Title is from Cupid Carries A Gun by Marilyn Manson

This is Part Two of the Perpetual series, Part One is 'A Perpetual State Of Gray'

XXXX

Simon stood before his boss nervously rocking back and forth on his feet as he tried desperately not to fidget with his hands. Simon was a confident man, a smarter man than most people gave him credit for, but Negan had this way of reducing him to a scared seven year old whenever he was angry. He'd known it wasn't a good idea to bring that bitch back with them, she'd killed his men and Simon had known she'd be trouble. Negan should have thrown her in a cell and broken her if he wanted a pet, not provided her a room in the administration section with the Lieutenants, Negan's wives and the man himself. In Simon's mind he was just asking for problems. Yeah, Yulia was sexy as fuck and clearly knew how to handle herself but just moving her on in as though she were an old friend was stupid. Of course there was no way in hell Simon could have said that to the Saviour leader without death being Negan's immediate response. The moustached man sighed internally, three days — three fucking days — was all it had taken for Negan's new pet Russian to escape The Sanctuary, she'd taken food, ammo and Simon was pretty sure several maps they'd marked cashes off on were gone as well. As Negan's second in command it fell to him to inform the bat wielding leader. Simon was royally fucked.

"You wanna run that one by me again." It clearly wasn't a question.

"... The girl, Lee, Yulia, whatever her name is, she em, she's gone along with some food and a fair amount of ammo." Simon awkwardly cleared his throat. "No one saw her leave, heard anything, nothing, just gone."

Simon jumped when Negan smashed Lucille down on his desk angrily, the moustached man tried to stay calm, any sudden movements would probably result his head being caved in.

"Simon, get a fucking team out there and do it fucking quickly. I want that girl fucking found, and I want her fucking found now!" Negan fixed his right hand man with a glare. "Don't fucking fuck this up!"

Simon had done his best to find Yulia for almost a week but he nor any of the other Saviours had been able to scrounge up a single scrap of information on where she'd fled too; this girl knew how to vanish. She'd not taken any of the vehicles, hadn't even tried to by the looks of things, but they'd not been able to track her either. Simon had sent Dwight out to personally scourer the Sanctuary fences and see where would have been best for her to escape unseen but even that hadn't lead to anything even remotely important.

When week two rolled around Negan had put the fear of God into Simon and told him to 'hold down the fort', that was how the lead Savour found himself cruising down the highway with Lucille rested against the passenger seat. Hot sun rained down on him but he didn't care, he wanted to find the Russian, no one escaped the Sanctuary, no one. Simon had been mightily surprised to hear Negan was going to go look himself but hadn't questioned it. Hopefully he'd cool off and feel less head-smashy by the time he returned to the factory they all called home.

~X~

Negan had been out in the field a few days and almost burnt through his supply of gas with nothing to show for it. He'd checked just about everywhere he could think of that the Russian could have fled to, even gone back to the store where he and his men had first come across her. Nothing. Just gone like Simon had said.

If it was possible the heat grew worse, sun raining down harshly to the point he'd been forced to shed his trademark leather jacket as he drove alone the abandoned roads flanked by tall grass and thick trees. Every now and again he'd see a dead one wandering around aimlessly and as much as he'd have liked to mow it down Negan wanted to find Yulia more. Damn his fucking curiosity because Christ, did that girl had secrets. Secrets Negan wanted to know everything about, that and in his mind she was a walking weapon; who didn't want one of those on their side? Like Terminator but a sexy Russian, Negan chuckled to himself.

The Saviour leader had maybe enough gas for one more day and to get back to the Sanctuary if he didn't do anything stupid so Negan headed down to a Tanger Outlet mall that h ad been cleared out ages ago. There wasn't any reason to go down there in terms of scavenging but Lee was a crafty little sexpot and could have been anywhere, so where better than a place Negan's men weren't going to go?

Negan let the dark car roll to a stop and grabbed his leather jacked, he threw it on before lovingly picking up Lucille and heading towards the mall. The place had been popular back in the day but now was nothing more than an abandoned wasteland of broken glass, peeling paint and dust. Cars lay dotted about the parking lot, their tires rusted and batteries dead, nothing more than scenery setting now; useless to Negan. Judging from the old, blackened blood splattered over the ground outside the main door of the outlet there had been a massacre at some point, sure enough a corpse came shuffling towards him from behind one of the cars. Negan sighed, how many of these fucking dead shitheads are there? Strong arms swung Lucille as he had million times before and took half it's face off, but the bastard kept coming, its tattered sun dress just hung off it's rotted frame. Negan chuckled as it slipped and started to crawl towards him, he had to admire their determination, Lucille came crashing down onto the dead one's head once more before stomping down with his boot to finish it off. Squelch!

"Ahh, shit." His right boot was utterly covered in brain goo and blood, he shook it almost violently to knock off as much as possible; the drops only adding to the stained ground.

The bearded man stepped inside the mall and instantly a wave of stench hit him, warm rot that snared Negan's nostrils and plunged into his throat forcing him to gag. If Lee was here she'd gone fucking nose blind. The smell didn't get any better as he made his way through the building but nor did it get worse, just hung there like a loaded question in an attempt to choke the Saviour.

"This is fucking pointless." Negan grumbled to himself as he rested Lucille on his shoulder. "Ain't nothing here."

Days he'd been looking for the little hellcat, she was gone, and why the fuck did he care so goddamn much? Yes, Lee seemed to be a very capable fighter, would have made a bloody fantastic Saviour and maybe even managed to whip some of his other men into shape but her not being at the Sanctuary wasn't going to change anything. Negan would still be in charge, he'd still control everything, his men would still be working. Or maybe it was those bold green eyes- shut the fuck up you pussy! Negan chastised himself.

The man with hazel eyes stormed back out of the outlet mall and marched back to his car, fuck this, Yulia was gone and him searching high and fucking low for her was only going to use up gas and make his men suspicious. With Lucille sat carefully in the passenger seat Negan took off back towards the Sanctuary, he'd yell at Simon for being a fucking idiot and letting Lee flee then carry on with his life. No big deal. Right?

When he was just ten minutes out from the Sanctuary and a nice refreshing shower Negan slammed the brakes on and backed the car up about ten feet. He just sat there a moment looking up at the small street that led off to small housing estate. The Saviours hadn't ever really bothered with that area as it was so dilapidated even before the world went to shit, a very poor area half boarded up and falling apart. Still, it was somewhere new... and Negan was already there. That was how he justified continuing his search for the dark-haired Russian.

"Might as well fucking check."

With a huff the man with grey in his hair turned the steering wheel and cruised towards the knackered homes. As expected nothingness, just run down homes long abandoned and almost obscured by overgrown lawns. They looked eerie in the twilight that had started to descended; twilight didn't numb the heat at all though. Negan reached over to grab his water bottle from beside Lucille but chucked it at the dash when he found it empty; getting back to the Sanctuary was going to happen sooner rather than later.

Negan sighed, this was fucking pointless, but just as he was about to one-eighty the car and head off to the Sanctuary he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He leaned forwards over the wheel peering out the windsheild towards a tiny fleck of blue, a car. Not just any car, not like the trashed hunks of junk that had been in the outlet mall parking lot, this car was clearly in fully working order, a little dirty but that could be forgiven. Lee hadn't stolen a vehicle when she'd left but a working car that close to the Sanctuary, parked as though someone had wanted to hide it from sight. The whole thing was just suspicious so of course Negan went to investigate. He grabbed his darling Lucille and headed towards the house slowly, he kept low and aired on the side of caution, didn't want anyone blindsiding him because he'd gone in all guns blazing, he wasn't bloody Gavin!

The front of the house was dark, boarded up and uninhabited just like the rest of its brothers but when he rounded to the car and the back door he realised it was quite the opposite.

"Motherfucking bingo!"

There stood by the back door pulling a blade from rotted meat sack was just who he'd been looking for. Negan had found Yulia 'Lee' Stravinsky.