𝑨 𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒚. (𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏)

{53} Crisis

"Believe me when I say, we'll do anything to help"

•••

Crisis. Commotion. Pandemonium. Panic.

Alexandria was in a full flared melt down. After a full week of being on the run, Rick and the group had finally arrived home, only to find out that their prisoner had escaped. Everyone was shaken up, the townspeople were scared out of their mind, Gabriel was wounded from being shot and the brothers were overly worried that they'd be caught for assisting in the breakout .

"What do we do?" Aaron asked, staring wide-eyed at the open cell.

Rick cupped his jaw in deep frustration, in the space of one week, things had tumbled extremely downhill. "We send out search parties. Look for Negan and Brooklyn, she's the one that let him out so she deserves the same treatment that he gets."

A harsh snarl was heard from Daryl, "I knew she was lyin'," he growled, "when we find 'em, they better hope they're dead." With that, he huffed and exited the small room, footsteps fading as he furthered upstairs.

"I never thought she'd do this," Hunter murmured, causing all heads to snap his way, "I-I- she told me she hated him." He had remembered what the girl had told him, after all the shit hit the fan, he needed to earn their trust because it was most likely that some people would suspect him to have helped.

Instead of bombarding the boy with a bunch of questions, Rick nodded and took his words in to consideration, "it's ok. We will find them, no matter how far we have to go."

Hunter sighed and pushed his hair back, "good." It was a horrible thing to do, pretend as if the one you loved was nothing to you when she could be miles away in potential danger. But he had no choice. Brooklyn made her decision and he simply had to live with it.

The group decided to pack up and head back outside, they weren't going to find Negan by glaring angrily at his empty cell all day. Rick emerged from the archway that lead down to the gloomy room, only to find that the whole town was practically gathered around outside on the street. They were yelling and shouting, throwing their bawled fists up in the air and had a wide range of varied expressions plastering their faces. Whatever this was, these people weren't happy.

In a fluster, the Alexandrian leader brushed a hand through his matted curls, huffing. "We don't have time for this!" He bellowed, catching the crowd's attention, "if we're going to find them, we need to stick together! And I promise you, we will not stop looking until Negan and Brooklyn are behind bars!"

Just as he thought they'd all settled down, a devastated voice shrieked, "they killed my brother, Bryan! Both of them deserve to die!"

Everyone screamed in agreement, making this whole situation a lot harder to handle. "We don't kill, that isn't the way anymore!" As soon as that statement had left his mouth, Rick knew that the mob wouldn't accept his answer.

He was right. It only infuriated them more.

"Kill them both!"

"Bring them back here alive and execute them!"

"We're not safe as long as they're both alive!"

"Negan should have been killed a long time ago!"

In short, these people weren't taking 'no killing' for an answer. Daryl tugged on the crossbow that slung from his right shoulder and turned to Rick, "we should jus' bring 'em back here, then decide." He gestured to the sea of protesting townsfolk, "tell the crowd what they wanna here. But I ain't promising that I won't wanna rip those two assholes' head's off when I see 'em."