5. The Steeple

o n e h u n d r e d n i n e t y t h r e e

The two of them grabbed their torches and headed further into the sewers. Along the way, they encountered a couple of walkers, but nothing they couldn't handle.

"Have you figured out how you will do it yet?" Daryl asked Theo as it fell silent between the two of them

Theo took a deep breath as she observed where she was walking.

"No. I know it has to hurt" Theo looked up at the ladder they had to climb.

She grabbed the ladder, ready to climb, when Daryl grabbed her arm and looked at her worried.

"T..." He began. "I love you. More than anything in this world...other than our kids." Daryl looked at her. "I need to tell you this because I've never been so scared; losing you would kill me. So I promise, when this is over, I will recite our vowels. Because when I left you, which is the biggest regret of my life, I believed you would have moved on, but you waited for me. And you deserve to hear my devotion to you and our kids all over again," Daryl told her, making the tears fall on Theo's cheeks as he listened to him.

She let go of the ladder and hugged Daryl tightly.

"I would love that," she told him as she looked up at him and gently kissed his lips.

"Now, let's go get our babies back," Daryl told her as she wiped her face, climbed up the ladder, and entered Alexandria.

They carefully made their way over to their old, unguarded, and quiet house.

Making their way in, Theo waited in the kitchen, closed all the blinds, and lit two candles while Daryl grabbed Shane.

A loud commotion made Theo startle as Daryl threw Shane onto the ground.

Shane was awake and in a lot of pain.

"Look, Shane. I don't want to waste much time on you, so for me to do this right, you need to cooperate. For every question you don't answer, you lose a finger. If we get to ten...Well, I will start removing other body parts. If you refuse all of my questions, I will cut out your tongue and make you swallow it, leaving you to choke on it. So...what have they turned Alexandria into?" Theo began as Daryl ripped the tape off of his mouth.

"Screw the both of you", Shane spat as Daryl grabbed his knife and cut off his thumb.

Shane let out a scream, which Theo quickly covered by shoving a cloth in his mouth.

Once he had finished crying, Theo removed the same cloth.

"Next, where are they keeping our friends?" Theo answered.

"You really think I would tell you anything?!" Shane laughed as Daryl quickly removed another, repeating the process of removing the cloth.

"You're making it so fun for me. But seriously, will you make me cut you piece by piece and down to nothing?" Theo asked as Shane looked at her, terrified.

"No. Okay. I'll talk. They turned Alexandria into some prison work institution, where everyone who comes here stays here, living the rest of their lives working away to turn this into a prison." Shane began, "As for your friends, they will be inside, in the built-up shelters for everyone to sleep in bunks." Shane began talking.

"How do we get them out?" Theo questioned less aggressively.

"You can't without killing every soldier in there", Shane answered.

"And for my kids?" Theo finished.

"Look, I was telling you the truth; if they aren't here, I don't know where they are, I swear" Shane shook his head with tears in his eyes.

Theo looked up at Daryl.

She quickly walked away, going upstairs and under her old bed, praying that the old baseball bat she kept there in case of emergencies still lay beneath where she used to sleep.

She walked back down, making Shane shake his head.

"I cooperated..." He looked at her, startled.

"Never said I wasn't going to kill you, though" She shrugged. "You know, if you had been a good guy and stayed with us and made it to when we met Negan, you would be getting PTSD symptoms right about now" She sighed. "Negan before was ruthless; seriously; he had all of us on our knees as he played ennie-meenie to decide whose skull he would bash into the dirt. He chose Glenn and our friend Abraham when it should have been you," She snapped as she threw the bat into his skull, knocking him to the floor.

"The reason I am killing you like he killed Glenn is because you deserve this, Shane. You deserved to have your skull bashed into the dirt in that line-up!" Theo snarled as she continued to throw the bat down onto Shane's skull until he was nothing more.

Theo threw that bat to the floor, covered in his blood, looking up at Daryl with a sigh of relief before bursting into tears.

Daryl took her in his arms.

"It's okay. He is gone. He can't hurt you or anyone else anymore" Daryl rocked her slowly as she cried.

However, their moment was cut short when there was yelling from outside.

They both ran outside, taking shelter as they watched everyone leave their beds. They rushed to the middle of Alexandria, where one man stood before everyone else.

It was unclear to Daryl and Theo what they were saying, but eventually, Negan was brought out with two guards and brought to the middle.

"We need to do something", Theo told Daryl as they watched Annie run after Negan only to be stopped.

"We can't, and we will get killed." Daryl looked around for an option as they watched Negan get put onto his knees, with four guards standing before him.

"They are going to kill him, Daryl!" Theo panicked, but Annie was grabbed and placed beside him.

"Shit" Daryl panicked, too, knowing Annie was pregnant.

But just as they all aimed up, Ezekiel walked forward, standing before Negan. Every other person within their community then followed them.

"This way, quickly," Daryl took her hand as they ran around the back, sprinting to hide behind the windmill that Negan knelt in front of.

"You don't have to do this! This world is broken; we do not have to be," Ezekiel shouted at the soldiers who began lowering their weapons, all but one.

Suddenly, one of the soldiers shot the other as the leader in the long black coat grabbed Kelly with a gun to her head just as they reached the windmill.

Daryl snuck out from behind the windmill with Theo by his side and stabbed the leader.

Rosita sprinted through the crowd angrily.

"They aren't here. Our kids aren't here!" She yelled at Theo and Daryl.

Theo ran at the man, as did Theo. Theo kicked him in the stomach to make him roll onto his back.

"Where are our kids?" Theo asked as he smiled at her.

Rosita, however, had another plan: grabbing the shot soldier, who was now a walker, and pulling him down into his face.

"Where the hell is my daughter!" Rosita yelled as she held the walker close.

"You...will loose...everything..." He laughed, Theo nodding at Rosita, who allowed the walker to begin chewing on the man's face as he screamed out in pain.

"Theo looked at Daryl, scared as did he, but their faces softened as Judith and RJ ran towards them through the crowd.

Theo hugged them both tightly in hysterics.

"Thank god" " she cried into them as they held her tightly.

"Do you know where CJ and Libbie are?" she asked them both, and they sadly shook their heads.

"Okay. Are you both okay? Did they hurt you?" Theo asked as Daryl hugged them both.

"No. They just asked us a lot of questions we refused to answer," Judith smiled, and Theo laughed at her proudly.

Now, they needed a plan to protect the rest of their people and their kids.