Chapter 36
"Drop the weapons!" shouted Kal, one of the guards, while pointing at them with a spear.
Gareth and Maggie raised their AK's along the others. They would have a change against the people of the Hilltop. All five of them had good aim and were ready to kill if it came to it.
"Everybody calm down!" shouted Paul. "Get Gregory to Harlan and I'll take care of Rick and hos people!"
The people of the Hilltop looked at him a little with distrust, but did a she said.
A little later, in the Hotel:
Rick, Gareth, Maggie, Tara and Heath sat in one of the suites of the Hotel, waiting for Paul to come bye. The man who resembled the son of God was helping Gregory to be taken in the infirmary.
Paul entered the room.
"I guess you have a lot of questions" he said.
"Yes we have" replied Rick. "Who is this Negan-character that your people have been mentioning?"
"Negan…he is a leader of an other group who call themselves as the "saviors"" explained Paul while looking out of a window.
"The saviors?" wondered Heath.
"The name is misleading. They are not protectors or good people. They have made a deal with us to keep the area around the Hilltop clear against half of our food-supplies" Paul continues. "If we don't they'd attack us"
Nice, like a post-apocalyptic mafia. Thought Gareth. Like Nate and his comrades.
"So, that's why you wanted our help? To fight them?" asked Maggie.
"Well, partly. You're group is strong and would stand maybe a chance against the saviors" explained Paul. "I guess you've met people like him?"
"We have" replied Rick. "How many of these saviors are there?"
"Not sure. We've seen so far about twenty to thirty members. And Negan usually send his second in command, Joshua Dwight, to take care of the harvest if supplies" explained Paul. "If you help us fight them we can maybe start trading"
Rick looked at his people, then back at Jesus.
"I think 'bout it, but I wanna go back to m' community" said the Ringleader.
Later, back on the road to Alexandria, two or three miles from the Safe-zone:
"So what did ya see there?" asked Mark from them while they drove back to Alexandria.
"We'll talk 'bout it back home" said Rick.
Maggie and Gareth were in the back of the van, talking about the Hilltop.
"I actually liked how the place looked" said the farmers daughter. "The people are a little weird, but it resembles, ya know, m' home"
"Yeah, but should we…" Gareth was not able to finish his sentence as the van stopped.
"There are people on the road!" shouted Mark. Everyone looked and saw a band of five or six survivors on motorcycles in the way. Few were armed with guns, but others had melee-weapons such as a machete or an axe.
"I'll deal with this" said Rick as they stepped out of the van to confront the strangers. "Just do as I say…(Rick whispers a plan)
"What do ya want?" asked Rick from them as he was out of the van with the others. One of the men, a bald man in his 30's stepped out of the band.
"I came to tell ya tha' ya community works no' for us" said the man. "Tha' means tha' half of ya stuff belongs to us"
"You work for this Negan?" asked Rick from the man.
"How did ya know?" asked the bald man.
"Doesn' matter how I know, but what matters is that we ain't givin' ya shit!" while saying this Rick pulled out his Colt Python and shot one of the men in the head. Gareth, Maggie, Tara, Heath, Francine and Mark did the same and gunned down everyone except for the bald guy, who immediately raised his hands in the air.
"Maggie, Gareth, check go to the bodies!" commanded Rick as the married couple ran to the dead men. "Here is what we are gonna do! We take all ya guns, ammo an' gas, but we let ya live! Clear? Ya gonna go to Negan an' tell him that he ain't gonna be the boss of us or of the other communities! Clear?"
The bald man looked up to the ringleader.
"Ya are gonna pay for this!" he hissed, looking angry. "Negan an' Dwight ain't gonna take this lightly!"
The bald man still ran away and the crew returned to Alexandria.
Later that night:
Maggie and Gareth laid on the bed silently.
"You think we are in trouble?" asked Gareth his wife.
"Mhhmm. The guy looked serious, but we've dealt with a lot of shitty people the past years, so I doubt we can' handle these fuckers too" she replied.
"Yeah, with seeing how lightly you took care of that one guy on the road, " Gareth mentioned. One of the saviors that shot by the group was still alive while Maggie and Gareth had gunned them down. Maggie simply smashed his skull with her assault riffle.
"What did ya juts try to say?" asked Maggie him, sounding a little angry.
"I didn't mean it that way!" Gareth replied. "I just…have never seen you kill someone like that. I saw you gun down that blonde man back at our recruiting-trip, but that was different than today it just was new to me and I'm not offending you or anything. Just… it kinda destroys some sort of fantasy I had that you would be this perfect and kind person"
"Gareth, I like it that you wanted to see me like that but that doesn't apply anymore!" Maggie replied. "This is a brutal world in which you have to do fucked up things, in which everyone has to do fucked up things to survive!"
Gareth just looked at her. Just a year ago it was the other way around. Maggie accused him in being too much of a survivalist and he accused her for being too hopeful, now the parts have switched. How did that happen? It had to be Peanut, and their wedding and that illusion that Alexandria had given them of a hopeful and normal life.
Miles away:
In a large factory room a group of people had gathered and said loud a prayer.
"The rules keep us alive" everyone shouted out loud. A man was strapped to a chair.
"That's right!" shouted a large man in a leather jacket back. "Today one of us has done a crime! That someone is Joshua Dwight, my second in command! When Joshua and hos two comrades came here, starving and tired, we gave them shelter and security and gave them jobs. Joshua became my second in command, Timmy a good warrior and beautiful Cynthia, his ex, one of my wives! But last night Joshua broke the rules! He slept with Cynthia and now it is up to Cynthia to decide what happens next. We all know that she can decide between going back to him, losing all her privileges of being my wife or stay with me, which means that he has to suffer! What is your opinion, Cyn?"
Cynthia was on the side of the crowd, looking down and crying a little.
"I'll…I'll stay with you Negan" she sniffled to the man in the leather jacket.
"Okay! Carson get the iron!" shouted Negan.
Joshua who was the man strapped to the chair was begging to be released, but the men that were holding him didn't show any empathy.
A man came with an hot iron and gave it to Negan.
"Josh, I'm so sorry for doing this, but ya broke the rules" said Negan as he took put the hot metal on the strapped man's face. Joshua screamed in agony, while Cynthia was watching in terror seeing her loved ones face burn. She didn't want this to happen, she loved him, but she'd starve if she wouldn't be one of Negan's wives.
"Okay, were done here!" shouted Negan. "Get him away!"
That's when the bald man came running into the room.
"Negan! Negan!" he shouted.
"What, David?" asked Negan the man.
"These people near D.C., that live on that place called Alexandria, they killed my entire team! And left me alive to so to ya that they ain't gonna do as we say!" continued the bald man.
"Do they? I think it's time to show them that we are something to fear" said Negan.
Hopefully liked it! If you haven't read the "end of the line", one of my other stories, you probably don't know who Joshua, Tim and Cynthia are. They were termites that survived the destruction of Terminus and eventually joined Negan and people, the saviors. If you want to know who Negan is, you should check the comics.