Chapter three:
"People call me the Governor" some man said and Sophia peeped her head round the tree to see a man holding out his hand for Merle to shake, however Merle just looked at the hand in disgust and didn't shake it.
"The Governor, what kinda name is that?" Merle chuckled whilst the Governor just looked offended.
"That's the name my towns people gave me"
"Your town's people? What kind of place do you live in?"
"My town is completely surrounded by walls with men guarding the site. You could come with us and you'd be safe from the biters"
"Biters?" Merle asked obviously not knowing what biters were either.
"That's what we call 'em. So you coming with us?" Sophia chose that moment to come out from hiding behind the tree.
"Merle, I want to go find my momma, we can't leave without her" Sophia said quietly clutching onto her doll tightly, close to tears, she leave yet she still had to find her mom.
"Don' worry Sophia goin' nowhere" Merle stated whilst staring at the Governor, giving him the evil eyes.
"You can hardly walk, you'd be safer with us, and you can go find her mom in a day to, when your ankles healed" the Governor replied staring back at Merle, neither one backing down.
"I'll be fine, it aint like I aint used to an injury or to, 'sides if we go with you we'll never find 'er mom, or ma brother for that matter" Sophia smiled knowing that if Merle wanted to find their original group as well then Sophia was definitely going to see her momma again soon.
"You sure? How you going to fend off the biters when you can hardly walk? Come on its not fair on the girl, she needs to be somewhere safe and that's with us"
"I need to find my mum" Sophia said with a sudden spurt of courage. She didn't like how this man was trying to make then come with them, he was creepy. She needed her mom, and Merle had saved her, she trusted him. The creepy man chooses that moment to crouch down in front of her.
"I know you do little girl but back in my town we have proper houses, plenty of food and water, and lots of other children that you could play with while we look for you mom. That sounds nice doesn't it?
"I need to find my mom" Sophia whispered back not liking how he was trying to convince her to leave her mom. She couldn't do, her mom was probably worried enough as it was.
"Looks like you're going back empty handed" Merle chuckled whilst stroking Sophia's hair proudly, glad she had been able to stick up for herself, the girl was braver than she looked.
"It'll be suicide" the Governor retorted.
"Look if we say we don' wanna join ya, we don' wanna join ya, ya hear me" Merle growled causing Sophia to get a little, she didn't like it when men got angry, they reminded her of when her daddy got angry and that usually ended up in her mom getting hurt.
"I can't let you travel back, my conscience won't let me, please I must insist you come back with us" the governor replied, Sophia heard something behind them and looked round to see the Governors men where creeping up on them with the guns held at them. Sophia whimpered and tugged on Merle t-shirt. He looked down at her in confusion and she tilted her head to the side indicating to Merle to look behind them. Merle looked behind him and chuckled which confused Sophia, how was that funny, she thought it was more scary than funny.
"Ya must insist ya say, well I must insist that we ought to be getting' ourselves home, let's go Sophia" Merle said way to calmly for Sophia's liking but followed Merle anyway as she wanted to get away from the creepy man.
"I can't let you do that" the governor replied just as calmly as Merle did.
"I think you'll find we can" Merle replied just as one of the Governors men shot at Merle but missed and hit the tree next to him.
"Son of a bitch" Merle grabbed and picked up Sophia and ran as fast as he could with a bad ankle twisting and turning through the trees, obviously trying to lose the Governors men who were bound to be chasing them.
….
After a good ten minutes Merle slowed down and put Sophia on the ground to catch his breath.
"Have we lost them?" Sophia asked quietly.
"I dunno hon' but hopefully if we keep goin' we will 'ave"
"Stay were you are, I don't mean you no harm" A male voice said through the trees and Merle instantly pulled Sophia behind his back.
"Come on lad you really gonna shoot me?" Merle called back just as a man come out from behind the tree.
"If I need to"
"Why's the Governor want to shoot me?" Merle questions holding his own gun at the guy, causing the guy to twitch, obviously not used to using a gun, this caused Merle to smirk.
"I can't tell you sir" The guy replied, a slight tremble in his voice.
"Ya can't tell me 'ay" Merle answered whilst slowly walking closer to the guy till he was only a couple of steps in front of the man.
"Don't come any closer" The guy shouted at Merle trying to sound brave but failing miserably.
"Come on lad I only want to know why the Governor wants me dead, I deserve to know that at least" Merle told the guy while taking the off his gun.
"He-he told me to follow you until I found at were you were stayin' and then-then to kill y-you" the guy trembled.
"Thank you-Sophia close your eyes darlin'" Merle told her and as soon as she had Merle shot the guy in the head just before he could question what Merle had said. Hearing the shot Sophia opened her eyes and gasped, tears welling up in her eyes.
"'m sorry Sophia but he would have told the Governor were we where I couldn' risk 'im findin' your mom and the others, it 'ad to be done" Merle told Sophia softly who nodded in reply, her eyes never leaving the dead body.
"Come on darlin' let's go find your momma" Merle told her and picked her up and felt Sophia wrap her arms round his neck and bury her head in his neck.
…
"Honey I can't imagine what you're going though, it's horrible, but you gotta stop blamin' Rick, I can see it in your face" Lori told Carol who looked down at the ground guiltily. Daryl felt bad for the poor women, he got it, she wanted someone to blame but he wished she hadn't picked Rick. Daryl looked over at Lori and gave her a little smile, glad that she was finally standing up for herself. After the past few relationships she's had she needed to build up her confidence again.
"Once Sophia took off he didn't hesitate did he, he just took off, don' know if any of you'll woulda done that?" Lori questioned looking round at the group. This caused Daryl to look away already feeling guilty, he would like to say he would he really did, but he just didn't know.
"I don't think any of us coulda done it, or made the hard decisions that he's had to make, or done it any differently" Lori pressed on standing up for her brother and Daryl suddenly felt bad that he wasn't standing up for his partner too. He then pushed it aside knowing that the group didn't need two people against them, Lori was doing a fine job by herself. When Lori looked like she had finished her rant Daryl walked over to her and wrapped his arm round her neck and pulled her into a side hug and kissed her forehead.
"thank you, Rick would be'n proud" Daryl whispered to her in a rare show of affection.
"Umm guys we should probably keep moving" Glenn said to the group looking round at everyone nervously, obviously sill uncomfortable about the previous conversation.
"He's right we should get back" Daryl replied whilst standing up.
After walking for a few minutes Amy walked up to Daryl and Lori.
"So you and Rick?" Amy questioned while looking at Daryl with a smirk on her face.
"What about us?" Daryl asked defensively, he was always uncomfortable talking about their relationship. He was a private person and never knew how people were going to take the fact he was in a relationship with another man. It wasn't that he was ashamed but he always tried to avoid a fight if he could help it.
"So how long you been together?" she was still smirking. Of course, she was a young girl, she wanted all the gossip, he never could understand women.
"Since 'bout a year after high school" he replied and he have sworn he heard Lori cough and mutter something about it being longer than that.
"Did you know each other at high school then?" Amy questioned after smirking at Lori who was smirking right back at her.
"Yeah"
"were you friends?"
"Yeah, what's with all the questions girl?" Daryl asked getting annoyed with all the questions, seriously girls never stop.
"Just trying to work how you met, that's all" she replied innocently
"We met in the woods" Daryl replied before inwardly cringing when he realised he had just given the girl more bait.
"Aww how romantic, was it love at first site" The girl fired back, almost bouncing on her toes in eagerness. Daryl just snorted and chucked at the question.
"Err no, not exactly, nearly fired an arrow at the poor sod, he was pretty pissed actually"
"I remember him coming home and telling about how some guy had come out of nowhere holding a crossbow at him and shouting about how he had scared off his dinner" Lori laughed.
"Well he had and he still can't hunt for shit, no matter how many tine I've tried to teach him, he always managed to scare 'em away before we get close enough" Daryl sighed.
"So how did you end up getting together then" Amy asked puzzled.
"After that day we kept bumpin' into each other in the woods an' one day we jus' go' talkin' and became friends. After a while well….." Daryl trailed off while rubbing the back of his neck, uncomfortable with talking any further. Clearly Amy knew what he was going to say anyway.
"So who kissed who?" Amy asked ignoring Daryl's obvious discomfort.
"I aint answerin' that"
"Ah come on pleeeeease, I won't tell anyone else" Amy begged whilst trying to give him the puppy dog eyes. They didn't work on him anymore, not after spending so much time with Carl anyway.
"They don' work on me anymore" Daryl smirked.
"Man your no fun" Amy sighed. All the questions stopped when a gun fire rang out through the tree's causing Daryl to look at Lori with a slight panic on his face.
Notes: another chapter done, I had a little fun writing the bit between Daryl and Amy, I could just imagine Daryl cringing at all the questions and not want to give away too much. Anyway hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think.