❝ It's hard to see a way out, isn't it? ❞
— JOANNA WYLDE —

—

EDUARDO and I led the group around the building as we came around and saw Paul and Tara leading their own group. They held their guns up, fearing that we were Saviors. They took a deep breath when they realized that we were not.

"Tess," Paul breathed out a sigh of relief before his eyes began to fall down to my clothes, which widened. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I just briefly closed my eyes, shook my head, and depressingly replied, "It's not mine."

With that said, Paul and Tara nodded before we hounded at the back exit of the compound. With our guns up and ready to go, the garage door came up, and there stood one man with one gun. He looked scared, but Paul told him, "Drop your weapon! Drop your weapon and surrender."

Tara looked ready to shoot, but I was going to just do what Paul says to do and not shoot; even though, deep down, they all did deserve to die for whatever role they had in the killing of Abraham and Glenn, along with mine and Daryl's kidnapping.

Slowly, the man – who I recognized as being Alden from my time of being a Savior – slowly placed the gun on the ground and said, "Living sounds good to me." He stood back up and said to the others hiding behind him, "We're surrounded." They came out with guns, but Alden told him, "Don't be as dumb as they think we are. Put your guns down."

Alden made sure that I escaped the Sanctuary without incident. I owe him, honestly.

"It's okay," Tara suddenly said, heavily breathing. "We can do it the hard way. Because even if Maggie listens to you, Rick will listen to me." Paul glanced back at her as I clearly wasn't here before they argued. She stared back at him before turning back to Alden and the others.

The Saviors came forth, lightly placed their guns down on the ground, then stood back up – using Alden as their temporary leader – and placed their hands up in surrender. Alden came down first, leading the others into our grasp. I couldn't believe that it was almost that simple.

They were all workers, for the most part, as I could see. Just to think if I was still one of them, when I never really was, at the same time. I knew Alden from before. He was very nice and wise for his somewhat young age.

Just as Alden and company were surrendering, a shot rang out, and we looked out of surprise to see that it was Jared, who told his people to gather behind him. They didn't know what to do, but to listen to him, so they joined up behind him.

We were now holding our guns up against Jared, who was the only one holding a rifle – from what I could see. I hated this jerk. He is purely evil, as worse as Negan, and that is saying something.

Another shot rang out, and I looked to see Morgan coming out of the same back exit as the Saviors just did. The light took him by surprise and looked to be very unbalanced from it, reeling from what he just went through in there. I was just glad to see him alive and well, despite the blood that was on his head.

"Shit," Jared suddenly said, looking straight at Morgan. "I know you. You got transferred, too?"

Jared is taking this all as a joke until I snatched his gun from him, and he continued to laugh and smile while Morgan practically ran towards him, placing his gun on his heart. Morgan was about to pull the trigger to end Jared's life right then and there, but Paul stepped in before he could and said, "Morgan! Lower your gun."

Heavily breathing, Morgan stated, "We came here to kill them." To Paul, he spoke louder, "We're supposed to."

"I agree," I said aloud, which caused Paul to look straight at me. He was clearly annoyed by my input. "What? They came in and killed our friends – our family. They made the decision to associate themselves with Negan."

"Tess, not helping," came Paul's warning tone before he looked between myself and Morgan. "They surrendered. It's not what we do."

Meanwhile, I looked to my left and noticed that Eduardo took a Polaroid photograph of the Saviors. The same camera took photos of Abraham and Glenn after they were a bloody mess on the ground.

—

ON the road, we were escorting the thirty captured from the Satellite Outpost. They were shackled and were being guarded by us, armed and ready to shoot on sight if they got out of line.

I walked behind the truck, which was what Tara was riding in the back of, while Morgan and Paul were on the other side of the Saviors. I wanted to talk to Tara, but I knew that it wasn't the time or place for that. It felt like she's been avoiding me since we talked before attacking the Outpost.

I just want you to love me back!

She took her gun out and acted as if she was shooting the Saviors. After a moment, she let it go. I could tell that she was still hurting about Denise, who didn't deserve the death that she got, and her two other close friends. Tara liked to put this front up, like she was okay and totally sane. When, in reality, she isn't okay at all. None of us are, though.

"When we get back, we'll talk to Maggie," Eduardo said to Tara about the dead bodies in the back and the living Saviors walking. "She'll know what to do with them."

Eduardo turned to look at her, and she deadpanned, "Yeah. She will." She now turned her head towards Eduardo and stated, "Because she knows what they did."

My attention on them was suddenly cut off by whistling coming from all the way on the other side. I noticed that it was Jared, who was trying to annoy Morgan, and it seemed to work because Morgan shoved him for him to shut up already. Of course, Jared laughed, and Morgan moved on up to talk to Paul, which I couldn't hear them speak to one another.

I looked forward and saw that Tara was watching the Saviors with a close eye. I glanced over my shoulder at them and back at her, eyeing her suspiciously. "They ain't going anywhere," I stated, and she looked down at me in question. "We're watching them closely. It's okay."

"That's not the problem," she sighed and looked back at the walking Saviors.

"Then, what is the problem, Tara?" I countered, and she stared back at me. Our eyes met, and I shook my head. "I'm sorry that I can't love you back in the way that you want me to. You're still my best friend, though. You know that, right?"

She sighed and shook her head, but finally gulped and stated, "Yeah, I guess."

I launched my eyebrows up in surprised and quickly questioned, "You guess? Tara..."

Alas, she just shook her head, our eyes connected, and claimed, "Nobody can split up TNT."

I smirked, almost laughing, and asked, "Um... TNT?"

"Yeah, it's our name together," she claimed, and I chuckled. "Well, technically, that is. Since both of our names start with T, it's impossible to combine it together to make sense. TNT is like saying Tara-N-Tess, y'know? TNT because we're always blowing shit up."

I'm not going to lie. That actually made sense. So, I nodded and smiled. "I love that, T. TNT forever."

"Forever," she smiled before turning away and looking forward than backward at the Saviors.

We kept walking until I felt somebody's eyes on my back, practically burning a bloody hole in it. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed that it was Alden, who – when I turned around – he quickly looked away, like he wasn't ever staring.

I had the sudden urge to go over there and talk to him, so to Eduardo and Tara, I said, "I'm gonna go over here for a minute. Be right back." They both nodded, understanding it without question.

I walked around everyone until I was now next to him, and he seemed to be in an awkward position now that I was standing next to him. "Why were you staring at me for?" I kept my voice down to avoid suspicious from others.

"Didn't mean to," he tired telling me, but I quickly looked up at him to demand real answers. He sighed and shook his head before saying, "It was like seeing a ghost."

"Yeah, I get that," I claimed and glanced up at him. "I was just trying to survive until I could escape. I told Negan everything that he wanted to hear."

Alden nodded, either understanding or not caring at all, and breathed out, "Which community is that you're from again?"

"Alexandria," I claimed, and he nodded in understanding. "Hilltop was once my home, but I moved over to Alexandria before things became bad. I wanted to change, for better or for worse."

"Oh, yeah," Alden suddenly said, like he remembered something. "I'm sorry," he suddenly apologized, much to my surprise. I looked up, and even with the tone that he used, it seemed sincere, along with his facial expression and eyes. "I've lost people, too. It's rough, but we have to move on. Not for ourselves, necessarily, but for them. We continue their legacy."

I snapped my head towards him and snapped, "Yeah, but the reason that all of my friends are dead now is because of Negan and you damn Saviors. You killed actual innocent people."

Alden was taken back by my sudden bark, and that's when I heard Paul call from behind me, "Tess, are you okay? Everything alright?"

I nodded and called back to Paul, "Yeah, it's fine. I'm good."

"I'm sorry," Alden apologized again just as I was turning my head back around to face him. "For whatever role that I played in the deaths of your friends, I'm sorry. We're not all bad, Tess. Some of us are just in this situation because we had nowhere else to go, and Negan provided shelter, food, and supplies. It was either join him, do what he says, or stay out there and die. I didn't want to die. I still don't want to die."

For whatever reason, what Alden just said opened my eyes completely. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was to join Negan and do what he says or die out on your own out there. Maybe Alden was the one good guy in this misfit patch of Saviors. Maybe he was like Dwight, after all.

After hearing him out, I slightly nodded and gulped before warning him, "Don't do anything stupid, or I will have to kill you, and I don't wanna do that."

With that said, I took off back to where I was once standing behind the truck, where Tara peeked over at me, probably wondering rather or not I was going to make it back to the Hilltop.