Safe haven | Rick Grimes

062. AND THERE SHE IS

Chapter sixty two

"And there she is."

"I got an idea."

Smiling, Negan stepped forward and aimed the bloody tip of the bat directly at Rick.

"Eenie..." he started, stepping to the right.

"Meenie..." he said, passing Maggie.

He aimed it at Abraham. "Miny..."

He shifted, pointing it at Michonne. "Moe..."

He swung the bat toward Rosita. "Catch..."

He aimed it at Daryl. "A tiger..."

He pointed it at Glenn. "By..."

Negan turned and walked back to the left, his boots heavy in the dirt. "His toe..." he said, aiming it at Rick again.

"If..." he said, pointing it directly at Scarlett.

"He..." he said, moving it to Sasha.

"Hollers..." he said, aiming it at Aaron.

"Let him go," he said, pointing it at Eugene.

"My mother told me..." he said, aiming it at Carl.

Then, the rhythm broke. He began swinging the bat at random, pointing it at different faces in a blur of terrifying motion.

"To pick... the very best one..." he said, stopping briefly on Eugene.

"And you..." he muttered, aiming it at Rosita, then Aaron, then Glenn.

"Are..." he said, pointing it at Maggie, then Daryl, then Abraham, then Carl.

He swung the bat back to the center of the line, his shadow falling over Rick, and finally stopped, the barbed wire casting a jagged silhouette over Scarlett's face.

Negan stepped up to Abraham, leveling the barbed-wire bat directly at him. "It," he stated, his voice dropping into a deadly, unyielding threat. "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start. You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry. Hell," he paused, raising the bat high over his shoulder, "you're all gonna be doing that."

He swung the bat down with sickening force. Screams erupted from the lineup while others instantly averted their eyes. Right next to Scarlett, Sasha broke down into heavy, choked sobs. Scarlett sat in paralyzed shock as Abraham, defying the brutal blow, actually forced his spine straight and sat back up.

"Oh! Look at that! Taking it like a champ!" Negan voiced, genuinely impressed by the defiance.

"Suck... my... nuts," Abraham choked out, spitting blood into the dirt.

Negan's expression hardened, and he slammed the bat down onto him a second time. Scarlett immediately snapped her head to the left, catching Carl's eye.

"Don't look," she mouthed desperately.

As Negan continued to strike Abraham over and over, the horrific sounds filling the clearing, Carl forced himself to look only at her.

"Did you hear that?" Negan asked, letting out a sharp chuckle between swings. "He said, 'Suck my nuts.' Phew!" He laughed out loud, bringing the bat down again.

"Look at me," Scarlett mouthed to Carl, her voice completely silent but urgent. From her right, Rick was staring at her, watching the way she anchored their son through the nightmare. Negan didn't stop, continuing to pulverize the remains long after the life had left them.