Fire With Fire // D. Dixon

chapter thirty

When Rick Grimes finally woke up, he found himself in a cell.

The reality was, it was a basement. There sat Michonne in a chair and Chloe on the floor next to her father. Seeing the situation, Rick laughed. As if there was any humor in the situation at all.

"What's so funny?" Chloe asks her father, watching as he leans against the wall behind him. 

"It's like the train car..." Rick sighed, "After the whole thing, I'm still there."

"Deanna wanted you in here...to calm things down," Michonne spoke, looking at Rick sternly, "Rosita patched you up, Carl came by for a while but we sent him home. Rick...what are you doing?"

Rick looked away for a moment, thinking about how he should answer that. Truth is, he didn't know. He was just trying to do what was right; getting Jessie out of an abusive relationship seemed like the right thing to do. Sure, his execution of the plan didn't exactly pan out well. But at least he tried.

"We put Pete in another house," Michonne stated, "You could have told me what was happening."

"It moved fast. And then Noah..." Rick paused, "I couldn't tell you about the gun. You wanted this place and now we have to stay here."

"We had to stop being out there." Michonne put in plainly. The longer they were out there, the colder they got. The more ruthless they became. The more they were willing to do to survive. It had brought out the worst parts of them, taken the good parts away from them.

"You're right," Rick spoke, "we need to stay here."

-X-

Deanna had called a meeting later that same night, to discuss what had happened with Rick the day before. Everyone was gathered around a small campfire.

"We're going to talk about what happened," Deanna started, "Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that. We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes."

Chloe gulped, fearing what would follow. Would they kick them all out? Chloe couldn't let that happen. Now that she was pregnant, being out on the road wasn't an option. That life had been hard enough on her before, but now? It might just kill her.

"We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armory, about how he pointed it at people and we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he'd be here."

"He's coming," Chloe said, her voice agitated, "He said he'd be here and he will."

"You need to understand something," Michonne spoke to the group, "After being out there and then not being how you were out there...it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is, is who you're going to be...if you're lucky."

"Rick Grimes saved my life over and over," Carol stated, looking at everyone, "There's terrifying people out there...and he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary, and I'm sure he's sorry for that. But maybe we should listen to what he was saying."

"Simply put...there is a vast ocean of shit that you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit and then some." Abraham spoke, as serious as can be.

Maggie stepped forward, "My father respected Rick Grimes. Rick is a father, too. He's a man with a good heart who feels the things he does, the things he has to do. And all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now. Rick started that and you won't stop it. You can't and you don't want to. This community, you people, that family...you want to be a part of it too."

Chloe knew she had to speak, if not for herself then for the baby that was inside of her, "My father has always fought to protect his family. It didn't matter who it was, what it was about, where we were, or how it all came to be...he found a way to keep us all alive. Sure, he might have made some bad decisions somewhere along the way but who can always make the perfect choices every time shit goes sideways? Especially when the shit doesn't stop coming. My point is, kicking Rick out won't save any of you. Getting rid of him will only put you in danger...If my Dad goes, we all go."

"Before we hear from anyone else, I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency," Deanna crossed her arms, "Father Gabriel came to see me day before yesterday and he said our new arivals can't be trusted...that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said."

"I don't see him here, Deanna..." Jesse said, looking around searching for the man of faith, "So you're just saying what someone said. Did you tape him?"

"He's not here." Maggie said, backing up Jessie. 

"Neither is Rick." Deanna retorted, looking between the two women.

"Really?" Chloe laughed, pointing over Deanna's shoulder, "I think you should look behind you."

Turning around revealed a very bloodied Rick, carrying a walker over his shoulder. He grunted as he placed the deceased walker on the ground in front of everyone. 

"There wasn't a guard on the gate, it was open." Rick stated, looking around at everyone as he was frustratingly angry. That walker could have killed his family. Chloe panicked, wondering if there had been a more extensive breach. If there was one, there could be more.

"I asked Gabriel to close it..." Spencer said to Deanna, watching as she looked at him furiously. She ordered him to go, sending him away from all of the chaos.

"I didn't bring it in, it got inside on its own. They always will..." Rick talked to everyone, "The dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there...they'll hunt us, they'll find us, they'll try to use us and try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive, I'll show you how. I was thinking...how many do I have to kill to save your life? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change."

There was a moment of silence after that, before Rick spoke directly to Deanna, "I'm not sorry for what I said last night. I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."

Footsteps sound near the group, making them all turn to Pete, "You're not one of us...you're not one of us!" He had a machete in his hand, Rick noticed that first thing.

"Pete, you don't want to do this-" Reg, Deanna's husband warns him.

"Get the hell away from me, Reg." Pete argues, pushing the man away.

"Pete, just stop-" Pete pushes himself and his sword into Reg's neck, effectively slicing it open. Blood started pooling out, as Deanna caught her husband falling. The group screamed, shocked that Pete had actually killed him. Deanna sobbed, as Reg struggled to breathe his last few breaths. Everyone watched, fear-stricken.

Deanna looked at Rick, still crying, "Rick...do it." 

Without any second of hesitation, Rick pulls his gun and shoots Pete.