Quick note: Apologise if there are any glaring mistakes in this chapter. I proof read it last night but have suddenly become crazy ill today, so I've not had the energy to do a 'on the day check' like I normally do. Everything seemed ready for upload last night, though, so it should be fine! Please enjoy :)
Chapter 100- Last Day On Earth, Finale: Nothing More Than a Stain on the Earth.
When two human beings divided by hostility are both, at the same time, mystified — no, frightened — by the same apparition, there is a bond that springs up between them, and they find themselves united in the most unexpected way. United in their humanity.
-Mikey's POV-
Glenn's on my right, he's staring at Maggie. She looks dreadful, barely upright, Abraham grabbing her every time she topples in either direction.
I look around. I see Carl at the far end of the line. No Rhys. No Enid.
Someone's walking inside the RV with heavy footsteps.
The door finally swings open.
A man steps out. Negan. His black boots hit the gravel with a crunch like bones underfoot. His hair is jet black and slicked back, a short dark stubble on his face. A dark, zipped leather jacket shrouds him, a blood-red scarf tucked under it. He has a baseball bat slung over his shoulder wrapped tightly in barbwire.
The door swings all the way shut before...
"We pissin' our pants yet?" He speaks, his southern drawl enticing each word to follow the last. "Boy, do I have a feelin' we're gettin' close..."
He makes his way to the far end of the line, grinning down at each and every one of us as he struts up the line, his laugh lines plunging into his cheeks.
"Yep... It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon."
I bow my head, trying not to be seen.
"Which. One. Of. You. Pricks... is the leader?" he twidles his fingers as he tries to guess.
"It's this one," The Savior with the moustache says, pointing to Rick. "He's the guy."
Negan saunters over to Rick, towering over him, bat still balanced over his shoulder.
"Hi. you're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men." He points in Rick's face with a hand gloved in thick leather. "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 fucking idea how not fucking cool that shit is. But I think you're gonna be up to speed here shortly. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Fuck yeah, you are."
Negan grins down the line at everyone, chuckling as each one of us looks to the floor to avoid his gaze.
I find myself crying. I try to stop when he looks at me. His head tilts in curious amusement.
He swivels his head back to Rick.
"You see, Rick, whatever you do. No matter fucking what. You do not mess with the new world order. And the new world order is this... and, it's really very simple so even if you're fuckin' stupid — which you very well may well be — you can understand it. You ready? Here it goes. Pay attention."
The bat slips from his shoulder. Negan presses the tip of its barbed end to Rick's cheek.
"Give me your shit," Negan says rough, bending as he leans closer, a grin igniting from his words, "or I will kill you."
I gulp, shuffling back a little. Glenn's hand finds my back, stopping me before one of them does.
"Today was career day!" Negan cheers, standing straight and holding his arms out wide. He turns to walk down the line, putting his bat in every face as he speaks. "We invested a lot — and I mean, a whole fucking lot — so you would know who I am and what the fuck I can do." He stops in front of Michonne, a few steps from me. "You work for me now. You have shit? You give it to me. That's your job."
Rick shakes his head, drenched in sweat and glancing around with this mad fog in his eyes.
"Now," Negan say, "I know that is a mighty big, nasty pill to swallow but swallow it you most certainly motherfucking will."
Negan strolls back to Rick.
"You ruled the roost. Built something. You thought you were safe... I get it. But... the word is out... you are not safe. Not even fucking close. In fact," he snarls, jabbing Rick's chest with the bat, sending him back on his knees a little, "you are fucked. More fucked if you don't do what I want, and what I want is half your shit..."
I hear Michonne cry, trying to hold her breath.
"If that's too much?"
Daryl's blood is still leaking from the hole in his shoulder.
"—You can go make..."
Rosita's fists are clenched in the dirt.
"—find..."
I look at Carl, who's not scared. At least, he doesn't look it. Not like me.
"—or even steal more... and it'll even out sooner or later."
Negan steps back, illuminated on his stage. "This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So if someone knocks on your door... you fucking let us in... we own that fucking door. You try to fucking stop us? We will fuckin' knock that fucker down!"
My knees start to shake, sharp stones digging against them.
"You understand?" Negan asks Rick, another tap to the shoulder with his bat. When Rick doesn't speak, Negan leans in and holds a hand up to his ear, cupping it for a response. "What? No answer?"
Rick's shaking. Negan doesn't stop.
"You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you?"
Negan steps back, looking down the line both ways.
"I don't wanna kill you people... just wanna make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. And you can't do that if you're fucking dead, now can you? I'm not growin' a garden." He holds a finger to his lips, licking them as he smiles down at us. "But... you killed my people. A whole-fucking-damn-shitload of 'em — more than I'm comfortable with. And for that... well, for that, you've gotta fucking pay."
Negan swings his bat up, running his eyes across each barb before resting it on his shoulder. He scowls, his face turns the most serious it's been, and he speaks with a voice so gravelly and deep that I start to feel sick.
"So now... I am gonna beat the holy fuck fucking fuckedy fuck out of one of you."
"This..." Negan twirls the bat in his hand. "This is Lucille. And. She. Is. Fucking awesome."
He swings the bat back an inch from Sasha, making her flinch and snap her gaze downward.
"All this," Negan says, looking around. "All this is just so we can pick out which one of you pricks gets the honour."
He looks down at Abraham, who sits up and tries to get level with him.
"Huh," Negan steps back, taking him in. Then he rubs his own stubble. "Ugh, I gotta shave this shit."
He walks to the far end of the line from me. My breathing catches in the back of my throat as I watch him stop in front of Carl, picking up the gun lying in the gravel before him. I can see that it's the one Rhys got from the Saviors at the slaughterhouse.
"You got one of our guns, kid," Negan says as he squats down to Carl's level, studying the gun, thumbing the carving on its grip — now a clear depiction of Lucille. "Woah, yeah, this was Paula's piece. You see, she was one of my top gals. Paula ran the outpost your Daddy took out. Did you kill her, kid? My men found her fed to the dead like a damn animal... was that you?"
Carl glares him down, not blinking his eye for a second.
"Shit, kid, lighten up." Negan gives up on grinning to frighten Carl, frowning instead. "At least cry a little..."
Carl's face is stone unchizled with no expression for Negan to read.
Negan laughs. He stands, stuffing the gun into his belt.
He's walking back down the line. He stops at Maggie, inhaling something sharp.
"Jesus! You. Look. Shitty." He raises Lucille above his head. "I should just put you out of your misery right now!"
"NO! NO!" Glenn screams, making me jump as he lurches towards Negan.
Dwight and another Savior tackle him, beating Glenn into the floor, dust and gravel spitting up as they kick and pummel him.
"STOP IT!" Maggie wails.
Negan rolls his eyes at the outburst.
Dwight forces the end of Daryl's crossbow into Glenn's bruised and bloody face.
Glenn begs.
"No," Negan scratches his stubble, clearly annoyed at someone joining him on his stage. "Nope, get him back in line."
Glenn is dragged back beside me as he grunts and pleads, blood oozing from his forehead.
"GHAA," He howls and sobs at Negan. "Don't... don't," he begs.
Negan grins, laughing with a wheeze.
"All right, listen," Negan nods, spinning on the spot and pointing the bat at everyone. "Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions."
"First one's free. It's an emotional moment," Negan points a long leather-clad finger at Glenn and winks. "I get it."
Glenn's shivering, weeping.
Negan lets us sit in that threat as he watches. His eyes fall onto me.
"Two kids?" Negan glances at Rick. "You brought two kids out here?"
Negan walks down the line towards me. Michonne sits up likes she's trying to get his attention off me, but he breezes past her.
"What's your name, kid?"
I choke on a sob.
"Christ," he shakes his head, pointing to Carl as he stares at me. "You're not as good as number one... I mean fuck, kid," he tilts his gaze on me. "You. Are. Pathetic."
He grins as he walks away. "We'll work on that."
He heads back down the line, looking down at Rick, who is more broken than I've ever seen him. Then I've ever seen anyone.
"Sucks, don't it?" Negan smirks. "The moment you realise you don't know shit."
Rick looks up at him, his teeth clenched.
Negan glances back at Carl, then to Rick again. He smiles, doing it again. Then his eyes spark.
"Holy-fucking-shit," he gasps, covering his mouth in excitement. He points to Carl with Lucille, then back to Rick. "This is your fuckin' kid, right?" Negan can't stop his laugh, obviously finding it hilarious. "I mean, the weeping pussy over there sure as hell isn't," He says, pointing to me. "But this is definitely your kid!"
"Just stop this!" Rick yells.
"Hey!" Negan roars over him. "Do. Not. Make. Me. Kill the little future serial killer. Don't make it easy on me!" He sticks his tongue between his teeth. "I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order."
He struts back my way, Lucille dragging in the gravel behind him. He starts whistling those two notes.
High.
Low.
High.
Low.
"I simply cannot decide," he chuckles, stepping away. He suddenly spins back around with a wicked grin spreading on his face. "I got an idea..."
He points Lucille at Rick's face.
"Eenie..."
Then Maggie's.
"—Meenie..."
Abraham.
"—Miney..."
Michonne.
"—Mo..."
He keeps going.
"—Catch a tiger... by his toe..."
I gasp when he passes Glenn and me.
"—If he hollers... let him go..."
We're too scared to look at him.
"—My mother told me to pick the very best one..."
But we can't look away.
"—And you... are... it."
He twirls Lucille, the squeak of ravenous wood in his leather glove. The bat leers at Abraham.
My stomach drops.
"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father... and then we'll start. You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doin' that."
THWACK!
Abraham's head caves. He slips to his hands in the dirt and gravel, his head dented, blood spurting from a crack in his scalp.
He. Sits. Back. Up.
"Oh! Look at that!" Negan squarks, cheering him on. "Taking it like a champ!"
"Suck... my... nuts—"
CLUNK!
Abraham hits the floor harder than anyone ever has.
THAKK!
He doesn't get up again.
WRAKK!
Negan turn's Abraham's head into a cavern. A puddle. Nothing more than a stain on the earth. And the earth shakes with every hit.
SPLAUGG!
Negan keeps pounding where Abraham's head was, where there's just gore and mush now.
It feels like hours, days, years pass until Negan stops. Everything is quiet... until Negan bursts out laughing.
"Did you hear that?" he cackles. "He said... suck my nuts!"
Sasha's crying.
Rosita's lip trembles.
Daryl can't look.
Rick's teeth are bared.
My stomach empties on the floor in front of me, covering my hands and knees.
"Oh my goodness, look at this!" Negan flicks up Lucille, spraying Abraham's brains across half our faces. "You guys, look at my dirty girl!"
He draws the bat before my eyes, looking down at the puddle of puke by my knees. "Damn... never seen someone take it so personal. Take a peek... isn't she fucking beautiful?"
My eyes hit the bat. Offal caught between the red barbs. I grit my teeth to stop more bile, digging my hands into the floor, puke covering them.
Rosita gasps and Negan puts the bat an inch from her face.
"Sweetheart... Lay your eyes on this."
She won't.
Negan looks at Abraham's corpse, pointing Lucille's dripping body at it.
"Oh, damn. Were you... were you together?" He brings the bat back to Rosita's face.
Rosita can't move. The bat too close.
"That sucks..."
He pushes it closer.
"But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this..."
The bat is almost touching her. Then Negan's swinging Lucille to point at what's left of Abraham again.
"Red — and god-fucking-damn, he was, is, and will ever be Red. He just took one or six or seven for the team!"
He puts the bat back to her cheek.
"So, take... a damn... look. TAKE A DAMN LOOK!"
Daryl springs off his knees, cracking his fist across Negan's face, knocking the giant down.
Saviors tackle Daryl to the floor.
"Daryl!" Rick shouts.
"NO!" Negan bellows at Rick, pointing the dripping bat at him. "Oh, no..."
The giant rises taller, smirking, rubbing his bruised cheek.
"That," Negan points at Daryl, squatting down to him. "That is a no-no. The whole fucking thing— not one bit of that shit flies here!"
Dwight points Daryl's crossbow at Daryl's head pressed to the floor.
"Do you want me to do it?" he breathes. "Right here."
"No," Negan says, grinning up at Dwight, "you don't kill them... not until you try a little."
Daryl's dragged back in line. Negan walks up to me and Glenn, his boot right beside me. He looks down at me for a long second, like he's deciding on something, then his eyes drift back to address everyone else.
"And anyway... that's not how it works. Now I already told you people... first one's fucking free, then — what did I fucking say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions. 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 fucking important. I need you to know me. So... back to it."
The bat comes down again.
I hear Glenn's skull crack beside me.
Lucille thunders off his head.
A spurt of blood covers the right side of my face.
I try my best to scream, but it all gets caught up with tears and vomit. I just choke. Watching Glenn crumple to the floor.
Negan hits him again.
Maggie wails.
Glenn pulls himself up, slower than Abraham had. Gravel sticks to his face. His eyeball hangs from its socket. His gaping mouth tries to make words come out, but they're just moans.
"M— Mag— MM—"
Glenn's dead. He has to be. His brain just hasn't got there yet, trying to speak before he goes, something to do before he leaves. He's looking at nothing but Maggie, and she can't stop crying as she watches him struggle for her.
Negan puts Lucille behind his back, leaning toward Glenn.
"Buddy, you still there? I just don't know... it seems like you're trying to speak. But you just took a hell of a fucking hit! I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped the fuck out, and it is gross as shit!"
I don't know what to do. Nothing I can do. I can't reach out. I just watch like everyone else, Glenn's blood hot against my cheek, my mouth wide open.
Negan laughs. "Pretty sure you're scaring this pussy-ass kid, too!"
Glenn is still looking at Maggie.
"Mag— Maggie, I— I— I'll find you..."
Negan doesn't stop it.
He makes us all watch as Glenn shudders and wobbles, bleeding from everything and everywhere.
He makes Glenn suffer.
He makes us see it.
Makes it sink in.
"Oh..."
Negan looks at Maggie, walking up to her and leaving Glenn beside me as he gags and wheezes. I can't help.
"Oh, hell. I can see this is hard on you guys. I am sorry. I truly am. But I did say it. No exceptions!"
He swings Lucille around, cracking Glenn across the cheek and sending him back to the earth.
I find my scream this time.
THAKK!
Maggie screams.
KRAKK!
Glenn's head is splayed out.
SPLAUGG!
Blood flies up as Lucille catches the shining moonlight down her crimson back. Glenn died a long time ago, but Negan pummels him a hundred times more before stopping.
Everyone is crying.
Negan is laughing.
"Lucille is thirsty," Negan pants. "She is a vampire bat!"
He walks back to Rick.
"What? Was the joke that bad?"
Rick whispers something I can't hear.
Negan squats down.
"What? I didn't quite catch that. You're gonna have to speak up."
Rick sits forward on his knees, him and Negan face to face.
"Not today," Rick says, "not tomorrow..." he glares at Negan, "but I'm gonna kill you."
"Jesus," Negan says, sucking on his teeth. "Simon, what did he have, a knife?"
"Uh, he had a hatchet," the guy with the moustache answers.
"A hatchet?" Negan frowns.
"He had an axe," Simon nods.
Negan chuckles, speaking to Rick.
"Simon's my right-hand man. Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without them? A whole lot of fucking work. Do you have one? Maybe one of these fine people still breathing? Oh... or did I just..."
He flicks his bat and clicks his tongue.
He smiles with his hand out in Simon's direction. "Sure. Yeah. Gimme his axe."
Simon walks out and hands it over and Negan looks at it unimpressed before standing up and tucking it under his belt. He grabs the back of Rick's jacket, dragging him towards the RV.
"I'll be right back," Negan says. "Maybe Rick will be with me. And if not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we?"
Rick twists and kicks in Negan's grip as he's tossed into the RV, Negan climbing in behind him.
"I mean... the ones that are left."
The RV slowly pulls away.
A/N
Quote was from Alice Munro's book Runaway, and has been in this story before for those with eagle eyes. It'll be brought back up later anyway.
Combined all the deaths into one chapter 'cause I didn't like the cliff hanger.
Haven't done this in a while, but it feels right for the these core members, here you go:
Rest in Peace, Glenn, the heart and soul of our group.
Rest in Peace, Abraham, maybe the best therapist Rhys ever had.