I'm sorry if it took me so long to update my this story. I needed a new beta and it took me longer than I thought to find a new one.

I would like to know what you think. So please, don't be shy and leave me a comment!

Chapter 9

Daryl tried to stay still while the Governor was crushing his windpipe. He couldn't hold his breath for ever, so he hoped the other man would let go of him quickly. Fortunately, after a few seconds, Philip removed his hand from the redneck's throat and began searching him. Daryl was biting the inside of his cheek, trying not to tense. He felt the other man grab the knife from his hand and the walkie-talkie from his belt.

"Interesting," the Governor murmured to himself. "What did you do to Martinez?"

At these words, Daryl felt Philip pulling him up by the arms and dragging him near the two other men. Even if the movement was painful for the redneck, he was glad to have guessed right about the Governor's plan. Now, he would just have to wait for the good moment to open his eyes, grab his gun and shot the bastard and his friend.

Rick was sure he was going to die until he heard the crashing noises behind the tree. He didn't know what was going on, but he was glad that Philip had decided to go take a look. But a moment later, when he saw that Dixon was there, he felt a knot in his stomach. Daryl was unconscious the last time he saw him and not in very good shape. So if he had been able to walk that far from where he had hid him, it meant that he had probably used all the strength he had left. He wouldn't be able to fight, so both of them would die. When the Governor came back, dragging the hunter on the ground, Rick just wanted to rush to his friend to see how he was. But when he tried to stand up, the soldier who was keeping an eye on him pushed him back on his knees.

"Is he still alive?" he demanded, without knowing if he rather preferred for Daryl to be already dead to being tortured and killed by Philip.

"Don't worry, sheriff…He's still breathing, but I don't know for how long," the Governor explained dropping the redneck's body near Rick. "I don't know if I should end his life right now, without him knowing what was going on or wait until he wakes up, so I can have a little fun with him…What do you say?"

"I say that you're just a fucking asshole…Don't you think you did enough already!? Look at him; he's not even able to stay conscious…You have me, why don't you just let him go?"

"Well…After what Merle Dixon did to me and to my men, I think it's all natural that I take my revenge on his baby brother," Philip said, kicking Daryl's injured side lightly. "And it seems like you really care about him. So, I guess it could be a good idea for you to see him suffering until he dies, before I kill you as well..." he continued, grinning. "And I think when I'm done with you, I'll go find Michonne…I'm keeping a special treatment for her…And I'll find the Asian and his pretty girlfriend, the old man with one leg and the others…But I'm wondering what I'm gonna do with your son…Keeping him as my little pet or torture him until he cries like a girl and dies…"

At those words, Rick saw red. He couldn't think about anything else than jump on the Governor and beat him to death. Without hesitation and with all the strength he had, he hit the soldier's jaw with his elbow and pushed him on his back to the ground. He was going to do the same with Philip when he received a strong punch to the side of the face, making him fall next to the soldier. Even if his vision was fuzzy, he saw the Governor standing above him, pointing the python at him.

"You're really pissing me off, Rick," Philip hissed, running his finger on the trigger.

When Rick heard the gunshot, he closed his eyes and waited for the pain.

When the Governor let go of him, Daryl could feel that he was close to Rick. His friend sounded very worried when he asked if he was still alive. He wanted to give him a sign, to let him know that he was okay, but he didn't want to take any risks of getting caught. A few seconds later, when he felt a boot knocking against his wound, he almost cried out, but he managed to bite his tongue until he tasted blood to muffle his complain.

When Philip began to talk about what he wanted to do with his friends, he knew without opening his eyes, that Rick was getting really upset, because Daryl was slowly beginning to lose it himself. But when the Governor said something about Carl, he knew it was going to set Rick off. So when he heard a moan of pain coming from Philip's man, he opened his eyes and quickly grabbed Martinez's gun from his pants. Glancing around him to know what was going on; he saw the soldier and Rick laying on the ground and the Governor standing over them, his back to the redneck, a gun in hand. When he noticed that Philip's finger was now on the trigger, he didn't hesitate; lying on his good side, he pointed his weapon toward him and fired. The Governor dropped on the ground, a hole in his head. Daryl was glad that even if he was weak and dizzy, he still was a good shot. He glanced over Rick and the soldier. When he was sure that his friend was okay and the other man incapacitated, he rolled on his back, and closed his eyes; he just wanted to rest for a while.

Rick opened his eyes and realised that it wasn't his python that had been fired. Sitting up, he found the Governor laying next to him in a pool of blood and Daryl resting on his back a few meters away from him. He looked at the soldier next to him and noted that he was unconscious. So he stood up, unarmed him and walked to his friend.

"Thank you, man…I was sure I was going to die," Rick confessed after a minute, kneeling next to the hunter. "Daryl, are you okay?" he asked when the hunter stayed silent. The sheriff grabbed the other man's shoulders and shook him lightly. "DARYL!"

At that moment, Rick could feel the panic rising inside of him. But before supposing anything, he took a good look at his friend. The hunter looked really pale, his shirt had a dark stain over his hip and the right part of his pants was soaked with blood. Hoping he was wrong, the sheriff checked his pulse on his neck.

"Nooooo...Daryl, noooooo…" he cried when he couldn't feel anything. "Please, don't do that to me, man…" he pleaded, leaning his head near his mouth to see if he was breathing.

When he realised that Daryl wasn't breathing, he began the CPR procedures.

"Oh my god, no….." a female voice said a moment later, coming from behind Rick.

The sheriff took a look and saw Michonne and Tyreese running toward him. He was so focused on his task of reviving Daryl that he hadn't heard them. He was glad they weren't walkers. He noted that the black man had blood on his shirt and was holding his shoulder. But Rick didn't take the time to ask them what happened; Tyreese was walking, so he was in a better shape than Daryl right now, so he could wait.

"Had he been shot?" Michonne asked, worried, kneeling in front of Rick.

"No, he's the one who shoot," he answered after blowing air in Daryl's lungs. "He killed him…"

The woman looked behind her and saw the Governor lying on his stomach next to another man.

"Let me help you…" she proposed, placing her hands above the redneck's ribcage.

Michonne was going to push on Daryl's chest when they heard a moan coming from the hunter, followed quickly by a cough. Sighing with relief, Rick rolled Daryl over on his side and kept squeezing his shoulder lightly to make sure he knew he wasn't alone. At first, the hunter's breath was harsh, but after about a minute, it began to sound better.

"Daryl, can you hear me?" Rick demanded, raising his friend's head and leaning it on his lap.

When he realised that the hunter wasn't responding, he checked his pulse which was a bit fast, but constant. He raised his shirt to have a look at his wound and when he saw that he was still bleeding a little, he took his own shirt off and wrapped it around Daryl's waist and tightened it to keep pressure on his injured flesh.

"We need to take him to Hershel," Michonne said, standing up.

Rick nodded and delicately put Daryl's head back on the ground. He walked to the Governor's body and moved him a bit to find his gun. When he found it, he took a moment to look at his enemy. He couldn't believe it was over now, thanks to Daryl. He came back to his unconscious friend and, with the help of Michonne, pulled him up. They each wrapped an arm around his waist, leaning his weight on their shoulders.

"What are we doing with him?" Tyreese asked, glancing toward Philip's man who was still out.

"Don't care…Leave him there," Rick replied, thinking about getting back to the cars as fast as possible.

Michonne and Tyreese didn't argue and they tried to find their way back to the road. It was getting really dark, so it wasn't easy. The noise and the smell of blood were catching the walkers' attention, so Tyreese, despite his injured shoulder, had to put down several of them. They didn't know for how long they walked when they heard familiar voices. When they reached the edge of the woods, they were completely exhausted. Daryl was heavy so Rick and Michonne arms were fatigued and sore and because of the dark, they fell a few times on the ground, dropping the hunter as well. So they had to pull him back up each time, using all the strength they had.

As soon as they walked outside the forest, Maggie and Glenn ran to meet them, with Hershel following behind with his crutches.

"Oh my god…Is he…" the Korean wondered, looking at Daryl's bloody clothes.

"He's unconscious…But I had to do CPR on him…Hershel, I think he's not really doing well…" Rick sighed, worried.

"Take him to the cars so we can have more light," the old man said, taping the sheriff's shoulder. "Ty, are you okay?" he asked when he noted that the black man seemed to be injured as well.

"Don't worry anything serious…Take care of Dixon."

Hershel nodded and followed the others to the cars where they laid Daryl on the road. Glenn quickly turned on the light from one of the vehicles and went to reach for a flashlight. The old man knelt next to the unconscious man and examined him.

"He probably lost a lot of blood," he pointed out, checking at his pulse.

He looked at his wounds over his hip and when he wanted to take a look at his leg, he grabbed his knife and cut the fabric of his pants, where it was soaked with blood.

"Good, it seems like the bleeding had faded…What happen to his wrists?" Hershel demanded while removing the tape.

"The Governor tied him up with a barbed wire," Rick explained, remembering how he found Daryl when he was kept in the shed.

"Speaking of the bastard, do you guys know where he is?" Maggie asked, glancing around them. She was suddenly worried that it wasn't safe to stay there if the Governor and his men were still around.

"He's dead," Michonne informed, standing a few feet away from them. She was making sure to keep the coming walkers away from them. "Daryl killed him…"

At first, everyone looked at Daryl, Rick and Michonne as they wanted to make sure it was true. So when the sheriff nodded, they all sighed with relief; finally good news.

But the feeling didn't last long, because they saw lights of a vehicle heading toward them. Glenn, Maggie, Rick, Tyreese and Michonne got ready to attack whatever was coming to them. Rick was ready to shoot on the tires when the truck pulled over a few meters away from them and the door of the driver opened. Someone got out of the vehicle and walked in front of it to be lighted up by the headlights.

"It's me…Samantha," the woman let them know; raising her hands in front of her to show that she was unarmed.

The group lowered their weapons and let the doctor coming closer.

"Oh my god, Daryl…"

As soon as she saw the hunter laying on the ground, she ran to him and knelt in front of Hershel. She quickly examined him, stood up and went to Rick.

"I'm sorry, but he's not gonna make it," Samantha whispered, sighing. "He needs blood transfusions and the only way I can help him is if you agree to take him back to our camp."

Rick looked at her and frowned; he knew Philip wasn't a problem anymore but he didn't know about the other people living with him.

"Well, even if you're uncle isn't an issue anymore, we…"

"What do you mean?" she asked, cutting him off.

"He's dead…In the woods…"

Samantha ran her hands over her face and let out a light sob.

"I'm sorry…" Rick said, pressing her forearm. "But it was the only way…"

"Yea…I know…" she agreed, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Don't worry, it's gonna be safe…Philip's men are gone or dead…And the others won't be a threat to you," she assured, shaking her head.

"Okay…So we're going to put Daryl in the back seat of our car and follow you," Rick proposed. "I'm gonna tell the others," he added after she had nodded and began to walk back to her truck.

"What's going on, Rick?" Hershel demanded, noting the worried face of the sheriff.

"Samantha said that Daryl's gonna die if he doesn't receive a transfusion…She said that she can help him, but we have to take him back there."

"Do you think it's safe?" Maggie asked, kneeling next to her father. "We don't have time to put ourselves or him in danger again…"

"Yea, I know…But I can't let him die…Samantha said it was safe and I trust her. We need to put him in the back seat and follow her truck."

It was obvious that none of them was sure about going back where they were supposed to get away from, but they couldn't see any other way around this if they wanted to save Daryl's life. So, shrugging, Rick, Maggie and Glenn, pulled the hunter up and put him in a car, bending his knees to make him fit on the back seat. Hershel sat in the passenger seat while Rick took the wheel. Michonne, Maggie, Glenn and Tyreese took the other vehicle. They drove behind Samantha and pulled over in front of the little blue house where Daryl was initially held. Rick and Glenn took care of the redneck and were going to climb the few stairs when Martinez opened the door and came out.

"Hello guys," he said a rifle in hands.

I would like to know what you think. So please, don't be shy and leave me a comment!