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

S7Pt20 - Oceanside

Daryl and I drove next to the groups trucks as we traveled to this place Tara told of. She said they call it Oceanside, and it's just women and children. Negan killed all their men to "teach them a lesson". But they have guns, which is what we need.
After a few hours of driving, Rick pulled over first and we all grouped up. Tara pointed east into a forest and told us they were about five miles in.
"Alright here's what we're going to do. We set up a line of dynamite outside of their walls. If Tara doesn't give us the signal after 10 minutes, we blow it, and go in. We are not here to hurt anyone." Rick said, and then he looked at me for a second. "We make them surrender, take the guns, and then leave. No one needs to get hurt."
"And what if they don't give us a choice?" I asked, tightening my blade on my prosthetic and having a scary look in my eyes.
"Not going to happen." Tara then said and glared at me.
I just shrugged and rested my other hand on my gun which was in its side holster. Rick then put his hands on his hips and looked at me.
"She's right. We're at war with the Saviors, not them, and we're going to keep it that way." He said.
"Yeah, okay." I said. "Whatever you say."
Rick just stared at me for a second, and I stared back and didn't cave in. He eventually just sighed and started gathering our supplies for this mission.

~~~~~~~~~~

We got to the outer line of Oceanside and we stopped to plant our explosives. Everyone got to work and I stopped walking to survey the area and got a glimpse of a wall in the far distance. I then saw Rick helping Michonne climb into a tree to be our lookout.
"Once you're up, watch for the signal." Rick told her.
"What time does the clock start?" She asked.
"As soon as she's in." Rick said.
Michonne slightly nodded and looked up and around, glancing at Tara, and then her eyes fell on me. We locked stares until Rick drew her attention back.
"You good?" He asked.
"I'm good enough." She said to Rick, then glanced back up at me and climbed all the way up the tree.
I bowed my head and thought to myself when Daryl walked by and nudged my shoulder.
"Come here and help me real quick." Daryl said as he knelt on the ground with a box of wire and dynamite.
I nodded and knelt down next to him and helped him unravel the wire.
"We do this quickly and right, we might just have a chance." Daryl said, trying to start a conversation. 
"You think I can't do it right?" I asked, already thinking bad about this situation.
"I said we. This situation can turn to hell if anyone does something wrong." Daryl explained.
I sighed and nodded my head and grabbed a stick of dynamite from the box, and started to attach it to the wire.
"But you don't trust me to do that?" I asked, and we both looked up to see each other. "Do you?"
"I trust you." Daryl said instantly, which gave me a little bit of hope I didn't know I needed. "Kell, I trust you."
I just nodded at him and he patted my hand. We didn't say anymore, but we knew what we wanted to say. Jesus then walked by us and started helping up finish up.
"I wish I would've done something more to stop Rosita and Sasha. If only they would've waited one more day.." Jesus vented to us, and I could tell he felt guilty.
"Well Sasha's a good shot. Rosita knows how to take care of herself. They're probably back at Hilltop right now." Daryl said.
"I hope so..." I pitched in. "We're gonna need them. There's a whole lot of people who still gotta die."
Jesus just looked at me and he saw the pain in my eyes, and heard the hurt in my voice, but he knew it was true.
Then in silence Jesus helped us finish planting the explosives. Rick then waved everyone in and we got ready to infiltrate Oceanside. With Michonne up in the tree, Rick chose to send Daryl, Jesus, Aaron, Eric, and himself into Oceanside. He told me, Carl, Enid, and Gabriel to be on the outside of the front gate and capture any people that come out. A few other people from Alexandria were to do the same thing on the other side of Oceanside, and to make sure no one leaves.
Tara then left the group and we watched as she snuck into Oceanside, and now we all got into position. We waited and waited, and it felt like forever in my head. Then in the distance I saw Rick constantly checking his watch and then looking up at Michonne. This time she shook her head and Rick sighed. He then held his hand up with a detonator in his grasp, and in a second he clicked the button.
One by one, the dynamite went off, creating a lot of noise and bringing up dust and dirt, but nothing got damaged and no one was hurt.
We heard screams of panic in the walls and then some gunfire, only used tho to redirect people or to scare them into stopping.
Things went by faintly quickly because in just a few minutes, a large group of women and kids ran out of the gates and right towards us. We held our guns up and they froze.
"Everyone down!" I ordered. "Hands on your heads."
They listened and slowly knelt down and put their hands on their heads.
"Everyone stay calm. We don't want anyone to get hurt." Carl said. "Stay down and listen to what we say."
I saw some kids in the crowd were so young, and scared, and their mothers were trying to comfort them. They were trying not to cry and the kids couldn't hold back some tears. Something in me then switched. I lowered my rifle and sighed in frustration at myself.
"We want this to go as simply and as peacefully as possible." I told them, swinging my rifle around so it rests on my back, and I calmly stepped forwards.
"Why are you doing this?" One of the ladies asked, and I saw she was hugging a child.
I just sighed and tilted my head at the little girl in her arms, who was looking up at me with tears eyes.
"Please. We have children." She added.
"Why?" I then repeated. "Because, I'm doing this for my own."
We then heard leaves crunching in the distance and the rest of the group showed up with some stragglers. Daryl and his group finally showed up and had two women tied up, and they set them down with the rest of them.
"Stay down. Keep quiet." He said gruffly and walked over to me.
Rick was behind them and quickly walked over to mine and Carl's side. "Now we made a lot of noise. We want to wrap this up quick so you can send people up quick and to redirect anything coming this way. Tara said your forests are relatively clear, but we won't take any chances. No one needs to get hurt. This is just about what you have, what we need." Rick said.
"Nobody's taking anything!" We heard a older lady call out.
We looked over and saw an older women with a younger girl, and she had Tara at gunpoint. They were walking closer and stopped next to her people that were kneeling on the ground.
"You need to let everyone go and leave right now. Just walk away or this one dies." She ordered.
"Yeah, we'll leave you alone. But we're taking your weapons with us." Rick said, taking two small steps towards them. "That's not gonna change. It's Natania, right? Put the gun down, and let's talk about what we can change."
"No. Leave. Right now." Natania said.
Then Tara called out. "Michonne, don't."
I glanced over and saw Michonne had her sniper rifle aimed at them, and she had Natania in her sights.
"We just want to be left alone." Natania said.
"Yeah we'll leave you alone. Just let go of her. Now." Rick ordered. "Or we'll kill you. None of us want that."
"They want us to fight the Saviors." The girl then said to the people.
They looked at each other. Most of them looked worried, and hated hearing the name of the Saviors. But others looked... relieved possibly.
"We tried that. We lost. Too much." Natania said. "We're not gonna lose anymore. Not our guns, not our safety, not after everything we've done to get here."
"We're gonna win." Tara told their people, still with a gun to her head. "With your guns. With or without your help."
"Natania, put the gun down." Rick said again.
"You kill me and you die. My people take the guns and nothing changes." Tara said.
I scanned the crowd as she talked and one lady was looking around. She looked strong and brave, and smart.
"Maybe we should try." She then suggested.
There was some hushed chatter in the crowd and I knew some of them believed her, and would agree with her.
"Yup, she's good." I thought to myself. "Not like this one."
I mentally rolled my eyes and sighed when Natania started talking again. "After everything I have to remind you! Yes. I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die. But it's that important! This is your life, all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this. Open your eyes!"
"Rick! Walkers!" Michonne called out.
He looked for her, and then saw the walkers breaking through the tree line. We then heard a grunt and saw the girl punched Natania, knocking her out. I then saw Enid was behind her with a pistol ready, and I could only guess what she was planning on doing.
The walkers were coming in fast, and there were a lot.
"Everybody up!" Rick ordered.
"Get the children behind us. They're coming!" I said, pulling up the mother I spoke to earlier and she helped me gather the kids.
We formed a wall around the people of Oceanside and I stood in front with Carl and Enid.
"First shift, join them on the line. Knives out. Dead only! Dead only!" Tara ordered, an a small group of women joined our defense.
"Everyone, shots within 10 feet of the line. That's it." Rick said.
Everyone drew their guns and knives, and I swung my arm around. With a little warm up, I held my pistol up and we waited for the walkers to be within range.
"Now!" Rick said.
We started firing at the walkers. The first row dropped like flies, but more just walked over them. Some got to close and I shot one while stabbing the other with my blade. Daryl killed one with his crossbow and after reloading, he switched to his gun, before going back to his bow.
The walkers were still coming, and they were close enough for people to go out with knives. I made my way over to Daryl and we stood side to side as we killed the incoming wave of walkers. I then took a few strides out towards a cluster of three I knew I could take out. All of them reached for me, and I swung my blade quickly, cutting off their hands at once and then I went for the head. One by one, I stabbed each other them and their bodies fell to the ground. Another one tried to reach for me and I swung my whole body around with my arm out, slicing the walkers head in half as I spun.
I then saw a walker sneak up on Daryl as he was reloading and it grabbed his back. He tried to shake it off and I ran towards him. I pushed the walker off as much as I could, held my arm out, and stabbed my blade right into the walkers stomach. I twisted my arm and pushed it away from Daryl. Before it could even react, I raised my hand with my gun and shot it between the eyes. It's body fell to the ground and my knife slid out of its stomach, and blood sprayed all over my chest.
I took a deep breath and then sighed, looking around to see that was the last one. I then looked at Daryl and he was safe.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah." He huffed and walked towards me." "Are you."
"Yeah." I said and caught my breath. "As much as I can be."
The lady from earlier stood in front of Rick, and surprisingly she gave his knife back. Rick nodded and held out his hand to shake hers.
We then heard Natania groan as she got up and she started walking away.
"No. We are not fighting with you. So take your damn guns and go." She said, and walked alone back to Oceanside.
So, that's exactly what we did.