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Saved by the bat

An in and an out

Emma had tried to convince the tiger to eat her when she had to sit through yet another inspirational speech by Rick, Maggie, or the King, but the big cat just kept gnawing on its pig head. At least Fat Guy had chuckled. His name was Jerry and the past three days they nearly became somewhat non-hostiles to each other. He still looked about ready to put that ax to good use if she would act up, but he could understand a joke, even ones from the enemy. Then she had a very tense drive with Rick, Maggie and Discount Jesus to the Sanctuary and was wondering now when exactly her glorious execution was about to take place. She also wondered about the bag on her head. Negan had already managed to give 500 words to the situations although they just got here.

“I’m certainly not gonna let my people die over that shit like you’re about to. So, Rick. What the hell can I do for you?”

“Dwight. Your name’s Simon. You’re Gavin. And you,” he stopped. What was that? Little fail in his daily briefings with the Sanctuary’s own personal mole?

“Regina,” look at that. The whole band together. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Rick, I’d feel remiss if,” Rick interrupted Negan.

“No. I know who you are. Listen you five. The Saviors inside. All of you have a chance. To survive this. You all can live and surrender. Can’t guarantee it any time but now. Right now,” there was no answer for a while. Then Emma got grabbed and shoved hard on her knees. She knelt for what felt like 30 very long seconds then someone pulled the bag away.

“Seriously, why the bag?” she said while she tried to remove a fiber from her lips. “I wear red shorts and a blue flannel. That’s really flamboyant. They probably knew who I was without the dramatic reveal,” she got a barrel pushed against her neck and flinched away. It wasn’t hot anymore, but still warm enough to cause some discomfort. Then she looked up to the entrance of the Sanctuary. No question they had thought she was dead. How bloody exactly had that tiger attack looked? Simon stood there like he had just sunken into himself, his arms hanging down his body and with a blank expression. Then the light on his face went on again, bringing mostly anger with it. Anger at Rick. He stepped a couple of steps forward until Negan almost casually stopped him by putting the back of his hand against his chest.

“What kind of shit is that now, Rick?”

“Simon,” Emma looked over to Rick. “You care for her, right? Not only you, a lot of Saviors inside there, too,” Her eyes flicked between him and Simon. Simon palmed his face and stepped a step back. “I don’t wanna kill her. She doesn’t have to die. All I want is Negan. Hand him over, surrender, everybody lives,” now Negan shot Simon the tiniest look while Simon just glared at Rick loathsomely. He wouldn’t do it, but the considerate girlfriend she was she would make it easy for him. If she would indeed die today he shouldn’t blame himself for that.

“He will kill us anyway. All of us. He said it himself,” she called over and Rick grabbed her by the neck and pressed his rifle on her temple. “Come on Rick. Do it. Give ‘em a reason to kill you all,” she pressed out.

“So that’s how it’s gonna be? You show up here, threaten to murder one of my favorite people, breaking my right-hand man’s heart and that of a lot of people inside there in the process? This shit is just cold, Rick. Simon?” Simon just looked at him confused for a second, but then he seemed to remember that there was obviously some kind of plan. He gave her one last look, let his hand run through his hair and walked into the Sanctuary. Meanwhile Negan stood around almost relaxed. Simon pushed Gregory out of the Sanctuary and the man puffed up a little and gave a very strained speech about how everyone fighting on Rick’s side would get banished from the Hilltop. Absolutely no one was buying it. At least Simon got a chance to vent a little when he pushed the guy down the stairs.

“You’re gonna make me count?” Rick asked Negan. He pressed his gun in the vulnerable hollow of her neck. Emma looked Simon in the eyes the whole time. He looked pained, but this was really happening. None of them could do anything about it. “Okay, okay. I’m counting. 10, 9,” at this point even Negan looked a bit heartbroken. At least she had made a lot of impact. “8, 7,” what saved her was Rick’s impatience and the titanium hard-on he had for killing Negan. Instead counting all the way down to zero and putting a bullet in her head he started firing at Negan. That was the clue for everyone to fire. Emma wasted no time. She tackled the first person to her right, got back up her feet with adrenaline enhanced super speed and darted to a concrete barrier. She more or less threw herself behind it and kept her head down for what felt like forever until bit for bit the gun fire ceased. Emma deemed it safe enough to peek around the corner. Phase two of the plan obviously became effective, since the Militia was driving away one after the other. There still were people firing at the Sanctuary, but it became less and less. She had to get back inside. That was the safest place right now. Yeah, so here goes nothing. She got up and ran towards the (wide open, what was wrong with the idiots inside) entrance of the Sanctuary using every bit of cover she could get. She was halfway there when someone grabbed her and pulled her down. Just in time since a spurt of a gun ripped open another concrete barricade where her ribcage just had been. Negan sort of pressed her to his body, even covering her with himself. He pushed her head down.

“Ain’t gonna lie doll. I thought this is it for you,” he said nearly cheerfully and examined the handcuffs on her hand. They still were under fire, but it felt like just one, maybe two gunmen. He pulled out a paperclip and started to break open the cuffs. Emma just stared down on her hands.

“Shit, darlin’. That’s not the sex toy kind, that’s police issue, might take me,” he got open the left one and turned to the right. “Ha look at that. Still have it,” he fumbled for a little longer until he got the other side off, too. He looked around some metal rods while he casually massaged her wrist. “That’s the Rick asshole. You didn’t happen to have a gun on you? Never mind,” he mumbled.

“Why you have a paperclip with you?” Emma asked dumbfounded, because that was obviously the pressing issue here. He looked at her like she just asked something really stupid.

“Filing fucking documents. Why do you think? For situations like that. Okay he’s leaving. We need to get back inside. Come on, let’s live a little,” he pulled her up, still covering her with his body, and together they ran towards the Sanctuary. Emma vaguely wondered how he gotten so far away from it in the first place. There was a bang and the ugly RV, the rustbucket Negan had taken Rick for a ride in, came racing towards the entrance and crashed into the stairs. They both just sort of stared at it for a while.

“What the hell,” Negan said and then the thing exploded. It wasn’t like a huge fireball, but the blastwave sent them both on their asses. Emma hit the ground with the back of her head which effectively knocked her out for a bit. She still was hearing static when Negan pulled her up just to let her drop back to the ground again to fend off a member of the not-so-recently deceased that wasn’t alone. Shit, where did they came from? Emma stumbled back on her feet. She had no weapon and the dead came in hard and fast. Negan and she already had only one way out, and funny enough, it wasn’t the same one.

“Go,” she urged Negan who looked back and forth between her and the Sanctuary.

“You sure?”

“Just get the fuck outta here. I’ll be fine,” he nodded and made a run for it. Good idea. Emma ran between some barricades to the back of the yard and now, after nearly 10 years, that idiotic climbing-over-walls training paid finally off. It was a bit of a risky move since she didn’t know what was behind the wall, but instead in a bunch of roamers ready to tear her apart she landed inelegantly in a pile of rotting fabric. She pulled a face to the smell and hoisted herself up on the wall. This was the eastern perimeter of the Sanctuary, a maze of small alleys, practical brick buildings and the occasional parking lot. They kept it clean from the dead, but now, after Rick had led a goddamn herd in their front yard who knew what was stumbling around here. She needed a weapon, and quick. She didn’t even make it three steps when she simply fainted. She had spent four days as a POW with close to no sleep, they had given her very little to eat, she had three near death experiences in the last hour alone, the bite on her arm showed signs of a mild infection, and she had hit her head. There was only so much a body could take.

She could hear before she could see.

“Is she dead?”

“No, hand me that water, would you?” Wade’s go-to solution to wake her up was pouring lukewarm water over her face. Some ran into her nose and down her throat and she started coughing and roughly shoved Wade’s hand away. Then she propped herself on her elbows and looked at Wade. He looked worried and overall happy to see her.

“Wow, it feels like yesterday we had a vigil for you,” he said after she just stared at him for a while. Emma scoffed and got a bit more upright.

“I maybe look dead, and kinda smell dead, but despite the staggering evidence I’m very much alive,” he had maybe a dozen Saviors with him. All of them looked like shit. “What happened to you?” Wade shared a long look with one of his guys.

“The Outpost’s gone,” he stated simply.

“What do you mean, gone?” she asked flatly.

“We were on our way here when we got called back. They had us pinned down waited for our dead to turn and,” he sighed and palmed his face. “They are all dead,” the words felt like someone just poured red-hot, melted metal down her spine.

“All of ‘em? What about the workers?”

“All of it.”

“And the baby?” Wade made a vague shrug.

“I really don’t know,” he said flatly. Tina had been in that Outpost. Emma had brought her there. What did these people just do?

“How is that even possible,” she asked with a hollow voice.

“We weren’t ready,” Emma’s eyes snapped to Wade.

“You weren’t ready? It’s been fucking days,” she got up. “How long have I been out.”

“That depends when you dropped,” she shot Wade a menacing look.

“Just tell me the time, smartass.”

“It’s around 10.”

“It’s 9.47,” some guy said. So roughly two hours. Shit. Suddenly all the bits and pieces she had overheard made sense. They kettled all the head honchos in the Sanctuary, rendering the rest of the assholes de facto useless, attacked the Outposts more a less simultaneously, and depending on how much intel the mole had given them probably raided their stashes when they were at it.

“We need to get to the Chem Plant. And fast.”

“Shouldn’t we try to find a way to get the Saviors out of Sanctuary first?” she glared at the man who said that.

“What’s your name?”

“Kevin.”

“Listen Kevin, since you brought it up. Take three others and then you go to that weapon stash Regina and I just re-equipped. There are four M201 grenade launcher. Looks basically like a stocky pump-action. And the assault rifles and the ammo of course. You know what? Just bring everything that looks remotely useful. Ain’t gonna lie, that’s maybe a suicide mission since we have someone among us that’s feeding Rick and his posse information. But not a lot of people know about the place. So fingers crossed. You four,” she pointed at a little group somehow huddled together. One seemed injured and one was Cam. “You hunker down here. Keep an eye on the place. If they’re smart, and I have to admit they are, they have snipers in the windows or anywhere else, people that will wanna try to stop us from getting in. Find out how many, and where, take ‘em out if you can, but no risks. And you,” she turned to Wade. “You and me and what’s left from the Shepherd Outpost go the Chem Plant. We maybe will even be making it in time,” she already walked to the truck.

“What’s in the Outpost? The Satellite Station is closer,” he hurried to follow.

“The Satellite Outpost is probably gone, too, or will be. We never make it there in time. Same for the Armitage. The Chem Plant is our best chance,” he looked at her in disbelief. She rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t have time to explain in detail. But the Kingdom’s on it’s way there. But they go through the woods, on foot. That means it will take ‘em buttloads of time. It’s far, but we can make it. We need to get our people out of there,” she climbed into the passenger seat.

“How do you know that?”

“They were so confident that the whole mess will end with me dead that they elaborated plans right in front of me. Chop, chop, let’s save our people. Didn’t hurt that they have two Browning 0.50. That shit can penetrate a tank.”

Notes

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