chapter 77
Chapter 77 – "The Price of a Promise":
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Before Rick could open his mouth, Axel's voice cut through the air—calm, commanding, and cold as iron.
"Silas," he said. "Open the door. Let them go."
A confused hush fell over everyone. Rick's group, Negan's remaining men, even Negan himself turned toward Axel with uncertainty. What door? What people?
But Silas didn't hesitate. Without a word, he walked over to the heavy iron door along the back wall of the Sanctuary courtyard. The moment it swung open, silence collapsed under the weight of quiet footsteps.
One by one, they came.
Women. Children. Elderly. Unarmed. Shaking.
Then more followed—grown men, wounded or weak, their eyes hollow with loss. Dozens of them. Some clung to one another. Some walked alone. They were all Sanctuary residents. And every one of them had something in common.
Fear.
They walked past Rick's group slowly. Hesitantly. Like prisoners being offered a second chance.
Axel stepped forward, his voice louder now, carried on the wind for everyone to hear.
"You said if they could kill us," Axel said, pointing between himself and Negan, "you'd take them in. That's what Rosita told them. That's what they believed."
He took a deep breath, his eyes fierce.
"Well, they failed. But they're still here."
He raised his voice to a roar.
"So go ahead, Rick Grimes. Take them. These are their wives, their sons, their daughters. The family of the men who died because they believed in your promise."
He stepped toward Rick, eyes burning with something deeper than anger.
"They died because of you."
The crowd stood still—Rick's people staring, uncertain, the Sanctuary's residents standing silently, watching.
Axel's voice dropped, quieter but sharper now.
"Take them. I'm begging you. Give them peace. Give them the world you offered them when you convinced them to kill for you."
His arms opened, as if he were surrendering to a god that didn't exist.
"Or tell them the truth. Tell them that promise was just a lie."
Rosita lowered her head. Michonne looked shaken. Even Daryl glanced sideways at Rick, unsure.
But Rick…
Rick just stood there.
Because he knew—somewhere deep down—that Axel was right.
And in the eyes of those women and children now staring at him like a savior or a monster, Rick saw the weight of his own words turned into death.
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The silence was no longer just awkward—it was suffocating.
The women. The children. The broken men who had survived the bloodbath Axel and Negan left behind… they all stood in the courtyard, eyes pleading toward Rick.
But Rick didn't move.
He stared, jaw clenched, breathing heavy. Haunted.
Axel's voice returned—not sharp, not mocking. Just soft. Calm. Almost kind.
"Rick," he said, taking a slow drag from the cigarette now resting between his lips. "Take them."
He motioned with his hand gently toward the group behind him.
"Show them the peace you promised their families. I mean… you did promise them, right?"
His tone curled slightly, a smirk behind the smoke.
"You said if they could kill me and Negan, you'd take them in. So let's pretend. Let's play a little game, huh? Consider me and Negan dead—like shit smeared on the pavement."
He took a step closer, flicking ash from his cigarette.
"So take them. Please. I want to see that."
He paused, then pulled the cigarette from his mouth and exhaled, eyes never leaving Rick's.
"Let's say you do. Let's say you take them in—like the good man you pretend to be."
He looked over Rick's group, letting his gaze pass over each one. Michonne. Daryl. Gabriel. Maggie.
"Will your people say yes to that? Will they live happily ever after with these people?"
He pointed behind him at the crowd of Sanctuary survivors.
"I mean sure, some of them are innocent. Kids. Widows. But some?" Axel let out a dry laugh. "Some helped Negan. Some held your friends down. Some watched them die and did nothing."
He turned his attention now, directly to Maggie.
"Maggie…" he said, and her eyes locked with his—fury burning, but something else beneath it. Pain.
"You lost your husband. The father of your child. Right there… in front of everyone. His head cracked like fruit."
Silas stepped closer now, tense, as if ready to stop Axel. But Axel raised a hand, stopping him.
"No. Let me finish."
He pointed toward the people behind him again.
"Some of them were there. Not all, but some. They laughed. They clapped. They let it happen. And now Rick says he'll take them in. That you all will live together."
He spread his arms wide again.
"Tell me, Maggie. Can you do that? Can you smile with them in your kitchen? Can you raise your child next to the man who held your husband down?"
Maggie didn't speak.
Rick didn't either.
Because there was nothing left to say.
The air was thick with the truth.
Rick had made a promise for the sake of strategy, not humanity. And now Axel had stripped that lie bare for everyone to see.
And there they stood—caught between vengeance and virtue, and no way forward without blood or betrayal.
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