Just Keep Walking

Ninety two

Mary watched the people of The Kingdom with wide eyes, engrossed in their lives. There was so many children playing and giggling, groups of adults running and training, woman walking and talking. There was life and people everywhere.
"Daddy." Mary breathed with wide eyes, and he picked her up.
"I know," he smiled at her, "I know."
"They have the numbers," Michonne nodded with a smile, "but can they fight?"
"Oh, they can fight." Jesus grinned.
"Maybe." Daryl nodded slowly.
"Morgan?" Tara asked suddenly, and everyone span around to look in her direction, to see Morgan stood there, smiling.
"Hey," he smiled, hugging Tara, then Sasha, "hi."
"How do you know each other?" Richard asked with a smile.
"We go back to the start." Rick explained, his hand on Morgan's shoulder.
"Well," Richard nodded, "the king is ready to see you."
Rick put Mary down, kissing the top of her head. "Hey, go to mommy, I'll be in in a minute." Rick said absentmindedly, and Mary ran straight to Michonne, hanging off the woman's arm, not even realising what Rick had said. Michonne, Daryl, and Morgan all stood in silence, staring at Rick in shock, then Michonne gave him a little smile and a nod, then went inside with Mary.
"What?" Rick asked with raised eyebrows, as Daryl carried on staring at him with raised eyebrows.
"You just called Michonne Mary's mommy." Morgan explained.
"No I didn't." Rick laughed.
"Yer did." Daryl nodded.
"I did?"
"Yeah. And she knew straight away who you meant." Morgan smiled softly.
"Because she is her mom." Rick nodded softly, then he shook off the sentimental moment. "Did you find Carol?"
"I did, yeah."
"Where is she, she okay?" Daryl asked, slightly panicked.
"She was here, and then she left. You know she wasn't too happy, me following her. She wanted to get away from us, from everyone. But when I found her, she was shot. It was just a graze, I got her back here. They got doctors, they're good."
"Was it them?" Daryl asked, referring to the Saviours.
"It was. She had crossed some of them, and one of them followed her, tried to kill her. But I stopped him. I killed him. I had to. Carol was here. She got help. Now she's gone." Morgan explained. Rick nodded, and walked inside in silence.
Rick stroked the back of Mary's head, and squeezed Michonne's hand, glancing over at Carl, making sure he was okay.
"I can't see!" Mary whined, and Rick took her hand, and they walked to the front of their small group.
Mary gasped when she saw the sight; next to a man on a throne, laid a tiger.
"Daddy!" Mary squealed in excitement, and he placed a gentle finger on his lips, his face full of shock.
"Jesus! It pleases me to see you, old friend!" The man on the throne greeted merrily.
"It pleases him indeed!" A man dressed in a medieval red outfit echoed.
"Jerry. Tell me, what good news do you bring good King Ezekiel. Are these new allies you've brought me?"
"Indeed they are, Your Majesty. This is... Oh, right I forgot to mention that..." Jesus said slowly.
"Yeah, a tiger." Rick nodded nonchalantly, as the tiger roared. They walked forwards a little, Mary grinning.
"Child, come. You know what animal this is?" Ezekiel smiled to Mary, and she ran forwards, nervous and shy, but intrigued.
"Mary!" Rick hissed, but she'd gone, and was up on the stage.
Mary shook her head, not ready to talk to him yet, and Ezekiel spoke up. "This is Shiva, and she's a tiger. Here, you can stroke her." Ezekiel offered, and Mary grinned again, then stroked the top Shiva's head, smiling at Rick proudly.
"C'mon, get back here." Rick ordered, and Mary nodded, running back to him.
"You never run off. Even if I'm just here. Okay?"
"Okay." Mary sighed, resting her head against his arm.
"This is Rick Grimes, the leader of Alexandria, and these are some of his people." Jesus introduced.
"I welcome you all to The Kingdom, good travelers. Now, what brings you to our fair land? Why do you seek an audience with the King?"
"Ezekiel - King Ezekiel - Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom, all three of our communities have something in common. We all serve the Saviours. Alexandria already fought them once, and we won. We thought we took out the threat, but we didn't know then what we know now. We only beat one outpost. We've been told you have a deal with them, that you know them. Then you know they rule through violence and fear."
Jesus suddenly looked panicked, and spoke up. "Your Majesty, I only told them of the..."
"Our deal with the Saviours is not known among my people for good cause. We made you a party to that secret when you told us of The Hilltop's own travails, but we did not expect you to share..."
"We can help each other!" Jesus insisted.
"Don't interrupt the king!" Jerry barked, but Ezekiel cut him off.
"We brought you into our confidence. Why did you break it?"
"Because I want you to hear Rick's plans." Jesus explained.
"And what plans have you, Rick Grimes of Alexandria?"
"We came to ask The Kingdom to ask you to join us in fighting the Saviours, fighting for freedom for all of us." Rick explained.
"What you are asking is very serious."
"Several of our people, good people, were killed by the Saviours. Brutally." Michonne said suddenly.
"Who?"
"Abraham. And Glenn," Rosita spat angrily, "Spencer. Olivia. Eugene was taken. They took Daryl. He escaped. Every second he's out here he's a target.  They took Mary. They terrorised her, tried to brainwash her against us all. A five year old. They only just let her come back. You gonna say you were right?"
"No. I'm... I'm just real sorry they're gone."
"Negan murdered Glenn and Abraham, beat them to death. He... My daughter. She was beaten and told the most unimaginable things. Mary, can... Can you show Ezekiel your bruises? On your tummy? You don't have to." Rick asked Mary gently, and she nodded. Shakily, the girl undid the top of her dungaree dress, and pulled off her shirt.
No one, except from Rick, Carl, and Michonne had seen the bruises and swelling on Mary's back and her ribs. A collective gasp went through the room, and Daryl's fists clenched.
"That motherfucker is dead." He growled.
"I'll kill him." Sasha murmured at the same time.
"Negan did that?" Ezekiel whispered.
"One of his men beat her," Carl explained angrily, "because she was crying too much. Because he killed her best friend in front of her, and tried to get our dad to cut off her leg and my arm. Because she was locked in a tiny, dark cell by herself for days. Because she was being told that everyone she loved was a bad person."
Ezekiel breathed in shakily, looking at the bruises again. The boy stood next to him, Benjamin, turned away, too emotional to see a child in that state.
"I got shot too," Mary announced, pulling up her dress to show everyone her bullet wound, "and I nearly died. And this is from where I got cut, and this is a burn scar. I've got more too."
"C'ere." Michonne whispered, kneeling down and pulling down the skirt of Mary's dungaree dress.
"I was showing them my bullet scar."
"Yeah, but you don't need to. They've already seen it, so they don't have to keep seeing it." Michonne soothed, and Mary nodded slowly.
"Okay." Mary nodded. Michonne pulled her shirt over Mary's head, and did up the dungaree clasps.
"Terrorised the Hilltop," Sasha continued, "set loose walkers just to make a point."
"I used to think the deal was something we could live with. A lot of us did.  But that's changing, so let's change the world, Your Majesty." Jesus explained.
"I want to be honest about what we're asking. My people are strong, but there's not enough of us. We don't have guns, not enough at least. Not a lot of weapons, period."
"We have people," Richard spoke up, "and weapons. If we strike first, together, we can beat them.  Your Majesty, no more waiting for things to get worse beyond what we can handle. We set things right. The time is now.
"Morgan. What say you?" Ezekiel asked suddenly, as Michonne stood up with Mary on her hip.
"Me?"
"Speak."
"People will die. A lot of people, and not just the Saviours. It... If we can find another way, we have to. Maybe it's just about Negan. Just capturing him holding him. Maybe... I..."
Ezekiel stood up, Shiva following his lead and growling. "The hour grows late. Rick Grimes of Alexandria, you have given the King much to ponder."
"Well," Rick began suddenly, "when I was a kid, uh, my mother told me a story. There was a road to a kingdom, and there was a rock in the road. And people would just avoid it, but horses would break their legs on it and die, wagon wheels would come off. People would lose the goods they'd be coming to sell. That's what happened to a little girl."
Mary smiled, listening to the story. It was familiar; Rick had told it her before.
"The cask of beer her family brewed fell right off. It broke, dirt soaked it all up, and it was gone. That was her family's last chance. They were hungry, they didn't have any money. She just sat there and cried but... She wondered why it was still there... For it to hurt someone else. So she dug at that rock in the road with her hands 'till they bled, used everything she had to pull it out. It took hours. And then, when she was gonna fill it up, she saw something in it. It was a bag of gold."
"Alright!" Jerry exclaimed, and everyone looked at him, as though he was stupid and childish.
"The king had put that rock in the road, because he knew the person who dug it out, who did something, they deserved an award. They deserved to have their life changed for the good ... Forever."
There was a small silence, then Ezekiel spoke up. "I invite you all to sup with us, and stay till the morrow."
"Yeah, we need to get back home." Rick began, declining his offer.
"I shall deliver my decree in the morn." Ezekiel said firmly, banging his staff on the floor, ending the conversation. "Richard, Jesus, get the fine people a room for the night, and some food." Ezekiel ordered, then he left, Shiva by his side, Jerry and Benjamin following him.
"This place is magic." Mary breathed, and Richard laughed.
"Alright, we've got some rooms available. I'll show you where you can sleep, then eat." Richard nodded. They walked to a block of buildings, and got into two large attached rooms, with a small bathroom.
"You can stay here," Richard explained, "there's four sofas, and some camp beds, and blankets in the drawers."
"Thank you." Michonne smiled.
"No problem. I'll show you where we eat. We don't serve for another hour or so though." Richard nodded. He walked out of the rooms, and down a large corridor, to a large cafeteria.
"How many people you got here?" Rick asked.
"Over a hundred. Biggest one I've seen yet." Jesus answered.
"Can we look around?" Carl asked, and Richard nodded.
"Yeah, make yourselves at home. I'll see y'all later." The man said, before leaving.
"Can we go look around?" Mary asked Rick, and he nodded. Everyone went outside, Rick and Michonne hanging towards the back, Mary still on Michonne's hip.
"Can we stop?!" Mary squealed suddenly, seeing a makeshift children's park.
"Stop here?"
"Yeah!"
"Alright," Rick chuckled, "guys! We're gonna stop off here for a bit. We'll catch up soon."
The group nodded and left, leaving Rick, Michonne, and Carl sat in a bench, watching as Mary played on the park, a few children looking at her in confusion - they didn't recognise her.
"I'm gonna go find some water. Just a minute." Michonne whispered to Rick, before leaving.
As soon as she left, Carl turned to his father. "You called Michonne Mary's mommy." He whispered.
"I... I didn't think you heard that."
"I did."
"I'm sorry. It's harder on you than it'll ever be in her. She barely even remembers your mom. To her, that's who Michonne is. It was just a slip of the tongue, Carl. I'm sorry. It upset you?" Rick apologised sincerely.
"Yes and no. I just... It's still hard. It's Michonne. It's easier because it's Michonne. Just... Hearing someone else being called mommy by Mary is hard. Even if she doesn't understand. But it's not at the same time, because she's finally happy. Just forget it. I'm glad she feels that was about Michonne. I think it's just... I wish it was that easy for me."
"Me too." Rick whispered. They watched as Michonne came back, and sat by them.
"Everything okay?" She asked with a smile, and Rick nodded.
"Yeah."
Suddenly, Mary ran over to her family with a grin and an Asian boy slightly bigger than her. "This is Harry," she announced, "he's five too!"
"There's not many five year olds left anymore, hey? That's good that you've made a friend. Hi, Harry. I'm Mary's daddy."
"Are you gonna live here?" The boy asked quietly.
"No, we live somewhere else. But we'll be coming to visit."
"Good. We have fun stuff here. A cow! Loads of cows."
"I love the Kingdom! Can we live here? Forever and forever?" Mary asked Rick giddily.
"No, we have our own home. We qcan't leave Alexandria. But we can visit, and we can have friends here."
"Like how Maggie and Enid and Jesus still live at Hilltop." Michonne added.
"Who's that?" Harry whispered to Mary, and Mary smiled.
"She's my sort of mom. She's super cool." Mary explained. "Carl, have you seen the chickens? There's loads!"
"Woah, I'll have to have a look." Carl laughed.
Mary went quiet, and Harry looked at her in confusion. Then she finally spoke up, and nodded slowly, "Glenny would have loved it here."
"He would." Rick agreed gently.
"We can take him some flowers for his room." Mary whispered. Then she skipped away with Harry, giggling, commencing in a game of hide and seek, as if the world was still the world, and she hadn't gone though a horrific tragedy. Rick immediately knew, in that moment, that it would be a long journey for Mary to fully recover, one with ups and downs, but bringing her with him was the best choice. She needed to see hope. And she was.