No Sanctuary For Old Men [18+] |Negan| ✔️ Complete

XV • Initiation

Fucking flashbang, the crafty bastard.

Daphne immediately ducked and rolled onto her back, stretching her arms as far as they could go to work her wrists over her ass. She could hear snapping jaws now, the walkers getting closer, and she grunted as she managed to get her hands up her thighs.

She squeezed one boot down through her arms, then the other, immediately ripping off her blindfold. She glanced around wildly, taking in walkers approaching from all directions, drawn by the bomb that had gone off just a few feet away.

Her ears still ringing, she started working at the rope around her wrists, grabbing the knot in her teeth to try to loosen it. As she tugged, she stood and looked at the tree line, assuming that the forest was where her 'damsels' were hiding.

She considered going for the jeep first, but likely Negan had the keys. It seemed like the kind of thing he would do.

The knot finally gave as she moved towards the forest, and she picked up her pace as she loosened the rope. The walkers were thinnest to her ten o clock, and she took off into a run, dodging and ducking the slow moving corpses.

She wrapped the rope around one fist and held the end taut, clotheslining a walker in her way. She slapped the cord around another walker's neck and pulled tight, the now gooey rope cutting through its throat like butter.

She darted past the last few in her way, sprinting full speed towards the trees. Once under cover, she moved north, keeping the field line to her left. She wanted to sweep the forest as efficiently as possible, before it was overrun with walkers. Hopefully they'd stick around where the flashbang went off.

CRACK!

Fuck. The noise had come from her right, which meant they were drawing the walkers in as well. This initiation was insanity.

Daphne couldn't help but grin as she took off towards the noise, winding through the trees as silently as she could. There was a staccato of gunfire very close and she instinctively flattened herself against a large tree trunk.

Were they going to shoot at her too? She peeked out, scanning the trees, and caught a flash of bleached hair from above. Clever Arat, up on a high branch. Daphne ducked and trotted towards the tree, and had to dive for cover as a bullet narrowly missed her head.

"Jesus, you guys go all out," Daphne muttered.

"Stay the fuck down!" Arat barked, her tone hard.

The blonde stayed behind the tree, and frowned. "I thought I was just supposed to-"

"This isn't part of the initiation." Arat leapt down from her branch and rolled behind an adjacent tree with catlike grace. "We're under attack." She aimed her automatic rifle and shot twice, face a mask of concentration.

"We need to find the others." Daphne's heart pounded, blood running cold. "Give me a gun," she demanded, and the cinnamon skinned warrior tossed her the handgun from her thigh holster.

She caught it and cocked it, peeking out from around the tree.

"I was at the edge of the formation," Arat said while scanning the trees. "Next Simon, then Paula, then Negan on the far end. I think they came from the east so they might not have reached the others yet." She waved two fingers as she darted into the trees, and Daphne fell in behind her, eyes everywhere.

They reached a body, one of Arat's bullets lodged in its forehead. It was a greasy looking man, dressed in tattered leather with matted dirt caked hair. He looked like he could have been a caveman if it weren't for the Nikes on his feet.