Ch. 42
The campfire had gone out a while ago. Only a few embers remained above a blanket of ash, as smoke wafted into the air.
Rory looked around the woods, his rifle sitting on his lap and the group he had taken with him above him in the trees sleeping. He kicked dirt onto the last reminding embers as he tried to gather his thoughts.
The past three days had gone relatively well. His small company of men collecting a decent amount of Sulfur for the bullet production. The only problem was that most of them were absolutely exhausted. Digging into the earth and pulling out sulfur was hard work. Rory felt bad for the work crew so he had kept them off of the night watch, giving that responsibility to himself as well as the other guards.
Rory had drawn the short straw "accidentally" meaning that he was first on watch. Rory hadn't wanted to do it though, but after traveling with Sam and seeing how he led, it made Rory think that what Sam did was what was meant to be done.
Rory felt his eye's tug and he looked at his watch. There was still ten minutes before the next shift was due. It was supposed to be only an hour watch, but Sam would always let Rory or whomever else was after he slept another thirty minutes. So, Rory rubbed his eyes, and watched the darkness.
"Maggie's sick, we don't know what's wrong so we're going to take her to the Hilltop," Glenn reported over the radio.
Sam responded by telling them he and Beth would meet them there before he ran out to grab his gear, yelling for someone to get Beth to the garage.
He grabbed his gun, vest, and sidearm before rushing down to the cars. Beth was already waiting as was Abraham but he did not have any gear. He stood next to Beth telling her that it would be alright and stopped when Sam made it up to them.
"I'm not going," Abraham said before Sam could even move his lips, "Someone needs to hold down the fort. I love Maggie, but I think she'd rather have her sister there then me. Besides you, two can handle yourselves just fine."
"Thank you. Make sure Eugene keeps up production and find something for Rory to do when he gets back! Also, when Merle gets back from his run, tell him where I went. If the Saviors are cutting off Rick and the rest of 'em, then war's coming." Sam and Beth climbed into the car and sped down the road as fast as they could.
"Sam come in!" Beth grabbed the radio.
"It's Beth what happened?"
"The Saviors are here. We might need you two to help us out."
"We're on our way to the Hilltop," Beth told him.
"We're on highway fifty-one. So far, they're been at two roads we need to get through. We need you guys, hopefully, we can throw them off."
"Doubt it," Sam muttered. "See where he wants us."
Beth asked Rick, and there was a pause before Rick told them to go a mile out from Junction Fifteen.
They drove quickly, and the inside of the car was deathly quiet. Beth stared at the road ahead with worry, yet there was a will of iron there. She had toughened up considerably since Sam had been left behind. Hell, had even started before that, at Grady. Ever since she had been forced to kill. Yeah, Sam was sure that Beth was tough as nails.
The light from the sky began to die out and Sam hoped that whatever remaining light would be enough to make it to the meeting place. With the Saviors out in what seemed like force, it wouldn't do for him and Beth to be caught alone. Granted, the Saviors didn't know who either Sam or Beth were, but being heavily armed and not well equipped would raise certain questions.
However, luck seemed to be with them as they had made it to the junction fine, Rick and company were waiting for them, thought they did have guns raised, only lowering them when Sam had gotten out of the car with his arms up.
"What's the plan?" Sam asked skipping the chit-chat.
"They're after the trailer. We're gonna put Maggie in your truck and hopefully, you guys can get by. Thy won't be looking for you, we'll try to go through the woods and meet you at the hilltop."
"And the trailer," Sam asked Rick.
"Our man, Aaron, is going to drive it around, keep them distracted."
Sam nodded and moved to open the backseat so that they could load Maggie into the car.
"Take care of her," Glenn said after Maggie had been loaded and secured into the backseat.
"Don't worry, I don't leave anyone behind," Sam remarked as he got into the car. "I'm dropping Maggie off and then coming back, radio me the location."
Sam drove off, watching the group he had once belonged to disappear in the rearview mirror. He didn't leave people behind. He would be back for them.
He just needed to get Maggie to the Hilltop first, get her to safety and then go back for the others.
Sam applied more pressure to the gas pedal navigating the backroad as well as he could. His eyes would glance around the trees looking for any movement that would indicate that the Saviors were watching him. So far there was nothing, he and the others were in the clear. He just had to keep it that way.
"You look good," Maggie said from the back. Her voice was a bit sluggish and Sam could see her leaning us slightly in the mirror.
"Yeah, well, we set up our base as quickly as we could. I needed to have everything ready for when we went back at it with the Saviors," Sam said.
"We almost have the gardens set up. Soon enough we'll be ready to plant."
"Not to mention the factory." Sam smiled. "Soon enough the Saviors are gonna be gone."
"What factory?" Maggie asked.
"Eugene's bullet factory. That's where we set up base."
"Oh." Maggie said softly.
"What?" Beth asked.
"Nothing." Maggie said a bit quickly. "I'm just worried."
"Don't worry. It's gonna be nothing," Beth tried to reassure her sister. "Trust me."
Sam pressed harder on the gas, the noise in the car getting louder as the engine worked harder. Sam tried to think of how the Saviors would try and get the car if they thought that it was a threat, or involved with Rick. The longer he lingered out the higher the chances of being found by the Saviors would be.
BEEP! BEEPBEEPBEEP!
Sam froze at the noise. It was a horn, a car horn.
Headlight flashed behind him and a few shots were fired into the air.
"Fuck!" Sam screamed. "We aren't with Rick. We're just moving on from up north. Agreed?"
"Yeah.
"Yes."
"Shite," Sam said as he pulled over.
The car behind him stopped and several men exited, six of them, all armed with rifles, and to many for Sam and Beth to handle, especially with a sick Maggie in the back.
"All right, get out of the car, nice and slow!" A voice echoed out from behind them. "Come on Now. I'm sure the rest of your group is gonna be happy to see you!"
"Does that mean they have Rick?" Beth asked.
"I don't know. Look just stick with the story." Sam set his gun on the dashboard and opened the door. "I'm coming out. I'm unarmed."
"Slowly. On your knees, and your hands in the air." Sam did so. "Alright, now the others."
"Who are you?" Sam asked as Beth opened the door and got to her knees as well.
"Come on. You know who we are! We're Negan!"
"Who?"
"Come on, we saw you picking up the sick one. We know you're with that prick that hit our outpost. From Alexandria. What's his fucking name? Rick? It doesn't matter. Point is, you're coming with us."
Sam swore as he looked to the Saviors. He felt a pit growing in his stomach, as he knew he was screwed.
The whistling pierced Sam's ears as Rick and the others stumbled into the clearing. Sam looked down from where they had him kneeling. Beth had her arms around Maggie who had begun to cry when she had seen Glenn enter the clearing.
"Welcome to where you're going," the man that had captured Sam said as he drew a pistol. "We'll take your weapons."
"We can talk," Rick began.
"Nah. The time for talk is over. Now you listen."
Rick and the others were stripped of their weapons and were forced to the ground around Sam. Sam could see Rick sweating through his clothes and Sam felt so much sympathy for the man. He felt the same feeling of helplessness coursing through his body at the moment.
"Look scared," Sam whispered to Beth trying his best to keep his lips from moving. "They'll kill the defiant ones, look scared."
Beth nodded slightly and closed her eyes, a few tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Well then, lets meet the man!" the lead Savior said as he walked to the trailer.
He knocked and soon the door opened revealing a man in a leather jacket, and wielding a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. He grinned broadly as his boots crunched against the dirt and he walked forward.
"Pissin' our pants yet?"
Sam closed his eyes and uttered a silent prayer. Negan didn't kill whole groups. He just wanted to send a message. One of his friends, and possibly him, was going to be that message.
"Boy, do I have a feelin' we're getting close. Yeah. Gonna be pee-pee pants city real soon." He walked in front of the semi-circle that the group had been forced into and smiled. "Which one of you pricks is the leader?"
No one answered, but the Savior that had Captured Sam stepped forward and pointed at Rick. "This one, right here. He's the guy."
The man stepped forward and smiled at Rick until he was so close that they were almost touching. "Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not fucking cool. You have no fucking idea how not fucking cool that shit is, but I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah, you are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Fuck yeah, you are."
Sam closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing. He searched the ground for anything that he might be able to use as a weapon, but all there were was small rocks and twigs. They had searched everyone thoroughly. Guns, knives, even a small can opener that Sam kept on him, all of it was taken. He couldn't exactly run up and attack Negan.
"We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do. You work for me now. You have shit, you fuckin' give it to me. That's your fuckin' job. Now, I know that is a fuckin' mighty big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it you most mother fuckin' will!" The hell I will, Sam thought as Negan continued. "You ruled the roost. You built something. You thought you were safe. I get it. But the word is out. You are not safe. Not even fuckin' close. In fact, you are fucked, more fucked if you don't do what I want. And what I want is half your shit. And if that's too much, you can fuckin' make, find, or fuckin' steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later."
I'm gonna kill you and rip your whole group to the ground.
Negan walked the circle stopping off to examine a few. He stood before Daryl for a minute, eyeing up the bowman who stared defiantly back. Negan then went to Carl, who also stared back defiantly while most of the others tried to look away.
He then stood in front of Maggie and stopped. "Jesus. You look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery right now," Negan raised the bat and Sam balled his hand into fists but Glenn beat him too it, scrambling toward Negan. Glenn, for any good that it did, managed to at least land one blow on Negan before he was tackled to the ground by several of Negan's men.
"Nope. Nope." Negan said rubbing his beard. "Get him back in line. All right, listen. Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it."
Negan kept walking and Sam kept his eyes to the ground his eyes glancing over to Beth. He tried to control his breathing but the act that he had tried to keep up was becoming more and more real. If he was chosen to die then what would happen to the Foundry, to the war on the Saviors, to Beth?
Sam watched as Negan went about the semi-circle they were in and struggled to choose. He smiled and acted giddy as he looked over the group. No one would dare to look him in the eye, no one except Carl and Daryl that was.
Eventually, Negan resulted in playing Eenie meenie miney mo to try and decide who he would Kill. When Negan would be close Sam would look up, and see Lucile in his face before it would go off and sit in another one of his friend's faces'.
As Negan's little game came to an End Sam looked to Beth and then Negan. He looked to make sure that Negan wasn't even looking at her but instead his eye was trained on Glenn.
Negan smiled as he walked up to the man and declared him IT.
"I know I said it was a pass, but the lottery has chosen." Negan said as he talked over Maggie who was begging Negan not to do it. "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."
Negan brought Lucile down and Glens head caved in popping out an eyeball and sent him to the floor. There was a spray of red mist that erupted and Negan hollered loudly.
"HA HA! Look at that! Fucking look at it. You still with us buddy?" Negan asked as Glenn tried to get up. His body was shaking so badly that any movement seemed to be a struggle for him. Sam swallowed through his constricted throat but forced himself to look at Glenn.
"Maggie… I'll, find you," Glenn managed to get out as blood fell from his head and mouth.
Negan brought down the Bat again and blood sprayed into the air as Glenn most likely dies from the second impact, seeing as he collapsed and was only twitching. Negan beat the body repeatedly with the bat, making sure that any resemblance to a head was not to be seen. Glenn's Neck was still somewhat intact, but the head was gone. Turned into a red mush that was spread out in front of his body.
"Whoo!" Negan said as he twirled his bat sending small amounts of blood into the air. "Ha! His fucking eye, just popped the fuck out of his skull!"
Maggie sobbed harder and Negan looked over at her before walking over and holding the Bat in front of her. "What? You Maggie? Were you two together? Ha, well ain't that a bitch. I mean, you people should not have fucked with me. If you didn't then none of this would have happened. But you all wanted to play games, to raid my fucking outposts! And that fucking shit will not fucking slide! Look at Lucile, fucking look!"
Maggie brought her head up and looked at the bloody bat, still dripping and chunks of brain stuck between the barbed wire. Sam saw Daryl twitching out of the corner of his eye and remembered Negan's words. The first ones free,
Daryl moved toward Negan and Sam sprang out and tackled the bowman before he could reach and attack Negan.
"No!" Sam screamed as he tried to hold Daryl down. "Ones enough! Stop it!"
Daryl screamed and tried to shove Sam off, but Saviors came forward and held both of them down while Negan watched on, smiling.
"Wow. Two different kinds of people, am I right folks? Those that understand the rules, and those that fuckin' don't!" Negan went to Daryl first. One of the Saviors asked if Negan wanted Daryl dead, but Negan declined, saying that they had to try it once. And then he walked toward Sam. "Well then, who're you?"
"Sam. My names Sam."
"Well then, Sam, why'd you stop Daryl there?"
"You would've hurt someone else," Sam said quietly.
"Right. I did say it, what'd I say Sam?"
Sam closed his eyes took a shaky breath. "You said you would shut that shit down. No exceptions."
Negan laughed and stood up. "Exactly! Now I don't know about you guys, but if I were in your group, I'd be sucking Sam's dick after this! He just saved one of you pathetic Fuckers from dying! Some come on, say thank you!"
Negan waited holding his arms out but no one said anything. "Oh, come on! Say thank you! Say it, or he dies," Negan smiled and raised the bat slightly.
"Thank you!" Beth said quickly. "Thank you."
Slowly the others began to say thank you and Sam was still on the ground, Negan above him with Lucile raised in the air.
"Good, get him back in line," Negan ordered. The Saviors that had him pinned down grabbed Sam and shoved him back into the line, and then Negan went to talk to Rick.
As the Saviors left Maggie crawled to Glenn's body.
"Maggie," Beth said as she went to to her sister. "Maggie."
"You need to go. You need to get ready," Maggie said.
"For what?" Rick asked, his voice still shaking.
"To fight them!" Maggie said.
"No, they have an army. We'll lose. We'd all die."
"Sam! Sam, you fight then. Get the Kingdom, all of your fighters. Go!" Maggie said as sobs wracked her body.
"I will," Sam said. "Not yet though. We need to get you to the Hilltop first."
"I'll be fine. Go!"
Rick stepped forward and told Maggie that the group would help her. And together they lifted Glenn's body into the truck and get Maggie to the Hilltop. They loaded Glenn's body as carefully as they could, then Maggie, and finally they drove to the Hilltop.
"Rick," Sam said as the man exited the truck.
They had arrived back at Alexandria, Maggie was back at Hilltop with Sasha while Sam and the rest had come back to Alexandria. Sam and Beth wouldn't stay for long, they needed to get back to the Factory in order to plan a response. Sam had asked if Beth wanted to stay with Maggie, but Beth had said that she would stay with him to fight rather than hide.
"What Sam?" Rick asked, his face still pale and voice shaking.
"I wanted to talk to you about how we're gonna fight back."
"We're not," Rick said and then began walking away.
"What?"
"I told Maggie back there. We're not. They have too many men, we'll get slaughtered."
"I've been fighting them for months—"
"And haven't made a dent." Rick snarled at Sam. "We're not fighting."
"Fuck you Rick. That man killed one of your best friends, kidnapped another and almost made you cut off your own son's arm. And what, you're just gonna take it?"
"I don't have a choice."
"The fuck you don't. Fight with me!"
"No. No, we're not fighting. I won't do it."
Sam scoffed and looked at Rick as if he was a stranger. "So, you're gonna roll over? Just going to suck Negan's dick? No, Rick, we have to fight together. I can go to the Kingdom right now and get us all of their Knights. My people, yours, and the Kingdoms, with the right plan we can take out the Saviors completely."
"I won't risk it. I won't risk my son, my daughter, and I won't risk anyone else."
Sam could feel his anger filling his body at the complete fear and defeatism in a man that he had looked up to.
"Then stay here. Wallow in your fear. And when he kills someone else, when he hurts your people, and starves you, don't come to me. I'll take Negan on myself. I'll burn his outposts, murder his people, and take what's his. And then I won't give you and your people a damn thing. I thought better of you Rick. You fought the man, you struck first, and now, when he hit back, you're gonna cower away." Sam turned and made his way to the front Gate of Alexandria. "I'm taking one of your cars. When Negan comes and takes his stuff, tell him I owe him a car, but I'll give him bullets as payment.
AN: I'm on vacation right now and I typed this up on the drive so sorry about the typos. I have WI-FI now so I posted it. it's late so I'm going to bed but please tell me what you thought. I did skip parts of Negan's little monologue, and Glenn is the only one that died. Mainly because it involves certain points involving Maggie, and that's all I'm going to say. Also, I did skip when Negan was going to make Rick cut off Carl's hand because, it's more Rick centered, and also I got a bit tired on the drive. Please, review and I'll see you guys next time! Review! ~Pacco1