Day 309
I wasn’t there, but I was told.
That day, Michonne had planned on going to the prison to take another look and come up with a plan. Valuable stuff could be in there, and this far into the outbreak probably nobody alive would be inside. She could deal with the dead.
She didn’t make it there, though. Michonne found people on the woods, armed man who came up with a conversation about there being a place she could go to, that she didn’t have to stay outside alone anymore – of course, because she said nothing about her having a whole, blooming community. But it was only when they said their place was called Woodbury that she knew who they were, and that made her even more quiet. Outnumbered, Michonne knew she couldn’t say no. She knew what they were capable of, what their orders were. So she went with them, pretending to think it was a good idea and a blessing to have found good people with a real community she could go to.
So Michonne went to the Governor’s place. The Governor, the son of a bitch who’d attacked us as made us move away from our original home. Merle’s previous leader, the man who attacked smaller communities for supplies and fuck knows what else.
It was an incredible place, she told me. A whole town, clean streets, lamp posts, lots of people, maybe nearly a hundred of them, lots of guards, ammo, food, hot water. It was utopic, even. Of course it was easy for them when they took everything from others to have it all. She was showed around, introduced to the Governor, who had no idea who she was because he hadn’t seen her back then and none of the men who’d seen her were still alive to tell.
The governor said stuff about her looking strong and capable with her sword, that they could use people like her, that he wanted her to stay and work with them, a lot of bullshit that she kept pretending to believe, all the while observing every little detail she could, trying to find ways to escape and to send word to the Village informing where she was. She tried the radio at a moment she got alone, it had thankfully been hidden under her clothes so nobody saw it, but we were out of range.
After hours, she told him thanks but no thanks, I prefer to be out there, I’m a free spirit, I like the woods, whatever bullshit she could come up with to convince him to let her go.
And he… Did. He let her go.
She knew something was wrong when he insisted very little and had an annoying smile on his face, but she wouldn’t take her chances to investigate his intentions any further. All Michonne wanted was to get the fuck out of there, make sure nobody followed, and go back home.
She was followed.
The governor sent four man after her, she counted as she hid in the woods. I mean, the man finds a woman in the woods, takes her somewhere, offers that she stays and when she says no thanks, they try to fucking kill her! What kind of a sick motherfucker does that?
They were out there to kill her and my chest tightened just to think of it when she told me. Four armed men against one woman with a sword. But Michonne… Man, that was Michonne, so they had no fucking idea what they were up against. The woman was fierce and when she was angry she got even more dangerous. And they pissed her for real. Three of them were dead already, heads rolling away from their bodies when they hadn’t even seen her approach, among the walkers that had come to their noise in the woods. She’d had to kill them as well and got covered in guts in the process, when the last one of the men shot her in the leg. It was a graze on the back of her thigh, but it was enough to slow her down from limping and pain.
She found a parking lot of a grocery store on the side of a road but had no time to try to find a place to hide because there was a car approaching, so she just hid anyway she could behind an abandoned van. From the red, decrepit car, a woman came out with a gun, followed closely by the driver. They both looked thin but clean and healthy, and they both did a quick swipe around.
“Clear outside,” the woman announced and they seemed to relax. Well, it wasn’t clear because Michonne was there watching them through the dirty windows of the car, so they really, really should have been more careful. But they weren’t, seeming too confident as people who probably had been doing this for a long time now.
“Alright, let’s take a look,” the man said but the woman approached him and they kissed, smiling and sweetly, speaking tenderly to each other. Then, when the man broke open the door and walked in, the woman stayed outside.
“Glenn? Get that duck!” she told him.
“What?” he asked from the inside.
“Get that duck!”
“Are you serious?”
“A kid growing up in a prison could use some toys.”
Michonne had a start at this whole dialogue. Glenn? She’d heard that name somewhere, it rang a bell but she couldn’t remember clearly then, because she was scared, hurt, tired, and she didn’t connect the name to my stories. She didn’t know then that it was Glenn.
Second thing was the mention of the prison. The prison she planned to go to before she was found by the Governor’s men. A kid growing up in a prison. These two people had a group and they were living in the prison and there was a child there.
And the Governor’s men were around. She needed to warn them. They seemed to be good people, and people who are out there caring about children should not be found by the Governor.
“We just hit the powdered formula jackpot!” the man said minutes later when he left the store.
“Thank God!” the woman commented.
“I also got beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards! It’s a straight shot back to home from here. We’ll probably make it in time for dinner.”
“I like the quiet. Back there, back home, you can always hear them outside the fence no matter where you are.”
Michonne knew they had to just shut the fuck up about home and the prison because there were Governor’s men around and goddammit you don’t just talk aloud about your place in the open like that! Didn’t people know anything?!
She was going to warn them, decidedly. But before she could get up with difficulty from her crouched position, the last standing man that had been sent to kill her in the woods arrived, gun pointed at the woman, asking where was it that they were calling home. It was a whole, quick mess after that, the couple pointing their guns, the man shooting to distract them and grabbing the woman, making her hostage. It was like two minutes and they were in the car, leaving, the sonofabitch who was trying to kill Michonne talking the couple to Woodbury.
All Michonne could think not was shit, shit, shit. And she wasn’t even one to curse too much. So these two were good people who lived in the prison and there was a group and a child, a baby, because they were taking cans of formula there. And now the cans were abandoned there and there was a baby that needed it. The decision was made even before she could stop and consider it. Limping, she took the basket and made her way to the prison, which she knew exactly where it was. She had to bring the baby the formula and let their group know what had happened. She’d be damned if she let the Governor destroy yet another community.
And I wasn’t there, but I was told.
Michonne limped her way to the prison carrying the basket with the formula. She was scared, she tells me. She knew nothing good would happen to those two at Woodbury, she was hurt, hungry and thirsty, feeling faint from losing blood and the goddamn heat, and worried about going back home and about helping the baby, whoever this baby was.
She limped among the walkers who didn’t detect her with the blood and guts and marched straight to the diamond shaped fence of the prison. Someone saw her from afar and made his way to her, reaching the inner fence just as she reached the outer.
Michonne says she remembers thinking damn when she saw him, but didn’t linger in the thought.
He stared at her, utterly confused, and she grabbed the fence with her hand, looking straight at him as to convince him she was a living person, yes, he was seeing it right. Before he could act on anything, though, the walkers around finally recognized her as living and she had to drop her bag and the basket, take the katana out and fight them.
“Should we help her?” She heard someone else from the inside of the fence, but paid no mind. She was weak and fainting, and fell to the grass amidst the hungry dead.
She was inside when she came to herself again, lying on top of a blanket on the floor with people standing above her and the men from the fence way too close.
“Who are you?” he asked her. In reflex, she tried to reach for her katana, scared and confused, and he kept it away from her. “No! We’re not gonna hurt you unless you do something stupid first, aright?”
“Rick?” somebody said as he entered the room. “Who the hell is this?”
She tried sitting up.
“You wanna tell us your name?”
She was shocked wordless.
“You wanna tell us your name?” he repeated, annoyed.
Rick.
Glenn.
A redneck with a sleeveless shirt.
She’d found them.
She says she was considering just blabbing out “Shit I found you all!” or simply yelling “Sam’s alive!” but Rick was too suspicious of her already, and how the hell do you break a piece of news like this to people who thought their former leader was dead?
“Ya’ll come on in here,” the man that she knew to be Daryl, nobody had to say his name for her to know, told Rick.
“Everything alright?” Rick asked without taking his eyes off Michonne.
“You gonna wanna see this.”
Rick then gave orders for the others around to go in and for the boy – Carl, who Michonne knew the story about the shooting and all, to take the basket with the formula. They all obeyed with no questions, but the boy made a point in taking Michonne’s backpack with him as well. The radio was in there.
“We’ll keep this safe and sound,” Rick said showing her the katana in his hands. The doors are all locked. You’re safe here. And we can treat that.”
“I didn’t ask for your help,” was all her surprised, still weak mind could make her say.
“It doesn’t matter,” Rick turned and walked away. “We can’t let you leave.”
So then went into a large corridor and Daryl – Daryl! – locked the door behind them.
And I was there, at the Village, getting a freaking haircut and then deep cleaning my house when Michonne was in the same room with Daryl!
She sat up, her back against the bars of a jail cell, trying to breathe normally, get her wits back, and she even laughed a little. She knew how happy I’d be; she knew how much this encounter would change everything in our lives. But then, with a start, she knew my friends were taken to Woodbury, to the Governor, and that they were in serious trouble. The Governor would do anything to find out where their community was.
Getting up with difficulty, she limped her way to the locked door and saw the group in there. There were around a woman who was crying and the baby she’d brought the formula to. She remembered my stories about me not being the only pregnant woman. The baby was there, born and alive.
Minutes later they returned and came on strongly asking questions. They did not seem amicable to her even though she’d just brought the baby stuff, keeping it from going hungry tonight, and yet they were not friendly at all.
“We can tend to that wound for you,” Rick came saying, “give you a little food and water and then send you on your way. But you’re gonna have to tell us how you found us and why you were carrying the formula.”
“I’ve always known where this prison is,” she explained and she got up from her spot, “but even if I didn’t, the man who dropped the basket, the Asian boy with the pretty girl, they spoke of it aloud for anyone to hear. You might wanna tell your people to be more careful.”
“Hold up a moment now,” Rick said not allowing her to move on. “He dropped the basket? What happened?”
“Were they attacked?” the senior without a leg asked, his voice deep but trembling a little with worry.
“They were taken.”
“Taken? By who?”
“By the same sonofabitch who shot me. And destroyed my community before.”
“Hey, these are our people! You tell me what happened!”
At that, Rick pressed his hand to her bullet would, violent and angry and she felt less and less like telling them about me. She was considering just leaving and going home to tell me, and I’d decide what to do. Why would she give these people good news if they were locking her in and pressing fingers to her wounds?
She defended herself, pushing him away and pointing a finger at his face, “Don’t you ever touch me again!”
And then Daryl had the crossbow pointed at her, “You’d better start talking or you gonna have a bigger problem than a gunshot wound!”
She stared at him over the bow. She couldn’t even believe she was in front of the man she’d heard so much about, Merle’s brother, for fuck’s sakes, but was under his arrow’s aim. Michonne was never one to be too sweet to unknown people or too patient, and she was at the end of hers already.
“Find them yourself!” she told Daryl and Rick made him lower the crossbow.
“You came where for a reason,” Rick told her, making her stop for a moment to remember the reasons. They had almost slipped her mind. It was to bring the baby the formula and to help people who seemed to be good to be rescued from the Governor’s hands. So she breathed in and told them about Woodbury and the man himself.
“And where the hell is this place?” Rick asked after she explained.
“South. I’ll show you.”
“And how do I know you’re not bullshitting us? That you’re not leading us to a trap?”
“You don’t,” she told him simply.
“I’ll tell you what, then. You’ll point us in the direction and we’ll go check if this place is real. You’ll stay here. In there,” Rick pointed to the outer cell. “If we see it’s real, I’ll believe you and then we’ll go get out friends back.”
“You’re locking me up,” she affirmed angrily. “After I came all the way here to help?”
“Anyone can say they’re trying to help and then fuck us up. This is how this is gonna be and end of discussion.”
* * *
I’d told Merle that Michonne had intended to go to the prison that day, so it was easy for him to find it. From afar, he saw it wasn’t overtaken by walkers anymore and that there were people in there, living, the only walkers were outside at the fence, aimlessly trying to reach someone. He knew if Michonne had come here and found people, and was missing for over a whole day, the chances that she was in there were huge.
He observed for a long time, the knife attached to the hand and a pistol on his waistband, holding up the binoculars to try and understand the place and the people in there before deciding on what to do. It didn’t take long for the answers to become clear.
Merle started laughing, not believing his eyes, because it was just not fucking possible that he was seeing his baby brother come out of the building and start packing a car with stuff with other people, one of them the young kid Merle remembered from the quarry camp.
It was Daryl. He’d found his brother.
Fighting not to let the emotion of it came out, because this was Merle, he was a changed man but he didn’t do feelings, Merle walked his way in the open to the fence of the prison, without knowing he was repeating exactly what Michonne had done just a while ago. The people inside stopped to look at the foreign movement for the second time that day, and Merle could see the moment Daryl recognized him. He extended a hand to make another man Merle didn’t know lower his weapon and started walking in his direction.
Merle was laughing aloud as he stabbed walker after walker in the brain on his way there and reached the gate just as Daryl did too.
“Hey there, little brother!”
Daryl was shocked, eye wide looking at a man he thought he’d never see again. A man, in all honesty, he had gotten well used not to have around.
“Merle?” he asked
“As I live and breathe!” Merle laughed aloud. “Knew I’d find ya one day or another!
“How?”
“How I found ya?” Merle looked around at the walkers approaching. “Ya really wanna discuss that right now?”
Daryl looked back to exchange a look with Rick, who was standing there a little behind, hearing it all, seeming just as shocked and, with reason, worried. Daryl didn’t wait for an authorization though, he unlocked the gate, allowed Merle to step in and locked it back again.
And was surprised out of his shit by a tight hug given by his big brother. Perhaps the first one in their entire life.
“Fuckin’ shit, baby brother, it’s good to see you!”
Not knowing what to do and way too stunned, Daryl hugged him back, patting his back. When Merle let go, Daryl repeated the question, “How did you find us?”
“Came looking for my friend, one I believe you got in there?” Merle explained. “Ebony ninja warrior?”
“Your friend?” Rick asked and Merle turned to him.
“Yeah, Sheriff!” Merle yelled at him, laughter in his voice. “Did ya handcuff her to a pipe? That how ya greet people ya just met?”
“She ain’t handcuffed,” Daryl told him.
“So ya do got her in there! Michonne, with the katana?”
“Yeah, she’s in there alright,” Daryl told her.
“Yeah… As glad and I am to see ya, baby brother, I’m gonna have to see with my own eyes if she alright, if ya don’t mind. Don’t like that tone ya got there.”
Merle tried talking away and into the prison but Rick put a hand up to stop him, Daryl rushing to stand by Rick.
“Not you hold up a minute. How is that that she finds us out of the blue, and them minutes after you find us too?”
“Didn’t find ya, dickhead!” Merle said crossing his arms, the knife poking out of his stump up but not intentionally threatening. “Knew all along this prison was here. We got a place a few miles away.”
“You gonna tell us it’s Woodbury?” Daryl asked him.
“It ain’t. And no more bullshit, I ain’t telling ya anything else until I see Michonne’s safe and sound!”
* * *
She was standing, wound tended to, arms resting on the bars and hanging outside, looking pissed out of her mind at anyone around, when she saw Merle come in. Her expression changed immediately and she straightened up, stunned to see him there.
“Merle!”
He walked straight to her, looking at her up and down to check she was fine, “What the fuck is she locked in for?!” he asked when he turned around and away from her.
“She says our friends were taken,” Rick said.
“You remember Glenn from camp,” Daryl completed and Merle turned to look at Michonne again.
“The Governor’s got them,” Michonne told and then added really low, “You know she’s gonna wanna get them back.”
“You told ‘em?”
“I haven’t. I wasn’t the best reception.”
“Whatever you’re whispering over there,” Rick stopped them. “We gotta go get our friends back.”
“Ya ain’t answered my question!” Merle yelled as he turned to them again. “Why the fuck’s she locked up?”
“’Cause ain’t no way we know she’s telling the truth!” Daryl answered in the same.
“They think I’m lying about Woodbury and it’s some sort of trap.”
“Bullshit!” Merle yelled again. “This woman don’t lie! She says china boy was taken to Woodbury, then china boy was taken to Woodbury!”
“Either way we’re gonna go see if it’ real before –”
“It real! I lived there once. Worked for the governor ‘til I quit’em!”
“Not gonna help them trust us, Merle,” Michonne told him.
“Yeah, Merle, that don’t help a lot,” Rick told him.
Merle was silent for a moment until he slowly started laughing. The others looked confused at each other but said nothing.
“Stepped up at the leader then, have ya? How well it turned out for ya that yer friend Officer Sniffers offed her, ain’t it? The original leader of this group? Sam?”
Rick looked enraged but it was Daryl who reacted, walking quickly to Merle and stopping right at his face, “How the fuck you know that happened? Huh?!”
Merle didn’t flinch nor defend himself, he just kept smiling, and very low and softly said, “Cause she ain’t dead, little brother. Sam’s alive.”
Everything froze.
Eyes wide in his brother’s, Daryl shook his head fast and nonstop for a long moment.
“No. No, ya full of crap. She ain’t –”
He stopped to see Merle raise his eyebrows and just nod for a moment. “She didn’t die that night, Daryl,” and then he looked at Rick, who had his eyes wide and completely shocked with the information. “Ya saw it all wrong, Sheriff. Girl wasn’t dead yet. Ya shot the man and he stopped killin’ ‘er. Was no dead yet.”
“I saw her,” Daryl was saying nearly over him. “I saw it too, she was turned, was with the walkers, I saw her!”
“Covered in guts and blood,” Michonne said from inside her cell and Daryl looked at her. “Too hurt to run or fight the walkers. I know all about that story too. I know what you saw.”
Daryl stepped away from Merle and started pacing with no direction, repeating “No” over and over, hands in his head.
“That’s – not,” Rick was trying to speak, his head low, “he was on her. Strangling. She was down… I couldn’t… I couldn’t… Get to her with the walkers, she was… She was dead,” and he looked up to Merle and then to Michonne. “She wasn’t dead?”
“I can say it over and over again,” Merle said impatiently. “Little Miss Tattoo blondie princess Sam Danes,” and then he shouted as loud as he could, “IS FUCKIN’ ALIVE!”
Rick sat down and Daryl was frozen staring at Merle. Other people started coming in having heard all the interaction and asking questions, confused, and Merle just rolled his eyes and turned away from them. He’d never liked these people anyway and there were even people he hadn’t met before. He turned his back to all of them and rested his arms on the cell bars with Michonne. She nodded at him with a smile, knowing one of them would have had to tell one moment or another.
“Where is she?” Daryl asked, his voice shaking, as he stood nearer now. There was silence from the others. “You tell me where she is,” he insisted when Merle said nothing. “You take me to her!!”
“Now why the fuck would I do that?!” Merle swirled around to face his brother, angrily. “When you’re keeping her best friend locked up in a fucking cage?!”
After another stunned moment, the reaction came from someone nobody was expecting. They described her as a mousy woman with short grey hair – Carol moved from her spot over to Rick and took the ring of keys forcefully from his waist.
“Hey!” he reacted trying to take it from her and Carol moved it out of his reach, ignoring him completely and moving to the cell. She struggled a little to find the right key but unlocked and opened it, and then looked at Michonne through the open door.
“If you’re Sam’s friend, you’re my friend.”
With a stunned smile, Michonne nodded at her and stepped out of the cell. Merle rested a hand on her shoulder, looking over her and she nodded at him too, telling him she was alright.
“I want my bag and my sword back,” she said looking around and finding Rick’s eyes. The man was stunned, mouth opened. “She sent you after me?” she asked Merle.
“Yeah, was bitchin’ ‘bout you going out alone and that she ain’t gonna allow it no more.”
“Where’s your radio?”
Merle reached to the back of his waistband and took it from there. “Don’t know it’s in range.”
Michonne pressed the button, “Sam, you there?”
“Michonne?! You okay?!”
In the prison, there was silence for a second and then people started laughing, perked up at my voice coming out of the radio. Daryl froze again, looking at the radio in Michonne’s hand as if he would be able to see me though there.
Merle says his eyes were filled with tears and they started falling then, his chin trembling a little.
Oh, my Daryl! And I had no idea I was so close to seeing him again!
“I’m fine!”
“Is Merle there?”
“Yes, he found me.”
Merle took the radio from Michonne then and pressed the button before I could answer, “How ya doin’ Sammy girl!”
They all heard me say “Don’t call me Sammy” and there was a little laughter around. Everyone had heard me say it before, it was like it was a proof it was really me. “Where are you? You coming home?”
Merle and Michonne exchanged a look.
“Not yet, I’d say,” Merle gave his opinion.
“Yeah,” Michonne agreed. “Not the kind of thing you tell over the radio.”
“It’s dark outside,” Merle said looking out a high, small barred window. “We’ll take’em there in the morning.”
“Michonne?”
“No!” Daryl stopped them. “Now. You’ll take me there now!”
“Listen, I don’t know what your leader’s orders are,” Michonne said to Daryl and she threw a dirty look at Rick, “But ours says no travelling at night or even staying outside in the dark unless you can help it. Sam’s own decision,” and she pressed the button to speak again before he could answer. “We’ll be back a first light tomorrow. Too dark already.”
“Are you safe? Gonna be safe until morning?”
“We’re safe, don’t worry.”
“Good. Good, okay. Thank you for reaching out, I was sick worried here.”
“I know you were,” she said smiling and asked “How are things there?”
“All in order,” I informed her. “Found two kids in the woods and brought them home yesterday. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Please, no delays in the morning, okay?”
“You got it. We’ll see you soon. Good night!”
“Night. G’night, asshole!”
He just laughed there, by Michonne, and they said no more on the radio.
“Is this for real?” Carol asked Michonne.
“You’re Carol, right?” Michonne asked and Carol nodded. “How would I know that if Sam hadn’t told me?”
Carol smiled bringing her hands to her mouth and then she looked at Daryl, who was still utterly stunned. Michonne, seeing where she was looking and sensing Daryl’s distress, poked Merle and pointed at his brother. Merle got it instantly.
“Come on, little bother. Let’s go on and get ourselves a little jabber.”
It was dark outside when they sat together overlooking the vast grassy area in front of the prison, stray walkers far at the fence not causing any trouble for now.
“You gotta tell me you ain’t bullshitting me,” Daryl started as he got up again after sitting for just seconds and paced in front of his brother. “That ain’t the kinda thing you joke about.”
Calmly, Merle took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one up before offering it to Daryl, who hesitated just for a moment before taking one too.
“I know all about the CDC. Atlanta… The farm, the kid who got shot, the girl who died in the woods, the fuckin’ barn. Know all about you two hookin’ up. About the sonofabitch tryin’ ta murder ‘er. Ya tell me how’d I know it all is she ain’t alive.”
Daryl said nothing, just kept pacing, smoking quickly, deep puffs.
“Guess I’ll only believe when I see’er,” he finally said. “’Cause that ain’t possible. I saw her… Saw her walkin’. Rick saw her on the ground, Shane strangling her –”
“And then he shot the man but couldn’t go there to check on’er ‘cause of the herd that was right there. Then ya saw her up and walkin’ among’em. Ain’t that what happened?” and Daryl just nodded, a bit too fast showing how nervous he was. “She’d killed a walker before, was covered in blood and guts. She was alive, little brother.”
“Mean she saw me? Then? When I saw’er?”
Merle nodded gravelly. “Saw ya… Heard ya too.”
Daryl threw the butt of the cigarette angrily to the ground them and brought his hands up to rub his face, turning his back to Merle to hide his emotions as he usually had to do his whole life. He’d be teased if he demonstrated any feelings. Merle didn’t judge, though, not this Merle. He just stayed in silence, knowing the question that was gonna inevitably come. Daryl turned to him again after a long moment and finally asked.
“The baby?”
Merle also threw his cigarette as he got up and took two steps to stand in front of Daryl, and rested a hand heavily on his shoulder and breathed out slowly before telling him.
“Sorry, brother. Your boy didn’t make it.”
Merle says Daryl was unable to keep holding it together then. He cried, his head lowering as he stepped away from Merle and paced around, nervous, grieving. He walked over to the closest fence and held on tightly to it, leaning down. I can only imagine what he was feeling. He’d mourned me and the baby before, went through all the pain and the feelings, and the he hears I’m alive and nearby and then this flicker of hope for the baby as well, only to get mercilessly crushed, and the mourning for him coming back, fresh and kicking. Repeated mourning.
He stayed like that for minutes, Merle could hear him cry quietly from where he stood, lit another cigarette, and just waited in silence. After a while Daryl moved back to him.
“How?” he asked with his voice trembling.
Merle shook his head, “Was born too early. But that’s her story to tell, brother. That and others I’m sure she’ll want to be the one to tell.”
Daryl nodded ad he bit on his lower lip, staring at Merle for a moment. “Ya different, Merle.”
“Clean. Bet ya never seen me like that before.”
“Never. Clean all the way?”
“The occasional weed don’t count, now do it?” and Daryl shook his head. “Yeah, bro, clean all the way. But that ain’t all,” Merle said as he turned to go sit back down. Silently, Daryl followed him but didn’t sit, he stood there near his brother. “Got a home now. Real one, not like the shit you and I had growin’ up. Girl gave me a home, job, responsibility, got me convinced I could do it. Know that if I fuck up now, be fuckin’ up a whole lotta other stuff wi’me.”
It was clear Daryl had no idea what to say to it because it probably felt like this was a complete stranger talking to him. This was not the Merle Daryl knew, and it was not the Merle I had known either, but I’d been living with this new person for months so I was used to it. Daryl would too.
“Where is it?” Daryl asked already with another cigarette. “Where ya’ll live? Is it near?”
“Nearer than ya’d think but if I tell ya now ya gonna slip away and go there tonight. Know ya, little brother. Nah, talking ya there in the morning along with these assholes. Gonna surprise the fuck outta Sammy girl.”
“Don’t call her Sammy.”
Day 310
Daryl woke up everyone who was going before sunrise. Merle and Michonne had shared an empty cell, Merle with a mattress on the floor and Michonne on the bunk bed, both of them extremely uncomfortable for being inside a jail cell and in such bad beds. They were used to their own homes and nicer mattresses in real bedrooms.
He was already out by the car, the same one they’d packed the day before in the postponed intention of going to Woodbury. They’d need the stuff, because the plan was to go to the Village, get me, have a reunion and whatever, and then we’d all go to Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie. How did they think a reunion like this would go simply and quickly, I had no idea, but I don’t think Daryl was even thinking straight. They tell me he was pacing, nervous, snapping at everyone for being too slow and that they had to go now. They didn’t even eat, just finally followed Daryl into the car, Rick driving, Michonne in front with him and Merle and Daryl behind.
“Where is this place, anyway?” Rick asked as, with Michonne instruction, they got to the empty road.
“We call it the Village,” Michonne told them. “South of Brooks, not even ten miles east from here.”
“Ya been that near… How long?” Daryl asked from the back seat
“Four months or so,” she answered. “Had a lot of work to get it going. You all haven’t been at the prison for too long, have you?”
“Not long. Just a few days, in fact,” Rick told her.
“You were on the road all this time?”
Rick nodded silently for a moment, “Yeah… All this time.”
Before the conversation could move on, both Merle and Michonne’s radios came to like, startling them all.
“Sam, do you hear me?”
Rick looked back at Daryl, both of them trying to understand it.
“That’s Mikki,” Merle said to everyone.
“Clearly, what’s up?” they heard me answer.
“I see cars coming down the road towards us, bit slow.”
It was Michonne and Merle who exchanged a look then.
“Pro’ly Merle and Michonne coming back,” I said again to all their ears.
“We ain’t that close, are we?” Daryl asked to no one specific.
“Nope. Not their cars.”
“I’m on my way.”
There was silence on the radio again.
“Hey Sheriff, it’d be nice is ya could put pedal to metal over there!” Merle barked at Rick.
“Sam, quick, they’ve stopped!”
“Shit!” Michonne cursed from her seat.
“You’re armed, right?” they heard me ask and also heard my feet hitting the ground.
“I am, but they –”
“Did we lose signal?” Michonne asked worried, looking back at Merle.
“No, she just stopped talkin’.”
“Mikki?!” I called from the radio.
Rick had sped up already and Merle lifted his radio to speak, “What’s goin’ on over there?”
“Gonna know in a minute!”
“That happens a lot? People coming to the gate?” Rick asked
“Just once before…” Michonne answered and looked back, exchanging a meaningful look with Merle.
Three or four minutes in silence later, when they had already turned from one road to another, accelerating towards the Village, both radios spoke again.
“Miranda, you got Ma and Emma?” they head me ask.
“I got them!” the answer came.
“You three stay in there no matter what until one of us go get you!”
“Got it!”
And then I spoke directly to them, “Michonne, Merle, you get your ass back here RIGHT NOW!”
“On our way already!” Merle answered immediately, beating Michonne to it. “Fuck’s happenin’ there?”
“He found us,” they heard me say in a dead serious voice. “The Governor’s here.”
“Fuck!!” Michonne cried
“Sonofabitch!!” Merle yelled at the same time, his fist hitting the inside of the car door by his side. “Gonna kill that motherfucker!!”
“We’re close! You’d better run, sheriff!” Michonne told him and he accelerated even more. “When we get there, you all shoot to kill. They are not playing around, do you hear me?”
“Six minutes,” Merle said through the radio to inform me, and got no more answers.