Negan made Shane's mask with haste. Gabriel returned from spying on the perimeter. The six of us were ready to head for Meridian in what I could only describe as a last-ditch effort to save our community.
Shane got quick lessons about walking with the horde, and now, we were almost there. Maggie and Elijah knew of a small structure homing a handful of walkers. As we neared it, Shane and Elijah broke free from the crowd to open the structure up, releasing those walkers into the herd we had gathered. It was far more than the handful I was expecting.
I couldn't even begin to guess the number of walkers we had following us to the walls of Meridian. It didn't rival the horde the Whisperers had gathered, of course, but I wasn't sure we'd ever see anything as catastrophic as that in our lifetime. We didn't need that many walkers, anyway. What we had now would be plenty to complete our mission.
Shane, with his mask on and ready to go, made his way slowly through the horde and back toward me. He gave me a small, reassuring nod, though I could tell he was just as unsure as the rest of us. We had no other options, but this didn't feel like a best-case scenario, either. We were leading walkers right toward the food we were trying to take back, as well as one of our own people. I wasn't really worried about Daryl, to be fair. He was smart. He wouldn't go down with the rest of them.
That brought my brain to the only other concern I had: Leah. I didn't know her in the slightest, and Shane only knew what little information Daryl was willing to tell. I wasn't sure if Daryl was partaking in some plan that involved pretending to care for Leah or if he genuinely cared. By the end of the night, she and I would probably have guns pointed at each other. I didn't want to ask Daryl to choose, and I hoped he wouldn't even hesitate if it came to it, but there was no telling what he felt for her. If he wanted us to spare her, I wasn't sure I'd ever trust her. There was a chance I'd end up being the one to kill her, and while I'd go through with it to help my people, I didn't want to make things any more difficult between Daryl and me. Killing his ex would likely result in a fight I didn't want to have.
Maybe I was stupid to fear a scenario where Daryl had to choose between us. I wanted to believe it wouldn't come to that, that he'd stay loyal to us, but I also didn't want to assume this would work out the way I wanted it to.
As the walls of Meridian came into view, my heart began pounding. The next phase of our plan was ready to go. We decided we'd let the horde loiter in the woods next to the wall, close enough to see but not close enough to do damage yet. We were hoping Pope would send someone to lead the horde away or even do it himself, which would give us an opportunity to start whittling down their numbers.
There were a couple of people standing on top of the wall. We were close enough to see them observing us with binoculars, likely confused by a herd circling idly in one area. It went on for a while, too, before we saw the gates open and close with one lone man heading our way. He stayed on the outer area of the horde, making his way toward the front, and as we predicted, he began leading them away from his base.
The six of us hidden within the horde stayed far enough from the man to not be spotted, but close enough that we could hear as he was communicating through his walkie-talkie. We didn't want to immediately attack while the rest of his people might still be able to see it, but we couldn't let him take the horde too far from the wall, either. We were on a time limit.
A good couple of minutes passed as we allowed the horde to distance itself from Meridian. The man kept updating Pope, letting him know he was still alive and succeeding at his mission. We eventually reached a point where we couldn't see the wall anymore, and that was far enough. Maggie seemed to think the same. She and Negan both dropped from their regular behavior, pretending to be undead, and approached the man from both sides. In swift movements, they both attacked him, stabbing him multiple times. The guard shrieked in pain and probably fear, fighting back in an attempt to save himself, but his quick movements and faltering reflexes got him grabbed by some walkers, ripped apart in front of us.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Too Much 【REDONE】 ║ Daryl/OC or Shane/OC
FanfictionShe never had much in her life that gave her a reason to care. High school sucked, but her family sucked more. Cory was alone in her world until she met Daryl and Merle. After that, she basically became the third Dixon. They were inseparable, of cou...
