Chapter 2: Like Father, Like Son?
Sam watched as Negan happily strolled off as if he didn't have a care in the world and suddenly felt disgusted. He knew that John was not the best father. He could even say that he was an abusive father, but seeing him now? Seeing him like this made Sam feel disgusted. He wasn't kidding when he said that he had to do whatever it took to survive in this new cruel world that fate(or maybe Gabriel) had thrown the two siblings into. It made Sam wonder how far he would go just to stay alive and it scared him. Pushing the thought away, he nudged Dean and murmured, "C'mon, we gotta meet Rick." Dean was about to ask why but thought better of it and followed him to where the deputy was giving orders to Rosita and two other Alexandites that Sam didn't recognize. "Is there anything you want us to do?" he asked him and Rick turned to face them.
"I need you two to go with Rosita, Charlie, and Lisa to clear out a group of walkers nearby. I don't want them getting into Alexandria," he said.
"Right, that shouldn't be so hard for us," Dean murmured. "Let me just get our weapons and we'll be on our way." Once Dean had left, Rick asked what Negan had talked to them about.
"He just asked of we wanted join his group and we declined. Then we talked about stuff," Sam said.
"What kind of stuff?"
"Personal stuff..." Rick looked at him in confusion.
"Why would he ask personal information about you?" he asked.
"He must be really interested in us," Sam replied. Rick raised an eyebrow at him and knew that he was hiding something.
"I've never seen him so interested in someone," he murmured. "Are you sure you haven't met him before? He seemed to recognize you."
"I don't remember seeing him before in my life," Sam lied. "Maybe I look like someone he's met before."
"Maybe," Rick agreed though he looked skeptical. He pushed the thought away as Dean came back with John's wired baseball bat and Sam's knife.
"I feel like you haven't used that bat before," Rosita said.
"We only used it once," Dean admitted. "Well, I have anyway." Rick nodded and told them to stick together before walking away. Sam sighed and took the knife from his brother's hand.
"You ready?" Rosita asked and they nodded. "Let's go." Once they were in the woods, Sam noticed a trail of blood on the ground.
"Did someone get bit?" he asked and Rosita shook her head.
"It's too much blood to be a bite," she said. "Wanna follow it? It might lead to the herd Rick was talking about."
"Or a horde of them," the orange haired man that Sam assumed was Charlie said. "Let's follow it for a bit and see what happens." Sam wasn't so sure about the plan but decided that if things went wrong, they would abandon the trail. Once they all agreed, the little group followed the trail of blood for a bit. It stopped at a body of a man with his skull broken open and his brain badly damaged. Sam grimaced at the sight and Rosita sighed. "Negan," she muttered and rolled the dead body over to see that the man's eyes had been gouged out and parts of his flesh and hair were missing. Sam could see something that looked like a symbol carved into his neck. "Ugh, he must've been really pissed off to do this."
"Yeah, it's like he was possessed by a demon or something," Lisa said and pointed to the symbol. Sam and Dean looked at each other for a moment. If that was true, then it'd explain why Negan was so...Negan.
"I think we found our herd," Charlie said and pointed to a few walkers not too far away. "Hey, Winchesters. You used to killing walkers?"
"Yeah," Dean replied and Sam unsheathed his knife. "Aim for the head." The younger brother stabbed his knife into the nearest walker's head and quickly turned to stab another one as Dean knocked a walker to the floor and bashed it's head to destroy the brain. He, Rosita and Charlie worked together to take out a dozen of walkers who had slipped past them and were heading for Alexandria while Lisa and Dean handled the walkers close by. After that was done, they met up near an old oak tree where Dean was finishing up a walker. "Look at that!" Dean exclaimed as the walker he had knocked onto the floor began to get up. "He's takin' it like a champ!" Sam saw Rosita tense as Dean slammed the bat into the walker's head and cracked it's head a bit. "This guy's got a really thick skull." Sam rolled his eyes at his lame joke and sighed as Dean continued to beat the crap out of the walker. Rosita looked triggered watching him and Sam wondered if she was remembering the fate of Glenn and Abraham so he was about to tell Dean to use the knife instead, but the walker was already dead before he could utter a word. Dean looked up from his kill and blinked at them in with a confused look on his face. "What?"
"Why did you say 'he's taking it like a champ'?" Rosita asked and Sam could hear a hint of anger in her voice. Dean shrugged and wiped the bat on the grass to clean it.
"I don't know. Just slipped out," he replied. "Why'd you ask?"
"Negan said that when he killed Abraham."
"Oh, sorry about that," Dean apologized.
"Just don't say that again," Rosita said and led the group back to Alexandria. Sam suddenly had a dreadful thought as they made their way back to the town. Would Dean be like their father one day? He didn't want to believe it, but he knew that it was possible. After all, Dean was the favorite. If Negan had pursuaded him to become one of his men then yes, he might be another version of the sociopathic bastard. But Dean knew better than to join the Saviors. He would never be part of their group. Then again, Negan could force him to join his group by torturing him. He could always break him just like Daryl. He could even threaten to kill him... He'd never do something that cruel to his own son, Sam thought. He's not that heartless. He tried to focus on more important things than his father but Negan's words rang in his mind.
"It's do or die, kill or be killed... You kill to survive." They had done just that hadn't they? They'd killed things that had been human and they had survived. That's what Negan had told them. It's what he wanted them to do. Sam didn't want to believe that his father was right about killing people if it meant surviving in this cruel world, but a part of him knew that he was partially right. They had to kill people, but only the ones that were a threat. Ones like the Governor, Gareth, and mostly Negan. Sam didn't know how he would be able to kill his own father. Yes, he was an ass but he was still family. Would Negan ever forgive him? That was hard to say. Sam's thoughts were interrupted by Charlie nudging his shoulder. "You're awfully quiet," he said. "What's up?"
"Oh, I was just thinking," Sam replied. "I'm fine." Charlie knew that something was up but he just nodded and began talking to Lisa. Dean slowed down a bit so he could walk with Sam and flicked the bat in his hands. His younger brother knew what he was thinking about. "You won't be like him. It was just a coincidence."
"Dad sure does love this bat," Dean muttered and tapped the wire once with his finger. "It feels weird holding this now."
"It makes me wonder what he did while he was away on that hunting trip," Sam replied. "He took his bat with him before he left. Do you think...?"
"There's no way he could travel through dimensions and catch Yellow Eyes. Besides, he's a totally different person now. He'd have to have SPD or some shit." Sam had to agree with him on that. Traveling through dimensions must be a really tricky and painful thing to do which would explain why they'd had a minor headache when they woke up.
"Yeah, you're right." But still, it made him wonder what John had been doing while he was away on his "hunting trip." He would ask him someday when he had the chance. Right now he had to get back to Alexandria.
Dwight tilted his head and watched in curiosity as Negan talked to the two men in private. Why wasn't he speaking to them in public? Did he know these two from somewhere? For some odd reason, Dwight found it amusing how short the fearsome leader was compared to the two men. Negan seemed a bit annoyed at the two for a moment before the light haired man replied to his question and seemed proud of the answer he recieved. He thumped his shoulder lightly and talked some more. As he did so, Dwight saw love in his brown eyes. Surely, he knew them from somewhere and they were close friends. There was no way that he'd look at them so lovingly if they were strangers. Dwight glanced at the last of the supplies being loaded and went to inform Negan that it was time to leave. "We're done," he said.
"Let me finish up here Dwight. I'll be there in a sec," Negan replied and turned back to the two men. Dwight translated that as "get out. I'm having an important conversation with two important people" and made his way back to the van. Giving a quick glance behind his shoulder, he saw Negan kiss the two men on the cheek so he assumed that they were relatives. As he waited in the van, he saw something sticking out from the bottom of the driver's seat. He leaned over and picked up the object which were two folded pictures. He unfolded the first picture and saw a younger version of Negan standing next to a small black car with the light haired man who was leaning out the window to take a picture of something with a camera. Dwight smiled at the affectionate look Negan gave his relative and smiled even more at the second picture of him sleeping his dog. It was odd yet heartwarming to see him genuinely happy about something other than killing for once. "Whatcha got there?" Negan asked as he sat in the driver's seat.
"Photos of you," Dwight replied. "I found them under the driver's seat." He handed them to him so he could see and glanced at the two men. "Are they relatives of yours?"
"Mhm," Negan murmured and smiled at the picture of the two men. "They're my kids. The tall one's Sam and the short one's Dean. Dean's the oldest." His smile faded and sadness creeped into his eyes before he cleared his throat and put the pictures in between the chair and the cup holders as he started the car.
"You never told me that you had kids. Or a dog for that matter."
"Do you really want to know everything about my personal life?" Dwight was silent. "I thought so."
"Just one question," The blonde said as they drove out of Alexandria. "What did you do before the outbreak?" Negan was silent for a moment.
"I was a used car salesman and a hunter."
"What did you hunt?"
"I hunted stuff Dwight." He gave him an "I-am-not-in-the-mood-to-tell-you-my-life-story" mixed with a "if-you-ask-anymore-questions-I-will-do-terrible-things-to-you" look and Dwight didn't question him about his hunting business. As they drove off, he remembered something.
"What about Erik? Shouldn't we get rid of his corpse?"
"Nope," Negan replied and turned the radio on.
"Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man,
Though my mind could think I still was a madman-"
Negan immediately changed the channel to the old pop songs that used to be popular back in the day. The blonde frowned at him. "But I liked tha-"
"Driver picks the song. Shotgun shuts his cake hole," Negan interrupted as Hit Me Baby One More Time played. Dwight sighed and leaned back in his chair. He hated it when Negan said that. It was one of the few things that kept him from changing the radio. But maybe just this one time... As he reached over to change the channel, Negan grabbed his hand and squeezed it harder than Dwight thought he could. "Don't you fucking dare." The dark haired sociopath released his grip on his hand and he glared at him. "Touch that shit and you will feel my fucking wrath."
"Okay," Dwight said quietly and pulled his hand away from him. "But, it wouldn't hurt if you'd change it back to-"
"I am never listening to that damn song again."
"Why not?" He received not response. "Negan-"
"It brings back too much memories that I want to forget." There was a moment of silence before Dwight responded.
"Can we listen to Spice-"
"No." He looked pissed off and Dwight didn't want to get him more angry. He looked at Lucille and wondered why Negan had given his sons a similar bat.
"Why don't you talk about Sam and Dean?" he asked.
"Because I don't feel the need to talk about them."
"But they're your sons."
"They're adults who refused to accept my offer," Negan said bitterly.
"They can make they're own choices Negan. They're not kids anymore." The two didn't speak for a while until the song ended. "I still don't understand how you could be a car salesman and a hunter at the same time. Isn't hunting a full time job or something?" Negan didn't respond. "Are you going to talk to me?"
"No." Dwight stared at him and sighed. If he was going to be bitchy about it, let him be bitchy. The blond sat in silence before Negan spoke again. "I'm going to visit Sam and Dean tomorrow. You're not coming with me."
"Why not?"
"It's a personal thing. You wouldn't understand any of it anyway."
"Isn't it too soon to be thinking about another visit?"
"I wanna make sure that my boys know who's in charge. Just because they're my kids does not mean that they can fuck shit up and do whatever the fuck they want."
"They're not part of your group."
"They will be." Dwight knew what that meant and he didn't like it. If Negan was going to force his sons to be his soldiers, then it'd only result in conflict. There was a specific reason why Sam and Dean didn't accept his offer and Dwight was sure that breaking them would make them think that their father was an asshole. "Whether they like it or not, they will be one of us."