Destination Life or Death

30.

Once we arrived back at Alexandria we stopped by Sasha and Aaron. "Get Olivia," Carl said, "She should inventory what we have. We'll meet her at the pantry." Carl said from the drivers side. "You have food?" Sasha asked looking up at him. "Yeah. Enough for another month." I said walking up to them, eventually Carol was there too. "I want everyone to meet up in the church in an hour," Carl said quickly. "What is it?" Sasha asked, looking at Carl again. "I want to talk to my dad about it first," Carl added before turning the RV back on. "Carl, what's going on?" Carol asked quietly. "We're gonna have to fight," Carl said, shaking his head and then driving away. Everyone gathered in the church while Rick talked. Carl may have an influence but Rick has a much bigger one here, so Carl told him what to say, and what we are gonna do. "We can work with the hilltop. Maggie hammered out a deal. We're getting food. Eggs, butter, fresh vegetables. But they're not just giving it away. These saviors, they almost killed Sasha, Daryl and Abraham on the road. Sooner or later they would have found us, just like those wolves did, just like Jesus did. They would have killed someone, or some of us. And then they would try to own us, and we would try and stop them. But by then, in that kind of fight, low on food, we could lose. This is the only way to be sure, as sure as we can get that we win. And we have to win. We do this for Hilltop. It's how we keep this place, it's how we feed this place. This needs to be a group decisions. If anybody objects here's your chance to say your peace." Rick spoke while looking around at everyone sitting in the pews, I looked at Maggie and Glenn, who were sitting in the pew across from me, they shrugged and looked back up at Rick. Morgan stood up from the back and looked at all of us as we all looked at him. "Are you sure we can do it?" He asked looking at Rick, "We can beat them?" he questioned. "What this group has done, what we've learned, what we've become, all of us, yes, I'm sure." Rick said noddin. "Then all we have to do is tell them that." Morgan spoke quickly. "Well. They don't compromise." Rick spoke. "This isn't a compromise," Morgan interrupted "It's a choice you give them. It's a way out for them and for us." He said looking around then at Rick again. "We try to talk to the Saviors, we give up our advantage, our safety. No. We have to come for them before they come for us. We can't leave them alive." Rick said not taking his focus from Morgan. "Where there's life, there's possibility." Morgan spoke calmly. "Of them hitting us." Rick added, "We're not trapped in this, none of you are trapped in this." Morgan said while looking around to all of us. "Morgan," Rick paused. "They always come back," Rick added. "They come back when they're dead too." Morgans gaze fell to the floor. "We'll stop that from happening." I said standing up and looking at him. "I'm not talking about the walkers." He said looking up at me. "Morgan wants to talk to them first. I think that would be a mistake, But it's not up to me, I'll talk to the people still at home, I'll discuss it with the people on guard too, but who else wants to approach the Saviors, talk to them first?" Rick asked looking around. "What happened here, we won't let that happen again, I won't." Aaron stood up and spoke to all of us then focusing on Morgan and giving him a nod before looking back at Rick. "Looks like it's settled. We know exactly what this is, we don't shy from it, we live. We kill them all." Rick said looking at everyone. As I looked around I could tell people were uncomfortable. "We don't all have to kill, but if people are gonna stay here... they do have to accept it." Rick said before walking out of the church.

We all gathered around with Andy as he drew a map of the compound. "You didn't see any other rooms?" Maggie asked. "No, It's a big place, this is the hallway I saw. There is more." Andy said after he finished drawing. "And everytime they had you bring things into here?" Michonne asked while pointing to a small room he had drawn. "We took a couple of spears for them, two of the Saviors took them down this hallway, now they must've done something with 'em because they didn't come back with them." Andy said while drawing an arrow down one hallway. "Maybe a weapons locker, an armory." Jesus added with a shrug. "We get in there, secure the armory, that's how we end it." Glenn said looking over to Rick. "We don't know if they have an armory, or where it even is." Andy added. "Well, we've got a lot of good guesses. We've done more with less." Daryl added on while looking at Andy then focusing on Rick again. "We go in at night, while they're sleeping." Rick said looking around. "The guards won't be sleeping." Andy paused, "Like I said, I think there's only one way in and there is no way to bust through that door without waking the rest of them." He said, shrugging. "We don't need to, they're gonna open it for us, let us walk right in. They want Gregory's head, right? We're gonna give it to them." Carl added while looking at me then Rick.