Chapter Text
We had a couple quiet days after that, full of love and exploring and snuggling up in a cold bed with each other.
Yesterday, Negan had managed to shoot a rabbit, which he had skinned and dismembered out back while I had hidden inside the cabin, because the sounds and smells of it had made me gag.
Now it was my turn to contribute to our full bellies. I stood in the kitchen and was cutting onions and preparing the meat for a stew, while Negan was bent over a book, sitting at the kitchen table.
A batter against the door made us both look up. We kept the shutters closed at all hours of the day, so there was no seeing who was outside.
“Open the door!” came a not too friendly sounding shout.
Negan, after checking with me, got up and made sure his pistol was in his belt. He opened the door just a crack and the barrel of a rifle was pushed into his face.
Shit.
I stepped towards my shotgun, but before I could grab it, three guys, each equipped with a rifle, had pushed inside. There were more of them outside, waiting.
“Hands up in the air,” the first one, a tall, blond fella a couple years Negan’s junior demanded. His rifle was pointed at Negan. His friend, equally tall and with somewhat darker hair, pointed his rifle at me. They wore matching red jackets with a bunch of Greek letters on them.
“What do you want?” Negan calmly said, clearly showing he wouldn’t be scared by a couple college kids.
The blond guy, the leader, obviously, gave the third, a shorter guy, who looked a little older, a sign with his head.
He pointed his rifle at Negan and the leader let his own sink back down, putting it on his back by the strap. “You’re stealing our water!” he said just as calmly.
“Your water?” Negan raised an eyebrow.
“The land the spring is on belongs to my family.” He seemed to be awfully proud of that fact.
“Well, it’s not like there’s a finite amount of water!” Negan tried to be reasonable. “And circumstances being as they are…”
“You destroyed our property by taking down the wire,” the kid interrupted him. “Spring’s on our land, which means you’re stealing our water,” he insisted.
Walking through the cabin, he looked around curiously. “Comfy place you got here.” He took a couple steps towards me, looking into the pans on the stove in a casual way, like there were no rifles pointed at Negan and me. “What are you making, pretty?”
“Your balls, fried up, if you get any closer,” I muttered, tightening my grip on the knife I had just been cutting onions with.
That made him chuckle. “I’d be careful if I had a rifle pointed at me and my friend and a bunch more just waiting outside for their order, but,” he shrugged, “that’s just me.”
I growled at him in reply.
“Be a dear, put away the knife,” he said, taking my hand and forcing my fingers open. “Make you a deal,” he focused back on Negan, “keep on taking our water and I get to spend the night with your girl. She’s not the prettiest I ever had, but,” he shrugged, “it’s been a while…”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
“Yea, that’s what I’ll do, fuck you all night long!”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to smile at him while my hand wandered towards the handle of the cast iron pan on the stove. Without hesitation, I slammed it into his face, hot as it was, hard as I could.
It made a satisfying clonk-noise.
He took a step backwards and rubbed his face where I had hit him. The skin looked red and angry and his eyes took on the same anger. He grabbed my chin with rough fingers, pushing thumb and forefinger into my cheeks and stared deep into my eyes for a second before he slapped me so hard, I had to hold on to the counter to keep my balance.
Fuck, that had hurt. I blinked away tears.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Negan growled.
The leader moved back to where Negan and the two guys stood. “You’d rather I touch you instead? Like a big fat hero? Protecting your woman at all costs?”
“I’d rather you just fucked off…”
“Not gonna happen, buddy. She just made shit personal!”
If Negan was scared, he didn’t show it. “What do you want?”
“The night with her…”
“She already told you what she thinks about that,” Negan said.
“… for me and my brothers one after another!” The roar of his men interrupted him and he let them roar for a couple seconds before cutting them off with a gesture of his hand. “It stinks like sex in here, she’s yours, that’s why I’m asking you about it!”
“This isn’t the 18th century, buddy,” Negan said, emphasizing the last word. “Even if we’re fucking, she still belongs to herself. And she already told you what she thinks about your offer.” He paused. “Listen, I’ll make you a deal for the water. We got well filled stores… take what you want and then leave us the fuck alone! Alana, show them.”
I did as Negan had asked and opened the cabinets one by one.
Cans upon cans of beans and veggies were stacked in them, next to bags of noodles and rice and flour.
“I don’t care for your shit.” The leader moved back towards me and put his arm around my waist, closing the cabinets one by one. He picked my hunting knife out of its sheath and turned towards me. “Good quality knife,” he said, holding it between the two of us. His breath smelled of booze and minty chewing gum. “Looks sharp as well… Should we give it a try?” He pressed the blade against my cheek.
I forced myself to hold his gaze while my hand moved on the counter, behind his back, towards the kitchen knife I’d dropped earlier.
“Leave her the fuck alone!” Negan growled, taking a step towards me.
Both rifles were pointed at him and safeties snapped off, the sound awfully loud in the small room.
“I’d be very careful, buddy,” the leader said to Negan. He slowly pulled the knife along my cheek and I felt the blade bite through my skin. “I don’t know why seeing a woman bleed always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” he whispered. And then, almost too fast to see, he turned and rammed the knife into the kitchen counter, about half a finger’s breadth from my hand, so hard, the tip remained stuck in the wood.
My heart skipped a beat. He could have hit my hand if he had wanted to.
“Get up on there,” he said, shoving me towards the kitchen table.
Yea, alright, he wasn’t to be toyed with. I caught myself against one of the chairs and stepped first on the chair, then at the table, awkwardly standing there, looking down on everyone.
“Sit the asshole on that chair and bind his hands.” The evil grin he shot Negan bode ill for me. “Enjoy!”
Negan’s and my gazes met as he was pushed to his chair and his hands were bound behind his back. What was that asshole planning? My heart raced. The guys from outside slowly came in one by one.
Suddenly I was cold, despite being so close to the stove.
What were they going to do to me?
“Take off your pants,” the leader ordered, “and your shirt!”
A low growl from Negan’s direction made me look at him.
“What are you waiting for?” His question obviously was directed at me, but he gestured at his guys and one slammed the handle of his gun against the side of Negan’s face.
Wincing in secondhand pain, I toed off my shoes and unbuckled my pants, my gaze firmly fixed on Negan.
“If you do as you’re told, like the good girl I know you are, no one needs to get hurt,” blondie said, sitting down in the other chair, feet up on the table, watching me.
The men, seven, all in all, moved to surrounded the table watching me from every side. “Shirt too,” the leader ordered, leaning back in his chair, putting his hands up to make a hammock for his head.
My hands were shaking as I pulled my shirt over my head, gaze still on Negan. A small trickle of blood made its way down the side of his face and he looked dazed, but he was awake.
I dropped my shirt to the table below me and one of the men grabbed for it, greedily sniffing it, before another stole it from the first one.
“Now dance!” the leader ordered.
“What?”
“Dance! And stop staring at that fucker! Look at me! Like you’re doing this only for me! Like you fucking enjoy it!”
I inhaled deeply. Dance…
Alright, I could do this. I could just dance for them for a bit and then they’d leave us alone. Just dance.
I closed my eyes and imagined music in my head, trying my hardest to block out the noises the men all around me made.
“Hey! Hey! Open your eyes, bitch! Look at me!” the leader barked, kicking my lower leg. Hard.
My knee, wobbly as I felt exposed on the table, gave out from his kick and I dropped to all fours, looking directly at him, shaking.
“Get up and dance, you fucking bitch!” Spittle flew in my face as he screamed at me.
Next to him, Negan was slapped with the handle of a rifle again. His face was starting to swell up as I dared to look at him for just a second, before focusing back on the leader. It took everything I had in me to hide the hate and disgust I was feeling for him. I wanted to jump and throttle him instead of dancing on this stupid table.
A hand was shoved between my thighs from behind. I practically jumped to my feet and turned around, looking for whoever the hand had belonged to, but of course, everyone was just standing there, watching, laughing.
I gritted my teeth and willed myself to stay cool, trying to blink away the tears that threatened to fill my eyes.
“Look, don’t touch Lonny! Be a gentleman for once in your life,” the leader scolded.
I turned back towards him silently pleading for him to stop this, but he made no sign to stop anything. “Go on! Faster! Shake your fucking tits, before I make you take off everything!”
This was met with another roar from his men and someone slapped my ass.
“Leave her the fuck alone, you sick son of a whore!” Negan growled, struggling against his binds.
“Start packing up their stuff, Lonny! You don’t fucking deserve this treat,” the leader muttered, seeming annoyed as well. He motioned for me to come closer and I crouched down, mindful of the assholes behind me. “My apologies for that. Lonny’s a fucking imbecile!”
I gritted my teeth to stop my lips from quivering. There were too many tears now to blink them away. I angrily wiped at my face, dropping to my knees.
I couldn’t believe this was really happening. This was worse than anything Micah could ever have done…
“Oh what is it dear? Too much? Come, sit down on my lap,” the leader said.
I didn’t move.
“You either sit on my lap or you dance. Your choice,” he shrugged. “You, start packing things up as well!” he ordered the rest of his men.
Sounds of disappointment came from all around me.
“Please, just leave me alone,” I whispered.
He seemed to consider my plea for a second, then shook his head, grinning at me broadly. “Get back up! Dance for me and your guy! He seems to be enjoying himself, no?”
“Fuck you,” Negan said. His gaze was fixed on me, trying to give me strength.
I weakly pushed myself back up to my feet, trying to block out the sounds of our cabinets being emptied. Among them, they would quickly finish. This would all be over in a minute. I could endure one more minute.
The leader got up and motioned for me to come closer.
I carefully stepped towards him and he grabbed my ass and pulled me against him, so his face hit my crotch.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I screamed, slapping his head and struggling to push him away.
“Leave her alone you sick, fucking bastard!” Negan shouted, kicking at him from the side.
Blondie stumbled sideways with the impact. He only took a second to collect himself though and wordlessly turned towards Negan, punching him in the jaw hard enough the chair toppled over with Negan on it.
“Get off the table!” he barked at me. “Fucking bitch! Go sit down there before I lose my patience!”
I got to the ground on shaky legs, but obviously wasn’t fast enough, for he gave me a shove towards the wall, hard enough I stumbled and half fell over Negan.
I didn’t dare say anything, just moved towards Negan as silently and as quickly as I could, making sure he was alright.
He was conscious, but barely so. His nose was bleeding and his eye was almost swollen shut. I carefully put his head on my lap and held him while the fucking asshole fraternity emptied our cabinets.
As I had foretold, it didn’t take them more than a few minutes. They each walked out with arms heavily laden with our stuff.
“It was a pleasure meeting you,” the leader said, bending over us, once more, before he left, slamming the door closed behind him.
I didn’t waste a second and almost fell over my own feet as I ran to turn the key and lock the door, before moving back to Negan.
They had zip tied his hands together and the sharp plastic had dug its way into his wrists with his struggles. I cut him loose and helped him sit up.
“Are you alright?” I whispered, hugging him tightly.
He slowly nodded. There was determination in his eyes and anger like I had never seen before. “I’m going to find those fuckers and I’m going to bust their fucking asses one by one,” he muttered, looking into the distance. Then he looked at me and his gaze softened. He let his thumb move over the cut on my cheek, wiping away blood and tears and wrapped his arms around me. “This is my fucking fault,” he whispered, “I should have protected you. I’m sorry.”
I squeezed myself against him tighter for just a second and shook my head. “I hit him first… it’s my fault…”
We remained on the ground a few minutes longer, digesting what had just happened, holding each other. We were alive and mostly unharmed. Things were okay. We could always get more food. Everything would be okay.
Slowly getting up, I picked up my shirt from the ground.
Remembering how they each had sniffed it in turn, I dropped it again. I didn’t want to put it back on. I wanted a wash and my bed and something cold for Negan’s face.
Were we still allowed to take water from the spring? We had paid them for it with all of our food and… some of our dignity, had we not?
I picked up my pants from the ground and slipped them on, taking a few steps towards the bedroom and stopping.
The fuckers had upset both our water-buckets. Now that had been fucking unnecessary. It just added insult to injury. Fucking assholes.
Negan joined me, looking at the wet floor, putting an arm around my waist.
Shaking my head, I stepped out of his grasp and over the puddle and went to get a clean shirt from the bedroom. Opening the doors to my wardrobe, looking at my three shirts trying to choose which one to put on, I felt my strength drain from me.
I had to sit down on the bed, hugging myself. Never in my life had I felt so… violated. How could a bunch of strangers just come into our house, our home, and… and treat us like that? Who gave them the right? And who would stop them from doing it again?
For all I knew, they’d be outside, watching our every move and just wait till we went back into town to get more food… or just wait till we took our first steps out the door…
I heard Negan pick up the buckets.
“Wait,” I muttered, quickly taking the topmost shirt and putting it on. If I allowed myself to wallow, I would never go back to normal. “I’ll go with you.” I didn’t think I could bear being alone in this moment. I needed Negan with me. And I needed my shotgun.
I put on my shoes and jacket and hung my shotgun over my shoulder.
Negan handed me one of the buckets and we stepped outside.