leader || book 5 of 'she's a dixon'

chapter 5

sasha kept watch with lamson as we went off to set our plan. but when we came back for her, we found her knocked out and lamson was gone.

rick immediately sprung into action as the rest of us stayed back. sasha eventually woke up and we all just hung tight for rick to get back with lamson. but when rick came back, he was by himself. i went over to rick along side of dad. "he wouldn't stop" rick said. he killed lamson.

"does this change things?" i asked. "it has to" rick said. "maybe not" dad said.

"well she said the plan won't work. the guy who did is dead. maybe we gotta rethink this" rick said. "they also said the cop in charge didn't have any love for him. maybe you did her a favor" i suggested. "i don't know if they'll play ball." rick said. "let's find out" i said making the final decision.

rick motioned our head towards the rest of the people with us and we walked over to tell them the game plan. "he was a good man. he was attacked by rotters and you saw it go down." the woman said. that's what she thinks we should tell to this dawn person.

"huh. you're a damn good liar." rick said. "we're hanging by a thread here. he was attacked by rotters, that's the story." the woman said.

"you said the trade was a bad idea. what changed?" dad asked. "lamson was our shot. so it's this or you go in guns blazing, right? you don't want that" the woman said. "if this is some bull shit you're spinning and things go south-" dad said pointing at her in a threatening manner.

"i know. i know the good ones from the bad. let us help you." the woman said. i believe her. but we still have that prick that attacked dad to talk to. "what about you? you wanna live? how much?" rick asked the prick.

"dawn's afraid she'll look weak infront of us. thinks it'll tip things against her. hell, it will. she'll see this trade as a rip off if she thinks you took out one of our guys. so it's a good thing lamson got aced by rotters." the prick told rick. rick looked back at me. i sighed and nodded.

sasha and tyreese kept watch at the edge of the roof as we made a move on. we needed someone to cover us while we were moving to our trade off area. rick was going to meet with the people first while we stayed on the roof. i helped keep watch along side of sasha and dad once rick went down. i watched through the scope of my gun as a cop car went around the curb, towards where rick was.

i snapped my fingers to signal tyreese to alert rick. "they're heading towards the vantage point" tyreese said through the radio. "okay, copy that" i heard rick say.

dad and i ran to the other side of the rooftop so we could get a view on rick. sasha stayed behind just incase. rick raised his hands to show he came in peace as the cop car stopped. as the two cops came out, i centered my scope in one one of them as dad got the other. we weren't gonna let anything happen to rick.

i saw a walker approaching behind the cop car. "i got it" i whispered to dad. i then shot it with my gun, that had a silencer on it by the way.
our plan was working because rick called us down so we could go into the hospital for our trade.

dad had the prick and sasha had the woman. i walked infront with rick as tyreese stayed in the back. making our way upstairs, we stopped at two door that lead to one of the halls. you could see the cops lined up.

"holster your weapons" dawn said through the radio to rick. "you too" rick said in return. i put the strap to the rifle on my shoulder because my bow was on my back.

the two cops rick met up with opened the door and lead us into the hallway in which they made carol and beth noticeable. "they haven't been harmed" rick said. he was now holding the woman. i stood behind dad.

"where's lamson?" dawn asked. "the rotters got him." the woman said. "we saw it go down" the prick added. "oh, i'm sorry to hear that. he was one of our good guys. one of yours for one of mine" dawn said.

"alright" rick said looking over to dad. "move" dad said to the prick and he started walking. he walked him over an met in the middle with a cop from the other side.

he traded off the prick for carol who was in a wheel chair, and then rolled her back to us. rick then started walking over the woman as dawn walked over beth. when beth approach rick, he put a hand on the back of her neck and gave her a kiss on the top of the head before walking her over to the rest of us.

"glad we could work things out." dawn said as we all started walking out. i gave beth a hug before beginning to walk out. "now i just need noah" dawn called out right before we left. i sighed as we all quit walking.

"and then you can leave." dawn added. "that wasn't part of the deal" rick said walking back over to dawn. "noah was my ward. beth took his place and i'm loosing her, so i need him back." dawn said.

the woman that was with us earlier tried to stop her but dawn refused. "my officers put their life on the line to find him and one of them died." dawn said.

"no, he ain't staying" i said standing in front of noah. "he's one of mine, you have no claim on him." dawn said. dad joined rick up front.

"the boy wants to go home, so you have no claim on him" rick said. "well then we don't have a deal." dawn said. "the deal is done!" rick yelled.

"it's ok, it's ok" noah said walking over to rick. "no, no" rick said holding his hand back to try to stop noah. "i gotta do it" noah said looking rick in the eye and taking his gun out of his holster.

he handed the gun over to rick as beth said "it's not ok". "it's settled" dawn said as noah started walking over. "wait!" beth said running over to noah. she engulfed noah in a hug. "it's ok" noah promised beth. "i knew you'd be back" dawn said. beth then went over and got in dawns face.

"i get it now." beth said. and right at that moment, she stabbed dawn in the shoulder and dawns immediate reaction was to shoot beth in the head. i looked at beth's body that was now on the floor in shock.

dawn tried defending herself, but dad stormed over and shot her in the face. and then at that point, all guns were raised. the woman he had earlier stopped all of her people.

i looked over at dad who was now crying. i ran over to him and grabbed onto his arm as he broke down into tears. he looked down at beth and then to me. and for the first time that i have saw in my life, he looked broken.