Safe haven | Rick Grimes

096. THE BOOGEYMAN

Chapter ninety six

"The boogeyman."

Having made it back to Alexandria, the house felt entirely different. The rooms were too quiet, heavy with the knowledge that their mother wouldn't be coming through the door for a while. That night, Judith, Caroline, Daryl, and Rick all piled into Scarlett's bed together, refusing to be separated as they fell asleep to the quiet hum of the house.

By morning, the respite was shattered. Word spread rapidly that a Whisperer was standing right outside the perimeter.

With their weapons gripped tightly in their hands, the four siblings marched down the main street alongside Father Gabriel, Rosita, and the rest of the militia. The heavy iron gates groaned open, revealing six Alexandria guards keeping their spiked spears leveled directly at a lone Whisperer woman.

The woman slowly brought her hands up, peeled the caked skin mask from her face, and threw it into the dirt. She let out a heavy sigh, her eyes sweeping the hostile faces. "I'm the one who knows Aaron," she told them, her voice rough.

"We know who you are," Gabriel countered coldly, his hands gripping his weapon.

"The people you sent out... they're in trouble," the woman shared, stepping a pace closer. "They're trapped inside a cave system where Alpha has placed her herd. Now, they could still be alive in there, or they might've gotten out. I don't know."

Gabriel's brow furrowed in immediate skepticism. "You told Aaron the horde was out in an open field."

"It was," the woman insisted.

"And now it's in a cave?" Gabriel pressed.

"She moved it," the woman told him, her voice tightening. "The whole thing. Right before your people got there."

Gabriel let out a grim, humorless huff. "The entire horde. Right before they arrived."

The woman let out a long sigh, looking at the spears bristling in her face. "I'm just telling you what happened."

"I'm not sure you are," Gabriel told her flatly.

"I'm trying to help you," the woman pleaded.

"Why?" Rosita asked, stepping forward from the line, her posture tense and lethal.

The woman looked down at the dirt, her expression fracturing with genuine emotion. "The baby that they abandoned at Hilltop... he's my nephew. And I would do absolutely anything just to see him again."

"Where is the baby's mother?" Gabriel asked.

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the front gate.

"Dead," the woman whispered.

Gabriel and Rosita exchanged a swift, calculating look before focusing back on the defector. "If I bring you a map, can you show us exactly where this cave system is?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes," the woman promised, nodding quickly.

Gabriel gave a single nod to the guards, and they slowly lowered their spears. The woman took a tentative step through the threshold, stopping directly in front of Rosita. In a flash of pure aggression, Rosita threw a powerful punch straight into the woman's jaw.

The Whisperer crashed hard into the dirt, clutching her face.

"You're a liar," Rosita spat down at her, her knuckles white. She whirled around to the guards. "Put her in the cellar cell."

Daryl turned his head, his sharp eyes locking onto Judith, Caroline, and Rick. Reading the tactical shift instantly, the four siblings turned away from the shouting crowd and walked off in a tight, silent formation, completely aware that their mother's vanguard was currently trapped in the dark with Alpha's army.