ꜰᴏᴏʟ'ꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴇ || ᴛᴡᴅ

124: ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴀ ꜰʟᴇꜱʜ ᴡᴏᴜɴᴅ, ʜᴇʀᴇ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀɪꜰʟᴇ

●～●～●～●～●

The explosions started after night fell.

It was cold, and Sami was taking the same way as he took out, yesterday, he thought it was. Somehow, they didn't track him. 

He felt it was the guilt that kept him going. That he'd said where they were, that he'd taken a risk to save his own skin and fingers.

He really wanted to get home. He wanted to see his brother again. He wanted to get Alexandria running again. He wanted to see his daughter.

He just wished he hadn't been a coward to do it. Despite what Maggie said, he felt he'd been wrong. He'd sold them out.

Explosions went off at the front of the hoard, and he prayed that Maggie wasn't there. By the looks of it, they were mines. 

The night air was cold, and Sami's wounds were stinging, among the aches, but the cold actually made it easier to deal with. 

He climbed up the wall, as fast as he could so that the pain didn't set in until he stabbed a knife through the lookout's mouth from the base of his jaw, pulling his body over the ledge behind him, and climbing up and over. 

He'd been given directions. Top floor, second room, southwest corner of the building.

He walked through the same door he left through. 

Inside, he could actually look, now, that he wasn't fighting for his life. The brick walls were grey adn clean, the paved floor stained in blood from the ones he'd killed previously. He couldn't imagine living here. Then again, he couldn't imagine living in the prison at first, either. 

He made his way up the stairs, and into the room Maggie told him about without finding anyone, and went to the closet. It was empty, aside from a lone hanger, but he pushed on the wall. 

The hidden panel fell back, like Maggie said it would, and he reached his hand into the darkness, feeling around for a moment, before his hands wrapped around cool wood. 

He pulled the rifle out, reaching in and grabbing ammo that was in there as well, and heading out of the room.

But as he climbed the stairs, he heard a voice. 

Pope.

That motherfucker.

Sami climbed more stairs than he was supposed to, and put the rifle over his shoulder, instead using his bow.

He reached the top of the stairs, and saw Pope. Bandaged, yelling, beside explosive arrows. All Sami could see was Daryl. So, he knocked the arrow, and tried to brace the bow against his thumb. 

Somehow, it hit true.

Pope's body fell, an arrow in his head. 

And Sami vanished back down the stairs. 

The explosions started not long after that. 

Sami knew he should go to the room Maggie said to. But he also knew she was in down with the walkers, who he could hear broke through the gate. 

He wasn't going to abandon her now. Not again. 

He rushed down the stairs, knocking another arrow as he went, and pushed open a door, only to see Maggie there, bloodied, with Elijah, limping, and Negan. 

"You lot alive, then?" He questioned.

Negan looked at him. "Grace?"

"Outside, keeping an eye on things." He tossed him a walkie he got from another reaper's body. "you can talk to her through that."

"We've got a tail." Maggie whispered, as they made their way into a medical room. 

Sami nodded. "I've got it."

Negan raised an eyebrow at him. 

"Killed head honcho. Can kill a few more."

Maggie shook her head. "They're not just people."

"You said yourself I can take them out on my own. I'll take them out, and be where you told me." He kissed the top of her head, and climbed onto the table beside the door. 

She made her way into a closet, which he assumed there was a hidden space in, and he could hear the Reaper on his way. 

"Carver, report."

The sound of the walkie made the pain in Sami's body almost vanish, replaced instead by fury. 

Carver. 

When he walked through the door, Sami dived on him.

His knife went through his arm, first, making him yell in pain, but he was quickly shut up by a punch to the face. 

Carver's arm came up, knife in hand, and sliced the top of Sami's ear, making him hiss, before throwing another punch, this one splitting his eyebrow.

But before Sami could get another in, Carver slammed him back, kicking him into a metal table, and making him fall to the ground. 

"Th-thought you could come back, huh?" Carver chuckled, as he got to his feet, though he looked to be in a lot of pain, which made Sami feel better. "Kill me? Look at you. You look like shit."

Sami looked up at him, panting, and spit out a chunk of blood. "Something like that."

He scoffed, and slammed Sami's head back into the metal leg of the table, before pacing. "Something like that. You fucking peop-"

Sami kicked him in the ankle, which knocked him to the ground, where his head met the pavement with a sickening splat. 

Sami sat there for a moment, as Carver hissed in breath, and got to his feet, panting, and brought his prosthetic down on Carver's leg, hard, the sickening sound of bone splintering hidden by Carver's screams. 

Then, he made his way over to the crutches nearby. Metal, like his leg, and he grabbed one of them, walking slowly back over to Carver, panting. 

"Wait-wait, wait!" Carver panted, pulling himself and his mangled leg away from Sami, but hitting into the table against the wall. "Wait, wait, I can help you! What do you need? I-I can help!"

Sami tilted his head, and felt the back of it, taking his hand back to see blood. 

"I can stitch it! You need st-stitches! Just pl-please, man! I can't - I can't have done all this for nothing. I can't have lived this long just to die here. Please."

Sami coughed, wiping the blood from his mouth, and turned the crutch so it would be easier.

"Please, man! I'm just trying - trying to protect my family!" He begged. "Please."

"I get it." Sami nodded. "So am I."

"So- so you understand! We do bad-"

He was interrupted by the metal crutch hitting him across the face, the warm blood spraying up onto his arm. Carver could only cough.

He hit him again, and the sounds from him weren't human. Weren't even animal.

Elijah listened from the hidden spot in the closet, and though Maggie and Negan tried to stop him, he got out, limping. 

Sami didn't know he was behind him, watching.

Maggie stayed in the closet. As did Negan, who had a sad look on his face, which confused her. 

"Everyone reaches their point sometime." He said, as the metal clangs hit into something wet. 

"He tortured him." Maggie reasoned.

Negan shrugged. "So, i guess he's returning the favor. But don't act like you're all better than me now."

🐳🐳🐳

a little rushed, I'm sorry. I'm heading to sleep so nighty night

I really want Sami to get a hug, though. bro fuckin needs it

Also, the start of the lineup was 'keep your life, son' from epiphany by Taylor Swift, so this chapter is also lyrics from that song. I don't like the song much, but I felt it should tie back to it somehow