Poker Face

Chapter 32 - Alexandria

"Little pig, little pig, let me in!" Negan bellowed, his teeth bared in his signature grin that stretched ear to ear as he knocked twice on the front gate of Alexandria with Lucille. Dwight and Aven, who was still wearing Negan's scarf, stood just behind him, at the front of the group of Saviors. After a moment, the screen behind the gate was opened by an exhausted-looking man with scraggly hair and the beginnings of a short, brown beard. "Well?" Negan asked, when the man just stared. Aven didn't recognize him; he hadn't been at the lineup in the woods and clearly wasn't as scared of Negan as he should have been.

"Uh...who are you?" the man asked flatly after scanning the Savior's line of trucks at the gate.

"Oh, you better be jokin'," Negan chimed with a menacing amusement in his eyes. "Negan? Lucille? I know I had to make a pretty strong first impression." As he introduced himself, Rick walked up to the gate, glaring daggers at Negan.

"Well, hello there," Negan said, averting his smug grin to Rick. When no one made a move, his grin fell and his eyes narrowed. "Do not make me have to ask."

"You said a week," Rick replied as he opened the gate. "You're early." Negan's grin quicklky reappeared.

"I missed ya. Hold this," Negan replied with a twinkle in his eyes, handing Lucille to Rick as he marched through the gate. "Hot diggity dog, this place is magnificent!" Negan gushed, the Saviors slowly moving inside the walls behind him. Aven caught eyes with a woman from the lineup in the woods, a sleek-haired latina woman who Aven suspected might have been in the military. The woman tried to remain stoic and fearless, but her wide eyes gave away her terror as Negan swept past her, purposely getting too close. "Let's get this show on the road," Negan announced to his group. "See what kind of goodies you got in the cupboard."

"You said half the supplies," Rick retorted.

"Nope, Rick," Negan said turning on him, his grin falling flat again. "You don't decide what we take. I do." At first, Aven figured it was his usual talk. and that he'd spend some time annoying or terrorizing everyone there before taking the agreed-upon amount. He wasn't the most realistic person in the world, but he couldn't expect much from the Alexandrians if he took too much from them. "Arat," Negan called to his lietenant.

"You heard the man, move out!" she yelled, the Saviors advancing into town at her command. 

"They're just gonna search the houses a bit," Negan informed Rick. Aven assumed he was letting the Saviors stampede through everyone's home for the effect of showing who was in charge, another over-kill display of power. As Negan stepped away with Rick and the rest of the Saviors went about their business, Dwight stepped towards the woman Aven had been watching.

"Rosita," Dwight said patronizingly. "Where you going with your friend here?" He nodded to the man behind her who had first come to the gate but didn't look at him.

"We were just-" the man began.

"You know what," Dwight interrupted with a shrug, only glancing past Rosita once before turning his full attention back to her. "I don't care." He took Rosita's handgun from her belt and threw it in his bag before holding the bag out to the man behind her for him to do the same. As Dwight purposely took his time reaching into the car the two had been about to take out scavenging, Rosita caught Aven staring at looked her up and down, keeping her expression neutral so as not to get in trouble but unable to hide the spite in her eyes. Dwight withdrew from the car with the guns that had been packed in it. "Now that that's been settled, I got a job for ya." The woman cocked her head, a slight smile tugging at her lips obstinately. "Go get Daryl's bike."

"It ain't here," she responded immediately.

"Well if it ain't here then you now where it is, right?" Dwight retorted. "We both know you know where it is." The woman went to sidestep Dwight and he stepped in her path to block her, before reaching up and snatching the cap off of her head. "Go," he ordered, giving Rosita just enough space to squeeze by him and slip into the driver's seat of the car.