Surviving. (Book Two.)

Chapter Fifty Eight.

Sarah; 

The atmosphere in the small community suddenly got a lot more tense as the blonde guy who had returned, stopped a few feet away from all of us. 

Rick was hovering by Jesus while Daryl stayed by Abraham and I, watching the scene unfold with a clenched jaw. 

Gregory looked at the guy confused, "Why would they do that?"

"They said that the drop was too light," someone said from behind blondie, eyes narrowed at the man in charge, "Was it light?" 

"No!" 

Blondie stepped closer to him, "They still have my brother, Craig. But they said that they'd give him back if I delivered a message to you." 

"Then tell me," Gregory said impatiently, glancing at blondie's hand on his shoulder, "Ethan, what's the message?" 

"I'm sorry."

The next thing I knew, Gregory was on the ground, Maggie and Jesus by his side with blood seeping through his shirt from a wound to his abdomen. 

Rick was on blondie, wrestling him to the ground while the guy who was behind him, he was choking Abraham and I quickly moved to try and help him but Daryl pushed me away, in the direction of Maggie and Jesus. 

"Keep pressure on it," Maggie breathed as soon as I knelt down beside them, taking my hand and moving it to the spot that the blood was seeping from and then the three of us watched as Rick stabbed Ethan in the throat. 

"Oh god, they're gonna hate us now." I whispered, causing Maggie's lips to twitch. 

"Don't." 

"Drop it, now!" one of the guys who were guarding the gates yelled, coming towards Rick with a spear raised over this shoulder and Jesus quickly abandoned us to try and diffuse the tension. 

Like that was gonna do anything. Rick had a gun.

"Stop. This is over," Jesus said firmly, "Ethan was our friend but let's not pretend that he was anything more than a coward that attacked us. He did this and these people stopped him." He then returned to our sides after getting Rick to lower his gun, "You all need to know that things aren't as simple as they might seem." 

**

Pushing the door to the library open, Maggie and I gave the group a small smile. We had come back from cleaning the blood off our hands and now, we were just waiting to hear how Gregory was.

Just as I sat down on a fancy looking loveseat, the door opened again.

"Dr Carson was able to stitch Gregory up." Jesus said as he came in, "He'll live." 

"We heard the name Negan," Rick said immediately, "Who is he?" 

"Negan is the head of a group that he's named the Saviours," Jesus began, "Like I said, as soon as the walls were built, they showed up. They met with Gregory on behalf of their boss and made a lot of demands. A lot more threats." 

"You said they killed one of your own? A teen?" 

"Yes," he said sadly, "Rory. He was only sixteen years old. They beat him to death right in front of us. Said that we needed to understand, right off the bat." 

I looked down at my shoes while chewing on my bottom lip. Whoever these Saviours were, they didn't seem like a group that you wanted to mess with and I hoped that Rick would realise that too. 

"Gregory isn't exactly good at confrontation and he's not the leader that I would have chosen but he made this place what it is and the people like him."