Newly Revised
She ran for her life. The dead were everywhere and there was no ammo left in the guns and the bag of weapons Rick had left behind was too heavy to keep carrying. She knew she'd been left behind, most of the group probably thought she was dead after Rick drove off and the farm was overrun. Andrea honestly thought that she was going to die when she ran out of bullets and only had the handle of her handgun to kill the walkers, only to end up falling with a walker on top of her, trying as hard as she could to keep the thing from biting her. It was sheer luck that somebody had been close by and heard her screams because, when she thought for sure she was going to lose the fight, the walker's head was cut clean off. The figure standing in front of her had a sword out and bloody as the walkers behind her simply shifted position every once in a while, their arms and jaws missing. Michonne, the woman with the walkers, took Andrea in after that, moving from place to place with their walker bodyguards. Those walkers made surviving the winter easier, but it didn't stop the nights from being cold and the illness that had taken root in Andrea's lungs. They'd been staying in the same damn place for weeks as she tried in vain to break this cold when they had no medicine and no knowledge of medicinal herbs. She'd spent the last week wishing that she had asked Tea about herbs but instead she was waiting on Michonne, who'd gone out looking for medicine. Andrea felt like she was dying, covered in sweat while trying to get somewhere she could get fresh air and sunshine only to almost pass out before she was even able to get three feet from the meat locker that was their temporary home.
"What you doin' out here?" Michonne asked her angrily as she came out of the locker and put her katana back in its sheath.
"I needed some light," Andrea replied.
Michonne helped her sit up before all but shoving pills into her mouth and made her drink some water. Andrea knew Michonne cared about her, but the whole winter, she'd barely been able to get anything out of the woman about her life before the turn. While she'd spent the winter filling in the silence Michonne kept, Michonne had spent the winter keeping them alive. Andrea had to admit, the woman's gut feelings had saved them more than once over the course of at least seven months, probably closer to eight. She sure as hell wasn't the one who had kept Michonne alive and that truth had gotten even worse when she had gotten sick. The walkers that they had with them provided a kind of protection from all the rest of them, making them practically invisible while they traveled as long as there weren't any herds. It had been a hard winter spent mostly on the road with herds cutting them off from any kind of shelter. At first, Andrea had been thankful for finding the meat locker they had because they could actually rest with their walker bodyguards out front. Now, though, she hated the damn place because there was no airflow and no natural light, which had seemed to make her sicker.
"How is it out there?" she asked Michonne after she had taken the medicine and had a coughing fit.
"Same. It's quiet."
"You're lying," she said weakly.
"We should go in a few days," Michonne sighed as she looked away pensively.
"They're coming," Andrea decided. "You should go."
"No."
"I'll hold you back, go," Andrea said, earning her a look from Michonne. "I can take care of myself. I saved your ass all winter, didn't I?" she said with a chuckle that caused her to start coughing again as Michonne tried to give her another drink of water, she pushed it away harshly, "I won't have you dying for me. Good soldier won't leave your post. Screw you."
"We'll go in a few days," Michonne said after heaving a disappointed sigh; Andrea was acting like a spoiled child.
"If we stay, I'll die here," Andrea said seriously as Michonne stood up.
That was enough to get Michonne to pack up and put their equipment on the walkers minus the bag Michonne had across her back and the blanket wrapped around Andrea's shoulders. They left the safety of the meat locker and started off into the woods with the hope that they would be able to find more people. Being outside in the sun was great as they started moving out only to be surprised to see an actual helicopter overhead. It didn't stay in the air very long as they watched it, the airial vehicle crashing into the woods they were getting ready to head to. They headed towards the smoke while dragging their guards along until they had gotten closer to the crash. Andrea was having a hard time breathing by now and went into another coughing fit which made Michonne stop.
"Don't push yourself," she told Andrea. "You'd better sit."
She attached the walkers to a tree before handing Andrea a gun and telling her that she'd go to check the crashed helicopter. Andrea watched as she slowly approached the crashed aircraft until she was standing still right in front of it for a moment before continuing on with her katana halfway unsheathed. The crash had caused a lot of commotion to begin with, but the fact that Michonne had heard vehicles approaching had made her run back to Andrea quickly. They crouched down into the underbrush and watched after she told the sick woman someone was coming and that there had been at least two people dead from the crash. They watched as two vehicles showed up and no less than four men got out and began to take care of the walkers that had been drawn by the crash. Only one of the men in the helicopter had survived and these people were helping to keep the man safe. One walker came very close to them, making Andrea have to stop Michonne from killing it as it walked into the field. It went right into the clearing the crash had created before immediately being taken care of by one of the men. The man from the helicopter was carried to another truck as the rest of the men stood watch to keep walkers from getting too close. They didn't seem like they were a threat to two women all alone, especially since they were helping the injured man. Andrea didn't want to miss the opportunity to get help for themselves when there was help right in front of them.
"He's saving them," she commented. "We should show ourselves."
"Not yet," Michonne said.
They watched as the leader guy plunged a knife into each of the dead soldiers' heads from afar while they hid in the bushes. Their walker body guards started getting antsy and pull on their chains, causing the men to begin to notice the sounds they were making. Michonne didn't even hestitate as she quickly stood and beheaded them before returning to her spot next to Andrea. The men who had heard the commotion must have decided it wasn't important or a threat as the leader called for them to pack it up. It got quiet as Andrea started coughing again while Michonne rubbed her back in her mother hen kind of way. She hadn't been able to kill her walkers in time, though, as Michonne prepared to whip around and strike at the sound of someone coming up behind them.
"Uh, uh, uh," came a familiar voice. "Easy does it, girl. Mine's a whole lot bigger than yours. Put down your weapons. That's it. Nice and easy. And let me see your hands. Now spin around. That's it. Nice little twirl around." As Andrea turned to face her captor, she was surprised by the face she saw. "Oh, holy shit," Merle said, looking just a bit thinner than he had the last time they had seen each other. His hair was just a touch longer too. "Blondie. Damn, you're looking good." He took out a walker that came up behind him with a blade attached to his missing right hand. Holding it up and his gun cocked to the side, he asked her, "Now, how about a big hug for your old pal Merle?"
Andrea couldn't respond because she passed out, the cold finally taking control as the exhaustion from being sick finally caught up to her. She kept falling in and out of consciousness as she felt the vehicle she had to be in move since she couldn't see very well. She saw a walker strung up in a tree and briefly thought it was the one she'd found with Daryl in her exhaustion, but it was too out in the open. They passed by several parked cars, what looked to be an armed wall, and into something that had lights every so often. Asking for Michonne, she discovered the woman to be not far off but probably in the same predicament she was in herself. She tried to look around, but didn't get very far before Merle noticed one of her eyes was partially uncovered. Putting a finger to his lips, he then fixed it to send her back into complete darkness. When she woke up a short time later, her blood was being drawn while her temperature was being checked. She'd already been given a bag of intravenous fluids that had helped her fever go down and was now getting medicine pumped into her bloodstream. Andrea could almost be grateful, if they weren't being held in the room with armed guards and the only people they'd seen was a nurse and the guards.
"Why are we being held here?" she asked the nurse as she removed her IV. "We want to leave."
"You're not well enough," the nurse insisted. "And it's dark. You should stay the night."
"Where are we?" she tried a different approach.
Looking around, the nurse told her, "That's not for me to say. He'll talk to you."
"Who?" Michonne asked, clearly frustrated at the turn of events.
"Go check on your patient, Doc," Merle said as he walked in. "Bet you was wonderin' if I was real," he told Andrea. "Probably hopin' I wasn't. Well, here I am," Merle chuckled. "I guess this old world gets a little small toward the end, huh? Ain't so many of us left to share the air, right?" He sat backwards on a chair looking at them, blade missing from his stump. "You know, when they found me, I was near bled out. Starving. Thinking to myself a bullet might make a good last meal. Take myself a nice long nap afterwards. Wait for Daryl on the other side. You seen my brother?"
"Not for a long time," Andrea asked quietly.
"Makes two of us," Merle chuckled coldly.
"He went back for you," she told him. "Him, Tea, and Rick. You were already gone."
"Well," he laughed as he removed his stump from the contraption he had around it, holding it up for Andrea to see. "Not all of me."
"Oh god," she said, turning her head away while he kept chuckling.
"Yeah Rick. He's that prick that cuffed me to the rooftop," Merle said venomously.
"Yeah," Andrea admitted. "He tried. Daryl saw that."
"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother. He still with that slut?"
"Tea? Last I knew," Andrea admitted. "And she isn't a slut. They wanted to keep looking, but things happen. People died. A lot of people. Jim, Dale, Jasquis, Amy."
"Your sister?" Merle asked, watching as Andrea nodded her head. "She was a good kid. I'm sorry to hear it."
"There were more. A lot more," Andrea told him. "We had to leave Atlanta. We wound up on a farm. Tea and Rick took charge and Daryl stepped up. Became a valued member of the group."
"Now he's dead," Merle assumed.
"I don't know that for sure," she admitted. "We got run off by a herd."
"How long ago?" he asked, hoping this would finally be the lead he needed.
"Seven, eight months," Andrea said, looking to Michonne for confirmation seeing as they'd been together the whole time. "I was separated from the rest of them. Got left behind. I know what it feels like."
"I doubt that," Merle scoffed as he readjusted his metal contraption around his stump.
"What do you want from us?" she asked him as he looked at his arm.
"Damn," he said to Michonne, the smirk on his face belying the anger in his eyes and voice. "There she sits, four walls around her, medicine in her veins, and she wants to know what I want from her. I plucked you and your mute here out of the dirt, blondie. Saved your asses. How about a thank you?"
"You had a gun on us," Michonne told him in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Ooh, she speaks," Merle chuckled and then laughed and started walking around the room. "Well, who ain't had a gun on 'em in the past year, huh? Show of hands, y'all. Anybody? Hmm? Shumpert? Crowley? Y'all had a gun on y'all?" He scoffed and looked back at Andrea, "I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walking up with his mitts in his pockets. That's be the son of a bitch you'd really want to be scared of."
"Thank you," Andrea told him, remembering how long his rants could be; Michonne just looked at her like she'd grown a separate head.
A tall man with a clean shaven face walked in afterwards, only to motion Merle over and whisper something to him that the women couldn't hear. Michonne was rightfully cautious but Andrea could only see the fact that she was actually getting treated and was starting to feel better already. Her lungs didn't feel as heavy and the cough she'd been dealing with had finally subsided. This place actually had a doctor treating her and was adamant about Andrea staying at least for the night so that she could rest. The medicine would break the cold since it was being delivered intravenously but it wouldn't completely take away the symptoms until she got a good night's sleep. She didn't have a problem with staying, but Michonne was not happy that they had been stripped of their weapons.
"We want our weapons," Michonne cut him off and stood in front of him.
"Sure," he said without hesitation. "On your way out the front gates."
"Show us the way," Andrea said. "You've kept us locked up in this room."
"You see any bars on the windows?" he asked, seeming genuinely amused. "You're being cared for."
"Under guard," Andrea insisted.
"To protect our people," he replied seriously. "We don't know you."
"We know enough about you to want out of this place," Andrea insisted, disgusted by what she had seen at the helicopter. "We watched you drive a knife into the skulls of two dead men. What the hell was that all about?"
"They turned," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"They weren't bitten," Michonne said, not believing the man for a second.
The man and Merle shared a look before the man told them quietly, "Doesn't matter. However we die, we all turn. I put them out of their misery." He walked past them and said louder, "It's not easy news to swallow at first, but there it is. You're not prisoners here, you're guests. If you want to leave, as I said, you're free to do so. But we don't open the gates past dusk. It draws too much attention." He nodded his head to Andrea, "And you especially, you need a solid night's sleep. You wouldn't last another day out there in your condition. I'll have you brought over to my place in the morning. Return your weapons. Extra ammo, food for the road, some meds, keys to a vehicle if you want. And send you on your way. No hard feelings."
He motioned for them to follow, leaving the room with one of the other men in tow and Merle following behind. They went down a hallway and out a set of double doors to see a town that was completely deserted. It had barrels full of fire that they were using as street lamps and an actual wall at one end. From the roads to the houses, it didn't look like this place had even been touched by walkers at all. The houses weren't boarded up or blocked out by blankets, the streets were clean of any debris or walker or bloodstain, the lawns were kept and landscape untouched. The wall only had one gate that looked like it was pulled open and had a thick wooden plank keeping it locked against walkers. She could only see guards, though, not a single other person in sight other than the ones they'd met in the infirmary and the ones on the wall.
"Come with me," he told them.
Michonne helped Andrea down the stairs, Merle following closely behind them for a time, checking out Michonne as he passed her. Andrea watched as the man walked up onto the wall's ledge and relieved a man from his post, sending him to another and taking up the position himself. He ordered another man to 'take the spotlight' whatever that meant, but it was clear that Merle had some authority here. She was shocked, to say the least, to see the man more level-headed than she'd ever known him to be at the quarry. He was still as rude as ever when he spoke, but he seemed to actually have respect for the people around him and was respected in return for what he had to offer. Then again, she'd only known him at the quarry when he was constantly hopped up on one drug or another and butting heads with Tea and Shane constantly.
"Are you military?" Andrea asked the man who had yet to introduce himself.
"Hardly, couple of vets like Merle, but by and large, we're self-trained," he answered her.
"That's heavy artillery their packing," she commented.
"Some men arrive with guns, but most of the weapons were scavenged over time."
"And the other side of town? The other side of the street? They're all guarded like this? It can't be."
"It can and it is," he told her, looking smug.
Merle whistled to him then taking a gun from one of the other guards, "Found us a creeper, Governor."
"Governor?" Andrea asked, walking up to the gap in the gate. "They call you that?"
"Some nicknames stick whether you want them to or not," he said simply.
"Buzz is a nickname. Governor is a title," she countered, watching as the spotlight shown on a walker. "There's a difference."
"Got him!" Merle told them happily. "He brought his buddies." Quickly taking down the other two that were stumbling along, he looked back to the Governor and said, "Clear."
"We'll get them in the morning," the man told Merle. "Can't leave them to rot," he said turning back to Andrea. Creates an odor. Makes people uneasy."
"What people?" Andrea asked. "There's nobody here. It's a ghost town."
He didn't answer her and instead just walked away, Merle watching as the two women follow the Governor down the road. If he found Blondie, he could very well find Daryl, too. Maybe he could find that Titania girl Chrystal was always talking about and keep her safe too, if she wasn't already dead. Death might actually be the better outcome for the girl rather than letting her family ever find her. He scoffed to himself, thinking about how he cared for a girl he'd never met as if she was his own blood. It was all because of Chrystal that he actually cared for the girl to begin with, all the horror stories she shared that made him think his life hadn't been so bad. The girl had lived through so much worse than he had and somehow had still managed to survive and, if Chrystal was being honest about the way the girl fought back eventually, she thrived. He wished he had even a tenth of the courage that little girl had had at fourteen to punch her father and break his nose before running away. I've been pussy whipped by a pussy I ain't even had, he thought ruefully to himself, turning back to the outside of the wall.
"Not the Four Seasons," the Governor said as he opened a room in an apartment building. "But there's a hot shower. Water's limited, so keep it short. We got food, water, fresh clothes. Hope this works." As they walked in and looked around, he turned to look at Michonne, "I know you'd feel better with your sword, more secure, but you're safe here."
She just gave the man a hard stare, leaving Andrea to say, "We appreciate it." After a moment, she couldn't help but wonder, "What about the pilot? Will he make it?"
"Well, Dr. Stevens is doing all she can to save him," Governor replied. "Now, I know you got a lot more questions, but I got work to do. My man will be outside the door if you need anything else. I'll see you tomorrow."
In the morning when Andrea and Michonne woke up, Andrea showered and changed into a fresh set of clothes for the first time since the farm. They ate a breakfast that consisted of better and fresher food than they'd had in a long, long time, even managing to have a cup of coffee! It was surreal and had Andrea hopeful, but Michonne was on edge with just how perfect everything seemed to be with the town. Andrea had reveled at the hot water, been amazed by the food and coffee, basically Woodbury could do no wrong in her eyes. Michonne's, though, were being much more critical than to be swayed by decent food, a hot shower, and walls that were more to keep people in than the walkers out. Armed guards lined every wall, making it to where no one could go in or out without someone else knowing who was going where. They were both brought out of their thoughts when someone knocked on the door and asked if they wanted to come and see the town.
"Hi," the tall woman said. "My name is Chrystal and the Governor asked me to show you around."
"It's real," Andrea muttered as they walked out of the building and she saw children running around and the town square full of people.
"You two were out there for a long time," Chrystal said. "While you were, the Governor was doing this."
"How many people do you have here?" Andrea inquired, feeling a sense of familiarity with the woman walking in front of them.
"Seventy-three," she replied, waving to a heavily pregnant woman. "Ellie's about to pop, so her kid will make it seventy-four. It's still a work in progress, but Rome wasn't built in a day."
"That's a bold comparison," Andrea muttered again.
"I think we've earned it," Chrystal said smugly. "Walls haven't been breached in well over a month. We haven't suffered a casualty on the inside since early winter."
"How's that possible?" Andrea asked in denial.
"Our Governor has set a strict curfew. Nobody out after dark. Noise and light are kept to the bare minimum. Armed guards on the fence and patrolling the perimeter to keep the biters away."
"I saw what your patrols do on the way in last night," Andrea told her. "They had a dead one strung up like an ornament."
"Those men put their lives at risk every day to protect this town. Why can't they have a little fun every once in a while? They've lost more than a few friends out there. They're just coping with that," the woman said seriously. "It's not any concern to anyone. Least of all the Governor. He's got more important things to worry about than the men letting off some steam."
Andrea noticed as she looked at the woman that she shared a lot of traits with Tea, having the same chin, same eye shape, and the same cheekbones. But where Tea had hair the color of amber that fell in waves down her back, Chrystal's hair was almost dark chocolate and straight as a pencil. Green eyes were replaced by blue and the whole head of height difference between Tea and Andrea was reduced to a mere couple of inches between her and Chrystal, with Andrea being the shorter. Andrea almost opened her mouth to ask if the woman had a sister, but then she recalled some of the conversations she'd had with Tea. Tea wouldn't want her sister to know where she was or how she was doing after everything that had happened in her house when she was a kid. She could practically taste the curiosity on her tongue and wanted to know if the two women were connected, but the only person who might have answers for her was Merle.
~x~
He was sitting at a table working on cleaning his gun with a piece of jerky in his mouth. His mind was drifting back to three nights ago when Chrystal had been drunk and talking, as she always did. While the Governor took delight in listening to her stories, as well as some of the darker and more twisted men, Merle kept to himself. She'd been talking to the Governor about the time she drugged her sister when the girl was only twelve to get money from a pedophile. Chrystal's parents had planned on selling her sister's virginity to the sick fuck who, according to the harpy cackling away, had to be more than 300 pounds compared to her sister's measly sixty. Chrystal herself was the one that delivered the small girl to the man. Merle's stomach rolled even now at the way the woman had spoken about it in delight. Thank whatever god was out there that the little girl had been resourceful enough to defend herself. Somehow, even in her drugged state, she'd managed to find a letter opener and stabbed the man through the eye, right into the brain. He thought his dad was bad; her family threw her in juvie for manslaughter until the case was proven to be self-defense. His father might have been a cruel piece of shit, but he sure as hell hadn't pulled anything like that.
Chrystal had come in just before winter but couldn't offer anything in contribution to Woodbury other than being pleasing to the eye. She used her face and her body as payment, first with the Governor and then with anyone who worked the walls or went out scavenging. Merle himself had used her a time or two before he had been invited to drinks with the big players in camp. It was there that he first heard of the cruel punishment a girl six years her junior had endured at her hands, starting from long before she could ever defend herself. The scars on his body were from drunken rages, the scars on hers were from Chrystal simply enjoying the feel of slicing up her baby sister up and watching her bleed. She was a sick fuck, that was for sure, and seemed to get off on speaking of the torture she put her own flesh and blood through. Merle had left early that first night, claiming exhaustion from the run earlier that day when in reality, he simply could not handle one more minute of what she had to say. He never wanted to go back to a meeting again after learning what those late night sessions were really about and how the 'entertainment' was the torture of a young girl. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't avoid those gatherings, so he would sit as far away from everyone else with liquor in hand as Chrystal talked. Never before had he felt such pity and anger for another human being.
He was pulled from his reverie by the Governor walking in and asking Milton, his butler for all intents and purposes, "Did you finish your homework yet?"
"Unfortunately, the dog's eating it already," came his response.
Merle's hackles rose as he stormed off his seat, throwing the weapon on the table, "What the hell you call me?"
"Hey, where are we?" the Governor asked him. "Back in the school yard? What, you wanna take his lunch money while you're at it?"
Owing the man his life meant he had to back down, but that didn't stop Merle from raging on the inside as he said, "Sorry, Governor."
"Maybe I've wasted my time with you," the man continued berating him. "Maybe you haven't learned anything at all."
"He was trying to smoke in here," Milton said. Fuckin' pussy ass snitch, Merle thought to himself, scowling at the man.
"And you, I expect better," the Governor turned to him. "Keep poking the bear and you're gonna get mauled. Remember that." Turning back to Merle, he said, "Tell me about the girl."
"Name's Andrea," he told him.
"You know her?" Milton asked astonished.
"She from that group in Atlanta?" the Governor asked.
"Yeah," Merle said, thinking about what it could mean for his brother. "Same one that left me on the roof, forced me to mutilate myself."
"Does she know your brother, Daryl?"
"Yeah, she did."
"Then talk to her again," the Governor told him. "See what else you can find out."
Merle nodded at him and left to go find Andrea. Instead, he found Chrystal waiting for him. Of course she was. He'd made the mistake of telling her early on about Daryl, and now the banshee seemed to think that if Merle found him, she could stake a claim to him. As if he'd ever let the crazy bitch near his baby brother. Hell, even that hell cat from the quarry ain't as psycho as this bitch, he thought to himself, suddenly very happy with his brother's choice in woman. Wearing an expression of utmost annoyance, he stared down at the woman.
"Fuck ya want, Chrys?"
"I heard you have a lead on your baby brother?" she asked innocently. "Do you think you'll be able to find him."
"Ain't none of your concern, missy. Now leave me the hell alone," he growled at her.
"Aww, Merle-baby, don't be like that," dropping the innocent act, she played coy and rubbed up against his good arm. "You loved the time you had with me."
"Weren't nothin' more than gettin' the pipes cleaned, sugartits," he told her. "'Sides, I ain't interested in people who beat on little girls."
"Oh, are you still hung up on that?" she huffed out, angry now. "Come off it, Merle. It was a long time ago. And how is that any different from you beating on people?"
"They ain't my blood, let alone a kid," Merle stated simply.
"So what if she was blood or a kid? She was a freak. You hate freaks just as much as me and my parents, so what's the big deal?" she asked, looking at her nails.
"I hate a lot of things, that's true, but that don't mean I'd beat on my brother just to get my rocks off," Merle said before walking away.
Staying for one more second would mean strangling the bitch and so far he'd only ever hit one woman in his life. He wanted to keep it that way, even if he still wanted to punch Chrystal right in the jaw for everything she'd said in those damn late night hours and how she spoke about Daryl. It was disgusting how she spoke about her own sister; the last thing Merle wanted was for the bitch to get her grubby little hands on Daryl. Chrystal was pretty looking enough, but she had a brain so twisted and a heart so black that only those truly sick would find her attractive. Sure, he'd been gullible enough once upon a time, but he'd wisened up over the months, and even more so after he'd been forced to get clean. The only good thing about getting clean was that the liquor hit harder, and the harder the liquor hit, the more he could forget about the situation he was in.
~x~
In the Governor's apartment, Andrea and Michonne were being treated to an late breakfast consisting of eggs, toast, and peaches. Milton was there too and asking various questions about what they had been doing all this time. It seemed to come as a surprise to him that they had lasted so long on their own out in the world when so few seemed to make it. He was quite the reserved man, Milton, and he didn't talk loudly or with any emotion other than curiosity. His curiosity, however, was only serving to make Michonne even more agitated than she already was just being in the town. Woodbury had been erected around the same time they had been driven off the farm, as far as Andrea could tell, and Milton had been trying to research the walkers ever since. That was how they'd found out that no matter how someone died they would turn no matter whether they'd been bitten or not. While he hadn't been able to actually see the transformation itself, there had been a few suicides in the beginning that had confirmed his pressumption. Neither the Governor nor Milton mentioned, however, why they were so invested and interested in what the women thought of the walkers.
"Eight months?" the Governor asked. "Hard to believe you ladies lasted so long out there."
"Because we're women?" inquired Andrea.
"Because you were alone," the man corrected.
"We had each other," she told him.
He chuckled, "Two against the world. It's long odds."
"We managed."
"Oh, I'm impressed."
"Very," Milton input as the Governor served him and Michonne some eggs.
"Survival in the wild is tough sledding," the Governor stated. "Wake up every morning on the ground wondering if today's the day. Will it be quick and final or slow without end? Will someone have the good sense to kill my brain, or will I come back as one of them?"
"Do you think they remember anything?" Milton asked her. "The person they once were?"
Remembering how Amy had tried to bite her as soon as she resurrected and then what she had learned at the CDC, she shudder before saying, "I don't think about it."
"Milton believes there might be a trace of the person they were, still trapped inside," the Governor explained when Milton looked down in defeat.
"Like an echo," Milton said as he handed her tea. "Surely it must have crossed your mind."
"At one time, yeah. Right before it tried to bite me."
"And then you killed it?" Milton asked. "I say 'it' only because no one here likes to refer to them as him or her," he cleared his throat before handing Michonne a cup as well. "The two you had in chains, who were they?" he asked the brooding woman; even Andrea was curious as the woman never spoke much about herself. "The way you controlled them, used them to your benefit. You did know them, didn't you?"
His only response was a hard stare that earned him an admonishment before he apologized for being intrusive. The Governor told him to let the two of them eat, before a knock at the door made him excuse himself from the table to open the door. Andrea was thinking about the state of things in the town and how it was everything she and Michonne had spent the winter talking about. There was safety in the walls and they also had the numbers and the weapons to defend this place. She didn't know how well the walls would hold up against a horde like the one they'd faced at the farm but it was definitely enough to protect them from a group like Randall's. Michonne, however, looked like she was constipated and about to break someone's nose. Her standoffish attitude only served to make Andrea want to be even more friendly with the men who were so graciously giving them an actual meal.
"So what you have here, you expect it to hold?" she asked the Governor. "What if a herd comes through?"
"It'll hold," he said.
"What's your secret?"
"Really big walls," he said vaguely.
"That soldier and really big walls, too," she countered, "and we all know how that turned out. so..."
"I guess we do," the Governor admitted. "The real secret is what goes on within these walls. It's about getting back to who we were. Who were really are. They're just waiting to be saved. People here have homes, medical care, kids go to school, adults have a job to do. There's a sense of purpose. We're a community."
"With a lot of guns and ammunition," Milton cut in.
"Never hurts," the Governor replied with conviction.
"And really big walls," Andrea finished with a smile.
"And men willing to risk everything to defend them. Compromise our safety, destroy our community. I'll die before I let all that happen."
Andrea considered him for a moment, "Looks like you're sitting pretty at the end of the world."
"Do I strike you as the kind of man who sits pretty?" he asked her amused. "You reap what you sow. We're the seed. Now that winter has passed it's time to harvest."
"Time to hope?" Andrea asked, completely unaware of Michonne's gaze on her.
Michonne could see what this man was doing for a mile away, and Andrea was falling for it hook, line, and sinker. His smooth talking was winning over her friend while all she saw was danger and deception on his face. Sure, his words sounded pretty, but she was certain it was just a speil to get people to stay without asking too many questions or looking too deep into the eye of the storm. There was something off about the man called the Governor and the more time she spent with him the more that feeling was only getting stronger. Michonne wanted to get out of this town as soon as she could but the man kept refusing to give them back their weapons and there was no way in hell she was leaving without the weapon that had kept her safe since the beginning.
"We're going out there and we're taking back what's ours," the Governor told Andrea. "Civilization. We will rise again. Only this time we won't be eating each other," he ended, making eyes at Andrea.
"To civilization then," she toasted before a knock on the door interrupted their meal.
"How's the tea?" Milton asked.
"Sorry to cut breakfast short, but this can't wait," he told them.
Michonne rose out of her seat with the agility, grace, and speed of a jaguar, coming to stand in front of the man, "We want our weapons!"
"Well, we can make this meal to go and your weapons will be waiting outside, but you should take time to relax, get your strength back. Have a look around. Who knows? Might like what you see."
I knew it, Michonne thought. There was no way in hell they were going to let them just walk out the gate without making sure they were stopped, whether by force or by will. Every excuse would be made to keep the two of them within the confines of these walls and at some point, excuses wouldn't be enough. Michonne hated feeling trapped with no control of her life; she'd lived through that once already and she would be damned if she went back to that place. Andrea, though, wanted to stay just because it was supposedly safe here, even though the only person she even knew here was Merle, who she'd said was nothing but a druggie redneck. No matter what she did, Michonne simly could not feel at ease about this place, let alone the one in charge of it or his little band of merry men. They left the Governor's apartment and walked down the streets of Woodbury, each stewing in their own thoughts before Michonne broke the silence.
"I don't trust him."
"Why not?" Andrea asked. "Have you ever trusted anybody?"
"Yeah," Michonne responded, watching as the man Merle had called Shumpert watch them from down the road.
"Then give this a day or two, that's all I'm asking," Andrea said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Give us some time to get our shit together."
"My shit never stopped being together," Michonne quipped.
"Didn't look that way when Milton asked about your walkers," Andrea shot back, sick of Michonne's standoffish attitude when the Governor had been nothing but charming and kind. "I'm surprised he didn't get a fork in his eye."
"It was none of his damn business."
"I guess it's none of mine, either," Andrea sighed. "Seven months together, all we've been through. I still feel like I hardly know you. I'm sorry, it's the truth. You know everything about me!" she complained.
"You know enough," Michonne told her.
"Those walkers were with us all winter long, protecting us, and you took them out without any hesitation. That had.."
"It was easier than you think," Michonne cut her off before walking off, ever aware of Shumpert's gaze.
~x~
Merle was hiding in the woods watching the Governor talking to the soldiers jovially, waiting for the signal. When the Governor pulled out his handgun and shot one of the military men, he opened fire as well. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think that those were soldiers they should have been recruiting, not killing, but he had his orders. Asking questions would be worse than not following orders, and Merle had learned the hard way once already. He wasn't about to go back into isolation with barely enough food and water to survive for a week just to save lives that weren't his or his brothers, and maybe that girl Chrystal was always talking about. Life wasn't so simple anymore, though, and killing was all anyone knew now. If it wasn't the dead that you were killing, it was other survivors trying to take what you got. Merle knew that it was wrong to kill these men, but the Governor would never agree to taking them in. Those men would see through the man in a second and take over Woodbury quickly if they had stayed alive.
It didn't take long for them to gun down all the military men, the Governor walking up to one and cutting the strap of his gun to take it away from him. Rather than giving the dying man a peaceful death, he used the butt of the rifle to bash the man's skull in. Merle owed the man his life, which was the only reason he had stuck around after the Governor's daughter had been bit. It was after Penny had died that the Governor had become cruel and began taking pleasure in the darker dynamics of life. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't get a hard on every time Chrystal opened her mouth to talk about Titania. Even Merle had his limits, and getting off on hearing about abuse done to a girl anywhere from three years old to seventeen was definitely one of those. He just grimaced and continued to keep his eye on the bodies as the Governor spoke to one of the newer recruits.
"Never waste a bullet, son," he told him. "Pick up the rest of these weapons."
One of the soldiers tried to make a run for it, probably the only soldier of the group who hadn't been killed. The Governor didn't even bother with a headshot, making Shumpert, Martinez, and Merle all share a look of discontent at the cruelty the man could have. It wasn't the first time he had been like that and Merle knew that it was only a matter of time before he went off the deep end. He didn't need all those fancy degrees that bitch back from Atlanta had to know the Governor was not right in the head. It hadn't been that way at first; he had saved Merle when he was almost dead, and he'd stuck with the man ever since. But there were times like now, where he shot the soldier in the spine rather than the head, that the thoughts of leaving Woodbury to find Daryl, even if he was with that psycho girl, sounded better than staying and dealing with the man.
"Go put a merciful end to that young man's days," the Govenor told their newest scavenger, Crowley, while holding his knife out, the boy running off before the man turned to the rest. "Let's see what Uncle Same brought us, shall we?"
They loaded up the vehicles and weapons and headed back to Woodbury, leaving the bodies of the soldiers behind. Merle quickly got out of one of the vehicles and walked over to the Governor, catching sight of Andrea on the way before storming back off with Milton in tow. The plan was to tell a story, how the military men were heroes and they weren't protected like Woodbury was. Whatever, Merle thought as he walked away, not wanting to hear the lies. His anger at the entire situation had to be kept level, though, so as not to undermine what the Governor thought of him. He might have to do the Governor's bidding, but he had also been a soldier and he had never been one for lies. Just gotta find my brother and I'll be gone.
~x~
Andrea watched as a convoy of military vehicles entered through the front gate, the people who had gone out to find the helicopter pilot's unit driving them. She joined with the rest of the people outside the front gate and watched as Merle and Milton walked away, the former with a scowl. She assumed that he'd gotten angry at one of the other people before looking over to Michonne. The woman was sitting nonchalantly in a garden chair not too far away astutely looking at Andrea as if she were angry at being there. To be fair, Michonne didn't want to be here in Woodbury at all and had only stayed because Andrea had talked her into it. But Andrea wasn't about to let the opportunity to have everything they'd talked about slip through her fingers. It was an actual community that had a respected and respectable leader who only had the people's best intrerest in mind, even as he exited one of the vehicles and began talking to everyone.
"We brought in three new people yesterday. One was a helicopter pilot with a National Guard outfit. Even though he's clinging to life, he told us about his convoy on the highway. His men. I promised I'd bring them back here alive. But they didn't have our walls, or our fences," he told the crowd sadly. "Biters got there before we did. Now, the men had trucks, the trucks had weapons, food, medicine, things we need. Now, we didn't know them, but we'll honor their sacrifice by not taking what we have here for granted. Won't be long before dark, so go on home. Be thankful for what you have. Watch out for each other," he ended, hopping down from the truck bed.
As people began to disperse, he walked up to Andrea, "You're still here."
"Anything I can do?" she asked him.
"No, no, nothing tonight."
"Long day?" she attempted at conversation.
"Haven't had many short ones," he commented, earning her a soft smile; anyone with eyes could see she had the hots for him. "Goodnight," he told her.
"So what's your real name?" she tried once again. "If it's not asking too much."
The Governor turned, smiling and telling her in a flirty tone, "I never tell."
"Never say never," she flirted right back.
"Never," he told her, leaning close to her ear with an award winning smile.
He walked away after that, stopping to whisper something to Chrystal who nodded and smiled back at Andrea with a wave. Andrea smiled and waved back, not at all worried about what was said since he was probably just checking in on how she and Michonne had been today. As he turned his back on her, Andrea couldn't help but appreciate the broadness of it and hummed at herself. Maybe it was the fact that it had been a year since she'd been with a man or the fact that she found him attractive since the first time she saw him, but Andrea really liked the Governor. She really liked Woodbury and everything it stood for and was doing and how it was a real community, not just a group of people banded together to survive. They had food, water, shelter, medicine, and walls that kept the walkers out and let the people live a life worth living. It was the town and life that she and Michonne had spent the winter talking about and now that she had found it, she didn't want to leave.
