The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 50 - Liar

"Is that a fucking tank?" I half whispered, as I stood right up against the wired fence, looking out at the small army the Governor had shown up with. And sure enough there in the middle of his group was a military grade army tank, the cause of the explosion like noise we had heard.

"It's not up to me!" Rick yelled back to Phillip. "There's a council now! They run this place."

"Beth, grab Judith, grab the kids and go back inside." I started instructing, but the rest of my instructions to her, to lead them to the bus we had organised as a quick escape in case of an emergency were cut off by the Governor's next words.

"Is Hershel on the council?" Beth made no move to follow her orders after those words were said and the sound of my heart pounding in my chest as a kind of fearful heat washed over me and almost gave me back that horrid lightheaded feeling I had only just shook.

My father was pulled out of one of their cars, his hands bound behind his back. My throat dried up as I tried to swallow back a lump in it as I closed the final space left between me and the fence, my fingers lacing between it.

I could hear Maggie's breathing pick up, but I couldn't bring myself to look at her or Beth, my gaze firmly fixed on my father.

"What about Michonne? She on the council to?" Michonne was then pulled from the same car and walked to stand next to dad, the both of them standing there like they had just been walked to their execution.

"Rick..." I tried to say more, what I was going to say was a mystery even to me. All that swam around my mind was 'do something,' but what and how were a question mark. And my voice trailed off before I could as I felt a hyperventilation coming on.

"I don't make decisions anymore!" He yelled in reply.

"You're making the decisions today, Rick. Come down here and lets... lets have that talk."

Rick glanced to the side, looking to Daryl for confirmation who nodded back in reassurance. When he looked to me all I seemed able to do was stare back until Rick turned to speak with Carl quietly. I only realised I was still staring at his back when Daryl's hand reached up to the side of my shoulder, lightly squeezing it.

I didn't want to see, I didn't want to feel, for the second time in my life, I wanted to run. Shawn and Annette, I didn't have time to think about what it meant, what was happening, not until they were gone. We didn't understand it properly back them. My mother... that I understood... and that I had run from. Until I couldn't anymore, and now... staring at him through the prison fences... this I couldn't run from. All I could do was watch.

Rick began to make his way down and as he did Daryl started to wheel out the rifles we had kept in carts.

"Kat." They had them on their knees... he couldn't be on his knee... not for too long. "Kat." It put pressure on the joint where the prosthetic started and could cause bone pain. "Hey." Daryl's hand was suddenly on my arm again as I turned and saw him holding out a gun for me to take.

A gun, a rifle. If I fired it, it would mean we were in a fight... it would mean he would be dead. My hand slowly took the weapon before I turned back.

Daryl's hand brushed my hair back over my shoulder before squeezing it again and moving on to continue handing out weapons.

I couldn't hear them, I could only stare. I wanted to move to Beth and Maggie, to stand by them, but I couldn't even bring myself to look their way and without my consent my legs started to move on their own. I was walking down the fence, as if I could get closer. Close enough to hear what was happening. But I couldn't. I found my way to better viewing spot but that was as much as I could do with finger laced between the wire of the fence.

Third Person.

"Get back, go find the other kids." Daryl said to Luke. He was still standing near Kat, looking around nervously as she didn't even seem to notice the way he had been shuffling after her as she moved. Luke finally nodded and ran back around the corner.

Daryl walked over to Sasha and Tyrese, glancing back over his shoulder to where Kat seemed to gravitate further away from the group, her eyes fixed on her father.

He looked back out to the small army again before he spoke. "We can't take them all on." Daryl said. "Go through the admin building and into the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more. When was the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?"

"Day before we hit the Big Spot." Sasha answered. "We were running low on rations then, we're lower now."

"We'll manage. Things go south everyone runs for that bus. Let everybody know."

"What if everybody isn't on it when things go bad?" Ty asked. "How long do we wait?"

"As long as we can."

"Daryl." Sasha called before he could walk away and then nodded back in Kat's direction. Her hand had tightened on her weapon and she was still slowly shuffling along the perimeter. She wasn't trying to get closer to them, to get down there. She was moving subconsciously, but she was getting a good distance away, but then she stopped. And it looked like for a moment that she was getting her gun ready.

"She'll be fine." Daryl said back firmly. "She won't do anything."

"Are you sure?" Sasha went to confirm. "Kat can be... impulsive and sometimes unpredictable. If she fires first.."

"She's protective." Daryl quickly shot back, "but she ain't unstable." And then he walked away.

Kat POV.

My dad's gaze had seemed to find me, standing 20 metres away from the others and he held it strong. Not knowing was the worst part, not knowing how it was going, if progress was made, what was being said, but the answer came soon when the Governor moved to the car, pulled out Michonne's katana and held it to my father's throat.

The shock seemed to snap out at that as I heard Beth's panicked half cry from further away. The rifle at my side came up and aimed as I took sight on the Governor. Only the tight grip on the gun stopped my hands from shaking. The Governor's head was in perfect sight of my gun, the cross section of the X right between his eyes. Rick was speaking, but his back was too me and my lip reading abilities would only have been able to make out the occasional word, but my father... he was smiling. Smiling at Rick as the blade began to slowly move away from his neck. Then it was silent, everything seemed to freeze. My father's gaze drifted back to mine and the Governor look down at him and then to the blade he seemed to have loosened his grip on... and then to Rick. His one eye held his firmly and he spoke one word. A word I could read; "Liar." The blade pulled back, the sun glinted off the edge and from the edge of my sight I could see my father still looking my way, still smiling.

I pulled the trigger.

The sword followed through and the man standing behind the Governor dropped dead with a bullet in his chest.