Chapter 2:

I was moving, and it hurt my head, a lot, and there was a loud ringing in my ears. There was a bump and I was jerked awake as my body lifted from where I was and crashed back into the floor where I was propped up against the wall. Stupid, apocalyptic roads. I opened my eyes, I had definitely been out for a while since it was dark out. I was in the back of a van, Glenn, Michonne, Rosita, and Daryl were with me. I sat up with a groan of pain and felt the top of my head. I hissed in pain as I touched the large cut on my forehead, it went from the top of my forehead down to the corner of my right eyebrow. I pulled my hand back to find that it was covered with blood. My face was covered in it too.

Michonne and Rosita, both sent a worried look my way as I leaned back against the wall, in the middle of them. I was relieved to see that Daryl was with us, since the last thing I remember was him being shot. Nobody spoke as the van continued to move, the possibilities of where we were going and what was going to happen to us filtered in and out of my head, each one worse than the last. We could have been in the van for five minutes or two hours, but it eventually came to a stop.

We all looked to the door, expecting it to open, but we must have sat there for at least another 20 minutes before anything happened. I jumped as loud whistling filled the silence that had surrounded us. Then bright lights turned on outside, they provided a dim lighting on the inside of the van and we could easily see all the bullet holes that were in the doors and sides of the van. There was talking, but it was all distorted and I couldn't make out what was being said.

Then the doors to the van opened, and a bright light filled the small space. I barely heard hamburger face saying something as we were all dragged out of the van, and forced to kneel. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the bright lights, and took in the people around me. Rick, Carl, Aaron, Eugene, Sasha, Abraham, Michonne, Daryl, Rosita, and Maggie we all lined up. I was in the middle of Glenn and Rosita. Why the hell were all of them out here? What the hell were they doing? I scanned over them again, it was Maggie. She did not look good, they must have been trying to get to the hilltop, to get to the Doctor for her, and now we're all screwed. Talking brought my attention back to the guy that was in the middle. My ears were ringing but I could make out him saying, "Let's meet the man."

I began to fill with panic as the situation fully hit me, we were surrounded by at least a hundred people, probably more. We had just killed at least 30 of the people in this group and we were definitely not getting out of this without a couple of casualties. I could feel a panic attack beginning to form at that last thought. We are so screwed.

I vaguely became aware of the voice that was speaking. He was talking to Rick ," You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." My heart sank, I knew that voice, I knew who that voice belongs to. But it couldn't be. He died. He was dead. The last time I saw him was at the hospital when my mom died. Her heart stopped and he ran away, leaving me alone in the room with her. That was when the apocalypse started, we were in the hospice center when shit went down, so I just figured that he ended up being zombie food, it was either that, or he left me. I stared at him in disbelief, I always figured that he had died.

He looked the same, just a little bit more aged. He had on the leather jacket that my mom and I had gotten him for father's day when I was eight. I thought that it would be the best present ever and insisted on getting it for him, my mom just smiled and laughed.

I was dimly aware of what the conversation consisted of, my father was talking about how, we killed his people and when he sent people to kill our people we killed more of his people, how he now owns all of our shit, and how he wants to take half of it, and how he is going to kill one of us. I was still only half paying attention to what was going on when I heard my father mention Lucille. My breath caught in my throat as I looked up. That was the first time I noticed the bat, I had been so focused on him that I didn't even notice it. I would recognize that bat anywhere. It was my bat. It was different from how I remembered it, it obviously wasn't wrapped in barbed wire when I had it. It was a birthday present from my dad, we would always play baseball together when I was little, it was our father-daughter thing.

The last time I saw it, it was in the corner of my room, next to my backpack from school. I had stopped using it after I started middle-school. The situation almost made me want to laugh. My long lost father, the only blood relation that I had left, had my apocalyptic family on their knees, and was about to kill one of us, with my old baseball bat that he named after my dead mother. This could not get anymore fucked up.

He bent down near Carl, and started talking to him, my ears were still ringing and I could barely make out what he was saying, he got up and walked over to Maggie, "Jesus," he said, "you look shitty, I should just put you out of your misery right now." He took a step closer to Maggie, when Glenn went forwards to stop him. Hamburger face, held Glenn back, and knocked him to the ground and held Daryl's crossbow in his face, then he dragged Glenn back in line. He started walking again, "All right listen, don't any of you do that again," he was swinging the bat around, "I will shut that shit down, no exceptions, first ones free, it's an emotional moment, I get it." he pointed over to Glenn. I kept my face angled to the ground, but my eyes followed every move he made.

He looked around, then zeroed in on Rick," sucks don't it? The moment you realize you don't know shit." He looked over at Carl, then pointed to him with his bat, "This is your kid, right?" he started laughing "this is definitely your kid." Rick broke then and yelled "just stop this!" That was definitely a mistake. I jumped when my father yelled back at Rick ,"Hey! Do not make me kill the little future serial killer, don't make it easy on me, I got to pick somebody." He gestured around him, "Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order." He started to whistle and slowly walked down the line, when he looked at me my heart nearly stopped, and I looked down at the ground.

I thought that he would recognize me, and if he did I had no idea what would happen. Would he kill everyone? Would he take me away from my family? I didn't know him anymore, he wasn't the same man that I once knew, as much as a didn't want him to recognize me, I did want him to recognize me, what if he let everyone go? What if nobody had to die tonight? But I knew that would never happen, not with all his men watching, not with the time and supplies they spent to set this up, he had a reputation to keep, and a show to provide, and even his daughter couldn't get in the way of that.

He didn't recognize me though, and I gave a sigh of relief, suddenly grateful for all the blood on my face. He kept walking around, "I simply cannot decide" he gave a chuckle, then turned around with the look of an excited five year old on Christmas morning," I got an idea". That was when he started, "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo," at each word he would point his bat at another person. He pointed the bat at me when he got to "mo" I visibly recoiled and he smirked. I felt like I was going to be sick. What was happening didn't feel real, this couldn't be happening. He was going to bash someone's head in with my bat, that he named after my mother.

The last word left was "it," and he was taking his sweet time choosing, he pointed his bat at me one last time and my stomach sunk, he stayed on me for a moment longer than everyone else, until he pointed to Abraham and said "it."

I didn't hear what else he said, only watched as he slammed the bat down on Abraham's skull. There was a sickening crack and he fell to the ground. I watched as Abraham sat back up, he said something but I wasn't able to process it. Then the bat came down again, and again, and again, and again. Until, Abraham's head was nothing but a pile of mush. Tears were streaming down my face, they turned red as they mixed with the blood.

"Oh my goodness, look at this," he swung the bat, towards Rick, sending blood across the side of Rick's face," You guys, look at my dirty girl." I was going to be sick. He walked over to me ,"Sweetheart, Lay your eyes on this." I looked up, the bat was in my face, it was covered in Abraham's blood and had bits of his flesh caught in it. I looked at it, then I glared at him. He looked at me for a second, and something flashed in his eyes. I quickly looked back down at the bat, I didn't want to him to recognize me, and I definitely didn't want to do anything to piss him off, even something as simple as giving him a funny look would send him off in a fit of rage.

He walked over to Rosita ,"Oh, damn, were you" he gestured to Abraham's body, "were you together? That sucks. But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this. Red-and hell he was, is, and will ever be red, he just took one, or six or seven for the team!" He put the bat in her face, just like he did to me. "So take...a damn look" he gave her a second before yelling again, "take a damn look."

That was when Daryl got up and hit him in the face, Daryl was quickly subdued, and my father pointed his bat at Daryl and yelled "No! Oh, no." He walked backwards ," That, oh, my!" he crouched down by Daryl, "That, is a no-no, the whole thing, not one bit of that shit flies here." Hamburger face ran up to Daryl, with Daryl's crossbow in his hands, "you want me to do it? Right here." He responded, "No, you don't kill them, not until you try a little." Then they dragged Daryl back into the line.

I knew what was coming next, he was going to kill someone else, and I was right. He stood back up," and anyway, that's not how it works. Now I already told you people." He gestured around him with the bat. "First one's free, then-what'd I say? I said I will shut that shit down! No exceptions." He was standing by Glenn and I now, "Now I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with, but I'm a man of my word, first impressions are important. I need you to know me, so back to it" He turned around and swung the bat down on Glenn's head.

The same sickening crunch filled my ears again, and more tears filled my eyes. I was sitting right next to Glenn and watched as each hit came down on his head. Blood was running down his face as he sat up, gurgling, as if he was trying to say something. He had a large round indent on the top of his skull that was oozing blood, and his right eye was grotesquely popping out of his skull. He was choking and gurgling, when he bent down, "buddy are you still there? I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit." Glenn finally said, "Maggie, I'll find you." That was when he turned towards Maggie, "Oh, hell, I can see this is hard on you guys. I am sorry, I truly am, but I did say it. No exceptions!" Then he swung the bat back into Glenn's face. I could feel the air as the bat passed in front of my face, and I heard the crack as it smashed into the front of Glenn's face. My hands covered my mouth as I tried to quiet the sobs that overcame me. I was still watching as the bat came down, over and over again, and watched as Glenn's head because mush, like Abrahams. His hands were still twitching, I looked away.

I must have zoned out because the next time I looked up I saw my father dragging Rick into the RV. They drove off a minute later. I just sat there, hands on my knees, looking at Glenn's body. His hands had stopped twitching. We sat there for over an hour. People were still sobbing, I couldn't tell who though, I couldn't look away from Glenn. The sun had came up. I looked back up when the RV came back. It took them another couple of minutes for them to come back out. He dragged Rick out by the collar of his jacket. "Let me ask you something Rick, do you even know what that little trip was about?" He waited for an answer. "Speak when you're spoken to, "Rick mumbled" Okay, okay."

"That trip was about the way that you looked at me, I wanted to change that, I wanted you to understand, but you are still looking at me the same damn way, like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna work, so…" He bent down next to Rick. "Do I give you another chance?" He waited for Rick to reply. "Yeah...yes." He stood up ,"Okay, alright, and here it is, the grand-prize game. What you do next will decide whether your crap day becomes everyone's last crap day, or just another crap day. Put some guns to the back of their heads." I flinched when I felt something hard against the back of my head. "Level with their noses so that if you have to fire," he imitated an explosion coming out of his face, "It'll be a real mess."

"Kid," he motioned for Carl to come over. "Right here," Carl didn't move, "Kid...now." Carl got up and slowly walked over. He took off his belt, "you a southpaw?" Carl replied ,"am I a what?" "are you a lefty," "no," "good." My breathing started to speed up. He was going to cut Carl's arm off. He tightened the belt around Carl's arm, "Does that hurt?" Carl said no, "It should, it's supposed to, all right. Get down on the ground kid, next to daddy, spread them wings." Carl got on the ground. "Simon, you got a pen?" Simon brought a pen over. He bent down to draw a line on Carl's arm ,"Sorry kid, this is gonna be as cold as a warlocks ball sack, just like he was hanging his ball sack above you and dragging it right across your forearm. There you go, give you a little leverage." Rick was asking ," please don't," But if that did anything, it only made him more satisfied. "Me? I aint doing shit." He stood up. "Rick I want you to take your ax, and cut your son's left arm off, right on that line. Now, I know, I know, you're gonna have to process that for a second. That makes sense. Still though I'm gonna need you to do it, or all of these people are gonna die, then Carl dies, then the people back home die, and then you, eventually. I'm gonna keep you breathing for a few years just so you can stew on it." Michonne disrupted him ,"You-you don't have to do this. We understand, we understand." He cut her off ,"You understand, yeah. I'm not sure that Rick does, I'm gonna need a clean cut, right there on that line. Now, I know this is a screwed-up thing to ask, but its gonna have to be like a salami slice, nothing messy clean, forty-five degrees, give us something to fold over. We got a great doctor, the kid will be fine, probably."

He bent down again ,"Rick, this needs to happen now-chop, chop, or I will crush the little fella's skull myself." Rick started to argue ,"It can- it can be me, you- you can do it to me, I can go with you." "No. This is the only way. Rick, pick up the ax. Not making a decision, is a big decision. You really want to see all these people die? You will, you will see every ugly thing. Are you gonna make me count?" Rick was begging again. "Three... two... one!" He picked up the ax, it looked like Carl said something but I couldn't tell what it was, Rick brought the ax up, but he stopped him, right before Rick brought it down. "You answer to me, you provide for me, you belong to me, right?" Rick didn't answer. "Speak when you're spoken to!" He repeated himself and Rick said the same thing after him. "That is the look I wanted to see."

He stood up, "We did it, together, all of us. Even the dead guys on the ground, hell they get the spirit award for sure! Today was a productive damn day. Now I hope for all your sake, that you get it now, that you understand how things work. Things have changed, whatever you had going for you, that, is over now. Dwight load him up." They grabbed Daryl, and dragged him back into the van. "He's got guts, not a little bitch like someone I know, I like him, he's mine now. But you still want to try something, not today, not tomorrow, I will cut pieces off of-hell's his name?" The mustache guy answered,"Daryl." "Wow, that actually sounds right, I will cut pieces off of Daryl, and put them on your doorstep, or better yet, I will bring him to you and have you do it for me. Welcome to a brand-new beginning, you sorry shits! I'm gonna leave you a truck, keep it, use it to cart all the crap you're gonna find me, we'll be back for our first offering in one week, until then ta-ta." Then they all began to leave.