Poker Face

Chapter 71 - The Eleventh Hour

The next day Negan was called back to the remaining outpost upon getting confirmation that Father Gabriel had been found but that Dr. Carson was dead. The only silver lining was learning that Eugene hadn't been part of the escape as Negan had suspected. Negan assigned a very sick and frightened Gabriel to the bullet assembly line but before he even left to go back to the Sanctuary, a problem arose, brought to his attention by Eugene. Gabriel, suffering some sort of infection reminiscent of being bitten, was rapidly losing his eyesight and made a mistake at his station that could have led to completely useless ammo had Eugene not caught it.

Negan's usual confidence was seriously waning. He was used to having a fully prepared army and arsenal, plus backup spread out in all directions. He'd gone from leading hundreds of people collectively to just over one hundred, more than half of which had no combat experience or training. He didn't have the leverage anymore to just take what he wanted, to just storm Hilltop and demand Aven's safe return. And now on top of all the blows he'd been dealt, the last known doctor in the area was dead. The last thing he needed, aside from any of his people getting injured or sick without medical care, was Aven trying to remove her stitches herself and bleeding out. No matter how bleak things looked for Negan and what he'd spent years building, his biggest concern was still Aven. If he didn't succeed, she was the casualty that mattered most. He couldn't imagine losing her and still having the drive to see his people through the war. He'd destroy Rick, but he worried his people would be destroyed as well in the process.

Meanwhile, Aven was actually making herself comfortable at the Hilltop, or as comfortable as she possibly could. She wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to convince Maggie and the others of; she was mostly playing it by ear, deciding in the moment what she was trying to make them believe. She knew she was coming across as erratic, and that was on purpose. Negan's strange quirks and unusual way of running things easily laid a backdrop on which to paint a picture of a disturbing and somewhat counterintuitive relationship. Aven could portray that she was genuinely trying to help Rick and Maggie, while the details about her stories and behavior that might have given them pause were easily explained away by her damaged psyche. Maggie didn't quite understand what was going on in Aven's mind, how she could be in love with a man she wanted to kill, but Aven's circumstances made her a special case. How was she supposed to be able to think straight after being locked up by Negan for days at a time?

There were dozens of tents set up within the walls of the Hilltop, which now housed many of the escaped members of Alexandria and the Kingdom. Aven got a small tent on the porch of the mansion, the tents around hers given to people assigned to guard her. There was also supposed to be a guard sitting outside her tent at night, but he'd fallen asleep the previous night, giving her the chance to slip out of her tent and explore the grounds.

There wasn't much to see. She stayed away from the line of trailers where people were sleeping and away from the guard posts around the gate. She passed a thriving garden, smaller but healthier than the one the Sanctuary, and then came across the beginnings of a new building. By the size of the lumber pile next to it, the structure was either going to be huge or they were planning on building other things as well. They're expanding, she thought.

"Hey, Aven," someone hissed through the darkness. She froze, her eyes darting around until they fell on a fenced-in area tucked into a corner by the wall. She could see the silhouettes of several people gathered against the chain-link wire and realized they were closed in, prisoners. She quietly made her way closer, staying up against the wooden structure and pile of lumber so as not to be seen by anyone else. As she approached the fence, she began to make out the familiar faces of several Saviors.

"Holy shit," she gasped under her breath as she saw the crowd of people behind the few standing to get her attention. "How many of you do they have?"