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setting: episode 14 "Prey"

Damnation

Chapter 57 - Chase

"And how exactly do ye plan ta do this?" Connor yelled because the roaring of the engine of their car was way too loud. Daryl was now speeding down the road, out of the woods, entering a wide free space with nothing but fields around them. They could see the Governor's car right in front of them, moving to the left and right as if trying to make it impossible for them to pass him. Although they were in cars and speeding like madmen Connor had to realize that this really wasn't like in all the action movies he had seen at all. This was real, this was dangerous, this was..suicidal. Because they street was neither straight nor even. There were bends, there were holes and with every single bump the car shook and lurched violently, tires screeching and Connor and Andrea nearly losing their balance.

"Stop this car! Just stop this!" Andrea yelled from behind them as Connor kept staring at his friend, who seemed to have zoned out completely.
He was staring at the back of the Governor's car with a face like it was made of stone.

"Daryl!" Connor yelled but did not dare grabbing his friend's hand right now, because in the end they might lose control over their car completely.

Connor turned his head to see what the Governor was doing. There was no way to hide on this road, no way to turn around or stop driving. That bastard was forced to keep going and he knew it, and Connor was pretty sure that even if he decided to stop, Daryl was actually willing to hit him with their car at full speed. Because right now it looked like his friend thought he was invincible, like his hate and grief would make it impossible for him to actually die in a silly thing like a car crash. Especially since there were dead people walking around. But Connor knew how dangerous a car crash could be because he had experienced it himself last year, and there was no way he was EVER going to get stuck in a car with a piece of glass in his thigh again.

He took a deep breath and tried to concentrate, since he knew that he was pretty much the only person inside this car who could do something about the whole situation right now. They were speeding down the road and got closer and closer to the white pickup truck in front of them, and it really looked like Daryl was going to drive against it if need be. But just like Connor had already realized before: this wasn't an action movie, this was real, and something like that could easily get them killed.

He cursed and then turned his head to take a look at the window, only to shake his head with a snort. Here he had the absolute proof that this wasn't an action movie: the fucking car didn't even have electric window lifts. He had to wind it down by hand. Fucking perfect. The Irishman lowered the window as fast as he could and then risked a look outside, but once again he got frustrated by the -not-an-action-movie thing. They were driving so fast that it was almost impossible to stick his face out of the window, because there was so much wind screaming in his ears and he could hardly keep his eyes open.

He put his head back inside the car and took a deep breath, because breathing out there wasn't that easy either. But he did come to the conclusion that this was the only way to get the Governor off the street with them being relatively safe, and yes, screw you, he had seen that in a whole bunch of movies. And although the whole thing was so incredibly stupid, dangerous and crazy he still couldn't help but feel excited by the fact that he was really going to do that.

"Get as close ta him as ye can possibly get, stay on the left side of the road and lemme do all the work" Connor said and then freed himself from the seatbelt, which made Andrea panic even more.

"What the hell are you doing? This is suicide, just stop this! Both of you!" she yelled, but both men ignored her.

They were only about a car length away from the Governor when Connor finally decided to get outside the car as far as he could. It was incredibly windy, like he was in the middle of a hurricane, and the fact that Daryl was driving even faster now didn't help. He could hardly keep his balance and put his legs in a weird angle to keep himself inside the car, since he couldn't really use his broken left hand to hold on to the moving vehicle. He had his loaded Beretta in his right hand and took aim at one of the wheels, which was rather hard to do so since he could hardly see them and the cars were freaking moving.

He took aim and fired the first shot but failed miserably. He didn't even hit the car but the asphalt, and Connor let out a frustrated sigh because of that. Two decades of training and shooting mobsters, but he wasn't fucking prepared for something like this. He didn't want to waste too much ammo but at the same time wanted to get that evil bastard off the street so he took aim and shot again, but the second bullet missed its target as well.

Christ.

This really wasn't like in those movies at all. Where was the fun in that?

The car suddenly moved and lurched again and the Irishman nearly lost his balance. He took aim once more but both cars and his hands were simply moving too much. He knew he could fire the whole magazine at the car and still wouldn't make a dent, and although he did manage to break the window he still could no longer keep himself upright. Not with that shoulder, and certainly not with this kind of wind. He could also feel how somebody grabbed his leg and started pulling like a madman, and although they were screaming at him he couldn't understand a single word.

"What?!" he shouted back and finally climbed back inside, ears ringing from the wind and gunshots.

"I said get your ass back in here!" Daryl yelled and pulled his leg again until Connor sat back down, hair sticking straight up in a complete mess from all the wind.

"Jesus fuckin Christ tha looked a whole lot simpler in fuckin Rookie!"

"What?" both Andrea and Daryl asked at the same time and Connor growled as he wound the window back up.

"I said Clint Eastwood made car chases look so fuckin simple in Rookie!" he yelled and then pouted, because once a-fucking-gain his movie plans did not work.

"I got a better idea" Daryl growled and then sped their car up again, which made Connor grab the door so he wouldn't lose his balance.

"What te fuck are ye..?"

But it was already too late. They were now driving right next to the Governor, who turned his head and glared at them with his mad remaining eye, and before they could react he had already pulled the gun and aimed it right at the Irishman's head.

"Watch out!" Andrea yelled from behind them and Connor threw himself forward, just split seconds before the bullet hit the window.

And once again they were reminded that this wasn't an action movie, because the window would not break into pieces and rain down on them in a dramatic matter. It just broke into thousands of thin lines and splinters but stayed where it was, which made it impossible for them to look outside now. The Governor could be pointing a gun at them again and they wouldn't even know. Connor raised his head with a surprised gasp and then had a look around to see if everyone was okay. He could see that the bullet had missed Daryl by just a couple of inches and was now stuck in the upholstery of the driver's seat.

"Jesus fuckin Christ, fuck that, yer gonna kill all of us, man!" Connor yelled at his friend and tried to talk him into slowing down so they were no longer in the line of fire.

Daryl suddenly pressed his lips together and frowned angrily, and it really looked like he was about to explode.

"No" he just growled and then suddenly yanked the steering wheel to the right, causing their car to crash right into the Governor's. They hit the far end of the pickup and caused it to fishtail and spin violently because of the speed and sudden force. Daryl then instantly hit the breaks but could no longer control their car either. Just for a second before their own crash they could see how the Governor lost control over his car completely. It spun out of control and then hit a sign next to the road, which caused it to drift to the side and then made it turn over multiple times. After spinning and screeching and turning the demolished vehicle landed about 100 feet down the field next to the street, smoke coming from the engine compartment.

Neither Daryl nor Connor and Andrea could cheer though, because right then their car spun out of control as well.

"Keep it steady! Keep it steady, hold the fuckin wheel!" Connor yelled and then launched himself at Daryl to grab the wheel as well, but the car kept spinning and screeching until they nearly did the exact same movement as the Governor's car. But they were too far ahead already, heading right for the next part of the woods where only a tree could stop the spinning car from turning over. With a horrible loud crash and the sound of bursting metal the right backside of the car connected with the tree and that so violently that both Connor and Andrea hit their heads hard on the windows, knocking the woman out completely and making the Irishman dizzy like hell.

For a second no one knew what was going on.
They couldn't hear or see anything because of the shock from the car crash, their hearts still pounding in their heaving chests.

"Oh, fuck me" Connor muttered and then rubbed his head, and he was actually surprised that it wasn't bloody or burst open.

It just hurt and his ears were still ringing, and the whole world wouldn't stop spinning.
He believed to smell smoke and fuel, but that didn't matter because his neck freaking hurt from the impact.

"I told ye te fuckin slow down" he mumbled and finally managed to open his eyes again, only to see how Daryl opened the door and stumbled out of the car with an awkward cough.

"Daryl!" he yelled and tried to go after his friend, but of course, his side wouldn't open because they were glued to a tree and the whole body was bent.

"Daryl, wait!" Connor yelled and tried to get out to run after Daryl, who was running away from their car and headed for the Governor's crashed vehicle.

"Jesus fuckin Christ" the Irishman muttered and coughed, and truth be told, he was shaky and shocked because of the crash.
He was just about to climb out of the car through the door Daryl had left open, but then a gentle moan startled him and made him turn his head.

He could see Andrea in the back of their car, head rested against the window with her right temple bloody and hurt.
It looked like she had been hurt the most during the car crash, because the tree had connected with the door right next to her.

"Fuck fuck fuck" Connor muttered as he watched his friend run down the street, and a second later Daryl disappeared to the right, down the field where the Governor was.

His mind was racing. It didn't look like Daryl was hurt too badly considering that he had been sitting on the left and could still run. His friend was normally his number one priority but he also knew that Andrea needed his help a whole lot more right now. He bit his lower lip so hard that it nearly bled because he was thinking so hard, but then came to the conclusion that he should stay with the woman first. He still awkwardly climbed out of the car and took a closer look at the damage for a second. The right side was pretty screwed but other than that it looked relatively okay. It could have been a whole lot worse if their car had managed to turn over or if they had hit the tree with their front. But still. Fucking cars. Ever since the apocalypse he hated those things almost as much as the walkers. He ripped the left back door of the car open and then climbed inside to get a better look at Andrea's injuries, and he prayed to god that she was alright.

Daryl was sprinting down the road, ignoring the fact that he had left his best friend and a member of their group in a crashed car. They were probably injured, but he figured that if Connor could still curse and yell at him then he would be fit enough to look after Andrea. They couldn't waste any more time than they already had. Because that Governor bastard was close. So freaking close he could almost smell him. Well he did smell something and that was smoke and fuel and burned rubber, but it was almost like he could smell blood, because this was what he was here for. There was one more thing he needed to do before he finally allowed himself to grief his brother's death, and that was to make sure he avenged his sibling's murder the proper way. He needed to kill the Governor. It was what Merle had tried to do and it was what Merle wanted him to finish. Daryl ignored the pain in his head from the impact and kept running, chest heaving and breathing loud and heavy. When he finally reached the scene of the Governor's accident he could see the wreck of the white pickup truck, which was lying there on its roof on the field. He let out a relieved gasp when he saw how the man tried to climb outside his crashed vehicle, clothes a complete mess, eyepatch off-center and face bloody from the accident.

The Governor widened his remaining eye and looked like he was trying to draw his gun, but Daryl was faster. He sprinted even faster and then kicked the man's face as hard as he could , giving him a satisfying groan from the Governor. Daryl then kicked the gun away and grabbed the Governor by his jacket to pull him outside the crashed car so he could lie him on the ground and get started. Their enemy was nothing but a coughing and groaning mess and it was obvious that he was pretty much hurt already, but there was no way the hunter was going to leave him be like that. He stared down at the bleeding man, lips nothing but a thin pale line and both of his bloody hands clenched to tight fist as he felt the anger grow inside him.

"Did you kill my brother?"

He asked and kicked the Governor, which made the man yelp and then look at him.

"No, no listen t'me. We can..."

"You did this! You killed him! You killed Merle!" Daryl yelled and kicked him with each sentence.

And as he kicked and stomped he tried to force the images back inside his head, although he hated to see them more than anything. But just for a second he wanted to feel all that again, everything he had felt when he had seen Merle all bloody, everything he had felt when Merle had turned and staggered in his direction like he was one of them. If the Governor wasn't here then he would have started crying again because of the incredibly pain, but right now that sadness was turned into pure hatred, into pure disgust and murderous fury. He replayed that image of undead Merle inside his head like a broken record as he kept kicking and punching the Governor over and over again, until he was so ramped up that he finally had the guts to do what he wanted to do.

He grabbed his knife with both his hands and stared down at the Governor with an insane look on his face, and he was actually glad that his friends weren't with him right now. But his friends were exactly the reason why he was here. He wasn't just here because of Merle's death, at least he tried to tell himself that. It was true though, as he replayed everything he had heard and seen, madness and frustration slowly eating him up. He remembered that this was the man who had sexually harassed Maggie, that this was the man who had shoved a walker at Connor and made him go through endless amounts of pain with the bite, the fever, the broken hand. He remembered that this was the man who had tried to force him into killing Merle, that this was the man who was ordering the people around who had shot Axel and Oscar, that this was the man who had kept his zombified daughter as a pet, who kept walker heads in an aquarium and who wanted to torture their new friend Michonne. But it was nothing compared to the one thing that made him ready to kill, and that was the fact that this man had shot his own brother in the stomach, that this was the man who had let his brother die slowly and then turn. And this was enough to make him snap, because this was exactly the same thing he was going to do to him.

"What was it? Fight to the death? Winner goes free? Well watch me fight, you sick bastard" Daryl snarled and then forced his bowie-knife down at such a sped that he wasn't even prepared for the Governor's reaction yet. When his bowie-knife entered the injured man's belly he started screaming like a madman, just like all the people he had heard screaming when they had been overpowered and ripped open by walkers. And as soon as he saw the first thin lines of blood soak the Governor's shirt on the exact same spot where Merle had been shot he suddenly couldn't help but do it again. And again. More and more screams could be heard that got louder and more insane with every stab. And this time Daryl stabbed the man just like he had stabbed his own brother's undead corpse, and when he felt the hot blood drain the knees of his jeans and his hands he couldn't stop anymore. He didn't want to kill the Governor right away, which he was why he was aiming for the exact same spot over and over again. And right now he thanked his skills as a hunter, because he knew exactly where to aim and what to do to make it last longer.

No, he didn't want to kill that son of a bitch.
He wanted him to suffer. Die slowly. And turn.

Andrea was conscious again, which was definitely a good sigh. Connor had carried her outside the car and put her on the road next to it so he could take a better look at the injuries in broad daylight. He didn't know much about doctor's stuff but enough to tell that she had a slight concussion and a nasty laceration, but it could have been worse. It could have been worse for all of them, that's what he couldn't stop thinking about now that they had made it. He remembered all the bad accidents he had seen on roads, with burning cars, crashed airplanes and jumbojets and all sorts of wrecks, and their car looked new compared to that. And they were neither dead nor fatally injured, which would have to do nowadays. He helped a groaning and moaning Andrea up when she was fully with him again and let out a gentle chuckle when she blinked a few times and then looked at him.

"Connor?"

The Irishman nodded eagerly and used one of the old bandages he had found in the car's medkit (it did have one!) to clean the bloody wound on her temple as good as he could.

"Aye. Steady now. We had a little accident and you hit yer head pretty hard."

Andrea moaned once more and then placed a finger on her bleeding temple with a gentle hiss.

"What...what about Daryl? And Phillip?"

Connor turned the bandage around and used the clean side to wipe the rest of the blood away.

"Nah, Daryl's fine. He's a tough one tha is. And Phillip? Not so much I hope."

"What about the car? Can.. we still use it?"

The Irishman looked up and took a closer look at the black vehicle.

"I dunno, we'll have ta wait and see, maybe we can..."

A loud and terrifying scream startled the both of them then. A few seconds passed, then there was another loud scream, and this time it wouldn't stop. It sounded like someone was being eaten alive by walkers. Both Connor and Andrea looked in the direction the noise was coming from, then the Irishman dropped everything, grabbed his gun and got back on his feet.

"Daryl!" he yelled and started running as fast as he could, ignoring the fact that he couldn't run for too long because of his screwed up muscle from his last car accident.

He had only made it half way down the street when the screaming suddenly stopped, and his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he feared he might lose it on his way there. What if this had been Daryl getting attacked by walkers? Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck. He shouldn't have let him go there alone. No no no no no. He couldn't lose Daryl. Not Daryl. Not after everything. No no no no no. He ran even faster and ignored that his whole body was burning with nothing but pain. When he finally reached the crashed pickup truck he was completely out of breath already, with Andrea right behind him. For a second he couldn't see anything, but when he walked up the hill he could finally see his friend, who was walking in their direction, hands and face all bloody.

"Daryl! Are ye okay?" Connor yelled and came to an abrupt halt, and for a second it felt like his heart decided to stop as well. Daryl was casually walking in their direction, bloody knife in his one hand, other hand in his pocket. When he saw Connor he started smiling, and the Irishman was actually surprised to see relief that was written all over his friend's face rather than hatred and grief. It really looked and felt like something had left his being, something dark, something scary. It was definitely gone. Now it was just Daryl. Crazy bloody Daryl, but not murderous Daryl. Just Daryl, his friend, and he was perfectly healthy by the looks of it. Which meant only one thing...Connor remembered the screams and then look at his friend's bloody hands and clothes.

"Tha fucker dead?" he muttered and Daryl stopped walking.

There was a long pause and it looked like he was thinking about something, but then the hunter nodded and wiped his nose.

"Yeah."

Connor smirked.

"Well, makes it one probl..."

A loud bang startled all three members of the prison group, and it took Connor a moment to process that it had been a gunshot.

"Te fuck?!" he yelled and ducked down, but it looked like nothing had happened.

He frowned and then turned around to look at Andrea.

"Was that you?!" the woman shook her head and raised both her hands in the air.

When Connor turned his head again to ask his friend his blood ran cold. Daryl was still standing there right in front of him, but this time he was pressing a hand to his chest and stared down on himself in disbelief. A second later a red spot was forming underneath his hand, and it was getting bigger and running down his blue shirt with every second that passed. Then the surprised gasp finally escaped his mouth, revealing even more blood.

"No..no..NO!" Connor yelled and started running to catch his friend just when he was about to fall to the ground. Both men fell to their knees and Connor looked down on his friend in utter shock, and when he wrapped an arm around his back and felt it with his hand he could feel the damp bloody spot just underneath Daryl's right shoulder blade.

"NO!" he yelled once more and as loud as he could, and when he raised his head to see where the shot had come from he could see the Governor lying there, gurgling and covered in blood, but with a gun lying by his shaking and twitching hands. Andrea was already running past them and headed for the man, and only a tiny part of Connor was aware of that he was actually watching how she finally finally shot that bastard in the head and killed him. But nothing mattered anymore, because now he could feel his friend cough and shake against him, and soon he could feel how the sticky fluid drained both their shirts.

"NO!" he kept yelling and pressed his hand as tightly against Daryl's gunshot wound as he could, because he needed to stop the bleeding, because the blood needed to be inside his friend and not outside, because this was so so wrong.