Irresistible Danger

Chapter 1

"God damnit," you cursed, looking down at the fresh drop of blood pooling on your thumb. You shifted the makeshift basket in your arm and glared at the hawthorn bush you had been picking berries from. You had gotten careless and stabbed yourself with one of the nasty-looking thorns.

Wiping the drop of blood onto your jeans, you continued plucking the small red berries from the bush as fast as possible without pricking yourself again. You didn't want to be out here for very long; it had taken an exorbitant amount of cajoling and flirting for you to convince Dwight to let you leave the Sanctuary again while he was on guard duty. There were times when you couldn't stand being cooped up anymore and just needed a break to go out exploring and gathering nuts or berries or whatever else you stumbled upon that caught your interest. You always carried a knife in case a walker wandered by and were sure to be back in the compound within the hour so that no one would notice you were gone.

You gave a little shudder at the thought of someone reporting you missing to Negan. You didn't want to know what he would do if he found out about your little weekly adventures out here by yourself. You had seen what he had done to Dwight's face and didn't even want to know what infraction he had committed to deserve such punishment.

Thankfully, Negan had never turned that type of brutality onto you; in fact, since arriving here your interactions with him had been almost....pleasant. You and the other two remaining survivors of your group were picked up on the road by a group of Negan's men about a month ago. You had been brought back here, where Negan had offered his protection so long as you all contributed to the compound in whatever way he asked.

The three of you had agreed, and within less than a day the other woman, Maria, had agreed to become Negan's fifth "wife" to ensure herself extra protection. You hadn't judged Maria for her decision. These were harsh times and people had to do things to survive that they wouldn't have considered before the walkers took over. However, when Negan had then asked you a week later if you wanted to be his sixth wife, you'd politely but firmly declined, your inner feminist refusing to be part of some harem when you felt perfectly capable taking care of yourself. "Your loss, doll" he had said with a smirk and walked off, never mentioning it again.

You furrowed your brows in concentration as you squatted and reached through the thorns for a bundle of berries further in the bush, your thoughts still lingering on Negan. It was a shame that he had to be so detestable as to sleep with a whole group of women, but at the same time you couldn't blame said women. Negan was a strong leader and his protection wasn't to be taken lightly.

You also begrudgingly admitted to yourself that he wasn't exactly hard to look at. No, you couldn't blame the other women at all. He could be incredibly charming when he wanted, and he had the type of grin that could make you catch your breath in anticipation and...

You were abruptly yanked from your thoughts and back to reality by the sound of a garbled growl right behind you and the feel of hands grabbing your shoulders. Panic flew through your entire body and you spun around just in time to stop a walker from biting into the back of your neck. Unfortunately, since you were still squatting your balance wasn't very stable and you fell backwards with a sharp cry into the thorn-filled berry bush.

Tears sprang to your eyes as you felt the thorns tear at your bare arms, but the true terror lay before you as the walker fell on top of you, your arms at its throat all that kept it from ripping off a chunk of your face. Your knife was in your boot, which you were unable to reach with the walker full length on top of you and both your arms straining to keep its snapping mouth at a distance. "This is it," you thought to yourself. This is how I die. Of all the stupid, pathetic ways for me go, it had to be picking fucking berries while fantasizing about a psychopath.

At that moment the top of the walker's head exploded in a rain of blood and gore, chunks of brain hitting you in the face as the rest of the walker's body went limp. Shocked, you shoved the body to the side and looked up to find none other than Negan standing over you, a now gore-covered Lucille hanging from one hand. Well shit, you thought at the dark look of rage on Negan's face. Maybe I should've let the walker bite me after all.