++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated characters apart from my OC's ++++++
Twenty-Nine
The following morning, Glenn, Maggie and I left the prison in the Jeep and made our way to the shopping centre on 74. It wasn't a very big place and there wasn't a descent vantage point for me and the Remington but when we arrived I set up on the building opposite the shopping centre.
Rick had come back to the group that morning before we left. He looked ok but I continued cleaning the Remington, habit before I went on a mission, and ignored him. He started to come over and talk with me but Herschel called him over. Herschel is a good judge of character, he could tell I was peeved at Rick so he cut him off. As we were about to go, Rick and Axel opened the gate, when I drove through I saw that Rick was wearing my tag again but he was also wearing Lori's wedding ring. No, I was done with this love crap.
About an hour after we arrived, I was looking through the scope searching my line of site for anyone or anything when I saw both Maggie and Glenn coming out the back of the store. Unfortunately for them I also saw a man coming from the south. I took aim through the scope and watched the man approach the two, I would have shot him if only Glenn hadn't greeted him like he knew him.
I wish I could read lips.
In the distance I could spot a walker but the son of bitch was too far away to be of any danger. When the man grabbed Maggie around the neck and held a gun to her head I realised that I should have followed my first instinct. I should have shot the bastard. The man forced Glenn and Maggie towards the Jeep and shouted at them.
Damn it, I snapped. I grabbed the Remington and made for the building's fire escape. As they drove past in me, Glenn saw me but continued on driving in the general direction of that town Woodbury that Daryl and I had talked about a few days ago.
What the fuck was I supposed to do now? I looked around the area for a mode of transport. There was nothing around so I took off running down the road, eventually breaking off into the forest surround the road that lead to a seemingly deserted town with the sign Woodbury out the front. To the untrained eye it would have seemed deserted but I noticed that the cars and certain other things had been put there as vantage points. Soon enough my suspicions were answered. I found a large wall around the town complete with sentries on the walls.
I ducked inside one of the abandoned buildings and hid the Remington behind the counter along with the bullets. Slipping out the back of the store, I snuck towards the wall, using anything I could as cover.
Then I heard voices.
Familiar voices.
I stuck my head outside the bus I was hiding behind to look at who was talking and I froze. Seeing them standing there with their identical chestnut brown spiky hair, the same stubborn jaw line, the same five foot nine inches of height and those dark brown, almost black eyes were my older brothers Michael and Matthew.
The twins were alive!
"Robur! Calculo!" barked a third familiar voice. Behind the twins I watched in a mixture of horror and delight as my parents first born son, John Lucas, walked over to them, a rifle strung casually over his shoulder. Bloody hell it was spooky how similar my brothers all looked. The only difference was John's military style buzz cut and the twins spiky hair. "The Governor wants to see us! Merle's brought in two prisoners from the outside."
"We're busy, Rex," Michael replied. "Milton asked us to collect some specimens for his research."
"Well the Governor supersedes, Milton," John snapped, clenching his fist. "Merle heard 'em talking about some kind of prison. If we could get our hands on another place we could have a real set up."
"The inhabitants?" Matthew questioned as they started to walk away from my hiding place.
"We kill them all," John answered so coldly. "There's an Asian kid and a woman so the bet is on who will break first. The Governor wants us to get that location out of them by any means."
I notched an arrow in my bow and spun out from around the bus, taking aim carefully and firing straight at the walker that was coming around the corner. "I thought you were seasoned soldiers," I frowned, notching a second arrow.
The three of them turned to me, rifles aimed. Matthew was the first to lower his. "Phil?" he gasped. "Oh my god, you're alive?"
"Are you alone?" John asked me.
"I had a friend but she died, I lost her daughter as well and the group I was with," I lied. "I lost them when we got split by a herd. Been on the run from said herd that's at least two hundred head for months. Lost them a few days ago on the 85." Looking around I put on my best frown. "What is this place?"
John paused. "Put your bow away, Velox, we're not your enemies. I have something inside you might like to see. But first, the Governor would be better off to meet you first."
I strung my bow over my shoulder and followed my brothers inside the town, making a mental note of any escape points. "I thought you were on loan to MI6," I spoke up, making small talk with John.
"I came back," he replied. "When we received word of total wildfire being declared, the prime minister saw that I was sent back to America. Yourself?"
"I was making my way to the farm," I answered.
"So were we," Matthew grinned. "Managed to get taken in by the Governor and John came along six weeks later. Man I had faith that we'd all be together one day."
"Theo, Kevin and Jacob are in Iran," John spoke up. "I would hardly call that together."
A man wearing a light blue shirt with a black vest over the top, denim jeans and boots approached the four of us with the same look that John always had on his face. Cold and calculating. "John, what's this?" he frowned. This man had to be the Governor.
"Philip, this is my baby sister, Philomena Jocelyn Lucas," John replied. "She took down a biter."
I shrugged. "I call 'em walkers but whatever."
The Governor looked at John. "The others call them walkers." He turned to me, "where did you come from?" he asked me.
"Wilderness," I answered. "Been on my own for a while, lost my group when we got split by a herd, killed my best friend, I tend to stick to myself these days."
He paused and went to speak when someone shouted out to John.
Today was a day of surprises.
My jaw dropped and every fibre of my being screamed out in joy. "Fuck me sideways," I whispered when the person who owned the shout came over to John. I could barely believe what I was seeing. "Ebony?" I whispered. I stepped towards my frozen friend once, twice, three times until I was right in her face…
…and the first thing she did was slap me.
"You killed my daughter!" she yelled in my face.
I shook my head. "What are you talking about? Eb's…oh my god…you're alive…."
She slapped me again and went to slap me a third time before John wrapped his arm around her waist then pulled her away from me. "YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD KEEP HER SAFE!"
"SHE'S ALIVE!" I roared right back at her. "SHE'S ALIVE AND THESE FUCKS PLAN ON KILLING HER AND EVERYONE ELSE IN OUR PRISON WHEN THEY GET THE LOCATION OUT OF MAGGIE AND GLENN!"
Ebony stopped struggling against John. "Jade's alive?" she whispered. She looked at John, "you said she was dead."
I glared at my brother. "One thing you need to know about John Gabriel Lucas is that he's a manipulative bastard who will use your loved ones against you." I went to turn around but something hit me in the back of the head…
The last thing I remembered was Ebony shouting out my name.
I couldn't help but smile…Ebony was alive…
