Daryl had expected Jimmy to give Dixon a black eye. It's what he would have done, at seventeen, if another guy had stolen his girl, if he'd had a girl to steal. He never expected the boy would so bitter and so angry and so goddamn foolish as to risk the farm and Fun Kingdom by going to join a town ruled by someone he'd been told was a threat and a crazy ass fucker.
Maybe Jimmy didn't intend to reveal Dixon's whereabouts out of vengeance. Maybe he didn't intend to jeopardize Fun Kingdom or the farm. Maybe he really did just want to start over someplace where he felt appreciated. But none of that mattered, not when Woodbury had an introductory interrogation. And Daryl didn't think Jimmy would be able to keep Fun Kingdom or the farm secret the way Dixon had concealed his cabin.
The cock had crowed an hour ago. Woodbury was seventy miles away. Depending how fast Jimmy drove, and how many blockages or walkers he detoured around on the way, he could be at their gates within the next thirty minutes. Within an hour, he might be sitting across from the Governor, getting grilled. And the Governor could be here, at the gates of Fun Kingdom, looking for Dixon, this very afternoon.
A flurry of action erupted. The camp was gathered to meet outside of the House of the Future. "When he comes, just hand me over to him," Dixon told Daryl when Maggie reported the news. He paced by the outdoor picnic table. "It's me he wants. He'll take me and leave y'all alone, leave the kids alone. They'll be safe. It's all my fault anyway. I should have never come here! I should have never kissed Beth. This is all my fault. Just hand me over. Hand me over and take care of Luke and Mika when I'm gone."
"Ain't your fault!" Daryl told him. He grabbed Dixon by the neck to stop him from pacing and forced him to face him. "Ain't your fault, you hear! Ain't your fault you fell for some girl. 'S Jimmy's fault for going to Woodbury. You're family, and we ain't handin' you over. You got that?"
Dixon, breathing hard and holding back tears, nodded.
"First priority is that we get the kids to safety," Rick said. "The Governor's likely coming here for Dixon, so we should get them to the farm. Through the path in the woods. Not the road. His army may be on the road."
"That path is too clearly beaten," Carol said. "If the Governor comes here for Dixon, and sends men to look in the woods, he'll find it. He may follow it. Or Jimmy may have already told him about the farm, and Dixon's interest in Beth, and he may look for Dixon there."
"He'll look here first," Rick said. "Since this is where Dixon lives. And if we show him Dixon is here – I don't mean turn him over!" he clarified to a glowering Daryl. "But if we show him Dixon is here, we can keep him here until we…" Rick sighed and shook his head.
Until we what?
No one knew.
"Jimmy doesn't know where my cabin is," Dixon said. "He just knows I had one in the woods miles from the farm, but he doesn't know where it is. There's no path beaten between it and the farm. And it's got that hiding cellar. The kids and Lori can all fit in there, under the trap door, under the rug. I can show you on the map where it is."
It was decided Maggie would lead the kids and Lori through the woods from Fun Kingdom to the cabin, staying obscured in the forest and off the road. Lori and little Andre could ride her horse. Michonne would accompany them for extra protection and to quietly slay walkers along the way, and because she wasn't about to leave Andre with just Maggie. Sophia would take her sword, Carl his rifle, and Mika and Luke their knives. "Watch for the trip wires," Dixon warned them. "They're still there, and they'll give you warning if anyone does come that way."
The fleeing group quickly packed some food, and Rick gave Maggie an extra box of ammunition for her rifle. Maggie kissed Glenn goodbye, warning him to be careful. Dixon ordered his dog Daisy to go with the retreating group: "She knows the way, and she knows where the trip wires are."
Max tried to bound after Daisy and the kids, but Sophia turned and commanded him to stay. "You have to help keep Fun Kingdom safe!" she told the dog.
Rick turned on his long-range radio and flipped between the two CB traffic stations he was able to receive in hope that he might pick up some CB traffic between the Governor and his soldiers if and when they neared. "If they're talking on a channel I can't get, we're out of luck. And I probably won't pick them up until they're within fifteen miles."
The group seized their semiautomatic rifles and went to the armory to load up extra magazines. They stripped handguns and multiple magazines and knives to their utility belts. Glenn and T-Dog took a spike strip from the park security office and situated it at the entrance of the parking lot to pop the tires of any armored vehicles coming in. Andrea put a chain and padlock around the storage house, to make plunder slower if the Army did get in.
Rick gave Daryl one of his two King County Sheriff's Department walkie talkies, and then they gathered more walkie talkies from a gift shop – toy ones – not the best, but reliable enough to communicate for a short range within the park. They loaded them with AA batteries. Dixon and Daryl moved their motorcycles near the front gate, obscured behind the brick wall entryway to the restrooms there, in case they needed to flee the park at some point. If they did, Daryl would grab Carol, and Dixon would grab whoever he could.
Andrea took up position on the castle tower slides to scour the horizon with binoculours. Then the rest of the group waited outside the House of the Future, with Rick nervously paging from CB channel to CB channel.
[*]
Three hours after the caravan of kids had left with Maggie and were likely safely ensconced in Dixon's old cabin, Rick's radio picked up a communication between the Governor and one of his soldier's vehicles. It was clear they were at the fork in the highway where one way led to Fun Kingdom and another wound its way through side and dirt roads to the farm.
The Governor was sending an armored vehicle, driven by that prisoner Tomás he'd ranted about on the CB earlier, to the farm. Two other soldiers were named as accompanying him: Andrew and Allen. "Circle back to join the Army at Fun Kingdom if the traitor isn't there," the Governor told Tomás, which made it clear he didn't really expect Dixon to be there.
"I'm glad you inisted we not hide the kids at the farm," Rick admitted to Carol.
Dixon experience no such relief. "Oh God!" he moaned. "Beth! It's just her and Patricia and Hershel there now!"
"They're all armed," Carol reassured him. "It's just three soldiers, and when they see you aren't there, they're supposed to turn around and - "
"- But one is that prisoner! Tomás. What if he was doing time for rape? And Hershel's a pacifist. He doesn't – "
"- He's got that shotgun," Carol told him. "When it comes to defending his little girl? He's going to throw every last one of those scruples out the window. Trust me. I'm a mother. I know." Carol was sounding a lot more confident than she felt. But there was nothing they could do about it at the moment. The Governor would soon be at their gates, and they'd be facing a much bigger army than three men here.
"Let's get in place!" Rick cried.
T-Dog called Andrea on his toy walkie talkie to tell her to come down the slide and meet them at the gate. They piled in the pick-up truck to drive to the entrance. Carol, being the lightest of the adults, climbed into the tower of the faux castle near the front gate, and Daryl hid the ladder away. Obscured there between the merlons, she would be able to pick off soldiers if it became necessary to do so.
Andrea, T-Dog, Rick, and Glenn went through the exit gate, and Dixon shut it behind them. They took up covered positions in the parking lot, two of them behind dumpsters and two down low beneath the windows of the parking booths, so that could eventually come at the army by surprise from behind.
Dixon and Daryl waited behind the carousel, which was the first ride when you walked through the gates of Fun Kingdom, just beyond the huge flower bed that was now a winter vegetable garden. Green buds were just beginning to rise from the soil, offering the promise of a future it was now their task to secure.
Daryl placed the baby monitor receiver on the ledge of the carousel's base above them. Max joined them, sitting on his haunches with his head titled and watching Dixon curiously as the young man paced.
While Dixon paced, Daryl lit up. He tossed the cigarette to the asphalt three minutes later and ground it out beneath his heel when the Sheriff's Department walkie talkie Rick had given him crackled. Dixon froze in his pacing.
Rick's voice, a low whisper, came in: "They're in the lot now. One of their vehicles got its front tires popped by the spike strip, and now their moving the spike strip out of the way. They're leaving that vehicle behind but bringing in two military trucks and another armored vehicle. I can't tell you how many soldiers. We can't see in the trucks. Try to keep them busy at the gate. We'll try to sneak up from behind once they're thoroughly distracted and the time is ripe. Over and out."
Daryl clipped the police walkie talkie to his belt and pulled out the toy one. "A minute away," he told Carol. "Keep low. Don't shoot unless and until you absolutely have to. Over and out."
It wasn't long before the governor's voice was coming through the baby monitor. Jimmy must have told him it was their doorbell, because he seemed to be talking directly into it. His voice sounded far more measured than it had when he was ranting into the CB. He sounded almost friendly:
"This is Philip Blake, though my people call me the Governor. I'm the leader of a town called Woodbury. You've probably heard of it by now. Woodbury's very existence was threatened by a fugitive I have reason to believe you're currently harboring. He was tried and convicted in absentia, and we'd like you to extradite him to us for his fitting punishment. Now we have no beef with your people. Simply bring out the traitor Dixon Hayes, and you won't get hurt. Hand him over, and you'll go free, and your fun little campground here will remain intact. Walk him to this gate, hands behind his head, and you'll be forgiven for harboring the fugitive."
Daryl clicked off the baby monitor receiver and swung his AR-10 into his hand. He checked that the safety was on. "You ready, kid?"
Dixon nodded.
"Act scared."
"I don't think I'll need to act," Dixon replied.
Daryl walked Dixon out from behind the carousel and to the front gate as if to turn him over. The teenager held his hands behind his head, with his elbows out. Dixon appeared unarmed, but he had a concealed handgun at his back and at least three concealed knives. Max padded alongside them.
They stopped before the iron fence and gate where the Governor and his army stood. Behind them were parked an armored vehicle and two military trucks – good cover for when Rick and the others snuck up, Daryl thought.
It was obvious to Daryl which man was the Governor by his general air and the fact that he was the only one not currently holding a military-style rifle. He had neatly groomed brown hair and a clean-shaven face. In another scenario, except for the eerie black trench coat, Daryl might have mistaken him for a branch manager.
To the Governor's left was a tall black man with short dread locks who held on his shoulder a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. To the Governor's right was Jimmy, now armed with an AR-10 instead of his usual wooden rifle. Jimmy's jaw was stern and his blue eyes were dark and narrowed as he looked through the iron bars of the gate at Dixon. Daryl knew instantly the farmhand had turned his rival over. Jimmy might not want Fun Kingdom or the farm injured, but he clearly wanted Dixon himself to suffer.
Daryl surveyed the rest of the soldiers - eighteen more in total - men and women both, some who looked like ex-military, some like hardened criminals, and some like regular people who had only recently learned to take up arms and weren't quite sure what they were doing here. But what shocked Daryl was the presence of two wholly unanticipated figures - Sergeant Abraham Ford and Rosita Espinosa. Dr. Eugene Porter, however, was nowhere to be seen among the soldiers.
Abraham's normally unflinching eyes blinked in surprise recognition.
"This is the traitor?" Rosita asked the Governor. "This kid? This is the traitor who's the grand threat to Woodbury?"
"He murdered my daughter," the Governor replied in a low growl. Then, more loudly, so all his soldiers could hear, "and he attempted to set fire to Woodbury! He would have burned the town to the ground had I not caught and stopped him."
"I didn't murder his daughter!" Dixon called back, looking directly at Rosita, as though trying to reason specifically with her. "She'd undergone the change. I put down her shell, that was all. And I never tried to burn Woodbury. He's lying to you. The way that Dr. Porter lied to you. Did you read that book I gave you?"
The Governor turned to Rosita. "You know each other?"
"We've met," she replied coolly.
Abraham's grip tightened on his M16 and he looked warily at the Governor. "Is this true, Phillip? What the young man says? Is it true?"
"Of course it's not true!" the Governor barked, sounding a little more like the maniacal voice on the CB now, as though a switch had been flipped somewhere in the back of his mad mind. "The traitor is clearly trying to save his own skin! Don't question the mission, soldier!" He turned his attention back to Daryl. "Now open up the gate and turn him over."
"And if I don't?" Daryl asked.
The Governor reached into the inside of his vest and pulled out a map of Fun Kingdom. "I believe the House of the Future is right here." He put a finger down on the map. "Shumpert!"
The big black man with short dreadlocks clamored up onto the roof of one of the armored vehicles with the rocket launcher on his shoulder.
"Refuse to turn the traitor over," the Governor announced, "and you can say goodbye to your precious house and anything in it."
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Jimmy said frantically. "You can't do that. The kids are probably in there!"
They kids weren't, but the armory was. All their ammunition. Their reloading presses and gunpowder. Two freezers full of meat, a fridge full of food, and a pantry full of stores. Not to mention their running water and heat.
Abraham caught Rosita's eye, and they looked at one another as though this was the first they were hearing there might be kids in the camp.
"Kids?" a blonde solider with a goatee asked. "You didn't say anything about kids being in this camp."
"Axel, shut up and raise that gun," the Governor told him. "You, too, Oscar. Why are you lowering your guns!" he roared.
"You can't!" Jimmy said frantically. "You can't shoot the house. That's most likely where the kids are. You can't -"
The Governor drew a knife from beneath his trench coat, swiveled and drove it into Jimmy's stomach. Jimmy's mouth fell opened in silent astonishment, and then he began to gurgle as the Governor ripped the knife upward through his chest. "You've served your purpose you mewling lovestruck Romeo," the Governor muttered as he ripped the knife out and Jimmy fell choking to the ground, clutching his spilling intestines.
Over half the soldiers had now lowered their guns in utter shock.
"You know what?" the Governor roared. "These people obviously don't understand we mean business. Shumpert, fire the launcher!"
Standing on the roof of the armored vehicle, Shumpert began to raise the rocket launcher, but just as he did, Carol shot from the tower of the faux castle. A bullet hole formed in Shumpert's forehead and his neck snapped back, but the rocket launcher went off anyway. He hadn't raised it all the way or aimed it toward the house yet, however, so it flew through the air in the wrong direction, with a loud woosh and a rush of fire. It went just over the gate, over Daryl and Dixon's heads, and tore through the top of the carousel, where it left a smoldering path through the metal canopy, with tongues of fire licking weakly at the torn iron edges. The rocket trended downward and landed in the large fountain beyond the carousel, plunking into the brown, murky pool of water – months' worth of collected rain – where it sizzled out with a muted boom. Water flew into the air and rained back down into the fountain.
One of the Governor's men unleashed an undisciplined burst of automatic gunfire at the tower from which Carol had fired, but he was stopped by Sergeant Abraham Ford, who turned his own gun on the soldier. Ford brought the man down with a much more controlled burst of only three shots in a loud rat-at-tat. Rosita then shot another solider who tried to shoot Abraham.
Daryl, fearing Carol was dead, burst out from behind Dixon, his rifle raised, and shot through a space between the bars at a third solider who was turning to aim for the tower. He shot three times, in rapid succession, his bullets ripping through the side of the man, the first two into his stomach, and the last higher into his chest. The soldier staggared forward and collapsed.
At this point, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Andrea appeared suddenly behind the Governor's soldiers, emerging from behind the military trucks. Rick shouted, "Drop it! Drop the guns or we fire!"
Abraham and Rosita swiveled to face the Governor's soldiers from the front. "Soldiers, surrender!" Abraham ordered.
Four soldiers raised their guns in an attempt to shoot, two swirling on the Fun Kingdomers behind them. Abraham and Rosita opened fire from the front while Rick and Glenn shot from the back, and all four soldiers were promptly brought to the ground.
Guns clattered to the pavement and all the hands of the surviving soldiers shot up in surrender. Abraham forced the Governor to his knees and held his rifle on him while Rosita patted him down and disarmed him of a handgun and knife. Meanwhile, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Andrea began gathering the weapons of the surrendered soldiers.
Daryl's heart thudded because no shots had come from the tower of the faux castle during all this. He ran to the base of it and shouted up to Carol, but there was no reply.
Maybe she just couldn't hear, he hoped desperately. Maybe all the gunshots had left her ears ringing. He yanked the toy walkie talkie off his belt – the one she held the other receiver for. He pressed the talk button, and his voice cracking, begged, "Carol, come in! Come in! Carol! Please! Come in!"
He let go of the button, and the plastic toy crackled. Carol's voice, weak but still clear, came through. It was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "Hey, Pookie," she said. And then, in imitation of Daryl's own accent: "Whatchya wearin'?"