Hey guys, sorry for the longish wait, I've had a rather bad case of writers block with this chapter, not being sure how to handle the Carl side of things.
But I digress, I'd once again like to thank everyone for their reviews and follows, things like that really give me incentive to write, so thank you!
General P.O.V. (Prison)
Rick arrived back at the prison a little over twenty minutes after he found out Carl had been taken. He stormed into Cellblock C and found everyone sitting in the outer section waiting for him. Everyone had a mixture of emotions on their faces, most of them sad and angry, or ashamed that they'd not done anything more to try and stop Martinez. Rick was scowling, angrier than he had been in a long time. Angrier than the night he had killed Shane.
"Well? Which one of you wants to tell me how the Governor's men were able to march into our home, and take my son?" Rick was barely keeping himself from shouting. Daryl, who was holding his throbbing head, was the first to speak.
"Rick it was my fault, I let them into the prison, they'd come into the yard, cleared it of walkers and demanded I let them in. When I said no they started firing shots off, said that they'd draw twice as many walkers as before in. So I let them in and they knocked me out. I'm so sorry man." Daryl looked away from Rick, he was pissed that he'd been snuck up on so easily.
Glenn spoke next, "It's my fault too, the minute I saw their car I should have fired on them. Carl was with me, when we got fired on I should've told him to stay in the loading dock and hide." Rick sighed, exasperated, he knew that they hadn't just let Carl be taken. He was just so angry at everything, especially himself. He'd been a really shitty parent lately.
"What's the Governor want?" Maggie asked after a short silence. Everyone thought that they could probably guess the answer but none of them wanted it to be true.
"Same thing as before, he wants Michonne." The aforementioned woman immediately stepped forward.
"Then give me to him. I won't sit here while your son is in the hands of that madman. We can go right now."
Rick was somewhat glad that she was so willing to go; it would make giving her up a little bit easier. "I wish we could, but he said that we'll meet again in four days. If any of us go anywhere near Woodbury then he'll kill Carl." Rick responded sadly, no one knew what to do; Daryl put a hand on his friends shoulder. "We'll get him back." Rick just nodded in response.
Carl P.O.V. (Woodbury)
Shortly after I'd talked to my dad on the radio I arrived at Woodbury. I guess I'd been taken through some kind of back entrance because I couldn't any people but I could hear them. I guess seeing the Governor's militia holding a gun to a thirteen year old boys head would look bad.
I was pushed into a house and led into the living room. The walls were wooden, there were a few chairs around the room, and a wooden table with matching chairs.
The leader, the man that Merle had called Brownie cut the duct tape holding my hands behind my back, when he did I turned around and tried to punch him, but he grabbed my arm and pushed me down into one of the wooden chairs around the table.
He put his gun against my forehead, "Kid, what did I say about trying to resist? I don't want to kill a kid, but if you make me I will." I wasn't sure how much I believed him, but I stopped resisting and he duct taped my hands to the arms of the chair. "Now the Governor's going to be here soon, so why don't you just sit tight like a good little boy?" I just glared at him.
Brownie was right, it couldn't have been more than five minutes before a man in beige pants, a navy shirt, a grey vest, and an eye patch came into the house. He spoke quietly to Brownie before walking over and crouching in front of me. He had a grin on his face as he spoke, "Hello Carl. It's very nice to meet you." He spoke in a friendly, familiar voice, like an uncle seeing his nephew. "As you can probably tell I am the Governor." He paused, waiting for a response maybe? If he was then he wasn't going to get one.
"You aren't the talkative type I see. We'll have to see if we can't change that." I just continued to glare at him, not giving any visible signs of emotion. I wasn't going to give this guy the satisfaction of seeing me scared or sad or anything angrier than a glare.
The Governor gestured to Brownie and he walked over to us and handed the Governor a pocket knife. The Governor then turned back to me with the small blade pulled out.
"Alright Carl, I'm going to ask you some questions. If you answer then nothing will happen, but if you don't or you answer is an obvious lie, then I'll give you a little cut." He threatened, his tone becoming more serious. I just did my best to keep my glare strong and keep my breathing normal.
"First, how many members of your group are there in total?" Why was he asking me that? He knew this already, or at least he would have a close guess. I did the math in my head; there were ten of us, excluding Judith. But I wasn't going to tell him that. When he figured that out he sighed, and held the blade against the back of my hand, before slashing across it. I bit down on my tongue. I wasn't going make a sound while I was here, I wasn't.
"Next question, how many weapons do you have?" I actually didn't know the answer to that. When we'd gone to my hometown and taken the weapons and ammo from Morgan we'd taken over a dozen, maybe over two dozen. I didn't really understand why we needed that many. The Governor shook his head and sighed again before cutting the back of my other hand. The cuts were bleeding lightly.
The Governor opened to ask another question when someone started knocking on the door, Brownie opened and a man with dark blonde hair, and glasses walked in. He was wearing a flannel shirt and white khaki pants. When he looked over and saw the Governor and me he looked shocked.
"What's going on here?" He nearly shouted as he walked over, the Governor turned to him.
"Milton now isn't the time." He said to the man who's name was apparently Milton.
"Not the time? You have a child strapped to a chair." He looked over at me and then down at my hands, "Why are his hands bleeding?"
The Governor sighed in irritation, "This child is Rick's son. He didn't bring Michonne to today's meeting so I had Martinez take his son." So that was the Hispanic guy's name, "You should be happy; you didn't want me to kill him and his people."
He was going to kill my dad! He'd been all alone at the meeting today, what if the Governor hadn't changed his mind. No. I couldn't think about that, it hadn't happened that way, I spoke to my dad after being kidnapped, he was alive.
Milton and the Governor argued for a few more minutes, from what I could tell Milton didn't want to go to war with my group. I wasn't sure how much I believed him though; he probably just didn't want to risk his life.
"Milton, why did you even come here?" The Governor asked, I could tell that this conversation was irritating him; I was kind of hoping it would go on longer.
"Andrea's looking for you." Was the other man's answer, and as soon as I heard it I knew what I had to do. I had to find Andrea. She and I hadn't really been friends; we didn't even really talk to each other that often. Sometimes if I mom asked her keep an eye on me she'd ask how I was doing, but that was it. Despite that I knew that she'd help me, she had to it was the only hope I had of getting away from here.
After the argument the Governor said that he'd continue our "talk" tomorrow morning. Before he left he and Brownie picked up the chair I was taped to and locked me in some back room, there was a leather chair in there and I could make out a few shards of glass here and there. This must have been the room Michonne talked about, with the heads and walker daughter.
The Next Day
I hadn't slept at all last night. Mostly it was because of the uncomfortable wooden chair I was taped to, but it was also because I didn't want to risk the Governor or one of his men finding me crying because of a nightmare. I didn't know what time it was, the room I was in didn't have any windows, when Martinez and the Governor came into the room and cut the duct tape. I thought about running but Martinez had some kind of SMG in his hands and I knew I wouldn't be able to get away.
They led me to the table which had two empty bowls on it, I was told to sit down while the Governor brought out a carton of milk and a box of Raisin Bran cereal. He poured me a bowl and then poured his own. I didn't immediately eat it but I figured that he wasn't going to try and poison me.
While we ate the Governor tried to make conversation, "I want you to know Carl that I'm didn't enjoy what I had to do yesterday, I had a daughter once. Her name was Penny." He looked up at me from his cereal bowl. "Michonne killed her." I opened my mouth to make a remark about his daughter being a walker, but I thought better of it and just put another spoonful of cereal into my mouth.
After breakfast my dad was contacted on the radio. Martinez and the Governor sat in the room while we talked.
"Dad? Are you there?" I wasn't sure what time it was so I didn't know if he'd be in the cellblock or on watch or something else.
After about ten seconds I got a response. "Carl? Son is that you?"
"Yeah Dad it's me."
"Are you alright? Have they hurt you?"
I paused for a moment, I looked at the dried blood on the back of my hands and the cuts, then I looked at the Governor. He didn't seem to care how I answered but I wasn't going to take any chances. "No, I'm alright. They've asked me a few questions but I didn't say anything."
"Carl I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, I shouldn't have even gone to that meeting." My dad sounded horrible, it was like when my mom died, he sounded so sad and tired.
"It's alright Dad, I'm fine. Don't beat yourself up over this." I didn't know what else to say. I looked over and the Governor had a small smirk on his face, asshole. Martinez had his back turned so I couldn't see his face.
A new voice was on the radio, "Carl? It's Glenn. Just sit tight; we'll have you back with us in no time. Just three days after today and you'll be home." He was trying to sound upbeat, maybe to cheer me up, maybe my dad too. It wasn't working.
I opened my mouth to say something, I'm not sure what, when the Governor took the radio from me, "That's all for today folks. We'll talk again sometime tomorrow." He said, and then he turned the radio to a different frequency.
Not too long after talking to my dad the man named Milton came over. The Governor and he led me back to the room I'd been locked in all last night. They re-taped me to the chair and continued the interrogation.
General P.O.V. (Prison)
Rick sighed; he hadn't slept at all last night. He was too worried about his son being in the hands of the Governor. Everyone was sitting with him in the outer part of the cellblock. He turned to Carol who was standing closest to the cells.
"Is the kid awake yet?" He asked, when he got back from his meeting with the Governor he found that Hershel had been treating one of the Governor's men for a bullet wound, except he was just a kid, maybe two or three years older than Carl. Glenn had shot him after he pistol whipped Daryl, and the other men in his group left him behind.
Carol shook her head, "What are we going to do when he does? You're not going to hurt him are you?"
"No, but I'm thinking that maybe when can offer him to the Governor instead of Michonne. If this boy's mother is still alive then she'll start to wonder where he is."
Everyone nodded their heads, it sounded like a good plan. "But what if he doesn't care?" It was Merle who asked this. "The Governor isn't that reasonable, if you try to screw him by changin the deal then he might just shoot yer boy then and there."
Maggie was the first to respond, "Don't say that," She turned to Rick, "Rick we are going to Carl back, whatever it takes."
"Damn right we are." Assured Daryl. He then turned to Merle and pulled him aside, "What the hell is your problem? Telling Rick that?"
Merle frowned at his little brother, "I'm just being honest with him. You really think the Governors gonna care about some kid more than Michonne? The Governor's gonna hear Rick's offer and tell him to shove it up his ass."
Daryl shook his head, "I don't care, you don't need to be runnin your mouth at a time like this" After saying this Daryl walked back to the rest of the group.
About three monotonous hours later the boy had finally woken up. He was sitting on a cot in an empty cell. Hershel and Rick were the first to enter; they could tell that the boy was frightened.
"Hello, my name is Rick, this is Hershel. What's your name?" Rick asked a gently as he could in his current state.
The boy looked hesitant to say anything, "We're not going to hurt you." Hershel added in an attempt to calm the boys' nerves.
"My name's Noah." He said at last.
"Alright Noah, how old are you?" Hershel asked kindly.
"I'm fourteen, where am I?" He asked nervously. Rick and Hershel looked at each other before Rick spoke.
"You're in my prison Noah, you and some other guys came here and attacked us." Almost immediately after Rick said that Noah's eyes went wide, "You guys are the terrorists! The ones that killed those men!" Rick and Hershel looked at each other again, this time in surprise. They hadn't known that the Governor was calling them terrorists. They'd assumed that he'd spun some kind of story that they were bandits or something. But they didn't think he'd call Rick's group terrorists.
"Noah, calm down. We aren't terrorists; we're not going to hurt you. Do you know why the Governor sent you here?" Rick asked gently.
Noah stayed silent for a minute before deciding that it'd be best if he just answered their questions. "He said we were going to take something from you. Something that would make you surrender. I think it was supposed to be a weapon." Rick sighed, of course he wasn't told the truth. He was a kid, only a year older than Carl, he wouldn't have been told that they were going to kidnap a child. Rick stepped forward and crouched down so he was able to look Noah in the eye. "Noah, we're going to work on getting you home. But while we wait you're going to have to cooperate, alright?" Noah nodded. "Good, now let's get you something to eat."
Carl P.O.V. (Woodbury)
It had been five hours since I'd talked to my dad, at least that's what Milton had told the Governor when he asked how long they'd been interrogating me. The Governor had decided that he was done torturing me for the day. I still refused to talk to him, and in return he continued to cut me with his pocket knife. When the Governor got up to leave the room Milton asked if he could bandaged my wounds, the Governor said that was fine. Milton then left and a few minutes later returned to my room with some bandages and disinfectant. I had cuts going up and down each of my arms. Some were bleeding while others weren't.
"I'm really very sorry about all of this. I didn't know that this is what he intended to do, if I did I would have advised against it." He said while applying the bandages and disinfecting the wounds. I didn't know whether or not to believe him. During the entire interrogation he'd cringed when I got cut and told his boss that he thought this wouldn't help. But he could just be playing a part; the Governor might have told him to convince me that he was on my side, and then when I'd given him something worth knowing he'd rush off to tell his boss.
"I understand if you don't trust me, but I swear if there was something I could have done to prevent this I would have done it." He told me while applying the final bandage. "If there's anything I can do to make this easier on you please tell me." He seemed to be genuine, but I still wasn't certain.
"Could you get me something to drink?" I asked after a moment of consideration, there was nothing in that request that could be of any use to the Governor, other than that I was thirsty after five hours of torture. Milton nodded and left, thirty seconds later he'd returned with a bottle of water. He then unscrewed the cap and awkwardly put the bottle to my mouth.
"Thanks." I said after finishing my drink.
"You're welcome." Was the reply, "Is there anything else I can do?" I thought for a moment.
"Does Andrea know that I'm here?" Chances were she didn't, if she did she would have come to see me by now. That or she had chosen the Governor's side over ours, but that didn't seem very likely.
"No, the Governor doesn't trust her with that information. He believes that if she knew she would try to help you escape. I agree with him."
"But you don't think he should have taken me captive either."
"Yes, that's true as well."
"So are you going to let me go?" It was a dumb question; I knew he would say no. But he did actually seem to consider it. He didn't say anything for two minutes, but when he opened his mouth we heard the door open.
"Milton, Governor says your shift is over. I'm taking over." It was Martinez, he came over with his SMG in hand. Milton turned to him, "Alright then Martinez, the boy might be getting hungry though." He was right I was starving; I had only eaten breakfast yesterday and today.
Martinez looked at me and then back at Milton, "Did he talk to you?"
"No, he hasn't said a word, but he hasn't eaten since breakfast, and that was," He checked his wrist watch, "six hours ago." Martinez nodded.
"Well he'll just have to wait for the Governor to get back. We aren't allowed to remove the tape if he's not here. And I'm not feeding him." Well Milton had tried at least. I decided that I could trust Milton with certain things; he might tell the Governor that I asked him to let me go, but why should I care? The Governor was going to keep slashing me with that knife regardless.
Milton left and it was just me and Martinez for a couple more hours, I didn't talk to him, and he didn't attempt to talk to me. He did seem to be bothered looking at all the bandages on my arms. I didn't know why he would; he sat there yesterday and watched his boss cut my hands.
After two or three more hours past the Governor came back and I was let out of my chair. I was led back to the kitchen table where the Governor made scrambled eggs. While we ate he tried to make conversation again.
"I want to apologize for not having you fed lunch, you have to understand that I'm a busy man, and I don't want you loose when I'm not here." He waited again for a response. For some reason he didn't seem to get that I wasn't going to talk to him.
"Carl, be reasonable. I don't like cutting you, I honestly don't. But you aren't cooperating. I don't want to have to keep hurting you. Can't we come to some kind of compromise?" I just focused on eating my eggs. He sighed and his tone was different from before, he stopped trying to sound friendly. "Alright then, but starting tomorrow for every finger you don'/t answer I'm going to cut off one of your fingers." He then stood up and walked over to me. He grabbed my plate even though I wasn't finished and threw it away. Then I was taken to my chair and locked in the back room, to sit in the dark.
So there's chapter 2. If you're wondering about the Noah thing well it was just an idea I had. I know that we only saw Noah for like a minute in the show, but I thought that it would be an interesting way to contrast the two groups. Not only how Rick and the Governor handle prisoners but also how Carl and Noah react to being prisoners of men that they've been told are evil and cruel.