Chapter 3: Massacre
Michonne and now one year old Judith had made a home out of the underground hatch. Michonne would occasionally go outside, just to keep herself and her baby from going insane in that hole. Sometimes they would just sit outside and have a peaceful picnic to take in some sun or to play in the rain, while making sure to keep an eye out. The woods were quiet, empty and peaceful. No walkers, no people. Just the two of them. With no one but each other, they became inseparable. Michonne had made peace with the possibility of never finding Rick and Carl again and having to raise Judith as her own daughter. And that's what she did. But after a year, the hatch was exhausted. They ran out of food and most of their supplies and it was time to go out and find more. Judith learned to be quiet over the years because she spend most of her life hiding which made it possible for Michonne to take her out on runs with her.
One day while out on a run, Michonne with baby Judith on her back came across a diner in town which to her relief was unlooted. She quietly made her way to the diner and picked the lock to it. She made her way inside, and struggled to bare the horrid stench of rotten food and god knows what else. She went into the kitchen where she found a starving walker-waitress crawling on the floor, too weak to stand up or even attack. Michonne used her sword to put the poor thing out of its misery before she proceeded to check for loot. Almost all the food was rotten but she managed to find a shelf full of canned beans. She excitedly dropped her backpack and unzipped it, preparing to fill it up when she heard a screechy voice from behind her.
"H- Hello?" The voice called.
Michonne dropped the cans she was holding, drew her sword and spun around almost in one motion. In front of her, stood a thin man holding up a broom stick up at at her. He looked hungry and terrified. She felt sorry for him more that she was afraid of him but she definitely didn't trust him or let her guard down anyway.
"Please... I- I need that." He stuttered while staring at the rack of canned beans.
Michonne backed up a little, just to get in range of the rack and reached for one can while still looking at the man and holding her sword up, she threw it at his feet.
"No you, you don't understand. I need everything. All of it." He repeated.
"Not happening." Michonne finally spoke.
"Look, they're gonna kill my family if I don't give them what they want..." The man sobbed.
Michonne took another can of beans and threw it at the man's feet again. "That's it." She said again.
"We can help each other. You let me take that stuff and I'll... I'll take you back with me. We have a safe place. For you and your baby." He begged.
Michonne thought for a moment, she knew that being alone would eventually drive her insane, the way it did before she met her deceased friend Andrea. If anything ever happened to her, she needed to die knowing that her baby would be safe. And she was definitely better off with these strangers than alone. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, she thought. Or maybe it was all a trick. Maybe she would be setting her and her baby up to die sooner than they should have.
"How do I know you're not fucking with me?" She asked.
"I... I don't know how to prove it to you. But its a library in Washington, not far from here. Its not much but - but its just one more day with a chance." He explained.
Michonne thought for a moment again. The words one more day with a chance going straight to her heart before she finally put her sword down. "If you're lying, you're dead. You here me?" She threatened.
"Y-yes. Please, we need to get back soon." He said again.
Michonne nodded and helped the man fill up the boot of his car with all the supplies they could find, making sure to keep her distance form him before they hit the road. Michonne was terrified of being wrong but she was following her gut and her gut never let her down. After 12 hours on the road, they finally made it to The Library. The people there were a lot like the man Michonne met before. Thin, terrified and desperate, but welcoming. None of them were strong enough to fight Michonne even if they tried to hurt her or her baby. But they weren't strong enough to fight for her either, not yet anyway. One of the people showed Michonne to the place she'd be sleeping in. She immediately regretted leaving her hatch when she realized she didn't have a cozy bed or a tub with running water to bathe in. She had to sleep on the floor, using books to make it more comfortable where she could. But it was too late to turn back now, her hatch was much too far away. She had to make due at The Library, despite the conditions. But at least she wasn't alone.
A week later, after Michonne had settled in, she was awoken one morning by the sound of people packing in the early morning hours, She quietly got up and left her sleeping baby in her room and went down to the reception and found the leader of The Librarians loading all the supplies they had in a shopping cart.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Getting everything ready for The Saviors. They'll be here in a few hours." He explained.
Michonne watched the man pack for a moment and it didn't take her long to figure out what was going on. "You're giving everything away? Are you insane?" She asked.
"No. I'm cautious. Trust me, you do not want to piss these guys off." He replied, still putting supplies into the cart.
"And you don't want to piss me off." She threatened as she stopped his hand midair from throwing another can into the cart. "Tell me how many guys are coming." She added.
Before the man could answer, they heard the loud sound of motorcycles pulling up. "Shit. They're here early." The man said as he hurriedly started throwing things into the cart again.
A few moments later, there was a loud, knock on the door and one of The Librarians quickly opened the doors. Five men came in with smirks on their faces that made Michonne detest them even more. Michonne sneaked behind the bookshelves as she observed the altercation. She saw that they were well armed but they were also unsuspecting.
"Where's our shit?" One of them asked.
"Right here, sir." The leader of The Librarians answered as he pushed the cart to them.
"Good. Negan thanks you for your cooperation." He said.
Just before they could turn around and leave, Michonne jumped out of the shadows and ran her sword right into one man's back. She used him as a shield as she pulled his pistol out of its holster and shot the other three men in the head and the last man in the back as he tried to run out. She pulled her sword out of her human shield and sliced his head off before she walked over to the man she shot in the back and stopped him as he tried to crawl away.
"You're dead. You're all dead." He screeched before Michonne dug her sword into the back of his skull.
Michonne got up and was wiping her sword clean when the leader of The Librarians approached her.
"What have you done?" He said with tears in his eyes.
"Just saved us from starvation?" She replied.
"He's going to send more. You've doomed us all." The thin man whimpered.
"I just took out five of them on my own. If you stopped being so chicken shit we could fight them." Michonne argued.
"She's right." Said one of The Librarians as she approached them. "If she can do it, so can we. We need to put our feet down once and for all." She continued as he picked up a gun from one of Michonne's victims.
"Are you insane?! We're all going to die!" The Leader said.
"Yes. Yes we are. But you can choose if you're going to die slowly and watch your family starve to death or if you're going to die fighting. Its worth a shot. One more day with a chance, remember?" Michonne debated.
The leader of The Librarians paused for moment before he walked over to one of the corpses and picked up a gun. "We... we're going to war." He finally spoke and the rest of The Librarians began to cheer.
Michonne and The Librarians prepared themselves for the fight. They made weapons from scrap and trained to use them. They extracted the fuel from the motorcycles left behind by the last group of Saviors and poured it on the ground and put the heads of the dead Saviors on pikes front of The Library. A few days later, more Saviors had returned. This time there was more of them and they were more armed than before. They parked their motorcycles right on top of the fuel which was disguised by the rain that came down a few days prior. The Leader of The Librarians and Michonne emerged to meet them.
"Five of our guys came here and they never returned. Where are they?" One of the Saviors asked.
"You're looking right at them." Michonne replied as she pointed at the heads.
"What the fuck?! Tear their asses apart!" The Savior ordered.
Before any of the Saviors could fire, Michonne signaled for the people on the roof of The Library to throw their flaming torches onto the ground and it ignited in flames. The Saviors immediately caught fire and began to burn brutally. The ones that weren't on fire got into a gun fight with The Librarians that were taking cover in the windows. The hand full of Saviors didn't stand a chance and most of them were wiped out. The remaining slackers got back on their vehicles and vacated the premises.
The Librarians celebrated the victory and collected more weapons from the dead Saviors. They were all inside rearming when suddenly, even more Saviors came back. Before Michonne could think of a plan, they blasted the Library with a rocket launcher causing the inside to burn violently due to all the wooden shelves and the books. The Librarians had a choice between staying inside and burning to death or running out and being picked off by The Saviors. Most of them resorted to the latter. Michonne ran inside to get her baby out of the burning building and she was relived to find that she was untouched by the fire. She picked her baby up and wrapped her in a blanket before running out herself. She was met by the scene of most of her new friends lying dead or dying on the ground. She immediately regretted making them fight but it was too late now. She looked up and saw an army of Saviors standing in front of her, with their guns pointed right at her and she thought it was all over. She held onto her baby tightly as she prepared to be torn apart by the bullets when suddenly one of the Saviors spoke.
"Hold your fire!" He said. "Is that the one?" He asked one of the other Saviors that had run away earlier and he nodded in reply. "You there, get on your knees and drop whatever you're holding!" The Savior shouted.
Michonne complied and gently put Judith on the ground while she knelt next to her. One of The Saviors walked up to her. "You're so fucked." He said to her before he knocked her out with the butt of his gun. Her baby's cries were the last thing she heard before she passed out...
