We're The Ones Who Live | The Walking Dead (2)

Part 40 - Kill the Dixons

Vast amounts of overgrown weeds and shrubbery were hanging down the brick walls of the empty building. Most of the windows were smashed or just missing altogether. The floors were solid stone, cracks and scratches in the once smooth, grey surface. Dust floated around the air, only visible when being hit by direct sunlight.

CJ slammed the blade of her knife through the head of the walker that grabbed her. In a flash of movements, she ducked out of the way when the second one reached for her, and she tripped it up, hunching over to drive the knife through the back of its skull. One more growled at her, and she sliced her other knife in a downwards motion, cutting its brain in half.

"Clear!" she called out, making her way to the archway that led to the next room.

"Clear," Daryl called back after taking out the other walkers. "You good?"

"Yeah," CJ nodded, hearing people outside. "Windows."

Her and Daryl stood side by side, peeking through the windows of the building they'd been hiding in, seeing Lance Hornsby and the troopers marching in formation outside as they searched.

"Fan out," they heard Lance order. "Check every window, doorway, stairwell and hallway. This ends here."

The troopers all took their orders and started to spread out through the streets.

"How many you think they got?" CJ asked quietly.

"Don't matter," Daryl mumbled. "We're gonna take 'em out one by one."

A door suddenly slammed from down the hall, and the Dixon couple didn't think twice before running to be ready to fight. Daryl hid behind the wall whilst CJ went right to the open door, hiding behind it with both knives in her fists.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, getting closer to the room. As soon as a figure appeared in the room, CJ raised her knife as a rifle was pointed in her face.

She let out a sharp breath when she realised it was Gabriel holding the gun, both of them immediately relaxing and lowering their weapons, offering small smiles of apology. Aaron and Maggie also came into the room, but there were more people behind them.

"Look who we found," Gabriel said.

CJ's eyes were wide for a moment when Negan walked into the room, along with a woman she'd never seen before. This woman was dark-skinned, short black curly hair. It seemed that Maggie knew who the woman was, as did Gabriel and Aaron.

This woman was named Annie - she was Negan's wife. He'd met her shortly after he left the group the day after the fight with the Reapers, and they'd been together since then. She was also in the first trimester of pregnancy with their baby.

Negan and Annie were a part of the group at the Riverbend apartments a few days ago when this whole fight started. Aaron had caught CJ and Daryl up on the details of that day. So, whilst it wasn't surprising that Negan had shown up, it was still weird seeing him again after all these months.

"We're here to take out Shitless and the Dick Brigade," Negan said bluntly, holding a large crowbar in his right hand.

"Like I've been saying," Gabriel began. "We should go back to the Commonwealth first. Get our people out and then deal with Hornsby together."

"No, Gabe, we already talked about this," CJ protested. "He's probably radioed back already. He knows us. We won't get near those checkpoints, not without catching a bullet in the ass."

She was honestly afraid for her people back home. She was afraid for Judith and RJ, who she hadn't seen since she and Daryl waved them off to school the morning they had to leave with Hornsby. They had no clue what was going on, and although CJ knew the kids were safe with Carol, she was still worried.