"Put your damn hood up!" Daryl shouted over the loud thunder and rainfall as he tugged Rosie's hood over her head. She always loved the rain, so she didn't mind when raindrops started pelting down from the sky. But if she didn't keep herself warm, she'd get pneumonia or something, and they couldn't handle another problem.

"Ok! Ok!" Rosie shouted back at him, swatting his hand away and pulling her hood up herself. She liked rainstorms, but the loudness of it was starting to get on her nerves. Everyone had to yell as loud as they could to be heard over the storm.

"Negan, how much longer 'til we're through the city?!" Maggie asked, turning to look at him. It was hard, though, considering the fact that it was already super dark out.

"Well, we got about six hours!" Negan yelled in response.

"Oh, Jesus," Ian groaned, wiping his hand across his face to get some of the rain off of him.

"We should hunker down, wait for this to pass," Negan suggested. Usually, Rosie would say nah, let's just keep going. A little rain didn't stop her. But this was more than just a little rain. It was practically a hurricane.

"You don't get a vote, asshole!" one of Maggie's people spat.

All of Maggie's people made it very clear that they hated Negan's guts. It was obvious that Maggie had told them what he did. It was sort of annoying. Maggie had every right to tell them what he did, but at the same time, their hatred for him only added to the already tense atmosphere whenever Maggie and Negan were within fifty feet of each other.

"Nah, he's right," Daryl agreed. He and Negan were most definitely not friends, but they were trying to get along for Rosie's sake. And, in this situation, Negan was just right. Nobody wanted to admit it, though, because how could a man so evil and stupid suggest the right thing? But Negan was only stupid in some ways. He often had the right idea. That was what made him such a powerful leader back in the day. "We need to find some shelter," Daryl went on.

"No, we don't have time!" Maggie argued.

"We can't stay out in this," Daryl insisted.

"Yeah, we'll get pneumonia," Rosie said, glaring at Daryl out of the corner of her eye. That's what he always said. Come inside or you're gonna get pneumonia! Rosie never got pneumonia, though.

But with a reluctant sigh, Maggie gave in. Whether or not she wanted to agree with Negan, or waste any time, they could not just stay out in the pouring rain for the next six hours. Even if they didn't get pneumonia in particular, they'd still get sick if they didn't find shelter quickly. So Maggie pointed out the Metro and they all made their way down into the tunnels below the city.

It was still cold down in the tunnels, but it was better than outside. At least, inside, they were protected from the wind and rain, even if it wasn't particularly warm at all. Flashlights shone all around, revealing old propaganda posters and ads all over the walls. God, it was crazy to think about all that had changed. Rosie wondered if the world would ever go back to the way it was before, and if it did, would it be a good thing?

Probably not. Everything was fucked, even before the dead began walking.

"Alright, which way?" Daryl asked, shining his flashlight in Negan's direction. His only point in being there was to be their human GPS, but that would probably be a pretty hard job considering they were now underground.

"Not to sound like a broken record," Negan began. Dale used to do that. He used to say not to do this, but... and then he'd do the thing he said he didn't want to do.

There were some things- some events, some words, some people- that Rosie could remember like the back of her hand. The CDC was one of them.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale had said that morning.

"But you will anyway," Rosie remembered Dr. Jenner replying. That was only a little while before the entire CDC blew itself to bits.

Negan was doing the same thing. Not to sound like a broken record, but he was about to sound like a broken record. "But we oughta' take a breath, hunker down, and wait for this storm to pass."

"You don't wanna go in there?" Maggie asked, her eyebrows raised as she gestured to the tunnels.

Shining his flashlight down through the darkness, Negan shook his head. "No. I don't," he said.

"I don't give a shit," Maggie spat. Ian snorted and Rosie jabbed her elbow into his side. Maggie sent him a glare and he pressed his lips together, looking down at his shoes and trying to suppress his smile. Maggie turned back to Negan, her glare sharp. "Which way?" she asked.

Negan sighed. He was really sick of being treated this way. Things were finally starting to get better for him, and then Maggie returned and ruined all of it. He just kept trying to remind himself that this was what he deserved for what he did; for what he took from them all. So, "Yellow line north," he said. Daryl nodded. "Switch to blue at Reagan National, then we hop the red toward Bethesda."

"Come on. Let's go," Daryl said as the group climbed down onto the train tracks. Rosie lagged behind, hoping to walk with Negan, but Daryl ushered her forward, further from Negan and closer to Maggie. Not only because he didn't particularly like Negan, but because he knew it'd hurt Maggie to see Rosie and Negan talking like nothing ever happened.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Negan asked Daryl.

Daryl only glared at him for a few moments before responding with, "Why's that? You think we're buddies or somethin'?" After that, he hopped down onto the tracks with everyone else, while some of Maggie's people made a point to shoulder-check Negan on their way down.

Rosie looked back at Negan, giving him a sympathetic look. It only lasted for a moment before Ian bumped his shoulder against hers, grabbing her attention.

"You're gonna piss off Maggie," Ian murmured to her.

"I get why Maggie's actin' like that, but this is just ridiculous," Rosie huffed. It was one thing for Maggie to hate the man that killed her husband, but all of her people treating him like a piece of dogshit on the bottom of their shoe? It was getting on her nerves. "I mean, like, shoulder-checkin' him like that? What are we, middle schoolers?"

"How do you know middle schoolers shoulder-check each other?" Ian asked. He was in the fifth grade before the world ended, and Rosie was in the fourth. Neither of them had ever been to middle school.

"Just guessin'," Rosie said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, everything Negan's getting is what he deserves," Ian told her.

"These people weren't even there. They don't even know him and they automatically hate him. He ain't gonna keep helpin' us if we keep treatin' him like shit," Rosie explained. He was doing them a favor by agreeing to this. Nothing was keeping him there. He could leave at any time, really. Unless Maggie killed him before he got the chance.

"It's fine, kid," Negan's voice suddenly said from behind Rosie, making both her and Ian jump. Neither of them knew that he was right behind them. "It's not your fight. It's mine," Negan told Rosie.

"It's pissin' me off," Rosie said.

"Ian's right. You should listen to him," Negan said. If Rosie kept sticking up for him, she was going to piss off Maggie. Negan knew Maggie was important to Rosie, and he didn't want to ruin that for her.

"Hey, Ro," Daryl called out. Rosie looked forward and saw him a little ways ahead, looking back at her with Dog by his side. "C'mon. You too, Ian. Keep up," he said, his voice a bit tense. Rosie huffed and picked up the pace, catching up with Daryl and Dog.

There was graffiti all over the walls of this tunnel. Lots of skulls and other creepy images. Rosie thought those were cool. But some of it was just a bit unnerving. Like the words, IF THERE IS A GOD, HE WILL HAVE TO BEG FOR MY FORGIVENESS, spray painted in white. Rosie wondered if whoever wrote that was still alive.

A loud, groaning sort of noise echoed through the tunnel, making Ian tense up a bit. "What the hell is that?" he asked. It sounded like some sort of beast must have lived down there, and it was angry at their presence. But that wasn't the case.

"Storm's pushing air through the pipes, making them groan," Alden explained, eyeing some of the pipes that trailed up and down the walls of the tunnel. That wasn't as cool as a beast, but it was far less scary. "It's nothing serious. We're good," Alden assured everyone. But the creaking only got louder and louder.

"Know what that noise actually is?" Negan asked. Rosie could see the expressions of all of Maggie's people get darker every time he spoke. Negan could see it, too, but he tried his best not to give a shit. "That is God telling us to turn around," he said.

"I'm pretty sure He would have run that by me first," Gabriel replied. Part of Rosie admired Gabriel's ability to have faith even after all of the awful things that had happened to them, but the other part of Rosie thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. If God was real, how could he be so cruel?

"Yeah? The Good Lord direct your one eyeball to this?" Negan asked. He shined his flashlight at the wall. It looked like any other tunnel wall that Rosie could imagine. Truth be told, though, Rosie hadn't been in many tunnels in her life. "Water-line mark," Negan explained. "That means this tunnel floods on a regular basis, like when it rains."

"I can swim," Ian said, shrugging his shoulders.

Rosie scoffed. "Ain't how that works."

"It's bad down here. It's worse up there," Daryl said. Rosie wasn't exactly sure if that was true, but it didn't seem like the time to argue, so she stayed quiet.

"Look, man, all I am saying-" Negan began.

"And it ain't workin'," Daryl interrupted. He turned around and stepped closer to Negan. "You tryna' run shit? Keep movin'," he spat before turning back around, calling Dog, and continuing on forward. Rosie looked at her shoes awkwardly, but followed behind him nevertheless.

The longer they walked, the louder the creaking got, and along with that, there was now an awful stench that filled the tunnel. The stench seemed to be getting stronger and stronger until they finally reached the source. From wall to wall, for as long as they could see, there were bodies wrapped in plastic bags piled on the floor of the tunnel. None of them were moving or making noise, which gave Rosie hope that they had all been put down. But when Daryl went to check by tapping one of them, it sat straight up and Daryl had to stick his knife into its skull.

Oddly, though, the walker didn't make a sound. No snarl. Nothing. "Why didn't it make any noise?" Elijah asked. No one had an answer.

Daryl cut open the bag and looked at the decaying body. Gabriel stood behind him. "Throat's slashed so deep it almost severed his head," he explained.

"The guys we're going after did this?" Gage asked, his voice quiet and shaky. Lucky for Rosie, he had been mostly silent the entire trip so far. Rosie only hoped he would keep up that streak. Every time he spoke, she wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up. But that would almost definitely result in a scolding from Daryl, Maggie, Negan, or someone else.

"No. These people were killed during the fall," Maggie explained. That was the only reasonable explanation. No group now would leave walkers bagged up in plastic, but still not completely dead. They knew better at this point. Or at least they should have.

"All of 'em?" Negan asked.

"What?"

"We are walking through a mass grave that could still be in use. So, I am asking you, are you sure all of them were killed during the fall?" Negan further explained his question.

"How the hell is she s'posed to know?" Rosie murmured, eyeing the bodies warily. No one gave an answer.

"Take each one out," Maggie eventually said. Rosie raised her eyebrows. Was she kidding? That would take ages, first of all, and it would also probably be very dangerous. What if they missed one and someone got bit? But Maggie seemed sure of it. "Clear the path," she said.

"Maggie, hold up," Alden stopped her.

"We're not stopping," Maggie insisted, continuing on forward. Rosie and Ian shared a wary look, but did as they were told regardless of their worries.

So, one by one, they went through the bagged, decaying bodies and they stuck their weapons into the skulls of each and every one of them. At one point, a rather large walker snuck up on Gage, but Negan managed to stop it in time by bashing its skull in. Maggie didn't care. She told them to be more careful and pay attention, but she remained adamant about pushing through.

"Pay attention?" Negan asked, his voice tense with disbelief.

Rosie sucked in a deep breath. She was sick of everyone fighting. Since the day she was born, everyone was always fighting. Before her mom left, it was her mom and David fighting, and after that, it was Fraser and David fighting, and after that, it was David and whatever dickbag he had over that day fighting. Sometimes it was Rosie and David fighting. And then it was everyone against the world. The only break she got from it was the years she spent with Daryl in the woods, but even then, they still had their arguments, and they still had to fight the dead on the occasion. There was never a break. There was no moment in time when everyone got along. Never.

"That's it? That's... that's your new big plan?" Negan went on. Maggie remained silent, only glaring back at Negan. "Tell me, Maggie, anything in particular we should be paying attention to?"

"I'm real close to shoving a gag in your mouth," Alden muttered, amused with himself.

Negan, however, wasn't so amused. He turned to look at him. "Well, why don't you get up on your little tippy toes and try?" he snarked. Rosie and Ian both had to turn away, biting down on their lips to hide the fact that they both found Negan's comment quite amusing.

"Cut it out. Both of you," Daryl grumbled.

"This kid almost died," Negan said.

"Maybe he should've," Rosie muttered under her breath.

"Rosie," Daryl, Maggie, Negan, and even Gabriel said all at once.

"What?" Rosie scoffed. She gestured over to Gage, who was rolling his eyes behind her. "You forget when he beat Lydia up? Or when he got me, Ian, and Henry in trouble? Or all his casual homophobia?"

"I'm not homophobic," Gage said, once again rolling his eyes.

"What about when I told you I like girls and you laughed and said it was hot?" Rosie asked, crossing her arms and deadpanning at him.

"When was that?" Ian asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Ok, first of all, that wasn't homophobic. That was me complimenting you," Gage insisted.

"No, that's just fuckin' weird, Gage," Ian said, shaking his head.

"Or what about that time when you forced me to try that cigarette?" Rosie snapped at him.

"So you can forgive Negan but you can't forgive me? And how the hell was I supposed to know you'd get addicted?!" Gage argued.

"What?" Maggie asked.

"What are you talking about?" Negan, now, too.

"I made her try one hit. I didn't think her brain was so fucked up that it'd mess her up forever!" Gage tried to defend himself.

Rosie could feel her face start to burn and her body began to heat up with her anger. "Shut up! You're such a fuckin' asshole!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the tunnel. She took a step toward Gage, but Ian grabbed her arm just in case, in order to keep her back if went any further.

"Rose, it's fine. Let's just keep goin'," Daryl butt in, placing his hand on her back and trying to get her to keep walking. They didn't have time to argue and he didn't want to have to deal with this.

Negan wanted to know what the hell Gage was talking about with the cigarettes more than anyone else did, but he knew there was a time and a place, and this wasn't it. Still, he didn't want to just keep going, as Daryl suggested. "We can't keep going. Someone's gonna get hurt and Maggie clearly doesn't give a shit," he said.

"That's not true," Ian argued.

"She has been playing dictator since we left, not listening to me, not listening to him. Hell, not even listening to you, Daryl," Negan said, gesturing around to the whole group. "We don't know if this tunnel even has a way out. Whoever or whatever killed these rot bags could still be down here. Has that thought crossed anyone's mind?" he asked. The room was silent, but they all knew the truth. " Exactly. It has. So, then this is a death march. And you are the goddamn pied piper. Now, y'all wanna roll with that shit, that's fine. Knock yourselves out. But not me. Not today. I am out."

"Me too," Gage muttered.

"What?" Alden asked.

"He's... he's a dick, but he makes sense," Gage said, holding his arms out at his sides.

"No one cares what you gotta say, Gage," Rosie spat, rolling her eyes.

"We shouldn't have come down here," another man in the group agreed.

"We're not splittin' up," Daryl growled. He wanted this to be over.

"it ain't up to you, buddy," Negan said.

"Just let him go," Agatha suggested. God, no one could agree on anything. "He's supposed to be helping us. All he's doing is slowing us down."

Rosie kept seeing Negan glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. She hated it. She hated that he now knew about the cigarettes. She hated that Maggie knew about the cigarettes, now, too. And everyone else. Everyone knew. No one was supposed to know. It felt like every person was watching her, but really, almost no one was.

"We can't," Maggie said.

"Why not?"

"We need him. He knows the city," Maggie insisted.

"Oh, is that why I'm here? I'm your DC tour guide? What, nobody here know how to read a goddamn map? I'll tell you why I'm here, man-tits. She brought me here to die," Negan said. Maggie's glare became more intense. It was true. "If we get through this, I'm not coming back. She'll find a way, she'll find a reason, she'll do it herself. Away from the prying eyes of Alexandria. Here in the jungle."

"That true?" Rosie asked, her eyebrows furrowed. Maggie gave no response.

Negan turned to Daryl. "Man, I really thought you were in on it. I did. But the more I think about it, the more I think you wouldn't wanna do that to Rosie. Because it seems like she's the only person in this group that gives a single shit about me. And I can tell from the glazed look in your eyes, you didn't have a clue. And now you're pissed off," Negan said.

Daryl wanted Negan dead just as much as anyone else, but Negan remembered Fraser. Negan remembered Fraser and Rosie couldn't take to lose that. Not now, at least. Not yet. They'd just got done with one tragedy. Rosie couldn't take another.

"You're paranoid," Gabriel spoke up.

"But I'm right," Negan insisted. They all knew he was right. "Look, y'all wanna put your lives in her hands? Her head isn't even in the game because I'm in her head, living rent-free. So, Maggie, me dying on your terms, it ain't happening. So, what do you say? Let's just get her done. Right here and right now. Because I am not gonna let you drag me through the mud, filth, and slime to put me down like a dog... like Glenn was."

And just like that, Daryl snapped. He tried to keep his cool for as long as he could, but Negan had gone too far. So he threw a punch across Negan's face, knocking him onto the ground.

Maggie stepped forward, standing tall over Negan. "We're down here because up top is death. We're moving fast because our kids are starving. And I'm calling the shots because that's how everyone voted. As for me killing you..." Maggie pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Negan's head, "it's always on my mind. I'm not gonna tell you that you're wrong about me because you aren't. The woman who left six years ago is not the one standing over you now. There's a little bit of her left in me, and that little bit is the only thing keeping you breathing. But I don't know how long that's gonna last. So, keep pushing me, Negan. Please."

Rosie couldn't argue with that.

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FUTURE GHOSTS 1 MILLION?????????? I ❤️ YOU ALL. Thank you so much. I never would have imagined that this book would go so far. You guys have helped me improve my writing and you've all given me so much more confidence when it comes to my writing. I appreciate you all so so much.