THE EXIT, twd. [✓]

031. not so happy birthday!

"listen to the girl. no, you won't." the governor said.

"i'm gonna take my-"

"stop it." hershel said to her, seeing estella's clear fear. "you want the prison?"

"yeah, and i'll take it as peacefully as i can."

"governor-"

"don't call me that."

"your people, our people, we can find a way to live together. these people you need to keep alive, do you love them?"

"you're a good man, hershel, a better man than rick."

"everything you've said, the way you've said it, you've changed. so has rick."

"the two of us will never be able to live together. michonne and i will never be able to live together."

"we'll find a way-"

"i found a way! i'm trying hard. there's all kinds of ways i could do this. this way you get to live, and i get to be..."

he didn't reply. that's how estella knew that he had nothing to say. he wasn't going to take the prison peacefully. he was going to destroy it. nothing he ever did was calm, and merle made that pretty clear when that's all he would say.

unlike the others, estella actually listened to what merle had to say. she listened closely. sometimes he was annoying, but other times he had insight on the governor that nobody else had. he had the upper hand and nobody listened. they all took that for granted. and now, there the three of them were.

back in the governor's bullshit. just because nobody listened to annoying merle dixon other than an eight year old that couldn't do shit about it. it was too late.

estella knew she was going to die. she knew that there was no possibly different outcome. she knew hershel was going to die. she knew that michonne was going to die, probably after herself and hershel, but she would. she knew that because she listened.

she always listened.

"you say you want to take the prison as peacefully as possible, that means you will be willing to hurt people to get it. my daughters would be there. that's who you'd be hurting. if you understand what it's like to have a daughter, then how can you threaten to kill someone else's?" hershel almost pleaded.

the governor looked directly into his eyes. "because they aren't mine."

then, he walked out. estella just shut her eyes, trying to escape this nightmare that she'd found herself in. all she was doing was picking some berries outside the gates in the woods for a minimum of five minutes before a large hand slapped over her mouth and she was thrown into the back of a truck.

it was one thing after another. they never seemed to get a break. she knew why she was there, though. it was because of her mother. her mom and the governor had some kind of weird bond before she took that away from them.

she could see it every time the governor looked at her, that he had anger bubbling up in his system, ready to burst on her at any minute. just like how he looked at michonne for killing his already dead daughter. he only had hershel because he knew he was the heart of the group and it would break them to see him go. estella couldn't even begin to imagine seeing hershel die. he meant so much to her, like a grandad.