Hey guys, the story is not dead :o) I am still writing and its going on. Thanks for the messages and reviews. Have fun reading the next chapter. Enjoy! As always R&R

Ella … Ella!

Someone was calling my name from a far distance. It wasn't a whisper, nor a scream. I almost couldn't hear it, but it was my name who was said. I felt nothing, no pain, no joy. I thought death would be nicer, like the white light I had experienced before. Why was it always me who ended up half dead or dead? The answer was obvious, I was too damn stubborn to listen. It had always been the same. It had started with my brother, how we had been riding the motorcycle, even my dad had said no. And it had killed my brother. I had killed Merle too … just because I hadn't listen to Daryl. Daryl … my heart ached.

Ella!

It grew louder. Was it my brother calling?

Open your eyes.

I slowly opened my eyes. It was dark and cold. "Damn it, Ella."

I was lying on the ground, the voice was calling from somewhere in front of me. I blinked more than twice and couldn't believe my eyes. "Andrea!" She was alive, but strapped to what looked like an old barber's chair. I couldn't move at all. My feet were tied with cable ties. "Andrea." I said her name again to know she was really there.

"Are you okay? Can you move?" She asked, but I wasn't even sure if I was able to talk. There was no energy in my body, Phillip and his men had kicked it all out. I thought I would never experience this shit again and now I had dug my own grave.

"You were right …" She suddenly whispered. "He is mad. Phillip is going crazy. He's going to kill us." She looked around while I felt nothing. My body was numb and full of bruises. I had really grown used to the feelings of pain and numbness. I was lying on cold ground waiting for the Grand Finale. "Ella … I'm so sorry. I thought I could save us all."

I blinked and heard another voice. There was the sound of a door closing. Had I passed out? Suddenly there was someone in front of me. I definitely had been unconscious, 'cause my body would have grown more cold when I had seen this bastard coming in. Closing my eyes for a sec again, Phillip's face was suddenly damn close. Was I imagining things? He pulled me up, sat me up roughly, my back against the wall. Feeling the cold wall in my back, I knew it wasn't a dream.

"NO!" Andrea screamed in the back. "Don't touch her!" But he touched me again, ignoring Andreas cursing. I was too powerless, couldn't even fend him off.

"This knife was supposed to be your death?" He held up my hunting knife that had saved me often and should have protected me from him. "You really wanted to kill yourself to escape me? That makes me even more happy." A mad smile appeared on his lips which I had seen before and I didn't want to know what would happen next. He took my hand gently, held it to his face and closed his eyes. The moment I wanted to pull away – even I had no power to do so - he raised my hand over my head, crushed the knife through my hand and pined it to the wall behind me.

I screamed in agony while Phillip purred like a cat, enjoying my pain. "I will get to you later." He whispered in my ear. "If you are still alive." He looked at me with a glance that hurt more than words. Behind him Andrea tried to break free but it was useless. Real chains and no fucking ropes were around her wrists. There was already blood on her hands. I was amazed at myself that I endured his touch and words without talking back. I could think in a normal pace, could see and hear everything around me, but I couldn't move at all, feeling like a Locked-in syndrome patient.

"Bastard." I finally hissed, surprised about my own voice. He still had a pistol in his holster which he took out now. Panic took hold on me, not that he would kill me – I didn't care about my life anymore – but that he would kill Andrea. I tried to push him away with my free hand but I had no power, so there was just a little movement, my hand barely moved a few inches. As I moved, my other hand hurt. "Damn you." My whispered scream was as useless as Andrea trying to break free.

"You girls can have a sweet chat. I'll come back later." Suddenly he turned to me and crushed his hands next to my head at the wall. I was horrified at first. He caressed my cheek, his hand moved down to my breast, and tore my shirt away. "Ain't that beautiful … Blue and green, like your eyes." He touched one of the bruises on my chest, pressed his finger into my skin that it hurt so much I screamed lowly. "You'll wait for me. I need to hear more of that." He smiled bitterly and stood up. "First I'll have some fun with your friends." He turned and went out. I could hear him looking the door. He was gone for now. I breathed in deeply, trying to collect my last pieces of strength.

Some time passed. "You hurt?" I finally asked Andrea, slowly gathering myself. My whole body hurt from the hits of Phillip's men. Than it hit me. "Merle?" My heart beat faster and energy flooded my body. Was it adrenalin that suddenly rushed through me?

"What about that bastard?" She sounded exhausted, her voice small and fading. There was blood on her face too.

"Where is he?" There was small hope Phillip would let him live. There was more hope he would kill him fast, but even that wouldn't be happening. Phillip was too mad and angry at us. He would have his fun killing every one of us slowly and painful.

Andrea shook her head. "You think you can get free?" She looked to my hand which was pinned at the wall. It was my right hand … damn it. My left hand hurt more than expected. Phillip had stood on it, maybe it was sprained. I tried to grab the knife but I couldn't reach it nor had I really the strength to pull the knife out, suppressing a scream when I moved. My hand was bleeding. The warm blood ran down my arm. Sitting on the ground my back on the wall, my right hand pinned over my head and my legs tied up I began to sop lowly. How could we escape?

"Ella." Andrea called me again. Why did she sound so confident? Then I saw it: She had something silver in her right hand. "I'll promise you we'll get out of here." She wasn't crying at all. I wiped away my tears with the back of my left hand. Andrea was wounded and tried to break free anyways, was determined to get out. Why did I cry? Why did I stop after my first attempt to break free? I tried it again but there was no way I could reach the knife above my head. Every single part of my body hurt. "Had he done it?" Andrea asked me not looking up nor stopping to free herself.

I looked down on me, the scars on my chest were visible since Phillip had ripped my shirt into pieces. "No." I swallowed. My voice didn't sound like me at all. "Not everything … It happened some time ago … There were other men. They tortured me for days." I still saw their faces at night, but the nightmares slowly faded. Some nights were just dreamless and others were full of pain.

"Was it after we split in the woods?" I saw her rattling on the chains around her left wrist. Both hands were cuffed to the chair. How did she think she could break them?

"Yeah …" It was all ending now. Maybe it would be a relief to finally tell everything. I could tell her, we were moribund anyways. "Phillip was with Milton and some other guys. They imprisoned me in some kind of western cell. They came one by one to slice open my skin, to torture me and to rape me." Now she stopped and looked over. "But I could avoid the rape. At least when I was conscious. I don't know what they did to me when I was out." This was the one thing that had frightened me all the time, the one thing I was afraid of to think about. Or maybe too afraid to remember, a protective mechanism.

"I'm so sorry Ella." But it wasn't her fault at all. I almost began to cry to think about everything that had happened lately, it was all a mess. "Don't worry. We'll get out." And she started her work on her wrist again. Sweat was all over her forehead. While she was all powerful, I was weak to the bone. I was just happy no one hit my head or kicked me anymore. I was finally left alone.

"All the time my heart had ached because of the loss of Amy. When I saw you in the woods it was as if some part of me had come back … Something I had left at camp. Since the moment I met you again I lived up again." She sighed. "When I hugged you in the prison I was so relieved you were alive. To really see you, feel you, reminded me so much of Amy, you and your happy nature." Hearing these words I finally began to cry. My happy nature was long gone. I had grown up, had developed another kind of myself … a creation of what laid behind me.

"That's long gone." I was talking slowly and sounded like I was slurring.

"Such a characteristic doesn't change. You don't change." Why was she so sanguine about that?

"But I did. You haven't been there. You flirted with Satan." Was that me talking? I tried to stop crying.

"That's not fair Ella." She retorted. "I had to deal with the loss of our group too. He gave me comfort, gave me a home."

"You think Amy awaits you?" Was that a good way to change the subject?

"No, cause she is dead." I thought she would reply with a more emotional answer. "Do you think Daryl is waiting for you?"

Even I had stopped crying, a last tear escaped my eye. "No." There was no hope inside me to see him again. And even if we would meet he would be mad at me, hate me for running away again. "I ran away again … with his brother … to kill Phillip. He must be mad."

"You ever told him you love him?" She smiled.

"No …" I aspirated. "There was never a good time …" I finally got it off my chest. I loved him and he would never know.

"Is there ever?" Silence. "Stay awake Ella." That's when I realized I had closed my eyes.

A shot woke me up. But I couldn't really open my eyes, only my left eye was a bit open. The light was dim. I was still in the same room with Andrea. She was still chained to the chair. There was a movement to my right. Phillip stood in the door with someone else in front of him. How long had I fallen asleep? There was mumbling, but I couldn't hear a word they said. My ears still rang from the shot. When I blinked again he was gone. Had I fallen asleep again? There was another person in the room, it wasn't Phillip. Was there someone to help us? That someone had sat down next to the door, almost the same position I was in on the other wall. I needed to wake up, think clear. "Who's there?" Did I say it out aloud?

"Ella …" It was a man. Was it Merle?

Andrea was still working on her chains badly, while I and the other one were sitting at the wall without energy to move at all. No matter how long I had been out, Andrea didn't seem to get free.

"It's me, Milton." His voice was as weak as mine. Phillip had shot him so he would turn and kill us. What a perfidious idea. "I'm so sorry Ella … Andrea … I wish I had been stronger."

"Too late for that Millie." I didn't feel my right arm anymore, as if it had blooded out finally. And my right shoulder hurt from the unnatural position.

"I'm going to die … I'll turn …" Milton said, his voice growing weaker by the second.

"Stay awake Milton. Ella talk to him. You guys just don't die." There was a weird sound coming from her. "I almost got it."

"Maybe I should have killed you back then, then you wouldn't have to suffer now." His head rolled strangely to the side when he starred at me.

Andrea's efforts gave me the strength to try not to black out. But when I moved, my whole right arm was all pins and needles. At least it meant it wasn't dead. "Milton …" I started, not knowing what to say to a person who had stood true to Phillip. "Why didn't you kill me?"

His eyes were closed now. "You looked so familiar." Sighing. "I had seen you before." His words came out slowly. It sounded as if he made a full stop behind every word. "You reminded me of my past. When I had voluntary service." He coughed. "When I had been a medic … one day I had been called to a motorcycle crash. There had been a girl and her brother …" No … no … don't talk of something like that now. I wanted to scream the words, but I couldn't open my mouth. It was as if my lips were glued to each other. "I will never forget the way they had been lying on the street, how they had tried to hold hands. This picture is burned in my head forever." He wasn't saying the words, he was aspirating them with great afford. He grabbed into his pocket. "I am so sorry Ella. I had seen the photo of you and your brother in your pocket … and taken it … I never wanted to …" Why did he stop?

"No …" I looked to Andrea who got her one hand free. "Milton." I tried to scream. But he wasn't talking nor moving anymore. A few minutes past and the familiar sound of a walker aroused. Oh no, he had turned. Milton's body moved weirdly. Somehow he managed to stand up. At first he slowly looked around but caught eye of moving Andrea. I moved and he looked at me, not moving towards me. Maybe the walker knew I was almost dead and needed fresh blood. Andrea was almost free, she was stronger than me. I needed to call attention on me. She should survive. Suddenly Walker-Milton walked towards Andrea. He was very close, too close, but I wasn't able to scream or move. My soul was glued to a body that wasn't able to live or survive. The moment Andrea was free was the same moment Milton launched into her. "Andrea!"

…