Prologue (un-edited)
It's dark, there are small little holes filled with daylight or at least that's what I think it is. There's a ringing in my head and as I shake my head around to dull the ringing the light shifts, in the midst of the shifting light I can barely make something out.
Lines? Wait, why am here? Where am I?
Then my memory comes back.
I was with Daryl and Michonne in the woods and then Michonne and I got tied up and gagged to a tree while some goons stood watch with AK's in their hands.
I saw Daryl amongst the bushes and tried telling him not to try it, to just run away. But knowing Daryl he didn't listen, In doing so he got shot by Dwight.
The ringing in my head still continues as I slowly and uneasily look around in the darkness confused and angry.
The voices are muffled and I can't make them out but they don't sound nice in the least.
"I need to get out of here and go back to Alexandria, warn the others and tell Maggie to stay put, can't have her getting hurt." I thought to myself and before I could even try to make an effort to escape my cage there were a few voices that while still a little muffled, I could easily make out what they were saying.
"Dwight?" One voice asked.
"Yeah?" Dwight replied.
"Chop chop"
I can hear the sound of footsteps and then the door opening.
Covering my eyes because of the blinding light that comes from the open door. I leave myself vulnerable.
Out of the light I hear a voice call out to me "Come on, you've got people to meet"
As he steps into the area of what looks like the back of a van after doing a quick look around. I'm expecting him to come and grab me but to my shock and surprise, there was another person in there besides me the whole time.
Daryl himself. I also saw Michonne as well but she seems alright, Rosita is also there. It's Daryl that concerns me more.
He has blood covering his hand and speading across his chest, his face is pale, he has a towel wrapped around his shoulder to prevent more blood loss I would assume.
One of the goons grabs Daryl and brings him out of the vehicle but not without some sort of resistance. Same goes for Michonne but thankfully the goons don't harm them.
I catch a glance at Rosita as they bring her out of the van, but she doesn't put up a fight.
Next is my turn and Dwight comes in to get me. He grabs me on the arm sleeve and pulls me out of the van, not without fight however. As I'm brought out of the van and onto the ground I gives one good pull and manage to break free from his grip onto to get on my knees, then I look up from the ground and when I do my heart drops into my stomach.
"Maggie?" I start slowly moving forward only to be pulled roughly back by Dwight by the back collar of my shirt.
I look into Maggie's distressed eyes and can see tears wanting to fall.
"On your knees!" Dwight angrily says to me with crossbow in hand.
Still holding the back of my shirt I lift my arm in attempt to get him to let go of me but nothing. He just keeps me on my knees and I'm staring at Maggie the whole time screaming internally to get near her but to no avail.
I look around and see Eugene, Rick, Rosita, Daryl and the others on their needs in an half circle formation. Like a line up with a bunch of guys with weapons, machete's, guns, that sort of thing.
"All right!" The savior says.
"We got a full boat, lets meet the man" He then proceeds to knock twice on the side of our RV.
"Dale..." I thought to myself sadly, remembering all the good times with him before that walker tore his guts out.
Quickly looks back up to the RV and sees the door open with a guy walk out with a baseball bat wrapped in.... barbed wire?
"Pissing our pants yet?" He says in a cold voice and a smirk.
"Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close" As he says that he walks into the light beam and I can see him clearly.
This man who i'm guessing is this Negan. Has a black leather jacket, accompanied by light brown pants, along with that are a pair of black combat boots if I were to guess. To top it all off, his dark brown hair, brown eyes and graying facial hair is nothing compared to his sadistic smile. I'm not scared of him, but there's something about his smile that's off.
He starts walking towards Eugene, who is on the farthest left of all of us. First it goes me, then Rosita, then to Michonne, behind her is Dwight. Next to Michonne is Abraham, then Maggie.... Rick, Aaron, Carl and Lastly Eugene. Who apparently looks in bad shape.
They must have forced the information out of him....
As he starts walking back the other way he mutters under his breath
"Yep" He looks at Carl and Aaron before he adds.
"It's going to be pee-pee pants city here real soon" He takes a quick glance at all of us before asking.
"Which one of you pricks is the leader?"
"It's this one" The savior behind Aaron pointed at Rick, making the man look down at him.
"He's the guy"
I hear the man sigh and the he steps closer to Rick with bat in hand.
"Hi, You're Rick right? I'm Negan." He says.
Well I guess that settles it then, that's Negan? I begin to study him only to be met with the same conclusion.
I feel like something is about to happen. I don't like it.
He wasn't done talking however.
"And I do not appreciate you killing my men."
"Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people."
Rick is looking up at him and I can see that look in his eyes. I can't describe it but I've never seen Rick do that.
"Not cool, not cool"
"You have no idea how not cool that shit is"
"But I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly."
"Yeah" He has a dark look on his face that I can't fully see in my position.
"You are so going to regret crossing me in a few minutes."
"Yes, you are." He smiles sadistically.
He still wasn't done talking and i'm just scared that they will hurt one of us or worse, especially Maggie. Speaking of her she isn't looking good and i'm really worried about her. "Is it the baby?" I thought.
Shakes my head gently and brings my attention back to Negan. "It will be alright, all of us are going to go to the hilltop soon and we will be fine." I start getting an uneasy feeling as if one of us won't be.
"You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order."
"And the new world order is this, and its very simple."
"So, even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it."
"You ready?" He asks.
"Here goes. Pay attention."
He takes his bat that was leaned against his shoulder and points it at Rick.
He stares right at Rick and says.
"Give me your shit... or I will kill you." Chills go down my spine.
Then he smiles.
"Today was career day." He starts moving the bat up and down as he moves away from Rick and goes over all of us.
"We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do." He continues.
He steps in front of Abraham and Michonne then points the bat towards Rick again.
"You work for me now."
"You have shit, you give it to me."
"That's your job."
"Now, I know that is a mighty big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it you most certainly will."
"You ruled the roost."
"You built something."
"You thought you were safe."
"I get it."
I look over at Maggie and shes looking at the ground, the look in her eyes speaks volumes. She's sad, scared and unsure.
Negan speaks again and I look at him.
"But the word is out. You are not safe."
"Not even close. in fact, you are pegged, more pegged if you don't do what I want."
"And what I want is half your shit."
"And if that's too much, you can make, find, or steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later."
He spreads his arms at either side of him.
"This is your way of life now." He says with a smile.
"The more you fight back, the harder it will be."
"So, if someone knocks on your door..." He walks towards us and chuckles as he stops in front of Michonne.
"...you let us in. We own that door." He walks in front of Rick again and stares at him as he says that.
"You try to stop us and we will knock it down."
"You understand?" He leans down to Rick with hand next to his ear like hes trying to hear what Rick has to say but doesn't because Rick isn't saying a word.
Negan notices that and he speaks up again.
"What, no answer?" He rubs his mustache as he stands back up again.
"You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you?"
"I don't want to kill you people."
"Just want to make that clear from the get-go."
He lifts up his bat and points it at Rick and puts it back down as he says.
"I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you?" He looks away then back at Rick.
"I'm not growing a garden."
"But you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them." He places a hand on his chest.
"More than I'm comfortable with. And for that, for that you're gonna pay."
I look over to Daryl and he's giving Negan that look tells me he wants to kill him but he can't and he knows it.
Eugene is looking down and defeated like he's accepting this happening, like it's meant to be.
My blood starts boiling and anger has me in it's hot molten grasp as I try to refrain from attacking Negan out of fear that Maggie will get hurt... or worse.
"So, now..." Negan continues and the air grows cold as he finishes what he was going to say.
"I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you." He swings his bat around and kneels down to present it to Rick.
"This-- this is Lucille, and she is awesome."
Lucille? He names his bat after someone? This guy is crazy. Then it hits me... he could kill Maggie!
I start taking slow breaths in hopes of calming down. He won't hurt a pregnant woman... right? I have to stay calm because if I do anything he might kill her.
With that thought in mind I stay where I'm at listening intently to what he says while glancing occasionally at Maggie to check on her.
"All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor."
Maggie looks scared. Don't worry Maggie, I wont let him touch you.
Negan walks passed Maggie over to Abraham, who straightens up to try and look intimidating if I were to guess.
Negan looks at him with a smile and nods.
"Huh." He places his hand back on his face and rubs his facial hair.
"Ugh, I gotta shave this shit." He looks away from Abraham and starts walking back in the other direction towards Carl.
"You got one of our guns." He points out. Carl tilts his head like hes trying to be cold.
Damn Carl... How much you have grown.
Negan then puts the tip of his bat on the ground and kneels in front of Carl.
"Whoa. Yeah. You got a lot of our guns." Carl just stares directly into his eyes without so much as a flinch.
Negan notices this and can't help but point it out.
"Shit, kid, lighten up. At least cry a little." Negan looks back then chuckles as he grabs hold of 'his' gun and stands back up. As he does so he places 'his' gun underneath the front of his pants.
Negan clears his throat then begins to walk and look at each and every one of us.
When he looks at Maggie he stops and just looks at her.
"Jesus. You look shitty."
My paranoia is playing on me and it's taking every ounce of strength within me not to say or do anything. I can't for Maggie's safety I can't. Not yet. Until...
"I should just put you out of your misery right now." That's when I couldn't hold it in anymore.
"No! No!" I shout and start running towards him just to be thrown back down by Dwight and getting hit hard.
As I'm getting hit I hear Maggie yell "Stop it!" in a tone of voice that broke my heart.
"God!" I grunt as I look up to see Dwight have Daryl's crossbow pointed at my head. He's holding me down but I don't fight back in fear that I will die. I just didn't want Negan to hurt her.
Then Negan says "Nope. Nope, get him back in line."
I find my voice again as I'm being dragged back into line by Dwight. "No." Grunts. "No." "No." Groans.
I'm dragged all the way back to where I was originally and land on my back.
I sit upright and feel tears go down my face with a yell escaping the confines of my throat.
"Don't" I plead in despair.
"Don't" I say again with a sob escaping at the same time.
He just smiles and chuckles at the display.
"All right, listen." He says.
"Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down no exceptions."
"First one's free. It's an emotional moment," He points at me with a smile then adds. "I get it."
All I can do is stay there on my hands and knees crying and hoping that he doesn't kill her. Please don't kill her....
The tears fill my eyes. I look over at her and see that she's looking at him with tears in her eyes. It breaks my heart even more.
Negan looks over at Rick and smiles.
"Sucks, don't it?" He says and I look back over at him but he continues his words.
"The moment you realize you don't know shit." Rick looks back up at him then away.
Negan then looks over at Carl and Rick a few more times and a smile appears on his face.
He points his bat at Rick then to Carl as he walks towards Carl.
"This is your kid, right?"
He laughs as he is directly in front of Carl.
"This is definitely your kid."
For the first time Rick spoke.
"Just stop this!" He said angrilly.
"Hey!" Negan exclaimed.
"Do not make me kill the little future serial killer. Don't make it easy on me."
"I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order." He looks at Rick and I can see that he likes to play mind games.
As he's walking away from Rick and towards the rest of us starting with Sasha, then Maggie, Abraham, Michonne, Daryl, Rosita and finally me. He's whistling and holding his bat loosely in his hand.
I can tell that everybody is tense just like me.
There is a moment of earth shattering silence then Negan decides to break the ice.
"I simply cannot decide." He chuckles as he turns his back on us and has a hand on his forehead.
Then he looks back at us with a crazy look in his eyes. Oh no...
"I got an idea."
He walks up to Rick and points his bat in his face while speaking the word.
"Eenie..."
My eyes widen. Is he really doing this???? Then he goes to Maggie and looks at her with his bat to her face.
"Meenie..."
Next to her is Abraham.
"Miney..."
He goes to Michonne.
"Mo..."
Then he skips Daryl and goes straight for me.
"Catch..."
He goes to Daryl who looks up at him with a cold look.
"A tiger..."
He walks back the other way.
"By..." He points it at Abraham."His toe..."
He points the bat at Sasha.
"If..."
He points the bat at Eugene.
"He hollers..." "Let him go..."
Then at Carl.
"My mother..."
He points it at Aaron.
"Told me..."
Then at Rick
"To pick..."
Then back to Abraham.
"The very..."
Then to Michonne.
"Best..."
He points the bat to Daryl.
"One..."
"And you..."
He steps back to look at all of us.
"Are..."
He holds his bat up in his hand while leaning it against his other arm for support.
I look at him and see that he's made up his mind. He's looking at Abraham. Partly relieved that it isn't Maggie or me. But, I can also feel my heart drop in my chest knowing that it was him that was chosen to die.
He walks up to Abraham and says.
"It"
The look on Abraham's face says that he knows what's about to happen.
"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start."
Abraham has his two fingers out, making a sideways peace sign.
"You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry."
The look in Abraham's eyes tells me that he's ready to die. Full of sadness and determination.
Negan readies his bat for a swing.
"Hell, you're all gonna be doing that." Then he swings down and connects to Abraham's head, Abraham drops to the ground, then slowly gets back up.
"Oh! Look at that! Taking it like a champ!"
Abraham says his final words that struck all of us harder than any knife or bullet could. We all knew he was going to die.
"Suck...my...nuts" The blood is pouring down his face but he still looks at Negan the same.
As soon as he says that, Negan swings again and Abraham goes down again. Except he isn't coming back up again as Negan repeatedly slams the bat over Abraham's head over and over again, spilling blood everywhere. I can't even bring myself to look. I feel the acid rise in my throat as I hear the squelching sounds of his brains echo across my mind like a cancer that doesn't relent.
By the time he's done I look up at him and then at the bat, which is dripping in blood.
"Did you hear that?" He said then chuckled.
"He said, 'Suck my nuts'." He laughs then goes back to swinging the bat on whats left to be his head.
I can hear the crunching of the skull and the bat hitting it over and over again.
When I finally do manage to look at whats left of Abraham's skull its nothing more than what looks to be a walker after you run over it's head with a car.
I start feeling sick but swallow whatever bile is in my mouth and take long deep breaths. Of course smelling the metallic copper in the air didn't help, especially knowing it's Abraham's blood and brains all over the place.
Negan laughs.
"Oh, my goodness!" He holds up Lucille and looks at it.
"Look at this!" He swings Lucille and some of the blood on the bat hits Rick right in the face, causing him to look away as the blood smears across his upper and lower right cheek.
Negan laughs again.
"You guys, look at my dirty girl!" More blood drips down from Lucille and onto the gravel dirt below.
He then walks over to Rosita and points the bat at her.
"Sweetheart... lay your eyes on this." Shes staring in trepidation at it.
I can feel the anger well up in me, a type of anger I've only felt once before. When the governor took Maggie in that room and I believed he did something to her.
"He was my friend!" I shout in my mind and clench my fists so hard they turn white.
But Negan wasn't done yet.
"Oh, damn." He then points the bat at Abraham's bloody corpse on the ground and looks back at her.
"Were you -- Were you together?" He asks then adds in.
"That sucks. But if you were you should know there was a reason for all of this."
He might be talking to her but she's staring at Abraham in shock, pain, disbelief. You name it.
"Red -- and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red." All I can do is stare at my fallen comrade, no, my brother. My brother which he killed.
"He just took one or six or seven for the team!." He points the bat back in her face trying to make her look at what he did to Abraham.
She's just crying.
"So take... a damn look." He pauses.
"Take a damn look!" He says irritated that she didn't listen.
The anger is too much and before I can try anything Daryl stands up and punches Negan hard in the face causing Negan to stumble back and rub his jaw.
But not before he was brought back down to the ground by a few of his goons.
"Daryl!" Rick shouted to him.
Negan stepped forward and thrusted Lucille out.
"No!" he shouted.
Looking over at Rick you can see the immense fear he has of Negan killing Daryl.
"Oh, no." He then turns around and walks back with a chuckle and puts the bat down.
He turns back towards us and says.
"That? Oh, my!" He then waves his hand around and crouches down slowly so hes directly in eye contact with Daryl.
"That... is a no-no." He breathes out.
"The whole thing -- not one bit of that shit flies here." He puts the bloody bat in front of Daryl's face and I can hear what sounds like Maggie crying. I look over and sure enough shes in tears. Every part of me wants to go over and comfort her but knowing that I can't is killing me.
One of the goons gets off of Daryl only to be replaced with Dwight, crossbow in hand ready to shoot Daryl in the head.
"Do you want me to do it? Right here." Dwight asked Negan who still crouched down reached down to grab a tuft of hair on Daryl's head and yank so he can see his face.
Negan looks up at Dwight and says with a smirk.
"No. No, you don't kill them... not until you try a little."
Dwight slowly unreadies the crossbow grabs Daryl along with two other goons and drags him back into the line.
Negan then stands up.
"And anyway... that's not how it works." He waves Lucille around gently as he says that.
He starts walking around and points Lucille at us.
"Now, I already told you people -- first one's free, then -- what'd I say? I said I will shut that shit down!" He smirks.
"No exceptions." I can tell that he's walking in front of me through my subconscious but I'm too busy looking at my fallen brother in arms to truly notice, however I do hear what he's saying clearly.
"Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with..." I look down at the ground.
"But I'm a man of my word." I subtly notice him looking down at me.
Oh no... am I next? No... no I don't think so.
"First impressions are important." I then look over at Maggie and give a little smile telling her that it's alright.
"I need you to know me." He subtly looks back at me again. I can't help but feel on edge.
"So..." He picks up Lucille and I feel as if something is a second away from happening.
I hope that nobody else dies... one was more than enough.
"...back to it." I start looking in front of me only to be brought with a skull shattering headache.
I hit the ground and everything is blurry, everything hurts. Things are brought into slow motion as I realize that I just got hit by Lucille...
This is my end...
Then everything goes back into full motion and I try to stand up again only to get hit with an even worse pain.
Trying my best to think and to numb the pain out. The pain however is too strong and I can't help but notice that I can't see out of my left eye. It's completely dark and i'm struggling to make out the shape of Maggie as I struggle to lean back up.
Breathing is hard... talking? Harder.
I'm slowly beginning to register the noises i'm making. They sound horrible. I'm trying to talk? Yes, I was trying to say something to.... Maggie? Yes that was it! But what was it?
The pain and skull-shattering headache is making i't almost impossible to think. I think I see some red obscure my vision... Blood! Yes that was what it was.
I love you....
All that comes out is a bunch of grunts and stutters.
A voice... a voice that sounds somewhat familiar reaches me.
"Buddy, you still there?" Buddy? What?
The breathing is getting harder to do. The voice continues.
"I just don't know. it seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit." What does he mean?
"I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out, and it is gross as shit!" He did this? That's why everything hurts and why Maggie is crying?
The name rolls around my head, Maggie.
I'm starting to lose feeling everywhere except my head, everywhere is numb and my head is slowly losing the pain only to be coupled by numbness and darkness.
I'ts now or never. Make my last words count Glenn.
"Maggie, I'll find you." I start choking and struggling to breathe.
From the look of her face, she heard me. That's all I needed.
I just look at her the best I could. The voices were fading out and I could only catch a few.
"Hell... hard....guys...sorry...exceptions" Time began to move in slow motion and the pain doubled as I fell onto the ground.
The very last thing I saw before total blackness and pain was Maggie's face. Then the memories started rolling in; The girl on the horse asking for Lori, going to the farm, trying to pray to god that Carl will be saved, meeting Maggie. God I was so nervous. The first kiss came next after we came back from the pharmacy and I saved her. Dale's death. Then came the prison where we all fought the walkers, the governor, then came where Lori died, gave birth to Judith. I wen't to Hershal and asked for his blessing, not only that but I got his watch along with it. took the wedding wring off one of the girl walkers and gave it to Maggie. The picture I took of her when she was sleeping only for her to wake up and for us to laugh it off. Getting sick and almost dying only for Maggie to be there and save me by sticking the breather down my throat and pumping my lungs with air. After that we got the medicine needed to live. So many died though.
Then the memories of terminus, Maggie and I being in the box car with the others. Those bastards taking Hershal's watch.
How we escaped, went to Alexandria after. Soon after me and the others had to go hunting for supplies with Aiden and Nicholas, the news of Deanna's death. Beth's death, Tyreese's shortly after Beth's. Maggie being devastated about Beth dying. Our intimate moments. Rick becoming the leader of Alexandria. Everything leading right up to now.
The last image in my head is of Maggie smiling.
Then after a little bit I hear a warm melodic voice call out to me in the darkness that's surrounding me.
"Glenn~"