DAMNATION.

chapter twenty-three, we are who you made us.
[ season eight, episode two ]

cori ackler, the attack on the satellite outpost.

THE FIRST DAY OF the rest of her life was the day Negan murdered her brother. Negan forced Silas Ackler to his knees in front of his big sister, in front of the girl who raised him. The girl tho sacrificed herself and more to raise him and their baby brother. She dropped out of school, she got a job, she cooked for them, she made sure Silas. She made sure they would never end up like their parents.

Cori Ackler gave up her soul for her boys.

Silas's final words were, "fuck you." And honestly, Cori's last words would've been the same damn thing.

But now she can't say her final words. She will not allow herself to die. She can't. Flynn needs her now more than he has ever has. Silas is dead, Sasha is dead. All Flynn has now is Cori, Jesus, Maggie, and Enid.

Cori isn't just Flynn's sister. She's his mother. Just as she was Silas's sister and mother. They never had a mom. They had their abusive father and their deadbeat grandparents. Sure, they had the Greene's that lived six minutes up the road but they were never close.

Hershel made his girls and Shawn stay away from the Ackler family. He knew of the drug addict, deadbeat father. He knew the mother was gone. He knew the grandparents did nothing about the abuse that went on in their home.

Hershel Greene did not stick his nose where
it didn't belong while he lived.

Yet now as Cori leans against a tree outside the satellite outpost, she wishes he had. Hershel was kind to her when he saw her. He offered her kind words at her the funeral her father didn't deserve. He was a good man. And from what Maggie's told her, he did not deserve his death.

"Looks like they made themselves a moat," Jesus states as they examine the fenced in walkers. The group stays hidden in the trees. "I guess we shouldn't be surprised, considering."

"We can do this. We did it before," Tara says as she cocks her gun.

"Yeah. That's what I was considering," Jesus responds sarcastically.

"I wasn't here before," Morgan speaks up. "Just need a clear shot. Right, Dianne?"

Dianne glances at him. "Just a few seconds."

"So we just need to time it right." Morgan states.

"They see us, they fire a gun, we're not getting in." Cori eyes find the man. "Then all hell breaks loose and the plan goes to shit."

"Don't let them fire a gun, Dianne," Morgan tells her. Dianne nods and steps up to the fence. She's going to take her shot.

The others leave Morgan to distract the walkers. Cori watches as Dianne readies her arrow. Morgan begins to shake the fence, bringing the walkers to him.

As the guards slowly approach the fence with their guns raised, Dianne releases an arrow. The first man is dead. Then the second is before he can even realize his comrade is on the ground behind him.

Then they run for the outpost.

Cori isn't sure why she's here. She can't kill. She can't. Her mind will not allow her to kill a human being. And she hates herself for it.

Tara leads them as they silently enter the outpost. Cori walks behind Jesus. He is fast to fire a silenced shot in an unsuspecting Savior.

Tara and Jesus kill the two that walk in front of them. They wait in silence for more to approach but none do. They all nod at each other. Morgan nods at Dianne. Then she whistles. The others enter the outpost in a single file line.

Tara, Jesus, and Cori stay together.

Cori will shoot someone if it's her life in danger.  She just isn't sure what she'll do if it's her life in danger.

Jesus raises his arm, his fist closed. The others follow. After several intense seconds, Jesus lowers his fist.

It's time.

Cori, Jesus, and Tara move into the room. They aim their guns at the closed door. They all share a look before Tara kicks it open.

The man inside immediately raises his hands and hits his knees. "Please! Please, don't shoot me! Shit. Please don't shot me. Please don't..."

Cori's eye fall on the wet spot on his jeans. A grimace crosses over her face. "Oh, Jesus, dude." Cori groans. "You pissed yourself?"

"I— I'm not one of them. Uh, my name's Dean." Dean says to them.

"Why are you still talking?" Tara hissed

"Tara, wait," Jesus says firmly. "Just, wait."

"For what?" She asks harshly.

"He has his hands up, Tara," Jesus tells her.

"We have a job to do!" She exclaims. Sudden gunfire sounds farther in the outpost. All three turn to look in the direction. Cori's hand shake a little harder.

"You wanna go check that out?" Jesus asks Tara. Tara makes a face at him. She moves to the door and opens it. As soon as she does, she flinches. Gun fire hits the walls all around them.

Cori and Jesus keep their guns pointed at the man. Tara rejoins them. "I got it, guys. Step aside."

"Tara," Jesus rolls his beck in frustration.

"There's a firefight outside. We don't even know if Morgan's alive," Tara informs them.

"Please, lady. I'm not one of them," Dean tells her.

"You're here. You had a gun. You are one of them," Cori's voice fills the tense air.

"I'm not. I'm not. You gotta believe me," Dean pleads with the trio.

"Then what are you doing here?" Jesus asks.

"I'm just a worker. They brought my from there Sanctuary to cook, clean, whatever. They did not give me a voice. They made me leave my wife and kids." Dean says. Cori's eyes narrow. Something is off about this guy. "Your people do this at the Sanctuary, too? The families okay?"

"We don't wanna hurt the workers. That's not us," Cori shakes her head.

"You believe him?" Tara's eyes harden but they stay locked on Dean.

"It's not about him. I'm not gonna shoot someone with their hands up and I'm not letting you," Jesus's voice raises, if only a little.

"These medical supplies— they're the Hilltop's, right?" Tara picks up a bottle of pills. "Maggie's prenatals? They took them because they could, because they don't give a shit. So why should we?" Tara's voice grows harsher. And Cori understands. They killed her girlfriend.

"I know they killed your girlfriend—"

"Jesus—"

"That you loved her. This isn't you," Jesus tells the woman.

"It is now!" Her voice wavers.

"We're not here for revenge. It can't be about that." Jesus says.

A sudden gunshot hits the glass. Cori cries out as the man leaps for Jesus. He snaps the gun from his hand. Cori stands, frozen in place. The man notices and send his fist right across her face. She can't catch herself. She hits the ground. Her head slams against the concrete. Her guns falls away from her hands and clatters into the wall.

Cori gasps. The pain in her head is horrible.

Blood drips from her nose and onto the ground below. A crash sounds behind her. But her vision blurs from the man's hard hit.

"I wouldn't," Dean hisses to Tara. "You know what's funny? Normally I'd peg you as the softie, not pretty boy. You know how hard it is to piss yourself on purpose? It's like your dick knows you're wearing pants."

Tara wants to look at Cori, to make sure she's alive but she knows if she takes her eyes away from Dean and Jesus, Dean won't hesitate to kill him.

Dean then brings his foot down on Maggie's prenatals. "Aw, hell, look at that. Well, that shit is ruined. Well, looks like that dumb bitch Maggie and her kid are just gonna die, anyway. Just like you three."

Cori hears those words.

That dumb bitch Maggie and her kid are just gonna die, anyway.

Something breaks inside her. It's like the flood gates have opened. And suddenly, it's only red she sees.

"I'm gonna kill you." Tara hisses.

"Ah, honey, no you're not," Dean tells her.

"Then someone else will. There's too many of us." Tara says.

"See, that's where we differ. If I take the three of you with me, then I've got one hell of an insurance policy. So why don't you put that thing down unless you're gonna shoot through this beautiful man here. I'm not gonna ask you again."

"I think she's gonna shoot you," Jesus says.

"I am." Tara agrees.

"She is," Jesus nods.

"Shut up!" Dean growls.

"Tara—" Jesus says.

"I can do it." Tara argues.

"Tara, he has a gun to my head." Jesus states the very clear obvious

Cori gets to her knees. She bits back a gasp of pain. Her head is throbbing. She wants to cry. But she knows pain well. She knows this pain well. There were too many times she took a blow to the head while protecting her brothers from their father.

"Not for long," Tara shakes her head.

And she's right.

A gun fires.

The bullet hits the man in the shoulder. He cries out and hits the ground. Jesus immediately reacts. He whirls around and sends the knock out punch to Dean's face.

Tara's wide eyes move to Cori. She leans against the wall, blood drips down her nose, down the side of her head. Her red hair is a new shade of red.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tara asks as Jesus grabs rope off of the shelf. "He tried to kill us. He hurt Cori!"

"I told you, it's not about him." Jesus says as he ties Dean's hands together.

"So he gets to live?" Tara asks. "What about Abraham? Glenn? Denise? Cole?"

"This is different," Jesus looks up at her.

"You're not Rick. You're not Maggie." Tara fires at him.

"And you're not Odessa," Jesus's eyes move to Tara. "You see what path she's gone down. You see how far gone she is. And I know I'm not Rick and I'm not Maggie. But she'll listen to what I have to say."

Sadness washes over Cori. They've all seen what vengeance has done to the oldest Grimes child. They see the bloodlust in her eyes, they see how pale she's become, how much her checks have sunken in. They see the way sweat always beads at her brow and the way her hands constantly shake. She will never be the same girl she once was.

A voice comes over the radio. Dianne calls for them outside in the hall. They all stand and rush for the door.

"They're firing back," Dianne tells them as they join her outside. "Is there another way out of here?"

"Yeah," Jesus says.

They meet back up with the others and rush outside. Cori can't hear anything past the ringing in her ears. Her vision is still blurry.

She watches through blurry vision as the shutter door is pulled open by a man. He looks to be no older than twenty.

She can't hear what he's saying. Or what Jesus or Tara are saying. But she can see it when he lowers his weapon.

She sees it when the other Saviors come out from hiding. They surrender. They're lined up. Eduardo takes pictures, just as Simon had when Negan killed Silas.

Cori's vision begins to go black around the edges. It hits her that Jesus is gonna have to carry her the whole way back to the Hilltop. She thinks she says sorry but she isn't sure.

She knows she whispers the words, "ah, shit."

Then she hits the ground.

______________________________

word count: 1,966

cori >>>.

so i originally planned for dean to be cori's first kill since silas but decided it was way too early for that development. so we're gonna have to wait a littleee longer for cori to get the same development theo's gotten. but either way, she did shoot the man to save jesus. and even that took a lot of courage. same as it did with negan.

jesus talking about odessa 😢. that makes me so sad because even jesus realizes how bad she's gotten and he's only known her for a couple weeks while it took rick several months to realize that his daughter is quite literally on the brink of insanity. she breaks my heart.

i'm also very sorry about the slow updates guys. i haven't been writing very much because i've been focusing on rewriting the damned so i can hurry and start rewriting the second book in the trilogy and finish the third one. i've also started school and of course got sick with strep this week and have been pretty sick.

so next chapter is an odessa chapter and we meet one of the final three oc's of the wastelands series!! i'm so excited for y'all to meet her and see the huge impact she has on odessa, cori, flynn, and several others. y'all are gonna loved her.

also guys don't forget to follow my tiktok where i make edits for my books!! @/aidenwalshswife