The Saviors (Comic Series)



The Saviors are a large group of survivors who were named in Volume 16: A Larger World and first appeared in Volume 17: Something to Fear.

Overview
The Saviors were, at the beginning, individual survivors. Each member presumably met at the Hilltop Colony. Some time after the Colony was established, a separate group had formed within the colony, led by a man named Negan, to kill nearby zombies in the area. Judging by their members, the group consisted of the more physically stronger and violent members of the Colony.

Soon, Negan's crew had become one of the largest organized survivor groups in the apocalyptic world. They became more and more violent with their ways as they grew in numbers and confidence, and they eventually degraded into commiting crimes against other living survivors, which included murder, blackmail, theft, rape and other various transgressions.

At some point, Negan named his group the Saviors, demanded half of all the rations and supplies from the Hilltop Colony. If the Saviors did not get what they wanted, they gave out deadly messages or severe beatings. In return, the Saviors would kill all zombies surrounding the Hilltop Colony. It is unknown if the Colony had initially resisted the demands, but it is known that they submitted to the Savior's wishes and followed through with the process for some time before Rick's group had encountered the Hilltop residents.

The approximate number of members in the Saviors is currently unknown. It has been shown that there are at least over fifty alive members, with more mentioned having taken position around various parts of the wasteland watching each survivor community, including several surrounding the Alexandria Safe-Zone.

After-Apocalypse
As Rick's group returned to the Alexandria Safe-Zone from the Hilltop Colony, they were confronted by a four-man squad of Saviors, who demanded that they turn over their goods in the name of Negan. As Rick had never dealt with the Saviors before, he made the decision to oppose their demands and signaled to Andrea to attack. Andrea shot two of the Saviors to their deaths while Michonne leapt out of the van and decapitated another. Rick informed the last remaining Savior, who appeared to be the four-man squad's ringleader, to return to Negan with a message: the Saviors no longer need to protect the Hilltop Colony and that, as they demanded the colony, they owed Ricks' group half of their supplies now.

The remaining Savior fled while Rick and the others returned to the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Later, Rick held a meeting and told the residents of the agreement he made with Paul and Gregory about protecting the colony from the Saviors, referring to them as hot air and a lesser threat, and promised that they would not be much trouble. Rick then asked if anyone disagreed to protect the Hilltop Colony in exchange for food; no one objected and the decision was made. The next day, early in the morning, Abraham and Eugene left for several stores to collect spent bullet casings and tools to make new ammo. Eugene pressed Abraham to make the journey.

However, Eugene was unaware of the Saviors' planned retaliation attack for the deaths of three of their group by the hands of Michonne and Andrea, as Rick had wished to wait until morning to tell them of the new threat. While the two conversed, the topic led to Rosita. Abraham told Eugene that he regretted the way he had treated Rosita and left her, and expressed that even though he no longer loved her, that he genuinely hoped Eugene could bring Rosita happiness the way Holly had brought him happiness.

However, Abraham was then abruptly struck with a crossbow arrow through the back of his head and out his eye, effectively killing him. Dwight, a member of the Saviors who fired the arrow, then took a stunned Eugene hostage.

The Saviors used Eugene to lead them to the Alexandria Safe-Zone and demanded that Rick let them in. Rick refused, and a firefight ensued which led to almost a dozen Saviors deaths. Eugene used the commotion to bite Dwight in the crotch and escape death as Dwight and the remaining members retreated. Rick and Andrea chased the Saviors to kill them, but instead of finding any of them, they found Abraham's corpse being gnawed on by a zombie.

After they disposed of the zombie, they brought back Abraham's body for burial in Issue 98. Late in Issue 99, a small group of Saviors spied on the colony with one Savior telling the others to inform Negan that they will attack at dawn.

Rick lead a group of Community survivors which included Michonne, Carl, Glenn, Maggie, Sophia and Heath to the Hilltop Colony following the death of Abraham. Along the way, they realized they had underestimated the length of time it would take to reach Hilltop, and decided to stop roadside for the night. At some point during the night, a group of four Saviors snuck up on their vehicle and captured Rick. His captor ended up being the Savior who Rick had let live earlier in order to deliver a message to Negan. The group of four then alerted Negan along with a bulk group of Saviors in the area that they had captured Rick.

Negan arrived with his fellow Saviors and proceeded to taunt the group while attempting to mentally break Rick before the others. He proceeded to inform them that they and the Alexandria Safe-Zone were now property of the Saviors. In retribution of the violence towards his men, he told them that one of them would die from his favorite weapon "Lucille", a baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire.

Before the decision was made of who to kill, Negan threatened to rape Rick before the group as well as point out his discomfort with being considered racist, so he decided to use the "eenie-meenie" method to select his victim, who was eventually revealed to be Glenn.

After Glenn was brutally beaten to death before the others, Rick promised to kill Negan one day. Before leaving, however, Negan beat Rick with his bare hands, telling the group that they were to now answer to the Saviors and that they would be in Alexandria in one week to pick up their "offering". Rick begrudgingly accepted their new rule over the group, only in hopes that it would let them kill Negan and drive off the Saviors in the future, though this was met with anger by the others.

Members

 * Negan (Leader)
 * Dwight
 * Mike
 * Paul
 * Tara
 * John
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Savior
 * Many other unnamed members.

Killed Victims

 * Andy
 * David
 * Crystal (Assumed)
 * Sgt. Abraham Ford
 * Glenn
 * Numerous amounts of zombies and unnamed people.

Trivia

 * Though not a cult by traditional means, the Saviors can be considered a union of members dedicated directly to their leader, Negan, to the point that they'll use his name as their own. This alone shows the disturbing loyalty these men and women have to Negan as if he were indeed a higher power.
 * The Saviors are different than the citizens of Woodbury, who were mostly left in the dark surrounding their corrupt leader's actions, while The Saviors seem fully aware of Negan's brutality.
 * It has yet to be revealed the true number of Saviors, although it is known to be greater than one-hundred.