stone cold |twd|

chapter 83

Vivian glanced over at Daryl, who clenched his jaw.

They were going to kill them, weren't they?

"I don't make decisions anymore!" Rick tried to reason with him,

"You're making the decisions today, Rick. Come down here. Let's...Let's have that talk." The Governor ordered,

Rick looked over at Daryl, who gave him a slight nod. Vivian let go of the Greene's hands and reached for the sheriff, "Rick... he'll kill you..."

He stepped towards her and cupped her jaw with both his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the tears that she didn't realise ran down her cheeks, "I'll be okay. Go get the kids, be ready. We've been ready for this."

Vivian didn't even realise the kids woke up, only hearing their cries over the monitor after Rick pointed them out.

She searched his eyes, looking for any sort of hesitance in them, only to be met with assurance. Vivian nodded before backing away, watching him give Carl a nod before walking down the path towards the Governor.

"Hey." Daryl called out to her and she tore her eyes away from the older Grimes, "Let everyone know the plan."

Vivian nodded, rushing into the prison.

Marcella watched as Rick approached, silently praying for him to stay away.

This wasn't going to end in peace.

She stared past Rick to see Daryl standing in the courtyard, trying to memorise his features. Because she didn't know if she was going to make it out alive. Or if he would.

"Let 'em go right now." Rick demanded once he got close enough, "I'll stay down here. Talk as long as you want. But you let 'em go. You got a tank. You don't need hostages."

"I do." The Governor disagreed, "This is just to show you I'm serious. Not to blast a hole in our new home." He declared, "You and your people, you have till sundown to get out of here or they die."

While the group was distracted, Marcie attempted to slowly free herself from the ropes. It was tight, and it was rubbing her skin raw, but she knew if she was going to survive this, she needed to get free.

"Doesn't have to go down this way." Rick's voice shook as he spoke.

He was desperate, not that Marcie blamed him. He was in an impossible situation. There was no getting out of it.

"I got more people, more firepower. We need this prison. There it is." The Governor stated, "It's not about the past. It's about right now."

"There are children here." Rick begged, "Some of them are sick. They won't survive."

"I have a tank. And I'm letting you walk away from here. What else is there to talk about?" Rick was silent, trying to come up with an argument that would convince the Governor to stand down, "I could shoot you all. You'd all shoot back. I know that. But we'll win and you'll be dead. All of you. Doesn't have to be like that. Like I said, it's your choice."

But it wasn't a choice. They had no where to go. Even if they did leave the prison, they wouldn't survive, not all of them.

And there was no way the Governor would let them walk away. There would be the possibility they would show up again, it was too much of a risk for him.

Walkers began to appear and the Governor took out his gun, shooting them down. Marcie flinched at the sound of gunshots, thinking one of the bullets were meant for her.

"Noise will only draw more of them over. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to get out of here." He stated, "You got maybe about an hour of sunlight left. I suggest you start packing. The longer you wait, the harder it's gonna be for you to get out of here."

After Vivian announced the plan to the rest of the prison, including those who were sick in A Block, she rushed into her cell to grab the kids. She placed Judith in her car seat and gathered up her and Liam's diaper bag, 

She needed to prepare for the worst.

"Can we help?" Mika asked as she and Lizzie stood in the doorway,

Vivian thought for a moment before looking over at Judith, "Can you guys bring Judy and Liam to the bus? I need to grab something real quick."

The two girls nodded before grabbing Judith's car seat and heading towards the exit. Vivian made sure they made it outside before rushing towards Carl and Rick's cell.

"We can all..." Rick hesitated, because he knew he wasn't telling the truth, "we can all live together. There's enough room for all of us."

"More than enough." The Governor agreed, "But I don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you were under the same roof."

"We'd live in different cell blocks." Rick tried to convince him, "We'd never have to see each other till we're all ready."

"It could work. You know it could." Hershel added.

But it couldn't. Marcie knew that. Everyone knew that.

"It could've. But it can't. Not after Woodbury. Not after Andrea."

"Look, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. Fact is, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder than standing here shooting at each other. But I don't think we have a choice."

It's been a while since Rick has stepped up like this. Seeing him stand there, speaking for all of them, made Marcie realise that no one else could lead them. Not a council, not the Governor.

It's Rick.

"We don't. You do."

"We're not leaving." Rick stood his ground, "You try and force us, we'll fight back. Like you said, the guns will just bring more of them out. They'll take down the fences.Without the fences, this place is worthless. Now, we can all live in the prison or none of us can."

While Marcie couldn't see the Governor, she could hear him as he climbed down from the tank. She held her breath as she heard him approach, "We'll fix the damn fences." He grumbled,

Next to her, he held Michonne's sword to Hershel's neck, "No!" Marcie called out and the man behind her grabbed her hair, 

"Shut up!"

"Kill me." Marcie begged and the man tightened his hold on her, "Please."

Anyone but Hershel.

She could tell Rick was getting desperate, and he turned his attention to the Governor's group."You. You in the ponytails." He pointed to a girl behind them, "Is this what you want? Is this what any of you want?"

If they could get the Governor's people to change sides once, they could do it again.

"What we want is what you got. Period." The man in the tank responded, "Time for you to leave, asshole."

"Look, I fought him before. And after, we took in his old friends. They've become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk through those gates... you're one of us." Rick announced to them,

The tension in the air was thick, and Marcie didn't know which was it was going to go. Were they going to lay down their guns... or pull the trigger?

"We let go of all of it, and nobody dies. Everyone who's alive right now. Everyone who's made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back.We're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know... we all can change."

Tears ran down Marcie's face as the man let go of her hair.

If only what Rick said was true.

If only they weren't too far gone.

"Liar."