Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

LUCY

Lucy stooped to pick up a bottle from the edge of the road, brushing dirt and moss off of it. The light glimmered on the clear edges and she searched the ground for more but saw nothing as leaves crunched and feet shuffled into view, “A bottle?”

“Raquel’s been collecting them.” She shoved it into her backpack and then hoisted it back to her shoulder and started walking.

“For the antiseptic she’s trying to make?”

“Yeah.” The antiseptic was exactly the kind of stuff they needed. Supplies were getting more and more scarce in the world. Their people had to go out farther to find stuff, and they were trying their best to limit that. It was dangerous out here. If the walkers didn’t get you, the people might. Speaking of people… Lucy paused and lifted her head higher, “Do you hear that?”

“Trucks!” Dean’s hands grabbed her jacket before she could react, dragging her off the road. They landed hard in a pile of brush and dust, stinging her nose as it plumed around them. Just as she was able to turn her eyes to the road, she saw the vehicles through the trees. Two trucks and a car. Her heart skipped several beats as she watched, hoping they hadn’t been seen through the trees.

Squinting, she stared through the bush, the two trucks were loaded with people, perched in the bed, arms hanging out the windows. One stood in the bed with his elbows on the cab, facing forward, a gun at the ready. Looked like it might’ve been a rifle but at this distance it was impossible to say. It screamed danger.

Dean shifted next to her, his long blonde hair brushing her shoulder as he leaned in closer, “That’s got to be about twenty people. Maybe four more in the car.”

“Just people, no supplies,” she frowned as she watched them drive by.

“Look, look, look!” his fingers dug into her arm.

“Oh my god…are those prisoners?”

“Fuck, they’re going straight towards Raquel and Dennis.”

“Jose and Gio are probably there, too.” She started to get up but he grabbed her, keeping her in place. She heaved for breath, staring as the vehicles passed out of sight and continued down the road. He was right to stop her.

“Come on, we’ll stick to the woods. They’ll have heard them, too, they’ll be hiding.”

She scrambled to her feet, eagerly starting in the direction the trucks had gone, but staying shielded by the trees. “Do you think it was them?”

“I do.” He doubled his step to keep up with hers. She took swift strides that weren’t quiet at all, her stomach twisting. “The Osman’s haven’t been this far north yet but we knew it was a matter of time.”

She wanted to curse but didn’t waste her breath. They’d heard about Guy Osman from a neighboring community of survivors. He and his gang were stealing people from communities if they caught them on the roads alone, but they seemed more wary of attacking larger groups. They weren’t really sure why but their friends at Deer Park were scared about it. Her people had to go all the way to Deer Park to trade with them now, they were too afraid to meet them halfway like they used to.

As if the world wasn’t dangerous enough.

Buildings began to come into sight through the trees, and right on the edge of the vacant town, she spotted a familiar truck and a couple people roaming around outside of it. One had a door wide open, tossing a backpack inside, while the other paced back and forth, eyes on the road.

Lucy felt relief wash through her, “There’s Raquel and Dennis.”

“Thank God,” Dean started jogging so she did, too, clearing the trees and calling out to them. Raquel yanked her head out of the truck, sighing with relief.

“Did you see the trucks?” She called out before they reached her.

“Yeah, Osman’s you think?”

“We said the same.” She brushed a hand through her dark hair as Dennis circled the truck. “Jose and Gio are coming down the sidewalk. We all hid when we saw them. Saw people tied up in their trucks.”

Dean seemed relieved to be near them, squeezing Dennis’s shoulder and nodding repeatedly at Raquel. Lucy was just relieved they’d dodged that bullet. Raquel pulled her into a side hug as she reached her, “First Saviors and now Osmans.”

Dean’s head swiveled, searching the road, “Nah, I think Osman’s are more real to me at this point. We’ve never seen Saviors. This is the third time one of us has seen Osman’s gang.”

“Hilltop said,”

“I know what Hilltop said,” Dean interrupted Raquel, “But we ain’t Hilltop. They haven’t had to protect their selves from groups and walkers like we have. They’ve had big walls since the start. If someone tries to walk into our town and call themselves our saviors, we’re going to put arrows in them faster than they can say ‘we surrender.’”

“Dean,” Lucy tugged at his arm, frowning at him, “shut up.”

His lips parted like he was about to say something when he paused and jerked his eyes back to Dennis. “Shit, Dennis,”

“It’s fine, Dean.” He held up his hands. His sister had died at Hilltop when the Saviors took over. For months they’d been hearing the rumors before Hilltop, a community they traded with for food, met the fabled Saviors. It hadn’t gone well. It seemed to Lucy like all their trade options were getting limited, and all of it from assholes. They had to do something, like stop the Osman’s from kidnapping people, stop the Saviors from forcing other communities to pay for their safety. She just didn’t know how, but if she got the chance to meet one of their leaders, she’d probably start there.

“Hey guys,” Jose greeted them.

“Come on,” Raquel urged and opened the driver door, “I don’t want to linger here. They had a lot of guns.”

“I agree,” Gio began, drawing up short, eyes widening. “They’re coming back!”

“What?!”

Dean grabbed her and hauled her towards the vehicle, “Get in!” He crammed himself in, still dragging her by her shirt. She barely had her legs under her when Raquel turned the ignition and the truck sputtered. She screamed, pounding the wheel as she tried again, her foot slamming into the gas, begging the truck to start.

“They’ve seen us!” Jose was in the front passenger seat, kicking the dash.

Raquel tried again, voice desperate.

Lucy managed to wrangle herself free of Dean’s frantic hold, peering out the passenger windows. “We have to run! Guys, run!” She returned the favor, dragging Dean out. Raquel bailed and she heard Jose curse as he slid across the seat to the driver side. Dennis jumped out the bed and she heard a cry of pain before Gio grabbed him.

“I got you, man, run!”

“Go, go!”

They heard shouts and horns blaring behind them as they darted into the forest, but the vehicles in pursuit didn’t slow, they jumped the curb and came tearing into the woods after them. Lucy glanced back, seeing the vehicles bouncing carelessly. Her chest filled with dread and she urged her legs faster before she saw the car catching up and sliding in front of her. She shied to the left, running right into a tree.

“Raquel! Dean!” She gasped as men jumped from the vehicle. She was separated. She wasn’t even sure how it’d happened. “Dean?!” She found him, the car between them, Raquel stumbling into his back as she halted, eyes wide. But she wasn’t on the wrong side of the car, they were, the trucks pulling in next to them to corral them, men whooping. Somewhere she heard Gio shouting behind them.

Lucy stared across the hood of the car towards them, eyes locking with his.

“Run, Lucy, run!”

She saw Dean trying to run around the car but one of the men swung the barrel of his gun wide and caught him in the chest. Lucy covered her mouth as he hit the ground, but someone was looking at her. She ran for it.

.      .     .     .

NEGAN

“What is this?” Far to his right, Mike was clamping a fist in his hair as he eyed the remains of their people. They’d been gunned down, but the meat puppets had made meals out of them before he’d found them. He growled low under his breath and kicked one off a body, but it’d eaten at the face, he wasn’t quite sure who it was.

“Trevor?”

“Yeah, Boss?” Trevor was next to him in an instant.

“Do you recognize this poor bastard?”

He knelt down, sliding a pistol into his pocket. The bodies had been picked clean of weapons and ammo, but there was a necklace tangled in ripped skin around his neck. Trevor grabbed the necklace and pried it away, rubbing some of the blood off with his thumb. “Armani, I recognize his rosary. I’ll take it home to his wife.”

He sighed as Trevor rose back to his feet and heard gagging and twisted at the hip. Cody was in the bushes, bent over. “Damn, kid, keep it together!” This was the first time Cody had come out with any of them. He was determined to prove himself. Negan wouldn’t have brought the kid along if he knew things were going to be like this out here. When their people hadn’t returned yesterday, they’d come out to search today. Negan came himself because he thought there might have been a problem with the community they were going to get supplies from. Just a quick, friendly visit. Get the stuff they’d gathered, come back.

Then they lost all communication. No update that they got their shit from them. No reports. Radio silence. He periodically had problems with groups trying to rise up against the Saviors, put their foot down, but this was his world, his rules now. They always fell back in line. Sometimes they just needed to be reminded who they worked for.

Except that wasn’t the case this time. Someone else had harmed his people.

“Let’s check out the town up ahead, see if anyone is hanging around. Keep your guard up, kid, don’t want your balls to be a snack for a meat puppet,” he said and heard the kid gulp audibly as they started down the street.

Chapter Text

LUCY

Lucy covered her nose with the crook of her elbow, gazing down at the pound of rotting flesh in the street. It still had teeth and a head, part of an arm, and it clacked it’s teeth at her non stop. She glanced back, checking the road. She’d been running through the woods for a long time, sweat covered and exhausted. A small group had followed her, maybe three or four, but she’d somehow gotten an advantage, hid in some brush, and after they passed her she’d gone a different way, away from the group both big and small.

But she’d left them. It didn’t matter if they’d told her to run…her eyes felt hot as tears threatened to fall and she took a deep breath—and gagged. Coughing and sputtering, she doubled over, gagging on the potent smell of the carcass.

“Shit!” She hissed through her teeth, hands on her knees. At least there didn’t appear to be other walkers out here. Just a big building, the kind that might’ve once serviced vehicles. It had huge garage doors, one of them was wide open, the windows were shattered. Farther down the street she saw an old restaurant and office building. Then the town opened up. She could find a place, lay low for a bit. She needed to catch her breath and rehydrate.

Lucy turned, ear straining to listen. “No…” she bolted for the mechanics building. It was closest to her, and ran through an open door, looking around rapidly. It was full of junk. Chairs, kitchen counter slabs, a dog crate. She saw a door at the back and was about to run for it when a vehicle caught her eye through a window and she dropped to the floor, crawling to the wall. Had they seen her? Her hands shook and she pressed them over her mouth, listening as the incoming trucks came to a stop.

They saw me, they’re stopping. She glanced towards the door. What were the odds she could outrun them again? She was still huffing for air. Her heart beat faster, threatening to explode.

“Check that building for supplies, last one and we’re home free!”

Supplies? Lucy frowned. Painstakingly slow, she lifted her head and peeked out the window, the dirty glass giving her a clear view. Not the same people…but still dangerous. All men, guns, not safe. She couldn’t risk it. Trembling, she stayed low, crawling to a desk she saw nearby, pushed up against the same wall. She heaved it away from the wall, just a hint, and crawled behind it, sliding off her backpack so she could fit. Then she found her knife, holding onto the hilt for dear life.

Waiting felt like an eternity, hearing their steps enter, hearing them begin rummaging through the junk. It was a community yard sale, she just hoped no one needed a desk.

“Hey, boss, there’s someone driving on the road.”

Footsteps retreated and she clenched her teeth, anxiety making her nauseous. She wanted to look…there was a window close by…Lucy crept forward slowly and peeked out again. There was a single truck and five men standing in the road, guns ready, while several vehicles approached. Maybe five more men scattered on the edges, one close enough to her window that she could see his back clearly, the big gun in his hand. Some sort of machine gun. Then she spotted the incoming vehicles. It was the Osman vehicles. She bit her lip, her heart longing to run to the trucks and search for her friends. It was a stupid, passing thought. If she went out there, they’d catch her, too. Or kill her. Still she wondered what had happened to them after she ran for it.

She swallowed as the trucks slowed down and spread out across the road. The men with the guns flexed their fingers on their guns, shifting subtly in place, but otherwise didn’t move. She watched, unable to blink lest she miss something. With her people they’d ran them down with those trucks, jumped out with their own big guns. They hadn’t corralled this group yet, hadn’t jumped out. Instead one door opened and someone stood on the truck, head raising above it as he peered their way.

One of the Osman’s group spoke first. “What is this? A road block?” The five continued to hold the road while the ones on the side of it stayed low in the grass. They were clearly outnumbered, but not intimidated. They stood in place.

“Who are you?”

“Who am I? Who are you?” The Osman demanded.

He jumped out of the truck and she missed the next words the man said as the Osman walked towards him, his people tucking their selves behind the trucks, guns ready. They were ready for a fight and the other crew was outnumbered.

“Is that why you’re here?”

“No,” the Osman inclined his head, “we take people. People dumb enough to wander around out here with no help. People like you.” All at once the Osman’s pointed their guns, braced. The others returned the favor. Her heart doubled it’s pace.

“Whoa, whoa,” one of them called out. He had a nice leather jacket on as he held a hand up, “there’s no need—”

Someone fired.

She wasn’t even sure who, but the moment they did, a cascade of gunshots followed. The man in front of her window reeled backwards. Lucy squealed and shrank backwards as he hit the wall and broken glass. He slid down, out of sight, but blood streaks remained and she cowered down against the wall.

She scooted backwards, more under her desk, head low. Shouts carried. She heard someone yelling to get under cover. Screaming. Lucy covered her ears, tremors tumbling through her from head to toe. And then she saw shadows, heard footsteps. Lowering her hands from her ears, she stared at the wall and the shadows until a hand gripped the edge of her desk, the fingers wrapping and yanked it back from the wall.

She gasped as the desk slid nearly a foot away from her and she lifted her knife, sliding back with her feet in the same motion, but the man that jolted her desk away from the wall didn’t even see her. He put his weight on the window frame, pointing his gun out and firing. “Sons of bitches!”

Nearby glass shattered and more shooting followed. They had their own small army tucked in here now. With her!

The guns were so loud in the mechanic shop, each shot echoing and building until her ears rang. She was still holding her knife tight, wishing for a gun. Then his gun clicked on empty and she tensed more as he moved to lower it and finally spotted her. Their eyes connected and her heart was in her throat. What would he do? His leather jacket was splattered with blood, dark jeans tucked into boots. Gunsmoke thick in the air, “I’m empty!” He shouted and she flinched, still staring each other down and he didn’t reach for bullets. He was completely empty. “Trevor?! I’m empty throw me—” He turned his blue eyes away from her in a hard jerk, pulling a knife from his belt. She pushed her feet back, pressing harder into the desk. She didn’t know what he was looking at but the intent was clear, she wasn’t the threat, something else was.

“Listen, you don’t want to do this.” His voice was deep when he wasn’t shouting.

“Put down the knife, you’re outnumbered.” Whoever he was facing spoke. She could hear heavy breathing. Leather Jacket Guy gave a half grin and she tried not to move, holding her breath, watching him. “Your boys are dead.”

More gunshots echoed somewhere outside. “Not all of them,” he muttered and lunged. She held her knife closer, but ready as she heard his opponent’s breath rush out as he dodged the attack and then he stepped back into full view, fast, like he was avoiding a counterattack. He lunged forward again and she heard a thunk and a quiet groan. Someone got hit, but with what? A fist? A knife?

Their feet scuffled on the cement floor, their shadows dancing at the bottom of the desk where a small two inch gap was between the bottom and the floor. They moved farther away, she heard a clatter like someone falling into the junk piled in the building. Some part of her desperately wanted a peek, she wanted to see what was happening, but she didn’t dare leave her hiding place.

Lucy gasped as the desk shoved into her and she toppled over, landing against the cement floor and it continued to come towards her, crushing her against the wall. Shrill creaks filled the air as it protested being slid roughly, jerking and jarring against her as it crushed her harder and harder into the wall. The scuffle above her getting louder, more intense. She heard a grunt and then a hiss of pain and tried to slide out from under the desk, pushing back. Her hips ached as the wooden frame ground into them.

The desk shook again, the creak turning to a crackle as the wood threatened to give. She had to get out from under there! It was going to collapse right on top of her! A louder snap followed it and she made her decision. She shoved her feet into the ground, knife ready, and clambered upright between the wall and the desk.

There was blood. All over the floor, the desk, and there was a dead guy slumped over nearby while a second one was fighting Leather Jacket. She couldn’t believe he’d been fighting two men out here. He was on his ribcage against the desk, inches from her as the other guy attempted to climb on top of him, driving a knife downwards towards his face. The force of their weight made the desk groan again but it didn’t stop them, the Osman pushing harder on the knife hilt. Leather Jacket’s face was growing red as he strained to push back.

Lucy stabbed him.

“Fuck!” The Osman cringed backwards, smacking her hand away with his own blade and she felt it cut into her arm. She let go, drawing backwards against the wall. Her knife was still stuck in his shoulder. Leather Jacket kicked and his legs swept out from under him. As he hit the ground, she knew she had to scramble. This was her moment to run away from the Osman and Leather Jacket both. She could make a break for the door.

She shoved harder at the desk with her hands, trying to slide out from behind it. It scraped against her legs, her jeans ripping. Leather Jacket rolled off of it, staggering and wiping blood off his chin. The desk slid back easier without him on it, but then it drew up short. The Osman on the ground threw a shoulder into it, clambering upright as he pushed it back against her. “You bitch!” She gasped as it pinned her against the wall and his arm reached across, wrapping in the front of her shirt and snatching her forward.

She didn’t fall forward or flail uselessly, instead she grabbed onto his arm, trying to loosen his hold and clawed at his eyes. A blur of black streaked past her eyes and the Osman’s grip yanked hard before it disappeared as Leather Jacket tackled him. They tumbled to the ground next to the desk, landing with a thump, and she finally shoved the desk off her legs. Leather Jacket was on top of the man, choking him with one hand, pulling her knife out of his shoulder with the other. She tried to run past him but their flailing tripped her and she hit the cement, catching herself on her hands.

When she lifted her eyes, she saw Leather Jacket’s knife. She could grab it and run. Lucy stretched out, snatching it off the ground, warm in her hand and heard a cry, glancing back. They were still struggling but Leather Jacket had him in a chokehold, trying to wrap his legs around his torso but he was still fighting, still holding on. Still trying to break free. So she picked up the knife and threw her entire body weight into it as she lunged.

Chapter Text

NEGAN

Negan flicked his hand to the side, motioning for his crew to spread out. Four flanked him and the rest scattered out in the grass on the side of the road. He stayed where he was, dead center in the road as the trucks that were incoming slowed down. He wondered if these were the pricks that had killed his other crew, and when they pulled their trucks over in a road block fashion, he grew more suspicious. Those were defensive positions. Still, no one fired. Maybe they could talk.

He lifted his chin, “Who are you?”

“Who am I? Who are you?” He thought he was clever, the one speaking hopping out of the truck and walking forward.

“These roads belong to the Saviors. You ain’t them.”

“The Saviors? We’ve heard of them. Heard they had a big gig up here.” He cocked a brow, glancing at his men. Heard of them? They were going to know a lot more about them shortly.

“Is that why you’re here?”

Everyone else seemed to have bailed out of the trucks and were spreading out. He could see their heads bobbing in and out of sight as they got into a formation, staying protected behind the vehicles. Someone was clambering out of the bed of the truck, pushing someone back down and he frowned. Is that…those are people tied up back there…

That wasn’t good.

Keeping his voice low, he said, “They have prisoners.”

“They’re not here to talk.” Trevor agreed, grip tightening on his gun.

“No,” the same guy approaching answered him. He didn’t come all that close, just short steps, showing off the gun at his hip with the way he cocked it, showing off the rifle in his hands. He wanted them to know he wasn’t afraid of a fight.

“Get ready boys.” His tone was low, it wouldn’t carry. “This is bad news.”

“We take people. People dumb enough to wander around out here with no help. People like you.” The moment they aimed their guns, his people did, too.

“Whoa, whoa,” he called, lifting a hand, but his other hand was on his gun, ready to lift it and shoot. “There’s no need—” Someone shot off to his right and he ducked and cursed, “Dammit, Cody!” Everyone started shooting. He had no cover so he ran for it, shouting for everyone to get into cover, shooting at the trucks. The fucking kid dove into the dirt, face pale, hands shaking.

Two of his men had already dropped by the time he hit the wall of the nearby building, firing nonstop. “Cody, get into cover!” He ducked as bullets peppered the wall next to him and he ran, shooting and ducking, until he reached the front of the building. He couldn’t run across the street and help the kid. Two of his boys were on his ass. “Get in, get to a window,” he directed and bolted for the door.

He swore a bullet fizzed right past his nose and then he was behind cement walls. Both ran in behind him and they took the two closest windows while he continued firing out the door before he ran to the end, the last window, and snatched back a desk. This place was crowded with junk and furniture. He busted out what remained of the window and poked the barrel of his gun outside and opened fire, his ears ringing with the constant booming of gunfire, sharp and piercing. He saw one more of his men try to run from some brush towards the building and he didn’t make it across the pavement before he crumbled. “Sons of bitches!” These were absolutely the same men that had killed his people. He had no doubt. It pissed him off. Not cool.

Then his gun clicked empty. Internally he cursed as he drew back and grabbed his pocket, but he was out. No more clips, and he turned to look for his guys when something caught his eye. Holy shit. There was a woman crouched low against the desk. She was partially underneath, a knife clutched in her hands. If she’d wanted to gut him, she could have and he’d have never known she was there. She didn’t move, just stared at him, chest heaving, sweat fresh on her brow. Too sweaty to have been sitting here when they rolled up. Running? From what? A shot ripped through the open window. Running from them?

“I’m empty!” He shouted and she flinched. She was scared shitless, but she wasn’t attacking him. “Trevor?! I’m empty throw me—” movement grabbed his attention and he saw two men running through the building towards him. Not his men. They were down, and he’d just declared he was out of ammo. He dropped the gun and pulled out a hunter’s knife from a sheathe he carried at his belt. It was a bit bulkier than the rinky dink pocket knife she carried. He didn’t bother to look at her again as the two men slowed down, eyeing his knife and he decided to try talking again. “Listen, you don’t want to do this.”

“Put down the knife, you’re outnumbered.” Was he the only one left alive? Dammit! The confident bastard put his gun away in his waistband and they both drew knives, too. So they wanted to dance?

Negan could feel the woman’s eyes on him as she stayed in place, shaking either from exhaustion or fear. Maybe both. He smiled at the two assholes and waved his knife, inviting them in. “Your boys are dead,” one of them taunted. He’d die first.

More gunshots echoed somewhere outside. “Not all of them,” he muttered and lunged. He slashed, hard and fast, and his first target jerked back as he cut him and the second pounced. He stepped backwards, avoiding the attack and lunged again, tackling the second guy and shoving the knife straight between his ribs and pushing. He stumbled sideways into some of the furniture and collapsed.

Negan sidestepped as the first bastard came back for more. He twisted and caught the man’s knife arm and tried to push but he grabbed on with his free hand and they both stumbled. He used the momentum to push Negan straight into the desk and he fell back onto it. The desk slid, making a grating noise, and he lost his footing, unable to get upright. He was going to get dead if he couldn’t get on his feet.

He tried to stand, but slid in blood pooling out of the now dead man he’d stabbed first while his buddy jumped on Negan. The desk protested the added weight as he tried to stab him and Negan caught his wrist awkwardly. He was at a bad angle, the corner of the desk digging into his hip, his flank against the desk. One foot was solidly on the ground but still slipping in blood. The only decent hold he had was on the man’s wrist as he tried driving the blade towards his face. He clambered on top of Negan and the desk, using his body weight to push down on the hilt.

Something snapped and the desk leaned, dropping the knife lower and it sliced into his forearm and he hissed with pain. Dammit! Then the woman stood up. He could just see her in his peripherals, saw douchebag jerk his eyes towards her. She didn’t hesitate. She threw her body weight into the blow, thrusting with the knife. She stabbed hard, but Douchebag jerked backwards and she missed his chest, blade sinking into his shoulder. It stuck and wrenched out of her grasp as he staggered back. Free to move and stand again, Negan kicked and Douchebag’s legs flew out from under him, crying out as he dropped. He rolled off the desk, slipping in blood again.

“You bitch!”

Dammit, the bastard was on his feet fast! But he didn’t lunge for Negan, snatching the woman by her hair. Cheap shot. She gauged at his eyes with her nails, eyes focused on him with vicious intent. His knife came at her, but she grabbed onto his arm. Negan tackled him, going for that arm, and the knife hit the cement, clattering out of reach. He landed on top of him, the breath rushing out of the man underneath him and he grabbed his throat instead. The woman was scrambling to get out of reach as Douchebag let her go and took several shots at his ribs. A foot managed to kick his leg back and nearly rolled him off. He couldn’t lose this hold!

He was still trying to choke the wiggly pig when the woman picked up his hunter’s knife and stabbed it through his eye.

.     .      .      .

LUCY

Lucy was on her knees, hand clasped around the hilt of the knife as it sat. Leather Jacket was still pinning him down, hands around his throat, but his eyes were locked on hers. She stared at him, heaving for breath. She didn’t know what to do. They’d fought together against a common enemy, but now that the Osman was down, what would happen? Would he turn on her? He hadn’t attacked her when he’d seen her hiding.

Bam! She flinched as more gunshots pierced the air outside. Footsteps were pounding the pavement. Lucy yanked the knife free and Leather Jacket tensed as she moved. There was an intensity in his eyes, blazing, daring her to try anything. She didn’t want to. She was exhausted from running and fighting. She just wanted to keep going, get to safety. And what of her friends? She just didn’t know. She had to keep going.

She held her hands up, non-threatening. They were both watchful, but he moved just as slow, prying her knife out of the dead guy’s shoulder before he inclined his head towards her hands. “That’s mine,” he held up hers, waving it lightly. “This is yours.”

He wanted to trade?

Using only one hand, he folded her pocket knife back into it’s case and held it out to her. His didn’t fold. She eyed him hard for a second before she leaned for it and snatched it fast. His eyes narrowed, but she carefully twisted his blade, hilt towards him and he accepted his knife back, much slower than she had. As soon as it was in his hand, though, he whirled and she flinched backwards. He peeked over the windowsill looking out, and she was moving, creeping backwards in a crouched position. She had to go.

He glanced back and scowled as he saw her retreating, but didn’t remark on it. He kept searching outside the window. She didn’t imagine he saw anyone left alive. She headed for the back door, slow and quiet, listening. The gunfire had ceased outside. She was almost to the back door when someone walked in the far side of the shop.

“Hey! There’s people in here!”

“Fuck!” She sprinted for the door, slamming into it. It was locked! She rushed to unlock it, the man was still shouting, footsteps pounding pavement. Unlocking the door didn’t make it open.

“Move!”

She was barely out of the way when Leather Jacket kicked and it sailed open. She sprinted through it first, screaming when someone tackled her. Her ribs crushed against a dumpster outside the door and her new friend stabbed her attacker in the neck. He didn’t say a word as the body crumpled, just ran. She glanced back and realized there was more than one chasing them and fled, straight into a walker.

Lucy threw her hands up, slashing at it with her knife uselessly for a moment before she managed to push it far enough away that she could put the blade through it’s skull. She jumped over it and kept running. Branches grabbed at her, one snaked across her face, cutting her open. She kept running. Another walker appeared, growling at her. She stayed on her course.

Another walker rounded a tree and she dodged. Then another. Then… Lucy looked around wildly. There were walkers everywhere! “Oh no…” she heard branches and leaves crashing as someone—or many someone’s—careened through them.

“We’ll find you!”

Lucy gritted her teeth and propelled herself forward, just as a walker tried to take hold of her arm. She shrugged it off, running, pushing into the crowd of walkers. She didn’t know what was the better or wiser choice, but she chose the devil she knew. As the crowd of walkers started getting thicker, she became terrified at the thought of it being a huge horde, expanding miles. She didn’t know how big this group was. She might join it.

“Agh!”

Lucy turned, seeing a human struggling with an undead through the gathering corpses. Leather Jacket. She gritted her teeth and shoved one away from her, searching the ground until she found a large branch. One walker stumbled and fell into three and they all fell to the ground. It was her best opening. She lifted the thick branch in both hands, holding it in front of her as she leapt over the four on the ground. She ran into three more but used the branch to push them back, like a battering ram. She pushed her way to Leather Jacket as he fought off another walker and was instantly surrounded by three more.

“Watch out!” She hissed and shoved into the three, pushing them over. “Watch your feet! Get behind me. Watch my back!”

He blinked at her as she skipped past him, running walkers over, and then fell in step behind her. She glanced back briefly to see him carefully picking his way over the walkers, stomping on one’s head to permanently rid the world of it. She plowed forward, full speed ahead, shoving walkers and he watched her back. He was good at it, too. If any tried to come in at her side, he killed them. Any that came behind them he kicked away and killed. He swiveled, back and forth, and she kept them moving forward, pushing and shoving.

She was still shoving against the walkers, knocking them over, when a big one slammed up against the stick, refusing to fall backwards, then two more stacked up behind him. She stopped inching forward, straining against them and felt Leather Jacket crowd against her back. He reached around her, his hands laying over hers and they pushed together for several feet until they rammed the big one into a tree. He pulled back and shoved forward again, knocking it down, and then they turned. She swung the stick wide this time as he let go, letting her take control again.

She didn’t know how long they fought the crowd when it began lessening. Her limbs were exhausted, arms shaking from the effort, legs burning. “Look, a building!” Leather Jacket’s arm snaked past her, pointing. She saw the white shape of it through the trees. “We could make a run for it.”

“Okay.”

He took hold of the branch with her and gave one last shove with her on the four walkers vying for their attention, “Drop it!” He hissed and she did, bolting away with him. She dodged around a couple more and had a fairly straight shot to the building. His longer legs reached it first, testing the door before he stepped back and kicked it in. She followed him inside. As he pulled the door shut, he shouted, “Find something to block the door, fast!”

Walkers slammed into it, pushing against him and the broken door. She scrambled, spotting a television stand and broken TV not far. She pushed off the tv and dragged the stand to the door and pushed it against it.

“We should keep running,” she said, getting more breathless by the second. Sweat covered his brow as he released the door and gave a short nod.

“Out the back.”

She led the way, fleeing ahead of him and peering out the back glass door. It was clear so she undid the lock and slid it open. He was right behind her, fleeing out the back and jumping a fence. They kept running. There was a subdivision nearby, several houses they could pick and choose from and they were of the same mind, running into it and looking around for one that appeared safe. They struck out towards the same one in unison, but this time the door was unlocked and they clambered inside, looking around to make sure it was safe before closing the door behind them.

Chapter Text

LUCY

Smooth, fluffy carpet pressed against her face as she collapsed to the floor, chest heaving. She didn’t even care. She was soaked with sweat, wiping it off her brow and letting her hand fall flat on the carpet again. Leather Jacket leaned against a wall and slid to the floor.

They didn’t say a word, just the sounds of their breath filling the silent house. It smelled stale, a little dusty, but it looked as though no one had been here since the start. She rolled over slowly, pushing up on her elbows. It was strangely calm in here, like nothing had disturbed this place until now. Usually homes had open cabinet doors, stuff on the floor from raids.

Lucy glanced at her companion. He had his head in one hand, still breathing in deep through his nose. He looked strong, a little scruff on his face, dark hair. There was no starved gauntness to his face. He and his group must’ve been doing well for their selves.

Pushing off the floor, she rose to her full height, shaking out her hands and glancing at her wrist where the man they’d killed together had cut her with a knife. It was maybe two inches long, traveling her wrist and forearm. She started towards the kitchen, head swiveling, listening, but nothing in the house moved or growled. She fingered a cabinet door before she reached for the fridge instead. Opening refrigerators, even this long after everything had gone to hell, usually resulted in a lot of gagging. She held her breath and opened the door.

A smile passed across her lips and she reached inside and quickly shut it back with her foot and meandered back towards him. “Hey,” he opened his eyes and looked up and she held out a water bottle. His brows rose and he accepted it, the corner of his lips turning up as he cracked the lid. She did the same, guzzling water beside him before facing the house again. She crept along, pushing open doors and checking rooms before she found a bathroom and entered, opening the sink drawers and finding a first aid kit.

She opened it up on the counter and opened a brand new pack of gauze, a real find in this world. She was struggling and failing to wrap it around her wrist when she sensed movement behind her and whirled, throwing hands. Her fist hit something solid and Leather Jacket staggered to the side, grabbing his jaw. “Ow.” His words were a little deflated but still calm.

“Oh…” she stared at him, “I uh…”

He rubbed his jaw, “And wow.” He pointed at the first aid kit, “I was going to ask if you wanted help.” He had a deep, gravelly voice and he’d taken the leather jacket off, the shirt underneath drenched in sweat. He held up his own arm, a similar slice bright red across it but already scabbing, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine?” She nodded and stooped to pick up the gauze she’d dropped, less sterile now. She held it out to him.

“Thank you.”

He stepped into the bathroom and she leaned back against the counter, holding her wrist up. He set down his bottle of water, now half full, and reached into the first aid. “Neosporin.” He held it up to show her and opened the tube. “You know, I should be thanking you, I think.” He squeezed the tube out onto her wound and began circling her wrist with the fluffy white cloth. “You could’ve stayed hidden, and you didn’t have to stab him at the end, you could’ve ran.”

“I could’ve.” She looked up at him as he tucked in the bandage and added tape. She was still wary, people could turn on you at any time out here. “Who are you?”

“I’m Negan.” He met her eyes, bright blue, shining with intelligence. “I think this is the part where you say your name?”

“Oh,” she laughed lightly, but it was full of nerves, as he finished bandaging her. “Lucy. I’m Lucy.”

His expression changed, slightly, barely noticeable. His eyes dulled just a bit and his gaze shifted more towards her ear than her eyes, not quite looking at her. “Well, nice to meet you, Lucy.” He motioned to the gauze and held up his arm in front of her. She grabbed the Neosporin first, squeezing it out onto the wound as he spoke, “What were you doing in that place?”

“Hiding from them.” She said and then specified, “The humans, not the walkers. I’m sorry about your friends. They got mine, too.” Except she didn’t know if hers were dead or alive. His brow furrowed as he considered her words, probably thinking about the people he’d lost and she switched to wrapping gauze around his wrist. This was such a good find but she didn’t even have her backpack to stuff it in. Maybe if she lived through this and got back home she could send someone out here to search.

She glanced up at his face as she bandaged his arm, thinking harder about if she lived. She didn’t know this man. People were more dangerous than the walkers, but he had thanked her. He had offered to give her first aid and now she was doing the same. And she’d stabbed someone for him. She could’ve ran. He was right. She wasn’t sure why she’d done it other than the devil she knew, the Osman, was definitely going to kidnap and hurt her. But now that she was closed in with this man, she had to wonder if she made a mistake. He was inches from her, skin hot under her fingertips. He caught her eye.

His skin wasn’t the only hot part about him.

“All done.” She tucked the bandage in on itself and added a dash of tape, smoothing it and he watched her fingers. She thought she heard him suck in a deeper breath before he grabbed his bottle and walked out, chugging more water and then dropping the empty bottle in the hallway. He tested a door and disappeared inside and she cleaned up her mess before she followed.

He was in what appeared to be a master suite, standing at a dresser with the drawer open. He pulled out a white tee shirt, holding it up and nodding with satisfaction. Then he tugged the dirty one off, up and over his head and Lucy bit her lip, admiring the sculpted, lean back. Feeling a bit like she was spying, she cleared her throat, “Did you find anything?” He twisted and she sucked in a sharp breath, averting her eyes from abs she could wash her clothes on, especially in this world where washing machines were a thing of the past. Though she hoped it might still be part of the future.

“Clothes.”

She looked around the room as she entered. The bed was made, the sheets were white and clean. “Oh my god,” she spread her fingers slowly across the bed as she stooped to feel it and then slid onto her belly, flopping across it. The sheets were soft, pure. She rolled over so she could keep her eye on him and found him watching her intently. “This is amazing. It doesn’t look like anyone has touched this place since before the outbreak.”

He licked his lips before turning away, digging in another drawer before he laughed and pulled out a pair of jeans, holding them up. “Fuck yes.”

 “Your size?”

“Yes.” He looked so proud of the find, and it made her long for cleaner clothes herself. Here he was changing and she was still sweat soaked and exhausted. Clean clothes might help anyone feel a little fresher.

She crossed the room to the closet, hoping a woman lived here. It was a nice walk in, clean shelves. No woman’s clothes. Just a few business suits and a passport on a shelf. She picked it up, opening it and finding the picture of a middle aged, dark haired man. “Roberto Kirkland.” She set it down and walked back out. Negan was gone, so she pulled open the dresser drawers, his dirty clothes on the floor. She held up the pants, wondering if she could make do, but she didn’t think they’d quite fit her so she closed the drawer and grabbed a tee shirt. She stripped off the shirt she was wearing, wincing when she smelled it. It reeked of sweat but she’d done a lot of running. Then the fresh shirt, falling around her shoulders like a soft blanket. It didn’t hold the smell of the detergent any longer, but it was the cleanest thing she’d worn since the apocalypse started. Washing clothes in a tub of water and soap wasn’t quite the same. With a looser but fresher shirt, she decided to search the other rooms for women’s clothes and anything else that might be useful.

.     .     .     .

NEGAN

Negan left the room, leaving Lucy behind, pinching the bridge of his nose. After running for probably more than a mile through a wave of dead, he should have been too exhausted to even consider anything else. Despite that, the sight of her on that bed… if they were here too long, he’d make use of it.

He made his way to the kitchen in new clothes and started searching the cabinets. As untouched as this place appeared, there had to be food in here. The first cabinet was bare, the second one had cups. “Third time’s a charm.” He leaned back on his heels, admiring the view. Canned foods, boxed foods, an unopened box of cereal. He pulled it all out, setting it out on the counter. Granola bars, macaroni and cheese bowls. He opened a bag of chips and shoveled a handful in.

“Negan?”

“Kitchen.” He hope she heard him clearly around his mouthful of food. He hated sour cream and onion chips but today they’d never tasted better. He could hear her ambling through the hall and spotted her gazing at pictures. They didn’t have any children in them, no pets. Whoever had lived here had been alone, maybe a traveler with how spotless it was.

He pried open a can of mixed vegetables and the noise grabbed her attention and she craned her neck, nostrils flaring. Almost everyone starved in this world, at some point you were without food, and the way her head popped at the sound told him she knew hunger. She made a beeline into the kitchen, fast and unhindered, a blue shirt on. He slid another can of food towards her. She didn’t stop to read the label, she yanked on the tab and opened it, downing it faster than he was eating his. She did the same as him, shoveling a handful of chips in afterwards. Anything they could get their hands on was fair game.

They ate in silence for several minutes before she took a seat at the bar and continued eating like it was her last meal. She’d mentioned those dicks got her friends. She’d been sweaty, exhausted, and alone when he’d found her. He couldn’t be sure how long it’d been since she had a meal, if she and her people were doing well, or if this was the first time in days. Out here, anything was possible, but she wasn’t gaunt and malnourished.

She stopped shoveling food as she finally swallowed one big gulp and said, “The people you were with…were they the only ones?”

“No.” He opened another box, dumping granola bars onto the counter. He stuffed a few in his pockets and she followed suit. Then he grabbed his jacket and added more to it’s pockets and slid it back on, though he didn’t zip it up.

“Oh, you have a group?”

“I do. And you?” He kept his answers short and vague. He wasn’t sure why she looked disappointed, brow furrowing, chin tilting down.

 “I take it you’ll be going back to them then.” There was a silent inquiry, she was testing the waters to see if he was worth keeping around. She must have someone to go back to.

“You don’t even know me.”

She shrugged, deceptively nonchalant, but he could see how intense her eyes were, judging his actions, his moves. “If you’re alone,” there was a hint of suggestion, as if her people would take him in. If his people had met hers before that other group had, she might’ve felt differently, but they hadn’t. Instead they were out here running together.

He turned the tables, “And you’ll be going back to yours?” He cocked a brow, leaning against the counter. “You could come with me.” She could be assuming his entire group were the people that had just died. He could easily assume the same for her. It was safer for her to lie about having a bigger group than admitting she was alone. The offer was there if she wanted it, if she was alone. “My people wouldn’t hurt you, we have food, water.” They had more than that. “My people will be out here looking for me.” She didn’t answer him this time and he didn’t know if it meant she had no one or she wasn’t sure they’d look. Some groups were like that. If you fell behind, you stayed behind. He didn’t leave his people. Not if he could help it. “When they find us, I can take you back to your people.”

“When they find us?” She frowned, “Wait a second, you’re staying here?”

“It’s safe, there’s food, a bed.”

She shook her head, “No, I have to go home.” So she did have a group, but they wouldn’t come look for her. But she mentioned ‘home’ so she must have a place where she felt safe. A place where her people stayed. How many people? How fortified?

“It would be stupid to go out there alone with those guys out there. You should stay here.”

“Each second we stay here they get a little closer.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know it’s safe here. If they come knocking on doors they’ll find us.”

“Fair enough.” He inclined his head. She wasn’t wrong. There were two options here for her. Stay with a stranger, or go try to get to her people. Odds were she could hide if she heard trucks coming and stay relatively safe from people, if not the dead. While she’d offered him the chance to join her people, more or less, he was still an unknown and that made staying here with him less safe.

Negan focused on the food again. Whatever course of action she chose, he’d wait for his people. He’d gone out himself when the first group hadn’t returned. If he didn’t return, the Saviors would come in full force next time. These fuckers thought they outnumbered him. They were wrong. His people were going to—

A scream shredded the air somewhere outside. Lucy snatched her head up, looking around wildly, but Negan felt his gut drop. He knew that voice.

Chapter Text

LUCY

Negan dropped the can of food he was digging into. The can landed hard on the counter as his entire face changed. He was alert and worried as he muttered, “Cody.”

He started for the door and she stared after him, uncertain, but curiosity gnawed at her until she followed. He was already on the street and as she stepped outside, she heard the wailing voice babbling. “Help! Please, someone! Help me, please!” The voice was raw and ragged and Negan was running and she sprinted after him. A walker popped into sight down the street as they followed the cries.

“Where are you?!” Negan shouted as he drew to a stop, straining to pinpoint his location.

“Help, help!” The reply wasn’t helpful at all for locating the person. The voice was echoing through the housing development. She saw a school across the street as they crossed an intersection. She heard a clatter and jerked her head around.

“This way!” She bolted to the right, running in between two houses. She reached a solid, wooden gate and the pleas were definitely louder. She didn’t know what they were going to find as she shoved open the gate to a privacy fence. The sliding glass door of a home was shattered and five walkers were cornering a kid against the fence. He was pushing and shoving them away but he had no room to run.

“Help me! Please!”

Honestly, she was surprised he’d lasted this long against five walkers, screaming for help. “Hang on!” She and Negan dove in. It wasn’t hard. She snatched one back, stabbed it, he grabbed one. They both grabbed the third one together and he twisted it so that it faced her and she stabbed it while he held it. Then he threw it aside while she shoved her knife into the base of the skull of the next and he eliminated the fifth, dropping it to the side. She stepped back, chest heaving, and Negan looked down at the kid that was a small ball against the bottom corner of the fence, trembling.

Negan tugged out the hem of his shirt, staring at the new bloodstains with a twist of his lips. “This was my clean shirt.”

“Negan?!” The kid uncurled fast, jerking his head up to look at him. His eyes darted fast, counting the bodies and then spotting her. “Who is she?”

“A friend,” he held his hand out to the kid, “come on.” He hauled him upright. “What are you doing out here?” As he rose to his full height, she found a gangly, teen standing before them. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen, baby faced and scrawny.

“Those guys…me and Mike and Trevor kept hiding behind trees, but they kept shooting at us, then this horde appeared. I didn’t mean to run into them but they were all around me so I just kept running.”

“Mike? Trevor?”

“I don’t know, man, I didn’t see them. I just turned and there were biters. And I turned to run and there were more.” He was still struggling to catch his breath, looking at the dead ones on the ground. “I lost my gun. Then I found this place.” He pointed at the house and surged past them, “Oh, oh, but there was stuff in here. Supplies! Come on!” He tripped and ran over the ones on the ground and kept going and disappeared inside.

She looked towards Negan. He seemed thoughtful for a moment before he started after the kid. She picked her way through the backyard carefully and walked inside, glass crunching under her feet. The kid was explaining what happened while he pushed hair back out of his face and crouched down beside a stack of backpacks. There were several littered around the living room.

“So I don’t know why I picked this house, I just did, and I came in, I’d been running so long, I just wanted a safe place to lay down. I guess they were all in the hallway, so I didn’t see them when I looked around, seemed safe. Ya know? I walked into the main room, saw the backpacks, the stains on the carpet.” Blood stains were on the carpet, a bit of a massacre like appearance, and he spoke as fast as her eyes could swivel around the room to take it all in. “Then they came out of the hall behind me when I walked over here.” She meandered into the hall, but all the doors were shut. There could be more in the rest of the home, but for the moment, it was safe. “My guess is these people stopped here to rest, one of them was bitten and turned, maybe in the middle of the night, ya know. Raaggghhh, and boom, everyone’s dead and bitten. Everyone turned. They’ve been in here the whole time. Who knows how long.”

She crouched, opening one of the backpacks. It was an old, faded orange. A jacket was on top, fleece hoodie. The house smelled of their rotted flesh, the walls were stained with it. They had been here a long time. The kid started babbling again, but she thought she heard something, frowning and turning. She crept towards a front window, peeking out. “Shh!”

“What is it?” Negan was behind her in an instant, peeking out.

“It’s them.”

“That’s my truck.” His fist hit the wall beside her face and she jerked back against him and he grabbed her arm to steady her, but his fingers were tense, squeezing. She stared through the small slits in the blinds without moving them, watching the Osman’s outside with Negan still at her back. The trucks turned up a street and disappeared, but she could still hear them. They stayed together in a group.

She said, “What are the chances they scope out the neighborhood then start checking houses?”

“You want to take those odds?” He asked.

She gritted her teeth. “No.”

The kid, Negan had called him Cody before they sprinted out of the house and down the street to save him, leaned up behind them, “Fuck, how did they find us?”

Negan chucked his arm, “Heard you screaming like a baby, kid. Pick up those backpacks, let’s get out of here.”

.     .     .     .

Lucy adjusted a backpack on her shoulders, grabbing the straps and walking while gripping them. They must’ve been on the move for the better part of an hour now. They’d been careful leaving the housing community behind, slinking carefully across streets and sticking to backyards when possible. They traversed some more woods and encountered a few more undead, but now they’d found more homes and a high school.

Cody was a talker. She didn’t mind the chatter as they got into safer areas. It passed the time. He rambled about a million things all at once, switching topics and getting distracted by homes they were passing. One reminded him of the house he grew up in and he had to talk about that. He would’ve been several years younger when the apocalypse started, but not young enough to forget how the world had been.

“Meat Puppets.” Negan interrupted but she’d already seen them. Maybe Cody hadn’t as he abruptly stumbled sideways into her.

“Whoa, take it easy.”

“Sorry! Just not ready for more of those after earlier.”

“Come on, kid, you know the game out here.” Negan gave him a firm push between the shoulders. “There’s only four.”

“Only…”

“Come on, I can take four by myself. You wanna go first? Knock a couple out?”

He looked nervous, chewing his lower lip and glancing down the street at them. Lucy offered a smile, “Come on, we’re right behind you.”

He wiped the back of his hand across his brow, mopping away sweat, “Okay, I guess.” He didn’t sound excited but he gripped the metal pipe he’d found earlier and brandished it as a weapon. He started forward, pipe high, ready and she glanced at Negan and grinned before she unfolded her knife and followed him. Negan was right in step with her.

“Alright, alright, meat puppets,” Cody moved it like a bat he was ready to swing.

“You can do it, I’ve seen you knock their teeth in.” He sounded like a coach, especially as the first one reached him and Cody took a whack at it and rolled the head clean off. “Whoa! Hell yeah!” Negan nodded, grinning. Lucy softly shouted support and jumped in the air, pumping her fist and he took a swing at another. That one only stumbled away and Cody looked alarmed as it didn’t fall and came back towards him in step with the third one. “You still got this, Cody. Remember, be careful stepping backwards, you never want to trip because you can’t see where you’re going.” Cody stepped back cautiously, the pipe starting to shake. “Figure out which one you want to hit first and move away from the other one when you—yeah! Just like that!” He took down the fourth one no problem, doing a dance in the middle of the street.

Negan grinned from ear to ear and ran towards the kid, high fiving him. Cody was babbling again, talking about how much his heart was pounding but he did it. Negan sounded like a coach, helping him through and then celebrating his win. Everyone coped in different ways in these times, some struggled more than others with the dead ones. She’d seen her fair share, but she’d never seen someone coach someone else through it. Usually people just cursed, threw their shit and ran, or cursed and ran to help. She’d thought there were two kinds of people in the apocalypse, apparently there were three.

“Great job,” she fist bumped Cody as she reached them.

“Hey, thanks!” He was beaming, “I feel like I could take on a whole—”

“Shit, we gotta move.” Negan interjected and they both followed his gaze. Farther up the street, a horde was coming.

Chapter Text

LUCY

They cut between two houses to go up to the next street, out of sight of the walkers and to hopefully get into a house before any could find them. As they started between the homes, she spotted a single walker and jogged ahead to knife it between the eyes and peer past the homes, down the street. “Clear. Cross another street?”

“Yeah.” Negan agreed. They’d fallen into an easy bond, one of survival, yes, but they worked well together. It’s just the way things were out here. You could find yourself at someone’s mercy in mere seconds, or surviving with them for days.

“What about that one with the fence?” Cody asked. “We can hop it and break a window that the walkers can’t get to because of the fence. And it’s a privacy fence, they won’t see the broken window at all.”

Negan turned to her, “You want to stay or outrun them?”

“We’ve been running all day, we can’t make another run like that, not without more than a single bottle of water. They don’t get tired. We do.”

He nodded, slow at first and then faster before he patted Cody’s arm hard enough to make him stumble a bit, “That’s class A thinking, kid. Come on, to the one with the fence.”

They all ran across the street and she knew she was right about the dehydration, her muscles were already threatening to seize at the extra overload and strain. As they reached the back side of the fence, she could see between the homes to a big chain link fence surrounding a school just across the street from them. This would have been a perfect neighborhood for raising a family pre-apocalypse. Near the school, safe, clean. Or at least she suspected it’d been cleaner beforehand, now it was overgrown and the gardens were shriveled.

A thunk startled her and she ducked away from the fence before she realized Cody had thrown his backpack over.

He laughed at her as Negan spoke, “Hey, kid, what are—”

“We gotta get back there.”

“There’s a gate right over—” he jumped up into the air, grabbing onto the fence with both hands and peering over.

“It’s clear,” he called out and started hoisting himself up.

Negan shook his head, “Next time check it before you toss your shit over. You could’ve lost it. We need the supplies.”

“I’ll remember that,” Cody laughed, hoisting himself up higher, using his feet to climb, and then rolling himself over the top. Crack! Screams pierced the air and it felt like she was watching in slow motion as the fence broke and Cody fell. Her lungs froze, she couldn’t breathe at all and once the screaming started, it didn’t stop.

“Cody!”

“Fuck!”

He fell as part of the wooden fence snapped but he never hit the ground. The broken piece of fence jabbed skywards and one of Cody’s legs hung on it, the wood piercing deep into the meat of his thigh. The shrieks turned into wailing sobs and he was flopping against the side of the wooden fence like a fish on a line.

“Cody, shut up! Shut it!” Negan smacked the fence with his fist. “Hold on kid!” It was the most panicked she’d seen him as he eyed the leg, head swiveling and glancing back for walkers. He’d been calmer fighting the Osman guy back in the mechanic shop. Even when he’d been close to losing that fight.

And still Cody screamed.

She glanced towards the street, towards the walker horde but didn’t see any. No doubt they were coming though. Negan was attempting to grab the leg but Cody’s cries grew intensely louder and he still flailed, his arms smacking against the fence now, tearing at the meat and skin. His voice grew haggard, turning into sobs. She was so keenly aware of the noise, of her heart hammering in her chest, of Cody hanging perilously on the fence.

“Negan!” He was pleading as they both set their hands on the fence, unsure of how to help. Her mind raced, they had to get him down. They couldn’t do that with both on this side.

“Go around!” She smacked Negan’s chest to get him to pay attention to her. “You’re going to lift him. I’ll get his leg off the fence.”

He didn’t hesitate, he bolted towards the gate. “Damn it, it’s locked!” She could hear him rattling the gate hard and Cody’s ear-piercing cry followed as it caused the fence to jerk. “I’m jumping it!” Before she could even think to warn him to be careful, he was over, no broken fence. Her heart pounded in time to his footsteps as he ran to the kid and she could see his shadow against the fence. She could hear the horde now. A whispering wave of groans and growls drawing closer, feet sludging along pavement and grass.

She heard Negan trying to talk over Cody’s wails for a long moment before she heard something like flesh hitting flesh and silence. “Negan?”

He appeared in front of her, his face visible through the gap of broken fence now. “Sorry, had to knock him out.”

She didn’t fault him for it and they had more important things. “You know taking him down…he might…”

“He might bleed out.”

She nodded. “Look, I have experience, I think I can help him if we can get somewhere safe, if we can find…supplies in the house. But if an artery is severed, taking him down…”

“I got it. I’ll pick him up, you get his leg.”

She swallowed a gulp, the horde was getting louder. It might be cruel to even try, the wood could leave splinters that would get infected. Taking him down might kill him. It was crueler to leave him here though. She prepared herself for the inevitable and then heard a grunt. “Walkers coming.”

“Let’s hurry then.”

“I got his leg! Pick him up!” She watched through the hole as Negan lifted, catching a glimpse of Cody’s pale face. As soon as she started to lift his leg, he woke up shrieking. A walker stumbled into sight, a few feet away as it rounded the corner of the fence. “Higher!” Negan grunted and lifted and she did her best to slide the leg upwards as Cody’s cries became hysterical, filling the air, covering the noise of the horde that she knew was incoming, too close for comfort. How would they escape with Cody screaming? The leg slid up and off the fence post and Negan dropped and she guided the leg away from the wood. Cody went silent again.

Something grabbed her arm.

Lucy didn’t scream, just shied away from the walker, but it had a grip on her, tugging her arm towards its mouth, clacking its teeth at her with rotted breath. She shoved her hand against its forehead, pushing hard. It strained against her, its rotten flesh sliding away from the skull as she pushed, making it slippery and oozy.

Then it’s head exploded around her and her ears started ringing. She fell back, ass hitting grass and the walker came down with her. She landed hard, blinking, not quite sure what had happened, until Negan drew his hand back over the fence, gun gripped tight. “Come on, I need you!”

More walkers rounded the fence and she scrambled, up and running. She took a flying leap at the fence and hoisted herself over. It wobbled a bit before she came down the other side, somehow safe. Negan was lifting Cody so she ran ahead to the house and kicked in the door. No sooner had it busted open, then the fence started to bust. Negan rushed past her.

“We can’t stay here.”

“Out the front!” She raced past him, he was fast, even with Cody over his shoulder, blood leaving a trail for the walkers. She reached the door first, twisting the bolt to unlock it and held the door open for them before closing it. They were on the street for the school, but the horde must’ve spread out, they were appearing up and down the street in small clumps.

“The school!” She grabbed Negan’s arm, pointing at a gate. It had a chain around it, but they could get inside. He ran for it, the fence would slow the horde, but they could tear it down. He reached the gate first, rattling it with one hand.

“Chain’s loose enough, we can squeeze through,” he announced. She slid in front of him, staying on her feet as she pushed it as far as it would go against the chain. Negan lowered Cody and then took off his backpack and slid through. “Keep it open.” He reached through and grabbed Cody’s shoulders, dragging, there was blood pooled on the ground where he’d been laying. She didn’t know if it was too much blood loss or not. He pulled him through and then held the gate open for her.

Lucy dropped to her knees, shrugging off her backpack and then pushing his and hers through. Negan’s eyes kept flicking behind her, growing more intense. She could hear them coming. She could almost feel their breath. “Don’t look back, just come through.” His voice was low and it terrified her, like he was intentionally trying to keep her calm. She took his word for it and crawled through, easier than he had, but still felt one grab her foot. Negan whipped towards it and she gave a short gasp and yanked her foot away as he stabbed the walker and pulled it through. “Get our shit!” He hissed and she gathered the backpacks, watching as he pushed the walker against the base of the gate just as several more pushed against the chain link. It worked like a door stopper, keeping the gate from sliding open and letting any clamber through the gap. If they kept pushing in that one spot it wouldn’t last though.

Then he was on his feet again, picking up Cody, and she was running ahead to the school.

Chapter Text

LUCY

They closed the door to the school behind them, chests heaving, and she looked around for any sign of undead. Nothing stirred the cold, dark halls. It was almost eerie. She’d never seen a school so stiff and silent, not in her school days anyways. She saw a sign with directions on the wall, a little map, and ran to it.

“The science labs are upstairs, come on!”

“I…what?”

“Come on!” She waved to him and he followed after her. She offered him a shoulder to help him up the stairs, but he took them, seemingly easy, one step at a time. She rushed up them when she was certain he could carry Cody up without help and searched the second floor. There were stairs on both sides of the building according to the map, and science classes on this side. She started pushing doors open, checking inside each of them until she found a lab class, just as Negan was peeking the top of the stairs. “This way!” She ran inside. The tables were sturdy in here, with hard surfaces for science experiment safety. Language Arts class wouldn’t have the things she needed, but science just might!

She started scrambling through drawers and cabinets near the teacher’s long abandoned desk as Negan hobbled in with Cody in tow. “What are you doing?”

“Put him on a table! Do you have a belt?” She was coming up empty with the cabinets. Nothing of use.

“No I…” he paused as he lugged Cody off his shoulder, sliding his butt down onto the counter and then leaning him back. He was dead weight, and a greenish white. She stopped scrambling as he flattened out on the table and Negan stared down at him, eyes flicking to her nervously.

Cody’s chest rose and fell as he took a breath and she closed her eyes. “He’s still alive.”

“Give me the backpack!” He urged, holding out his hand, other hand digging into his pocket. She tossed it at him and he cut off the straps with his knife and tied it around Cody’s thigh, above the wound that was still leaking blood.

She looked around the room for anything useful, a quick sweep of her eyes, and paused. She chewed on her lip for a moment before she pointed, “Do you think the gas line still works?” He followed her gaze and then ran for the wall, attempting to turn it on. She scrambled in the cabinets again, more focused this time, “Do you know what a Bunsen Burner is?” She asked as she continued to rummage in the cabinet underneath, moving to the side of the table. Microscopes, microscopes…

Negan stooped and opened a cabinet, “We need to be ready, if he turns. Here.” Something clattered across the counter. She jerked to snatch it up. A Bunsen Burner! “Are you going to cauterize it?”

“If the gas line still works.” She attached the hose to a nozzle and twisted it to open. She waited, lowering her ear to it. A small hiss came from the nozzle. “Oh my god,” she gasped and Negan smiled, “I need a—” a lighter clattered across the table. Not quite how you usually lit flames in the science class but she wouldn’t argue. She lit the lighter and held the flame close to the burner and it lit up. They had fire! “See what else you can find—bandages, cloths, first aid kits!”

He nodded, rummaging through cabinets and disappearing into the teacher’s office. Lucy examined the wound, rolling Cody to his side so she could both elevate the leg and examine it. The wound was partially on the side and front and she used her knife to further tear his pants open until she could see it clearly. All things considered, it wasn’t the worst wound. The fence could have taken a chunk straight out of him, but most of the meat was still intact.

Taking a deep breath, she felt around the wound a bit, rolling her lips together as she tried not to cringe. She had to know if there were wood splinters in there. She winced and pulled away, using her shirt to wipe her hands as clean as possible and looking around the room. She didn’t see anything that might jump out at her as useful. No gloves, no extra cloth. “Ugh.” She went back to Cody, took a breath, and slid her finger into the meat of his leg. “Oh my god, oh my god,” she closed her eyes but was forced to open them again. Her fingers brushed something hard, “Oh god.” Was that bone or wood? “Ew, ew, ewww!” She pinched and pulled and a long sliver of bloody wood came free. She threw it on the ground. She hadn’t felt anything else and she was not putting her hand back in there!

“Okay, okay,” she took steady breaths, trying to calm herself. In through her nose, out through her mouth. In and out.

“I found this.” She started at Negan’s voice and whirled to face him, her breathing mantra gone. “Sorry.” He dumped some clothes on the table. White lab coats.

“That’ll do.” She held her hand out, “I need your knife, for cauterizing. Yours is bigger than mine.”

He leaned in closer, grinning as his hand dug into his pocket. “I’m flattered.”

She snorted, not sure how he could be joking right now, but she accepted the knife and held it to the flame. It was the best they had. Either that or hold the burner directly to Cody’s skin, but he might wake up. If he rolled, the flame could give him a bigger burn, and then they had a bigger injury to worry about. The knife could be pressed, sealed, controlled.

“You’ll have to hold him down in case he wakes up.”

“He didn’t wake up when you dug your fingers in there.”

She cringed as he reminded her, “You saw that?”

“I’ve seen you kill a man today and several walkers and that makes you squirmy?”

“It’s gross.”

“You had dead guy guts all over you earlier.” He countered and she gave him a look, eyebrow cocked. “You said you were experienced.”

“I said I have experience, it doesn’t mean I enjoyed the experience.”

He laughed but when she removed the blade from the flame, glowing orange, he went silent. The humor faded from the room and he moved fast to push down on Cody’s shoulders. She didn’t warn Negan, she just went for it, her left hand pushing Cody’s leg down into the table, her right hand pushing the flat of the blade down against his thigh. He did wake up. Screaming and flailing, his leg kicking out and she pushed down harder with all her weight.

His knee knocked into the Bunsen burner, sending it shooting off the counter and bouncing on it’s cord. “Cody! I know it hurts but hold still!” She climbed onto the table and put her weight down on his leg when he continued to flail, pressing the knife back down onto the wound. He wailed to the ceiling, and then he passed out again and she sat back on his legs, removing the knife. She quickly examined the wound, it didn’t appear to be bleeding now.

“That’s it?” Negan released him, his shoulders dropping as if he were releasing a breath.

“Now we keep him alive. If we can.” She murmured. “I’ve never cauterized anything before,” she stared at the wound uncertainly. “It’s a last resort, really, but we didn’t have many options or choices.”

“We should tie him down.” He picked up the Bunsen burner. It was still burning, the flame shooting uselessly into the air when it’d dropped. Better than setting the place on fire. She turned the fire off and then went to the gas line and shut it down.

“Did you find anything we could tie him down with?”

“Not yet.”

She eyed the lab coats. They would be her new bandage material unless they could find a first aid kit. “We need to find the nurses office.”

“I’ll go, you stay with him. Until we strap him down, we can’t let him out of our sight.”

She nodded, “I’ll take his vital signs.”

“Vital signs?” He laughed, “You do have experience.”

“I didn’t like it.”

He frowned at her like he wanted to ask but he headed off. With Negan gone, she sat quietly in the room, finger on Cody’s wrist. The clock in the science lab still ticked, the sound of it filling the room. His pulse was low, his breathing was slow, but he was alive for now. If Negan found some water, she’d like to try and sit him up and make him drink some. He’d had too much blood loss, he needed water. It wasn’t the safest delivery method, but she doubted they would find an IV line around here.

For now, she waited.

Chapter Text

NEGAN

Negan crept through the halls, head on a swivel, but if anything had been in here, it would’ve already made noise or come for them with the screaming. He didn’t believe the nurse’s office would be on the second floor, so he made his way down and eyed the map on the wall. It didn’t list anything as specific as nurse, but it did point the way to the front office.

He paused, spotting the trail of blood leading back up the stairs. He didn’t know how much was too much, but the kid was spilling from one side of the street to the other and all the way up those stairs. He ambled closer to the doors they’d come in through, peeking out the windows. The horde was still pushing on the fence, but they were spread out. It would hold for now and with any luck, something would distract them and draw them away. Like a couple of Saviors out looking for him.

He started off again, ambling down the hall. It was dark and his steps, no matter how quiet he placed them, echoed in this blank space. It was a far cry from how things used to be. Kids filling hallways with happy chatter, teachers ushering them into rooms. He didn’t let himself think about it much, but he sure as hell missed coaching those little assholes.

He hoped Cody pulled through. The kid was a pain, but he was a good kid. Willing to put in the hard work, willing to learn. He was a bit of a people pleaser, constantly looking to Negan for a smile or a nod. Even the slightest indication that he was doing a good job.

He glanced up even though Lucy and Cody were far behind him now. The science lab was a good idea on her part. He doubted math class would have any extraneous supplies for them to use and the front office had been too far to keep dragging Cody. With a sigh, he kept marching forward, searching for the office.

LUCY

Lucy stood slowly when she heard something fall and clatter. Negan had been gone awhile, long enough to make her impatient. She’d had time to cut some of the lab coats into make shift bandages and wrap one around the wound. She’d had time to wipe every centimeter of blood off her hands and pick at what was under her finger nails, desperately wishing for water. She’d even picked up the wooden splinter and examined it and rechecked Cody’s pulse and respirations.

A dull thump followed and she craned her neck. It sounded like something in the hallway. She would have heard Negan coming back, right? She would have heard footsteps. Not a clatter and a thump. She swallowed, a prick of adrenaline releasing through her. She grabbed her knife, ready for what may come. Each slow footstep was carefully placed as she moved out of the chem lab, silent, searching. The hall was empty and filled with shadows. There were big windows on either side of the building, letting in the last of the sunlight. It was well into the evening now and all she’d done all day was run and walk and move.

She licked dry lips and heard another light thump, this time with tapping sounds like fingers drumming on a desk. She narrowed in on the sound. It was the classroom directly across the hall. She’d never opened that door, she’d stopped at the chem lab. Pushing her hair back out of her face, she adjusted her grip on the knife and yanked open the door.

Something flashed past her, darting into the far corner and then across the room, faster than her eyes could focus until it hit a window with a dull thud and it’s beak danced on the glass as it tried to break free. Lucy lowered her knife, a half smile on her face and rolled her eyes. A bird. It was crazy that something as simple as a bird could rattle her cage these days. She blew out a huff of air before she studied the room a little harder and felt her eyebrows lift, her heart skipping. Her smile spread across her face.

She glanced back at Cody in the room across the hall. The door had closed automatically but he was still and quiet in the small window. She decided it was worth the risk and walked into the classroom, looking around as the bird continued to dart from place to place. Incredible. She looked around the room, someone had lived here, though it didn’t appear they’d been home recently. Probably long gone.

Two windows were open with pipes running through them. They led to an emergency wash station, but there was a handmade construction around it, made of wood and holding up a water barrel. She walked to it, stepping up on the plank on the side and peering in. It was full of water and it wasn’t discolored. The emergency wash shower head had been attached to a nozzle on the outside of the barrel and she stepped down, following the pipes to the window. She poked her head outside and laughed with delight.

There was a metal walkway covering a sidewalk below, and it looked like whoever had lived here had made use of the walkway. There were plants and more barrels. Four big ones were attached to each other, leading to the pipes that led inside. Shower water, clearly, warmed by the sun. The other barrels were probably for drinking and cooking. She pulled her head back inside and took in the whole room. The showering area with a curtain, a mattress in a corner with some personal items. Food boxes on a table and she hoped there was more under the cabinets.

“Lucy?”

“I’m in here!” The door swung open a moment later and she beamed at Negan, holding her arms out, “Look what I found.” His mouth dropped and he gazed around as she walked to the shower again and tested out the nozzle. It worked, cold water pouring out and she ran her hands under it, grabbing a bar soap and cleaning up to her elbows before she shut it off. When she turned back, he was holding a box of food. “There’s water barrels outside. We can boil water,”

He held up the box, “I’ll make dinner. I found a first aid kit, you see to the kid.”

She nodded and left the room as he began exploring more of it and she crossed back to the chem lab. She didn’t know where he found the rope in a school, but there was rope so she started by tying Cody’s wrists to the table’s legs. Satisfied, she popped open the first aid kit and examined her supplies. There was also a basket and she peered inside, grinning. It was full of nursing supplies. Probably from the nurse’s office. Some alcohol wipes, cotton balls, tongue depressors, temperature strips, gauze, ace bandage wrap, and two dozen tiny band aids.

And gloves. Beautiful, wonderful, blessed gloves. She hated getting blood all over her hands.

“Nice.” She pulled out the gauze and found Neosporin in the first aid, as well as acetaminophen and an empty syringe and sterile water. She set to work, first placing a temperature strip under Cody’s tongue. She would have preferred an under arm one, but the disposable strips went in the mouth only. She’d just have to hold it for him.

Keeping it in place with one hand, she used her free hand to dump out some Tylenol into a small cup. She needed to crush them up into a powder, she could use the sterile water to get it down him but she’d need Negan to hold his head up for her. She checked the time and then checked the temperature. No fever. It was a good start.

She left him alone for a moment and searched the chem room but didn’t have much luck finding something to crush pills in so she gave up and used her knife on part of the counter, hammering at it until the noise was loud enough she wondered if Cody might wake up, but he never budged and she scooped the fine powder onto a piece of paper she found and the funneled it into the cup. She injected some sterile water into the cup and mixed it heartily before she went to find Negan.

She found him underneath the shower water barrel, tinkering. She wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. “Hey,”

He peeled himself away from it and came into sight, “Hey,”

“Whatcha doing?” She tilted her head.

“Whoever set this up was a genius, look,” she bent and found what he was indicating. “He rigged it so you can warm up the water.”

“I can take a hot shower?”

He laughed, “I think so. There was a bird nest in it.” He stepped away from it. “Should be warming now. There was a camping stove over there, I attached it to the gas line in this room. Water should be boiling soon. We’ll have drinking water and food in no time.”

Those words were music to her ears. “I need your help with Cody.”

“Is he okay?”

“For now? I think so. I crushed up some acetaminophen for him. It’ll help with the swelling, pain, and hopefully keep fever away. He needs antibiotics.” Neosporin would have to do but he needed oral. Negan followed her to the next room and held Cody up for her so she could dump the medications into the back of his throat and make sure he swallowed it all without complications.

As he set him back down, Negan finally asked, “So what was your experience? With medical? You seem competent.”

“Oh I am,” she nodded, brushing her hair back and setting the cup down for future use. “I told you I had a group,” earlier that day seemed so far away, when they’d asked each other about it. So much had happened since this morning. Earlier she would have kept the information to herself, but at this point? Some information wouldn’t hurt and it’d pass the time. “We do okay for ourselves. We found a place to call home. We wanted to start teaching people in our community survival basics. Share the knowledge, if you will. Everyone learns a little bit of everything.”

“So you have a doctor?”

She laughed, “We have a coroner.”

“What?”

“He did autopsies before everything…you know, and he’s not bad at putting you back together if you get hurt. Not the best but not bad. Then we found a nurse, like a registered nurse. Between the two of them, they impart decent first aid knowledge plus a little extra. The thing is, I did really good at it. I was picking up all the knowledge fast, but when it came to blood and guts on a person…I hate it. It’s so gross!”

He started laughing, eyebrows raising with skepticism, “But, out there?”

“I know, when I’m in the moment with the walkers, it’s just natural. I don’t even think about it. But I almost vomited digging that splinter out of Cody’s leg.”

He bowed his head, shoulders shaking, grinning as he looked back at her as he slowly sobered, “Well if you hadn’t, that would’ve caused him a lot of problems.”

“Don’t thank me, he’s not well yet.”

“Here’s to hoping.” He pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket and tipped it at her.

She stared at him as he threw back a shot of it and held it out to her, “Seriously?”

“What do you have to lose? We have food and water now. It’s not going to kill you faster.”

She snorted and accepted it, downing a large gulp. Whiskey. She smiled. She wasn’t sure the last time she’d had a good drink. She met his eyes. Damn but this morning she didn’t even know him. Just some guy. Some guy who’d now survived with her. “Guess I’ll get some Neosporin on him.”

“I’ll go check the water.”

Chapter Text

LUCY

Lucy twisted the fork, gathering up the last of the noodles on her plate and slurping them up. She was certain she hadn’t had spaghetti since the outbreak, since the world collapsed all around them. She couldn’t be sure if it was the length of time, or if this truly was the best bowl of spaghetti she’d ever had, but she wished there was more.

They didn’t save any for Cody, though they ate, sitting on the tables in the chem lab. Negan had leaned on the edge for a long time before joining her on the counter, sitting with one leg dangling, one leg propping his elbow up. Her legs were crisscrossed. Before making food, he’d boiled an entire pot of water for drinking, pouring it in gallon containers he’d found in the room next to that one. Then he’d set about making food. By then she’d been long done with Cody and had rummaged around in the clothes, finding some that might fit well enough and setting it aside. She was hitting that shower tonight. Especially since Negan had figured out how to make it hot.

She was still chewing, savoring every last morsel of spaghetti as he spoke. He was telling her in a soft voice about being a coach. She’d told him he was really good with Cody earlier today and it led to this.

“Kids are better than adults, you know, they’re just trying to make it through, they don’t mean to be dicks, they just got a lot to deal with and don’t know how yet. Adults being dicks, well they have no excuse.”

She laughed, “Adults are assholes.”

“Seriously, the kids aren’t out here shooting each other.”

She chuckled again but his words made her mind drift to her people. She swallowed the last of her food, sobering. “I…do you think they’re okay?”

“What?”

“Those guys, they took my friends. I don’t think they killed them. We didn’t have guns like your people, we could only run.”

His expression changed, a slight crease in his brow, his eyes narrowing, “You seem to know about them?”

“Sort of.” She shook her head. “We uh, we’ve heard about them. This was the first time I’d seen them though.”

“Heard about them?”

“From others. We call them the Osman Gang, just a big group causing havoc. Heard about some group called the Saviors, too. Both are bad news.”

“Saviors?”

“One of our neighbors had a run in with them. One of the communities is so scared of them that they’re refusing to travel to meet with us now to trade.”

He cocked a brow before he leaned towards her, “Other communities, sounds like you have a whole network.”

“Yeah, we kind of do.”

He leaned back, lowering his empty plate to his leg. “So you have a community and know others communities? Places where you’re all safe?”

She tilted her head back. She’d seen the fire power he and his people had, and he’d said there were others, more of his people, and that they’d look for him. Hers would look for her, too. She hoped. They couldn’t always spare people when others didn’t come back. “Can I trust you, Negan?” She came right out with it. She didn’t like dancing on words.

“Can you trust anyone?” His voice was low, but he held her gaze, calm, confident. She didn’t know if that was reassuring. He wasn’t wrong. He set his plate aside, and leaned closer to her this time, his hands on her knees. Heat emanated from them, melting into her skin and traveling up her body. She leaned forward, staring into his eyes.

“Can I trust you?” She emphasized.

He stared back into her eyes for what felt like a lifetime before a small smirk came to his lips and he bowed his head, looking at her knees and his hands on them. He smoothed his thumb across a wrinkle in her jeans before peering at her through his lashes. Each gentle stroke of his thumb across her jeans made her heart beat faster. “Tell me about those guys.”

“So mysterious,” she teased and leaned back, undoing the lid of his flask and his eyes widened a smidge before he grabbed his pocket, finding his flask missing.

“So sneaky.” This time he laughed.

Lucy drank a long, deep drink that burned her throat and passed it to him. She hadn’t had the opportunity for much drinking since the apocalypse and she felt it already go to her head, adding to the shots she’d already taken from it. He tipped it at her, watching her intently, eyes burning as much as the whiskey. “So, these Osman’s?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s who they were. They’ve been roaming around several areas, a big group, apparently led by some dude named Guy Osman. What we’ve heard is that they take people. Not groups. They’re looking for easy targets. Not sure where they take them. Not sure why.”

He frowned and pulled the flask to his lips, “Kidnapping?” She nodded and he tipped it back.

“My friend Dean and I were scavenging together, a few more of our group farther ahead of us. We saw them, when they drove past, we could see people tied up in the bed of the truck. We assumed they must be the Osman group we kept hearing about. We hid for a bit before we met up at our vehicle where the rest of our scavengers were, but they came back. Our vehicle wouldn’t crank so we had to run on foot…” tears started to prick her eyes and her throat went dry so he offered her the flask and she took another swig. She cleared her throat and said, “I lost them. I remember Dean yelling at me to keep going, they chased us with their vehicles, straight into the woods, and cut us off. They literally circled us with the vehicles like we were cattle being rounded up by horsemen. But when their trucks stopped, my friends were in the middle of the vehicles, surrounded by guns, and I was on the outside. They came at me so I did as Dean said, I kept running.”

“You did what you had to. Even I had to run, you saw our guns. We’re not exactly easy pickings.”

“I think that’s why they shot at you guys. They want easy targets but you were a threat. By the way, nice guns.”

“Oh, thank you,” he cocked up one arm, flexing his bicep, “Fighting dead ones is a real work out.” She laughed out loud and he took the flask, taking another swig. It was a good way  to break the tension that was building, but all she could think about were the people she’d left behind now. Dean, Raquel, Dennis, Jose, and Gio. Her people. Her friends. He spoke, distracting her, “What about the other bad news group you mentioned? You’ve never had a run in with them?”

She gave a half shrug, “Never seen a Savior. But there have been a few Osman sightings by my people before I saw them today. The way I hear it, the Saviors roll in and force a town to work for them. Give them your shit and they won’t kill you. Some real mafia crap.” She shook her head. “I dare them to try and enter our town.”

His eyes glittered with an emotion she couldn’t quite read. The sun was almost down now, but he’d found candles in one of the backpacks they’d brought along. They could light them up when the sun set. “If everyone in your town is half as fierce as you, I’m sure it’d be quite a challenge for them.”

She smiled and accepted the flask from him again, “Well, not everyone has the heart to go out. Our scavenging groups tend to stay the same. We have kids, you know, a couple of elders who survived the start. Not everyone is up to fighting.”

She took another drink, watching him through her lashes. She was drawn into those eyes, bright blue, intelligent. She thought she might lean closer to him when the world wavered a bit. Was she that drunk? “I think I need a shower before I drink anymore.” She slid off the table and he caught her arm as she swayed. She hadn’t had alcohol in a long time, it seemed she was a light weight again. Damn apocalypse! His hand lingered and she wanted to turn and face him, pull his head down until her lips could reach his.

She pushed off the counter, pausing to check on Cody. Still breathing. Still no fever. She pulled back the bandages to peek at his wound. Some drainage had started, to be expected. She sighed and left, crossing the hall to the next room.

She didn’t waste time removing her clothes and starting up the water. It was boiling hot but it felt amazing to use hot water and in seconds she was climbing into the abyss. It was pure magic. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back, letting the water scale down her body, trying not to think of Negan’s hands on her knees, on her arm.

She started rinsing, washing away all the grime and sweat, and then stopped the water so she could save it up. She reached for the bar soap to scrub at her skin until she dug so hard into it that she was pink and almost raw. Then she turned the water back on, another sigh leaving her, putting one hand against the wall. Until she thought she sensed something moving. The muscles that had been slowly relaxing bunched up, ready for an attack and she moved, twisting and putting out her left hand to ward off an attack and fisting her right. She knocked the curtain away so she wasn’t hindered, heart racing, adrenaline pumping. She was ready!

And she was left staring at a startled Negan as he bent over to set a towel on a chair near the shower. He rose to his full height, an easy grin turning up the corners of his lips. “Well if you don’t want the towels I found just say so…” his words drifted off and his eyes swept her from head to toe and back up, slow and easy. She stood there, heart still pounding from being startled, but heat starting to creep low inside her under his appraisal. “Mm.”

It was a soft noise in the back of his throat, with that slight, amused grin. She relaxed the fighting stance she’d taken, hands going slack, but aching to hold onto something. The water still rushing down her body. She met his gaze, licking her lips and he zeroed in on it. His brow creased just a hint and something passed between them, as if he was silently asking permission. They must’ve been on the same wavelength because they stepped towards each other at the same time.

His arms drew her tight against him as she reached for that damn leather jacket, unzipping it while his lips devoured hers, leaving her breathless, heart pounding. His jacket hit the floor and he was kicking his shoes off just before he backed her into the flow of water. It hit her skin, as searing as his hands clutching at her back. He came in, socks, pants, shirt, almost tripping on his shoes as he toed them off, leaving them behind and she backed away, all the way until the wall, the sudden chill of it sending shivers through her.

Fingering the edge of his shirt, she slipped it up, the water drenching it as she smoothed her hands over his stomach, feeling the ridges of muscle, dragging the wet shirt higher. His arms went up automatically and she stretched up as high as she could to get it off, his head popping free. The soggy clump hit the floor and his hands grabbed her wrists, keeping them above her, pinned to the wall as his lips devoured her. Nibbling along her jaw, teeth sinking into her earlobe with a gentle nip that had a throb aching deep inside her.

She strained against his hold as his whiskered face tickled her collarbone, brushing along skin with hot water and sweeps of his tongue. A soft gasp escaped her and she almost jerked from the tickling, but his hips pushed forward against her. The pants! She couldn’t get him naked fast enough, panting, wanting.

He let her go for one brief moment, mouth on hers again, and her hands fell to his shoulders, digging. Then felt a hand, seeking between her legs. Her nails sank into his flesh, his palm rubbing against her clit as two fingers swirled around her. He swallowed her cry, lips holding hers, her hips thrusting against his fingers until she was panting into his mouth.

Passion flared inside her and the water both amplified and drowned her senses. She could feel it everywhere, feel his hands everywhere. Everything was hot and getting hotter. Fire blazed where he touched, his fingers setting a rhythm inside of her. Her heartbeat pulsed all the way through her, riding his hand until she gasped and drove her forehead into his chest, teeth sinking in, a deep growl rumbling through him. She kissed the teeth marks she left, clinging to him, kissing higher, nibbling at his neck until she saw stars, crying out in his ear, one hand holding the back of her head to keep her close, taking in every sound as she came.

She sank into his arms, heaving for breath, hands going slack on his shoulders, sliding down his arms. He drew his hand away from her and scaled up her ribs and back down, a torturous sensation tickling along her skin. Another deep growl loosed in her ear and she felt his lips on her temple, “You think I’m done with you yet?” A zip punctuated his words and he dipped, hands hooking behind her knees. A soft gasp that was almost a laugh left her as he lifted and she wrapped her legs around his waist, nipping his collarbone. Lean hips fit between her legs smoothly, her crossed ankles taking hold, and as he pushed her back into the wall, he filled her, their moans echoed around the room. His eyes closed and he leaned harder into her, smooshing her between the cold wall and the heat of his body while the water burned the air around them. The expression on his face pure contentment. Relaxed, satisfied, and hungry all at once.

She cupped his face in her hands and his eyes flickered open, water still pouring over them. Keeping her back to the wall, he pushed in deep, and she continued to hold him, sliding her fingers through dark hair. Both of his hands gripped her ass, keeping her supported and he eased her off of him, using his hands to guide her body back, then using the wall to drive back in, slow, deep, their eyes locked. She couldn’t stop the moan, her eyes nearly rolling back in her head at the slow pressure he built, reaching all the way to her core and burning her hotter than the scalding shower.

Another slide out and back in, another moan escaping her lips as she melted in his arms. Then a little faster. She played with his hair, fingers tightening as he inched deeper, and relaxing as he eased out. Then a little faster. Breathing was getting harder, her head swimming, and a louder cry escaped her lips and this time he started kissing her again, devouring the sound. She breathed and he stole her breath, quickening his rhythm, hips sliding between her thighs.

She held onto him, starting to make fists in his short hair and he squeezed her, no doubt leaving bruises on her ass cheeks and she reveled in it, reveled in the gruff moan that started to rumble out his chest with every thrust. Her heart pounded to it’s beat, her body pulsed each time he got deeper and deeper. She wanted it, needed him as deep as he could go and he didn’t disappoint. Her breath was coming faster. She couldn’t catch it. Her lungs strained.

His hands slipped to her hips, then up, forcing her to hold on harder with her thighs, her muscles clenching, catapulting the building fire. He encircled her wrists, pinning them to the wall again, leaving her with only her thighs and the wall and him to keep her from falling. She clenched down harder, her core muscles joining, and gasped louder as the wave broke, cascading through her. She couldn’t control the sounds of pleasure, she couldn’t quit holding onto him, their hands entwined above their heads, her legs squeezing, her core spasming. Stars burst through her skin, hot and molten, buzzing from head to toe.

Pressing his forehead against her chest, his shoulders tensed, fists tightening around her hands, another wave consumed her. Negan moaned, hot breath on her neck and ground her into the wall until they were still, both panting, drinking in the aftermath.

Lucy leaned her head back against the wall, satisfied, and he finally released her hands, slow, almost careful. He stretched one arm, reaching for the water and shut it off. “Damn…” she smiled at him through half lidded eyes.

“Damn.” His voice was even huskier than before, sexy. She could eat every inch of that lean body. He set her down, making sure her feet were planted before he let go of her leg, then he pushed her hair back and brought his mouth back to hers, kissing her hard and deep before he stepped away. He turned towards the chair and she admired his back side, realizing he still had his pants mostly around his hips, if not a little lower. He faced her again, wrapping the towel around her, and picked her up.

She giggled as he swept her into his arms and carried her towards the mattress in the corner of the room and knelt, setting her on it. She stayed sitting up, drawing the towel in closer, looking into his eyes. “We should get some sleep.”

“We should,” he nodded, but instead of going to get sleep, he stood up. It took some effort, and wiggling, and she laughed as she watched him struggle out of the wet jeans, then he used his foot to push her knee out, then the next one, and plopped his elbows down between them.

Yeah, they weren’t sleeping yet.

Lucy sprawled out on the mattress, holding her breath until he tongued her sensitive flesh, then it rushed out of her. His tongue swirled around her clit and she couldn’t stop herself from wrapping her fists in the mattress. Gasping as he kept up his torturer’s pace until she was squirming, short moans leaving her in quick bursts, fire burning inside of her. She was still high and sensitive from before, it didn’t take long for the fire to start boiling her and on the first gasp he plunged his fingers inside her. She cried out, throwing her head back on the mattress. A wave of heat shattered her as she came, filling up and bursting until she was blinded by it.

Her senses came back slowly, her whole body buzzing with ecstasy as he slid up on the mattress and nuzzled into her neck.

Chapter Text

LUCY

A sharp whistling woke her slowly and her eyes fluttered open, staring across the room at the bird sitting on the window sill. It was singing a musical ensemble, a good morning chirp that bade her to rise with the sun that was now streaming through the glass as well. She glanced down at Negan’s arm, thrown across her naked waist and his nose buried somewhere in her hair.

Fuck he was gorgeous. The way his bicep and forearm curled across her, almost possessive in sleep, his lean shoulders. Everything about this man was designed by hard work fighting walkers. Like he’d said, it was a hell of a workout.

Cody.

She hated to move, but she had to know. Sighing, she disentangled herself from his hold and was surprised to see him wake up and reach for a weapon that wasn’t in reach. He looked more startled by that than anything. “Hey,” she touched his shoulder, noting the gouges she’d left in it last night. “Sleep well?”

His eyes were a little hazy as he looked around, “Can’t remember the last time I slept that deep.”

Same. Even at home where she felt safest, she was constantly alert. But they were relatively safe here, and they’d been exhausted. Yesterday had been a lot of running. Intense running. And fighting walkers. “I’m going to go check on Cody.”

He sat up as she went to retrieve the clean, new clothes she’d found. New to her anyways. A pale blue shirt, one hole in the sleeve. Black jeans with a little stretch which made them more comfortable than her last pair and they fit well. Then she pulled her knife from her old pants pocket and stuffed it in these. As she headed for the door, Negan was rising and reaching for his pants.

She walked into the hallway and listened for a moment, hearing nothing and peered through the window on the door. Cody was laying sideways instead of straight. His back was to her, his bound hand behind him, drawn tight against the rope they’d fitted on his wrist. Her heart dropped into her stomach. She glanced back for Negan, but he hadn’t come out yet, but maybe it was better this way. The kid meant something to him.

She opened the door. Cody didn’t move. Yet. She swallowed, approaching. “Cody?” Her voice shook. She hated this. She didn’t want to kill a kid. She should’ve come in here last night, stayed with him. Instead she’d slept naked on a mattress all night.

“Lucy?” She jerked and turned back. Negan was in the doorway. “Is he…?”

She didn’t know. She held her breath and crossed the room in three strides and set her hand on him, rolling him towards her. “Ow!” Cody gasped and jerked his hands against the restraints.

“Cody!” She stopped forcing him to roll. He did it on his own anyways, pale, sweat on his brow. “You’re alive!”

“Yep.” He barely got it out before Negan reached them.

“Hey, kid,”

He gave a sad smile, lips cracked. She pressed the back of her hands ot his forehead, but he didn’t feel feverish. Still no infection she hoped. “I’m sorry, I thought you were laying like that because…well.”

“Because you thought I was dead.” His tongue snaked out to lick his lips but did nothing to wet them. “That’s why I figured my wrists were tied.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“Get him some water,” she pushed Negan’s shoulder, “How long have you been awake?”

“I don’t know. Had weird dreams.” He picked up his head and looked towards his leg, “It hurts a lot.”

“I’ll get some more acetaminophen. Do you think you can swallow a pill?” He nodded and so she said, “We’ll get you some food, too. You’re going to need a lot of protein to help that leg heal, okay?”

“Okay.”

Negan reached him with water and helped him sit up and drink. He groaned as Negan lifted, face paling. He’d lost a lot of blood, but he was here.

“You fucking did it.” Negan was grinning her way.

She smiled and hurried to grab the medicine and then offered it to the kid. He opened his mouth, hands still tied, and she set the tablets on his tongue and Negan gave more water. “The others haven’t found us yet?”

“Nah, but that’s okay. We covered a lot of ground with those guys chasing us.” Negan explained, “I’ll go get some more water boiling.”

“Bring me one of those cans of soups, I’ll help him eat.”

He nodded and left the room fast and she kept Cody steady. “You’re doing great, Cody.”

“You saved me?”

“I did what I could.”

“Thanks.”

“Sure.” She rubbed his arm supportively and continued helping him drink water. But when Negan returned, he moved slower, and there was a hitch in his step. She stared at him a long moment and his eyes flicked to Cody and back to her. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but his change in demeanor set her teeth on edge. “Think you can sit up on your own?”

“I think so.”

“If you get dizzy, lay down, I’m going to untie one hand, okay?” He nodded and Negan popped the top of the soup can and held it out to Cody. “Drink slow.” She cautioned and stepped away from Cody, following Negan all the way to the door before he faced her. “What is it?”

“They’re here.” His voice was so low she almost couldn’t hear him. “Outside the fence.”

“The…” She couldn’t bring herself to ask if he meant walkers or Osman’s but she thought he meant Osman’s. He wouldn’t be this serious over the walkers that had been pounding at the fence since they arrived.

“That gang. They know we’re in here.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Dead ones trying to get in? A whole horde? Something is making them want in, it’s not that hard to guess.” He said and waved towards the exit, “They have their vehicles scattered, drawing the dead ones away. They’re coming inside, as soon as they lead them away.”

They had to run… She glanced towards Cody. He couldn’t make that. He couldn’t run. Hiding maybe? “He’s not going to survive that, Negan.”

“We have to try. I didn’t make it this long—didn’t drag his ass all the way up here—for them to catch us now!” He hit the wall and Cody jerked and looked their way, spilling soup down his chin.

“Negan…” she honestly didn’t know what to do or say. “Could we hide?”

“Any scenario where you think that end doesn’t get us killed?” He pointed at Cody, “What do you think they’re going to do to him? He’s dead weight. They’ll put him in the ground.” He dragged his hand down his face. She didn’t disagree, but the fact remained, trying to run might kill Cody. “The best thing we can do,” his voice was calmer now, “is not be here when they get here. Maybe we can find another place to lay low.”

“I don’t like it.” She glanced back at Cody and then faced Negan again, “Go watch them, I’ll change his bandages and pack the rest in my backpack.”

He sighed, “Keep him alive.”

“We’ll try.” She made sure he knew this job was on both of them. They wouldn’t survive without each other. She hadn’t even been with this man a full twenty four hours, but this was do or die, with each other they lived, without each other, they were dead or captured. She returned to Cody without another word.

Chapter Text

NEGAN

Negan didn’t like this. Being stuck out here with a kid that couldn’t run and only two sets of hands to look out for him. His crew had no idea where he was. They’d expect him to stay away from a horde, but somehow the horde seemed to be following him every step of the way. His guys would give it a wider berth, search for him elsewhere. There was no way to track him and without knowing which direction he ran, he just might be shit out of luck out here.

He glanced over his shoulder, across the room to the door. Circumstances not withstanding, if he had to be stuck out here with anyone, he was glad it was her. She’d kept him alive, he’d kept her alive, and they worked well together. They were a natural pair. Rubbing his chin, he faced the window again, peering out at the fence. He’d seen the crew’s working to draw the horde away, bit by bit, honking horns, whooping and hollering. When he’d come over to grab the food and get water boiling, he’d heard it, crossing to the window to look out.

“God we’re sitting ducks.” He ran his hand down his jaw now, scruff prickling at his fingers. Despite everything, his mind flashed to an image of Lucy drawing her fingers over him, nails sinking in. If he died today, he supposed that was the way he’d choose to have spent his last night, with a woman of fire and passion that reminded him of… Negan turned his head, eyes closing. Don’t go there.

Turning back, he tried to focus, but immediately his heart rate shot up. A few men were making a run for it, pushing through the thinned out horde and squeezing through the chained gate. “Fuck!” He backpedaled and started across the room. There was no time to wait and see, no time to plot or plan. They had to get going. Now.

“They’re coming. They’re coming in.” He flew through the door, gun in hand. He ejected the clip to count his bullets and popped it back in, rushing towards them. Lucy and Cody both jerked to face him, the kid’s eyes wide.

“Who’s coming?”

“There’s no way they—”

“They didn’t,” he interrupted, “not all of them came through. A small crew pushed through to the gate, probably to scope out the perimeter. The rest of them are still luring the meat puppets out.” He reached them in long, quick strides and grabbed Cody’s arm, lifting it and pulling off the rope.

“Who’s coming? Them?!”

“Wait, wait, slow down, I’m not done wrapping his leg!” She laid her hand on his arm to stay him but he started pushing Cody to his feet before she’d finished. And when he didn’t heed her warning, she grabbed onto his wrist. “Negan, stop!” Cody seemed more than happy to try sitting up, panic in his wide eyes.

He looked her dead in the eye. There was something fierce there, shining at him, but not anger. Determination? “Lucy, these men are dangerous and we don’t—” She tightened her grip on his wrist, not backing down or giving in. He pulled his hand away slow, holding it up in a sign of surrender. The moment he did, she pushed between them, continuing wrapping his leg. “We don’t have the time.”

“Where can we go, Negan?”

He gritted his teeth, “Out the back and hope.” The horde was too big for them to go around, he hoped.

“What if we hid?”

“For how long? They can search this place top to bottom, there’s supplies here, they’re not going to leave in short time.”

“Okay, we’ll run. Done.” She finished wrapping his leg and patted his back, encouraging him to sit up.

A breath rushed out of him, “We can go down the hall, to the second set of stairs. With any luck they’ll still be checking the outside, we can sneak out the back, head for the fence.”

“Climb?” Cody trembled, face paling as he struggled to sit up.

“I won’t leave you kid, we’ll get you over it in one piece.” He chucked his arm and offered a hand. Just as Cody set his hand in his, preparing to stand, they heard a dull thud. He snatched his hand back, pressing a finger to his lips and hurried to the door. He pushed it open slow and careful, listening.

“Blood trail going up the stairs. Should we check it out?”

Negan snatched his head back inside, closing the door careful and cautious as he heard feet shuffling down the hall, voices answering each other. “Shit, they’re on the stairs.” And that blood trail would lead them straight to this room.

LUCY (start here)

She blinked. That was fast. Too fast. Cody’s eyes went wide and he started to get down from the table but she grabbed his arm and shoved on his chest. “Lay down, lay down!” She grabbed one of the lab coats, “Pretend you’re dead.”

“They’ll put a bullet in my head!”

“No, they won’t! Don’t move!” The lab coat was covered in blood and she laid the bloodiest part over his face so it looked like they’d done the job and put him down.

“Lucy!” Negan hissed and she left Cody, running towards Negan. He had a cabinet door open, motioning her inside of it and she clambered into it and he shut the door on her. She continued to crawl. The cabinets were one big long one under the counters with multiple doors, letting her stretch out inside of it. She pushed herself against the back wall, wishing she’d brought something in to hide behind. She heard Negan’s footsteps leave and then silence, just the sound of her heart beating, her breath shaking out of her in a pitch black interior. She could see one hint of light where the cabinet door was and nothing else.

The silence stretched, her nose itched. Dust and old wood smell lingered in here. She didn’t dare move, but the itchy feeling persisted, making her whole skin crawl. Just as she was thinking she might risk it, she heard a sneeze and someone answered it, “Seriously, man? What part of quiet did you not understand?”

“I’m sorry.”

Fuck…they’re in the room next door.

Then a door opened, closer. “Hey, I got a dead one in here.”

“What kind?”

“Dead, dead.”

“Oh someone was definitely here. Look at all these medical supplies.”

“Some good bandages.”

She pressed her hand against her mouth to keep from breathing too hard, terrified they’d hear it. She was so focused on listening, straining to hear every detail, that her ears started ringing. She could hear them gathering up the supplies they’d left.

“You think these are the ones that got away?”

“Probably. You know of many people out here?”

“I want that guy’s jacket.”

The other snorted, “I just want to go home. I’m tired of chasing these pricks.”

“They killed some of us!”

“And we killed some of them.” A cabinet flipped open on the far end and she felt her eyes bug out as she stared towards it. He peered inside and closed it again.

“Anything?”

“Some lab equipment. I don’t know what to do with that shit. We’re here to find people, not supplies. That’s someone else’s job.” Another flipped open, a couple spaces down and her chest tightened, her stomach was in knots.

They’re going to find me. She tried to move silent, slipping her fingers into the pocket of her jeans. She heard a slight shuffle and couldn’t tell if it was her or someone outside the cabinet. She prepared herself, flipping the blade open as quietly as possible. If he was skipping doors, the next one he opened might be at her face, unless he was giving up, but if he wasn’t she was aiming for his eyeball.

Then the cabinet at her feet opened up and she twisted, her heart lurching and hands reached in. “No!” He grabbed her by both ankles and yanked hard and she slid along the wood and out onto the cold floor. Lucy didn’t hesitate, kicking her legs, but the second one was waiting at the cabinet door. As she slid out past him, he pounced on her wrist, disarming her. She swung her fist and clocked him in the chin and he only shook his head like it barely fazed him. He caught it and pinned both of her hands down on the floor, staring down at her.

“We got a pretty one!”

She spat and that made him flinch back but not enough. He used his shoulder to wipe it off, while the one holding her feet said, “We got a job for you, honey.”

“Get off of me!” She hissed, bucking, but it was useless. They’d caught her in an extremely vulnerable position. She could see Cody over her shoulder, struggling to sit up. She didn’t want him to do that but it was too late as two more ran in the door.

“We heard the commotion!” One of them barked, voice rough. “Look out!” His finger jabbed towards Cody in indication. He started forwards, one step, when she heard a low thump. Then a second. The two in the doorway collapsed, leaving Negan in their place.

The one holding her arms twisted his head to look, grip loosening a hair. Big mistake, buddy. With a combination of core muscles and pushing her feet, she snatched her upper body away from him, sitting up so that she was face to face with the other and punched him. “Shit!” He ducked his head, not letting go and she grabbed his ear, yanking hard. “Ow!”

“Fuck you, boy!” The one that had let her go jumped to his feet, shoving Cody straight to the ground and starting for Negan. “Come on! I’ll shoot your boy.” He pulled out a gun and aimed it at Cody. Dragging the bastard closer, Lucy got him in a headlock, holding on for dear life. If she let him go it could mess everything up.

“Wait,” Negan warned.

“Terry!” The man in the headlock whined. “Terry, she's…choking…”

“Let him go, bitch! I’ll shoot him.”

“Shoot me!” Cody shouted at him from the ground, holding his leg.

“Negan!” She gasped as the man struggled to free himself, punching her ribcage. He rolled and tried to stand so she wrapped her legs around him. The guy flopped again, trying to roll her underneath him to crush her as he wheezed. She closed her eyes, focusing hard and pulled, arcing her back. His wheeze turned into a ragged gasp, deep in his throat, then she felt the pop as she twisted. He went limp and the guy with the gun looked at her, rage filling his eyes, the gun lifting towards her.

Chapter Text

NEGAN

Negan shut the cabinet door behind Lucy and quit the room at a run, heading for the teacher’s office. He’d already been around this entire building once, he knew the lay of the land. The office was connected to the next room. He’d dodge if he could, hide if he could. Kill if he had to.

He closed the door, backing away, chest rising and falling in quick bursts. He wanted to be mad. They should have ran…but she was right, too. Cody wasn’t going to make the run and they probably wouldn’t have even been down the stairs when those men walked through the doors. Not with how slow that kid was moving.

He swallowed when he heard the door open and the men calling out that they found a dead one. His heart hammered, blood thick in his veins. He felt every pulse, heard it in his ears. Fuck, she was right again. The blood-stained sheets over his face made it look like Cody was dead. As long as they didn’t try to prove that theory…

Their voices were low tones, hard to hear, but by the shuffling he thought they might be gathering up the medical supplies on the counter. Then a soft slam. The cabinets… Dammit! Negan’s gut tightened. Fuck, they were going to find her.

He crept to the door, listening, maybe just two in there. He saw four running towards the school. Where were the other two? He clenched his teeth and backed away, shoulders bunching, knife fisted in his hand. Then Lucy screamed. Negan bolted for the door on the other side of the office while they were preoccupied, focused on her, and into the classroom next door. Sliding on the tile, he almost slammed into the next door but managed not to, opening it slow and careful and peering out.

The other two were darting inside, stopping just inside the doorway where he could see both their backs. “We heard the commotion! Look out!” Negan was almost there, moving fast and quiet as he could. One took a partial step forward and he drew back his knife and slammed the hilt into his head, then grabbed the shoulder of the other, keeping him steady even as he flinched, slamming him in the head, too.

He looked up in time to see Cody hitting the ground. To his credit, the kid didn’t scream, just glared up at the man, holding his leg with both hands. “Come on, I’ll shoot your boy!” A pistol aimed down at Cody and Negan froze in the doorway. Fuck! His mind raced. Lucy scuffled. The man started to look back at them.

“Wait!” Negan held up his knife hand, a show of surrender. Come on, Lucy, come on. He gave her the upper hand she needed, if she could off that one, distract him long enough. He couldn’t keep eyes on all three of them.

“Terry!” The voice scratched out of his companion. “Terry, she’s…choking…”

He started to turn again but something stayed his gaze and he glared harder at Negan. “Let him go, bitch! I’ll shoot him.” The pistol jarred forward at Cody threateningly.

“Shoot me!”

He waited, teeth clenched, counting the seconds to stay calm. She had her legs around him, her arms around him. Desperation permeated the air. “Negan!” Her gasp hurt him, called out to him, and it pissed him off, but she had to hold her own. She had to. He’d seen her fighting all day and night, she was ferocious, she could handle it. His eyes plead with her, even as he watched the one with the gun.

He saw the shift, the change in her body as her back arched backwards and twisting with a core strength that only adrenaline could bring someone. They all heard the pop. The one with the gun flinched and whirled and that was all Negan needed. He pulled his pistol out from his pants and shot.

The room felt cold for a moment, the shot ringing in his ears and she pushed the body away from her. Cody was staring at the one that landed next to him. “Grab that gun,” he hissed and ran for the windows. When he glanced back, Lucy was trembling but moving to Cody, taking the gun from him and slipping it into the front band of her pants.

Negan peered out, a pit sinking. Was there no escape from this fucking nightmare? “The fence is mostly cleared.” They’d been storming that gate any second now. They didn’t have the time. They couldn’t’ possibly run through the empty parking lot out front and over a fence with that kid. He started back towards them as she hoisted him up and he staggered, face paling as he stood.

She saw the look on his face and narrowed her eyes. “We have to try.”

He swallowed, chest tightening at how well she’d read him. They weren’t going to make it. He glanced between the two of them. He knew what waited for her with a group of men like that. He knew what waited for the kid. “We have to try.” He ran to them.

LUCY

“Down the hall and out the front?” She watched as Negan reached them, positioning himself on his side and getting his arm around his shoulders, hooking his fingers under his armpit. It was a solid hold, he’d do most of the work and keep the kid upright while she supported him. She pushed her shoulder into his ribs and strung her arm around his waist, hooking belt look on his pants. It was a smart hold, it’d help her keep her grip on him.

“Yep.” He didn’t warn them, just started going and Lucy doubled her stride to keep up with Negan’s. They were practically dragging Cody, but he did his part, trying to keep up with their flying feet. He lost a shoe but didn’t even slow, just a short stumble, keeping his grip on each of them. They hurried down the hall to the opposite stairwell. Poor Cody was already breathing raggedly.

When they reached the stairs, Negan went too fast for her and she almost fell, “Negan, I can’t!” She couldn’t finish her sentence, grabbing onto the railing. He didn’t slow, his breath coming in short fast bursts. Or maybe that was hers? Their steps tapped down the stairs and she struggled under Cody’s weight and Negan’s fast pace, only the hand rail truly keeping them afloat. Then they reached the bottom!

The three of them staggered and Negan jerked, back stiffening. “Come on, kid!”

She glanced at Cody as his weight sagged heavier against her and Negan fought to keep him more upright. “Cody, stay awake! Come on, for us, stay awake for us!” His lips were colorless, eyes fluttering, a sheen of sweat on his skin.

“Come on, kid, I’m not letting you die.” He shook him and Cody’s eyes snapped open as they tried to balance at the bottom of the stairs.

“People,” the word grated out of him and they both glanced down the long hallway, back to where they’d first entered, another small group coming through the doors.

“Fuck!” Negan moved without warning and her grip was so good on Cody that it dragged her with them. Fumbling with her steps to stay steady, they turned towards the doors. They’d never make it to the fence with the group chasing them, but maybe the could turn and fight out there and then continue.

“Negan, you can leave me.”

“Shut up, kid!” He threw his shoulder into the exit doors, the three of them hobbling blindly into the sunlight.

The door closed back on them.

A pained cry rushed out of Cody as the door crushed against his chest and she felt it snap tight on her arm. Negan grunted. The ground rushed up to meet her, her hair snatching tight in someone’s fist. Lucy’s vision blurred in the dust that scattered around her head, catching herself on her hands as Cody collapsed at the base of the door, and when she looked back he was crawling towards Negan.

“Get off him!”

No! They had him, they had Negan. Pinned to the ground, a knee pressed into his back while another lifted his gun from his waistband. When he tried to fight back another came up and kicked him. Then hands found her, pushing her face into the dirt, frisking and taking her gun and knife. Lucy gasped, staring out at the trucks as they drove up, someone waving them down. It was the whole group again. The trucks, the car, the guns…at least twenty men in all.

Cody shrieked and it was a sound of rage and pain as they gave him the same treatment, searching him. Then one of them laughed and turned him over, grabbing his hurt leg and dragging.

“Stop! Leave him alone!” She lifted her head but was shoved back into the dirt. We’re screwed. Ropes bit into her wrists. They stopped dragging when Cody was next to Negan and she barely had time to brace when a hand sank into her hair and the nape of her neck, gripping and pulling. She seethed, kicking and a quiet groan left her but she wouldn’t scream for them. They dropped her next to Negan and Cody.

Negan’s eyes were moving, calculating, looking at every single face, taking in details. She jerked her eyes back to Cody, trying to convey to him without words that it would be okay, they’d find a way out of this. He seemed to cling to her stare, holding her gaze as tears flooded his face.

She recognized the man that approached them, the same one that had talked to Negan when he and his group stood outside the building she’d been hiding in. “What’s wrong with that one?”

“Damaged leg. Doesn’t look good.”

“He’s fine, I fixed him!” A thump cracked against her hip and she felt it reverberating through her whole body, clenching her teeth.

Their voices were flat, like this was an every day conversation, “They were carrying him, he can’t walk on his own.”

“That settles it. I’m not wasting supplies on that.”

“Leave the kid. Just ditch him here.” Negan spoke up and took a kick to the jaw.

“Negan?!” Cody’s eyes were still glued to hers, pleading with him, going wider.

“Look at me, Cody, just look at—” Lucy’s words ended with a scream that turned into a sob. She fought to cut it off, falling silent, the air silent around her. He was alive. She’d fixed him, he was going to live, he was alive. There was a short shuffle and then everyone was moving again. After all the running, saving his life…

“Get these two in the truck, they’re healthy enough, they can work. But…” the one in charge paused and eyed them both. Negan was still, chin resting on the ground, eyes flat as they stared straight ahead. “Don’t put them with the others when we get back. These two gave us quite a run. We’re gonna have to even the score a bit, don’t you think?” She heard the laughs but couldn’t take her eyes off Cody, someone whistling nearby, people hopping out of the trucks. It sounded like they were headed towards manual labor. And worse.

Then Negan laughed.

The sound was gruff, without mirth, but a laugh, and it finally pulled her eyes off Cody. The others wheeled back from their walk away. “Something funny to you, big guy?”

“What’s so funny, dickhead?”

“He’s lost his marbles.”

“Hey, dickhead! You know what we do to guys like you? Use you up until there’s nothing left, we’ll see who’s laughing then.”

“You better kill me. You don’t want to know what I do to guys like you.”

“We’re not going to kill you. You’re going to be entertainment. Her, too. We’re going to put you in a cage with a bunch of dead ones. See how well you fight it out. When you’re not int there we’ll work you until your fingers bleed. Yeah, you want that? Want to be a gladiator? Gonna laugh now?” His words were punctuated by another whistle in the distance.

“That right there is why I’m laughing.”

“What?”

Negan tilted his head up, looking at the guy. “The fact that you think that’s going to happen.” And Negan whistled back.

Chapter Text

LUCY

He opened his mouth, drawing back his foot like he was going to kick, and jerked. That was it. Just a hard twitch and he tipped over. They all looked confused for a moment as he dropped, watching him go down and Lucy frowned until Negan hissed, “Lucy stay down!”

She didn’t have to be told that as the gunfire peppered trucks and people alike. Popping through the air like a battle ground. She stayed flat, watching the Osman’s panic, firing into the trees at nothing, but most of them were dead before they got a shot off. Some jumped in one of the trucks and tried to leave. The shooting continued.

A pair looked towards the school, dropped their guns, and ran as men started running out of the trees. Negan twisted as they ran for the school, shoving out his legs and tripping them before rolling to his feet. “Hey, whoa, man! We’re just workers, we didn’t—” Lucy didn’t flinch as his boot came down on the man’s face. The second managed to get the school doors open and disappeared inside but Negan didn’t stop kicking the bastard under his boot, quick stomps in succession, obliterating the man’s face. More that turned to run for the school for cover saw and surrendered on the spot.

“Negan.” He stopped kicking, foot planting in the mess that used to be a man’s head. Crushed bits of skull and mush crunched under his shoe. His back was facing them and the man that approached him, waited.

She saw his shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath and then he turned around. The man she’d been running and surviving with was gone. The hardened look on his face intense, furious. “Get this rope off me.” The gruff order barked out and the man did as he ordered, sweeping out a knife and slicing through the ropes. “Where the fuck have you been, Simon?”

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Simon stood in front of Negan, a thick handlebar mustache, blue eyes, waiting, watching. They all watched him, like he was the ground they walked on, the air they breathed. “We saw these guys coming in like they were after something so we watched, sent some in the back. Glad we did.”

He moved slow, reaching forward to lay his hand on the knife Simon was holding. His fingers closed bit by bit around it and Simon gave a faltering smile, relinquishing it into his grasp. Negan leaned closer, looking straight down at Simon without tilting his head down. “Glad you did.” His voice was soft, then he flashed a smile and took the knife, walking away.

He came towards her and for the first time they seemed to notice her. Some of them also looked at Cody and sighed. Lucy pulled up on her knees and felt Negan’s hand grip her under her arm, staying her, the knife cutting through the rope, then he pulled her to her feet, straight against him.

“You okay?”

She glanced around, at all these people, the guns, at Cody. “No. But I will be.” She swallowed. His people had a lot of guns. And there were even more of them than the Osman’s. No wonder he’d been so confident. “They came for you.”

“I told you they would.”

“I…who…?” She couldn’t ask, she couldn’t bring herself to do it as she looked around. They were organized. Efficient. Tactical. Simon had backed away and was giving out orders, they were searching the bodies and the trucks. Who? That was the question, wasn’t it? Because she only knew of two big groups near this area that roamed with this level of firepower.

Then she saw the kid again, laying there, but moving, sadness piercing her heart, “Cody.”

He twisted and scowled, the poor kid was already turned. It didn’t always happen fast, but maybe he’d just already been too close to death, too much blood loss. No, he was going to live. He pinched the bridge of his nose, his expression changing for a fraction of a second before he went stoic. “I know.” He turned towards his people. “Someone put a knife in the back of his skull. Make it clean. Simon, you make sure that kid gets a proper burial. A real one. His mom, she’s buried in that cemetery…uh…”

“I know where, Negan,” someone called out.

He pointed at the woman that spoke, “You take him there, you put him next to his Mama. Proper. This kid was a true badass.”

His words almost made her choke on the façade she was keeping in place. She wanted to cry for him. They’d fought so hard and after everything…those pricks just killed him. And Negan’s people. She glanced around. There were even more than the Osman’s…maybe fifty men and women, all of them as heavily armed as that first group had been when she’d first seen Negan.

And the way they all reacted to him. If she didn’t know better she’d think—“Boss!” Yeah, she should know better than to distrust her instincts. She looked up at him again. Boss. Leader. Of course they came for him. “There’s people tied up in this truck.”

He swiveled his head but her whole body lurched towards the shout. “What?!”

“Go.”

She hardly needed permission, her feet were already running. She heard him telling the group to let her pass and her feet ate up the dirt and pavement of the parking lot until she flung her hands against the side of the truck, lifting on her tip toes and peering in. “Jose!” She gasped, he was on top of a pile of humans, one of Negan’s people had the tailgate lowered and was helping someone off it, cut ropes next to him. Another was in the bed, being careful not to step on anyone, helping them get off each other with tied hands and feet. “Dean!”

“Hey, cut him loose.” Negan was over her shoulder, pointing at Jose and the man shifted his work to him instead. Dean was sliding off the tailgate onto the ground. He yanked the gag out of his mouth and slung it on the ground, turning just as she threw her arms around him. “Raquel!” She could see her over Dean’s shoulder, Jose was helping her sit up now that he was free.

“Lucy!” Raquel gasped as she yanked off her own gag, too.

“My god, we thought you were dead,” Dean grabbed her face, giving her a familiar shake and kissing her forehead. Raquel was tugging on Gio with Jose, sitting him up, brushing his hair out of his face.

“Hold on, Gio, we’ll get you out, too. Hold on.” Tears rose to her eyes this time and she looked back at Negan, fingers clutching her friend’s arms. He was watching and he met her gaze easily, a light smile and nod of his head. She beamed back at him, searching the truck bed again. Wait… She searched the feet, the people sitting up as Negan’s man cut ropes and freed them. “Dennis?” She looked towards another truck, Negan’s people were helping a few more free. There were a dozen prisoners here…but no Dennis. “Dean, where is he?”

“They ran him over.”

Her mouth parted but nothing came out.

“When they chased us down,” Gio spoke, voice hoarse with thirst, eyes hollow. There was old, dried blood on his hands.

There were other people in the truck, stacked together like human sardines. These assholes had been busy. But they’d picked up her people yesterday, how long were they all sitting in these trucks? Too long. She helped Raquel, her fingers biting deep into her arm as she held onto her and scooted off the tailgate. Dean grabbed Jose in a hug as soon as he landed, tucking his head into his shoulder, “I got you, brother, I got you.”

Raquel crumbled into her as she was finally standing and Gio folded around them, a long deep sigh leaving him as Raquel sobbed. She rested her chin on her head and found Dean, stretching one arm towards him and he pulled himself and Jose towards them. She got lost in the crowd, they were lost in the crowd. All of them trying to grab each other and hold on.

Gio’s soft whisper of comfort, Raquel saying they were free, Dean’s supportive tight hugs. Jose and Raquel nearly collapsed together when they both cried into each other’s shoulders and the three of them held them up in the center, keeping them afloat. Her, Dean, Gio. Her heart went out to Dennis.

She cocked her head back at the truck, wondering about them being bound and tied for all this time, and noticed the smell. The truck bed was sticky and stained, their pants…The people packed on the bottom were even worse. They’d been here so long they’d been forced to soil their selves.

“Negan?” She turned to speak to him but he wasn’t there. He was across the parking lot, crouched down beside Cody as a couple of his guys put a gurney underneath him.

“Who are these people? How did you get them to rescue us?” Dean asked softly.

“They didn’t come for us.” She watched a moment, heart skipping a few beats. “I…I think they’re the Saviors.” And I slept with their leader. Hoo boy.

“What?”

“I’ll be right back.”

“Lucy,” Dean grabbed her arm but she shrugged out of the grip. “The Saviors?!” He whispered low and urgently.

She walked away, leaving them at the truck and crossing the parking lot. The pair was just lifting the gurney as she reached them, “Wait!” She called out, trotting to reach them. They paused, watching her as she glanced down at Cody, his body lifeless and still. She took his hand, it was already cold. “I’m so sorry.” She bent down and kissed his cheek and let go. They passed, heading for the trucks, leaving her facing Negan. They were silent for a long moment, staring at each other. He was upset about the kid, but when one of his people approached, he buried it and faced him.

“We cleared out those supplies in the school, anything else you want?”

“No. But you make sure that spaghetti ends up in my room.” He laughed and looked down at her, “I make a mean spaghetti.”

“You do.” She agreed, tilting her head. “Negan, I…” She looked away. She didn’t know how to ask or what to say. “What happens now?” Who are you? She couldn’t quite bring herself to ask it. “Are… Fuck.”

“Just ask me.” That low tone drew her eyes back to him and there was something of the man she’d spent the last twenty four hours with there, watching, waiting. He gave her his full attention, too.

“Are you the Saviors?”

He laughed, a low rumbling sound as he stared at the ground and then faced her again. “Does it scare you?”

“Hey, what are we doing with them?” Someone walked up, motioning towards the trucks of freed prisoners that were stretching and standing about dejectedly. Except her people. Who were staring her down like she was psycho, hanging out at the front of the truck like they were ready to spring across the parking lot to her aid.

He glanced at her and then the prisoners. “Any of them wants to come with us, they can. We’ll give them shelter, food, water.”

“We’re not going with you.” Dean’s voice was raised across the distance that separated them.

“Stop it,” she sent him a glare. “Negan, these people need attention, they’re dehydrated and sunburnt.”

“I’m not them.” His eyes sparked like flint now and he pointed one finger at the dead Osman’s. A couple of survivors were being lined up along the school wall. “I’m not going to work them to death or threaten to turn them into gladiators.”

“What about them?” She pointed at the ones being lined up.

“Not a problem anymore.” The gunshots rang out and she flinched but didn’t look. They were dead. “For the kid.”

“We got your truck ready, Negan.”

“Good.” He looked and then frowned and she followed his gaze. Dean was closer, hovering a few feet away like he might pounce. “Simon?” The guy with the thick mustache appeared fast. “Anyone that doesn’t want to come with us, give them a weapon and water.” He wasn’t even questioned, Simon just started away from him and called out the orders.

“Lucy, they’re letting us go, we gotta run while we can.” Dean had a hushed urgency in his voice, wide, scared eyes.

A hand brushed her cheek and she looked up at him again. His eyes were on Dean, a hint of a smile curving at the corner of his lips. “Don’t do that,” she started to tilt her head away but his hand closed at the back of her neck, holding her in place. It wasn’t forceful, but she could feel the tension brewing in Dean.

“You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend.”

“I don’t,” she shrugged out of his grip, “don’t patronize him, he’s been riding in the back of a truck for twenty four hours.”

“While you ran out here for your life, alone. The true survivor.”

“I had you.” She stabbed her finger against his chest if only because he was still staring at Dean, daring him to do something.

“You could come with me,” he stated and then met her gaze, finally, “but we both know the answer to that. Your people are alive. You have a community to return to.”

Someone called out to him, drawing his attention and he drew his eyes from her head to her toes, licking his lips once, and then turning away. He started speaking with the woman that was showing off their new lot of weapons, she seemed really excited about one in particular, holding it up and he laughed and gave a nod, seemingly granting her permission to keep it. They continued discussing the rest of the stock as Dean’s feet crunched over the pavement as he moved closer.

“What the fuck happened between you two?”

“I didn’t know who he was.” Not that it mattered, it wouldn’t have changed their circumstances.

“That’s not an answer.” He stared after Negan and then said, “Is it true? What we’ve heard about the Saviors?”

“You probably haven’t heard the worst of it.” Someone walked past them with a box of supplies they’d garnered from inside the school.

Dean scowled, “Then why is he letting us go?”

“Do you want me to take you? Your friends?” He flinched, not realizing Negan had come back. They were almost equal height, but it was his presence that set him apart. The way he carried himself, careless, confident.

“No.”

“Then maybe you and your friends should start thinking about getting out of here, huh? There’s a horde still over the fence and they won’t stay spread out for long. And you’ve heard the right things about the Saviors. They’re not lying. I know the other communities opinions of us…til they need saving. Then I’m not the bad guy anymore.”

“You look pretty bad from where I’m standing.”

“Sure. You’re not tied up going God knows where. Pissing your pants because they haven’t let you up to even take a piss. But you didn’t need saving. I’m the bad guy.”

“Negan, stop.”

He pointed at her instead of stopping, “Ask her. While you four were baking in the back, she was out here with me. Tell your friends how you saved my life. Tell the other communities that. You had the Saviors in the palm of your hands and—”

“We saved each other you ass!” She snapped, “And in case you forgot, we didn’t all make it out alive.” Darkness flooded his eyes, but he fell silent. “Dean, go wait somewhere else.”

“Lucy—”

“Now!” Silence followed and she couldn’t help but notice how many of the saviors had eyes on them, watching, some with hands on their weapons. She wasn’t losing anyone else because these two wanted to have a cockfight. The breath left her slowly as Dean’s footsteps retreated, but his smirk was not helping. “Thank you.” She finally spoke again and it drew his eyes back down to hers. “For your people saving them.” This was goodbye. The tension rising between her people and him was already getting palpable. They were tense and scared and facing what they considered a new threat after dealing with the Osman’s and the unknown for too long.

“And you?”

“They didn’t save me. They saved you.” He smirked, a slight chuckle in his throat as he looked around at his people and then back down at her. “I need something from you.” He waited patiently. “I need reassurances you won’t follow us home.”

“You think you’re important enough for that?”

“I think any community is important enough for the Saviors to come looking for it, based on what I’ve heard…and especially without the Osman gang blocking the way now.”

“If you want to go home, go,” he leaned closer, “we’re not going to follow you. Not today.”

“But one day?” She heard the standing promise in his voice.

“One day...” he was even closer now, hovering over her, “I’ll come knocking.” He was so close now, his breath brushing against her cheek, fierce blue eyes staring into hers. “This isn’t something we do, so consider it a favor that I’m letting you all go. It’s the only one you’ll get.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s for the kid.”

“You can’t start lying to me now, Negan.”

He chuckled slow and deep, “Do me a favor, then?”

“What?” His lips brushed hers, just a quick touch and pulled away. Their eyes locked, his lips hovering over hers and she closed to gap. One hand sank into her hair and the other cupped her cheek. His tongue delved into her mouth, pulling her flush against his body. He was staring straight down at her when he broke the kiss, their chests rising and falling in sync now.

“When that day comes, don’t fight us.”

Her eyes opened wider and she stared up at him, heart skipping a beat.

“My people will find your town eventually. Everything you’ve heard from the other communities—it’s true—and worse. We’ll kill as many as we need to make your people obey. Don’t make me kill you.” He started to kiss her again but she pulled away, staring into his eyes, his thumb caressing her cheek. “Don’t fight us.” He said it again and let her go.

She watched him walk away. He disappeared into his truck and waited, sitting in a passenger seat and she backed away, slow at first and then faster until she turned, making her way to her small group. The other prisoners that had been rescued were nowhere to be seen. They were all choosing to go with Negan. She doubted any of them truly understood what they were signing up for.

“What the hell was that about?” Dean asked as she approached.

Raquel appeared more sympathetic, “What happened to you, Lucy?”

She glanced back towards his truck, she thought she saw his eyes in the side mirror looking back at her. “I saved the king of the Saviors. And he saved me.” And they lost their kid.

“That…sounds like a story.”

She shrugged as the vehicles started to drive away, one by one in a line. They fell into place like they knew exactly what order and she was sure they did. They were too damn tactical not to be in an order. As promised, her group had a water canteen and knives in their hands. Lucy sighed and pulled a flask from her pocket. Negan’s flask. They’d damn near emptied it, but there was just enough for each of them. “A story for another time. Let’s go home.” She tipped it back and saluted the vehicles before passing the flask around. Eventually, he’d touch that pocket and find his flask gone, and her knife in his pocket. A token to remember her by.

Goodbye, Negan.