Chapter 121

Blood splattered on Rick's face, as if pulling him back to that night, filled with helplessness, panic, and despair.

"Phew—this was quite tiring," Negan put down Lucille. Spencer's head was unrecognizable, a bloody mess of mud on the ground.

“See, I still support you, Rick,” Negan said in a mockingly low voice, with a smile that said, ‘You know what I mean, right?’

Rick snapped out of his daze and looked at Negan. He would kill him, he definitely would.

But not now.

Rick gritted his teeth and silently looked at Negan.

Negan stared at Rick for a long time, then his expression darkened again. "I wanted to say last time that I don't like the way you look at me, but our makeshift stage is now obsolete. No problem, I have a new idea. Damn! I'm a genius!"

Negan smirked and looked at Rick with disdain. Rick's internal alarm bells went off; he had no idea Negan was up to anything.

Sure enough, Negan walked over to Carl, pulled him up, and then shoved Judith from his hand into Amy's hands. Negan glanced at Amy again, "Damn! You guys have some weirdly good luck. Hey chick, want to be my new wife? Food, pretty clothes..."

“No!” Amy looked at Negan with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot, and Negan immediately shut his mouth. Damn, that look, it’s just like Lena’s.

For some inexplicable reason, Negan was speechless. How could there be so many gorgeous blonde women here? Negan couldn't help but click his tongue. Rick was really incredibly lucky.

However, Negan quickly remembered his business. He tore off the belt from the kneeling man beside him, grabbed Carl's arm, tied it up, dragged Carl to Rick, and pinned him to the ground.

"No! Don't touch him, please!" Rick's anxiety became a reality, and he was on the verge of collapse as he looked at Carl being pinned to the ground.

Negan looked at Rick and smiled smugly. "That's right, that's the look, that's more like it, but it's not enough." Negan waved his hand, and the Saviors picked up their guns and pointed them at the heads of everyone in Alexandria.

Negan opened his hands again, and one of his men pulled out a marker and handed it to him. Negan bit off the cap, grabbed Carl's bound arm, drew a line, and then picked up the axe and handed it to Rick.

“I want you to cut down this line, understand? Otherwise, they’ll blow their heads off one by one. I’ll count to three,” Negan whispered in Rick’s ear.

"No, no! Please, you can cut off my arm, all of you, please..." Rick was so panicked that he was incoherent. He looked at Carl in despair, then at the crowd kneeling in front of him.

"Dad, go ahead, I'll be fine," Carl said calmly.

A flicker of admiration crossed Negan's eyes as he continued, "No, that's not what I want. Do it, Rick. Show me you're truly, genuinely, changing. 1, 2..."

Rick sobbed as he grabbed the axe. He didn't dare look at Carl, but simply followed his instincts and raised the axe. The sharp axe slashed through the air, and it seemed as if the air itself vibrated.

"Stop!" Negan yelled, and the axe came to a steady stop above Rick's arm. Negan grabbed Rick's hair, looked him in the eyes, and saw the look of collapse and fear that he wanted.

“Excellent, I hope you remember this well,” Negan smiled with satisfaction, released Rick’s hair, and stood up. “Very good, we had a great talk. Now, you can take all our stuff, anything, anything we want.”

A large contingent of the Salvation Army began to sweep through Alexandria.

Negan turned to the people kneeling on the ground. "Oh, I forgot about you. Get up, we're friends now!" he said warmly and kindly, but it only made them more afraid.

“Get up!” Negan said.

The people, trembling with fear, helped each other to their feet, watching as the Salvation Army ran rampant in the community, taking everything they wanted—food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—and even the crops in the fields were casually broken off, roughly bitten a couple of times, and tossed aside.

"Hey! Be careful, don't break our stuff!" Negan shouted after taking a look.

“Negan! There’s a house that won’t open!” a Salvation Army soldier ran up and said.

“That’s Lina’s house. We don’t have the password,” Rick explained. They had hidden some of their stuff in Lina’s basement. If Negan wanted to go in, or forced them to reveal the password, that was fine. Once inside, their people would activate the security system and lock the house completely. At that point, Negan would be trapped.

“Oh, get away from there,” Negan waved his hand impatiently. That guy was incredibly domineering, but… Negan glanced at Rick, and it seemed like someone in their group definitely knew the house's password.

Negan didn't care; he simply gave his men a look, and they emptied all of Alexandria's supplies.

“I know you guys have a backup plan, Rick,” Negan said with a wicked grin. “If not, then I’m sorry, good luck.” Negan chuckled inwardly as he looked at Rick’s expression. Soon all the supplies were loaded onto the truck, and everyone was eagerly awaiting the Saviors’ departure.

Negan, as they expected, headed towards the door, but then he suddenly stopped. "Look at me, I almost forgot the most important thing, where's my beloved RPG?"

Negan turned to Rick, who stared at him in astonishment. "It was thrown away. That shell was the last one..."

"Really?" Negan didn't believe it. "Where is your armory again?"

The Salvation Army marched in a large group towards the armory with Negan. Rick bit his lip in annoyance and followed.

Negan took the notebook from Olivia and flipped through it. "You guys are really something. You managed to raid my outpost with all that junk." Most of the weapons were from the outpost. Negan felt something was off, since they had RPGs.

“…We didn’t have a choice back then,” Rick said.

“Take everything with you,” Negan said, pressing his tongue against his cheek and looking at Olivia with a half-smile. “Get to work, Fatty.”

Olivia felt offended, but she didn't dare to fight back and could only suppress her tears.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I really went too far with my words, please forgive me, ma’am.” Negan walked up to Olivia and apologized in a pretentious manner.

Olivia nodded nervously. "No, it's okay."

“However, if I were you, Rick, I wouldn’t let her…” Negan released Olivia, turned to Rick with a wicked grin, and said, “I wouldn’t let her be in charge of the warehouse.”

Olivia finally couldn't hold back anymore. She sobbed, covered her mouth, and cried, "I'm sorry!" as she ran away.

Rick suppressed his anger. "Olivia is a very hard worker."

“Are you sure?” Negan leaned closer to Rick, as if the two were having an intimate chat. “I would never put a mouse in the rice bin, Rick. You need to change that. After all, this is my warehouse now.”

“…Okay,” Rick said through gritted teeth.

“Very good!” The armory was emptied, and even everyone’s guns were taken. However, “Oh, you can keep this one,” Negan pulled out Rick’s revolver and looked at it. “And another pistol,” he shouted to the Saviors behind him. “After all, you need some insurance, I understand.”

They were truly robbed clean. Negan led the Saviors swaggering toward the gate, then stopped and looked at Rick. "Now, it's time. I want to hear you say those two magical words to me," he said expectantly, looking at Rick.

Rick's breathing suddenly quickened, but he quickly forced himself to calm down. After a long silence, he whispered to Negan, "Thank you."

“Yes! That’s it, this feels so good!” Negan laughed. A zombie sauntered in through the doorway. Negan signaled his men to fire, and they shot him in the head. He looked at Rick triumphantly. “See, service,” he chuckled, leaning close to Rick’s ear and whispering intimately, “Just in case you don’t know, I just shoved my dick in your mouth. You’ll have to thank me for that, haha.” Negan carefully observed Rick’s expression, then patted him on the shoulder and swaggered back to his car.

"Don't forget the supplies for next time!"

“Hey! I mean, since you’ve already taken so much stuff, and, and we’ll work for you,” Rick said, looking at Daryl in the back of the truck, “could you leave him here? Please.”

Negan raised an eyebrow, scrutinized Rick, then pointed at Daryl with Lucille. "Hey, you, are you staying?"

Daryl silently shrank further into the carriage.

“You see, I’m a pretty democratic person,” Negan said with a smile, patting Rick on the shoulder. “Just like when I get married, it’s a mutual consent process, right?”

“Daryl!” Rick couldn’t help but try to go in, but Negan stopped him by pressing his shoulder. “No!” Negan looked at Rick threateningly. “He’s mine.”

Rick watched silently as one car after another drove away, the last one carrying Daryl slowly disappearing into the end of the road.

The Salvation Army left, leaving behind a scene of devastation.

That's terrible.

*

It was already dark when they returned to the Church of Salvation. Daryl was dragged into the small dark room as usual, stripped naked, and subjected to continuous heavy metal music and a 'poop' sandwich.

This was his life at the Salvation Church. He knew what Negan wanted, but he didn't want it. He also didn't know how long he could hold on, especially since Lena was there too.

He escaped, intending to find Lina, only to discover that it was all part of their plan. Escaping from here wasn't so easy, and finding Lina wouldn't be so simple either.

Daryl leaned quietly against the wall by the door, where he could see a sliver of light through the crack in the door, which kept him going.

“…Excuse me,” came a woman’s voice from the doorway. Daryl knew who she was: Dwight’s wife, Shirley, or rather, his former wife, who was now Negan’s.

"Your wife, she's fine, she's in the infirmary. I'm so sorry, you're right, we shouldn't have come back here." The footsteps hurried away.

Where is the infirmary, the damn infirmary?

He can't stay here any longer; he has to find a way out.