The faint, orange glow illuminating the town, to anyone else would have looked beautiful, but crouched behind a car just outside of the walls, it was uncanny. Faint shadows strolled back and forth along the top of the wall, their features only visible due to the bright light that shone down into the road next to me. If they had been moving it, adjusting every so slightly, they would have seen us.
Part of me didn't believe Michonne when she told us how many people were there, but seeing it now, how big the walls were, how they stretched out in each direction made me understand just what she was talking about.
Rick placed his hand on the car, his arm just in front of me to steady himself as he leaned forwards. His eyebrows drew closer together as his eyes landed on the sheer number of people just on the first wall. If they could spare four people for the front, they definitely had more dotted around.
I heard something behind me, and thought one of the Woodbury people may have seen and come out to us, but I saw Michonne disappear around the back of the car.
"Hey! Hey!" Daryl called in a whisper, but she was gone.
"Dammit," Rick muttered, his head jerking in quiet frustration.
I glanced back, trying to see where she went, but she was already completely gone. "Should I go after her?"
"No, let her go," Rick took a step back, holding onto his bag as Daryl came around to the front, leaving me the only one still against the car to remain hidden. "Alright, we need to downsize."
He pulled the shotgun from his body and handed it to Oscar, maybe to store, I wasn't too sure. I was going to do the same with the machine gun until Rick was given a gun that was very similar to my own, making me assume that I was okay with what I had been given.
"Ain't no way we're gonna check in all those buildings," Daryl said. "Not with them guards there."
Just as they were ready, there was a crack behind us and the three gun's clicked simultaneously as they pointed them at Michonne. Rick let out a breath when he realised it was her, sending a glare my way. He was already sick of her and we hadn't even gotten inside.
Michonne flagged her hand, telling us to follow her.
"Alright," Rick muttered.
Michonne took us around the wall, and again, I understood the magnitude of this town. How did they find so many people? I wondered if they were all just people who lived here before, but even that seemed like a stretch. With the Governor just killing off other groups though, it could be that most people were here already.
It's not like I had much of a chance to ask.
She stopped at one of the walls, somewhere next to where they had piled cars on top of each other to build the height of the wall. But how? Again, it seemed unreal. She pulled at a piece of corrugated metal that made the walls, and she pulled it back.
"We can get through here."
Once we were through the wall, she immediately stopped, hidden from one side by a green wheelie bin next to us. She waited for Rick to get through, before pointing straight ahead. "They could be in there."
I thought back to what Michonne told us, remembering that she had been held by the Governor's people for stealing her swords and killing his walker's, whatever that meant. If that were the case, the building ahead of us was probably where that happened.
Without waiting for an answer, she quickly ran ahead across to the building and ducked through a doorway that was blocked from the top with wooden planks. Rick was next, taking off after a few seconds and I followed him inside.
I had my handgun out at this point. It was easy enough to get around outside where you could see where everyone was, but inside was a whole other story. I had to always be ready now, because if Glenn and Maggie were here, they would most likely have people guarding them.
We followed her into the next room, now able to stand up and walk around with our guns out. It was dark, but there was no sign of any people. No sign of Glenn and Maggie.
It worried me that they weren't here, because aside from the floral curtains blocking the windows, this building was very close to the main street, so keeping them here would be very public information. If they weren't kept as prisoner's here, that means he didn't want his people to know that he had them in the first place. If no one knew about them, that meant it was more likely they were being tortured.
And my stomach turned at that thought.
"This is where you were held?" Rick asked.
"I was questioned."
"Does it matter?" I suppressed an eye roll.
"Is there anywhere else they could be?" Rick pushed.
Daryl moved to the curtains, pulling them back just barely, enough so he could see outside without getting spotted. "I thought you said there was a curfew."
Rick joined him, glancing through a window that was blocked on the door. He also turned to Michonne for answers.
"The street is packed during the day," she said. "Those are stragglers."
Rick turned back to the window, his body against the doorframe to keep himself hidden. "If anyone comes in here, we're sitting ducks. We gotta move."
"Yeah?" Daryl walked towards her. "What if they ain't?"
"Then we'll look somewhere else," she patronised him.
Rick joined us, reminding her, "You said you could help us."
"I'm doing what I can."
"Then where in the hell are they?" Oscar asked.
She was quiet, didn't know how to answer the question.
Rick nodded his head to the side "Hey."
We followed him into the next room, leaving Michonne in the front room. She rolled her eyes as I passed her, which I chose to ignore. She hated them just as much as they hated her, she wasn't blind to that. I wondered why she even offered to help, knowing she was going to have this much trouble convincing everyone that our friends were here somewhere.
Rick leant forward, staring at me as he spoke, "If this goes south, we're cutting her loose."
I pursed my lips, but nodded. There was nothing else to do, I had to agree. I didn't want Michonne to be on her own after all this, but we still didn't know whether what she was telling us was the truth. If she was lying, that would be on my hands, leaving me at fault for anything that happened to Glenn and Maggie.
"You think she's leading us into a trap?" Oscar asked.
"Right now it's the blind leading the blind," Daryl said.
"We could go back outside the fence," I said. "It's better than sitting inside their buildings waiting for them to find us."
"We don't know where their patrols are," Rick shook his head.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Daryl suggested, "Let's split up."
I shook my head. "I hate that—"
There was a rattle against the front door, metal against wood as someone tried unlocking the door. Michonne ran back to join us at the back of the building, and she grabbed the top of my arm, pulling me back behind the wall beside her. Rick, Daryl and Oscar had gotten into their hiding places in time for the door to open. The keys jingled, and then stopped.
"I know you're in here," a male southern accent voice echoed in the room. "I saw you moving from outside."
His footsteps moved across the room, and I could definitely tell it was just him. No other breaths, no other footsteps, just one voice. Only one person had come to see what was going on, which made me quieten my breathing. I didn't have to panic so much about getting caught now.
"All right, now. You're not supposed to be in here and you know it," that made the worry ease a little. He thought we were a part of his group, just people messing around after curfew. It made me think that he was probably unarmed, or at least didn't have a weapon out at that exact moment. His footsteps reached the doorframe next to us. "Who's in here?"
Rick grabbed the man by his shirt, and shoved him back against the doorframe. "Shut up. Get on your knees!"
The man dropped down, obviously terrified of the knife in his face. I walked past them, checking the door he came through, but he had closed it behind him.
"Hands behind your back," Rick said. "Zip tie him."
Daryl did just that, grabbing the man's arms and pulling them roughly behind his back. I was shocked that we had even brought any zip ties. I didn't see Rick pack them, but the fact that he did meant that he was expecting to do something like this.
"Where are our people?!" He asked, shoving the gun impossibly further against the man's face.
"I don't know," the man cried.
"You are holding some of our people! Where the hell are they?!"
"I don't know!"
He didn't.
He was too scared, if he knew something was going on then he would have said something. Even I could tell that he didn't know anything, and I had never interrogated anyone, never done anything like this before.
Rick seemed to agree with me, because the next thing he said was: "Open your mouth."
As Rick shoved the rag into his mouth, Daryl snapped the butt of his crossbow against the bottom of the man's skull, knocking him out.
After dragging the man's body away, we quickly went outside back the way we came, behind the building underneath the planks. While staying low, Rick glanced around before looking for other places we could search.
As we reached the next building, I heard voices. I hushed everyone with me and glanced around the corner. In the middle of the lane between the two buildings were two people, one them a hundred percent Merle.
I couldn't hear what they were saying, so I went to walk forward, but Daryl grabbed my arm, "The hell d'ya think yer doin'?"
"They could be talking about Glenn and Maggie," I said. "Merle knows where they are. I'm the smallest here, I'm most likely to fit behind that cover without being spotted."
Instead of waiting for Daryl's opinion, I looked at Rick. His face twitched in quiet contemplation, but he did nod, "Okay, just . . . If anything goes wrong, start shooting. We don't need anyone getting killed before we even find Glenn and Maggie."
I nodded, and crouch walked down to the boxes that had been stacked against a wall, able to get all the way behind them without being seen. I glanced around for a second to see if they had anything important and ducked back.
The man Merle was talking to was a little shorter than he was, but definitely more built up than Merle. He wore a backwards cap, and was really the only other thing I could see about him.
"He wants them executed now?" He asked.
My eyes shot open. Executed?
"Tha's right," Merle came next. I could hear the smirk on his face. "Got a group of boys down there waitin' for the orders. I'll go get 'em ready, you wait outside, keep any civilians away."
"It's curfew."
"Seen a few people wanderin', best to make sure no one sees what's goin' on down there."" I glanced around the bin again, trying to get another look. Maybe they were doing something that could help me work out where they were. Merle raised a hand . . . no, an arm, because it was the first time I had seen it, but he had a prosthetic where his hand used to be. Extending from the metal casing was a knife, somehow connected to the prosthetic.
There was a short pause, and I thought they may have been leaving, but the man's voice came again, "I can't believe he's doing this now. Their people could be on the way, we don't want a bargaining chip?"
"It's nothin' we can't handle. 'Sides, we don' need 'em anymore."
"Fucker," I whispered to myself.
"Hope you're right."
"I'm always right, Brownie."
That was the funniest joke I'd never heard; I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. I fixed a bike that could say otherwise, you dick.
Clearly I wasn't the only one who found it hilarious, because the other man laughed, "Yeah right."
I could hear the steps walking away as they left, but they walked out into the main street and turned right. If we were going to follow them, we would have to try and do that in the back, which would be much harder if we didn't get a move on.
I ran back to where the others were and flagged them to follow me. "They're going to execute them now, we have to follow them! Quick!"
We ran quickly, stopping at the next lane to look down at the main street, when again we saw Merle and the other man cross the path.
After a while the wall bent, which meant we had to follow the curve of their fences, so very lucky there were less people dotted around these sides of the wall. Maybe they were the ones that were down with Glenn and Maggie like Merle said.
"Are you sure they came this way?" Rick asked after we had lost sight of them for a little while.
I nodded, but at this point I was winging it. There was nowhere else they could have gone, because even if they had crossed the main street, we would have seen it happening. Rick seemed less than convinced, but followed my direction anyway.
Sooner, we made it to a more open area right at the back of Woodbury. Walls ran into each other, making a corner, and the building back here was far more secluded than any of the blocks of flats we had been using before.
"In there," I said, pointing to the man in the hat who was outside the door. It was mere seconds before he ran inside, following the sound of some kind of commotion, followed quickly by another guy I had not seen before.
"There's so many people here," Daryl grumbled.
"Get your guns ready," Rick said. "We should be prepared for a fight."
Instead of using my handgun, I pulled the machine gun around to the front of me, the strap keeping the gun steady as it wrapped around my shoulder. I stared down at it for a second, trying to work out the best way to hold it when Rick grabbed the top and jammed it back into my shoulder. I nodded a thank you, and followed him as he stood up to follow the group of people we had seen.
Inside was even worse, maze like, only able to know where we were going by the sound of Merle's footsteps. Just as fast Rick went to step around the corner, he flung himself backwards, pressing his back as far against the wall as it would reach.
I peeked around him, seeing Merle head into a door around the corner, and then through a window into what I assumed was a holding cell. When the people were no longer going to see us, Rick walked forward to the next corner, ducking just under the windowsill.
"Glad we could catch up," I heard Merle saying.
I squeezed into the corner behind Rick and glanced through the window. They were kneeling on the ground, Glenn bloody and shirtless. Maggie was wearing what Glenn had on before, but she had no visible injuries. I cringed at the thought of what could have happened to her.
The man I had seen before entered the room, carrying two raggedy bags in his hands. When I was sure he passed to Glenn and Maggie, I glanced up again. She was crying, staring at Glenn as the man pulled the bags down over her head first, and then Glenn's.
"On your feet!" A different man ordered. "Move!"
"They're leaving," I whispered, unable to hide my panic.
"Shit," Rick muttered, and he and Daryl started rifling through Rick's bag that they had opened and left on the ground in front of them. I pulled the gun back against my shoulder the way Rick had done for me before, and waited for them to grab what they needed.
The second that each of them had a different grenade in their hand, they stood up and Rick pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it around at the group of people. The smoke grenade whipped past me from where Daryl threw it, and just before they could go off, Michonne grabbed the back of my head and covered my eyes.
Even through her hand I could see the bright flash of light, but after it had gone off, she let me go. The men were yelling, having not expected the flash grenade, and I watched Rick, Daryl and Oscar run out into the smoke that had begun to take over the entire room.
Daryl stopped at the corner, aiming his gun at the people, so I joined him in keeping over, running to the other side a little more in the open. When he saw me keeping them covered, he rushed forward with Oscar to help Maggie get the bag off of her head and lead her out of the room. Rick was next with Glenn, who was having a harder time keeping himself on his feet.
"Ace! Let's go!" He yelled as he passed me.
I turned and followed him, and just as we had made it to the hallway, the bullets came after me. I ducked into the corridor just behind Rick, flinching at the metallic sound as the gunshots landed into the wall behind me.
As we made it to the door outside, Michonne stopped, checking for any more people out there.
"Keep us covered," Rick demanded.
I spun around, holding the gun up in the direction we had just come, listening for voices and footsteps that were headed our way. As a foot stepped into the hallway, I sent off a stream of bullets back at them and the man dove back to where he came from.
They had to come through that door, so as long as I kept the bullets going, they couldn't do that. "STAY BACK!"
"We gotta go!" Rick yelled to Michonne.
"It's clear!" She called back.
They piled out of the door, and I stepped back outside, slamming the door to their prison closed and kicking a crate near the entrance in its way. The door slammed open and immediately came to a stop on the box, giving me time to take off into a sprint after the group.
We were in the street now, an even more risky place to be, when they had the sentries on every wall, able to see all the way down. Rick and Maggie were helping Glenn walk . . . well, run. As fast as he could, anyway. They each had one of his arms, holding up as we moved through the streets.
We ran down into the next area, past the junction and towards a group of buildings that were hidden from the armed guards that were supposed to be protecting from walkers. They ran down past this building, and Rick stopped at a door.
"Inside, quick!" Rick called.
He held the door open, and as soon as I had run inside, gun up. There wasn't anyone, which I assumed because there were no lights from inside the building. Daryl was just behind me, swinging the gun wildly back and forth as he ran to the back of the room, looking for an exit I assumed.
Rick let Glenn go as he covered the door, and the minute he stepped inside he fell to the ground, Maggie chasing him to help him up. Oscar was last inside, and he moved to watch the window at the front.
"Ain't no way out back here," Daryl called from the back of the room. He came out from the back and went to the other front window, looking outside.
"Ace," Glenn called. I stepped over to them as he held up a hand, and held it for a second until he dropped it back down, barely able to keep himself up. "You're okay."
Maggie stood up for a second, giving me a big hug. "We were so worried."
I nodded. "Yeah."
I hated that she was this worried about me with everything they had gone through today. Nothing happened to me, I just walked home. When she pulled away from the hug, she dropped back down to the ground next to Glenn.
Rick turned to him as well as he walked past with his gun. "How bad are you hurt?"
"I'll be alright," Glenn struggled.
I watched Maggie look around the room for a second, and she asked. "Where's that woman?"
I looked around, seeing that Michonne was nowhere in the room. She had disappeared again, like she did before we even got into Woodbury.
"She was right behind us," Rick knelt down to look out of the window.
"Fucks sake."
"Maybe she was spotted," Oscar suggested.
"Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asked.
"No. We gotta get them out of here," Rick said. "She's on her own."
"She probably wanted to be on her own," I frowned, cursing myself for even thinking it would be a good idea to bring her.
Rick's head tilted to the side as he turned to me. "What do you mean?"
"When I was trying to get her help I said there had to be something that she wanted from us, maybe she just wanted an escort inside the wall," I explained. "Let's face it, we're a great fucking distraction. I'm sorry."
"You couldn't have known she'd ditch us," Rick placed a hand on my shoulder. "Besides, she's not our problem anymore."
I just nodded, agreeing with him.
"Daryl," Maggie was helping Glenn get a blue jacket on as he called out to him, and Daryl walked away from the front window to face him. "This was Merle. He did this."
"I know," Daryl nodded. "Ace said."
"No . . . this," Glenn points to his injuries. "Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."
Daryl seemed confused now, shaking his head, "S-So my brother's this governor?"
"No," Maggie shook her head. "It's somebody else. Your brother's his lieutenant or something."
"Does he know I'm still with you?"
"He does now," Glenn said, and turned to look at Rick. "Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."
"Don't," Rick kneeled in front of him, placing a hand on his knee. "No need to apologise."
As much as I agreed with Rick, this worried me now. What if they had already sent people to the prison? Even just a scout could find out more information about our defences, giving them more time to plan how to kill us. Even if they hadn't sent people out, they had more weapons, more vehicles. They had a great chance to take us out now.
I couldn't blame Glenn and Maggie at all, this was going to happen eventually. Sooner or later, the Governor would have found out that we were staying there. At least this way we know he's bad so we didn't get ambushed like the National guard.
Rick tapped his knee twice, walking to the front window.
"They're gonna be looking for us," Maggie called.
"We have to get back," Rick agreed, and started walking back to Glenn. "Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out."
"I'm good," Glenn nodded.
"Alright," Rick grabbed under Glenn's arm to pull him to his feet with the help of Maggie.
Daryl stopped at the door, "Hey, if Merle's around, I need to see him."
"Not now," Rick leaned closer to Daryl. "We're in hostile territory."
"He's my brother. He ain't—"
"Look at what he did!" Rick snapped. Maggie got Glenn away from them for a second, letting them work it out. "Look, we gotta—we gotta get out of here now."
"Maybe I can talk to him," Daryl said. "Maybe I can work something out."
"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight," Rick shook his head. "Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need you."
I walked over to join them, placing a hand on Daryl's back. We did need him. I didn't want him running off into the line of bullets so he could find his brother. Merle should have waited, like Glenn said. It's his own fault Daryl can't see him right now, and I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, no matter how badly that would turn out.
"Are you with me?"
Daryl was quiet for a moment, but nodded. "Yeah."
Rick then turned to me. "Keep an eye out behind us. Can you do that again?"
I nodded, "Got it."
"Okay," he addressed everyone who had been waiting. "We're leaving, get ready."
Daryl was rummaging through the bag again, pulling two more grenades. I assumed they were tear gas, because there was no immediate threat. We didn't have to incapacitate with the flash grenades, not yet at least. It made me wonder if we should have a flash ready.
"Stay tight," was Rick's last order. "One, two, three!"
He swung the door open, and Daryl threw the tear gas into the street, making a puff of smoke. After the second one went out, Rick ran out after it, his gun in the air as he moved. Everyone followed, and as promised, I stayed in the back.
"There they are!" I heard a man yell, standing on top of the bus at one of the walls.
Rick sent bursts of bullets in his direction, managing to hit him after a few tries. I looked back as the man died, and saw a group of people coming from behind, and I spun around and started shooting. They all ducked behind a metal bench, very small gaps between the slats, making my shooting at them almost useless.
"Behind you," Daryl called.
When Rick saw what was happening, he called out, "Quick! Get to the front!"
He was ahead of me, running from the bullets, which made me stop behind a small blue postbox and start shooting back at them again, ceasing their gunfire for the rest of the group to get further down the street.
"In there! Take cover!"
It was hard to see where they had gone through the smoke, but I tried chasing the voices. As I ran down against the houses, bullets whipped past my face, landing in the brick wall next to me. My shoes slipped out from under me, and I hit the ground hard. When I stumbled to my feet the bullets were still coming, so I ran back to duck in the nearest doorway.
"Ace!" Rick was calling my name. "ACE!"
I poked my head around the doorway, but more bullets slammed into the bricks next to my face. My arms flew up to cover my face, and shrunk into a ball behind the safety of the bricks. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
I had the gun ready, holding it against my body. As I moved out to fire at the men, I heard one of them shouting. "Quick! They went that way! Into the house!"
Their feet slammed into the ground towards me, and I looked to see two men sprinting my way. I pulled myself to my feet, pushing into the door and rushing into the building. I heard the yelling behind me as they entered the building.
"There she is!" One yelled.
I turned a corner, but the only thing down there was a hallway. I didn't know what would be at the end, but I had to regroup. Anyone of these doors could have been someone's home, their apartment that I could just run into. Maybe that would be the best idea? From what Michonne had been saying, the civilians didn't have weapons.
I looked under the doors as I ran for light, and if the room was lit up, then I would pass by. Light meant there were people, and if it came down to that, I wanted to avoid it. The first door I came across with no light I sprinted through.
"She's going in there!"
"Stop her!"
There was a chair just inside that I jammed under the food handle. It was only now that I realised the room I ducked into was a cupboard. Just above the door was a small window that opened out into the hallway. I crouched down, just against the wall where the door was. None of them would be tall enough to get a gun through the window unless they grabbed something, so I needed this cover from that.
There was a slam against the door, before heavy banging again, and again, "Get out of there!"
"Go fuck yourself!" I yelled back.
The two men were muttering to each other for a second, nothing that I could really hear. The first thing I managed to make out was: "She's just a kid."
"I don't fucking care!" The other one snapped.
I needed to find a way out. Still crouched, I moved around the cupboard I was hiding behind before opening some of the doors, seeing what I could use to get out of the room. The first thing at the front of the cupboard was sugar.
Fucking sugar.
I had hoped this place was a weapon store, but it was a utility room, a pantry. The only thing here was food and rubbish bins that had yet to be filled. Basically useless, unless you knew how to use it . . . which I did.
And I had an idea.
I pulled out the bag of sugar, before moving to the bin in the corner of the room. At the top was an empty tin can that had been washed of all the contents, the lid bent back but still attached. With the items in hand, I moved back to the corner, hidden behind the cupboard as I had been before.
"The fuck're y'all doin' standing round in 'ere?"
Merle.
The open window above the door made his voice come through clear as day. That meant there were three of them outside now, and if I waited much longer, there were going to be more. This has to work, I thought desperately.
"The one we managed to separate locked themselves in there," came the second voice, one of the soldiers that had been talking before Merle arrived.
"Yeah, it's a girl too."
"The farmer's daughter?"
"No, different," the first voice said. "Younger."
"Sixteen, seventeen at most," the other added.
After pouring sugar into the can, I sat up on my knees and pulled out a drawer, pushing all the junk aside until I saw what I needed. Twine. In the drawer behind, there was a small can of lighter fluid and a kitchen lighter and two pliers. I would need both.
I poured some lighter fluid over the twine, chopping at the dry part with my knife, before placing the edge into the can, a good amount hanging out over the edge. I ripped some of the paper from the sugar bag and bunched it around the twine inside the can, more fuel for the trigger.
All I needed now was an explosive.
I grabbed my gun from the holster and dropped the magazine into my hand. There were a lot of bullets left, I hadn't actually used the handgun left so this was probably for the best. I pulled out two bullets. Gunpowder was too explosive and dangerous for this bomb, two had to be more than enough.
"So, what?" Merle asked. "Ya both 'fraid of getting killed by a teenage girl?"
"She's got an M4," one of them snapped back. "Some fucking pick thing."
"It's not exactly like she's unarmed," came a calmer voice. "Besides, I'm not gunning down a teenage girl."
"Orders are shoot to kill, Brownie," Merle reminded him.
"You do what the fuck you want, I'm not killing a kid."
I used the pliers to twist the bullet casings apart, pouring the gunpowder into the tin can. I covered it with my hand and gently shook the tin to mix the gunpowder and sugar, before closing the lid as tight as I could to hold the twine in place.
"Get a hatchet," Merle ordered one of them, I assumed the one that was okay with killing me. There was a more than eager reply, something along the lines of you got it, before the footsteps indicated one of them walking away.
This was my chance.
After reassembling my gun, I holstered it and stood up and jumped over to the door as quick as I could. I pressed my back against the frame, still hidden from any prying guns. I leant forwards and grabbed the kitchen lighter, before climbing up onto the chair that held the door shut.
Keeping my head below the window, I lifted one knee to hold the bomb, and tried lighting the twine, click after click after click before there was fire. I held the string against the flame, and waited for it to catch before dropping the gas lighter on the ground.
I held the tin in my hand for a few seconds, watching the flame near the lid of the can. When fear kicked in that my bomb may actually work, I held it out through the window and dropped it down outside the door.
The tin clattered to the ground, and there was a brief moment of silence where I thought that my bomb would fail. There was no sound from any of the men, and I imagined them just staring at it.
"FUCKIN' RUN!"
Their footsteps came next, fast and loud as they ran away, before BOOM! The hissing sound followed, and the smoke came up and in through the window above in seconds. I jumped off the chair and pulled it away from the door before running out into the hallway.
I couldn't see a thing, the smoke definitely had worked. I sprinted onwards, going in the opposite directions I had heard the footsteps going. There had to be some kind of way out if I just kept looking, even if I had to jump out of a window.
The men were again moving around more, probably when they realised the bomb was just a smoke bomb and not anything more dangerous. Maybe I should have made the bomb more dangerous. They would struggle to find me, at least for a little while.
At the back of the building there was a firedoor. I slammed my body into it, pushing the bar down with the side of the gun and it flung open into the wall behind it. Outside, there was a wall to the outside, stairs up to the top so people could take watch, but no one was there, all probably out in the main street to help with the fighting.
I sprinted across the clearing to the stairs, my grip on the gun weaker as it swung back and forth, following my hips as I ran.
"STOP!"
My feet slid as I did so, whoever it was had a gun on me, which meant I was a hundred percent getting shot. My hands released the gun so I could top myself from hitting the ground, and I saw the man behind me.
It was the one I had seen talking to Merle earlier, from the sound of his voice it was the man that said he didn't want to gun down a teenage girl. Well, that thought seemed to have slipped his mind because he had a gun pointed straight at me.
The man was just staring me down, not saying anything, pointing an SMG straight at me. I had the armour on, but I was sure it would not stop bullets, especially from a close range gun at this close a distance.
Then he turned his eyes away, looking up at the building beside him, checking the darkened windows that looked down at us. I also followed his gaze, seeing no one in any of the windows above us. His actions were strange to me, completely useless. His people thought of me as an intruder, so killing me in front of anyone would be more than understood to them.
The aim of the gun fell down a little, but raised it immediately when he heard a voice on the radio at his belt. "You got anything?"
I cringed, closing my eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was it.
"No," the man answered, and I opened my eyes. "I must've missed her."
Did he just . . . ?
When he was done, he clipped it to his belt and lowered the gun. "Get out before the sweep gets here."
Without another word, he turned away and walked between the buildings.
I wasted no time, turning away and running back to the wall, climbing up the stairs. I dropped my bag over the wall, looking down at the drop. It wasn't too high, and it seemed easy enough to descend. I kneeled and lowered my leg down the side of the wall, wedging my foot between two of the tires.
Pushing myself away from the wall, I managed to get my feet underneath me and land properly, my hands hitting the ground to stabilise myself. I grabbed the bag and ran off, needing desperately to find the rest of my people.
The only thing I knew to do was walk back along the wall until I found the area we had entered Woodbury before. Along that area was a train carriage, just one that would have been used to transport things, a rusty orange exterior. I looked back, realising I was now around the front of Woodbury again, the sentry light swaying wildly back and forth.
I hadn't seen any patrol from Woodbury, no one since I had gotten outside. With all the commotion we had caused in the walls, there was a good chance that they had called the patrols back to help take everyone out.
A snap was next to me, and a gun was pressed against my head for a millisecond. I couldn't see the person until they dropped the gun and stepped in front of me. "Rick?"
"Ace?"
"It's Ace?" Glenn rushed out from behind the cart, followed by Maggie who was trying to keep him standing as he rushed my way. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. He was still hurt, I could tell, using me to keep himself up. Maggie placed her hand on my shoulder, and then held Glenn's arm as he pushed himself back away from the hug.
Rick was still stunned as he reached forward and hugged me, "How?"
"I ran into a building and got chased. Then I got stuck in a cupboard and Merle and some others were trying to get inside so I made a smoke bomb and almost got caught but one of the soldiers pretended that he didn't have a gun pointed at me and let me go—" I looked around, cutting myself off mid sentence. "Where's Daryl?"
"He said he would cover us," Maggie said. "Didn't make it out."
That hit me like a truck, but there was still more. "And Oscar?"
Rick just shook his head.
I frowned, shaking my head. Oscar hadn't been with us for long, but it was strange that he was now gone. This shouldn't have happened like this, and I wished I could have been more upset about the matter, but I really didn't know him well.
But I still couldn't get my mind off Daryl. Everyone apart from that one soldier had been shooting at us, ready to kill us. If Daryl had been caught inside, there was a good chance that they would be trying to kill him.
Unless Merle found him.
"So . . . what are we doing?" I asked. "Why are you just waiting here?"
"We needed to see if anyone could make it out first, you did."
"But Daryl is missing."
"You were missing," Glenn said.
"But we have to find Daryl," I said.
Rick pulled me away from Glenn and Maggie a few steps. It surprised me that he wanted to have a private conversation about this with me, "We will, we'll find him. We need to give it a few more minutes, see if he can get out himself. Glenn's not in good shape and we don't know what happened to Maggie. I don't want them walking back to the car right now, less chance of them getting caught."
I pursed my lips.
He was right. Glenn had Maggie had gone through enough, they couldn't go back in and look for Daryl. It made me think back to when we needed to get them out in the first place, and how Daryl wanted to find his brother.
My face scrunched up, "Are you sure he didn't stay on purpose?"
Rick breathed out a sigh, his face coming to the same conclusion I had thought up. "Let's just hope if he doesn't get out, Merle gets to him first."
"How long do we need to wait?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," he shook his head. "Come on, we need to stay hidden from patrols."
We hadn't been there for long, waiting behind the car we had been hiding behind before we entered the town. Glenn was breathing heavily as he rested on the ground, still sitting up as much as he could to be ready.
"Come on, Daryl," Rick muttered beside me.
There was a noise from the direction I had come from, a gravel crunching. Rick glanced at me, pulling out his revolver, before standing up to walk in the direction of the sound. I followed him with my own handgun.
"Ace," Glenn grabbed the back of my gear, and I looked back, but Maggie had already gone to join Rick, leaving Glenn still on the ground behind the car. I placed my arm under his, dragging him up to his feet. I helped him walk over as well, my gun still up. Glenn had also managed to hold his handgun up, pushing me away when he was able to support himself, but his hand remained on my shoulder.
Michonne was crawling out from under the train carriage, and Rick cocked his gun the second it landed on her. "Where the hell were you?"
She was injured, it looked like she was just as bad as Glenn. She had to use the side of the carriage to get her to her feet. There were cuts across her face, and her skin was glistening like she was covered in water.
"Put your hands up," Rick ordered, and she did as she was told, her face solemn. "Turn around. Turn around!"
He reached forwards and pulled the sword from her sheaf, and she turned back to face us very slowly. Rick still had the gun pointed straight at her head, the barrel facing down as he had the gun held to high.
"Get what you came for?" Rick seethed.
Michonne glanced around. "Where are the rest of your people?"
"If you'd have stayed, you'd know," I snapped.
I couldn't even be sorry.
Daryl was in trouble, maybe dead. If she had been there for them, maybe she could have prevented it somehow. She could have been there for them. If I had been there maybe I could have done something, but I had been separated. They needed her there, and she promised she would help us.
Clearly, I was wrong to trust her.
"They got Oscar," Glenn snapped, the gun shaking has he shifted his weight. The look on his face was so full of anger, yet he somehow kept his finger off the trigger.
"Daryl is missing," Maggie said. "You didn't see him?"
Michonne just shook her head.
"I thought that she got trapped in there," she nodded in my direction. "Heard some people talking on the way out."
Rick stepped impossibly closer to her, leaning his weight towards her. "If anything happens to him—"
"—I brought you here to save them," Michonne stopped him.
Rick made eye contact with me. I couldn't tell whether he was mad at me because she was here or just trying to show me how unreasonable she was being. It didn't matter, I was mad about both things as well.
"Thanks for the help," Rick answered sarcastically.
"You need me," Michonne stated quickly, "whether it's to take them back to the prison or go in there and help you find Daryl. You need my help."
I hated that too, because we did need her for something. Glenn and Maggie had to get out of here, the same as Rick had told me when I wanted to find Daryl, so we either needed her for that or to assist Rick. However, I didn't trust her to stay with any of them. She could ditch Glenn and Maggie in the woods if she went with them, or she could ditch one of us inside Woodbury.
After some thought, Rick turned to me. "Are you okay to go back in?"
Glenn looked at me, shaking his head, but I pretended I didn't see it as I nodded. "Yeah."
"Good," he said. "You and me are going back in there to save Daryl."
"No," Glenn stepped forward. "Ace already got stuck in there once," he was telling Rick, and then turned to me. "You would have died if a soldier hadn't taken pity on you. I'll go back inside."
"No," Rick stopped him. "Michonne is going to take you and Maggie back to the car."
Glenn opened his mouth to interject again, but Maggie stood at his side and stipped him. I was glad, unsure if I would be able to argue with him in his current state. He couldn't go in, but someone had to go and if Michonne ditched Rick, he could end up dead too. I would be there for him, make sure nothing bad happened by keeping as many things in my power as I could.
Rick turned back to Michonne, leaning closer to her face as he had done before to be threatening, "if you try and pull anything else—"
"—I won't," she interrupted.
He huffed, continuing to stare her down. I saw his face twitch for a split second, before he leaned back and held her sword out to her, reluctantly handing it over. Michonne took it and slid it back into the sheaf.
Before heading back inside the walls, Rick showed me how to use the gun again, how to see the number of bullets I had left and ensuring that I knew how to reload. He gave me some of the smoke and flash grenades, which I kept in my bag.
There were less people around than what there had been the first time we entered the camp. We kept out of sight and hidden a lot, but it seemed like our attempts to remain undetected were completely useless, because there was no one around.
That was until we saw a group of people, unarmed people, all heading in the same direction. There were more and more and more heading the same way, like they were all going on some kind of gathering.
"Looks like they're headed that way for some reason," Rick said. "They're all civilians, and this is past curfew."
"I'd say maybe they're doing public execution, but they weren't going to do that for Glenn and Maggie," I said, now worried that they had caught Daryl. Well, at this point it was kind of obvious that he'd been captured, because the shooting had died down almost thirty minutes ago. "I don't understand."
"With all the shooting, maybe they want someone to blame, or his people are gonna start questioning what happened," Rick said. "We should wait until they all pass and follow 'em."
As soon as it seemed like everyone had entered the clearing that they were all heading to, we followed. Everyone stood on these raised platforms, all circled around the middle to create some kind of stage, and there were concrete blocks with chains coming out of them on either side.
The people we saw walking in were all grouped together, with the soldiers dotted around the stands, some not so far away from us, all holding their guns. They seemed unfazed about the attack, like they weren't expecting another.
How could they not? I thought. They still had Daryl.
I could see Merle now, too. And behind him was the man that had let me go when he had a gun to me.
Rick stopped us behind a wheelie bin at the front of the arena. As we looked inside, I saw someone enter the middle of the arena from just opposite where we were hiding.
The man wore a long grey coat with a darker button up underneath. He had brown hair that was being squashed down by a bandage that extended around the back of his head, and blood was starting to fill a white patch that covered his eye. He stood in the middle of the arena, looking at the people as he turned.
That must be the Governor.
This was the first time I had seen him, now having a face for the man who allowed the torture of my family. I clenched my teeth as a loud breath came out of my nose. Part of me was happy seeing how badly he was hurt, and it now clicked in my head that his injuries, his eye, must have been the working of Michonne.
And a small part of me forgave her for that.
"What can I say? Hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed. And I thought we were past it," My hand gripped the gun tighter, and I could feel Rick place a hand on my shoulder, shaking his head, trying to get me to calm down. The Governor continued, "Past the days when we all sat, huddled, scared in front of the T.V. during the early days of the outbreak. The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I failed you. I promised to keep you safe. Hell, look at me."
He extended his arms and gestured to himself, then his face. His stupid face. While I couldn't say specifically what he had done to torture Glenn and Maggie, he was more than involved. I knew for sure that something terrible happened to Maggie, that fact that she had on a whole new shirt was more than enough indication, but if there was one thing I could say about Merle, it was that I didn't believe he would do that. I remember Daryl saying 'he ain't like that' when I asked if he would've been involved in Randall's group, and they were known to do the same thing. Merle may have hurt Glenn, but he didn't touch Maggie.
The Governor on the other hand, I knew nothing about, which made him all the more guilty in my mind.
"You know, I . . . I should tell you that we'll be okay, that we're safe, that tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I won't, because I can't," he said. "Because I'm afraid. That's right. I'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. Want to destroy us!"
As he yelled, the crowd got more agitated, still agreeing with and understanding their leader and the sob story he was telling them.
"And worse," he said, his voice lower now, "because one of those terrorists . . . is one of our own."
More shock amongst the crowd, most of them now standing and the rest left on the edge of their seats. They mumbled amongst one another, trying to work out who the traitor was. In all fairness, so was I, because we had no help.
My first thought was that he would blame the man who let me go, the one who saved me, maybe someone had seen him do it and this way he would have someone to blame, so his people had someone to blame for the terrorist attack. But that wasn't the case.
"Merle!" The Governor pointed to his right hand man.
The people gasped as he called out his name, all eyes shooting to look at him. Merle looked outraged, as I assumed he would be after being falsely accused of helping us. As he looked over his shoulder, the man who saved me pointed the SMG at his back. They took the knife from his prosthetic, and took his gun from his holster, before shoving him into the arena.
Merle took a few steps forwards, his eyes now never leaving the Governor as he spoke, "The man I counted on, the man I trusted. He led 'em here. And he let 'em in," the Governor faced him. "It was you. You lied, betrayed us all."
From the direction the Governor came out from, I saw two people dragging out a man with a bag over his head, his hands tied behind his back. I recognised the shirt enough to know who it was, and gripped Rick's arm as way of telling him.
He never stopped looking at the scene, but it was obvious, he knew too.
"This is one of the terrorists!" The Governor called out, grabbing the man by his arm and dragging him back to the centre of the arena as he struggled. "Merle's own brother."
He yanked the bag off of Daryl's head, who shuffled around, jerking his arm to get away from the Governor who let him go.
"What should we do with them, huh?!"
There was a roar from the count as they shouted back, "KILL THEM! KILL THEM!"
"What? What do you want?" The Governor taunted.
The crowd continued yelling and shouting, all of them standing up and waving their arms in outrage. Children were smiling at the idea. It was sick. Parents lifting them up and holding them on their shoulders so they would have a better view.
The Governor walked over to Merle, muttering something to him specifically before he started walking around again, enjoying the way he had his people reacting over the idea of killing them. Killing someone they had grown to know and trust.
I shook my head, my face scrunching up.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw someone try and push their way to the Governor, and I was slightly relieved that someone in there was against this idea. Until I saw who the person was. Andrea's arms got grabbed by a soldier as she tried speaking to the Governor.
Andrea? My mind screamed. What the fuck?
"Rick," was all I had to say.
"I see it."
The Governor stood in front of them, staring at them now, as he called out, "I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother," the crowd cheered out a 'Yeah!' "Winner goes free. Fight to the death!"
The crowd yelled and cheered, their screams of rage turning into one of joy and laughter. I hated all of them. But I couldn't blame them. They were manipulated into thinking this was the right way to live, that this was something that needed to happen.
I looked at Rick, "We need to do something."
"I know," he started rifling through his bag, looking at the supplies he had left as he tried formulating some kind of idea. "Let me think of something."
"Y'all know me!" Merle's yelling brought my attention back to the arena, as he raised a hand to his people. "I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to prove—" He slammed a punch into Daryl's stomach, making him keel over and fall to the ground, before he continued, "that my loyalty—" he then kicked him, sending Daryl rolling over, "is to this town!"
As Merle continued to beat Daryl, and as the town cheered, more people came out from the back. This time, they had walkers attached to metal grabbers, using the pole to lead them to the fight as the walkers reached out to grab every person it saw. There were four of them now, all being led around to circle Merle and Daryl.
Merle leaned down to grab Daryl, who's arm snapped up to punch him. Merle stumbled back, his hand squeezing against his nose that had blood pouring down from a plaster that was there from another injury. Daryl jumped up to grab him, but Merle managed to take him to the ground again.
"Rick," I pushed anxiously.
"I know," he said. "I know."
They were still fighting on the ground, pushing at each other, arms wrapped around the other's neck like they were actually going to kill each other. I couldn't watch anymore, shaking my head and looking down at the ground in front of me.
"There's too many soldiers in there, we're gonna have to kill some," I looked at Rick, and just as I was about to nod, agree with him, he grabbed my wrist. "Are you sure you can do this?"
My lips pressed into a thin line, and only now I had actually considered killing any of these people myself. I didn't want to. I didn't want to kill anybody, and I knew that doing this would completely wreck me afterwards.
But I was pissed.
I was so angry with the Governor, his men, what they had done to Glenn and Maggie. What they were doing right now. If I didn't do this, we wouldn't be able to save Daryl. If killing a few people was the only way we could save our own, then I would have to do it. People had killed to save me, Daryl had killed to save me.
Now I had to do the same.
"If not, then I—"
I shook my head, cutting him off, "I got it."
Rick looked just as unsure as I felt, but he gave a single wanted this less than I did, I could tell. He placed a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze, before grabbing his gun and lifting himself up a little.
I grabbed the machine gun, placing it up on the bin to keep it stable
"The scope is accurate," he told me. "Line it up with their heads."
I nodded, looking down the scope and testing the aim for a second, seeing how quickly I was able to switch targets with this big of a gun. It would be a struggle, but after a few turns, I could accurately stop myself and land the gun directly on the soldiers.
"Okay," I said finally.
What surprised me as we stared out onto the arena, was that Merle had grabbed Daryl's shirt and dragged him to his feet. They were both back-to-back now, each facing a different group of the walkers, pushing them back or punching them away.
"I guess it's now or never," Rick muttered. "We'll shoot the walkers first, then the people. Last thing we want is for him to get bit. When they're clear, we'll aim for the lights. I'll throw smokes in, it should be enough of a distraction to give Daryl a chance to get out."
"What about Merle?"
Rick was quiet for a beat. "Whatever happens, happens. He ain't our problem."
I nodded. "Got it."
My finger went to the trigger, and I squeezed my teeth together in anticipation. I was really doing this, this was actually happening. I thought back to how I told Rick that I didn't want the fighting, the killing to start feeling normal, and now I was doing it myself.
This is never going to get normal, not for you . . . I hoped he was right.
Because I shot.