The Replacement

Part Twenty-three

Warning: swearing

************

A huge storm had broken out as Negan and the group made their way through DC on route to Meridian, and the longer they kept going, the harder it stormed.

"Negan, how much longer till we're through the city?" Maggie calls out to him.

"We got about six hours... we should hunker down, wait for this to pass."

"You don't get a vote Asshole" one of Maggie's people snarkily remarks.

Negan turns to look at him, silently reminding himself that he was doing this for his wife and their child.

"No, his right..." Daryl comments, "we need to find some shelter."

"No..." Maggie objects, "we don't have time."

"We can't stay out in this" Daryl replies.

Maggie notices something then, tapping Daryl on the arm, she silently points toward the entrance into a subway station.

"Yeah" Daryl responds, "let's go."

The group carefully descends down the steps, scanning for any danger as they reach the platform.

"Alright, which way?" Daryl looks to Negan.

"Not to sound like a broken record..." Negan responds, "but I... we gotta take a breath, hunker down, wait for the storm to pass."

"You don't wanna go in there?" Maggie makes a snarky remark of her own then.

"No..." Negan responds honestly, "I don't."

"I don't give a shit..." Maggie snarls at him. "Which way?"

Negan pauses for a second to just stare at her, pointing with his flashlight to the right then. "Yellow line, north" he begins giving the directions to take.

Everyone moves to hop down onto the tracks then.

"C'mon, let's go" Daryl mutters out.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Negan asks Daryl.

"Why's that?" Daryl remarks, shining the flashlight in his face. "You think we buddies or something? Y/N's my friend, not you..."

Negan lets out a breath of defeat, and one of Maggie's people deliberately bumps into him from the back, followed by another one immediately thereafter.

Silently smirking at their childish behaviour, Negan takes a second to compose himself before following after them.

*****

As they made their way through the subway tunnel, Negan began to feel more uneasy the deeper they went. Even attempting to warn the group of the dangers of being there once he noticed the waterline marks against the walls, indicating that the tunnel seemed to have regular flooding's during heavy storms, but no one wants to heed his warnings.

After Daryl makes a snarking remark about it, Negan comes to the conclusion, that he knew of Maggie's plans to kill him during the trip. Realizing that there was nothing he could really do about it being stuck underground, Negan continues on walking in silence thereafter.

The group suddenly comes to a dead stop when they notice the pile of dead bodies, wrapped in plastic blocking their path.

Negan realizing that his gut instinct had been right all along, silently turns his head to look at the others as they carefully advanced forward. This was becoming more of a suicide mission the further they went.

Negan makes the decision that if things get any worse, he was going to back out. He had promised his wife that he was going to make it back to her alive, and if it meant going back empty-handed, so be it.