Merle and Daryl slowly made there way back to the loose board of the Woodbury wall.
"Emily should be here soon." Merle whispered.
Daryl was the only one willing to come to Woodbury for Emily and the MacManus brothers with Merle. Rick thought it better that the rest of the group prepare the prison for a possible attack from the Governor.
"You could lead him right to our door." he snarled at Merle, when he learned of their plan to sneak three of the Governors people out from under him.
"He knows about this damn prison already." Merle snarled back. "I was with him when he found it. I told him it weren't worth the effort. You really think his people don't come around this way? It's a damn miracle none from that group seen y'all yet."
"I'm gettin' them out. I don't give a fuck what you think on it Officer Friendly."
Rick studied him quietly for a while. "He knows about this prison?"
Merle didn't bother with an answer, Rick didn't seem to expect one, the lean man rubbed his hand over his face. "We need to prepare."
"Don't need help, we ain't goin' in guns blazin'. We're sneakin', things go right nobody gonna know they're gone till the next day."
"I'm still goin'." Daryl interrupted. "We aren't separatin' for shit. Not again."
Rick let out a deep breath, "Fine," he looked away and shook his head, "We'll prepare here, you two get these people but if they are gonna stay here for ANY amount of time, then they need to help. The Governor comes we need them to stand at our side."
Merle nodded, "Ain't a problem." he walked off to finish fixing up a used Honda they'd found, it was just large enough for the five of them.
Now that they were back at Woodbury, Merle's stomach clenched, something felt off, call it Hunter's intuition but he had a bad feeling something was about to go wrong.
"Daryl," he whispered to his brother, "keep an eye out things are….off."
Daryl nodded, his blue eyes darting back and forth quickly, he could feel it too, the air around him had a nervous electric energy.
They slipped through the fence silently. It didn't take more than five minutes for Emily to appear a small back pack on her shoulders.
"The guys hid a pack of supplies in the woods." she spoke softly and shyly. "Hi Daryl."
"Emily." he answered.
Merle closed his fists, "Catch up later," he growled lowly.
Emily nodded, "They said they'd meet us at the supplies. The Governor has had his men on them since you left. They think he might suspect you aren't dead."
Merle's lip curled, "Lead the way then Emily."
She slipped by them through the wall. "This way."
They walked until they could not see the wall any longer. "Here." she knelt down and pulled back what looked like a large bush to reveal a hollowed out tree trunk with a large bag hidden within. Emily struggled to pull it out, until Merle pushed her aside and threw the pack over his shoulders.
"We got it." he grumbled. "Now we play the waiting game."
"They'll be here." Emily sounded confident. "They've been wanting out for months, now that they really know what this place is, and it is getting warm enough to travel, they want to head to Boston as soon as possible.
Daryl looked over at his brother, but Merle wasn't looking at either of them, he was squinting into the forrest.
"Somethings wrong." Merle quickly pulled Emily's backpack off her shoulders and pushing it at Daryl, "They are being followed they're running."
Daryl threw the bag over his shoulders, he could here them crashing through the trees, they weren't trying to be quiet, as they got closer he could hear the yelling.
"Emily," a hiss came from the left of them.
"Murphy?" Emily squinted into the woods.
The two brothers came out of the dark, sweating and panting, "The Governor saw us." Connor shifted a pack from one shoulder to the other, "It was a fuckin' fluke, that he needed ta grab something outta warehouse, caught Murph halfway up out that damn wall."
"Fuck!" Merle clenched his fist. "We need to split up make noise, disorient them. Daryl tell Emily where that prison is. You two, ya got yer guns and amo?"
Connor and Murphy were already going through their bags, loading up on amo. "We cleaned out the armory as much as we could." he stood back up giving his brother a nod, "We'll take Emily meet you at the car….if we don't make it there, we'll head to the prison."
Emily nodded, her eyes large with fright as she took a large buck knife from Merle, "Remember how to use this?" she nodded again, "Will you remember where the prison is?"
"Yes, straight shot. We can find it if we need to." Her voice was high and tense.
Merle stared at her for a few moments, moments they didn't have considering how close their pursuers were.
"Alrigh'." he finally said, turning to the two brothers, "See you soon."
Daryl and him ran in the opposite direction, causing as much noise as they could.
Fair warning: Dark times ahead, very dark times