Happy TWD Day!
Food. Water. Supplies. As the weeks rolled on all of life's necessities became more and more scarce. Supply runs were not nearly as satisfying as they had been in the beginning. A good day meant coming back with a couple of boxes of noodles, a gallon of water and some miscellaneous medical supplies. When the tighter rationing began, tempers flared and the overall morale dropped.
Negan found the once easy stroll through the Sanctuary as he was positioned at the top of the pecking order was now filled with an underlying tenseness that he knew could coil up and snap at any moment. To make matters worse, outsiders were bleeding into their territory and had begun to pose a real threat that he knew needed to be dealt with. It was why he gathered up his most trusted men and women, drew up a plan and decided to put forth a whole new mindset into action.
The days were savage and people were no exception to the reverse evolutionary process as the most primal of instincts emerged within them. Killing the undead had become routine and expected. The death of a fellow human was a haunting ordeal.
Nicole had been the last of the Sanctuary allies to arrive once Negan's plan was in the full throes of action. They had dealt with the threat, rounding up another group that had done it's fair share of harassing them and threatening the sanctuary that Negan had promised. They were thieves; dangerous and dishonest; threats to the new environment.
The plan had all come together exactly as orchestrated - divide and conquer was what Negan had said. The enemy group was separated, cornered and forced to surrender. It was a day of relief for everyone, as the ongoing cat and mouse game was finally put to a bitter close.
From a distance Nicole had heard Negan's loud, bellowing voice that sounded more cheery than mad considering the circumstances. It wasn't unlike him, and that was part of the mysterious charm that left him so delightfully addicting. Nicole had no idea how, in the most serious or furious of times, Negan could not only maintain his composure but also find humor in the situation. She knew it must have been quite the enigma for the perpetrators to wrap their heads around. She could see their thoughts without them having to say them:Are we in danger, or aren't we? Is this guy serious? Is he crazy?
"It looks like you've had one warning too many." Negan stood before the group, each disarmed and monitored by a Sanctuary member who held a weapon to their backs to keep them from attempting to run.
As Nicole emerged at Negan's back he simply turned his head around slowly, smirking as he recognized it was her and then refocused on the mission at hand.
"You motherfuckers have certainly taken advantage of kind nature." Negan put a hand on his chest and smiled, twirling Lucille as he began to pace. "But shit ain't seeming to register that you are messing with the wrong fucking group of people." He paused, hardening his features now, "And since you pieces of shit have failed to take me seriously, which I do take more personal than most, I admit, I think it's appropriate to step up the consequences a notch or two." Negan turned the bat upright in front of his face, studying the rows of barbed wire linked around the blood-stained barrel.
Nicole studied his features a moment, a chill running down her back from the determined, cold look that suddenly filled the irises of his darkened eyes. Still, she hadn't anticipated his next move.
"Does your sorry as group even have a fuckin' leader?" he asked, finally deterring his gaze from the barrel of the bat to glance back at them. "There more of you?"
No one replied, though Nicole could see the stubborn nature of their features was beginning to get under Negan's skin.
"Ever kill anyone?" one man asked.
Negan slowly turned in his direction, not immediately responding to the question.
The man smirked and nodded, asking the question with more confidence this time as if he already knew the answer. "Have you ever killed someone?"
Nicole felt the chill again, this time as Negan approached the arrogant man at the end of the line of people.
"I bet you haven't," the overconfident stranger went on, still smiling. "Why now? You've had my men in cells already, starved 'em a bit and shit but it wasn't anything we can't bounce back from. We've been through it all already." He eyed Negan up and down, "You ain't shit."
Negan's smile seemed to take the man just slightly off-guard, as if his typical talk-down antics had failed for the first time - or at least wasn't getting the reaction he had been hoping for.
"Have I ever killed anyone?" Negan continued to grin, though a sinister glare lingered in his eyes and he nodded toward Simon who stood just a few feet away, waving just his fingers at him.
Simon crossed in front of the group, reaching into the back of his pants where an envelope was tucked neatly into his jeans. He then handed it off to Negan, staring just as mercilessly at the outspoken man at the end.
Negan proceeded to approach the man, this time he stood only a few inches away and didn't break his stare as he slowly peeled open the envelope to removed three polaroid pictures.
The man's eyes dropped to the first of the three photos that were stacked neatly in Negan's hands as he held them out in front of him, raising the first image so it was directly in front of his eyes.
"What's that look like to you?" Negan asked him, grinning wider this time. He raised Lucille and gave the bat a glance as if he was a ventriloquist about to make his puppet talk. When he looked back at the man, the confidence in his eyes had diminished and it made him smirk. "How about this one?" Negan flipped to the next photo, leaving him with several seconds of exposure to the image of a second man with his head smashed in. The third was just as gruesome; just as petrifying, and that was the look now that slowly filtered into the man's eyes.
"What's the matter?" Simon asked, smiling now right along with Negan, "Things don't seem as funny anymore do they?"
"Ned, what's in the pictures?" Someone asked from down the line, immediately being prompted to shut up when the barrel of a gun pushed deeper into his back.
"Arat." Negan positioned the bat casually on his shoulder. "Don't be so rude. I'll show the man the photos if he wants to see them." He handed them back to Simon. "Do you mind?"
"Nah." Simon gladly took the photos back and then headed down, quietly raising the collection of pictures in front of the other man.
Nicole stayed put, wondering herself what was in the photos. Her imagination did wonders for guessing and the chill she had lingered in her bones. She swallowed hard as Negan returned his full focus to Ned as Simon rejoined him before them.
"Dwight!" Negan shouted his name and Dwight didn't hesitate. He immediately tossed Negan a small bag, one that he abruptly opened. When he removed a polaroid camera from inside, tossing the bag to the ground Ned's eyebrows raised and all traces of the man he had been just minutes before had disappeared.
"What are you doing?" he asked now.
"I'm about to answer your question," Negan confirmed with a smile. He handed the camera to Simon without looking away. "I mean, shit, those pictures could've been some undead fucks that I just decided to fuck up beyond repair and use as a God damn scare tactic. I'm sure you'd be wondering if that was the case, since you're such a ball breaker and have a ton of fuckin' questions for our authority, even when we have guns against your fuckin' backs."
"I believe you."
"I don't know that you do," Negan challenged. "No, I think you're going to go back to where ever the fuck it is that you came from, talk a little shit once you're out of this mess and then come back for the third time to take shit from us." He shook his head, "I'm not going to let that happen. Strike three, Neddy." Negan sighed and raised the bat. "That means you're fuckin' out."
"No-" Before he could even get the full word out Negan connected the barrel of the bat with his head, sending his body sprawling to the ground with a sickening crack.
Immediately his allies either shrieked or let their jaws drop open in horrified disbelief at what they had just witnessed while Ned's body began to convulse on the ground.
"I think this should answer his fuckin' question." Negan spoke to no one in particular but took another swing, and then another.
Nicole wanted to turn around but she couldn't look away. Like many of the others on both sides, her mouth hung open in disbelief until Negan finally let out a deep breath, wiped some blood from the side of his face and then nodded to Simon who proceeded to take a photo, waving it around before securing it in the envelope with the others.
Is this routine? Nicole wondered, swallowing hard. The two of them appeared so in sync; so nonchalant that she knew this wasn't the first go-round. She wondered if it was the reason why Negan often insisted that they go on separate supply runs.
"Now," Negan paced in front of the terrified line of men and women. "That was a bit fuckin' extreme, and shit I don't like doing it. I fuckin' hate it. I often find a little slap on the wrist does the trick and people tend to fall in line. You fucks are different. You didn't get the message and you continued to try taking our shit." He looked at the second man in the line, the one who had been next to Ned. "I'm not going to kill any of the rest of you. I fuckin' promise. Shit, I won't be able to sleep tonight after doing that to Neddy, there, but unfortunately you all left me no choice." He sighed and drew a hand across his forehead, "Here's what youare going to do. You're going to take us back to the shithole you call home... you're going to give us half of your fuckin' food and half of your water supply, maybe a couple bottles of booze if you got 'em." Negan grinned with a nod, "And then we'll be on our way."
He turned to Simon, who glanced back at him.
"Get them to the trucks," Negan ordered with a nod. Simon nodded back and gave a whistle, tucking the envelop back into his pants.
Nicole finally managed to let out a deep breath when Negan slowly made his way over to where she stood while the rest of them rounded up the remnants of the enemy group.
He slipped an arm around her shoulders, turning her away from the body and never broke stride as he led her toward a car that was separate from the rest of them. "Didn't mean for you to see that shit." Negan reached into the pocket of his pants and handed over a set of keys as they approached the vehicle. "Go straight back to the Sanctuary, alright?"
"Where are you going?"
"I'll be back tonight." He nodded.
"Are you... are you going to kill them?"
Negan cleared his throat, seeing the confliction in her eyes. "We can talk about this tonight."
"Are you?"
"No." He shook his head, "But we're on the verge of starving, people are starting to get uptight and now we're going to have a bunch of shit to make last awhile."
Nicole nodded back at him. "Okay."
"Okay." Negan could see she wasn't alright but he also knew he had to keep up the image he had put into motion. He kept his eyes on hers for an extra second and grazed her cheek with his palm. "We'll talk about this shit tonight," he repeated.
"Okay."
Negan continued to hold her gaze, as if promising with his eyes to provide an explanation. "Okay."
