chapter 78

Chapter 78 – "Lines in the Sand"

Maggie stepped forward.

Her boots were heavy on the cracked ground, the echo of each step louder than the whispers behind her. Every eye turned her way—Rick's, Axel's, even Negan's. But it was the Sanctuary survivors who looked the most afraid.

She didn't yell. She didn't cry. She spoke evenly, voice sharp as a knife.

"You think I forgot?" she said, looking directly at Axel, then past him toward the people he brought. "You think I don't see his face every night? Glenn… smiling one moment, gone the next."

A breath. A tremble.

"You think I can forgive?"

Her gaze flicked toward one of the Sanctuary men—a tall one with sunken eyes—who immediately looked down. He remembered her. He remembered Glenn.

"I don't forgive. Not them. Not Negan. And not you," she hissed, turning her attention back to Axel. "But I'm not like you."

Axel tilted his head slightly, curious.

"I'm not here to play games with pain. I've got a son to raise… and he deserves better than more killing."

Her voice shook for the first time.

"But I won't live beside them. I won't break bread with the people who stood by and watched Glenn die."

She stepped back, her decision final. The line drawn.

Rick looked at her. She nodded once. And that's when the weight shifted.

Rick stepped forward now, jaw tense, shoulders slumped. Worn down.

He looked at the Sanctuary survivors.

Then at Axel.

"I never promised anything," Rick said finally. "I gave Rosita a plan. That's all. A bad one. One I wouldn't have followed through with even if it worked."

The people behind him shifted, surprised.

Rick looked down, shame in his voice. "I've done things I'm not proud of. Killed people. Lied. And every time I thought it was for the greater good."

He looked at the crowd of terrified survivors.

"But this? Bringing in the people who tried to murder us last week? Who helped Negan beat my family to death? I can't sell that to my people."

He looked back at Maggie. Then at Daryl. Then Michonne.

"I won't do that to them."

For a long moment, there was silence.

Then Axel—he laughed.

Loud. Wild. Mad laughter echoing across the open space like thunder. The kind of laugh that made people shift on their feet, unsure if it was madness or something worse.

And then he stopped.

Quiet. Cold. His voice like a knife through winter.

"You see that? Your leader—he just plays games. He said it himself. He sent Rosita to fool the people here."

Axel turned toward the survivors, raising his hand toward the women, the children, the broken men with hollow eyes.

"A lot died because of him. And what does he do to their families? To their children?"

He stepped forward, just once.

"He turns his back. Like nothing happened."

"You call Negan a monster? No. Rick… you are the monster."

"Negan killed Abraham and Glenn because you killed his men. I mean—one for one, right?"

He smirked. But there was no humor in it.

"But you—you played with people."

"You say you're doing this for revenge. For peace."

Axel looked out over the crowd.

"But here they are. The people who believed your words. Who tried to kill me and Negan. Children. Women. Their families crying. Begging. And all you say is—"

Axel's voice changed. Mocking now.

> "I've done things I'm not proud of. Killed people. Lied. And every time I thought it was for the greater good."

"Bringing in the people who tried to murder us last week? Who helped Negan beat my family to death? I can't sell that to my people."

Axel's mocking tone faded. He stared at Rick with deadly stillness.

"Really?" he whispered. "This is your answer?"

He didn't speak again.

Silence.

The kind of silence that isn't quiet at all. It hums with tension. With questions. With truths that had been hidden too long.

Rick stood there, surrounded by his people—people who had followed him through fire and death. But now they looked at him like strangers.

Aaron glanced down, unable to meet his eyes.

Rosita swallowed hard.

Gabriel's hand twitched near the cross around his neck.

Maggie clenched her fists and stepped back into the shadow of the group, her face unreadable.

Even Michonne, steady as a mountain, stared at Axel—not with hate, but with something more dangerous: understanding.

Rick tried to speak.

"I did what I had to do. We've all done things. You're just twisting it."

Axel didn't even look angry.

He smiled—calm, cold, surgical.

"Twisting?" Axel echoed, stepping forward. "No, Rick. I'm revealing."

He turned to the people watching. "You see it, don't you? He talks about doing what's necessary, but when it's time to own it, to take responsibility for what he caused, he backs away."

Rick's voice sharpened. "I didn't cause this! Negan killed our people. That's where this started."

"And you killed his first." Axel's tone was low, but it cut like steel. "You attacked an outpost. Slit throats in their sleep. Didn't even know who you were killing. You didn't try to talk, you didn't try to reason—you just struck first. That's the truth."

Some of Rick's group shifted uncomfortably.

Dwight, standing near the edge, looked down, jaw tight.

Rick turned toward them, voice cracking. "We were protecting ourselves!"

Axel leaned in just a little.

"Were you? Or were you proving you're no better than the people you hated?"

Rick looked at the crowd. "They're killers! Rapists! They took from us!"

Axel raised his hand and gestured to the women and children standing near Silas, frightened, exhausted, many holding each other for comfort.

"These?" Axel said quietly. "These are killers and rapists?"

Nobody answered.

"Rick, how many times have you asked for peace only after your gun ran out of bullets? How many times did you offer safety only when you were standing in the ashes?"

Rick looked away.

"And now," Axel continued, "you come here demanding blood. You don't want peace. You want control. You want to decide who gets to live and who dies based on your pain, your past."

He looked over the whole crowd, not just Rick's people, but even Negan's.

"That's not justice. That's tyranny wrapped in grief."

Rick opened his mouth to speak again—but paused.

Because no one was defending him.

Not yet.

Michonne looked like she wanted to say something, but her eyes were on the children. The same ones Rick refused to take.

Carol stepped back slowly

Daryl was staring at the ground, jaw tight, but silent.

Axel took a long drag of his cigarette.

Then he dropped it on the dirt and crushed it beneath his boot.

"You look at me and Negan like we're the devils in this story, Rick," he said, his voice soft but rising. "But take a long, hard look in the mirror."

He pointed toward the people still waiting to be taken in. The ones Rick turned away.

"You left them to die."

No one said a word.

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