The Only One | Negan

13. Too Late

The day went as expected - I spent most of the time with my family and friends, Michonne made lunch, then I bickered a bit with Rick, ate cookies, Carol got furious about my concussion and I had to calm her down. Played with Judith, practiced shooting with Carl, took a stroll down memory lane while sorting through the stuff in my bedroom. We talked more about the ongoing problem with that hostile group and decided to put on hold the organization for taking the Saviors down for now. Although Rick thought that maybe those people would just solve our problem if they attack the Saviors and finish them off, he still didn't want to risk it until we had more information.

Negan hopped in his truck and left, didn't take any of his men with him so now they all just sat around Alexandria and did sweet nothing. Some played cards, others cleaned their guns. They weren't acting violent or mean, and I assumed it was because their boss was not here to scold them to not go soft. They were normal people, after all. Just under a different rule.

The whole day was perfectly peaceful so far, the only thing missing was Daryl. Nobody knew where he had gone to. Carol said he did that often recently, just disappearing without a word. So after I had a cup of coffee, I told everyone I'd see them later and took off to find him.
It was a nice sunny day, birds chirping in the canopy of trees, soft wind making the leaves rustle.
The thing I liked about the apocalypse was just how quiet the world became. If you sat still and just listened - you could hear every single small thing. Back when the world was still functioning, the noise pollution was too much for a person to really hear every sound nature made. Cars, trucks, machines, people yelling, airplanes - all that noise was deafening. Now it was peaceful.

Daryl was just where I thought he would be - outside of the fence, under the big oak tree, sitting in the cool shade just at the bottom of it. I moved closer, trying not to make a sound so I could sneak up and startle him. The leaves crunching beneath my sneakers were threatening to give me away but I managed to reach him.

"Why did you run away, pookie?" I asked, expecting him to jump at least a little bit. But he didn't.
I crouched down and sat beside him, looking at his side profile. "How are you?"

Daryl grunted not giving me a definitive answer, fingers tearing apart a small branch.

"Tell me what's going on." I demanded again. He looked at me like I was crazy or something disgusting, like it wasn't me sitting there but a walker.

"What's going on?" He growled. "You tell me! You're the one that suddenly switched sides."

"Switched sides? What does that suppose to mean? I did what I had to do." I replied with the slightest hint of anger. After arguing with Rick for an hour earlier and then Carol and then a few weird comments from Carl, I was already over that topic and wasn't having any of it.

"What you had to do and should've done already is slit his throat. Not become his right hand." Daryl said, hastily lighting a cigarette. I snatched the pack out of his hands and took one out.

"I am not his right hand. I'm far from that. Besides, I can't just go up to him and kill him, Rick's against it too. It's not that easy and you know it." I countered.

"Since when do you care about what Rick says?!" He almost yelled back. "You wanted to sneak out there and kill him! I know you, you would've done it without Rick's permission anyway!"

"I can't kill him, Daryl, because right now we need him alive!" I raised my voice. "We need him because of that group out there because we can't fight them on our own, but he can! He has the guns and he has the manpower." I pulled onto his arm to make him look at me. "And I've been living in the Sanctuary for quite a while, I know how things work up there and you better believe me when I tell you - Negan is the lesser evil. You don't know what a shitstorm will come our way if we only take him out. There is far worse than him and if he's not there to control this far worse, like Simon for example, we will be all dead. Negan values people's lives, he doesn't want to slaughter for fun and waste the potential. I know that now because I've been in there, I've seen and heard things. Okay?"