So sorry this has taken so long to get out. Dealing with life can be difficult. The Governor's speech is copied from the show, and not my own work.
Daryl woke to the sharp pain of someone slapping his left cheek sharply. "What the hell?"
"Good, you're awake." The man was thin, clearly underfed, with a patchy beard along his jawline and a twisted grin. Turning, he shouted over his shoulder. "Hey, Boss!"
The man who sidled up to stand in front of the chair to which Daryl had been tied smiled warmly. "Hello, sir. Welcome to Woodbury."
Daryl remained silent and watched the men in front of him with sharp eyes as faint gunfire reached his ears. If they made a mistake, he would be ready.
"Not one for conversation? Well, alright then. I'm the Governor, the leader of this town, and we have walkers at our gates for the first time in a long time because of your family. We don't like to have our calm disrupted." The man was much taller than the scruffy watchman, and he held himself with an easy authority that told Daryl just how confident he was. "What do you propose we do about it?"
"I propose you kiss my ass."
The Governor frowned at someone over Daryl's shoulder. "You find this funny, Martinez?"
"I think he's got balls like his brother, but more brains." A Hispanic man came to stand beside the black clad leader.
"It's not the balls I'm worried about." Turning to their captive, he smiled genuinely. "I think it's time to make an example of those who would attempt to steal resources and leave this town with less protection."
"Merle's been a good soldier, sir." Martinez frowned. "He's always helped out with whatever we needed, came up with ideas for defense, and kept people calm. Why not just let these two go?"
"Do you really think that they'll just take that redheaded girl and leave with no looking back?" He scoffed and shook his head. "No, they'll bring others to take whatever they can, and we'll have to fight them along with the dead."
Smirking, the Governor twisted to look at the man who had slapped Daryl awake. "Thomas, call everyone to the arena. We're gonna have us a show."
With a whoop of excitement, the man threw the door open and raced away with a hasty "Yes sir!"
"Governor –" Martinez frowned.
"You with me, or do you want to join them?"
Shaking his head, Martinez straightened his shoulders. "I'm with you, sir. Have been since the beginning."
"That you have, friend," clasping him on the shoulder, the leader grinned. "Glad to see you still are."
Martinez nodded and slipped a burlap sack over Daryl's head before cuffing his hands and untying him from the chair.
Forced to stand, Daryl was pushed from the room and lead through the quiet streets. His listened closely to the way their feet echoed against the buildings, the way his breath sawed through parted lips. He could hear the Governor speaking loudly somewhere up ahead of them.
"What can I say?" The Governor's voice carried to where strong hands kept Daryl in place in the shadows. "Hasn't been a night like this since the wall was completed, and I thought we were past that. Past the days when we all sat, huddled, scared in front of the TV, during the early days of the outbreak."
He waited for the murmurs to cease. "The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I failed you, I promised to keep you safe. Hell, look at me. You know, I—I should tell you we'll be OK that we're safe. Tomorrow we bury our dead and endure, but I won't. I can't." The sincerity fairly dripped from his lips as he showed only vulnerability on his usually stoic face. "Because I'm afraid. That's right. I'm afraid of terrorists who will want what we have. Want to detour us! Or worse, because one of these terrorist is our own, Merle, the man I counted on, Merle. The man I counted on, he let them in. You lied. You betrayed us all."
There were accusatory shouts from the townspeople, their ugly shouts carrying in the still night air to greet Daryl as he was shoved out of the shadows and into the light.
"This is one of the terrorists." The Governor's confident shout echoed as the sack was yanked off Daryl's head and he blinked to adjust to the firelight. "Merle's own brother!"
Daryl's arms were suddenly free, and he was thrust into the center of the makeshift ring. Merle stood across from him, though he could barely force himself to look at the older brother who would see his capture as weakness.
Smirking, the town's leader threw his arms wide in an appeal to the crowd. "So what should we do when them?"
Shouts calling for their deaths buffeted them from all sides, and Daryl finally looked up to see the horrified gaze of his brother.
"Fight! The winner goes free. Fight! To the death." Chuckling, the Governor leaned to speak softly in Merle's ear. "You wanted your bother. Now, you've got him."
Daryl's breathing was harsh and fast, rushing in and out of his open mouth as he fought the natural urge to hide when confronted with a crowd. In the past, he would have stepped behind his brother. As he watched, Merle looked him over and then turned to address the shouting crowd.
"People! You all know me!" Merle chuckled. "You know ol' Merle would do anything to keep ya'll safe." Some of the crowd was shouting support for him, now.
"And I'm willing to do anything it takes," Merle spun and landed a sharp blow to Daryl's abdomen, forcing him to the ground. "To prove that my loyalty is to this town!"
He began raining punches and kicks to his younger brother's prone body until Daryl wrapped his hands around his throat and began choking him.
"You really think that asshole's gonna let you go?" Daryl grunted under his weight.
"Just stick with me, baby brother, and we're getting outta here." Merle wheezed heavily. "Right now."
Jumping up, the two brothers landed punches and kicks to the walkers that had been led into the arena as they wrestled in the dust. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they formed a united front. Daryl pushed a leashed walker away, and gave a shout of surprise when a bullet ripped through its greying skull.
Seraphim
Curled up in the front seat of the Jeep, Sera fought the urge to cry as the sun slowly sank lower and the shadows snaked across the land.
Just after Daryl had left her, a group of walkers wondered down the road. Pulling Daryl's poncho over her, she curled up on the floor and waited for the sounds to stop. It grew warm in the packed car, and she longed to crack the window, but she didn't bother to entertain such a thought. Still, the dead flowed around her oasis, knocking into the mirrors and moaning loudly.
A passing vehicle drew the attention of Seraphim and the walkers before the crack crack ratatat of automatic guns ripped through the forest. Pulling bags down on top of her crouched form, Sera began to pray silently. The men with the guns would no doubt come to look over the Jeep, and she doubted very much that they would be friendly.
"Hey!" The shout was deep, the shouter seemingly uncaring of how far it traveled. "There's a fuckin' Jeep back here, man!"
Someone tried the door handle, and a second voice joined the first. "It's locked, man."
"So? Get me a rock!"
"It's better with the windows, you shithead. Look, we need to finish our sweep. We'll come back for it after we check in with Martinez."
The first man audibly sneered. "Martinez and the Gov. are busy with that redneck asshole they brought in a bit ago."
"All the more reason to do our God damned jobs! Now let's go, Travis."
There was the thump of a fist on the roof, and the men stomped away.
Counting to three hundred after the sound of the truck faded, Sera pushed her way free of her hasty covering and climbed into the driver's seat. They had to have been talking about Daryl, and she wasn't about to let him or Merle suffer in that town. Bouncing over the bodies of the decimated walkers, Sera guided her Jeep through the underbrush and between the trees.
She drove until she came to the back part of the wall that surrounded nearly half of the original town of Woodbury. The wall was tall, though unprotected, here. There were no footholds or places to safely climb to the top. The bodies of three walkers were sprawled on the ground, already rotting in the twilight. Opening her door, she listened for the sound of any movement before easing out to stand.
The wall had been built so that is was flanked on the nearest corner by a large industrial building made of brick. The small window in the door was easy to break with the sharp end of her Hooligan, and she waited a few seconds before reaching in and unlocking it. There was no movement in the building, though she could hear a large crowd of people just outside.
Firelight danced across the beveled windows set high over her head as Sera crouched and jogged through the mostly empty building to a set of stairs that climbed to an open door on the second floor. It led out onto the top of the wall, where various rifles lay in preparation for the next watch. Everyone in town seemed to be gathered around the spectacle of the Governor speaking in the open courtyard below.
". . . because one of these terrorist is our own, Merle, the man I counted on, Merle. The man I counted on, he let them in. You lied. You betrayed us all."
Sera gasped and bit down on her lip to keep the building scream from ripping out of her mouth as Daryl was shoved into the light and a bag ripped off his head.
"This is one of the terrorists. Merle's own brother. So what should we do when them?"
As the crowd surged to its feet and began shouting for the blood of the brothers, Sera reached for the nearest rifle. Sliding back under the cover of the open door, she checked the chamber and the magazine, glad to see it full. Easing back around the corner, she gasped as Merle landed blow after blow on her husband.
When they suddenly surged to their feet, fighting against the townspeople and the walkers some controlled on long leash poles as a unit, she nodded and took careful aim. The back of the Governor's head was squarely within the crosshairs of her rifle's sights when a loud crack drew her up short. Martinez had fired on a leashed walker that had drawn too close to Daryl.
Without waiting to see what was about to happen to him, she swung back to her former target. Exhaling a steadying breath, Sera once again focused on the now smirking Governor's forehead. He was shouting that Martinez must be in league with the Dixon brothers, and that they would all have to be put down in order to maintain the safety of their town.
"Okay, Sera," she whispered to herself and rested the barrel of the rifle on the small lip of the wall in order to help steady it. "You need to do this. For Daryl, and Merle, and the baby."
Letting the world drop away, she focused very intently on the place where the two lines in her sights met. When there was nothing else but that patch of flesh, she again exhaled and squeezed the trigger.
The Governor's hateful gaze and smirking lips were ripped apart by the blast, and the rifle kicked against Sera's shoulder painfully. Dropping the cumbersome weapon, Sera drew her Berettas and raced back down the steps. The crowd was in disarray, screaming and running in all directions, when Sera threw the front door open and shouted for Daryl.
Whipping in her direction, Daryl wrenched his crossbow from a man's grasp before punching him in the face and leading Merle and Martinez into the dark building.
"C'mon!" Sera was already at the back door, pulling it open to look around to check their surroundings. When nothing lurched out of the shadows, she unlocked the doors and led the men from the building. "Get in! Get in!"
Daryl clamored into the passenger seat while Merle and Martinez dove into the back. Bullets tore into the trees around them as Sera used the Jeep to tear through the bracken and brush. Keeping herself focused on what was visible through her headlights, Sera ignored the shouts of the men around her and bounced down onto a barely existent logging road. Guiding the ORV up into the hills, she drove along back roads and through forests for nearly an hour before she could no longer maintain control.
Stopping, she forced the door open and nearly crawled to the side of the road in order to empty her stomach of what little it contained. There was no way around it. She had killed that man. He may have been a threat to her husband and new family, but she pulled the trigger and ended his life.
Daryl sank down next to her, keeping her long braid from trailing over her shoulder and rubbing her back soothingly. "Did real good, Catchfly. Got us all out safe."
Not wanting to talk about any of it, Sera curled into his lap and dutifully chewed a piece of anise Merle picked from the roadside and slipped into her hand. The licorice flavor eased her roiling stomach as she listened to the men speak quietly as Merle and Martinez slowly circled the Jeep.
"Need to get movin' soon." Merle frowned and paused to listen to something moving quietly through the underbrush. "Can't just stand around here all night."
Martinez's answer came from the other side of the vehicle. "I'm willing to pull my weight if you will let me tag along for a few days. Just until I get my feet under me."
Sera nodded against Daryl's shoulder, and he squeezed her in response. "As long as you understand how shit's gonna work."
"Your wife is off limits, we don't kill unless we need to, and we work together to survive." Stepping around the end of the Jeep, he raised an eyebrow. "That about cover it?"
"The basics, anyway." Sliding Sera off his lap, Daryl waited until she was steady on her feet before gaining his own. "We need to find someplace to bunk down for the night until we can find something more permanent. Those headlights are a fucking dinner bell to walkers."
Putting Sera in the passenger seat, Daryl slid behind the wheel and set out to find a safe place to bunk down for a day or two.