Catastrophe and the Cure

Rick yanked the garage door up, the only other exit we had come across aside from the front door we entered through. The crisp morning air hit my face, bitting my skin as my breath formed in a cloud around my lips. We shuffled out into the grass field, our guns still raised as we scanned the perimeter for any Saviours that may have escaped during the shoutout. We had held up our end of the bargain with the Hilltop, retrieving their captured man and wiping out the target with such force that not a single Saviour remained.

Rick whistled, drawing both mine and Daryl's attention over to him. He nodded his head toward the outlying fence, asking us to take a look. We obliged, walking together to scan the fenceline. There was nothing, no one. I dropped my gun, exhaling deeply, the need for a warm shower and sleep hitting me like a tidal wave.

"We did it," Daryl said with a disappointed tone. There was no triumph when acknowledging what we had just done. I said nothing, throwing my head back and shutting my eyes as droplets of rain began to pelt against my cheeks. "What is it?"

I opened my eyes, turning my head to meet his stare. An icy gaze washed over my face. "I just-- just want to know which one of them was Negan--"

An engine roared from behind us, my neck snapping around as a motorcycle darted out from the garage door we had left open. "Son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted, taking off and running toward the man, seeing him sitting on top of Daryl's motorcycle. He skidded across the grass, trying to turn the bike as Rosita sent four bullets hurling his way. The force of it threw him from the bike. Daryl had just reached him as he tried to return to his feet and make a run for it. Daryl's body collided with his as they hit the ground with a thud. I sprinted towards them along with everyone else. Daryl knocked him in the face by the time we caught up. "Where'd you get the bike?" Daryl shouted, connecting his fist to his face once more. The man gurgled and spit up blood from his mouth as he grunted under Daryl's weight.

Rick clicked his pistol into place, pointing it at the man's forehead as he hovered over him. "Just do it!" the man seethed. "Like you did everyone else, right?" he shouted, eyes dialled in on Rick with hate.

"Lower your gun, prick," a woman's voice echoed over the fallen walkie-talkie in the grass, "You, with the Colt Python. All of you lower your weapons right now." I spun in circles, looking at the treeline around the base, unable to see anyone watching us. Daryl stood from the man's chest, now pointing his own gun down at him.

Rick slowly picked up the walkie from the ground. His and Daryl's guns still pointed at the Saviour while the rest of us guarded every angle. "Come on out," Rick responded, "Let's talk."

"We're not coming out, but we will talk," the woman said, "We've got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about." My head whipped around to Glenn, his jaw grinding his teeth together in anger. Rick cursed under his breath. "Now, we're gonna work this out right now, and it's going to go our way," the woman continued.

"Get him up," Rick hissed to us before answering. Daryl and Glenn grabbed than man by each arm, yanking him from the ground to hold him hostage. "You can see we have one of yours. We'll trade," Rick negotiated.

"I'm listening," she answered.

"First I wanna talk to Maggie and Carol, make sure they're alright," Rick ordered, knowing to keep his voice even, not coming off too aggressive and losing our negotiation.

There was a pause, but no answer from the woman. I shifted in my boots anxiously, keeping my vision trained on the woods, trying to spot anything that would give away their location. Finally, Carol's voice echoed through the walkie. "Rick, it's Carol. I'm-- I'm fine, but--" the walkie then hissed with static, cutting her off.

"Rick, it's Maggie. We're both okay. We'll figure this--" Maggie was then cut off as well.

"You have your proof. Let's talk."

"This is the deal right here. Let 'em go, you can have your man back and live," Rick explained.

"Two for one, that's not much of a trade," the woman's voice sang through, toying with us.

"You don't have another choice or you would have done something about it already," Rick held his ground. There was only silence from their end, no answer. Rick clicked the button again, "Look I know you're talking it over. It's a fair trade. Just come out, we do this, we all walk away." Again there was no response. "Do we have a deal?" Rick asked.

"I'll get back to you."

The line went quiet after that.

----------

"Rick, what the hell are we gonna do?" Glenn seethed, his emotions taking over.

"We're going to wait for a response," Rick had snapped back.

"So we're just going to sit here, hope they get back to us? They could be doing anything to them right now," Glenn snapped, his temper flaring as he felt all of his control being stripped from him with Maggie in the hands of the Saviours.

"They have the upper hand," Michonne stepped in, trying to bring him back to the reality of the situation, "They have eyes on us and two of our people, we're in the dark. All we can do is wait for a response."

"What about him?" I said, nodding my head toward our captive Saviour.

Rick was quiet for a moment, his head cocking to the right as he studied the man, eyeing him up with a threatening stare. "They're on the move aren't they?" he questioned him. "It'd be stupid to stay hidden in the woods, too many possibilities, too many risks."

The man didn't answer, eyes full of icy rage as he kept his mouth shut, that itself was enough of a confirmation for us. We didn't know how many of them there were, but there had to be others with the woman who communicated with us. To sneak up and capture both Carol and Maggie would take more than one. And to stay out in the open while they figured out their plan and kept an eye on the two of them was a risk.

"You're going to tell us where your people took them," Rick said, meer inches away from the man's face. "If you don't, I'm going to kill you." Rick's voice was eerily calm, making a death promise to the man if he didn't cooperate.

"You need me alive to make the trade," the man spat, knowing that he had some leverage.

Rick sucked at his teeth, his eyes narrowing, that crazy stare reappearing that made others' skin crawl if you were on the opposite end of it. "We found your people once, didn't we? I'll kill you right now and find your people again." He stared him down for a long moment. "Put him in the car."

Michonne grabbed a hold of his arm, yanking him from Daryl's grasp and hauling him towards one of the trucks.

"Me and Red are gonna go scope out the woods, find ourselves a trail," Daryl told Rick, "See if you can get anything out of him. I'll signal if we found something."

Daryl and I set off through the gate of the fence, walking passed the bushes and into the trees. I followed his lead, knowing he'd be able to pick up a trail faster than I would, but the second set of eyes was always needed. The wind whistled through the trees, the forest utterly silent other than the leaves crunching underneath our boots. They had been long gone by now, not a whisper of them rummaging through here.

We tracked back toward where we had left Carol and Maggie before we had moved into place. Two walkers lay dead in the leaves, a small pool of brown blood already beginning to dry up around their heads. Daryl and I observed the area, looking for any sign of tracks in the direction they headed off in. They would have either headed to our right, the road where he had parked some of our own cars. This possibly is our own fault for not hiding them better and leading this second group right to us. Or they would have cut through the woods straight ahead, making a getaway using the highway. My eyes landed on another spot on the ground, the leaves pushed aside on the dirt where someone had fallen. Bright red blood staining the dirt.

"Daryl," I called him over, nodding my head down at what I found. He knelt down, taking a closer look at the blood splatter. He cursed under his breath before a choked sound came from deep within his throat. "Hey," I breathed out. He stood up, his shoulders caving in slightly as he rubbed his face. I grabbed both of his cheeks, holding his stare. Those deep blue eyes burning back at me. "We are going to find them," I said, my voice soft.

Daryl said nothing when he wrapped his arm around the back of my neck, pulling me into his chest swiftly. He placed a kiss on the top of my head, holding me there. "Don't let Glenn see the blood, we don't know whose it is," Daryl said. There was a pain in his tone. I knew that he was worried for both of them, but his heart ached for Carol. He pulled away from me, bringing his two fingers up to his lips as he whistled loudly to signal Rick that we found a trail. "They headed off that way," he pointed down at the tussled leaves head toward the highway, "Maybe four or five of them and someone is injured."

--------

We headed down route 66 in two separate vehicles, our Saviour hostage sat tied up between Michonne and I in the far back seats. Daryl sat in the passenger seat while Rick drove, keeping his eye on the trail. The only enemy working against us was time. Without yet knowing their exact location, we had to keep a steady pace, making sure nothing was missed when tracking the direction they went.

Rick tried again over the walkie, "Have you thought about it?" Rick asked. "Talk to me."

"You weren't listening," the woman responded, an amused tone like she was playing a game of cat and mouse with us. "I said I'd contact you."

"Would it make a difference if I said I was sorry about that?" Rick played the game back.

"What do you think," she spat.

"I think we're going to make the trade, so tell me where."

"We haven't agreed to that," she sang.

"You will," Rick responded flatly, getting annoyed with her toying.

"You know what? I'm not so sure. We'd be taking most of the risk, not getting much in the way of a reward." I gritted my teeth together, trying to restrain myself from grabbing the walkie out of Rick's hands and cussing her out.

"The other option won't work out for you," Rick threatened, his voice calm.

"We'll take our chances," she ended the conversation.

"Daryl, what do you see?" Rick asked, his tone harsher after the conversation. We were reaching an exit off the highway, not knowing if we keep following the route or if they had gotten off.

"Slow it down," Daryl ordered. He peered through the front windshield looking for anything that gave away their whereabouts. The same way he was able to follow Jesus' trail when he stole our truck on that run. Although we had gotten lucky then, the popped tire created skid marks on the pavement for us to follow. I looked over at the Saviour, studying his face hoping he'd save his ass and just tell us where his people were holding them. Blood stained the bottom of his jaw, a fresh blue circle swelling up around his left eye from Daryl punching him. He refused to tell us anything though. "There ain't nothing but a few houses and more bush off the exit, I say we keep heading straight."

My eyes remained glued to the Saviour, the car picking up speed as we kept going. The man said nothing, but his face contorted so subtly that I don't think he even realized he did it. The corner of his lip twitched upward only millimetres before washing it away, but it was enough. "Take the exit," I yelled, "turn the car around and take the exit." That small twitch of his lips revealed the relief that had washed over him when Daryl decided we keep going. Continuing to take the highway was the wrong move and his reaction gave it away. Rick halted the car and I could see Darly's head turn to look at me from my peripheral vision. The man swung his head toward me, his eyes were ghostly. It was my turn to smirk, "Oh, you fucked up," I snarled.

"Take the exit," Daryl confirmed, now watching the man's face.

Rick turned the car around, waving to the truck behind us the follow us off the highway. We sped down the ramp, Rick slamming on the breaks when reaching a fork in the road, causing everyone to fling forward against their seatbelts. The Saviour tumbled forward, slamming against the middle console as Rick swiftly turned in his seat, pressing the barrel of his gun to the man's forehead.

"No more games," Rick snarled through his teeth, "You tell us where they are and live or I kill you now and we find them anyway. The trade is off the table if you don't tell us right now."

For the first time, the man's eyes went wide, a fresh stream of blood trickling from the bridge of his nose. "There's a safe house a mile down," he finally answered, "Turn left."

We hauled the Saviour out of the car, reaching the safe house he had directed us to. Two cars sat parked outside the worn-down factory. The possibility of more than just the Saviours that capture Maggie and Carol waiting for us on the inside. Rick held a gun to the back of his head, walking behind us as we approached the side door. Glenn and Rosita took point in front of the sliding metal door. Daryl stood beside me, Michonne, Gabriel, and Aaron behind us, and Rick came in last with our hostage.

"The same as before," Rick ordered, "They don't know we're here."

We raised our weapons, Glenn's hand latching onto the door and sliding it open in one smooth motion. A pistol waited on the other side for us, pointed directly at Glenn as he pointed his weapon at Maggie. She dropped her weapon, her shoulders falling as Glenn took her into his arms.

"You okay?" Daryl asked, pushing passed Glenn and Maggie to get to Carol. "We got your trail. You start a fire?" he asked. The strong smell of smoke hitting our senses and puffing up from around the corner they had come from. Rosita and Gabriel pushed further into the hallway, keeping an eye out for anyone coming our way.

"Yeah," Carol breathed out, her face pale and stunned as we stood before her.

"Hey, you good?" Daryl asked, grabbing the bottom of her chin to look at him.

Her eyes burned with tears and she shook her head, exhaling harshly, "No."

"They're dead. They're all dead, the ones that took us," Maggie choked out, specks of blood splattering across her face and coating her arms up to her elbows. "They're all dead," she repeated.

"Hey, are you okay?" Glenn asked, his voice shaking.

"I just… I can't anymore," she cried. There was silence in the room other than Maggie's crying.

"Your friends are dead. No one's coming for ya," Rick said, looking at the side of the Saviour's face as the man watched Maggie, listening to her confession. The realization set in. His face drained of any colour. "So you might as well talk," Rick pushed.

"Let him burn," Daryl spat.

"I'm only going to ask you this one time… how'd you get the bike?" Rick questioned.

The man let out a shaky breath, his voice barely above a whisper, "We found it--"

"Like hell you did," Daryl cut him off.

"We found it," the man said more aggressively this time.

"Was Negan in that building last night or was he here?" Rick seethed.

The man finally turned his head, looking at Rick in the eye when he answered, "Both," he grinned, "I'm Negan, shithead," he spat, "There's a whole world of fun that we can talk about, so let's have a chat."

Rick backed away from him, his face blank as he stared that the man, "I'm sorry it had to come to this," Rick breathed out, his arm rising as he shot Negan in the head point-blank. It was done. The bargain was over.