The Next World

Chapter 39

The next day, I took enough painkillers to last the day. I was not going to tell Rick what Daryl and I were planning on doing. I know he'd try and stop us. This needed to get done. It needed to be over. For Denise and for every single person living within these walls right now. I got dressed and headed downstairs. It was still pretty early. Daryl had said he'd wait for me just by the steps. I was relieved to see that he hadn't gone off alone.

"I'll be back. Let me grab a gun real quick," I said.

He nodded.

"Hey," I said.

He looked over at me.

"Promise you won't leave until I get back," I said.

He walked up to me and placed his hands on my cheeks.

"I swear," he said.

I kissed him.

"I'll be right back," I said.

I quickly headed over to the armory and grabbed a handgun. When I was heading out, Carl was heading in.

"Hey. Morning, bud. Whatcha doing?" I said.

"Could ask you the same thing," he said.

"Just gonna check the watch points. You know make sure everyone has enough ammo," I lied.

"You don't have any ammo," he said.

"Yeah...well I just...I wanted to make sure we had enough for everyone. Now I'm off to check the weapons they have up at those watch points. What are you doing here?" I said.

"Had the same thing in mind. Gonna take quick inventory of the stuff we have here though. Help Olivia out," he said.

"That's a good idea. I'll see you later okay," I said removing his hat and kissing his head.

I made my way out. Daryl was still waiting.

"What took so long?" he asked.

"I ran into Carl," I said.

"You tell him what we're doing?" he asked.

"Hell no. He'd tell Rick and they'd stop us. We need to get this done. The quicker we do, the quicker we'll be back," I said.

I then noticed he had a familiar looking key chain in his hand.

"You kept it," I said looking at it.

He bit his lower lip.

"It's stupid..." he started.

"It isn't. I'm glad you kept it," I said wrapping my arms around him.

"We got this," I whispered.

He nodded. He climbed onto his bike and I slid behind him. The motorcycle roared to life and we headed to the front gate. Rosita was on gate duty. I looked over to my left and could see Maggie, Glenn and Michonne by one of the gun bins. We had to leave now.

"Where are you guys going?" Rosita asked when Daryl got off the bike to open up the gate.

"Out," he said.

"No, shit. You got specifics?" Abraham asked from the watch point.

"No need for them," I said.

Daryl got back on and we took off. We drove until we got to the place where it happened. Daryl turned off his bike and the both of us got off.

"You should hide it. If any of those assholes come by, they'll want to take it," I said while I loaded my gun and cocked it.

"I was just thinking about that," he said.