A mirage in the chaos

Rick, who had heard the same loud noise as Daryl, turned around and saw the Governor standing on a tank in front of the prison gate, surrounded by a new army.

"No! No! What are you doing here? This can't be real!" Rick cried out, walking slowly towards the prison gate with his hand reaching for his colt python.

The Governor laughed, looked around him and shrugged as he put his hands on his waist.

"It's been a long time, Rick. Glad to see you too."

"What do you want?"

"We came here for the prison. You see, we have a little group out there and we need a new place to live. I thought this prison would do just fine."

"Go find your own place and leave us alone! We worked hard to keep this prison safe. We have sick people here! Sick children! We can't afford to go away. "

"This isn't negotiable. We're ready to fight for it. You destroyed my old home, I'm taking yours. It seems fair enough. "

"No, it isn't. You know like me how it really went down and I have my hands clean."

"Listen, I'll give you a chance to go before we force ourselves into the territory, alright?"

"And what happens if we choose to fight instead?"

"You can do whatever you want. I'm just offering you the choice to leave without having any member of your group killed. If you choose to fight, we'll fight. Like I said, we're ready to fight for it. We need this prison."

"And we need it too." Rick insisted.

Daryl was watching the whole scene from afar, looking at the Governor as Rick was trying to plead for their cause. Fortunately, he had found the time to grab a rifle and some ammo in his truck before the Governor reached the prison gate with his army. He was ready to fight for the prison at all costs but he felt even more anxious about Carol's exile. Was she in danger? Could she be taken is hostage? Did she find a way to avoid meeting them on the road? Daryl knew that if Carol had been there with them, she would have fought for the prison as much as anybody else. But the sad truth was that Rick would probably learn it too late and regret his decision down the line, if they survived this battle in the first place. And Daryl felt nauseous just realizing he might die today without seeing Carol's face ever again.

For a quick second, he tried to remember her as best as he could. He didn't want to forget how she looked. The smallest details he had memorized ever since he first saw her. He had always been observant and he wasn't ashamed to use this skill when it came down to Carol. Her beauty had fascinated him ever since they met. He liked her big blue eyes. The way they could express so much emotions with a simple gaze. He also liked her silver hair. It had been growing much longer since their arrival at the prison. He noticed her locks were getting curlier as months went by. He guessed she was probably a curly-haired woman in the past, when she still had her long locks before meeting Ed. Daryl also liked her whole body, although he never admitted it to himself before. She was so tiny but she had curves in all the right places. He had spent so many sleepless nights wondering how good she must be looking naked.

He immediately felt ashamed of it when the thought first came to his mind but he really couldn't help it. Their proximity only made it harder not to wonder what Carol was hiding behind all those clothes. He was sure she had a firm body from working hard around the prison all the time. And he was sure that if he touched her everywhere, her skin would be as soft and tender as her hands were the few times she touched him. But the most important thing to remember was her face, her beautiful face. He liked everything about it. Staring at her doing chores or speaking during the council meetings wasn't really hard to do. And when she smiled, he knew the fight was worth it. Seeing the genuine happiness on her traits made Daryl want to protect her even harder. A smiling Carol was what he wanted to remember when he would be affronting his fate today. No matter the outcome, he would at least keep in mind his biggest motivation to stay alive.

Michonne finally came out of the prison and stood next to a thinking Daryl.

"What the hell is going on? This asshole came back with a new army? After all those months spent trying to track him, he comes back now?"

"Yeah…Think we might be enterin' a second battle right here. He wants us to leave the prison." he said while adjusting his rifle in his hands. "Prepare our people. We're goin' to war."

"But most people are still sick! I'm going to take him out myself. Can't let him destroy our place."

"C'mon, no time to waste here. We're gonna fight. Gather up everyone who can still protect the prison. Send Hershel, the sick people and the children in some place secure, far from here."

Michonne hesitated, really wanting to take care of this situation alone. But as she looked at the tank and the equipment they had, she knew it couldn't be done that way.

"Alright. I guess there's no other choice here…" she finally answered.

Michonne entered the A-block and directly went for Hershel, Maggie and Glenn. They knew something was wrong as they saw Michonne slightly losing her general composure.

"We have to go, now." she said.

"What is going on?" Maggie asked, still looking over Glenn who was only starting to heal from the ravaging flu.

"The Governor, he's back. He wants the prison and he's ready to fight for it."

"Oh my god! We can't let this happening! How are we going to do this?" Maggie answered, firmly holding Glenn's hand.

"We'll find a way, Maggie. We have to keep our sick people away from the Governor. And that includes you, Glenn." Hershel proposed, knowing that keeping calm was the only way to manage this situation.

"I..I can still fight. I'm not dead." Glenn argued, slowly trying to stand up.

"You aren't going anywhere, son. You, Sasha, Lizzie and the others need to go somewhere safe. You won't survive otherwise." Hershel continued.

"What about Beth, Mika and Judith?" Maggie asked.

"We'll tell them to find some safe place too. I'll go find Tyreese, Carl and Bob to let them know about the situation. Maggie, you'll have to fight with us." Michonne said.

Maggie looked at her father and then at Glenn.

"Is it okay with you, Glenn?"

"If you go with them, I have to be there with you. I don't want to see you risk your life while I'm at some other place."

"But you can't fight and I won't allow you to do it. It isn't right. You'll have to trust me."

"Maggie is right. The best way to keep you both alive is to split you apart for now. She can take care of herself. You know that, right?" Hershel told Glenn.

"I know…I'm just worried about how we'll get out of this mess. We never seem to catch a break at all."

"Stay positive. We need you to be right now." Hershel assured him.

After a few minutes, the arrangement was settled and Maggie followed Michonne after saying her goodbyes to Glenn and her father.

Michonne, Maggie, Tyreese, Carl and Bob joined Daryl and Rick in the prison yard. All the others, for the most part, we're getting ready to leave the prison.

"Look at what we have here. The little family finally reunited. You lost a lot of people along the way, haven't you?" the Governor teased.

"Like I said, we got sick people back at the prison. We can't afford to lose any of them." Rick reaffirmed, slowly losing his patience.

"Well, you still have time to consider my offer. It can all be settled right here, right now."

Rick looked around and tried to scan his fighting team. They all seemed ready to fight.

"No. We aren't going to leave this place. It's ours. We've earned it fair and square."

"I take this as your final answer then. You've been warned."

As soon as he spoke those last words, the tank moved forward and smashed the fence down. The few walkers around the prison we're attracted by the noise it made.

"Kill them all!" the Governor finally yelled, his hand pointing to Rick's group.

Carol heard the first shot and she started panicking. The tank was now moving in the prison yard and the few cars they had followed immediately. It was rapidly turning into a gigantic mess. From her position, she could probably reach two targets if she concentrated hard enough. But after that, she would have to move on and get out of the woods. They were starting to go too far for her to be efficient. She first aimed at a guy who was one of the last people to enter the prison yard. It was her easiest chance at reaching someone at this point. Come on, you can do it. You can't afford any mistake. If you miss too much, they'll start noticing something is off. she tried to convince herself.

She took a deep breath, positioned her rifle in her hands and started aiming at the guy she had spotted. She shot one time and the guy fell down immediately. Carol was shocked at how easy it had been. She guessed those numerous practices with Daryl on the road made her gain some skills along the way. Getting pretty confident about herself, she started spotting her new target. It was another man who was following a car closely with a gun in his hands, already trying to shoot some of her friends. She aimed and shot. Another fall. Two in two. Time to move on. she told herself.

Carol took her bag containing all the guns and ran off without any further questioning.

In no time, she was running past through the broken prison fence. She shot a few walkers along the way who were desperately trying to reach for her. A woman noticed Carol's sudden presence and tried to aim her gun at her but Carol didn't hesitate a second and took her down easily. She looked around before taking the gun out of her hands and putting it in her bag. Carol then hid behind the closest car and tried to see the view before her. The scene was rather confusing and she couldn't really see her friends from where she was. Somehow, she knew she had an advantage by being hidden on the enemy's side and it could definitely help her take some of them down without much trouble. All she could hear were gunshots over and over again. But then, she heard the striking difference when the tank began shooting with the main gun. Alright, let's be strategic here. No time to waste. The most important thing is to take out as much as you can without getting noticed.

Daryl hid behind the countertop of the outdoor kitchen, shooting from there with Michonne and Tyreese. He had seen Rick and Carl heading in a different direction. Maggie and Bob were somewhere else too as Tyreese could recall. Michonne looked quickly at her bloody calf through her pants.

"Are you okay?" Daryl asked, reloading his rifle as Tyreese kept watching around.

"I'll have to be. A little fucker did this to me. I shot him down without hesitation. Guess it's my luck, huh. Second time I get shot in the leg."

"You're tough, hang on." Daryl assured her as he then proceeded to make a bandage out of his sleeve so he could stop the bleeding.

"I'll try to cut the Governor's head off. That's really all he deserves for this whole damn thing. I won't move on until he's dead."

"We're gettin' there. They are losin' quite a lot of people on their side. They keep fallin' down like flies but we haven't been shootin' that much since the beginnin'."

"Who knows? Maybe the others are doing a fine job on their own. I won't complain about it." Michonne responded, doing a little grimace as Daryl made sure the bandage would hold in place.

"Guys, I think someone is shooting them from their side." Tyreese finally said.

"What the hell? How's that even possible?" Daryl answered, taking a look by himself.

"Maybe someone decided to betray their group…can't really tell from here. But I see some people going down pretty fast."

Daryl squinted his eyes and tried to analyze the situation from his place. The Governor was still on his tank shooting at them mercilessly. Besides that, there was a guy holding a machine gun on top of a truck. The four other cars were all left abandoned and maybe around seven or eight people from the Governor's group were still alive.

"Alright, I think we can do this. There's not much left to do." Daryl suggested.

"Can't leave Michonne alone here. We'll both cover you if you decide to move on." Tyreese answered, taking a look at Michonne's wound.

"Okay, I'll try to get closer. Nothin' will happen if everybody keeps hidin'."

Daryl looked around and slowly made his way through the prison yard, hiding as best as he could between the little structures.

Carol had shot about five people from her hidden spot. Fortunately, the Governor was too busy playing with his tank to even notice his group was crumbling down pretty fast. As she reloaded her rifle, she could tell the walkers were slowly moving in the battle too. Soon enough, they would become the real threat to worry about. She shot the first three that came for her but she knew it wasn't going to be enough. There was a small herd coming directly for them. All this noise obviously attracted them to the prison. She would have to move fast but where could she go? After a few seconds, she decided to climb on the car's roof to gain some altitude and avoid the herd. She knew she was not hidden anymore but she couldn't take the risk to stay on the ground with so many walkers coming for them. She couldn't see her friends from where she was. They were probably all hidden at this point.

She kneeled down on one knee and started aiming for the man with the machine gun on his truck. He was doing the most damages around the place along with the Governor. He was pretty far but she was confident she could reach him if she kept calm and stopped worrying about the walkers surrounding the car she was on top of. After slowing her breaths, she positioned her rifle and shot. The bullet didn't reach him but it was close enough that he noticed someone was behind him. He slowly turned his head to look at her but she shot a few other times and finally took him down. The machine gun stopped shooting immediately.

Daryl walked closer to the battlefield, trying his best not to be caught by anyone. He noticed someone had took down the guy with the machine gun. He really wondered how anyone from their group could do this from a hidden place, considering this guy had been shooting like crazy for the last few minutes. He could see that the battle was coming to an end. The Governor's army wasn't really imposing anymore. At the corner of his eye, he could sight a man trying to shoot him but Daryl was faster than he was and he shot him right in the head. The tank was not too far from him, he wondered if he could take out the Governor without being noticed. But as he tried to think this through, he saw a big herd of walkers slowly coming for them. Better make it fast then, he thought.

And as he started aiming for the Governor's head, a gunshot was heard and the Governor immediately fell down from the tank. Daryl narrowed his eyebrows and looked around, not understanding where it was coming from. All he could see in the far distance was a herd coming for him and…someone standing on top of a car, holding a rifle. Who the fuck is that? he whispered to himself, slowly moving forward to get a better look. He knew he wasn't going to be able to get further as the walkers were everywhere but he just wanted to see the one person who took down the Governor by himself. And after getting closer and closer, he finally saw the person's face. The face of the person who saved their lives. The face he was trying so hard not to forget. Her face. Carol.

Daryl stood there, completely in shock. He looked at her as if she was a mirage emerging from the chaos around them. She looked so magnificent standing there, on top of that car. As soon as she saw Daryl, she released her grip on the rifle and stared at him for the longest time, not believing what she was seeing either. Without saying any words, they shared a little moment, as they knew it wasn't going to last. Daryl tried to reach for her, get her out of this place but she was surrounded by dozens of walkers already. He had to move on if he wanted to survive. Ain't gonna leave you behind. he thought. And as if she was reading his mind, she yelled:

"Go! You have to go!"

Daryl didn't move, still clinging to the thought he could save her, protect her from the cruelty of this world. The herd was just a few meters from him now.

"We'll find each other again, Daryl. We always do."

Daryl snapped back to reality and nodded to her before shooting a walker slowly reaching for him. He stepped back, realizing it wasn't manageable anymore, and he ran in the opposite direction. Carol tried to give him a better chance at escaping by shooting the walkers surrounding him in a short distance. I don't wanna plan anything. We can't afford to think like that. he had told her that night in his cell. But we can still dream. We can cling to something and fight for it. she had responded, trying to make him talk about their future together.

And as she saw Daryl running away in the distance, she replayed this little conversation in her head one more time, aiming her rifle at the walkers still following him.