A/N: Hi there! I hope you will forgive me for my disappearing act. Work has overtaken my time in a way that has never happened to me before, and I'm having trouble conciliating it with the rest of my life.
Last week, however, things settled down a bit, so I was able to, among other things, come up with this update. I didn't have time to go over it in the way I usually do, so I ask that you overlook the mistakes.
Here's hoping last week wasn't a fluke for me :)
Michonne followed the stream of walkers headed down the corridor between the main buildings as she tried to decide what to do next. With Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and Bob having been moved, she was gonna have to take a somewhat educated guess. She remembered, from Martin's description, that the sleeping quarters were located on the right side of the complex, so she decided to try the first door on her left.
Unnoticed by any of the reanimated bodies, she slipped inside to find a room with some twenty tables covered by a multitude of objects, which had been sorted into categories. Among other articles, there were clothes, shoes, backpacks, jewelry, weapons, and toys, all arranged in a way that uncomfortably reminded her of a scene from Schindler's List. She supposed she should count herself lucky that she was unlikely to find any loose teeth with gold fillings.
Spotting Daryl's crossbow brought Michonne's focus back to her mission, so she grabbed the weapon and proceeded farther inside the structure with a purposeful expression on her face. When she stepped through a door opposite the one she had first entered, she was met with a curious setup: a large, open space with around fifty names written in concentric circles on the floor, many accompanied by what she guessed where objects belonging to the individuals in question. This was surrounded by numerous lit candles, and the walls bore the words 'Never again. Never trust. We first, always.'
She was looking around and trying to imagine what kind of ritualistic community they'd gotten themselves mixed up with when she heard the sound of a gun being cocked.
"Drop your weapons and turn around," a female voice said from behind her. "I wanna look at the person who destroyed everything my son and I worked so hard to build. I wanna see your face when you die!"
Michonne stopped but didn't obey either command.
"Now!" the woman shouted.
Michonne put the crossbow on the floor and removed the rifle from her shoulder. When the gun was almost on the ground, she quickly grabbed it and opened fire as she made a swift turn to face her opponent, who dived to avoid the bullets, losing her own weapon in the process. The woman scrambled to recover her gun, but Michonne was quicker, kicking it out of reach as she let go of the riffle and unsheathed her katana, bringing its blade to within an inch of the other's throat.
"Don't move!" she ordered.
Michonne's adversary lifted her chin but otherwise stayed put, heaving a sigh of frustration as she accepted defeat.
"The signs? They were real, it was a sanctuary," the woman said. "People came and took this place. And they raped; and they killed; and they laughed. Over weeks!" she continued. "But we got out. And we fought; and we got it back; and we heard the message!" She was now shaking and Michonne could hear her anger. "You're the butcher… or you're the cattle," she finished.
"So, you lead people here, and you take what they have, and… what? You kill them? Is that what this place is?" Michonne asked, incredulity coming through in her speech.
"No, not at first," the other answered. "It's what it had to be."
"Why?"
"Why?!" the other repeated Michonne's question as though the answer should have been obvious.
"Not all people who are left are bad. We came seeking a place to live, where we could contribute."
The woman burst out laughing; it was an unbalanced sort of laughter that had Michonne feeling uneasy. But not for long; as suddenly as it had come, the sound was gone, and her opponent got that faraway look one tends to get when going over memories inside one's head. After a few seconds she brought her eyes back to Michonne and asked, "do you know what it feels like to watch your daughter beg your son to kill her because she can't take it anymore?"
No, Michonne didn't. So, she stayed quiet.
"That's why."
And there it was, what Daryl had been talking about the night before – someone who had gone past the point of no return. Regardless of the circumstances which had brought the woman to where she was, there was no going back for her. And, looking at her, Michonne understood why Daryl had felt like he was able to kill the that scumbag without going over the edge. Because she felt the same. She knew her captive couldn't be left alive to continue hurting people, and she had the physical ability to kill the woman, so that's what she was going to do. It was a decision born out of reason more so than out of emotion, which was, in itself, a slippery slope, but it was the best they had for the time being. They'd have to graduate from surviving to living before they could think of trying to tackle such issues in the era of the undead.
Daryl was advancing so fast that Rick was barely managing to keep his brother within his line of vision. He saw as Daryl reached the fence and leapt over it without missing a beat before grabbing a knife with each hand to carve his way through the ever-growing number of walkers. Not seeing any living people when his time came to jump back into the compound, Rick followed Daryl's example and shouldered his firearm in favor of a bladed weapon. With the benefit of the path cleared by Daryl, Rick was able to catch up, by which time they had gotten back to the indoor area containing human carcasses hanging from the ceiling.
"What are we doing back here?" Rick asked.
Daryl turned around swiftly, knives at the ready.
"Fuck!" he semi-barked. "Are you tryin' to get yourself killed?"
"Sorry, I thought you'd already seen me."
Before Rick had even finished his sentence, Daryl was already turning back around and heading for the slaughter room.
When they got there, Daryl scanned the space and, finding things much the same as they had been when they'd escaped, breathed a long sigh of relief.
"What are we doing back here?" Rick repeated his question.
"Wanted to make sure none of these people decided there was enough time to do to 'Chonne what they was gonna do to us," Daryl answered.
"Good thinking," Rick said. "Where to, now?"
"Not sure," Daryl responded. "I guess one way is as good as the next; let's just move," he added before backing out of the butchery and taking a hall they hadn't been down before.
By the time Carol got to the fence Daryl and Rick were nowhere to be seen. What the hell had gotten into Daryl to run off like that she didn't know, but run he had, so she was just going to have to deal with it.
Feeling like someone had better try to use their heads in this search, she stopped for a moment to consider how to best go about things. She attempted to visualize her trek to the train car where she'd found Maggie, Sasha and the other girl, trying to identify anything that could somehow be useful. It was all a blurry mess, what with the walkers and the armed people, and she didn't dare use the close-your-eyes technique she'd seen in tv shows, but she eventually remembered something. She had ducked behind it at some point to shoot at one of the inhabitants of the place. At leas she thought she had. Hopefully, it wasn't the product of a hopeful imagination.
With a plan in mind, she hopped back inside the complex and once again went left; good thing she had decided not to ditch the walker-covered poncho. She did think it was better to apply a second coat to the garment, so she found a dead undead that was off to the side and dirtied herself up. Once finished, she made her slow way towards her destination. She thought she would have to walk a little over half the distance she'd had before, but, with the increased number of walkers making her have to move at a snail's pace, it was going to take twice as long.
When she finally got there, she was happy to see she had not imagined it. Granted, it wasn't in what one would call a great shape, or a so-so shape, for that matter, but, as long as it was in working conditions, it would do just fine.
Michonne moved furtively through one space after another, both in and out of doors, and the more she saw, the more worried she became. It would seem she had been too kind in her assessment of the goings-on of the place, as evidence pointed to an upgrade from robbery, forced labor, and even murder. She had definitely made the right decision when she'd executed that woman, even if she could still hear her former self screaming against it somewhere in the back of her mind.
Another thing troubling her was that, even though she'd encountered plenty of dead bodies, she had yet to come across any of the living variety. Shouldn't she have run into at least one by now?
As if in answer to her question, she heard voices coming from a door just ahead. It was ajar, so she approached carefully to try and follow what was happening on the other side. She could see a man and a woman, but there were at least two more people with them. Likely guys, from the timbre of their speech.
"(…) everywhere. What are we going to do?!" one of the out-of-sight voices asked.
"Calm down, Albert, we'll figure it out, just like we did before," answered the guy she could see. "First thing is to search for other survivors."
"Are you crazy, Gareth!? Take a look outside. The only reason we're still here is because we were up on the roof for most of this shitshow," another bodiless voice said. "We have to go now!"
"We're not leaving without my mother!" Gareth responded as he stared down whoever was in front of him.
"Gareth, just think about it," the woman started in an appeasing tone. "The whole place is overrun. I'm out of bullets, and so is Keith. We'll barely make it out of here ourselves, and that's if we're lucky, so how are we supposed to search for Mary?"
"I don't care! We're going to find her, then we're getting out of here and we're hunting these people down. We'll need food anyways," he responded. "We can keep the meat fresh by going for the non-vital cuts first and keeping them alive for as long as possible. It'll also add a bit of fun to the whole thing."
Michonne felt her stomach twist as her suspicions were confirmed. Thinking that her friends could have been butchered and their remains tossed on the pile of bloody human skeletons she'd seen outside drove any semblance of caution right out of her. She grabbed the rifle, kicked the door open and said, "let me save you some time – your mother's dead. Now drop your weapons!"
All four people in the room looked Michonne's way and froze in surprise. Gareth was first to recover and made for her as he lifted his firearm and shouted, "you fucking bitch, I'm gonna make you…"
A loud bang was heard as Michonne unceremoniously shot Gareth on the right knee, causing him to fall to the ground, doubled over and howling in pain. She directed her scowl at the other three and they immediately placed their weapons on the floor before putting their hands up.
"Very good," she said. "Now kick them over there." She indicated the appropriate direction as she used her foot to move Gareth's rifle away from him and was once again obeyed.
"What did you do with the men you took out of that railroad car?" Michonne asked.
Gareth managed to spit her way before throwing a "fuck you!" at her. She shot his other leg and, once again, directed her scowl at the other three.
"They fled," the woman started, having to somewhat shout over Gareth's screams. "All of them. Together. The women too."
"That's right," one of the men said. "They went over the fence. I'm sure you can still catch them if you hurry."
Michonne considered this for a couple of seconds and, seeming to make a decision, shot Gareth again, this time silencing him. She trained the gun on one of the other guys, who immediately fell on his knees, shaking violently.
"Please, don't do this," he pleaded as his companions also kneeled. "We didn't hurt none of them."
"Spare me the bullshit," Michonne said after she shot the woman on the head. "I can only imagine what you would have done to them if we hadn't shown up."
Another shot and another body hit the floor.
"Please!" Just let me go. You won't ever see me again," the guy was crying so much she could barely understand him.
"Yeah… but someone else will," she said, before finishing her self-imposed task.
Daryl and Rick passed through a couple of empty spaces before they ended up outside again.
"Ain't this where we broke in?" Daryl asked after looking around.
"Yeah, I think so," Rick answered. "That there should be the door to that place we first found these people. Come on, we haven't looked that way yet."
They moved inside, carefully watching for any signs of trouble, but only spotted five or six walkers
" 'Chonne?" Daryl called in something of a cross between a whisper and a shout.
The only response he got were the growls of the undead, who were now heading their way. Daryl moved first and disposed of some, he didn't really register how many, and Rick finished up the rest. They did a more careful search as Daryl called Michonne's name a few more times, but to no avail.
"Let's see if we can figure out the way they used to take us to that courtyard," Rick said as he waved Daryl in the direction of a door in the corner farthest from them.
The two men sped along the path they had been taken down earlier but had to stop when they saw a procession of undead cutting their way. Daryl tapped Rick's shoulder and indicated a door they'd just passed, and they went inside. It was another warehouse-type of place, but smaller than the ones they'd been in so far. Before they could get a proper idea of their surroundings, they heard a shot and screams coming from beyond the wall opposite them. They looked at each other and were just about to head in the direction of the door that would lead them to the source of the sounds when some fifteen walkers started coming at them from the left. As they went to deal with the situation, they heard a second shot and renewed screams. Daryl's only thought was that Michonne could be in danger in the next room, and he had to get to her as quickly as possible.
By the time they were done with the corpses, three more shots had rung out. Daryl scrambled to the door and reached it just in time to watch through the glass cutout as Michonne dispatched the only other living person he could see.
" 'Chonne!" He cried while throwing the door open.
Michonne spun in his direction, aiming the rifle at him, and froze. From her widened eyes to her stance to her rapid breathing, he could see her body fighting to control the adrenalin rush which his unexpected entrance had induced. After a few seconds she started to lower the weapon slightly, so he ran to her.
"You okay?" He asked between short kisses, all inhibitions gone for the moment.
Michonne still seemed a little out of it, so he pulled back just a bit to look into her eyes.
" 'Chonne? You okay?"
That appeared to snap Michonne back into the present. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" She admonished him, but immediately followed with a kiss of her own.
When they broke apart, Daryl looked over the four permanently dead bodies and asked for the third time, "you okay?"
"Yeah…" Michonne answered with a heavy sigh. "Like you said yesterday, it had to be done."
"I know. But that don't make it any easier."
"Let's just hope it stays that way," she said, her tone of voice not sounding too confident.
"Hey!" Rick called out from the door through which Daryl had run in. "Come on, we have to go!"
By the time Michonne and Daryl reached the next room Rick was already peeking out of the door the men had used as an entrance to the space. They darted after him, but it wasn't good news – the whole place was crawling with the undead.
"Fuck! What do we do now?" Michonne asked.
Just as Daryl and Rick turned to her, looking like they were similarly lost for ideas, they heard a running motor and, before long, a 4-door 2004 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with absurdly large tires came flying around the corner and stopped right in front of them.
"Get in!" Carol shouted.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think, comments always make my day :)
