A Hard Lesson to Learn

Chapter 8

"I swear Negan these men here are absolute morons," Kali said into the walkie as she lay on her bed in her quarters. "No wonder Thomas got himself killed."

She heard Negan's laugh come through the walkie causing her to crack a smile herself. "Oh, come on. They can't be that bad."

Moonlight slipped through the window above her bed illuminating the pictures that hung on the wall. One was of her and her family before the apocalypse. Another was her and her students on a field trip. The last one was one of Kali and Negan after a long day of work to get the factory in living condition. Both of their faces' were covered in dirt and soot. negan had insisted that they take the picture with the polaroid he recently found.

"They've been dicking around trying to find these people you sent them after. We still don't have any leads. No one knows what this Rick person looks like anyway," Kali told him throwing her hands in the air like he could see what she was doing.

She heard Negan sigh through the walkie. "Do you want me to send someone else to oversee the operation of the outpost?"

"No," she replied quickly. "Don't you dare you son of a bitch."

"Damn girl. Just a question," he laughed softly. "What are you doing up this late anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep," she told him sitting up. Her boot-clad feet meeting the cement floor. "I got this feeling that some shit is about to go down. I can't shake it. It's been like that for a couple days."

"Do you want more men? I need you to be safe Kali," he told her his voice full of concern.

"Nah. No need for that Negan. We can hold our own. When are you coming back this way?"

"No idea. Maybe a couple of weeks. Why ya miss me," he teased.

This time it was Kali's turn to laugh. "You are such a jokester. We're going to be pretty busy here so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me."

"I trust you, Kali. Get some rest. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will. Night Negan."

"Sleep good Kali. Bye," he told her signing off.

She stood up from her bunk and grabbed her pistol off the nightstand moving over to her desk. She opened the metal cabinet that was against the wall at the end of her bed pulling out her cleaning kit for her pistol. She flipped on the lights before walking back to the desk. Kali pulled the metal chair out and sat down.

Kali was about to start cleaning her gun when a gunshot rang out through the compound. She lifted her arm to look at her watch. 2:18 in the morning was showed on the watch face. Kali reached over and grabbed her walkie quickly flipping the channel to the one that her men were on. "Who the hell is shooting," she questioned.

It was a few minutes later before she tried again. "James? Kyle? Anyone hear me," she called into the walkie standing up. She slid the clip out of the gun making sure that it was indeed loaded. "Someone answer me," she demanded.

Once again there was no reply. Instead, the whole building erupted with gunfire. She walked to her door, pressed her ear to the door and listened. She heard her men shouting for others to get guns and take cover before guns were fired and she heard bodies drop.

She backed away from the door in shock. Someone was attacking them. She scurried across the room to the walkie. She was just about to call to Negan when her door handle turned.

Kali whipped around aiming her gun. When the door open and the person pushed in, Kali fired dropping him. She heard more people yelling and another man tried to creep into her room. She dropped him too. The building alarm sounded no doubt that her men pulled it trying to signal another outpost.