Chapter 1

5 years earlier...

Charlotte Greene had always thought everything would be fine. She thought that the illness that caused the people she loved to be turned into these seemingly brainless creatures would be cured, making everything go back to normal. The horror of finding out that in fact, not everything will be okay, and that this 'sickness' isn't just an epidemic, it's the end of the world. And her 'sick' family is gone forever. Well most of her family, she still had her older sister, Maggie Greene.

Until she didn't.

The air was thick, silent but deafening. Silent besides the sound of soft cries from a few Alexandrians as Abraham's skull was sprawled out on the hard concrete beneath their knees. Charlotte clutched her silver cross, that was attached to a chain around her neck, like a lifeline. Eyes closed as she mumbled something about The Father. As Negan was walking around the adults and two kids that he had lined up like dominoes, a sick grin on his face, he caught a glance at the praying girl, raising an eyebrow as he stopped in front of the pale blonde. He swayed Lucille in the air.

"Jesus ain't here to save ya, sweetheart." The towering man chuckled, his pearly white teeth on display as he looked down at Charlotte.

"Yes he is. God is always with us." the blonde replies kindly, as if the man before her hadn't just beat her close friend to death brutally. Negan looks almost intrigued as he meets eyes with the girl.

"Okay, blondie , whatever you say.." He grins, looking around at the others kneeled before him. None of them looking back, just at the crimson concrete. He sighs, holding the wired bat over his shoulder again. Charlotte just looked up at him, no hatred in her eyes, she spoke calmly and steadily.

"I wish to have met you under different circumstances, I believe this is all a part of God's plan. You will find peace" He chuckles bitterly at her optimism, mumbling something she couldn't catch.

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine!" He flashes a wicked smile, almost swinging himself forward as he speaks, sighing.

"Ya really look like you just crawled straight outta the bible." The girl beneath him just thanks the man. Negan narrowed his eyes, studying her for a moment, before resting Lucille back on his leather clad shoulder.

"You know what? I like you! The rest of you lot are depressin'! At least we got someone here with a bit of enthusiasm!" He praises the girl, but this time she doesn't say anything, lowering her head and looking at the ground beneath her.

"I'm gonna take this little one for a chat. I wanna know how to be more like ya!" He holds out a hand for the girl, she hesitates, sparing him a wavering glance. An uneasy but somehow still trusting expression on her face. God Negan is just so confused!

Negan lets go of her hand immediately, brushing his gloved one off on his cold leather jacket like it burned him. He heard a soft gasp from Maggie as he walked toward the RV ahead of him, chuckling darkly to himself. Charlotte followed closely behind as he politely opened the door for her, both walking inside and the door crashing against the hinges with a squeak. Silence absorbing the cold air again.

Carl's eye darkens as his close friend is led into the eerie truck, with an even eerier man. It doesn't sit right. He remembers Negan's words. To not move. He made it so clear. The one eyed boy decides to take a deep breath, still fuming. But for the sake of the group he tries to calm down, and not make any bad decisions...yet.

The pair were in that RV for a little over 15 minutes. Carl couldn't handle it anymore, the disturbed feeling enveloping him. His head whipped back toward the guy holding the gun against his head, who had stupidly lowered it a bit, probably because Carl was just a kid to him. He wouldn't do anything, right? Until he did.

Carl makes a run for it, not getting very far as the guy drags him back towards the others lined up again, the sheriff's son screaming in protest.

"Let her out!!! Negan!" He barked toward the unsettling RV. Well the vehicle wasn't unsettling, knowing that his best friend was in there with the guy who had just executed their friend, feeling the knees of his jeans being torn like tissue against the harsh pavement. His head to the ground as he tries to fight back against the weak man. He expected saviors to be harder to fight against but he was still stronger than Carl.

The one eyed boy spares a glance toward his father, expecting the most horrified, wide eyed glare. But Rick's expression is just blank. Pained and blank. Carl considered for a moment that his dad had been hit by Lucille, and he just missed it. That thought was quickly interrupted by Negan sighing dramatically as the RV door opened. Charlotte followed close behind. Carl sighed in relief, not struggling for a moment as he tried to catch his breath. Negan stalked closer to where the savior had a struggling Carl pinned down to the ground, his face twitching in anger and... maybe fear?

"What's goin' on?" The leather jacketed man sighs, glaring down at the two. Before the follower had time to even open his mouth to respond, Carl had broken free, punching the man around the face, Negan's eyes wide as he watched the scene unfold in shock. Rick seems to have snapped out of whatever trance he was in, head whipping toward Carl and the savior.

"Carl, stop!" he roared, not moving from his spot though. The man quickly pushes Carl down to the ground again, holding the rifle to the back of his head, his sheriff's hat being tipped down slightly over his icy eye. Carl grunts, trying to break free before he stills, suddenly uneasy beneath the feeling of the piercing metal of the weapon on the back of his scalp, grimacing. Negan huffs out a laugh, more of an annoyed one, before speaking, swaying Lucille.

"Now, I already told you people, first one's free, then...what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions." He pauses, looking around at the people kneeled before him.

"Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with but I'm a man of my word. First impressions are important." He grins, meeting the eye of Carl's captor, and he very subtly tilts his head up, if your eyes weren't locked on Negan, you would've missed it. The man lifts Carl up easily, so he's on his knees again, crimson blood trickling from his nose where he had been shoved to the ground, a scowl on his half covered face.

"Shoot him," Negan ordered, his voice cold and commanding. The boy's eyes widened in shock for a brief moment, and there were murmurs of protest from the others in the lineup. But before anyone could react, Carl swiftly turned, knocking the weapon out of the man's hand just as he was about to fire. The bullet flew, but it didn't strike Carl, it hit the person kneeling next to him instead.

Maggie.

The sharp crack of the bullet shattered the tense stillness, its ringing echo slicing through the crisp, heavy air like a scream. For a moment, everything froze, time seemed to stop, as if the world were holding its breath.. Then, the silence that followed was absolute, suffocating, deafening.

Charlotte's heart pounded in her chest, a relentless beat that thundered in her ears, as her gaze locked onto her eldest sister's body. It didn't seem real. The reality was too cold, too cruel. Maggie was lying motionless on the ground, her body crumpled in a twisted heap. Charlotte's breath caught in her throat, and the world around her blurred.

And then: Charlotte screamed.

The sound tore through her, a raw, guttural wail that echoed across the remote landscape. It was a sound of pure grief, of the rawest pain. Her legs buckled as she lunged forward, her hands trembling as they reached for Maggie, for anything that would make the nightmare go away. The desperate cry for her sister's name was primal, a heart wrenching plea that seemed to hang in the air, lost and unheard.

"MAGGIE!" she screamed again, her voice breaking, her throat raw with the weight of her sorrow. She was so close, just a few steps away from her sister, but it didn't matter. The saviors were already there, their hands seizing her, yanking her back with brutal force.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Charlotte fought, kicking and clawing, her smaller body thrashing against them, her chest heaving with the frantic need to reach her sister. But the men weren't pushing, pulling her backward with cruel efficiency, their iron grip tightening around her arms as they dragged her away. She continued to scream, to struggle, the sound of her agony rising into the air like a desperate prayer to a deaf God.

One of the Saviors, Simon, she thought that's what his name was, his face unreadable, grabbed Charlotte by the hair, yanking her head to the side. She gasped, her long waves of blond tangled in his grasp, and then another man pressed the cold steel of a gun hard against her temple, the end digging into the delicate skin of her face.

"Quiet," he hissed, his voice low and sharp. "Shut up, or we'll make you."

But Charlotte couldn't, wouldn't listen. Every instinct in her screamed to fight, to keep screaming, to resist with every last ounce of strength. She squirmed in their grasp, trying to pull away, her breath ragged with fear and fury.

And then, without warning, the man with the gun slammed it against her head, a brutal strike that sent a wave of pain crashing behind her eyes. Her vision blurred, her legs buckled, and everything around her became a haze of confusion and darkness. The last thing she heard was her own scream fading out into the emptiness, swallowed by the silence that had claimed her.

And with that, Charlotte's body went limp, hanging like a puppet with its strings cut, her consciousness slipping away. Her arms hung loosely as the saviors hoisted her up.