Nearly 40 chapters! Whoop! But the next chapter is the Season 3 finale. I'm so happy that you guys are enjoying this story. I only have just over two weeks in college, grr, so this effects my writing schedule. I aim to get 4/5 thousand words on each chapter and make sure it's ok then move on but I haven't had the chance to write any chapters yet so I'm only on 42. I should hurry up aha. But I won't give up on this story. Plus, I have other stories under go as well, so I've been focusing on them. Anyways, enough of me rambling, let's get started. Disclaimer I don't own The Walking Dead just my ocs and plotlines.
Emma's Pov
Rick has just explained to me and Daryl the Governor's offer, give him Michonne and he will leave us alone or if we don't we are at war. The walkers growling at us, fills my ears. I don't know how to do this... I don't know what to decide. Hershel is here to, he knows about the deal already.
"It's the only way." Rick says to us. "No one else knows." Rick puts in and I nod.
"You gonna tell 'em?" Daryl asks him. This is quite a big secret to keep.
"Not till after." Rick admits to us and we nod. "We have to do it today. It has to be quiet."
"You got a plan?" Daryl questions him and Rick nods.
"We tell her we need to talk. Away from the others." Rick explains and I frown. Daryl looks skeptical.
"Just ain't us, man." Daryl mutters.
"No. No, it isn't." Hershel points out to Rick before going off.
"Rick, I don't know how I feel 'bout this." I inform him.
"We do this, we avoid a fight. No one else dies." Rick comments to us. That makes sense.
Daryl nod. "Ok."
"We need someone else." Rick voices and Daryl nods in understanding. Ah... he wants to talk to Merle about this.
"I'll talk to 'im." Daryl says.
"I'll do it." Rick mutters.
"I'll go with you." Daryl pushes.
"No." He snaps and Daryl goes silent. "Just me." He mumbles to us before walking off. Me and Daryl watch him before we look at each other, is this what it's come to now? Willing to hand a person over to a mad one eyed man. Daryl holds my hand, giving it a squeeze. He's nervous about this plan. Same with me so I return it.
I just hope this plan doesn't go wrong.
Rick's Pov
I walk into Cell block D, seeing all the beds ripped to shreds. Most likely Merle did this. I hear more ripping and I walk up the stairs and I see Merle there, Merle finally notices me.
"Just looking for a little vacation. Best dope I ever had was in a mattress." He tells me and I stop at the top. Listening to him talk. "Nothing. This place must have been no fun at all." He mumbles and I have to resist a smile.
"We need your help." I tell him and he chuckles. "Do you even know why you do the things you do? The choices you make?" I ask him but he stays silent. I sigh. "If we give the Governor Michonne, Woodbury stands down." I tell him and he stands up properly, good I got his full attention. "I don't like it, but it's what needs to be done. We need to make it quiet. We need your help with that." I hate to admit that but we need Merle's help. I need Merle's help for this task.
"You ain't told the others, huh?" He asks me and I shake my head.
"Just Hershel, Daryl, Emma and you." I inform him and he smiles.
"Huh. The inner circle. I'm honored." He mutters and I give him a look. "You know, when we'd go out on runs, he'd bash somebody's skull, slash somebody's throat, and he'd say, 'Never waste a bullet'. I always thought it was just an excuse." He pauses and I hope I never turn like that. "You go on. Give him that girl. He ain't gonna kill her, you know. He's just gonna do things to her. Probably take out one of her eyes. Both of 'em, most likely. You'd let that happen for a shot?" He asks me and I stay quiet, giving him an answer. "Whew. You're cold as ice, Officer Friendly." He pauses. "You're gonna need wire, not rope. Wire. Nothing she could chew through. Oh. You know something? You're right. I don't know why I do the things I do. Never did. I'm a damn mystery to me. But I know you, Rick. Yeah, I thought a lot about you. You ain't got the spine for it."
"We need to get her to the Governor by noon." I order him before I walk off. Am I really doing this? But if it keeps everyone safe then so be it. It needs to be done. I just hope it's the right call.
Emma's Pov
After a while Michonne comes out of the cell block with Ashley, Beth, Maggie, Glenn, Carl and Jamie in tow.
"What's goin' on?" I ask them, interest clear in my voice.
"Michonne has a plan." Jamie comments vaguely and I look over at her to hear her plan.
"If we put some traps in the field, it will bust tires, it might give the Governor's army a hard time to get to us." Michonne explains to us and I nod.
"Alright. Maggie, Ashley, Carl, Jamie... distract the walkers. Me, Daryl, Glenn, Beth and Michonne will set up the traps." I announce and they all nod at my words.
Daryl comes to my side. "Ya hot when you're in charge." He whispers and I smirk at him.
"I know. Same with ya." I respond to him and his cheeks go a little red.
Maggie and Ashley quickly go inside the cell block, Beth starts up the truck while Daryl and Glenn put together some traps. The traps that have spikes and some barbed wire installed to. To make good traps for the Governor's trucks. It will be worth it if they show up.
Beth drives the truck near us, I grab one end of the trap and Michonne grabs the other side. We hoist it up and dump it in the back, Daryl and Glenn do the same with the other one. Maggie and Ashley came back out with pots and pans and hand some to Jamie and Carl, keeping some for themselves.
Maggie, Carl, Ashley and Jamie quickly go to the middle section near the destroyed gate and bang on the pots and pans, drawing the walkers away from the gate so we can drive down. Me and Michonne go by the gate, she unsheathes her katana ready and I wait for the walkers to go a bit further down, more near the fence and the others before I open the gate quickly. The truck drives down and I shut it before we rush down after the truck. Killing any walkers that are now attracted to the truck. I unsheathe my machete and slice a walkers head open with a horrible crunch. Beth slows the truck down so Daryl and Glenn can start setting up a few traps by the bus.
The four's yelling are drawing the walkers pretty good so far. The boy's manage to set down two before Beth drives again to another spot.
Daryl and Glenn hoist one down before Glenn hammers it in the ground. They hammer the final trap down.
Michonne slices off two walker's heads off without any trouble.
"Nice." I comment and she smirks at me.
"Come on, let's go." Daryl calls to us and we hurry over there.
Michonne goes to the front. Daryl offers a hand to me, which I gratefully take and he hoists me up onto the bed of the truck. Glenn hops on quickly before Beth drives back up to the courtyard. Rick opens the gate for us and quickly closes it.
"They try to drive up to the gate again, maybe some blown tires will stop them." Glenn tells Rick and I nod smiling.
"That's a good idea." Rick compliments him.
"It was Michonne's." Daryl tells Rick, the others not reading the hidden message but me. Daryl does not like the plan that Rick wants to do, me neither. Rick goes quiet at his comment. I hold Daryl's hand.
We never show public affection but when we do it's only little as this, which I don't mind. We're getting better at the whole public affection thing. Of course, we ain't like Maggie or Glenn but we don't mine.
"We don't have to win." Michonne puts in. "We just have to make their getting at us more touble than it's worth."
Carl, Jamie, Maggie and Ashley come back. Rick looks at me and Daryl.
"Come on, let's go." Rick says and we follow after him. We're gonna try to fix the prison before the Governor and his army comes for us. So we can have a chance against them.
Me and Jamie see Merle up the top near the control room. Looking down, he must have been thinking about something because he hasn't fully noticed us. Or he has but isn't saying anything.
"You up to somethin'?" Jamie asks him with narrowed eyes and Merle chuckles at his bluntness.
"Nah, little man. Just thinkin'." He tells him and Jamie accepts his answer.
"You gonna help with things or are ya gonna stay up there all day and day dream?" Jamie asks him with a smirk and Merle chuckles at his attitude.
"Ya are Emma's and my baby brother's son alright." Merle admits and I laugh. I notice Jamie smile at the compliment. "A Dixon... both of ya." He adds and I smile, I give him a nod of thanks which he gives a little curt nod back.
"So I get to call ya Uncle Merle now?" Jamie questions him, a little hope but mostly he is teasing him. Knowing well what the answer will be.
"Don't go to far of ya'self boy." Merle warns and Jamie laughs, which surpises Merle. Obviously he must have thought he would put up a bigger fight to call him an 'Uncle'.
"It was worth a shot." Jamie retorts to him and Merle chuckles before he goes off somewhere in the tombs.
After a while of sorting out bullets for each gun, Daryl walks in.
"Ya alright?" I question him and he nods.
"Lookin' for Merle." He answers me.
"Me an' mom saw 'im a while ago. He went through the tombs for somethin' dad." He tells him and Daryl nods before walking in the tombs. I smile at Jamie, I never thought I would be called mom in a long time... but ever since the apocalypse I didn't think I would ever until now. And I'm glad I ran after Sophia that day... that was so long ago now. I wouldn't have met Jamie otherwise and he would've been dead right now or with a horrible group. Ones that wouldn't have gave a damn or ones that will rob people.
Jamie packs everything up before putting them in bags and walking into the block to put them in a cell. Daryl comes out eventually and we walk outside.
"Ya ok with the plan?" I question him and he nods his head. "I don't like it." I admit and he looks at me. "I... I hate this plan. Giving someone up for survival. That ain't us. It ain't. It can't be... we'll be letting our humanity go. My mom would've hated this plan. Same with Dale... T-Dog... Lori. It sucks that we have to do horrible things to live."
"I know, I hate it too." He admits and I squeeze his hand.
The door opens and we look back to see Rick coming out.
"It's off. We'll take our chances." Rick tells us and I sigh in rleief.
"I'm not saying it was the wrong call, but this is definitely the right one." Daryl mutters and notices his worried expression. "What's wrong?" He asks him.
"I can't find Merle or Michonne. They've gone." Rick tells us.
"Shit." I mutter.
"Come on." Daryl orders us before running off, me and Rick follow after him. We need to top Merle before it's too late. We came in to the generator room. "He was in here. Said he was looking for drugs. Said a lot of things, actually." Daryl admits and I look at him curiously.
"Like what?" Rick questions him.
"Said that you were gonna change your mind. Here we go." Daryl says and we noticed a bag on the floor. "Yeah, he took her here. They mixed it up."
"Damn it! I'm going after him." Rick announces to us.
"You can't track for shit." Daryl reminds Rick.
"Then the both of us." Rick pushes.
"No, just me." Daryl tells him.
"I'm with ya." I announce and Daryl looks at me about to argue but I cut him off. "He's my family too." I point out to him and he nods.
"We'll go. You need to be ready. Your family too." Daryl tells Rick before leaving. I nod at Rick a good luck before catching up with Daryl. Hopefully we can stop this exchange from happening in time.
After a while of running we come across Michonne who stabs a walker head with her katana. Please tell me you didn't kill Merle.
"Hey! Where's my brother? You kill him?" Daryl asks her but she shakes her head.
"He let me go." She answers him truthfully.
"Don't let anyone come after us." Daryl orders her, she gives us a nod before we take off running. We just need to get Merle back before he does something stupid.
Ashley's Pov
We wait by the benches, Jamie infront of me. Hershel, Beth who is holding Judith and Carol are sitting on the bench. Me, Carl and Jamie are standing up. Rick called for a meeting and now we are only waiting for Daryl, Merle, Emma, Michonne, Maggie and Glenn. Where the hell are they?
At that time, Maggie and Glenn come to us and I notice the ring on her finger and I smile. Finally, took a long time. Emma and Daryl got married before Glenn and Maggie which I was surprised about but happy for them both. You can see the way they look at each other. Everyone could. I thought it would be a little bit longer until I saw the ring on her finger but it happened. I still haven't talked to her about it, neither has Maggie. I guess when this thing with the Governor ends we can have one of those days to tell each other everything. We look to Rick and he sighs.
"When I met with the Governor, he offered me a deal. He said... he said he would leave us alone if I gave him Michonne." Rick tells us and my breath catches in my throat. What? Is that why she isn't here? Are Emma, Daryl and Merle delivering her to the Governor right now? "And I was gonna do that... to keep us safe. I changed my mind." I breathe a sigh of relief. "But now Merle took Michonne to fulfill the deal and Daryl and Emma went to stop him and I don't know if it's too late. I was wrong not to tell you. And I'm sorry. What I said last year, that first night after the farm... it can't be like that. It can't. What we do, what we're willing to do, who we are, it's not my call. It can't be. I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good because we are the greater good. We're the reason we're still here, not me. This is life and death. How you live... how you die. It isn't up to me. I'm not your Governor. We choose to go. We choose to stay. We stick together. We vote. We can stay and we can fight or we can go." Rick announces, looking at each of us individually.
That was one hell of a speech.
Emma's Pov
We make it to the feedmill. It's quiet now. Apart from the growls from the walkers. I see a car and tap Daryl, he looks at me before I point it out to him. He nods. Merle was here.
I see a walker eating what's left of a person. A person from Woodbury. Me and Daryl carry on walking, the walker not really noticing us so it isn't an issue. There's a few dead bodies on the ground with bullet holes in their heads.
One of the bodies with their guts ripped open and a few more plain dead ones. Jesus. A walker is eating a guy a few yards in front of us and Daryl aims his crossbow before a bolt goes flying through it's skull. It collapses onto the body it was eating. Daryl takes another arrow and walks forward but slows down a little bit.
I notice what he was looking at was a walker... not just any walker... Merle. My breath catches in my throat. Walker Merle looks up, a bit of meat drops from his mouth and Daryl starts to sob. A bullet wound in his chest. Tears form in my eyes. I never fully knew him... but he was my family. He became my family when I married Daryl... before that actually. When I first went into a relationship with Daryl. Even though me and Merle didn't know each other.
Walker Merle stands up and stumbles forward. This causes Daryl to take a few steps backwards, crying. He pushes the walker back with a lot of force.
"No!" He cries out.
The walker snarls and Daryl sobs even more. Daryl pushes him again and he spins around. Not giving up on the fresh meat in front of him. Daryl pushes him again with a growl. I notice him unsheathing his knife. When the walker comes again he stabs it in the neck and the walker snarls in fury. They stumble to the floor. Daryl stabs it in the head killing it but he carries on, taking out his frustration for leaving him. On the last few stabs he sobs louder and takes the knife out before stumbling backwards on the floor.
He breathes out a few times before crying. I kneel beside Daryl and take his hand, rubbing soothing circles.
"I'm so sorry." I tell Daryl and his sobs come out harder before I hug him. He sobs into my body, my own tears dripping down my face.
I can't believe Merle is gone. Merle did this for us and now we lost him... lost another one of our people... our family. I just hope we don't lose anymore. Even though that is a big stretch, I have to hope we don't lose anyone else.
No! RIP Merle. I did a few scenes with Merle in this episode... like including his talk with Rick, and a chat with Jamie and Emma which was a nice moment. Poor Daryl. I actually cried when I watched Daryl putting him down. He just got him back too. Thank you guys so much for reading this chapter and I hope you like it. Please review! I would like to know what you think.