Chapter 67 - Hell Have No Fury Like A Negan Scorned

My heart pounds in my chest as bile reaches the back of my throat, my eyes taking in the force surrounding us. We've been naive, foolish. Not once did we consider the possibility of there being more than the face value of saviours outside of our walls. I look at Rick and see him trying to remain strong, "What now?" He asks.

"What's next? Do you really wanna know what's next? We're going to find out just how screwed you really are. Ready?" He asks, his tone vicious, "The thing about snipers is that after a couple of shots, they give away their position. They gotta move. So in a standoff situation, where one felt compelled to hold a position so they'd be able to fire quickly if things went south... Well, that'd be really fucking dangerous for the sniper. Your sniper bitch is as good as dead my friend."

Rick throws his fist forward and Negan dodges it effortless, "Whoa! Isn't that hand in bad enough shape as it is?"

Negan throws his fist forward and connects it with Rick's jaw, "How stupid are you?! You know Lucille is always down to fight. You really gonna risk-"

A gunshot goes off and I see a small chunk of the baseball bat blow away, leaving a gaping hole in it's mist. Negan looks at it in shock for a moment before fury changes his features, "What the fu-"

The saviours begin to fire up at the wall and Negan storms forward and yells out, "Oh God! Hold your fucking fire! Oh God." He says, looking at Lucille in distress.

He clenches his jaw and looks up at the wall, "Carl! You little one-eyed asshole! You skull-faced little prick!"

Rick all of a sudden charges forward and attempts to knock Negan down, but he throws him off and punches him repeatedly, "Not yet!"

Two saviours walk forward and grip Rick under the arms as Negan wipes blood off of his chin, "Hold this piece of shit down! I gotta get my shit straight!"

He thinks for a moment, muttering to himself before he straightens up and turns to the wall, "Throw the boy over the wall! He's mine! I want him, he's gotta pay for this shit. Push him over the side or you all die!"

"Don't!" Rick yells and Negan turns and punches him in the face, "Shut up!"

He turns back, his face covered in white hot rage, "I'm not getting any younger out here! Where's my boy?"

"Go fuck yourself asshole!" I hear Tara yell from over the wall.

Negan closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, his jaw clenched tight as he mutters to himself, "I don't even know who said that."

He straightens and calls out, "You know what? Give me the fucking boy or I'll make you watch as I bash all five skulls of the people out here! All five! What do you say to that?"

They don't say anything and he shakes his head and he looks over at Rick, "You have no idea how much I used to like that boy. Never had a kid of my own. When I saw him... Got to know him, I thought... If I ever did have a kid, I'd want it to be like this kid. He has huge balls. Huge. I guess he still does."

He shakes his head and lets out a snort, "Now I realise how annoying that is."

He turns and looks at his men, "Stand him up."

"You hurt him and this is over." Rick says.

Negan laughs, "It's already over. You tried to kill me you idiot! It was a shitty thing to do. Shitty for you. Shittier for your people."

He turns and looks around at everyone gathered around him, "A chain of events was set forth on this day. A chain of events that could well lead to the deaths of every last one of your group. A because you attacked me. But that's beside the point. the issue right now is that your son has done something unforgivable."

He looks down at the baseball bat and cradles it in his arms lovingly, caressing it, "You may think this is an inanimate object. An inconsequential piece of wood wrapped carefully with barbed wire, not something to be cherished. And you'd be dead wrong. This is a lady. But at times, yeah she ain't so nice... Lucille is a bitch. But, she's my bitch. This bitch has saved my life more times than I can remember. She's the only bitch I've ever truly loved. If I could... I'd make sweet sweet love to her."

"And yes.. That means in my most private of moments I've probably rubbed my dick against her. I'm not ashamed to admit it." He says, placing a hand on his chest.

He looks up towards the wall and shakes his head, "Wow they're really not pushing the kid over are they? Damn. I really wanted to see that little prick tumble down. See what all the king's horses and all the king's men could do with the pieces. Humpty Dumpty joke." He chuckles, "Why the hell would anyone expect a horse to be able to put an egg back together. It's like, 'The men and the horses can't do it, this guys screwed. Wouldn't they call the women? They have smaller fingers. That rhyme makes no goddamn sense." He mutters to himself.

He turns and takes a step towards Rick, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I don't want - I can't kill you. I have to break you to break them. Killing you just turns you into a martyr, something to rally behind. I may have gone over this before. But I am going to break you by killing your son."

Rick's face falls as true fear comes into his eyes, a ghost of the fear that came on this night everything went to hell.

"It'll make you see how threatened your people really are. You'll step in line for them. I mean, you already want to kill me. It's not like you're going to somehow want to kill me more. Unless I kill your daughter." He says and I feel myself begin to shake.

"This is what's going to happen. I'm going to start with the black guy... No that's racist. The redneck, no. One of the woman, though I might keep Bree for myself, maybe not." He says and shiver runs down my spine.

"Either way I'm going to kill them, like I did your red headed friend. But when I get to you... Oh man, they're not gonna let me kill you. They'll throw the boy over." He says in a matter of fact one.

"Don't, please. Just let it go. I can make this work. You don't have to do this." Rick begs, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Rick but... Lucille will have her revenge!" He declares, holding the bat up into the air.

"Line them up!" He orders.

I feel a pair of hands grip onto me roughly and I let out a grunt, "Don't touch her!" Daryl hisses, stepping towards me when the saviour holding him punches him in the ribs.

"Daryl!" I cry out.

"Shut up bitch!" The man holding me spits, pulling on my hair.

He pushes me down to my knees on the ground, the others in the same position. All of a sudden a scream fills the air and I look up, my eyes widening in horror. I see a figure falling from the top of a building in the distance and I know it is Sasha.

"No!" I scream out as it disappears behind a house, the sound of her body hitting the ground echoing around us.

"Don't act surprised. I told you that sniper bitch was going to die." Negan says, looking at me, "Now, can we please focus on the situation at hand? After all, you've got problems of your own here. Am I right?"

Tears stream down my face as I stare after where Sasha lays as the familiarity of the situation comes over me, a nightmarish deja vu. My whole body shakes as tears stream down my face, true fear taking over my body. Flashes of that night come rushing back and I know now that it is a certainty that I will die right now.

"Cheer up, she went quick. Probably didn't feel a goddamn thing." He says, looking us over, "Of course, you always hear 'my life flashed before my eyes.' I've heard that in times of stress, people perceive time differently. Like, things move slower. So maybe when the death is quick, you do feel something. Maybe that final painful moment plays out for what seems like hours. Maybe your reaction could be valid. Either way, I don't really give a shit."

He shrugs his shoulders as he comes to a stop in front of Rick, "Besides... This is only the beginning. Save some tears for the other assholes I'm about to kill. Or maybe it'll even be you. You never know." He says before doing an over dramatised wink.

"Just get on with it." Rick whispers.

"Have it your way, I've wasted enough time. Rick you know the song, you can hum along if you like." He says, twirling the bat in his hands.

He clears his throat before he begins, the bat pointing at Rick's face, "Eeny... Meeny... Miny... Moe... Catch a tiger... By its toe... If it hollers... Let it go... Eeny... Meeny... Miney... Moe."

"No!" I yell out in complete agony, going to lunge forward as the saviour pulls me back.

I try to thrust out of his grasp as I watch in horror. The bat is pointed at Daryl's face and Negan turns to look at me, a sinister smile on his face, "Don't worry Bree, It'll be quick."

"No!" I scream louder and the saviour puts his dirty and over my mouth, silencing my screams.

Daryl struggles against the saviours hold as he looks at me in fear and Negan smirks down at him, "I'm really going to enjoy this one." He says, pulling the bat up, "Don't worry, I'll take care of her for you."

I scream into the saviour's hand as Negan prepares himself to swing, when all of a sudden one of the other saviours cries out, falling to the ground, "What the-" Negan begins and the rest of the of the saviours begin to fire in that direction.

"Hold your fire you idiots!" Negan cries, facing his men.

"Trench, go! Now!" I hear Jesus' voice yell as well as the sound of fighting.

I throw my head back and it hits the saviour in the groin, him cowering back. Daryl begins to fight his saviour as well as I punch my guy in the face. He falls to the ground and Daryl grabs my hand, rushing over to one of the trenches we dug. Gunfire begins to rain down as Jesus fights them all in lightening speed, none of them landing bullets or punches on him.

"Why the fuck hasn't someone shot you?" Negan demands, taking a swing at Jesus.

Jesus catches the bat and hits Negan in the face with it, "Your soldiers suck. And the apple doesn't fall to far-" He says before throwing a punch and getting him into a headlock, a gun to his head.

"Nobody moves!" He commands.

"Hold your fire!" Negan says, "Nobody pull any triggers."

"I'd listen to him." Jesus states.

Everyone remains still and Negan glances back at him, "Now you listen to me. You're not going to survive this. Even if you kill me, they're still going to mow you down. Assuming you don't was to die as much as I don't want to die, where do we go from here?"

"My people are making their way back to their gates now. You let them in, unharmed, and have your men stand down. Once they leave, I let you go." Jesus asserts.

"Once they leave, Rick will kill me, like he just tried to do! You think I'm that stupid? That's not going to work. We need to figure out how to-" He begins when he's cut off by a strange noise.

He turns and his eyes widen completely, "What the-"

I turn and see Shiva dive through the air and latch her teeth onto the arm of a saviour, gunfire firing around her. People come in from all sides as they fire at the saviours, the tiger devouring her prey beneath her. The remaining saviours rush to their truck, Negan scrambling to the front and they begin to speed away.

"Gun them down!" Ezekiel commands.

I see Jesus begin to run after them but Ezekiel calls out, "Stop! Don't be the dog chasing the car my friend. If you caught them, what would you do?" He asks rhetorically.

Ezekiel walks over towards Shiva and runs a hand over her back, "Good girl Shiva." He praises.

Rick rushes forward, "What are you doing? We have to go after them. We can't let them regroup! We have to-"

Ezekiel cuts him off, "No. Let them run before they realise they outnumber us. We were not prepared for this."

I get to me feet from out of the trench and look over towards where Sasha fell. I begin to sprint towards her and I hear people yelling out after me. I weave through the streets until I slow down, taking in the body in front of me. I hear people come to a stop, their eyes looking as well.

"It's not her." Morgan whispers.

We all turn and begin to make our way up into the building, climbing the stairs quickly until we come to a stop.

"Sasha!" Rick says, rushing forward to the woman's side.

She's bloody and beaten, her breathing weak and laboured, "Get help, we need to get her to Carol and Rosita. Hurry!" Michonne says.

Morgan nods and runs off down the stairs, the rest of us looking over Sasha and trying our best to do immediate first aid.

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Daryl and I sit on one of the beds, my leaning into his side or comfort. When I saw the bat land in front of him, my heart ceased to beat as all the air left my body. It was bad enough to see him be close to that situation once, there was no way I was going to let it happen again. I run my fingers absentmindedly over the bandaid on my gun, the bullet barely grazing my hand compared to Rick.

Carol finishes wrapping up his hand as she speaks, "Damage isn't bad, I removed a few bullet fragments. It's going to hurt but you'll be fine."

"Good." Rick says.

"Maybe you should be more careful." Jesus mutter from his place by the door with Glenn.

"What the hell was that? You threw away our only advantage. He knows what's coming now." Glenn demands, folding her arms over her chest.

"He doesn't know. He thinks we're working together, that I want to kill him. He doesn't know how organised we are. They won't be ready for us." Rick states.

"What if he just assumes we're organised, just in case?" Carl asks from beside Michonne.

"We won't let them. We'll do what they won't expect. We'll get all our people gathered here, in a day or two, three at the most. And then we'll hit them with everything they have. We'll burn their place to the ground."

I feel a passion that is fuelled by anger and hatred begin to build up inside of me. I have had enough, no more. For too long now we've been dealing with the shit Negan has thrown our way, it stops now. We're going to war, we're going to fight and we're going to win. If not, we'll die trying.