The Next World

Chapter 27

I thought about that for a bit. How were we gonna give them Gregory's head? I mean, I wouldn't be totally opposed to taking that asshole's head off. But we couldn't do that without causing a strain between the Hilltop. And we needed them. A light bulb in my head suddenly went on.

"You brilliant son of a bitch," I chuckled.

Everyone looked at me with confused expressions.

"What?" Glenn asked.

"We grab a walker, cut off its head and make it look like Gregory's," I said.

I waited to see it click in their heads.

"Are you reading my mind or something?" Rick asked.

"Maybe," I said.

He laughed.

"Well, everyone rest up. We're taking off around noon," he said.

We left Jesus and Andy and made our way back to our houses. Daryl and I went upstairs. We got to our room, took off our shoes and flopped down on the bed.

"You okay with the plan Rick put into place?" I asked him.

"Whatever gets the job done faster. Are you?" he said.

"Yeah. We can do this. We're gonna put an end to these assholes," I said looking over at him.

"Come here," he said.

I moved in closer and he wrapped his arm around me. He kissed my forehead and I settled into his arm.

"Let's try and get some sleep," he whispered.

"You got it," I whispered back.

I closed my eyes and dozed off. A few hours later, we were all getting ready. I was at the armory loading up the guns we'd be taking. Rosita was in there with me and extremely quiet.

"Rosita? You okay? You've been awfully quiet since we came in," I said.

"I'm fine," she said sternly.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Amelia, I'm okay. Can you just drop it?" she retorted.

She quickly finished up then headed out. What was up with her? Maybe I should talk with Abraham since they're together. Or maybe she just didn't want to talk about whatever it was that was clearly bothering her. I finished up loading the guns, placed them in a bag and headed out. I had slung a rifle over my shoulder and made my way to the RV.

"All of these loaded?" Rick asked when I handed him the bag.

"Yup. Full clips in each," I said.

"That's my girl," he said.

"Who else is going?" I asked.

"You, me, Daryl. Abraham and Rosita. Glenn and Maggie," he began.

"Wait. Maggie's going? Why?" I asked cutting him off.

"She wanted to come. She's going to be out on perimeter watch," he said.

"By herself?" I asked.

"She can handle herself," Rick said.

"I know she can. She's one of the toughest people that I've ever known. I just can't help but worry, you know," I said.

"Glenn's worried too. But the quicker we get this done, the quicker we can all go home," he said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Carl's staying home?" I said.

"He wanted to come. But I convinced him to stay," he said.

"Good. Didn't want him to come," I said.

"And why's that?" he asked.

"There's a lot of shit he's seen. I don't want him to have to see something if he doesn't need to. And besides, we need to him to look out for this place," I said.

"I agree," he said.

I nodded.

"Load up everybody! We're moving out!" he turned and shouted.

We had all split up between the RV and two cars and were off. Rick, Michonne, Andy, Jesus, Sasha and Abraham took the RV. Gabriel, Maggie, Glenn, Daryl and I took one of the cars. Rosita, Aaron, Tara, Heath and Carol took the other. We'd been driving for about an hour. The RV came to a stop and we all then proceeded to honk the horns. We'd draw out the walkers that were lingering somewhere out of sight. All of us then got out of our vehicles.

"Aaron, Rosita. You start here. We'll peel off every quarter mile, meet back here in a couple of hours. See what we got," Rick said.

"Come on," Daryl said.

"Yes, sir," I said heading down the road.

Glenn and Heath followed us while Maggie and Carol stayed behind.

"I didn't want Maggie to come," I leaned over to tell Glenn.

"I didn't either. But she feels responsible. Since she made the deal, she said that she needed to come," he said.

"Makes sense," I said.

"Yeah. It's just who she is," he said.

I nodded. We walked some more.

"Alright, you guys head on that way. Amelia and I got this way," Daryl said.

Heath and Glenn nodded then headed into the woods. Daryl and I walked a little further before doing the same.

"Wanted to get me alone. Took you long enough," I said cracking a smile.

"Stop," he said.

A twig snapped in the distance and the both of us held up our guns.

"This way," he said.

I followed him.

"Damn rabbits," I said when we got to the source.

"Let's keep looking," he said.

"Okay," I said.

We ventured further into the woods.

"Daryl, hold up. Listen," I said.

The both of us stopped. Moaning and growling could be heard from where we stood. We moved closer as quietly as we could. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and pulled out my knife. There was one that came out of the trees. Daryl quickly dove his knife into its skull. There was suddenly another that came and knocked me down.

"Shit," I said.

Its teeth tried to get at me. I struggled to get a grip on my knife. Daryl quickly came and sunk his knife into it. He moved it beside me.

"You good?" he asked reaching his hand to me.

"Yeah," I said taking his hand.

He helped me stand and embraced me tightly.

"I'm good. Babe, I swear," I said.

We parted and he looked at me. He kissed my forehead. I looked over at the walkers on the ground. I went over to look them over.

"Too much hair. What do you think?" I asked looking up at Daryl.

"This one's too screwed up from the face. Need some with more skin on it," he said.

"Okay. Let's see what more we can find," I said getting up and continuing.

I stopped when I didn't hear Daryl behind me. I turned around. He hadn't moved. He was biting his lower lip. I made my way back to him.

"Wanna head back?" I asked.

He looked at me then nodded.

"Yeah. Come on," he said taking hold of my hand and leading me back the way we came.