if Salvation Army

It's been countless days, but the number of zombies outside hasn't decreased, and the stored food has been completely consumed.

She's already scoured out all the food options on this street over the past few years.

Logically speaking, she should leave this place and escape to the outside world.

But she didn't want to.

Lina rolled over. The room smelled terrible, but it made her feel at ease.

It's fine to die here, since there's no point in living anyway.

She has nothing left.

Lina closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.

Lina was awakened by a commotion. She grabbed her knife, quickly got up, and hid behind the door. In all these years since the zombie outbreak, not many fools have dared to venture into Chinatown.

As one of the first areas to be isolated, the number of zombies in this area has not decreased over the years. Those who are unaware of the danger have come and become part of it, thus increasing the zombie horde.

Over time, the entire population of Chinatown turned into zombies.

She's the only living person here right now.

And those guys who barged in from outside.

"...Damn it! What kind of weird place is this?!"

"Negan? Are you sure this is the place?"

The footsteps outside the door grew closer, and Lina gripped her knife tightly in tension. Humans were more terrifying than zombies.

"Knock knock—Lina? Are you in there?"

Lina was stunned. What was that? Who were those people outside?

"You better not blow my head off with your little toy. I came here with good intentions."

Just by listening to his voice, Lina thought he must be a bit of a pervert, and his voice was rather unpleasant to hear.

"I'm coming in!"

"Leave here," Lina said after a moment's thought. "Take your people and leave."

"Damn it, I knew you were still alive!" The male voice was clearly delighted. "Don't be so heartless, I brought a gift. A surprise from Virginia."

Virginia? She remembered it was her old residence. Could it be someone she knew before? Why would someone travel so far and through such danger to find her? It must be either a blood feud or the love of their life.

Given that this older man didn't sound very young, and I wouldn't be so blind as to fall for a pedophile, he must be here for revenge.

Lina took a few steps back, picked up her gun, and began firing at the door.

After the barrage of fire, there was silence. Something was wrong, so Lina quickly started changing her magazine.

"Good heavens, you really don't listen to a word I say."

Unexpectedly, Lina still couldn't see anyone, but he threw in a red bouncy ball.

Is it a hidden bomb? Or does it release poison gas?

Lina covered her mouth and hid on the balcony. When she realized something was wrong, she jumped off, but... why does it feel so familiar?

Then a photo album was thrown in. "Let me tell you, this is the only one. Don't come looking for me if you break it."

Lina put her hand on the trigger, looked towards the door, hesitated for a moment, then took two steps forward and opened the photo album.

Her family photo.

"What is your purpose?" Lina asked coldly.

"Let's see if you're dead yet," Negan slowly walked to the door, staring at Lina with a dark face, and after a long while, he grinned slyly, "Come here to Dad."

He spread his arms and opened his embrace.

Lena raised an eyebrow, grabbed the bouncy ball, and threw it at him. Negan dodged it by tilting his head. "How ruthless."

"..." Lina's expression remained unchanged, but her mind was in turmoil, screaming, "Negan!!! Holy crap!!! He's a walking corpse!!!"

It seems... it's nothing, anyway, they're all zombies, people are either dying or on their way to dying.

Lina instantly lost interest. It seemed they weren't here to kill her, so whatever.

"Since there's no food or drink, we won't entertain you any further. Let's go." Lina picked up the photo album and sat down on the other side of the bed. Negan glanced at the corpse on the bed and fell silent.

This was worse than her death; she, like Lucia, was about to be defeated by this damned world.

“Come with me,” Negan said. He could accept Lena’s death, but he couldn’t accept Lena just living and waiting to die.

"Take your people and get out of here," Lena said calmly, flipping through a photo album from the foot of the bed. Negan sighed helplessly, twirling his baseball bat and staring at the unseen figure with an inscrutable expression.

That won't do.

The footsteps grew closer. Lena subtly lowered her right hand, concealing her reach for the pistol behind her back. Negan, tossing a red bouncy ball, crouched down beside Lena.

"To be honest, seeing you like this is disappointing, but that's the damn world. It's ruined everything, everything. Still, I'm glad to see you, even though you've finally become a real pervert. Good heavens, were those guys downstairs your doing? That was... art? No, no, no, that really terrified me! When I was your age, I couldn't do anything this perverted. At most, I'd peep at my homeroom teacher and principal having sex, which was awful. I mean, his technique wasn't great; even the nerds in the class could tell he was faking it..."

Lena glanced at Negan speechlessly. "Pervert."

Negan seemed not to hear what Lena was saying, still smiling. "It's a bad habit, but I always like to say something casually when I'm doing something important."

Lina was knocked unconscious by Negan before she could even react.

“It’s a cliché, but it works.” Negan said with a smile, looking at Lina lying in his arms.

The next problem was... He looked at the corpses on the bed; he had to get them out of there.

Carrying Lina downstairs, Negan saw Laura and the others. Upon seeing Negan, they excitedly stood up. "The commotion was too loud just now, and the entrance is bustling with activity," Laura said anxiously. When she saw Negan carrying someone, she became even more worried.

The situation was already dangerous, and now you have to bring someone with you...

“Don’t worry,” Negan said, looking at the door that was being repeatedly pounded on. “I’ll take care of this.”

He walked past several corpses in the living room, impaled on sticks and arranged in a kneeling position, and arrived at the front door. Under the terrified gazes of everyone, he leisurely whistled.

*

When Lina woke up, she found herself in a campervan, all her weapons gone.

Damn old man.

Lina sat up angrily; she wanted to go back!

“You’re finally awake,” Negan said, walking toward Lina when he heard the noise. “Here’s some canned food, have some.”

Lina slapped the food away, "Are you crazy? Give me back my things!"

“No, no, no, we need to redo the rules,” Negan said, not angry, and put the food aside. “Now, you’re mine. I mean, your life is mine.”

"Go to hell." Lina rolled her eyes, secretly gathering her strength.

“I’m not here to discuss anything with you. You see, the world has changed, and our way of getting along should evolve with it. Lucia has been worried about your safety, seriously, I am too, but you know, there’s nothing we can do about it. From Virginia to DC, you really should look at this route,” seemingly knowing what Lena was about to do, Negan pulled out a photo album and a lighter. “Just in case we both do something that doesn’t please the other. Now, tell me, can we have a proper talk?”

Lena paused, her gaze turning complicated as she looked at the photo album. "Oh, and just in case this doesn't come in any use, I also brought Edward and Anne along."

Lena glared at Negan and yelled, "FUCK YOU!"

“No, thanks. You’re not my type. I mean, who would be interested in a little kid?” Negan said innocently, shrugging.

"What do you want?" Lina scratched her hair in frustration, trying to suppress her anger as she looked at Negan.

“No, it’s not about what I want, Lina. What do you want?” Negan threw away the photo album and lighter, and squatted down in front of Lina. “I can, no, we can do things that might be beyond your imagination.”

"...We're not on the same path. What do I want? I want to die, to die peacefully at home. Why are you bothering me?" Lina leaned forward, staring intently into Negan's eyes. "What makes you think I'd help you? What makes you think I'd be of any help to you?"

“You’ll find out,” Negan said, a smirk playing on his lips. He then stood up, looking down at Lina with eyes full of anger and indifference.

"parking!"

Lena was pulled out of the car, and Negan fiddled around in a car behind for a while before coming back with one of them in each arm.

Lina was stunned. Holy crap, how can someone be even more perverted than her?

“Look, let our dear Edward and Anne see how their lovely little granddaughter is going to die.” Negan nodded to Laura, who frowned and walked to the back of the convoy. A moment later, she and two other people brought over several walkers.

He loosened the chains and pushed them towards Lina.

“Considering our relationship, I’m being rather merciful,” Negan said, looking at Laura, who threw a gun and a knife at him.

"Look, you have a choice: put a bullet in the gun and send it to your own head, or use a knife to stab those bastards to death, Lina. Don't say I didn't give you a chance."

Lina pushed away the onrushing zombies, but five more kept lunging at her, her eyes repeatedly grazing the gun.

"You're not planning to choose the most painful one, are you? Getting bitten to death? Ugh—then you'd better be careful not to scream, or you'll look really lame, and Edward will be furious, right?" Negan said, tilting his head dramatically at the mummified corpse leaning against his shoulder.

"Oh no, it's been so long, you're so delicious, Edward, it's almost intoxicating,"

“…You’re crazy.” Lina cursed inwardly, before she was tackled to the ground.

Negan nearly crushed the mummified corpse's arm, but the next moment, the knife pierced through the walker's head. Lina stabbed through five walkers in one go and stood up.

“You win, you bastard.” Lina wiped the knife on her pants and sheathed it.

"Where's my other knife, you bastard?"

“Laura!” Negan called out. Laura handed the knife to Lina, who slung both knives over her shoulder and then looked at Negan. “We still won’t be on the same path.”

“No, we will,” Negan laughed, then his expression immediately twisted. “Come on, we’ll just bury Ed and Annie right away. God, you’re a freak. Don’t tell me they were still alive when you shoved those sticks downstairs.”

Lena gave Negan a disdainful look. "Want to give it a try?"

“No, I don’t want to show my shit in front of so many people.” Negan said, slowly putting down the two mummies he was holding and taking the shovel handed to him by the person next to him.

“I’ve picked a great place, it’s very close to where we’ll be living from now on,” Negan said with a smile, extending his hand to Lina.

"...Get lost." Lina pursed her lips, walked over and took the shovel. She'd gotten herself into trouble.