ꜰᴏᴏʟ'ꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴇ || ᴛᴡᴅ

143: ᴏᴜᴛᴘᴏꜱᴛ 22

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Daryl said that the train was the best way to get to the others. Or, where they thought they were, anyway. 

So, they got the train. 

First, a trap was laid. They went ahead of the train and set the track wrong, meaning it would have to be turned, but shoved it with heaps of dirt and sticks, so it would take a while to clear. 

Then, while the armed guard from the front of the train cleared it, Maggie would take the driver. Not kill him, but tie him up and keep him out of the way. They didn't want to hurt innocent people. 

Daryl and Carol would keep an eye on the guards along the now stopped train, walkers drawn over by them working as distractions. which would lead them into the woods. 

In the woods, Sami and Rosita. Rosita was hurt, bad. Broken ribs at least. So, Sami managed to come up with a plan so that she wouldn't be the first line of defense, but also wouldn't be useless. They took out the ones in the wood, and then took out the ones that attacked Daryl and the others. 

Connie was safe and unharmed inside the train, for the most part. No soldiers got away, no news got to the Commonwealth that they were on their way to this outpost. 

Of course, that was too many things working in their favor. They should've seen it coming that something would go wrong. The driver didn't want his family to die due to him helping them, and he couldn't stay alive and not help them. So, he stabbed a screwdriver into his throat.

Rosita came up with the idea to get the radio working again and find a way to get directions straight from the people they were looking for. Apparently, it was the people at Outpost 22, where they'd been told that the kids would probably be. But they had no idea where that was. 

"Outpost 22, this is 301, I need help." Rosita spoke into the radio late that night. They had hardly any light, and Sami, still being afraid of the dark, was leaning against the wall beside the small fire in a bin they had, watching her.

It was cold, and he was starting to feel it. He had a coat and sweater on before, but had given the coat to Rosita since she only had a thin shirt, and with no sun, it was only getting worse.

 Daryl stood beside him, biting his fingers, like usual. He had been trying to annoy Sami, strangely enough, by covering the light with his arm so Sami was in the dark, but he was too worked up about anything adn everything to acknowledge it. Daryl knew he probably wouldn't, but honestly he'd feel a lot better if Sami hit him or acted normal. He could feel his own fear for his daughter grow with Sami's.

"The train was overtaken and I'm in the woods, I'm lost." Rosita continued.  "They're still looking for me. I-I need to get back to the site, over."

There was no response.

"Outpost 22, please, I need help. Over."

"301, what was your original sit-rep and location?" A woman's voice came through, static making it hard to hear, and rather loud in the cold, silent air, but there. 

"Junction seven. I'm the last one left."

"Damn. Copy that. Don't worry, we'll get you home. Do you still have your compass?"

"Yes."

"Good. Head due north through the woods. You'll eventually reach a breach. After that, you'll be on a rough road. That's Parkard Avenue. Gauge your direction, and head south. Copy so far?"

"Yes, copy."

"Eventually, you'll hit highway 30. Take it East. Get off a Crooks. Head down the road until you find a suburban neighborhood. A section has been shored up and fortified with walls. You'll see friendly faces in the guard tower. When you get here, you'll take the northeast gate closest to the railroad tracks, and we'll have guards on the lookout for you.  Unfortunately, we don't have the spare units to send out your way for pickup. We have a convoy coming in for colonial processing. Governor's orders."

"22, did you say a convoy was coming in for reprocessing?"

"Yes, ma'am. Word is that most of the processes used to live here before the Commonwealth claimed the territory and turned it into an outpost, back when it was still called Alexandria."

Sami needed to stab something. He felt an unfamiliar feeling in his gut. How had he not thought of that? Of course they'd take Alexandria. Why wouldn't they? 

The woman continued talking on the radio, but Sami wasn't listening. Rick was on his mind. Which was weird. But he could remember Rick's face, when they first arrived in Alexandria. The hopes they had for it. Everything they achieved. How much it had survived. The walls falling, walkers coming in. Negan bombing it. The child-snatchers, the Whisperers. 

And now those Stormtrooper little shits were in his home. His home. Where his daughter was born. Where Carl, practically his son, was buried. Where he'd found and lost so many people. 

What did they do with the gravestones? Did the remove them? Build over them? What did they do to his home? Were his books and Coco's teddies ditched? Burnt?

"Milton has underestimated us since day one," Maggie voice was thick with fury, as Rosita bit goodbye to the woman on the radio and threw the mouthpiece. "We are going to get our kids, take back our home, and make it right. And Pamela's never going to see it coming."

 They left the train and took off that night. They wanted to get there by morning. They took a break halfway there, everyone but Sami getting some rest. He sat with Rosita's head on his lap, listening. He couldn't sleep. Not with Coco and Carl in the Commonwealth's hands. 

Early morning, he and Daryl scouted Alexandria, now like a military camp. They saw all the adults - Negan, Kelly, Grace, Magna, Princess, Ezekiel - and seeing Rachel made Daryl calm down, but they still needed a way inside. 

"They took the guards off the potholes." Sami said, as they gathered in a field a ways from their home. "They work with horses, but it's a pain when driving. We can get in through them."

Daryl nodded, and signed as he spoke. "Connie and I'll take 'em down."

"I know a way into my house, back window's fucked, pothole not far from it." Sami said. 

Maggie stood beside him. "I'll go with you."

"Me, too." Rosita said.

Carol shook her head. "We'll stay out here. You're our best shooter, if it comes to it."

She went to object, but Sami spoke first. "Think of Teminus, too. We were fucked, Carol fixed it, ta-da."

"Exactly."

Rosita sighed. "Fine. But if it's more than a night, I'm going in."

He nodded, as Daryl handed Rosita his rifle, and the others made their way towards the sewers. "I'll make sure she survives, okay? I've kept my promise this far."

"Don't beat cancer just to die here." She kissed his forehead.

He wasn't sure what to say to her. It felt like he'd never see her again. He hadn't felt that way since the hospital, when the Whisperer's attacked. 

He kissed her, quickly. It was cold. And he hugged her, burying his face in her neck like he did in his dreams before she vanished. 

"I'll get our daughter back. And we'll survive." He lied as he pulled away from her hug. "This isn't some story, we're not some tragedy that Rachel will be obsessed with. It's real life. I shoot, I kill, I come home, okay?" 

She nodded. "And I'll kill you if you don't."

He followed the others, but he felt wrong. Like he'd never see anyone again. Like he was willfully walking into something he shouldn't. Or walking away from something he shouldn't?