Beth
The moment Negan began making a makeshift tourniquet on Carl's arm, I knew exactly what he had planned: Rick would be forced to watch his son become maimed right in front of him. Or else, we'd all die.
After using a marker to draw a line on Carl's arm, Negan took my expectation one step further: "Rick I want you to take the axe… Cut your son's arm right on that line."
Rick looked around, in pure disarray. Not only would Carl be losing a hand, he'd lose it at the hands of his own father.
"Now I know you're going to need to process that for a minute," said Negan, going on. "It makes sense. Still, I'm gonna need you to do it, or all these people are going to die. Quite nastily, in fact. Then Carl dies, then the people back home die… And then you. Eventually. I'm going to keep you breathing for a few years for you to stew on it."
I couldn't bear to watch Rick get tormented anymore. He'd lost Michonne and had been subjected to whatever torments Negan had forced upon him in the RV. I had to do something.
"You don't have to do this," I said, pretty desperately. "We understand how things work now-"
"You understand," said Negan, cutting me off. "That's great. Shows I'm getting through to you guys. I'm not sure that Rick does!"
And Negan's attentions were back on Rick and Carl.
"I'm going to need a clean cut, right on that line. Now, I know this is a screwed up thing to ask of you, but it's going to need to be like a salami slice. Nice, 45 degree angle. Give us something to work with. We've got a great doctor, the kid will be fine!... Probably."
That last word only made Rick cringe and panic even further. I was legitimately scared by this point. Harming Carl or causing all of us to die? God forbid I be forced to do anything of the like to Maggie.
Negan bent down, getting impatient. "This needs to happen now. Chop chop. Or I will personally crush the little fellow's skull myself."
"It-It could be me." Rick was starting to get desperate. His bargaining and ability to reason with hostile people began to break down when there was truly no way out. "You could do it to me, I can go with you-"
"No, this is the only way." Negan stood up again, emotion gone from his face. "Rick, pick up the axe."
Rick was once again silent and immobile. Another eternity moment passed.
Negan was getting fed up. "Not making a decision is a BIG decision. You really want to see all these people die?!" He waived his hands at us. "You will! You will see every. Ugly. Thing."
Now Rick began hyperventilating. I hadn't seen him this broken since Lori died.
"Oh my god," complained Negan, who for a moment seemed to actually take pity on Rick. "Are you really going to make me count? Ok Rick. You win. I AM COUNTING. THREE!"
"Please!" Rick was crying now, tears and snot abound. "I-It could be me. PLEASE!"
Negan, however, showed no sympathy. He continued counting: "TWO!"
"No, please don't-"
In between Rick's desperate pants, Negan bent down again and slapped Rick in the face like an abusive husband. He then boxed Rick's ears and said, "This is it." To think my life had once again been held by the thread of a single moment.
"ONE!" After Negan's last count, Rick began yelling in a mixture of rage and agony, and began to grasp the axe. Only when Carl began telling his dad just to do it did Rick begin raising the weapon above his hand.
Then, like a deus ex machina, Negan stopped the entire thing. Instead, he told Rick, "You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?"
Rick frantically nodded his head over and over, still in a state of panic. Negan, not satisfied, grabbed him hard by the jaw. "SPEAK WHEN YOU'RE SPOKEN TO! YOU ANSWER TO ME! YOU PROVIDE FOR ME."
"P-Provide for you…" Another snot bubble came out.
"YOU BELONG TO ME. RIGHT?! Right. That is the look I wanted to see." Negan picked up the axe again and prepared to give what could only be another speech.
Daryl
"You did it," said Negan. "All of us. Together. Even the dead folks on the ground – hell, they get the spirit award for sure! Today was a productive damn day!"
Negan seemed flushed with victory. Like he was finished with us. The suffering was over.
Nope.
"Now I hope for all your sakes that you get it now. That you understand. Whatever you had going for you, that is over now. Dwight?"
Dwight turned his head.
"Load him up." The bat was pointed straight at me.
Without even a warning, I was forcibly picked up off the ground by the bastards and dragged to the back of one of their vehicles. Maggie let off another round of sobs while Beth winced and cringed.
With Dwight pointing the crossbow at me, Rick "explained" the decision to Rick: "He's got guts. Not a little bitch like someone I know. I like him. He's mine now. But if you still wanna try something, not today, not tomorrow, not today, not ever – I will cut pieces off of… Hell's his name?"
"Daryl," said Simon.
"Sounds about right. I will cut pieces off of Daryl, and put them at your doorstep, or better yet, I'll have you do it for me." Negan stood up and let out a sigh, as if he was relieved for once. "Welcome to a brand new beginning, you sorry shits! Imma leave you a truck. Keep it. You'll use it to haul all the crap you're going to find me."
Negan tossed the axe on the ground. Almost like clockwork, the Saviors began collectively moving back to their vehicles and leaving. Before the van I was in began to start, I heard Negan's last words to the group: "We'll be back for our first offer in one week. Until then, ta ta."
The van began rolling out, taking me to whatever Negan wanted to do with me.
I'd take it. He'd never hear me beg.
Beth
While the others all looked at the ground as the Saviors left, my eyes were glued to the van Daryl was being held in. I watched it drive off in the distance, alongside the rest of the Savior's vehicles.
I was more upset than I should have been. I'd barely had him back in my life for a few days, and poof: gone again, just like that.
More upsetting for me, however, was Maggie's overall state. In addition to whatever pregnancy issues she was having, it was made worse by tenfold by the corpse at our far right. She shuddered a bit, face directed straight towards the ground.
Everyone just sat where they were for a few minutes, trying to take in the full effect of Negan's reprisal killings. Then Maggie got up, and tried walking slowly towards Glenn's body. Knowing that she was in no state to be moving about, I got up and held her again, trying to dissuade her. However, she kept shaking me off and moved on towards Glenn.
"Maggie," said Rick, finally not focused on Carl or Michonne, "you need to sit back down."
"No," was the forceful reply. As forceful as a pregnant woman who'd lost her significant other could be.
"We need to get you to the Hilltop." As Rick tried to reason with her, Abraham and Aaron also got up, finally done being on the ground.
"You need to go get ready." Maggie's voice was shrill, but what could you expect from several hours of nonstop mourning?
"For what?"
"To fight him."
I was about to speak, but Abraham beat me to it: "We'd be dicked if we tried that after what just happened."
"Abraham's right," seconded Rick. "They have Daryl; they have an army. We would die, all of us."
"Go home," retaliated Maggie, "and take everyone but Beth with you. We can get their by ourselves."
"Maggie," I said, not able to stand her trying to act tough in a shitty situation. "We need to get you there ASAP. You can barely stand."
"I'm taking him with me," said Maggie, pretty much ignoring everything I said and focusing on Glenn. She bent down to touch his body and cry once more.
"We'll go with you in the truck to Hilltop," said Abraham, referring to him and Sasha. I'd forgotten that they'd become a couple. "I was a soldier. Still am, in a way. And a soldier never fails the mission."
I nodded silently and hugged him. In this dark hour, I'd take all the support I could get.
At the same time, Rick went over to Michonne's body and silently wept, Carl doing all he could to support his father. Meanwhile, Aaron went to try to put a comforting hand on Maggie.
"I need to do this, please," she said to him though the sobs.
"We need to help you," was Aaron's sympathetic reply.
"I got her," I said as I moved around and hugged my sister from behind. I'd done this before with Daryl after he'd broken down from his drunken yelling at the golf club. No sound, just silence on a sad day. But I still shed my tears.
Eugene and Abraham went to the RV and got some spare blankets. They proceeded to wrap the bodies of Michonne and Glenn in them, and together the group put their bodies in the back of the vehicles while Rick and Maggie cried over what could have been.
"Bet you thought you were all gonna grow old together, sitting around the table at Sunday dinner in the happily ever after?" Negan's words haunted me as I helped wrap Glenn's body and carried it alongside Abraham, Sasha, and Aaron. "No. Doesn't work like that. Not anymore."
And of all the stupid times to go daydreaming , I did. I stumbled into the imagination world and envisioned that Sunday dinner Negan was referring to, maybe a year or so down the road. The walkers in the area were cleared and civilization could try to rebuild. Everyone was happy and their minds focused on something more cheerful. I was singing a song and playing the guitar again, with Daryl looking on in admiration. Glenn and Maggie were at one table, taking turns holding their infant son. Rick and Michonne were at another, playing with Judith. The rest were scattered about, smiles abound and conversations on anything other than death.
It would never happen. And if it did, it wouldn't be the same. All we could do now was try to survive with the new circumstances.
Abraham, Sasha, myself, and Maggie took the truck to the Hilltop in little over ten minutes, Glenn's body in tow (Rick wanted to take Michonne with him back to Alexandria). Gregory and Jesus were there to greet us, hoping we had good news. While Abraham took the unconscious Maggie to the doctor, Sasha and I tried to explain everything that had happened.
"I thought your people took care of the Saviors," said Gregory with some contempt. He might have kept the Hilltop at peace, but his approach was one of appeasement first.
"We thought we did," I answered. "It was only a fraction of their forces."
"How many more were there?"
"Hard to say," said Sasha. "Probably more than a hundred."
Gregory bit his lip. "Maggie said you could take care of the Saviors. So far all it's done is put our people at risk. We'll talk it over once she's been looked at."
"Gregory-"
"No, Jesus. Not now. We need to discuss our deniability and blown cover, but it'll have to wait. Sasha, you and Abraham need to leave once Maggie's taken care of."
And with that Gregory walked off quickly, as if he'd had a bad feeling about the next few days. Given how I was a Hilltop resident for a while, the Saviors were likely to pay this place a visit soon. And if Abraham and Sasha were here, there'd be no denying Alexandria was in cahoots. Besides, they were needed back at Alexandria, given Rick's current state.
Daryl
Negan's Sanctuary was a large factory of some sorts, converted into living quarters for at least two hundred people from the looks of it. I was led by Dwight to first a doctor (to attend to my bullet wound), and then a dark, windowless cell. Not to mention stripped of my clothes. That bastard Dwight probably wanted them.
Nothing I hadn't experienced in childhood.
After the door slammed shut, music began blaring out. Obviously an attempt to do me in. The styles varied at first, being everything from Slipknot to Miley Cyrus, but eventually whoever was in charge of the radio settled on a shitty little tune called "Easy Street". Being upbeat and cheerful, the song did nothing to help me settle or sleep.
The only relief from the goddamn music was when a guard opened it to give me some sort of sandwich. I examined it to find dog food smeared over moldy bread.
I ate it. Nothing I'd not eaten before. And if this was the price to pay for Glenn's death, I'd gladly pay it.
I only wished I could see the others soon. Especially Beth.
OK everyone, I'm back from Thanksgiving. My schedule will probably be a bit inconsistent but that's just how life is. So thoughts? Feelings? Comments?
Jokerang
