Too Good to be Bad 2 | Negan |

57 - I've been better

'Oh my God', Aaron exclaims, rushing over to me. 'Are you okay?'

'How are you here?' I ask disbelievingly while he starts to cut through the rope tying my hands to the chair. When he notices the missing fingernails he looks at me in horror.

'I've been better', I mumble.

'Lance Hornsby did this to you?' he asks while he continues to untie me.

'Well, he let this asshole do the dirty work, but yes.'

I look down at Toby who's clawing at his chest on the floor besides me. He's not dead yet, but by the looks of the blood dripping from his lips, he will be soon enough.

Aaron looks over his shoulder at the man too while he works to untie my ankles. As soon as he's got me untied, I jump off the chair and pounce on the piece of shit that tortured me.

'What's Lance planning, asshole?' I hiss at him. 'When is he coming for the communities?'

Toby looks at me and laughs, but it quickly turns into a cough and blood spurts from his mouth. He's clearly having difficulty breathing.

'You really think I'll tell you anything?' he says with difficulty as he tries to crawl away from me. 'Waste my last breaths on you?'

'Doesn't have to be your last breaths, darling', I tell him with a smile. 'Lance may have thought me incapable of doing any kind of job, but I worked with the doctor in Alexandria. I've seen enough shot wounds to know that that bullet pierced your lung, but not your heart or any viral arteries. If it had, you'd already be dead.'

'Lara, what are you doing?' Aaron cuts through me. 'We have to go.'

I ignore him and keep my eyes on Toby who watches me unsurely as he desperately clutches his chest.

'Right now your lung is filling up with blood and soon you'll either choke on your own blood or just bleed out, but if we're quick... I could save you.'

Toby scoffs dismissively and looks down at the blood seeping through his shirt. He may act tough but everybody gets scared in the face of death.

'Don't you want to read and meditate?' I ask him in a mocking tone. 'Tell me Lance's plans and you'll get to go on living your quiet, happy life.'

'Save me first', he says breathlessly. 'Then I'll tell you.'

I sigh dramatically and get up from the floor.

'Have it your way', I tell him. Then I grab the portable radio he dropped on the floor and make for the door with Aaron. I can't risk him contacting Lance, of course.

'Wait!' he yells when I open the door. I look back and hesitate. Aaron looks at me with desperation in his eyes.

'We don't have time to save him', he says urgently. But I close the door and walk back anyway. The more we know, the better.

'Yes?' I say.

'His plan was to make it look like you sneaked out of the Commonwealth and that you had a run-in with Maggie somewhere on your way to Alexandria. He was going to leave your body at the gates f the Commonwealth and make it look like Maggie did it.'

He takes a short pause to take a few ragged breaths before he continues.

'So Negan would attack the Hilltop for him and of course the other communities would come to Maggie's aid so they'd have a reason to take over control there too.'

'That's absolutely ridiculous', I say confused. 'Maggie would never do that, he'd never fall for that.'

'You don't know everything', Toby scoffs.