The Walking Dead Imagines

Defenseless

The trouble you were in was beyond anything you or the group had ever encountered.

You had been a hostage before. Of course you had. It was every other weekend you were on your knees in front of a stranger, pretending to plead for you life just to buy time for the group to arrive and save you. Often times, it was you diving in through a window to save somebody else. These trips would only last a good hour or so, including the scavenging you often insisted on doing afterwards.

But this was different. This was so different.

These weren't just people you could dive headfirst at and kill in a few swings of your sword. You no longer had a sword, first of all. Your hair had fallen in your face, the dirt sinking into your ripped jeans and causing the skin underneath to crack at the dampness. There were injuries running up the left side of your face that throbbed, and you weren't even sure what they were yet. You just knew they were there.

Another small issue you had was the fact that the largest portion of the group were with you, and Carol and Morgan hadn't been seen for a long time. Tara and Heath were gone on a hunt, meaning they were out of the picture. You were all completely defenseless.

As soon as you saw Daryl, your heart fell into your stomach and you wanted to scream out. The hair that had fallen into your face – sweaty and dirt riddled – wasn't enough to stop you from making eye contact with him. He looked so pale, being thrown into the dirt next to Rosita and Glenn, completely defenseless. He had a bloodied blanket wrapped around his shoulder, and when he fell to the ground he simply keeled over, spitting up too much blood for your liking.

You didn't scream out, though. Instead, you gave him a firm nod and turned back to the man in front of you – Negan. He had been talking for a while now, walking up and down the line with a baseball bat wrapped in electric wire swinging at his side. It didn't seem threatening at first – baseball bats were nothing compared to your guns and knives, but the way this man wielded it, swinging it in front of your face like he wouldn't even hesitate to put it into use, made it seem a lot more scary.

And then he started to sing a nursery rhyme. You had faded out for a while, completely blocked by your own thoughts but you knew what this meant. The way he pointed the bat at each of you, saying the lines of the famous 'pick and choose' rhyme you always used to verse off as a kid to make your stupid decisions.

He was saying them now, grinning as he did so. And then the nursery rhyme was over and everybody was yelling and Abraham was keeled over in the dirt with blood dripping from his red hair and everything was falling apart. You weren't screaming. You weren't flinching. You weren't crying. You simply stared straight ahead with the tears rolling down your cheeks like the unwelcomed rain that had slammed against the caravan window only hours before. You would do anything to take those hours back if you had the chance now.

"Suck....My....Nuts," Abraham spat out. Negan laughed manically, commented on how Abraham was "Taking it like a champ!" and then brought the bat down on him all over again.

There was an unfamiliar buzzing in your ears. It reminded you of those summer days where you and Daryl would march through the woods, hunting for the food needed to keep your people alive. The flies were always awful during them days, and now it sounded like they were there again, right by your ear, nibbling at your sweaty skin.

You knew your brain was trying to distract you by handing you these memories, but the sound of skin being beaten in and bone being crushed and blood splattering was enough to make even the most happiest of memories seem dark.

It was over in a moment, but the moment felt overdone. You close your eyes and before you can hold yourself up, you fall to the ground. Your hands mold into the wet dirt, your hair falling back into your face. You belch up the vile that was rising in your throat, letting it escape and splatter in the dirt before you.