The Sound and the Fury
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to The Walking Dead or any related title, character, plot, setting, etc. These rights are the sole property of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, AMC, and various publishers and distributors. I own only the original elements in this story, the writing and publishing of which earn me no money.
Chapter Ten
Collins pulled the pistol from her bag and pressed it to Negan's temple. He froze, both hands on the wheel - just as she wanted them.
"What are you doin' there, doll?" he asked slowly, gripping the steering wheel until his scarred knuckles turned white.
"Stop the truck and keep your hands on the wheel," Collins ordered.
"Come the fuck again?" Negan returned rhetorically, voice sharp and displeased - though it held an edge of amusement that made her tense. "Thought you couldn't talk, sweetheart."
"Stop the car, or I'll shoot you and stop it myself," Collins said clearly, only continuing after the truck began to slow. "And I never said I couldn't talk, I said I couldn't hear, which was also a lie. I needed people to underestimate me so I could find an exit. The goal was always to leave without being stopped, to head west without interference."
"The goal," he repeated. "You've been planning this from the minute I met you."
Collins laughed dryly. "Long before I met you, Negan. I had a plan in place the minute I heard about you and your Saviors. It was only bad luck I got caught with the artisans. But if there's one thing you should know about me-" Collins paused as she snapped a pair of handcuffs around Negan's wrist, connecting the other end solidly to the steering column, "-it's that I always have a plan."
"Mmm," Negan hummed, grinning darkly at her. He would look more at home flirting on a date than being threatened in a truck, but that was the magic of Negan, Collins supposed. "Still love to hear you say my name, doll."
Since the truck had fully stopped, Collins put it in park and turned off the headlights. She opened her door, careful to keep the gun aimed at Negan as she got out. "I want you to stay right here until I leave. I'll put the keys to the handcuffs - and Lucille - on that stump across the clearing. If you move before I'm done, I'll shoot. Understood?"
"I'm not crazy about taking' orders, but since you're so damn pretty," Negan winked as though he was not concerned in the least, but Collins could see him thinking hard about how to get the keys and Lucille while still being able to catch her. She wouldn't put it past him to figure out some way around her instructions, but she wasn't going back to the Sanctuary and she refused to be beaten to death.
She left her door open in another attempt to slow him down and, keeping her gun trained on him through the windshield, set the keys on top of the stump she had pointed out to him, leaning Lucille against it.
"You don't want to do this, Collins!" Negan called, leaning his head out of the driver's side window. "I'm not thrilled you lied to me, but I meant what I said: I want to start a new life, and I want it to be with you. Let me come with you."
Collins' stomach simultaneously twisted and dropped. He was attractive, there was no getting around it. More than that, he was funny and passionate, creative and clever. If there was one person she thought she would enjoy living with for the rest of her life, one person she would want to guard her back against the dead, it would be Negan... but she couldn't take the risk. He could very realistically kill her as soon as he got the chance.
Reluctantly, she shook her head. "I don't trust you not to hurt me. Don't drive until I get into the treeline, or I'll shoot." Collins moved toward the thickest section of trees around the clearing as she spoke.
True to his word, Negan stayed where he was until she had melted into the darkness, but a split second after she lowered her gun and disappeared into the treeline, the truck slammed into gear. He had crossed the clearing before a minute had passed. In his hurry to get to Lucille and the handcuff keys, Negan drove the truck directly into a nearby tree. If Collins were to judge from the hissing coming from the sputtering engine, she would say that Negan would be in need of a new ride, which meant she would need to change her own plans slightly.
She would let Negan run off, get completely out of her way, then take her time finding and preparing a vehicle for her journey. Hotwiring a car was not one of Collins' strong suits, and she wanted the chance to fill it completely with gasoline and supplies before she started driving. All of that would be far more easily done without having to worry about Negan right behind her.
Collins hid the chicken crate in a bush, covering it with branches until it was fully hidden from sight, then climbed a nearby tree that looked like it would hold her weight. She climbed until her dark clothes offered her camouflage against the night sky.
"Collins!" Negan shouted a final time as he stepped out of the truck, hands finally freed from the handcuffs.
A low, two-toned whistle echoed from various places around the clearing. It was followed by several other whistles and Negan froze, a tight set to his shoulders. Five Saviors stepped out of the trees, Dwight and Simon appearing to lead the others.
"Where are you going, Negan?" Simon asked casually.
"West," Negan replied, voice tight as he palmed Lucille's grip and swung the bat back and forth beside his boot-encased calf.
"With a truck and supplies stolen from the Saviors?" Dwight asked.
"Well, I can't exactly steal from the Saviors, Dwighty-boy," Negan drawled, hints of his old self emerging as he spoke. "I am the Saviors. Or, have you forgotten that every fucking one of you is really me?"
Collins frowned. Had she misjudged him? Was he really still part of the Saviors? Had he been trying to trick her into revealing her secret so that he could kill her with a good reason? He was the leader of the Saviors. He didn't need a good reason to do anything, but it could be...
Simon's laugh told her that she hadn't been wrong. Negan was no longer in charge, and the takeover hadn't been friendly. "Maybe you started the Saviors, Negan, but we're past you now. You're not one of us anymore."
Negan laughed harder, doing his signature backwards lean with Lucille braced against the ground behind him. "If you know that, you know that you can't fire me - I already fucking quit."
"No one wants you left alive," Dwight said sharply. "The Saviors think you're going to come back and kill us all, burn down the Sanctuary or something."
"You know, this is the second time tonight someone's told me they don't trust me. Why doesn't anyone trust me?" The frustration was plain in Negan's voice. "I'm not a liar."
With a nod from Simon, all five men moved closer. Negan drew a pistol from the small of his back and fired twice, killing one man and wounding another. The closest man approached as though he and Negan were going to fistfight and Negan hit him away with an easy swing of Lucille, crushing his skull a moment later.
Simon and Dwight took aim from opposite sides of Negan as the third Savior tried to fire his weapon and it made a dissatisfying click! Collins shot Simon from her vantage point in the tree while Negan took care of Dwight. The last Savior ducked away from Lucille's swing, but stumbled as he did, and ended up kneeling in front of the grinning Negan.
"Wait. Wait!" he pleaded, raising his arms up. Negan slowly rested Lucille against his shoulder to stare down at the man. Encouraged by the reaction, the Savior said, "I can help you get the Sanctuary back. I can sneak you back in, and now that Simon and Dwight are dead, you can take over again. Stronger than before. We'll even get the deaf girl back if you want her. You'll have all the control, all the power, everything you could ever want. Just don't kill me."
Negan stayed silent longer than Collins was comfortable with, but his back was facing her, so she couldn't read his face.
"Well, now," he finally drawled, "that's a real tempting offer… A damn tempting offer. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass. I want to try something new: making a place from the ground up, supporting myself. Not having to threaten every moron who thinks his dick is too big to take orders. And I'm going to go build it with someone I actually respect. Even if she drives me fucking crazy. But you'll have to excuse me. I need to go find her before she gets too far ahead of me."
"Where are you going to go?" the Savior asked desperately as Negan hefted Lucille once more. "The Saviors own everything around here and you aren't one of us anymore."
"West," Negan told him simply, bringing Lucille down on his head once - twice - three times. With the Savior's body still twitching in the dirt behind him, Negan strode off in the direction where Collins had entered the treeline. As he stepped into the last bit of forest before the highway, he shouted her name again.
At the start of everything, Collins hadn't made a plan for what to do if the fearsome Negan wanted to come with her. His strength and cunning would come in handy as she attempted to build an independent life. He could even win additional people to her side. And if anyone tried to steal or destroy what they had built, he was more than vicious enough to frighten them away with Lucille's help.
But did she trust him enough to live in his company for - potentially - the rest of either of their lives?
With a start, she realized that she did. Something in his voice when he spoke about wanting a fresh start, when he had asked to come with her, even now as he shouted her name through the forest… She believed him. Bringing someone with her had never been part of Collins' plan, but maybe it was time for her to take a step back from her carefully planned life.
By the time she had come to that realization, shimmied down from the tree, and collected her belongings, Collins was far behind Negan's retreating back.
"Hey, wait up!" she panted when she was a few steps behind him.
Negan turned, brandishing Lucille only inches from Collins' face. She stared at the bat's bloodied barrel, internally cursing herself for straying from the plan and waiting for Negan to start beating her skull in. She finally decided to change and now she would die for it...
"Oh, it's you," Negan said casually, slinging Lucille back against his shoulder. "I haven't started to recognize your voice yet, sweetheart. Are you ready to go?"
In response, Collins walked purposefully to a promising-looking Jeep. There weren't any dead inside, and while the interior smelled musty, it was far better than the stench of rotting flesh. "You know how to hotwire a car?"
"You bet I do," Negan returned with a grin.
"Good. I'm going to siphon some fuel. I'll be back and we can hit the road."
In a half hour of work for Collins and only a short few minutes for Negan, they had loaded up the Jeep with everything the two had brought, as well as several gallons of gasoline from the surrounding cars.
To Collins' surprise, Negan got into the passenger seat without hesitation. She watched him curiously for a moment. When he noticed, he gave a shrug. "This is your operation, Collins. You drive, and I'll take care of any problems we run into."
As she drove carefully into the median to avoid the cars gridlocked on the highway, Collins frowned. "We have a car, but it's going to take a while to find a place. We have a long way to go and it'll take even longer to get everything set up. It's going to be a hard life for the foreseeable future. Are you sure you want to come along? I can drop you off anywhere that looks promising. You can even take the car if you really want to."
"I'm coming with you, sweetheart. I think you're gonna do important things and I want to be there to see them. Besides," he said, staring out through the windshield with a stupid little smile, "I've got everything I want right here."
Collins glanced over at him and couldn't hold back a chuckle. "That was cheesy."
Negan looked offended. "Ex-fucking-scuse me? I am not cheesy. I am intimidating and violent and funny as hell!"
"We'll have to see about all of that," Collins commented, deliberately looking unimpressed. "Most people get less funny over an extended time."
"Over an extended time? Oh, doll, I knew you'd let me come along," Negan purred.
"On a trial basis," she answered shortly.
Negan laughed aloud at that. "Oh, Collins! If you haven't been able to ditch me so far, what makes you think you'll be able to later on? Face it, sweetheart: you're stuck with me."
"That's what I'm worried about," she groaned.
The jibe was insincere. If Negan was always like this, she would gladly have him along for the entire process of building a new life and keeping it safe. Still, her barbs and his flirtations kept the teasing conversation alive as they drove down the highway, opposite the rising sun.
Author's Note - Well, that's the end! For those of you who have read my other works, I often choose a few writing mechanics to focus on during each story. These were massive character change (Negan), body language and nonverbal communication, lack of OC physical description, and non-physical romance. Upon rereading this story for editing, I realized that it can be interpreted as not being a romance at all, which is honestly fine with me. It was more a character study about Negan in a time of shifting responsibilities, but it was intended as a romance. That being said, I may eventually write a one-shot with Negan at his full "Leader of the Saviors" best since he's just such a vivid character at that point in the show!
Anyway, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed my writing style, I have a bunch of other stories on this site written for various categories and genres. I have some new stories coming out in the next month and I post a chapter a week of whatever I'm working on. Obviously, I would love to hear what you thought of this story, either in a review or a PM! Thank you and I hope you have the very best of days!