Chapter 12

(Bells in Santa Fe- Halsey)

The van finally came to a stop, headlights of cars and flood lights set up around a large gravel area. Glenn and I looking through the holes, then a very familiar RV pulled up. A man was shoved out of the door, a couple of men stepping out behind him, the beaten man knelt in front of a man with a mustache.

"Please, please?" The man on the ground begged.

"What's your name?" The mustache asked.

"Eu-Eugene Porter, Sir." Fear ran cold through my veins, what the hell was Eugene doing here?

"Well alright Eugene, we're just gonna wait right here until your friends get here." The Mustache man grabbed Eugene by his shoulder moving him off to the side. I could see his bruised, bloodied, beaten face.

"What is it?" Daryl asked weakly.

"They have Eugene." Glenn whispered to our anxious friends.

Daryl grasped my hand trying to calm the anxiety and fear I had for my friend. Suddenly deafening whistles filled the air, Glenn and I intently looked through the holes to see what was happening. Suddenly the lights flashed on, temporarily blinding me; finally my eyes focused and there I saw our group.

"It's our people." I whispered to everyone, I swear everyone was holding their breath.

"Good, you made it." The Mustache man approached them. "Welcome to where you're going. We'll take your weapons." Everyone stood motionless. "Now." The man ordered.

"We can talk about it-" Rick started. I stopped looking through the hole the light was hurting my eye, but I could hear everything.

"We're done talking." The mustache man interrupted Rick. "Time to listen." His men moved in taking their guns. The mustache man shared some quiet words with Carl holding Carl's gun in his face, then flicked the brim of Carl's hat mockingly. "Okay, let's get her down and get you all on your knees. Lots to cover." The men moved in again.

"Hold up, we got it." Abraham growled at the men.

"Sure, sure." The mustache man called off his men. Abraham, Rick, and Aaron quickly helped Maggie down to the ground helping her to her feet. The group slowly made their way over to the area they were told. "Gonna need ya on your knees." The mustache smiled at Rick. Rick slowly knelt down, each knee hitting the ground with a loud thud. "Dwight chop-chop."

All of us sat back like we had no clue what was happening. The doors swung open, the lights ten times brighter than I thought it would be.

"Come on, you got people to meet." Dwight said as he and other men started pulling us from the van. We were shoved down on our knees, next to our group.

"Maggie?" Glenn said weakly as his eyes settled on his wife, that wasn't looking too good. Glenn fought to get to his feet to get to Maggie.

"On your knees!" Dwight shoved Glenn back to his knees. I realized I had Abraham to my right, he gave me a sympathetic look seeings how I was bruised and bloodied, Michonne to my left.

"Alright, we got a full boat. Let's meet the man." The mustache man knocked on the door of the RV.

The suspense was killing me waiting for whoever was on the other side of the door. The door then swung open, and a tall slender man stepped out in a cocky manner, wearing a leather jacket, and wielding a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

"Pissing our pants yet? Boy do I have a feeling we're getting close." He slowly walked toward us. "Yep, it's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon." He glanced over all of us. "Which one of you pricks is the leader?" The scary man asked.

"It's this one." The mustache man pointed straight at Rick. "He's the guy." The leather jacket man sighed heavily as he looked down at Rick.

"Hi, you're Rick right? I'm Negan." Chills went down my spine at the mention of the familiar name. "And I do not appreciate you killing my men, also when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool, not cool, you have no idea how uncool that shit is, but I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah, you're so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes, yes you are." Negan began to walk the line. "You see Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order, and the new world order is this, and it's very simple. So even if you're stupid, which you very may well be, you can understand it. You ready? Here goes, pay attention."

Negan dropped his bat from his shoulder, pointing it at Rick causing him to flinch. "Give me your shit or I will kill you. Today was career day, we invested a lot, so you would know who I am and what I can do. You work for me now, you have shit, you give it to me. That's your job. Now I know that is a mighty, big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it you most certainly will." Negan paced back and forth eyeing Rick. "You ruled the roost, you built something, you thought you were safe. I get it, but the word is out, you are not safe, not even close. In fact you are pegged, more pegged if you don't do what I want, and what I want is half of your shit, and if that's too much, you can make, find, or steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later." I wondered how many times this guy has given this speech. "This is your way of life now, the more you fight back the harder it will be. So if someone knocks on your door you let us in, we own that door, you try to stop us, and we will knock it down. You understand?" Rick sat there speechless, Negan cupped his ear leaning toward Rick. "What no answer? You don't really think that you were going to get through this without being punished now, did you? I don't wanna kill you people, just want to make that clear from the get-go, I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead now can you?"

Negan cracked a smile. "I'm not growing a garden, but you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them, more than I am comfortable with, and for that, for that you're gonna pay. So now... I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you." I was shaking. I was full of so much fear, I had never stared death in the face like this. I didn't know what was going to happen, no one did except for Negan.

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We all know how this scene goes so I chose to skip it, but I hope you guys liked this chapter, thank you for reading!