MARCIE WAS BLINDFOLDED AS SHE WAS BROUGHT TO THE CAMP.
Once they were there, the three of them were brought to a medical room of sorts to get checked out for bites before they worked on Andrea.
Marcie was still trying to get over the fact that she found Merle, after all those months. And all she wanted to do was run to Daryl to tell him.
But she didn't know where he was either.
"Why are we being held here?" The sick woman asked the doctor, "We want to leave."
"You're not well enough." The doctor told her, "And it's dark. You should stay the night."
"Where are we?"
The woman glanced towards the guard at the door before looking back at the blonde, "That's not for me to say."
"Cryptic." Marcie mumbled towards Michonne.
It was a clear red flag.
"He'll talk to you." The woman continued,
"Who?"
Merle walked through the door, "Go check on your patient, doc." The woman left the room and he glanced at Marcie and Andrea, "Bet you were wondering if I was real." He grabbed a chair to sit down, "Probably hoping I wasn't. Well, here I am." He chuckled, "I guess this old world gets a little smaller toward the end, huh? Ain't so many of us left to share the air, right?"
Marcie was a bit nervous. She and Andrea were part of the group that left him behind on the roof, that caused him to cut off his hand. Would he take revenge?
"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." Merle stared at them, "You seen my brother?"
She kept the tears at bay while Andrea shook her head, "Not for a long time."
"Makes three of us."
"He went back for you." Marcie whispered and Merle's eyes turned to her, "A lot of us did. But you were already gone."
Merle showed us his metal arm, "Well, not all of me." He revealed his stump underneath the metal and Marcie was quick to look away. He chuckled, "Yeah, Rick. He's that prick that cuffed me to the rooftop.
He did that all on his own. With his attitude and his teamwork skills.
"Yeah." Andrea sighed, "He tried. Daryl saw that."
"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother." Merle commented,
Marcie couldn't help but remember back to when she had first met Daryl. How intimidating and harsh he was. Merle considered him sweet?
His eyes lowered towards Marcie's torso and she glanced down at it.
It was Daryl's flannel. The same one she was wearing when she got shot. For the longest time, it still smelled like him. Cigarette smoke and musk. Then after a few weeks, the smell faded. But it still brought her comfort when she was cold.
"That his?"
She nodded, fiddling with the hem of the flannel, "He wanted to keep looking, but things happened. People died. A lot of them." Marcie explained,
"Jim, Dale. Jacqui, Jillian, Trevor, Sophia..." Andrea listed off before hesitating with the last one, "Amy."
"Your sister?"
"Yes." She answered,
Merle let that information sink in for a moment, "She was a good kid. I'm sorry to hear it."
"There were more. A lot more. We had to leave Atlanta. We wound up on a farm." Andrea continued,
"And Daryl stepped up. He became a valued member of the group. We really counted on him." Marcie told him honestly,
"And now he's dead."
The brunette shook her head, "No. He wouldn't go out easily. He's alive out there somewhere."
Andrea placed a hand on Marcie's shoulder, "What we're saying is we don't know for sure. We got run off by a herd."
"How long ago?" Merle asked,
Andrea and Marcie shared a look, trying to figure it out, "Seven... eight months ago? We got separated... left behind." Merle nodded, "We know what it feels like."
Merle looked down at his metal arm, "I doubt that."
Marcie didn't feel like she was left behind. She told Rick to go. They all thought she was dead, she wasn't expecting them to come looking for her.
"What do you want from us?" Andrea asked,
Merle stood, "Damn." He glanced over at Michonne, "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 turned to look at Andrea, "I plucked you and your buddies out of the dirt, blondie. Saved your asses. How about a thank you?"
"You had a gun on us." Michonne stated,
His eyebrows rose, "Oh, she speaks." Merle chuckled, "Who ain't had a gun on 'em in the past year, huh? Show of hands, y'all." He raised his metal stump and turned to his buddies, "Anybody? Hmm? Shumpert, Crowley? Y'all had a gun on y'all?" He turned back to the women and scoffed, "Hell... I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walking up with his mitts in his pockets. That'd be the son of a bitch you'd really want to be scared of."
"Thank you." Andrea interrupted.
Marcie wasn't sure if it was because she was nervous about what Merle was going to do... or she just wanted him to shut up.
The other door opened and the leader of the camp entered, whispering something to Merle before turning to the three of them,
"How you feeling?"
"We want our weapons." Michonne stepped in front of Andrea,
The man nodded, "Sure. On your way out the front gates."
"Show us the way." Andrea replied, "You've kept us locked up in this room."
"You see any bars on the windows?" He asked, glancing around, "You're being cared for."
"Under guard." The blonde argued,
"To protect our people, we don't know you."
He was right. They did the same thing when they brought Randall back to the farm. Before sentencing him to death.
"We know enough about you to want out of this place. We watched you drive a knife into the skulls of two dead men. What the hell was that all about?" Andrea questioned,
The man stared at them, confused, "They turned."
"They weren't bitten." Michonne replied,
The man shared a look with the other group members in the room and Marcie had a feeling they knew something that she didn't.
"Doesn't matter. However we die, we all turn."
Marcie's heart dropped.
The question she had been asking herself all these months, how did Shane turn into a walker, was finally answered.
"I put them out of their misery." He explained, walking past them, "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 dust. Draws too much attention." He motioned to Andrea, "And you especially, you need a solid night's sleep. You wouldn't last another day out there in your condition."
The man was right, in a way. This camp was something they needed after being out there all those months. Andrea got her medicine, and Marcie was partially able to keep her promise to Daryl.
She found Merle. Now she needed to get them together.
If only she knew where Daryl was.
"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." The man offered as he walked towards the exit, "Send you on your way. No hard feelings."
Marcie narrowed her eyes, but what was the catch? Why would he give them all these supplies?
They followed him to the door and he opened it for them. She looked around with a look of awe on her face.
It was dark, but multiple torches were lit so people could see their way.
They were in a town. Not some run down, over grown town. But with buildings and walls and fresh cut grass. It was like their were untouched.
That was the catch. He wasn't expecting to give away his supplies, because he was expecting them to want to stay. Because it was safe.
"Welcome to Woodbury."