Hey, here I am, with a new chapter! Now, there's a mild (or very bad, depending on your constitution) torture scene in this chapter, warning for anyone who is freaked out by that, but I mean, you have to kinda expect it at this point. Also, this chapter is an intro for the next, so the really exciting stuff only happens then. Thanks for the favourites and follows, as well as to celia azul, angelstuffing and portalefiamme for reviewing. Happy (belated?) birthday to portalefiamme, I hope you enjoy this morbid chapter;)

Enjoy!

Chapter 6

It was a week after her run in with the saviors and she had been dodging the fuckers ever since. Unlike with the cannibals from Terminus, these people were smart, trained and rarely came out looking for her in small groups. She usually had to hide from them, as she was still very much injured, but if she could take out one of them without revealing herself or placing herself in danger, she didn't hesitate.

That usually meant she sniped them from afar, always making sure she had an exit route. In the week that had passed, she had killed a further 4 of them and avoided groups larger than five, as she was just not up to a fight at the moment. Yet she knew that sooner or later her luck was going to run out and she'll end up dead. She had to do something and fast. But first, she needed more information.

So she rigged up a snare, a simple enough trap that would snatch the foot of its unsuspecting victim and haul them into the air upside down, high enough that their hands wouldn't be able to reach the ground, but she'd still be able to reach them and talk to them. She covered it in leaves and vines, making sure the branch she used was sturdy enough to hold the weight of a small man and that the braided nylon rope she used was double layered and hid against the tree with a vine wrapped around it, further disguising it. She had found a nice niche in one of the trees, where the branches formed a sort of natural cradle and then she had chopped some of the branches away to make a gap for her to peer through, so she would have a line of sight to her trap a few yards away. She made sure she left no tracks to the trap, as she was certain the saviors wouldn't fall for the same trap twice and she wasn't going to risk her life taking on a big group.

So three days passed while she silently kept an eye out for the saviors. She avoided some of them, as they either had too much firepower or were too many, but on the fourth day, she struck gold. It was three saviors, carrying rifles and pistols, one woman and two men. The woman was following what seemed like tracks while the men stalked silently behind her. It was obvious they were out here hunting instead of searching for her, but she could easily recognize them as saviors because of their clothes, weapons and most importantly, their demeanor. So far, all the saviors had the same air around them, the attitude of being the biggest baddest bitches in town. That usually changed after they encountered her.

She knew there was a small chance that they weren't saviors, that they were just innocent survivors and didn't deserve what she had in store for them, but she was reasonably sure they were saviors and that was enough in her mind to go ahead with her plan. Usually, she was more cautious and would want to make sure beyond any reasonable doubt that they were the people she was waiting for, but she was injured, irritated and so done with these people that it made her more reckless and brutal than she usually was. These people had injured her worse than anyone before since the apocalypse began and they were more relentless and dangerously organised than any other groups she had met since this entire thing began. This made them dangerous.

Nodding her head, she ran ahead slightly, making sure to keep her movements quiet and limited so as to not aggravate her injuries. Based on the direction the saviors were heading in, the tracks they were following would end up somewhere along here, unless the animal got spooked by something. Luckily for Anamika, she soon found the tracks and then, making sure to leave obvious tracks of her own, she followed the animal tracks for a bit, before sharply turning towards the direction her trap was in, as if she had just noticed the saviors and were trying to get away silently. She jogged a bit, coming until right in front of her trap, stepping over it easily and continuing the tracks behind it. Hopefully, one of the saviors following her would set the trap off and she would have her hostage, if she acted fast enough.

Coming up to her tree, she gritted her teeth as she climbed it, her body aching, before settling into her spot and bringing her rifle around. She aimed it at the trap, watching the spot through her scope. Her body was tense as she waited, hoping the tracker would see her footsteps and follow them. This had been the best opportunity for her to get some information so far and she didn't want to let it go by. After a further ten minutes, her ears twitches at the sound of a scuffle and a twig snapping, and a frightening grin covered her face as the three saviors came into view, the woman in the lead as her eyes followed Anamika's footsteps.

She got them

The female savior was so focused on the tracks, trusting the idiots at her back to watch out for danger around them that she never even saw the signs of the snare, just as Anamika had planned and hoped for. She knew amateur hunters usually got a one track mind, focusing completely on the tracks of the animal in case they missed something and so couldn't see anything else. She had thought the woman was new at this, as she had brought out those two lumbering oafs as back up and her movements weren't the movements of a skilled hunter. If Anamika had been dealing with a person with more experience, she never would have managed to hide the trap from their notice.

A crack echoed through the woods as the woman stepped on the trap, the nylon rope springing free and hauling her up into the air by her foot, causing her to drop her gun in shock. Ignoring her startled shout, Anamika gunned the two men down, her shots quick and precise in the centre of their foreheads. Their bodies crumpled to the ground and the captured woman yelled even louder as her struggles increased. Quickly, Anamika slid down the tree, turning to walk towards the woman. One of the dead was heading towards the woman as well and as the savior tried to get her knife, she fumbled with it and it fell to the ground.

Before she could start to create more of a commotion, Anamika lifted her pistol and fired off three shots, one at the dead guy in front of the savior and the other two at two dead further away. The woman tried to swing her body around, trying to see who was there and Anamika swore she saw her face pale when she caught sight of Anamika. Of course, she was sure to know of her, as Arat had obviously alerted everyone about her and given her description.

Anamika could see the fear in the savior's eyes, but she ignored it as she checked to make sure her hostage had no further weapons on her. She killed another of the dead that came towards her, before turning to the upside down woman. Tilting her head, she silently observed her prisoner, her eyes intent as she made the woman sweat for a bit. Finally, she started.

"Do you know who I am?"

"You're that crazy bitch that killed Joseph and his crew. Arat told us all about you." The woman tried to sound confident and menacing, but Anamika grinned ferally as she detected a quiver in her voice, further unnerving the savior. This savior wasn't as tough as she pretended to be.

"Very good. Now, I've got some questions and you're going to answer them truthfully for me."

"Fuck you bitch!" Without blinking, Anamika lifted her pistol and fired a shot into the woman's leg that wasn't caught in the rope. Crying out in pain, the woman tried to clutch at her leg but couldn't get her body to reach, so she just hung limply while she breathed harshly, trying to ignore the tears in her eyes. Anamika watched her impassively. She didn't like torturing people, but when she did, she usually didn't bother starting slow, as she found that the shock of her being willing to start with something like a gunshot wound usually prompted them into talking in order to avoid something worse.

"First question. Who is Negan and what does he look like?"

"Fuck… you…cunt..." Anamika fired off another shot, this time blowing four fingers of the woman's right hand clean off. A piercing scream echoed through the woods as the woman cried, cradling her hand as snot and tears covered her face.

"Who is Negan and what does he look like?" The savior continued crying, her eyes trained on her mangled hand and seeming unaware of the world around her. Anamika lifted her gun again, but that seemed to snap the woman out of her shock.

"W-wait! I'll talk, I-I'll talk, just don't h-hurt me anymore! P-P-Please!" Lowering the gun, she glared right at the woman's dark eyes, her own unflinching.

"Last chance. Who is Negan and what does he look like?"

"He-he's the leader of the Saviors and the Sanctuary, our base. He's also in charge of several communities, like Hilltop and the K-Kingdom. He-he wears a l-leather jacket and red scarf m-m-most of the time and he h-has a b-b-baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire named L-L-Lucille. Please, don't hurt me any-anymore!"

The woman was crying, but Anamika paid her no mind, her thoughts whirling. She didn't want to chance attacking their home base, as she was sure there would be far too many people for her to take on alone. But she had to convince this Negan guy to leave her alone and somehow she didn't think talking it out was gonna cut it. From the way these people searched for her and with how confident they all were, Negan had to be a pretty scary guy in order to maintain this level of order.

Scary and smart.

A noise behind her had her turning, seeing three more of the dead coming and she cursed, stalking over with her machete to cut them down, her blade singing through the air as she cleaved into the first one's head. However, she had swung too hard and the machete became stuck. Instead of struggling with it, she let go of it and grabbed her knife, grabbing the collar of the next undead and plunged the knife in its forehead. By this time, the third one was upon her and she pushed the one in her hands towards the third one, causing it to fall to the ground. Placing her foot on the truly dead one's back, she leaned over and buried her knife in the third one's eye, barely breaking a sweat.

A scream from behind had her whipping around.

A dead woman had come from behind her hostage, the sounds of her approach hidden by the sounds of Anamika fighting with the other three. The undead was now ripping into the woman's throat, tearing her jugular out as the savior screamed, before even her scream got cut off in a gurgle. Anamika screamed in frustration as she threw her bowie knife, nailing the dead fuck in the head, but the damage was already done. Stomping over, she pulled her knife from where it was lodged in the dead woman's head and stabbed her now dead hostage in the head. Growling in anger, she delivered two hard kicks to the dead one's head, angry that she had lost her hostage before she managed to get more information about their base and leader from her.

She stalked over to the tree the woman hung from, carving an A in the trunk, before she sighed, her shoulders slumping and her body trembling. She didn't want to go through this again, another chance like this will probably never come again and she didn't want to torture someone again, as it wasn't as if she enjoyed doing it. She rubbed her forehead, uncaring of the blood she smeared across her face and finally walked over to retrieve her machete. Bracing her foot against the dead one's head, she pulled her machete free, wiping the blood off before sliding it into its sheath. A crackling static noise from behind her had her whirling about, her heart pounding as she imagined a savior she somehow missed shooting her in the back or something.

But nothing was there.

She looked around in confusion, unsure of what she had heard, when the noise came again and she realised it originated from one of the men she had killed. She could hear what sounded like muffled noises and she realised it had to be a radio. Hope filled her like a bubbling fountain and she rushed forward, rolling the one guy on his back and searching through his jacket. Finding the chunky radio, she could now hear the voice that spoke through it.

"...at Triangle. I repeat, for any of you assholes too busy licking your ass, Negan is coming to the outpost at Triangle. There is to be a tribunal, fucking Sam messed up again. Tighten security in preparation for tomorrow, but I don't think any fucker is stupid enough to go against Negan. Over and out." The radio went quiet, but that didn't matter to Anamika. She felt lightheaded with giddiness, which she was sure was the completely wrong reaction, but damn it! She had it! She knew where Negan was going to be tomorrow night and hell if she wasn't going to use that information! Jumping up, she sprinted back to her camp, leaving devastation behind.

She didn't have long to find out exactly where Triangle was, which she hoped was a real place and not some shitty codename or something, so she needed to check the map she kept in the front of her truck. Arriving at her camp, a big naturally-formed cave that had ivy and branches hanging over the entrance and so hidden from prying eyes, she squeezed between the rock walls and the side of her truck, just managing to get the door open. Grabbing her map, she folded it open and turned on the overhead light, her eyes automatically finding her current location and then searching for a place called Triangle. It wasn't long before she found it, about a twenty minute drive from where she was, meaning about a five and a half hour walk. She didn't want to take her truck, as she didn't want anything to happen to it and her supplies, it was well hidden here. Luckily, she had built up some muscle since the apocalypse happened and hiking for five hours was nothing to her now.

She wanted to leave now, so she had time to scope out the place and come up with a plan accordingly. Placing the map in her backpack, she climbed out of the truck, walking around to the back and rummaging through her weapons that were neatly packed away in a big, long crate. She grabbed an AK-47, along with a satchel of extra ammo and a few grenades, flashbangs, smoke bombs and two small canisters of gas. She grabbed the gas mask she had found at the prepper's hideout and strapped on her bulletproof vest and fingerless gloves. Finally, she shrugged on her leather jacket, zipping it up before she slipped on a shoulder harness she hadn't worn often. Placing various knives and weaponry all over her person, she finally closed and locked the back, making her way out of the cave and making sure you couldn't see it easily from the outside, as well as to erase any tracks she might have made.

Then she started hiking back to where she had left the dead saviors. Gathering their weapons in one of the bags they had carried with them, she paused. They had quite possibly come here with a car, which she could use to get closer to the base faster. Grinning at her new plan, she followed their clumsy tracks back to the edge of the forest, where, lo and behold, an beaten car was parked.

Quickly hotwiring the car, she threw her stuff in the back and pulled away, driving in the direction of Triangle. Just before she reached a place called Midway Island, she parked the car off the road, determined the hike the last hour or so, in order to make sure no one saw her coming. She had been lucky enough to get this close undetected as it was.

It was dark by the time she reached Triangle and she knew she had to be careful when searching for their outpost. She crept through the town, trying to avoid the dead while searching for any signs of the living. It was only when she saw headlights in the distance that she had an idea of where to look and she quickly ran in that direction, keeping quiet and low.

Coming closer, she saw it was a massive house, a dirty sign proclaiming United Mine Workers of America, though it was vandalised and broken by now. Making her way to a house about three blocks from the outpost, she walked to an upstairs room and settled herself at the window, able to see all the way to the outpost with her rifle's scope, as there wasn't a lot between her and the outpost except distance and parking lots.

Though it was dark, she could see the activity going on and the people patrolling the perimeter of the parking lot around the outpost. She settled in to wait, observing their routine and counting all the different men and women she saw, hoping to get a rough estimate of how many there are. She knew her best bet when she attacked would be when Negan was holding this 'tribunal', as it seemed as if he was gathering most of the people in one place, then it's just the men on watch she had to deal with before setting her ambush. She wanted to cause as much damage as possible, as she had to make sure Negan knew not to mess with her.

Some part of her was screaming that this was crazy, that she was making a mistake attacking a guy like this, but the other part of her mind told her that she didn't even know this guy, that this bad feeling was based off a perception she had of him, created by the way his henchmen talked about him. She didn't have to fear the boogeyman, even if he was a scary smart and crazy man; she could guarantee she was crazier.

She observed them through the night, too tense and alert to even think of sleeping and the next morning she watched as the outpost became a hive of activity, trucks leaving and arriving filled with supplies, people unloading them into the house or into different trucks. It seemed they were getting everything ready for the night, but even amidst all the activity, Anamika saw that there was always at least four people on duty, two snipers on the roof and two men on the ground, one in front and one in the back. They were making circuits, sure to cover the entire perimeter of the house, but she was certain she could get closer without being detected. These men looked bored, as if they weren't expecting anything to happen and that's exactly how she wanted it.

It was in the evening when a convoy of three vans finally arrived and Anamika sat up straighter, instantly bringing the scope to her eye. She watched as the door of the front convoy opened and a man stepped out, looking exactly how the female savior described him. She had to admit, she hadn't thought he would be so handsome and if it wasn't for the slick smile that caused a chill to creep up her back or the way everyone around him instantly kneeled in his presence, she might have even been attracted to him. As it was, she only felt disgust crawl up her body, feeling violated just looking at his smug swagger and the nonchalant swinging of his bat, Lucille.

This was Negan.

WD

Soooo, who of you now thinks she's absolutely insane? Anyone, hands in the air! One, two, three, four... Yeah, I also thinks she's outta her mind, but I honestly believe this is how she would have reacted. She's not someone who waits, she does and seeing as she has no one to think about than herself, she is also reckless and occasionally very crazy. Things get suuuper fun in the next chapter and *gasp* you even get a Negan PoV, so please be extra nice and leave a review!