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Sacrifice

The sun was slowly setting beyond the horizon, casting brilliant and vibrant displays of colour into the sky, orange, blue and even purple. In the trees below, the birds who usually sang their daily chorus had quietened down as they returned to their nests for the night while the night time predators such as the owls were waking up. The evening brought with it a chilling breeze that contradicted the warmth of the day that had just ended. Silence was slowly descending upon the community of Alexandria.

There was tension in the air after the fight between Rick and Pete. The lingering tension was caused by Rick's seemingly crazed rantings while aiming a revolver at several residents including Deanna. As a result, Michonne had knocked him unconscious and after having his wounds seen to by Rosita, he was locked inside an unfinished townhouse that was used as Alexandria's unofficial holding cell. Michonne opted to watch over him as he had yet to wake up from the hit to the head.

Pete had also been seen to by Rosita. He was still angry and uncooperative. Deanna had seen that Rick was right and action had to be taken against their abusive surgeon. Pete had been placed in another house, one that was empty and away from where the rest of his family lived. It would give him time to think over his actions and would give Jessie, Ron and Sam some time without the stress, fear and pain Pete caused them in their day to day lives.

Dinner in the shared Grimes household was also silent compared to the usual. Jason, Carl and Glenn sat at the dining table as they finished their evening meals with the only attempts at conversation being made by Judith who was fed by Carol. They were all lost in their own thoughts as they all were well aware that Rick's actions would have serious consequences for all of them. The trust that the community had for the group could have already been damaged irreparably.

A knock on the front door brought them out of their thoughts. Jason had been the first one to finish eating so he got up and walked over to the door before opening it. On the other side of the doorway stood a very stern faced Deanna. She stepped into the house without saying a word to Jason, clearly still angry with him over the blackmail and generally distrusting of the group as a whole. Gabriel had warned her and Rick had proven the warning to be valid.

"I just came by to inform you all that I've organised a meeting tomorrow night." Deanna told them. "Whoever wants to attend is more than welcome."

"What's the meeting about?" Carol asked her timidly with a friendly smile, still holding Judith in her arms.

"About what happened today and what it means for the future." Deanna answered vaguely.

There was a tense silence in the room. They all knew what Deanna really meant to say. It was going to be a meeting about Rick and what to do with him, which could mean he would be exiled along with other members of the group. If that happened, all of them would be exiled because they refused to go anywhere without him.

Deanna turned her attention to Jason as she made her way to the door. "Jason, I'd like you to come with me."

"What for?" Jason asked, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"I have something I need to ask you about." Deanna told him. "So please, come with me now. It won't take long."

Jason glanced back at Carl who gave him a quiet nod. He had Carl's permission to leave him for the time being. He shrugged and followed Deanna out the door, closing it behind him.

Jason sat on the big chair in Deanna's living room. The former politician had her video camera set up on its tripod as it recorded their discussion. Deanna had brought him there to interrogate him over a couple things she had been made aware of and wanted to have video evidence for the sake of transparency.