Chapter Twenty-Nine

Into Action

"They're not following behind us."

Rick glanced towards the rear view mirror as T-Dog's voice filled the once quiet vehicle. The trip to Woodbury had been a success with the plan going without a hitch so far. It was a big journey for the group to have two vehicles with limited gas and with the majority of the groups weapons in the back seat, it was also tough for those left at the prison as the threat of someone being after Anna was playing on all of their minds. Rick had promised that they would be back within a couple of hours, if everything went to plan. Lori had been unsure about her husband's words even though they once reassured her. Part of her wanted to tell her husband how she felt about them travelling with a stranger on a potential hunch that came from the stranger's mouth. She wanted to trust Anna, and all the words that she confided in Rick, but part of her didn't believe her. Rick was adamant that he was going to check it out, and he promised his wife that if Anna was lying, then they were able to take care of it before they returned to the prison. A feeling of uncertainty enveloped Rick like cold water being poured down his back.

"You think it's her doing this?" T-Dog asked. "I had a bad feeling about her."

"I don't know," Rick replied. "I hope not, for her sake. I'll try and get hold of them."

He pressed the button on the side of the radio, and spoke. "Where are you, Daryl?"

When crackling was the only thing that answered them, Rick threw a glance in T-Dog's direction. T-Dog pulled over to the side of the road.

"Can you hear me, Daryl?" Rick continued, his voice cracking with worry. When crackling was their only response once more, he rubbed his chin in frustration.

"Shall we go back and see if we can spot the vehicle? They could've broken down. We're running on fumes as it is, so it's possible," T-Dog questioned. It was likely that they had just broken down, Rick thought. But surely, if they had broken down and that be the only reason as to why they weren't following behind the vehicle, why weren't they responding to his calls to them?

"I don't feel good about this," Rick sighed.

"You think she's attacked him?" T-Dog asked, turning the vehicle around and driving back the way they came.

"I'm not sure. I'm not going back on my word. I know she was telling me the truth about what she told us. She's not working with them," Rick replied, the words tasting bitter in his mouth. "If I were to guess, and I have a bad feeling about this, but he may have found her."

"Or she could've fought with Daryl. Told this Governor guy where she was, and bam," T-Dog thought out loud.

"But why tell us about the town being full of cannibals? Why tell us all that information if this was her plan all along?"

"To scare us," T-Dog replied. "To let us know what we're doing with and what we'll be dealing with once she sets us up."

Rick fell silent for a moment. The feeling that Anna had potentially lied to him and fed him lies was something that weighed heavily with him. He had trusted her. She had saved Glenn's life, and protected Carl and Sophia after finding them in the woods. He trusted her but the whole situation seemed planned. He hoped the feeling in his stomach was wrong, and she was being truthful to them. Trust was all they had, and once that was gone, the world became much harder to comprehend properly.

The roads were empty as they made their way back to where they had been. Both men shook their heads as all traces of their vehicle was gone from the roads, leaving nothing but miles and miles of greenery and land to be the only thing they could see.

"Daryl… Anna… where are you? Can you hear me?"


"Daryl… Anna… where are you? Can you hear me?"

A voice came over the radio he had thrown onto his desk a few moments before, and he eyed it with curiosity. He allowed the voice to trail off, a hint of worry echoed in the man's voice. He took a seat at his desk, and lifted the radio to look at it closely. It was a simple black radio, but on the back of it was painted words with nail polish. The words 'Cell Block B' had been painted on the back of the radio and he pursed his lips together in thought.

The apartment fell into silence once the voice clicked off. They were nearby in the vicinity, which made The Governor smirk in delight. The urge to make their rounds again and collect was high but if he wanted his plan to work, he would have to wait for they would come to him. Mindless souls always did. They fell for the authority façade he put on. He was just like them, no clue of what happened to the world and no clue of what was going to happen but for the most part, he could pretend to be a friend to them all. More people on his side to do his dirty work. He had already made them eat their own without them knowing, and he wondered what else they would do if he promised them more.

Anna and Daryl had been taken to the tombs without causing a stir in the town. The tombs were situated at the back of Woodbury where the biter fights were usually held, which was a good few miles away from the residents which meant that their plan was working and in action. Merle, Martinez and Milton had brought back a handful of survivors that wasn't part of the plan, which had in turn, rumbled Merle. Merle had lied to him, which didn't sit well with The Governor. Liars had to pay. He had spoken to Martinez in a quiet corner about the plan he had, and the plans he had for Merle, and by the look of disgust that descended upon Martinez' face made him understand that his plan was brilliant.

And with that, Merle was also in the tombs situated next to his brother and the woman he lied about killing. He had a part to play in the plan. The leading part in fact.

It was nearly show time, and the excitement was beginning to kick in.

A knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts. He called out for them to enter his apartment, and replaced the sadistic smirk with a sincere one as soon as his eyes laid on Andrea. She smiled back at him, and entered the apartment.

"Hey," Andrea said, sweetly.

Philip had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the sickly sweet voice she was putting on for him. "Hey, darlin'. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to come see you, see how you are…" Andrea said, making her way further into the room. "Thank you for last night."

He watched as she smirked at him and traced her finger upon the surface of his desk. "Well, thank you for last night. You did all the work," he said, standing up to his full height which was at least a foot and a half taller than her. "I wanted to see you. I need your help."

"Oh yeah, with what?" Andrea asked.

"We have a few arrivals here at Woodbury, and let's just say, they're not the nicest of people, let me tell you. Could you make sure that you go nowhere near the tombs? I wouldn't want you to get hurt," Philip said, watching as Andrea took in the information without nothing but a nod.

"Sure," Andrea said. "But why did you bring them back if they're not nice people?"

"You know me, I want to try and save as many people as I can," Philip said.

"You can't save everybody," Andrea responded. She placed a kiss on Philip's cheek. "I have to go. I'm meeting up with Michonne. She seems to have made friends finally."

"Oh yeah? Finally taken her guard down has she?"

"Looks like it," Andrea smirked.

"Who's she getting friendly with?" Philip asked, his interest getting the better of him.

"A guy called Abraham, I think," Andrea replied. "He seems nice!"

"Oh good," he replied through gritted teeth.


Consciousness returned to Anna like a slap in the face and she took a deep intake of breath as her lungs struggled with the musty surroundings she found herself in. A tightness around her throat restricted her from getting as much air into her system as she had wanted, and she struggled for a moment, realising that the more she struggled the less air she was getting. Her hands were tied behind her back which left her without the tools to release whatever was around her neck. She wasn't sure what it was but it was unrelenting.

Something behind her groaned in pain, and grabbed her hands.

"Stop… moving…" a voice came from behind her. "Can't… breathe…"

She stopped struggling for a moment, and it was then that she understood the severity of the situation that she found herself in. Tied to a beam in the middle of a dark and dusty room by their abdomens and necks were her and Daryl.

"Daryl…" she croaked, to which he squeezed her hands.

"Try… not… to… talk…" Daryl croaked in response. The tightness around her neck was easing off slightly as both of them worked together to find a position where they both had enough room to breathe.

"How long have you been awake?" Anna asked.

"About an hour, or at least I think an hour," Daryl said. "I tried to wake ya but ya were in deep there. Do ya know where we are?"

"Woodbury," Anna responded. "Do you smell that?"

"Nah," Daryl said. "Think that son of a bitch broke my nose."

"Do you remember anything?"

"Just someone came out of the woods and knocked me out," Daryl said, to which Anna nodded gently.

"The Governor drove us off the road," Anna retold the story from the fragmented memories she had. "Then hunted us down in the woods."

"We have to try and get out of here," Daryl said, after a few moments of taking in what happened to them.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they took all of our weapons from us," Anna said. "He's not dumb."

The twosome fell into silence as they both thought of ways to get out of the predicament they found themselves in.

"We can't do anything that causes too much strain on our necks," Anna whispered.

"Ya have an idea?"

"Yes… no…" Anna whispered. "Maybe. It will hurt us more than anything."

"What is it?" Daryl asked.

"Wiring… in my bra," Anna said. "If I'm able to take it out, we'll have something we can saw the rope with."

"Do it," said Daryl. "We gotta try, ain't we?"

"Are you sure?" Anna said. It's going to hurt."

"It's better to try something that ain't gonna work than not try it," Daryl replied.

"Very philosophical," Anna smirked gently.

"Shut up," Daryl said, rolling his eyes.

"Okay… I'll try and be as gentle as possible…" Anna whispered, waiting for Daryl to respond to her. When he didn't, she understood that this was way of telling her to go ahead.

She rested her head and neck against the beam, allowing Daryl to have as much room with the rope around his throat as possible, and manoeuvred her arms so that she could try to budge the ropes around her abdomen so that they could roll up slightly. When the rope didn't budge, she moved her hand and found the hem of her top, where she moved her hand upwards towards where her bra was. It was a tight area, with the ropes tied tightly against her chest. She felt the rope burn against her hands, as she moved her hand to where the wire was. Thankfully, her bras were old and needed replacing which meant that the wire was threatening to come out of the barrier that once protected the delicate flesh of cleavage from the stabbing and sore prodding of the wires. She scratched with her finger nails, feeling the burn against her sore fingertips as it wore her nail down. It took longer than she had anticipated but as soon as the metal wire popped out of the material, she took a deep breath.

Pulling her hand out from under the ropes, she was quick to move it behind her. She felt around her neck, finding Daryl's in the process from the way he squirmed and caused the rope to tighten against her windpipe. He moved back to where he was, allowing her to gather breath. She found an opening which gave them enough room to work with.

"Hold this end," Anna said, feeling Daryl's hand touch hers gently as he searched for what she was talking about. He took it, and she reached the other end with her other hand. "Let's saw the rope. Be careful, it may set alight from the friction."

"Ah great," Daryl mumbled. They worked together in silence, notifying each other when they were able to smell smoke coming from the rope so that they were able to stop.

The rope fell from their necks and fell loosely around their chest. They swallowed as much air as they could, grateful they didn't have to struggle too much knowing that it was constricting.

As they made work on the ropes around the chest, they were aware of the voice above them. Dust fell from above them as heavy boots walked above them, but it didn't cause their sawing to falter. The ropes were becoming looser as they continued sawing the rope separately. Daryl did the majority of the sawing, knowing from the winces coming from Anna signified an undeclared and unknown injury.

He froze. The heavy boots that were once above him were now outside the door of the room they were in. He cursed under his breath.

"We have to hurry, Daryl," Anna whispered. Daryl followed her order, and continued to cut at the rope with the makeshift knife.

The sound of the door creaking open sounded and Daryl felt the footsteps from heavy boots vibrate the floor underneath him. The door closed behind the person in the room with them, but the room was too dark for Anna to see who it was. The only light came from gaps in the ceiling that was obviously the floor for whatever was above them.

With the streaks of light coming through, she held her breath as the person knelt down in front of her.

The eye patch. The sadistic grin. The hatred radiating from him. It was him.

"Got ya."