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inkribbon_twdThe chapter's title is a reference to Dune. I've been writing for Dune for a while now, and it fits perfectly for Sanctuary and Negan, and Amanda's feelings, I also used it here, hehe. I've been using a lot TWD themes in my Dune story, so here TWD having its own Dune references as well. This and "you die as an animal" is coming directly from Dune, and again fits the Wolves and the Saviors so badly. Ugh. Really, my hatred for Negan and the Savior just resurfaced after returning to On The Horizon.
I'll see you at the bottom.
Lights suddenly lit up as Rick and Daryl stepped out of the room where they had killed the occupants inside in their sleep before reaching the armory. Rick held his breath for a split second, listening to the silence, adjusting his sight to the new oppressive fluorescent light after deep darkness, his ears stretching to hear anything.
There were no sounds, only light.
Their radios also stayed silent, with no warning of being spotted coming. Rick held onto the breath he was holding still alert, his eyes keenly taking the sight of their environment under the new light, waiting for anything—everything.
His cop intuition was up, a stony feeling in the pit of his stomach and in his guts. Everything was still silent, but something was not right. He shared a brief sideways glance with Daryl and saw his best friend was in the same disposition which only elevated the sense of danger in him.
Rick tilted his head and Daryl spread out with some of the Hilltoppers that they had merged inside after infiltrating the compound before making their way to the armory. Rick clutched his machine gun’s latch underneath for the continuous fire from the single shot, getting ready before they approached the intersection ahead of them in the corridors.
A perfect spot for an ambush, to intercept them.
The hair on his neck stood further as they neared closer, even their sturdy boots hardly making a sound. Even the Hilltoppers had sensed the danger that might lay ahead and were not even breathing now. His gaze flittered between the side of the corridor and them, halting at the edge of the intersection, his fist in the air to stop the men following his lead.
Rick put a step forward, lining up against the corner as the bullets whistled above his head. He threw himself aside, taking cover at the corner, holding the machine gun at his chest with the sling, swearing loudly.
“Stay back!” he shouted over the gunshots as gunshots rang in the air, bullets ricocheting. Rick swore loudly, sharing another glance with Daryl just before the shots also started to run from behind.
“TAKE COVER!” Daryl shouted as Rick spun and pressed his finger on the trigger on automatic response, parrying the assault. Two of the Hilltoppers who could not heed Daryl’s order and couldn’t take cover in time dropped dead in the corridor, shot in the head. Their blood pooled on the grey concrete floor, glistening sourly under the fluorescent light, red on grey.
Rick did not even know whose shots had hit them. Theirs or the Saviors were advancing toward them. From their back, the sounds of approaching me neared too, getting close to the intersection.
“It’s a trap!” Rick shouted, understanding the ambush clearer. They had ambushed them at the intersection and closed in on them before they reached the armory. The perfect spot for a trap. The implications ran at the speed of light in his mind, what it suggested, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on those implications. Not yet.
It was time to shoot. Time to kill. Do what they had come here for.
His jaw clenched under his bread, his grimace setting, and Rick pressed on the trigger for another round, emptying his magazine. The dead bodies piled up ahead of him as the other men scattered behind corners. Rick quickly changed his magazine as Daryl picked it up from where he left, covering for him. Rick peeked up behind the corner and shot at the men who were coming to trap them between two fires.
“We gotta go!” Rick shouted at Daryl who only nodded at him back in response. Rick motioned with his hand with a few remaining Hilltoppers. Michael and two other men.
The leader of Hilltop stopped beside him, looking distraught and panicked, his usual cool bravado shattering with the understanding of what was happening. “They’re circling us!” the man shouted aloud, disbelief lacing in his tone despite his understanding.
“Yes,” Rick confirmed and started to shoot another round at the men approaching.
The man glanced at Rick before joining him in the effort. “But how?” he asked when they paused and took cover again. Rick shot the other man a pissed look.
“You tell me, Kinnard!”
“We didn’t sell you out!”
“Someone still must have tipped them out!” he sneered before he lined his body with the corner of the corridor as best as he could and ran another round. “We gotta go!” he shouted the next second, deciding that talk could also wait. At the moment, it was not even important. It was just time to shoot now. The rest, they would figure out later. Daryl was still shooting at the other side.
“Stay together!” Rick ordered as the Saviors tried to set them apart from each other, still circling them. “Hold your positions!”
All lights were out, gunshots echoing in the air, and more people poured out of the closed doors, looking shocked and panicked in their nighttime clothes and getting caught in the fire. The Saviors did not even halt but shot at their own people without hesitation, not caring. This was not what they were planning, not at all. They knew there were civilians but they had never seen this many civilians inside the compound. From where all these people had come from?
The pool of blood on the floor became a sea. The scene even grappled at Rick, halting his finger on the trigger when a man suddenly stayed in the line of his fire with an infant girl in his arms. Rick shouted at the man who didn’t know, waving his hand to clear him and his daughter off his path, but it was too late.
The bullets pierced his chest and then hit the baby girl in his chest, blood blossoming on their chest like red flowers before they also dropped in the blood sea on the ground. Stupefied by the merciless scene, his finger on the trigger stayed frozen only for a split second before Rick started to rain hell on the sonofabitch that had killed the father and daughter.
The bloodshed became a scene of macabre as the Saviors continued to shoot, not even caring whom they were shooting at. “PULL BACK!” Rick yelled. “PULL BACK!”
The Saviors were just shooting at their own people now.
Rick grabbed his radio and spoke through the short-range channel, “All teams, abort! I repeat, abort!” he ordered. “Pull back and rendezvous at the vehicles!”
A familiar sight appeared in his peripheral vision on the other side of Daryl, a face that Rick had not seen since the Junkyard. Half of his face was burned, awfully scaled skin half covered by dirty sand-colored greasy hair. He was carrying a gun, as well, but his hands halted when he saw them. Dwight, Rick recalled the man’s name from memory, realizing they had rejoined the monsters they had been running away from.
Rick wondered what had happened to his face, but he deemed it was not important now. He was carrying an automatic machine gun, not like the other dwellers who had left the rooms in panic in their sleeping clothes. He was prepared. Like the others that were gunning down their own people. The trap was more cognizant in him now. Rick raised his gun, aiming to kill, but a sudden impact threw him off the ground. A man straddled him from the corner, the back of his rifle hitting his jaw. Rick quickly reached down his pocket knife and stabbed it into the man’s chin underneath, his face washing with the jet of blood.
Michael quickly bent down and yanked the man off him as Rick wiped the blood off his eyes and face, getting up. In the interim, Daryl had hesitated, his eyes flicking between him and the ruined-faced Savior for a fraction, but it was all the man had needed. He quickly dashed off, deciding not to take his chances against them, and disappeared behind a corner.
They let him go. “Go! Go! Go!” Rick shouted, moving away from the intersection and turning toward the exit.
Glenn and Beth joined them on their way to the exit with a few others, Abraham and Rovia leading another group, but most of the Hilltopper were lacking their numbers. Michael counted them, a grey look of horror and recognition coming over to his expression.
“We gotta go!” Glenn shouted, covering for Beth. Rick pulled the teenage girl closer to his side for protection, swearing at himself inwardly for letting her go come with them. If Amanda had seen this—the thought almost knocked the air out of his chest as they ran for the doors, shooting a way out for themselves. They were set up. It could not have been any clearer for Rick, and the thought raised his panic and horror to another level to leave the goddamn place, thinking of Amanda and Carl at the Hilltop.
They knew they were coming. And if they knew that… Rick ran faster, running bullets as he did so. Funny thing they weren’t only the ones who were leaving the compound. More people without guns and clad in pajamas were running around, as eager as them leaving the outpost. They stopped shooting at them, letting them go. A line of young girls between two dozen armed men suddenly appeared in front of them at the exit, half of them ushering the girls outside while the rest of them stayed behind to protect them. When Rick realized that they were trying to get the girls outside the bloodshed, he also let them go, not engaging but standing at ready. One of the guys at the head of the escort gave him a quick but assessing look as Rick waited for the man’s reaction, then quickly ducked and trailed behind the others.
At the same time, bullets whistled over them, and a piercing scream rang beside her as Glenn dropped to his knees. In a whirl, they closed on him, shooting and screaming, his fury increasing like a volcano when he recognized who had shot at Glenn, half-burned face, dirty sandy hair.
A murderous look entered Daryl’s gaze when he also saw it, understanding the man who he had let go had shot their brother. Glenn writhed on the floor in pain, bleeding as Rick and Daryl both pulled the trigger but the man was already running away. Daryl was about to rush after him, but Rick clawed at his arm and pushed him back.
“NO!” he shouted. “Let him go! We gotta go!”
Abraham picked up Glenn from the floor, and Rick saw two bullets had hit the younger friend. He hissed as they cleared out of the exit. The heavy rain pattered as badly as when they had come, but even the sound of downpour and howling wind drowned under the sounds that were spreading out of the Satellite Outpost.
“Over the vehicles!” Rick shouted as he understood the Saviors were trying to do the same, as well, everyone trying to leave the compound that had become a death trap. The screams pierced over the gunshots and wind suddenly to his left side, where the Saviors were getting on their vehicles, a familiar feminine note that strung his chest and stopped him dead in his tracks.
Rick peered at the darkness, soaking wet under the heavy jet of water, and squinted his eyes to see clearer in the purple-grey sky. He noted with difficulty two men trying to haul a woman in the back of a military pickup, dragging her on the muddy surface. She was grabbed by her hair and was manhandled to the bed of the pickup as another teenage figure was trying to break free from another man to help her. His angry screams also reached her, and Rick caught a glimpse of the woman on the ground—wet dark blonde waves covered with mud and her elegant cashmere coat, her exclusive booties digging in the mud not to let the man carry her to the vehicle as she fought with the hand that had grabbed her by her hair.
All thought and reason left him as raw fear, panic, and fur gripped him. Rick started to spring toward him, also recognizing the teenage figure. “AMANDA! CARL!” he screamed and ran. He had no idea what the hell they were doing here, how they had come, why they had come, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing had mattered.
They were taking his son and wife! His pregnant wife!
Daryl started to run after him, spotting the scene. “GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!” Rick hollered over the storm, running even faster, his gaze murderous. Upon closing, he realized the men they were trying to grab her were none other than the leader of the Satellite Outpost, the prick Rick had spied many times, and the leader of the Wolves. The third man—Rick also recognized. From the Junkyard. The asshole with the horseshoe mustache. He was the one who was manhandling his wife. Chris was holding Carl, laughing along with the Wolves’ leader and the mustache asshole as they watched him struggle to break free to help Amanda.
“LET HER GO!” Rick heard his son’s angry scream as he repeated, yelling over the wind and rain, “LET THEM GO!”
Suddenly they stopped, noticing him running toward them like a madman, and Amanda’s eyes too followed their look as she ceased her fighting and stared up at him. “RICK!” she shouted for him. “RICK!”
“DAD!” Carl echoed at the same time as Rick stopped and raised his machine gun at them.
# # #
The gunshots drifted out of the outpost, mixing with the sounds of the storm as they ran toward the perimeters. They were too late, too fucking late. Doctor Carson halted, understanding the trap they had walked into closer. Amanda felt fear and desperation ran in her veins stronger, not knowing what to do. They all halted, following his example. In other times, Amanda would have just rushed inside the compound and looked for Rick, looked for her husband, the man she loved. God, even Beth was inside in this mess, and Amanda had let her. She had given her permission.
So, at another time, Amanda wouldn’t have even thought for a second, but now, her feet stopped, her hands creeping over her stomach once more under the grey-purple sky. Carl looked at her, standing close, ready to defend her. Shubham was the first one who broke the silence over the pattering rain, howling wind, and gunshots. But he was not looking at Amanda and the rest of them now. He was directly looking at Sherry.
He tapped his ear and spoke over his radio. “Where are the packages?” he questioned as the answer came quickly and promptly.
“On the way. ETA five minutes. Rendezvous at the parking lot.”
“Roger, roger,” he confirmed and grabbed Sherry’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Sherry! Wait!” Amanda stopped them as they moved out toward their rendezvous point to leave for the Sanctuary. “You don’t have to go. You can stay with us.” It wasn’t only because Amanda wanted her to stay for her intel, no. She didn’t want the woman to go to that horrible place. “We can protect you.”
Sherry looked at her back, and there were tears inside her eyes again. “And how could you do that, Mrs. Grimes?” she asked, cocking her head at the outpost. “You can’t even protect yourself. You just walked into their trap.”
“We just lost a battle,” Amanda answered coolly as the gunshots and screams drifted out of the Station louder, gazing at her staunchly and wet under the downpour. “Not the war, Sherry.”
“And it doesn’t matter,” she replied, and more than anything, she looked sad. “When Negan comes, he’s going to crush you. Dwight wanted to come with you at the Junkyard,” she said, “That was what I’d told him when he wanted to accept Rick’s offer for asylum. I guess nothing had changed since then. I wish you luck, Amanda. You’re gonna need it now.”
Then without a word, the woman turned around and let her guard move her away. Amanda stared after them for a few seconds, her eyes squinted in the grey purpleness, her jaw clenching, anger filling her. I wish you luck, Amanda. You’re gonna need it now.
“Amanda…?” Carl asked her, turning aside, looking lost, and waiting for her decision. Doctor Carson looked the same, waiting for her orders. Amanda thought of Rick and Beth, and all the people she cared about inside, and thought about her babies, and her jaw clenched, tears of anger pricking inside her eyes, she made her decision.
“We’re going back,” she spoke primly and lowly, spinning on her heels. Rick was going to bring them back safely. She had to trust her husband now. She could not endanger their babies more, not like this. Carl approved with a wordless nod quickly, slipping beside her. They started to run toward the Camper they had left. As they did so, on their left, Amanda spotted the clamor in the parking lot, a cortege of armed men leading a string of girls inside the armored vehicles. Amanda recognized Sherry as she also stepped inside one of the vehicles, Shubham helping her and the others.
The merchandise of the Madame of the Sanctuary was returning home, protected and safe. Bill rose to her throat with pure hatred and anger as Amanda saw it, the unfairness of it and the woman’s easy acceptance edging her emotions. She fisted her fingers, her nails dragging blood inside her palms. She hadn’t even given them a chance! After everything that vile men had put her through, after what Negan himself had done to her, she hadn’t even wanted to fight!
You can’t even protect yourself. I wish you luck. You’re gonna need it now.
“Look who is here now!” suddenly a leery voice cut over her dark musings as they ran to the Camper, making Amanda whirl around her, recognizing the oily menacing tone, all her hatred and disgust reaching another level. Amanda faced the leader of the Wolves under the downpour.
“The feisty little teacher,” the Wolf sneered as Amanda and Carl quickly drew their guns at the same time. They were at the other side of the Sherry and her company in the parking lot and Amanda comprehended they were leaving the stage after striking the match for the fire they had staged, not remaining for the bonfire.
Amanda glared at the villains, raising her gun higher. Gregory must have told them she was the teacher of their community as there was no other possibility for the leader of the Wolves to know about it. But if they did that, they must have also told them she was Rick’s wife.
“Who is this beauty, Owen?” the man with an ugly horseshoe mustache and sickly leery gaze asked, sweeping his look all over her. Carl, seeing his look, ran his machine gun higher, armed to the teeth.
“The one I told you, Simon,” Owen answered, and Amanda sucked in a silent sharp breath, understanding their way was intercepted by none than Negan’s second-hand man, the asshole who had orchestrated the bloodshed today because he wanted to unleash Negan’s wraith upon them.
“Gregory told me she’s their teacher, but she was the one of those who protected their home when they all left. She’s Rick’s wife. A cop’s wife, it appears. She’s feisty. The kind of Negan likes,” he remarked, Amanda recalled what he had told her in the woods as he shot her a look.
You have a fight in her. He’s gonna love it.
Who?
Wouldn’t want to spoil the fun.
Amanda trembled, understanding he had been speaking of Negan.
Simon laughed, approaching her. “Well, Negan favors brunettes more, but you’ll make do too. Who wouldn’t like a little war prize, eh?” he laughed sickly as Amanda took a few steps back as he neared her even closer, glancing behind his shoulder to see the others were directing their guns on Carl, not at her anymore.
“Negan loves his spoils of war,” he taunted and Amanda wanted to throw up. Spoils of war? At which time these pricks were living? In times when the dead were walking, where you either took or would be taken as spoils of war.
“Stay back!” she shouted, panic and fear rising in her further even when she warned them another time, though she took another step backward. Carl was glancing at her sideways, too, too afraid to take action even though he looked daggers at them. If she shot—
Another dark night in the woods flashed across her eyes as the man neared her and grabbed her wrist, Amanda too afraid to take a shot. The Claimers taunted them in the back of her mind as Amanda terrorized as the man started to drag her toward their pick up. Carl rushed after her, and Chris ran and held him in a bear hug. They all were laughing like the Claimers in the woods, laughing under the rain as she cried out.
Amanda fought, kicking the sheens of Simon, and consequently earned a slap from the man right across her face. The blow fled her on the puddle of mud and water, the rain pattering down on her. Both Carl and Doctor Carson shouted at the same time as a strong hand gripped her hair, hauled her up, and started dragging her over the ground.
Amanda kicked her feet to stop him, planting the back of her boots in the mud, her hands clawing the muddy earth like hooks. Her head hauled backward so badly that she felt like her hair was going to rip off from the way the man was trying to drag her.
To give her to Negan as his spoils of war.
Sherry’s words echoed through her ears with her augmented fear, of what that vicious man had done to her. She freed her hand and held her stomach, openly at the edge of telling them she was pregnant. They could not do this to her. To her babies!
“Let me go!” she screamed as Carl screamed for her. “Amanda! Amanda! LET HER GO!”
“AMANDA! CARL!” His furious yelling voice pierced through the storm and Amanda stared ahead, lifting her head as Simon tried to pull her up beside the vehicle, still holding onto her hair.
“RICK!” she cried out, her heart hammering against her chest, closing her eyes and letting out a breath in relief and prayer. Rick was here. She couldn’t decide whether she was happier because he was okay, or because he was running toward her with a familiar murderous glint in his eyes, ready to take down anyone who would stand in his way.
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!” Amanda attempted to break free, but Simon dragged her back again, whipping his hand trough her hair tighter, yanking her back.
“LET HER GO!” Rick screamed as Carl echoed his scream, “DAD!”
“GET DOWN, CARL!” Rick shouted as he raised his machine gun. Carl elbowed his captor’s side and rolled down to the ground, tumbling Doctor Carson as well. Amanda twirled her legs, tightening her core, and pushed forward, not caring even if she would leave her whole scalp in Simon’s head. She rolled over the rain and mud as Rick started to rain bullets on them just after she broke free.
Daryl quickly joined Rick, shooting with the same murderous glint. Amanda quickly grabbed the ankle gun Simon had made her drop after his blow and taking cover behind the vehicle, she started to shoot as well. Simon and Chris threw themselves inside the pickup truck, outnumbered. Owen tried to make a jump in the back of the truck, but her eyes narrowed with hatred, Amanda shot him in the leg.
Hollering with a piercing scream, the man lost his balance and dropped from the truck. He tried to climb the back of the truck, but getting up to her feet, Amanda shot him again in his other leg, anger and vendetta rushing in her veins. She remembered Jessie, she remembered Sam. The man made another attempt, limping, but suddenly the truck lunged forward, leaving him behind.
“NO!” the leader of Simon’s rabid dog howled over the wind, limping after the speeding truck. “COME BACK YOU, SONOFBICTH!”
Amanda shot him in the back of his knee, dropping him back to the ground. If anyone from Hilltop or the Saviors saw how good she could shoot even in the dusk of dawn, Amanda didn’t care. Not right now. She approached him, not wanting to shoot him anymore from his behind, but wanted to face him. Rick was following her now wordless, holding her back protectively but not stopping her. Amanda loved him for that.
Amanda rounded beside him and faced the man. He was covered with mud and blood, whimpering and swearing, malicious intent and madness glinting in his eyes with the same folly Amanda had seen in the woods for the first time. But he looked so pitiful now, he looked so low that for a split second, Amanda pitied him, but only for a second. He didn’t even look like a human anymore. A monster. An animal. He was an animal.
“You die like an animal,” she told him clearly before shooting him in the head, placidly, almost emotionless. The man dropped to his side on the ground, dead, never to return.
Amanda lowered her arm and stared at Rick who stood now at the other side of the man, watching her. He didn’t look surprised, or confused, he didn’t even look angry anymore. Amanda let out a sound, rain winding down on her, and then she was running to his arms. His arms enveloped her as Amanda crushed into his chest, pulling her tighter and stronger, dipping his head in the crack of her shoulder as she did the same.
“I was so afraid…” she mumbled to his ear, her lips touching his neck and his jaw, her breath tingling over his beard, sour with sweat and blood. For a second, she wasn’t even sure what she had been more afraid of, of never seeing him again, falling into a deadly trap, or the fact that she had been almost snatched away to be presented over a man as the spoils of war.
He deeply inhaled, kissing the side of her neck, and looked up, holding her face between his hands and there was the shock, fear, and anger now in his sharp blue eyes, gazing at her deeply.
“Amanda!” he cried out. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his hands yanking her head closer to his forehead, resting it on hers. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
The fear in his voice was so raw and deep that Amanda felt her chest tighten to make him feel like this, but before she could recount what had happened after they left, Beth screamed, spotting Doctor Carson.
“Doctor Carson!” she shouted, “Doctor Carson! Help!”
The absolute terror and panic made Amanda look beyond Rick’s shoulder, step a foot away from his arms, and see Glenn in Abraham’s arms. Bleeding. Her eyes widened as Carl lunged forward with the doctor.
“Glenn!” Amanda shouted as Abraham lowered him to the muddy ground. Glenn was shot. Two bullets in his abdomen. It was even worse than the gunshot Amanda had barely managed to survive after Grady. Panic and terror ensnared remembering Beatrice and the baby she was carrying.
“No, no, no…” she chanted, dropping beside him next to Beth. Beth was crying so hard that Amanda could only join her. Daryl put his head on his legs as the Doctor examined his wounds. “The bullets pierced his liver!”
“Is he going to live?” Beth asked, desperate.
“I need to operate him!” the doctor answered instead, looking up at Rick. “He doesn’t have much time left.”
Beth threw herself into her arms as Amanda hugged her tightly, crying. Rick checked around, his jaw moving decisively. “We get back inside. Hurry up!”
Amanda raised her eyes to him, comprehending him. Even though they had walked into a trap, they had still confiscated the outpost like they had been aiming. The Saviors were driven away. The gunshots were silenced, the sounds of the motors reverberating in the distance under the howling wind. It had been never Simon and Chris’s plan to stay back and fight. They had been leaving them the post after creating the bloodshed they had desired, perhaps even so to irk their leader further to take action against them. They had even left their own wounded and dead behind, just had run away.
They rushed inside, no one even standing in their way anymore. Abraham was carrying Glenn once more and they were looking for the place they might use as their infirmary in the compound so that Doctor Carson might have operated on Glenn. Despite everything, despite she had been rescued from getting confiscated in the nick of time, she was glad she had come, bringing Doctor Carson.
She feared what would have happened if Doctor Carson hadn’t been with them now, what would have happened to Glenn. Amanda shoved the thought away from herself, not wanting to ponder about it. This was the exact reason why she had wanted to come. She couldn’t warn them in time, but she at least could help save Glenn. The soon-to-be father. Even the thought of Beatrice was making her want to throw herself back into Rick’s arms and cry her heart out. Rick caught a man who was crouched against a dark corner, trembling in fear, trying to hide from them. He questioned the trembling man staunchly and quickly for the infirmary’s whereabouts, and then they were running toward it.
Daryl’s face was the color of ash, bleak and haunted as they hurried Glenn inside. Beth went inside with the doctor to help him, and Amanda was going to follow them inside for help, spotting the stacks of medical supplies and respiratory machine for operation with deep relief but Rick caught her arm gently, pulling her away from the doorway. He merely shook his head, leading her away to the other side.
“Daryl,” he ordered the other man who was staring at the closed door with glazed eyes. “Round up a team and find the injured people they left behind and secure the rest and Satellite room. Check the wounded’s injuries. If anyone is critical like Glenn, bring them here. Doctor Carson will check them after Glenn.”
Daryl looked about to reject, tending the enemy, but after a second, he shut out his mouth, his jaw clenching and only tilted his head back at Rick. He still didn’t look happy but carried on the order. Michael turned to Paul. “Jesus, help him. Bring everyone together. Make sure no one makes any contact with the Sanctuary, too.”
At that moment, all rushed at her, and Amanda cut in between their orders in a fretting voice, “Wait!” Her gaze cast a quick look around for a split second to confirm what she had already unconsciously registered but couldn’t have recognized after what happened outside and then seeing Glenn fatally wounded. Spencer wasn’t with them. “Look for Spencer—” she croaked out, letting out a sharp sound. “H-He sold us out. H-he and Gregory. They sold us out.”
Rick gave her a look, his jaw tensing and moving, his stern gaze fixated on hers, but he stayed silent before tilting his head at Daryl and Paul. Michael’s expression was in the same forlorn way, but he also stayed silent, not questioning her for more. That was going to come later. Michael shoved his hands into his pockets, heaving out deeply and ducking his head. They both looked so worse to wear—dripping wet and covered with mud and blood, but they still waited.
Daryl and Paul walked away, both people from Alexandria and Hilltop following them. Rick put a hand on the small of her back and started to lead her away from the infirmary. “Let’s find you some dry clothes,” he remarked, and Amanda knew it was a pretense to stay alone with her, to get some answers, but also a necessity.
She didn’t want to leave the infirmary, but she was still shivering with cold and wet, the chill shaking her body. So, she didn’t protest and let him direct her. Rick opened the first door they saw and it was a room with bunk beds. He closed the door behind her after Amanda stepped inside and quickly started to rummage through the closet to find dry clothes for her.
“Amanda—” he asked, crouched in front of the closet as Amanda shed off her cashmere coat that was ruined with rain and mud. “What happened? How did you learn about Spencer and Gregory?” There was a weary frustration in his voice as his hands clenched into a sweatshirt that he found inside the closet, looking back at her over his shoulder “I lost my mind when I understood it was you and Carl those pricks were trying to pick up.”
Amanda knew it wasn’t a lie. “I-I’m sorry, Rick. I-I had to come. I-I had to warn you,” she said. “I-I tried to stop Carl from coming with me,” she explained. “But he threatened to follow me after I leave if I did.”
“Of course, he did,” Rick grumbled, but shook his head, muttering to himself sotto voce. “I shouldn’t have let you come. I knew you weren’t gonna listen to me.” Amanda stayed silent this time, letting him run out of his frustration and his fear as she peeled off her wet silk shirt. “What about Gregory and Spencer?” he asked after a few seconds, focusing his attention back on the business, repeated his inquiry. “What happened?”
“Sh-Sherry came after you left—” she started, taking the dark tee shirt and sweatshirt Rick handed her. They weren’t anything fancy, they weren’t even clean, they smelled sour with sweat, but it was at least dry. Holding down her gagging reflex at the sour sweat, mixed with the tangy feel of blood in the space, Amanda pushed it down over her head. Rick’s scent—she could stomach, but another man’s sour scent with blood just churned her already upset stomach.
The bile came up and Amanda started to heave, couldn’t even stop herself. In a heartbreak, She was entwined within his embrace, Rick holding her tightly, quickly before he dragged the dustbin into the corner with his other arm for her to puke in as he held her forehead back with the other. Amanda heaved out the little remnants of her dinner, and sagged against his chest, closing her eyes tiredly as she went limp in his arms. She knew she had to talk, explain to him what had happened but she felt so tired that she couldn’t open her mouth for a few minutes. Rick let her compose herself, only holding her in his arms.
When Amanda gathered enough energy, she started to speak once more, her eyes still shut closed. “S-she said you were walking into a trap…they set you up. Gregory and Spencer—they’re in an alliance with Chris and Simon,” she muttered, her voice low and still shaking, recalling her fear before they left Hilltop. “Simon is Negan’s second-hand man. They made a pact. They were going to kill you, and Spencer and Gregor were going to take your place,” she whimpered. “S-Spencer… he sold us out, Rick. For power. For his ambitions,” she whimpered. “He didn’t care. He wanted you gone.”
“Shssh…” Rick whispered into her ear, tightening his arms closer around her and spreading his palm over her stomach. “It’s passed now. I’m safe. We’re safe now.”
“Glenn…” she whimpered, peering at him through her half-open eyes, reclining her head backward at his shoulder. “What if—”
“Shussh,” he cut her off again, not allowing her to speak further, but asked passing the arms of the sweatshirt through hers. Amanda let him, feeling much better and…safer as he dressed her. “Who’s Sherry?” he asked, not recognizing her. “Why did she come to warn you?”
“The couple you found in the Junkyard. They returned to the Saviors,” Amanda answered after he pushed the collar of the sweatshirt over her neck. “She learned they were setting up tonight, she came to warn us after you left. Simon and Chris didn’t do this for Gregory and Spencer’s ambitions.”
Rick let out a scoff. “I gathered that. They shot at their own people.”
Amanda felt about to cry once more as she nodded. “They did this to force Negan upon us, Rick. They wanted us to attack so that Negan would be forced to retaliate with full force. They want total war, all-out war. They’re going to pin this on us.”
“I knew what I started when I came here, Amanda,” Rick said solemnly, his voice even and accepting. “We both knew it. If it’s the all-out war they want, they will get it.”
Amanda remembered Sherry then, remembered her fear, still refusing to come with her, but going to Sanctuary. “I-I told Sherry to come back with us, but even now she refused. She feared to leave. She said when Negan comes, he is going to crush us down.”
He clutched her head tightly and made her look at him once more. “He won’t. Babe, he won’t. We won’t let him.”
She trembled. “S-she was afraid so much,” she whimpered. “H-he made her sleep with him in exchange for her husband’s life and she did it, Rick. She sold herself out to him for her husband, but the bastard still burned half of his face as punishment,” she trembled and whimpered again, Sherry’s fear mixing with her own after hearing it. “I got so afraid for you after hearing it.”
Rick yanked her back into his arms in a heartbeat and hugged her tightly, ducking his head into her wet locks and neck. “Shss. I’m here,” he mumbled again to her ear soothingly. “I’m here.”
Amanda gulped through a sob, remembering the hands that dragged her over the ground to give her to him. “They wanted to bring me to him,” she whispered as he tensed, letting out a sharp breath. “Wanted me for gifting him. Spoils of war,” her rough voice thinned, cracking and shaking. “They called me the spoils of war.”
“I’m gonna kill ‘em,” he roughed out in raw unadulterated fury, looking up at her. “I’m gonna kill ‘em all.”
She shook her head, the snapshots of the people they had left behind flashing over her eyes, their people, left behind as their collateral damage without care. It was not only a few men of cruelty banded together in the woods, looking only for their own sick pleasure and gratification. In a way, the Sanctuary was as evil as Terminus.
They stayed in each other silently after that, just holding each other so that their presence would recenter them and soothe their fears. There was a part of her that already started to tell him, about Sherry and what they had called her, slipping it in her distraught distress because she knew it was going to haunt him worse now.
Then something happened too. Rick’s hand stopped as he circled her back with slow motions to soothe her, his jaw tensing as his eyes glared ahead. Amanda twisted her neck and followed his darkened gaze. He was looking daggers at the wall, at a makeshift billboard with Polaroid photos. Under the grey dim light of the room, Amanda squinted her eyes to see the photos clearly, the visuals were so disoriented and messed up she couldn’t understand what they were—she drew in a sharp breath, disgust and anger gnawing at her chest, comprehending what were those photos that they had pinned up on the wall, and why Rick was looking daggers at them.
How could you do that something? Amanda asked herself, still not finding any answer like in Terminus or in the woods. The vileness and sickness—it never ended. Rick slowly got up from the floor, disentangling himself from her as Amanda mimicked his action and followed him to the wall.
When she saw the violence and violence they had created, bile rose to her throat once more, gagging her as she stared ahead at the psychotic wall of memories they had made. What kind of human beings could do this? Take pictures of these ruined bodies and then put them on the wall and look at them every night and morning? They had taken pictures! They had taken pictures after Negan bludgeoned people to death with his barbed baseball bat, to submit to submission and his sick minions had taken pictures of his victims and put them on the walls! Making a shrine of vileness, violence, and foulness out of their atrocities!
What kind of vileness was that! What kind of an abomination? They were animals! Just animals!
Suddenly a tidal wave of disgust and fury hit her and with a loud swear, she tore off the foul-smelling sweatshirt and tee shirt she had put on and threw them away with all her strength. She would prefer to stay naked and wet in the cold instead of having a single thing of these animals on her person! Rick turned to look at her from the wall, staring at her only in her bra, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he took off his jacket and his shirt, slightly drier than hers, but covered with blood and sweat, but his sweat, his scent, no vileness or foulness inside, and gave it to her. Amanda took the shirt gratefully as Rick stayed with his undershirt and also gave her his suede jacket. It felt like they were in the woods once more, out in the wilderness, Amanda wearing his shirt and jacket, not knowing what to do with the feelings inside her for him, but aching for him.
She still ached for him, for his sturdy, staunch company, his sheltering arms, his clothes. His arms wrapped all around her strongly once more, sheltering her from the vileness. Amanda deeply exhaled, burying herself in his arms, refusing to look at the wall anymore. If it’s the all-out war they want, they will get it.
The clamor from outside in the corridor cut off their moment to find solace in each other’s arms, and Amanda recognized one pitch above all, Beth’s piercing wail. In a whirl, they both lunged at the door, Rick grabbing the sling of his machine gun that had rested beside the door to take off his jacket and shirt. He slung the weapon across his shoulder as Amanda yanked the door open, her heart in her throat, and started to run toward the infirmary.
The door of the infirmary was open, and Beth was down on the ground, one had supported on the floor as she screamed and cried, tears running down her eyes like a flood.
Abraham stepped away with Rosita, her hands covered with blood. Faces of ash, grey, tears stricken.
Rick cast off a stone next to her.
Amanda stared, not wanting to look, not wanting to see. She didn’t want to see. She didn’t want to look. She knew what she was going to see, and she didn’t want to see it. Not once more. Not once more.
Beth threw her head back and the piercing sound Amanda had heard the last time in the woods tore off her lungs.
In the woods when Maggie had died.
Amanda clutched her stomach, holding her babies as the world whirled around her, fading before the ground rose to her knees.
Doctor Carson raised the white sheet and covered Glenn’s face at the same time Amanda started to cry and scream.
Author Note:
I KNOW!!! I said Glenn was not going to die in the lineup before, and yes, he was never going to because he was always supposed to die in the Satellite Attack. I told you before this war is going to go nasty, there is no plot armor for the characters anymore (aside from the Rick, Amanda and the kids, really, they still have the plot armor, lol, because I'm not *that* mean) but everyone else--is a fair game.
And it had to be again Daryl who somehow caused this, also starting his feud with Dwight as Dwight killed Glenn after Daryl hesitating to kill him in the corridor. I'm sad to kill off Glenn, I'm really, but perhaps this is at least less painful than his canon fate :( I know some people had found Rick and the team attacking Satellite Outpost wrong, but at the moment I had seen those pictures on the wall of the Station, I had lost all my mercy for those animals, really. Some of the Saviors were really like animals. Sick pyschos.
But so we're finishing up this arc. I'll be away for my writing break. I hope to seen you soon :) Take care.
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Date: 2025-03-16 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-16 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-16 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-16 04:42 pm (UTC)I'm in the writing process, I just finished another chapter today, too, yay :)) I'm trying to move the story toward the iconic lineup, and it's very hard. So much plotting! Hehe. I guess I'll be able to start posting around late May. I still need time to write All-Out-War plot consistently. Plotting war isn't easy, I tell you, lo.
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Date: 2025-03-27 08:15 pm (UTC)BTW I like the title. I'm a big Dune fan too. Villeneuve's films blew my mind. I went to see it twice at the cinema. Both times I had goosebumps at the moment of Paul's speech..I haven't read Dune fanfiction before. I might give them a chance when I have more time...Although I'm more of a fan of his father /Oscar Isaac is guilty for this/ :D:D:D:D:D
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Date: 2025-03-28 09:54 am (UTC)They will all feel terrible, Rick will get even more feral after losing Glenn, and Daryl will have his beef with Dwight in this way. As my Denise is a lot different than the show's version, I also thought Glenn's death would provide enough hatred for Dwight from Daryl. My poor baby :(
Dune!!! Honestly, I didn't expect I would have loved Dune movies this much, I just saw the last one a couple of months ago and it was so good that I wanted to write the story, remembering my love for Irulan also. So that story happened :)) I already saw your comment on A03, thank you :) I'm so glad to hear you also enjoyed it :) I'll respond that asap, too! :)))
I love your work !
Date: 2025-06-02 09:51 am (UTC)I just had to say I’m obsessed with your fanfiction! I randomly stumbled across it while looking for a Rick fanfic, and I kid you not, I’ve spent the past week completely hooked. It’s seriously addictive!
You’re insanely talented your writing is so vivid and emotional, I felt every moment. I couldn’t stop reading. I did notice I couldn’t find the rest of Part 3 or the final chapters of Part 4, though are they posted somewhere else? I’m dying to know what happens next!
I really hope you’re planning to continue the story or write more in the future. You’re honestly one of the best writers out there. Keep doing what you do you’re incredible !
Re: I love your work !
Date: 2025-06-02 01:53 pm (UTC)Many kisses! I thank you again for your support, I appreciate it :=
Re: I love your work !
Date: 2025-06-02 02:23 pm (UTC)Also, thank you for replying to me it really means a lot🩷
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Date: 2025-06-02 09:53 am (UTC)Seriously, thank you so much for sharing your work. I really, really appreciate the time and heart you’ve put into it it means a lot🩷
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Date: 2026-01-29 08:08 pm (UTC)I'm so sad for bea too, is she gonna have a character development like Maggie in the show being the widow?
Glenn and bea are cute but I'm so sorry I can't imagine Glenn with anyone but Maggie they are made for each other 😠at least they are together now 🥹
And man I just wanna say you are so talented,I just feel like am already there with them feeling the same danger and stress
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Date: 2026-01-30 11:07 am (UTC)I know, Glenn and Maggie is OTP for many people, so it might be hard for someone to see him with someone else. I especially made it long in the background, Glenn taking his time after his grief while Beatrice kept orbiting him. And I believe, if it was someone else than Bee, it would not have happened, either. Beatrice's natural charm and good personality just slipped through Glenn's grief :) No one else would have managed it after Maggie. I was honestly not thinking of making them get together, but Beatrice insisted and Glenn decided to live on. They are really so cute together and it's very sad for Bee now as well. But as you already can imagine now after reading the next chapters--the "widow" in the show won't be her :( Beth's situation is a lot worse than Beatrice now, even though Beatrice was pregnant by the time Glenn died. She has at least her child now. Beth--poor girl lost her husband on her wedding night, horribly :(( I really feel bad to making this to her, but again...this is Negan we're talking about. "The heartless monster" of the story, ugh.
Thank you! It's always nice to hear that you're experiencing all the emotions that I try to convey with my words! It's the highest praise for any writer! Thank you! :)
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Date: 2026-01-30 05:33 pm (UTC)I know I was not sure how I felt when I saw Glenn with another girl but you made it so good I even sometimes forget about Maggie and I feel guilty ðŸ˜
And omg I'm Soo excited to see the badass beth I would love to see how she's gonna be with negan,I don't know if she's gonna be like Maggie or he is going to have a soft spot for her like Carl in the show bc she still young almost a kid , I know the show negan have soft spots for kids.
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Date: 2026-01-31 08:06 pm (UTC)Beth is gonna be a mix of Maggie/Sasha/Rosita all at once, though Sasha will also have her own story now too as she also lost Morgan. Negan also killed him instead of Daryl after Daryl punched him in the face. I just posted the next chapter and we saw it there after he killed Morgan :)
I think Negan will also have an...understanding towards Beth, like a soft spot because of killing her husband on their wedding night, you know. I can't imagine him going too hard on her, no. Like you say, she's still a teenager, a youngling, and we all know Negan has a soft spot for kiddos, yes.