Negan and her made an instance stare-down before Jadis fell short to his glory and agreed, "Ten."

Negan chuckled before looking down at us, mostly Rick, as he sighed. "Rick... This is just gonna make you sad. Broken. You're gonna wish you were dead." He slowly made his way towards me and Carl. "I like having fun. I do. But maybe you think that the guy that did what he did to your friends wasn't me, like that was some sort of a put-on. Like, I'm not the guy with the bat. I'm just the guy that makes your kid spaghetti."

Rick simply just bravely glared up at Negan and he touched his head. "Oh. Oh, shit. Maybe this is on me. Maybe this is all on me. I gotta make it right. I guess I gotta start all over again. I gotta tell you, Rick, if I had a kid, I'd want him to be just like your kid, which makes this so much harder."

"Don't you touch him!" I screamed, on the verge of losing my absolute shit. "Don't you dare do it, Negan, or I swear to God—"

"You swear to God... What, Tess?" Negan now was glaring down at me while Lucille sat uncomfortably close to my head. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you yet. That's why you had to be here for this." Negan kneeled down to my level, just like he did the night that Abraham and Glenn were killed. "You see, Tess... After I kill Carl, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to make sure that you see him die before you go out as well. Fair?"

"Fuck you," I hissed back in his face, as fearless as I could say it. "You could kill everyone here and leave me alive, and I will still find a way to kill you before I die."

Negan chuckled under his breath and smirked. "No... You won't," he said before he stood back up and looked down at Carl.

"You're not gonna win," Carl told Negan, the bravery was shining out of him.

"Carl," came Negan's warning tone, towering somewhat over him. "It is over. Why don't you point your one-ball up the street there and take it all in?"

Carl did, but he did not like the sight. None of us did. They were tying up our people while the rest of the bodies laid in pools of dark blood along the streets. I cannot watch because I was too disgusted by it.

Then, all of the sudden, a loud scream belched out and we all looked down to where the horrific scream had just came from. A body was flying from Michonne's balcony post and onto the hard pavement below.

"Michonne!" I cried out and had to hold in the tears, gulping them down. Carl and Rick were on the verge of tears, shaking more than ever before.

To be honest... Now, I was. I was shaking because Negan was about to get what he wanted all along. He is about to kill Carl myself. This is it. This is it...

Chuckling, Negan began to tease, "Ooh. Oh. Wow." He kneeled in front of Rick now, who was just shaking with sadness over Michonne. "You just lost somebody important to you right now. Like, just now. Jesus. This is timing."

Rick now looked in Negan's eyes while his had tears in it from Michonne. "Well, Rick, you chose this. I truly don't know what more I could've done to warn you. And, this isn't a warning. This is punishment."

If this is truly the end, I wondered how much brother would be able to move on without me. Even before birth, we were together and we have promised each other so many times that we would never go without one another. I am going to absolutely miss him the most.

"I'm gonna kill Carl now. I'm gonna make it one nice, hard swing — try to do it in one because I like him. I just want you to put that in your brain and roll it around for a minute. I'm gonna kill Carl and Tess — since you seem to like her so much, too. And, then, Lucille here... She's gonna take your hands."

Fearlessly as he studied and watched Negan closely, Rick finally said, "You can do it right in front of me. You can take my hands. I told you already... I'm gonna kill you. All of you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow... But nothing is gonna change that. Nothing." Rick leaned up and somewhat whispered in Negan's ear, "You're all already dead."

Negan was now more pissed than ever before, not believing that — after all of this — Rick could still shove his balls down Negan's throat. Negan could not stand that, but I was okay with it — even if it would cost me my life. I will come back as a ghost and watch when Rick finally kills Negan in cold blood.

Nevertheless, Negan managed to smile and chuckle his way out of this once more. "Damn," he breathed out back in Rick's face. "Wow, Rick. Okay."

Negan stood up in one quick motion and grunted, passing by Rick to get behind Carl with Lucille in hand. Negan gets over to Carl and takes his hat off, tossing it over to the side. "You said I could do it..."

"NO!"

Just as I reached out to save him, Negan stopped when a roar came out, and there was Shiva, who took down one of the Saviors behind Negan. Everybody took off, including Negan, as gunfire erupted once more.

I watched as Dwight got away but never did use his gun to kill anyone. I took that into consideration before taking off away.

I grabbed one of the guns lying around. Rick and Carl got theirs, and we began to shoot once more.

While shooting, I took a moment to see King Ezekiel, Carol, and Jerry — along with the rest of the Kingdom — all running in and shooting their own guns.

The Kingdom was here! This is absolutely magical!

"End these Saviors and their accomplices!" King Ezekiel exclaimed, shooting his gun twice in two different directions. "Alexandria will not fall, not on this day!"

I decided to keep up with them, shooting at every Savior and Scavenger that even attempted to escape. Shiva was still mangling on that man when another Savior approached me from behind and was about to shoot me when he suddenly got shot down by somebody else coming out of the shadows.

I looked up and saw Maggie, who had just saved my life. I held my breath, shocked that she had just done that for me. "Fan out! Third group, now!"

"Close up! Now, we have your back!" Daryl now came into the picture and began shooting as well. Rick, Carl, and I did not object before we continued to shoot our way out of this shit.

A group of Saviors were coming our way, but not before we took them down one by one. We headed up to the front gate, and this is when I ran into Morgan. We legitimately almost shot each other, thinking that we were each other's enemy.

"Morgan! Thank God!" I can not believe that he had joined us, after all. What happened after I left?

"Tess, dunk!" Morgan demanded, and I did, just as Morgan shot somebody that was attempting to get me from behind. "It's good to see you! Stay safe!"

"You, too," I called back. "Safe travels, my friend!"

"Safe travels to you, too, my friend," Morgan called back before he continued to shoot as I left him in the wind.

I continued to shoot my way out of this until I saw Maggie and Enid in the distance. I decided to go meet up with them real quick. "Maggie! Wait up!"

She looked directly at me while Enid covered her. "Thank you, by the way," I said to her before I had to shoot yet another passing Savior.

"For what?" she called back, shooting a Scavenger that was passing by us.

"You know what you did," I screamed back and shot twice at somebody. "You saved my life back there!"

She seemed hesitant about it, but she knew what she did for me. "I would've done that for anyone," she tried telling me, but I knew there was a deeper truth to it. She had already forgiven me without actually telling me. I know that she did. "I... I couldn't let you die, Tess!"

"Why not?" I exclaimed, taking cover behind a tree while I reloaded as quickly as I could. "You want me dead, anyways. You might as well let that guy kill me."

"I couldn't do that," she repeated, turning to stare right at me. "Glenn wouldn't forgive me if I had let you die! So, you will not die today, Tess! Now, go! I'll cover you!"

With that said, I nodded at her and took off. I was on the verge of tears, thankful that Maggie saved me. The emotions were really getting to me now more than ever before.

I ran to one of the parked cars outside and continued to shoot towards where I spotted Negan earlier. I had to finish this... Even if it costs my life.

Then, abruptly, smoke-bombs dropped, and my visuals were corrupted. I could not see shit.

The Saviors and Scavengers began to escape within the haze, scaling the walls and running out the gate on foot. I shot as many as I could, but I could barely see now. I did not know who I was shooting, either, but if they are running out... They are rats.

I saw Rick in the distance, not far from me, and ran up to him. "They're falling back," Rick said to us, surrounding him.

Though my vision was blurred, I could still manage to see someone special. "Paul," I exclaimed before I took off and quickly hugged my brother. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, you?" he asked in return, and I nodded.

"Eduardo, Bertie, between the houses! Cover the gate!" Maggie demanded of her two people while gunfire was off in the distance. "Let's go!"

Maggie, Jesus, and Enid took off — leaving myself, Rick, and Carl behind by the RV.

With his sword high, Ezekiel looked at us three and exclaimed, "Now, we finish this!"

We took off with him as I was now running beside Carol. "It's good to see you alive and well," I called out to her, and she smiled back.

"It's good to see you, too!"

We took off as the Saviors' trucks were now leaving, and we shot at their trucks. We all ran to get to them, too. I ran up beside Gabriel, who was just going completely nuts with his rifle. I was proud.

On his way out, Negan gave out a defiant middle finger to all of us through his window. I wanted to kill him, but today was not the day, apparently. Right after Negan left, somebody from the outside came and closed the gate behind him.

We kept on shooting when Daryl yelled out, "Now!"

Aaron, Jerry, Bertie, and Morgan all got up there to the gate and opened it from the inside. "Pull!" Aaron demanded to the others behind him while they grunted.

I saw Daryl get on top of one of the trucks, but I prayed that no sniper was close by to take him out from there. However, I ran up to the gate, and when everybody else stopped shooting, I did, too. There was just a lot of smoke that was left.

The battle was over. This is a victory.

Panting, I slowly begin to turn around with my free right hand over my eyes to block the sun out for me to see. "We did it," I breathed out, yet still unsatisfied. Sasha was still dead, though. "They got the message."

—

Do you think Sasha did that herself?

I don't know how, but I know she did.

She gave us a chance. You did. You made the right decision to come.

The decision was made a long time ago, before any of us knew each other, when we were all strangers who would have just passed each other on the street before the world ended. And, now, we mean everything to each other.

You were in trouble. You were trapped. Glenn didn't know you, but he helped you. He put himself in danger for you. And that started it all...

From Atlanta, to my daddy's farm, to the prison, to here... To this moment now, not as strangers — as family... Because Glenn chose to be there for you that day a long time ago. That was the decision that changed everything.

It started with both of you, and it just grew... To all of us to sacrifice for each other... To suffer and stand, to grieve, to give, to love, to live, to fight for each other.

Glenn made the decision, Rick.

I was just following his lead.