VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴127

I rip up a jacket sleeve and wrap it around my gunshot wound, using my teeth to hold it so I could tighten it.

"Hornsby is the biggest threat right now. Then, we can figure out what's happening at Commonwealth while he's been doing this," Mom leads the group.

I wipe blood off my face with the back of my hand, though I'm sure it only smeared.

"He was willing to interrogate Hershel to get to you," Gabriel agrees. "Judith, RJ, Gracie.. they're in danger."

"He's got a army with him," Aaron notes with a sigh and I could tell his thoughts were full of Gracie. "It'll be hard to isolate him."

"We take out his men one by one," Daryl decides. "Can't do much if he doesn't have an army with him."

I hop off the tailgate and pick up a gun.

"Ellie," Daryl scolds. "Where are you going?"

I don't say anything. I haven't said a word since Leah. Since Negan.

"Ellie!" Mom calls as I walk away.

"Goddammit," I hear Anna sigh.

"Go after her," Mom says. "Whatever it is.. she has a plan. Just let her lead."

Anna and Josh follow after me. I hear Mom tell Gabriel, Aaron, and Daryl about where their places are next.

I find a car and hotwire it with the same method Rosita and Sasha taught me. Then, I drive us to Commonwealth.

All in silence. All in pure tension.

"Is this how you snuck out?" Josh asks.

He takes my silence as an answer and I lead us into the Commonwealth.

The town was still filled with people despite the shouts by troopers about it being passed curfew.

"Pamela lies! Sebastian kills!" the crowd chants in unison.

"What's all that about?" Anna wonders.

"I'll hang back. You still got that phone?" Josh asks and Anna nods. "I'll call you when I figure out what's going on."

Josh separates from us as Anna and I continue forward. We blend in through the crowd's chaos. They continue screaming about Sebastian being a killer. I hope that Josh figures out this mess quickly.

"Is this why we came here?" Anna asks as we walk into the hospital.

I had Aaron's jacket thrown around me to cover the wound from sight. Anna just follows me as I walk through the hospital and to Tomi's office.

"Ellie?" he asks. "I.. How.."

I shed Aaron's jacket and motion to the gunshot, still without word.

Anna sighs again. "Can you help out? We're not gonna be here long."

Tomi nods and stands up from his desk. He pulls me over to the area and I climb to sit on the desk.

Anna resorts to pacing. It was nighttime now.

"What is the thought process here?" Anna asks me as Tomi works on my shoulder.

For the first time in a long time, my head was empty. My thoughts were quiet. I felt at peace.

"Ellie, you leaving me in the dark isn't going to do anything," Anna pushes. "Either we talk about the plan or you tell me about what that was."

Negan. Leah. Probably all of it. For once, I actually had the answers because my head was screwed on straight.

"Leah wanted to break me and Mom. She told us that one of us had to kill the other," I say, voice cracking from the crying and lack of using it.

Anna frowns at the news. She shakes her head and goes to apologize.

"But, I killed Leah. And doing that.. I knew I had to finish what I started," I explain.

"So.. Negan," Anna figures.

"It was now or never. I hesitated for years. If I didn't bite the bullet and just.. do it.. I don't think I ever would."

"And Annie?"

"She would've come after me. She would've been in pain. So, I ended it before it started."

I could tell that Tomi was uncomfortable with the discussion of me murdering people just hours before arriving here. But, he cleared his throat and continued working.

Anna takes the phone out. "I've got like ten percent. He better call fast."

"There's a charger on my desk," Tomi says. "Help yourself."

"Thanks," Anna says with a smile and takes him up on the offer.

The gunshot had an exit wound, so I didn't need surgery. Tomi was able to clean the wound and dress it with bandages.

"This is all I have in here, but I can-"

"No," I cut him off when he tries to offer me some pain medication.

"No?" he repeats, holding up the bottle.

"That'll just make things worse," I say and hop off the desk. I pick Aaron's jacket back up and toss it around me.

Anna's phone vibrates and she answers it quickly. She talks on the phone with Josh for a minute or so and explains to him where we are before hanging up.

"So?" I ask.

"Sebastian Milton has been blackmailing the poor community here to go out in walker-infested houses and steal cash," Anna explains. "And Connie exposed his sorry ass in a newspaper."

I roll my shoulder around to get used to the pain. "All right.. Well, that just makes my plan a lot easier."

"What is your plan, exactly?" Tomi asks, still in the dark on everything.

"You'll find out soon enough," I tell both him and Anna, then focus on Tomi. "Quick question.."

"What's that?" he asks, wary and cautious.

"What's the tallest point in Commonwealth?"