Irresistible Danger

Little Red & The Big Bad

Walking out the front door of the compound, you were fairly shocked at the amount of activity already happening. The sun was steadily climbing upwards in the sky, the last hints of orange-pink sunrise fading off in the distance. And while the daylight had just gotten started, it appeared that quite a few people had beat the dawn and already been awake for some time. A few armed guards patrolled up and down the tall, chain-link fence, while other random compound members walked to and fro across the front area, some heading around the side of the building to your left, perhaps towards the garden. A group of four young children chased each other, giggling and screaming across the pavement, while half a dozen women stood nearby. The women were keeping an eye on the children while also focusing on the large piles of wet laundry that they were currently hanging up to dry on the multiple clotheslines that ran parallel to one another along the front of the compound.

Dear lord, how early do people get up around here?

As you followed Negan out onto the pavement, you watched as all activity seemed to halt as everyone realized who was in their midst. Even the children stopped their game and became suddenly serious as they all gazed up at Negan. And then, almost as if they were all robots, and someone with the remote had pushed a button that said, "kneel," they all dropped to their knees in unison and bowed their heads in supplication.

You came to a halt yourself at the scene, shocked by the instant reaction Negan had caused. Would it look weird that you weren't kneeling as well? Actually, if you were being honest, you had only kneeled before Negan once, and that was when you had first arrived at The Sanctuary. His men had been the ones to bring you, Maria, and Tim here, and they had forced you to kneel before Negan made his introduction. You had hated every moment of it, and had told yourself that you wouldn't act so submissive in front of any man ever again after that day. True to your word, you hadn't engaged in the kneeling ritual since.

In fact, now that you were thinking about it, none of your dinner staff kneeled when Negan entered the kitchen either. You remembered that everyone in the kitchen had kneeled for him when you first started working there. Right from the start, you had refused to follow the others' particular form of greeting anytime Negan visited the kitchen. The first time this happened, his eyes had met yours across a sea of kneeled bodies and bent heads, and you had been certain that punishment was imminent. That this whole kneeling process was one of his "rules", and you were about to find out what happened when it was broken. But instead, he had just gazed at you intently, face devoid of any hints as to his thoughts. He had then turned his attention to Ben, who was the "head cook" at that time, and carried on with his business as if you didn't even exist.

As you had quickly worked your way up the ranks of the kitchen, you had noticed that the other staff started to look up to you. You had figured that it was a natural reaction for people to look up to the person in charge, and so hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now, you realized just how much they respected you as their boss, for while they might freeze when Negan entered the kitchen, and at times they would even bow their heads or direct their gaze down at the floor, no one had touched their knees to those kitchen tiles in over a month now. Outside the kitchen might be a different story, but inside those four walls, no one prostrated themselves in front of Negan the way all of these people outside were currently doing. You wondered if Negan was aware of the difference in greeting when he entered the kitchen, and if he was also aware that you were most likely the root cause of it.

Either way, you weren't kneeling to him. Not in the kitchen, not outside the kitchen, and definitely not now on the hot pavement.

Forcing your feet to unfreeze themselves and continue to move forward, you tried to maintain a relaxed, yet hurried pace in order to catch up with Negan, who was almost to the fences. You swore you could feel over a dozen gazes on you in passing, but you ignored them, focused instead on the sweet escape of the forest, which was so close you could almost taste it.