Savior

(24) Home Again

"As Carol said, you are safe here. The Saviors are not allowed in my kingdom."
"I appreciate the offer, but I need to see Rick. I have to talk to him."
"As you wish. I can have one of my men give you a ride on horseback to Alexandria if you'd like."
"Thank you King Ezekiel." He gave me a smile and his tiger purred, making me jump.
"Don't worry. She's harmless, unless I say to be otherwise." He winked, trying to ease my fear. In a few moments, a man in homemade armor cleared his throat, motioning to the horse feet away from us.
"Always remember the Kingdom welcomes you Alison."
I gave him a nod and began following the man to the horse that awaited us.
  --
   "Shit." I mumbled as I saw the trucks pulling into The Hilltop, the place I wanted to go to first. I wanted to see Maggie and tell her everything, tell her how sorry I was for staying with Negan. I turned back to see that the man on the horse had already left, the outline of him and the horse slowing disappearing into the setting sun. Before I could begin to think of what to do, a hand clasped onto my mouth and pulled me into the woods.

I began thrashing my hands and legs, trying to fight off whoever had grabbed me, this was no walker, this was a human, but who?
     "I'm sorry." A man whispered as something was slammed into the side of my head, knocking me out cold.

  My vision was blurry and I saw double  as I opened my eyes, only to see the outlines of Michonne and Rick.
    "We now have one up on Negan, now Dwight said he's coming tomorrow, if we have Alice, we can come to a negotiation. No one has to die."
    "You think Alice is fine with this plan?"
    "At this point, we don't know who's side she's on, we have to take precautionary measures."
    "I'm—." I tried to speak but my head was killing me, piercing every single part of my body, making it unbearable to do anything. So I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

--
"Get up." The bag was yanked from my head and Rick stood in front of me, his python on his hip, his fingers tracing over the cool metal, making it more than clear that he would shoot me. As my vision cleared, I could also see Dwight and Daryl.
"Daryl?" I stuttered, trying to get over the vertigo pulsing through me to disappear.
     "What do you know?" A woman said, kneeling down so we were level, as my vision cleared I noticed we were in a homemade jail cell.
     "I don't know what you're talking about." I said with a smirk, clearing pissing the woman off, she scoffed and walked to the door of the cell.  Rick pulled out the python and placed it in between my eyes, a tear rolled down my face and he squeezed his eyes shut, returning the python to his hip.
     "Alice, it's okay. We're on their side now." Dwight said, crossing his arms and looking to Rick.
       "Rick." I stuttered out, tears streaming down my cheeks. "I'm so sorry." I whispered, returning my eyes to the concrete as I began to weep.
     "I'm only gonna ask you one more time." He knelt down in front of me and smiled, easing the weight from my chest. "What do you know?"
     "I know that he won't stop until he's dead or everyone else is. Whichever comes first."
     "And you know that means he dies, right? A bullet right here." The woman pointed between my eyes and a tear slid down my face.
      "Please. Don't kill him."
  "Why shouldn't we? He killed Glenn! He killed Denise, Abraham, Olivia, and Spencer, do those deaths not mean anything to you?"
    "To be fair, I only knew Glenn." The woman grabbed the collar of my shirt and we locked eyes, the tension between us you could feel in the air like a dense fog.
     "The woman your friend Dwight here killed, she was a doctor and she helped people."
     "Alice, what happened to your head?" Daryl said, interrupting our stare off.
    "Car accident."
  "Who were you with?"
     "A couple of saviors."
  "I have to leave." Dwight said, slinging his belongings over his shoulder and heading towards the door.
     "Where are you going?" Rick said, his fingers returning to his python. 
    "Alice is missing, Negan won't stop until he finds her, he's going to come here first. Hide her." He shut the door behind him and left me alone.
      "Who's side are you on?" Rick said, clenching his jaw.
     Effortlessly the words came, "Yours. It's always been yours." He sighed and nodded, letting Michonne know to untie me.
    "Now, Dwight said Negan will be here tomorrow. We have weapons, and we have the numbers, can you promise me when the bullets start flying you're going to fire back?"
     "I promise." Daryl nodded and leaned against the wall, sighing and shaking his head.
    
  --
   I squeezed Carl as tight as I could and he returned the favor.
    "Tomorrow huh?"
   "Yeah, I'm sure this isn't your first run in with people." He nodded and I immediately regretted bringing it up.
      "I'm sorry for what I said to you at Negan's. Part of me knew you were on our side."
     "I had no idea you were the ones who raided the outpost until I was thrown in front of you guys that night." My heart sank at the slightest thought of that night, it will haunt me forever.
     "Goodnight Carl." I squeezed his shoulder and began to walk towards the front door to where my bed was, in the cell. Rick wanted to take precautions and I understood him, all things considering.

   "Alice?" Carl whispered, his back to me.
     "Yeah Carl?"
  "I'm glad you're home again."
    "Me too." I shut the door behind me and hugged myself as I walked down the street to my room, an occasional shiver shooting down me.
     "I'm sorry." Rick said as he locked the lock and Daryl stood outside the cell door, his head on a pillow and a blanket covering him up to his shoulders.
     "Daryl?" He didn't reply right away so I turned over, wincing as I did and stared at the concrete wall in front of me, and for the first time in a long time, I was sleeping alone.

--
   I tossed and turned most of the night but Daryl lightly shook me awake, putting a finger to his lips. "He's here." He whispered, handing me a magnum. I slid it behind my waistband and he put a bag over my head, pushing me forward.
"Follow the lead." He mumbled.
 

          "She's here?"
  "Not by choice." Rick lied through his teeth, very well I might add.
      "Let me see her." Negan fired back. The tone of his voice changing, it was deeper and more intimidating now. I felt a pair of hands push me forward, my hands catching my self against the metal of the gate.
     "Princess? Is that you?" At that moment, I had no idea who's side I was on. Could I fire at Negan? Could I fire at Rick? I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I slowly came to answer Negan.
     "Yeah it's me." I clung to the gate and couldn't handle the suspense of this. I couldn't see anything, I didn't even know where to look to address Negan.
    "She's fine. Now show me her." Rick said.
  "Give me a minute. Might have to catch her up to speed,  she can't hear shit in this thing. Sasha, you're not going to believe this." I heard a low growling and three gunshots, that's when the bag was tore from my head and Daryl nodded as he began firing at Negan and his men. Bullets were flying and I froze, right in the middle of the crossfire. That's when a woman shot Rick and tossed him off the watching post, he fell to my feet and groaned.
    "Alice." He groaned as the gate was opened and a pair of hands pulled me to the outside and Negan had a smile on his face.
     "Hi baby. Boy, have I fucking missed you."
     "No!" Someone screamed, interrupting Negan's joy  as a bullet pierced my skin, making me fall limp into Negan's arms. 
     "Oh god." He fell to the ground with me and held the wound as the blood soaked his hands. He held them up and they shook violently, he had no idea what to do. "Somebody help me!" I tried to blink the blurriness away as I laid there, but I couldn't. Whoever shot me must have thought the bullet would go through the both of us, boy were they wrong.

   I remembered my promise to Rick, how I had failed him. A lot of things I hadn't thought about in a while filled my mind, I could see Beth, her beautiful voice filling the halls of Hershel's farmhouse. I could see Shane, in his baseball cap and his shotgun over his shoulder, but most importantly I could see Glenn, in his hat and the jacket I gave Maggie.
     "Glenn." I called out, as I stared into Negan's eyes. He was panicking. "Just– leave me here." I mumbled, if I was going to die, I wanted it to be here, where my family was, and in the arms of the man who I had once loved.