Dead Man Walking

lxviii.

"Your people back in the chemical plant...did you win?" Rick asks as he points his gun down at the Savior. The guy was badly injured and it took him a while to roll onto his back as he gasps for air.

"No one did."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Daryl asks. The man started coughing and Daryl pointed his gun at his head, "The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone's dead."

"Bullshit."

"There's no one else? You're the only one?" Hunter asks the Savior.

"Me. The King. The Axe Man. And a short-haired psycho lady," Ezekiel, Jerry, and Carol, "You did this. My people...your people...they're all gone."

Hunter clenches his jaw at the information. Ezekiel, Jerry, Carol, all of them who went there were dead. He couldn't believe that. Carol was a fighter, she fought and beat Terminus on her own. There was no way she was dead.

Hunter turns on his feet and follows Daryl down the hill to the car with the guns, "Hey. Give me a hand with this."

Hunter got over to Daryl and helped lift the crates out of the car and place them on the ground. Hunter took off the lid and saw the dynamite and ammo inside. Daryl grabbed his bag and started filling it.

"We can use these now."

"What?"

"Well, think about it. There ain't no Kingdom no more," Daryl states as Rick and Hunter glance up at him, "We know what we got to do. We blow open the Sanctuary, let the walkers flood in. They'll surrender. It'll be done. Hell, we could end this by sundown."

"They have workers in there, right?" Rick questions, "Families, too. Are there?"

"We'll hit the south side of the main building. The workers live in the north side. They'll be up the stairs before the walkers even get in."

"What if they don't?" Rick asks, trying to knock some sense into Daryl, "There are people in there who aren't fighters. Doing this could change that. Make them pick up guns and stand by the Saviors. And if the Saviors don't surrender, maybe everyone fights us. And we don't have the Kingdom anymore. We're not doing this."

Daryl stares at Rick. Hunter stood aside as he watches the interaction. His leg was killing him, his body was in pain. And he didn't want to be in the middle of a fight if that's what it came down to.

"No. You ain't doing this," Daryl started walking away and Rick quickly grabbed his shoulder.

"There's a plan, and everyone's sticking to it."

"Not everyone. There's a lot of our people that are dead, Rick. Things change, man," Daryl turned to walk away but he stopped and turned back to Rick, "Negan and that other group, this is on them. If people die, it's their fault, not ours."

Rick shakes his head, "Daryl, we can't do this."

"And we got our own people to look after."

Rick followed after him, "We're not doing this. Hey. I'm not letting you do this," Rick grabbed Daryl's shoulder again and he whipped around and nailed Rick in the face.

"This ain't your choice."

Hunter watched with wide eyes as Rick got up and charged Daryl. Tackling him to the ground. Rick quickly picked up the bag and threw it. Daryl got up and placed Rick into a headlock.

Hunter didn't want to break it up for many reasons. He didn't want to get hurt, he didn't want to get punched in the face. And he thought Daryl and Rick should handle things the way they wanted to. But that all changed when he saw the fire start in the car.