Eloise had decided to wake up early, she had slept on the living room couch after spending most of the night planning on what to do when Negan and the Saviors show up.

She now stood in her kitchen, she quickly grabbed a canteen, filling it with water and grabbing an apple from the batch she had picked from the gardens earlier in the day.

She marched up the stairs in her house and knocked on Jace's door. "Jace? Come on, we gotta check on Siddiq!" Eloise said and she could hear the sounds of papers being moved around and steps towards the door and after a few seconds, a tired Jace Park appeared, smiling to Eloise.

Jace closed his bedroom door, throwing his satchel over his shoulder as he walked with Eloise down the stairs, shoving some papers in his bag while showing some to Eloise.

"Hey, Ellie, so I made this plan. What if we have some people fill the trucks with all of our things and supplies we'll need and when Negan comes to the entrance we gave them drive out through the back gate so they won't get caught..." Jace suggested, handing the papers to Eloise.

The girl looked it over, smiling at the plan and turning to Jace, nodding her head. "This is a great idea but when everyone's leaving, Negans gonna need a distraction it else he'll just bust the gates down."

Jace nodded, scratching his nose slightly as they exited the house, walking towards the manhole they were supposed to meet Carl at. "Well... he tolerates the three of us. Maybe we can distract him until everyone gets out?" Eloise nodded her head, letting out a small hum in agreement as they finally got to the manhole where Carl already stood.

"What'd you bring?" Carl asked, looking at the two and Eloise showed him the red apple and canteen. "What about you?" Jace asked, making Carl chuckle, pulling out a green apple and his canteen.

Eloise chuckled as she moved the manhole over so they could crawl in. "Well then... He's got options." Eloise quickly jumped into the manhole and walked towards the dead end where Siddiq sat, hearing the boys come down behind her.

A loud grunt and a wince made her turn around. "Dude, you alright?" Carl asked Jace who laid on the ground, holding onto his side. After a few seconds, Jace nodded, getting up with the help of Carl and Eloise. "Yeah, I just missed a step."

The three smiled at Siddiq when they got to him, the man returning a smile. Eloise handed him her canteen and he immediately started downing it as Carl and Eloise pulled out the apples. "Red or green?" Carl asked, a faint smirk on his face.

Siddiq looked back and forth between the two fruits before slowly taking the green apple out of Carl's hand, making Jace take the red apple out of Lou's hand, taking a big bite.

Eloise rolled her eyes at Jace, turning back to Siddiq. "Is everything fine down here?" Siddiq eagerly nodded his head, looking around the space. "Yes. It's been more than enough."

Carl smiled at his words, nodding his head. "That's good. My dad should be back today so we can talk about you staying with us." Siddiq smiled at the three. "Thank you so much. You really shouldn't have."

Jace shook his head, taking another bite of the apple. "But we wanted to. You're a good asset to the group, you know?" Siddiq chuckled, nodding his head.

"Well we should get back. Alexandria is planning on having... visitors tonight so we need to prepare." Eloise said awkwardly and Siddiq nodded.

The three sent him small goodbyes before walking back to the manhole cover, one by one they all got out. Eloise and Jace looked around for anyone nearby as Carl closed the manhole cover. Just as it closed, Michone had turned the corner, heading straight for the three.

"Kids!" Michonne screamed, making the three of them tense up, slowly turning around to Michonne. "I've been lookin' for you guys. We're about ready to head out." Michonne said once she got closer to them before noticing all of them were acting off, she tilted her head. "What are you guys doing?"

Carl looked to Eloise and Jace who nodded their heads, making Carl sigh, looking back to Michonne. "We're helping someone. A traveler."

"In the sewer?" Michonne asked as if they were crazy. Eloise went to open her mouth and explain before radio feedback rang through the air, making the four freeze.

"You may be wondering why the hell your lookouts didn't sound the alarm. See, we are polite. I mean, I don't know when they're gonna wake up from that kinda shot, but they should wake up. So let's just cut through the cow shit- you lose. It's over. So you're gonna line up in front of your little houses, and you're gonna work up some apologies, and then the person with the lamest one is gonna get killed. Then I kill Rick in front of everybody, and we move on. You have three– count 'em, three minutes to open this gate or we start bombing the shit out of you!" Negan yelled though his microhone.

Eloise turned around and saw the town of Alexandria watching the gates worriedly. Quickly, she started shooing them towards the packed cars. "Come on." Jace and Carl nodded, going after her and the people. Carl noticed Michonne frozen and stopped. "Michonne. Come on!" Michonne shook her head at Carl's words, getting herself out of her head and followed after them.

...

"You need to make it look like we're escaping out back. Get to the woods, halfway to the quarry, and cut the lights. Get enough of a lead on them, hit them, and get away on foot. You know where we'll be." Jace explained to everyone as Negan whistled.

"Just have to get the guns, get everyone else here, and we'll meet you there." Carl said as he threw his bag over his shoulder.

"Two minutes, people! Dig deep. I want these apologies to be memorable. Bonus points for creativity. Work up a poem, sing a song. I love that shit." Negan yelled through his microphone, chuckling.

"Get going. There's gonna people in the infirmary. They're gonna need your help." Eloise told Tobin who nodded at her, running to the infirmary, people following after him.

"Look, we got guns. We can fight them." Tara said stepping up but Eloise shook her head. Rosita sighed, stepping to stand beside the younger girl. "We will, but not now. They're right." Tara sighed as Michonne turned to the three with worried eyes. "We can't just let them have this place."

Carl nodded, handing Michonne her katana. "We can. All you need to do is survive tonight." Jace nodded with Carl's words, looking at the woman. "This is our show. You said it."

Eloise grabbed her hunting knives from her boots, stuffing them into her holster for easier access as she looked up to the woman. "This is our plan, and you're gonna do it. You're all gonna do it. So let's go!"

"One minute! One minute!" Negan screamed as the three teens ran towards the watch tower. "Okeydokey. Brought this on yourself, Rick. See, I was willing to work with you. All you had to do was follow a few very simple rules. Now... Well, now I see that you got to go. Scorched earth, you dick!"

Eloise was the first one to climb up the tower, than Carl and than Jace. "He's not home." Carl yelled, making the Saviors point their guns to the three teens. Negan chuckled, pointing at them with Lucille. "Oh-ho-holy shit! Everybody hold your fire. It's the three musketeers! Look at you little shits! Answering the door like big kids. I am so proud. Daddy's not home, huh Carl? Well, I guess he's gonna get back to a big old smoky surprise."

"There's families in here, Negan." Eloise said as Carl glared at the man. "Kids. My little sister."

"Well, that shit just breaks my heart. There's kids at the Sanctuary. You must've seen 'em. Even had a little baby at one of the outposts. I wonder what happened to her.  None of this shit's fair, kids." Negan said before looking directly at Carl.

"Hell, you know that. You had to kill your own mom." Negan turned to Jace and Eloise and tilted his head. "You two got orphaned up. And all that... That is screwed up. Ergo, we need someone in charge who's willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that shit doesn't happen." Negan started chuckling before sticking his arms out, gesturing to himself. "Oh. Wait. That's me."

"Bad stuff does happen, but we can figure this out. We can stop this." Carl yelled and Negan chuckled. "Oh, now you want to talk? See, your dad had it that I died, no matter what. He gave my people a choice. Not me."

"Carl's not Rick." Eloise said but Negan ignored her, continuing to run his mouth. "Now we're gonna need a new understanding. Apologies, punish-" "Kill me."

Eloise and Jace whipped their heads to Carl who tried his hardest not to look at them. "Carl..." Eloise whispered as Negan's brows furrowed, looking to the boy. "What did you say?"

Carl gulped, clenching his jaw as he stared at the man. "If you have to kill someone, if there has to be punishment, then kill me." After noticing Negan's shocked face, he took another step forward. "I'm serious."

"You wanna die?" Negan asked and Carl immediately shook his head. "No, I don't. But I will if it means my friends and loved ones don't, I'll die. It's gonna happen. And i- if me dying could stop this... if it can make things different... for us, for you, for all those other kids, it'd be worth it."

Eloise looked at Carl in shock, feeling a lump form in her throat as Jace started at Carl. The Hrimes boy chuckled at Negan, shaking his head.  "I mean, was this the plan? Was it supposed to be this way? Is this who you wanted to be?"

Loud crashes and gunfire rang from the other side of Alexandria. Eloise whipped her head around to the back gates, watching them drive out of the town. She quickly grabbed Carl and Jace's arms, pulling them down into a ducking position. "Go, go, go." Eloise whispered, gesturing for them to go down the latter. Carl was the first one down, Eloise right after him. The two waited on the ground for Jace and when he was 4 feet above the ground, he slipped, falling as a sickening crack rang through the air.

Eloise and Carl quickly helped Jace up, wincing at his ankle bent out of place. They quickly wrapped his arms around their shoulders to keep him up as they ran away from the gate.

"Son of a bitch, Carl! Was that just a play?! I thought we were havin' a moment, you little asshole! Hell, even the two orphans were crying! You know what? Bombs away!" Negan screamed and explosions started booming through the air. Jace weakly turned his head to Carl, looking down to his bag. "Carl... my bag."

Carl looked down at the bag wrapped around Jace's shoulders and quickly opened the bag. Eloise turned her head to the boys, watching as Carl's chuckled, using his arm that wasn't holding Jace up to reach into the bag, pulling out a smoke bomb. Carl looked up to Jace and shook his head, laughing. "You're a genius."

Jace chuckled as Carl reached his hand out to Eloise, having her pull the tag to let out the smoke. Carl threw the smoke bomb towards the gates as they continued to try and run but buildings started blowing up.

First it was the church, the steeple of the building falling into itself as the three passed it. Then the infirmary caught into flames just feet away from the teens, making them stumbled back a little bit. Carl's arm slipped from around Jace, making him quickly readjust his arm around him.

"Where the hell are we going?" Jace asked tiredly, resting by his head on Lou's shoulder weakly. "Should we go to Siddiq?" Eloise asked, turning to the boys. Carl looked over to her and tiredly nodded.

When they finally got to the manhole, two Saviors ran up to them, guns raised. "On the ground, kids!" One of the Savior screamed and Carl quickly grabbed another smoke bomb from Jace's bag, Eloise reached over, pulling the string and waved it around in the air so smoke could crowd around them before throwing it towards the men.

Eloise quickly let go of Jace, letting Carl carry the boys weight as she lifted up the manhole cover. "Go!" Carl whisper yelled, quickly gesturing for Eloise to climb down. When she got down, she looked up to spot Jace as he climbed down after her. Just before Jace was close enough for Eloise to grab onto him, Jace missed the last step and fell.

Eloise quickly helped him up as Carl climbed down, putting the cover back on. As Eloise held onto Jace, she noticed he was burning up, she turned to him, her brows furrowed when she noticed he was relatively paler than normal.

The three of the walked down the lane to get to the end to sit by Siddiq who had wide eyes from the explosions. Carl turned to Jace, noticing something was off. They helped sit him down from his hurt leg as Carl eyed him strangely. "Jace... you okay?"

Jace's head slowly lifted up, nodding his head. "I'm good. My leg just... really hurts." Eloise squinted at him, not believing a word he said but before she could speak up, the sound of the manhole cover opening, echoed through the tunnels.

Carl turned to Siddiq and Jace, nodding his head. "Stay here."

Carl and Eloise quickly grabbed their weapons and stood slow strides to the cover. They could hear faint chatter coming from outside before a body jumped in. Carl lifted his gun, Eloise lifting her knife, ready to attack but immediately calmed down once they realized it was Tara.

Tara's eye went wide and she shot her hands up in the air. "Uh... don't shoot?" Eloise sighed, dropping her knife as everyone climbed into the tunnels. Almost all of Alexandria was in the tunnels except three; Rick, Jasper and Michonne.

...

After 10 minutes, Eloise had ended up holding Judith, bouncing her on her hip to keep her quiet as she and Carl kept a close eye on Jace noticing him falling in and out of sleep.

The sound of the man hole cover opening again, made everyone turn their heads. Daryl stuck his arms out to take Judith out of Lou's arms so she could go up to Jasper who came in with Rick and Michonne.

Jasper quickly hugged Eloise, kissing the top of her head as they walked down the row of people to get to Carl and Jace. Eloise looked back at Rick and Michonne, instantly noticing Rick glaring at Siddiq. "We brought him here." Eloise quickly spoke up and just before Rick could open his mouth to complain, a weak cough erupted from the corner.

Everyone's heads turned to Jace who was sweating through his shirt as the bags under his eyes shined a dark purple. "That's how it happened." Jace muttered. Eloise furrowed her brows, taking a slow step to Jace. "That's how what happened, J?"

The Park boy looked up at Eloise, letting out an airy and weak chuckle before slowly lifting up his shirt, revealing a dark bite mark.

"I got bit." Jace whispered, his voice cracking as he looked up at the group.

—Soooooooo carls not dying 🧍‍♀️
if anyone asked it in the comments if i was going to kill him, i answered saying i wasn't going to but anyone that was screaming at me not to i ignored to stress yall out 🌝 srry❤️

but my heart hurt writing this chapter bc ik we didn't get to see too much of him, jace owns my heart sooooo