<><><><><>

Daryl

I stood at the fence all that morning. Hell, I had been since Jo and the others left. I just couldn't shake the bad feeling I had about Jo facing The Saviors. Negan liked her and hadn't been shy about it. She was also the guaranteed way to control me. Negan would be an idiot not to use her to try and get me back, and Negan was no idiot.

Ezekiel and a group of his men including Jerry and Morgan left in a couple of trucks shortly after dawn. I couldn't see much, but they looked like they were loaded down with supplies. Only one thing I could think of would need the king and a couple of truck loads of supplies.

Over the next few hours a couple of Ezekiel's people came by, trying to get me to let them take my place. I said no until the trucks came back. Then I happily climbed down off the wall and waited for them to get out of the trucks. I watched as the group climbed out, they all looked pretty worked up. Had to be The Saviors. When the others left and it was just Morgan and the kid I stepped forward.

"Hey" I called and Morgan looked up at me. "Where'd ya go in them trucks?" I asked, wondering if Morgan had the balls to lie to me.

Morgan looked back at the kid. "I need to speak with Daryl alone, that okay?" he asked politely.

The kid nodded, "Yeah, I'll get you something for that cut," he offered and he trotted away eagerly. The kid looked young, maybe around Beth's age, but he was wearing the paint ball gear the others here wore and carried a stick like Morgan fought with.

"Yeah," Morgan agreed, but he didn't look back at him.

When the kid was gone I walked down the steps towards Morgan. "Ya went to see them, right?" I challenged.

Morgan lifted his chin. "Yeah," he said and he didn't even look ashamed. 

"Part of your deal?" I asked, when he didn't respond I took another step towards him. "What the hell's wrong with ya?" I growled. "You're bleeding," I said pointing at the cut on the side of his head. "They did that to you. Ya know what they are."

"I do," he responded nodding in agreement but his jaw was still set. He wasn't going to give an inch.

I shook my head in disgust. "You know, if Carol were here, she saw all that. If she knew about Abraham and Glenn...she'd be leading us right to them, to kill them all."

Morgan nodded like he was agreeing with me. "She would," he said. "And that's why she left man."

I froze at his words, but I refused to back down. It wasn't right, Carol not knowing. Lying to her like he was. Even if she did want time to herself, she deserves to know.

I scoffed at him and stalked away. Morgan could never be reasoned with. He couldn't be when he was in Alexandria and his time with the crazy king didn't help nothing. They were a couple a peas in a pod, assholes who willingly knelt to that bastard. Far as I was concerned they were no better than Dwight.

I walked through the community too pissed off to do anything else. I needed to get outta here. If Morgan, who knew us, wasn't willing to help, why the hell would the damn king? I wasn't going to convince nobody. Rick had to know that. I was more use out in the woods.

I was halfway down the street when I spotted one of the groups fighters. His name was Richard I was pretty sure. He had been one of the ones who had been eager to fight with us. He was standing in front of a target, holding a bow and arrow awkwardly in his hands as he notched an arrow.

He glanced up at me. "I'm practicing," he said. "Gonna have to start using these more," he said drawing the bow. "The Saviors are smart enough to know I shouldn't have a gun around them." He let the arrow fly and it hit the very outer ring of the target. He sighed, frustrated and turned back to face me. "Morgan said you're a bowman," Richard said, he glanced down at the table separating us.

I followed his gaze to the crossbow that was sitting on top. My fingers itched to hold it. Goddamn Dwight still had mine. Richard looked back up at my face, smirked and held the crossbow out to me.

I scowled at him, "Why?" I challenged.

Richard shrugged. "Because we want the same things," he said, holding it out closer to me. "And I need your help."

I drew in a breath and reached for it. As soon as my hands touched it I tried not to snatch it away from him. I took it gently into my hands, hefting it, to get the feel of the weight. It was a bit heavier than mine, but it was good. I lifted it up to tuck against my shoulder and looked down the sights. It felt like I had been missing an arm or something and now I had it back. It felt right.

I lifted my eyes to Richard and nodded. "What do ya have in mind?"

<><><><><>

Jo

I stood leaning against Carl for support as I watched the last of The Saviors drive away. I could hardly believe it. It was only then that I realized how certain I had been that Negan was going to force me to return with him. That he was going to take me as some way to regain control of Daryl. Part of me didn't understand why he didn't. If he really wanted to get Daryl back, it was the obvious play. Maybe I didn't understand Negan's motivations as well as I thought. Either way, I was still here.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath.

Carl looked down at me, his eye narrowed in concern. "Where were you hurt?" he asked.

I just shook my head. "I'm fine," I promised.

He lifted his eyebrow. "You don't look fine."

I looked down at myself and grimaced. I really didn't look fine. The exposed skin of my arms was coated in walker blood and the dirt from when I fell had stuck to it. I wrinkled my nose. I needed a shower badly. I looked at Carl and realized I was smearing blood all over his clothes as well. I stepped away and my head swam. I still felt a little shaky, but I was able to stand on my own.

Carl was watching me closely, looking like he was ready to step up if I gave any indication I wasn't okay standing on my own. I tried giving him a reassuring smile but he only frowned at me like he didn't buy it. I guess I didn't blame him. If I looked half as bad as I felt I was amazed they weren't marching me over to the infirmary right now.

As soon as Tobin closed the gate behind the saviors Rick whirled around to face the other members of Alexandria standing around the gate .

"What happened to the pantry?" he growled.

I frowned, I hadn't heard anything about the pantry. I glanced over at Carl and arched a brow. He leaned towards me. "It's completely empty," he explained in a voice too low for the others to hear.

"We don't know," Aaron said shaking his head gravely. "We need to talk about Gabriel."

"Where is he?" Rick asked.

I felt like I had walked into the middle of a conversation. I wondered if it was the concussion I was pretty sure I had that made me feel so confused. From what I gathered the pantry was empty and Gabriel was missing.

Tobin walked up to join the group. "He was on watch the night you all went to scavenge. I was supposed to take over for him in the morning. He wasn't at his post."

Aaron crossed his arms angrily over his chest. "Pantry was cleared out and a car was gone."

"No one's seen him since," Eric reported. To be honest I was surprised Eric was there. He rarely stuck around for these types of meetings, preferring to leave it to others to run Alexandria. But here he was standing beside Aaron with his hands in his hips, looking pissed.

Rosita scoffed angrily. "That son of a bitch," she crossed her arms over her chest. "He stole our shit and ran."

Tobin nodded gravely. "That's...what it looks like," he conceded, though it was obvious by the look on his face Tobin didn't want to believe it. Of all of us, Tobin had spent the most time with Gabriel recently. While Rosita still shared a house with him, I trusted Tobin's impression greater than her's. "I don't want to believe it," Tobin said honestly.

"I don't believe it," Rick snapped, definitively ending the group's discussion. "That's not Gabriel. He wouldn't do that to us."

Rosita lifted her chin. "I thought he'd changed to, but it can't be anything else."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Yes it can," I snapped unkindly at Rosita. She glared back at me, but didn't say anything more.

Rick met my gaze across the group and nodded in agreement. We were both thinking of all the other possibilities, none of which were good. We needed to find out what happened, fast. There was a chance we had a major problem with our security, but Rosita was too angry to consider anything else.

Rosita narrowed her eyes at me and I couldn't help feeling like she and I were going to come to a head real soon. I shifted my weight, wondering if I was up to it just now. The pounding in my temples and the pain in my shoulder made me think not.

"Jo you need to get looked at," Rick said, turning to Tara and Rosita.

I shook my head. "I'm fine, I just need to clean up. Most of it isn't mine."

"But some of it is." Carl argued unprompted.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Traitor.

He snorted and shook his head, understanding my look perfectly.

Rick however had already turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Tobin, you're on watch. Jo, go take care of yourself, the rest of us, let's head over to the pantry and see what there is to see."

I agreed begrudgingly. Even if I was going to refuse to let anyone look at my shoulder or my head I did need to clean up. I turned to head towards the house. I wanted to shower as fast as possible, but it took me a lot longer to walk back to the house than I would have expected. Michonne was in the house when I walked in the front door. I froze as I looked around, The Saviors had completely tossed it. I gnashed my teeth together. They had thrown things around that weren't necessary in their search for Daryl just because they could. I hated them.

I met Michonne's eyes where she stood in the middle of the livingroom, her hands full of our personal belongings. She looked around herself and sighed in defeat. I nodded.

"Rick and them are headed towards the pantry, you might want to meet them over there," I said.

She nodded, dropping the blankets and books where she stood. "Are you okay?" she asked, hesitating as she passed me in the doorway.

"Yeah," I told her. "Nothing a shower won't fix." It was a lie. I needed a shower and to sleep for about a thousand years. My muscles were all tightening up from being overtaxed, but my head felt better not being out in the bright sunlight.

Michonne however took me at my word and walked out to find the others. I went downstairs. Once again the saviors had destroyed my and Daryl's room. That was okay, it didn't feel like home anymore anyway. I wasn't sure it would until Daryl was back here with me.

I peeled off my clothes, dropping them into a pile on the bathroom floor and stood under the hot spray. I felt like I could stand there all night, but we had things to do. I hissed as the water hit my shoulder, which told me it was probably a worse cut than I thought. I scrubbed the blood from my hair and was happy to note the cut on my scalp didn't seem too bad, at least it wasn't bleeding anymore. When the water finally ran clear I climbed out, drying quickly. I hesitated in front of the mirror, turning around to check my shoulder. The cut looked like it might need stitches, but it had stopped bleeding so I was going to leave it. We had too much to do and I wasn't going to stick around here a minute longer than I needed to. I wanted to get back to Daryl.

I dressed quickly, slipping into a black tank top and dark skinny jeans. I took a couple minutes to rub the gore off of my shoulder rig and boots before I put them back on. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail on my way up the stairs. I hesitated in the kitchen as I glanced out the window. My head had hardly bothered me in the dim light of the basement, but just looking outside the windows made my temples pound. I pulled open the drawer by the backdoor and snatched out a pair of sunglasses Daryl had worn when he rode. I took my jacket off the hook, closed the door behind me and shrugged it on as I walked down the street.

When I reached the pantry everyone was standing in the empty room that normally held our weapons.

"There weren't tracks out there before," Aaron was saying. "We didn't find anything now, maybe Daryl could have picked something up but-"

They all looked up as I stepped inside the door. I pushed the sunglasses up on my head and looked around frowning. Every shelf, every basket was completely empty. We had been cleared out. Even if Gabriel had wanted to, no way he could have been this thorough by himself. It would have taken him too long and someone would have seen him.

"He left," Rosita snarled unkindly drawing everyone's attention back to herself. "He didn't leave a note. He obviously doesn't want to be found."

Rick was flipping through Gabriel's bible. It was odd that he would leave that behind, so odd in fact I wasn't convinced he would have. I stepped further into the room and spotted Olivia's notebook sitting on a shelf. It was the only thing left in the entire room. I flipped through the pages. It didn't look like anyone had written in it since Olivia died. Her small, neat printing filled the pages, until the very last page. I frowned down at the single word scrawled across the entire page.

Boat

"Does this mean anything to you?" I asked Rick, holding the notebook out for him to see.

Rick glanced up frowning but it was Aaron who stepped forward. He looked from the notebook to Rick. "How would he know we were out there?" Aaron asked Rick.

"I don't know," Rick said, his face grave. "But we need to find out."

The group split up to prepare to make a run to the boat Rick and Aaron had raided only days before. Rick told everyone to meet at the main gate in half an hour. He was striding down the street towards our house.

"Rick," I called after him.

He paused and swung back to face me. "I'm not going with you," I told him.

He frowned. "Jo, we need you. Without Daryl here you're the best tracker we have."

I shook my head and snorted. "Then you are in a world of trouble. I'm a terrible tracker."

"You know what to look for," he argued. "I've seen you with Daryl...and we don't know what this is. We need you."

"Daryl needs me," I replied firmly.

Rick licked his lips and took a step towards me. I could see by the look in his eye he wasn't going to let this go easily and Rick was pretty used to getting his own way within our group. "Daryl is fine," he argued. "Just help us today. You can go find Daryl tomorrow. One more day won't make a difference."

"Daryl isn't fine," I growled. I kept thinking back to Daryl sitting at that dinner of Ezekiel's. The way he had rushed out of there. Then of him not sleeping, forcing himself to stay awake on watch. Negan's words echoed in my mind as well, as hard as I tried to shake them. I needed to see Daryl. One day just might make all the difference.

Rick must have read my answer on my face because he sighed. "Jo," he implored me. "We need you."

"You don't know Gabriel didn't leave," I said, though it was an empty argument. I wasn't Gabriel's biggest fan, and I would never trust a coward at my back, but even I didn't think he had run out on us. He had come to take his position and responsibilities here in Alexandria far too seriously. His care of Judith far too seriously to just abandon us.

Rick knew I didn't believe the words even as they were coming out of my mouth. He didn't respond, instead he just stared me down. He knew me too well, knew I would cave. I ran a hand over my face. My head was pounding and I didn't feel up to an argument, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to get to Daryl. I pulled the sunglasses back onto my face to try and block some of the sunlight.

"Just...come with us to the boat," Rick said in a more gentle voice. "It's on the way back to The Kingdom. You can take a look around, see if there is anything we would miss and if there's nothing then leave. Go find Daryl."

I sighed and finally nodded. A day might make a difference, but as long as I got to Daryl by tonight I was fine with it. "I'm going to go get my pack," I told Rick.

A triumphant smile broke across his face. I sucked in a breath, knowing I was going to upset him with my next words. "But Rick, there is something wrong with Daryl,"

Rick sobered, frowning in concern. "Is he okay? He seemed fine."

I pressed my lips into a line. I didn't really have an answer. I didn't know if Daryl was okay. I knew he was going to be okay, he always was, but there was something up now. Finally I settled on shrugging. "I'm going to find out," I told him. "And I'm going to stay with him Rick. I won't leave him there alone and surrounded by strangers. Jesus may trust them, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to."

Rick nodded and I could see in his eyes that he knew he didn't really have a say in what I did anyway. Rick wasn't my leader, he was my friend, but Daryl was my family. And he was the most important thing in this world to me.

<><><><><>

Daryl

Richard led me away from The Kingdom. I followed him out into the forest and with my crossbow in hand and the trees around me I finally felt like I could breathe again. Like whatever was wrong with me was gone. Out here I could be me again.

He led me towards an old camp ground and pulled aside an "no camping" sign, stepping behind it.  Nestled in the undergrowth, hidden from view unless you knew what you were looking for was an old trailer. Richard opened the door and led me inside.

It was a cache, I realized quickly. He started pulling out guns and supplies and made quick work of making us both packs filled with weapons. Then we left and headed down the road together. It looked like we were following signs towards a cemetery but I didn't know why. Didn't matter. Richard knew this area and if he knew a way to get Ezekiel to agree to fight that was all that mattered. It may not have been exactly what Rick was after, but the results would be the same, a unified front against The Saviors.

"We need something to move Ezekiel. This is it. Alexandria, The Hilltop, and the Kingdom hitting first, hitting hard and we wipe The Saviors from the earth. Keeping people, dozens and dozens and dozens of good people and keeping them safe."

He led the way to where a tractor trailer had gone off the road. He led the way behind it. From here we were out of sight from the road.

"They ride this road," he reported, swinging his pack off his back. "If we see cars, it's The Saviors. They've been coming in packs of two or three lately. That's why I need you, I can't take them all alone. We hit them with the guns first, then the molotovs. Then back to the guns until they're dead."

I frowned at him. "Why the fire?" I asked. It sort of felt like overkill. Between the two of us with rifles we should have been able to kill two or three cars of Saviors no problem. Especially if they weren't ready for us. And if they did travel this road a lot, their guard would be down.

"Needs to look bad. The Saviors who discover what's left, we want them to be angry," he said standing up, his rifle in one hand. "I left a trail from here to the weapons cache I planted to the cabin of someone Ezekiel cares about."

"Who's that?" I asked. He hadn't mentioned letting someone take the fall.

"Just some loner he met," Richard said turning back to his pack and his words went over me like cold water. A loner...

"Sometimes he beings food," Richard kept talking, not realizing I had stopped.

"Why don't they live in the kingdom?" I asked.

"I don't know," he snapped impatiently, "she lives out there, she'll die out there."

"It's a woman?" I asked. It was Carol, it had to be Carol. It didn't surprise me to hear Ezekiel cared about her either. Made me think better of him to know he was keeping an eye out on her.

"What's it matter? She's got more balls than you or me," Richard challenged. He could tell he was losing me and it was making him desperate. "She's gonna die either way. When The Savior's come and find their buddies dead if they know their elbow from their asshole and can follow an obvious spoor they're gonna go to the weapons cache and then to the cabin, and they're gonna attack that woman."

"What's her name?" I asked again, my voice carefully controlled despite my temper nearly getting the better of me.

Richard was too far gone into his plan to listen to anything. "Maybe they kill her, maybe they don't, either way it's gonna show Ezekiel what he needs to do."

"Her name," I growled. "What is it?"

"She's tough, maybe she'll live."

"Say her damn name!" I yelled losing my fight with my temper.

Richard froze and then sighed. "Carol, I had hoped you didn't know her. But honestly I didn't think you'd care, cause you know what needs to happen."

"No," I snapped stalking past him and swinging my pack up on my shoulder. I did think we needed to fight the saviors but I wasn't so blinded I was willing to give up the people I cared about to kill them. I thought about Jo and how I had been acting before she left. I wasn't willing to give up another second with the people I loved for those pricks. I needed to find Carol.

"Look this-this is how-this is how this can happen. This is how we can get rid of The Saviors. How we all can have a future!" Richard spoke quickly, trying to convince me. "She's living out there alone, just waiting to die."

I took a step back at those words like he had slapped me. No way Carol just gave up. She wouldn't, she couldn't. She was a survivor, one of the best. She had been surviving long before the world went to shit.

"No!" I roared at him, snatching up my rifle. I wasn't willing to just let her give up out there.

"If we don't do anything, a hell of a lot more people are going to die. People who want to live! Like Jo!"

I whirled back on him when he mentioned Jo. He didn't know shit about shit and he didn't get to bring her into this to try and get me to fight for him. I wasn't going to sacrifice one person I cared about for another, I wasn't going to make that call.

"You stay the hell away from Carol, you hear me?" I growled, getting into his face.

I heard the cars on the road and we both turned towards them. Richard took a step towards the road, his whole focus on the cars, like that was the biggest threat to him out here. He was an even bigger idiot than I realized. I dropped my backpack, and lifted my crossbow into my hands so I was ready to fight. He glanced over his shoulder, saw me ready and came to all the wrong conclusions.

"Look we can wait for things to go bad and lose people...or we can do the hard thing and choose our fate for ourselves."

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Sorry," he said with a shrug, the gun in his hand clicked and he turned towards the road.

I didn't want to shoot him if I didn't have to, we needed him to fight, just not like this. I dropped the crossbow and grabbed him by the back of the shirt. I slung him around so he hit the ground. Then I jumped him. He fought back and I punched him across the face a bunch of times. I lost count of how many. I wasn't going to let him hurt the people I cared about, I wasn't going to let anyone hurt the people I cared about. No one I loved was going to go through what I did.

Then he hit me upside the head with something heavy, throwing me off. I rolled with it, and snatched up my crossbow. I whirled towards him with it already up. He had gone for his rifle but I was faster. He hesitated, the rifle in his hands, but not up. He looked into my eyes as I stared down the shaft of a bolt and he knew I would kill him.

"There'll be more," he said desperately. "Or those, they're gonna ride back this way later. We'll have another chance, but we're running out of time. If you and your people want to move against the Saviors...you need to do it soon, and you need The Kingdom. What we have to do requires sacrifice one way or another. Guys like us, we've already lost so much."

"You don't know me," I growled, and he didn't. Not if he thought for one second any one I loved was worth it to me.

"I know that Carol living on her own like that, she might as well be dead right now."

I gritted my teeth, because he wasn't wrong about that part. It was stupid to be alone, you couldn't be alone, not for long, not if you wanted to live. I needed to find her.

I lowered the crossbow. "She gets hurt, she dies, she catches a fever, she gets taken out by a walker...if she gets hit by lightning...anything happens to her or any one of my people and I will kill you," I warned angrily.

Richard lowered his gun slowly, and his eyes were sad. "I would die for the kingdom," he said.

"Then why don't ya?" I challenged.

I scooped up my stuff and marched away. I followed the easy trail Richard left to Carol.

<><><><><>

Jo

The boat was closer than I anticipated. Only half an hour from Alexandria. It was out in the middle of small lake that was almost entirely filled with walkers. I scowled at the splashing and growling that was coming from the water, it was no wonder there were so many walkers here, every day they would continued to attract more.

I rolled my shoulders and sank my teeth into the inside of my cheek to bite back the grimace. Whatever I had landed on when I fell had sliced open my shoulder pretty well. It had stopped bleeding, but if I rotated it the wrong way it felt like I was going to tear it open again. So I was down to fighting with one hand unless things got bad.

"Okay," Rick said as we approached the water. "This is the place." He turned to look at me, lifting a brow to encourage me to take charge.

"Let's break into two groups," I said. "One group goes clockwise, the other goes counter clockwise. Rosita, Aaron and Tara. Rick, Michonne and I. Five feet apart starting at the shoreline, working out. That will cover fifteen feet or so. If we don't find anything by the time we meet up we will step it out another fifteen feet. Walk in a straight line, no deviating except around trees. I want a distinct track where you walk. Stay away from each other so you don't mess up a trail if there is one. You find something, call to the others to stop in case it passes through their grid. I'm not Daryl, so try not to mess up the trail too badly. If you find something holler and I will come and take a look."

The others all nodded and spread out, going their way. Only Rosita hesitated for a second, glaring at me before stalking off. I drew in a breath and sighed. That was going to be an issue, very soon.

When I looked back at Michonne she was watching Rosita walk away. She glanced back at me. "Is there a problem?" she asked.

I just shrugged. "Not yet, but there might be one real soon."

Michonne nodded, though she didn't look put out by the possibility. "It might be better to handle that sooner rather than later."

I agreed with her, but at the same time didn't. I didn't want to have to deal with it. Because if I dealt with it I was going to have to scare her. I had had enough of people who were supposed to be on my side being frightened by me. But at the same time I wasn't stupid. Some people needed a little fear in their lives to straighten them out. And Rosita just might be one of those people. The thought made me tired. Maybe if I went away for a little while with Daryl things would get better.

Rick, Michonne and I were halfway done with our side when Rick whistled to me. I lifted my gaze to see him crouched in the underbrush, holding aside a large fern. I stepped towards him, taking care not to destroy any semblance of a trail. When I got close however the trail was an obvious one. They didn't need me at all. Judith could have followed this one.

Rick let out a loud whistle to catch the others and then led the way silently through the underbrush. There was only one set of tracks, but it looked as though it was a well traveled path. Whoever it was had been here before and often.

The path seemed to lead the way towards a garbage dump. Rick and I walked together on point. I turned over my shoulder and gestured for the others to fan out in a V formation behind us. The tracks grew until we hit an are that was very well traveled where several paths converged from the surrounding woods.

I heard the distinctive click over my shoulder and whirled to see a woman standing beside a car pointing a rifle at us. I went still and Rick noticed. He turned and spotted the same on eI did and then he turned again and held his hands up. There were others.

As we stood there more came out of hiding, driving us closer together as a group. Once we were all standing back to back facing out even more came. Fifty, sixty I lost count. They were all armed, some with guns, some with knives others with homemade weapons. They were all wearing black and moved quietly in formation, as though they were used to operating as a single unit, despite how many there were.

I looked around at the group surrounding us and realized in an instant there was no way to fight our way out. My chest tightened and I closed a hand around the knife at my waist.

Rick however, standing beside me started to smile.

<><><><><>

Hello friends! I hope you enjoyed this rather lengthy update! I'm sorry it's been so long! Things are starting to heat up! Who is excited for the finale??? It's a few chapters out yet no worries. Anyone else going through serious TWD withdrawal? September is SO far away!!!