.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

Rick led them outside. Clutching onto their weapons they walked into the dark night. Forming a line, they marched after Rick. Their small group consisted of Michonne, Sasha, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Levi, Stella, and her father.

The girl's heart raced in her chest. They had gone over the plan enough times for her to be able to do it in her sleep. However, she hated the thought of leaving her siblings in the church. They had stayed behind along with the ones that were considered the weakest and a few people who could protect them if their things didn't go as planned.

The small group traveled over the gravel path that led to the school that Gabriel had directed them to. After walking for a bit, Rick signaled for them to stop. They hid in the forest, crouching behind bushes and trees as they watched Gareth's group emerge from the darkness on the other side of the road. Gareth and his crew crept over to the church, scanning the area.

Stella could practically hear her heart beating as she watched one of Gareth's men force the church door open with his crowbar allowing the rest of the group to slip inside. She anxiously waited for Rick to signal that they could get out of their hiding.

It was complete silence around them except for their group's occasional heavy breathing. Stella looked up at her father with pleading eyes, unable to wait another second knowing that Gareth was in there with her siblings.

Rick finally nodded for them to get up. With him in the lead, they sprinted as quietly as possible to the church. Once they reached the doors, Rick lifted his hand in the air telling them to slow down as they crept into the dark church. Disguised by the darkness the group stood in the far end of the room, watching Gareth and his men stand by the doors by the alter.

"We'll hit the hinges," Gareth whispered to his crew and they all tightened their grip on their guns.

Before they had a chance to even attempt to get the door open, Rick had fried one shot each into two men's heads. Stella lifted her weapon along with the rest of the group. Gareth's group had spun around, their eyes widened as they stared into the dark behind them.

"Put your guns on the floor," Rick ordered.

"Rick, we'll fire right into that office. So you lower your gun-"

Stella fired her gun, hitting Gareth in his hand to quiet him down. Rick sent her an approving nod. Stella had placed the bullet in the hand, wanting him to suffer. She wasn't going to let him get out of this painlessly. She watched as he whimpered at the sight of three of his fingers blown off, flesh wounds dripping with blood being the only thing left.

The man folded after seeing his hand, whimpering and shaking. Rick took a few steps forward, stepping into the moonlight to reveal his aimed gun. "Put your guns on the floor and kneel."

"Do what he says," Gareth said, his voice strained and raspy.

As the other group placed their weapons on the floor and crouched to their knees, Stella along with the others began emerging from the dark. The blonde Grimes girl cocked her head to the side, glaring at the only man who remained standing.

"Martin, get down. There's no other choice." Gareth told him.

"Yeah, there is," Martin said and Stella watched the man wrap his fingers around his gun tighter. With no hesitation, the girl fired a shot into the man's leg, forcing him to stop to his knees, crying out in pain.

"He told you to kneel." She told the man, that now lay whimpering on the floor next to Gareth. A rush of power and satisfaction consumed her, swallowing all her sympathy away. She placed her foot on Martins's weapons, which he had dropped as he fell, and kicked it away before standing over him, her gun aimed at his head. Almost everyone stood with their weapons aimed at the kneeling group. Rick stood over Garteh who cradled his hurting hand.

"No point in begging, right?" He said.

"No," Rick answered coldly.

"Still, you could have killed us when you came in. There had to be a reason for that." Gareth said.

"We didn't want to waste the bullets." Rick shrugged.

Gareth let out a shaky breath, his whole body trembling. "We used to help people. We saved people... Things chances. They came in and-" The man hunched forward, wailing in pain but gaining not as much as a shrug from the others. "After that... I know that you've been out there, but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry."

Stella hadn't torn her gaze from the man beneath her. He was one of the men who kidnapped them, locking them in before separating her from Levi and her father and wanting to murder them in cold blood and skin them before eating them. Her breathing got heavier at the thought of what they could've done to them, what they did to Bob, and what happened to Tristan. Her finger itched closer to the trigger, wanting nothing more than to feel the satisfaction of pulling it.

"You don't have to do this. We can walk away." Gareth continued to plea. "And we will never cross paths again. I promise you."

"But you'll cross someone's path." Rick retorted. "You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides, I already made you a promise."

With that, Rick pulled out his machete and sliced through Gareth's throat, causing a ripple effect on the rest of the group who began murdering Gareth's group. Blinded by hatred, Stella flipped her rifle up and forcefully shoved the front of it into Martins's gun wound on his leg. The man wailed in pain, a hair-rising scream erupting from his mouth. She pressed down further as she leaned forward, pulling her knife out. She stared into the man's eyes as she dragged the blade through Martins's throat. Blood poured and spewed from his throat and his cries turned into gurgled grunts.

She left him like that for a moment, with her gun impaled by her gun and his throat open before putting the man out of his misery. Her hand harshly grabbed his hair, forcing his head back to look at her as she pierced her blade into his chest. One stab. Two stabs. Three. Four. Five. Sixseveneightnineteneleven.

The girl lost count. She kept stabbing him even after his body had gone limp and cold. Once everything around her had quieted down, she let go of him letting him collapse into a pile of flesh and blood on the floor. Blood had splattered over her face and stained her clothes and skin.

The girl stood up straight with her eyes staring down at what was left of the man beneath her. Blood sipped over the carpet. The sight was something that should have been making her whole stomach turn and her eyes water. However, she felt neither. She felt nothing. No pity, no regret, no sorrow. She couldn't help but feel a slight sense of satisfaction. She knew that this was exactly what her mother had been talking about right before she died when she warned her about never letting this world turn you into something you're not. She was definitely turning into something else. Something that scared and amused her at the same time. All she saw was red.

Her eyes left the man, traveling over the floor of the church where the Terminus people lay lifeless corpses in puddles of blood. Glenn, Maggie, and Tara had all taken a few steps back, staring scarred at the scene that the rest of the group had created.

Stella wiped some blood off her face when she noticed something peeking out of Martins's bag. She reached down and pulled out the white ash bow that Gareth's group had taken from her at Terminus. Her bloody fingers traced along the wood, relieved to finally have her bow back. She held it steadily as she turned to her group. They all stared mindlessly at the scene beneath them.

"It could have been us," Rick said and Stella nodded.

The floor creaked under Gabriel as he stepped out of the office. His eyes scanned what was left of the Terminus group. Tears rested at his waterline and his body trembled after seeing what they had done to his church.

"This is the Lord's house." He said, his lower lip quivering.

"No. It's just four walls and a roof." Maggie said.

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟏𝟒𝟔𝟒 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

𝐀/𝐍
hey so Stella ate in this chapter

!lunatic Stella will always be famous!