THE THREE WOMEN, stuck closely together. They had been pulled into a small medical room where a nurse was to check on them.
Michonne had refused and even threatened the petite and dark skinned woman. Adira had to follow a light only with her eyes and get her blood pressure taken. Andrea was checked on the most due to her "cold."
The thermometer was taken from Andrea's mouth. "Why are we being held here? We wanna leave." She immediately said.
The nurse placed the thermometer on the silver desk next to her. She placed her hands on her hips before answering softly. "You're not well enough. And it's dark. You should stay the night."
"Where are we?" Andrea asks. Michonne sat on a chair beside them, her elbows were on her knees and hands on her head.
The nurse looks out the window suspiciously before looking back at Andrea. "That's not for me to say. He'll talk to you."
Michonne removes her hands from her head and looks up at the woman. "Who?"
Before the nurse could respond, Merle, the man who took them, walked inside. Following him were two men with guns. "Go check on your patient, doc."
Merle walked to the middle of the room, standing infront of Andrea. "Bet you was wondering if I was real." He grabbed a chair and pulled it to middle of the room and sat on it. "Probably hoping I wasn't."
Michonne stood up from her chair and stood beside Andrea. Adira stayed sitting on her chair, keeping a close eye on the guards. One of them was the man named Shumpert, the dark skinned male with the bow and arrow.
"Well here I am. I guess this old world gets a little smaller towards the end, huh?" Merle commented again with a grin.
"You know, when they found me I was near bled out. Starving. Thinking to myself a bullet might make a good last meal. Take myself a nice long nap after. Wait for Daryl on the other side." He nodded his head slowly. "You seen my brother?"
All eyes turn towards Andrea. "Not for a long time." Adira guessed Merle and his brother were from Andreas old group. The girl remembered Andrea telling her that she had gotten separated due to a herd.
Merle chuckles quietly. "Makes two of us."
"He went back for you." Andrea said. "Him and Rick. You were already gone."
"Well..." Merle starts laughing. "Not all of me." He begins taking off the metal cuff from his arm. He laughs even more when Andrea groans at his cut off hand. Adira scrunches her nose lightly, the stump of skin making her want to throw up.
"Yeah, Rick. He's that prick who handcuffed me to the rooftop." He began placing the metal cuff back.
Andrea nods her head. "Yeah. He tried. Daryl saw that."
"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother." Merle says with a small smile. He must miss his brother a lot.
"He wanted to keep looking. But things happened. People died. A lot of them. Jim, Dale, Jacqui, Sophia... Amy." Andrea informed him. Adira remembered the time when Andrea told her about Amy.
She was her younger sister who was bitten. Andrea said she was a nice girl with no mean bone. She liked reading fairy tales and loved fishing.
"Your sister?" Merle asked.
"Yes." A tear ran down her cheek and she moved her gaze to the tile floor.
"She was a good kid. I'm sorry to hear it." Merle said. Shumpert and the guy stayed silent beside the door. The two leaned on the wall, listening to their conversation. Michonne and Adira did the same.
Andrea sucked in a deep breath. "There were more. A lot more. We had to leave Atalanta. We wound up on a farm. Daryl stepped up. Became a valued member of the group."
"Now he's dead." Merle looked down at the floor.
Andrea shook her head, "I don't for sure. We got run off by a herd."
"How long ago?" Merle asked.
"Seven, eight months ago." Andrea looked at Michonne and then to Adira. "I was separated from the rest of them. Got left behind." Merle nodded his head slowly. "I know what it feels like."
Merle lets out a small laugh, "I doubt that."
"What do you want from us?" Andrea asks. Michonne only tilts her head questionangly.
"Damn." Merle stands up from his chair. Seeing him walk closer to Michonne, Adira stand up and walks closer to her. "There she sits, four walls around her, roof over her head, medicine in her veins, and she wants to know what I want from her." He smirks at Adira who glares back.
Merle looks at Adira and Michonne who stare at him. Both women had hard glares on their face, but Michonne had her chin up high, daring Merle to say something at her.
"I plucked you and your mutes here out the dirt, blondie. Saved your asses. How about a thank you."
"You had a gun pointed at us." Michonne states, not moving from her spot.
"Ooh, she speaks." Merle laughs, "who aint had a gun on 'em in the past year huh? Show of hands yall." He raised his metal cuff. "Anybody?" He turns around to the men beside the door. "Shumpert, Crowey. Y'all had a gun on y'all?" Merle scoffs, "I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walking up with his mitts in his pockets. That's be the son of a bitch you'd really want to be scared of—"
"Thank you." Andrea interrupts his blabbering. Michonne turns her head and stares at Andrea with furrowed eyebrows. After that, Merle opens the door to the man with the dark colored shirt.
"How are you feeling?" The man asks Andrea who was now standing next to Adira.
"We want our weapons." Michonne says.
"Sure." The man nods his head. "On our way out the front gates."
"Show us the way." Andrea responds, causing the man looks at her questioningly, "you've kept us locked up in this room."
"You see any bars on the windows?" He raised an eyebrow and looked around the room.
"I see your men carrying guns, not letting us walk away." Adria speaks up. Her eyes glared into his ocean blue ones.
"It's just a precaution. We don't exactly know you... but you're being cared for." He states while smiling at the youngest woman.
"We know enough about you to want out of this place." Andrea says, "we watched you drive a knife into the skulls of two dead men. What the hell was that about?"
"They turned." Is all he says.
"They weren't bitten." Michonne sneered.
The man turns his head and looks at Merle for a few seconds. "It doesn't matter. However we die, we all turn. I put them out of their misery. It's not easy news to swallow at first, but there it is. You're not prisoners here, you're guests. If you want to leave, as I said, you're free to do so. But we don't open the gates past dusk. Draws too much attention."
Adira's heart stopped. However we die, we all turn. There's no escaping this world. She thought death would be the end. Death would be her gift. But not even death would be able to save her. He could be lying.
He looks over to Andrea, "and you especially need a solid night's sleep. You wouldn't last another day out there in your condition. Have you brought over to my place in the morning. Return your weapons, extra ammo, food for the road, some meds, keys to a vehicle if you want one."
Andrea looks back at Michonne and Adira. Michonne stares back and smiles slightly, but Adira still couldn't believe him. Why would he give them so much?
"Send you on your way. No hard feelings." He leads them out the room and outside. Adira looks around and realizes she's in a town. Torches light up the streets.
"Welcome to Woodbury." The man says as all the women walk out. "Come with me." He walks down the few steps.
The women follow the man with Merle and the rest of the men behind them. They walk closer to the gates and see it's built out of wood with old tires on the sides.
"Go relieve Pete at the back gate." Merle says as he climbs the ladder to the gate. "Take the spotlight." He tells a skinny white guy with a bow and arrow. The other man leaves and walks down the empty streets.
"Are you military?" Andrea asks the man. Michonne and Adira stood a few feet back.
The man smiles slightly, "hardly. Couple of vets, but by and large we're self trained."
"That's heavy artillery they're packing." Andrea states.
The man nods, "some men arrive with guns, but most of the weapons are scavenged over time."
"And the other side of town? The rest of the streets? They're all guarded like this? It can't be." Andrea shakes her head, looking back at the town.
The man nodded his head and placed his hands on his hips, "it can, and it is."
Merle whistles from the gate, "got us a creeper, Governor." Merle looks to the side and asks the man beside him for his gun. "Thank you." He takes it and aims it at the soul.
"Governor? They call you that?" Andrea asks while walking closer to the gate.
"Some nicknames stick whether you want them to or not." He stated as Shumpert turns on a stage light and lights it at over the gate.
"Buzz is a nickname. Governor is a title. There's a difference." Andrea says while looking through the gate.
"Clear." Merle states after shooting down the few souls. His rifle was silenced and he handed the gun back to the man.
"We'll get them in the morning." Seeing the women's confusion, he explains, "can't leave them to rot. Creates an odor. Makes people uneasy."
"What people? There's nobody here. It's a ghost town." Andrea scrunched her eyebrows and looked around the empty town.
The Governor chuckled slightly and nodded his head, "this way."
•◦இ•◦
The Governor led them into an apartment and opened an all white door. "You'll be more comfortable here. Not the four seasons but there's a hot shower. Waters limited so keep it short."
The three of them walk in. In the corner was a curtain for the makeshift shower. Beside it was a dresser that Adira slowly opened, waiting to find rats inside. But to her surprise, it was filled with clothes. On the other side of the shower was a window and a medium sized bed. Across room was a small red couch with a dark wooden desk. Beside the door was a small table with a platter of food on top. Nuts, peaches, water bottles, silverware, and blueberries.
"We got food, water, and fresh clothes. Hope this works." The Governor says before walking to the doorway. "I know you'd feel better with your sword, more secure, but you're safe here."
Michonne looks back at the man and glares at him. Before things become too heated, Andrea thanks him, "we appreciate it."
"What about the pilot?" Adira inspects the books on the large dresser. She doesn't turn to look at the Governor, she was more focused on the many books sitting on the shelf.
The Governor clears his throat, "well, Dr. Stevens is doing all she can. Now, I know you got a lot more questions, but I got work to do." He looks back at Shumpert who stood in the hallway. "My man will be outside the door if you need anything else. I'll see you tomorrow." He leaves and Michonne slams the door closed.