Welcome to the room of people
Who have rooms of people that they loved one day
Docked away
Just because we check the guns at the door
Doesn't mean our brains will change from hand grenades
You're lovin' on the psychopath sitting next to you
You're lovin' on the murderer sitting next to you
You'll think, how'd I get here, sitting next to you?
~•~
He could see the headlights, the roaring sound of tyres on gravel filling the night. He could hear the whistling, the manic laughter, the suspence. He could feel the tension in the air, so thick he could cut it with a knife. He knew something was about to happen, something big. He would be caught in the middle of it if he didn't move. But he didn't want to move. He wanted to know who those people were, the good ones and the bad. He wanted to watch, learn and listen.
So he sat, his back pressed tightly to the tree. His feet dangling off a branch meters from the ground. And he waited.
~•~
The Saviors.
Lauren felt the air leave her lungs. She had made a huge mistake, the epitome of all mistakes she had ever made. She should never have risked so much to take them down. She should have thought more, not let her ego surpass her mind. She was going to pay for her stupidity, and she knew what her price would be.
They didn't move, didn't advance. They just stood there. A dozen of them in total, their cars parked behind them as some kind of blockade. She could see Dwight, a sadistic smile plastered across his scarred face.
Lauren's hands clenched tightly together, the image of Rachel's limp body hitting the ground flashing before her eyes. She could still see Jo's last movement as he grasped to get closer to the girl he loved. It was forever burned into her memories. She wouldn't forget it. She wouldn't let Dwight live while they died.
"Lauren no," Carl had stood up, gently taking the crossbow from her hand. She snapped back into reality, not even aware she had picked it back up. She nodded, inhaling a deep breath.
"Turn this van around," She ordered, her eyes still holding Carl's gaze, "Now."
He had caged her in his arms, holding himself upright as the van screeched into reverse and skidded into a full 'U' turn. He willed her to keep her composure.
"You're going to give them everything you've got," He whispered so only she could hear him, "No holding back anymore. You are going to kill anyone than stands between you and your freedom. We stand behind you, we listen to you. You're our leader. Lead us."
Lauren simply nodded, suddenly at a loss of words. She pressed her lips to his, a promise that she would never fail him. She loved him more than anyone could ever understand. She stepped out of his arms, picking up her weapons. She stepped up to the front of the van, her hands resting on the backs of the front seats as she peered out the windows.
They had made it only under a mile from the Saviors when Lauren called for Rick to stop the van.
"There's more of them," She said cooly, her eyes locked on the next dozen Saviors blocking their path. "They're closing in on us. Fuck. Reverse."
Rick complied, the van moving backward. He turned, planting his foot firmly on the accelerator.
"What are we going to do now?" He asked and Lauren pursed her lips, her heart hammering dispite her cool exterior. She checked the wing mirror. They had lost sight of the Saviors, but no doubt both groups were closing in on them.
"Pull over on the right side of the road," She said sterly, the van pulling an immediate brake.
Lauren turned, addressing the whole van.
"When these doors open I want you to cross this road and run as fast as you can and do not stop for anything," She said, fear trickling into her veins like a poison, "Run and when you're far enough away. Hide. Get back to Greenview and fight whatever comes your way. Some of us might not make it, there could be hundreds of them waiting for us wherever we go. But we have to try. Our lives are at stake. Go.. and don't look back."
She grasped Carl's hand, pulling him out of the van. She pushed him forward and waited until everyone had left the van. She closed the doors and left it parked on the side of the road. She could see Maggie and Glenn disappear into the darkness together. Georgina, Sam and Chloe had already vanished. Carl and Rick stood by the road, waiting for Lauren. She pumped her legs, sprinting into the trees with Carl at her side.
She could hear nothing else but the sound of their footsteps as they ran through the trees, darkness encasing them. Her heart hammered as she ran, her breaths fast and laboured.
Then she heard it, the faintest of sounds, but she still heard it.
Whistling.
She stopped dead, spinning around with her crossbow in hand. She heard it again and again, seeming like it was getting closer and closer.
"Carl," She whispered, realising that he was no longer at her side. She was alone. She whipped her head around, her chest aching with dread and.. fear? She haden't felt it in so long, pure and raw fear. She was scared. Scared of dying, of loosing Carl, of losing everything she had built, everything she had found. Her muscles tensed, her heart pounding.
The whistling grew louder, she couldn't escape it. It was coming from every direction. She could hear screaming, a high pitched scream. Maggie. Shouting. Glenn. She could hear cracking twigs, footsteps in the distance.
They were the predators and she was the prey.
She ran, the shouting echoing through the night as each of her friends ran to the hands of the Saviors. She could do nothing. It was all her fault. She would make them pay, she had to. She ran at the beat of her heart, not even sure where she would end up.
Then she heard it.
Her name, a scream that forced her to stop running. She inhaled a sharp breath. Fear dug its claws into her heart. She heard it again, him calling her name. Him telling her to run. She couldn't do it, she couldn't leave him.
"Carl," She screamed, cutting her throat raw. She didn't care. She ran back in the direction she came, towards the sound of his voice that had stopped. She didn't hear any gunshots. No sounds but the weight his voice left in the breeze.
Whistling.
Much closer now. She knew they were watching her. The high pitched sounds echoed around her, closing in like a tidal wave waiting to drown her. She spun around, her crossbow pointed forward. She heard it behind her, she spun, her weapon held high.
"Come out," She spat maliciously, "Or are you afraid?"
Silence.
She was clutching at straws, playing a game she was not able to win. She knew goading them wouldn't further her end but if she would die tonight, she would take some of them with her.
She heard a twig snap behind her and she spun around, a bolt flying from her crossbow. A gargle echoed into the air before a man hit the ground. Before she could turn, someone knocked her down, her crossbow clattering along the ground. She launched herself at him, fists flying towards his face and throat. She fell to the ground, pulling him down with her. She grabbed the combat knife from her thigh and dug it deep into his neck, the blood spurting across one side of her face and hands. She stood to her feet slowly, the knife held defensively.
She circled, the Saviors appearing from the trees. She cursed inwardly. Five of them and one of her. One of them held her crossbow, he pointed it towards her, not uttering a word but a single two-tone whistle. He didn't move, and neither did she. A pair of musceled arms wrapped around her and she screeched. The knife was taken from her hand and the machete and quiver from her back.
"So many men for just one little girl," She laughed sadistically, "Are you afraid of me?"
A piece of cloth was shoved into her mouth and tied around the back of her head. She grumbled in protest. They pulled her through the forest, her bound hands painfully chafing against the rough rope. She could hear the shouting and cheering before she saw the shine of a dozen headlights.
Her eyes widened at the amount of Saviors circled around a large open area. Perhaps even a hundred of them. How could they ever beat them? Fear trickled through her veins. Her eyes landed on the open space in the centre of the circle of Saviors. Thirteen people sat hunched over, arms bound behind their backs. She could see Daryl, Michonne, Carol, Abraham, Rosita and Tara over the furthest side from Lauren. There was a space between them and the others. Sam, Carl, Chloe, Rick, Maggie, Glenn and Sasha. No Georgina in sight.
She could hear shouting as she was pushed into the circle. She pulled against her captor, but she was forced into submission. He roughly dragged her towards the centre, her group turning to look as their leader was pushed forward. Her eyes met Carl's who's heart dropped the moment he saw her pulled through the circle. Her captor pushed her down just forward of the line of Survivors. She unwillingly knelt, her head still held high.
She cast a glance to Daryl who looked sickly pale, holding a bleeding arm. She had been placed between Sam and Michonne. She inhaled a shaky breath, her heart pounding with a mix of fear and adrenaline.
She looked forward as the crowd of Saviors parted, and a man appeared. He walked slowly, his eyes trained on Lauren's hunched figure. She stared right back at him. Negan. He wasn't what she expected. But somehow, his less frightening appearence terrified her more. She knew he earned his reputation. His face was lightly tanned and sculpted, perhaps decievingly friendly looking in a situation besides what she was in. His hair was dark, greying at the sides slightly, his beard was trimmed and perfected, the hairs greying from his chin outward.
But it wasn't his face she was looking at. In his hands he held a bat, the shaft wrapped in barbed wire. It looked like it had been polished, like Negan had prepared it before coming here. He stopped a few paces from Lauren, swinging the bat from callused hand to hand.
"So you're the one I've heard so much about."
Lauren remained silent, looking at Negan through eyes void of emotion. She refused to feel the fear that coursed through her body. His voice was almost mocking. He pointed the bat at her, the razor sharp ends of the barbed wire glinting in the shine of the headlights. She could feel her heart beating, the surging vibrations of her own blood pumping to her fingertips.
"The leader.." He laughed, "Just a teenage girl. I didn't quite believe them when they told me, you know. But then more and more came back with the same story. One of them even missing a hand. What use is a man with one hand?"
He dramtically turned and looked to Chloe.
"No offence."
He began to walk, reaching the end of the like of Survivors. He swung his bat around, eyeing each person from where he stood. He passed Sasha, who looked up at him through eyes filled with hatred. He stepped up to Maggie and Glenn next. He placed the tip of his bat against her cheek, the sharp wire digging into her skin. She refused to make a sound, even as he drew blood.
"Stop!" Glenn shouted, stumbling forward to come between Negan and Maggie, but falling short. His head hit the dirt and Negan placed his bat against the back of his head.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," He growled lowly, the humour sucked from his voice, "You see this here?"
He lifted his bat from Glenn's head, holding it with both hands like it was made of gold. He smiled maliciously.
"This is Lucille," He swung the bat like he was attempting to strike a home run, "And boy is she thirsty."
He stepped up to Rick next, who was shaking more than Lauren had ever seen him do in his life. Negan bent his head low, looking him in the eye before moving to Chloe. He took a look at her arm and continued walking, almost passing Carl before he turned and looked back at him. He glanced from Rick to Carl and smiled.
"Nice eye kid," He bent low and whispered to Carl who just stared into his eyes with nothing more than burning anger. "That's your daddy isn't it?"
Negan stood up chuckling to himself. He looked to Lauren, a wry smile spreading across his face.
"And that's your girlfriend," He laughed out loud, "Don't think I didn't see how you watched her. This just got a whole lot more interesting."
He paused.
"You see.. You have killed a lot of my men," He stated, mocking humour laced in his words, "A lot more than I'm comfortable with really. This is how it's going to go. I'm not going to kill you all. You're going to give me half of your shit and in return.. You get to keep breathing."
Negan looked to Lucille longingly, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"But.."
He paused again, a malicious smile spreading across his face.
"As I said.. You've killed a lot of my men.. So I'm going to kill one of you."
The air seemed to grow thicker and Lauren felt like she was slowly choking to death. Her beating heart quickened, her palms began to sweat and she knew she was shaking. What if he killed Carl just to get back at her. Would she have to watch as he died, bleeding out on the grass? She locked eyes with Negan, who only smiled. She was bound and utterly useless. He let his words hang in the air, approaching Lauren slowly. He bent low, eyeing the blood that was splattered across her face.
"How many more did you kill tonight?" He said, Lucille far to close to her for comfort.
"How about you cut this rope and we'll see how many more of them I can kill before you kill me."
"Savage, aren't you?" Negan laughed, "How savage will you be when I make you watch him die. Or is that too predictable?"
Lauren stayed silent, her lips pursed tightly together. She felt lightheaded, just at the thought of being alone in this world without him at her side. She was terrified, more scared than she had ever been in her whole life. She had too much she could loose. She couldn't see a way out of this one, there was nothing she could do. She couldn't fight, she couldn't reason. She had sent them into the hands of the Saviors, and her price for failure would be in a life. She just didn't know who would pay the deadly toll.
"It sucks, dosen't it? When you've come so far only to realise that you don't know shit about the world, about the people in it. You think you're strong, that nobody can break you, nobody can take away what you have and leave you the shell of the person you once were. C'mon, smile, cry... I want to see it before I take everything away.."
Negan's voice was all she could hear besides the hammering of her own heart. She shook relentlessly, fear tearing into her heart. She was a fool to believe that she could beat them. An arrogant fool.
"Just kill me," She whispered, looking Negan straight in the eyes. She felt numb. She didn't want to die, but she couldn't let anyone else die because of her failure. She would never forgive herself.
"You think I'm going to kill you? Nah," He laughed, she would never forget that sound. "Darling, I don't have to kill you to see you broken. I'll take it piece by piece, until you beg me to put you out of your misery. I promise you that."
He hopped back up, swinging Lucille around. His eyes never left Lauren's. She felt tears prick her eyes but she wouldn't let them fall. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing her suffer.
"We're going to play a game," He said viciously, "It's called Eenie Meenie Miney Moe. It goes like this."
"Eeenie.."
Lucille hovered in the air infront of her face. She sucked in a deep breath, watching as the spikes glinted infront of her eyes. She wanted to scream, to fight, but she couldn't. She was stuck to the ground, waiting for her death sentence that was only waiting to come.
"Meenie," Lucille moved to Sam, "Miney.. Moe.. Catch a tiger.. by the toe."
He continuted to move from person to person. She felt sick with fear. She wanted it to end. She would give anything to be able to fight back, to die for her family. She couldn't watch anyone else she loved die. Her demon screamed inside of her, fear shrinking it but she held onto her anger. She needed it.
"If.. he hollers.. let him go."
Lucille grew closer, and Lauren's heart thumped louder.
"My mother told me.."
It passed her again.
"To always.. pick.. the best one.."
She could feel the sweat dripping from her face, the raw pain in her heart as her body fought the fear it felt.
"And you.."
She could hear his footsteps crunching closer to her.
"Are.."
Her eyes were clenched shut. She refused to look him in the eye when he brought that bat down on her head. She didn't want him to be the last thing she ever saw. Her heart pounded.
"It."
Her head was bent low, her body tense and her eyes shut.
"Anyone moves and another one of you dies," He laughed, she could almost feel the air as he swung Lucille back, "You can scream, you can cry. Hell. You'll all be doing that."
She heard the crunch of bone and felt the spray of blood before the scream.
~•~
I don't even have any words 😷
Who do you think it is?
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Sorry had to add in the eenie meanie miney moe 😖