THE TOWER
A CERTAIN DOOM

We had all abandoned Alexandria, knowing the Whisperers were coming. We all relocated to a hospital. Yumiko, Eugene and Ezekiel had left to meet the girl Eugene admitted to talking over over the radio, Stephanie. Negan the bad guy, who joined Alpha turned out to be a good guy all along, as he killed Alpha and Carol had made a deal with him. Daryl dropped Negan off and then disappeared, as usual. I can never tell what that man is thinking

Me, being one of the only doctors left, I was doing my best to make sure everyone was okay. Alden and Aaron were doing some suicide mission bullshit at Alexandria or whatever. JJ was currently unconscious in the infirmary that we set up due to her being a clingy bitch towards Alden. I wish I had done the honors, but Taylor got the honors. Oh, also there were cats in this fucking building. I didn't even know cats still existed. Carol and Kelly had also left because Luke needed some parts. Connie was still missing, and uh, Beta was trying to whoop our ass with his horde of walkers

"All I'm saying is that we can easily beat Beta and his horde if we just blow them up" I said

"Where exactly are you going to find the explosives to do that?" Lee asked

"This is a hospital, there should be a shit ton of a stuff I can use to make explosions" I said

"And get us all killed in the process?" He asked

"Nah, it won't be that bad" I said

"Tower, do you copy?" I heard someone ask over the radio. I approached the radio, where Gabriel already was

"Yes, we copy" Gabriel said

"They're heading toward Oceanside.. as expected" Aaron said

"Any sign of slowing?" Gabriel asked

"Not yet. We'll stay on them. If anything changes, we'll send word" Aaron said

"Copy that. Be safe" Gabriel said

"Same. Over" Aaron said

"So, next idea" I said. Gabriel looked at me

"If it's another bomb idea, we already said no" Gabriel said as Taylor walked over

"No, no.. it's different. So, if Beta and his walker army comes. What if we all wear walker masks, pretend to be them, and then kill him" I said

"Yeah, no" Gabriel said

"Come on, it's a good idea, right Taylor?" I asked looking for someone to back me up. She gave me a look saying she didn't really like the idea

"Man, I have some good ass ideas and y'all know it. You'll come around" I said as Gabriel shook his head and Taylor just stared

"Hey! The beast is waking up!" Lee yelled. I groaned. I didn't really know JJ, but that woman was obsessed with Alden. I don't even know how he tolerates her, let alone is in love with her

"I'm coming!" I yelled

—————

"What the hell do you mean they're here?" Someone asked as Gabriel was trying to reach Daryl

"Gabriel?" Daryl asked over the walkie

"Daryl.. where are you?" Gabriel asked

"You're breaking up. I can't hear you" Daryl said

"Come back.. they've surrounded the tower" Gabriel said but there was no response from Daryl

"We need the wagon" Gabriel said, but again we heard only static

"I should go find him" I said

"No, you need to stay here. Daryl can take care of himself, plus we need as many fighters here as possible" Taylor said

"Hey, I don't mean to alarm anyone but Judith and Lyra are missing" Lee said. I turned to him

"What?" I asked

"They're probably with Daryl" Gabriel said

"Probably is not definitely. We should go look for them" I said. Gabriel shook his head

"We don't have time. They're here. We can only hope the girls are okay" Gabriel said

—————

We were all rushing around trying to get things in position. It was chaos as we heard the walkers outside. Gabriel was looking outside the window

"How much time do we have?" I asked him as he moved the curtain so no one could see out the window

"I'm scared" RJ said. Gabriel went and approached the children as I went to help out the others. Luckily as I arrived, Daryl, Carol, Kelly, Judith, and Lyra were there

"Oh you guys made it back" I said as I hugged Lyra

"Any sign of Aaron and Alden?" Taylor asked as she hugged her older brother

"We didn't see them" Carol said

"Neither did we" Judith said. Gabriel came in shortly after and held a meeting

"Our plan is the same. Lead the horde away, just not from Oceanside as we had planned. Once the walkers are clear, we evacuate to Rendezvous Point B. Luke. We ready?" Gabriel asked Luke who was in front of the comms

"Yeah, yeah. Uh, technically. Okay. So, these are the final pieces that we need to connect to the wagon. But in order for it to do the pied piper thing that we need it to do over the cliff, we gotta get from A to B, and I gotta plug and plug, and then we should be good to go" Luke said

"That wagon is on the other side of the horde" Magna said

"So.. someone's gotta go through it? With skins in there?" Jerry asked

"Five groups. Two in each. One carries the cargo, one protects. It's crucial that all the equipment makes it to the wagon" Gabriel said

"We can make it through. I'll help" Lydia said

"We're willing. But not if she goes" Beatrice said

"Are we seriously gonna start this shit?" I asked Beatrice

"Listen, we know she's earned trust with you, but.. Oceanside isn't ready. Not with this" Rachel said

"It's not like we could all-" I was cut off

"That's fine. As it happens, Lydia's role is in here" Gabriel said. I crossed my arms as I rolled my eyes

"Look, we're not all gonna make it through. But this is the only way" Daryl said

"If Daryl's going, then so am I" Kelly said

—————

I was currently helping Taylor put walker guts on herself. Me and her were one of the five groups

"How am I looking?" Taylor asked

"Just great" I said as I smeared walker guts on her clothes

"Okay, I think I'm good. Let me get you" She said as she grabbed a handful of walker guts. She began smearing it on me

"God, this shit will never become normal to me" Taylor said

"You gotta do what you gotta do" I said. Once all ten of us were ready, Gabriel gathered us

"It's time" He said before he opened the door. We walked out, one by one, the door shut behind Daryl. Kelly put on one of the walker masks. We could see the walkers outside trying to get in

"Well, here we go" I said as Taylor tightened the backpack she had on her. I took out my machete and got it ready as did the others with their own knives. Jerry looked at us and then nodded before he opened the door slowly. Walkers filed in but they didn't bite, they would approach and stare at us, but then they would leave. We began walking through the crowd of walkers, to get outside

I made sure Taylor was near me as we continued through the large herde of walkers. God, there were so many. They walked right past us. We had to get to the wagon. I grabbed ahold onto Taylor's hand so I wouldn't lose her. Then, we heard someone scream out. I could only hope it wasn't one of ours. I noticed a knife as we walked. One of the Whisperers had seen us. We made eye contact. They ran towards us, but not before being shot in the arm with an arrow. The person screamed. Me and Taylor watched as the man was eaten by the nearby walkers

We continued walking towards our goal. Though, I noticed the walkers were getting closer and closer together. It was getting harder to get through. Though, we managed to get out of the cluster fuck of walkers. We entered the nearby woods where we saw Magna, Jerry, Luke, and Jules. We crouched near them as we waited for Daryl, Kelly, Beatrice and Carol

"What if we're the only ones?" Jules whispered. Luke gave a horrified look at such a thought

"They'll make it" I whispered to Jules. She looked at me and reluctantly nodded. We saw people approach us, as they got closer, we realized it was Daryl and Kelly

"Where's Carol, where's Beatrice?" Daryl whispered as he looked at all of us. None of us knew though. Then we heard a scream

"Carol! Take it! Take it!" We heard Beatrice yell before we heard her scream in pure agony. Soon enough, we saw Carol with someone else. They were wearing a walker mask and they had Beatrice's bag. On closer inspection, I realized it was Lydia

—————

We had made it to the wagon. Everyone with bags set them down as Daryl grabbed his walkie

"We made it" Daryl said as Luke began doing his thing

"Need to start soon. They're not up yet, but they will be" Gabriel said

"Yeah, right on it. But Luke's duct taping a bunch of wires to a tape deck so.." Daryl said

"My prayers are with you" Gabriel said

"Gonna need 'em" Daryl said. Fortunately, Luke got it working and music began playing. The horses began moving at a slow pace as Marco drove them. Kelly and Magna had hopped onto the wagon while the rest of us were protecting it

—————

This continued well into the night. The walkers followed us

"They're coming! They're coming!" Lydia alerted. We turned and watched as the Whisperers used walkers as shields. The archers began shooting at them as the rest of us who were close ranged fighters continued with the wagon

"Speed up! Go!" Daryl yelled. Marco made the horses speed up

"Protect the horses!" Carol yelled

"You ain't gotta tell me twice!" I yelled back as Whisperers ran towards us. One came up and tried to stab me. I grabbed their arm and slammed it down against my knee, causing them to drop it. I then took that opportunity to use my machete and stab them in the gut. They groaned in pain as they went to stop the bleeding, but it was pointless in the end, because a few seconds later, my knife entered their skull. Then, I heard a terrible screeching noise. I looked at the wagon and saw that the wheels had busted. The wagon had stopped

"Son of a bitch" I muttered

"Go! Go!" Daryl yelled. We left the wagon behind and began running. Music was playing until they had killed it. We were in the woods, hiding. Daryl grabbed his walkie

"Gabriel, we lost the wagon. You got walkers coming right back at you" Daryl said as it began to rain. We all looked at each other

"They should've evacuated by now" Luke said

"Then they're unprotected. We need to turn that horde around" Jerry said

"How?" Magna asked

"Look, this ain't a good plan, but it's all I got. I say we go back in there and we hunt the skins. We take 'em out, one by one. If we don't do this, all our people are gonna die" Daryl said

"I'm with you" I said

"Then what? How do we lead them away?" Magna asked

"I-I will" Lydia said

"No, we'll think of another way" Daryl said

"I know how. She taught me" Lydia said

"Then let's do it" Taylor said

"Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's say we actually do this, and you lead them to the cliff, there's no wagon to bring them over the edge. I mean, it's suicide" Luke said

"It has to be me. I can do it" Lydia said

"We're gonna deal with this later. Come on. We gotta go. Right now" Daryl said. We all followed after him

—————

We entered the herde. All of us had split up. I became one with the walkers as I moved through them. I saw one with a knife in their hand. Their back was towards me as they led the walkers back to the hospital. I moved towards them before I slit the person's throat. I heard screams as the others killed Whisperers. I saw another and I moved towards them before I stabbed them in the back. They screamed and I watched as the walkers ate them

Then I saw Beta run through a bunch of walkers. He was slamming them away before he threw one towards a man in a familiar leather jacket. That was Negan. Beta tacked Negan and me and Daryl approached. Beta went to stab Negan when me and Daryl coordinated our attack. Both of us sliced an arm causing Beta to turn and look at us. That's when Daryl put his twin blades into Beta's eyes. We watched him pull the blades out before he was eaten by walkers

Me and Daryl helped Negan up. We stared at at Beta as his mask was ripped off

"Holy shit. You know who that asshole was?" Negan asked

"Yeah. Nobody" Daryl said as we left

—————

We made it to the Rendezvous point. Lyra ran to me and Daryl and hugged us

"You worried we couldn't come back?" I asked her as I ran my fingers through her hair

"No, I knew you would come back" She said

"We always come back" Daryl said. Then, I saw a woman with a hat. Her back was turned towards me. I wasn't sure who she was but she felt familiar. She was currently hugging Judith. I walked towards her as she stood up. She turned and we made eye contact. Both of us had grins on her face

"Well I'll be damned" I said as I looked at Maggie

"Y/n" She said before she embraced me. I hugged her back

"It's been forever since I last saw you" I told her

"I know, but we're back now" She said

"For good?" I asked. She nodded

"Yeah" She said

"Good" I said

(2378 words)
07/17/22