A week had passed rather slowly. A few walkers entered the yard and provided some entertainment. Hunting every other day took sometime but not enough to forget what she had. At the prison with her "family" the apocalypse didn't seem so bad. The pain she had before had disappeared while she was there, but now the old pain was replaced with a new and crueler one. "Daryl!" Lacie woke up in a heavy sweat from a dream that had repeated itself the last three days. In her dream she had gone back to the prison to see it in ruins. The gate flattened by walkers and the bodies of the residents walking lifeless as walkers. The dream would end as Daryl's walker form looks up from eating a mangled girl. Wiping the sweat away from her face Lacie wished for the showers that the prison had. The stream by the house was never a comfortable temperature, not that she had room to complain. "Might as well start the day." Sitting up she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "This will get easier. It has too. I let myself become weak in a world that doesn't have room for a weak scared girl." Lacie had decided it was time to move on, to her this was just a hotel that she was ready to check out of.
Merle had convinced the Governor to wait on the attack, claiming that they needed more weapons. In truth he didn't even want the Governor to fight the prison anymore, his baby brother was there and unwilling to leave. Instead propaganda about the prison being a hazard was being made known to the public. The Governor fell right in to Merle's other plan though, he kept sending Merle and Bella to look for more weapons and other camps, allowing them to help Daryl look for Lacie. They weren't going to give up that easily, they would give up if and only if they found her corpse. "We allowed to go out again today?" Bella asked hopeful to return to the search. "Yeah but he wants up to go farther allowing us a few days of stayin out." Obviously they weren't getting much with the 10 mile radius he previously allowed so the Governor wanted a scope up to 30 miles. If Bella and Merle didn't return in four days they would be assumed dead. "Do we get the army truck again?" She asked packing a bag. "Yeah, it's faster travel." The duo headed out only moments later not having to say good-bye to anyone. "Hey City, why do you and my baby brother think she ain't the walking dead yet?" The only people Merle would waste this much time on were Bella and his brother. "We promised Daryl we wouldn't give up and, I don't want to give up either. Lacie has always been like my sister. It sucked that when I just got her back she had to be a hormonal bitch and ditch me like this."
A loud slamming noise came from the downstairs, it sounded as if someone sung the front door open with all their might. Peeking through the curtains she saw eight bikes parked in the lawn. Once she couldn't see any of them on the lawn she climbed out the bedroom window onto the roof of the porch. Lacie looked for a way down put her knife in her mouth and, finally deciding on using the edge, praying that the railing would holder she hopped off. The white railing did hold her but the man on watch saw her. "Hey little girl." He laughed. Lacie let go in an attempt to escape causing her to fall off the railing. The man at the same time lunged forward trying to catch her but only getting her ponytail. "Got you now!" He pulled backwards to stop her from running. In one swift maneuver she dropped the knife from her mouth to her hand and cut her hair at the hair tie. "No you don't" Then sprinted off toward the woods. "You little bitch! Hey Ronnie help me catch this bitch and I'll share!" Stopping for only a second she put her knife in her boot, took her katana out of its resting place and began running once again. The two men gained some ground on her. The man who saw her first jumped catching her leg in his hand, tripping her. "Got h-" Lacie cut the man off by putting the blade of her sword through his eye to the back of his skull, killing him instantly. "You little bitch." Lacie had been called that so many times it became like an alias, she felt that if there was a job application she would be obligated to write it down under that category. Before the man could get to her though a timid man with glasses put a bullet through Ronnie's brain.
Daryl had barely slept since Lacie ran off. Carol's words of encouragement didn't even calm his thoughts. If Lacie was found dead it would be his fault, at least that's what he thought. Daryl sat in his truck staring at the passenger seat, a part of him was half expecting her to jump in and brag that her kill was going to top his. The sound of tires of the gravel brought him back to reality though. Bella and Merle were there to help him search once again for his friend. "Baby brother let's head out while we still have daylight." Merle called from the army truck behind the light blue pickup. Daryl nodded and the two cars followed the gravel path back out the main gate of the prison. The sun was on full blast like a heater today, so much so both brothers and Bella considered putting the AC on. Wasting gas was not an option though so their heads shot down the idea almost automatically. Today they ran into a little blue house with white shutters and a garden. The lawn in front had ripped up grass with motor cycle tracks on it. The brothers parked their vehicles a bit of ways from the tire tracks just in case they had any trace of Lacie on them. Daryl found something almost immediately, a ponytail on the porch. The group passed the hair around to see if anyone could say for sure if it was hers. "Well it's black long and soft." Merle said holding it, then passed it to Bella. "A lot of people have black hair ties." Daryl took the hair back and they went in to the house. Inside it was destroyed couches flipped, tables broken, and beer bottles everywhere. "Well if she was here, it was before these guys came." Bella knew Lacie wouldn't hang with people like this. "We can't even place her here." Merle growled looking on the floor for anything. "Yes we can." Daryl held up Lacie's head band.
The man that killed the biker's name was Milton. He decided to bring her before someone named the Governor back in a place called Woodbury. He had been choosing a walker from the pit when he heard people yelling. He told some goons to go check it out, when they refused he went cautiously. The Governor told Lacie she was allowed to stay there and told Milton to get her some clean clothes that she could keep. Woodbury seemed so surreal like a town untouched by the apocalypse. "We will be giving you your own apartment." Milton smiled. "I really do hope you like it here." Lacie was unsure if she planned to stay but was willing to enjoy some nice company. "I'm sure I will. Thanks again for helping me." The apartment they gave her was nicer than the dorm she had at college. It was one bed and one bath. All the floors were wood and it was completely furnished. This was another chance to start over. "Do you need anything else?" He asked. "No thanks!" Lacie dropped her backpack on the living room floor, removed her weapons then jumped on her new couch. "I'll be back. Let me just get you some more cloths." With that Milton left her alone. Once he left she sat up to touch her now short hair. "It was worth it." When the adrenaline was going she didn't have time to analyze herself. Lacie decided to go in to the bathroom take out her knife, and attempt to fix her uneven hair. "It doesn't look that bad." KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Milton was at the door with some new cloths. "Here you are." He handed her the clothes. "You fixed you hair. It looks nice." She didn't think so but she didn't turn down the compliment.
The next day Lacie saw the sunrise again but didn't feel that longing to share it with someone. Being alone in that large queen bed was no problem at all. The soft tan blankets hugged her tightly. She almost didn't want to get out of bed but, there was a whole town to explore. When she got out to the streets the only people that were out were on the wall. A quiet walk would be good though. "Hello again Lacie." A voice from behind her made Lacie turn around just to see the Governor. "How do you like it?" He smiled. "It's a very nice town you got here." Putting an arm around her, he started to lead her forward. "I didn't want to get you into this but, another group is threatening the way of life we have here. They want what we have. I offered to allow them to come in but, they said they just want us out. We have many old and children here that couldn't survive long outside the walls. I'm telling you all this as a plea for your help today when every able bodied person we have goes to war to protect this way of life." After thinking about it for a moment Lacie agreed to help the Governor. "They don't deserve to take what you're people worked so hard for." "We head out at noon be at the front gate."
Lacie had no idea where this other camp was or how long it would take to get there. Holding the gun the Governor gave her she looked at the group of men sitting in front of her. It was obvious they were just as nervous as she was. Her brother went to war in Iraq when she was 12 years old, he didn't return the same he was more guarded. Would this change her in the same way? Or since it was a small confrontation would it be easy on her. Lacie hadn't even been at Woodbury long, she only agreed to fight because of the children, and they didn't deserve to be punished. Woodbury actually had 12 children under the age of 14. The most she had seen in a while. Some of the children were even fortunate enough to have both parents living there. The Army truck finally came to a halt about 20 minutes out. "I guess we're here. You guys ready for this." A man close to the opening said sounding a little unsure of himself. "Yeah! We'll fuck them up and be out by dinner!" The confident yelling man was right next to Lacie. He seemed to be the only one really ready for what they were about to do. The Governor could be heard yelling something at the other side. That's when the "troop" she was with was signaled to come out. Lacie couldn't believe her eyes. It was the prison.
Daryl, Merle and Bella had decided to wait to go on the search for Lacie today and it was a good thing they did. The Governor decided to attack earlier than he had old Merle. He probably suspected Merle so he told him that the war could wait. "Damn it" Daryl grinded his teeth. This was the second time Woodbury had attacked the prison. Both sides ended up dealing with a serious amount of losses. They didn't have time to plan this out this time. Rick again tried to reason with the crazy man on the other side of the gate and for the second time the crazy man had one of his cars knock down the gate. In what time they had, the prison group hid their children and older persons on a bus that took off out of there, the previous Woodbury residents and picked up weapons then began fighting. Gun shots flew in every direction, bodies were falling just as fast. This was chaos in its purest form. The noise from the war even alerted walkers who started to eat the already fallen and attack those who hadn't.
Confused Lacie couldn't figure out what to do next. She went on a mission to destroy her family. At least she didn't shoot anyone and realized where she was. The Governor and Rick were fist fighting behind the mess in the prison walls. Rick had the upper hand for a while. Punching the one eyed bastard with no mercy. However the Governor over powered rick getting on the top of the tussle. The look of murder in his eyes was so noticeable even Lacie could see it 10 feet away. There was no way she was going to let him win against Rick, that man betrayed her. Taking the gun he had given her in her hands she walked up to the fist fight. "Lacie stay out of this." The Governor yelled at her before she shot him right in the side of the head." Rick though a bit messed up nodded a thank you and ran back up to the mess. Lacie decided to go help the fight even though a wave of walkers came through. She wanted to save her prison family and apologize. Slicing through one walker after another it seemed never ending when a man picked her up and ran to a car threw her in and they drove off.
"Hey! Who do you think you are?!" The little black hair yelled at him. Merle knew this was the girl they had been searching for and wasn't going to let her die now after all the searching they had done prior to this war. "Sorry." Lacie said almost immediately after she noticed it was Daryl's big brother. "I don't know where my brother or Bella are but we can't stay here. We'll be dead in an hour." This was the third time she had been saved by someone in two months. Although she was thankful it was starting to get irritating. "How will we find them?" "We'll check the area around where the walkers eventually thin out." Time seemed to either go insanely fast or slow never in between anymore. Merle kept the truck a head of the walkers, while Lacie just leaned her head against the window. Neither of them knew what else to say to the other. The only connections they had were not there. "We need to find a place to stay for the night." She said finally as the sunset glowed through the windshield. "We'll find a house and take turns sleepin."
On a motorcycle Daryl drove Bella away from the prison. They're main focus was to get away until the walkers disperse then return and look for a sign of anybody. Bella tried to get her mind to grasp what had just happened. The pandemonium caused her to lose track of Merle. She hated to be without him. Daryl wasn't so bad she just preferred the older brother, just like she knew that he would prefer if Lacie was here on the back of his bike. Bella couldn't help herself but wish the cellphones were working. The farther they drove the later it got before they knew it, night was almost upon them. Daryl parked his brother's bike in front of a motel. "This will have to do." After grabbing a key from the desk the two searched for their room. It was the third one from the office. Bella flicked on her flashlight alerting the walker inside. Daryl shot his crossbow, an arrow hit the walker right in the forehead. Bella kicked the walker's body outside. Daryl blocked off the door way with a dresser. "There's only one bed." Bella pointed out. "You have it." Daryl laid down on the carpet.