Starts off the moment the Dixon brothers are left to fight in the Woodbury arena and continues on from that point with an own story which is based loosely on the tv shows events.

Warnings: Slowburn with mentions child abuse and death. Typical TWD violence.

Panic rose in Sam's stomach as Woodbury's people cheered. She hadn't liked this tradition from the beginning, but Merle had called her a spoilsport and happily participated in the fighting competitions the Governor had created. Now, where nothing was fake anymore, Merle finally seemed to have realized that nobody was safe from the Governor's wrath and when the canvas was pulled off the captives head, Sam saw the horror in the eyes of the man she had come to think of as family.

"MERLE'S BROTHER," boomed the Governor's voice in her ears and she gasped.

"NO!"

She hadn't realized she'd shouted out loud, until she saw Merle tear his eyes away from the man before him with a start, his gaze meeting hers. He shook his head ever so slightly and hurriedly fixed his eyes on his brother again, who looked around the rows of spectators.

The Governor didn't seem to listen to any feedback the audience gave, though. His expression was full of hate and madness. Why hadn't they left before this? Merle had told her the things they did on their runs and she had wanted to leave, but he had thought that this was a safe place. At least for them.
But here she stood now and didn't know what to do. How could she help them? Wasn't there any way to end this? She faintly heard the Governor continue his speech about betrayal, but she couldn't focus on a single word.

Merle swung his fist immediately when the fight began, but his brother, Daryl, didn't seem to keen on fighting back.

Fight back you idiot, play on time, Samantha pleaded desperately in her head, as she hurried through the crowd to get closer.

Merle had pushed Daryl to the ground now and finally the man started to fight back, landing a good punch himself.
Samantha still didn't know what she could do. There was nothing to do, apart from...
All eyes were fixed on the spectacle in the arena. She could do it. She could shoot the Governor. There was no way to know what his goons would do when he dropped dead, but at least this horror would be over, no matter what. Stepping back into the shadows of the stand, she pulled her gun out of the holster and took aim, trying to calm her ragged breaths.

Sam was one second from pulling the trigger when hell broke loose. Shots were fired and someone had thrown smoke bombs between the fighting brothers and within seconds, everything was plunged into thick, white clouds. People were screaming and running and shooting without aim. Sam pushed forward nonetheless, more stumbling than running through the crowd now. She couldn't see much further than an arm length, but she needed to find Merle.

"SAM!" Merle's shout came from her right and she spun around. "Hurry up, girl. Where the fuck have you been?"
He grabbed her hand then and pulled her along, following the retreating shadows of what looked like a man and a woman, Daryl next to them.

How they made it out of the town, Sam had no clue. She fired shots in the direction of two of the Governor's men on the way, but was mostly just dragged along by Merle.

"You're not coming with us," the leader of the group snapped at one point when they reached the gates, but realized soon enough, that this wasn't the time and place for that discussion.

They ran through the forest for what seemed like a lifetime. The sun had already risen when they stumbled out of the forest and onto a highway, where a car was parked and two other people were waiting. A young Asian guy who looked pretty beaten up and a black woman with dreads and a katana strapped around her torso.
Sam didn't hesitate to grab her gun and step in front of Merle when the Asian suddenly aimed his own weapon at him and the woman drew her sword.

"Hey, hey, hey..." the dark haired guy stepped between them and when he turned around again, he addressed her directly: "Shit... put that gun down and step aside, kid."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Do you even know the things he did?"

"Like saving my life? Protecting me as I protected him? Looking for me even when you fuckers threw smoke bombs? Yeah, I know what he did," Samantha spat, keeping a steady grip on her gun.

Merle behind her chuckled.

"He's an asshole," cried the Asian.

"He's family."

That got a reaction out of Daryl: "Who the fuck are you?"

Merle scoffed and reached over her shoulder, slowly pushing the gun down.

"This one here, little brother, is Samantha. She has more balls than any of you, I might add." He took the gun out of her hands and stuffed it back into the holster on her belt.

"Look, there's no time for storytelling," Sam interrupted. "Either you take us with you, or you're not. We have to leave right about fucking now!"

"I'm not leaving him, Rick. Before this, it has always been Merle and I. If he can't come, I'll be going with them," said Daryl.

"He wanted to kill me," cried the black woman.

The Asian nodded: "If it wasn't for him, Maggie would..."

Oh, so that was the reason behind this, Sam thought. Merle had done something stupid. Again.
She turned her head and glared over her shoulder at him.

He shrugged and chuckled quietly: "You know how it is, sweetheart."

Yeah, she knew how it was. Of course, Merle was an asshole, but that didn't mean he was a bad person. He just couldn't hold his tongue, or rather wouldn't stop to think before talking or doing stuff for the life of him. She had never before met a person who was so straight forward. She didn't even know how it had happened, but one day, a few months after they'd met, she had realized she cared about him.

That day they'd had one of their many arguments and Merle had stomped off and, in his rage, had thrown himself at the next best group of Walkers he'd come across. He had killed all of them, but was met with two guns and an arrow aimed at his face directly afterward. Sam had found him the moment the three men had walked into the clearing. She should have run then. The chances had been high that she would miss and one of them would shoot first, but she found herself unable to turn around when they knocked her companion to the ground.
She had never before shot at a living person. Hell, she had never before even aimed at one. But this day she'd killed two men and watched on how Merle killed the third, the blade on his forearm piercing through the mans skull without much effort.
Their relationship had changed, too that day. Merle still got on her nerves after it, but he wouldn't direct his tempers at her anymore and he opened up to normal conversation a lot more. With a fond smile, he told her stories of his baby brother and how they survived together.
It didn't help her attachment at all. The man had crept up on her and suddenly there had been another person she was afraid to lose.