Chapter Text
The forest was crawling with Saviors. No less than three of their away teams had reported sighting them moving about the roads that ran through their territory. Whatever they were up to, it was bound to mean trouble for someone. Whether that someone was them or one of the other communities in the area none of them were quite certain.
Treeline was divided about how to handle to situation.
There were those like Harper that wanted to know what the Savior's were up to, and if possible, put a stop to their activities. Everyone had either seen their handiwork first hand, or had heard of it from someone who had. They all knew the stakes if they crossed the group and were caught, but they also knew what would happen if someone didn't stop them.
Others wanted to lie low until they cleared off and avoid being found out by them entirely. The Savior's didn't seem to have noticed the tree-based community, so far. They were focused on something else, something that later proved to be an RV driven by some of the folks from Alexandria.
It was a little after sunset when several of the teams met on the ground.
All of them were primarily trappers, and occasionally hunters. They kept the community fed with a steady supply of small game and the rare deer. There was also a fair bit of foraging for edible plants, or medicinal plants, as well as the odd bit of scouting. Usually they worked in pairs, one of them on guard for any Inferi or other threats, while the other reset the traps or whatever else they happened to be doing.
Harper's partner was her godson Teddy. He had been bitten by one of the Inferi weeks after the initial uprisings and had been trapped in wolf form ever since. Given the nature of this particular mission, she had left him back at the settlement. They planned for secrecy; if things progressed to an outright brawl where he would be the most help, then it was already too late for any of them.
There were seven full teams in total that had came, as well as four individuals, sans partners. "All of us are here for the same purpose," Harper said without preamble, "All of us know the stakes, what will happen if this fails, or if any of us are caught." There were various nods, and glances away. "I can't promise that none of us will get hurt, or killed, for that matter. We are outmanned, outgunned, and outnumbered."
None of that was news to them. While at least half of the settlement were full-time trappers, they were taking bows and knives to a gunfight.
"But we have something on our side that they don't." She continued. "We have the element of surprise; we know these forests better than they do. We know that they're stalking a dozen people from Alexandria; we know where their endgame is going to be, and we know what to expect from them. Those are all things that they do not know about us."
"We give the Alexandrians back their weapons, even the playing field." Jackson suggested.
"Put them between two enemies, one at their backs regardless of which way they turn." Harper agreed, the beginnings of an idea starting to form. "We need a distraction, something that will give them the chance to stage a coup."
They continued discussing their strategy for a little longer before splitting off into the direction where a large number of Savior's had been gathering for the past hour. They had a little longer to set things up; the Savior's had yet to herd the Alexandrian's there yet.
The Treeliners stayed well away from the Savior's, watchful and waiting, for the right moment to put their plans in action, and the opportunity presented itself as the leader of the Savior's started to pace in front of them.
As a whole, the Treeliners had little use for gasoline. They didn't use bikes or cars. As their name suggested, they had made their home in the trees, building their entire settlement up off the ground with only a series of pulleys and lifts being the 'official' way of entering or leaving. Naturally, given their occupation, most of them were quite capable of scaling trees. They had yet to suffer any Inferi attacks, and the other communities suffered from a similar problem, namely the tendency of not looking up the few times they ventured into the forests.
The Treeliners had gallons of gasoline sitting around going to waste, and they were about to add even more to their collection.
All around her, they had sidled up to the various cars and bikes and begun siphoning gasoline out into plastic gallon jugs. For good measure, they sliced up the tires.
None of the Savior's seemed to noticed their actions. Part of that was their attention being centered on the leader. There was something to be said for an engrossing, charismatic leader, Harper reflected wryly. The other part of that was tokens that each of them wore. Harper had gifted them when she had first moved in and begun to trust the people she was living with. There were subtle notice-me-not charms spelled into them.
Harper waited until her people were in place, scaling the trees around the site, just out of sight of the lights. Once they were in place, she climbed up on top of the RV and settled in, her feet dangling over the edge. "Oh don't stop on my account, you were just getting to the good stuff." She called down cheerfully, once one of them had helpfully pointed out her presence with shouts and attempted gunfire. Attempted, because his aim was off.
"Well looky here, boys, we've got ourselves a smartass." Negan looked amused, more than annoyed, his bat settling on his shoulder. She vaguely wondered if he'd ever had to fix rips in the leather, doing that. "You don't strike me as one of them, you're not pissing your pants."
"Takes a bit more than a little leaguer with a baseball bat." Harper agreed.
He grinned widely at that, chuckling a little. "Why don't you come down here for a more personal look, might change your fucking mind about that." He offered, his voice taking on a more threatening tone. "I don't want to hurt you."
Her eyebrow raised. "Is this the part where you tell me that I made you do it, if I'd just been better none of this would have happened? Because the abusive boyfriend routine really doesn't work on me."
His shoulders slumped and the bat rolled off his shoulder to hang loosely down by his side. He looked the very picture of remorse. Harper realized what he was about to do. "I didn't want to do this, but you're forcing my hand." He said, turning towards one of the girls in the group.
Unfortunate as it was, other people paying the price for her was something that she was very familiar with. She would prevent that here, if she could.
"Make it rain." Harper called, as he raised the bat up. An instant later, a hail of arrows rained down over the Savior's. Around a dozen or so dropped, arrows sticking out of various places in their heads.
Just as she'd hoped, the Alexandrians used the sudden chaos to tackle their captors, grappling them for weapons. Most of them proved successful, as the Savior's were forced to duck for cover from the arrows - which were coming from all directions - while simultaneously fighting off enraged captives. They hadn't even bothered to tie their hands together, she noted with amusement.
Even worse, they apparently hadn't checked for knives either.
Finally, she decided she'd had enough and briefly raised her hand, breathing a spell that let out a sound like a firecracker. Her people immediately stopped shooting, most of the Alexandrians had re-armed themselves, although two of them were lying prone on the ground.
Well, she'd given them a chance at least.
"Now that the playing field has been somewhat evened, let me lay this out for you." Harper told them, her own bow prominently displayed. "These are our forests, we don't appreciate this sort of shit happening on our doorstep. We've taken the liberty of draining your oil tanks and slashing your tires."
She ignored their yells as they verified that that was indeed the case. "If you try to run, we will pick you off. So. Here's what's going to happen. We're all going to come to some sort of deal, one that makes everyone happy. As much as everyone would love it if all of you were to spontaneously die, we still have the Inferi to worry about, and there are frankly not enough people that can deal with them effectively. Killing all of you does not benefit anyone, any more than killing all of us benefits you."