valiant|| the walking dead

twenty.

CHAPTER TWENTY,
i am alpha.

Aiden sat in front of Glenn's grave while Nathaniel and Aaron dug Jesus's. "Hey, Glenn." She started.

She missed talking to him.

"Um, I think... I think I'm done getting close to people. I'm done lettin' people in. We lost Jesus last night, Glenn. That was the hardest death since Carl. God-" Aiden rubbed her face.

Aaron and Nathaniel both glanced at her before sharing a look.

"It's fucking hard. I have to fight. I remember you telling me on the road, before Alexandria that I have to fight. No matter what I have to fight. So that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna fight like there's no tomorrow, Glenn. For you, Abraham, Sasha, Carl, Jesus. Even the ones before. Beth, Hershel, Andrea, Tyreese, T, Lori, Shane, Dale. All of 'em- all of you. Everything from this point on is for you guys."

»

Everyone watched as Nathaniel hammered a nail into Jesus's coffin. Aiden stood in front of with her hands on it and her head bowed.

She hadn't a clue her husband stormed into the basement after seeing the pain his wife was in. "Who are you?" He demanded. He unlocked the cell and walked in, "answer the question. You wanna die? Is that it?"

"Daryl, what's your problem?!" Henry yelled to him.

"Quiet!" Daryl yelled back. The girl stared up at him in fear, "do you? People up there just buried a good man. One of my wife's bes' friends. And they are ready to string you up right now. All I gotta do is drag your ass up them steps. How many in your group?" He asked her calmly.

"I already told you-" she gasped in fear when he grabbed her.

He slammed her against the cell bars. "Get up! How many!?" He screamed at her. His hand wrapped around her neck.

"Ten! Ten! There were ten of us! I think. We wore skins to blend in. We didn't have names. I mean- I mean, we did, but we didn't use them."

"How long you been out around here?" Daryl interrogated.

"I don't know. We moved around with the- with the dead. I mean, the skins made them leave us alone. They protected us so we protected them." She explained.

"You got a camp? Walls?" He asked her.

"Walls?" She scoffed, "walls don't keep you safe. Places like this don't make it. They never make it. That's how it is. My mom and me, we saw it happen over and over. I- I barely remember the world before all this. But my mom, she told me how it was changing, how we had to change with it, how we needed the dead and each other to keep safe. We were never alone."

"Why'd your people kill our people?" Daryl asked her. When she didn't reply he ripped his knife from it's sheath and held it in her face, "tell me!"

"We were always gonna kill you, okay!?" She screamed to him. "It's just what people do now. Everybody that's still alive is a threat. It's us or them."

"How many people in your group?" Daryl asked once again.

"I already-"