DEAD SOULS | twd x spn

01 | a new world

LOTTIE WINCHESTER WAS past saving, she'd known that for a while now. From the moment she'd decided to stay on the road with her father and Dean, she had knowingly damned herself to a life plagued by evil and death. But it was worth it, because she was helping people, saving lives. Her life didn't matter as long as the rest of the world was safe.

As she looked into the eyes of the corpse that was trying to take a piece out of her, however, she wondered if the world she had stumbled into was even worth saving. She had fallen into a rift─her brothers falling in after her─and she had found herself in a new world. It was a world that had long since died. A world where the dead walked.

She pushed her fingers into the rotting flesh of the corpse's neck, its skin parting around her fingertips, gunk and dark blood sliding down her palms. It was hovering right over her face, teeth aggressively snapping in front of her, desperate to take a bite. Her gun was on the ground─it had fallen out of reach─and her grip on this thing's neck didn't look like it would hold for much longer.

"Dean!" She yelled, hoping to God that any of her brothers were still alive. "Sam!"

The corpse was leaning closer, teeth still violently snapping at her. She gave one final push against its throat, blood dripping onto her chin, and she managed to roll it over, her knees resting on either side of its waist. But before she could reach for her gun, the end of a baseball bat landed square in the corpse's face, blood and flesh spattering all over her shirt.

Lottie jumped back from the body, pushing herself to her feet. The bat kept coming down on its head, a sickening crack ringing through the air with every hit, until eventually there was nothing left─nothing but a puddle of blood and brain matter.

When she finally pulled her gaze from the battered corpse in front of her, her heart dropped at the sight of its attacker. A man with dark hair and a salt and pepper beard, a smug smile adorning his face. It was a dead man's face. It was the face of the person she had once considered her hero.

"You one of Rick's merry men?" The man snickered, pointing his bat in Lottie's direction.

She turned to look at her brothers, her words caught in her throat, all the breath knocked out of her. They had clearly seen the man in front of them just as she had─a sick reincarnation of their father. John Winchester.

"Well?" The man spoke, slightly more irritated now as he glared at the group in front of him. "Aren't one of you gonna say somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there like a bunch of assholes?"

"...dad?" The word fell from Lottie's lips like something of a choked sob, and the man's response only made the ache in her chest worsen.

He laughed. "Dad? Are you fuckin' serious? Sweetheart, I'm not your dad."

"Then who the hell are you?" Dean growled, his hand resting on his gun as he watched the man in front of him.

"I'm Negan. And you better be careful how you speak to me. Just ask Rick, he knows what happens when you piss me off."

"Who's Rick?" Sam questioned, voice trembling as he stared at Negan.

"Well shit...you don't know Rick? I'd have thought you were one of the pricks from Alexandria."

"Alexandria?" Lottie asked.

"Have you all been hit on the fuckin' head or something?"

Nobody spoke. Nobody even moved. And it didn't take long for Negan to realise that neither of the people in front of him knew just what the hell was going on.

"You really don't know where you are," Negan finally said, looking from Lottie to her brothers and then back to her. "You gotta be shittin' me. Come on, this is bullshit. You gotta know where you are."

Lottie shook her head, her heart pounding against her ribcage.

"Well I'll be damned." He smirked, a quiet chuckle leaving his lips. "You really wanna know where you are? You're in the middle of a damn apocalypse. And from the looks of it, you're screwed."