Sorry this took so long for me to finish. I had all the ideas, just needed time to write them down. I've been extremely busy with life, but I'll try to be more consistent with updating. I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter XI: This is War
"You gotta earn your keep." Rosalie watched as the large man dropped a stack of papers on the desk in front of her and her family. "We have rules here I expect you to follow. You do your part, I do my best to protect you."
The girl eyed the factory office. The walls were moldy and the floor grimy. A desk stood in the middle of the room as the tall monstrous man sat, barely fitting in his chair. Two of his men stood at his side, armed with riffles and ready to shoot. She knew she shouldn't mess with them. She studied his face. His eyebrows burrowed into a serious grimace, his mouth intimidated the rest of his face, almost touching his long nose. He was huge and bulky- not someone to mess with.
Her brother held a piece of paper and examined it. "Wouldn't it be easier if you just told us the rules?"
"Would it be easier for you to shut the fucking fuck up?" Negan asked in a manner she was unsure if serious or not. Her question was answered with a grin from the giant. His white teeth gleamed, leaving her momentarily snowblind. "The main rules are: do your part and you will be rewarded with points for goods- a barter system if you will. If you steal, you lose a finger; if you rape, you lose your life; if you don't do your shit, you're outta here! You seem like smart people, you know how to keep your dick in your pants, so it would be a motherfucking shame if you let me down. Now just make sure I won't have to make an example of you." He strutted around the room, Rosalie's heart thumped with every step. "I will be locking you up for a few days in the basement until the interviewing process is complete. I expect you to go over the rules while you're down there-"
"You're seriously locking us up?" She blurted out.
He slouched across the table to meet her eyes. His gaze put a bad feeling in her stomach. "I'm not only serious. I'm dead fucking serious. If I wasn't, you'd be deader than a fuck's fuck." He was back on his feet before she could blink. "But after that, it'll be one big motherfucking party!"
He paused on the way out the door, dramatically smelling the air. "You smell like donkey's ballsack! My men will be down shortly with shit to help you clean up."
"I went over the checklist with them, Sir. They seem to check in." The community doctor's assistant seemed to be the least tense in front of this leader… He-Man was it?
"Fix her stump yet?" He was seated with his back towards his man. She stood behind with her brother and Mother.
"Yes, Sir. Harlan finished their medical examinations. Their health is good for the most part..."
"And the fuck is that supposed to mean? Is the girl fucking infected? I thought that red-headed kid said he cut it off!" He-Man almost yelled.
"Uh...you should talk to him alone... "
Rosalie could swear she saw the man's face turn ghost white. "Show them to their room, John. I'll assign them jobs after we deal with this shitstorm." Shitstorm? She watched him sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Smells like shit." Rosalie said aloud. She ignored the grunt she received from the large man. She wouldn't let him intimidate her. That He-Man fellow, however, was questionable.
Her stump was still tender from the cut she received. One of those weird undead thingamagigies done went and bit her! Pulled on her perfectly braided hair no less. She knew what would happen if the bite wasn't taken care of- she'd seen the worst. Nicholas jumped up in front of the dead and pushed it to the ground, smashing its head. Its brains splattered everywhere, still made Rosalie cringe. Before she could think, she felt another sharp pain in her arm. She looked down at her injury to find there wasn't an injury at all- heck, there wasn't anything there! Thick blood oozed from the slice as she began to feel dizzy. She tried to scream, but couldn't hear anything coming out. She woke up to a bandage strung tightly around the wound. That was three days ago, they were found by some Saviors and brought back to the Sanctuary earlier today. It was better than being out in the cold fall air with a stump for a hand. The stitches Dr. Harlan did were decent. She reckoned if Nicholas did it, it wouldn't be short from a hack job.
Mother shut her right up with a slap to the back of the head. It stung, but she was used to it. "Close your damn mouth. Be happy they let us in. They seem like decent people."
Rosalie looked John up and down, focusing her attention on his milky eye. "Whatever you say." She swore she saw it blink at her.
"Pretty sweet arrangement you've got here. What's your stance on smoking?" Nicholas chimed in. He was already looking for a seshing buddy. Great.
John shrugged his large shoulders. "Who doesn't these days? Its a fucking mess out there!"
"Fuckin' eh!" He exclaimed receiving a slap in the head. Mother glared at him, using her eyes as knives to cut him down.
Rosalie did a scan of the room. Three mattresses were placed beside each other, taking up the majority of the room. What was left was a stack of lockers cramped in the corner. The walls had poorly placed wallpaper that was torn in numerous places and it was apparent they had a few rodent roommates. It smelled of mold and smoke from the factory -still better than the undead. At least it was warm in there, clearly insulated. She felt over her now healing stump. She was convinced it was infected, but was also relieved to feel less pain. She stretched out the fingers on her left hand, forgetting there was nothing. She brushed her pigtails back over her shoulder with her good hand, wondering if it was possible to learn how to tie it with her feet like a monkey! How cool would that be?
"Nicer than our arrangements before." Mother remarked. A crooked smirk creased her pale face.
"If you want nice, go to Negan's loft." John grimaced. Speaking of Negan, which must have been that big guy's name- He-Man was much cooler- the giant appeared at the door, armed with his barbed-wire bat and two men.
"You. Come with me." He motioned towards Rosalie. "John, the redheaded fuck is under your wing now. Go nurture him like a mother bird. Let him suck your tit when he's thirsty, eat your barf when he's hungry. You get the gist."
Suck his tit? Rosalie thought. She was only thirteen but even she knew birds didn't produce milk. Negan gave the man beside him, who looked like a nurse, a look as he entered the room.
She followed the man out of her room down the foyer. He towered above her, clutching his barbed-wire bat that currently had dried blood and pieces of flesh stuck to the edges. He smelled like sweat.
"Wha-what's up with your bat? Armouring it up like you're playing WOW?" she joked. First appearances weren't her best. Rosalie just relied on jokes to break awkward silence.
"No, she's more than just that," he grumbled. She?
"Oh, um… alrigh-"
"This beautiful, sexy, hell of a woman is Lucille," he continued, motioning to the bat. "Her past times include smashing the fuck outta people's brains out, fucking my brains out, and being so goddamned-cock-sucking-gorgeous." He stopped, dropping to his knees so he'd be at eye-level. "You will give her some goddamned mother fucking respect. Got it?"
She didn't say anything, just nodded. This man was fucking insane! Who put this lunatic in charge?!
As they passed by the many rooms the factory held, working men and women knelt before him. It was robotic, as if this was programmed into their mind with some sort of cyberyish chip. Were they another breed of undead? Would she become like them? She noticed the men and women going back to their work immediately as he passed by. It was clear they were scared of this Negan guy for some reason. So far he seemed like his head was full of rocks and she was sticking to it.
"Remember the point system I brought up?" he asked, stopping in front of a door. He didn't wait for her response, however, and pushed the door open. Shelves and shelves of supplies made up the room -weapons on one side, other commodities on the other. "This is where we keep our rations. If I trust you, it very well may be your job to run this motherfucker." He handed her a pen and clipboard. She struggled to keep both in her clutch. Her mind still told her that she had her left hand, so she automatically went to use both hands. "Yeah, you gotta learn how to work with one hand, no free handouts here, no sir!" She nodded. Luckily she lost her left hand and not her writing hand. She scanned the clipboard. Chicken scratched handwriting filled the page in a perfectly lined table. She was able to pick out that this board was used to take track of the rations and the points needed for them. Seemed easy enough. She squinted her eye at the table for cigarettes. Nick would definitely need to work his ginger ass hard for his fix!
On her way back to her room, she passed by the infirmary. "Asian. Female. Late thirties. Light build. Possible intolerance to Advil," Rosalie heard Dr. Harlan's voice mutter. She peaked in to see him look at his clipboard in deep concentration. Not wanting to risk getting in trouble, she quickly made her way to her room.
She stopped abruptly when seeing Negan and two of his men standing in her doorway, speaking to Mother. The heck was going on? She quickly ran towards the door when her mother collapsed into the giant's arms.
"Mother!" she screamed. She pushed against Negan's leg, trying to get him to move out of her way, but it was useless! It was as if he didn't even feel her.
"Quick! Get her to the infirmary!" the leader yelled. She thought she heard a crack in his voice. She quickly moved out of the men's way as they booted it to the infirmary with Mother resting in their arms. She looked in the room for Nick, but he wasn't back yet. Her heart beat so fast she felt it would push out of her chest. She looked around the room, trying to figure out what to do- her mind wasn't working! Holy hell. Mom. Mom. Mom.
She snapped out of it and ran for the infirmary, demanding to be let in, but held back by the two large men. "Let me in!" she screamed, feeling tears fill her eyes. "What are they doing with her?!" She continued edging on until she could no longer muster the strength to stand up. The girl felt her knees fall weak as she fell to the ground. She grasped her legs to her stomach, feeling the tears run like streams along her face.
A red blob flashed into her disrupted vision. She blinked to get a better view. "Nicholas!" she screamed. "Help my mother, please!" she begged.
He shot his green eyes towards her, tears also running down his freckled face. He shook his head slowly and continued into the infirmary. What is going on?!
She must've fallen asleep because when she opened her eyes she was back in the mucky room. She rubbed her eyes and found herself alone in the room. She immediately went for the door to be stopped by John.
"L-let me see my mom!" her voice cracked. If they did something to her, who knew when they'd do the same to her.
"I-it…um… it's not a good idea," John said, not making eye contact. He was hiding something.
"What did you bastards do?!"
"Listen, we didn't do nothing, okay? Just calm the fuck down!" he was now glaring at her before his face softened. "She… she's not well, alright? Negan told me not to tell you this, but they think it's cancer. She's going to be staying in the loft for a while."
She felt her heart sink into her stomach. "Y-you're just messing with me," she half said to John, half tried to convince herself. When John's expression didn't change, she became more eager. "Mother's perfectly healthy! She could kick everyone's asses in an instant!" Still, no change. "Fuck."
"This is where your mother's staying." She was guided into a large room with several couches and a large bed tucked up against the corner. Three women ran out from the side room and grabbed onto Rosalie's arms.
"You're coming with us!" one of them exclaimed. It took a moment to register that these two were clad in only their underwear. Cancer my ass! Mother is not a prostitute!
She was guided into the room, which was much warmer than the rest of the Sanctuary. An IV stood beside a small bed. Negan stood beside it with his back turned. Rosalie moved to get a closer look to see her mother was the patient. They weren't lying.
"M-mother!" she exclaimed. "Thank God you're fine! Let's go back to our room!"
Her mother weakly shook her head. "No, I'm staying here, Flower." She stood back.
Negan chimed in. "Your mother is very ill. I think it's best for her to stay with us until she's well enough to work. Your room is not large enough for the supplies and has no electricity to run the machines."
"Then I'll stay here, too!" she claimed, throwing her hand to her hips.
"Not a fucking chance," Negan responded. "You and Nicholas are working for your points. Your mother is unfit to work for her own points, so she will be registered as one of my wives."
"You're sick!" Rosalie yelled. How could someone have more than one wife? Her mother was already married, wherever her father was!
"Hold the fuck up," Negan held his nose in his fingers. "She's not gonna be like those broads who brought you in here. The wife title is just for formality. The way things work here is that everyone works for points. Everyone unless you're a wife, that is. Do you get it now?" Rosalie nodded slowly. It was all too much for her to process.
"Can I be a wife, too, then? So I can stay with Mother?" she asked.
Negan chucked. "Not a fat fucking chance, kid. You're still a kid and I may be sick, but I'm no pedophile. Do you know why my other wives don't need to work?" It took her a second, but she understood what he meant and her wide eyes told him. "Ex-fucking-actly!"
"Sir," a Savior interrupted. "You need to come immediately! This is an emergency!"
"Get the old man."
Rosalie followed the leader out, but was held back before he walked out onto his balcony.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me…What the fuck is this Rick? We trying to play my dick is bigger than your dick? 'Cause it isn't." Rick? Who the fuck is Rick?
This took me forever to write… I hope you guys liked it at least.
