A Survivor's Diary of the Apocalypse (TWD/Daryl Dixon)

S7Pt2 - Hatchet

It was breaking dawn now, the sun barely making it over the trees, and the RV showed back up and parked in the same spot.
The door to the RV was opened and Rick was thrown out onto the ground, holding his hatchet. Negan grabbed the back of Rick's jacket and pulled him across the clearing in front of us, and threw him down.
Rick laid there for a second and slowly sat up.
"Here we are." Negan said and smiled. "Lemme ask you something Rick. You even know what that little trip was about?"
We all just looked at Rick, and he looked at us and bowed his head.
"Speak when you're spoken to." Negan said.
Rick slowly looked at Negan and then nodded weakly. "Okay.. okay."
"That trip was about the way you looked at me. I wanted to change that. I wanted you to understand. But you're still looking at me the same damn way." He said and chuckled, shaking his head. "Like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna work. So..." He said, and squatted next to Rick, and showed him his bat. "Do I give you another chance..?"
"Yeah..-yes.." Rick said and cleared his throat. "Yes."
"Okay." Negan patted Rick's shoudler and stood up. "Alright. And here it is. The Grand Prize game. What you do next, will decide whether your crap day becomes everyone's last crap day, or just another crap day."
Negan pointed at his men, then at the rest of us. "Put some guns to the back of their heads."
They listened and we heard a line of hammers click, and I felt the barrel of a rifle touching the back of my head. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. Rick and Michonne were staring at each other, and so were me and Daryl.
If I was about to die, I want him to be the last thing I see.
"Good." Negan then said. "Now, level with their noses, so when you fire.." he said and made an explosion noise. "It'll be a real mess." He laughed to himself.
Rick then looked at me, and I felt another tear stream down my face.
"Kid." Negan said, and Rick and I instanly looked at Carl.
Negan waved him over and pointed by his side. "Right here." He said.
We watched him, but Carl didn't want to move.
"Kid." Negan said. "Now."
Without breaking eye contact, Carl stood up and walked over to Negan, right next to his dad. Negan then began unbuckling his belt.
"You a southpaw?" He then asked.
"No...." I thought. I knew where this was going.
"Am I a what?" Carl said, surprisingly calm.
"You a lefty?" Negan grinned.
"No." Carl said.
Negan raised his eyebrows at Carl. "Good."
He began using the belt as a tourniquet and yanked it tight on his arm.
"That hurt?" He asked.
"No." Carl said again.
"It should." Negan said and patted Carl's shoulder. "It's supposed to."
He finished tightening the belt and sighed. "Alright. Get down on the ground, kid. Next to daddy." Negan said. "Spread them wings."
Negan grabbed his cowboy hat and tossed it behind him, and Carl knelt down next to Rick. Negan then forced him to lay down and Carl stretched out his left arm.
"Simon." Negan then said. "You got a pen?"
He thought about it and nodded his head. "Yeah." Simon said.
He pulled out a marker and tossed it to Negan, who used it to mark a line on Carl's arm. Rick just watched him and his eyes started watering.
"Sorry kid.." Negan said and capped the pen.
"Please, please, please... please don't." Rick said to Negan, and they looked at each other. "Please don't."
"Me?" Negan said and chuckled. "I ain't doing shit..." He said and stood up straight. "Rick, I want you to take your axe, cut your son's left arm off, right on that line. Now I know.. I know. You have to process that for a second. That makes sense. Still though, I'm gonna need you to do it, or all these people are gonna die. Then Carl dies. Then the people back home die. And then you.., eventually." Negan explained. "I'm gonna keep you breathing for a few years, just so you can stew on it."
Rick began shaking his head and looked at his hatchet, then Carl.
"You-- you don't have to do this." I spoke up. "We understand... We understand..."
"Yeah. You understand." Negan interrupted me. "I'm not quite sure that Rick does." He said and then looked at him. "I'm gonna need a clean cut, right there on that line. And make it clean, something nice to fold over. We have a great doctor, the kid will be fine. Probably."
Rick still didn't move and I could tell Negan was getting impatient.
"Rick." He said and knelt next to him. "This needs to happen now. Chop-chop." Negan said and then held his bat up to Carl's head. "Or I will crush the little fella's skull myself."
"It can.. it can-- it can be me." Rick said, trying to get out of it. "It can be me." He said and looked back and forth between Carl and Negan. "You can do it to me. I ca-- I can go... w-with you."
"Nope. This is the only way." Negan said. "Pick up the axe Rick."
Rick still didn't do it, and I could tell Negan's patience was almost gone. He stood up and began walking around.
"Not making a decision, is a BIG decision. You really want to see all these people die? You will. You will see every ugly thing!"
I then looked over at Daryl, and I couldn't think of what to do. There was nothing we could do.
Rick began crying and panted and Negan just shook his head.
"My god... are you gonna make me count?" Negan raised his voice. "Okay Rick, you win. I am counting. Three!"
"Pleeease!" Rick sobbed. "Pleease.. It can be me! Please!"
I've never seen Rick cry this much, but I was doing the same. Carl is like my son, just like he is to Rick, and I wouldn't be able to do it either.
"Two!" Negan shouted.
"Please, don't do it..!" Rick begged and cried.
Negan slapped his face and grabbed his chin. "This is it." Negan said.
Rick screamed in frustration and sobbed.
"One!" Negan yelled.
Rick grabbed the axe with one hand and held Carl's hand with the other. He began crying as he tightened the grip on the axe.
"Dad.." Carl said calmly, and closed his eye. "Just do it... just do it."
Rick kept crying as he raised the axe above his head and I saw Carl instinctually try to pull his arm away.
"No..." I cried.
Rick kept screaming in fear, hovering the axe above his head, trying to find the power to do it. That's when Negan squatted down next to him again, and Rick slowly looked at him.
"Wait." Negan said.
Rick quieted down and lowered the axe.
"You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?" Negan asked.
Rick instanly nodded his head and tried to control his breathing, because he was hyperventilating.
Negan grabbed Rick's face and yelled at him. "Speak when you're spoken to!" He yelled. "You answer to me!"
"Yes..." Rick said.
"You provide for me!" Negan yelled.
"I provide for you." Rick repeated.
"You belong to me!" Negan yelled. "Right!"
"Right." Rick said and nodded.
"Right." Negan repeated and let go of Rick, then pointed at him. "THAT is the look I wanted to see!"
Negan stood up, grabbed the hatchet off the ground, and backed away from Rick, and I took a deep breath of relief.
"We did it." Negan said. "All of us. Together. Even the dead guys on the ground. Hell, they get the Spirit award for sure!"
I gritted my teeth in anger and Maggie sobbed again, refusing to look at Glenn's body.
"Today was a productive damn day!" Negan shouted. "Now, I hope, for all your sake, that you get it now. That you understand how things work... Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you... that, is over now."
He then sighed and looked at Daryl, and pointed with his bat. "Dwight... load him up."
Dwight grabbed Daryl and forcefully pulled him up. Daryl struggled to break free, but he was dragged into the back of the van again.
"No!" I screamed.
I ran up and tried to get to Daryl when a man tackled me.
"Get off of me you son of a bitch! Noooo!" I cried.
I struggled to get loose and I managed to accidentally cut the guy with my blade. He yelled and got off of me, but another guy stepped on my cast and another stepped on my back, and pushed my face into the rocks.
"Please...." I begged. "No..."
Negan walked over to me and hit the hand away, and lifted my head.
"You break her face, I break your hand." Negan told the man, who just slowly nodded his head.
Negan then forced me to look at him. "He's got guts. Not a little bitch like someone I know. You're just like him." He said and smiled. "I like him. He's mine now... Now I know that you got a huge knife attached to your arm at all times now, so I'll let that little accident slide, but you try that again... I will cut pieces off of..." He said, and then stopped. "Hell's his name?"
"Daryl." I said quietly.
Negan smiled and nodded. "Wow. That actually sounds right." He said and looked at Daryl, then back to me. "I will cut pieces off of Daryl, and put them on your doorstep for you and your son. Or, better yet, I will bring him to you and have you do it for me."
I just closed my eyes and felt tears streaming down my face, and Negan wiped them away. I pulled my head away from him as far as I could while still being pinned down.
He stood up and patted the dust off his jeans.
"Aahhh! Welcome to a brand new beginning, you sorry shits!"
His men then got off of me and several others began walking away. One Savior went around and took pictures of Glenn and Abe.
"We'll leave you a truck. Keep it." Negan said and smiled. "Use it to cart all that crap you're gonna find me."
He began walking away, but then turned around one last time. "We'll be back for our first offering in one week. Until then, ta ta."
Negan then got into a truck and all his people drove away. The door to the van Daryl was in slammed shut, and the last thing I saw was Daryl looking at me. He was the last one to leave.
"No!" I yelled, and began chasing the van.
"Kelley! Don't!" The group called out to me.
I stopped from exhaustion and collapsed on the ground. I used the last of my breath to do one thing.
"Nooooooo!" I screamed.
The birds chirped and flew out of their trees, scared by my scream. I curled forwards and cried.
"No.... no...." I cried.
I then heard that Maggie stood up, and so did Rick. I turned around and saw she was weak, but still standing, and she was looking at Glenn.
I slowly got up and walked over to her.
"You need to go to the Hilltop, Maggie." I said.
"We need to get ready." She said and breathed heavily.
"Ready?" Rick asked confused.
"To fight them." Maggie said.
"They have Daryl.. They have an army..." I said.
"We would die. All of us." Rick said.
"Go home!" Maggie then said. "Taking everybody with you. I can get there myself."
"You can barely stand." Rick said, gently touching her arm.
"I need to go." Maggie cried. "You need to go to Alexandria."
Maggie then looked at Glenn again and cried some more, and started shaking again.
"I can make it now. I need you to go back. I can't have you out here.. I can't have you all out here anymore. I need you to go back." She told Rick.
"Maggie." I said. "We're not letting you go. Okay?"
"I have to." She said.
"That's not gonna happen." Rick said and shook his head.
Sasha then got up and held Maggie, who was struggling to stand. "I'm taking her. I'm going to get her there. I'm going to keep her safe. I'm not giving you a choice." She then told Maggie.
Maggie nodded and looked at her. "I'm taking him with me..."
Aaron and Carl got up and walked over to Maggie, who was sitting by Glenn.
"I need to do this please." She cried.
"You need help." Aaron said.
"I got him." Carl said and slightly hugged Maggie. "I got him."
"No.. no..." Maggie said slowly.
"Pl--plea--please." Rick stuttered. "Let us. He.. He's our family to-- too."
Next to us, I saw Sasha, Rosita, and Eugene pick up Abraham, and take him to the truck. Rick, Aaron, and Carl picked up Glenn, and I helped Maggie stand. She stood up and hugged me, and cried on my shoulder. They put him in the truck too, and Sasha started the engine.
"I'm sorry." I cried with her. "Maggie, I'm so sorry."
I helped Maggie walk to the truck and sat her in the front seat. She looked at me and I held her cheek and wiped her tears. I leaned forwards and kissed the side of her head.
"I love you sis..." I said and she looked at me. "Negan will pay..."
She weakly nodded and I closed the door. I tapped the side and they drove off. We were left in the clearing with nothing, and I watched as our group parted ways once again. I then turned around and saw Rick and Carl, and my eyes started watering again.
I opened my arms and Carl walked over to me and hugged me. I pet his hair and kissed his head, and hugged him tight. Rick walked over and hugged me, then went over to Michonne who gently kissed him.
"Let-- Let's go..." Rick slowly said and grabbed Michonne's hand. "Let's go."