"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" my husband's hand caressed my cheek gently as he kissed me. He told me this every day. I loved this man so much. He was amazing. Even in a world surrounded by death and fear, he could make me smile.

It was early, the sun had barely broken over the horizon. "You're such a secret romantic," I grinned, taking my gun from my hip to check it for ammo. We would be leaving soon and I needed to be prepared.

"Only for you babe," he winked, his brown eyes looking over me with so much love. I felt so lucky to still have him in this world. I didn't know what I would do without my family. I had him and our son, Hunter. Hunter was only eight and part of me hated the thought of him being armed with a gun, but the other part of me knew that it was for the best.

"Ryan, where are we headed today?" Bill, one of our group members asked. Ryan was our leader, he always had him and everyone trusted him with their lives. He'd always steered us right.

"We're gonna keep scavenging in the next town over, then hopefully we'll find somewhere new to hold up."

We were a part of a small group, there were only a total of eight of us. Before this had all started, Ryan and I had been a part of a biker group, we weren't anything violent, but we had a major presence in Southern Georgia. After having Hunter, I stepped away from it a little, but these men were my family and they would do anything Ryan asked of them. They all knew that they had to protect Hunter at all costs. We all knew that. Pretty much none of the other men in the group had married—except for Mack, he had been married, but his wife, Julie, had been bitten a couple of months back. I missed her. I missed all the people we'd lost. Our group once was a lot larger.

"Mommy," Hunter walked over to my side and clutched my hand. I knelt to his level.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Do we have any food left?" he murmured. I knew he never would be one to flat out complain that he was hungry, he understood that food was rare these days.

"You hungry little man?" Ryan asked, ruffling our son's hair. Hunter nodded and Ryan smiled at him before handing him a granola bar from his pocket. Hunter's brown eyes lit up and accepted the food. He looked so much like his dad, he was like a little clone.

"Thanks, Dad."

Ryan winked at the boy and smiled at me. "I'm going to go over the plan with Peter and Louis, you get our tent all packed up and in the SUV, okay?"

"Okay," I squeezed his hand and he frowned for a moment.

"Your hands are like ice, Darlin'. Here," he gave me is worn leather jacket—one I had worn frequently. I just smiled at him in thanks.

"You wanna help me get the tent all ready?" I asked Hunter, he happily agreed and off we went.

XxX

"Ryan," I said, looking over at my husband. There was a road block in front of us with several men standing, as if they were waiting for us. He didn't reply. He looked at the men, sizing them up—probably deciding if our group could handle them. We had the SUV—where Ryan, Hunter, and I rode, plus the other five men on bikes. There were only six men in front of us. We could take them; I was sure of it.

"Carlee, stay here with Hunter," he said. I saw the look of panic wash over his face before he steeled himself once more. He stepped out, hand on his holster. The other men followed suit and I watched a verbal exchange. There was a taller man with a graying beard and a leather jacket, who appeared to be the leader of their little group. He seemed to speak directly to my husband, Ryan's shoulders tensed and I didn't like the look of this. Our group was strong; we were good fighters, and we all worked well together—that was how we'd made it so far. He should have anything to worry about. He'd never doubted our strength before, why now?

"Mommy, what's Daddy doing?" Hunter asked, rested his chin on the middle seat and looking outside.

"He's just talking to them," I said. Hunter nodded, accepting this.

I watched the exchange for a few more moments, it was then that more men came from all sides around our vehicles. Before I could think to do much, the doors to the SUV opened and there was a man grabbing for Hunter. I tried to grab my gun, but another man grabbed for me. I kicked him as hard as I could in his face and tried to slide back across the front seat, but there was nothing I could do. Too many came at once. Before I knew it, we were pushed to our knees in a line on the road. Hunter was beside me, he was staying strong, but he was afraid. I wanted nothing more than to reach over and comfort him, but the man with the graying beard told us to all stay still. We were at a disadvantage and I had to do everything in my power to not put us in a worse position.

"Stupid whore broke my nose," one of the other group's men whined. I saw Ryan start to react but I caught his eye and he dropped his shoulders.

"This one your bitch, Ryan?" the bearded man said. He came up and took my chin between his thumb and his pointer finger.

"She's my wife, you son of a bitch," Ryan stated through gritted teeth. I knew Ryan didn't like the other man touching me—I certainly didn't either.

"She's smokin'," he commented, giving a low whistle. "She's got a kick on her too, apparently, feisty. Just how I like 'em," he murmured, he glanced over to the man I'd kicked, his nose was bleeding profusely. "You shouldn't have done that," he added.

"Fuck you," I spat. He wiped his face before roughly dropped my chin and laughing bitterly.

"You shouldn't have done that," he continued to laugh. His grin was sadistic. He turned his back to me and walked back a few paces before coming to face all of us. "For those who don't know, I am Negan. You all answer to me now."

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Harrison asked.

"They don't get it, do they?" Negan laughed, speaking to his men. "See, you're going to make me do this now," he accepted a bat offered to him by one of the other men. It had barbed wire wrapped around it and I cringed. Why the hell would someone have that? "Everyone say hello to Lucille," he said, showing off the bat like he was proud of it. "One of you sorry pricks is going to get to meet Lucille face to…face," he seemed to consider the last word as he looked at the end of the bat. "Now, don't think that I want to do this, it's strictly business. You all need to learn just how serious this is." He paced in front of us, the bat swinging parallel to his legs the whole time. This was when Hunter and I both lost our reserve. My son latched on to me tightly. He didn't cry, but he held me tightly.

Negan didn't comment on Hunter, he just continued as he was. He walked back to the far end of the group, seeming to have decided what he planned to do. He swung the bat and the sickening sound of Lucille contacting with Harrison's skull echoed in my brain. I clung to Hunter, wanting nothing more than for him to miss what was happening. He didn't need to be scared with it.

The thing with our group was that we didn't take shit from anyone, despite being out numbers. Peter and Louis stood up immediately and started hitting Negan. Two gunshots rang out, dropping them both with a loud thud to the road. I gasped loudly and tears rolled down my cheeks.

Cracking his neck, Negan laughed. "Where we were?" he went back to wailing on Harrison's skull with the bat.

"You son of a bitch," Bill stated, looking at him. "You really think we're going to work with you after doing this?"

Negan laughed again. I used to think that laughing was a sign of happiness and something that made the world seem less heavy…but Negan's laugh was something different. It weighed me down with dread.

"Work with me? It's funny that you think you're worth more than the dirt on my shoe. You're gonna work for me."

"You might as well kill me now, I'll never work for you," Bill stated confidently.

"Bill," Ryan called over to him, trying to get him to shut the hell up.

"No, Ry, let him speak his piece here," Negan laughed, looking at my husband. His eyes trailed over to me and he looked me up and down. I cringed and he met my eyes before winking. "Y'know, Lucille is kind of a thirsty girl anyway," he shrugged before hitting Bill over the head as well. I couldn't hold in a shriek. Ryan grabbed my hand and gave me a pleading look. Pleading for me to be quiet. How could he sit there so emotionless? Our family was being murdered before our eyes! How could he not at least look sad?

"Well," Negan hit the bat against the ground, letting some more blood drip from it. He strolled over to Ryan. "I think I've got a deal for you, at least to start with," he smirked. "You keep that one and the little whining brat," he motioned towards Hunter. "I take half your supplies and your smoking hot wife," he stated.

Hold the phone.

What the literal fuck?

"Ain't going to happen," Ryan stated.

"You haven't got much of a choice," Negan roughly grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the ground. "If you want options I could kill your little brat too," he offered.

"Go—" Ryan started.

"Stop," I said, meeting his eyes. His brown eyes showed more fear than he'd ever express. "Hunter is what matters most. You know that. I'm not letting either of you get killed," I stated. "I'll go if that's what it takes."

I saw Ryan reach for his ankle and I knew what he was reaching for, I just didn't react fast enough. He pulled out his spare gun and fired.

The bullet only grazed Negan's head. Enough to draw blood and knock him on his ass. I moved away from him and back to Hunter.

Negan stood and laughed bitterly. He touched his head and looked at the blood. Two men had Ryan's arms held out as Negan made his way over with Lucille.

"No," said.

"Carlee, Hunter, I love you," Ryan said.

No…It couldn't be.

Not my husband. Not like this.

AN: Inspired by last night's episode of TWD. I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope I was able to capture Negan's character accurately. Hit up that little review box. I'd like to hear some opinions. If you don't like it, do not be overly mean, please! Thank you for reading!

~Michelle