Poker Face

Chapter 81 - Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned

They weren't far from the Hilltop when Gabriel tried to escape, tucking and rolling out of the car and running off into the woods to warn his friends of the trap that had been set. But, as Negan so astutely put it, he couldn't see crap, thanks to a virus he'd just barely survived. Negan, Laura, and Eugene easily caught up and dragged Gabriel back. Fifteen minutes later, the Saviors' convoy pulled off the road, some continuing towards the gates of the Hilltop where they'd demolish the community as they had Alexandria, Negan and the others parking on a hill at the edge of the woods.

Aven slipped out of the back of the truck and made herself scarce among the other Saviors. She was hurt by Negans indescretion but she was only there to watch, to make sure he was okay. She didn't want to make herself known until after the attack. Negan needed to stay focused on the task at hand, not on the fact that she'd disobeyed his orders (though they were orders she didn't have an obligation to follow). She watched from the back of the group as Negan rallied with some of his men, taking a megaphone from one of them and gesturing to his radio. This was part of the plan Aven had been informed on, amplifying several of the Saviors' whistles through the radios and over the megaphone to announce themselves in the most eerie fashion possible.

As usual, part of Aven thought it a cruel, over-dramatic psychological game. But, like the night of the lineup in the woods, she also found it exhilating. The whistling was a very sensory assertion of Negan's dominance, and she couldn't quite bring herself to fully denounce his sensory assertions of dominance.

The group of Saviors Aven had hidden herself in was tasked with sneaking through the woods to get eyes on Rick's group and make sure they were in the valley where Negan had lured them. It was a bright, sunny day with only a slight chill in the air, the wind almost non-existant. Save for the loaded army and the promise of death, it was peaceful. Aven stayed with the lookout group, trailing behind them and watching the fallen leaves crunching under her feet. She was deep in contemplation of what was to come next, both immediately after the attack and in the coming weeks and months. Negan was going to get another piece of her mind for his withholding of information from her, but she wasn't sure she'd even be able to keep the smile off her face once the threat of Rick was gone for good. Maybe she'd wait a few days to rehash their recent arguments and assert her own dominance.

She trailed further and further behind the group, though not so far that she couldn't see and hear them, until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see three walkers slowly stumbling in her direction. The rest of the Saviors didn't notice and the walkers were spread out enough that she'd have time to put each one down before another reached her. The Saviors ahead of her stopped at the edge of the woods and radioed Negan to tell him that Rick and his miniscule army were in position. Aven was already making her way towards the walkers when Negan responded and she was just far enough that she could hear his deep, gravely voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Then she heard his voice loud and clear over the megaphone.

"Well damn, Rick, look at that," Negan drawled, his cocky grin apparent even to those who couldn't see him. "Pegged again, pegged so very hard. I ambushed your ambush with an even bigger ambush." Aven couldn't help but smirk to herself as she unsheathed her knife and took out the first walker. She vaguely heard Rick call something out, probably telling Negan to show himself, to which Negan had his typical response. "I am everywhere. Pick a direction and run, see how you do. Make it fun for all of us." Aven took out the second walker and then the third, using maybe more force than she needed to as the conflicting emotions of the past month came to a head for all parties involved.

Meanwhile, Negan was monologuing his plan and the players involved, how Eugene made this final attack on his ex-friends possible and how Rick was about to watch the people he was responsible for die, starting with Gabriel. But not Dwight, or as Negan referred to him, "a gutless nothing that sucks at life." Rick would see everyone he cared about killed and then be killed himself, but Dwight was be granted yet another opportunity to live, only so he'd have to live with the things he'd done, with his failure to save anyone.