[Finished] Living Among the Dead

51. Wrath

"Daryl?" I say, softly as he moves around the trailer; getting ready for battle... again.
"What?" He grunts, pulling on his pants.
"I'm sorry..."
I see him stop, his muscles tensing at my words. He isn't wearing a shirt yet, and I can see the scars scattered along his tattooed back. Scars that match the ones on my stomach and lower back. "What?" He repeats.
I sigh, "You lost Mason, too. And then I made you lose me. I'm sorry. I'm here now. I promise, I'm here. And after the fight, after we win fighting side by side; we'll talk things through. We'll heal. We'll... we'll fix us."
I watch as he turns around stiffly, "We'll fight together. We'll raise our kids together. But I ain't promising shit about fixin' some'in' that's broken."
My heart drops to my stomach, and I have to force myself not to start crying. He turns back around and throws on his shirt, we both finish getting ready in silence.

"We'll stick to this road, keep to the trees, we'll get there quicker." Daryl points at places on the map sent to us by Dwight. "Plus, we can keep an eye on the road that way."
"Yeah, if they're planning anything, we'll see it." Rosita agrees, crossing her arms over her chest.
"You think you can trust Gregory?" Michonne asks. "What he told us?"
"I locked him up inside the house," Maggie responds, "He knew I wouldn't let him walk around free. He knew he was coming back to that. He doesn't believe in anything except himself, and he'd have to believe in the Saviors a whole lot to send us into a trap and think it would work out for him."
"Unless it's Dwight who's sending us into a trap," I suggest.
Daryl nods, "That asshole could be settin' us up."
We all watch Morgan rush past and Carol goes after him. I go to follow her but Daryl stops me, "Let 'er handle it."
"Something's wrong."
He hesitates, but nods, and we all catch up as soon as Morgan is standing over Henry with his stick pointed right at him.
"They were, uh... They were gone... him. They were coming in."
"I asked Maggie if we could clear the walkers from the wall." Aldain explains. "We drew them away so we wouldn't have to worry about 'em when we rolled out."
"He did," Maggie confirms.
"Let's keep gettin' ready, everyone." Rick instructs. "First team's going in 20."
"Anne," Daryl says, walking over to me.
My heart flutters annoyingly, but I try to remain neutral as I respond, "Yeah?"
"I know you want to fight, but-"
"Daryl, I'm fighting. I can't stay behind again worrying like last time. I just can't. Maggie's further along than I am and she's fighting, no ones telling her not to. And it's not like you care what happens to me, anyway. So back off."
"I care what happens to the kid."
He has no idea how much that hurt. I don't even know if he'd intended his words to hurt me at all, but I don't back down. Instead I get in his face. So do I," I respond, coldly.
As I walk away, Jesus catches up with me, "Hey! What was that back there?"
"What do you mean?" I ask, playing dumb.
"With Daryl. I've never seen the two of you so hostile before."
"He doesn't want to talk things threw. He thinks we're too broken to bother trying to fix."
Jesus looks at me closely, "He's hurting. You pushed him away first, give him time."
"And if I can't? If I can't just wait this out?"
"You'll find the strength to wait it out. I know you will."

I follow behind Daryl as we walk out the gate with Rosita, Carol, Morgan, King Ezekiel, Jerry, Jesus, Rick, and Michonne. We end up sneaking through the woods like Daryl suggested, and are able to stay hidden well when a group of the Saviors roll in.
I watch as the Saviors start making one of their famous roadblocks made out of the dead.
At Carol's signal, we shoot them down quickly and easily. Then we move in to check the bodies, see if there's anything on the any of them that'll help us keep the advantage.
"Good people, found something on our quarry," Ezekiel speaks up.
"What is it?" Michonne asks, as the rest of us gather around.
"A list and another map. And what appear to be other facts."
Rick takes the papers, "They're lining up Saviors on the Old Mill Road. That's where Negan will be."
"We have to get to Negan before they figure out what happened here," Carol advices.
"Maggie," Rick speaks into the radio.
"I'm here," Maggie responds through the other end of the radio.
"It's time. It was a trap. So we're changing the plan." Rick informs her.
I'm walking next to Jesus and Morgan, and Jesus is talking to Morgan, "You want to keep these people safe, and you think you need to kill other people to do that. That's not exactly safe for you, which ultimately may not be safe for the people you're trying to keep safe. It's a conundrum. Or it's not. But you can stop people without killing them. I mean, you almost stopped me. I have a simple proposal. Something to try." He takes Morgan's stick, points at the bloodied sharpened end, "This end for the dead." He points to the blunt end, "and this end for the living." He let's go of the stick. "And things will get better." He then walks off.
I roll my eyes at the back of his head as Carol speaks up, "Jesus. I'm starting to like that guy." I glance at her and we exchange a brief smile.
We all stop as Daryl stops, looking beside us where a herd of the dead, bigger than I've ever seen is down at the horizon.
"Oh, Jesus." Rosita whispers.
"Holy damn," Jerry speaks up. "You ever seen one that big?"
"No," Rick responds. "Things are changing. Let's go."
"How much further?" Daryl asks as we start moving once more.
"We grow closer. Yonder, over the ridge." Ezekiel responds.