Past deeds come back to haunt the 'tin plated dictator with delusions of godhood.'
Warning: Character death & cute nicknames ahead.
36. Hungry like the Wolf
"Do you know how many times I've dreamt of this?" the madman asked, looking at the stoic man standing in front of him. "How many times I saw my glorious end?"
The women standing to either side of him, Gunn and Rota, shifted position, readying their swords as they watched the corpses of the murdered warriors at the tables in front of them start to stir.
"Anything I can do to help you with that?" G said amiably, tamping down his urge to leap forward and pull Beth out of Blake's grip, knowing the Valkeries would cut him down before he got one step closer.
The self styled Allfather chuckled and placed a kiss on Beth's temple, the fingers of his left hand still absently combing through her hair, his right arm around her waist as he held her tightly on his lap. G gritted his teeth as he saw the tears slowly make their way down the girls' pale cheeks
"How much do you want for her?" Blake asked then, his voice sounding clear and shrewd, not dreamy and vague as it had with the previous question.
"Unfortunately that one is not for sale." G said carefully, knowing that denying Blake was not what he had been sent here to do. Beth's eyes widened in panic—what was he doing?—this was her chance to perhaps get him alone, to use the weapon she had concealed on her, the garrote loosely sewn into the bottom seam of her blouse. A sound from behind him, metal hollow clanks, made Guillermo twitch but not turn.
Blake's eyes narrowed.
"Allfather?" the woman to his right said, her voice fighting for calm, but definitely on edge.
"What Gunn?" Blake snapped, sitting up straight and dislodging Beth from his lap, shoving her hard so that she fell on the floor to the side of him. G did come forward then, skirting the table to go to the young woman, helping her to stand and moving her behind him protectively.
"They rise." she said, pointing at the newly dead all around them. Indeed all of the men he had murdered were now moving, some barely twitching, others beginning to stand.
"Ahh, excellent." Blake intoned and reached down beside his chair to lift a box up onto the table. "Watch Mimir, old friend, as our warriors make ready to face the wolf that hungers for my flesh!" And from the box he pulled a biter's head, Shumpert, and set it on the tray which had held the poisoned mead.
"Oh my god!" Beth gasped, and G reached back to take her hand.
"Indeed." Blake said, self-satisfied, smirking.
Bam! Bam! Bam! a loud knocking echoed through the hall coming from the double doors behind the newly risen walkers. The walkie at the waist of the Valkyrie to Blake's left came to life.
"This is Martinez, over?" Blake frowned; wondering why was his lieutenant not already here in the hall, scanning the room for any other missing men—realizing for the first time in addition to Caesar, that neither Sawyer nor Carson had come when summoned to this gathering. He grabbed the device and thumbed it on.
"You're late to the hall, old friend." he said dangerously.
"I come bearing gifts, sir. Some unfinished business...from the prison..." at that announcement Blake stood suddenly and put his mouth close to the walkie.
"Which one?"
"Loki and his woman. Sawyer and I caught them trying to infiltrate-coming in with the herd, using captive biters as camo."
Blake held the walkie to his heart and began spinning in circles.
"It's true—it's true! It is the end time—it is Ragnarok!" he cried joyfully, "Go—unbar the gates so they may enter!" he told his women warriors. "Loki and Sigyn have escaped their torment in the cave below...and Fenrir comes..." he whispered, "The wolf that devours..." striding to the stand where his katana rested. The women looked at each other, then at G and Beth who had edged their way back towards the door behind the dais that led to the suites where Carol had been held.
Blake saw their hesitation, looked at the walkers between them and the front door past the mural scaffolding and laughed.
"They won't harm you, they're mine." he said heartily and strode down the central path, the barrier of the tables keeping him from the grasping hands of those he had poisoned. The women followed, Gunn hurrying so she was in front of him and Rota stayed at his back, guarding him.
"Let's go." G whispered to Beth, pulling her back towards the other doors, but she fought him.
"No!" she whispered back vehemently, "They have Rick and Michonne!" Beth looked over at the katana stand, saw that a second smaller sword remained. She wrenched her arm out of his grasp and ran for it, reaching it just as one of the pseudo Viking dead came around the side of the table and lurched towards her. Pulling the razor sharp blade loose from the stand she swung it and sliced off its grasping hands. It kept coming at her and she scrambled backwards, trying to get enough distance between her and its body so she could maneuver the sword.
"Down!" G yelled and on instinct Beth crouched and felt a rush as something large flew over top of her. She heard a crash as the chair he had thrown hit the walker, knocking it down. Beth rolled, coming back up onto her feet and finding the walker's head with the point of the blade, punching through the eye into the brain. More of the dead noticed them, making their way around the tables even as others headed after Blake and the women.
"Gotta go, bonita!" G told Beth, conflicted over staying to try to help the others and getting her to safety. She looked up at him, furious.
"No—get a weapon and help me!" she ordered him, her determination amazing him. She went after the next closest biter, this time slicing clean through its neck, separating its head from its body and then punching through the ear.
"Shit." G muttered, scanning the area around him for something to use.
At the other end of the hall, the Valkyrie called Gunn unbolted the door and Sawyer, Martinez, Rick and Michonne came through, the latter two in handcuffs.
Blake stared at Michonne, transfixed.
"You've shorn your raven tresses, Sigyn, but I still know you, your treachery." he walked over to Rick then, pointing up at the mural. "And your face, Loki—your face I will never forget."
Rick and Michonne looked at the larger than life size paintings; their portraits prominently featured and then exchanged an unimpressed look.
"We negotiated in good faith, but you betrayed me, brother." Blake said to Rick, his eyes blazing with insanity.
"Sir—" Martinez interrupted, "Biters!" he yelled, pointing his pistol at the dead lumbering towards them from behind Blake and the women. Blake looked at him, his attention arrested by the man's mutilation, seeming dazed.
"Your hand..." Blake said, with great sympathy, "Tyr—you have already faced Fenrir for me?" he said and then moved to embrace Martinez, who fell back and raised his gun to his former boss in confusion. Blake's eyes narrowed as he looked back and forth between Rick and Caesar.
"You've turned him against me!" he screamed and came at Rick, raising his sword to deliver a killing blow, but Martinez dove in front of him, and the sword cut through his torso even as Martinez tried and failed to fire the gun he held and fell to the floor at Rick's feet. Blake's blade was lodged in his former lieutenant's body, almost cutting him in half, as the man convulsed in his death throes, blood gushing from his mouth. Martinez looked up at Rick, his eyes pleading, but it was Sawyer who stepped in and put a bullet in his brain, ending him.
"We never let our own turn." Sawyer intoned. Rick met the blonde man's eyes and nodded.
Both of the captives then let their already loose cuffs drop to the floor and trained their eyes on Blake.
"Now!" Rick yelled, and it served as a signal to the rest of the rescue team, who swarmed through the door. When the two Valkyries saw their comrades working with the others they abandoned Blake as well and he reached down swiftly and grabbed up Martinez's pistol and backed away from the group.
Carol and the duo of Tyreese and Daryl came to stand beside Michonne and Rick. The rest of the fighters arrayed themselves out in front of Blake, who seemed to falter as he recognized more of those who confronted him. He ran his hand over his face and the arrogance dropped away and instead he became the politician again.
"The truth is I didn't want any of this; they chose me because there wasn't anyone else around. They thought I was the one who could keep them safe." Blake pleaded in a low sincere sounding voice, using the same words he'd once said to Rick in explanation of why he'd been called Governor by the citizens of a small refugee community. He looked at Carol, "Tell them Freya...Rose! I kept you safe!" he said desperately.
"Actually its Carol-Carol Dixon, you remember my husband? Daryl?"Carol said, her voice scathing, her katana held at the ready. Blake's mouth gaped. "The one you pitted against his brother in a fight to the death?"
"Th-that was the will of the people!" he said, realizing what a mistake he'd made underestimating gentle 'Rose.'
"You killed them." Tyreese said, "All of those people in Woodbury who chose you..."
"You forced us to kill our friends…our lovers…in the arena." Angel said, coming forward.
"You killed Andrea." Michonne said as Angel handed her katana to her.
"And Merle." Daryl said, and then looked down at Martinez's body. "Not gonna kill nobody else." he pronounced, looking over at Rick, silently asking for permission as he raised his bow to take aim.
Blake backed up, aiming the pistol at Rick.
"You do me, I do him." he threatened Daryl. Rick raised his hand to Daryl, motioning him to stop. Carol's hand grasped Michonne's arm, drawing her attention to what Rick had already noticed, what was happening behind the former Governor. His walker minions were surrounding him. When the first one reached him and grabbed at his coat, Blake at first smiled.
"My warrior brothers have come!" he said triumphantly, "I am Valtamr, tamer of the dead!" and leveled the pistol at Rick's chest, but when the second walker latched onto his other arm and bit down, he screamed in confused agony, ordering it to stop, but the brainless creature ripped the flesh and sinew down to the bone, stripping the meat and going in for more. Finally Blake turned the pistol on his attacker, blowing its brains out. Then the first walker bit into his shoulder and he elbowed it in the face to dislodge it, whirled and pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened.
"I only put one bullet in Martinez's gun." Daryl said, lowering his bow, "Didn't trust the fucker." he shrugged, adding "Sorry, man," as he looked down at the dead man who lay between them and Blake. He had died saving Rick after all.
Blake was swarmed.
"For the love of god!" He screamed as his minions tore chunks of flesh from his body, dragging him to the ground.
"I thought you were a god..." said Michonne, sheathing her sword and crossing her arms in front of her.
Mel, standing next to Sawyer, watched as the Allfather struggled in vain to free himself. It wasn't exactly what the myths predicted at Ragnarok, that the giant wolf Fenrir, son of the trickster Loki would battle with and be the agent of his death, but he was being devoured alive...
"Please!" Blake gurgled, crimson stained spit bubbles punctuating his words, pleading, "Kill me..."
Carol looked up at Daryl, knowing his desire for retribution over Merle's death was staying his hand, but unwilling to see even this monster suffer so horribly she put her hand on his knee and looked into his eyes. Daryl let his mouth fall into a frown, but then he nodded at her and raised his bow, firing a bolt into Blake's remaining eye, fulfilling the promise he'd made to Andrea when she'd visited the prison so long ago.
All eyes turned from Blake to Daryl, Michonne's angry and accusing, her sword raised, but then they heard a voice that they recognized yelling from the back of the hall.
"Oye pendejos! Little help would be nice!" G called loudly, and the group surged ahead, moving to take out the remainder of the biters that Blake had created. G was using a chair to hold off a walker while Beth came around behind it, neatly slicing through its head, cleaving it in two down through the neck.
"Good blade—sharp as shit!" she said brightly, grinning at him as the walker fell. He shook his head at her. She looked like the hero of a bubble gum "Kill Bill" remake, her pretty clothes splashed with blood and black gore. Gone was all trace of the frightened girl who'd been cowering on Blake's lap. While he appreciated the change—a fighter was what was called for at the moment—it also made him wonder how much of her earlier show of fear had been an act—or was this the act?
"Beth!" called Carol, battling her way forward alongside Michonne, Angel and the other Valkyrie. Daryl and Tyreese, Rick and Sawyer came up the center, working to finish off the rest of the walkers. G was using his chair to herd two walkers towards the men's position.
"Carol!" the girl cried jubilantly, rushing towards her, failing to see the walker crawling along the floor under the table which slithered out in front of her, tripping her by grabbing her ankle. Beth screamed and tried to twist away as she fell, but the creature's grip was strong and she hit the ground hard, first her shoulder then head, her sword skittering away.
"Noo!" Carol screamed, knowing they were still too far away to help her. The walker raised its head, its jaws gaping wide over the meat of Beth's calf as she tried to turn so she could kick at its head with her other leg. A whirr and then solid thunk sounded then and the dead man pitched forward, releasing its grip on Beth's leg, landing heavily on her lower body, Daryl's buck knife handle protruding from the back of its head. Carol looked up and saw that from his higher position on Tyresse's back, Daryl had been able to see what was happening and had thrown the knife from the other side of the table with pinpoint accuracy. He had been out of bolts, Tyreese in the process of retrieving some from the dead, when Carol had screamed, drawing their attention.
"Carol!" Daryl yelled, looking over at Carol, "Is Beth ok?" Michonne reached her first; pushing the walker away, off Beth's body, checking to make sure its teeth hadn't pierced delicate skin. Carol arrived then, looking anxiously at the girl as well.
"Bethie?" Carol said, pushing Beth's hair back and checking her head and neck then moving her hands over the girl's shoulders and frowning. "I think her shoulder may be dislocated."
"No bites." Michonne pronounced.
"Thank god." Carol said, nodding and taking Beth's hand. "I need you to help me with this." Carol told Michonne, and together they were able to pop the shoulder back into place and then immobilize it with long strips of cloth Michonne cut from the table cloth on the head table.
Beth moaned and opened her eyes, frowning when she saw Carol's worried face above her.
"It got me?" Beth asked softly, resigned.
"No, sweetie, Daryl got it first." Carol assured her. Michonne reached down and pulled Daryl's knife out of the walker's skull, cleaning it on the arm of its robe.
"Daryl saved me?" Beth asked, looking around, but not seeing him.
"Thanks." Carol said, smiling and taking the knife as Michonne handed it to her. "I got your knife, Pookie!" she called over to Daryl, who rolled his eyes at her. Tyreese's booming laugh rang out.
"Ain't you a peach!" Daryl called back dryly.
"You know it, boo." Carol replied with a smirk.
"Did I get knocked out when my head hit the floor?" Beth asked, her forehead wrinkling in confusion as she looked up at Carol, wondering at her odd exchange with the usually quiet hunter. Carol grinned at her.
"If they keep up this romance novel bullshit I think I'll join you in unconsciousness." Michonne drawled, shaking her head and looking at Carol with mock disgust.
"Hey! Don't be givin' my wife none a yer shit!" Daryl said and fired one of the retrieved bolts through the decapitated head sitting, appropriately enough, on the head table.
"That's the last of them." Daryl said with satisfaction as Rick came and knelt beside Beth.
"How you doin', honey?" Rick asked, taking Beth's hand in his.
"Don't you start!" Michonne said under her breath to Rick, but he ignored her. Guillermo met up Angel and they embraced in relief and then walked over to join the group gathered around Beth, which also included Sawyer, Mel and the other Valkeries.
"Is he really dead?" Beth asked Rick, looking into his eyes.
"He's dead—he won't ever hurt anyone again." Rick said reassuringly and the young woman nodded at him. G and Angel pushed through the group to get to Rick.
"What is it?" Rick asked him.
"Where's Felipe?" G asked, and then the others realized that the medic and the other Valkeries had not rejoined them after their mission to find Nell and her father.
"Shit!" Daryl said, looking down at Carol, who looked at her watch.
"Ten minutes give or take!" Carol said anxiously, moving to help Beth stand up, steadying her.
"All right folks, you heard her-" Rick said, looking to Sawyer, Mel and the Valkyrie women, "What's our fastest way out of here back to the parking garage?"
"Up to the roof and down the fire escape," Sawyer told them, pointing to the doors in the front of the room, leading to the suites where Carol had been held and corridor to the stairs leading to the roof, but found them locked.
"Startin' to get a little déjà vu here." Daryl yelled over to Rick and Carol, flashing on their nightmare exit from the CDC. "Don't got another grenade on ya somewhere, do ya, punkin?"
"Better." Carol said with a grin, "I've got Martinez's keys." She held them up triumphantly and ran to the door, the others moving aside to let her pass. Sawyer led everyone through and down the corridor. Michonne and Rick were the last to exit, making sure everyone was clear.
"G, Angel! Vamanos!" Rick called.
"I can't leave my brother!" Angel said, pulling on G's arm desperately.
"Angelita-no-lo siento-there's no time..." Guillermo told her.
"G-please!" she begged, "He saved me!" she stood still, forcing him to stop as well. G looked at Rick, torn with indecision.
"All right," Rick said, nodding, "Let's go get him."
"No!" Michonne objected, "I'll go." She put her hand on Rick's arm, "Those kids need you." He tried to object, but she silenced him by grasping his shirt front and kissing him, her soft lips hard against his and then laughing softly, musing, "I get back, the beard has to go." She released him and pushed him towards the door. "Go!"
Dumbfounded, Rick watched her take off in the opposite direction with G and Angel.
AN (long one)
Thanks so much to everyone who read & reviewed the previous chapter—the Dixon wedding was a big hit! (And if you watch, in the S4 opener, Rick's platinum wedding band is featured prominently in many of the close ups of his hands!)
I decided that Martinez had to go out in a heroic way, and saving Rick was a perfect way for him to show Blake how completely he had turned against him. Tyr was a faithful warrior friend of Odin, who was the only one brave enough to stick his hand in the wolf Fenrir's mouth.
I'm not quite done with Martinez yet though...
Loki and his wife Sigyn were imprisoned by the gods after several betrayals, held in an underground prison tomb where poisonous venom from a snake dripped down, caught in a bowl by the woman, preventing it from dropping onto Loki's face. But every time it filled up she had to leave to empty it and the venom burned his face while she was gone. Pretty nasty.
I had a hard time deciding just exactly who should kill the Gov., but liked the idea that he should be eaten alive, just as Odin is supposed to be by the wolf Fenrir, and having his own betrayed men do it seemed fitting. I also wanted a little call back to Andrea and Daryl discovering the 'piñata' walker while searching for Sophia, this time with Carol asking him to put someone out of his misery, but doing it in such a way that it was a tribute to both Andrea and Merle.
I guess I'm a little conflicted about Beth at the moment—her non-reaction to her boyfriend's death was understandable I guess, especially after Jimmy & everyone else she'd lost, but it was still kind of creepy to me the way she glommed onto Daryl like that. No offense to Bethyl shippers, but it interferes with my Caryl feels...