Rise Up

Chapter 17

Carl and Enid said their goodbyes.

"You guys are so cute," I teased.

"Stop," Carl said.

"What? You are. I'll see you around, Enid. Take care of Maggie," I said giving her a hug.

"I will," she said.

She headed back to the house.

"Finally," I told Carl nudging his elbow.

"Okay, I'm not sitting next to you," he said with a smile.

"Oh come on. I've gotta get my fill in," I said.

"That's not happening," he said.

Jesus then took us to a van just outside of the gates. We all squeezed in there. Tara and Jesus took the front seat. Sasha had joined us. The rest of us sat in the back. Tara started the van and we took off. Rick then turned toward Daryl and me.

"On the day you guys took off. Before...Before Negan, Carol did too," Rick started.

I grabbed Daryl's hand and squeezed it.

"Did you find her?" Daryl asked.

"No. Morgan and I followed her trail for a while. I had to get back. Morgan continued looking. We don't know where he is either. I just hope that he was able to find her and that they're both okay," he said.

Daryl looked down.

"She's tough. I'm sure she's okay. The both of them. And I'm sure we'll see them again," I said.

"There's more," Rick said.

I took in a breath.

"Tell us," I said.

"Yesterday, Negan stopped by," he continued.

"What the hell? He showed up a second time? Enid told me about the first but..." I trailed off.

"Carl stowed away in one of his trucks and got to his place," Rick said.

I turned around to look at Carl.

"What. The. Hell?" I said sternly.

"He didn't do anything," Carl said.

"Oh and that's supposed to make me feel better? Carl, you could have died. Dammit, what were you thinking?" I said.

"I was thinking of taking out the son of a bitch before he could take out any more of us. But I messed up and in the end, I couldn't prevent that from happening," Carl said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Carl was silent. I looked at Rick.

"Rick. What does he mean?" I asked.

"He killed Spencer and Olivia," he answered.

"What the hell for?" I said my voice rising in volume.

"Spencer had a problem with the way Rick was doing things. He went to try to talk Negan into a different arrangement. So, Negan took him out and Olivia...that was on me," Rosita said.

"Why?" Daryl asked.

"Because I had Eugene make me a bullet. I asked him to make me one so that I could take out that asshole. I tried to shoot him but that fucking bat of his, got in way. And then he took Eugene," she said.

"So Negan has Eugene," I said.

I was processing everything in my head as they told me. A lot of shit had gone down in the past couple of days

"Shit. Those assholes need to die," I said.

"Yeah. They do," Rick said.

I exhaled.

"Hey," Daryl called.

I looked over at him.

"I should have told you about Carl when I got to Hilltop. I was there when he came shooting up the place. I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah. You should have told me. But you were dealing with your own shit. I forgive you," I said kissing his hand.

I then turned toward Carl.

"And Carl, I'm sorry for blowing up at you. I just...the thought of you being so close to him...scares the crap out of me. I'm beyond glad that you made it back okay," I said.

"It's good to have you back too. All three of you," he said looking from me to Daryl and Sasha.

"It feels good to be back together," I said.

After half an hour of driving, we came to a stop. There wasn't much of a place where we had stopped. Just some buildings with abandoned cars all around. We all got down. Daryl stayed inside with the door open.

"How much further?" Rick asked Jesus.

"Well, technically we're already here. I mean, we're always here but here we are. At the Kingdom. Well, it's outer edge," he replied.

"Not much of a Kingdom if you ask me," I said.

"Hey, what the hell we waitin' on?" Daryl asked from the van.

"Waiting for them," Jesus said pointing to the right.

We all looked in the direction just as two men in horses and riot gear appeared.

"Who dares to trespass on the sovereign land of the...oh shit. Jesus, is that you?" one of the men said.

"Who are all these people, Paul?" the other asked.

"Hi, Richard. Nice to see you," Jesus said making his way over to them.

"It's good to see you too. Your friends, who are they?" Richard asked.

"This is Rick Grimes. He's the leader of a like-minded community. These are some of his people. We would like to request an audience with King Ezekiel," Jesus said.

Richard dismounted his horse and made his way over.

"Get out of the car," he ordered to those of us still in the van.

Carl, Rosita and Tara came out.

"You say they're a like-minded community. Like-minded how?" he asked.

"We live, we trade, and we fight the dead. Sometimes others," Jesus said.

Richard paused.

"Line up," he said.

"Seriously?" I retorted.

"It's routine, Amelia. It's okay," Jesus said.

I trusted Jesus' word. I did as he asked.

"Okay. This is a waste of time. Come on. Let's go," Daryl said.

He reached for my hand.

"Maybe you're right. The King is a busy man. And it's a dangerous world. We don't usually allow a pack of strangers to waltz through our door," Richard said.

"Babe, come on. They're just being cautious," I said softly to Daryl.

He bit on his lower lip then lined up with the rest of our people.

"We want to make the world less dangerous, and we are all here to show the King how serious we are about that," Michonne said.

"The car stays outside. You gotta hand over your guns," Richard said.

"We only have two," Rick said looking at Carl.

The both of them handed their guns over.

"Okay. Follow me," Richard said.

The group took off in front of Daryl and me.

"Come on," I said gently pulling toward the rest of the group.

He sighed then started walking with me.