My Fallen Angel (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Thirty Six: Kingdom of Isolation

We pack into a suburban and Jesus leads us to where we need to go. The whole way there describing a place that sounds like it came from one of the fantasy books I've read, I couldn't help but smile a bit as he described how the King acts. We park where Jesus tells us and all get out of the car. "It's called the Kingdom?" Rick asks in disbelief."Yeah." Jesus answers. "I didn't name it." "It sounds awesome." I smile. "Fun." Jesus smiles back."How much farther?" Rick asks shaking his head at me."Well, technically, we're already here," Jesus says and we look around. "I mean, we're always here, but here we are... in the Kingdom. Well, it's the outer edge." "What are we waiting for?" Daryl asks. "Waiting for them," Jesus says as he points I turn to see two people in armor on horseback."Who dares to trespass on the sovereign land of the... Oh, shit... Jesus is that you?" A man speaks, I grin at the medieval talk. Jesus just waves at them. "Who are all these people Paul?" "Hi, Richard," Jesus says. "Nice to see you.""Nice to see you too," Richard says. "Your friends who are they?" "This is Rick Grimes," Jesus points to my brother. "He's the leader of a like-minded community." He waves to all of us. "These are some of his people, we would like to request an audience with King Ezekiel." Richard gets off his horse and comes to look at us all. "Get out of the car," He tells the rest still in the car. "You say they are a like-minded community. Like-minded how?" He asks Jesus."We live, we trade, we fight the dead." Jesus answers then pointedly look at him. "Sometimes others." "Line up." He tells us nodding."Okay," Daryl shakes his head. "This is a waste of time. Come on let's go.""Daryl," I grab his arm about to say something but Richard talks first."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." "Of course, and we understand that..." I say and think about my books. "We're requesting an audience with the king to perhaps make a... treaty of some kind. We want to make the world less dangerous, and we are all here to show the, Your Majesty, how serious we are about that," "The car stays outside," Richard looks at me eyebrow raised and nods. "You gotta hand over your guns." "We only have two," Rick says nodding to Carl as he gives over his, Carl hands his over next. "Okay," Richard says taking them. "Follow me." As we make our way in we see a lovely place full of people, with gardens that smell amazing. It's almost as surreal as the first day we made our way into Alexandria. I can't help but smile at the others. I'm wandering around a bit when I hear a familiar voice talking to the group. I turn and see Morgan, I run to him giving him a hug."Great to see you." I smile."You too." He nods."How do you know each other?" Richard asks. "We go back to the start." Rick answers."Well, the King is ready to see you." Richard nods then point to me. "And you might want to let her do most of the talking." I raise my eyebrow at him."What?" I ask as the others look to me as well."You seem to know how to address the King." He counters and turns for us to follow him. "For once I think all of your books will pay off." Rick smiles at me then turns to Morgan. I let him be following Richard to see the King. We follow him into a theater and on the stage sits a man with gray dreadlocks and he holds a cane and a long chain attached to a tiger. A real live tiger I can't help but grin as my eyes follow her. Standing on the other side is a boy with a staff and a big man wearing a steward outfit holding an ax. Behind them is a painting of a castle. "Jesus!" King Ezekiel says loudly. "It pleases me to see you, old friend." "It pleases him, indeed!" Says the big man, his arm up. I grin again, giggling. "Jerry." The King chastises but Jerry just grins at him. "Tell me, what news do you bring good King Ezekiel? Are these new allies you've brought me?" "Indeed, they are, Your Majesty." Jesus smiles at me as I make my way next to him. "This is..." He pauses and turns to see why the others are hesitant to step closer. "Oh, right, I forgot to mention..." "Yeah, a tiger..." Rick nods."She's beautiful!" I grin the others are looking at me like I've gone mad. The tiger roars again and my grin grows bigger. King Ezekiel stares at me with interest, I guess he was expecting me to be afraid. Jesus walks to where I stand and passes me. I use him as an indicator of where to stand safely. Tigers may be my favorite animal and this tiger didn't seem to attack others but I wasn't stupid. "This is Rick Grimes, the leader of Alexandria, and his sister Esme Dixon, these are some of their people." Jesus introduces us as the others finally come forward. "I welcome you all to the Kingdom, good travelers." King Ezekiel says. "Now what brings you to our fair land? Why do you seek an audience with the King?" Rick looks to me but I shake my head. "Leader always speaks first," I whisper to him."Ezekiel..." Rick starts. "King." I cough to him and notice the King raises an eyebrow again at me."King Ezekiel," Rick corrects. "Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom all three of our communities have something in common. We all serve the Saviors." I could see the shock on the King's face. "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 that you have a deal with them, that you know them. Then you know they rule through violence and fear." The King looks to Jesus with anger on his face."Your Majesty, I only told of the..." Jesus starts."Our deal with the Saviors is not known among my people..." The King interjects. "For a 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 tries to speak."Don't interrupt the King," Jerry says."We brought you into our confidence. Why did you break it?" The King asks. I place my hand on Jesus's shoulder, I nod to him when he turns to me. This was going to be the point I would like to know if my speech and debate classes actually taught me something, let alone my love for fantasy books."Your Majesty if I may?" The King looks to me, then nods. "Jesus only told us due to our common travails. As your friend and our friend, he only wishes to bring us together, if you will only hear out my brother's plans, I promise you will know Jesus wasn't trying to break your confidence. Please, Your Majesty." "Well, since Lady Esme asked politely." The King turns to Rick nodding. "What plans have you Rick Grimes of Alexandria?" "We came to ask the Kingdom, to ask you to join us in fighting the Saviors, fighting for freedom for all of us," Rick says stepping next to me. "What you are asking is very serious." King Ezekiel says. "Several of our people, good people, were killed by the Saviors, brutally." Michonne steps up."Who?" Morgan asks looking to us. I frown."Abraham and Glenn," I answer looking away."Spencer, Olivia. And Eugene was taken." Rosita finishes for me. "They took Daryl, but he escaped. Every second he's out here, he's a target." I look to Daryl frowning. "You going to say you were right?" "No." Morgan answers. "I'm just sorry they're gone." "Negan murdered Glenn and Abraham beat them to death," Rick says sighing. "Terrorized the Hilltop," Sasha adds in. "Set loose walkers just to make a point." "I used to think the deal was something we could live with," Jesus turns to the king. "A lot of us did. But that's changing.""We don't know what they have done to the Kingdom, but who's to say he won't do this to your people next. Your Majesty, I know it's a lot of what we are asking, but if we don't change this a lot more people are going to be killed." I say."So let's change the world, Your Majesty," Jesus says."I want to be honest about what we're asking." Rick steps up again. "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 speaks up. "And weapons, if we strike first, together, we can beat them." He tells us then turns to the King. "Your Majesty, no more waiting for things to get worse, to get beyond what we can handle, Lady Esme is Right, our people can be killed, we have to set this right. The time is now." "Morgan, what say you?" The King asks we all turn to wait for his answer, I didn't know if he would agree or not."Me?" He asks."Speak." The King orders."People will die." Morgan nods and I flinch at the thought. "A lot of people and not just the Saviors. It... If we can find another way, we have to. Maybe it's just about Negan, capturing him. Holding him. Maybe... I..." "The hour grows late." The King says standing, as the tiger growls standing as well. "Rick Grimes and Lady Esme of Alexandria, you have given the King much to ponder.""Well, when we were kids, uh, our mother told us a story," Rick says indicating to me. "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. 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." I smiled remembering mom telling us. "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." "All right." Jerry smiles. "The king had put that rock in the road because he knew the person who dug it out, who did something, they deserved a reward. They deserved to have their life changed for the good... Forever." Rick finishes the story. I smile at him nodding."I invite you all to sup with us." King Ezekial nods to us. "And stay till the morrow." "Yeah, we need to get back home," Rick says. "I shall deliver my decree in the morn." The King says banging his staff and walking out. Rick looks annoyed. "Brother," I say putting my hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, trust me I think we got to him, if not him definitely his friends, they can convince him." The next morning Daryl wakes me up by kissing my forehead a bunch, something he's not done before. "What's that for?" I smile at him, not having the ability to be mad at being woken up so early. "I dunno." He mumbles and shrugs, I raise an eyebrow at him. "Come on Ezekiel will want to talk to us soon, well mostly you and Rick." I'm about to reply when there is a knock on our door. "Come in," I say as Michonne pokes her head in. "What's up?" "Breakfast is a quick one," She says giving Daryl and I two small bowls of fruit. "The King wants to talk to us." She adds "Right, one sec," I say getting up and grabbing my stuff, checking my blood sugar, 90. Once done I grab my bowl of fruit and eat it on the way to where King Ezekial was watching archery practice."This is life here." He says once he notices us. "Every day, but it came at a cost. And I wanted more of this, I wanted to expand. To create more places like this. Men and women lost their limbs, children lost their parents because I sent them into battle against the wasted when I did not need too.""This is different," Rick tells him. "It isn't" "It is. The dead don't rule us." Rick tries to explain. "The world doesn't look like this outside your walls. People don't have it as good. Some people don't have it good at all.""I have to worry about my people." "You call yourself a damn king," Daryl speaks up anger in his voice. "You sure as hell don't act like one." "All of this..." King Ezekiel walks up to him. "Came at a cost. It was lives, arms, legs." He turns back to my brother. "The peace we have with the Saviors is uneasy, but it is peace." "For how long?" I ask shaking my head. "That uneasy peace will snap, and your people are going to pay the price." "I have to hold on to it." He looks to me sadly. "I have to try." He turns away and addresses us all. "Although the Kingdom cannot grant you the aid you desire, the King is sympathetic to your plight. I offer your friend Daryl asylum for as long as he requires it. He will be safe here. The Saviors do not step foot inside our walls." I smile genuinely at the king. "How long do you think that's gonna last?" Daryl asks still mad. I frown placing my hand on his arm and he walks away. Rick and the others follow but I stay behind for a sec."Thank you, Your Majesty." I smile at him. "No need to thank me, Lady Esme." "Please, I may not agree with everything, however, I do understand your decision. And you are still helping us by offering your asylum for my husband. So I do thank you from the bottom of my heart." I give a slight bow and smile. I run to catch up with my group, staying quiet as the others get to the gate."Hey open it up were going," Daryl calls the gates open and I turn to him. "Daryl," I say but Rick speaks quickly."Your not," He tells him."I ain't staying here," Daryl points to the Kingdom."You have to, it's the smartest play you know it is." Daryl doesn't look happy. "Babe, they will find you if you come back with us." I try to convince him, even though I didn't want him to stay either, he was safer here. He starts to pace angrily looking between Rick and I. "Try to talk to Ezekiel," Rick says. "Or stare him into submission." I laugh a bit. He did have a scary stare just like he was giving now to both of us. "Whatever it takes." "We'll be back soon," I say stepping into his pacing line. When he paces back to me he stops putting his hand on my waist looking at me. "This isn't goodbye," I whisper to him as Rick pats his shoulder bye. Daryl pulls me into a strong hard hug and I have to fight myself to pull away. He will be safe here. I think. "I love you!" I tell him as I step away from him."I love you too." He barely whispers and I force myself to walk to Rick who puts his arm around my shoulder leading me back to the suburban. On our way back we listen to Negan gives a stupid eulogy for the man Daryl had to kill to escape the Saviors. No pity is given on my end as I listen to him 'talk' about Fat Joey. I sigh when we come across a double line of cars that the Saviors put in place as we move them out of the way Michonne is keeping watch and she calls to Rick to look at something. A bunch of dynamite is tied to a wire steel cable. I nervously keep my distance."What's all this for?" Michonne asks."Wait," Carl speaks up. "When I was hiding in the back of the truck I heard a couple of them talking bout this. This is for a herd." He says and I automatically look around. "That's why it's a steel cable." Rosita agrees. "It's not just for one walker. It's for a lot.""Well, I say we can go now." I back away not wanting my family to be blown up."No, Esme. We need these explosives," Sasha says, I blink and then think about what Daryl said back at the Hilltop. "We find the right stuff then maybe we don't need the numbers." I quote Daryl."Yeah." Rick nods while looking at the explosive steel. "But we have to figure out how to disarm it first." Rosita then picks up a grate revealing a mechanism under it. "Uh... Okay." Tara steps back from her as he starts to mess with it. I instinctively follow suite. "Backing up is not gonna make a difference if this thing goes off," Rosita tells us. "Not... good to know..." I say and shut up when we hear Negan's voice on the radio again. "We got ourselves a red situation, I need a search party. See if Daryl ran home, like the dumb animal that he is." I glare at the radio in Jesus's hand. "On it. Be there in time for lunch." We hear Simon's reply I turn to Rick. "Turn that sleepy little burg upside down. Ask the woman where he can be and don't let her off easy." My heart jumps at his words."We gotta go," Michonne says. "We gotta get there before them, but we need these.""We need to clear a path anyway," I say with a bit more aggression than intended. "Yeah," Rick says. "Rosita?" He questions as she stays quiet and pulls out what looks to be a small black battery box."The first part is done." She says turning to us. "What now?" Michonne asks. "We gotta unwrap the secondary explosives," She explains. "The dynamite, the RPGs, Make sure these casings are not messed up and do NOT mess them up, either. This thing still could blow.""You all heard her." Rick orders. "Let's go." I take a deep breath and pray to not have this plan literally blow up. We all get to work and slowly take the dynamite off the cable and into the trunk following Rosita's orders as we go. About 10 minutes in Carl calls our attention and we turn to see the herd that this was meant to keep away. "We still have time," Rick tells us. "They are still far away.""You sure?" Sasha asks. "We need these," I say as I grab some dynamite from her to take to the trunk of the car. "We need to get cars back in front of the on-ramp," Rick says."They'll know we took their explosives, so does it matter?" Jesus asks, he had a point."We want that herd to stay on the highway." "Why?" Tara asks."We may need it."Rosita, Carl, and Tara get the cars back in place while Jesus and Sasha head back to the Hilltop to give Maggie an update. Rick, Michonne and I gather the last of the explosives. In the middle of getting the explosives, the herd gets closer and would split up our group since they weren't done moving the cars into place."They are going to cut them off!" I say with worry for the others."Can we just split up?" Michonne asks."No," Rick shakes his head. "The cars. If they run..." "We lay on the horn when we start it." Michonne gets the plan."I'll bring my arm down and we go." Rick nods. "Esme get in the back." "Right," I say opening the back door and jumping in. "Yes." Michonne gets in the other car. "Stay together." I hear Rick yell. I sit in the back of the car watching out the front as Rick and Michonne floor it taking out the walkers with the steel cable, it was actually kind of badass I couldn't help but laugh."Esme," Rick calls my attention. "Get ready to run!" "On it." I move to the door. "Go!" He orders and I run pushing my way to the suburban I jump practically into Michonne's lap. Rick follows suit and Tara takes off before the door is shut. I jump as the leftover explosives go off. We all get comfortable and make our way back to Alexandria. When we get back Tobin meets us at the gate. "Listen, we need to get everyone ready." Rick starts to give orders but we all stop as we hear the familiar sound of Daryl's bike. I turn expecting to see him, Oh was I going to give him a piece of my mind. Rick must have seen the worry and anger on my face because he pulls me to him."The Saviors took the bike." He tells me and I glare at them as they get closer. "Remember you have to act surprised and worried when they ask you where Daryl is." I only nod, Rick let's go of my arm and we back up as they come in. We follow Rick to meet them."Rick, hello," Simon says. "And hello again.""We thought it'd be longer," Rick says. "Do you think we're here for a tribute?" "Is there another reason?" "There is," Simon says stepping closer to Rick. "Were here for Daryl." "What?" I take my cue. "You took Daryl from me." I make my voice sound confused and angry."Negan took Daryl," Rick says as he places his hand on my shoulder. "Oh, but..." Simon shakes his head and points to Carl. "Then your son showed up, Daryl went missing..." I fake a gasp, placing my hand over my mouth. "Might those two things be connected?" "They're not. We didn't know he was gone till right now." "Oh really." Simon turns to me. "Tell me... What's your name?" He asks."Esme..." I whisper still trying to look worried. "Esme, tell me, you're with Daryl right?" I just nod, it wasn't hard to act scared when I knew what these men were capable of. "So you haven't seen him?" I shake my head. "He isn't here?" "No." "Do you know where he could be?" He says getting in my face. I take a step back but he grabs my wrist stopping me, I see Rick tense beside me. "He..." My mind racing with a million thoughts to try and say. "He spent a lot of time hunting since he was a kid... I don't... I don't know... His favorite place is in the woods." I say, it wasn't a lie but it didn't help them either."Hmm..." He says pulling me closer to whisper in my ear. "Well, we will find him and when we do he will die, oh, you are pretty," He takes a deep breath next to my ear and sighs. "And you smell good, I may just take you with me once your single." I can't help but shudder and gag trying to step away from him. "I told you we didn't know he was missing until just now," Rick says gaining Simon's attention. "Then this should be easy." Simon smiles as he pulls away from me, he still has my wrist in his. "Now everyone, find a buddy. Gonna have to follow us around. If he's here, we really need you all to see him die. Esme, I'll be your partner." He smiles at me and pulls me along with him to start the search. As the search ends I am still being dragged with Simon's hand around my wrist and I can't help but think that he was going to actually take me with him. I start to worry turning to look at Rick and the others as we walk back to the gates. "Thank you for your cooperation, Rick," Simon says looking at him. "My apologies for leaving the place a bit of a mess, but we got a litany of other shit to attend to. So do you, I guess." He says and drags me with him to a black truck, I start to pull away from him and he turns to me. "Oh, right, Esme, I'll be back for you when you're single, that's a promise." He winks at me and opens the door hoping in. I step back shaking and jump when Tara puts her arm around me."You're okay," She whispers to me. "He's gone." "Right," I shake my head trying to calm down. "What happened to the pantry?" Rick asks angrily when the gate was finally closed. "We don't know." Aaron answers. "And we need to talk about Gabriel." "Where is he?" "He was on watch," Tobin answers. "The night you all went to scavenge. I was supposed to take over for him in the morning. He wasn't at his post, the pantry was cleared out and a car was gone.""What..." I say shocked. "No one's seen him since," Eric confirms. "That son of a bitch." Rosita scoffs. "He stole our shit and ran.""That's what it looks like." Tobin agrees. "Well, I don't want to believe it..." Michonne tries but Rick interrupts her."I don't believe it." He says. "That's not Gabriel, he wouldn't do that to us." "Brother, I thought he changed to but it can't be anything else," I say shaking my head in disbelief. "Yes, it can." He says going to walk away then turns back to me. "Go out there and look for tracks." I sigh and nod nonetheless. I find some tracks heading out for about a mile then they just disappear. I was not happy about it."Nothing, I couldn't follow it further, I'm sorry," I tell Rick. "I wish Daryl was here. He could've found more." I frown. "He left," Rosita says her arms crossed. "He didn't leave a note. He obviously doesn't want to be found." "Yes, he does," Rick says with a notebook in his hands, he turns to show it to us. 'Boat.' is written on the last page."How would he know we were out there?" Aaron asks looking at it shocked. "I don't know," Rick says just as confused.We make our way to the boat sight and I find boot prints easily, we follow them to a place that looks like an abandoned factory place where we are surrounded by a bunch of people with makeshift weapons. My heart pounds in fear as I step back closer to Rick who pulls me behind him, as I look at his face I see him smiling.