My Damaged Protector

Chapter Fifty Nine ~ New Best Friends

The group of people that surrounded us eventually began to herd us towards what I could only guess would be their home. Mountains of trash were piled up on all sides with narrow halls dug in the middle, every so often being supported with metal shipping containers.

I had kept a hold of the small bag I had hanging from my shoulder as we were led into a large open space somewhere in the midst of all the trash. Aaron was next to me, with Rick and Michonne leading our little group. I watched on as the people of this new group moved throughout the clearing in random lines, obviously knowing where they were going but trying to confuse us. Rosita was doing the same thing, while also checking every few seconds to make sure the other five of us were still with her.

Suddenly, the group around us stopped moving and ended up in two loose circles around us, watching and waiting. This left our little group in the middle, along with three people standing at the opposite end.

"Are you a collective, or does one lead?" The woman in the middle of the three asked, watching each of our faces.

When none of us spoke up, a blonde woman behind Rick shoved him forward. "This."

The woman, who I assumed was the leader of this group stepped forward. She was quite tall, with light brown hair that stopped just below her ears and oddly short cut bangs. "Hi." Rick greeted. "I'm Rick."

"We own your lives. You want to buy them back?" She asked. Well, she's a bit late to that party. "Have anything?"

"Well," Rick started. "You have one of my people. Gabriel. I want to see him first, then we can talk." With a simple look from the leader, the blonde woman turned and walked off, Rick's eyes trailing after her as I kept my attention on the leader and the two people behind her. The way she carried herself, how she seemed unfazed by our group, it worried me a bit, like she's done this before to other groups.

The blonde woman returned with Gabriel who was missing his usual black dress shirt and was only dressed in his slacks and a white tank top.

"The boat things you took got taken. Saw them, so we took the rest. And we took him." The leader spoke again, creating sentences that were very short and to the point.

"Well, then you know we have nothing to buy back our lives with. That's what you'll have soon, nothing. Because me and my people already belong to that group who took those supplies from the boat. They're called the Saviors. They own our lives." I rolled my eyes at the last little bit of Rick's words. "And if you kill us, you'll be taking something from them. And they will come looking. You only have two options when it comes to the Saviors; either they kill you, or they own you. But there is a way out. Join us. Join us in fighting them."

The woman clearly thought over a few things and looking Rick up and down before she gave her answer. "No." She shook her head with a slight smirk then twirled her hand to signal to her group. Gabriel was led away from us as a few others crept closer.

Hands hit my shoulders from behind me and I instantly shoved them off, turning and landing a hard punch to the face of whoever hid behind the fabric that covered their face. That person went down only for another to come up and try shoving me into moving with the rest of my group.

"Skye, stop it." Aaron warned, as I was getting ready to swing again, before getting hit with a long stick, sending him to the ground. I stopped moving when I watched the man who took a beating a few days ago drop and I held my hands in the air.

"Everyone, stop! Just wait!" Rick pled to our group.

Just as another person went to grab at me, Gabriel's voice rang through the air. "You let us go, or I will kill her." I turned to see him holding a knife to the blonde woman's throat.