Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, it took longer to type this than I thought it would. Here's a meatier chapter, some walker Fun is coming in the next chapter. I love reviews…hint hint, lol

Chapter 3

Madisyn watched the shock flicker across their faces as she made her announcement, and she felt a fresh wave of fear. What if they got angry at her deception and wanted them to leave…or worse? At that point, the only thing she cared about was her brother. Hershel's eyes were wide as he stared at her, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. Daryl was staring as well, well they all were, but he seemed incredulous. She shifted nervously on her feet, afraid about the next announcement she was going to make. They needed to know what the guys at her farm were planning, but what if they thought that she was a spy. She knew the only resolution was to warn them and leave, they couldn't think she was helping them after that. She started to speak and nothing came out so she lowered her eyes and felt the sting of tears. She knew that she wouldn't be able to take care of Petey out there behind the fences. They'd been mostly sheltered from the walkers because of her father, so if they didn't get them…those men would. Before she could attempt a second time, Hershel's gentle voice washed over her, allowing some of her fear to melt away with it.

"It's okay, Madisyn, you're safe here with us. No one is going to hurt you, not us, and none of the people in the other rooms. You're small and you've lost so much weight that we assumed you were younger. If I had done the examination, I probably would have figured it out, but it doesn't matter how old you are…we're not going to kick you out or harm you." Madisyn nodded and looked up only to lock eyes with Rick, his expression was just as gentle as Hershel's voice. She cleared her throat and lowered her eyes again, she hated the vulnerability she was showing. She spoke to the ground as she continued to tell them what happened.

"My brother and I were trying to find you and your prison. We found an old hunting shack in the woods, practically falling down." Someone touched her shoulder when she paused, causing her to meet Rick's eyes once more. They weren't menacing at all, but a mixture of pity and burning curiosity.

"What do you mean that you were looking for us? Tell us exactly what happened after these men took over your farm, how did you know where to look for us?" Madisyn nodded again, knowing that they needed to know so they could protect themselves.

"Petey and I were barely surviving on that farm, they only fed us scraps once a day. They…used the women and eventually killed them too. My mom was the last to go, she ran into the room we were being held in and whispered for me to never let them know how old I was. The mean one killed her right in front of us…he enjoyed it. I couldn't bear seeing Petey lose so much weight, he was so hungry. I snuck out of the room and crept to the kitchen when I overheard what they were planning. They knew about you guys here and they wanted to take you out. They were talking low so I didn't hear everything, but I was found out. I don't know which one, but one grabbed me and threw me into the barn. My brother was beaten and thrown in with me about an hour later, they were going to kill us. My father had hidden some weapons in the barn from our neighbors and from Petey to be safe, but I knew where they were. I'd heard enough about you guys here to hope that you might help us, plus I wanted to warn you. These men are beyond crazy, they were talking about how you deserved to die and he'd take the people that rightfully belonged to him back. If I had known exactly how close you guys were, I would have kept looking. It was so dark and we couldn't see and we just walked into a group of those things. I was hoping that we could stay here with you, we'd work for our keep, but if you'll feel more comfortable with us leaving than we can do that too." Daryl spoke up from her left causing her to jump slightly, she hadn't expected him to be so close.

"Who were these guys that were doing this to you, can you describe them to us?" Madisyn saw their faces every time she closed her eyes and she suspected that she would for years…if not for the rest of her life.

"Their leader is a one eyed man called Phillip, but the scariest is one of his buddies…Martinez. He's the one that killed my mom, he's absolutely nuts." No one smiled at all to comfort her, but none of them looked surprised by her announcement either. Daryl swore under his breath, turned around, and punched the wall as hard as he could.

"I knew we should have killed that son of a bitch! We should have been hunting him down like we'd planned, not taking in strays until all of this was sorted. Now we have women and children who can't protect themselves from this guy." Madisyn flinched when he punched the wall again. She turned to Hershel whose eyes were dark as he stared at the ground. Carol pursed her lips, wringing her hands but stayed silent. Rick's face was the scariest, he had the same cold expression that Martinez wore as he shared a look with Daryl. His voice was as cold as ice and a shiver of dread filled her stomach as she spoke.

"You're right Daryl, I should have killed him that day in the barn. We can hide the children, but every able body who can hold a gun can protect themselves. We're bigger now because of his people joining us so they can help us get rid of this bastard once and for all." No one paid attention to her as she began to back up out of the cell, no one that is except for Hershel. He sighed heavily and attempted to break up the chit chat that Daryl and Rick were having, but they just ignored him and kept plotting death. These people were no better than those who stole her life away. She'd ended up putting Petey smack in the middle of an old fashioned turf war. Before Hershel could draw any more attention to her departure, she turned on her heel and fled into the common area. She found Petey sitting with two boys around his age and her throat felt heavy as she tried to suppress her frightened tears. She was aware of the eyes that followed her to their table, especially the woman with the sword. He smiled up at her as she approached their table and her heart broke because of the decision she had to make…she just hoped she was able to get him out. He pointed to the empty plate in front of him and her heart soared that he'd been able to eat his fill. His voice was back to normal as he address her, it was no longer small and timid as it had been the last several weeks.

"Hey Maddy, were you able to get something to eat yet? Beth made it, it's so much better than the tuna they kept giving us at the farm." Maddy stretched a smile onto her face, trying to give the air of cool calm as she placed her hand on his shoulder. Despite her attempt, his smile fell off of his face when he really looked at her, he could tell something was off, but she forged ahead anyway.

"I'm glad that you got to eat, but we need to get out of the area. I told them all about those guys and it's time for us to leave." The smallest of the three boys, sitting across from Petey, frowned as he looked back and forth between the two of them.

"You don't have to leave, honest, we have plenty of room." Petey looked up at her expectantly, but at her facial expression, he stood up with his plate in his hand. He walked over to the blonde girl and handed it to her with a weak smile, but she just looked at Madisyn with an alarmed frown.

"You two should at least wait until morning, we don't usually open the gates up at night." Madisyn suddenly got a panicked feeling in the pit of her stomach as she looked at the faces around her.

"We're not allowed to leave?" Beth would not meet her eyes and Madisyn just felt more and more backed into a corner…she hadn't expected she'd have to escape for a second time.

Maggie was the second person to notice Madisyn's departure, realizing a little too late that her father had tried to calm the air before she got too frightened. This poor woman was absolutely traumatized by what these guys did to her family and here they were making it worse. They'd all had a bad reaction to hearing about the Governor's return to the area and they'd had no tact at all when they'd started hashing out a plan. Rick groaned into his hands when he realized that they'd just made things worse for the newcomer. She walked side by side with him to the common area, hoping to salvage the situation. She knew that Rick was upset because he no longer wanted the burden of full responsibility, but when it came to organizing their fighting, he was their best shot. When they walked into the common area, all eyes were on her sister and the two they'd rescued. They weren't able to make out her softly spoken request, but she clearly heard Beth's reply and Maggie's heart dropped. It was normal for them to keep new people for a little while to make sure they weren't a threat to their safety. These two had just escaped a horrible situation and she knew that this was going to justifiably warrant a bad situation. Everyone heard the terrified panic in the woman's voice as she responded to Beth.

"We're not allowed to leave?" She felt Rick stiffen next to her and Maggie dreaded the words that she knew were going to come out of his mouth.

"No, unfortunately you are not allowed to leave. Look, we don't know you any better than you know us, but we've just taken you inside our home. Regardless of your association with the Governor and his goons, we can't take it on faith that you won't go back to him." There was a general gasp in the room at Rick's statement about the Governor and Maggie had to close her eyes against the accusatory glare from the other woman as her voice broke to respond to Rick's statement.

"So basically you're telling me that I was a complete fool to try and warn you because you're just as bad as they are. Thanks for the warning on that because if you'd told me upfront that I couldn't leave once the door opened, I'd have passed, because I'd rather be back up in that tree surrounded by the walkers than to be a prisoner again." Maggie saw Rick flinch as if he'd been slapped and felt the atmosphere getting hostile very quickly so she jumped in to try and diffuse it.

"Of course you're not a prisoner, we're not going to lock you in a single room like they did. You'll have free reign of the prison…the parts that are safe of course, but for your safety and more importantly, ours we can't let you leave just yet. Look, you're half-starved to death and you're suffering from sleep deprivation. So, let's get you something hot to eat and a warm bed to sleep in. We can talk about all of this tomorrow." Rick glanced at her from the corner of his eye and threw her an appreciative smile. Madisyn, unfortunately, just narrowed her eyes as she looked at the two of them, her arm protectively around her brother as if they were going to rip him away.

"You don't have to tell me what I'm suffering from, I'm a doctor and I'm living it. I don't trust you any more than you trust me so I'll pass on the food, thanks. Why doesn't the warden here just show us to our cell?" There was an awkward moment where everyone looked everywhere except to the four of them. Rick worked his jaw, visibly upset about how the tide had turned, but tried to speak calmly.

"We have enough rooms for both of you to have your own, if you'd like." Maggie watched the other girl purse her lips and pull her brother even closer to her side.

"You just try and separate us, we're staying together. Well, what are you waiting for, take us to our cell, Warden, and put us in our corner." Maggie watched as he turned on his heel and led them into their cell block instead of the one reserved for the Woodbury residents…interesting.

Rick was a jumble of emotions as he led the two of them up the steps and over his own room. He didn't want these two to wander off in the middle of the night, the walkers were still wandering into the corridors. It bugged him that the girl would rather starve to death than to accept their hospitality. She needed to eat, but she was so scared that she wasn't going to accept anything from them. He'd have to see if Maggie or Carol could remedy that in the morning. It bothered him even more that she thought he was capable of the horrific things the Governor had done to her family, granted she didn't know him. Even if they had have let them leave, it was obvious just how green these two were. They'd been protected by their father and the others from her neighborhood, he wondered if she'd even killed a walker before. The governor could be scouring the woods for them anyway and he didn't want them to walk right back into that. She stomped noisily on the stairs behind him, acting like the child she'd been pretending to be. She'd said that she was a doctor, something they sorely needed, he just hoped that she woke up in a better mood. He led her to the room in between Carol's and Daryl's, they'd help keep an eye on them. He turned to leave them to it, but paused to look over his shoulder at her.

"We don't lock these cells, you are not a prisoner, and I am nothing like that sadistic son of a bitch that took your family from you. He's taken several members of my family from me, but I do understand how scared you are. I promise that we're not going to hurt you, we're nothing like them." He saw her clench her jaw and stare at the ground as she spoke words meant to hurt.

"Well you couldn't prove it by me."

Rick had never been so rattled by another person and he found that her dislike of him bothered him more than he cared to admit. He fell asleep fitfully, never really getting comfortable. The sounds of people's slumber all around him as everyone drifted off didn't calm him as it normally did. He wished that he'd taken the shift from Glenn, but Maggie was already out there keeping him company. Rick was letting Carl and Patrick keep watch in the common area. It was something they'd started doing to make sure none of the new members were up to no good or if a Walker somehow stumbled into their corridor. He fully expected both boys to be sound asleep when he found them in the morning and he looked forward to teasing his son. He finally drifted off to sleep with that thought in his head, but the restfulness was short lived. He felt as if he'd just fallen asleep when Carl was shaking him awake, his voice shaking with fear.

"Dad, you have to wake up! Those two were led into the corridors, I don't know who's helping them, but they're gone. I couldn't see who was leading them and I couldn't stop them short of shooting them, you have to get up, they don't know!"