Destination Life or Death

31.

We all drove in separate cars. Rick, Carl, Sasha, Michonne, Carol, Jesus and Andy all rode in the RV with Gabriel. Rosita, Heath, Tara, Daryl, Glenn, Aaron, and Maggie all following behind us. We parked on an empty road and all got out. "Aaron, Rosita. You start here, peel off every quarter mile, meet back here in a couple of hours. See what we got." Rick said to while everyone got ready. "Carl, we need to be careful with Gabriel." I said, shaking my head, "He acted like we didn't know what we were doing." I said, looking at Carl then over to Gabriel who was sitting in a car behind us. "He's just scared Dez, he doesn't want to kill." Carl said looking at me and putting his arms around my waist. "We don't like it, we don't want to kill either, but we have to, we have no choice." I said raising an eyebrow and stepping back from him, "Just promise me you will keep an eye on him, I don't know how he will react." I said, looking up to Carl before grabbing my black backpack that had been on the ground and flinging it over my shoulder. "Okay Dezzy, I promise." He said nodding and then following behind me. "We're gonna take a look around, try to get a feel for how many people are in there. We like how it looks, we go in a couple hours before dawn. The guards outside will be tired. Everyone inside will be sleeping. We don't like what we see, we head back, make a new plan. They don't know who we are. We'll keep Jesus in the shadows. This is how we eat." Rick said, looking around at us, and nodded, "We all roll out at midnight." he added quickly before everyone walked away. "Why is Maggie here?" I asked Rick quickly. "She's guarding the perimeter." he replied quickly. "Yeah, okay." I paused, "But why is she here?" I asked again slowly. "Cause it's her choice." Rick said looking at me. "I want to find someone to stay out here with her." I said quickly, not moving my eyes off of him. "Well this whole thing is a race to the armory. We need as many people inside as we can get." Rick said quietly but still looking at me. "She shouldn't be out here alone. She shouldn't be out here at all." I said angrily. "We are getting someone to stay here!" I said sternly while he looked around. "Okay." he agreed with a nod and then walked away. Once it got dark, we all drove out, and parked while we had Andy go to the gate with a walker head that looked like Gregory, just as a way to get in. We all watched from the outskirts while Andy talked to the two guards. After one of them left to go get the prisoner from Hilltop, Daryl ran up and sliced the other guards throat and let him fall to the ground while we all ran to the front of the building. We grabbed the body, hid it and then hid around the building again, while Andy stood where he was before. Once the other guard came out with the man I shoved my katana through the guards back and then pulled him to the ground, before coming out of the bush I had hidden behind. Rick grabbed the keys off the guard and then threw them to Daryl. He unlocked the door while we all flooded in with our guns ready. Michonne and Heath looked through the closed doors while we all walked slowly down the hall before opening a door leading to a small storage room with a man laying inside. Rick went in and stabbed the man in the head while he was sleeping while we waited outside of the door. Carl and I walked down the hall, going into rooms and killing the people inside. I knelt down beside a woman's bed while I held the small dagger in my hand and as I thought about killing her the thought of Ron came through my head, the anger and emotions I felt then, and the reminder made it easier to not care as much about the people I was killing right now. I looked along the walls to see pictures of mutilated Walkers, and humans with their head smashed in. I looked to Carl who was now standing next to me looking at the pictures too. "What kind of sick fuck does this?" I whispered to him, "How could they even sleep this peacefully?" I questioned while shaking my head and looking over to him. "Lets go Dez." he said, looking at me and then putting his hand on my back and guiding me out of the room.

As we walked down the hall, we heard the fire alarm start blaring through the building. Carl and I were alone. We shot at the people coming to us and started running, trying to find Rick and Michonne. "What the hell happened?!" I yelled after we killed a few people who had been coming at us. As we ran, we were opening doors while we could and shooting at the people inside, trying to find a way out. We found the armory and quickly locked ourselves in. "Dezzy, here!" Carl yelled while throwing a large gun at me. We started shooting at the door knowing our bullets would go through as they were shooting at us. We stopped shooting and then looked at each other slowly. "Do you think we're good?" I asked looking over to him then back at the door. "Go look." he said nodding over to the door. "No, you." I said looking at him again and then shaking my head. "Okay, on 3." I quickly added before looking to the door again and pulling my katana out of the saya and opened the door while Carl stood behind me with his gun pointed over my shoulder. Five bodies laid on the ground with pools of blood surrounding them. We both lowered our weapons before one of the men who wasn't dead yet started aiming his gun at us, but before he could Jesus came and shot the man in the head. He had a cover over his face but pulled it down after. "Jesus?" I asked, looking at him walking over the bodies on the ground. "So this is the next world." Jesus said while looking at me then Carl. I turned around and smiled slightly with a deep breath. "Okay, now we need to get out." I said looking at Carl then Jesus again. We all went to the back where the cars had been parked. As everyone got ready to go, we said our goodbye to Tara and Heath before they went out on another run again and then we all packed into our cars. But before we could leave a man flew out on a motorcycle. Rosita shot him off as we all ran over to him. Daryl sat on top of him and punched him "Where'd you get the bike?" Daryl yelled while punching the man once more, while Rick pointed his gun at the man. "Lower your gun prick." A woman's voice came over the walkie that was on the ground. "You with the Colt Python. All of you, lower your weapons now." The woman spoke as we all looked at each other with our guns aimed to the ground. "Come on out, lets talk." Rick spoke in the walkie talkie while looking around. "We aren't coming out, but we will talk. We got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about." I looked at Glenn who looked furious and Rick, who looked utterly confused. But as I listened to the voice, I walked up to Rick and grabbed the walkie out of his hand and brought it to my lips "Mom?"