Newly Revised
Merle walked into the room that Glenn was being held in, the man having already been smacked a couple times by the others and duct taped to a chair. He glared at Merle as the man came into the room, but Merle didn't really care what the Chinese boy had to say about him or thought of him when he had tried like hell to get the man to go. It hadn't been his fault that the man's bitch wouldn't listen to him when he'd told her to get the fuck away and he sure as hell couldn't be faulted for what had already happened when he'd warned both of them about what would happen. The Governor simply did not take into account that Merle knew these people when he sent him into the room with Glenn, let alone the fact that they knew where Daryl was right now. No matter what happened after this, Merle would help these people get out of the situation they were in just to make sure they were rightfully indebted to him and would be forced to take him to his brother. After that, well, who knew what would happen other than the fact that he could forget about Chrystal's tales and her damn sister that plagued his thoughts anymore.
"Now, now," he told Glenn with his hand raised. "It's just us and your girl in the next room. Now, I'm gonna have ta rough ya up a bit, put on a good show," he walked over to a wall and banged on it. "Ya hear that, girly? We gonna put on a show. And then we're gettin' the fuck outta here and you're takin' me to my brother," he said, walking back over to Glenn and pulling out a knife from his ankle. "We got us an understandin'?" Glenn looked reluctant, but nodded after a moment of consideration. Merle walked up and placed the knife at the man's back, carefully making sure it was hidden from sight. "Now, here's where the show starts. Put your tongue between yer teeth," he said, watching the man do as he said before delivering a blow.
Merle didn't hold back when he was beating Glenn since he needed to make it believable so that the game they were playing didn't wind up with all three of them dead. Glenn didn't back down though, and headbutted the man, causing Merle to get even more heated as his nose bled yet again, yelling about where their camp was the entire time, losing himself in the show he was putting on. For a moment, he completely forgot where he was aiming and started going to town on the boy's chest and stomach, too, before he took a step back and looked at his handiwork. The boy's face was bloodied and bruising, one eye almost swollen shut, blood dripping from his mouth as he bent forward trying to catch his breath after the brutal beating he'd received.
"Shit," Merle said. "Damn, son! You got more in ya than I took ya for."
"Why are you helping us?" Glenn asked.
"Shit, now, ain't that the million dollar question," Merle said honestly. "I wanna be back with my baby brother, that's why. Ain't got no business bein' in this place. Few too many souls bound for below, if you catch my drift."
"You've changed," Glenn stated.
"Maybe. Maybe I just found out I ain't had it the worst like I thought," Merle mused, causing Glenn to look up at him in confusion.
Glenn opened his mouth to ask another question, but Merle just turned around and headed out the door, slamming it as he exited and not wanting to tell the man that without doubt he'd figured out his life hadn't been so bad. There was no way in hell was he going to be telling these people about Chrystal and her sick stories, let alone Titania, who's life had been so utterly destroyed by her family. He left the building to seek out the Governor and let him know that he 'had gotten nothing' from their prisoners only to find Andrea talking to one of the citizens about how things were run instead. Merle interrupted the conversation asking if he could borrow Blondie for a few, the man she'd been talking to smiling and patting him on the shoulder as he left, even as Merle scowled at him.
"Now, I wanna know about this friend of yours," Merle demanded from Andrea, sick of waiting for the woman to give him answers willingly.
"Does it have anything to do with your grudge against Chrystal?" she asked in response.
"Maybe it does, maybe it don't."
"You weren't that great of a brother once upon a time yourself," Andrea told him, feeling bold and seeing if she could get any information out of him.
"Think I don't know that? Hell, been thrashing the boy his whole life. Got a lot a makin' up to do," he said, revealing what Andrea wanted to know.
"So, she is Chrystal's sister," Andrea muttered just loudly enough for Merle to hear it.
"You keep that shit to yourself, ya hear?" Merle warned, looking around and making sure no one from their inner circle heard. "You know where she is?"
"No more than you do your brother," Andrea told him honestly; the last place she'd seen Tea was with Daryl at the farm and there was no telling where she was now.
"Yeah, 'bout that. Shit's goin' down, and soon. Might have to make a run for it. You game?" Merle said, looking at her.
"I can't, not yet."
"If it's about Chrystal, you keep your trap shut on knowin' her sister. That bitch-"
"Is not right in the head, yeah, I know. I was told her dad knocked her out and left her in the forest over a question put to Chrystal, who didn't know the answer but she did. Chrystal started a damn bully campaign over her name just because they were in the same grade," Andrea said, looking off and sounding disgusted.
"So you do know her and what she's been through," Merle mused. "Care to share with the class? You gotta know who she is."
"Let's just say, she's closer than you think," Andrea said, enjoying the look of confusion on Merle's face as she smiled at him; if he found a way to get to Daryl, he'd find who else he was looking for soon enough.
"So why the hard pass?" Merle asked after a few minutes as they walked to the Governor's apartment.
"If something's brewing, staying here a day or two might just be the difference between life or death. Might be able to dig up some information in the process."
"Smart, Blondie. Where'd you come up with that?" he asked her, though he was pretty sure she was staying for the Governor, who'd she been making eyes at since she arrived.
"It's what Tea would do," Andrea stated plainly.
"Yeah, that crazy bitch. She ever admit to hookin' up with my brother?"
"They, uh, were pretty much joined at the hip while we were at the farm. She became one of the leaders there, too."
"Y'all trusted that nutcase to lead?!" Merle said shocked.
"Tea actually made a pretty good leader. Put Lori in her place a time or two for not letting up on the domestic stuff. Made sure our asses were covered when we were threatened," Andrea told him before going quiet. "She killed Shane."
"What'd 'e do to make her kill him, 'eh?" Merle asked baffled. "He get a little too rough tryin' to get in her pants?"
"Yeah," Andrea told him. "He tried to rape her. She fought back and won."
"Damn, never thought she had it in her," he said, realizing that she could have killed him if she had wanted to. "Sure could pack a punch, though."
"That she could," Andrea said, noticing the Governor coming out of his apartment with Martinez.
"Just the people I wanted to speak to," Philip said when he walked up to them. "Andrea, would you wait in my office. I'll be right along."
They watched her walk into the building before the Governor turned back to Merle, "So, what'd you find out?"
"Not much. Tough son of a bitch to crack," Merle said. "Wailed on him good for a good while and he still wouldn't talk."
"So they know Andrea."
"But they don't know she's here."
"But they do know your brother."
"He does. But I don't know about the girl. I've never seen her before."
"Their people may come for 'em."
"Maybe, the kid and Andrea both say they went back for me."
"So what? He won't break, say where his people are?"
"He's a tough son of a bitch. I threw a walker in there with him after you left," Martinez said. "He took it apart in minutes."
"Maybe a winter in the sticks put some hair on his balls," Merle said.
"We'll need him for leverage if his people come," Martinez said.
"What's the girl say?"
"I was just about to go talk to her next," Merle told him.
"I'll take care of it," the Governor said, much to Merle's dismay, happy he'd warned the pretty girl of what could happen beforehand.
~x~
When Philip entered his office a short time later with Milton at his side, he explained to Andrea all about Milton's experiment and how he needed her with him. The man was a little naive when it came to walkers, and his experiment, while necessary, might go wrong very easily and lead to his most trusted advisor getting hurt. Andrea, knowing how to handle herself, was the perfect candidate to watch over the entire process and end the experiment as needed to ensure Milton did not make a mistake. Philip told her that while Milton had the best of intentions at heart, he would often become blinded by his desire to gain knowledge, especially when it came to the walkers. He didn't want to take the chance that the man's curiosity and beliefs would result in him being bitten or killed and since Andrea knew what to watch out for, she could make sure that didn't happen. The last thing anyone wanted was to deal with an attack within the walls when the walls hadn't been breached in months and they hadn't had to deal with someone turning into a walker since they'd learned death wasn't an escape from being a walker.
Milton led her to an apartment and introduced her to Mr. Coleman. After a few minutes of just standing there doing nothing, she asked Milton, "So, what exactly are you-?"
He quickly cut her off, "Could you cue up the first song on the record?"
"Sure," she said.
"On my mark," he said.
After using a singing bowl, he nodded to Andrea and then began asking a serious of questions to the man that seemed to have nothing to do with anything that would make a difference. While the man responded to the questions positively, proving he was still cognitive, he was so weak and frail that he could barely move his hand to answer the questions. Andrea knew she was here to make sure the man actually died when he passed away but the way Milton was acting made her realize that Philip had been right. Milton was too invested into the experiment and absolutely sure that he was correct in the thought that something remained behind when someone became a walker. She had to admit that once upon a time she had been just as hopeful which was the entire reason why she had waited until the last minute to kill Amy. It had been a futile hope that her sister would still recognize her and a part of her would come back, but that hope had faded when Amy started breathing after spending a night without and then grabbed at her. She had been forced to use more strength than she thought she would have to in order to keep Amy from taking a chunk out of her as soon as she became a walker. Every time Andrea thought about it had the guilt from missing most of Amy's life and never really being there for her until her sister had died and she had to make sure she stayed down. It was probably the most difficult action and choice she had ever made in her life and she could still smell the blood that had splattered all over her face when she'd pulled the trigger.
"He's asked that we keep it playing while we wait," Milton told Andrea, pulling her out of her reverie while looking around at the various items in the room. "After Mr. Coleman passes we'll restrain him. He'll reanimate. I'll ask the questions again, record his responses. I need you to end the subject's reanimated state."
"Alright," was all Andrea could say even though this idea was absolutely stupid.
"I've been trying to determine whether trace memory and human consciousness exist after the subject has transformed, but I had no baseline to work off of 'til now," Milton told her. "Prostate cancer. We didn't have the resources to treat it, so he volunteered to be the test subject. He's been very cooperative. He's a remarkable man."
"You're close?" she asked as she watched him take a drink of his tea.
"We spent a lot of time together. The song, the singing bowl, the questions. We've done that a few dozen times. These are cues that will hopefully linger in his unconscious mind after he's died."
"There is no unconscious mind, Milton," Andrea told him, remembering what she had learned at the CDC. "When they turn, they become monsters. That's all. Whatever they once were, it's gone."
"We'll see," he told her.
She studied him as he walked away, "You haven't seen this before, have you? The transformation?"
"No," he admitted, grabbing a file off his desk.
"No one in your family was-?"
"I'm an only child. My parents died when I was young."
"Weren't you with anyone when everything went down?"
"I telecommuted to work. I never really," whatever he was going to say was left to hang as he suddenly bent to check Mr. Coleman's pulse.
Clearing his throat, he motioned for Andrea to help him restrain the now still body of the man before they got comfortable and waited several hours before he began to reanimate. They spent the time in silence aside from the music that she had to restart every so often while Milton scribbled in his notebook and otherwise ignored her. She still couldn't understand how the man was so ignorant about the walkers when Philip had been the one to tell her that everyone turned when they died. Andrea had to figure out why the Governor was even allowing this experiment to happen when he knew what happened when their lives ended. It was difficult for her to wrap her head around as Milton sat up and checked Mr. Coleman's pulse confirming that he was in fact dead as his eyes began to open and his breath came out raspy.
"It's happening," she told him.
Milton did the singing bowl and then cued Andrea to start the song once again, "My name is Milton Mamet. Please raise your right hand off the bed if you recognize any of the following statements to be true. Your name is Michael Coleman. You were married to Betty Coleman," he said as he held up a picture with no real movement only to hold up another picture shortly after, "You're children were Michael Jr. and Emily." The restrained wrist barely started to move when Milton got excited, "Did you see that? He responded."
"The fingers move. That could be anything," Andrea tried to reason.
"No, he can't raise his hand. It's the angle. I want to try again, without the restraints."
"No," Andrea said firmly.
Milton stood up, "We may have tethered his consciousness. We have to try. I know what happens if the subject comes for us. That's what you're here for."
"As soon as we pull the restraints, he'll lunge," she told him.
The man refused to listen as he practically threw his journal down on the chair he'd been sitting on as he moved to the bed and started undoing the restraint while repeating his earlier words. As Andrea had predicted, as soon as the restraint was off, the corpse grabbed hold of Milton's shirt and tried to pull him down to take a bite. It was Andrea's well placed and well timed blade that was the only thing that saved him from being bitten; Milton just sat there shocked for a few seconds before standing and clearing his throat, unable to even look at Andrea in his shame at being wrong.
"I think I'd like to record my findings while they're fresh," he told her, leaving her to leave the room feeling bad for the man.
~x~
Merle was pissed at the Governor even though he had warned Glenn and his girl that the man would pull something as deranged as this. It was absolutely disgusting how the Governor was parading the girl around the torture rooms topless with her arms crossed over her chest being her only coverage. Merle had tried to be as helpful as he could be and had made sure he had been the one to 'question' Glenn, but he hadn't been afforded the same privilege to get to the girl and help her. He was happy to see the man wasn't stupid enough to bring out the knife just yet when he walked into the room with the Governor and Martinez. Instead of the knife, Glenn had the broken arm of the chair held up as a weapon when Merle held up his hands, slightly gesturing with his eyes and head towards Martinez. Merle gave the man a look with eyes downcast in shame as the Governor held onto the woman so and refused to let her go; Man took a leaf right out of Chrystal's fuckin' handbook, he thought scornfully.
"Now, we're through playing games," the Governor told them as he pulled out a gun. "Now one of you is going to give up your camp."
He acted like he was going to press it to Maggie's head, but then turned it to Glenn, who shook his head at the girl trying to get her not to say anything. Merle knew that one of them were going to spill the beans on where their camp was even though he didn't want them to. Daryl was back at their camp and if the Governor knew where it was, he would surely rain hellfire down on it and kill everyone there. Even if he hated that bitch that got her claws into his brother, he didn't want to be the one to help the Governor go in and destroy the place. Now that he was taking after Chrystal and being more perverted with the girl, there was no telling what the Governor would do to the women at the prison. While that psycho was the bane of his existence, Merle had never once condoned rape or assault of any woman and still held true to the promise he'd made to himself never to hit another woman. If he was being completely honest with himself, the only woman he'd even thought of hitting since was Chrystal when she was making fun of what she'd done to Titania. He came back to focus on the situation at hand when the woman opened her mouth in fear having already listened to Glenn getting the shit knocked out of him and what the Governor had done to her.
"The prison," she told them.
"The one near Nunez?" Merle asked
"That place is over-run," Martinez said.
"We took it."
"How many are you?"
"Twelve. We have twelve now."
"Twelve people cleared that whole prison of biters?" the Governor said, sounding slightly impressed before he walked back over to the girl as Merle looked away with a scowl on his face. "Shh, shh, shh. It's alright. It's alright," he hugged her and gave her a kiss on her head. "It's alright." He shoved her towards Glenn then, walking out.
Martinez followed him, leaving Merle to walk out backwards with a look that told Glenn that he hadn't had any part of what had happened to his girl. Glenn couldn't believe what he was seeing in how much Merle had changed as the man's scowl deepened while he watched Maggie crying and clinging to him. Whatever it was that had him livid at Maggie's treatment had really changed him and he subtly tapped his thigh with his blade, nodding his head at Glenn who nodded back in a silent agreement to keep it hidden. They would need that blade and the surprise attack they could do with it if they were going to make it out alive and with minimal damage. He followed the men back to the Governor's office as Milton joined them and learned of what Merle's old group had managed to do with disbelief painted all over his face.
"Twelve people?" he asked. "That's deep in the red zone. There's no way only twelve people-"
"So she's lying?" the Governor cut him off. "'Cause if she's lying, that means a pretty sizable force has moved into our backyard. But if she's not, this group with your brother at its core has done something you told me couldn't be done. They did it," he chided at Merle.
"Yeah, well, we ain't got the brain power they do. That bitch, Tea, she knew more 'bout military tactics and combat than I do, and I was a damn soldier," Merle told him.
"Really now? How smart was she?" the Governor asked, the same glint in his eye from earlier.
"How the hell should I know?" he lied; even if she was crazy, there was no way he was handing her over to the Governor after what he'd just witnessed thanks to Chrystal's influence. "Just know the woman could take down more walkers by herself than any of the guys here could, includin' me. Hell, I've seen her take on a pack of 'em and come out on top."
"So she alone could have managed to handle the onslaught, is that what you're saying?" the Governor asked in disbelief, not thinking that one woman could do all that on her lonesome.
"With the others helpin' her, yeah, I'm sure she coulda figured out a way to do it," Merle said, thinking back to that first run and how well she had planned that and the number of walkers Daryl had told him she'd taken on alone.
"Interesting," the Governor mused. "You know, your brother might be out there right now, searching for those two. Blood is blood, right? Makes me wonder where your loyalties lie," he said, giving the man a hard stare, already starting to wonder simply because of the look on Merle's face when he was holding the pretty girl.
"Here," Merle told him with a straight look on his face, making sure it was schooled enough to be taken seriously.
"Good man," the Governor said as he smacked his shoulder. "You two get a small group and scout this prison," he told Merle and Martinez. "I wanna know exactly what we're dealing with."
"You got it," Martinez said.
They all filed out of the room while Merle sent a glare over to the back of the Governor's head as he thought about everything that had happened before with his father, and everything he'd heard about Titania. Blood ain't blood, not anymore. Family's still family, but fuck blood, he thought to himself, thinking of what Chrystal wanted to do to her blood if she ever found her. Hell, how his father had treated him and Daryl made the bastard seem like less than blood and more like a torturer that they'd had to put up with. Will Dixon didn't deserve to be called a father let alone family after everything he'd done to him and his brother and how he'd practically forced Merle into a life of crime as early ten, shortly after Daryl had been born. It was honestly the only thing that he regretted about his childhood; he had rarely ever been there for Daryl and when he was, he had ridden the boy's ass and only taught him what he'd needed to survive.
~x~
"You know her?" Rick asked.
"In a sense. She prolly won' even know who I am. We studied at the same dojo, her in the sword, me in mixed martial arts. Different senseis and everythin'. Heard 'er name in passin'. Badass with that sword, though. Like, even the sensei said she was betta than 'im by the end, though it wasn' a katana back then but a wakizashi, a smalla version."
"So you don't know her?"
"Not personally, but I've seen 'nough ta know she's a damn good person."
"How can you be sure?"
"I have an eidetic memory, Rick. I know who I know," Tea told him.
"She trustworthy?"
"I think so. She was only there 'bout a year 'fore she left. I don' know why, jus' thought she was fuckin' gorgeous wieldin' 'er blade, so I tended ta watch 'er practice."
"So you can tell us nothing about her?" Rick asked, annoyed by Tea's excitement at simply recognizing another person.
"Not true, I can tell ya she'd be pretty damn handy ta have 'round!" she countered. "Can' tell ya much, but somethin' is betta than nothin'."
They took the woman into the prison's commons room where Tea ordered Beth to get some water and a towel while Rick had Carl put a blanket down. As everyone got to work, he looked at Tea as she began calling more and more shots to the point that it was starting to look like the group had shifted from his main lead to hers. She'd barely been talking three weeks ago and now she had taken more control of the group than he had and couldn't help but think it had to have happened when he was out of it. Tea hadn't had as much control over the winter and although she had helped making most of the plans, Rick had been the one to give out the orders. Now he was barely being listened to when it came to decisions and he had noticed it had started when she allowed the group to vote on the inmates and their admittance into their good graces. He still hated that she had been able to talk everyone else but Lori, Carol, and himself that they should add the pair and while he knew that it had been a fair decision to put it to a vote, he still couldn't help but think that they were a threat. That thought had been intensified by Andrew's actions and how he had lost his wife and Carl had to bear the burden of making sure his mother didn't turn.
"She's not coming in the cell block," Rick told the group, Tea for the first time in a while agreeing with his decision.
"Not yet, anyways. If she wants ta stay, she'd be a great addition. Hell, shot and exhausted and still swingin' 'er sword 'round."
When Beth came up with the water, Tea took it from her and started cleaning Ms. Hawthorne's body of the walker guts that covered her chest. The feeling of water stirred the woman, and Tea did her best to comfort her as her eyes fluttered open and a look of confusion showing on her face. It was pretty obvious to her that the woman had been through the ringer with how exhausted she looked and how much guts were covering her. Her confusion was well warranted seeing as she had passed out outside the gates and yet had woken up surrounded by people while laying on the floor inside the prison. Tea could tell that the woman was rightfully wary of their group and couldn't help but think she might have run into some bad people before she made it here. She didn't know, however, how the woman had known to bring the formula with her let alone why she had come to the prison to begin with. If she didn't figure out why Hawthorne was here, though, she knew Rick would probably try to kick her out like he had the tried Axel and Oscar.
"Ms. Hawthorne?" she asked. "Do ya rememba me? From the Red Dragon Dojo?" Rather than answer, the woman decided to reach for her sword, which Tea kicked behind her, hard, sending it clattering away before telling her, "Ya ain' in any danga here, 'less ya goin' ta be stupid like that!"
"Ania, Phia," Daryl's voice called out as he came out of the cell blocks and saw the woman sitting on the floor. "Who the hell is this?"
"Ms. Hawthorne, though, ya mind givin' us a first name ta go with ya last name?" Tea said to him and then turned to ask her. "Please?"
She still didn't answer, just looked at Tea like she was trying to figure her out, probably wondering how the hell Tea knew her name. It honestly wasn't that surprising since she probably didn't even know who she was nor that they went to the same dojo since they had never been in the same area and Tea had just enjoyed watching her with a sword. She couldn't be surprised that the woman didn't trust her and how Rick was acting didn't help make her trust them anymore than she did whoever had put her in the state she was in. Daryl called out to them again, saying he had something he wanted to show them causing Tea to study him and see that he seemed excited, at the very least he was happy. Rick told Carl to grab the woman's things and they both turned to look at him, the woman with a glare and Tea in question as to why he would basically steal her things when she already didn't trust them.
"We'll keep this safe and sound," he said as he picked up the sword and held it up. "The doors are all locked. You'll be safe here. And we can treat that."
"I didn't ask for your help," she said venomously.
"Nah, ya didn', but would ya have ratha died than gettin' it? 'Sides, I can' watch someone die if I don' know whetha or not they deserve it. And what I know a ya from 'fore the world went ta shite, ya one a the good'uns. So stay 'ere and get some rest. We'll be back shortly," Tea told her gently.
Daryl closed and locked the door behind Tea as she walked into the cell block while still staring at the woman now trying to stand up, using the cell behind her as leverage. He could already hear the joyous reunion of mother and daughter and watched as Tea looked back at him with shock and happiness all over her face. Daryl could barely contain the smile that played on his lips when she came back and kissed him quickly before he just pushed his chin in the direction of the cells, ushering her forward. Carol was hugging Sophia when Tea walked up, a smile and a choked sob escaping from her as she barreled into the cell and she forced Carol into a tight hug and trapping Sophia between them.
"I knew it!" Tea cried. "I knew ya had the fight in ya!"
As she let go, Carol began a round of hugs and explanations for everyone, a bit shell shocked from Tea's sudden show of affection towards her. To be fair, Tea had just been so happy that the woman was back and she didn't have to console the little girl for the loss of her mother. Carol told them how she had fought her way into solitary confinement and gotten trapped in a closet after losing her knife in the one that had been chasing her. Everyone was happy until Carol caught sight of the baby, Tea hugging Carl as he tried not to cry from the loss of his mother and everything that had transpired since, especially the reunion between Sophia and Carol. Ms. Hawthorne was standing at the door to the cell block watching their group's interactions and realizing just how close knit their group was while Tea studied her and realized that she didn't expect it from them. Tea took her turn holding Little Lady before kissing her on the forehead and handing her back to Beth before they made their way back out into the commons, Daryl taking his crossbow. Rick seemed to be on a warpath, once again desperate to send the woman away rather than listening to anything anyone else had to say, even her. It was beginning to grate on Tea's nerves that she would have to have the argument for bringing people in yet again since Rick refused to listen. When they entered the commons, Tea moved closer to the woman while Rick started his own critique of her, though he didn't seem to see anything but a threat, making Tea roll her eyes.
"We can tend to that wound for you," he told the woman. "Give you a little food and some water and then send you on your way."
"If that's what ya want ta do," Tea chimed in with a pointed glare at Rick, getting one in return.
"But you're gonna have to tell us how you found us and why you were carrying formula," Rick continued in a voice just above a whisper.
The woman didn't answer, so Tea walked over and knelt down in front of her, "Met some bad people, eh? I'd be cautious too, but ya see, we had people goin' for supplies. They ain' back yet."
The woman looked her over, considering her features as she stared at the woman and tried to figure out if she actually knew her and how the woman knew her name. She had a grainy image of punk clothes and dark hair that popped into her mind, but nothing else and not what this girl seemed to be like with her tight clothes and bright hair. She had mentioned that they had trained at the same dojo, but she had only been there for a year and a half before she had to quit to focus on her career and other things she didn't want to think about anymore. It didn't help that the group actually seemed to be caring about each other, something that had been severely lacking in Woodbury as the townspeople seemed to be disconnected from what was actually happening right under their noses.
"The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty girl," she told them after taking a breath.
"What happened?" Rick asked.
"Were they attacked?" asked Hershel, who had followed them, as he stood from his seat.
"They were taken."
"Taken? By who?" Tea asked.
"By the same son of a bitch who shot me."
"Hey, these are our people," Rick said as he knelt down. "You tell us what happened now!"
As he said 'now,' he placed a hand harshly on the woman's wound, earning a round of movement from all ends, especially Tea who immediately saw red and hit his hand off the woman while standing in front of her. Daryl had intended to aim at the stranger, but where Tea was standing had his arrow aimed right at her heart, making him blanch before he moved to take her out of his sights. Tea was fuming as she stood in front of Rick, having so many times before dealt with the same treatment by her family when it came to being in public. They had always used her wounds against her when they were in the view of the public to remind her to behave and get her to answer questions when asked by others. The reminder of it from Rick had her fuming more than she had ever been towards Carol; hell, she hadn't even been this pissed at Shane. Rick didn't know why he was on the receiving end of Tea's aggression, glaring at her silently as she gave him the dirtiest and darkest look he'd ever seen on her face.
"Don't you ever touch me again!" the woman yelled at him.
"The fuck was that, Rick?! Don' ya eva put ya hands on a woman in my presence like that again! Ya hear me?!" Tea yelled at him as she pushed him back until she was comfortable with the distance she had put between him and Ms. Hawthorne and went back to said woman. "Sorry 'bout 'im. He jus' lost someone and ain' takin' it well. He had nah right ta do that. Nah right at all. But we need do ta know where our people are so's we can go get 'em."
"You came here for a reason," Rick said as he calmed himself down, Tea having effectively put him in his place.
"There's a town," Ms. Hawthorne stated. "Woodbury. About 75 survivors. I think they were taken there."
"A whole town?" Rick asked, surprised.
"It's run by this guy who calls himself the Governor. Pretty boy. Charmin'. Jim Jones type."
"He got muscle?" Daryl asked.
"Paramilitary wannabes. They have armed sentries on the wall."
"You know a way in?" asked Rick.
"The place is secure from walkers, but we could slip our way through."
After sharing a look, Rick asked her, "How'd you know how to get here?"
"They mentioned a prison, said which direction it was in. Said it was a straight shot."
"This is Hershel, the pretty girl's daddy. He'll patch ya up and afta, ya goin' ta help us get our people back, yeah?" Tea asked, receiving a nod.
They walked away while Hershel got to work, Carl watching for any signs the woman would attack and huddled in the far corner of the cell block with the other survivors. Sophia was sitting between Carol and Tea's legs while Daryl stood beside the stairs next to Tea as they watched Beth pace in fear. If the situation the woman had said was true, then they would be going against a large number of people with an unknown number of fighters and an unknown number of civilians. There was no way a group of that many survivors would have everyone knowing how to fight and that meant that they would have to find a way to tell which from which. It was frustrating as all hell that they had been put in this predicament when all winter they had spent either dodging walkers or dodging groups of raiders and yet there was this town where everyone seemed to be sitting pretty. And now that town had Maggie and Glenn being held who knew where within its walls and having who knew what done to them with how Ms. Hawthorne had spoken about the leader.
"How do you know we can trust her?" Oscar asked.
"This is Maggie and Glenn. Why are we even debating?" Beth asked him in return.
"We ain't. Ania and I'll go," Daryl told her, knowing Tea wouldn't let him go alone.
"Well, this place sounds pretty secure. You can't go alone."
Beth, Axel, and Oscar all stepped up to go on the trip with them while Rick looked to Tea and then back to the group that stepped up, telling them that they couldn't all go. In the end, it was decided that Beth and Carol would stay inside the prison with Hershel while Axel kept the fence line under control with the kids, who would also were told to stand guard. Oscar, Tea, Daryl, Rick, and Michonne, who'd finally given them her first name, would go on the rescue mission, taking two vehicles and the weapons they found in the prison. Daryl and Tea packed all the stuff into two large duffle bags and loaded up one of the vehicles as quickly as possible after Daryl had checked the oil of both vehicles to make sure they could get where they needed to go easily.
"I got the flash bangs and I got all the tear gas," Daryl told them. "You never know what you're gonna need.
"I got the ammo and smoke bombs," Tea replied as Daryl grabbed their vests, helping her into hers and running a hand down the colored wings before putting on his own, Tea smiling up at him.
Carl came up with a bag and Daryl helped him put it in the car, "Hey, don't you worry 'bout your old man. We'll keep our eyes on 'im."
Daryl walked away when Michonne came out and talked to Beth about how they'd manage to clear the prison with just the few of them. Beth offered the woman a brief rundown of how they got in through the fence before she left the woman standing alone. Tea walked up to her then, knowing that the woman was guarded against her because she knew her from before and yet Michonne did not remember her. It wasn't her fault she could remember everything whether or not she wanted to and it wasn't always able to keep from blabbing either when the memories of the good times came up. Thinking about it, she remembered the last time she'd watched the woman with her sword play and what had happened to Tea that day while a shudder ran down her spine. She knew the woman had to remember the incident since it had been all over the news and Michonne had been in the dojo practicing when everything went down.
"Sorry, jus' didn' want the othas ta hear. Ya rememba the Red Dragon Dojo?" she asked after cutting the woman off from walking away, receiving a nod as an answer.
"Ya rememba the girl that sent the MMA instructa ta the hospital?"
"Yeah, he had to have surgery. The dojo was going to press charges, but they were dropped," Michonne said after a few seconds of silence.
"That was me."
"What?"
"That was me. They dropped the charges 'cause afta they handed the surveillance footage ta the cops, the investigatas saw him stickin' 'is hand down my pants," Tea said cool as a cucumber.
"That's what happened," Michonne said as shock crossed her stoic features. "I remember you now. Little girl, no more than fifteen. You weren't much shorter then. Your hair was, though, it was cut damn near to your scalp in the back and to your ears on the side, dyed black. Grunge pants with chains and band shirts. Total goth girl."
"Yep, that was me. The gothic gypsy with too much jewelry and not a single pair a slacks," Tea laughed. "Thought ya might stop givin' me the glare if I told ya how I knew ya. And I was sixteen."
"It does help," Michonne admitted, thinking back to the MMA student who took on three full grown men and won during that incident. "What happened to the man?"
"Got fired and arrested. Found out 'e was put up ta it by people," Tea said with a shrug.
"People?"
"People," she repeated, not wanting to let the woman know that her parents had done it to get back at her for not giving them the money she got for her PhD research when they'd found out about the grant.
They walked back over to the car, Michonne getting in while Tea went to talk to the kids and Carol one last time, not wanting to leave Sophia without saying goodbye while also wanting to make sure Carl was alright. She caught the tail end of Rick's conversation with Carl, therefore being the first to be privileged with Little Lady's real name, and gave the boy a hug; it seemed she was doing a lot of that since the prison was discovered and it was honestly getting easier. She walked over to Sophia with him in tow and told them, once again, to keep an eye out for danger and keep the baby safe no matter what. She heard Daryl tell Carol to stay safe and her quip back about having nine lives before she and Sophia went over to them, Sophia going to stand by her mother.
"We're serious, Cars. Stay safe. Keep Phia safe," Tea told her, earning a smile from Carol that had Tea looking completely surprised.
"I will," she promised before Sophia asked her to bend down.
She did so only for the little girl to give her a kiss on the cheek, making her jump, before Sophia told her, "Good luck, sis."
"Have you never been given a kiss for luck before?" Carol asked her, noticing the blush on the younger woman's face.
"Daryl's the only one who's ever kissed me," she admitted close to tears; it was true, her family gave her hugs in front of others, but had never once kissed her and she hadn't been comfortable enough with Jesse to allow that, even after years of friendship.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up a hard subject," Carol said, remembering what she'd said about her family, and what Sophia had shared later on. "We'll be waiting for your return," she told both Daryl and her, actually meaning it this time.
They all got into their vehicles and headed out of the prison and up onto the roadway, Rick, Michonne, and Oscar in the other car while Daryl and Tea shared the second vehicle. While they all could have gone in just one car, Tea didn't like the idea of being cramped and the car the others were driving didn't have as much space for their equipment. Daryl was getting antsy the longer they drove as Tea had become silent all over again while staring out the window before they finally pulled over after an hour. He grabbed her hand before she had a chance to open her door which made her look at him, softly smiling before she leaned over and kissed him gently. Tea knew that her silence was something that drove Daryl crazy when they were alone since she normally could talk to him; even when she hadn't been able to talk to the others over the winter, she'd been able to speak around him.
"Jus' a bad feelin', D," she promised. "Somethin' bad's gonna happen on this trip."
"Think someone's gonna die?" he asked, having started trusting her gut over the winter when it got the group out of a couple sticky situations, acting like an early warning system of some kind.
"I dunno. All I know is ya betta stick close. Where ya go, I go, and vice versa. Do not leave my side in there, D," she told him seriously. "I don' want ta lose ya."
"I won't," he replied, opening his door and stepping out as the others dislodged theirs as well. "But, hey, you better keep close to me, too. I don't want to lose you, either."
"They have patrols," Michonne said as they all converged at the end of the vehicle Daryl had drove. "We're better off on foot."
"How far? Night's coming," Rick said.
"A mile, maybe two," she answered as everyone geared up.
She and Daryl each carried a backpack with ammo, smoke bombs, flash bangs, and tear gas as well as they're own weapons as they walked along the forest path, they were all pretty silent. Tea found herself in the middle of the four towering over her and had to scoff; she had to be at least half a foot shorter than everyone else in the damn group, more than an entire foot for Oscar! It wasn't fair that she was so short when even the people in her family had been tall, even the extended family. While she hadn't met any of her mother's side, which was where she'd inherited her hair and eyes, her mother had also been taller than her so she doubted that she'd gotten it from her side either. Her musings didn't stop her from hearing Daryl and Rick's conversation, nor from noticing the man in front of her side-eyeing Michonne who was side-eyeing Rick and Daryl. Tea snorted a chuckle to herself and shook her head, trying desperately to focus her mind which was warranted as a large number of walkers came out of the woods. Tea told them to stay in formation and use their blades or else they'd just attract more and that they needed to be as silent as possible if they were going to get through. Daryl fired his crossbow while Tea used her buck knife to stab another walker in the head but they were going to get blocked in if they weren't careful. Rick grabbed Daryl's backpack and pulled him back, Tea's arm being the next thing she grabbed as she went towards another walker, needing to get out of the group of walkers that were surrounding them.
"There's too many of 'em," Daryl lamented as he pulled Tea behind him and in front of Rick.
They grabbed the bag that Rick had dropped while he pointed in a direction that seemed clear, "Through there, come on! In there!" he shouted as they found a cabin in the middle of the woods, the walkers hot on their trail.
Tea was the first one to barge in, knives at the ready in preparation to take out any immediate threat that came at them, only able to take five steps in before the rest piled in. Rick was telling everyone what to do even though it was completely unnecessary bossy, causing him to make the most noise as he told them not to. Then the stench hit her and she retched, the meager contents of her stomach hitting the floor beside her, where she saw what was causing the stench which made her retch all over again. It was too much for her stomach as she was still dealing with a sensitive stomach as a result of everything that had happened over the last couple of days. The smell was so strong that she could taste it in her mouth, which made her gag all over again before Michonne came over and rubbed her back to help her stop. Since she was trying not to puke and trying to deal with the smell of it all, she wasn't able to concentrate enough to register that she was being touched by someone who was basically a stranger.
"The smell, it's loud," Daryl commented, only now noticing Tea being sick, going over and handing her the handkerchief he kept in his back pocket to cover her mouth and nose.
"What the hell is that?" Oscar said as they shone a light near where the smell was coming from.
"It's gotta be a fox, or what's left of one," Daryl said.
"Lassie went home," Tea said softly from behind Daryl, the white fur of the dog clear even as its guts sprayed the bed it was in.
Walkers began pounding against the door, causing everyone to jump, including a man who had been sleeping on a bed right next to where Rick was standing that they had not noticed at all. Both Daryl had his crossbow raised at the man, Tea holding her buck knife in one hand so she could keep the rag at her nose, but he had a rifle trained at Rick's head. Rick, trying to diffuse the situation and get the man to quiet down while Tea noticed that the man was probably a paranoid schizophrenic. How he was behaving and how he seemed to have no idea about the walkers nor was he disturbed by their presence outside and was more concerned that their small group was inside. Rick put his weapons down and tried to reason with the man, who momentarily seemed to regain his senses only for Rick to grab the barrel of the damn gun. Tea was ready to throw a knife into Rick's calf for that little stunt since it forced Daryl to turn out of the way or he would have been shot. The man wasn't thinking about the risks at all and escalated the situation due to Rick's rash decision to grab the man only for the man to escape while yelling and running for the front door. There were still walkers out front trying to get into the house after what had happened inside only for Tea to watch Michonne do the only thing they could do to save their lives as she plunged her sword through his chest. It didn't escape her eyes that Rick and Oscar were looking at the woman in utter shock and disgust as she pulled her blade out and the dropped.
"Don' look at 'er like that," she told them, holding up Bucky. "If she hadn' a stepped in the way, that'd'a been numba eight since this all started. 'Twas the only thing ta be done ta save our sorry asses. Now, is there a back way out?"
Oscar went to check and told them it was clear before Daryl turned to her and Rick, "Remeber the Alamo?"
"Let's do this," Tea told him, nodding her head in agreement.
"Help me with the door," Rick told Michonne.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Oscar said.
"The dead guy, or us, Oscah, which one ya prefa?"
Rick counted to three and Michonne opened the door as they pushed the corpse out before locking the door behind her. They piled out of the back door of the cabin and made their way quietly past the distracted walkers as quickly as they could, thankfully avoiding any further attention from the things. It was dusk when they reached the walls of Woodbury and it was hard for Tea to believe that the place actually existed and was truly fortified. She shared a look with Daryl that told him she wasn't sure what to make of the situation they had found themselves in as they the two guards on watch, one of witch was manning an industrial sized spotlight. Tea knew it was going to be hard to get through the walls and into the place without alerting them of their presence and she couldn't see inside to get enough of a read on the place. All she knew was that Glenn and Maggie were being held somewhere within that town and that alone made them enemy number one in her eyes.