Chapter 3

"You did what?! What could possibly make you think it was alright to let her go? She isn't well enough to be on her own!"

Merle didn't even flinch as the Governor continued his rant. "She isn't alone."

The Governor turned with a glare towards him. "That's right; she's with that animal Michonne. Who knows what she's capable of? I specifically told you to let Michonne go, that did not include Holly in any way!"

Martinez smirked as Merle continued to get scolded like a disobedient dog. "Well, Michonne was starting to cause a raucous with her questions and I didn't want it to look like she was a prisoner here. Far as I know Holly wasn't a prisoner, right?" Merle taunted with a smirk.

The Governor's glare grew darker as he stopped pacing. "No, she wasn't. But she is in danger and I want you and a group of men to bring her back, and don't bother coming back until you know Michonne is dead."

A few hours later…

"Wait! Can't we take a small break?" Holly said as she tried to catch her breath.

"No. I'm starting to feel like all you can do is complain." Michonne answered as she continued walking.

She huffed in deep breaths as she followed her companion. "It might be, ever since this all started I've never had to face the outside."

"Consider yourself lucky then."

She chuckled at the answer. "Not from my perspective."

Michonne gave her own dark chuckle. "Keep up, I didn't feel right leaving Woodbury so easily. The way things sounded, the Governor might be coming after you."

Holly shook her head as she tried to keep up with Michonne. "No." She shook her head. "He might be mad but I'm sure he'll move on. Get another girl or something." She sighed as the dark thought of Andrea taking her place came up. Hopefully she would be there of her own free will.

She started to regret wearing flat suede boots as they continued their trek somewhere. But what could she do? Woodbury wasn't very concerned when it came to survival clothes and neither was she before all this started. Holly took another deep breath as she started to feel exhausted.

Michonne stopped suddenly and turned around as she heard something back where they had come. "By the sound of things I'd say he doesn't want to move on." She whispered harshly. "Quick, can you climb a tree?"

"Nnn uh…" She nodded as her panic started to rise. Michonne nodded towards the trees and quickly drew her sword. Holly was extremely tired though, not being accustomed to being on the constant run, she mustered the last of her strength and forced herself up the branches of a tree farther ahead of their previous spot. Try as she might, Holly couldn't seem to quiet her breathing as she nervously watched Michonne wait behind a tree instead of hide.

Coming from the same path they had taken a while before, Michonne listened as Merle and three other men spoke about finding them. She smirked at their inability to stay quiet but it soon disappeared as she heard Holly slip in a tree close by her and give a small cry, alerting the men of their location.

Merle smirked all the same. "Pretty sure we found our two lost kitty's around here. Tim, Crowley." He called. "Go on ahead and check the trees for them."

Michonne took a deep breath in as she knew what was to come. The footsteps grew closer and she readied herself in an offensive pose ready to strike.

"What's the point anyway? They're as good as dead this far out." She breathed in as the two approached.

His companion laughed. "Shame too. Samurai chick sure looked like she would've been a nice lay, all flexible like." That was the last straw for her as Michonne lunged out and slashed one of the men in the stomach and quickly decapitated the other. She quickly ran for cover though as Merle started to shoot at her and laugh crazily. She wasn't fast enough though as he manage to clip her leg with a stray bullet.

"Aww, don't look at me like that Sugar tits. I'm sure we can work this out all nice like, just tell me where Holly is." Merle demanded with a gun pointed towards her face, she hardly flinched though as she clutched at her leg. "Not talking? Well that's just too bad." Readying his gun he suddenly jumped as a shot rang out behind him. A walker laid behind him where his other companion had fired and they were suddenly surrounded by more.

Not having any choice, they started to fight off the walkers having to forget about each other. Holly watched in horror as she realized that her only protector was in danger. She tried to climb down but the fear already flooding her brain was making the task even more difficult. "Holly! You have to jump!" Michonne called from below.

Holly's eyes widened as she realized her friend was covered in blood and mush. "I-I can't!" Michonne quickly stabbed a walker in the head as she told Holly where to go with a nod of her head and started running. The fear of being left alone outweighed the fear of the walkers at that moment as she took a deep breath and jumped to the ground, running after her companion.

She soon catches up to her limping friend but they don't stop, they can't as they knew that Merle would be close behind them. They had been walking for a while, occasionally running when they felt a safe distance away from Merle and the corpses. Michonne took a deep breath as she sheathed her sword and looked at Holly. "You're ankle is swelling up."

"Wha?" She looked down and realized that her ankle did look larger. "I must have landed wrong when I jumped off the tree." She poked her ankle as she took in large breaths. "It's weird, it doesn't really hurt."

Michonne checked all around them before answering. "Must be the adrenaline we're feeling. Sooner or later you'll feel the pain." She looked at Holly's clothes and slightly sneered at the cleanliness they still held. "We're going to have to something about your smell."

"My smell?" Holly asked slightly insulted.

The growl of a walker suddenly made them tense up. Michonne quickly took care of it with a slice of his head, spilling blood and gore in front of Holly. "If you smell like one of them, then they'll ignore you, hopefully."

She cringed at the thought but knew that Michonne had to be right, after all, she was covered in blood and guts and the walker hadn't even paid her any mind before she killed it. "Allright." She sighed. Holly groaned and whimpered as she felt Michonne place blood on her clothes and even her arms and neck.

Michonne chuckled at the reactions from her 'blood bath' earning a glare from her companion. "C'mon, you have to get used to being dirty from now on, especially now that we're on the run."

Holly sighed again, "It's hard when you've never had to live like this before, cripes, I've never even gone camping before, how am I going to survive this?"

"Did you just say cripes?" Michonne asked with a smirk. "God, you really are a little princess." She chuckled again as Holly gave her a feeble punch in the arm as an answer. Sudden rustling in the brush behind them quickly made them stiffen. Knowing that it was time to leave they crouched down and quickly tried to make their way out of the woods and away from Merle.

After much running, the pair finally made it to a small town. They were breathless and exhausted as they could hear Merle close behind for some time. They ran around cars trying to get away from his mocking laughter when Michonne suddenly pulled Holly behind a car and placed her hand over her mouth to cover up her ragged breaths. "C'mon girls, just wanna show ya what good ol' Merle has to offer for some sweet tail." Merle taunted with his own tired breaths and went in another direction.

Holly took in deep breaths as Michonne let her stand. "What are we gonna do now?" She was answered by another yank behind the car as they heard a door open revealing a young couple carrying a heavy basket filled with containers.

"Think this'll be enough?" The girl asked.

"You kidding? We have enough to make sure she'll be comfortable for a very long time." The Asian man laughed.

Michonne and Holly gave each other confused looks before turning back to the couple. "Glenn, do you think the prison will keep us safe?" The young girl asked.

Glenn wiped sweat from his forehead. "Should be, since it's in the other direction from civilization, there should be less people, meaning less walkers. Don't worry, Maggie."

Maggie held herself with a worried expression. "It's just tha-"

"Well what do we have here?"

Michonne and Holly quickly ducked behind the car before they could be seen by Merle. Holly shuddered at the sounds of a struggle, gunshots, and a car peeling away, but they didn't do anything, they couldn't. Standing up with only a sword to protect them would be suicide against a gun, besides they didn't even know who the couple were, they had no responsibility.

Once they knew the area was clear they stood from their hiding spot and looked at each other in confusion. "What just happened?" Holly asked in fright.

Her companion didn't answer but instead walked towards the basket left forgotten on the ground. She looked around with what looked like guilt in her eyes as she started walking in the opposite direction of civilization. "Come on." Michonne ordered.

Holly followed having no other option in sight but took a quick peak in the basket to find it filled with baby formula. She didn't say anything knowing she would just be ignored, but Holly had a feeling something would be happening in the prison they were now heading towards.

Later….

"Are we almost there?" Holly asked as they both limped along towards the prison. She knew she was being annoying as Michonne ignored her but she needed to talk if only to distract herself from the pain, unfortunately her companion used silence as a coping mechanism and the both only found themselves in more discomfort.

Michonne stopped walking with a raised hand and quickly handed the basket of formula off to Holly to better reach her sword. "From this point on we must stay quiet." She seriously whispered. Holly was about to ask why when she looked up and found a horde of walking corpses surrounding a fence around the prison. "Our smell should be concealed with what we did with our clothes. Come on."

The duo quietly made their way through the crowd of cannibals making sure not to draw attention, in a way there limps managed to even help them blend in better but it didn't help once they were at the fence. How would they get in? Holly looked around nervously as she noticed some of their companions smelling the air. She nudged Michonne a bit with the basket but she didn't notice as she stared intently at something in the prioson. "M-Michonne." She whispered but it still didn't work. It wasn't until one of the corpses growled next to her did Michonne jump into action and start to take care of the enemy. Holly looked on helplessly completely wishing that she could somehow help but she knew they were terribly outnumbered. Suddenly from the corner of her eye she saw movement inside the prison courtyard. "This way!" She yelled towards Michonne as she weaved around the biters.

She reached the gate entrance and turned towards her companion when she realizes that she had fallen during the confusion, trying to get to her friend she is suddenly yanked inside by strong arms and has to watch as a young boy goes to save Michonne. She turned towards her savior but came face to face with a stern and solemn face that quickly pointed a gun towards as he closed the gate after the boy that did the same to Michonne.

"I think we could have taken our chances outside." Holly whimpered as the basket was yanked out of her hands.

"Hmph." Michonne smirked. It was quickly wiped off though as the boy stabbed his gun deeper into her back.

The older man who looked to be the boy's father scoffed at the words and shook his head in disbelief of seeing them with the formula. "You two are going to have to do a lot of explaining for us."

AN: Hey, long time no see. I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though it was more like a necessary bridge for the interesting parts but I thought it would be fun to watch Holly and Michonne bond a bit before meeting the main characters but please let me know what you think and if I should improve. It's always nice to read review as long as they're respectful criticism, right?

-Michelle Rabbit