Fire With Fire // D. Dixon

chapter fifteen

After Chloe's nightmare, and the proverbial nightmare of a conversation that had taken place immediately after, the group looked around and realized that several members of the group were missing. 

It was all very suspicious, and the main suspect was Gabriel.

"What are you doing? This is all connected. You show up, we're being watched, and now three of us are gone!" Sasha pointed her finger at Gabriel, who seemed to be shocked by her accusatory stance.

"I don't..." Gabriel gulped nervously, "I don't have anything to do with this." Gabriel looked at Sasha, just as she pulled out her knife. With that, Tyreese and Rosita jumped to stop her. She persisted in asking him the same questions, but none of them were answered.

Rick pulled Sasha away, before asking him a simple question, "Why'd you bring us here?"

He didn't answer, so Rick asked again, "Are you working with someone?"

"I'm alone!" Gabriel rushed out, "I was always alone."

"What about the woman in the food bank, Gabriel?" Rick asked, but Chloe was confused, "What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this.' That was for you. Why? What are you gonna burn for Gabriel?" Rick threatened the man, still very suspicious of him.

"I lock the doors at night...I always lock the doors at night," Gabriel repeated, as he began to cry, "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were...looking for a safe place, a place where they felt safe. And it was so early...and the doors were still locked. You see, it was my choice. There were so many of them and they were trying to pry the shutters and banging on the sidings, screaming at me. And so the dead came for them...Entire families calling my name as they were torn apart, begging me for mercy, damning me to Hell. I buried their bones...I buried it all."

There was a moment of silence. This man, a man of God, refused to help so many people. How could he have done that?

"Why?" Chloe asked him, but he remained a sobbing mess.

"I don't know..." He spoke, glancing at the ceiling, "The Lord sent you here to finally punish me." Gabried sobbed as he fell to his knees in front of Rick, who remained entirely still.

-X-

The group had been on the move for weeks.

The memories from that night remained fresh in everyone's mind.

"Well, I guess you know we're here. And we know you're here. And we're armed, so there's really no point in hiding anymore," Gareth spoke, carefully walking through the church, "We've been watching you. We know who's here. There's Bob, unless you've put him out of his misery already, and Eugene, Rosita, Martin's good friend Tyreese, Carl, Judith, and the one that got away, Chloe." 

The sound of his voice sent shivers down Chloe's spine as she remembered Terminus. The mere thought of Gareth and the people at Terminus made her physically ill. They were cannibals, monsters.

"Rick and the rest walked out with a lot of your guns," Gareth continued, "Listen, we don't know where you all are, but this isn't a big place. So let's just stop this now before things get more painful than they need to be."

Silence fell upon the church, as one of Gareth's men shook the door knob to the back room. Everyone was tense, but remained as quiet and as still as could be, just as Rick had instructed them to.

"Look, you're behind one of those two doors and we have more than enough firepower to take down both. Can't imagine that's what you all want." Gareth continued speaking, presumably making up for the silence of the room. It was that, or maybe he just liked hearing the sound of his own voice.

That was when Judith started crying. Shit.

Chloe rushed to quiet her little sister, but Gareth's footsteps got closer to them.

"I don't know...maybe we'll keep the kid. I'm starting to like this girl," Gareth smiled, as he ordered his men to guard the door, "It's your last chance, right now, to tell us you're coming out." 

There was another moment of silence, before loud thumps were heard hitting the floor. It was Rick.

"Put your guns on the floor." Rick spoke, his gun held high.

"Rick, we'll fire right into that office. So you lower your gun-" Gareth started, but was interrupted as a bullet whizzed into his hand. He shouted in pain as his gun hit the floor.

"Put your guns on the floor and kneel." Rick spoke again, more firmly this time. Rick Grimes wasn't fucking around anymore.

"Do what he says..." Gareth speaks, still writhing on the floor, but his friend doesn't move, "Martin, there's no choice here."

"Yeah, there is." Martin spoke with a smug smirk.

Abraham strode up next to the guy, gun to his chin, "Want to bet?" That sent him to his knees. Rick moved closer to the men, standing in front of them.

"No point in begging, right?" Gareth chucked, clutching his hand. He was still in pain, but Rick didn't care one bit.

"No." Rick said sternly.

"Still, you could have killed us when you came in. There had to be a reason for that." Gareth said with a clear smirk. He thought we were going to spare him, Rick thought, how funny.

"We didn't want to waste the bullets." Rick spoke, so matter of fact.

"We used to help people...we saved people. Things changed, they came in and..." Gareth paused, "I know that you've been out there, but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry. You don't have to do this, we can walk away and we will never cross paths again. I promise you."

"But you'll cross someone's path," Rick spat at him, raising his gun, "You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides...I already made you a promise." Rick put away his gun, pulling out the red machete.

His promise flashed through their minds; "There's guns in it. AK-47, .44 Magnum, automatic weapons, nightscope. There's a compound bow and a machete with a red handle," Rick paused, "That's what I'm gonna use to kill you."

With that, he haphazardly slammed the promised machete with a red handle deep into his skull. 

Gareth was dead.