I hear a knock on my door and throw the Spider-Man comic to the side. For a flicker of a moment I faintly remember a book store and a blue and white backpack. Why? I don't know. Probably just some stuff that I miss from before the outbreak.

I open the door to find Simon smiling at me. What a perv.

"I need you to go on a run." He says and spits on the floor outside my door.

"For what?"

He places his hands in his knees and leans forwards till his face is level with mine. "For your training." He says like it I'm stupid.

"So you need me to go somewhere," I pause for a second to try and understand what he's trying to say. "just for my training?" He nods slowly. "Without grabbing anything?" He nods again. "So just drive a car somewhere and come back?"

He furrows his eyebrows together and smiles a smile that looks more like a grimace. "You think we'd give you a car?" He snorts.

I close my eyes and take a deep breathe to keep me from punching this man. "How the hell am I supposed to get to wherever you want me to go?"

"Running." He throws his hands out in front of my face and I take a step back. "Duh!"

I figured that it'd have to be close for me to run there. "Where to then?" I cross my arms and lean against my doorway.

He thinks for a moment, putting his finger on his chin and looking into the distance, obviously faking it. "Now let me see. Where did Negan say he wanted you to go to?" He looks back at me and points his pointer finger up like he just remembered. "Ah yes!" He exclaims. "That little town close to here."

I snap my eyes up to look into his own to make sure he wasn't joking. If course I couldn't tell because he looked too much like he was enjoying this. "That's seven miles from here."

He shrugs. "Your point?"

I throw my hands up. "You're helpless. Where's Negan?" I push past him and close my door behind me.

"He's in his wives' room." He points at the ceiling. I push past him once more to get to the stairs. "A 'thank You' would be much appreciated."

I flip him the bird and give a sarcastic smile before I take off up the stairs. I run up two flights before jogging through the hallways until I get to the lavish door that stands at the end of the hallway, just below Negan's room. It is outlined with tiny, battery operated lights and is the one of the only wooden doors here, along with Negan's. The rest, such as my "apartment" door, are metal.

I knock and Fat Joe answers it. I'm a bit shocked to see him open it and have a moment of worry that he had done something that Negan would never allow him to do to one of his wives until I see Negan standing with him behind Fat Joe.

"Lauren." Negan smiles over Fat Joe's shoulder. "Come in, won't you?"

Fat Joe moves out of the way and I walk in. I avoid eye contact with that boy for fear that I might punch him again and get in trouble with Negan.

I kneel in front of Negan. I honestly find it stupid how he made us do this every time we are in his presence. "Sir, Simon came to my apartment and told me you wanted me to go on a run."

"So?" He says and pours himself a drink and sits down, pulling one of his wives down to sit on his lap.

I avoid eye contact to get rid of the feeling of discomfort. "He literally ment run." I point out.

He chuckles. "Again I ask: So?"

"To the town." I say stupidly. Of course  by now I knew that Simon was telling me the truth, but I was still in disbelief.

"And?" He says bluntly. I snap my head up.

"And that's seven miles." I half whine.

"You better plan to stay over night. That's going to be fourteen miles total, and you won't run that in a day." He advises and then turns back to his conversation with Fat Joe and Carl. His wife looks awfully uncomfortable on his lap and I'm thankful that I'm not like the others here where they are at the bottom, where Dulce, Emily, Makenzie, Tommy, Jesús, and I have some higher ranking due to the fact that they're using us for "super soldiers" I guess you could say.

I awkwardly stand there for a minute, trying to process what he just said, and then turn to leave.

"Oh, Lauren." Negan calls me back and I turn back around. "You might want to stay for the show," he smiles evily and looks at his watch. "Which starts in a couple of minutes." I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this show since they always end up in mutilating or killing someone.

He sort of pushes his wife off of him and then smacks her in the butt when she gets up. She has a look of disgust which quickly changes into a forced smile when she turned to Negan to take his glass.

I let Negan lead the way as I follow behind and that boy follows behind me. I try and ignore the feeling of his eyes staring into the back of my head and focus on where we are going. So far I've narrowed it down to the main doors, the market place, and the iron.

Negan orders the boy to walk next to him and I let him pass and accidentally glance up at him. He looks heartbroken and I wonder what happened to him. I mean, I might hate him but I feel bad at the same time. I'm not that mean of a person.

Negan talks to the boy, but I can't hear their conversation because I'm too far behind them and keep my head down.

We walk along the catwalk above The Iron Room. Negan bangs his bat along the railing, causing my heart to almost jump out of my chest. I hate the Iron Room. It's a cruel way to punish someone for having sex with one of his wives. 

Everyone below us kneels and I don't know wether to kneel or stay standing, so I just sort of bow my head. He hands Lucille to the boy and adresses the others. "You know the deal." He bellows. "What is about to happen is going to be hard to watch. I don't want to do it. I wish I could just ignore the rules and let it slide, but I can't." He lets it echo throughout the silent area. "Why?" He asks.

"The rules keep us alive." We all repeat.  It's something that's been drilled into our heads since day one.

"That. Is. Right!" He says with each step down the stairs. "We survive. We provide security to others. We bring civilization back to this world. We are The Saviours.  But we can't do that without rules. Rules are what make it all work. I know it's not easy, but there's always work, there is always a cost. But here," his voice grows louder. "If you try to skirt it, cut that corner," He chuckles. "Then it is the Iron for you."

An eery silence fills the room after that last sentence and the tension grows.

He orders everyone back up and makes his way to the shaking man who sits in the wooden chair in front of the fireplace while everyone gathers around. I push my way to the front and unfortunately the boy follows. I end up standing next to a man with a mop and a big letter A on his jumpsuit. His eyes grow wide under his dark mop of hair as if he recognizes the boy and I. I shrug it off as more the boy than anything. They're probably just from the same community or something. 

I focus back on Negan who grabs the Iron from Dwight and slowly brings it level to the left side of the man's face. "Mark, I'm sorry. But it is what it is." He slams the Iron into the left side of Mark's face as he screams out in agony. I want to turn away as I watch this man's left side of his face literally melt off, but I can't.  The boy looks between me and the janitor with wide eyes and his mouth agape, but he returns his gaze to Mark.

Mark passes out and Negan removes the Iron from his face, taking most of the skin with it, but just the first and second layer.

"Ah, that wasn't so bad now was it?" Negan asks the unconscious Mark as he hands Dwight back the Iron. "Jesus. He pissed himself." He says as if that wasn't a normal thing to do while getting your face ironed off. He walks over to the janitor and whispers something to him. The janitor grabs his mop and wheels it over to Mark and begins to mop up the pee. "Doc," Negan addresses Doctor Carson. "Come on, do your thing." Doctor Carson rushes over to Mark and begins to clean up the burn area. "Well, he passed out. Let Mark's face be a daily reminder to him and to everyone else that the rules matter. I hope that we all learned something today because I don't ever want to have to do that again."

He walks over to the boy and leads him away from the crowd and back up the catwalk. I take one last look at Mark and make my way to the stairs to the apartments.

I wind through the halls and stairs and finally reach my door. Dulce is just exiting her apartment when I open my door.

"Hey!" She smiles at walks over to me.

"Hey." I give a half smile.

She tilts her head to the side. "What's up with you?"

"Just watched Mark get his face Ironed and now I have to train." I sigh.

"We have training today?!"

It's my turn to tilt my head to the side. "You mean you don't have to run the seven miles to town?"

"No." She sighs in relief and then looks confused again. "Seven miles?!"

I shrug and roll my eyes. "I don't know! Negan told me I have to do it and I guess no one else does." I was hoping I'd have the others to keep my sane on this run, but it's apparently just me.

"You have fun with that. " she pats my shoulder and walks down the hall. I drag my hand down the side of my face and try to figure out what I need.

I end up grabbing my blue and white backpack that looks like a water colored paint dropped in on a white surface. I don't know where it came from. It was with me when I got here I guess.  I hate not having memory of my past, but it must've been rough and horrible if I don't remember it.

I pack light things. A box of matches, three bottles of water, a sweater, some crackers, some blueberries, and my pocket knife. I notice something on my bed and walk over to it. It's an axe and a holder for it and the note next to it reads:

Lauren,

For the walkers on your run. Try to use it in anyone in here and I will turn your brains to mush. Like- never mind, you won't know who I'm talking about.

Have fun!

○Negan

I take the holder and place it through my belt and slide the axe into it. Who was he going to say? Oh well, I probably won't even know them.

I make sure I have everything and head out to the front gates. I look at the map I stole from one of the sleeping merchants, lucky that no one caught me, and head off North towards the town...seven miles away.

A/N: Updating three hours earlier!! Happy Season Finale 😭