Broken Road »» Rick Grimes (TWD)

Chapter 79

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"I'm sorry." I told Gage as the floor drained from his face after explaining what happened to his sister.

"Did she feel pain?" He asked, his voice cracking.

"No." I lied, watching as his jaw clenched.

"She was your responsibility!" Gage yelled at Negan.

"No. No one is my fucking responsibility." Negan snapped back.

"You are why she's dead!" Gage screamed, his face blood red from yelling.

"There was a sniper. None of us had any control over that." I stated, trying to diffuse the situation.

"It should've been you." He replied, turning to face me.

I studied his demeanor for a second, noticing his clenched fists as he stared me down.

"Maybe. But it wasn't. Sorry, but if you haven't figured it out already, life is shit. I've lost many. I know how you're feeling. But blaming people who didn't do anything isn't going to help. You wanna hurt someone? You want revenge? Go hunt down the son of a bitch." I replied, taking a step forward.

"Fuck you! She trusted you both enough to go. When you go out as a group you watch each others backs, you keep each other alive!" He yelled, completely snapping off.

"Hey! Stand down." Negan snapped, his tone powerful as Gage took another quick step toward me.

"You take me to where she died. I want her body." Gage ordered, staring down at me while shoving a finger into my collar bone.

"Don't touch me." I snapped, quickly shoving his hand away.

"She isn't taking you anywhere. She had nothing to do with this. I didn't either. You want to go? You get in the truck and calm your fly-eating shit down." Negan told Gage as I stepped back.

Gage inhaled a deep breath before staring up at the sky without a word.

"We would've brought her back with us but we was still getting shot at." I stated, softening the tone of my voice.

"You'll need backup if you're going back there." Glenn told Negan.

"Got room for one more then." Negan replied.

"I'll go back." I stated.

"Let's go. By the time we get back it'll be dark." Glenn ordered.

After almost thirty minutes we arrived just a mile down the road from the convenience store.

"Me and Glenn will set up at the top of the hill across the road from the store. You two head to Mack." I ordered Negan and Gage.

"You had to volunteer us to tread through the woods." Glenn groaned as we began walking through the woods.

"I'd rather not watch Gage grieve over his sister, and I'd also rather not get my head blown off by the sniper." I explained as I stepped over a fallen limb.

Once we neared the store, we both stopped dead in our tracks after hearing a man cough up ahead of us. I quickly knelt down by a bush after the man came into our view, walking straight toward us.

My heart began racing inside of my chest once I saw his rifle, realizing he was the one who was shooting at us earlier. I remained knelt down by the bush, watching as he continued walking slowly through the woods.

I bit my lip, watching as the man stopped and turned back to look down at the road below. He must've heard Gage and Negan.

I glanced back to Glenn and motioned my hand forward as I gripped my rifle in my hands. I watched as Negan walked with Gage to Mack's body down at the convenience store.