Ellie Dixon

This is Not Goodbye

"What do you mean we can't fight?" I raised my voice at Rick.

The fight with the Saviours and garbage people the day before had really given a lot of people a wake up call. We'd lost a lot of good people. Most people had headed back to their respected communities. Maggie and Glenn were still here, along with Enid. Mum had also stayed, but I had the feeling she'd leave soon. I was standing in front of the tv, Sophia and Carl were standing off to the side, my dad, mum, Michonne, Rosita, Rick, Glenn and Maggie were all on the sofa.

"We talked it over. You, Sophia and Carl shouldn't be here for the war. It's not safe." Rick stated.

"No shit, Sherlock, it's war! It ain't exactly an eighteen plus gig where the bullets will magically dodge us!" I raised my voice.

"Ellie, there ain't no need for yelling." Dad stated.

"And it's not like you're going forever. You're going out looking for guns, and ammo. Other weapons too. A lot of the weapons from the armoury are missing, we need more." Rosita reminded me.

"So, you expect three kids to go off alone into a world filled with the walking dead-" I started.

"Don't give us that bullshit, you know you can all handle yourself around walkers." Glenn said.

I scoffed. "Well, Glenn, it would be nice if you had a little less faith in us."

"What?" Glenn furrowed his eyebrows.

"I don't know! I'm grasping at straws!" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm with Ellie on this, you need us here." Carl told Rick.

"We need you out there more. A lot of our focus is going to be on fighting. We still need food, ammo, weapons." Rick reasoned with us. "The baby is due in a matter of months, babies need things."

"What about Ben? I can't leave him here." I pointed out.

"You don't need too." Mum said. "Ben's coming back to the Kingdom with me. Morgan's training him and Jessie. Elizabeth is going with them."

"Who's Elizabeth?" I asked.

"Ben's mother." Maggie stated.

"No, Ben's mother's name is Mrs Tanner." I shook my head.

"I'm not even gonna." Rosita ran a hand through her hair. "It's safer for you out there than it is in here. If something happens to one of you three, we're all screwed."

"Why?" Sophia questioned.

"Because, believe it or not your family loves you." Dad spoke sarcastically.

"It's just as likely that any of you will die. More so, even. And you expect us to be happily benched?" Carl argued.

"Kinda hoped." Glenn nodded.

"Well, you put your hope in the wrong place." I said, anger dripping from my tone. "I mean, seriously? Most of us in here have been together since the very beginning. We've fought together, we lost people together, we've gone through Hell and back together... And now you wanna split up? It doesn't make sense."

"Negan was prepared to kill Carl." Maggie stated. "Ellie, he was going to take you back to the Sanctuary with him. It's clear he has a vendetta. He knows that if one of you three die, Rick nor me will be as good leaders as we need to be. This is the smartest play to win. You're not being benched, we're just using your expertise in other areas. There aren't many people we can confidently send out there knowing that they'll come back with supplies... Or come back at all."

I bit my bottom lip, looking to Carl and Sophia, who looked to me. "I'm out of arguments." I whispered to them.

Sophia ran a hand through her hair. "Enid's upstairs. Let me know what conclusion you come too." With that Sophia, left the room and headed upstairs.