What was once a thriving Sanctuary full of ambitious people happy to be alive amongst one another became desolate and grey. Those that were left were treated like slaves, worked to the bone to provide for the new inhabitants that didn't want to do anything but consume food and drink.

There were no rules or laws. There was no purpose. The soldiers ran amok and did what they wanted, as did Spencer. He learned quickly that his wives hated him, and he didn't really have any desire to force them, so he passed them off to his soldiers. He didn't care where they worked, as long as they were useful. Otherwise they'd end up thrown out the front gate, like the other non-essential Sanctuary dwellers.

He wandered through the cell block that was filled with his VIP prisoners, the ones that he didn't want to set free. He very much enjoyed his menagerie, Savior and Alexandrian alike. He'd even found Maggie hunkered down with a bunch of other pregnant chicks. They had the nicest cell, all together so they could share in their hormonal misery. He'd offered the pretty blonde nurse a ticket out of there and straight into his pants but she'd refused.

Uptight bitches.

He kicked at the door to Rick's solitary cell with glee as he passed. Then came Regina. Then Daryl, who'd made a valiant effort, really. But here he was, sandwiched between two lieutenants. This second one was Spencer's prize pony. She'd been such a condescending cunt that day that Negan had visited Alexandria. And now she was breaking in the dark.

He slid open the rectangular hole on the door, and lowered his face to peer into the darkness.

"You still alive in there, blondie?" He sang, and a stream of blood slicked out of the hole, slapping him in the cheek. He backed up and gagged, wiping at his face maniacally. He heard the bitch laugh and he slammed the hole shut with a frustrated growl. "You're going to break sometime! Just like your loser lover when I beat him so close to death he begged for it!"

"Liar!" There was a thump as she seemed to throw herself into the door in anger. "He wouldn't!"

"He did," Spencer said, sneering at the door. "He bowed to me at the end, and so will you."

Talia kneaded the morning bread dough, her arms protesting the motion. But she knew she couldn't stop. She'd seen more than one of her peers hauled out to god knew what fate for not fulfilling their duties to these men. So she just kneaded her dough.

She was just glad the kids had made it out okay. She hoped that the school teachers were taking good care of them, and that they were behaving well. She hoped that they'd all made it to the Kingdom, and that even if help never came to the Sanctuary, that they'd live a good life there. She'd heard great things about Ezekiel and the way he ran his community.

Talia caught a flash of red as Frankie blew past her with a tray of cups of coffee. There wasn't much of that left. There wasn't much of anything left at this point, and they were really low on a lot of the commodities that these men were consuming.

They behaved like animals, really. Frankie attempted to dole out mugs of the steaming brew and avoided hands pawing at her. Talia had never seen the redhead looking so disheveled, and it was disconcerting. The big bags under her eyes and her sunken cheeks. But nobody was looking well these days.

Frankie screeched and threw one of the coffees at a soldier, finally having had enough, and Talia froze. The soldier cried out in pain as the hot liquid hit his face, and two of his buddies grabbed her before she could flee, slamming her down onto the table.

"Don't," somebody whispered, touching Talia's arm. "You can't help her."

"We can't just keep allowing this," she murmured back.

"There's nothing we can do," the woman replied, hefting a heavy laundry sack. "They're ruthless. And there are too many of them." She was a small, wiry thing, and Talia thought maybe she'd worked in the kitchens before.

She knew the woman was right. There wasn't anything they could do. All they could do was try to survive until help came. If help ever came.

Spencer crept up on Daphne's cell this time, not wanting her to know that he was coming. He fingered the peep hole, ready to fling it open and surprise her, but he froze at the sound of her ragged sobs within.

She was breaking; she was so close.

Spencer took Rick out for a walk after letting him rot for many days, wanting to show off his new kingdom. He'd had to get a few guards to cuff him, since he was healing along nicely and could be dangerous again any day now. At least he was able to walk without stumbling about.

"Spencer, you gotta let me go home," Rick begged. "My kids. I need to see my kids, please."

"Oh shut up, if you gave a shit about your kids you would have never started any of this shit in the first place." Spencer shook his head as they walked along the fence. The guards were a few steps behind, guns trained on the ex-leader. "No, you can suffer here a bit longer I think. Before I decide what I'm going to do with you."

"Why are you doin' this?" Rick asked, voice raspy from underuse.

"You're all so stupid," came the petulant reply. "It's obvious why I'm doing this. You all treated me like shit. You, specifically, got my family killed, and then treated me like dirt. Nobody respected me. Now I have my own place that's full of people that respect me."

"You think these people respect you?" Rick noted the looks of disgust on people's faces as they headed inside, into what used to be the marketplace. "They're half starved and beaten. You took their homes and killed their leader. They fear you, and they hate you."

"Shut up!" Spencer snapped, unwilling to hear it. "You don't know shit about being a good leader. Your subjects need to fear you to be useful. Nobody is going to fuck with me. That's how Negan did it."

Rick disagreed, but he wasn't about to say so at this point. He was glad for the fresh air, and didn't want to piss off his chauffeur so much that he would get thrown back in his cell prematurely.

From what he'd seen and heard of the Saviors after Negan's original meeting with the Alexandrians in the forest, his people were fiercely loyal to him. They had maybe feared him, but they also had respected him. He had provided them with quite a life, a life that Spencer was definitely not providing anymore.

They strolled full circle around to the other stairwell of the cell block, but upon descending Rick glanced into the one and only large cell with bars. He saw a familiar head of hair and let out a choked cry.

"Maggie?" He hadn't known if she was even still alive or not.

"Rick?!" she cried, head snapping up at his voice, and ran to the bars, reaching out to him.

"Oh, I don't think so," Spencer tutted and snapped his fingers, his guards stepping forward to drag Rick along the corridor.

"Maggie!" he screamed as they jerked him down the hallway, and a sob wrenched its way from her throat as she watched him disappear around the corner.

Amber patted her shoulder reassuringly. "It's going to be okay," the blonde cooed. "Somebody got out. They'll get help for us."

Maggie just hoped that it was the Kingdom, and not Alexandria. She wouldn't be able to bear it if Glenn came bounding in to try to rescue her and then got hurt.

But knowing that Rick was here complicated things greatly. That meant that Alexandria didn't have a leader right now. And if Spencer had stolen Rick in the middle of the night to come and ambush the Sanctuary with Negan in tow, then who was even left in Alexandria? Glenn might already be dead. The whole place might be gone.

She squeezed her eyes shut and turned back to the group of frightened women that had been her cellmates for what felt like years now. She had to stay strong.

Today was the day. Spencer waited outside of Daphne's door, waiting for some kind of movement, a fuck you, a spit, anything. He'd opened the peep hole and waited, prompting her every now and then with snarky comments. She'd responded with nothing but sobbing for days now, but this day it was quiet.

So he waited patiently outside of her cell.

His patience paid off when he saw two fingers curl their way out of the hole.

"Spencer?" she rasped.

"Yes, bitch?"

"Please let me out," she breathed. "Please...I'll do anything."