Author's Note: Happy New Year everyone!
The next day was bright and beautiful, and I decided to take a walk. I had no idea exactly what had happened in Woodbury, but Maggie and Glenn weren't the same when they came back. Maggie mostly wandered about alone, sort of like me. Glenn was on the warpath, revenge ironed onto every feature of his face. Then there was Rick. He really was bat shit crazy. I watched him chase down an invisible figure who had been standing by the graves, then he chased it out beyond the fence. Michonne had taken up residence in the bus by the entrance and was watching Rick, too.
I watched Glenn climb into the silver pick up truck we had and drive away. Hershel was hobbling his way down to me, but I decided to meet him halfway.
"Where's Glenn going?" I asked.
"He wants to see where exactly the breach is." Hershel replied. I nodded then the two of us spent the next few minutes staring out into the woods.
"Where's Rick?" Hershel finally asked. I pointed out toward the trees and a little to the right. Hershel nodded and started making his way toward Rick.
"Do you need help?" I asked him.
"I've got it." Hershel replied. I watched him for a while longer then turned and saw Carol and Axel.
"Hey." I said. I walked over to them and stood on Carol's right. "Whatchu doin'?" I asked.
"We just finished fortifying some of the walk ways between the buildings." Carol replied. I nodded and listened to Carol and Axel's conversation, until a shot rang out, and Axel stopped talking mid-sentence. I looked over and saw him on the ground with a bullet hole in his head. Before I could process what had just happened, more shots rang out and I felt something pass my left side. I ran and hid behind a wall where Beth and Carl were hiding. Shots kept coming and I had no idea where they were all coming from. I pulled out my gun and started shooting. There were people on the other side of the outer fence and one in a guard tower.
I shot at the man in the guard tower but most of my bullets missed. Maggie came out and handed Beth a bigger gun. We popped off round after round.
Then a truck zoomed up the road and crashed through the gates of the fence. It skidded up the path and pulled in onto the grass. A person in a suit and helmet jumped out just as the back of the truck opened up and released a horde of walkers. The person ran out of the yard, shooting at Michonne, and over to the people who had started shooting at us.
They drove away. The people on the other side of the fence drove away after shooting us up and releasing walkers and didn't look back.
I glanced around the courtyard. Maggie had covered Carol and she had gotten herself to a safe place. The man in the guard tower was dead. Glenn had driven up in the silver pick up and saved Hershel, and Michonne and brought them up to us. Maggie and I closed the gate to prevent any walkers from wandering into the prison and looked out to where Rick was. He had been on the other side of fence when the people had shown up.
"Who..." I started but Glenn interrupted.
"The Governor." He glared out toward the yard and put a hand on Maggie's shoulder.
Rick made his way back up to us, and he wasn't alone. As he neared I saw that Dixon was with him. Dixon and his brother. I couldn't help the fluttering of butterflies in my stomach. Rick ran over to us to make sure that we, mostly Carl, were all safe. He looked at all of us and finally noticed Axel dead on the ground. Carol had used him as a shield.
"Everyone's okay, though?" He asked.
"I think Mel got shot." Carol said.
I looked at Carol. "No I didn't."
She gave me a look and gestured to my left side. I looked down and pulled up my shirt. Sure enough, there was a bullet wound.
"Okay, I don't want to freak anyone out, but I think I got shot." I said surprisingly calmly, holding up my hands. "If we all take deep breaths and talk about it, I'm sure I'll be fine. Lord knows how well the power of family meetings fixes everything." A smiled played on Beth's lips despite how hard she was trying not to laugh. Glenn stepped over to me and helped me walk back into the prison. Hershel hobbled as quickly as he could after us.
I sat on a table as Hershel worked his magic to clean up and stitch my wound.
"You okay?" Dixon asked me quietly.
I glared at him. "Just peachy." I had been fine with him leaving us. I have no idea how many times I had said he was a grown ass man. But now, actually seeing him, i realized that I was just saying all those understanding things because I hated him. I hated him for leaving us for his shit brother. Dixon huffed air out of his nose and walked away. It was the same huff from when we went to get formula for Judith the day she was born. The huff that wasn't the usual annoyed huff. I watched him walk away.
Rick stayed close to Merle. As soon as Hershel was done cleaning me up, Merle was going to get locked in the holding area. No one trusted him. He was a prick. And apparently he was dangerous. Just look at what he did to Glenn. And he only had one hand.
"Alright, don't strain yourself for the next few days. You should be fully healed in the next week or two. Luckily, the bullet didn't hit anything vital and it was a through and through." Hershel patted my knee. "We're lucky only one of us was injured through all that. It could have been worse."
"It was worse." I said. "Axel's dead." I patted Hershel's head. "Thanks." He smiled and I smiled back. I hopped off of the table and got light headed.
"Be careful. The bullet just passed through, but the adrenaline made your heart rate increase so you bled a lot more than if you had been shot when you were calm." Hershel carefully stood up. "You lost a lot of blood, but I don't think you need a transfusion. Just drink water and eat something. You haven't been eating much these last few days." I nodded and Carl came over and I slung my arm across his shoulders. He barely reached my shoulder, but it helped to have someone to lean on. Carl lead me to the stairs that lead up to the second floor set of cells and I sat down. Everyone piled into the cell block and Rick locked Merle into the holding area.
