'and there's too much on my mind that i don't even want to try.' - baebadoobee

i watch the trees pass us slowly as rick drives down the road. it's night now and the dark sky hovers over us like a blanket. driving around at night has always left me with a sensation of calm. i can't help but yawn as the moon follows the RV down the quiet road. we come to a stop and off in the distance is a building with what looks like a huge disk on the roof. i watch the small car, that holds eddie from hiltop in it with the fake gregory's head, pull up to the building. the lights go red outside of the building and from down the street i can hear muffled shouting. 

eddie exits the car holding the bag with the walker's head. two men holding guns walk out of the building and rick rushes us all out of the RV and down the road. the men examine the head. the one man goes back inside leaving the other outside. he starts to whistle the tune to happy birthday as daryl runs by and slits his throat. the rest of us run up to the man and lift his body into the car to hide the evidence before the other man comes back with eddie's friend. we all hide again watching the man drag out eddie's friend as michonne stabs the savior. he drops to the ground and glenn and daryl start to sweep the lower level as the rest of the group and i trail behind, cleaning up evidence of our intrude. 

we all walk in holding up our guns as we scan the building for any people. it's a very messy building with lots of clutter. it's quiet, too quiet. everyone looks around for the arsenal. doors creak open and every noise makes me jump. the group and i follow rick's orders through the unnerving hallways. rick reaches a door and after a nod from daryl he grips the handle slowly opening the door, and scanning the room for any awakened enemies. the room is empty except a couple of beds lining the walls. men sleep soundly in them as glenn and a few others walk in and carefully take them out before they can make a noise. i enter the room after glenn leaves, teary-eyed. i stare at the bulletin board over one of the beds. polaroid pictures scatter the board sending a shiver across my skin. 

in the pictures people lay dead, their eyes popping out, mush for brains, clothes drenched in blood and tears. i almost gag at the sight of these pictures and feel even better about killing all these men. a fire alarm makes my soul jump out of my body. men run out of the rooms full charge on our group. rick and daryl take down as many as they can and i worry for the rest of our people who broke off into smaller groups. "cmon, kid." daryl says as i follow close behind him and rick. my chest hurts from my heart beating against it. more men run out from rooms with knives or guns. bullets fly through the air and i trek close behind daryl. i shoot my gun into the hallway and jump back as others fire at me. daryl rushes down the hall taking out the guys in our way.

i grab onto rick's jacket to ensure i don't get lost in the gunpowder dropping to the ground, creating a mist taking away our ability to see. 

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the gunfire quiets down as we walk through the bloody halls. the whole group ends up finding ourselves outside of the compound. tara and heath take a van and go off on this huge run they have been planning. heath said to glenn he'd rather just leave now. "you alright?" joel asks setting a hand on my shoulder. "yeah." i reply. "this was a big job, i'm proud of you, kid." he says catching a glimpse of the sparkle from my finger. "i hope you know how proud i am of you." he says and i think for a moment he may have missed the ring. "watch where you wave that thing you can blind someone." he jokes and i cringe but also i am happy he took it well. we all say our goodbyes to tara and heath as they pack up and hit the road. 

off in the distance an engine roars and catches everyone's attention. a man on a motorcycle flies out of a nearby garage. daryl shouts and runs after him as rosita shoots knocking him off the bike. daryl tackles the man leaving a few blows to his face. "where'd you get the bike?" daryl shouts. rick clicks his gun holding it to the man's head. "just do it! like you did everyone else, right?" the man shouts, spitting blood as he speaks. "lower your gun, prick." a voice says over rick's walkie. "you, with the colt python. all of you, lower your weapons." the voice adds. everyone looks off into the distance hoping to catch an eye on whoever we missed.

"come on out. let's talk." rick says into the walkie. "we're not coming out, but we'll talk. we've got a carol and a maggie. i'm thinking that's something you wanna talk about." the voice says and my heart drops. of course, they have our people. why did we let them stay behind? "we're gonna work this and its gonna go our way." the lady adds and daryl points over to the tree line. "get him up!" rick shouts as glenn grabs the savior holding him up against daryl's gun. off in the trees, we can see a couple of people moving about in the bushes. "we have one of yours. we can trade." rick offers. "i'm listening." the lady says.

"first i wanna talk to carol and maggie, make sure they're all right." rick demands. the woman goes silent for s second before i hear carol speaking over the walkie. she sounds worried as she stutters. "rick it's carol, i'm fine but-" she says before the savior cuts her off. "now you." i hear mumbled. "rick, it's maggie. we're both okay. we'll figure this-" maggie says calmly before the woman takes over again. "you have your proof. let's talk." she says. "this is the deal right here. let 'em go, you can have your guy back and live." rick explains.

"two for one, that's not much of a trade." the lady taunts. "you don't have much of a choice." rick adds. the walkie goes silent again and after a couple of seconds, rick speaks up. "look, i know you're talking it over. it's a fair trade. just come out, we do this, we all walk away. do we have a deal?" rick asks. "i'll get back to you." the woman answers and i can see their little heads walking through the trees. "what do we do, rick?" i ask worriedly about maggie and the baby. "we go get them." he answers. 

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"their tracks follow through here, lead up to that place up there." daryl says as we all follow him through the woods. he points to a distant building as rick pulls out his guns. "okay, we go in quietly. we don't know how many of them are in there but we know they have carol and maggie. watch your backs and keep your eyes open." he says. everyone loads up their rifles. joel swings one off of his back and hands it to me. "it's heavy." i say inspecting the new weapon. "get a feel for it. it will help more with bigger groups of things raher than using the handgun." he says handing me some ammo. "thanks." i say stuffing it in my pockets. "you look through the scope here, pull the trigger here, and reload ammo here." joel explains quickly showing me how to use the gun. 

"let's go get our people back." rick says as we all follow him cautiously up the hill and into the fenced yard of the building. glenn sneaks around and swings the door open as we are met with maggie and carol standing in front of us. maggie smiles and i hug her tight then carol. a little glance inside, as everyone is reuniting, gives me a sense of where those saviors went. a couple of walker bodies line the hallway and the smell of smoke burns my nose. "they're dead. they're all dead. the ones that took us." i hear maggie mumble as glenn holds her close to him. "your friends are dead. no one's coming for ya. so you might as well talk." rick says to the savior they are holding hostage. "let him burn." daryl adds. "i'm gonna ask you one last time...how'd you get the bike?" rick asks the man. "we found it." the savior mumbles. 

"like hell you did." daryl exclaims. "we found it." the savior says a little louder this time. "was negan in that building last night?" rick asks. the savior slowly turns his head to look at him. "both. i'm negan, shithead. there's a whole lot of fun we can talk about, so let's have a chat." the savior says. "i'm sorry it had to come to this." rick says quickly before shooting the savior in the head. a gasp escapes from my lips as the bullet rings through the air. i can feel joel's hand rest on my shoulder as the man hits the floor and the blood spills out of his head. 

with my ears still ringing i follow the group back to the RV we brought here. everyone loads on without saying a word. maggie sits with glenn as he inspects the cut on her stomach. i see carol sitting next to daryl clenching her rosary. rick and joel are up at the front getting us home. "you okay?" rosita asks me. "yeah." i answer quietly not wanting to disturb everyone's silence. "here turn." she says as she takes out my braid and starts to redo it. "do you ever think we'd be better off not killing people? i know sometimes we have to but what if we don't all the time?" i ask her and i can feel her sigh on the back of my neck. 

"killing is what has kept us here. it's what lets us keep alexandria. it's a part of this world now, you either contribute and live or wimp up and die." she says very bluntly. rosita has never had an issue adapting to this world. i admire her a lot but sometimes she can be very cold. "yeah, i guess you're right." i say. "there." she says setting the braid on my shoulder. "thanks." i reply. she smiles and i rest my head on her shoulder. "you are one of the most caring people i've met, isa. it's either a blessing or a death sentence. you need to learn how to balance it." she says resting her head on mine. 

the drive back home was bumpy and i am glad to see the walls of alexandria as we pull up to the gate. it slides open and we park off to the side of the wall. i grab my bag and climb out scanning the streets for carl. i see him running up the road and he doesn't stop till he wraps his arms around me. "i said i'd be back." i say tiredly squeezing him as hard as my sore arms would let me. "isa, i've got wall duty. be home no later than 10, okay?" joel says before we all part ways. "how'd it go?" carl asks carrying my bag for me. "it was awful. we went in when they were sleeping. killed most of them before one pulled the fire alarm waking up the rest. we were lucky to get out alive. maggie and carol got kidnapped and we killed negan, we found him trying to escape on daryl's bike he lost." i explain. "well that's good, right? you got negan." he adds.

"yeah, i think so." i say gently smiling. "i need a shower." i say walking to the stairs. "you want something to eat?" carl asks setting my bag down on the barstool in the kitchen. "sure." i answer before turning upstairs and into the bathroom. i turn the shower handle and rip off my bloody clothes. the warm water soaks my hair and washes away the dirt and blood stained on my arms and legs. after a few minutes, i drag myself out and into carl's room as i slip on some of the pajamas i left here. the smell of food catches my attention and i go back downstairs. the rest of the night flies by. a couple naps on carl's bed and some comic book chapters along with a visit from enid filled the rest of my day. the cool night breeze blows through my slightly damp hair as i walk home.

the porch light is on and i figure joel's home. i walk in locking the door behind me and joel looks up from his book. "you okay, kid? today was a big day." he asks taking off his old man glasses and setting his book aside. "yeah, i'm okay. it's just i watched a lot of people die today. still kinda a shock when that happens." i explain. "i'm proud of you, kid. you are really growing up." he says and i can't help but laugh a little at how cheesy he is sometimes. "thanks, joel." i say walking up the stairs and down the hall to my room. i peer out the window and see carl laying on his bed reading. i climb into bed, shivering, hoping to warm up soon. i watch the moon stare over the community and the reflections it casts on the houses and the pond. it casts a calm, blue, glow over everything putting me to sleep.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

has anyone else been watching dead city? i love it sm now, the first episode i wasn't too sure but now it's so good i highly recommend it. 

anyways thank you guys for 750 reads that's so crazy to me. i also was checking the statistics and people have read my book all over the world, blows my mind. 

say hi from wherever you're from!!