CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE,
king ezekiel.

"No! No way in hell." Gregory yelled, "that was not the deal. You people swore you could take the Saviors out, and you failed. Any arrangement we had is now done- null and void. We aren't trade partners, we aren't friends, and we never met. Hmm? We don't know each other?" Gregory sat down and the entire group stared at him. "I owe you nothing. In fact, you owe me for taking in the refugees, at great personal risk. One even had a baby!"

"Oh, you were very brave staying in here Maggie, Sasha, and Aiden saved this place. Your courage was inspiring." Jesus said sarcastically to the man.

"Hey, don't you work for me?" Gregory asked him and Aiden scoffed and rolled her eyes.  "Aren't we friends?"

"Gregory, you already started this." Rick stepped up.

"You started it." Gregory turned his attention from Jesus to Rick.

"We did. And we're gonna win." Rick said confidently.

"These are killers." Gregory rose his voice.

"So are we," Aiden shrugged.

"Is this how you wanna live? Under their thumb, kill your people?" Rick quizzed.

"S-sometimes we don't get to choose what our life looks like. Sometimes, Ricky, you have to count the blessings you have." Gregory said.

"How many people can we spare? How many people here can fight?" Maggie stepped up and asked Gregory.

"We?" He asked, "I don't even know how many people we have, Margaret. And does it even matter? I mean... w-w-what are you gonna do? Start a platoon of sorghum farmers? Cause that's what we got. They grow things. They're not gonna want to fight."

"You're wrong." Tara said from beside the Dixon couple. "When people have the change to do the right thing, they usually just step up. I mean, people just-" Gregory stopped her.

"L-let me stop you before you break into song, okay?" He cleared just throat, "and, by the way, who would train all this cannon fodder?"

"I will." Sasha stated.

"Give me a week." Rosita said.

"I will, douchebag." Aiden piped.

Gregory looked at the three women before stating in a sing-song voice, "rhetorical, okay? I don't wanna know. I never want to hear another word about any of it, ever."

"Would we be better off without the Saviors, yes or no?" Rick said. Aiden could feel the anger radiating off of his body.

"Yeah. Sure. Okay." Gregory replied.

"So, what will you do to fix the problem?" Michonne asked him.

"I didn't say we had a problem. You did. And what happens out of my purview is outside of my purview." Gregory said.

"You think we don't have a problem because you're the Saviors bitch." Aiden said loudly. Gregory looked at her, shock wrote all over his face.

"Excuse me?"

"You're the Saviors bitch, Gregory. You tried to give me, Sasha, and Maggie up because you were afraid. You know what they made you do? Huh? They made you kneel. You kneeled for like them for they're a fucking god. And you can either keep kneeling to them or fight them." Aiden said with a dangerous tone in her voice.

"I-I already made myself clear. We do not have a problem."

"What the hell, man? You're either with us or ya ain't. You're sitting over there talking out both sides of your mouth." Daryl stepped in.

"I-I think I've made my position very clear. And I want to thank all of you for not being here today and not having this meeting with me or- or being seen on your way out. In other words, go out the back." The group walked of the the room.

Aiden flipped the man off and he only rolled his eyes at her.

Daryl pressed his hand to Aiden's back as they walked out of the room. She looked down at the baby in her arms. "Yeah, well, we don't need him anyway."

"Yeah, that's right. Cause we have Maggie and Aiden and Sasha and Jesus here." Rick said.

"And..." Maggie looked to the door as Enid walked in, "Enid."

"Hey, um-" she said breathlessly.

"What's wrong?" Sasha asked.

"Nothing. Just... come outside." She said. The group followed Enid outside and several of the Hilltop residents stood in front of Barrington House.

"What's going on?" Maggie asked.

"Hey. So, if you don't remember, I'm Bertie," an African American woman stepped up, "and I owe my life to you all, twice over. A bunch of us do. Enid says you want Gregory to get us to fight the Saviors with you. Is that true?"

"Yes." Maggie said strongly.

"Do you think we can win, that we really could beat them?" Bertie asked.

"Us? I do." Maggie replied.

"Well, Enid says you can show us the way. I'm ready." She said and Aiden grinned.

"Me too." The small crowd of people all started to agree.

The group walked towards the gate, "it's a start." Michonne said.

"We'll get more. It still won't be enough." Sasha said.

"No, it won't." Rosita said.

"Well, we find the right stuff, then maybe we don't need the numbers. Blow 'em up, burn 'em to the ground." Daryl stated.

"You said there went just soldiers with the Saviors, that there were workers there. People didn't have a choice." Tara said.

"We gotta win." Daryl stated what they were all thinking.

They had to win this war.

"We need more hands, another group. Negan has outposts. The geography, the distance works against us. We need to get back. If they come looking for Daryl, we need to be there." Rick said.

"You don't have to get back. Not yet." Jesus said and pulled out a walkie talkie, "it's one of theirs. Long range. We can listen in, keep track of them."

"So, if we're not going back, what are we doing, then?" Michonne asked.

"I think it's time we introduced you to Ezekiel. King Ezekiel." Jesus said.

"King?" Rick asked with slight hesitation in his tone.

»

The group traveled to what Jesus called The Kingdom in two separate vehicles. Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Jesus, Carl, Payton, Rosita, and Aiden in one van. And Tara, Nathaniel, Macy and Xavier in the car. Rick parked the van and he and Jesus got out. After a couple minutes Daryl looked at them. "Hey, what the hell we waitin' on?"

"Waiting for them." Jesus pointed and they all looked to see two men coming towards them on horses. Aiden poked her head out of the door behind Daryl.

"Who dares to trespass on the sovereign land of the- oh, shit. Jesus, is that you?" The man said. Jesus waved.

The group got out of the van. "Who are all these people, Paul?" One of the men asked.

"Hi, Richard. Nice to see you." Jesus said.

"It's good to see you, too. Your friends, who are they?" Richard asked.

"This is Rick Grimes. He's the leader of a like-minded community. These are some of his people. We would like to request an audience with King Ezekiel." Jesus said and Richard got off of his horse.

"Get out of the cars." He ordered. "You say they're a like-minded community. Like minded-how?"

"We live, we trade, we fight the dead. Sometimes others." Jesus said.

"Line up." Richard said.

"Okay. This is a waste of time. Come on. Let's go." Daryl said.

"Maybe you right. The King is a busy man. And it's a dangerous world. We don't usually allow a of strangers to waltz through our door." Richard said.

"We want to make the world less dangerous, and we are all here to show the King how serious we are about that." Michonne told the man.

"The cars stay outside. You gotta hand over your guns."

"We only have three." Rick said. Aiden, Carl, and Rick all handed him their guns. Aiden cautiously watched the man.

"Okay. Follow me." Richard said. The group followed the man.

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word count: 1,330
episode: rock in the road

edited chapter!!

ahhhhhhh we are officially at the kingdom and next chapter we meet ezekiel. i'm so ready for aiden's friendship with ezekiel and jerry.

and the next couple chapters were introduced to a new oc 🤭. all i will say is that she's a part of the kingdom and one of ezekiel's right hands. she, benjamin, and jerry are practically brother and sister.

but gregory makes me wanna hurl myself off of a building.

but guess what?

there's only FOUR CHAPTERS LEFT OF PHILOPHOBIA!!!!!