RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

you're gonna wish you were dead

"LOOK AT ME" Rick growled as he noticed Dwight's eyes lingering on Daryl. He kept his gun pointed at Dwight's forehead, his eyes full of anger. "Why?"

Dwight looked up at him slowly, not bothered by the barrel of the Colt Python in his face. "'Cause I want it stopped. I want Negan dead."

"So why don't you kill him?" Willow asked, keeping her gun up alongside Rick. 

Dwight shook his head. "Can't just be me. They're all Negan."

"That girl you murdered..." Tara began as she trailed up to Dwight, crouching down and getting in his face. "She had a name. Her name was Denise and she was a doctor. And she helped people."

Dwight's eyes softened slightly. "I wasn't aiming for her."

Willow took a quick step forward, but Daryl already beat her to it. He grabbed Dwight by the throat and pinned him against the cinder block wall. He held him there with one hand while he had his knife in the other, the tip of it just a mere few inches from Dwight's eye. It wasn't until then that they saw the tiniest bit of fear in Dwight. 

"Do it." Willow and Tara said almost simultaneously.

"You wanna end it this way... you go ahead." Dwight said through shaky breaths. "I'm sorry. I am. I know you want to."

"He could just be here to see if you were here." Rick suggested to Daryl.

"We can't trust him." Michonne added on.

Dwight took a deep breath, settling behind Daryl's blade. "He owned me. But not anymore. What I did, I was doing it for someone else. She just got away. So now I'm here. So are you because of her."

Willow cocked her gun, raising it up higher. "Babe, if you don't do it- I will."

"There's another choice." Dwight continued.

"Daryl, you knew her." Tara pleaded. 

"Negan trusts me. We work together, we can stop him." He said through a clenched jaw, still staring at the tip of the blade. "You knew me then, and you know me now. You know I'm not lying- I'm not."

"No we don't." Willow said gruffly. "We know you're a sneaky little bitch."

Tara yelled for him to do it again, but Daryl's hands dropped from him. Willow could see the disappointment in Tara's eyes, and that was enough for her to go in. Her finger moved to the trigger, but Daryl was swift enough to grab the barrel of her gun and lower it. She scowled at him and Dwight cowering against the wall.

"They have Sasha, if she's even alive." Rosita said sternly. 

They all turned on their heels and stared at her strangely.

"Why didn't you say something?" Jesus was the first to ask. "He could be our only chance to get her back."

"Because I don't trust him." Rosita shot back. "But I trust Daryl."

"Negan's coming soon." Dwight said as he rubbed his throat. "Tomorrow. Three trucks probably. 20 Saviors and him. I can slow them down, bring some trees down in the road, buy a little time for you guys to get ready. If you can take them out, that's where we start. You kill them, I'll radio back to the Sanctuary- where Negan lives. I can radio back to them and say everything's okay. You drive the trucks back, and I can lead you right inside, and, with the right plan, we can wipe out the rest. Check to see if your friend's still alive. Then we get the workers on our side, build our numbers up, and go from outpost to outpost and end this."

"You've done a lot of thinking about this before you even came here." Willow said with a scoff as she turned to leave.

"Let's go." Rick said, jerking Dwight forward and leading him out, the rest of their group following.