Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Her Saviour - 107

The little girl's walker teeth sunk down into the metal of the cuffs, in the dark her animal senses weren't enough to get her to Brooks' skin. "You had one job, girl." Brooks couldn't help but mutter to the girl who used to be her peer in age, but now Brooks was a lot older than the child in front of her, while the girl was forever stuck at her young age.

It wasn't long later that there were loud bangs. You couldn't even call them bangs plural, because they never once stopped for a break. Brooks identified the sound as multiple machine guns going off at once. The walkers all quickly fell dead, their blood exploding all over the road, surrounding trees and of course the car. Brooks decided to take the opportunity to kick the head of the walker trying to climb on her, and kick her out of the car. Brooks watched as the child corpse had its head exploded, before falling onto the ground.

Breathing deeply, considering her options, Brooks froze like a deer in headlights. What if these people weren't known to her? What if they just wanted to use her like many had before? What if they were worse than those who left her in the trunk of a car to die? "Brooks!" Her name was called out. "Brooks, are you in there?" The worried, and scared voice of Negan called out.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she wiggled out of the seat and stepped on the walker's body. She was blinded by flashlights, but once they lowered slightly she spotted Negan, Charlie, Cole, Dwight, Simon and several other saviours not important enough to mention by name. "Negan!" She found herself calling in delight, before jumping over the carcasses and running towards the man.

He dropped his gun, and his torch before extending his arms and meeting her half way. He wrapped his arms around her so tightly that she was lifted into the air, trapped in his warm and caring embrace. Her arms, of course, were trapped in front of her, still trapped in the shackles and chains 'her people' put her in. "Thank god you're safe." He whispered onto her head, before kissing the top of it and putting her down onto the ground. His hands moved to her biceps as he stepped back to look at her face. He smiled at her softly, before asking gently. "Did they hurt you?"

"They sentenced me to death, but physically I'm okay. My back's a little sore, but other than that." Brooks responded honestly.

"They sentenced you to death?" Cole repeated.

Brooks hummed and nodded, while Negan began trying to pick the lock on her handcuffs with a pocketknife. "Gave me a trial 'n' all. Said I was to be hung by tomorrow night."

Everyone stared at her in a stunned silence, to scared to say a word. Charlie though, he was the first to break it. "They were gonna hang you?"

"Seemed to be over a hundred people in there... Four of 'em voted to save my life. The rest..." Brooks trailed off, taking a deep breath to try and fight off the lump that had formed in her throat, again. She'd done too much crying for her liking recently. She hadn't cried this much since she was a little girl, and that was a long, long time ago according to Rick... The same man who was side lining Sophia and Carl from any fights because they're 'too young'.

"This damn lock won't budge." Negan muttered, trying to change the subject for his own comfort. He really didn't know what to say to such heinous words. Negan was a bad man, he'd done some shitty things... But, he'd never stoop to the level that Rick's people were stooping too, and that scared him.

Brooks raised her hands, and put them to the side of her body, seperating them as much as she could. "Just shoot 'em off."

"Bullet could bounce off and hit you." Negan disagreed.

Brooks scoffed. "Better than stayin' in this crap all my life."

Negan sighed, and thought for a moment. "Dwight, you're not nearly as valuable. You know what to do."

Dwight gulped, but was too fearful to hesitate. He headed over, and separated Brooks from her hands with his own body, using himself as a human shield. Simon raised his hand, aimed his gun, and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Dwight, the bullet tore straight through the weakened chain and Brooks was able to easily separate her hands. The cuffs were still around her wrists like bracelets, but at least she could easily move her arms now, so with her new found freedom, she used it to shove Dwight's body away from hers.

She nodded, stretching out her arms, finally. "Thanks." She nodded to Simon, then Negan. She didn't like Dwight, because Negan didn't like Dwight. He pretended to trust Dwight as one of his top men, but really, he slagged him off to Brooks any second he got. 'Brooks, you see the way he walks? Why he walk like that?', 'He looks so dumb eating that chicken', 'I keep putting him in the way of walkers why isn't he dead yet?', 'God have you smelt Dwight's breath today? Bro, it's called toothpaste', 'he's just so fugly I can't stand him'. Brooks also didn't like him because he was wearing her uncle Daryl's favourite vest, and at least Daryl tried to save her life... She couldn't express that to her saviour Negan, though.

"Let's head back." Cole announced, nodding to the two trucks they came in. "Sound probably attracted more of them."

"I think over half of them must've followed the people who left me 'ere." Brooks responded. "How are you guys 'ere anyways?"

"Dumb luck." Simon admitted.

Charlie nodded in agreement. "Been driving around for hours looking for you."

"Reminds me." Negan realised, pulling out his walkie, and pushing the button to speak into it. "All teams head back to the Eagle's nest, we got our girl back. Can I get an in order check in to know you're all still breathing?" Negan asked. Of course he cared if his people were alive, but he also wanted Brooks to hear how many people were out there looking for her, how many people were out there who cared.

"Team one, all good."
"Team two, we're fine."
"Team three, heading back."
"Team four, hey, Brooks!"
"Team five, good she's good.""
"Team six, killin' a couple, we're-"

Silence.

"Team six?" Negan repeated.

"Sorry, we're good."
"Team seven, all peachy."
"Team eight, coming home."
"Team nine, excited for cookies."

"Thanks, men." Negan said into the walkie, before wrapping his arm around Brooks' shoulders, and slowly escorting her to the trucks. "Each team has about five to eight healthy men on there. It was all the men we had, even pulled out the fit and healthy workers. The sanctuary is currently so vulnerable it could be overtaken by pigeons, because I needed every person out there to get my girl back... I'm sure that cancels out anyone who was stupid, heartless, selfish and jealous enough to try and get rid of such a talented young lady."

And suddenly, Cam and Glenn escaped Brooks' mind, and she started wondering who's team she was really on.