"We're gonna stay behind; just in case he returns. Make a stand; keep an eye on the kids." Glenn informed Rick as they prepared to make their run into Woodbury. Rick turned around from where he was loading the truck and glanced over at the younger man's face. He knew that Maggie had no wish to return to the small town where she and Glenn had been held captive and had been fully prepared for the two of them to make that very announcement.
"Okay, just the three of us then." Rick nodded over to Daryl who was standing next to his bike, holding a quiet conversation with Carol and then over to Michonne who was waiting patiently next to the truck. "Ready, people?" Daryl looked up and waved his hand to indicate that he would meet them down at the gate. Rick hopped up in the driver's seat and Michonne took the passenger side and they rolled down the drive to where Glenn and Maggie were waiting to lift the gate open.
"I'm comin' back." Daryl murmured quietly, placing his hand over the top of Carol's as it rested on the seat of the bike.
"You'd better, Dixon." Carol sniffed back the tears that had been threatening all morning, the last time he had gone to Woodbury he'd been captured and then hadn't returned as promised and she just didn't know whether she was emotionally capable of going through that again.
"Hey, only a Dixon…"
"…can kill a Dixon. I know…Stay safe." Carol finished his well-known saying and whispered his oft repeated mantra back to him.
"Hey, that's my line!" He protested with a smirk and after glancing around the courtyard leant over the bike to press a quick kiss against her cheek. "Stay safe, woman. Back soon." With those whispered words, he swung his leg over the saddle and roared off down the path to the gate. Carol placed her hand over her cheek and whispered into the air; "Nine lives, Pookie."
When they came across the bodies strewn across the Highway, Rick and the others knew that it was the work of The Governor. After dispatching the rising dead they discovered a lone female hiding in the armoured truck.
"Don't shoot!" Karen held out her hands in surrender as she stepped down from the truck. "He went crazy and just started shooting them all. I hid beneath one of the bodies so that he wouldn't shoot me, too. You're from the prison aren't you? Did Andrea make it okay?"
"Andrea? She's not at Woodbury?" Michonne stepped forward. "Karen, is Andrea at Woodbury?"
"No," Karen looked puzzled. "She left Woodbury a few days ago, The Governor said…Oh, God!" Karen's face paled as she realised what The Governor was capable of having just experienced it first-hand. "She went missing the same day that Milton did, no one seemed to know where either of them went…"
"Which way did he go?" Daryl stepped forward, staring at Karen. He was anxious to get moving again, not wanting to get caught unawares.
"Away from Woodbury; but there's only the three of them now. Bowman, Martinez and The Governor."
"Let's stop calling him that shall we? The man is no elected official, just an asshole with an overinflated ego. I say we forget Blake for a while and see if we can find Andrea." Rick looked around, emphasising the man's name and not using his trumped up title. "Karen, can you get us over your wall without making a fuss?"
"Yeah, I think so. The two people on watch are part of a newer group; a brother and sister who didn't want any part of the fighting. Said that they'd rather stay behind and look after the children."
"Brother and sister?" Rick looked over at Daryl who nodded, thinking along the same lines.
"Tyreese and Sasha; came through the prison a while back with Allen and his son, Ben. Allen's over there…" Daryl jerked his head in the direction of where Allen's body lay fallen where Blake had shot him down.
"Okay, let's go and pick up our girl." Rick headed back to the truck and they headed toward Woodbury.
AN: Okay, one or two more chapters and then we're done. Have I mentioned that I really, really like reviews?