Future Ghosts • TWD

154. Kneel.

"This whole follow the leader routine is kinda deja vu for me," Negan said as he walked just a few steps ahead of Rosie and Daryl with his wrists tied up. Daryl had only been with him for about ten minutes now and he already wanted to stick a bolt through his school. This whole Negan kidnapping his kid routine was kinda deja vu for him. Rosie seemed to have gotten over that too easily. But that's how she was with Negan, unfortunately. "It's the same way it went down with Alpha," Negan said.

Daryl didn't have any plans of engaging in conversation with Negan, so he stayed silent. He just hoped that Rosie would stay quiet, too, because it always bothered him to hear her and Negan talk to each other like they did. Maybe it was selfish, but Daryl wanted Rosie to hate Negan's guts. At least she had someone who remembered her brother is what he kept reminding himself.

"Y'know, I get it. Alright, you're pissed your gal pal didn't let you in on the plan," Negan said.

"Nobody asked you," Daryl grumbled.

Rosie let out an exhausted huff. All she wanted was for them to get along for five goddamn seconds. But no. Negan had to ruin any chances of that happening about six to seven years ago when he killed Glenn and Abraham.

"Look, I'm pissed, too. Lone wolves, they're not thinking about the pack," Negan told the two Dixons.

Pissed was an understatement of what Daryl was feeling. He was feeling way beyond pissed. But he was sure that Negan could already sense that. "Maybe I'm pissed 'cause a' Hilltop," he said.

God, Rosie almost forgot about what happened to Hilltop. She wasn't there to see the end of it. She didn't get to see all the walls fall. She didn't get to see Barrington House burning to the ground, leaving nothing but the charred outlines of what the place used to be. She was glad to have not seen it. It was probably a pretty heart-wrenching sight.

She remembered the first time she went to Hilltop. It was with Jesus, after he broke into their home in Alexandria. She hadn't recognized Negan's name back then because she only knew him as Coach Smith. So she had brushed off the name and asked for a cow, which she never ended up receiving, come to think of it.

She remembered escaping the Sanctuary and finding Rick and Michonne, who took her back to Hilltop. She remembered seeing Maggie in that trailer for the first time after thinking she and her baby were dead. She remembered seeing Ian and Sasha, too. And then she remembered running to Daryl.

That was the night that Rosie and Daryl officially decided that she wasn't going to be called Rosie Starling Banks anymore. From then on, she was Rosie Starling Dixon. Right at a picnic table in the center of Hilltop, the two of them sat together until Rosie fell asleep with her head in her arms.

Hilltop was where Rosie read the letter Carl had left for her. Hilltop was where Maggie and Daryl taught her to breathe in and out, in and out, in and out. Hilltop was where Hershel was born. Where Glenn and Abraham were buried. Where Negan brought Rosie for help after she'd been shot. Where Rosie had met Lydia.

And it broke her heart to think about it all being gone. What would happen to Glenn and Abraham's graves? Would those little sticks of wood still be standing if they ever were to return to the rubble?

"Whole bunch a' children almost died 'cause a' you," Daryl reminded Negan. Luckily, the children had all made it out ok. Earl did, in fact, have them. But Earl himself didn't make it. He got bit and passed. Negan seemed to pause at Daryl's words, taking in a deep breath. Daryl shoved him forward. "Keep walkin'."

"Hey, Daryl?" Rosie spoke up for the first time in a little while. Daryl glanced over at her, acknowledging her voice. "Where're we gonna go after this?" she asked. They couldn't go back to Hilltop. They couldn't go to Alexandria, either, because the heard was probably on its way there.