Self Inflicted

26

We made a plan, possibly a stupid plan, but one at that. Rick is convinced it will work. At this point, I'm convinced that something will. We've come too damn far to lose to a few cannibals. So now, we're sitting at the edge of the woods, watching as these cannibals walk into the church. We give it some time, enough time to let them think we're actually gone. Then, we move our way back to the church.

We hear Judith crying, very faintly, and creep up the stairs slowly to see two men standing outside of the room Judith is in with guns. Gareth instructs them to shoot at the hinges, and that's our signal. I lay down one of the men, silencer to the head, and Sasha repeats. "Put your guns on the floor," Rick growls.

"Rick, we'll fire right into that office so you lower your guns-" his sentence is ended quickly as Rick shoots off two of his fingers. Gareth shakily instructs his men to listen. They all kneel and we walk forward, I go directly up to one man, kneeling and staring at me with a sharp hatred. They were the ones that robbed us, threw us in pens, tied us up, and almost slaughtered us like animals. None of them may have had their hands on the knives, but they did the cutting.

I put my gun across my back, grabbing my sword from its holster. "No point in begging right?" Gareth chokes out, cradling his dismembered hand.

"No, there isn't," Rick mutters.

"Still, you could've killed us when you walked in, there had to be a reason for that."

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

"We used to help people, we saved people. Things changed, they came in and-" he whimpers. "I know that you've been out there, but I can see it, you don't know what it means to be hungry. You don't have to do this, we can walk away and we will never cross paths again, I promise you."

"But you'll cross someone's path," he cocks the trigger of his gun and points it at his face, but drops it, leaning forward toward him. "You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides, I already made you a promise." He grabs the machete in his belt and swings. I take my sword and slice the man's neck open in front of me, blood sprays out onto me and coats the floor in thick, warm blood. His body thuds to the ground and blood continue to pour out, and his eyes shut. I turn to the others and Rick is nonstop swinging at a torn-apart Gareth, Abraham is using the butt of his gun, and Sasha is stabbing at a man's stomach. I take a deep breath and look away, down at my hand and clothes soaked in blood.

At one time, I helped people. I took an oath and saved people's lives, no matter how I felt about them. But now, you're either the sheep or the butcher.

Rick and Sasha exchange words and then Tyreese and Gabriel exit the office. Gabriel stumbles through the mangled bodies and quivers, looking up to Glenn and Maggie.

"This is the lord's house," he whimpers.

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

-

We all begin saying our goodbyes to Bob, Maggie sits beside him and finishes talking so she stands up. I walk over to his side and replace her, grabbing his hand. "You know, I hate that damn game," I chuckle, referring to his game of 'good out of the bad.' He musters a chuckle and smiles. "But I love you, and I think all of us have learned something from your crazy positivity. So thank you for giving us every part of you, Bob."

He smiles and the tears well up in my eyes, I give his hand a small squeeze. We all leave the room, letting Sasha have her time with him. Maggie finds me and corners me.

"I think you should stay," she says sternly.

"No way."

"You can't leave, Daryl will never forgive you."

"He left me first. He made his choice, now I'm making mine," I pause. "You can't take that away from me." Her eyes soften and she shakes her head. "Plus, someone has to make sure Glenn doesn't get himself killed." She chuckles and we share a smile.

-

"This is our route to DC, we'll stick to it as long as we're able. If not, you got our destination. Once Eugene gets up to the big brains up there things will start to bounce back. This group should be there for it. You should be there for it."

"They will be," Maggie chimes in.

"We will," Michonne adds confidently.

"We will," Rick nods in agreement. Abraham urges us to leave and we say our goodbyes. I hug Michonne, say goodbye to Carl and Judith, Tyreese and Sasha, and then make my way to Grimes.

"He's right, you know," I refer to Abraham. "You were made for this, whether you want to be or not. Take care of them."

"What do I tell Daryl?" he grumbles.

"He's the least of my concerns," the words left my mouth but I knew they weren't true. Rick nods slowly and I pull him into a quick hug. "Be careful old man."

He musters the best smile he can and I'm off onto the bus, seated across the isle from Tara who decided to join us as well. We begin our trip, looking sullenly back at the church as we pull out onto the road for the long trip ahead of us.

-

Rosita begins talking to Abraham about how he needs a haircut and he jokes about wanting her to shave him down all over 'dolphin smooth.' Tara talks to Eugene about cutting his hair, to which he does not approve of. Maggie turns around to ask Eugene a question.

"How long will it be? After you get on that terminal and do what you have to do?"

"Depends on a number of factors," he starts. "Including density of the infected around target sites worldwide."

"Target sites? Are you talking about missles?" Glenn inquires.

"That's classified."

"Seems like it always is," I huff.

"I thought we were over that?" Glenn asks.

"What if we all live?" Eugene proposes.

"Secrets will matter then?"

"They might, anyway the speed with which things normalize will depend on a number of things including worldwide weather patterns that were modeled without regards of cars, planes, boats, and trains wouldn't be pouring hydrocarbons into the air this long. Changes the game quite a bit when it comes to air transmissable pathogens."

"Why the hair?"

"Because I like it," he starts and then shifts his gaze to Rosita. "And no one is taking scissor or clipper to it anytime soon, you hear me miss Espenosa."

"Loud and clear," she chuckles. Eugene begins explaining about his former boss that loved his hair and Abraham guides us around a wandering pack of walkers in the road, a large group. They snap their heads in our direction as we pass. We pass them and come up onto some broken down vehicles, when there is a loud pop and smoke flies out from under the bus. The wheels squeak on the road as Abraham slams on the brakes in a failed attempt to slow us down, the tail of the bus swinging. That's when, we hit one of the cars on the road, going airborne and flipping.

My body flies in the air and we start turning, to which my head and body fly into the window to my right. Everything goes dark.