Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead, and have no affiliation to AMC. I have full rights over my original characters.
I fell asleep to the devastatingly beautiful post-apocalyptic landscape of Virginia: there was a certain beauty in the destruction and the odd calm that possessed entire cities. I awoke to a much different scene, as we were back into the country again, feeling someone shake my shoulder gently.
"Wake up, Vi." It was Julian.
"Are we in Washington?" I asked, sitting up straight and yawning.
"Not yet, we're close to Alexandria at the moment." He said, fluttering his hand around to indicate the place. "We're just running low on gas, so we have to stop and look for a station. You can just guard the car until Ben and I come back."
I noticed the dark circles under his eyes, due to his frequent insomnia. I was not the only one whose sleep has been greatly perturbed by our condition, and since he already suffered from chronic insomnia before all of this, it hadn't helped.
"No, I'll go. I need to move a bit, you stay here." I stretched, getting out of the car with my bat in hand. "Come with me Ben, we're going scavenging." He let out a little cry of excitement and followed me closely, his bow around his chest and quiver tied to his waist. We walked in silence for a bit, the both of us attentive to our surroundings, then Ben broke the silence.
"Why have we never joined a group?" He asked.
I said nothing for a few seconds, thinking my answer through. "I don't know. I never thought of it that much, to be honest." That was a lie. I had thought about it a lot, wondering which option would be better for our family, but had never felt like we needed any help. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know, I was wondering about it. We've been alone for so long, it would be weird, wouldn't it?"
"I think so, yeah." There was another span of silence, each of us processing what had been said.
"Do you ever miss Mum and Dad?" My heart ached at the mention of their names, and I knew by his light tone that it hurt him too.
"Not much anymore. Like you've said, we've been on our own for so long… I have come to terms with the fact that they're…."
"You can say the word, you know." He reassured me. "It doesn't hurt so much now. They're gone and I know it." God, he was wise beyond his age, it always fascinated me.
"I know you do." I took his hand, squeezing it a bit too much maybe. "I have you, now. And I'm never letting you go." I kept his palm in mine until a gas station came into view. We scoured the store until we could find containers to hold the gas still encased into the pumps. I left Ben in charge of siphoning them while I searched for valuable goods. I don't know what got into me, but I completely engulfed myself in my activity, oblivious to the exterior world. Time went by, maybe ten to fifteen minutes, and I wasn't aware of how long I was being.
Suddenly remembering that Ben was waiting outside, I exited the store with some things I had found in its depth. I was about to call for Ben when I realized he wasn't alone anymore. He was on his knees on the hard concrete, deprived of his bow and surrounded by a dozen of heavily armed men. Before any of them could spot me, I hid back into the store. My heart was thumping extremely hard in my chest as I faced multiple choices: go out there and kill all of them, which was very unlikely to happen since they had guns and me a wooden bat; try to escape by the back door and back to our car, but it meant abandoning Ben; or negotiate our freedom with those men, but again they didn't seem comprehensive. I could hear them talking to Ben, getting quite frustrated at his silence.
"Now boy, be reasonable for the love of God, and tell us where we can find your group." One of them growled at him, menacing him with his gun. I could see Ben twitching in fear, but his face was set and he didn't utter a word. His tenacity baffled me, but this was not the time to admire his strength.
"Let me handle this, Dwight." Said another. From where I was, I couldn't see him, which made him even more frightening. "Listen here, kid. We know you're not alone. We just want to know who you're taking gas for, so we can talk to them a bit. You can tell us, we won't hurt your group. Pinky promise?" I could hear the lie and the mockery in his voice, and that infuriated me beyond measure. After a heavy silence, the same man sighed. "If you're not willing to talk, then I have no use of you. This will only hurt a bit, kiddo." My heart jumped in my chest, and Ben began crying. There was no time to think anymore, so I hastily left my hiding spot, rushing to the meeting of the group.
"Stop! Please, stop!" I cried out, making every face and weapon turn to me at once. The man closest to my brother, the one who was threatening him seconds ago, lowered his barbed-wire covered bat to his side, looking at me intensely.
"I can't believe that old thing still works..." Scoffed a blond man with a long burn scar on his face. My blood dropped to my feet as I realized I had fallen head first into their trap. They would never have killed a harmless child, but they knew the thought of it would make anyone knowing him rush to his rescue.
"Hello there, sweetheart." The man with the bat said, cracking a sharky smile. "Terrible job you're doing watching after this little guy, but then again it's just my opinion and I don't know shit about kids." He gestured for his men to search the store, and for others to make me come closer. The blond one held my hands behind my back, forcing me on my knees while another one took hold of my bat. "Maybe now we'll be able to get some answers. So tell me darling, where is your group?" I looked at him defiantly, determined not to say a word. He huffed impatiently, licking his upper lip, before smiling as if suddenly struck by an idea. "Where are my manners? I come here, fucking terrify you and your -brother, I suppose?- and never give my name: how fucking inconsiderate of me! I'm Negan." He smiled again, as if the whole situation was hilarious. Maybe it was from his point of view, but I couldn't loosen up. "Now that that's out of the way, back to business shall we? What's your name, darling?" No answer. "Don't make me kill him; it would be a real waste of potential, considering he has the eye of a fucking hawk when using a bow!"
My lips twitched and I lowered my head before I let out the most inaudible and menacing "Violet".
"What was that, sweetheart, I didn't quite hear?" I looked up to him again to see he was smiling like the freaking Cheshire Cat. The bastard was enjoying every second of it.
"Violet." I repeated.
"Oh, so you do have a name and the ability to speak! Can we say the same of your little brother, though?"
"If you ask nicely, maybe." He erupted in laughter, joined by his hand men. "We don't know each other very well yet, darling, so I'll let you have this one. But know for a fact that I do not ask fucking nicely. Nice isn't a part of my fucking nature." To reinforce his statement, he leaned on his baseball bat which he stomped in front of me. I gulped hard, more terrified than I would ever care to admit. We'd met belligerent groups before, but nothing came to the level of this man and his crew when it came to scaring potential. "So now that's it's settled, I'll ask you a series of questions, and you will answer them loud and clear, alright sweetheart?"
I set my jaw, my fear now doubled with anger, but I nodded my head. "Very good, we're fucking getting somewhere, aren't we?" He rose from his leaning position, setting his bat back on his shoulder and walking from my brother to me. From where I was, I could see Ben trembling in fear, and it was like a punch to the gut to see him like this. "How many of you are there?"I hesitated briefly, wondering if I should lie to him, and he didn't miss it. "Do yourself a fucking favor and don't lie to me, doll."
"Three. The last one is a bit further down the road."
"Where's your camp?" He lingered a bit too close to my little brother as he asked this.
"There's no camp. We're on the road, we're alone in our car. It's just us, I swear." He studied my face for a moment, before cracking yet another smile.
"Alrighty then!" He burst, helping me to my feet. "What do you say we go and fetch the last one? I have an offer for you three." The malicious look in his eyes wasn't exactly inviting, but we were facing a wall here and there was unfortunately no going back. I helped my shaking brother up, squeezing his hand hard to bring him all the courage I could, and we set back to where we had left Julian and the car. We walked a bit ahead of Negan and his group, and Ben leaned closer to me to talk:
"What are we going to do, Vi?" He whispered, looking up to me with his frightened doe eyes.
"I don't know, Benny, I don't know." I shook my head. "For now, we negotiate with this man, and we'll do what we can to..."
"You two!" Negan roared from behind us, startling the both of us. "No fucking soft mass over there!" I gulped hard, my hold on my little brother's hand tensing even more. As we reached the top of the hill, Julian spotted us and waved at us with a great smile splitting his face, but it faltered as he realized we weren't alone.
"What happened?" He asked as we reached his level. "Who are these guys?" I shot him a 'don't ask' look, and his nose scrunched up as the other group was joining us.
"Good fucking morning, my good sir." Said Negan cheerfully, eyeing Julian intensely. "How are you getting on?"
"Who are you, and what do you want?" Retorted my sibling grimly, frowning at the leader and his lethal weapon.
"Of course, like sister like brother, they all want to fucking know me before they deal with me- Negan is the name. We are the Saviors."
"And you're here to save us I guess?" Julian sassed, to which I bit the inside of my cheek nervously. He didn't know who he was dealing with.
Negan chuckled quite darkly. "Not exactly. We're here to make a deal with you three. A deal you can't fucking refuse."
"We're not interested, we're good on our own, so you can just-" He didn't get to finish his sentence, as Negan kicked him square in the knee, pushing it inside in an odd angle. I watched in horror as he crumpled on the concrete, grunting from a pain which was probably more intense than he let us know. As I tried to reach him, Negan held a hand up.
"Don't you fucking move; I think you've all exceeded your share of stupid for today, so now you're going to fucking stand down and listen." Julian tried to get up again, true to his proud self, and Negan smirked. "You like to have the last word, don't you? Sit the fuck back down before I beat your other knee to a fucking pulp, you absolute fucktard." Julian's eyes flickered from Negan to me, and I silently encouraged him to sit back and listen. He did so, thank God he still trusted me and listened to me at least. "Attaboy." Said Negan, satisfied of his control over us. "Here is how it's going to go for you all: I'm going to take your car, and everything you have in it, and let you go on your way. Orrrrrr… I'm going to take your car, and everything you have in it, and bring you back with us at the Sanctuary." He let his voice hang in the air for a second, his tongue licking his upper lip. "Notice how I'm leaving you a choice, right here, because I'm a nice fucking guy! It seems to me, a logical person, that this choice is very easy to make; I mean, sweetheart," he added, turning to me completely, "you're traveling with a small child and a cripple here. You're not going to make them walk, are you?"
"Obviously not." I replied dryly. Probably too dry considering who I was talking to.
"Obviously not." Negan mimicked my words, smirking. "So tell me, sweet cheeks, are you coming with Papa to the Sanctuary, or do you consider that you'll be better off on your own?" I cringed internally at how he called himself, but said nothing about it. I looked at my brothers for approval, and unsurprisingly I only found fear and doubt. None of us knew what to do from this on.
"Can't you just leave us our car?" I pleaded in one last desperate attempt. "You could-"
"Stop now." Interrupted Negan, raising his hand to my face. "I think you misunderstood me, darling. The two choices I left you are the only two fucking options there are. There is no door number three here, so make up your mind- if you don't, I'll decide for you. And don't believe for a second that this choice will be good for you." Behind that friendly smile, he was deadly serious and running impatient. So I made the hardest choice in my life.
"Okay Negan," I said, my head hanging low in shame, "we're coming with you." His smiled widened, and for a moment he looked like a child on Christmas morning. When you looked at it, he was handsome in a dark kind of way. But then again, so were many sociopaths like him.
A/N: please let me know what you think in the review section! I can't know what to do if I don't get commentaries on my work!
Faithfully yours,
~SB