"No, no, no. C'mon, you have to get up. We have to keep moving… Max, please! Get up!" The man wheezed, crumpled on the ground, his head spinning. Get up, get up, his sister's voice sang. He couldn't leave her. He had…he had…to move. Max opened his bloodshot eyes and tried to push himself up; his right arm draped around narrow, bony shoulders. There was pain. Like fire, like his insides were melting away. But he had to move. He had to protect his baby sister.

"That's it, Max, you've got it." But he didn't have it. On his next step his legs caved beneath him and poor Cali couldn't hold his weight. His breath came out in rattles. There was glass in his lungs and the world was becoming too bright. Cali hurriedly moved around to hook her arms under his and drag him back. But his skin was tissue paper- every movement made tore him open. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

I'm sorry, he thought. She propped him back up against a tree, soft grass and cool dirt beneath his fingers. He could still smell the earth, deep and fresh and wet. But now there was something far more sinister thrown into the mix- the smell of his own decay. Shadows crept through his vision, darting along the trees before stopping to stare. But when he blinked, they were gone.

His head rolled to the side to look at a pair of terrified amber eyes and a small angular face covered in blood and dirt and tears. "You…look…like mom," he wheezed, smiling and letting the memories of his childhood come back. He could hear his mother's voice then, telling him it will be over soon.

"Tell me what to do," she begged through her sobs.

"Like….I taught you…" He'd already given her the gun. And shown her how to use it. He had wanted to keep her from it, from all of it, but that was a mistake. He should have taught her more. Should have showed her how to take care of herself. Now no one would.

"No, Max, no," she sobbed, "I can't."

"Can…"

She shook her head, "don't leave me."

"Always…with you," he reached for his dog tags that hung around his neck, but his arm was so heavy and shook terribly, "take…" It was so hard to speak, but she understood and slid them gently over his head and clutched them in her tiny hand. She had always been too small. "Promise… stay alive."

She nodded, "I promise," but she didn't know if that was a promise she would ever be able to keep.

"Time," he whispered, leaning his head back against the tree. His mother's voice hummed a familiar lullaby. He would be with her soon. Cali's lip quivered and her hands shook as she pulled out the gun. He had one final break inside him. In his final exhale he told her, "Love you, Cali." And then darkness. All the sounds faded away until there was nothing but the sound of his mother's voice.

Cali sobbed as her brother went limp. She screamed and yelled and clawed the dirt. It was what he wanted. What he wanted. He didn't want to become one of them. He showed her how. Her hand clasped so tightly around his tags that her nails dug into her palm and her hand bled. This is what he wanted. He wanted.

She slipped the dog tags over her head, clinking as the metal thunked against her chest. Cali raised the gun. She had to. For him. She promised. She took a deep breath and tried to block out the world. She could hear her sobs as if they belonged to someone else far away until they disappeared altogether. She felt herself go numb. Her heart beat hard and steady, drumming in her ears.

Silence.

The gunshot echoed through the forest.

Cali lay there by her brother's corpse for she didn't know how long. Time was escaping her. She didn't move. She didn't care. Her promise to stay alive resounded through her mind like a broken record, but it was empty. She was alone now. Totally, completely alone. She didn't want to live, to be tormented with the memory of her mother's death- of her father's. And now with her brother's. She was dead already. A dead woman walking. There was no difference between her and those things. She wasn't human. She killed her brother.

Cali pushed her body up out of the dirt and sat facing Max. Blood poured out over his face from the gaping bullet hole in his forehead. She picked up the gun again. This time it felt cold and heavy in her hand and she placed the barrel against her temple. She closed her eyes.

Something grabbed onto her wrist, the gun dropping to the ground. So quickly she was jerked to her feet. "No!" she screamed, "Max! Max!" she kicked and thrashed violently, screaming for her brother as if he would get up and save her before she felt teeth sink into flesh.

"Stop screamin'," a rough voice demanded. She reached for Max, but an arm wrapped around her stomach, holding her back. "He's dead," the voice said. Suddenly hearing it made the reality of it unbearable.

"He's my brother," she sobbed, "my brother." The arm that held her loosened enough so that she fell forward, staring at him, "what have I done? What have I done?" She wrapped her arms around her body, rocking back and forth, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She saw the figure bend down and pick up the gun, but it was nothing but a blur of movement.

"Walkers all over these woods. C'mon."

She shook her head, "I can't leave him."

"He's gone." Cali didn't move. "Goddammit." Suddenly Cali was heaved off the ground, but she didn't say anything. Something hard hooked under her legs and an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Then she was carried away, looking over a shoulder in a dirty blue shirt she saw her brother's figure get smaller and smaller until she was weaved through the trees and he was gone.

Cali gasped and jerked, "whoa, take it easy Sleepin' Beauty." The man stopped and set her on the ground. "'Bout time you woke up. I was about to drop you off in a ditch." Cali just stared at him, he was much older than her and much bigger. But more than that, she couldn't get past his metal stub with a jagged knife attached to the end with duct tape. "Like it? Made it myself after I cut my hand off."

"You cut your hand off?"

"Well it wasn't outta boredom, Sugar." Cali didn't say anything more, she just turned and started walking. "Where you think you're goin?" he called. But, she didn't know where she was going. He had taken her gun, but she didn't really care. She didn't want it anyway. "Get your ass back here!" But she didn't stop. The moment she did she would collapse again.

Other voices flooded her ears as men poured in around her. Big men with big guns. They looked at her with surprise. And then with hunger. One of them whistled, "lookie what Merle found." Cali backed up, suddenly wishing she'd pulled the trigger sooner.

"Keep it in your pants, boys. Pull it out, I'll cut it off."

"Taking all the fun for yourself, Dixon?" A chill went up Cali's spine. She knew she couldn't fight them, but she was fast, if she could just find an opening. A man laughed, "You're scarin' the poor thing. Look at her." Her heart beat faster, "how old are ya, baby?"

She wrapped her arms around herself, looking for her opportunity to run, "twenty-seven."

"No kiddin'. Ain't much of ya, is there?" More laughter.

"Alright boys, that's enough now," Merle said. Cali turned to look at him. "What's your name, girly?"

"Cali," she said.

"Is that so? Well, Cali, we gonna take you someplace nice. You gonna really like it."

"You're bringing her? Seriously?" Someone asked.

"Got a problem with it, you can shut your mouth," he put his hand on her shoulder and she flinched.

"I don't want to go with you."

"We ain't gonna hurt ya, now let's go."

She shook her head, "please no." Merle said something else then but it was lost on her. Cali's head spun and dizziness took hold. The world was spinning and the ground came closer. Something smacked against her head and her vision faded.

Cali could hear voices floating all around her in the darkness. They echoed, but when she reached for them, they were gone and it was silent once more.

A bright light flashed and she gasped as if she'd been drowning. She sat up so quickly that her head spun. She didn't know where she was. A hospital? She could hear machines beeping and a little needle stinging in the crook of her arm. Was she dreaming? Had it been a dream all along? But then it came back to her, overwhelmingly. She remembered her brother, her parents… all of it. Anxiety and pain stabbed through her chest and she was drowning once again.

Cali gripped the tube and yanked the needle out, gritting her teeth she pushed herself off the cold metal bed and almost completely collapsed. Her body was too heavy, her legs shook. What had they given her? The room spun and she pushed herself toward the door. She managed a few steps before she began to topple over. She reached out, trying to grab onto a cart for support, but it too began to tip and they both dropped into the floor with a loud clang as the cart and the tray of medical supplies struck the floor. The back of her head smacked against the cold, hard linoleum. She groaned and tried to get up, but her body convulsed and shook too violently.

The door opened and figures flooded the room. She grabbed one of the scalpels off the floor, "stay away from me!"

"Whoa, just take it easy," a tall dark haired man stared at her. "You were badly dehydrated when Merle found you."

"Merle…" she turned the name over, "Merle… the one handed guy?"

"That's right."

"Where is he?"

"He had some business to take care of."

"Who are you?"

He smiled. He looked charming, but something didn't sit right in the pit of her stomach. "They call me The Governor," he said. "Why don't you put that down and we'll get you back on your feet?"

Cali didn't want to, but something told her that he wasn't asking. She sat it down slowly, but when he took a step towards her she put her hand out defensively and snapped, "I can do it myself." Her body wasn't shaking as terribly now so she pushed herself up and managed to stay that way.

"Why don't you hop back up on the bed?"

"No."

"Very well," his lips pursed as if he tasted something sour.

"I want to leave."

"You're in no condition to leave."

"I don't care."

"Tell you what, we'll get you a nice place to stay and tomorrow we'll give you some supplies and send you on your way." Cali didn't like it, but she didn't have a choice. She followed him out the door and down the hall slowly until he stopped at the double doors of the front entrance. As he opened them he smiled at her and said, "welcome to Woodbury."

"That was a good run today. You continue to impress me," the Governor said, standing in the makeshift laboratory of Woodbury's resident wannabe scientist Milton.

"What about the girl?" Merle asked.

"What girl?" Milton asked, his wide curious eyes peering out from behind his glasses.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be…taken care of," the Governor glanced over at Milton before turning to leave the room. "C'mon Merle. I want to talk to you." Merle pushed off the wall he'd been leaning on and followed. When they were out of earshot of Milton, the Governor turned, "Merle, I want to reward you for all your hard work. You and all the other men," he grinned, "I left you a gift in your apartment. Pass it on to Victor when you're done and tell him to do the same."

Merle looked at the man, slightly confused, "okay then," he said before the Governor turned and left. Merle wondered what he could have given him that everyone else would want. He weaved through the town until he came to a familiar building and going in and up the stairs to a familiar door, pulling the key out of his pocket.

Going inside, he shut the door behind him and then stopped dead. The girl turned, her auburn hair bouncing in curls and her amber eyes seemed to glow in the dim light. Merle stared for a long minute while Cali looked as if she might jump out the window. "You've gotta be kiddin' me," he said, walking over to where he left his bottle of liquor last and poured himself a drink.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"It's my room, girly."

"He didn't say anyone lived here. That Governor."

"No, I guess he didn't," Merle downed his glass in one swig and moved toward the girl. She backed up until she hit the wall. He put his hand up beside her head and leaned closer. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face. "I am a lot of things, but I ain't no rapist."

She shook her head, tears spilling out from under her eyelids, "I didn't know, I swear. He said to stay here and he'd let me go in the morning."

Merle pushed away from her and poured another drink. "That ain't gonna happen. They gonna pass you around like a pipe at a powwow." Cali felt sick. She would rather die than think about the alternative. She sunk to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to make herself smaller than she already was. Merle watched her. She was a pathetic little thing, but she was pretty enough. Victor would get a kick out of her.

But then he saw her, back in the woods with what had once been her brother. He saw himself and Daryl. He saw her put the gun to her head. He saw himself vowing to wait for his baby brother as he put the barrel in his mouth.

Merle didn't bother pouring another drink. He simply put the bottle to his lips and swigged before getting up and crossing the room. He sat the bottle on the coffee table and plopped himself on the couch, stretching out and laying an arm over his eyes. "Bed's back there. Don't touch anything."

"What?"

"You deaf?"

"No…"

"Then git. I can't sleep with you cryin' there like that."

Cali got up and watched him as he lay there. He didn't move as she went back and sat on the bed. She sat there quietly for what seemed like forever, worried he would get up and change his mind, but he didn't. She laid down, curled up and wrapped the blankets around herself as if they could shield her from the outside world. Cali was grateful that whoever Merle was, he wasn't what she feared most. Though, as she lay there she couldn't help the growing contempt she felt for the Governor. 'They'll pass you around like a pipe at a powwow.' She had to get out of here. In the morning she would get out. She had to. Or die trying.