The Good The Bad The X-Boy - Keeping Larry around and as the tank driver was something I had planned from the start of the story, I think he really adds a wildcard to the mix as he was always one for efficient and violent reactions.
Rys-AND-Clash - Jeff was a fun character when I brought him in, considering that he was only shown in Telltale as a Crawford walker, I made his personality and backstory original. I didn't plan on keeping him around but I'll admit I was sad to see him go too.
SuperSonicHeros - Writing the "Villain Episode" was something I had been dying to do since the group left Woodbury. I was so eager to show Oberson in action along with Larry's survival and how they were planning to attack and take out our heros! I'm glad most people seemed to have enjoyed it and I hope this end of the arc makes it all the more satisfying.
Thedarkpokemaster - The fight to come will indeed be intense, part one is only just a taste, the real one comes next chapter.
Don 77 - Death is sadly assured on both sides that's for certain, if not then this story wouldn't matter too much and it'd just end up being pretty boring.
Imagine Dragons - Oberson has by far been one of my favorite characters to write during this entire arc, just getting into the mind of someone so diluted and crazed while also being completely cunning and fierce was such a treat to do. I'm so thankful that people seem to love to hate him and I hope he goes down as a great villain for this story.
Kevinrock8899 - So the vote shall be explained at the end of the chapter, and as for the school kids, I have a plan on where I'm going to introduce them. I will say they are not going to be their own group inside the school, rather they'll show up in locations as I see fit. I already have a clear plan for Marlon, Louis, and Violet's arrival but that's not for quite some time.
Humancyrax - Glad you liked the Billy and Hershel scene, it was fun to put together and have those two share a close moment. Also glad that Doug is getting a little attention from the audience as he was always one of my favorite characters. Hope you like this chapter and next one we'll see exactly what happens to The Governor, Oberson, Lilly, and Larry.
Chapter 36: Made To Suffer: Part I
Larry slammed on the breaks of the tank stopping it no further than a few yards from the horde of walkers outside the fences. The rest of the convoy followed suit and immediately the Woodbury army filed out of the vehicles, forming a line behind the car doors or a few steps ahead of them. "Open fire!" The Governor howled out and with no hesitation, Oberson pulled the trigger of his mounted machine gun, which was instantly followed by dozens of rifles, shotguns, pistols, and assault rifles in suite.
"Get down!" Kenny screamed as he grabbed Hershel by the arms and pulled the elder down along with him,
Bullets whizzed by the survivors' heads, peppering the wall behind them while dozens of walkers outside their fences fell like flies. "Holy fuck!" Mark exclaimed before jumping back up to his feet and running towards the watchtower,
"Mark, no, get your ass down!" Tyreese ordered, though his demand fell on deaf ears,
"Lori! Get the kids inside now!" Rick screamed for his wife who was already in the midst of retreating back into the cellblock with the children, "Go, Go!" Rick waved her on as a bullet narrowly missed his wife's head, ricocheting off the heavy metal door as she slipped inside.
Rick chased after his wife while Andrea came running out of the cell block past him, "Andrea, what are you doing?!" Rick exclaimed though the blonde woman didn't hesitate, making a straight line towards her own tower,
"Andrea, no!" Dale cried out for his girlfriend, unable to do anything but watch as he kept his body pressed as low as it could go.
Rick slipped back into the prison and caught up with Lori just as she reached the cells, "No, you can't stop here,"
"P-Patrica...t-they killed -" Lori stammered back,
"Lori, no, you need to stay focused now," Rick sharply interrupted, "Go grab a book cart and fill it with as much food as you can, then take the kids and barricade yourselves in the showers. You'll have all the water you need in case they get in, they don't know our numbers, so you stay hidden until one of us comes for you. If we don't, you stay until everything is quiet, and then you all run," Rick finished before turning and heading back towards the yard,
"Rick, no! You can't leave us now, come with me, I can't do this alone!" Lori pleaded with her husband,
"I can't! They know who I am, they will be looking for me! They don't know you, you have to do this, I'll be fine! Just go! Now!" Rick finished before leaving Lori without a second glance,
Outside the prison Oberson looked to The Governor and nodded, the veteran let go of the trigger on his humvee as The Governor looked down into the tank at Larry, "Give it here," Larry reached over in his seat and hoisted up a megaphone, passing it to his leader, "Cease Fire!" The Governor shouted over the gunfire, halting his army's assault completely.
For a moment everything was deathly silent, and one by one the survivors raised their heads peeking out through the fences, praying that the assaulting army had disappeared. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Ben quivered while his body shook like a fallen leaf, "We're gonna die,"
"Ben shut the fuck up, we're not gonna die!" Kenny barked over to the teen before looking back out at the fences, internally wondering if he believed that statement himself,
"To any of you that's still alive inside, this is your one chance!" The Governor's booming voice suddenly cracked across the air, "This does not have to be a bloodbath, no one else has to die today! This can end peacefully, right now! All you need to do is stand up, bring your weapons to the outermost gate and drop them! We will come in and secure them and then handle this like civilized people! I will give you three minutes to think this over before resuming our assault! Think hard, there will be no second offer!" The man finished before lowering the megaphone and silently staring into the prison yard, watching for any forward movement from the group inside.
"Do we...do we take that deal?" Julie softly asked as she looked around at the group around here,
"Fuck no," Martinez hissed back, a look of sickened anger over his face, "That's Phillip's game, he puts on a show for everyone else to seem like that good guy. We take that deal, by the end of the month most of us will be dead, Crawford will see to that, the other half...you girls mostly...you'll wish you were dead," The Latino finished with a slow shake of his head, "There is no happy way out of here...not anymore,"
Back outside the fences, Oberson shook his head, "Knew they weren't going to make this easy...everyone light it up!" The man exclaimed only for a sudden shot to ring out and catch the Governor right in the chest. The one-armed man flew off the tank and slammed into the ground, "The hell?!" Oberson exclaimed as he lifted his eyes and looked to the guard tower to his left.
"Fuck!" Mark exclaimed as he loaded in a fresh shot, "Missed that bastard!"
"Easier game Mark!" Andrea called over from her tower and the pair began to open fire on the Woodburian army, catching shot after shot in their throats and heads.
"Fuckers!" Oberson howled as he raised his gun and squeezed the trigger. Mark's eyes bugged open and he jumped back just as his tower erupted into gunfire. Windows shattered, bullets ricocheted wildly and after a mere few seconds, Mark felt a round blast through his body, sending him through a broken window and tumbling down the tower stairs. Oberson grinned and wheeled his gun over towards Andrea who had just enough time to jump back into the full safety of the tower before Oberson blasted three dozen rounds all over the top level.
The vet let go of the trigger and waited for a moment, watching each tower stoically until he was sure the snipers had been dealt with. At this same moment, The Governor reemerged from behind the tank, his hand brushing off the dent in his chest armor, "You alright?" Lilly quickly asked the man who only frowned back,
"What the fuck are you people waiting for, kill them!" The Governor demanded causing the entire army's rifles to light off once again, peppering the group of walkers ahead of them, though this time more bullets were starting to fly into the prison grounds and towards the survivors.
As the minutes ticked by, Oberson jumped from his humvee, "Gabe, take over!" He called out to The Governor's portly guard who swiftly ran towards the gun. In the meantime Oberson made his way towards the Governor's side, "Phillip, for fuck sakes, I told you we don't have the supplies for this! Look at how much ammo these fuckheads are going through, and that's just on the biters!"
"I told you, we can't just have Larry drive over the fences, this place is worthless without them!" The Governor barked back,
"This place is worthless to us if we can't kill whose inside," Oberson shot back before letting out a short grunting exhale, "Kill the firing squad, I have an idea," The vet added as he hoisted himself onto the tank and pulled open the top, "Larry, I got a job for you!"
Back inside the prison yard, the group's head slowly raised once again as the onslaught abruptly ended once more, "They stopped firing…" Hershel said with complete uncertainty,
"What the hell do we do, make a run for it?" Kenny asked as he lifted his head and glanced towards the cellblock,
"No, hell no, stay down! We get up and we'll end up just like Patricia," Lee instantly denied,
Just then Rick came running out from the cellblock, he dove down onto the ground and crawled towards his fellow members, "Everyone listen to Lee, do not get up, we start crawling back to the cellblock, get out of the open slow and carefully," Rick ordered with a sharp look,
"They stopped firing, Rick. Mark and Andrea just stopped," Dale fearfully pointed out,
"The guy on the gun shot the hell out of the towers, I couldn't tell if they got away from down here," Billy frowned, "If I can get over to one, I might be able to -"
"NO!" Hershel bellowed, nearly climbing over to his son and forcing him to stay on the ground, "You are not going up there, you're getting inside where you are safe!"
"Listen to him Billy, they probably have people watching those towers right now, even if one of us could get up there, we'd be shot down before we could set up," Carly added as she began to scoot back towards the cellblock,
"Rick, the kids, my boy, are they safe, where are they?" Kenny urgently asked,
"Lori has them all, she's taking them somewhere safe for right now, focus on what's happening here," Rick assured the southern man before he heard Ben's panicked voice,
"Let's just run, man, we can get out the front gate and go! They can't be in two places at once!" Ben whimpered with a pleading look,
"Ben, no, relax. Phillip and Oberson are bastards but they are smart bastards, they probably have a few gunners watching the gate, you make a run for it, you're going down. Safest place right now is right where we are," Martinez firmly stated to his old student, "No one leaves,"
"Gotta hope they back off if we want to go," Molly agreed, "We run now, that's it,"
"Then let's not run," Michonne muttered, a sharp look sat in her eyes as she searched along the attacking group, "I can't do anything in here but if I can get to the other side of those fences, I can do some real damage,"
"No! You go out to the other side of those fences and you're dead. Frankly, we need you too much right now. What we all need to do is decide right now that we're going to work together or we're all dead. Right now!" Rick exclaimed to his fellow survivors looking at the mixture of terrified and uncertain faces,
"Michonne, you listen to him girl, you can't go out there," Tyreese tacked on, "This is no time for some suicide mission, we need you,"
"This is some shit!" Axel growled, "We're fucked here, you follow me?"
"Calm down son, we need to keep our wits about us," Chuck chastised Axel before glancing to Julie and Ben, "You kids should start crawling to the door now, get the hell out of the line of fire,"
"Yes, Billy, you should go too," Hershel quickly agreed,
"What we need is to get ourselves some real firepower out here, we need the suits, the grenades, and the rifles we got from the guard station," Martinez suggested, "And we should get some people to the base of the towers and back up to the top,"
"Just what I was thinking," Rick nodded in agreement, "We can cover the others as they get inside and start taking these assholes down. Doug! You head for the infirmary and get Alice and the Doc out here, we'll need them ready for Andrea and Mark. Kenny, you make a break for the armory and - Oh Christ, What is that?!" Rick exclaimed as he looked past the fences.
Just outside the fences, Larry drove his tank over rows of the undead, crushing them beneath the treads and slowly exposing the group inside. At the same time, a few other members of the army followed The Governor's orders to attract the leftovers and lead them further up the fences. "Gotta admit, that was pretty fucking smart guys," Lilly smirked to Oberson and The Governor, "When my dad's done, think he can shoot over the fences? Easier than picking these pricks off one by one,"
"If only we could," Oberson muttered back, "The shells went up with the rest of the guard station last month. Other than crowd control, this thing is for show, we can't do much other than using it for cover out here,"
"It's serving its purpose just fine," The Governor easily waved off, barely registering the slight irritation in Oberson's tone, "It'll keep the herd at a manageable level for the pied piper,"
"Pied piper?" Lilly asked back,
"Nevermind," The Governor scoffed, a few more moments passed as Larry made a final pass and circled back, returning to his position at the center of the convoy, "Good work, Larry," The Governor praised as he looked at the now mostly open chain link fence, and at most a dozen walkers, "Looks clear enough to me,"
"Light them up, let's finish this!" Oberson exclaimed once more, causing his battalion to open fire at the survivors inside.
"Down, Down!" Rick exclaimed, diving at Kenny who had just gotten up to run for the armory. The officer shielded his friend's body as bullets peppered the ground all around them, "We need to get inside, there's no cover out here!"
"Fuck this!" Billy exclaimed breaking out to a sprint while he charged a watchtower,
"Billy, no, stop! Get inside! Don't!" Hershel pleaded with his son who yanked out his pistol,
"Shit! Lee, I'm going for the tower!" Carly almost winced as she watched Billy, reluctantly pulling out her pistol and following after the teen,
The pair slammed against the walls of the two watchtowers and aimed around the corner, out at the attacking army. Carly opened fire, striking a man directly in the lower jaw before moving on to the next closest attacker. Meanwhile, Billy raised his gun but felt a sudden tightening in his chest. The teen gave a few quick blinks and shook his head, trying to steady himself as he felt his body starting to sway.
His vision began to warp, making the attacking force double and wave before him, then suddenly his mind fired off a signal that caused a flash of something different. Billy suddenly found himself looking down Bruce's group outside the Shopmart again, the muscular bald man leveled his rifle and squeezed the trigger. Billy gasped and jumped back behind his tower wall for cover, his hands covering his head and his eyes squeezed shut. "Billy! Billy, are you okay?!" Carly called over to the teenager only for a loud scream to follow as a round directly caught her in the shoulder.
"Carly!" Lee cried out for his wife while he pulled out his own pistol and wildly began to open fire on the Woodbury army,
Billy's eyes cracked open and he looked over at Carly writhing on the ground, very weakly crawling further into cover. His eyes then looked over to the group, his father stood fear-struck staring back at him, Axel's bicep burst into a spray of blood and the hefty biker dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks. Above his head, he heard the sound of rifle fire from Andrea returning to her station on the tower. Billy turned his head and he could make out a faint sound over the gunfire coming from The Governor, "There, the group is making a run for the prison, open fire on them!"
"You lot, you focus on the bitch in the sniper tower, Gabe, use the machine gun, rip them apart!" Oberson commanded.
Billy's eyes widened as the portly man in the humvee turned the machine gun with a sickening grin and pulled the trigger. Massive bullets began to strike the ground, chasing after the group fleeing inside. Julie stumbled, "Julie! Baby, no!" Tyreese cried as he dove over his daughter's body, bracing for the impact of rounds.
Billy gritted his teeth and stood firm, spinning back around the side of the tower, without thinking of a moment's hesitation, he brought his pistol up and as soon as it was leveled at Gabe, he squeezed the trigger. Gabe's large body flew back and the machine gun pulled up to the sky a mere second before aiming directly at Tyreese's body. A fountain of blood spurted from the man's neck and he pitifully tried to hoist himself from the humvee before bloodloss overtook him and he slumped over, dead.
"Billy got him, this is our chance, go, go, get to the prison, Doug, get the doctor!" Rick ordered as he rushed to Tyreese, helping the man and Julie up before turning and firing his pistol along with Lee as well as a few others like Martinez, and Chuck.
"Fuck!" The Governor roared as he watched the prison group filter inside beyond a few in the yard who were now returning fire at full force, "Get to cover you simple fucks, don't just stand there and get killed!"
"Phillip, this isn't fucking working! We got a few hits in but we're losing too many fucking people!" Oberson called as he tucked himself behind the humvee, taking a few pop shots with his revolver,
"We're getting slaughtered out here, we need to fucking go!" Lilly exclaimed while backing towards her car, looking to Oberson and The Governor for orders,
Oberson nodded and looked to The Governor but the man stood firm. With a growl, Oberson tucked his head down and ran over to the tank, grabbing the man by the shoulder and spinning him around, "For fuck sakes Phillip, call the fucking retreat, or I will! This attack is over, we lost, we need to regroup!"
The Governor's eyes flared and he crazily shook his head, "This isn't working, this isn't fucking working!" With a manic scream, The Governor's fist flew forward cracking Oberson right across the face, sending him stumbling back, "Damn it, retreat!" The Governor cried out to his remaining troops while Oberson lifted a finger, wiping away a small trickle of blood from his lower lip. With a piercing glare, he watched The Governor until they met eyes again, "Just get in the fucking truck, Crawford!" The Governor snapped out shoving past Oberson.
Oberson's lips tightened and he holstered his revolver, storming over to the humvee, getting into the driver seat and spinning it around, speeding off along with a few cars, the tank, and the military truck in tow.
As the convoy disappeared into the distance the group inside the prison ran off for their wounded and assessed the situation. "Holy shit, they actually gave up," Axel groaned as he slowly got to his feet, his hand tightly cupping his bleeding arm,
"I know, didn't think that was gonna end until one side was all laying dead on the ground," Chuck grunted before quickly glancing over his shoulder towards Ben and Julie, "Y'all okay over there?"
"Fine, I guess," Ben gulped while Julie shoved herself away from Tyreese's worried embrace,
"I'm okay, dad, alright? I'm just fine," Julie sharply told her father, taking two steps back from him, "Where's Mark and Carly,"
"Shit, Mark, fuck I'll go check on him," Kenny exclaimed as he took off towards his watch tower, "Lee, is she alright?!" Kenny added on, glancing over to his friend who now had his wife on her feet, helping her back towards the cellblock,
"I w-wouldn't say alright, but I'll live…" Carly hissed through her teeth,
"Jesus Carly...god damn these fucking people," Lee growled under his breath,
Lee and Carly were then quickly passed by Hershel who ran over to his son, pulling him into a tight embrace, "My lord, Billy, what on earth is wrong with you?! You could have been killed! Look what happened to poor Patricia, and the others! You barely survived last time you met these people and now you choose to run towards the army!? What kind of fool are you, William Greene!?" Hershel berated as he kept a tight hug on his boy,
"I'm okay, Dad, I'm okay...at least I think so," Billy muttered under his breath,
As the majority of the group began to gather back up, Ben knelt down and helped Dale back to his feet, "So did we like...win?"
"Not at all," Martinez denied without hesitation, "That was just the first wave, they were testing our defenses, seeing what we were made of. We made a stand but they saw how unorganized we were and how much panic was running through us, Oberson will insist on going again, Phillip too," The latino finished with an irritated shake of his head,
"So then we pack our shit and get the hell out of here," Molly frowned as she crossed her arms, "They all fucked off, this is our chance to ditch them while we still can,"
"With all our wounded?" Tyreese rebuffed, "We have the infirmary right here, we have doctors to take care of them. This place is worth fighting for, what we really need to do is focus on preparing for when they come back. We need cover, we need weapons out here and we need people on watch every hour," The athlete sternly stated,
"No what we need to go do is take the fight to them," Michonne argued,
"To them?!" Dale exclaimed, anger flowing through his voice, "Did you not see what just happened to us all?! The only reason we're alive right now is because of that fence, not to mention the fucking tank out there!"
"I saw a tank they could drive, and only drive. You think if that thing had any firepower they'd just have been sitting on it? No, that was all a show, but if we end up waiting on them again all that's going to happen is us losing our advantage. Nothing we do on this side of the fence can even it up, so we need to get them before they get up," Michonne explained in complete self assurance in herself,
"I don't know...maybe she's right," Tyreese thought as he ran a hand over his chin.
Just then the cellblock doors burst open, Alice, Doug, and Doctor Stevens came rushing out into the yard looking around, "Douglas just got us, we couldn't come out with all the shooting, what's the situation, whose hurt?!" Stevens exclaimed as he swiftly pulled on a pair of rubber gloves,
"Over here, big time," Axel said with a small grunting groan,
"My wife," Lee said in a pleading tone as he helped Carly sit down into a lawn chair,
"Alice, tend to Carly, Axel, follow me down to -" Stevens began to say only for the man to be interrupted by a shout,
"Doc! Doc we need you over here right fucking now!" The group looked over and saw Kenny and Andrea dragging a limp Mark towards the elderly surgeon. His armor was in tatters, and a large chunk of flesh was missing from his leg, "Fucker tumbled down the entire set of stairs in the tower after they shot him. Won't wake or nothing"
"Fuck, Mark, is he going to be okay?" Billy gulped as Steven's ran over, knelt down and investigated wound that continued to pump out more and more blood,
"We need to get him to the infirmary now, that's not going to stop bleeding on his own," Stevens ordered, "Everyone, let's get inside, if you are hurt come to the infirmary!" The Doctor called out to the group in a final order.
Yet the pair only made it a few feet until Rick suddenly collapsed to the ground, his shirt soaked with blood all around his stomach, "Oh god, Rick's been shot!" Tyreese exclaimed.
A Few Hours Later…
Mark let out a weak groan as his eyes flickered open, "W-What the hell?" The man's eyes flicked around the infirmary for a moment, locking sight on a bandaged Carly sitting with Lee and Clementine, along with a bandaged up Axel who was standing at the foot of the woman's bed as well, "Lee? Did we win?"
Lee's head snapped over and he looked at Mark in utter shock, "Holy shit, we didn't know if you when you were going to wake up," Lee smiled while scooting his chair back slightly, "Don't move, your leg took a hell of a hit,"
"I can feel that," Mark winced as he let out a few sharp exhales, "Carly, Axel, are you guys okay?"
"Not really," Carly muttered back, "Getting shot isn't something to just shake off,"
"She got lucky, didn't hit anything major, thank god," Lee said in complete relief, "But to answer your question...no, I don't think we won, we just pushed them back,"
"Clem, come with me, we don't need to be in here anymore, let's get you back to our room," Carly suddenly interrupted, forcing herself out of bed, taking Clem by her good hand and leading the little girl towards the exit, "Feel free to talk and plan all the more you want about this with him, I don't want to hear it anymore,"
Lee hung his head and Axel slightly flinched as the woman roughly pushed open the infirmary doors. Mark's eyes widened in surprise, "What was that all about?" Mark asked as he glanced between the pair,
"Dale's been…" Lee began to reply only to toss a hand up and shake his head,
Mark turned to Axel with a confused look, "Andrea and Dale have been talking for the last thirty minutes I guess, word is those two are taking their little ones and getting the hell out of here. They want us all to go back to Hershel's farm I guess, but not everyone is too keen on leaving,"
"Rick's not going anywhere, he got shot too, and besides, he won't even think about leaving this place," Lee replied, "Kenny's in the same boat, that all goes the same with their families too, they aren't going anywhere. Tyreese and Michonne are focusing only on defense, so that sticks to them as well, but Carly...she wants to take Clem and go with them. She doesn't think it's worth it and I...I don't know," Lee added on with a small shrug, "This place is our home and beyond that, stopping these bastards, especially after what they did to Glenn...it doesn't feel right to leave,"
"Well, I'm not going either," Mark grunted, "Even if I could walk right now, this place is ours and I won't let anyone kick us out of here, let alone a pair of fucking psycho's,"
"Well, you'll have some more time to think on it, they aren't leaving for another hour," Axel hummed as he gave Lee a light pat on the back, "Gonna get some grub, can't take just sitting around waiting for this hell,"
"I hear you," Lee nodded, "Things seemed a hell of a lot easier when I think back to being locked in that room,"
Across the room, Rick laid in bed with Lori and Carl by his side, a few feet away Stevens, Alice, and Doug were gathered in a small huddle, the latter rolling down his sleeve over his freshly bandaged arm, "Even with the blood Doug's been giving him it's hard to say if he'll be alright," Stevens softly said to the pair,
"His temperature is up, pulse seems to be returning to normal, these are good signs," Alice gently argued with a quick glance over to the Grimes family,
"They are, but things can turn very bad, very quickly," Stevens calmly replied, "Doug, I'll need you here on standby just in case we need more blood, and Alice, I want you to keep a close eye on Axel and Mark. Carly's wound should be fine, but Axel's lost most of his mobility in that arm, and Mark...it would be quite easy for a blood infection to take,"
In the meantime, just outside the infirmary doors, Michonne, Martinez, and Tyreese stood in a near debate, "He's going to be fine, Tye," Michonne assured Tyreese who impatiently paced around the hallway,
"You can't know that! Without Rick...things fall to me to figure out our next step here, and right now, we got people planning to run!" Tyreese exclaimed,
"Running isn't an option with these guys, Phillip hunts people for sport and Oberson never leaves an enemy breathing," Martinez frowned as he leaned back against a wall, "What we need to do is focus on them and not the ones inside the infirmary,"
"We can do that, but it's only going to shorten our window of opportunity, we already know the right plan here," Michonne simply replied, "Think about it, we were completely unprepared for that attack and it only took Andrea's rifle, Billy's revolver, and Carly's pistol to send those guys running with their tails between their legs. We didn't have the supplies from the depot, the riot gear, anything and they still took off. Now imagine what we could do if we loaded up and took them by surprise, they'd probably never come back,"
"It's not a bad plan, I lived with these people, I care about them, I do, but...they aren't all good, hell a lot of them are racist, simple-minded assholes who get revved up just by one of Oberson or Phillip's speeches. They aren't military, they are hicks with rifles who never fought a day in their lives, they are only a group of followers who feel they have no choice. This grand army is nothing, but it'll fall if we take Phillip and Oberson out, with those two gone, the army leaves, and those people go back to living a normal existence," Martinez explained, "I don't want to see any more die but those two...so if this is our shot to end this once and for all, making both sides winners, then it's a chance I'll take,"
"Guys, I'm not saying it's a bad plan, I think it's a good one, but we don't have the manpower to attack them there and also defend them here!" Tyreese exclaimed,
"We don't need manpower, us three, right here that's the team. We go out, we sneak in, clip those two pieces of shit and come home for supper. This war is ended before it starts and we will never have to think of these people again!" Michonne urged Tyreese while Martinez stepped forward with an agreeing nod,
Twenty minutes later the three were marching towards the prison gate head to toe in riot gear, Tyreese had a few shotguns on his back, Martinez his assault rifle, and Michonne her sword. "Tye, listen, I know we ain't been too fucking friendly these last few months but I don't think this a good fucking idea, you three should stay here until Rick wakes up. We can't afford to lose you," Kenny lightly begged as he followed alongside the trio,
"I don't want to die either, Kenny, but this is something that has to be done," Tyreese firmly stated,
"At least take a car with you, something to pull your asses out of the fire if shit goes sideways!" Kenny exclaimed,
"No car, they hear us coming and we're as good as dead," Michonne easily denied,
"They wouldn't have gone far, Oberson likes a staging ground, somewhere close to his target so he can strike fast and hard, should work out in our favor," Martinez added as he pushed a riot helmet onto his head,
"You need to hurry, Axel led off what roamers he could and Chuck said things look clear from the tower, but I still don't like it," Hershel said as they reached the fence, "Are you all sure about this?"
"Not really...but we're doing it anyway," Tyreese sighed, causing Kenny to shake his head in disappointment while moving to the gate with Hershel, "Ready?"
"If it's gonna protect these kids in here and hopefully save a few lives over there, then yeah, ready as I'll ever be," Martinez nodded,
"Remember, don't stop running until we hit the treeline, and if we get shot at we head right back into the prison," Michonne finalized as Hershel and Kenny yanked open the gate, "Let's go!" The woman exclaimed, leading the two athletic men out of the prison.
Back inside the prison, Billy sat on his bunk, cleaning off his rifle but after a few moments, he set the rifle down and pursed his lips. He slowly brought his hand up, pushed up his headband, and gently ran a finger over the groove along his temple. Suddenly, Billy's right hand began to shake violently, he lowered it, cupping it in his other and let out a shaky breath, "Fuck...come on, keep it together, people are counting on you...you can do this,"
Just outside his bunk, he caught sight of Dale, Andrea, and their twins heading towards the exit, their bags packed and their few weapons in hand. Just behind them he saw Carly tightly holding Clementine's hand following close behind them and then to his shock he saw Molly and Sophia. He let out a small gulp and hesitated, unsure of what to say, but his stomach flipped all the more as Molly suddenly turned and walked over to his cell, "Hey…" Billy softly uttered as the pair entered his cell,
"Hey…" Molly returned before letting out a low sigh, "Listen, I'm sorry, but I'm not staying here for this. This is going to be a fucking bloodbath, people are going to die, and...and I'm just not fucking doing it," Molly stated, "But...Billy, come with us,"
"Molly, I can't just -" Billy weakly began to argue,
"Yes you can!" Molly immediately interrupted, "For the love of all that is fuck, you can do whatever you want! Billy, Jesus Christ, everything you've lost? Everything that's happened to you? Why the fuck are you staying here? I saw what happened earlier, I can see the way you are right now, you're not just scared, you have the fucking fear of death in your head right now! And you know what, so do fucking I, but I'm choosing to get out of here!"
"My father won't come!" Billy exclaimed, "He's the only family I got left, how can I leave him?!"
"Billy, I…" Molly started to reply only to let out a calming breath, "I understand family, I went through hell to do whatever I could for my sister, but...at the end of the day, shit rolls the way it's going to. I want you father to come with us, sure, but what I want more than anything else is for you to come with us. The shit we have between us...that's real, alright! So, please, I'm begging you, don't make me fucking drive away without you knowing you're just gonna fucking die, I can't go through that again,"
Billy felt his hand slightly shake once more and he squeezed his eyes shut tight, "I…" Billy whispered out before swallowing hard, "Okay…" He breathed, "Okay, I'll come, tell Dale to wait. I'll get my bags and tell my dad goodbye and then I'll...I'll go with you,"
Molly let out a gasping exhale and reached down, pulling him into a swift and tight hug, "Thank fuck...god, I knew you had a fucking brain left," Molly gently joked as she lightly tugged down his headband back over his scarred temple,
"Shut up," Billy said with a breathy laugh and light shove,
"Um...I'm glad you're coming too," Sophia smiled, Billy returned the smile as best he could, trying to hide his mixed emotions until Molly and Sophia left him in his cell as he packed up his bag.
Outside, Andrea and Dale made their way towards his RV, "God, I hope we're doing the right thing Dale, this just doesn't feel right," Andrea murmured over to her boyfriend, doing her best to stay low so Ben or Billy wouldn't hear, "I don't like leaving our friends,"
"I don't either, but I gave them their chance, I tried to make them see reason but we can't risk our lives of the kids just because we feel bad doing the right thing," Dale assured her,
"Carly! Clem!" Lee's voice suddenly called out, causing Carly and Clementine to turn back, both wondering and hoping that they'd see him packed and ready to join them in the RV all the same.
Okay, so here is part one of the finale, aptly titled Made To Suffer! This has been a moment I've been dying to get to since I started this rewrite and I sure as hell didn't think it was going to take me this long to get to it but I am so proud of how much fuller and better this story has become over these chapters. I know that all that hard work really helps make these moments that much more meaningful. So for starters, the vote, yes I do have one! Originally I was going to have the vote be on a grand scale where you could have voted for almost anyone to join Andrea and Dale on their escape but over the course of writing I realized I have so much planned out that I actually need certain characters here and I have arcs I need to finish. So, that does mean for the majority of the cast, their fates are sealed in what I am choosing to do with them, that being said, I was actually in a toss up with Lee. Him being at the prison to fight against Oberson and The Governor while protecting his friends seemed like an obvious choice, but then again, what happens when Lee is put between family and friends? So, that decision I'm leaving up to you guys! Will Lee join Carly and Clem on the escape or will he see them off and say to help protect the prison and what survivors chose to stay behind?
Either way, I am eager to wrap this arc up in the next chapter and oh yes, it's going to be quite the mega chapter. We will see what happens with Tyreese, Martinez, and Michonne. The final battle of the prison. Who lives?! Who dies?! I do expect it to take a little time but since I'm cutting down the fluff a little it shouldn't take me too long. I hope you guys are all enjoying this and are eager to see what happens next. Please, please, please, if you are liking it, leave me a review. It helps loads with motivation for my writing and honestly just for a little fun this time, let me know who is your favorite character in the story so far. I'm actually quite curious to see before the end of the arc who are the fan favorites! Anyhow, this got way too long, so I gotta get going, see you in the next one!