VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴93

There were tracks near the new camp.

Ellie pounced at the chance. They were coming back. The people here.. they were coming to take this place back.

"Do you think we should leave the place and set some traps? I don't want to live on the road again, though," Brandon admits.

Ellie picks at the mask in her hands. "Scared?"

Brandon tilts his head back and forth. "Not scared. Just tired."

"Scared," Ellie remarks. "Did a couple of weeks of being behind walls make you soft?"

"Come on, man," Brandon scoffs. 

"I don't give a shit if those pricks want that place. I could go back right now and the entire place on fire without thinking twice."

Brandon hisses between his teeth. "That's stupid."

"Maybe. But, it's true."

"Has it ever crossed your mind in this that you can't dish out some justice if you're already dead?"

"Are you trying to give me some kind of morality check?" Ellie recalls Pope's words. "If so, put your mask on and shut up. I don't want to hear it."

"Damn, I can't even keep some conversation while we're on watch?"

Ellie hops off the hill they were on. "No. Not if you're gonna spew some bullshit."

Brandon slides his mask on, then rests it on top of his head. "What are you doing?"

"Gotta get training in wherever you can."

Brandon scoffs a laugh when Ellie slides her mask over her face and readies in a fighting stance. They had strung up some of the bodies through the roads in this area. Ellie steadies herself on her feet and takes quick jabs at the body- using the dead man like her own personal punching bag.

"You look ridiculous," Brandon informs.

A clicking sound makes Ellie pause her actions.

"They're coming," Brandon says, voice down to a whisper.

Ellie tosses the hood of her jacket over her head and nods for Brandon to follow her. They hunker down and keep quiet, running through the dark area with ease.

If Ellie listened hard enough, she could faintly hear the people's voices. She focuses hard.. she listens for Rick.

"Hey, Negan, you got a spare battery?"

Ellie's blood runs cold and she stops- Brandon bumping into her back.

"What?" Brandon whispers.

There was no way..

Ellie's eyes focus on nothing. Her body goes stiff.

Surely she misheard. It wasn't that Negan.. right?

"Sure thing man, just a second," Negan responds.

That voice. Ellie heard it in all of her nightmares. All of her daydreams. She was obsessed with that voice in the worst way possible. She waited so, so long for it.

Ellie spirals.

Not only were they here.. they brought Negan with them?

Negan was still alive?

Negan was out of his cell?

Negan was.. a working member of the team?

"El," Brandon urges- pushing her to keep walking to the rest of the reapers.