Barely Surviving // TWD // Daryl Dixon #Wattys2016

Chapter XXVI -- Shattered Heart

"She wanted to lose herself in him. To tie his arms around her like a tourniquet.

If she showed him how much she needed him, he'd run away."

– Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

Once inside, we noticed there was not a single soul in the streets. The men on the scaffold were very far away so they couldn't spot us.

I wondered where everybody could be and I instantly thought about the place where Merle thought another man as walkers surrounded them, the arena.

I led the others to that part of Woodbury and as we came closer we could hear the Governor speaking to the people. But of course he would give a hypocritical speech as usual. I almost rolled my eyes as I heard his voice.

"I should tell you that we'll be okay, that we're safe, that tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I-- I won't, because I can't."

As the Governor spoke we sneaked further in, luckily the lights didn't reach this far and we weren't seen, we hid behind some big containers and waited for the best opportunity to get Daryl.

"I'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. Want to destroy us! And worse because one of those terrorists is one of our own. Merle!"

I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard his name, I turned to look at him in the crowd and when I found him I saw a man had a rifle against his back and another was taking his knife away from him. Merle looked shock and betrayed. I guess I was right, Merle was in the way and the Governor was going to get rid of him. And it was then when I realized the Governor had a bandage over his right eye, I saw it before but it was like my brain finally processed that information, I also noticed that it was slowly becoming soaked with his blood.

"The man I counted on, the man I trusted. He led 'em here and he let 'em in. It was you," he exclaimed as he pointed a finger at Merle. "You lied, betrayed us all."

Then I saw two men, dragging another one to the arena. He had a bag over his face but I could only assume it was Daryl and when I saw the man's leather vest with those wings on the back, there was no doubt it was Daryl. He was in deep problems but at least he was alive and I was going to try everything to save him.

"This is one of the terrorists!" the Governor exclaimed as the men dragged Daryl almost to where the lights were, so everyone could see him. The Governor grabbed him by his arm and pulled the bag off of him, revealing his face. "Merle's own brother."

Everyone gasped in disbelief, but the one that was most shocked was Merle. He was staring at Daryl like he couldn't believe Daryl was right there. Daryl didn't looked as shocked to see him, he looked confused and helpless. He knew that it was next to impossible to get out of this one but he didn't know we were inside, trying to save him.

"What should we do with them, huh?"

"Kill them!"

"What? What you want?"

"Kill them! Kill them!" everyone shouted, I even spotted Chris, Amanda and Wayne in the crowd. They were also shouting it. "Kill them now!"

"You wanted your brother," the Governor said to Merle after he walked to him. "Now you got him."

The people kept shouting 'kill them' for several minutes, it was crazy. How could they even want that?

"I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." I shuddered when I heard that. "Winner goes free. Fight to the death!"

"Y'all know me! I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove..." Merle said as he punched Daryl making him fall to the ground, Rick had to put a hand on my shoulder to remind me I couldn't run to save him. "That my loyalty...!" now he kicked Daryl. "Is to this town!"