Ellie Dixon

The Line Up

Slowly, the RV door opened. Stood there was the silhouette of a man carrying a bat. "Pissing our pants yet?" The voice was familiar, I couldn't put my finger on it until the man walked away from the shadows of the RV. He walked until he was about five feet away from Eugene, the light from the headlights illuminating him. "Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close." He begin to walk to entire length of our kneeling line up, looking at us all. When he passed me, his steal gaze lingered on me, I didn't break it. There was a spark of familiarity behind his eyes, but he didn't recognise me straight away as he kept walking.

Mr Smith, my P.E teacher, was the leader of a murderous, bloodthirsty group of dickheads. Black jeans, a black leather jacket and a baseball bat covered in barbed wire. Now, this was in the list of top ten things I never thought I'd see. I decided not to say anything, I didn't want him to recognise me. "Oh, shit." Very quietly slipped past my lips, nobody could hear me though.

"Yep. It's gonna be pee-pee pants city in here real soon." Mr Smith - Negan - continued. "Which one of you pricks is the leader?"

"It's this one." Guy's voice said as I assumed he pointed at Rick, but I didn't turn around. I couldn't take my eyes away from the guy who used to teach me dodge ball. "He's the guy."

Negan stood a couple feet in front of Rick. He sighed, his breath showing up in the air due to the low temperature. "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 going to be up to speed shortly. Yea... You are so going to regret crossing me in a few minutes." A twisted grin took over his face. "Yes, you are... 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 it's really very simple. So, even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it. You ready? Here goes. Pay attention." Negan swung his back down, not in an intention to hurt Rick, just so it was a few inches next to his head, so he'd pay attention to it. Negan then held it up to Rick's neck which made him flinch back and away from it. "Give me your shit... Or I will kill you."

"Creative." I muttered under my breath.

Another grin took over my ex P.E teacher's face. "Today was career day." Negan started walking down the line to make sure he saw everyone. "We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do. 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. But, the word it 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 of 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, someone knocks on your door?" He let a chuckle past his lips. "You let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us? And we will knock it down. You understand? What? No answer? You don't really think you were going to get through this without being punished now did you? I don't wanna kill you people. Just want to make that clear from the get-go." Negan then turned to me. "Especially don't wanna kill you with your angry little serial killer eyes."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Like you're one to talk."

"I know you don't I?" He strolled over until he was standing in front of me. "Hang on a damn minute... Ellie... Ellie goddamn Dixon."

"Mr Smith." I nodded. "Surprised you recognised me. It's been a while."

A smile creeped onto his lips. "You're actually alive. I won't lie to you, kid, I thought you'd be one of the first to die."