The Beginning Of The End (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Trade Fair

The horses came to a stop and everyone jumped off of their carriages to help clear the road, there was a tree down blocking their way to the Kingdom.
"Hey." Kelly said to Rain as she broke up bits of wood with her knee and chucked it to one side.
"Hey."
"I'm kind of going crazy over here." She said, looking around.
"Connie's gonna be okay, she's with Daryl."
"Yeah." Yumiko said, walking over to them. "More like Daryl's gonna be okay, he's with Connie."
"They'll meet us at the fair." Magna said. "They're probably already waiting for us." Kelly smiled before bending down to help Rain lift a large bit of wood.

After clearing the road, it wasn't long before they arrived at the Kingdom and unloaded the carriages.
Rain hugged Carol and Ezekiel tightly and, when she pulled away, the pair both looked around at the group.
"Where's Henry?" Carol asked and Rain opened her mouth to reply but, as if they had heard her, a car pulled up and Michonne, Judith, Daryl, Connie, Henry and Lydia got out.
Rain, Carol and Ezekiel ran over and Daryl hugged Rain tightly.
"I'm glad to see you're talking again." Carol smiled at them.
"You found your necklace." Daryl said and Rain looked down at the blue bird around her neck.
"Yeah." She smiled.
She hugged Michonne and then looked down at Judith and gasped.
"Oh my god." She exclaimed. "You've grown so much." Judith looked up at her and grinned. "What's it been? Four years now." Rain continued. "I bet you don't even remember me."
"I do." Judith said. "You're the lady with the tattoos."

Everyone gathered around King Ezekiel's theatre, it was strung with bunting and Ezekial stood on the large balcony joined by a grand statue of Shiva the tiger.
"I stand before you today at the start of a new tomorrow." Ezekial spoke. "A tomorrow made possible by the sacrifices of many over the years. Among them, a man whose mission was to build community and strengthen the bonds between us. A man who had to destroy the very thing that connected us in order to save us. It took us far too long to fulfill the promise that Rick Grimes and his son Carl envisioned, the same promise Paul Rovia, better known as Jesus, believed in when he brought us all together those many years ago." Applause erupted from the crowd as the King continued. "Today is proof that we can unite, not against the common enemy, but for the common good. So eat, drink, trade and be merry because we've got alot of lost time to make up for."

The fair began and Rain walked around with a large grin on her face as she looked at all the stalls. She had just passed Enid teaching a CPR class when she came across Eugene, he was sat on a small, plastic seat which hovered above a large pool of water, Judith threw a ball at a button on the side and as soon as it hit the button, Eugene's chair launched him into the water. Rain laughed when suddenly a young child with curly hair ran into her and fell over.
"Whoops." She said, picking the child up and dusting off his back. She looked up to see Jerry and Nabila stood by smiling at their son. "Jerry!" Rain exclaimed before holding her hand out, the pair high fived, fist bumped and then wiggled their fingers together in some kind of weird handshake.
"How you doing dude?" Jerry asked,
"I'm good. How are you two?"
"We're great." Nabila replied, stroking her sons hair.
Enid, Alden and Luke walked passed, all holding toffee apples, and Luke stopped.
"Rain, help me out here."
"What's up?" She asked.
"Before the movie tonight, I'm playing my guitar, you know, A Night With Luke." He held his hands out as he said the title as if he could see it in lights. "I want to make it, A Night With Luke and Friends, but Alden won't sing with me."
"Aw, come on Alden." Rain said as Enid pulled her boyfriend towards them. "I would love to hear you sing."
"That's what I said." Enid laughed.
"I'll be there, front row and if I don't see you up on stage, I'm going to be disappointed."

~

Daryl trudged through the forest and soon came to a stop, he bent down and picked up a stick, the end of it was glistening with blood.
"I dont know if there's a happy ending here." Carol said nervously. A twig snapped in the distance.
"Come on." Daryl said but they were suddenly surrounded by walkers.
"They're from Hilltop." Michonne said pointed at two of the walkers before killing them,
"Watch out for skins." Yumiko said.
They soon killed all the walkers surrounding them but more emerged, they were skins this time, Alpha's people.
"Drop them." A deep voice growled. "I won't ask twice." The four of them chucked their weapons to the ground as the large man approached them. "You just had to give me the girl." He said, standing in front of Daryl. "No one else had to die."

~

"You boys nervous?" Rain asked Luke and Alden who were stood on the stage discussing their set list.
"A little." Luke replied and Alden nodded,
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." He said making Enid laugh,
"I promise, when this is all over, I'll only make fun of you the tiniest bit for the rest of our lives."
Luke started strumming his guitar mindlessly when he dropped his plectrum, he bent down to grab it but it was lost down a slat in the wooden stage.
"Hey Rain." He said looking up. "Could you grab me another one... maybe a couple actually."
"Of course." She smiled before walking to the back of the stage to find Luke's guitar case. She bent down to unzip the case when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone's floaty, green dress. She looked up to see a woman with long, blonde hair, wearing a straw hat.
"Hi." Rain smiled at her. "How are you finding the fair?"
"Oh it's wonderful." The woman replied, Rain recognised her accent but she wasn't sure where from.
"Are you from here?" She asked as she stood up, the woman shook her head,
"Alexandria." She replied. "My name's Deborah but you can call me Debbie."

~

Daryl looked up to see Alpha approaching them.
"You ain't gettin' her back." He growled.
"You think this is about my daughter?" She asked. "She was weak. She never lived up to expectations."
"Was?" Daryl asked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Alpha didn't reply and instead let them leave, just like that.

The four of them started to walk back home when they found Siddiq, he was tied to a tree in the middle of the forest with a gag in his mouth.
"Siddiq!" Michonne yelled as she ran to him, she quickly untied him and his hand immediately pointed in the other direction. "What happened?" Michonne asked as she helped him up. He tried to reply but he just kept stuttering so they followed in the direction he pointed in until they found themselves in a field.
On the top of a small hill was a line of sticks and, as they got closer, what was on top of those sticks came into view.
Eleven heads all snapping and growling at the group.
Daryl scanned the line, members of the Kingdom and Alexandria, Henry's friends, Rodney and Addy, Tammy Rose, Enid, Tara and Henry.
"No! No!" Daryl yelled as he ran to Carol. "Just look at me."
"Daryl." She said as tears flowed down her face. "You didn't see." She pointed at the line of heads and Daryl looked once again, listing them all off in his head.
Members of the Kingdom and Alexandria, Henry's friends, Rodney and Addy, Tammy Rose, Enid, Tara, Henry and Rain.
The pair both collapsed to the floor, keeping hold of each other and cried for a moment. Daryl stood up and walked over to Rain's head, he watched her dreadlocks blow in the wind when he noticed something, her sparkling blue bird charm attached to her hair. He removed it and put it in his pocket.

- Princexiero xx