➳ AS soon as Kelly ran back behind the gates, she ran up to the guard-post to join the rest of us, watching Alpha and her crew beyond the gate. However, Kelly was only looking for her sister and was hopeful she was safe out there.

To my surprise, Tara opened her mouth and called out to Alpha, "Our community is more than capable of defending itself!"

You got that right, I thought to myself, having my hand on the gun on my waist. Oh, man, I was ready for this fight.

"I show you my face because we mean you no harm," Alpha replied, trying to throw us off. We all knew who she truly was – and this was one truly evil bitch. "I just want my daughter. I know you have her."

I gulped and glanced over to Daryl, wondering rather or not he was going to give the girl up so easily. To no surprise, he countered, "You should turn around. Leave now, and no one gets hurt."

In a way, I agreed with Daryl on this, and without turning away from glaring down Alpha, I whispered to him, "Just tell me when. I'm ready."

"Wrong answer," Alpha called aloud before holding her right hand up. Then, just like that, others started to appear, waking right across our crops out there. The others joined up with her and those who were already there.

Kelly whispered to us, "They don't see her." She means Connie, and I am internally thankful for that. "Least not yet."

"That girl told me what her mom does to her," Daryl grunted out as I listened in. Probably abuse, as I suspected. "We ain't sending her back to that."

"Yeah, but what if she has Alden and Luke?" Tara countered, thinking of our people before the girl. "Pissing her off can get them killed."

"Fuck that," I cursed, practically spitting the words right out. "We ain't gonna let her walk away so easily if she's already killed them. I bet my life on that."

Magna suddenly took in what I said before turning her head to the outside and calling out, "Did you kill our friends? We found their horses."

My breath remained caught in my throat while we waited on the answer, which could either break us or make this all better.

To my surprise, Alpha called back, "No." I was instantly relieved, but I had my suspensions she could just be lying to us. "Which one of you leads these people?"

I gulped and glanced over Tara before turning to look at Daryl, pursing my lips. He grunted back, "What the hell does it matter?" He had that right.

"Then, I'll just address all of you," Alpha countered, more hostile than before. She was breaking from this good persona she was trying to put on for us. "Your people crossed into our land. There will be no conflict. Your people killed our people. There will be no conflict. I'm done talkin'. Bring my daughter, or there will be conflict."

Oh, that's it! "Hey!" I called out, not being to keep my mouth shut any longer. Alpha turned her eyes just on me. "You wanna talk 'bout conflict? Your people killed my brother! There will be fucking conflict for that!"

"Tess," came Tara's warning tone, as she took ahold of my shoulders and held me back. "Stop. There doesn't have to be any more trouble. Okay?"

"Fuck them! They—!"

"Stop," Daryl grunted out, staring me down. "No one touches the girl."

He started to leave, and we all turned to watch him. "Daryl? Daryl, stop."

Instead of staying up here with Tara and them, I decided to follow Daryl. We went down the ladder and were immediately ambushed by both Enid and Henry, while I saw Mollie and Tara Rose standing with Earl and Tammy close by.

"Does she have Alden and Luke?" Enid questioned, obviously wanting to know what was going on. She especially wanted to know about Alden, who now belonged to her.

"I don't know," Daryl grunted back, not letting them stop him from going.

"What does she want?" Henry quizzed, but Daryl kept on walking without answering. "No, Daryl, w-we can't do that."

"She ain't getting her!"

"Then, what are you doing?" Henry breathed out, obviously not wanting Alpha to take her daughter back. What's going on there, I wonder?

Daryl motioned for the main gate to open, and turning to look at Henry, he breathed out, "She's done talking. I'm not. Come on."

With that said, the gate opened, and Daryl proceeded to walk out there by himself to talk to Alpha face to face. I grabbed ahold of Henry and held him close, meeting his eyes.

"It's alright," I whispered to reassure him. "Stay here. I'm not done talking, either."

Then, I let loose of him and walked to the gate, motioning for them to open them up for me, too. They did, and without any argument, I walked out to join Daryl. I wanted to confront the monster who led the people who killed my brother.

Daryl didn't seem at all pleased for the fact I had joined him, but he didn't argue with me, either, especially in front of these skinheads. I joined him down at the makeshift gate, where Alpha stood behind.

"Oh," Alpha breathed out, seeing me join up with Daryl. "You two run this place together?"

I just stared her down with death written all over my face when Daryl ignored her question and deadpanned, "You can't have her. Now... If it's a fight you're looking for, we have enough firepower to light you up. Right here and now."

I nodded and noted, "Damn straight. Make a move, and it'll be your last."

Suddenly, I started to hear a baby coo off in the distance, and I redirected my vision from Alpha to members of her group. Off in the distance, there was a skinhead with a baby in their arms under the protection of a blanket of some sorts.

What the actual... fuck?

Daryl noticed, too, turning to glance at the mother with a baby in her arms before turning back to Alpha in question. "You brought a baby out here?"

Alpha smiled a little too creepy for my taste when she oddly stated, "We're animals. Animals live out here. Animals have babies. So, we have babies out here. Now, what were you sayin'? Lightin' us all up?" At that moment, I noticed some skinheads bringing two people forward and I could tell, just by their clothes, who they were. "You seem to want conflict. This woman here does, for sure. I don't. So, I'm proposing a trade."

With that said, Alpha turned around, and as if that was a signal, the skinheads took my friends' masks off, revealing their actual faces underneath. However, the skinheads behind them held knives to their throats, just in case.

"Luke!" I called out, and his eyes met mine. They were full of so much fear.

Alpha turned back around to us and claimed, "I wanted to kill them, but I want my daughter more. One of mine, two of yours. It's a good trade, which is why you're gonna take it. Now... Bring my daughter."

Then, just as Daryl and I were staring Alpha down, something suddenly caught both of our attention. It seemed to be actual Walkers coming our way now, growling and craving flesh. Fuck.

With that said, Daryl shifted his whole body around and started to head inside. I stared down Alpha another moment before he called for me, and I joined up with him. We headed inside, but I was totally clueless as to what Daryl's next move would be.

Enid ran up to us as we entered, asking a million questions. "Hey, what did she say? Are they okay?"

Daryl kept walking but managed to respond, "Yeah, they will be. We got to hand back the girl." I followed behind him when he asked Tammy Rose, "Where's Henry?"

"I don't know," she replied, walking with us now. "Why?"

"He's gonna want to say goodbye."

I kept behind him, just as Tammy, Earl, and Mollie joined us, when Magna suddenly approached us and said, "Tara went to go get Lydia."

Um... "What?"

"She decided, while you were out there, when she saw Luke and Alden," Magna whispered back, standing back.

Daryl and I turned, and when we did, Yumiko and Tara started running our way. "Hey, she's gone!"

My mouth fell open when I exclaimed, "Gone?!"

"How you mean she's gone?" Daryl demanded to know, just like I did. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Our friends are going to die now. Dammit.

"Her door was open, key was in the lock," Tara started to explain. "Daryl, you know we have to do this." It was quiet a moment; as if, he had to truly think about it. Tara leaned in and whispered, "You know you would if it was Tess out there instead."

I didn't know how Daryl felt about me now, but it didn't take very long until he announced, "Alright, split up. Find Henry, we find the girl."

Everyone ran off into different directions, but I stayed with Daryl, who gave Dog their scent and ran off. Dog leads up to the side-gate when Daryl says to him, "Good boy, good boy."

"Stand back," he warned me, and I did, standing next to Dog. He started to get on the logs to hop the gate, I suppose, but not before he realized something. He lifted the logs up and discovered the secret way out. "Shit."

"Oh, yeah," I breathed out, remembering. He turned to me in question. "Maggie showed me this. I remember now."

I heard breathing and spun around, seeing Enid, Mollie, and Addy run up together. "They snuck out?" Enid asked.

"Yeah," Daryl and I said in unison. Whoops. Daryl then said on his own, "Go tell the others. I can track 'em."

Daryl went to leave when Addy suddenly announced, "You don't have to." Daryl and I kept our attention on her in question. "I know where he probably took her."

I nodded to Addy and pursed my lips, gulping. "Good eye, kid."

There was sudden banging and noise, and Daryl pointed in the direction where it was coming from. "Go see what that is."

Enid ran up to him and tried to convince him of different. "I can get Henry and Lydia."

"No, it's my problem," Daryl barked back, ready to jump and leave. "Tess and I will find them."

"No," Enid countered, getting right in Daryl's face. "Look, I... I've known Henry since he was a kid. He... used to like me. I can talk to him."

Mollie suddenly walked up and faced us both. "And he's important to me, too."

"Mollie, no—"

"I love him, Mom," she cried back by cutting me off, tears in her eyes. "This is how we get him back, how we get them all back. I'm going with Enid and Addy. You can't stop me."

I remained quiet while Daryl finally nodded. "Fine. Go."

With that said, Enid lifted the top up and told the girls to go with her, but I stayed back when I watched Mollie put on her big-girls pants and leave with them.

Enid felt my eyes burning a hole in her, and I said to her, "Keep my baby safe."

She nodded and promised, "I will."

I ran back to the others and noticed our guards up top screaming, banging on the fence. "What the fuck is going on?"

"It's the baby," Kelly called back from up top on the guard-post. "They left it to die. Walkers are coming and it's crying."

Oh... Shit.

I immediately ran up to join Kelly on the guard-post again and noticed the baby lying on the ground with the blanket around it. Oh, my gosh. Who the hell would do that?!

Then, all of the sudden, coming out of the cornfield was Connie, who took out her sling-shot and shot the Walker in the head who was closing in on the baby. She kicked another approaching Walker, who crashed into the one behind it.

Connie quickly grabbed up the baby. Luke must have told her with his hands behind his back. Thank God.

However, before she could run back into the cornfields, a few of the skinheads took out their knives and started to go after her with the actual dead in tow. Oh, fuck...

"Fuck this," I cursed, looking at Kelly. "And, fuck them, too. We gotta go help her."

With that said, I slid back down the ladder and headed out the gate. Soon enough, Daryl, Kelly, Tammy, and Earl ran out with me. We ran straight into the cornfield, completely ignoring Alpha and her group.

"There!" I pointed to Connie through the cornfield. "Go get her! I'll fight off the rest!"

With that said, Daryl and Kelly took off to go get her while Tammy, Earl, and I fended off the Walkers entering the cornfield. We stabbed a few of them before Daryl called to us that he had her and it was time to go.

We started running until, unsurprisingly enough, I tripped over something and fell forward to the ground. "Fuck!" I cried out, trying to get back to my feet. "Why am I so damn clumsy?!"

"Here, honey," Tammy called for me, grabbing me up with Earl. "We got you, baby. Come on."