Sally's cry was muffled by her own hands involuntarily pressing on the hurt. The blood began seeping through her fingers almost immediately. All of her concerns fitted into the palm of her hand. Her eyes remained shut, in an attempt to withstand the pain.

Through it all, she felt somebody's hands dragging her away, back to where they came. Not even at that moment she could take being told what to do. Was Carl safe?

She forced one eye open and even though her tears were falling freely, she could see Carl grabbing for a gun, once again being able to defend himself. The responsibility was not hers anymore. She could carelessly fall back into the arms that were pulling her away from the battlefield, out of the gun-range.

And her guardian angel would be quite successful but once she took the scene in and saw who came to the rescue of Alexandria, she forgot all the pain. She let go of her face and tried to pry the helping hands off her. 

"Sally, we gotta move," the man finally spoke. It was Dwight doing his best to get her out of there, but Sally was far from being reasonable. Her only wish was to wrap her hands around the neck of the person in front of her and squeeze so tight there wouldn't be another breath left in their lungs.

"It was you!" She yelled, crushing Dwight's forearms instead. "You took him from me!" Sally's shrieks were so desperate, yet hollow, her voice kept breaking as she tried hold back her sobbing. "You took him from me!"

The person against whom Sally held such a grudge was Carol. Dressed in the armor of Kingdom, she was ready for the battle against Negan, but could never be prepared for Sally being such an emotional wreck. Seeing her caught Carol off guard, and she failed to pull the trigger long enough to miss a clean shot.

Sally kept twisting in Dwight's grip in need to break free and end the unfinished business with Carol once and for all. But he kept pulling her away, her feet flicked in the air and just before Dwight found them a cover and Sally lost Carol from her poor sight, a sharp pain burst alive in her left hip. Carol finally fired and Sally became Dwight's real life shield.

She sunk into his arms as she looked down at her clothes in the new shade of dark red. If Dwight wanted to get out alive he could no longer afford be burdened by her. Sally's bloody nails dove into Dwight's skin as she scratched him as hard as she could, trying to withhold the pain and his arms finally opened, gladly letting her go.

"Can't exactly say I'm sorry, Sally," he laid her down on the ground. The whole time he was dragging her to the direction of the gate, the only safe way out, still occupied by Saviors and Scavengers, and then he left her halfway.

Dwight disappeared in the cloud of smoke that began to engulf Alexandria in milky fog. It was safe to say Sally had no idea where Negan had gone in the mess, there was no sight of Simon or anyone, except for some casualties of the battle. And there she laid on the ground among the soon to be walking dead.

The smoke was so thick, she could hardly see anything. The scratched side of her face began to swell so much, she couldn't open her eye at all.

The gunfire was not ceasing. Alexandria was still fighting back except now with their new reinforcement they actually had a chance against Negan.

Negan. The last time Sally saw him, he tried to kill Carl and then ripped her face apart. The latter by accident. She had a bad habit of being at the wrong place at even worse time. Just like at that very moment, she was lying on the ground, bleeding to death.

Someone was coming her way. The figure slowly materialized from the smoke, it was limping and its hoarse voice actually made no articulate sounds. The dead began to rise.

She turned her head checking all around her, trying to find anything to use against the corpse. Everything's a weapon, she repeated in her head.

And there it was, a gun in the hand of one of the bodies next to her.

She heard the creature approaching, she did not have to watch. Her field of sight was strictly framed anyway. She pushed her hands down on her wound and began pushing herself away with her legs to the weapon.

But she miscalculated, the walker was closer than she thought, she had to let go of her wound and use her hands to back up to the weapon faster. She kept blindly searching the ground for the cold metal and she finally gripped it in her bloody hands.

She struggled, her hands were slippery, and damn, she was such a bad shot.

All in all, she loaded the gun, pointed it in the direction of the person only few feet away and pulled the trigger. And just before she squeezed her eyes shut from the loud noise, she realized who was the human falling over her.

Lucille? Red scarf? Negan?

NEGAN!

She  turned him over to put him on his back.

"Negan, Negan, please, no," she gripped his head into her hands, she had to search him for the bullet hole.

His head was bleeding, but he was too close for her to hit him there. She kept looking him over. His leg, she shot his leg.

"Negan," she pushed on the fresh wound. The striking pain brought him back to consciousness.

Sally lifted her head. Thanks to the smoke she couldn't see before that they were unbelievably close by the front gate. Few steps and they could be out. Getting locked inside wasn't an option. That would be their end. The wrath in Rick's face was not a make believe.

"We need to get out of here," Sally said to Negan. She shifted to help him up when another figure stepped out of the smoke. Only this time it really didn't have a human shape, it was an animal.

Sally could almost feel it breathing down her neck, she turned to face the beast. The tiger moved forward but Sally didn't back up. She was mesmerized. Her hand protectively landed on Negan's chest.

The two wild creatures stared each other down and Sally then shook her head, never leaving the eye of the tiger.

Shiva only roared and disappeared in the fog again. But her being there meant her people were close, too.

Sally turned back to Negan, he was clearly losing it, falling in and out of consciousness.

"We gotta go, Negan. You need to help me, as much as you can," Sally begged him.

Negan found last bits of his strength in him, as well as Sally, with each other's support they stood up and leaning into each other, enveloped by another wave of heavy smoke, they made it over the gate and out of Alexandria's safe zone.

Just as they landed in the blind spot over the corner, Negan's truck that brought them in speeded away and the fire gradually silenced.

Sally and Negan were left abandoned.

Sally took off Negan's scarf, bandaged his bullet wound as well as she could, tore her dress and tied it in a big knot so she could press it onto her wound, stood up with the help of bloody Lucille they miraculously carried out and made Negan do the same.

His head was hurt badly, he had hardly any idea where they were heading, she only hoped they would get far enough while there was still time.

Sally turned her back to the Sanctuary and began walking, half dragging Negan with her. And they kept going and going, step by step, until their feet gave way. They sunk to their knees and Sally helped unconscious Negan to lay his head down on the forest bed.

She laid down next to him, crying. She had no more strength to help him. She heard the walkers that were relentlessly following them. They had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Negan's breathing was so shallow, it was almost non-existent. And she was so tired. So, so exhausted.

She didn't want to miss her last moments with the man but her eyes closed involuntarily. She was losing consciousness, hoping to meet him in the promised land.

The steps were so close.

Sally blacked out for a second and when she opened her eyes again, she couldn't see Negan next to her. She was not on the ground anymore. Somebody was carrying her.

"Hang in there, Sally, I've got you. We've got you both."

___

Author's Note:

Remember how I promised you an original plotline? Well, here we go! Hope you'll follow Sally down that road.

Special thanks goes to my loves deputygrimes ,  zgrimes and grim-ey ... without their loving support this season finale would never be out this soon! *Sally sending flowers* 💜

Vote, comment, bring your friends along... I can live with all that!

THANK YOU FOR 5K!

Hugs and kisses!

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