I'm actually surprised I maanged to get this chapter done in a relatively short amount of time. A few things: I changed the rating to M because that's the territory we're entering, although I don't think that'll drive away anybody (probably the opposite effect). I also go up until Negan's first kill. Wanna see who it is in this fic? Read on...

Daryl

Captured again.

I'd gone off by myself to hunt down Dwight, who still had to be nearby. The others didn't want me to. I didn't give a shit. However, Glenn and Aaron happened to get themselves captured by the group of Saviors. I was thus forced to try and save them with Rosita's help. However, a familiar voice said, "Hi Daryl."

"It was Dwight. The bastard had us outnumbered and had guns pointed at our heads. Then, out of nowhere, a bullet rang out, and it must have gone in me, for it felt like a bitch. The last thing I heard before passing out was "You'll be alright."

I woke up to find myself in a dark van of some sorts (it was probably nighttime) with the other three. Probably being taken somewhere for some sick act.

Beth

"What the bitch?" said Abraham as the RV began to grind to a halt. Rick, I and the rest looked out to see at least seven men and some trucks, gathered around a wounded person lying on the road. Not friendly people, from the looks of it.

"More Saviors," continued Abraham. "We doing this or not?"

"Not," said Rick, as we all got our guns (except for Maggie, who was too sick to really move) and walked outside like a Western showdown. An awkward silence prevailed for a few seconds.

Then the leader, a balding man with a pedophile mustache, spoke up: "He was someone from a whole bunch of someones who didn't listen."

This wasn't good. I was guessing there were a lot more of where this came from in the nearby areas. But Rick didn't seem too fazed. "We can make a deal, right here, right now."

"We can," was the ominous reply. "Give us all your stuff. We'll probably have to kill one of you, but that's just the way it is."

"Yeah, that's not going to work for us." At Rick's signal, everyone got their weapons at the ready. "In fact, I was about to ask for all of your stuff – only I was thinking I don't have to kill any of you. Any more of you."

No reply. One of the other Saviors began spraying a painted X on their victim. I briefly wondered what that man had done to be strung out as a public display of intimidation.

"Sorry," said the Savior leader. "Our deal is the only deal."

"Fine. We're leaving." As the others and I went back in the RV, I overheard Rick and the lead Savior talk about "the last day on earth", and that we should be "extra nice" to each other, because we'd never know what might happen.

That made me check on Maggie. Her fever was getting worse, and we needed to get to the Hilltop ASAP. But we kept encountering more and more obstacles. First was a group of sixteen or so Saviors on the road we were initially going to take. Eugene found an alternate route, but here the Saviors had set up some walkers. They had things on it like one of Daryl's arrows and such. "This would indicate that there are a lot more of them then there is of us," quipped Eugene.

The final roadblock was dozens of more Saviors, behind some logs. The leader from before called out, but we drove away without a fight.

It was dark. Maggie's condition had not improved. If anything, it was getting worse. "We need to get her there at any cost," I said, beginning to panic a little. If Maggie died tonight, I couldn't live with myself.

"They're probably looking for the RV," said Eugene. "I can distract them with it while the rest of you go on foot, slipping past them."

It was a remarkably bold move from a man Daryl claimed was cowardly. Before taking the vehicle, he handed Rick some bullet making instructions, in case things went horribly wrong. Rick and Abraham both embraced him, in case he was the one with "the last day on earth".

"We're going on foot now," I told Maggie as we got her on a stretcher and began our journey by foot. "You're going to be ok. We'll make sure of that."

A grunt from my sister. It was all she was capable of. It seemed the worst was over.

But it wasn't to be. Not ten minutes of walking, we began hearing whistles from all directions. Rick and the rest of us couldn't find where they were coming from, so we decided to move back to the road, to reassess our options and decide from there.

As soon as we were on the stony path leading down the road, however, lights came on from all sides, as did the whistling. The lights came from cars, and there were at least seventy men surrounding us, probably more. Every one of them had a blank look on their face. Every weapon imaginable was in sight: assault rifles, semiautomatics, all types of melee weapons, and even a chainsaw. The RV was in front of us, and Eugene on his knees, a gun pointed to his head by the mustached Savior leader we'd encountered before.

"Welcome to where you're going," he said with malicious glee. "We'll take you're weapons now."

"We can talk-"

"We're done talking. Time to listen."

Saviors approached and stripped them of their weapons. The Uzi and shotgun on me, taken from the dead Saviors at that base, were back in their hands.

"Get her down and get on your knees," the Savior leader demanded. Several of his men moved forward but Abraham rebuffed them, saying we could do it on our own. "W-Where are we?" Maggie asked me, coming to her senses halfway.

"We got caught," I whispered to her. "Rick'll get us out of it. You'll be fine. I'm here, I'm here."

Abraham and I helped Maggie kneel halfway decent, at least for the Saviors not to be on our asses. She was shaking endlessly, so I held onto her lightly. Rick, kneeling at my left, said nothing. He'd finally run out of ideas to get us out of this.

It couldn't get much worse than this, I thought.

But it did. Very, very much worse.

Daryl

After what must've been an eternity in the darkness, I was finally subjected to the light and dragged out. Rosita, Aaron, and Glenn followed closely behind.

We were surrounded by perhaps sixty something Saviors. They obviously had been planning this for a while, because Rick and several others were already kneeling. I spotted Beth holding onto an obviously weakened Maggie. What it was, I didn't know. Probably pregnancy issues. If I had to guess, they were out trying to get her help.

"M-Maggie? Beth?"

Glenn attempted to run towards his wife and her sister, but was prevented from doing so by Dwight. Using my fucking crossbow, he forced Glenn into position, at the very end of the line.

"Looks like we've got a full house," said one of the Saviors. "Let's meet the man Negan." He went up to the RV door and knocked on it.

The man who opened the door and came out was probably in his forties, had slick black hair, and was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket. In his left hand was a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. This was supposedly the same Negan that had terrorized the Hilltop.

"Pissing our pants yet?" Negan asked, flashing a mischievous smile. "No? It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real quick. Which one of these pricks is the leader, Simon?"

"That one," said the Savior officer, pointed at Rick. "He's the guy."

Negan walked up to Rick and looked him down. "Hi. I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people! Not cool. Not fucking cool. You have no idea how uncool that shit is. But… I think you'll be up to speed shortly."

Negan paced a bit, looking at all of us like schoolchildren that got caught drinking and smoking together.

"You see, Rick, whatever you do, you don't mess with the new world order, and it is this. Even if you're fucking stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it, and here it is: give me your shit, or I will kill you."

I looked at the others. Glenn was focused on Maggie, and by extension Beth. Abraham was as blank as most of the Saviors. Michonne looked to Rick. Carl remained defiant. And Eugene was probably pissing his pants. To most of us, Negan was the Governor if the Governor had managed to capture us instead of just front on assaults.

This was worse than Woodbury.

"Today was career day," continued Negan. He sure loved to hear himself talk and gloat. "We invested a shit ton to show you what I can do. You all work for me now, that's your new job. Now, I understand that's a mighty big pill to swallow, but swallow it… you most certainly will."

I noticed, though the throbs of pain from the shoulder gunshot wound from Dwight, that Beth was the only woman in the group not showing fear on her face. Instead, she stared down Negan with her eyes. She had to be as scared as the rest of us, but she was better at hiding it.

As before, a lot can happen in a few months.

"You ruled the roost," Negan said to Rick. As the leader, Negan was taking an interest in sticking superiority in his face. "You built something. But the word is out: you are not safe. Not even close. In fact, you are fucked, more fucked if you don't give me what I want, and what I want is half your shit. If that's too much, you can find, steal, or make more, and sooner or later it'll all even out."

What made this shitstorm worse is that there was no visible way out. No hidden way to bite necks, no Carol waiting in the shadows to mow everyone down again.

"So if somebody knocks on your door… you open up. We own that fucking door now. If you try to resist us, we will knock that fucker down without a thought. You get that?" Negan put a hand to his ear and leaned down, pretending to hear a reply from Rick. Rick, of course, didn't say anything. "What, no answer?"

Yep, no answer. None of us were going to let this fucker feel good about himself.

"You didn't think you were going to get through this without getting punished, now did you? I don't want to kill you people. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're fucking dead, now can you? But Rick, you killed my people, a whole goddamn lot of them. Bud and his motorbike dick brigade, everyone at Paula's base, half of Dwight's boys… hell, there's probably more. But for all their deaths, well… for that you gotta fuckin' pay. So now.. I'm going to beat the shit out of one of you."

Negan now kneeled down to our level and stuck the barbed wire bat in Rick's face. "This is Lucille. And she is awesome. All of this, just to figure out which one of you gets the honor."

Beth

Throughout Negan's long monologue, Beth remained focused on keeping Maggie upright and alright. But for a moment, her thoughts drifted back to Leo. "Don't get your panties in a fucking bundle," she could hear him saying. "You either give up or make the worst of every goddamn thing you get thrown at your face."

Admittedly he hadn't been held at gunpoint by masses of other humans, but it was solid advice. Since Maggie couldn't do anything, she did. She eyed Negan as he began making the rounds through people. Abraham also stared Negan down, but the enemy just rolled his eyes, rubbed his beard, and went onto Carl.

"Lighten up kid, at least cry a little." Carl looked down, and then Negan moved on to whoever he wanted to pick on next. That person was Maggie.

"Jeez-us, you look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery-"

I was prepared to hold Maggie down and get in the way of Negan when Glenn began yelling and running towards Maggie. Two of the Saviors grabbed him and dragged him back to his spot, kicking and screaming along the way.

"Nope, get him back in line," said Negan, now looking at me. "First's one free, I get it. It's an emotional moment. Do that again and I will shut that shit down, no exceptions… And who might you be, blondie?"

"I'm her sister."

"Really? Don't look like it at first." Negan bend down, and placed the bat an inch from my eye, where a barb from the barbed wire might scratch me hard. "Holy shit. Anyone else would have flinched to that, or cried, or some other shit. You really don't scare easy, do you?"

"You'll have to try harder." No emotion from my words, he didn't deserve that. I was actually very scared, but he wasn't going to see it from me. His dark eyes just stared at mine. Then he grinned and laughed for a second.

"Wow. I'm actually impressed. But you don't get to play martyr, girl." Negan stood back up and began rubbing his head. "You know, I simply can't decide. Let's play a game." He began with Glenn. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe." Each person he passed by had the bat stuck in their face. "Catch a tiger by his toe. If he hollers, let him go…"

My heartrate went up again. Maggie's had to have, though I couldn't see it in her condition. The same had to be true for everyone. The old childhood game seemed to have lasted ten times longer with Negan's slow speed and indecision.

"…And you are… it." Negan finally walked forward and stuck the bat in Michonne's face. Rick turned pale and began visibly panting.

"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and THEN we'll start." Rick began muttering "No, no," and looking in Michonne's eyes, who was situated right next to him. She did the same, embracing her inevitable death with some sense of dignity.

"You can blink. You can breathe. You can cry. Hell, you're all going to be doing that." As I tried to get Maggie to look away, Negan brought his bat crashing down on Michonne's forehead.

Michonne was actually my prediction for Negan's kill until the premiere. I was thinking her death could emotionally upset Rick enough for him to become submissive to Negan in the short term.

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