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

XXXIV • End of the World

"We're about twenty minutes out, how are you guys holding up, over?" Daphne asked, still wired for sound. She'd rummaged through the artillery box in the backseat for some bigger guns, and they were set up for an all out battle.

"As well as we can be, over," Paula replied, voice crystal clear now.

Daphne nodded. "How many of them raided the outpost, do you know? Over?"

"Eight, maybe?" Her voice was comforting, just knowing they were still alive. "The scruffy guy with a heavy southern twang seems to be the ringleader, he's the one I've been talking to. If he's killed Primo I swear to fucking- Donnie!" The click of the connection ending had a sound of finality to it that made Daphne's stomach sink down into her toes.

"Paula?!" Regina screamed into her radio, and Daphne winced at the reverberation through her own. "Paula what's happening?!" There was only static to answer them and the mohawked woman threw her radio in frustration, the clatter of it hitting the dashboard echoing in their heads like a gunshot.

"Paula?" Daphne tried to keep her voice firm. "Paula, come back, over." Her hand shook as she listened, straining her ears as hard as she could for something, anything.

A low moan eased its way out of Regina's throat, a foreboding pained noise that made her passenger's arms break out in gooseflesh.

"It's okay," Daphne said, though her unsteady voice betrayed her worry. "They're okay."

When they reached the slaughterhouse and there was no vehicle in sight, Daphne's feeble attempts to be positive evaporated.

The two adrenaline and terror-fueled lieutenants snatched up automatic rifles and dove out of the vehicle. They stayed low to the ground, but there was no attack. There was nothing but the wind in the trees, and the far off caw, caw of a crow.

Regina reached the slightly open door first, and eased it wide with the barrel of her gun. She ducked into the dark hallway and Daphne followed, covering behind them.

Walker groans filled the concrete hallway and the knot of anxiety in Daphne's belly tightened.

"No," Regina whispered the word, and broke into a run. 

Daphne cursed and whipped around, face draining at the sight of Paula's lifeless body, impaled on a spike amidst a group of chained undead.

Regina's scream echoed from the other room, then deep gut wrenching sobs, and the blonde knew in that moment the reality of the situation.

Their friends were dead. Their family.

The radio crackled at her hip, and hearing it reverberate from Paula's belt was a cold reminder.

"Arat, ten minutes out, over," came the stern voice from the other end.

Daphne shakily pressed the button. "They're dead." It came out in a broken rasp, and she cleared her throat. "I'm doing a sweep of the slaughterhouse but they're all dead." She took a deep breath, straightening her spine. She knew she actually did have to do a sweep, to make sure there weren't any nasty surprises waiting for them.

"Okay," Arat said, sounding subdued. "I sent Simon back for help, but haven't heard anything yet, over."

Daphne clenched her jaw, anger starting to rise in her chest. "I don't think we're going to need it." This wasn't fucking okay.

She moved slowly, checking every nook and cranny. At the end of the hall lay a zombified Donnie, missing the top half of his face. He must have turned and surprised Paula while she'd been talking to her backup.

Her backup that hadn't made it in time.

Daphne peered into the room to the right and saw some ropes coiled around two pipes. It looked like the hostages had gotten out. Old bitch and pregnant chick, Paula had said, and she filed that information away for later.

Against the far wall was a body, and Daphne's blood ran cold when she recognized Molly's favourite navy and white striped cardigan. She knelt and slowly rolled the woman over, revealing a severely crushed skull. They'd beaten her to death with something.

Lily's chubby face sprang to the forefront of Daphne's mind, and she swallowed the thick ball of emotion in her throat, patting Molly's shoulder gently before standing up.

The echo of sobs turned into heavy gasps, and the reluctant lieutenant made her way back down the hallway to the remaining room.

Regina had collapsed to the floor, her legs splayed in a pool of blood as she cradled Michelle's lifeless body in her arms.

She'd been shot in the head. These assholes had been nothing if not efficient.

Crackle. "Clear?" Arat asked through the radio.

"Clear," Daphne replied. "Should we go case the outpost? Over."

"That's the plan," came the response. "We're under strict instructions not to engage Hilltop. Gavin is on his way over there now to have a chat with Gregory. Come on outside, over."

Before the Daphne could figure out how to gently remove her coworker from this room, Regina took a deep breath and shifted to her knees. She placed a kiss on Michelle's forehead and slipped the rose gold ring onto her lost lover's finger.

"You would have been a beautiful bride," she whispered, and then got to her feet, donning her guns once more. She strode past her living companion purposefully, steel in her normally bright eyes.

Daphne followed her silently, pausing at Paula's corpse to look upon the woman who'd been her first real friend at the Sanctuary. The woman who had taken her into the Savior's world, and shown her who she was meant to become.

Daphne clenched her jaw, blue eyes full of molten silver, and exited the slaughterhouse.

There would be vengeance.

A/N: I hated writing this.