Who We Are | TWD

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    The man takes a few more steps forward, grinning ear to ear underneath his bristly whiskers. "Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close." The man keeps walking closer to us, the gravel crunching noisily beneath his black boots the yellow headlights of the cars glimmering off of his baseball bat. "Yep. It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon. Which one of you pricks is the leader?"

    "It's this one," the one guy who I previously had assumed to be the leader says. "He's the guy." The true leader pauses in front of Rick, sighing deeply as he stares him down.

    "Hi. You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. 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. 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. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." Negan's smile grows, becoming the biggest it's been yet, despite the threats he just threw out way. "You, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order. And the new world order is this, and it's really very simple. So, even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it. You ready?" I watch as his breaths escape his mouth, fanning out in front of him in clouds of murky fog in the frigid night. "Here goes. Pay attention."

    Swiftly, Negan removes the bat from his shoulder and points it downwards at Rick, causing my heart to nearly stop. He can't hurt him. He can't. Negan smiles at Rick's fear as the barbed wire gets closer and closer to his throat. "Give me your shit, or I will kill you." When Rick doesn't answer, Negan straightens his back, almost laughing before continuing to speak. "Today was career day. We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do." As Negan talks, he moves down the line of our people, but each of us stay focused on him, unmoving. "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 mother fucking will. You ruled the roost. You . . . built something. You thought you were safe. I get it. 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. This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So, if someone knocks on your door . . . you let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us and we will knock it down." Negan points his bat at Rick again as I feel my heart rate rise.

    I turn to briefly look at Carl, not knowing what to do, but feeling like I have do something despite my helplessness in this situation. All of us are helpless. "You understand?" Negan asks Rick. When all you can hear in the background are the noises of the crickets chirping in the distance, he hunches down slightly, dramatically cupping a hand to his ear. "What, no answer? You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you?" Negan backs up, waving his hands about as he talks. "I don't want to kill you people. Just want to make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you? I'm not growing a garden. But you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with. And for that . . . for that, you're gonna pay."

    Well, this is it, I think, closing my eyes and squeezing them tightly. Lights out. Maybe he'll let it be quick, right? After they took all your guns, they could spare a bullet or two.

    "So, now . . . I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you." From his words and the way Negan swings his bat around in a circle, I'm now praying for the option of the gun. I would do anything to be shot in the head over that . . . that brutal sort of death. "This . . . this is Lucille, and she is awesome. All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor." Negan keeps pacing down the line of us. When he stops in front of Abraham, I watch my group member's back straighten. Negan smiles. "Huh. Uh, I gotta shave this shit."