A/N I'M BAAACCCKK! Sorry for the long break guys! My life got a little crazy, and I didn't have as much time to work on this as I would have liked. But hopefully I'll be able to get back into it. Don't forget to leave me some love 3
Sam walks over to the small group. "You guys decide on a name yet? Or is it still Lil Asskicker?"
"We're naming her Judith." Carl says proudly.
When Sam sees Rick, she hands the baby back to Beth and starts walking towards the fence. As she is walking down, she follows Rick's line of sight and sees the woman grasping the fence with one hand, a shopping basket in the other. She is so covered in guts and gore that the walkers are ignoring her.
She can hear Rick talking to her, but they are too far away to make out the words. The tone is coming through just fine though. The woman's hand goes to her thigh quickly and the walker next to her starts to smell her.
Sam watches, waiting to see what Rick will do, more and more walkers gather around, almost as fast as she is killing them with a wicked looking blade. Her movements begin to falter, obvious signs of her growing fatigue.
Rick makes it outside just as she falls with a walker on top of her. Carl runs to help him carry her in and watch his back.
"Get her inside. Sam, go grab the basket she dropped, ok?" Rick instructs.
"Lay here down here. Don't want her in the block yet." Rick says just out side their rooms.
"Why was she carrying a basket of baby formula?" Carl asks when Sam puts it down.
The woman starts to stir. Rick grabs her sword before she comes to completely.
Sam is the first to turn when she hears someone clear their throat. "Oh my god! Carol." She runs to Daryl, "Holy shit. You're alive! Thank God."
Everyone crowds around them. Carol looks at all the faces around her, seeming to draw strength from them. Rick locks the door before going to Beth and the baby. Carol slowly makes her way over to Beth and the Grimes family.
"Lori?" she asks, Carl looks away.
"She didn't make it." Beth quietly informs her.
"Rick, I'm so sorry." She says softly, laying one hand on his shoulder and the other on the baby's head.
The woman, now alert on the other side watches them with wild but calculating eyes, staring at her sword, which Rick placed on the table on the other side of the bars.
Sam looks back at the basket on the table "Rick, Carl is right. Why did she have the basket?"
Rick turns his attention back to her and relays the question.
"Pretty girl and the Asian boy were taken, they dropped it." she holds back a pained expression "They were talking about a prison, figured it had to be this one."
"Taken?" Rick asks "By who?"
"Same bastard who shot me." She tells them about a town, a few miles away where Glenn and Maggie were taken and offers to lead a group there.
Sam fades in and out of the conversation, already knowing she will be left behind and takes Judith from Beth, letting her rest for a while.
"How you feeling?" Sam asks Carol, who is listening near by.
"Still drained, but stronger now." she sighs, looking at Judith "I feel so awful I wasn't there to help Lori."
"We all did what we could." Sam sits next to her so she can see the bundled baby.
Sam hands Judith off when Daryl starts walking over.
"We're goin for them tonight, gonna bring em back." he explains "We gotta be fast, so it's a small group."
"And I'm not in it." she finishes, already figuring it out, "It's ok."
Daryl nods, not trying to make excuses "We'll bring em back and be back before breakfast."
"Ok." Sam smiles weakly, ignoring the nagging feeling in her gut.
Daryl watches the prison disappear in the rear view mirror. Their bags are packed with flash-bangs and smoke grenades, anything they thought might be of some use. They are all armed to the teeth and he feels a little like Rambo, like they should be wearing war paint. Rick drives, following Michonne's directions until she tells them to stop.
"We go on foot from here, through the woods, it's the only safe way in." she says, her voice devoid of any emotion.
They park the car slightly off the road, grab their packs and head into the woods, following a forgotten path.
Rick hangs back with Daryl "I know what you did for me. What you did for my family, while I was…"
Daryl shrugs it off, not seeing anything special in just taking care of the group. A walker stumbles out of the woods towards their group "Rick."
More and more spill onto the path from the trees. They try to take out as many as they can, but they keep coming.
"There's too many of them." Rick finally says "This way."
They race down a narrow path until they spot a beaten up, abandoned shack. "In there."
The first thing Daryl notices when they get inside and close the door is the smell. The rank smell of rotten flesh. "Ugh. That smell."
"What is that?" Rick asks, pointing to a small furred corpse on the floor on the far side of the shack.
"It's a fox. Or was a fox." Daryl guesses, until he sees the collar and tag around the dog's neck "Looks like lassie came home."
Rick makes his way to the bed, to check the lump under the covers. The man jumps out of the bed, waving his rifle at them, screaming at them to get out. Daryl stays alert, waiting for the hermit to make a move while Rick tries to talk him down. The man lowers his guard enough for Rick to make a grab for the gun. The sound of the shot is almost deafening in the small space, and the walkers surrounding the shack react to the noise. The man makes a mad dash for the door, only to be run though with Michonne's sword. She quickly opens the door and shoves his body into the waiting wall of walkers. With the majority of the walkers distracted by the fresh meat the group sneaks out the back.
Daryl can feel his muscles tense, battle ready as they cross under the train car and onto the empty street. They slip into the shadows of the buildings, staying out of the flickering of the gas lights that line the street. Michonne points them in the right direction and they creep along.
Sam is more tense than she has been in a long time, every sounds making her jump, hoping it's the group returning. Night has truly fallen, cloaking the prison in darkness, only their feeble flashlight cut through the dark. Most of the group has gone to sleep, she can hear Carol cooing to Judith to get her to sleep. Sam sits on their mattresses in the perch, back against the wall, the cold seeping through her shirts.
"They'll come back." she tells herself "They'll all come back fine."
She racks her brain for some way to stay busy until she is tired enough to pass out. Carol stands by her, just as she is considering going for a walk.
"What's on your mind?" Carol asks "You're making an awful lot of noise up here."
"Sorry." Sam apologizes, blushing in the fluorescent lamp. "I'm not keeping you or Judith up, am I?"
"No, no. Judith is sleeping like a good girl, and I'll be lucky if I ever sleep again." Carol says with a slight smile "All I can think of when I close my eyes is being trapped again."
"I'm so sorry. I can't sleep either." Sam sighs "Worrying too much."
"You don't have to worry so much about them." she places a reassuring hand on her shoulder "Rick is a good leader, and each and every one of them is a good fighter, they can hold their own. Especially Daryl."
Sam smiles in response to Carol's smirk before she continues "He's a fighter, a survivor. Especially now that he's got someone to come back to."
"Do you think this Governor guy is someone we'll have to worry about? I mean, we just got here and I really like it, I don't want to give it up."
"I don't think anyone want's to give this place up, we really could have a shot at something good, and that alone is enough for all of us to want to fight for it."
Sam nods in agreement, thinking about all they have already lost trying to secure this place.
Merle is alive. That's the only thing Daryl can keep his mind focused on. Even if it's hard to believe, after all this time. And he's here. That's what Glenn said, after cleaning up his busted face. If he can get out of here, get Merle to come back with them There's no way Merle would let him get killed if he knew he was here,
Blood always comes first.
Bits of conversation reach his ears from the guards outside.
"Governor says he needs to prove his loyalty. Can't be sure where he stands unless he does this."
If he does it right, maybe Merle will even come back with him. He probably still had a grudge with Rick, but he'll have to get over it. He snorts, remembering that this is Merle, and he doesn't let shit go. Rick would find a way of getting him out before Merle ever would. But he still couldn't leave without him. It's his brother.
Daryl's senses strain to compensate for the lack of sight caused by the sack over his head. He can hear more muffled voices coming from the other side of the door and the creak of the door opening.
"Gonna be a good match tonight." one of the voices says, coming closer "I don't care what he says about proving loyalties, all the crowd wants is blood. Ain't that right?"
Another voice laughs as hands seize him. He thrashes against them, but the hands hold tight to his upper arms, and with his wrists bound, he can't do much else to break free. The air around him changes, it's fresher than whatever room he was in, but warmer.
"It would be in your best interest to not fight me right now." says a clean cut southern drawl "Save all that aggression, you'll need it."
The ropes around his wrists are cut and he is shoved blindly forward, a hand still around his upper arm. Suddenly the lights are bright, even through the cloth, and the crowd roars. But under the crowd he can hear the hungry groans of walkers and the rustle of chains. The bag is pulled from his head and he blinks through the sweat and bright lights, scanning the arena, hard packed dirt floor, shabby stadium seating packed with about seventy people . In the center of the arena, standing opposite him, ready to fight, a sight that causes him to flinch back, bumping into the Governor with an almost inaudible gasp of shock.
Merle.