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Lucille was brought down brutally on Glenn's head causing everybody to let out a scream as nobody had expected anything to happen to somebody who was consistently good. Tears immediately cascaded down Katy's face and she grabbed onto Daryl's hand -- she loved Glenn, she loved him so much as a brother and a best friend and to see him covered in blood with an eye popping out, it killed her. She lay her head against Daryl's arm as Glenn gasped roughly and choked for words.
"Buddy, you still there?" Negan asked as he choked and spluttered, leaning down. "I just don't know, it seems like you're trying to speak. You just took a hell of a hit. I just hit your skull so hard you're eyeball just popped out and it is gross as shit!"
Katy had never wanted to kill somebody that much.
"Maggie, I-I'll find you."
Those words made everything so much worse because the whole situation was so heartbreaking, he was being beaten to death and he still cared for his wife more than himself. The short-haired brunette lost breath as she cried for her husband. Katy couldn't bring herself to look at the pain on either of their faces.
"I can see this is hard for you guys." Negan said with untrustworthy sympathy. "I am sorry, I truly am but I did say, no exceptions!"
He turned quickly and whacked Glenn again, forcing him to the ground. The sounds were the worst thing and nobody could escape that horrid atmosphere.
"You bunch of pussies, I'm just getting started."
Katy looked towards her best friend thinking that it must almost be over but against all odds Glenn Rhee was still alive, his hand shaking against the ground. The woman let out a strangled sob when she realised that he may have been able to still feel.
"Lucille is thirsty. She is a vampire bat." Negan laughed menacingly, mocking the group at their lowest points. "What? Was the joke that bad?"
"I'm gonna kill you." Rick said making himself taller. "Not today, not tomorrow but I'm gonna kill you."
"Jesus." Negan scoffed. "Simon. What did he have, a knife?"
"He had a hatchet."
"Simon's my right-hand man." Negan began looking straight at Rick and only him. "That's important. What do you have left without them? A whole lot of work. You have one, maybe one of these fine people still breathing. Oh, or did I-" He moved Lucille, now coated in blood and made a small sound to represent her hitting somebody. "Sure, give me his axe."
Negan stayed silent for a few more moments before grabbing Rick by his collar and dragging him into the RV. "I'll be back in a minute, maybe Rick will be with me and if he isn't, well, we can just start turning these people inside out. I mean, the ones that are left."
When the two men left, nobody spoke or even moved. Everybody was frozen with fear and grief for the people that they had loved so much. The group didn't know how to operate without them anymore. Glenn Rhee had been Katy Dixons best friend -- without him, she would have died at the prison; he had helped her through the worst moments of her life and he had brought a constant joy to it too. That was gone now. She couldn't imagine living without his jokes and smiles and pure soul. Noah's death was no longer the worst thing she had ever seen.
Light had begun to show itself when the RV rolled back up and Rick was pushed out of it, he stumbled across the floor with red eyes and an axe in his hand.
"That trip was about the way that you looked at me. I wanted to change that, I wanted you to understand, but you're still looking at me the same damn way." Negan began to raise his voice. "And that's not gonna work. So, do I give you another chance?"
"Yes." Rick said roughly as he looked at the ground.
"Okay. Alright. Here it is, the grand prize game. What you do next decides whether this crap day becomes everyone's last crap day or just another crap day."
Katy was fairly numb at that point.
The Saviours pressed cold, hard guns to the back of everybody's head before summoning Carl who had no choice but to follow. Surely he wouldn't hurt Carl.
"Are you a leftie?" Negan rephrased.
"No."
"Good." He wrapped a belt around Carl's arm and making it tight. I was confused but alert. "That hurt?"
"No."
"It's supposed to. Alright, lay down on the ground kid next to daddy. Spread them wings." He knocked Carl's hat off his head leaving, making his bandage and mop of hair more noticeable. "Simon, you got a pen?"
"Yeah." Simon threw the pen to his boss and Negan knelt down, lifting Carl's arm up and drawing a line, muttering about a ballsack. Katy got an uneasy feeling as she caught on.
"Please don't." Rick started to repeat, getting frantic. "Please don't."
"Me? I ain't doing shit." He stood up. "Rick I want you to take your axe and cut your son's left arm off, right on that line."
Fresh tears invaded Katy's eyes. She had just begun realising how much a child really meant.
"Now, I know you're going to have to process that for a second, still though, I need you to do it or all these people are going to die. Then the people back home die and then you eventually, I'll keep you breathing for a few years just so you can stew on it."
I shook my head not being able to believe anything that had happened since we left Alexandria. I hated the sight of Carl lying on the hard ground, vulnerable as he faced the arm that had been prepped to be chopped off.
"You don't have to do this. We understand." Michonne begged.
"You understand, I'm not sure Rick does." Negan disagreed. "I'm gonna need a clean cut, right there on that line. I know that's a lot to ask but it needs to be like a salami slice, nothing messy, forty-five degrees, give us something to fold over because we have a great doctor and the kid will be fine. Probably."
"It can be me. It can be me. You can do it to me. I can go with you." Rick stuttered trying to find any other alternative to hurting his own son. He was freaking out.
"Not making a decision is a big decision."
"Please!" Rick wailed.
"Two!" Negan looked at Rick firmly. "This is it. One!" Rick touched Carl's hand with one of his own, the axe underneath the other one as he cried.
"Dad, just do it." Carl whispered and tears fell from Katy's eyes, rolling down her cheeks. Carl was such a brave kid. Rick raised the axe, waiting for the swing and the impact before Negan bent down again, stopping him.
"You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me." Rick didn't say anything just breathed heavily. "Speak when you're spoken to!"
"Provide for you." Rick agreed. "Right."
"That is the look I wanted to see." Negan seemed happy as he took the axe back. "We did it. All of us, together. Hell, even the dead guys on the ground, they get the spirit award for sure. Today was a productive damn day. Now I hope for all your sake that you get it now, that you understand how things work. Things have changed, whatever you had going for you, that is over now."
Everybody was silent.
"Dwight." Negan looked at Daryl and Katy, the way their bodies were relying on each other. "Load him up. And his girl."
