talk || book 7 of 'she's a dixon'

chapter 19

on the ride back to alexandria, i had to sit in carls lap. "keep hands where i can see em" rick said looking in the rear view mirror with a smile. "oh shut up" i said shaking my head and looking out the window.

i didn't feel fully complete without dad, but carl helped fill that hole. the feeling of his arms around me, it feels like home.

"oh god" i said under my breath as i saw what was ahead. cars completely blocking the road, someone didn't want us to get through. but we already knew exactly who.

"look, i think that's their base over there" carl said turning to our left and pointing out the window. "yeah that's it. must be trying to make it hard to get to them" i added. the saviors are smart, always one step ahead.

"we gotta keep going. we'll move them, then we'll move them back. they don't need to know we were here" rick said. we immediately stepped into action, all of us getting out of the car.

one by one, we use our car to push the others out of the way. carl and i stood out of the way, just making sure the cars didn't hit anything.

"rick, come take a look at this" michonne said looking into a pair of binoculars. rick quickly walked over to her, and i was hot in his trail. he looked through it, then handed it to me to look through.

a trip wire lined up on the road, lined with explosives.

"well shit." i said bluntly.

"wait, rae. weren't they talking about this in the back of the truck?" carl asked me. "yeah, yeah they were. this is for a herd." i said looking at the line.

"that's why it's a stall cable. it's not just for one walker, it's for a lot" rosita added examining the bombs. we all looked around us trying to spot the herd.

"we need these explosives" sasha said to rick. "yeah, but we need to figure out how to disarm them first" rick said. immediately, rosita bent down to the ground and lifted up the vent cover that was in the grass.

"yeah imma just leave that to you. come on, let's keep watch" i said grabbing carls arm and dragging him along with me. "behave!" rick called out. "no promises!" i called back. but as we walked off, jesus's radio he snatched from the sanctuary caught my ear.

"we got ourselves a red situation. i need a search party. see if daryl ran home to little dixon like the dumb animal he is" negan's voice sounded. "on it. i'll be back for lunch" another man who sounded like negan's right hand man said.

"turn that sleepy little burg upside down. snatch up little dixon if you have to, see if she knows anything" negan said. "damn it" i muttered.

"we gotta go. now" carl said anxiously. "it's okay, negan won't let me hurt me" i said trying to calm him down. as weird as it was, it was the truth.

"we gotta get there before them, but we need these. we need to clear a path anyways" michonne said in a rush. "yeah, rosita?" rick asked seeing how far along she was. "first part is done." she stated.

rosita gave us all orders and we acted as fast as we could. carefully, we all dismantled the explosives to take with us. carl and i worked quickly and carefully to load them into the truck.

"dad! look!" carl called out pointing to the distance. the herd was approaching. "okay. there they are. but they're far. we still have time." rick said bending down to continue with the wire. "not much" i said quietly to where only carl would hear me.

after loading the last few explosives into the car, rosita, tara, carl and i hopped into the car. the four of  us worked as quickly as we could to push the cars back into the same formation they were in.

the walkers were coming closer by the minute. but we stayed focused. we needed to create the blocked to keep the herd on the highway.

"come on come on" i grabbed carls arm starting to run. the walkers were hot on our trail. we got into the car and slammed the door shut with just seconds to spare. "damn it!" carl said looking around. "we'll figure it out" rosita reassured us.

"oh my god" i whispered looking out the window. rick and michonne has hot wired the cars the steel wire was connected to. driving in sync, they took out hundreds of walkers in one go.

once they reached parallel to us, they stopped the car. both rick and michonne barely made it past the walkers without getting bit. i quickly made my way onto cars lap to make room for rick and michonne. and the two of them barely made it into the car.

we looked behind us as rosita sped off. leaving the rest of the herd of walkers behind, one of the explosives rosita told sasha to leave behind went off. "nice call" i said to rosita.

"i pushed it. i pushed it." rick said out of breath, regretting his decisions. "we're here. you can smile. we made it. we can make it. we can. we're the ones who'll live." michonne said putting her hand on ricks shoulder with a smile.

listening to the words michonne had just said, carl grabbed onto my hand and gave it a squeeze.

we made it. and we're going to continue to make it.

"it's me and you until the end" carl whispered in my ear.

until the end.