hey guys, again i am late ... so sorry. i have oral examination on thursday so please dont be mad i studied hard the last weeks.
Hope the long chapter will make it up ;o) have fun reading!
Rick suddenly opened the door and walked out to the common room again. Daryl and Hershel were close behind. I stood up too, curious about what they would ask her. When I entered the common room the woman was sitting proudly on the table. Daryl had his crossbow in his hands, while Rick stood in front of her, one hand on the hip the other on his gun. Why were they so hostile?
"How did you find us and why were you carrying the formula?" Rick asked. I saw the leader character in him again. My eyes scanned the room, watching everybody. Everybody was tensed. The growing tension in the room gave me goose bumps. "Asian guy and pretty girl." Was all I heard and immediately stepped closer. As soon as I moved the eyes of the woman were at me.
"Maggie?" I asked, afraid something had happened to her and Glenn.
"What happened?" Rick asked with a hard voice. Not only were his words spoken in a mean tone his whole body language was harsh.
Hershel came closer too. His daughter was missing and you could tell from his face that he was more than worried. "Were they attacked?"
"They were taken." Terminator-lady answered short and with an icy look. "From the same bastard that shot me!"
"You tell us what happened now!" The moment Rick moved fast to grab her wound, Daryl grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the scene and next to him. But she was quick too, ready to defend herself. Daryl had his crossbow raised as the woman stood up. "Don't ever touch me again!" She said through her teeth. In some way I could understand her, who wants to be touched like that from a stranger?! Rick's attack on touching her wound wasn't really gentleman-like. But I think these days were gone too. Daryl still pointed his crossbow at her head and she gave him the I'll-kill-you-look in return. "Go find them yourself!" She straightened her back, maybe to look strong, but her breathing was uneven.
Rick stepped in front of Daryl who finally lowered his weapon. "You came here for a reason." He stepped closer towards her. Rick had changed, maybe the ghost of his former-Sheriff-life really had returned.
"There is a town …" She finally said and began to tell us about a town where Maggie and Glenn might have been taken. She told us about a governor ruling a town called Woodbury and about his military. There were high fences around the town and guards everywhere. There was a town where a normal living was possible? I couldn't believe her as she told us about houses with running water, electricity and an actual daily life. And again a question popped into my head. Why should strangers, people who have a 'normal life', kidnap Glenn and Maggie? But I knew the answer … if it were people like the ones who had kidnapped me I didn't want to know. "You think they are still alive?" Daryl elbowed me and I recognized what I had just said. I shouldn't ask while Hershel was still around, but as always: my mouth was faster than my brain. My body began to shake. I tried the best to control myself not to freak out, not to panic. But I couldn't stop my lips from trembling, remembering the torture I had experienced. Daryl stepped a bit closer and I felt his arm touching mine, as if he wanted to comfort me.
The woman looked directly at me. "Don't know." And it didn't look like she even cared.
Rick pointed at Hershel. "This is Hershel, father of the girl that was taken." He looked back at her wound. "He'll take care of that." He nodded to Daryl and they both left the room. I looked at Hershel who slowly approached the woman and checked her wound. I was stunned Rick and Daryl just left and left Hershel and her alone.
"She'll be okay?" I asked him. Hershel turned around and walked to get his utensils to treat her. "It's just a graze." My thoughts about Glenn and Maggie might be tortured right now slowly took over me. And I sat back on a chair. I watched as Hershel treated her almost next to me while my brain was mulling over.
Carl appeared in the doorway. He watched the stranger, his hand on his gun looking just like his father. The woman stared back at him. I turned to her. "Do you really know where they are?"
She wordlessly starred me down. "Please, they are my family." How could I get her to talk to me? Sure I could go all Rick and shoot her … looking behind me Carl might be the one to do that. He seemed tensed. I turned my attention back on her.
"Yes …" She finally answered.
"And you know how we can get in?" She wasn't quite a talking-person. Hershel interrupted my conversation with a shut-your-mouth-young-lady-look and began to clean her wound. I stood up and walked over to Carl. "You okay boy?" He wasn't really talkative the last days, there had been definitely better days and he didn't seem quite comfortable with the situation. I put my hand on his shoulder while we watched Hershel stitching her up. He didn't talk to her, was he leaving the talking to Rick? When he was finished she seemed to realize the old man wasn't doing no harm. "Thank you!" Her words sounded sincere. But still Hershel didn't talk to her.
"She is a threat to us!" Carl said in a silent and steady voice. I turned him to me and kneed down. "What are you talking about?" Fragility had left his eyes instead they shone in a cruel blue. "She's not one of us!" His words scared me a bit. We just have been separated for a few weeks or months and he seemed to have changed a lot. "Carl …" But he turned his attention back to the stranger who invaded his home. I looked into the hallway were the others we were suddenly gathered together. When I saw Daryl taking a bag and walking out of the prison I followed him.
He put the bag into the back of the car, but before I could ask about the plan Oscar walked pass me and put a few machineguns into the trunk as well. Were we going to war? I stepped closer to Daryl. "I'm coming with you." No matter what they had been planning, I was in.
Carl passed me and put another bag into the trunk. Daryl helped him. "Don't worry we'll take them home." His voice was comforting, but Carl nodded sadly and went back to Carol who stood at the door of the prison. Was I invisible now? Daryl's eyes followed Carl and landed on me. "I am coming with you!" I said stepping closer to him, starring into his eyes.
"No, ya're not!" He closed the trunk.
"Yes. I. am." I emphasized. "Glenn and Maggie are family. I'm going!" He wouldn't change my mind. "You cannot tell me not to go Daryl." Why did I argue with him anyway?
Rick walked out of the prison. I could convince him to take me, I am a hell of a shooter. I could give them cover or something like that. Before I could act and talk to him, he took his son aside. So I turned to Daryl again. "Don't you understand why I want to go?!" Suddenly the woman stepped out of the prison looking around, our attention all on her. Daryl walked towards the prison again maybe to get more guns. But he wasn't going into the prison, instead I watched him talking to Carol. "Stay safe!" He gave her a small smile and she smiled back. That hurt … Why did it hurt? I turned around to the car feeling an unwelcome pain in my chest. I checked my boot, my knife was still in my right boot. I still wasn't able to run around without it, always needed it to be ready if a walker could get through the fence or something like that. I would be prepared … I would be strong. I sat down in the back of the car waiting for the others. When Rick got in the car he looked in the driving mirror. "You stay here. You are a kid with just one arm."
What? Did a walker bit him or what? At first I was speechless of his rudeness. "They are my family!" And I meant it. I would go no matter what they say. "You know as well as Daryl that I am a good shooter. I am small and fit through a hole you might not get through." I would try everything so that he would take me with them.
He seemed to agree and nodded. "If you think you can do it … Are you sure you can handle it?" I nodded, but he wasn't convinced at all. "You 100percent sure you can …"
I interrupted his sentence rolling my eyes. "I'm fine. I won't be a burden. Promise! I shoot better than I look."
"Fine!" He started the engine while Daryl took the seat next to Rick. He turned to me with mad eyes. "I told you to stay put." He pressed the words through his teeth.
"I am not some woman you order around Daryl Dixon." I swallowed hard. "They are my family too just as they are yours." He turned around again. "You need every hand you can get to get them out save." The door opened and Oscar looked into the car. "A small car for five people. And we'll come back with more." I looked behind him were the woman was standing.
"I am not leaving this car." I said to Daryl who was giving me the leave-this-car-look. "I am part of this family and I'll go rescue my family!" I exhaled. "If it helps, I'll sit in the trunk when we return!"
The woman pushed Oskar a little to the side and sat down next to me. Oscar went in next. No one said a word about me or anyone else to leave, so Rick drove through the gate and on the road. While we drove further away from the prison I told myself that every bullet would met the target, I won't miss one fucking person who would have laid a hand on Maggie or Glenn.
At some point the woman told Rick to stop the car. Rick stopped and ordered us to step out. "We have to walk!" The woman ordered and every one of us took a weapon or two out of the trunk, Oscar took a bag as well as Daryl. I tried to tell Daryl with my eyes that I needed to help, but he eyed at my arm. "Ya'll stay behind!" I looked into the trunk at the leftover guns. Stay behind? He didn't seem to see me as a valuable member of the group but a liability.
The others walked on, following the woman into the woods. I took a gun and the machete which Maggie used to use. Looking up I saw Daryl waiting for me. I shut the trunk and we went after the others. "I know ya're strong." Daryl was behind me, but I didn't turn around. I felt more than proud hearing these words out of his mouth. "But we're outside the safe zone. Keep an eye on everythin'!" I simply nodded.
Rick's pace slowed down and he walked next to us. Maybe he wanted to talk to Daryl so my pace quickened and I went next to the woman. "How's your leg?!" She didn't answer. Her eyes seemed to be everywhere, looking all around us. She was still limping a bit. "I asked you how your leg is." I said again. She turned to look at me and the moment she opened her mouth, Rick shouted lowly: "Down!"
We stopped and kneed down. Some walkers appeared in front of us and to our left. I exhaled, relieved it were just a few, but the herd grew bigger. "No gunfire!" Rick told us and stepped fast forward to kill the first walker. Daryl went on next to him and shot another one with his crossbow. I took a tight grip of the machete and ran to the closest walker. I drove my weapon into its head. When I took a look around, seeing more zombies approaching us, I turned to my group. "There are more!" When I looked at them I saw the woman not helping us at all. She was alarmed, her hand on her sword but she wasn't killing any walkers. Why wasn't she helping? Was she bad? Was she just like the other bad strangers I had met so far?
Daryl looked for me and I went to his side killing another walker with the machete, just like Maggie had taught me. "Don't leave the formation!" I nodded. Rick went right further into the woods. "This way!" Daryl waited for me to start running and ran behind me.
We ran faster. "Over there!" There was a dirty barn or house … I couldn't really concentrate to take a closer look at it with the loud gnarling behind me. Rick opened the door, gun raised. Daryl pushed me into the darkness and the new guest of our group closed the door. Everyone was alarmed, gun or knife raised. Daryl and Oscar looked around. I was leaning on the wall next to the door, my knife ready. "What's that smell?" It smelled as if a dozen rotting zombies were just waiting to make new friends. Daryl, Rick and Oscar went for the back of the room we were in. I stayed at the women's side, looking through the barricaded door to see more walkers approaching the house.
"What's your name?" I tried. "I want to address you properly and not calling you woman no more." I gave her a smile, but she didn't return the mimic. I held my hand out to her. She looked at the hand like a dog who was irritated there was no goody in it. "I am Ella!"
"I know. Heard them calling you too often. Seems like you never listen." Wow, that was rude. I still held my hand out waiting. "Michonne." She finally said without taking my hand.
"This was somebody's homes." I turned. The wooden door made cracking sound so I went to the back of the room too. Michonne followed, her hand on her sword. Since we left the car she had her hand on the sword but never acted. Was she going to kill us? Was she one of the people living in Woodbury and it was all a fucking trap? I took a tighter grip around the machete, ready if she would attack me.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rick at the bed and suddenly a man jumped out of it. "Who the hell are you?" The man was holding a shot gun and screaming so loud, the walkers outside got more eager to come inside.
Rick tried to calm him down, to put his gun down, but the man was scared. Again I watched Michonne, I wanted to know who this women was. Foe or friend. She still had no weapon in her hand but seemed ready to fight. A shot made my eyes look the other direction. The man came running up on me, pushing me to the side and I crashed into the wall. I was on my feet again to stop that guy from opening the door, but Michonne did that for me. She killed the man before he could open the door. My eyes went wide. She actually killed that man … Seemed like everyone was speechless.
Daryl passed me and shot me one of his looks and I nodded that I was fine. He stood by the door looking outside. Rick went for the dead guy who would turn into a walker too. "Help me!" I knew he was talking to Daryl who was at his side immediately. Michonne opened the door and they pushed him out. At the same time Oscar was checking the back door. "It's clear."
At first I couldn't believe what was going on, but it was the only way to survive. So humanity did leave the country. At the prison I had been safe … I took me till now to realize I was in real danger, that we were in danger. Even I had shooting lessons inside the prison I felt like a lamp to the slaughter. They all ran out of the door, they didn't mind what had just been done. I was the last out of the house and took a look back as the walkers crushed their teeth in the dead man's body. There was blood all over their faces and bodies. I sped up, not looking back again. That was it. That was reality behind the prison's fences. That was what had to be done to survive.
We ran a few miles when Rick stopped. The sun was already setting and it would soon be dark. "Everybody okay?" We all nodded. Daryl looked at me suspiciously but I avoided his glance. There was no way I would admit I hadn't been ready for this. I wouldn't tell him I was shocked about the way things had been handled in the house before, because that was how it was done now. I was ready for killing walkers, killing evil strangers who would attack my family, but innocent people … feeding walkers … that was a different story. Rick took a look around, talking to Michonne when Daryl came to me. "You don't go hero around." Where did I hear that before? John popped into my head, who had told me to not hero around, when I had been with him and my former group on a run. "Ya hear me woman?!"
"I won't if you won't!" I smiled, but he just made a sound that told me he didn't like my answer. Daryl put his hand on my shoulder. I wanted to step back, but was too surprised he was touching me. He was the one having his bubble too, had never liked to be touched … many things had changed. "This's serious Ella." I liked the way he said my name and my attention was all on his lips. He looked at me through his hair with demanding eyes. "If we get in this fuckin' town I want ya to be safe."
"You want me to wait outside like some dog?" Maybe that had been his intention, I didn't know, but he shook his head. "Just stay close." He emphasized the word close, as if he meant stay close to him.
I nodded. "Got it." I looked to his hand. He immediately let go off me and turned around. Behind him I saw Oscar looking at me. "What's going on between the two of you?" He was seriously asking. But before I could give him a pertly answer Rick made a gesture. "Come on, we don't have time!" And we moved on, running through the woods as silent as possible until we reached some rails.
Michonne was really leading us somewhere. I hoped it was the right place and no trap. We began to slow down and moved along a wagon until she told us to stop by holding her hand up. Hiding behind some trees we saw a barricade of busses, tires and corrugated metal. Men were walking this wall. They had guns and a searchlight up there. This really must be the town Michonne had been talking of, a real garrison. It looked like a military base.
"Fuck." I said in a low whisper, watching the men up there who had machine guns and bows. How would we get in there? I looked at the others whose faces told me the same question. Only Michonne seemed to be confident in what she saw. "You bring us in, right!?" I asked her.
With a stone-cold-face she nodded. She suddenly moved backwards. "Hey, wait!" I stood up and went after her. She didn't turn around. Michonne went silently through the trees searching the wall of Woodbury with her eyes. She seemed to be looking for the entrance, was my first thought. I looked behind me, the others didn't follow. I slowed down, I shouldn't have left. Michonne stopped and I closed the gap to her. "Why did you leave?" I whispered.
She showed me a loose plank at the wall. It was the back of a house, the entire wall was closed with wooden planks and corrugated metal. She pushed it a little bit aside and looked into the hole. I was afraid she would step in and leave me alone. I just hoped the others stayed put. She turned her attention back on me, not entering the hole. "The way in!" Did I see a mischievous smile on her face?
Before she could move, I grabbed her arm tight. "Don't you dare trick us Michonne." My voice sounded confident and hard. "If my family gets killed, I'm gonna hunt you down!" She freed herself from my grab giving me the you-don't-have-the-strength-to-do-that-look and passed me to go back to the others. Again I followed like some tamed dog. When we reached the others they raised their guns and Daryl shot me a mad look.
"Follow me!" She ordered and was already on her way. I waited until Rick nodded and went after her. Daryl grabbed my arm. "I told ya to stay close. What language do ya speak woman?" He wasn't mad, he was furious. He pushed me into Rick's direction, looking around to reassure the area was safe.
"I came back, okay." He didn't look at me when we went after the others. I knew he was right. "I'm sorry." I didn't want him to be mad at me in this kind of situation. We needed to be a group here, no room for loners or disputes. We went through the hole in the wall and entered a room. Rick talked to Michonne while Daryl and I looked out of the windows. There were people walking around as if the apocalypse didn't exist. They looked peaceful and the scenery was so quiet and unharmed. We went through a hole and seemed we were in a different world. Just like Alice in Wonderland. But what kind of Phantasia was this? Even Michonne had told us what Woodbury was, I still couldn't believe my eyes.
So we are in Woodbury finally. Have a good evening ;o)
see you soon, cause nexr chapter already written in my mind haha