ch.28

too far gone

  "melanie." a shaky voice muttered, causing my eyes to flicker open, a smile spreading across my face seeing glenn was awake.

   "hi love." i smiled, turning my body so i could see him fully.

"you're okay, everyone's okay?" he questioned, placing a hand on my face as he traced over my facial features.

   i nodded my head, "everyone's okay, you're okay." i reassured, leaning in to place a kiss on his forehead.

i pulled away looking into his confused eyes, "well i feel terrible, i could use a vacation" he mumbled, making me chuckle.

   "yeah" i smiled, moving my hand to where his was, interlocking our fingers.

   "you know... our anniversary is coming up." he grinned, raising his eyebrows.

   "is it?" i questioned, giving him a smirky smile, causing him to chuckle, "one of these days."

my smile slowly faded away as i thought of the recent events and how scared i was to lose him.

   "hey, what's wrong?" he questioned in a worried voice, causing me to shake my head.

"i thought i was for sure gonna lose you this time, it scared me a little." i frowned, moving my body closer to his so i could place my head on his chest.

"don't worry, i wasn't quite done with this life yet." he stated, brushing his fingers through my hair.

   "do you ever miss your family?" i questioned him, moving my head so i could look at him.

"of course i do, my sisters and parents." he mumbled, pulling a hair strand out of my face, tucking it behind my ear.

    "i had sisters too, they were both my best friends." i smiled feeling my heart warming at the memories of them flooding my brain.

     "what were their names?" he questioned, still playing with my hair.

   "kennedy and davina." i started, now moving to sit up, "davina was the oldest, then kennedy, and then me."

     he nodded, placing a hand behind his head, "do you think there's a chance they're still out there?"

     i shrugged, looking down at me and glenns intertwined fingers, thinking about two of the most precious people in my life.

    "i hope so, thinking about them everyday is eating me alive."

     glenn brushed his thumb against my hand, pausing to think about something, "if they're out there, we'll find them."

     a small smile appeared on my face as i nodded. soon i stood up, taking my gun from the side table, placing it into my holster.

    "i'm gonna go check on hershel, i love-"

     before i could finish, a loud boom from outside rang through the air, causing the prison to shake.

"what was that?" glenn questioned, looking up to me with confused eyes.

"i don't know, stay here. i'll be back." i stated, running out of the cell, hearing glenn yell for me to come back behind me.

i ignored his calls, running out of the building where i met with rick and some of the others. "rick, what the hell's happening?!"

"i don't know, just stay behind me" he responded, pulling me back behind him as we ran to the gate.

    my eyes widened in shock, seeing cars and trucks lined up outside the gate. "rick! come down here with your lieutenant, melanie. we all need to talk."

     the governors voice rang through my ears, sending chills down my spine when he mentioned my name.

    rick looked to me, causing me to shake my head no. "it's not up to us. there's a council now. they run this place."

    the governor hesitated, placing his hands on his hips, "is hershel on the council?"

    "what about michonne? she on the council too?"

     my heart dropped hearing their names and seeing them get pulled out of a car by his men, soon forcing them to their knees.

     "i don't make decisions anymore!" rick retorted, earning a smirk from the governor, "what about melanie? because she's making the decision today."

     my blood boiled, knowing he was doing this just to terrorize me and the others. my hands turned to fist, in frustration as i looked down at him.

    "come down here. let's have that talk."

rick looked between me and daryl, earning a nod from both of us. "let's go" i mumbled, moving to open the gate.

"don't pull any of your tricks while you're down there, okay? we can't have you dying on us." daryl stated, closing the gate behind us.

i nodded, giving the others one last look before turning away, slowly making my way down to the field along with rick.

    "let em go, right now, we'll stay down here and talk as long as you want." rick demanded,  watching the governors every move.

   "you got a tank, you don't need hostages." i stated, looking him dead in the eye.

   "i do. this is just to show you i'm serious. not to blast a hole in our new home." he smirked, causing my eyebrow to furrow as i crossed my arms over my chest.

   "you have till sundown to get your people out of here or they die. i got more people, more firepower. we need this prison."

    i shook my head, "there are children here. some of them are sick. they won't survive"

the governor shrugged, "you got maybe an hour of sunlight left, i suggest you start packing."

my eyes fell on hershel, who gave me a small nod, causing tears to brim my eyes.

"we can all- we can all live together. there's enough room for all of us." rick stammered, still trying to plead with him.

"more than enough. but i don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you guys were under the same roof."

i shook my head no, looking up at him, "we'd live in different cell blocks. we'd never have to see each other till we were all ready." i stated, earning an intense stare from him.

"not after what i did to you at woodbury, your boyfriend would come for my head. not after andrea" he retorted, causing me to remember all the terrible things he did to us.

"husband" i corrected before starting again, "...look we're not saying it's gonna be easy, but we don't have a choice. we're not leaving."

rick nodded his head in agreement, "you try and force us, we'll fight back...now, we can all live in the prison or none of us can."

after the words left ricks mouth, the governor hopped off the tank, heading towards hershel with michonnes sword.

    he held it up to hershel neck, causing me to step forward in anger. i stopped, seeing a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye.

   i slowly turned my attention away from the governor while rick was talking, seeing the face.

    before i could make out who it was,  i whipped my head back as the governor swung the knife above his head, crashing it down on hershels neck.

   "no. no!" iyelled, tears now flowing down my face as i raised my gun shooting at anyone in front of me.

    rick pulled me back with him as i shot, covering our asses until we reached the old bus.

"oh my god, someone shot you." i uttered, quickly reaching down, trying to stop the bleeding coming from his thigh.

   gunshots filled the air as i put pressure on his wound, forcing back my tears.

   "rick we need to go, they're gonna run the fence over." i warned, giving him a concerned look.

   rick looked up to me, taking a deep breath, "melanie, get glenn and yourself out of here. i'll find my way on my own."

   "rick, i'm not leaving you here" i stated, looking down at how much blood he was losing.

   "yes, you are. glenn needs you right now. you have to protect what's yours" he retorted, removing my hands from his leg.

   i froze in place looking at him, but a sound caught my attention as i looked pass the bus, seeing the vehicles running over the fence.

   "ok-okay, we're gonna meet again." i uttered, giving him a small nod before taking off in the direction of the prison.

    "glenn!" i shouted, running into the cell block, while my eyes darted  around the room, trying to find him.

    "melanie? what the hell's going on?" he questioned, making his way down the steps. i caught him in my arms, quickly moving him out of the cell block.

    "we have to get everybody out of here." i replied, holding his body up as we rushed to where the bus was.

     once we were inside, my eyes searched the place for anyone else from our group, only seeing the people that came from woodbury.

   "i'm going to find some of the others" i explained, moving back down the steps, only to be pulled back by glenn.

   "what? no, you're not going by yourself" he stated, causing me to shake my head, "i'll be right back, okay? i love you."

    with that, i pushed him away, taking off back towards the prison. i ran towards the west side, watching as daryl hid behind a cabinet, dodging the governors men's bullets.

i raised my gun shooting both men, before rejoining with him, "come on, we need to get back to the bus."

"where's rick? sasha? maggie? what about beth?" i yelled, panicking as daryl grabbed my arm, leading me away.

"don't worry about them, you need to worry about what is alive. yourself." he stated, leading me to the bus but i stopped in place seeing the familiar figure again.

"davina?" i mumbled, squinting my eyes to see if i was hallucinating, but my sight became clearer as the women came closer.

"mel" she smiled, running towards me with tears flowing out of her eyes. i ripped my arm away from daryl, wrapping my arms around her neck.

i pulled away, tears running down my cheeks as she cupped her hands around my face, getting a better look at me.

   "you're okay? you're alive" she questioned, wiping away my tears. i nodded, looking back to daryl who was now joined by beth.

"we got to go, mel. we got to go" he announced, earning a nod as i pulled my sister along with me, following the two.

we ran until the bus came into view, only to be let down as it pulled away, ignoring our waves and shouts for it to stop.

"it doesn't matter anymore, we just gotta go." daryl stated, now leading us towards the woods.

i grunted, shooting down walkers as we ran, falling straight to the ground, along with the others when we knew we were safe. _____________

it was dark now and we all sat around the fire, silently watching the bright orange and red flames.

"we should do something." beth started, causing me to look up, glancing between her and daryl.

"...we aren't the only survivors. we can't be. maggie could be out here. we know glenn made it out of a block."

i looked down at the mention of glenns name, hoping he was alive out there somewhere.

"who's maggie and glenn?" davina questioned, turning her body towards me.

"maggie is beths sister" i started, looking down to where my ring was placed on my finger, "glenn's my husband"

her eyes grew wide, looking at me surprised from the words that just left my mouth. she didn't say anything as beth quickly changed the subject.

"you're a tracker. you can track. come on." she mumbled, staring intensely at me, daryl, and davina.

"fine. if you guys won't track, i will." she sneered, getting frustrated as she grabbed her knife, running off.

"let's go then" i mumbled, standing up from my seat, moving in the direction she went. soon daryl and davina followed.

we let beth lead the way all night, only coming to a stop when daryl bent down, revealing some tracks in the dirt.

"could be lukes or molly's. whoever they are, it means they're alive." beth muttered, looking down at where and me daryl kneeled.

daryl shook his head, "no, this means they were alive four or five hours ago."

"they're alive" beth insisted, moving away from us.

my sister sent me a look, causing me to shrug my shoulders as i clicked my tongue, standing up.

"they picked up the pace right here. got out in a hurry, things went bad."

"wouldn't kill you to have a little faith" davina spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked to daryl.

"yeah, faith. faith ain't done nothing for us. sure as hell didn't do nothing for hershel."

his words caused me to smack his arm, knowing beth could hear perfectly clear. beths eyes shifted from daryl to davina, giving her a disappointed look.

"i- i didn't think he could do something like that. i barley knew him, i-" before davina could continue, i shook my head, warning her to stop.

a twig snapped, causing all of us to grab out our knives, glancing around the place for walkers or people.

beths screams turned my attention to her, seeing a walker latching its bony hands onto her arm.

daryl ran up, pulling him off of her while i moved to him, piercing the walkers brain as daryl held him out.

i took a deep breath, nodding to him before standing back up. "let's move on"

   we ended up near train tracks, where we found the remains of people we knew from the woodbury group.

     i looked to beth, scared that her faith and courage would run out soon but i knew that i would do everything in my power to keep her from losing it.

________________________________3/3/2021