Two Sides

Chapter 16 - Fears

Ezekiel's POV

He was dead.

Ezekiel couldn't really fathom what had happened. The situation had escalated, one of the Saviors – Jared – had shot Benjamin, and they hadn't been able to stop the bleeding, not even in Carol's cottage.

Now he was dead.

Ezekiel felt a very sharp pain, guilt mixed with a rage he hadn't felt before. The boy didn't deserve this. He was smart, kind, someone the Kingdom needed, someone everyone loved. It was tragic and unnecessary.

Now that he thought about it, Ezekiel knew he should have seen this coming. The tension between his crew and the Saviors had increased a lot lately, not just because of Richard. It had been inevitable that something terrible had to happen. But that it hit Benjamin made everything a lot worse. And Ezekiel had held on to this fake peace, a peace the Saviors didn't honor as much as he did, maybe didn't honor at all. So it was his fault, at least partially.

Benjamin left his little brother Henry, and now it was on Ezekiel to tell him that his brother had died – the only family the little boy had left. He had no time to grief the loss, he was the king and he was responsible for the life of every single resident of the Kingdom.

Plus, today they had to deliver that damn cantaloupe that they still owed to the Saviors.

* * *

Your POV

You woke up, startled by a noise coming from outside the cottage. Knife at the ready, you glanced through a gap in the boarded-up window. There was nothing, so you walked over to the door, your feet carrying you without a sound. Again, you looked through a gap and right in that moment, a walker crashed against the door and tried to get in, a scratching sound mixing with the snarling and moaning of the other walkers. You jumped back, trying to calm your racing heart. If the cottage was surrounded, you had no chance to get out.

At least you had made sure that the windows and the door were safe. They couldn't get in. Maybe you didn't have to die.

You tried the other windows now, and your situation didn't get any better. No matter which side of the cottage, there were walkers everywhere. With a curse, you sat back down on the bed. Apparently, it had been a bad idea to linger around. You should've gone straight to Alexandria. Then you wouldn't be alone.

Didn't matter now, you couldn't go outside without having a hoard of walkers chasing you as their breakfast. Waiting seemed to be the only option, but you didn't have that much water and food left.

It was ridiculous, you were on your way to war against Negan – you wouldn't die because of some walkers. You had always made it, you had been alone for so long and never given in. Now certainly wouldn't be the time.

In your head, you formed a plan on how you would get out of here. You just hoped it would work.

* * *

Ezekiel's POV

They met up with the Saviors again, same place as always. Today was different though, Benjamin wasn't with them and everyone was quieter than usual. Gavin asked about the boy and then figured out what had happened. Surprisingly, he seemed to care since he passive-aggressively told his guy Jared that he should start walking home before he'd kill him.

Richard then took the cantaloupe and brought it to Gavin. In that moment, Morgan started to attack him with the stick. Everyone watched in shock when he strangled him, bashing his head against the concrete of the parking lot. Time passed, as if in slow-motion, Ezekiel realized that he dared him to stop but Morgan didn't, not until Richard had stopped breathing. Dead.