56

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The ride to the Hilltop was shorter than I expected. The Hilltop was exactly the opposite direction of the Kingdom and I suddenly understood why Negan was being so careful about these other communities, they could conceivably attack us from both sides and we would be in serious trouble. The strategic advantage that we had against Biters in our location was actually a hindrance against these people. We needed to be more careful than ever.

I sat on the bench seat next to Negan and the two of us rode together in comfortable silence. Dwight was riding in the back with the other soldiers. When Simon had tried to climb in the cab with us Negan had leveled a look at him to send him back with the others. Simon had looked like he had been struck. I tried to bite back my relieved smile. I knew how dangerous this man could be. He was totally without remorse and without conscious and I didn't want him to see a single moment of weakness.

Negan pulled the truck up to the tall gates surrounding what appeared to be a historical farmstead. Two people poked their heads out over the top of the gates. They were gripping spears in their hands.

"Who are you, what's your business here?" one of the men called. There was a slight tremble of fear in his voice.

I let Negan talk to them, that was his job. My job was to keep an eye on our potential enemies, so I kept my eyes on the top of the fence and on the gate for any sign this was turning south. I didn't like it, coming here felt too much like making us needlessly vulnerable. My fingers touched the tips of my knives and I felt a little better, but being in the cab of the truck was starting to make me feel claustrophobic. I couldn't protect us in here. I needed to have room to move.

Negan rolled down his window a sharks grin already stretching his face. "Us?" he asked casually. "We're Negan," the grin froze on his face and his eyes hardened aggressively. "Now open the damn gate," he growled.

I heard a car door slam behind us and Simon jogged up next to our vehicle. He raised a hand to the men standing at the top of the gate. One of the men looked like he may have recognized Simon although he didn't wave back.

"They're with me!" He called to the men above us.

I could actually feel Negan's seething rage over Simon's implication that we worked for him. "Careful," Negan growled in a low tone that only Simon and I heard.

Simon stiffened but the gates swung open, temporarily saving him from Negan's wrath. Negan drove straight up to the house, leaving Simon to walk after us. It was a small reminder to Simon of his place, but it was all Negan could do now without making us appear weak. We couldn't let our enemies know there was dissension in the ranks. I almost pitied Simon knowing the retribution that would follow when we returned home. Almost.

Negan parked the truck just shy of the steps of the big house. The large historic house was not what I expected. I had never visited a historical reinactment site but now that I really started thinking it was a brilliant place to set up for the apocalypse. The place functioned before all of the technology was invented, it made sense that it could function after.

Their fence was made up of huge electrical poles with internal cross beams. It made the place nearly impenetrable. If they turned hostile they would be a tough group to fight head to head. Looking around my only conclusion was, if it came to that, we would have to starve them out. They appeared to have some gardens, but it wouldn't be enough to sustain them for very long. I knew they provided food, but had never thought to ask how much they had in reserve for themselves.

Negan and I got out of the car. I paced a small circle, keeping my eyes on the people of the community who were watching us with a mixture of interest and distrust. I glided my fingers over the tops of my knives and felt better. Negan had his bat in one hand, but it was the only weapon in sight. I dropped my eyes to his low back and immediately felt better when I saw the small bulge of a gun. The people around us would probably think I was looking at his butt, but I didn't care what these people thought of me. All that mattered was our group's safety, and this didn't feel safe to me. Isolationism was the only thing that felt safe to me.

Dwight stepped up behind me while Simon joined Negan at the base of the steps looking a little winded from having to hustle up the hill to meet us. The large doors opened and a man in his mid-sixies stepped out. He was wearing suit pants and a sport coat. I frowned, unable to believe I was actually seeing this. We were in the middle of the apocalypse and this man looked like a low level politician, or insurance salesman. My mind struggled to process how someone like him could have survived when so many others had died.

"Simon!" he greeted with an oily smile.

"Gregory," Simon drawled, but his returning smile was an agressive one. He knew he was in trouble with Negan and in typical Simon fashion he was about to take it out on the people below him. I hated bullies.

"Who are your friends?" Gregory asked, looking back and forth over our group in confusion. It was clear he hadn't expected us and didn't understand what was going on. "I didn't think we had a drop off for another week."

"This is Negan," Simon said gesturing to Negan as though that explained everything.

Gregory's face paled. "Negan sir!" he said quickly dropping his chin respectfully as he turned wide eyes to him. "I didn't expect you. I'm so sorry sir," he stammered over his words. "I didn't know you-"

"I, what?" Negan drawled dangerously. "Took care of my own business?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gregory looked back and forth between Simon and Negan nervously. He was a snake, I got that sense from him right away, but he was good at reading people. He sensed the tension between the two men right off the bat and he quickly picked who he thought he needed to appease. He turned to fully face Negan, pointedly ignoring Simon.

"Welcome to Hilltop sir," Gregory said.

"We got business to discuss Greg," Negan said, swinging his baseball bat around so it rested over his shoulder casually.

Gregory's eyes were glued to the barbed wire wrapped bat. "O-Of course," he stammered, turning to lead the way into the house. "This way to my office."

Negan stepped up and I moved to follow. Dwight was my shadow, just as he had been instructed to do. He was making the most of his second chance and seemed to have doubled down in his commitment. I hoped I was right to trust him. Today just might be the day I found out.

As soon as Negan reached the door he stopped and turned back, facing Simon who was right behind him. "Simon, why don't you stay out here and...guard the cars," Negan suggested as though there weren't a dozen armed saviors surrounding the vehicles.

Simon blanched. His face going white with rage as Negan spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The grownups need to have a conversation," Negan said and he stepped back, holding the door for me to step past him.

I stalked past Simon without looking at him, but I wanted to. Negan was pushing him to his limit and he had never felt like so much of a threat to me before. I could feel the rage coming off of him in waves, but Negan was orchestrating a scene here and I needed to do my part. I stepped into the house with Dwight following dutifully behind me.

I glanced back once I was out of Simon's sight. Negan smirked at him, holding aggressive eye contact for a full minute before he stepped inside and closed the doors dramatically behind him. I arched my eyebrows at him and he smiled at me looking like he was having the time of his life. I shot him a meaningful look and he shrugged as if to say he couldn't help it.

I rolled my eyes at him and he laughed out loud.

"This way please," Gregory said, holding his hand out to guide us into a study.

"Watch the door," Negan ordered Dwight, who nodded and stood beside it. "No one in or out," Negan warned.

There was another man standing outside the doors of Gregory's office. I slowed half a step as I watched him. The instincts in the back of my mind were screaming at me that this man could be dangerous and we needed to be wary of him.

He wore a dark clothes under a long leather duster and his shoulder length brown hair was covered with a dark beanie. There were two knives strapped to his hips and just the way he held himself and watched us made me think he knew how to use them. He was the first person here who actually looked like a fighter. He was wiry but I bet he was strong. He had the most intense blue eyes I had ever seen and he settled them on me instead of Negan.

It made me immediately think less of him. If someone were looking to pick out the most dangerous predator in the room it should always be Negan. But the fighter just ran his gaze over Negan, touched on Dwight, and settled on me. He took in my knives and the guns in the shoulder rig, and he crossed his arms over his chest and watched me.

"Ah Jesus," Gregory greeted stiffly. "I'm afraid our meeting will have to wait."

"Visitors?" Jesus asked, his voice tight with tension.

"Yes, this is the leader of the Saviors, Negan," Gregory said. "And his-" he stopped, his eyes flitting to me in panic, because he just realized he might have been rude and not introduced himself or asked about me.

"This is my Hot Friend Jo," Negan supplied with an easy grin. He was taking in the house, not really paying attention to the people. I could hear the echo of movement somewhere else in the house, but the two story foyer made it difficult to pin point the source. I hated this house, I decided.

Gregory led the way into a den just off the main foyer. It was beautiful. All dark, handcrafted wood, the books in the cases were all leather bound and old. I resisted the urge to go straight to them and run my hands over their smooth leather spines. There were few things I missed more than old book stores. It occured to me then that I couldn't remember the last time I had picked up a book. I hadn't seen a single one in my time at The Sanctuary. I glanced back at them once more wistfully and turned my focus back to the man we were here to see.

Gregory sat behind his desk and gestured for Negan and I to take the two leather chairs opposite him. Negan slammed Lucille down on the desk top as hard as he could. The bat bit into the wood, the barbed wire scrapping it. I bit my cheek. It was an antique no doubt and a shame to destroy something so beautiful just to make a point. Gregory jumped and Negan grinned like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. He dropped into his chair and put his feet up on Gregory's desk.

"Well, Greg," Negan began without preamble. "I thought it was about time you and I had a little pow-wow, a face to face so you would truly understand the nature of our arrangment."

"I understand," Gregory said quickly. "I understand perfectly," he assured Negan.

Negan didn't look convinced. He toyed with the end of his bat, moving it back and forth against the antique wood. "Seems to me we got ourselves a little problem Greg."

"What?" Gregory asked, his face going ashen. "No, no we don't. There's no problem."

"My man at the satelite station seemed to think your last couple drop offs had been a little light Greg," Negan's voice was entirely casual and all the more terrifying because of it.

"It's been a tough year for rain, the harvest is coming in a little late, that's all," he quickly assured Negan.

"See, that's not okay Greg. We need our drop offs to be absolutely what we have agreed upon, or there might be problems with your protection detail, and you don't want that, do you?" Negan asked.

Gregory was frozen in fear. I couldn't say I blamed him. Negan was in his element here, and a sniveling coward like this man was incredibly suseptible to the show.

"See Greg, there's all sorts of unsavory types running around these days. Hell I just had a group of my best men get blow to kibbles and bits on the road while they were out on a run. Blown to hell just for running into this group. You wouldn't want your people to have to deal with something like that now would you?" Negan asked.

"Of course not," Gregory said, his voice low and tight with fear.

Negan nodded in approval. "I didn't think so," he pushed himself to his feet. "So for the added protection and to make up for the light drop offs we'll be taking half from now on," Negan said resting his hands behind his head.

"Half?" Gregory asked. Finally something broke through the fear that seemed to cloud his brain.

Negan leaned forward menacingly. "What else would you think a fitting punishment for cheating us?" Negan challenged.

"Well, I don't know why my men would have brought you less than you are entitled. I'll see to it at once that they are punished. Rory was supposed to be responsible for making sure all of the supplies were properly loaded. I'll have a talk with him," Gregory assured Negan.

Negan stood and picked up his bat. "You do that Greg, but it's still going to be half," he said in a dangerous tone. "If it's not, I'm going to come back here..." Negan let the threat hang in the air. "Understood?" he asked.

Gregory nodded too many times. He looked shell shocked.

"Good," Negan said brightly. "Good talk." He moved towards the door and I stood. When Gregory didn't get up Negan held the door for me. "Don't worry," he called back over his shoulder to Gregory. "We'll let ourselves out," he assured him.

The two of us moved together across the foyer. "Cowardly little shit," Negan muttered angrily under his breath. He glanced back at me, indecision playing in his eyes. "I'm going to have to do this," he muttered and he nodded once and before my eyes he redonned the mask. He straightened and twirled the bat in a circle.

He threw the door open and we stepped out onto the porch. Dwight was right behind me. The fighter had disappeared while we had been in the office but once we stepped out into the sunshine I could see him down moving among the crowd. If he was trying to blend in he was going to have to work much harder at it.

"I'll make the announcement myself. They need to understand," Negan muttered and he stepped forward to the top of the steps. "People of Hilltop, now I know there has been an arrangement in the past that you seem to have decided was fair, well due to some stupid ass administrative incompetence I'm here to tell you here and now that we are going to be changing that arrangement."'

I shifted my weight as I watched the people. They were gathering on the outside of the circle of our men and did not look happy. Tommy had been right to send us here, tensions were high, and Negan was about to piss them off even more. I touched a knife to reassure myself they were still there and cracked my neck.

"Fist of all. Which one of you little shits is Rory?" Negan called loudly.

A murmer went through the crowd.

"Come on now," Negan challenged. "You don't even know you're in trouble. Could be, I'm here to congratulate you for a job well done," he mocked.

Everyone knew something was going to happen, and no one was willing to sell out their community member. I had to respect that.

"If you don't tell me who Rory is I'm going to pick someone I think looks like a Rory," Negan threatened.

"Me!" a voice called from the back. "I'm Rory," he said and he marched through the crowd up to the front of their people. Our soldiers stepped aside to let him through.

Negan looked him up and down. He was just a kid, barely sixteen. "You're Rory?" Negan asked.

"That's right," Rory said with a nod.

"You're the one Gregory put in change of loading the supply wagons?" Negan asked in disbelief.

"Well he wasn't going to load them himself," Rory responded.

I actually flinched. I appreciated the wit, but I wasn't sure Negan was in the right mood to deal with this sassy teenager. Instead of responding with anger however Negan threw back his head and laughed.

"Ain't that the truth kid," Negan said with a nod. "But the problem is that you fucked up, and now everyone has to pay," Negan drawled gesturing you the crowd of people gathered around us. "Our last two loads have been light," he explained. "And someone needs to pay. Those are the rules. And the rules keep everybody safe," he said swinging his bat around. Then he turned back to the crowd. "There's been an increase in threats from outside communities and if you want to remain under our generous protection we will happily do so in exchange for half of your food stores," Negan called loudly.

A shocked murmur went through the crowd. I kept my eyes glued to their hands and shoulders. I coiled my muscles just waiting for someone to charge him. I didn't trust Simon to watch his back.

"You can't do that!" Rory exclaimed.

"Rory don't," Jesus said, grabbing for the young man's arm and pulling him back, but the teenager refused to back down. He lifted his chin and faced Negan defiantly.

Negan turned and chuckled. "My goodness do you have a pair on you boy," he observed. "But I think you'll find that I can do that and if you want to keep playing little house on the praire out here, you'll pay. Hell, Gregory up there already agreed," Negan said gesturing to the house over his shoulder dramatically. "He's just too chicken shit to face you!"

I glanced back towards the house along with the rest of the crowd just in time to see the curtains hanging over Gregory's window drop back into place. He was hiding. I couldn't believe what a coward Gregory was. He made this decision for his people but was unwilling to stand by it in front of them. He was the worst kind of leader and I could see why he enraged Negan as much as he did. He was a selfish taker. That made him dangerous. Negan was dangerous too, but in a different way. Negan was willing to do whatever he had to in order to ensure our survival. I trusted that.

"He doesn't speak for us!" Rory yelled shoving forward into our men.

"He does!" Simon yelled. "You do what we say!" he hissed shoving into the teenagers space.

"Or what?" Rory challenged.

"Someone needs to pay," Simon snarled and with no warning he launched himself at the boy. He threw him down into the dirt and began pounding on him. Rory was caught by surprise and didn't do anything to protect himself. Simon sat on his stomach and his fists rained down on Rory's face. The people of Hilltop surged forward and our soldiers were so busy holding them back no one could get to Simon to stop him.

I moved toward them, but the fighter, Jesus, was moving towards us at the same time and my brain made a split second decision I might always regret.

It was that moment, that decision, that changed everything. The tipping point that I would never have foreseen, but when I looked back on it, knew every thing that followed was inevitable. Instead of stopping Simon from attacking Rory, I launched myself at Jesus, unwilling to let someone who was such a threat anywhere near Negan.

I hit Jesus from the side. He hadn't expected it so while I was smaller and lighter weight I was able to take him to the ground. He swung around in surprise, reaching for a knife, but I batted his hand away. I went for mine, but he was already moving, rolling us through the dirt. We separated. I rolled to my feet and he threw himself to his feet.

He tried to bring his fist up, but I slapped it away. He tried to kick me, but I blocked it and swung an elbow towards his face but he easily countered it. Round and round we went, blocking every strike the other attempted. I had never faced anyone so evenly matched. He was fast, like I was fast. Not particularly strong as I had expected, but he made up for it by being quick.

He knew some kind of martial art, which was his downfall, because he stuck to all those rules someone had drilled into his head and I was able to slip inside his guard and land an upper cut to his jaw. He staggered back, rubbing at his jaw.

He was watching me, waiting for me to attack again but there was something that may have been admiration in his gaze. Or maybe he was just like me and appreciated a capable opponent. While he was watching my face however I went for a knife. I flipped it off and he barely managed to throw himself out of the way in time to avoid it hitting him in the face. I gave myself completely over to my instincts as I charged him and took him to the dirt. Another knife was already in my hand and I pressed it against him throat, ready to eliminate this threat to us.

There was a loud crack that reverberated through the community loud enough everyone flinched. Negan has slammed his bat against something and for just a second there was silence.

"Everyone stop!" Negan ordered, his voice so powerful and full of rage no one could resist. Our soldiers froze and pulled back.

I looked back down at the man, who's throat I was holding a knife and forced myself to see him and acknowledge his name was Jesus. I was shaking with the effort it took to let him go and step free. He climbed slowly to his feet, holding his hands out for me to see that he was unarmed. There was blood trickling down the side of his face and from a small cut on his throat, but otherwise he didn't look hurt.

Dwight appeared beside me once more. His hair was ruffled and there was blood and dirt on his face. What surprised me most was that during the dust up none of our people had gone for a gun

"Saviors load up!" Negan snarled. They pulled back from the people of Hilltop with more discipline than I would have expected given the circumstances. All but Simon.

Negan finally had to stalk across the driveway and rip Simon off the body of the kid. He hadn't stopped once, the whole time he had been pounding viciously on Rory's head and face. When Negan dragged him back towards the trucks there was nothing left of Rory but a bloody mess. Everything we had worked for, all of the carefully orchestrated plans had been for nothing.

Simon screamed his rage and Negan threw him towards Dwight and Travis. He tried to surge forward, his angry eyes leveled on Negan but Dwight caught him. I had the knife ready that would kill him.

"Get him in the truck," Negan ordered coldly.

Simon screamed again but the others did what they were told. Negan didn't bat an eye. He couldn't. Now more than ever he couldn't flinch. I stood beside him holding a knife in each hand and watched him. I hurt for him. Things with Hilltop had already been bad, I didn't see how this could be saved. We were lucky they hadn't attacked and killed us all right there.

This whole thing, this whole game and mask was orchestrated to make it so no one had to die. It was a show and a mechanism that kept everyone in line and kept people safe. Simon had violated that. It's why he would never be the leader Negan was, he couldn't. He didn't understand the single most basic thing about Negan. Negan was the ultimate savior. He didn't want anyone to die. Looking at the exhausted lines of his face I could see how sick and tired he was of seeing dead kids laying in the dirt.

"We expect delivery in a week," Negan snarled to Jesus. There was nothing left to say. We couldn't apologize, couldn't take it back. What's done was done.

The two of us got into our truck and left. Negan drove back out through the gates, leaving the Hilltop to take care of their dead.

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