Survive

Hilltop

A couple of weeks later:

I was the first to wake up in the morning. As I entered the bathroom, I heard Daryl move around in the bed. I looked back at him to see him looking at me.
"Want me to join you?" He smirked.
"You already got enough action. Another time."
He laughed as I closed the bathroom door.
When I was done with my shower. I got dressed quickly and went downstairs to see Daryl sitting on the couch.
"I'm going out with Rick to get supplies for the group," Daryl said when I got to the bottom step of the stairs.
"Ok. Please be safe."
"I'm gonna head out. I have to talk to Denise about something on the list."
I nodded and walked over to him and kissed him on the lips.
"Alright. Goodbye Hannah."
"Daryl I know it's stupid, but don't say goodbye."
He turned and nodded before heading out the door. After a couple of minutes, I walked outside to see if I could see Daryl leave.
He was already in the car with Rick. Eugene walked up to the car and handed something to them before they headed out. I walked up to Rick's house to see Carl hitting a tennis ball against the wall and Michonne in a robe.
"I've got watch post duty today. What about you?" I said to Michonne once I walked inside.
"Ya, I have the entrance post." She said.
"Ya, I have the west entrance," I said back, She nodded at my response and headed upstairs to get ready.
"So Carl, you well enough to help out around here. I hate doing your jobs for you after I finish mine."
"Hey, you're the one that offered to do them."
I laughed and reached out to mess up his hair.
"Where's Judith?"
"She's probably upstairs with Michonne." I nodded and turned to exit the house.
"Alright, Carl. I'll see you later." I walked over to the west entrance watch post. This was my least favorite job but it needed to be done now that everything was finally getting back to normal.

As I was relieved from the watch post when it was dark, I headed to the front entrance. I passed Michonne as she walked back to Rick's house going her separate way from Spencer. I gave them both a nod before walking past them. Just as I got there the front entrance opened. The car that came through came to a slow stop. Rick was the first to get out of the car and then Daryl. They walked over to the other side of the car going for something
"Damn you're sweaty," I said as I walked up to Daryl.
He looked in my direction before helping Rick pull a man out of the back seat.
"We have to bring him to the infirmary," Rick said to me as they carried him by me.
"Just go home. I'll be there once I'm done with this asshole." Daryl said.
I nodded confused as I watched the men walk towards the infirmary. When I got to the house, I went into the kitchen grabbing some food. I sat at the dining room table waiting for Daryl to come back.
I didn't even realize I fell asleep at the dining room table until I was woken up by someone calling my name.
"Hannah!"
I slowly rose to sit up straight in the chair.

"You waiting for me?" Daryl asked.
"I guess so," I said rubbing my eyes.
"Here I'll carry you upstairs." He said. Before I could protest, he picked me up bridal style and carried me upstairs. I laughed the whole way upstairs. He gently placed me on the bed and climbed in next to me.
"Daryl you smell, you're all dirty and sweaty." I laughed.
"You like me like this." He said leaning in to kiss me.
"Ew! You wish!" I laughed
"Who is that man you brought back to Alexandria?" I asked brushing my hand across his cheek.
"Some guy Rick thinks we can trust I guess. He might be from another camp." Daryl said. I nodded as I pushed some of his hair behind his ears before turning back over.
"Go to bed dirty boy," I said as I rolled over.
        The next morning I woke up alone. I got up quickly and got dressed. I ran to Rick's house to see if he was there. He was, along with everyone else.
"Who's this?" I said as I entered the dining room.
"Jesus." He said to me. I looked at him and everyone else in the room. I walked over to Daryl who stood behind Rick. He began to tell us of the camp he lives at and how he trades with others.
"So you trade with others. There are others out there?" Maggie said.
"Your world is about to get a whole lot bigger," Jesus said. I looked over at Daryl to see his facial expressions. I was excited to hear this, but I couldn't tell if Daryl was too.
*later on that day*
Daryl was fixing up the RV when Denise went over to him handing him food. I watched from the porch steps as Carl was getting fuel as Rick was talking to him. Michonne and Jesus walked by me on the stairs as they walked towards the RV. I was in shock there were other camps around and excited about it.
"Let's chew up some asphalt," Abraham yelled. I followed everyone into the RV as Daryl closed the door behind me. It was a long drive. I sat next to Daryl on the drive there slowly starting to fall asleep on his shoulder.
Soon I was woken up to Daryl's raspy voice. He was talking to Rick about something
"What's going on here?" I asked.
"Looks like a crash. It just happened." Rick said. I looked out the window to see a car flipped over.
We exited the RV and looked around.
"This better not be a trap," Rick said to Jesus.
"My people need me. I need a gun."
"No, we still don't trust you. We will go check it out. Someone stay here." Rick said.
"I will," Maggie said.
"Shoot him if I whistle," Rick said as he headed towards the building.
We entered the store. I followed close behind Daryl.
"We won't hurt you. We're friends of Jesus." Michonne said.
I followed Daryl as we tried to find the others. We killed a couple of walkers and found the rest of them bringing them to the RV.
I sat next to Daryl in the front of the RV when we all gathered in to leave.
"Do you trust these people?" I said to Daryl.
"Give them a chance."
I sighed.
"Maybe I've been out there for too long. I only trust you guys."
He reached out and held my hand.
"We'll be alright." 
After a short drive, the RV then became stuck.
"No worries, we're here," Jesus said standing up. We exited to RV and stood there for a second looking at the wall surrounding the place.
"This is Hilltop."
We began to walk towards the entrance. Daryl and I held hands as we got closer to the wall.
"Stop right there." A man yelled down from the wall.
"You gonna make us," Daryl yelled back as he dropped my hand, stepped in front of me, and picked up his gun.
"Jesus, what the hell is this?" The man yelled back.
"Open up the gates Cal. Freddie's hurt."
"Give up those weapons and then we'll open the door," Cal yelled back.
"Why don't you come on down and take them," Daryl yelled back. I placed my hand on his shoulder to let him know I had his back.
The doctor stepped forward
"They saved us. Come on, guys."
"Trust us." Said Jesus to Rick when he began to get anxious.
The gate opened and we all entered looking around. They had farm animals and gardens. I reached out and grabbed Daryl's hand again as we followed Rick and Jesus. We have taken up into the mansion on top of the hill. When we entered I looked around with Daryl. It was big and beautiful.
"Jesus. Your back." A man said as he exited a room
"Everyone, this is Gregory."
"I'm the boss." The man said. I looked up at Daryl as he kept his eyes fixed on the man in front of us.
"Well, I'm Rick. We have a community..." before he could finish Gregory cut him off.
"Why don't y'all go get cleaned up."  We all looked over at Rick. None of us moving.
"We're fine," Rick said.
"It's hard to keep this place clean." He said.
"Alright fine follow me, "Jesus said. I squeezed Daryl's hand when everyone started to follow Jesus.
"You clean up first Maggie and Hannah."
"Why?" I said looking back and forth between Maggie and Rick.
"I shouldn't. He won't think you guys are a threat and you can talk to him. Especially you Maggie."
We both nodded and continued to follow Jesus.
I finished showering and was about to go back over to Daryl before I heard Abraham talking to Daryl. I pressed my ear against the door to hear what they were saying
"How long do you think Rick and Michonne been ugging bump lies," Abraham said. I looked back at the other door that leads to a room knowing Rick and Michonne were in there. I didn't even know that they were together.
"I don't know," Daryl said. Drawing my attention back to their conversation.
"You ever think about it? Settling down?" Abraham spoke again. I could hear him get up and walk over to Daryl. I never really thought about settling down either. Ever since Maggie told me she was pregnant I started to not understand this world anymore. Why do that to yourself and the baby?
"You think shit's settled?" He answered. I then heard footsteps walking away. I opened the door a little bit to see it was Daryl. I wanted to know his answer not just hear him say that shit hasn't settled. It made me upset that he lets this world control him, but so do I sometimes. I know I never wanted a kid like Maggie and Glenn were about to have, but I maybe wanted to just settle down with Daryl. After everything that has happened in Alexandria with the herd, it would be hard to ever feel safe to actually settle down. I closed the door and went over to the couch in the corner of the room trying to block out those thoughts about settling down and starting a family or something like that.
When everyone was all done. Maggie and I made our way to Gregory. She was the first to open the door.
"Gregory?"
She said
"Natalie, right?" He said
"It's Maggie and I'm Hannah," I said before Maggie could answer.
"That's pretty close," he said
I looked at Maggie
"Not really." She said.
"She calls them as she sees them. I like it." He said as he got up out of his chair.
"Both of you come in, let's chat." He said closing the door behind us.
"I came to this place once before, when it was a museum, this, um, Chamber of Commerce thing."
We stared at the painting above the fireplace as he walked over to us.
"Love that painting." He said. "I never figured it'd be mine, here it is. It's like it was waiting for me the whole time."
He walked over to the couch and sat down. Maggie sat down across from him and I stood behind her.
"You can sit down too." He said to me.
"I'm good, thank you," I said crossing my arms over my chest.
"Ok then. Jesus told me your group saved Dr. Carson. Obviously, a doctor's rare commodity today, so I wanted to thank you for bringing ours back."
"My husband saved him," Maggie said.
"I'll be sure to thank him, too. And Daryl, he saved Jesus. I thank you for that. We need him around here." He said as he looked over at me.
"It seems like you all just coupled up." He adds.
I looked down at Maggie as she turned to face me. We both didn't know what to say to that comment.
"That Daryl guy's a little hot-headed. Surprised he got someone like you hanging around with."
I gripped the back of the chair as hard as I could. Maggie turned and gave me a small smile to try and calm me down.
"So, this place, what you have here has been here since the start?" Maggie asked changing the subject.
"That's right." He said.
"And how, how is it, how have you survived here?" Maggie asked looking out the window from her seat.
"You're looking at how. I'm good at this. And I don't get hung up on the details. Where you live, is it as nice as the Hilltop Colony?"
"It's just different," I said to Gregory.
"How do you feed everyone? Jesus said you have land for gardens, but no crops."
"Maggie here just started planting," I said.
"Planting what?"
"Cucumbers, tomatoes," Maggie said.
"Oh, crops, soy, corn, hemp, sorghum," Gregory said.
"Garden stuff," I said.
"But you have guns, so I assume you have a decent weapons cache."
"It's decent," Maggie said looking up at me.
"And your infirmary, is it stocked?"
"Is yours? We came here hoping to talk trade." I said.
"You see what we have here and built. Jesus said your food situation is challenged."
I looked at Maggie.
"You don't have shit. I'll have your people work here for food and safety." Gregory said.
"You need things and we need things," Maggie said.
"Thank you, Natalie and Daryl's girl. You can leave."
I ran up to his desk and slammed my hands down on the desk.
"We can help each other."
He got into my face and said. "We're doing fine. What about you?"
I stood there before Maggie dragged me out of the room. We went to Rick right away. He was in a room with Jesus and Daryl. I stood by the door and let Maggie tell Rick everything that happened in the room with Gregory. Daryl stood there and listened to Maggie and stared at me once in a while. He could tell I was pissed.
"I'll make him understand that," Jesus said snapping me out of my angry daze.
"Let me talk to him,"  Jesus said turning to Rick.
Rick agreed as we sat there. Soon a man came into the building.
Jesus was about to get up and leave when a man came running into the mansion.
"They're back." A man said as he ran into the mansion. Jesus got up quickly to go outside. We all began to follow.
"Where's everyone else?" I heard Gregory ask the man stepping forward.
"They're dead." The man said.
"Negan?" Gregory then asked.
I looked over to Daryl knowing I had heard that name before from Daryl.
"We had a deal," Gregory said.
"He said it wasn't enough. Was the drop light?" 
"No," Gregory said.
"They still have one of our men. They said they would keep him alive, return him to us if I deliver a message to you."
"So tell me."
"Sorry."  The man said before stabbing Gregory. Rick tackles the man as Maggie and I caught Gregory. Daryl then ran over to Abraham to help him. Breaking the guy's arm, Rick then stabbed the guy in the neck, killing him as everyone watched.
"Everyone this is over," Jesus yelled protecting Rick.
"These people stopped him from hurting anyone else."
I walked over to Daryl, grabbing his hand. We both walked over to Abraham still laying on the ground.
"Hey man? You good?" Daryl asked.
"Yeah. I'm better than alright." Abraham answered. He helped him up as I followed everyone back inside.

"Dr. Carson was able to patch up Gregory. He's in pain but he'll be alright."
"We heard the name Negan, a while back. Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham had a run-in with his men. Who is he." Rick asked.
"Negan's the head of a group of people he calls the Saviors. As soon as the walls were built, the Saviors showed up. They met with Gregory on behalf of their boss. They made a lot of demands, even more threats. And they killed one of us. He was sixteen years old. They beat him to death right in front of us. Said we need to understand, right off the bat."
"What was the deal?" I asked.
"Half of everything and in return, they don't attack us."
"Hold up. So this group shows up, kill one of you and you just give them half of everything. These fucks just got a good story. The bogeyman, he ain't shit." Daryl said.
"How do you know?" Jesus asked.
"A month ago, we took his guys out PDQ. Left them in pieces and puddles." Abraham said.
"You know what, we will do it," Daryl said. "If we go get your man back, kill Negan, take out his boys, will you hook us up?"

I stepped forward to back up Daryl.
"We want food, medicine, and one of the cows," I said.
"Confrontation's never been something we've had trouble with," Rick said.
Jesus looked at all of us and nodded.
"I'll take it to Gregory."
We all stood around on the front porch of the mansion.
"Hey, Daryl? Are you sure about this?"
Before he could answer me, Jesus came back.
"Gregory agrees. But he wants to talk to Hannah and Maggie."
Everyone looked at us.
"You got this," Glenn said.
I walked over with Maggie and followed Jesus.
I knocked on the door and entered the darkroom.
"Come in. Thank you for coming."
"You were lucky we were here," I said once I saw this weak man lying in bed like a little child.
"Jesus told you about our offer?" Maggie asked.
"He did. Now, why do you think you can do this."
"We handled people like Negan before," Maggie said.
"How?"
"They're dead," I said.
"Listen here, Gregory. You have food, we need it. So let us help, back us up." I said.
"You believe you can do this." He asked.
"I was new to this group. They have saved me on multiple occasions where most people wouldn't be able to make it out. These are the toughest people I know. Trust them when they say they can do something like this." I said stepping closer to Gregory's bed.
"Well then let us get you supplies. Talk to Jesus." He said.
"Half," Maggie said. I looked at her confused.
"Maggie what?" She cut me off before I finished my sentence
"Negan's expecting more supplies from this place. And more and more. And if it keeps going like that, pretty soon you won't have anything left."
Gregory laid there staring at her.
"You'll be a dead man without this deal," I said to back her up.
He clapped before saying we had a deal.
We ended up getting an RV too. Jesus helped us fill it with food as we started to make plans. Rick started asking about Negan's compound and his people. I helped pack the truck as plans were made. When we were done. I climbed into the RV and sat next to Daryl.
"It's gonna be a fight," I said to Daryl as I rested my head on his shoulder. He placed his hand in my lap as we prepared to leave. Maggie and Glenn passed around an ultrasound picture of their baby. The smile on Michonne's face made to feel happy. She handed the picture to Daryl to look at it. He took it and gave it a long hard look. I could see a little smile form on his face. He passed it to me. I looked at it, wanting to cry. I held myself together as I snuggled closer to Daryl, causing him to put his arm around me to give me a sideways hug. I then passed it to Abraham. I turned to stare at Maggie's stomach.  I couldn't believe that in a world like this, something great was gonna come out of it.