Condemned. Sequel to 'Don't Look Back'

Chapter 37

"You'll regret this?" I asked as Carl and I closed the gates of Alexandria.

"That's what she said." Carl rubbed his hands on his jeans once the gate closed.

"What could we possibly regret from making them leave? They're two girls, it's not like they pose a threat to Alexandria." I turned my back to the gate and began walking away.

"I don't know, it's probably nothing though. Just some rag tag group of scavengers." Carl said, joining my side.

"Even if it was nothing, I still think we should tell Rick about it. Just in case they do come back." I said and looked around for Rick, who was probably busy dealing with the new issue of the Saviors.

I walked into the house, and saw Rick sitting around the table with a few others, and I gathered that they were in fact, talking about the Saviors.

"Is there something you needed?" Rick asked as the door closed behind Carl. I cleared my throat and nodded.

"Yeah actually. When we got back from Hilltop, Kaylee showed me two girls who had shown up. One with black hair, the other blonde. They had weapons and were kinda hostile. Anyways, they said they should stay here but I made them leave. Right before the gates closed, they said 'You'll regret this.'" I recited and looked to Carl to confirmation, and he nodded his head in agreement.

"You let them leave?" Rick asked and I nodded.

"They could've had valuable information. They could've been with the Saviors." Rick stood up, and I hadn't realized what a mistake letting them go was.

"I'm sorry. We could probably find them again, they just left a few minutes ago." I desperately tried to fix my mistake.

"Daryl, go with them to find the girls." Rick ran a hand over his beard, looking more stressed out than ever. Daryl ushered us out of the room.

"Let's hope they didn't get too far." Daryl said as he opened the gate for us.

"How could I just let them go?" I asked myself quietly, not meaning for anyone to hear.

"It was a mistake, it'll be okay." Daryl said, giving me a small pat on the back.

"Now let's go find these girls." Daryl said, Carl and I right on his heels.

I looked for any tracks, or any signs they were around only to come up short of anything.

We went into the woods and searched but still found nothing. The sun was setting in the sky, and I knew we would have to turn back soon, empty handed. I kept digging my nails into the palm of my hand to remind myself that I had let this happen. I let the girls go when they now know the location of Alexandria, they kind of know the layout.

If they relay the information they know to someone, we could be in trouble. Anybody could attack us at a moments notice if they tell, and it would all be my fault.

"It's about to get dark, don't wanna be out here. We should go back." Daryl said and my heart dropped to my stomach. I may have just jeopardized everyone's lives.

Once the gates were closed, Daryl led us to a house, where Rick, Michonne, Glenn and someone I had never seen before were drawing pictures and discussing some sort of tactics.

"We go in at night, while they're sleeping." Rick said and the new guy shook his head.

"The guards won't be sleeping."

"Then they'll open the gates for us." Rick said in a tone of power and finality.

The meeting then concluded and everyone walked out. I had only the faintest idea of what was going on. I was about to ask but everyone had walked out of the room. My head was spinning from the confusion and the anger, so I just took a deep breath and walked back to my house.

The next morning, I woke up and went downstairs, determined to get answers and not be in the dark any longer.

"Rick." I caught his attention before he walked out of the front door.

"Yeah?"

"I um, well, I wanted to say sorry for screwing up. I don't know what I was thinking when I let them go, and I'll make it up somehow. But please let me know what's going on with the Saviors." He let go of the door knob and turned to face me.

"We're going in tonight and we're killing them. But we're going out during the day to scope everything out." He kept it short and to the point.

"Let me go." I said, determined to correct my mistake somehow.

"You can't-"

"Why not?" I asked, making it hard for him to turn me away.

"Fine, you can come today but I wouldn't get your hopes up about going tonight." He said and left. I smiled a small smile of victory before going back upstairs and rushing to get ready before they left.

I rushed onto the RV right as they started it, and sat down, looking at everyone who was in here as well, noting that Carl wasn't here.

The ride to the destination was fairly short, maybe about twenty minutes. The cars all honked their horns and stopped, everyone getting out and meeting on the road.

"Rayne, you'll go with Glenn." I nodded and followed Glenn into the woods.

"What're we out here for?" I asked.

"A walkers head that resembles Gregory." He laughed a little, realizing how weird and sadistic that sounded.

"Seems easy enough." I matched his laugh and we continued into the woods on the lookout for walkers.

"There's one." I whispered and pointed one out. We had been looking for a walkers for about fifteen minutes.

I had forgotten my knife so Glenn had to kill all the walkers we found today. It was a careless mistake, which I seemed to be making more frequently lately.

After a while of chopping heads off, we came up with three that might work. We laid them on the road in front of Rick.

"That one." He pointed to the one in the middle, and picked it up.

"Gregory actually has a uh, different nose shape." Jesus said, and Rick nodded.

"That can be fixed." He punched the nose a few times, distorting the way it looked.

"What?" Rick asked the new guy from last night after he had put the head back on the road.

"The Saviors, they're scary but, the pricks don't have anything on you."