Ephemeral - Alia Dixon

12

We stand there, turning and searching for an exit that isn't there. Everywhere around us are people and cars. I narrow my eyes as I look ahead of us. Is that the RV? It is. My eyes widen as I search for Eugene and find him kneeling on the floor.
"Eugene" I breathe out, breathing heavily. 
"Good, you made it. Welcome to where you're going" the man from our first stop says. Now  recognize his voice again. The same one as the burning tree logs. "We'll take your weapons. Now" he says, pointing his gun at me. 
"We can talk about it" Rick says.
"We're done talking. Time to listen" he says before his men walk up to us. Three of them take my weapons off of me and strip me of my jacket. The guy that's talking walks over to me and pulls out a knife from his belt. He holds it infront of my face.
"That yours?" he asks but I just glare at him before he grins. "It is"
He looks over all of us again. "Let's get her down and get you all on your knees. Lots to cover"
I watch as a few men walk over to take Maggie but we refuse.
"Stop. We got her" Abraham says and the guy waves him off. They lower her to the ground before helping her walk. She clutches her belly tightly, barely able to move. I clench my jaw, glaring at that man. 
"Gonna need you on your knees" he says and I stare at him. Without saying anything I start lowering myself to my knees between Carl and Allen. The others wait for Rick to do the same before they kneel. I stare at the floor infront of me as if it's the most exiting thing in the world until the man with the mustache grabs my attention.
"Let's get the others out" he says and my head snaps up. "Dwight!"
I look around to see a blonde man walk out of the crowd, half of his face is burned away. He looks at us for a second before moving over to a van.
"Come on. You got people to meet" he says and my jaw drops as I see him carrying my dad out. He's pale and bleeding. His eyes lock with mine and Allen's and it seems like everything stops. I've never seen my dad so worried and weak. Never. He looks like he's taken a hard blow and as if he's likely to pass out any minute now. I nod at him shortly which he returns. I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. Glenn's fighting them as he sees Maggie on the ground but Dwight pushes him to the ground once more.
"All right! We got a full boat. Let's meet the man" he says before knocking at the door of the RV.

He walks away as the door opens and yet another man steps out. He's wearing a leather jacket and carrys a bat over his shoulder that's covered with wires.
"Pissing our pants yet?" he asks amused, making me clench my fists together. "Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close. Yep. Gonna be pee-pee-city here real soon" 
What is he? A fucking seven-year old? Does he think that shit is amusing? He looks at all of us carefully with an awful ugly grin on his face. "Which one of you pricks is the leader?"
"It's this one" the one who's in charge beneath Negan says, probably pointing at Rick. "He's the guy"
He smiles at Rick. "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. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes. Yes, you are" he says laughing. "You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order. 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 it goes. Pay attention"
Negan holds his bat into Rick's face and I notice that the wires are spiked. "Give me your shit or I will kill you" he says before laughing again and walking around some more. "Today was Career day. 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 nasty, big, mighty 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 is out, you are not safe. Not even close. In fact, you are pegged. And even more pegged when you don't do what I want. And what I want is half 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 if someone knocks on your door, you let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us, we will knock it down. You understand?" he asks Rick who doesn't answer. 
Negan holds his hand to his ear and bends down to Rick. "What? No answer?" he asks before taking a few steps back. "You don't really thing that you were gonna get through this without being punished now, did you? I don't want to kill you people. Just want to make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you? I'm not growing a garden. But you killed my people. A whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with. And for that, for that you're gonna pay. So now... I'm gonna beat the holy hell out of one of you"
He starts waving his bat around. "This... This is Lucille and she is awesome. All this.. All this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor" he says, starting to walk around.  
Abraham straightens and looks him right into the eye, causing Negan to chuckle. "Huh," he says, rubbing his beard before he walks over to Carl.
"You got one of our guns" Negan says before crouching down onto Carl's height. "Yeah, you got a lot of our guns"
"Shit, kid. Lighten up. At least cry a little" Negan says to Carl before looking at me. I glare right back at him.
"Whoa, you are one tough little bird. And word is you're very skilled with those knives you carry around" he says, smiling at me and I clench my jaw. "You killed one of my men. Apparently it was kind of impressing"
He chuckles before getting back up and walking around before he stops at Maggie.
"Jesus. You look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery right now" he says before Glenn starts screaming.
"No! No! No!" he shouts before Dwight punches him into the face and then pointing my dad's crossbow at him.
"Nope. Nope, get him back in line" Negan says while Glenn mutters for him to not do it. A sob leaves his mouth before he screams. "Don't" he says over and over again.
Negan chuckles amusedly. "Alright, listen. Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free, it's an emotional moment. I get it" Negan says before walking back over to Rick with a grin.
"Sucks, doesn't it? The moment you realize you don't know shit"
Then he proceeds to look over to us. "Which one's your kid? Because I know for a fact one of them is. Is it her?" he asks. No one moves. 
"Nah, she isn't Hasn't gotten your eyes. But the boy next to her has. Are you two siblings?" 
I don't answer. "Sweetheart, I asked you a question" he says, looking at me.
I swallow. "Twins" I say and he starts laughing. 
"Wow, I always wanted a twin brother. Your similarities are crazy. Which one's your dad, huh? If it isn't little Rick over there, which one is it?"
No one moves. Neither me, Allen nor dad. 
"Do I have to do something before someone answers?" he asks but I still just stare at him. "Well, let's do it then" he says before rising his bat up into the air, getting ready to hit me. 
"No!" my dad shouts loudly and I shut my eyes tightly. 
Negan laughs. "Wow. Really? You want to tell me that these two are your children? Wow. Your mother must've been very hot then. Though you look a bit shaken child. What happened?"
"Got held hostage" I say quietly and he starts laughing.
"Oh, so you were one of the hostages that killed my people?" I look up at him and see him expecting an answer. I nod and he laughs even harder.
"They got you good though" he says.
"I got them better" I say before glaring at him again. He stops laughing and grins at me.
"I love this one. She's got fire under her ass" he says loudly, clearly still amused.