Alyssa Chávez has felt alone for most of her life. She was never good at making friends. She always felt a distance between her and her family. So when the apocalypse happened, her social life didn't take much of a hit. After losing her family, Alys...
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Chapter Thirty-Five A Deal
Alyssa stood up and followed the group when they suddenly came out of the house to follow some random Hilltop resident. Whoever just came back from wherever seemed important enough to warrant Gregory's attention, so this had better be good.
"Ethan, what happened to everybody else?" Gregory asked the man in the front. "Where's Tim and Marsha?"
"They're dead," the man, Ethan, responded.
"And Negan?"
"Yeah." Ethan nodded.
"We had a deal," Gregory insisted.
Alyssa looked at the rest of the group and Jesus, trying to see if their expressions could tell her anything about what this was about.
"He said it wasn't enough," another man spoke up. "Was the drop light?"
Gregory shook his head. "No," he said defensively.
"They still have Craig," a woman informed him.
"They said they'd keep him alive, return him to us, if I delivered a message to you," Ethan explained as he stalked closer to Gregory.
"So tell me," Gregory replied.
Ethan placed a hand on Gregory's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he expressed before suddenly stabbing him in his stomach.
Rick and Michonne rushed forward to push Ethan back while Maggie and Jesus caught Gregory to help him to the ground. Ethan screamed and trashed while Michonne and Rick kept dragging him away until he managed to shove Michonne aside and tried to fight Rick. Rick quickly got the upper hand, but was pulled away by the other man. That was when Abraham got involved and tackled him to the ground. He never missed a chance to fight.
Rick got back to punching Ethan, but the other man overpowered Abraham somehow. He started choking him until Daryl came along and broke his arm, or at least dislocated his shoulder. Alyssa ran forward and delivered a kick to his chest to get him off of Abraham.
Rick got distracted by the other fight and was overpowered by Ethan. Glenn tried to intervene, but Ethan stopped him from getting closer. "Stay back! Anybody who tries to stop me is killing my brother!" Ethan had a knife to Rick's throat.
In the split second he looked away, Michonne had snuck up behind him. "Drop it," she ordered, keeping a hand on her katana.
Rick took the chance to grab a knife of his own and stab Ethan in the neck. Blood poured from the wound and sprayed Rick's face and chest until he pushed Ethan off of him. Hilltop went silent, short of the sounds of dying and pain from the injured and dying men. The locals looked at Rick in shock, but he wasn't phased. "What?" he questioned.
"Ethan! You killed him!" the man with the possibly broken arm whined.
"He tried to kill Gregory and then me," Rick pointed out.
The woman rushed forward and punched him in the face, but Michonne knocked her down. "Don't," she said. She showed restraint because the woman was clearly unstable after what happened, but she wasn't taking any chances.
To pour salt on the wound, Kal suddenly appeared with his spear. "Drop it now!"
"I don't think I will," Rick responded, now pointing his gun at Kal. Michonne had the woman under control while Daryl and Alyssa kept the other man at gunpoint.
Jesus left Gregory's side to break up this fight. "Everyone, this is over! It's over," he stated. "Ethan was our friend, but let's not pretend he was anything more than a coward who attacked us. He did this. And these people stopped him."
Rick looked to Jesus. "What can I do?"
"Put the gun away. You've done enough," Jesus answered. And to show he did trust and sort of respect Jesus after what happened, he did. Alyssa followed his lead. "You need to know that things aren't as simple as they might seem. Just give me some time," Jesus requested.
Rick nodded and in the meantime, Harlan had arrived to help out Gregory. Alyssa looked at Abraham, who was still on the ground, and nudged him with her foot. "That straw comfortable?" she asked.
Abraham grinned. "It's perfectly fine," he replied. Daryl extended an arm to help him up since if Alyssa did it she would've just knocked herself back.
