𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒
they wanted blood. so you painted your lips red and blew the wolves a kiss

"WE'RE gonna have to fight and we can work with the Hilltop," Rick said loud enough for everyone to hear him clearly, and then nodded over to the youngest Winchester. "Octavia hammered out a deal with them, we're getting food — eggs, butter, fresh vegetables." 

Everyone seemed impressed by what she had accomplished for them, that was until Rick continued with the biggest catch of it all. "But they're not just giving it away. These Saviors, they almost killed Sasha, Daryl, and Abraham on the road," Rick continued for them all to know. "Now, sooner or later, they would've found us, just like those Wolves did, just like Jesus did. They woulda killed someone or some of us and then they would try to own us. And we would try to stop them," he said, his words sounding believable to everyone. Almost, everyone. "But by then, in that kind of fight, low on food, we could lose. This is the only way to be sure, as sure as we can get, that we win." 

Turning back to him, Octavia added, "And we have to win." She looked out at all of them. "We do this for the Hilltop, it's how we keep this place. It's how we feed this place."

Rick nodded and continued, "This needs to be a group decision. If anybody objects, here's your chance to say your piece." 

No one said a word, leaving the Church quiet.

Until Morgan pushed to his feet, causing the wood of the bench to bend with the weigh shift.  "You're sure we can do it?" He asked Rick from where he stood in the back. "We can beat them?" 

"What this group has done, what we've learned, what we've become, all of us—" Rick nodded and looked over everyone before settling his eyes back onto Morgan. "Yes, I'm sure." 

"Then all we have to do is just tell them that." He shrugged, trying to make that seem like a simple solution to a much bigger and dirtier issue. 

"Well, they don't compromise," Octavia countered back, fearing that this debate would sway others away from the fight. 

"This isn't a compromise. It's a choice you give them," Morgan argued with him calmly but desperately. "It's a way out, for them and for us." 

"We try and talk to the Saviors, we give up our advantage, our safety," Rick said sternly, his eyes scanning the room for swayed people. "No, we have to come for them before they come for us. We can't leave them alive." 

"Where there's life, there's possibility," Morgan fired up.

At that, Octavia scoffed and turned in the bench. "Of them hitting us first," she said, watching the man lower his gaze off of Rick and onto her's.

"We're not trapped in this," he told her, trying to get her on his side. "None of you are trapped in this." 

Shaking her head, Octavia turned around fully to face him before opening her mouth, and saying, "Morgan they always come back. Always. Trust me, I know this better than anyone else in this room."

"Come back when they're dead, too," her reminded her.

"Yeah, we'll stop them." Daryl added for everyone to hear and to stop Octavia from wanting to strangle Morgan. "We have before." 

"I'm not talking about the walkers," Morgan said, shaking his head.

Rick cleared his throat and stopped the debate from going any further. "Morgan wants to talk to them first. I think that would be a mistake, but it's not up to me!" Ne shouted to everyone around him. "I'll talk to the people still at home, I'll discuss it with the people on guard now, too, but who else wants to approach the Saviors, talk to them first?" 

With no one raising their hands, Aaron shot up and locked eyes with Rick. "What happened here, we won't let that happen again," he said, confidence leaking through him. "I won't." 

"Looks like it's settled. We know exactly what this is. We don't shy from it, we live. We kill them all.  We don't all have to kill," Rick said climbing down the steps and marching down the aisle and glaring at Morgan in passing. "But if people are gonna stay here they do have to accept it."

THE next day, the RV stopped on the road with two trucks following behind. Rick was the first one to drop down to the pavement as the others piled down out of their vehicles and looked around.

Octavia jumped out of the RV, her long black hair up in a tight ponytail. Her left thigh had a sheathe that held her machete and on her right thigh was a holster that held a gun. In a sheathe that was on her pants, but in the back, held the demon knife just in case. She had a dagger in each of her worn combat boots, and a rifle in her hand.

She was prepared for anything to happen.

"Aaron, Rosita. You start here," Rick ordered and pointed to woods around them. "We'll peel off every quarter mile, meet back here in a couple of hours. See what we got."

"WE'RE gonna take a look around, try to get a feel for how many people are in there. We like how it looks, we go in."Rick was standing in front of the small group formed. Most of them standing on the ground with him, others sitting up on the cars. 

"A couple of hours before dawn, the guards outside'll be tired, everyone else inside'll be sleeping. We don't like what we see, we head back, make a new plan," Rick continued, watching everyone listening. "They don't know who we are and we'll keep Jesus in the shadows. This is how we eat. We roll out at midnight." 

The others nodded their heads and Daryl slid down the hood of the truck and jumped down in front of Rick.

The two of them walked behind it and up to where Octavia squatted by the three heads.

"What've we got?" Rick asked both Nathan and Jesus to the side of him. 

Raising his arm that held a cast from Daryl shattering his bone, Nathan pointed. "That one." 

Jesus also nodded his head and sighed. "Yeah, that's it." He then sighed and added, "Though, it's probably good we're doing this at night." 

"Something wrong with it?" Daryl asked, his arms tightly crossed over his chest. 

"The nose," Jesus admitted. "Gregory's is a different shape." 

Octavia shrugged before picking up the walker head by its hair, clenched her fist and slammed it against the walker head until blood cracked through the skin and now broken nose. 

"He fought back," Octavia simply said, pointing to Nathan. "He broke your hand, right?" 

"Guess there's no reason to be subtle about it," he said, shuffling his feet against the pavement. 

"What?" Octavia asked, wiping her bloody hand on her pants.

"The Saviors, they're scary," he said while watching her toss the head into a bag. "But those pricks got nothing on you."

When she tightened the strings on the bag, Octavia turned to him and tossed him the bag swiftly. "I'm gonna take it as a compliment," she admitted out loud. 

"That'd be best." Rick nodded, turning and walking forward to lead the group forward.

OCTAVIA came up to the guy who was whistling "Happy Birthday" and grabbed his head, tilted it back, and sliced his neck. She smirked as his body fell forwards, making a thumping noise.

She rose her hand and everyone else came running. Aaron, along with two others pick up the body and hid it.

Octavia ran and hid behind a bush before giving Eddie a handgun. The other guard came out not that much longer with a guy and she quickly stabbed the guard in the head with her dagger.

Rick threw the keys at her and Octavia threw them to Glenn who opened the door for them. Her rifle was up in the air, ready.

"Check the doors. Find the arsenals. We take them all out," Rick whisper-ordered them, and Octavia opened a door and even though it was dark, she could see the outline of a person, no, two people laying on makeshift bed.

Octavia slowly crept in, swinging her rifle over her shoulder as she took out two daggers. Leaning over the people, noticing them as a girl and a boy, she held up her daggers and pushed them down on their skulls, killing them fast, and easily.

When a small yell of pain from the hall across from her, she looked up abruptly just as an alarm went off.

She was grab from behind, a stinging feeling going through her arm. She yelled out rage, turning her body around, grabbed the guy, and stabbed him in the shoulder.

He let go of her and it gave her just enough time to stab him in the head. She kicked his body to the ground, picked up the knife he was using, and ran right out of the room.

And as she did so, a guy came running around the corner, a machine gun in hand.

Octavia ran forward, flung her machete at him, and it embedded itself into his chest as another man ran towards her. Grinning, she picked up her speed, and slid across the floor, kicked him in the leg, jumped up, yanked her machete out of the other guy, and then turned around to stab the guy she had kicked.

She quickly grabbed the machine gun and booked it away from the two dead bodies.

Peaking around the corner, she found two guys, their backs to her, guns in hand.

Octavia took on a breath, swung the machine gun over her shoulder, took out her daggers before running forward. She slid across the floor on her knees, slicing their legs and when they fell to their knees, she stabbed him in their chests.

Grunting, she took her daggers out, and once again stabbing them, but this time in their heads. She stood up quickly and joined up with the others.

As she was running, Octavia didn't see the guy come up from behind her with a gun. She was flung forward, a searing pain going through her thigh. She looked down to see a bullet wound, but ignored it, and turned around, and shot the guy in the head with the machine gun.

She was then pulled into a room, making her scream out before she realized it was Glenn and another guy, and they were getting shot out.

Both Glenn and the other guy grabbed two machine guns and as they did that, Octavia was already firing at the door with her machine gun in rage and fear for the others.

All of a sudden, everything went quiet.

It was the type of quiet in which you would feel as if something bad was going to happen. It was the type of silence that sent chills down your spine and made goosebumps appear on your arms. It was the type of silence in which you weren't sure if your friends were dead or not.

Octavia looked at Glenn and the guy, stood up, grunting as she did so, but ignored the pain as much as she could, using the hole covered door as support.

"Let's go find the others," she told them and they went searching for them, Glenn helping her walk.

"SON of a bitch!" Daryl yelled out in rage, using his machine gun to shoot at the guy who was on a motorcycle, his motorcycle. As the guy crashed, Daryl barreled into him and punched him over and over again. "Where'd you get the bike?!"

"Just do it!" The guy screamed out at Rick and Octavia who held a gun to his head, ready to aim and kill, just like they did everyone else.

"Lower your gun, assholes," A woman over the walkie-talkie spoke. "You with the colt python's."

Octavia looked around, her eyes narrowed, looking for the woman who was speaking.

"Come on out. Let's talk," Rick spoke, picking up the walkie-talkie.

"We're not coming out, but we will talk. We've got a Carol and a Maggie."

Octavia's heart picked up, her breath being sucked in through her pale pink lips. Her blue eyes looked around in the area more frantically now.

"I'm thinking that's something you want to chat about."