Candy (Walking Dead Negan Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

During the whole trip to the place Negan had referred to as The Sanctuary, she and the girls were blindfolded. She sat in the backseat of a van that smelled like musk, sweat, and dirty socks with the girls sitting close to her. She knew the girls were afraid. Who wouldn't be when the men whom they had pledged their alliance to looked downright intimidating. At the same time, she knew that she had taught the girls enough. She always told them that if they don't feel brave enough, at least put on a brave face because no one would be able to tell the difference but yourself. She knew it was an impulsive decision to come with Negan and his men. While she thought she can survive in the woods with hardly any food, she knew that she can't say the same for the girls. She had three girls to look after, they were her priority and if Negan had shelter and food like he claimed, then her impulsive decision should be worth it...she hoped.

Although she could not see, she could tell that Negan was not in the vehicle where they had thrown her and the girls in. Instead, the voices from the front of the vehicle were unfamiliar. They talked very briefly about why Negan didn't bash her head in with his bat or any of the girls' for that matter. They thought it was surprising.

"He probably didn't want the kids to see, it'll be too harsh to show them something so gruesome," one of the men in the van spoke in response.

"I think he just wanted to bang her so he's keeping her alive," another added.

They spoke in low voices but she heard every single word they uttered. In the end, she concluded that Negan was not someone to mess with. It was evident that even his own men didn't understand his way of thinking and he intimidated them for that reason. Her stomach lurched as she thought about whether she made the worse decision and dragged the girls with her on the process. If their lives were ever at risk in the hands of the new group they joined, it was single-handedly her fault.

Some time later and she felt the vehicle slow down. Outside, she could hear the echoing growls and hisses of what seemed to be a large number of the undead. She began to fear that they have come across a large herd and that she would die with her hands tied up while blindfolded in the back of a stinky van but the driver eventually stepped on the gas again and the noises of the undead grew fainter and fainter. A few minutes later and the van stopped, she figured that they have arrived. She relied on her ears as she listened intently. She could hear muffled voices outside and a few minutes later, someone opened the passenger door of the van.

Someone grabbed the girl closest to the door, eight-year-old Molly. "Mommy!" she called shakily as two hands firmly grabbed her and guided her out of the van.

"It's okay baby, I'm right behind you," she called out from inside the van in an attempt to comfort the child.

A minute later and she felt a pair hands grab a hold of her bounded hands firmly as the person who held her guided her out of the vehicle. One of the person's hands wore leather gloves while the other was bare. As soon as she stepped out, she felt the chilly breeze against her face. A split second later, whoever it was who took her out of the van removed her blindfold. The first thing she saw was someone's torso donning a familiar black, leather jacket. She knew instantly who it was as she looked up and saw the smug expression on his face. Their brown eyes met and she instantly looked away, scowling and unimpressed.

He began to untie her hands as she looked around her new surroundings. It seemed that the so-called Sanctuary was an old factory that he and his group had transformed into a home. The large, old building stood in front of her. The shocking thing was that the compound was not only surrounded with chain-link fences for protection but a wall of living and growling walkers that were chained and staked also surrounded it. She realised they never encountered a large herd of the undead and it was simply the gate of the Sanctuary that was the source of the noise she heard earlier.

"Mom!" she turned her gaze to her girls as they ran up to her and quickly, she turned away from Negan to turn her attention to them.

"Come on, let's get inside, I'm fucking exhausted," Negan declared, prompting the new recruits of the group to follow him while the rest of the men followed closely behind. They were alert and cautious since they learned from earlier experience that she can be pretty darn unpredictable.

The inside of the factory looked pleasantly clean which greatly contrasted the unpleasant surroundings outside the gates. A man who guarded the door greeted Negan upon their arrival with no questions asked about the new people behind him. Negan dismissed his thugs with a simple wave of his hand, leaving her and the girls in his company. He took the stairs leading to the upper level of the compound with his bat still in his hand as she and the girls followed behind.

"This place is no five fucking star hotel," he began as he walked through an empty corridor, his footsteps were loud and heavy. He reached the end of the corridor and opened a door that let out a noisy creak before turning his gaze to the woman with three, sleepy yet cautious looking girls. He turned his gaze towards the approaching figure behind Tully and nodded.

"We took what we needed, Negan," spoke the newcomer, one of his men. The man had three familiar looking backpacks with him that he left on the ground next to Tully before he excused himself.

"Those bags now contain only your clothes and the little knick-knacks you all own. All the shit in there that would be useful to me are now mine like your weapons for example," Negan declared. He nodded towards the room and wordlessly, the woman motioned for the girls to get inside as she picked up the bags, they were much lighter than they were before. "I'll see you bright and early, sunshine, you have lots of fucking work to do to earn some fucking points to pay for your accommodation and all the shit you will need to survive here," grinned Negan as he walked past her and made his way back to the direction he had come from.

She gathered her bags and entered the room he had provided her and the girls. The room was eerily bare. Judging by the dust marks on the floor, she guessed that the room used to have stuff in it that has been removed for some time now. She assumed that the room was some sort of an office but now, it would be the room she would share with her girls. Light from the moonlit night sky crept inside the room through the large glass window, enabling them to have some natural light in the dark room given that there were no candles to help them see better.

She was relieved to see that Negan's men did not take the single sleeping mat they owned. She laid it out on the floor before searching the other bags for the blanket that she and the girls shared. She was relieved to find it also. While the girls were lying down on the mat and were kept warm by the blanket, she busied herself unpacking their bags. She placed their items in an organised manner on the floor and quickly noted the items that were missing which included the two spare guns and several knives along with a flashlight they owned, the two precious boxes of matches and all her prized smoke bombs that she acquired from ransacking a joke shop.

"Mommy," she heard Molly call her, earning her attention. She turned to look at the girls and realised that they were all still wide awake. "Is this where we're going to live from now on?" she asked.

"Yes. For a little while," she replied as she smiled reassuringly at the girls.

"I don't like this place, Mom," declared Carly.

"Me too," claimed Jamie.

"Can we go somewhere else?" Carly wondered.

She abandoned the chore she had been busy with and sat close to the girls. "I know that those men were scary but they have a good place here. We need this right now," she explained, "I promise that if you girls still feel the same in a couple of weeks, we'll leave this place and go somewhere else. Just give it a try. I'm scared and intimidated too but I want to see what this place can offer us. Who knows, this place might be the home we've been looking for." She knew that being optimistic was her only way of comforting the girls. They have gotten far with her optimism. One of the reasons why the girls trusted her was because of it. She just hoped that the Sanctuary would truly live up to its name.