The distant roar of the dead brought Ruby sitting immediately up right, alert and well awake from her prior slumber. Any sense of drowsiness dissipated as she found her hand reaching for the knife that was strapped to her thigh, an action that was anything but foreign to the woman. Her crystal eyes scanned the clearing of trees until they found the source of the disturbance: a pair of walkers in the distance, their rotten and concave bodies illuminated by the dawn of the new day.
Ruby had just enough time to gather her belongings, slinging a worn back-pack over her shoulder in a moments notice as the knife lay steady in her clenched fist, cool to the touch. She trekked over to the dead, bringing the knife to their heads with a sickening crack in two swift movements, not even managing to break a sweat in the process. She wiped the blood on one of the remains of the their shirts, the knife once again glistening before it went back to being strapped to Ruby's thigh.
Her slender fingers wrapped around the straps on the back-pack, releasing a sigh she found herself to be holding before moving on towards her true destination: The Compound. It was certainly not Ruby's favorite place to be, but in exchange for her going on supply runs they provided her with a roof over her head, decent food, and clean water that only a fool could deny at this stage in the game. Even the part of her that wanted to be on her own, practically screaming out at her, survival tended to rely on the number of people on your side these days, for it was not just walkers that threatened your life, but other humans as well. If only her father could see what the world had fallen to. If anyone was cut out to survive this new age it would have been him, but cancer is a bitch and he died before shit even had the chance to hit the fan.
On the plus side, she did not mind being useful for the people of The Compound even if they were ungrateful for her work; it gave Ruby a sense of purpose, something she strongly clung to in recent days. Up until this point she had never belonged to a group of people in this apocalyptic hell, if she could really even call it "belonging". Ruby knew that it would always be every person for themselves if things were to go downhill and it would always be that way.
As she approached The Compound she stepped back, remaining hidden amongst the trees and becoming one with nature as she watched what began to unfold before her eyes. There were many trucks in the distance, headlights ablaze with even more men surrounding those trucks. More than seemed humanly possible to count. They were all in a circle in front of The Compound, as to what was happening in the center was a mystery to Ruby and she certainly was not going to stay and find out.
With a spin on the heel of her boots, she turned around to way she came from only to find she was now faced with a man who whistled out into the open air, signaling to the others of his group no-doubt. Ruby lunged for the man with a roar, the knife that she considered an extension of herself now lodged in the socket of his eye before he could even blink. She pulled it out grimacing before she was slammed to the ground with the force of someone pulling back on her hair. Ruby growled out, dusting herself off to face her assailant: a stocky man with a rather large gun aimed at her chest, his eyes glancing over her body as he snarled out towards her. "Oh, he's gonna love you."
A few more men came into the clearing with guns ready and loaded to kill. Ruby would not go down without a fight, an action which would make her father proud. As two of the men reached out to hook their hands onto her, she plunged her knife directly into the thigh of the one man, perfectly slicing through his femoral artery. It was a killing blow and he would only have minutes to survive if the flow of blood could not be stopped. He howled out, doubling down in a ear-piercing screech that surely would attract the dead. Ruby cackled at his pain, before shutting the man up for good with a blow to the head.
"You bitch!" The end of a gun slammed into the back of Ruby's head with a force strong enough to send her knife flying. The same man that hit her had picked her up along with another man to hold her back. It would take two to hold her back, her eyes ablaze as she struggled to gain freedom from their death-grips, even with her head injury pounding like a war drum. She hissed and attempted to dig her feet into the ground as she was dragged through the woods, through a crowd of men, and into the center where she had no intention of ever setting foot.
The two goons still held a grip on Ruby as she thrashed around like a fish out of water, especially at the sight before her. The leader of The Compound, Grant, along with the other twenty that belonged to the group where all on their knees, surrendered to a man that stood before them. He was a tall, rather handsome man, sporting a leather jacket with a barbed wire baseball bat in-hand that gleamed with fresh blood. Ruby could practically taste the fear of the people around her in the presence of this man. He was the star of the show, and Ruby was clearly interrupting whatever was about to happen next.
A shit-eating grin spread across his face as his deep brown eyes found their way to Ruby's own crystalline blue pair. Her heart slowed for a fraction of a second and she stopped fidgeting, daring to hold his hungry gaze that devoured her inch by inch.
"Well, well, well... aren't you a gem." The man slung his bat across his back, another hand in his pocket and he sized up the woman who dared to look to him in the eye. "What in the ever-lovin' fuck do we have here boys?" His gravely voice drawled out, each word meticulously pronounced.
Ruby was very aware that all eyes were on her, but she held the gaze of the intimidating man before her, anger threatening to consume her very soul. Her chest rose up and down as she tried to neutralize her breathing.
"This bitch-" One of the men angrily yanked Ruby up by a fistful of her long dark locks with a hiss escaping her lips. "-Stabbed Fred through the eye and killed him, then she also managed to kill Rob as well."
Negan whistled sizing Ruby up once more in almost disbelief. "You're tellin' me that she did that?" Ruby could not help as the corner of her lips arose. "A feisty little thing aren't you sweet-cheeks?"
Ruby grunted as the man pulled back on hair once again for her fidgeting. That was all it took for her to lose the calm she had moments before as her elbow jammed back into the mans throat. He chocked out as the other man lunged at her and failing to do so as she kicked him directly where the sun did not shine. The man whom she had elbowed in throat wrapped his meaty hands around her own throat, threatening to squeeze the life out of her.
The man in leather that practically oozed danger growled out as he came forward and swung his beloved bat directly into the soft flesh of the mans legs that had a grip on Ruby. He cried out curling down on the sodden ground, clutching his bloody legs.
Stunned, Ruby stood a few feet from the man, mentally thanking him for taking action. He flashed a pearly grin her direction before spitting down at the man that lay on the ground. "Don't you know how to treat a lady?"
The man on the ground cried out, twisting in pain as he sat in a pool of his blood. "She killed our own damn people Negan!"
The man whose name was supposedly Negan, which seemed like a rather fitting name for him, kicked the man in his wound. "She had more fuckin' balls to fight for her life than any of these pussies over here, Mark. And I must say I do admire that shit."
At the mention of her so-called "group", Ruby tore her eyes from the feral men before her and to everyone who was kneeling into the dirt, fear blatantly painted on their weak faces. Ruby couldn't find it in herself to pity them.
"I want to make a deal." Grant, who was the leader of the group broke out, his lip quivering as he spoke out. Ruby never did like the guy. He was no better than an insect that needed to be squashed.
"Oh- ho, ho. You have my undivided attention." Negan waited hearing what Grant could possibly have to offer in this situation.
Grant's eyes rolled over to Ruby. "Take her. She killed your men." Grant trembled as he spoke. "Take her and spare our lives- we didnt't harm any of your men."
Ruby's lips parted as she let out a snort, "Your just pissed because I wouldn't drop my pants for you like every other woman in the compound." She spit out, hissing in his direction as Negan bellowed out in laughter. "Never mind the fact that I supply this place with shit that everyone benefits from you fucking coward." Each word was laced with venom. There was no way Negan was going to take the bait anyway- he did not come across as a negotiable man.
"Sold out by your own fuckin' people..." Negan brought his hand to his beard in contemplation, his chocolate eyes raking over Ruby's body with a hunger awakening in him. He turned to Grant who whimpered in his gaze. "Even I'm not that cruel."
Ruby held back a snicker. It was a funny statement coming from a man who had just moments before took a baseball bat to another mans legs, but she did not argue.
"You see, I already planned on taking her with me... How you could ever let a woman like that go, well is truly beyond me." Ruby huffed out at his words, scrambling to look around for any sort of way out of this predicament; unless she wanted to get herself killed, she was very much stuck.
Negan slung his barbed-wire bat from off of his broad shoulders and pointed it towards Grant who flinched. "But I have some things to say first. Number fucking one: do not tell me what the hell to do. Number fucking two: I want you to formally meet Lucille." Negan proudly displayed the bat that he called Lucille with devilish grin. "She is one blood-thirsty girl..."
"Please..." Grant whimpered. "Just take her and leave the-" Grants cowardice came to end when Lucille connected to his skull, shutting him up immediately. Negan swung Lucille twice more, the bat thudding into his shattered skull sending blood and brain matter flying in all directions.
People cried out and someone even puked at the grisly display but Ruby simply looked over at Negan who was practically on a high as he stared right back at her. He wanted to jump her bones right there in front of the whole crowd of people, simply for her not looking away when everyone else practically pissed their pants in his presence, but he refrained from doing so.
She saw him for what he was, but she was not afraid- No. She was wary of the dangerous man before her, but there was was no inherent fear. Rather, she was more concerned with getting the hell away from everyone and everything at this moment; she always was better on her own.
With the smirk of the Devil, Negan pointed his beloved bat that was covered in blood and brain matter towards the defiant woman. "Never caught your name darling."
The woman glanced at the bat before hissing out, her voice pure ice: "Ruby."
//
Please let me know what you think!! Really wanted to start a Negan fanfic so I'm giving it my all here lovelies
-thebelovednight