"This is going to be hard to watch." Negan stood on a metal walkway over the cavernous meeting room, leaning forward on the banister with a look in his eyes that was almost sad. Almost. "And I do not want to do it." Why did that sound like a lie?
Aven knelt with Dr. Carson as far back in the crowd as possible, though everyone was gathered so they had a clear view of whatever was about to happen.
"Not doing this would mean ignoring the rules and I simply cannot do that." He began to descend the metal stairs towards the crowd. "And why is that?"
"Rules keep us alive," the crowd chanted, Dr. Carson included. Aven furrowed her brow at him in surprise. She already wasn't happy about kneeling, and the list of cult-like behaviors kept building, partially answering her question about the Sanctuary that Dr. Carson couldn't.
"Correct!" Negan boomed, his voice almost cheery for a second. "We provide protection for people. We are bringing civilization back to life!" His boots hit the concrete floor and his steps echoed as he made his way towards Dwight, who sat in a wooden chair with his hands tied behind his back in the middle of the crowd.
Nearby, while the crowd had awaited Negan, the man Dr. Carson identified as Simon stood in front of a furnace, staring in at the flames. It was clear Negan wasn't the only one with a flare for drama.
"But I can't do that, we can't do that, without rules," Negan continued. "Rules are what make this thing work. Rules keep us safe. But safety has a cost." Negan finished his strut to the middle of the room, looming behind Dwight's chair. Dwight kept his head hung and the rest of his body sat just as heavily limp, as though his very reason for life had been torn from him.
"And if you think you can cut corners," his volume crescendoed quickly, his voice so gruff and his eyes so firey Aven felt a tinge of fear from all the way across the room, something she hadn't felt because of him since first meeting. "If you think you can get by without doing your part, if you think you can side step the responsibilities that everyone else adheres to in order to coexist..." Negan stopped for a moment, dropping his hands heavily on Dwight's slumped shoulders. His mouth stretched into a wolfish grin and he ran his tongue across the top row of his teeth, letting out a low chuckle. He absolutely wanted to do this. "Well, then...it's the iron for you." Aven's face dropped from its expression of judgement and disbelief to one of realization and horror.
"Dwight is one of my best men...or so I fuckin' thought," Negan went on. "But Dwighty-boy, here, decided that his personal interests were more important than the interests of our community. He stole from me, and if that weren't bad enough," Negan's eyes went grim for a moment, "he got one of our own killed, one of the women he should have been protecting." He stepped in front of Dwight and lowered himself to get in his face. "Not cool."
"On your feet," Negan said softly after a moment, turning away from Dwight and back to the crowd. Aven let out a hard sigh born of anger as she made a definitive decision about the Sanctuary and Negan's brand of rulership. The asshole brought her in there like he was some sort of white knight only to turn out to be a text book tyrant, not to mention a grade-A douche. "I'm sorry, D," Negan muttered as Simon placed the heated iron in his thickly gloved hand, "but it is what it is."
Dwight's curdling scream drew Aven's attention out of her thoughts and instead of looking back away, she was glued to the moment, studying the way his skin melted and stuck to the iron as it sizzled. Many people watched on with the same blank expression, but there were also plenty of people visibly disturbed by the scene. Aven, though horrified at the method, was unphased by the actual sight. She'd seen worse in the previous months, as had most others. But she wondered what Dwight did to get himself in so much trouble. She'd been rolling her eyes when Negan led her around the Sanctuary, explaining the rules and intense consequences. As intrigued as she was by him, she wasn't sure he was a fit leader.
A woman let out a shriek she'd audibly been trying to hold back and fell to her knees sobbing as another woman, a petite blonde with dark bags under her eyes in a black A-line dress, knelt down to comfort her. Dwight let out one last choke of agony before passing out, at which time the woman scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room.
"I wonder what her problem is, huh?" Negan said with a sly smile that didn't reach his eyes, patting an unconscious Dwight on the shoulder like it was an inside joke they were sharing. "DJ, go make sure she doesn't do something she'll fuckin' regret. Bring her up to the lounge. Amber, sweetie," Negan cooed as he turned to the blonde woman, "you two seem to be all fuckin' buddy-buddy. Why don't you wait up there for her, make sure she settles in okay?" Amber nodded, staring straight into his chest unable to make eye contact, before turning and swiftly making her way out of the room.
"And Frankie," Negan continued, turning to another woman in a similar black dress to the first. She also couldn't look him in the eye. His grin grew wide to show his teeth again as he looked her up and down. "Go wait for me in my room. I need to fuckin' de-stress."
------------------------------------------
"Well, this is just fucking great," Aven spat as she and Carson stepped back into the medical room ten minutes later.
"I know, I know, he's brutal," sighed Carson. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
"No, not that," Aven continued. "Well, yes that, that's the icing on the fucking cake, but no. He fucking brings me in here, no god damn information on how I'm supposed to carry my weight and go on with my fucking life, I'm waiting around for him for days gaining more debt to him, and then he fucking melts a guy's face and goes off to fuck his girlfriend? This is clearly not the fucking place I want to be, it would be nice if he'd fucking give me a way out." Carson stayed quiet for a moment before answering, thinking to himself that there probably was no way out.
"You're right," was all he could say before the door burst open, Simon wheeling Dwight in on a rusty metal table on equally rusty wheels. Carson sighed before helping Simon lift Dwight onto the bed next to Aven's.
"You're Simon, right?" Aven stopped him before he walked out the door.
"At your service," he bowed his head. "Good to see you on your feet."
"You were there," Aven stated almost as a question, and Simon nodded with a shrug. "You're tight with Negan, right?"
"You could say that," he chuckled.
"Do you have any idea what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing?" She explained to him what she'd explained to Negan and Dr. Carson days earlier, how she was ready to get to work and do her share so she could pay off her debt and get back out on the road. Simon was almost as dismissive of her questions as Negan was, but Aven was growing impatient. "Look, I know this isn't your problem, and I really, really do appreciate everything you people have done for me, but this is really starting to become an inconvenience."
"Oh, well, I apologize, princess," Simon said mockingly.
"I want to get out of here and Negan seems to have forgotten, or he's too busy, I don't know, whatever, I don't care. I just need someone to tell me what to do so I can fucking get to work and get out of here." Her tone became more pleading than she meant, her desperation to gain a little control in the situation overcoming her.
"Look, honey, I'm not sure what you've heard but I think it's pretty safe to bet that you won't be getting out of her for a while." When she heard that, the world slowed down around her and her focus dialed in on Simon and only Simon.
You won't be getting out of here, he said. Not again, she thought. In one quick move, Aven jabbed Simon in the stomach and grabbed the handgun out of the holster on his belt, raising it to rest on the center of his forehead.
"Take me to Negan." By now, Dr. Carson had turned from Dwight's bed and was gaping on in shock.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, sweetie, careful there," Simon sang, almost laughing. "Don't do something you're gonna regret." She drew her hand back slightly and slammed the gun against his head just hard enough to show she meant business.
"I said take me to Negan." She jerked her head, instructing Simon to turn. He complied with a scowl and she pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of his head leading him out into the hallway and ultimately onto the grounds where the sun was setting. Luckily, there was no one around to see them. She took a deep breath and looked around, the racing of her heart starting to calm. She kept the gun to his head but quickly regretted her over-reaction. What had happened? One second everything was fine, but when he said she was stuck there...
You won't be getting out of here. Simon's voice echoed in her mind, steady and almost mocking. The words kept repeating and the voice changed to one she had tried relentlessly to forget, one she hadn't heard in two years. It was nasally and taunting and it made her blood run cold. You're not getting out of here, not alive. Aven stilled, her entire body going tense. She knew it was just a memory, an illusion, but it manifested as something all too real.
Her breathing grew ragged, but it was so quiet that Simon wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't intently focused on gaining the upper hand. Aven let out an involuntary gasp for breath as her chest tightened, and Simon took it as his cue. He spun around, grabbing her wrist and forcing it up, away from his head. Startled, Aven clenched her finger around the trigger sending a shot echoing into the air.
Aven and Simon wrestled for a moment. He was bigger and stronger but she was able to slip a foot between his legs, tangling them and tripping him to his knees. He made a move to jump up and go for the gun again, but Aven brought it down swiftly at the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.
"Oh, fuck me!" Simon yelled through his teeth, grabbing his head and putting pressure to try to dull the pain. He groaned, conscious but effectively disoriented.
"The fuck was that?" Aven heard a man call. She turned to look across the yard, spotting Arat and a man coming around the corner of the building, breaking into a sprint as soon as they saw Simon on the ground. Again, panic set in and Aven took off towards the closed gates.
Coming up on the gates, she ducked around the back of a truck that had just returned from a supply run, bumping right into a young man unloading boxes. He met her with a puzzled expression until he saw the gun in her hand and held up his hands in surrender.
"Hey, whoa," he began, "I don't know what's going on but-"
"Shut up," Aven snapped, raising the gun to his face. "Turn around. Walk towards the guard post." She started leading him to the post, where the guard was still looking out over the land, focused on his job.
"I- Please let me go, I won't try anything," said the chestnut-haired young man. "My name is Charlie. You came back with them on that run last week, right? I remember you. Please let me go. I don't know what you're running from but this is a really bad idea, Negan will-"
"I said shut up!" Aven yelled. Her normal demeanor, stoic and controlled, had left her completely. She was seething in a panicked rage, her eyes animalistic. The guard above heard her and looked down to see what was going on, immediately drawing his rifle and pointing it downwards towards her.
"Hey!" the guard bellowed. "Put your weapon down and your hands up!" Without another thought, Aven wrapped her arm tightly around Charlie's neck, holding the gun to the side of his head. A small sputtering sound from him brought her partially back to herself and she loosened her grip just enough to hold him in place, bent backwards towards her. By now, Arat and several other Saviors stood in a semi-circle a few yards behind her, guns drawn.
"Put your fucking guns down," Aven spat before turning back to the guard above. "You, open the fucking gate." The man held his glare on her for a second before reluctantly lowering his weapon and turning to open the gate. Aven made her way towards it, pushing Charlie along. She just needed to get to the woods. Then she'd take any weapons from him and send him back unharmed.
Aven didn't look back as she drew closer to the gate. It wasn't opened halfway when she heard a loud, clear, drawn out whistle echo across the yard. The gate stopped but had opened enough for her to slip out. She spun Charlie around so they were walking backwards, and that's when she saw Negan strolling towards the scene like he was out taking a leisurely Sunday morning walk, Lucille up on his shoulder and a grin plastered on his face. She knew she had the upper hand as long as she had Charlie, but with the size of the group that had gathered around, one wrong move and she'd be dead.
"Seriously," Charlie choked, so quietly that only Aven could hear. "He's not going to let you get away with this." It wasn't a threat, but a warning.
"Well, what in the ever living fuck do we have here?" Negan boomed as he reached the group of Saviors who had been forced to lower their weapons. "Darling, I'm disappointed," he frowned. "Shit, I guess it was just wishful fuckin' thinking but I was really hoping you'd be smarter than this, especially after today's little welcoming party." Aven kept her hard gaze on him, still slowly inching backwards. The image of Dwight's skin melting off his face flashed through her mind and she gulped, settling further into the moment and realizing just how consequential her over-reaction had been. So much for no drama; now she was creating it.
"The way I see it, you have two fuckin' options right now." He stepped closer past the Saviors and Aven quickly moved the gun from Charlie's head to point it at Negan.
"I just want to leave," she said steadily. "You can't keep me here."
"Oh, can't I?" Negan slowed his pace but didn't stop, lazily dropping one heavy boot in front of the other as he drew closer. "Aside from the threat you're currently presenting to these wonderful people, you fuckin' owe me. I bring you in, offer you my fuckin' hospitality and get you back on your feet, and this is how you repay me?"
"I'm not going to hurt anyone I don't need to," stated Aven, "but I'm leaving and you're not going to come after me."
"Not gonna come after you?" Negan repeated with a laugh before his expression dropped like a guillotine and he hardened his gaze on her. "Not only have you proven completely fuckin' ungrateful for what I've done for you here, but you threaten my people, leave my right hand man incapacitated with a nasty gash on his head, and now you think I'm gonna just let you waltz off with one of our weapons? I don't fucking think so, doll."
He'd already drawn closer than Aven was comfortable with, and if he came any closer her chance at escape would be foiled. In a split second, her finger squeezed against the trigger, but at the same time she felt something slam against the back of her head. She fell forward to the ground, again discharging the gun and sending a bullet whizzing past Negan's ear.
"Holy fuckin' shit, that was close!" Negan barked angrily. Aven's vision went fuzzy and the last thing she saw was two big black boots stopping in front of her face. "Cell D," Negan said before she lost consciousness.