Ephemeral - Alia Dixon

24

I groan as I see a huge crowd shoving eachother, a few of them trying to start a fight. Alden gets to the inside, shouting at them to stop. I quickly push my way through and stand next to him.
"We're gonna find out who did this and we're gonna make sure it never happens to us again, allright?"
"Us?" a man asks. He has been catching my eye lately because of his shitty behavior. Of course it's always the same ones. "You're not one of us anymore"
""Us" means all of us" he states before the guy grabs him my the shoulder, turning him around and punching him hard. The people behind Alden catch him as he falls back.
"Go shovel that horse shit to whoever killed Justin!" he says loudly but I catch his arm as he lifts it again.
"Nuh-uh. We don't do that shit here" I say and he chuckles when he notices Carol behind me. 
"Thought you were supposed to be the leader here" he says angrily.
"I am. Now turn around. All of you" Carol says but nobody does. 
"Nope. Why don't you go ahead and yank that roscoe, pop me right here? It's better than worrying about getting it in the back" he says and I watch in horror as Carol's people take out their guns. The Saviors all take a step back.
I step inbetween, pushing the man back into the other Saviors.
"All of you get back. Now!" I say loudly watching as everyone takes an extra step back. "This is not how things are going around here and I have enough. We can't just go around and make everyone at fault here. Not the Saviors but definitely also not everyone else. Yes, something is happening to your people and we are trying to find out, okay? But it's not going to get better when you behave like that. We need to be civil here. Build trust. Allright?"
The blonde with the tattoo steps forward. "That's not what we want. We just want to protect ourselves"
"No guns" my dad says and we all turn to look at him. He stands tall on a tree log, looking at all of us. 
"That 'cause you're the one took out Justin?" another one asks.
"Nah, my money on garbage lady" another one says and I feel my blood boil.
"Revenge for Simon's play. Sure" one of the woman says.
"No, it's him. Finishing what he started" the one who blamed my dad says and walks over to an axe. Another one walks after him, grabbing one too. The blonde woman tries to stop them. "It's gonna go too far" she says.
"Nah. It won't" my dad says, aiming his crossbow at them.
"Dad, stop!" I say loudly as the Saviors step forward. 
"We can talk about it, alright? There is a solution to this!" I say loudly. 
"Is there" the man who punched Alden says as he and the others start walking towards us. I hesistantly start backing up, internally crying of relief when Rick comes riding on his horse, holding both of the groups back. Each of our groups starts to walk away as I shove people out of the way to get to my dad. 
"Are you fucking insane?" I ask him angrily and he chuckles venumously.
"These people are going to murder you in your sleep, Alia!" he says loudly.
"Yes, because they don't fucking trust us. One of us is killing their men in private and they feel helpless and vulnerable. They can't defend theirselves to whoever does this. How would you feel if it was you in this position?" I ask before looking at everyone gathered around us. "How would all of you feel? How would you feel if someone you've considered family for years goes missing while you're not even able to defend yourselves? These people are scared and they are rightfully so. We won't make it better by scaring and talking to them like that. And the worst part is, that I feel like you people want it this way. Do you want even more people dead? Huh? Do you want to get killed by a few of them just because of a misunderstanding? People don't have to die nowadays. We are living in peace right now and you're fucking it up for what? Because you're not ready for the change? Because they've killed someone you loved?" I chuckle angrily. "You have killed just as many friends of theirs. If they start shit, fine. But don't fucking provocate it and then blame it on them" I say angrily.
"How can you defend those people?" my dad asks angrily.
"I'm not defending them. I am defending the peace around here. I am defending a world I want Henry and Judith to wake up to. I am defending something that's worth fighting for" I say before walking away. 

I notice that none of them have come back at night. None of them who went out has been back, so I walk after them. I track my dad's tracks and walk after him what feels like an enternity. I keep following them until I arrive at some school or whatever. I don't even know what it is. What I do see though is a woman, one of them who has been with Negan since we've met him, always standing at his side, kneeling infront of Cyndie who is pointing her stick at her. There are two other woman from Oceanside here as they talk to my dad and Maggie. Neither of them are trying to stop them.
"Simon wanted what we had. He gave us our final warning. Afterward, we ran. And we tried to forget. But then your people came and asked us to fight. We did because we couldn't forget. After Rick ended it, we went along because we didn't think we had a choice. Until you hung Gregory. That's when we knew. Rick's rules aren't the only rules. You showed us the way. It was time" Cyndie says sadly.
"You did this because of  me?" Maggie asks in disbelief.
"They murdered my mother. She shot my brother right here. And they took everything because they could" Cyndie says crying.
The woman on the floor sniffles before she looks at my dad. "Please" she begs him and Maggie. "It's not like that anymore, okay? I'm- I'm one of you now"
"Did she do it?" Maggie asks.
"Simon would've killed me, too!"
"You asked me to beg for his life! He was crying and you smiled. I told you I loved him. I need him. He was only eleven years old. And what did you say?"
"I- I don't remember" 
"Say it!"
"Please" the woman begs.
"What did you say?" Maggie asks.
The woman sniffles. "No exceptions"
Maggie looks at my dad before they both start walking away. She starts begging them to save her life, while they just walk away. A tear runs down my face as I see the expression on her face as she realizes they won't help her. They let her down. I watch as Cyndie kills the woman. 
Slowly, I step forward. Bea aiming her gun at me. 
"You saw it?" Bea asks me and I nod before taking a look at the woman. 
"You think you're so much better than her. So much better than the Saviors. Better than Negan. But you're wrong. You're just as bad as they are if not even worse. They had mutliple chances to kill you. Mutliple chances to wipe all of us out... but they never did. They trusted us. You betrayed that trust. And for what? For revenge? They have just as much reason for revenge as we have but they left us alone. They even joined and started providing for every and single one of us. 
You are a shame to this world" I say as they stare at me before I slowly walk away.
"Alia," Cyndia stops me and I turn to face her again. "Are you going to tell Rick?"
"I don't know. We'll see" I say.
Bea shakes her head. "Why are you saving them. Why are you still protecting him?"
I look up at the sky, trying to remain from crying as I think of Carl and what he wanted. He was right. 
"Because my brother wanted it that way" I say.
"Allen wants Negan just as dead as we do" the little girl says. 
"I'm not talking about Allen" I state before calmly walking away.