𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝟐. carl grimes

30 - ABRAHAM

"Yep. It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon."

Negan walks around, his bat against his shoulder. When he turned his back on me, I saw that there's barbed wires wrapped around the thing.

"Which one of you pricks is the leader?" Negan asked, looking around our group.

"It's this one." One of the Saviors said, pointing to Rick. "He's the guy."

Negan sighed before walking up to 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 from killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly."

I haven't felt this nervous since Gareth and the Terminus people entered the church. Fear is slowly creeping into my chest but I try to push it away

"Yeah. You are gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." Negan stated. "Yes, you are. You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order. And the new world order is this, and it's very simple. So even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it. You ready?"

My throat goes dry and I squeezed Carl's hand again, a little harder this time, and he squeezed back.

Negan continues to talk. "Here goes. Pay attention. Give me your shit... or I will kill you."

I've heard that threat so many times but this is one of the only times I actually got frightened by it. "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."

Wait, hold up, none of us asked for this job. Negan doesn't have a claim on us or on anything we have.

"Now, I know that is a mighty big, nasty pillow to swallow, but swallow it you most certainly will." Negan turns back to Rick. "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, more pegged if 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."

We could run after this, we could all run away far, but that's just not us. We don't run from our problems, we face it. But how are we going to face it if the numbers aren't even and we're all helpless and defenseless?

Every man surrounding us are fighters. Us, we only have a few fighters. How are we gonna fight Negan? He already got us cornered right now.

"This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So, if someone knocks on your door..." Negan chuckles as he stops in front of Daryl. "You let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us and we will knock it down. You understand?"

Negan mockingly placed his hand on his ear, stopping in front of Rick. "What, no answer? You don't really think 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."

My heart started beating fast as the fear settles in me. "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 outta one of you."

I can literally feel and hear my own heart pounding against my chest as I began to shake in my position. My hands are getting clammy as sweats started to cover my body.

"This—" Negan shows Rick the bat in his hand. "This is Lucille, and she is awesome."

Carl is attempting to calm me down by squeezing my hand, but I can't stop shaking.

"All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor." My insides started turning at the thought of Lucille being smashed onto one of my friends.

Negan inhales sharply as he stops in front of Abraham, looking at the man's beard, before Negan touches his own. "Huh. Ugh, I gotta shave this shit."

The latter's footsteps get closer to Carl and I until he passed me, but he's standing in front of Carl. He crouches down as he talks. "You got one of our guns. Woah, yeah. You got a lot of our guns. Shit, kid lighten up. At least cry a little."

Negan spotted our hands and he chuckled, before he faced me. "I saw what you did to one of my men. You're a feisty one, I'll give you that. But, I did not appreciate what you did. What any of you did."

My lips are trembling as Negan smirks before standing back up. He clears his throat before he stops in front of Maggie. "Jesus. You look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery right now."

My nerves got to me and I tried to move, but Carl tugged on my hand, stopping me. Glenn couldn't stop himself though. "No! No!"

"Nope." Negan shakes his head. "Nope, get him back in line."

Dwight puts Glenn back in line as the latter sobbed before yelling. "Don't."

Negan chuckles again. "Alright, listen. Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. That one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it."

I'm shaking so hard in my place right now as Glenn was crying. Everyone else had tears in their eyes while I'm trying to contain it, like Carl is doing. I don't want to appear weak, but kneeling down here right now, shaking, is already saying that I'm weak.

"Sucks, don't it? The moment you realized you don't know shit." Negan said directly to Rick, before the former's eyes landed on Carl. He chuckled, pointing his bat at the latter. "This is your kid, right? This is definitely your kid."

"Just stop this!" Rick yells, the fear clearly audible in his voice.

"Hey! Don't make me kill the little future serial killer." Carl's nowhere near a serial killer. He has killed but he's nowhere near that. "Don't make it easy on me. I gotta pick somebody. Everyone's at the table waiting for me to order."

I pray to god this foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, Negan would change his mind. I can't decide who I'm willing to sacrifice. I don't want to sacrifice anyone at all.

"I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good, because we are the greater good." Rick's voice rang in my head.

Negan started whistling as he walks pass my friends. "I simply cannot decide." He chuckles. "I got an idea."

He pointed the bat to Rick. "Eenie..."

"Meenie... miney... mo... catch... a tiger... by... his toe..." with every word, Negan points his bat at my friends before he started walking towards to where I am. "If... he hollers... let him go..."

"My mother..." Negan points Lucille at me. My heart hammers against my chest as my eyes are wide open, before he moves onto Carl. "Told me... to pick the very best one... and you... are..."

"It." He stops in front of somebody and my heart drops. "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start."

Tears clouded up my vision as I tried to push it back, but it won't go away. My eyes are on the ginger man, who has no trace of fear on his face. He's even kneeling up straight, looking at Negan directly in the eye.

"You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."

And with one swift movement, he drives Lucille hard onto Abraham's head as we all let out screams.

—~—

so i'm ending book 2 here. it was torture for me to write this and it'll be more torture to write glenn's. all i can say is...

puta.

i'm sorry for swearing. wait for book 3!