Lilith Smith made her way toward the infirmary. Her crutches squeaked with every step, irritating the young blonde. Once at the door, she banged twice, aggressively. 

The new Dr. Carson opened, "It was unlocked."

"I have crutches."

"Which, as I've told you repeatedly, you don't need. . . besides you still have use of your arms."

The girl groaned, "Whatever, let's just get this over with. I have a meeting to get to."

She was getting her stitches taken out today. The bullet wound in her leg still hurt like hell, but she was told it would heal smoothly and quickly. She sat on one of the beds swinging her legs up. The doctor began to take off her bandage as the door opened again and a young man walked in.

"Oof, today's the day, huh?" He said.

"No more shorts! Yay!" Lilith said with fake enthusiasm.

"You'll have to have a shopping spree," The man joked.

"Only if you're paying."

"C'mon, L, you know I don't got the points for that."

Dr. Carson walked over to the trash, throwing away the used bandage then going to get a new, clean one. "What can I do for you, Patrick?" He asked.

Patrick was in his late twenties, dark-skinned, with a subtle goatee. He'd come into the infirmary often the same days Lilith would, so the two had developed a friendly rapport. 

"Just a refill, doc," He held up an empty pill bottle, tossing it to him.

"Alright well I don't have enough for a full refill, so I'll do this for now and you can come back after the next supply run, hopefully they get what I need."

"You got it."

"Okay, lemme just finish with her first."

"Yeah, get in line," The teenager joked. Patrick sat on the bed beside her while he waited. "How's little Caleb doing? Still got the stomach bug?"

The man chuckled softly, thinking of his son, "Puking stopped but still has little to no appetite."

"Which is perfectly normal," Dr. Carson interjected as he continued to take out her stitches.

Patrick watched, grimacing, "You're not even flinching, how?"

Lilith shrugged, "Can't hurt more than the actual gunshot."

"True," the man nodded.

Eventually, her stitches were out and she was free to go. She bid both Patrick and Dr. Carson farewell as she left the room and headed to the meeting her dad had set up, fully preparing for her good mood to be squashed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entering the small room with nothing but a metal table and chairs, Lilith counted heads. The entire crew was present today, along with a surprise guest. A face only a mother could love -- Gregory. He sat at one end, clutching a glass of water for dear life, and her father sat all the way at the other, bat in his lap with an intimidating stare.

She raised an eyebrow, looking at the ladder, "Explain?"

The leather-clad man huffed, "That's exactly what Simon claims this old guy's here to do. Sit, darlin'."

The only empty chair left was beside Gregory. The blonde girl leaned her crutches against the wall by the door. Walking over to the chair, she grabbed the back of it and began to slowly drag it to the other side of the table. It screeched against the concrete floor, an uncomfortable sound. The noise finally ceased when Lilith pulled the chair up beside her father. She sat down and picked up her legs and rested them on the rusted tabletop. Once she was settled, her dad looked to Simon expectantly, who gave a look to Gregory to urge him to begin.

The cowardly man across from her spoke nervously, "Well, I, uh . . . First, I'd just like to thank you for having me here today." Lilith resisted the very strong urge to scoff. "Negan, let me just lay this down straight for ya. I know how it is -- negotiating the slippery, steep terrain of managing resources and the population and the big, scary you."

She laughed loudly as she mocked him, "I'm sorry, Gregory, but are you implying that you of all people know what it is to be feared?" 

"W-well, um, y-yes-"

"Please," Simon cut him off, "Let's not stray from the topic."

Lilith rolled her eyes as the so-called Hilltop leader spoke again.

"Listen, I- I mean it when I say it," He looked her father in the eye, "Negan, I don't like killing people any more than you do."

"I like killing people," Her father responded with zero hesitation.

"Oh- Well-"

The blonde girl smirked at Gregory's shocked reaction as her dad continued.

"I say it's about killing the right people. See, if you kill the right people at the right time . . . everything falls into place," Negan intertwined his hands together in example. "Everybody's happy. Well . . . some more than others. But you kill one, and you could be saving hundreds, and that is what we are all about. We save people. . ."

"That's- that's why you're called the- the saviors, oh. . ." Gregory added.

God every little thing this man did made Lilith's blood boil.

A beat of silence passed, then Dwight stood up. "I'm gonna grab a smoke," he said."

"Now?" Negan called out to him, "You don't wanna hear this?"

Dwight looked at Gregory then back to his boss, crossing his arms, "Don't need to. Tell me where to go and what to do, I'll make it happen." 

Negan chuckled then waved his hand, allowing him to leave. "So, where were we, Gregory? Oh, right -- you were saying that you don't like killing people, and I was saying that I do . . . under the right circumstances."

"Well, this situation that we find ourselves in, this- this conflict . . . I can stop it before it even gets started. I mean, here it is, I go to my people and I- I tell them if you're joining this misled crusade, you're no longer a citizen of the Hilltop. You're out on your asses." 

Rolling her eyes again, Lilith failed to resist scoffing this time. "You still their guy?" She asked him, "They still listen to you, Gregory? Can you . . . exile people?"

"The Hilltop is my house. I'm still the guy. I've always been the guy," he insisted.

"Huh," Negan sounded, "If you're still the guy. If, indeed, you have always been the guy . . . why the hell didn't you know about the widow leading an army of your people straight up our asses in Alexandria?" Gregory was utterly silent. 

Lilith saw him swallow in fear and smirked again. Granted, she knew Maggie was alive too. But, that's beside the point. Lilith was confident that, had she been in charge, she never would've let some pregnant lady steal her people out from under her nose. 

Taking her legs down, she leaned forward, elbows on the table as her intrigue grew.

"You know what I think, Gregory?" Her dad began taunting him, "I think you're playing both sides. I think you are a thin-dick'd politician threading the needle with your thin, thin dick. Now, is listening to you the right way to go? Or is it the right place -- and time -- for something else?"

"N- no . . . definitely not any of- of that. Um, I wasn't aware of, uh, things until they were already in- in motion. Uh- um- no hesitation. Allegiance, right there, the whole thing. I just- I didn't know until I- I knew . . . you know?"

"Gregory!" Simon interjected this time, grabbing the man's wrist, "I believe you. Now maky them believe you, huh?"

The coward nodded clearing his throat as the father and daughter across the table looked at each other in boredom and irritation.

"The Hilltop is mine," Gregory stated, "I let a fox into my hen house. She and her people took advantage of my generous nature. I see that now, and I will fix it."

Another beat of silence passes, but Simon breaks it with his cocky chuckle. "If we go in with the right stage picture," the man in question begins, "a thick and veiny show of force surrounding Gregory when he lays down the law, I think things go back to copacetic. If they don't, we take a flyer on the place and kill everyone there."

Gregory choked on his water. Lilith simply glared steel daggers into the so-called right hand man.

"An unfortunate play," he added, "but the other communities will get the message, and we'll achieve equilibrium! Plan A. . . Plan B is-"

He was cut off by a loud whack!  that startled everyone in the room.

"People. . . are a resource," Negan said coldly, slamming his bat down on the table a second time. Whack!  "Money on the table. . ." Slowly, he rose to his feet, "PEOPLE! ARE! THE FOUNDATION! OF WHAT! WE! ARE! BUILDING HERE!" He slammed Lucille down with every word. When he was done, he leaned forward menacingly, his voice quieting again. "Who the hell do you thing you're talkin' to? Are you confused about who we are? Are you confused about who's in charge? Are we backsliding, Simon? Please. . . tell me we're not backslidin'."

Despite still being on edge from her father's outburst, Lilith couldn't help but smirk victoriously at the sight of Simon being put in his place. 

Head down, exhaling loudly, Simon responded, "We not . . . backsliding. This is a pronounced event and a fragile moment."

Negan grinned evilly, "Yes, it is. We need to win it all. Plan A . . . is taking Rick, the widow, and King Ass-face alive, and making them dead in a very, very public and instructive way. We kill the right people in the wrongest way possible, and make 'em all watch!"

No one in the room even had a moment to respond before four rounds of rhythmic gunfire sounded from outside the Sanctuary. Everyone turned in the direction of the noise. Lilith's father walked over to a small window which was cracked open.

"Should we get our people out there?" Simon asked, "Line 'em up, light 'em up?"

Lilith rolled her eyes at his eagerness to get blood on his hands.

"No," her dad answered, "They got some sort of hillbilly armor. We'd just be wasting metal on metal. And the RPG is stashed at the cache, so . . . Let's have ourselves a little chat. Simon, bring your new, little friend. We may need him to say some words." He then walked away from the window and towards the doors.

"Gregory, you're on deck," Simon told him.

Her dad looked at one of his other outpost leaders, "Gary, put three and three in the windows. Tell them to stay the hell down 'till we need them."

He then yanked the doors open, walking outside, followed by Lilith and the rest of his crew.

"Well, shit!" He exclaimed at the sight in front of him. 

His daughter stood to his right, only a little behind him. She stared in shock at the display before her. It made her nervous, her palms began to sweat, but not because of the threats they were making. They didn't scare her. Her own people were scarier. But she had friends on the other side of these steel plates. Very few friends, and friendships which she wasn't even sure were reciprocated, but friendships none the less. And the sight in front of her solidified the fact that her and Paul and Carl and . . . well that was kinda it, but they were on opposite sides of a war now.

But she couldn't think about them. If they were at war, then so be it. She had to get her priorities straight. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at her father who smirked as he called out to his enemies.

"I'm sorry. . . I was in a meeting!"

~~~~~

featuring.........

lamar johnson as PATRICK

kevionn woodard as CALEB

(word count: 1969)

omg this is crazy after half a year i'm BACK!! it took me until august and i'm sorry but ya'll have been so patient and respectful so thank you sooooooo much.

I graduated high school this year so it's been hectic. i move into college in 3 weeks. like wtf. so i'm not promising super consistent updates, but i'll make sure it's more than once a blue moon.

thank you so much for the support.

love,

chloe