"Well, stranger, we feed them strangers."

The second the words registered, Rick sprung into action. But he wasn't quick enough. Everything went too dark and too fast and the last thing he saw was the image of the Governor, grinning.

He felt the pain in his head even though he wasn't fully conscious yet. It was sharp and sent rolling waves of ache and burning through his body. He brought his hand up with his eyes still closed, but something, someone, held his arm down. Instinctively, he opened his eyes and began to struggle.

"Don't, you'll make your injury worse."

His vision was blurry and he saw two figures in front of him. Slowly, the two figures merged into one and he looked at the person. It was a young girl with long brown hair, braided down her back. She wore a white coat and gave him a warm smile.

Rick sat up, confused. "What-"

"You were knocked out," she told him. "Don't worry, I patched you up. Just a few stitches. Here." She handed him two pills and he eyed them suspiciously. "It's just aspirin. For the pain."

Rick was so desperate for the pain to subside that he grabbed them and drank them down with the glass of water she offered him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Rick continued to eye her. She seemed kind, warm, and loving, but everyone he'd met so far in this place had turned out to be hostile and crazy. Could it be an act? It was definitely an act. These people were good at that. Suddenly he wished he hadn't taken those pills.

He looked around the room. It was a small infirmary, much smaller than the one in the prison. She barely had any supplies, mostly stuff he'd find in a doctor's office.

"I'm Alice, by the way," she told him, extending her hand.

He looked at it for a moment before he reached for it. "Rick."

"Rick, they're gonna come for you soon," as she said this there was a warning in her tone that didn't go amiss. "I'm gonna give you more aspirin, but you'll have to hide it."

"Why will I need more–" Oh. Right. He understood. They weren't done with him yet.

She emptied half the bottle into his hand and he put them in his pocket. When he looked up at her again, her expression had changed to one of extreme sympathy.

"I'm sorry," Alice said, and at that moment they burst through the doors and suddenly it was dark again.

He came to his senses to catch the last part of his captor's inquiry.

"For the last time, where is your group?" the Governor said as he paced the room.

Rick eyed the big guy to his left. He held a bat and Rick knew the guy was just itching to use it.

"I told you, I don't know," Rick insisted. "We got lost and ended up here. I don't even know if they're alive."

The guy with the bat began to move, but the Governor stopped him. "That's not what your Chinese friend said."

Rick growled at him. "What did you do to him?"

The Governor smiled. "Don't worry, he's okay. For now." He stood tall and turned to the big guy. "I have a better punishment for liars."

The rage Rick was feeling for the man was immeasurable. How he wished he could untie his hands. Apparently Glenn hadn't escaped, but he hoped Daryl did. Had Daryl even been there? The wound to his head was making him all crazy. Maybe this was a dream. He hoped it was a dream.

"I wanna watch him play the final game."

Rick sneered at the Governor's evil grin and vowed, if he got himself out of this one, to kill the son of a bitch with his bare hands and watch him die slowly. Painfully.

Minutes later, they were taking him somewhere. He didn't know where. They put a bag over his head, just in case he escaped. They were making sure that if he did, he wouldn't know where the exit was. Suddenly he was inside a building. It smelled old, moldy, disgusting. He nearly gagged at the smell but his guards seemed to be used to it. They brought him to a stop and pressed something to his back. A gun, he knew.

"Try and you're dead."

Finally they removed the bag from his head and untied his hands. An overwhelming urge to turn around and fight them came to him, but he knew what the consequences of that would be.

They opened a door and pushed him inside, closing it behind quickly. It took a while for his eyes to adjust and even more for his brain to kick in. But suddenly he knew what this room was.

It was a cell.

Ironic, that. He'd found freedom in one jail and was now captive in another.

At least there was a cot in this one, and a sink off to the side with a plastic cup next to the faucet. No toilet. The wall in front of him was made of concrete as well as the wall behind him, along with a steel door. The side walls were merely bars. A small window at the top of the wall in front of him, barred. Sunlight streamed through it and he could see all the particles of dust flying in the air like glitter. He stood on the cot and tried to look out. He could see very little, just a few houses, very few people. He shook the bars but knew it was useless.

Frustrated and angry still, he sat on the cot and tried to think of a plan, a way to get out of there. His mind was blank, though, and every time he tried to think too much the injury began to throb. He remembered the pills Alice had given him, but he wouldn't take them just yet. The injury to the head would be nothing compared to what he knew would come. He needed to ration them.

He looked around. This place didn't seem like a jail, nor a police station, either. It looked like it was built for just one purpose, and not to keep criminals in.

His eyes landed on the next cell over and for the first time he noticed he wasn't alone. There was a body slumped on the floor. He frowned and stood up, and as he approached it his pulse quickened and his heart sank deep. He fell to his knees in front of it with a sigh and a feeling of dread.

It was Andrea.

tbc