Chapter 53-Bad dreams
It had seemed like such a simple idea.
The factory was full of people, almost a sanctuary for humans, but up close and personal? It was a damn free for all.
Outside the tents, disarrayed, people just aimlessly walking about. Many cowered in fear of the leader of this place, who used his group of thugs to bully and harass them, keeping them weak.
But often, the people said it was better in there than out there.
The plan was simple.
Negan tried to rally some of the people around the factory, telling them to get their shit together and fight to survive.
But apparently, word had gotten out to the leader.
Hence the current situation, him, Laura, and Franklin were all tied to the wall while three men with guns stood in front of them.
Franklin said, trying to barter, "Listen, we can work this out. I'm a doctor-"
*CRACK!*
A rifle butt to the head was his answer.
Laura screamed, "Leave him alone!"
The man snapped, "Shut up! Wait for the boss, man!"
Soon enough? The door opened, and the de facto 'leader' of this place came inside...he was average, built, and frame but had a mean-looking face...always with a baseball cap on his head as he smirked. "Well, how are ya fucking doing, guests? Wow, not even a week under here, and you shits are already causing trouble?"
Negan quipped, "What can I say? I'll leave a bad review."
"Ooooooooh, we got ourselves a talker, boys!" He sneered.
"Nate, come on, why don't we just plug these two?" Another of the guards asked.
The third remained silent, staring at this impassively.
Holding a hand up, Nate came up to Laura "Where's the fun in that...your a pretty little thing, ain't you darling?"
Laura just spat in his face, causing the factory leader to pause...then punched her in the face.
"HEY! Leave her alone!" Franklin barked, trying to struggle against his bonds.
"Oh ho HO! Got some fight in you? I like that!" Nate pointed at Franklin. "You see, I don't think you three Stooges get it. Trying to rouse the people up against us? Why we're keeping people safe. And if they want to leave, the gate's always open!" He finished with a cruel grin, "Unless they have a better chance out there."
Franklin glared at him. "You're just a monster and a coward."
"..." Nate tilted his head then reached casually into his pocket.
*BANG!*
And shot Franklin in the head.
Negan stared in shock.
Laura screamed "DADDY!"
"He ain't hearing you, darling." Nate said casually, "Consider that punishment for the spit and hell, never liked his kind to begin with."
"...You really don't know what your doing, do you?"
Nate paused, looking at the sole other man now. "What?"
"You're just using power and fear? That's sucks." Negan decided to keep talking, not like he had anything else. "And you killed a DOCTOR? REALLY!? People are a resource that's dwindling down like shit nowadays! You need respect and to KNOW WHAT YOUR ACTUALLY doing! Your ass doesn't know shit from a turd!"
Nate sneered and came forward. "Oh really?"
"All your doing is swinging your dick around, showing how your the 'boss' and just hold up in here? Bitch! GO out there, save people, help them...make them stronger instead of forcing them to be weak! Your just a fucking idiot, and if you think you can last long enough to see civilization come back, then you're screwed."
Nate blinked then said coldly, "That's it...kill em."
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
Nate and the other two guards dropped to the ground as the third guard, silent and observing, lowered his gun.
Laura, still in tears, looked up. "W...what?"
"Yeah, your right. That guy was just a damn idiot." The man came up out of the darkened shadows...the first thing Negan saw was the guy's damned mustache as he untied the pair. "You? Hmmm, you seem like you know what you're doing."
"Huh...thanks." Negan said, then raised his hand. "I'm Negan, this is Laura."
The guard smiled and shook his hand. "Simon, nice to meetcha."
"GAH!" Simon casually looked over to see Nate coughing out blood, his shirt darkening with blood. "You...you fucking...traitor..."
"I look after one person...numero Uno..." Simon looked up. "So this idiot still has some more guys around. What say the three of us take this place and whipped these guys into shape?"
Negan grinned and went to the corner where their things had been thrown. "Sounds like a plan...FIRST."
He took the barbed wire bat...paused...then handed it to Laura. "I'll bury him outside. All yours."
With murder in her eyes...Laura stormed forward and stood over the coughing fallen thug, pleading, "Wait...wait-"
And she raised the bat up...
Negan and his new friend left just as the room filled with loud...
*CRACK!*
*CRACK!*
*CRACK!*
Laura's P.O.V
Laura rose up with a gasp. She looked around the room and took a deep breath. Troy slept beside her. Negan slept on the couch, snoring. Laura climbed out of bed and walked towards the door. She grabbed her coat and walked outside. The early morning air hit her, and she wrapped herself in her coat. The sun was starting to rise. She walks away from her trailer and sees Carl by the anvil. "What are you doing up this early?" She asks Carl, who looks at her.
"I could be asking you the same," Carl says as he sets the hammer down.
"Bad dream," Laura answers. "You?"
"Same," Carl answers, nodding. "I didn't feel like going back to sleep," He says as Laura sits down. "What was your dream?"
"I was dreaming of my Dad's death," Laura admits. "That was the same day we met Simon. Our lives would have been much better if we never met him."
"I was dreaming of my Mom," Carl answers back, his one eye showing sympathy.
"Negan said that you had to shoot her, she was giving birth to your sister right?" Laura says. Carl nods as he sits down across from her.
"Maggie had Judith. She couldn't do it. It was my job. She was my Mom," Carl says firmly. "I dreamed that I was seeing her again...and sometimes I wonder what she would think of me now? She wanted me to do what was right instead of what's easy, but...sometimes the right thing get's cluttered."
"Carl I didn't know her so I wouldn't say. But if she's anything like your Dad is, she'd be proud of you." Laura says. "Carl, you were the only person who wanted Negan alive. You were the only person who wanted peace. Negan and the saviors are alive because of you. I'm alive because of you."
"Thanks," Carl says smiling at first then his face fell. "I've also caused so many problems. If Maggie knew, she'd hate me."
"Maggie needs to let her revenge go. We won't get further in this world by killing each other and holding grudges," Laura says.
"I don't see that happening. She loved Glenn...she doesn't have to forgive him, but I just want her to show Hershel that killing isn't the answer to everything. Since this shit started, all people have done is attack and kill one another. We have to show a better way." Carl says as she sets his hammer down. "I'm going to try to sleep a little bit more."
Laura nods as Carl walks away.
As he did, she just looked up at Barrington House...considering her options and what she could do.
She knew he did brutal terrible things, but the fact was she owed him too much to just let him die like a dog.
Rick's P.O.V
Rick walks up to Sherry as she is eating breakfast at one of the camp's tables. "Mind if I sit?" Rick asks Sherry.
"Be my guest," She says. Rick nods as he sits down.
"I'm Rick Grimes," Rick says.
"The famous Rick Grimes. You're the guy who beat Negan." Sherry says with a smirk.
"Wouldn't have been able to do it without you, and everyone else," Rick says, waving it off, his face reddening with embarrassment.
"What I did do? I left before the uprising started." Sherry asks, looking confused
"Yes, but you let Daryl out. Dwight came to our side because you left." Rick says. "But that's not why I'm here. I don't imagine you want to live here, and depending on how things go with Dwight, I imagine you won't want to live at the campgrounds?"
"I wouldn't want to live there regardless of Dwight. Negan lives there. Just because I didn't kill him doesn't mean I like him. So what are my options?"
"Hilltop, Alexandra, The Kingdom, Oceanside," Rick answers, knowing that Sherry would rather kill herself than live at the Sanctuary or at least among the Saviors again
"I'll pass on Hilltop." Sherry says, unsure if the leader there would take in Negan's 'whores. "Let me think about it."
"Carol's going back to the Kingdom today for some more supplies. Maybe you should go with her, check the place out before " Rick says.
"Who's Carol?" Sherry asks. Rick looks around.
"She's talking to Shane, woman with the short grey hair" Rick says. Sherry turns around and nods.
"Got it, and...thank you," Sherry says as Rick stands up.
"No, thank you. Daryl's my brother, he would have died in there if it weren't for you. We owe you that."
Sherry smiled and nodded, before turning to leave.
Negan's P.O.V
Negan opens the door to the trailer and steps down the stairs. "You look like shit," Carl says as he walks over to him.
"Thanks, Carl nice to see you two. Still think I'm a better sight than the hole you got in your head," Negan says jokingly, causing Carl to just snort. "But yeah feel like shit too. I assume you are here to be my guard."
"Yeah, I was told you escort to breakfast," Carl says with a smirk
"Oh, how life has changed. I went from being the leader of a region, almost a thousand people in total to being guarded by a teenager," Negan says.
"You always this grouchy in the morning or is this an old man thing?"
Negan just side-eyed him "It's you so I'm letting that one pass."
Negan follows Carl as he leads them to the table Daryl, Alicia, Troy, Laura, and Enid were sitting at. Negan sits down beside Laura. He looks at Daryl, who is holding Merle. "You look a lot less intimidating with a baby in your arms."
"Watch it, I can still kick your ass with a baby in my arms,"Daryl warns.
Negan just mockingly raised his hands in surrender.
"After this, Edwards wants to see you and look at the wound," Laura informed
"Do you know what Sherry and John's Dad are going to go? Where are they going to live?" Negan asks Daryl.
"No. I think Dorie will live at the campgrounds. Sherry, I don't know," Daryl answers. "I imagine whenever she goes, Dwight will follow.
"If they stay together," Troy says.
"If they stay together?" Negan questioned, then grimaced remembering Dwight and Amanda getting close in recent months "Ok changing the subject, did….uh…Hilltops Alpha Female in charge say anything about me?"
"She is eating in her office because she thinks if she sees you out here, she might finish the job," Alicia says bluntly.
"I would rather you take me to Alexandria. She shouldn't have to hide in her office because I'm here." Negan looked at the House warily
"She won't stay in there long. She's just preparing herself." Daryl says. Negan nods, looking at the House again.
Unbeseeing to any of them, said leader was glancing through her windows…
Looking at Carl and Negan sitting side by side….
Her mind racing.
Reilly's P.O.V
Reilly looks up at Rick as he walks into the tent. "I was wondering when you would show up," Reilly says with a sigh. Rick nods as he sits down.
"How many of your people lost someone in the war?" Rick asks Reilly, point-blank
"I don't know," Reilly says after a moment's surprise. "A few of them, I think. Hell who hasn't these days."
"Find out who they may want to kill, Negan, or me or somebody else," Rick says. "We already have to deal with Oceanside and anyone left from Alexandria and the Kingdom. I don't need to deal with the Saviors trying to kill Negan."
"I'll find out who," Reilly says. "I'll ask Arat to ask around."
Rick nods. "Luke shot himself. But we can't let this go unpunished for now on."
Rick left the tent, Reiley asking "what about the guns?"
"Keep them for now, but tell them they're on very thin ice." Rick warned over his shoulder.
Reiley close his eyes, cursing Norris for letting his gun get stolen.
Dwight's P.O.V
Dwight walks through the woods with an Ar around his shoulder. "I assign partners, so people aren't in the woods alone." Amanda scolds as she catches up to him. "
"I needed to clear my head." Dwight says flatly.
"Yeah, it has been a crazy couple of days. I know you got alot going on with your wife suddenly reappearing." Amanda says. "Am I going to have to find myself a new partner?"
"I don't know. Things are complicated." Dwight says with a sigh.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Amanda asks as she stops. Dwight looks at her.
"You're the thing that complicates things," Dwight says after a moment.
"Oh," Amanda says. Dwight nods as he starts to walk again. Amanda follows him silently.
Thanks for reading. I think there will be two or three more chapters before we go into the timeframe when Oceanside starts killing people. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time