WARRIORS OF THE WALKING DEAD: SAVIORS OF MANKIND
CHAPTER THREE
Sara walked slowly toward Merle who stood along the back fenceline, looking out into the open space. When she'd first met Merle, he scared her. Unlike Daryl, he didn't seem to have a conscience, but somewhere along the roadtrip, she found that she liked his sense of humor. Where Daryl was serious most of the time, Merle was actually funny…dark…but funny.
"Whatcha doin'?" Sara asked him, grabbing the chain-link fence with her hands and twisting so she could see him.
"Calculating the mathematical formula for 'nothin'" He said sarcasatically, spitting on the ground away from her feet.
Sara burst out laughing, earning her a glare from Merle.
"Since…you're in such a good mood…" she began, smirking at his attempt at intimidating her with his stare, "…I thought maybe you'd like to go for a walk."
Merle snorted.
"Do I look like the sort that goes for walks?" He snarled.
Sara screwed up her face, looking him up and down and without missing a beat, she said, "Well, you might be missing one of your arms, but you still got both legs, so yeah, I guess you do."
Merle rolled his eyes at her.
"Smart ass." He grumbled.
"Is that a yes?" She asked sassily.
"Oh for Christ's sake! Fine. If it'll shut you up." Merle snapped, mumbling under his breath.
"Awesome!" She cheered, grabbing him around the neck and kissing him on the cheek, leaving Merle standing there dumbfounded as she grabbed his hand, dragging him toward the doorway.
Andrea watched them go, shaking her head and smirking.
Maybe there was hope for Merle Dixon yet.
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Jackson sat in the command barracks, drinking whiskey from a flask. Lieutenant Pete Chesarek sat across from him as they talked quietly.
"So what do we do?" Pete asked.
"I don't know. The world's gone to shit. I don't even know who's really in command. There's no president, no SECDEF, nothing. It's every man for himself and we're sitting here pretending to play GI Joe like it's just like it used to be." Jackson said, uncharacteristically negative.
"You know we'll follow you to hell, sir." His lieutenant stated passionately. "You just say the word."
"I'm not asking you to follow me to hell. I'm asking you to defy a direct order from our commanding officer, go AWOL, and possibly be considered traitors." Jackson said, leaning forward, his tone turning serious.
"I know what you're asking me to do, and I'm telling you, I'll follow you to hell, or stay here, not that there's much difference nowadays. You and I've been through far too much together. I know the kind of man you are and so do the men. We don't know what's going on back in Washington and we don't know those Generals." Pete said.
Jackson looked at him and nodded. He appreciated the trust, but he hoped that it wasn't misplaced. He would never consider this normally, but the world had fallen apart and circumstances were unusual. He wasn't sure there was such a thing as black and white anymore and he couldn't ignore the people under his protection.
He had to make a choice between following orders and doing the right thing.
In the end, it was himself that he had to live with.
Throwing back the rest of the whiskey, he stood up, ordering Pete to assemble the men, while he went to take care of something.
Walking out of his room, he headed straight for the Atlanta Tent. Carol, Andrea, Daryl and Katelyn stood outside, smiling as he approached. When they saw his facial expression, they all became serious.
"What's up?" Daryl called out.
"Can you get your group rounded up? I need to speak with all of you." He said quietly, trying not to let anyone else overhear.
Carol nodded and she and Andrea went to grab everyone. Katelyn pulled the tent flap aside so they could go inside.
"What's goin' on?" Daryl asked, looking at Katelyn with concern.
"I'll explain as soon as everyone gets here." Jackson said ominously.
Rick and Tyreese came quickly, followed by the others as everyone filtered into the tent. No one knew what was going to be said but everyone had a feeling that it wasn't going to be good.
"I've got some news." Jackson said, addressing the gathered group.
"All right." Rick said.
"Our battalion has been called back east." Jackson said, frowning as he talked.
"Oh my god." Andrea said, understanding what the implication of that was.
"I'm gonna be telling my men here shortly, and rumors are gonna start spreading. I need you guys to help me keep everyone calm. All the survivors trust you and look to you for leadership." Jackson stated.
"Hell! Washington wants you guys to just up and leave everybody here?" Daryl spat out, disgusted with the government.
Jackson sighed.
"Here's the deal. Lt. Chesarek and I are staying. We're going to give the men the choice. We'll support anyone who decides to go back and keep anyone who wants to stay, but they're risking courtmarshall by disobeying orders if they do stay." The Major explained.
"Doesn't that mean, you're risking courtmarshall?" Andrea asked.
Jackson looked down at the ground.
"Yeah." He said, finally looking up at all of them. "But I can't leave all these people here unprotected."
Rick and Daryl looked at each other. Everyone started glancing around to gauge the reactions of the others.
Rick nodded, stepping forward.
"We'll do what we can." He said, patting Major Reese on the shoulder.
Katelyn smiled sadly at the Major and squeezed his arm as she walked over to pick up Hope.
Everyone started talking to each other at once, posing questions that couldn't be answered, but finally, everyone started filtering out.
After everyone finally left, Rick, Daryl, and the Major were the only ones left.
"So what can we expect?" Daryl asked, waiting for everyone to leave before he asked the tough questions.
"I don't honestly know. With everything in such disarray, possibly nothing." Jackson answered honestly.
"But…" Rick said, "…there could be a response."
"Sure, but if they had the ability to move on things that quickly, they would've." Jackson assured him. "The reality is that we probably won't see anything until we have a handle on the whole walker problem. After that's taken care of, then, I'll be answering for it."
"You're giving up a lot for a bunch of people you don't even know." Rick said.
"You sure you wanna do this?" Daryl asked.
"I have no choice." Jackson said, looking them in the eye. "I couldn't live with myself if I abandoned everyone who depended on me. The military taught me honor, even if that honor sometimes gets in the way. I can't turn my back on that."
"Thank you." Rick said sincerely, knowing that words couldn't express how appreciative they were. He knew that the people Jackson was choosing to stand by might never understand, but the Atlanta group would.
All of them would know what he'd sacrificed to save them all.