"Every long separation is a test:

A test to see how powerful or how weak the will of reuniting is!"

― Mehmet Murat ildan

Michonne came to a stop next to a big and thick tree where she had hidden her backpack and it was then when I realized she was covered in guts and blood. It was extremely disgusting and she also smelt really bad.

"Are you hurt?" I asked in fear.

"No," she muttered. "I cut a walker in the stomach and everything fell on me."

"What about the shot?"

"It's nothing," she told me, dismissing me. "Why did just you come with me?"

"That was always the plan, wasn't it?" I said with a small smile and a shrug. "I just wanted to have my conscience clear, knowing that at least I tried to find them even when they just left me, but I was going to join you after that. You and Andrea are like my big sisters, I love you both and you saved me that day in the woods, how would I leave you? I'm not capable of that and you know that."

"I had my doubts for a second, especially when I saw you with Merle hunting me," she said with a shrug.

"I wasn't hunting you, I was..."

I was interrupted when Michonne made me go behind her as a group of walkers were coming right to us. She was getting her sword ready when she noticed the walkers didn't even pay attention to us, they just walked past us, completely ignoring us.

Michonne just looked down at her body and the next thing I knew was that she was hugging me or something close to that, when I finally reacted I just pushed her away.

"What the hell Michonne?" I exclaimed, looking at my now bloody clothes, I felt like throwing up.

"We smell of death now, we will go undetected from now on."

Of course, why didn't I think of that before? I had already 'disguised' myself with guts and blood of walker. That day I legitimately thought I was going to die in Atlanta but I made it.

Michonne and I walked through the woods in complete silence, except when she stopped to have a little break because of the shot wound, she kept saying she was okay but we needed to take care of that soon.

I was feeling a bit sad about how things turned out with Merle and that I wasn't going to the farm again but I accept that things happen for a reason and if me going there with Merle wasn't meant to be, then it wasn't. I was supposed to be with Michonne and wasn't going to lament what happened, I was just going to accept it.

"You will never imagine what you missed by leaving yesterday," I said, trying to break the awkward and long silence.

"What? Fireworks? A disco with posters of walkers?"

"A bit close, but no," I told her. "The big thing that was going to happen that night was something horrible. You wouldn't have sat on your ass and allowed those idiots to keep watching."

"What was it?" she curiously asked.

"There was an arena, they had six walkers chained and two people had to fight around them. You have no idea how people cheered and enjoyed that," I said, starting to get sick of my stomach.

"Those people probably think they are not just as dangerous and once Woodbury falls, they won't stand a chance."

"That's not even the point," I said as I dodged a branch. "How could they enjoy something like that? It was barbaric! It was something close to what happened in Rome all those years ago, except they didn't use lions but walkers."

"Humanity has always been barbaric and crazy and sick, as you just pointed out with Rome," Michonne told me. "It shouldn't surprise you that much."

Some hours later Michonne and I came across a bricked building, we had come into town. The building was probably a commercial one, back in the day, with little shops.

By now Michonne was limping really bad and she kept bleeding. I tried to put my arm around her but when I tried to lift my right arm it hurt so bad, I found it weird but I ignored it. I probably injured it when I was fighting the walkers or when I was struggling with Merle, maybe. It couldn't be that important. Michonne's wound was our priority now.

Cautiously, we walked to the front of the building and sure enough there were around seven shops, all closed now. There were abandoned cars in the parking lot and there was rubbish and dead leaves all over the place.

Suddenly we heard a car, Michonne and I hurried to hid behind one of the abandoned cars and seconds later we saw a red SUV coming from the opposite direction we did. The car stopped in front of one of the shops and I felt my heart beating faster, I couldn't trust people after Woodbury, what if these people kill us right away? Or what if they keep us hostage? My own group killed Randall all those months ago, no one trusted anyone anymore and no one could be trusted, everyone was dangerous. People just did what they had to do to survive and if that meant kill people, they didn't even hesitate to do it.

I saw two people getting out of the car, one went straight to a shop and opened the shutter of it, I could only see their backs at first but I could tell it was a girl and a guy.

"Glenn, take that duck!" I heard the girl saying and my heart skipped a bit. Glenn.

Could it be really them? Glenn? I felt my lips curving into a big smile, thinking that I succeeded, that I actually stumbled upon them, without even really trying.

"Mich, I know these people," I told her with a big smile. "They are from my old group."

Michonne just stared at me like if I was hallucinating, she looked unsure on what to do now. I stared into her dark brown eyes and I silently pleaded to her to listen to me as we heard the two people, Glenn and who I could tell now was Maggie, discussing things.

"You really know them?" she asked in a voice I could barely hear and understand.

"Yeah, I do," I said, my smile never left my lips. "If Hershel is still around he could stitch your wound, he's a doctor – well, a vet actually, but just as good as a doctor. Come on!"

I pat Michonne's shoulder before standing straight and walking past her, I was about to yell to them and run towards them when I heard another voice, another too familiar voice and before I could react I felt a hand over my mouth, dragging me back behind the car.

"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" none other than Merle Dixon shouted, that bastard tracked us and followed us here.

"Merle?" Glenn muttered in surprise as he and Maggie pointed their guns at Merle.

Apparently Merle hadn't recognized Glenn. He looked surprised and he started to laugh with a shocked expression. Then he lowered his gun, left it on the floor and lifted his hands, well hand and I guess, knife-hand in surrender and took a few steps towards them.

"Hey, back the hell up!" Maggie yelled.

"Okay, okay, honey. Jesus!" Merle exclaimed.
"You made it," Glenn muttered in disbelief.
"Can you tell me, is my brother alive? Huh?"

"Yeah," Glenn said and Merle wasn't the only one relieved to hear that. I found myself releasing a deep breath I hadn't realized I was holding, I was extremely happy Daryl was alive.
"Hey, you, uh, take me to him and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. Huh? You like that?" Merle asked as he noticed Glenn eyeing where his hand should be but instead he had a knife. "Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse, fixed it up myself, pretty cool, huh?"

"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you," Glenn told him.
"Hold on. Just hold up! Hold up here! Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle!" I couldn't agree more with him, it was a miracle. Only hours ago the two of us were going to the farm to look for them and now after a not so unfortunate turn of events, we had found them. "Come on, now. You can trust me."

I hadn't really realized it but Michonne still had her hand over my mouth and had the other resting on my shoulder, holding me down in case I would just run to them. She knew me too well and it was probably well thought because seconds later Merle grabbed a second gun and pulled the trigger, I only heard glass shattering and screaming and I couldn't tell if one of them was injured or not.

I struggled against Michonne's grip, I even tried to scream but of course no sound came out of my mouth since Michonne was covering it. I tried so hard to break free but Michonne was so strong, even now that she was injured. I felt hot tears filling my eyes. I couldn't see anything anymore, Michonne had brought us both to the ground but I could still hear them.
"Let go of her! Let go of her!" I heard Glenn shouting.

"Put it in the car, son. There you go! Now we're gonna go for a little drive."

"We're not going back to our camp," Glenn told him.

"No, we're going somewhere else. Get in the car, Glenn! You're driving!" Merle shouted.

The next thing I heard was doors being slammed and an engine roaring to life, then I heard the car being driven away. In all that time I didn't stop struggling and trying to go to help them and involuntarily crying as well.

"Come on!" Michonne said, finally letting go of me and standing up, she offered me her hand, which I took.

"They are my friends, Michonne!" I cried.

"I heard where they are, I think we can make it there."

As we started to walk, we found a basket filled with formula, batteries, other stuff and a duck. Michonne picked it up and walked on the road, where the car came from. I said nothing, I was devastated to see my friends so close to me and now they were gone and I did nothing to help them but at least I had a pretty good clue to where Merle took them.

Soon we saw a really big building surrounded by a fence, it was a prison. It was then I realized Glenn mentioned a prison. All this time I had no idea where we were going or what we were looking for, I was too shocked to think, I was just following Michonne.

Slowly we walked to the fence, the walkers around us did nothing, meaning that we still smelt like the dead, so that was our cue to keep going and venture ourselves further, where more walkers were against the fence, trying to break in.

As we walked closer to the fence I noticed a figure walking to us from the other side of it. I couldn't tell who it was at first but as all of us got closer I saw it was Rick. I felt new tears filling my eyes but these were from happiness and relief.

I was behind Michonne at first, so maybe that's why he couldn't see me properly, he just looked at Michonne at first but then I stepped to the side and I saw how Rick's jaw dropped. I wasn't going to speak and risk it, being around so many walkers so I just nodded at him in a way to let him now I was real, that I was actually here, in front of him. I remembered when Daryl found me in the woods and he thought I wasn't real. I wasn't going to let Rick leave me here because of something similar to that.

Seconds later Carl came running to us, he had they keys. He looked at me for a few seconds before composing himself. As they were opening the locks and the gates, Michonne touched her wound and a walker next to her smelt the blood. Soon all the walkers around us were attacking us.

I grabbed the knife that belonged to Curly and stabbed three walkers in the head quickly, Michonne was stabbing one in the stomach when I saw her fall. I ran to her side and tried to protect her. I grabbed her sword and cut the heads of two walkers but they were so many, we were cornered.

I tried to kill more as I heard two walkers fall to the ground right behind me, if someone hadn't shot them they would have gotten me.

Rick and Carl finally opened the last gate and walked out with their guns raised. They killed the closest ones as I stood by Michonne, killing the closest to us. Carl went to pick the basket when there were no more walkers close to him.

"Is she bit?" Hershel asked.

"No," I said quickly as Rick started to check her body. "She has a shot wound, that's it."

Rick nodded at me and picked her up, carrying her inside. Beth closed the gates quickly and locked them. Carl looked directly at me for a few seconds before he just turned around and kept walking to the prison building. But Beth, once she was done locking the gates, embraced me tightly. I hugged her back as tears fell down my face.

"I can't believe you are here, I can't believe you found us!" she exclaimed as she pulled away but didn't let me go, instead looked me straight in the eye, in a way to make sure it was me.

"Beth, Jesus! You are really here!" I muttered in disbelief. I really did find them.

"Oh my God, are you hurt?" Beth asked as she looked at my bloody clothes.

"No, it's from a walker. That's why the ones out there didn't attack us, we smell like them. Once in Atlanta, Rick, Glenn and I covered ourselves with guts and it worked, it camouflaged us!"

"What about that?" Beth asked as she pointed at my right arm.

I looked down at my biceps and saw that my sleeve was really bloody and there was blood running down my arm and as soon as I saw the wound I started to feel pain right there.

"It's nothing, we were attacked and apparently the bullet just grazed me!" I told her, putting a hand over the wound.

"Come on inside, my father can fix that!"

Beth happily led me inside the prison. She kept telling me how happy and relieved she was now that I had found them. She told me how hard it was to move on without me there, she even started crying as she told me that.

"Carl, get a blanket!" I heard Rick saying as he carried Michonne. "Beth, water and a towel!"
Beth soon left my side as she hurried to get the things Rick asked for. Carl put a blanket on the floor and Rick laid Michonne there.

"She's not coming in the cell blocks!" Rick said sternly. "Who is she, Cecilia?"

"Her name is Michonne, she's a friend. She saved me! She's the reason why I am alive now," I told him quickly. "Rick, where is everybody else? Where is my mum?"

Beth, Carl, Hershel and Rick looked down at the ground first and then looked at each other sadly not knowing what to say to me and I instantly knew she was dead.

"Is she dead?" I asked even when I knew the answer. "Is she?"

"We got ambushed a few days ago, she didn't make it," Beth told me.

"A few days ago?" I exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you trying to tell me that if I had come here a few days earlier I would have seen her?"

No one said anything but I saw Beth nodding sadly. I felt like my whole world shattered beneath me, I felt the same pain I felt when Sophia died, I felt it all over again and even when I didn't noticed, tears were falling down my dirty cheeks.

If only we would have left Woodbury the next day we got there, maybe, just maybe, I would have been able to see my mother one last time. I suddenly felt like it was my fault I had come so late, even when it was possible that I would have never found them if I had left that day, because we were planning to go to the coast, not here. Merle made us come in this direction and luckily we came across Glenn and Maggie, but I wasn't thinking like that, I was just thinking about the fact that I got here a few days too late.

"I'm sorry," Rick whispered to me. I just nodded at him, wiping my tears.

"Where's everybody else?" I asked, my voice was a bit hoarse. "Teresa, Oliver, Sean? T-Do...?"

"Your friends are okay," Rick said quickly. "T-Dog also died that day."

"Oh my God, I'm sorry," I said, feeling new tears filling my eyes. I was never close to him, I think I only talked to him twice or thrice but I lived with him for about three months, of course that I felt sad about his death. "And Daryl?"

I was dying to know about him but I was scared of the answer, I didn't want to ask about him and be told he also had died but I was so anxious to know how he was and where he was if he was alive, Glenn said he was alive so I had my hopes high.

"Don't worry about him," Hershel told me, making relief swell over me but most of it didn't last long when I noticed Hershel only had one leg. "He's just a bit upset about the deaths, he must be around here."

"What happened to you?" I asked in utter shock, not caring if I was being rude by asking that and in such way.

"It's not important," he told me. "Let's concentrate on helping your friend now."

Michonne was barely conscious now but she kept fidgeting, she was really disorientated, I knelt next to her to calm her down.
"Hey, hey, look at me," I muttered to her as I ran a hand on her head. "Look at me."
It didn't really work. Michonne attempted to reach her sword but Rick acted quickly and kicked it away while I put my hands on her shoulders to keep her down on the floor.

"We're not going to hurt you unless you try something stupid first, all right?" Rick told her.

"Who the hell are these?" someone asked, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up when I heard that voice.

I turned my head around to look behind me and there he was. Daryl. It took him a few seconds to realize who I was, I saw how his lips parted slightly and how his expression changed from anger and curiosity to surprise and disconcert. He was absolutely baffled.

I stood up then, I knew Rick could handle Michonne by himself, especially now that she was almost unconscious due to the blood loss. I took a few steps towards him and smiled big at him, whispering a 'hi' to him.

"You can touch me to make sure I'm as real as that time in the creek," I told him with a grin, referring to the time Daryl found me and he had to grip my shoulder to make sure I wasn't just a product of his imagination.

I stuck out my hand out to him, he looked at it weirdly for around ten seconds. I was about to drop it when he took it, but not to shake it. He pulled me to him and wrapped his arms tightly around my body, I was about to hug him back when he grabbed me by my shoulder, pulling me back a bit so he could look at my face, he leaned in closer to me, his eyes travelled to every corner of my face. Both my cheeks, my forehead, nose, lips but they lingered longer on my eyes.

I looked back at him, into his beautiful blue eyes. His face and those eyes were almost just a blur in my head but the feature I remembered the most about him were his eyes and his voice, I just couldn't forget how his voice sounded like.

"I'm real," I assured him with a smile. "I'm back."

Daryl still said nothing to me, he just pulled me back into his arms and we embraced each other. I missed this. I really did. I stopped thinking about him about three months after I last saw him because that way it would hurt less but I did miss him and it wasn't like I actually succeeded, I always thought of him and everyone else of this group.

"You're back." I heard him muttering. "You're alive."

"Why are you so surprise?" I asked with a cocky smirk. "You know I'm a survivor and I always make it back."

"I had my doubts but I can see it now," he said in a teasing voice.

Then I pulled away from him, even when I didn't want to. I felt so safe in his arms and I felt like I was at home but I had to think of Michonne now as well.

"Y'all come on in here," Daryl said.
"Everything all right?" Rick asked him, standing up but never looking away from Michonne.

"You're gonna wanna see this," Daryl said and I could see he wanted to smile.
"We'll keep this safe and sound," Rick said to Michonne, referring to her sword. "The doors are all locked. You'll be safe here. And we can treat that."
"I didn't ask for your help," she muttered.

"Michonne," I said sadly.
"Doesn't matter. Can't let you leave," Rick told her as he walked out of the room. Beth, Carl and Hershel had already left.

"Let's go," Daryl said to me, putting a hand around my shoulders to pull me along.

"What? Me too?"

"Especially you," he said with a grin.

"I'll be right back, okay? Hershel is the best, he will cure that wound, okay? Don't be afraid!" I told her before I let Daryl lead me out of the room.

He locked the door, leaving an angry, weak and confused Michonne inside. The others were waiting for Daryl, since they weren't sure where he was going to take us. Daryl got to the front to lead us, Carl was right behind me, I had noticed he hadn't said anything to me and I felt like he was avoiding me, so I lowered my pace and stayed in the back of the group with Beth.

Daryl led us to a place called the 'C Block', there were some cells in there, and I noticed it was pretty clean here. The first cell had a made bed and had some stuff around, the second was the same so I assumed this is where they sleep.

Daryl stopped right next to one of the last cells. It was Rick who looked inside first. I heard some movement inside and then Rick walked in.

"Oh, God. Thank God!" I heard Rick saying.

Beth and Hershel walked closer to the cell to have a better look and I could see how their lips formed really big smiles. Carl and Daryl were also smiling. I had no idea what was happening inside but it must be something really, really good.

"Come here," Daryl told me with a smile.

I looked at Daryl a bit unsure, but I took a few steps towards him. Carl was next to him, so as I approached Daryl, the boy just looked down at the ground, he was definitely avoiding me, I really needed to talk to him later.

When I was right in front of Daryl, he put an arm around my shoulders and turned me around so I could see what was happening inside the cell. I looked inside and at first all I saw was Rick, hugging someone. I could feel Daryl slightly pushing me forward, I glanced at him and he just signalled me to look ahead of me with a nod, so I did and soon after I felt how my mouth hung open in shock and for a moment I wondered if I was seeing things.

This couldn't be.

Hello! :D

QOTD: What do you think of the new character, 'Jesus'? His eyes are just ughhhhhh 3

What do you guys think of the reunion? I think it could have been better but there were other things going on, like Michonne losing consciousness, Glenn and Maggie getting abducted, Merle... all that.

And what do you think is the deal with Carl?

Also I think the link I posted to the video i made of Daryl and Cecilia doesn't work, can you guys tell me if it works or not?