Chapter 11 Who's the Mullet?

Lucy stood outside the doorway to the building in which and Coach were currently living. The compound had made her uneasy from the first time he mentioned it, but now she was dreaming about getting away from here. She stayed in the apartment, if you could call it that, a lot because no one in the compound would talk to her. She knew they were hiding something, but she hadn't been able to figure out just what it was they kept from her.

She leaned against the door frame and watched groups come and go with baskets of produce and eggs. Everyone had a job here, except her. She had offered in the two weeks she had been there to take on various jobs, but she always got the same answer that 'his women don't work'. But no one would elaborate as to what that meant. She had asked Coach, or Eugene as she attempting to call him now, about the strange behavior but he never gave her a solid answer.

She had mentioned what Arrat had said when Coach left her with Thomas that day, but he had shrugged it off. "There are things that you aren't ready to learn yet Lucy," he had said pulling her into a hug. "I mean, did you think you were just going to fucking walk in here and learn all our fucking secrets? I trust you, but the rest of these fuckers, they have to get to know you first. Decide on their own if they trust you. Don't worry about them, alright? Negan trusts you and that's all that matters."

He had pulled her into the shower with him then and used his fingers to bring her to a quick orgasm before they went to bed and really made love. She kept trying to convince herself that making love was what they were doing. She wasn't just fucking some stranger. She was making love to someone who was special to her. But the harder she worked to convince herself the more her brain told her she was overlooking something about him.

"I… I brought you… you two some… um… apples," a wavering voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

She made eye contact with Thomas who had shown her around before. He was really the only one who talked to her. "Thank you Thomas. Did you pick these?"

He nodded. "Thomas, we can't take your apples. You worked hard to get them."

"But… I… I… picked them fo… for you Lucy. Ne… Coach… he said… he said you like ap… apples."

Lucy smiled at him softly. "I do like apples Thomas. But I can't take them from you. You might need them or… your leader… Negan, he might not like that you are giving them to me. I'm still a stranger to him."

Thomas smiled, but shook his head. "Ne… Negan won't mind. He… he wants you to be happy… here."

"Thank you Thomas. Do you have work to do or would you like to play a card game with me? I got so used to being alone and now that I've gotten used to having Coach around I feel kind of out of place when I'm by myself."

"Ma… maybe later… Lu… Lucy. I… I need to be sure it's… o… okay with Coach."

Lucy nodded. "I understand Thomas. Thanks again for the apples."

She watched him smile and walk away from her. The loneliness she felt was new and raw and she didn't like it one bit. She decided she was going to bend the rules a little bit and go for a walk. Maybe if Negan saw it as defiance he would ask her to leave and she wouldn't have to fight for a choice anymore.

It was getting close to lunch time and the temperature was rising so most of the compounds occupants had taken shelter in the various buildings. Heat stroke was a very real possibility even in the cold months around here and no one really took chances. She walked cautiously keeping her eyes open for movement. She knew she was doing something that would get her in trouble with Coach, but she really didn't care. The apartment was stifling and she had to get out. She had been there two weeks, surely she could be trusted a little more, right?

She knew Negan didn't see it that way, but she was taking her chances. She heard voices ahead of her and was turning around to head the other way when she heard her name mentioned. "Did she like the apples?" she heard the guy with the scarred face say.

"Sh… she didn't want to ta… take them at first. She… she asked me to play cards wi… with her. She's lonely," she heard Thomas reply.

"He won't like that one bit," the scar face replied. "What did you tell her?"

"Tha… that I nee… need to ask Negan first."

"Did you call him Negan?" scar face said in a hissing voice that was obviously filled with anger.

"N… No, Dwight."

"Good, we have to be careful. At least until he's ready to tell her the truth."

She heard scar face sigh and Thomas coughed. "Sh… she's lo… lonely," Thomas said. "Sh… she nee… needs a friend."

"I'll ask him ok. I don't know if he'll care or not but I'm not taking any chances."

"Wh… where is he?"

"His place. Some of the wives were getting pissy because he hasn't been paying them attention," Dwight said with a cough. "Not a problem I would wish on my worst enemy."

"Is… is h… he going to te… tell her?"

Dwight laughed. "Not now. Don't know if he will or not eventually, but I think he's trying to get her in so deep she can't leave when she finds out who he really is."

Tears filled Lucy's eyes as she sprinted back to their little apartment. She made it inside and to the little bathroom before she vomited in the toilet. She had the wherewithal to close and lock the bathroom door before she lay down on the cool tile of the bathroom floor. "Rule number one," she murmured against the tile. "Do not trust anyone. Of all the rules this one is the most important."

She silently sobbed into the rug that was on the floor for at least ten minutes before she resolved to find out the truth. She knew where she needed to start, but she had to find him first. She used a rag to wipe her face and pulled her hair back in a thick bun. She grabbed her machete and her back pack before heading out the door. She tucked the back pack behind a blue water barrel along her route to Negan… no she corrected herself mentally… she was going to find the mullet. The man with the mullet was the answer to her questions.

He had to be in front of the pit where they kept the biters. He was always out there looking them over and thinking who knows what about them. Maybe he was a necrophiliac and he got off on watching the biters. He sure as hell wasn't Negan and she wasn't afraid of him. She had to hide twice on her route to the pit because of people wandering around, but she was determined and thought it was funny how determination eliminated fear.

He was standing next to the fence with his arms hanging limp by his side. He was watching the biters and humming quietly to himself. He was alone as far as she could tell, but she stayed hidden under a stair well for several minutes watching him to be sure. She approached him from behind and grabbed his hair wrapping it twice around her hand while at the same moment pressing her machete to his throat. "Where is he?" she whispered.

"Who?" he responded, fear evident in his voice.

"Negan," she whispered.

"I… I'm Negan."

"The fuck you are," she growled out. "Take me to him, now."

She pressed the machete against his throat and pricked the skin enough to draw blood. "Walk or die and I'll find him myself," she growled again.

"You… you aren't going to like what we find."

"I'm sure I won't mullet, but I need the truth. Now walk!"

"Yes ma'am," he said moving up the ramp with the machete still pressed to his throat.

"He intends to keep you," the mullet said softly. "You hold value and he doesn't want to let you go."

"Shut the fuck up."

"It's the same with me," he continued. "He saw my potential and he kept me. Made it to where I couldn't leave."

"I said shut up!" she growled out.

"I'm just trying to warn you. You could stop this nonsense now. Walk away and we forget this happened. Keep living in ignorance. It's really the best way Lucy."

She yanked hard on his hair until his neck was pressed against her shoulder and her machete was digging into his collar bone. "There is nothing he can do that would keep me here. That's the thing about being alone for so long… he holds no threat against me mullet."

"Eugene."

"What?"

"My… my name is Eugene."

His admission startled her and she had to fight to keep her grip on his hair. "Stop it Lucy," she mentally chastised herself. "Just because his name is Eugene means nothing."

He led her up a set of narrow steps to what was obviously a set of offices when the compound had existed before the biters took over. Eugene eased the door open and walked into a room that was filled with beautiful furniture and houseplants. "Eugene?" a female voice said from in front of them. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"He brought a guest," Lucy said turning them to the side so she could view the room in full. "You could say it was under duress," she said before she pushed him further into the room.

She glanced around the room at twelve women in various stages of undress. They all wore lingerie in different colors, but some were more clothed than others. She swallowed hard. "Where is he?" she asked.

"Who?" a blond woman replied with disdain.

"Negan. Where is he?"

The blond smirked at her. "Eugene who in the hell is this broad?"

"Pamela, this is Lucy," Eugene said very matter of fact and a series of gasps went around the room.

"You… you're Lucy?" the blond named Pamela asked. "What the fuck does he see in you?"

"Pamela," a red headed woman said, "be careful. You know she's special."

"Why?" the blond said. "What the hell has she done or got that makes her so fucking special that he spends all his time with her? I mean look at her Joyce! She's old and worn down! He has been ignoring us for her? I suddenly feel incredibly unappreciated."

"It's her name," a brunette said. "She's named Lucy… like the bat."

"The bat is Lucille dumbass," Pamela said with a snarl.

Lucy laughed out loud because the statement was so stupid it was funny. "Lucy is short for Lucille dumbass," she said through her laughter. "Now where the fuck is Negan? You'll tell me or I'm going to have to start cutting heads off with my little knife here."

Pamela looked appropriately rebuffed by her statement when she pointed to another set of double doors. "He's with Marty and Ginger. But you'll have to wait till he's done with them because the door is locked and he keeps the key," she said haughtily.

Lucy laughed again before pushing Eugene towards a couch where three women were seated. "You think so huh? It just so happens I have a key of my own… Pamela."

Lucy planted her boot in the center of the door just below the lock. She knew it was just going to be a basic deadbolt and with enough pressure below the lock she could pop the door open. She drew her foot back and kicked as hard as she could and to her delight the door flew open. "What the actual fuck?!"

"No," she whispered.

She focused on a large bed in the center of the room which was occupied by three naked people one of which was a very naked and thrusting Coach. "What the fuck is going on?" he screamed pulling out of the woman he was with and flipping around to face the now open door.

She was stuck to her spot. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. She stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before he pushed himself off the bed and started towards her. "Lucy… fuck… Lucy… I…"

She held her hand up to stop him. "Rule number one… Negan."

She turned on her heel and left the room leaving behind a group of very confused women, a bleeding Eugene and a pissed off Negan.

Negan stared at Eugene for a moment trying to understand what he was really looking at in his apartment. "She do that to you?" he asked, indicating the cut marks that continued to ooze blood.

Eugene nodded, but didn't speak. "Fuck!"