Everyone was quiet as the trucks drove off. I was the only one standing as the other Doveporters still remained kneeling on the ground. I didn't know how to move or what to say. Finally, after for what seemed like an eternity, Seth's voice broke the silence.

"What the hell just happened?" He stood up and turned his attention on Philip. The others seemed to take his movement as permission for them to get up too. Slowly everyone made it to their feet.

"Did I miss something? Is Elle in charge now?" Amy asked.

I turned to look at Philip and found he was staring right at me with a worrisome expression. He was probably just as confused as the others, and I knew if we were going to pull this lie off, we were going to have to communicate to everyone what was going on.

"Where is Eric?" Amy asked, looking around at the faces among us. She started to get frantic when some nearby bushes rustled. Everyone's' heads turned to see Eric and Danny emerge.

"Oh thank god!" Amy exclaimed running over to Eric and throwing her arms around his neck. He kissed her and then they walked over to where everyone else was still standing.

"They didn't find you?" I asked, completely perplexed at how they could have managed to pull that off. The school wasn't that big, and there weren't many hiding places.

"Danny told me we would be a lot safer if we snuck out that back and hid in the trees. He figured Negan's men would scope out the place, and he was right." Eric smiled down at Danny who was looking at the open gate with worry. Seth took that as his cue to go shut the gate.

"What do we do now?" Vivienne's voice showcased the worry I was feeling at the moment. My plan was to do what Negan wanted, but I really needed to talk to Phil to hear what he thought.

"We need Negan to believe I'm in charge. And this is Danny, the boy Negan is looking for." Elle gestured to Danny who shyly smiled at the curious faces studying him. "He told me Negan has a soft spot when it comes to women. We might be able to deal with him easier if he thinks I'm running things instead of Phil."

Seth joined us after closing the gate and caught the tail end of my speech. He snorted and crossed his arms.

"So much for equal rights."

"I know it sounds crazy but we need to cooperate with the Saviors," I explained. "We watched them gun down an unarmed man earlier." I turned to look at Phil and he was still looking at me with that same alarmed expression. He hadn't spoke in a while and it was making me very uneasy.

"This meeting went really well, actually," Danny pointed out. "Eric and I were watching. Negan wasn't joking when he said he kills people to prove a point–he kills people all the time."

"I get that Negan is dangerous, but who is running Doveport? Is Phil still in charge?" Amy asked, looking at me. I didn't really know what to tell her–I was still confused about the specifics.

"Doveport is a democracy," Phil finally spoke and I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice. "I've never considered myself in charge, no matter how much you've considered me your leader. But for the sake of keeping things safe, I recommend that while Negan and his men are here you treat Elle like she is the leader."

I smiled at him, hoping he believed that I could handle this new situation, especially seeing as I had just pulled us through our first meeting unharmed. We made eye contact and he didn't return my warm gesture, which had me wondering if he was upset with me.

"All that matters is that we work together. Doesn't matter if it's me or Elle. Negan is in charge now."

We all stood in the parking lot, absorbing his words. He was right–Negan ran the show. Now we had to worry about feeding ourselves and getting him weekly supplies. Surviving was already difficult but now our lives were on the line if we didn't deliver. And he may have a fondness for women, but I imagined he wouldn't hesitate to crack my skull if I didn't do what he asked.

The other Doveporters started to make their way back into the school. Vivienne asked Danny if he was hungry and brought him with her back inside.

"We could go scavenging," Eric suggested as he walked over to me.

I shook my head.

"No, it's too late today. We can start tomorrow. Negan said we have a week."

Eric nodded and he took Amy's hand, following after the others who disappeared inside the school. Then it was just Phil and I left standing outside. I didn't know what to say, and wondered if I should apologize when Phil let out a deep sigh.

"I don't feel good about this, Ellie," he mumbled, using the nickname he had given me since the day we met. I used to tease him that it was longer than my already incredibly short name but it stuck. Now there was that damn frown on his face matched with the worry lines. I hated that he was looking at me like this. Phil was supposed to be an easy-going guy; now he looked like a nervous wreck.

"We should have just told Negan the truth." He walked closer to me and put a hand on my upper shoulder.

"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" I teased, smiling a bit. I was hoping being light hearted would ease the tension from our encounter with Negan. When he didn't soften, I sighed.

"Things went well today, Phil. If we can do good by him, we will all be fine. You just need to trust me."

"I do trust you. I just don't wanna see anyone get hurt. Especially you, now that you're filling my shoes." He squeezed my shoulder. "If they hurt you because you're pretending to be in charge…" He trailed off and shook his head, as if the very idea made him ill.

"I don't wanna see anyone get hurt either. That's why I want to be in charge. If Negan kills me, you're still here to run Doveport."

"If Negan finds out and you get hurt, I'll never forgive myself." Phil let out another sigh and then he smiled warmly at me. "Thank you–for stepping up like this. And for thinking about my community. You're a good kid, Ellie." With that, he turned and walked to the school to go in like the others.

I stood alone outside and turned to look at the gates. We had one week to get Negan his supplies, but what about the weeks after that? And what happened if he discovered we had lied to him?

I couldn't help but wonder if I had just make a huge mistake.

Four days later, Amy and Eric joined me on a scavenging run. Although we were working for Negan and had to quite literally search like our lives depended on it, it was nice to get out with my friends. The last couple days had been about getting organized and setting up teams of people to go out and search different towns.

Unfortunately for us, most of the local areas had been completely ransacked. We had to drive hours just to find a new place, and most of the time these places had also been completely looted. While Amy and Eric had formed one team, other Doveporters joined forces to head out themselves. I had stayed back at the school to help Vivienne and Philip try and harvest some vegetables from the garden in preparation to give to the Saviors.

But after a few days of digging in the dirt, I decided I wanted to test my luck beyond the wall. Eric sat behind the wheel of one of the few cars we owned. Amy was next to him; she was staring out the passenger side window, watching for anything interesting. I was in the back, my attention on the left-hand side. As we sped down the highway, I was surprised at how quiet they both were.

Seeing as my attention was in full focus out the back window, I was startled when Eric hit the breaks and the car came to a full stop in the middle of the road.

"Jesus, Eric! What the hell?!" Amy shouted, scowling at him.

"Look," Eric instructed and he pointed at the road before us.

There were hundreds of cars all stuck in a permanent traffic jam, leading down the highway as far as the eye could see. It was a reminder of everything that had led up to now: the outbreak started and people panicked; many tried to leave the cities or flocked to them. Now their vehicles were abandoned forever, lined up and down the highway.

And they were all ours.

Eric drove the car closer to the traffic jam and we got out, eager to start searching for anything we could bring to Negan.

"We could siphon the gas from the cars," Eric said, looking around to make sure we were safe. "But we'll have to come back here. I don't have a tube on hand."

"Be careful, you guys," I said, pulling on my backpack. "There might be a few walkers roaming around here."

Amy and Eric nodded and then the three of us walked towards the cars. We opened the first few vehicles and were disappointed when we found they were completely empty.

"I'm going to go up ahead a bit and see if the cars further in have been untouched," Amy said, and then headed into the mess of cars.

"Can I ask you something, Elle?" Eric inquired as we both opened the doors to a large pickup truck, which was empty like the others.

"Shoot," I answered, digging under the seats.

"How were you so calm with Negan? I was watching you from the bushes with Danny, and you didn't even flinch when he was in your face."

If I was being honest with myself, I still didn't know how I had managed it. Realistically, I had wanted to break down and cry, but I felt that if I showed any weakness he would have lashed out.

"I worked public retail before the end of the world. I've dealt with grumpy customers before. I guess I know how to please people."

He laughed at my answer and we moved onto the next car. Eric opened the trunk to find it filled with supplies. There were packs of toilet paper, bottled water, and boxes of food stacked high.

"Hell yes!" Eric exclaimed, and he immediately started unloading the items. "Let's get this back to the car."

I opened the back car door to see even more of the same supplies filling the seats. I couldn't help but smile–finds like these were rare.

Eric and I carried a few supplies back towards our car. Once we loaded a few things up, we drove in the ditch closer so we could load the boxes easier.

"We're lucky we found Danny," Eric mentioned as we continued to carry things.

He was right. We were incredibly lucky we met Danny. It was his insight into Negan that had got us through unscathed.

"It wouldn't have gone as smoothly if we hadn't met him," I said, pulling some blankets out of the back seat.

"They'll be back in a few days. Things can still go wrong," he cautioned my optimism and I turned to look at him.

"I am going to do everything I can to make sure we're safe." My voice sounded so confident but I could see Eric was still unsure. He started to reply when a scream rang out a few cars ahead of us. We both spun quickly at the sound.

"AMY!" Eric yelled, dropping a box he was holding and sprinting in the direction we heard her from. I pulled out my knife and ran after him.

As I approached, I could see Amy was on the ground with a walker on top of her. She was crawling backwards while screaming and trying to push the decaying corpse off her. The walker pulled itself up towards Amy's face and snapped its teeth.

Eric was there in an instant and he yanked the walker off Amy. Once it was away from her, he stabbed it in the side of the head. The lifeless hostile fell to the ground and Amy continued to back away from it, tears streaming down her face.

"Did it bite you?!" Eric asked, crouching next to his girlfriend and staring at her body with wide eyes as he searched for any injuries. Amy shook her head over and over, eyes locked on the dead corpse next to her.

"Thank god." Eric pulled her into his arms and held her there for a while. Amy pressed her face into Eric's chest and tried to catch her breath. I looked around us to make sure there weren't any other threats nearby.

Amy and Eric both stood up and Amy dusted herself off. Her red hair that was usually so neat was now messy and she was covered in dirt. She turned to me after taking a deep breath and smiled a little.

"I'm okay," she reassured and I nodded at her. It was a close one. I wasn't sure how I would handle losing Amy. She was my best friend in this apocalyptic hellhole.

"That bastard snuck up on me when I was going through this," she gestured to a car with its trunk wide open. The three of us approached the vehicle and looked inside.

"It's medicine," Amy explained, taking the lid off one of the many plastic bins stacked inside. "All kinds. And there's a lot of this one called 'microzide.' It's the same kind that John needs." She looked at me with a frown, and I completely understood why.

John was one of the older community members of Doveport, but he was a kind man. It wasn't a secret that John had high blood pressure and needed meds to regulate it. He had ran out months ago and his health was shaky. Now we were looking at the very thing he needed to help him, and Negan was going to take all of it.

"Maybe we can hide it," Eric chimed in, confirming we were all thinking about Negan. "The school has plenty of places we could stash this stuff."

"We've already lied too much to him," Amy said shaking her head. "We have to hand it over."

"I can try and negotiate with him," I suggested, pulling one of the bins out of the car. Either way, we needed to get everything back to Doveport in one piece, and standing around debating was leaving us as walker bait.

Eric nodded at my idea and took a tote out. I turned to look at Amy, who was still frowning at me.

"It might piss him off," she mumbled, and then she let out a deep sigh. She picked up a tote and headed towards our car. "Better make the crazy baseball bat man happy."

We loaded up the rest of the medicine and decided we had enough to head back. We all returned to the car. Eric pulled out of the ditch and headed back down the road away from our great find. We could come back and rummage more in the days to come.

Amy and Eric were unusually quiet on the ride home, and I couldn't help but wonder if they were angry with me. We normally would visit and tell stories to one another on long trips like this; perhaps it was our new predicament that had them so silent. I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes, deciding I would take a nap just when Amy's voice had me snapping awake.

"I really thought we would have more time before they found us," she mumbled, and I sat up realizing she was talking about the Saviors.

"I really like Doveport, Elle," she said, turning to look at me in the back seat. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Same here," I replied. "I did what I thought was right."

"I know." Her expression changed to empathy. She wasn't mad at me. She was frustrated. "But this lie may get us into some serious trouble."

"He is never going to find out," I promised. Amy rose her eyebrows at me. She wasn't convinced.

The car pulled down a familiar road, and I knew the school was just up ahead. It felt good to be getting back home. We pulled down a short stretch until we came up to the the large wall that snaked around the building. Eric then pulled up to the gate. In a few moments, thanks to Seth, the doors opened to allow us entrance.

"Shit," Eric whispered. I sat up and looked to see what he was referring to. My breath caught in my throat.

There were trucks scattered along the parking lot, a sight that was all too familiar to us now. Seth was standing by the gate and he was wide-eyed. Eric pulled the car in slowly and the gate closed behind us. The Saviors seemed to be everywhere, standing in the parking lot by their trucks, near the entrance of the school. I looked around frantically till my eyes landed on the garden. Vivienne was standing there and Negan was with her. I pulled the car door open before Eric had even turned off the engine.

Walking hurriedly over to where he was standing, I approached them. He turned to me and grinned wide.

"Just the lady I've been waiting to fuckin' see. Miss me?"