CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN » LIFELINE
"You're not the only one in the inner circle dumbass."
♔
"Blaire, I need to talk to you," Rick stated as soon as I stepped out of the cell block. I blinked quickly, trying to process his words – I hadn't even been awake for long and he was already making my life difficult.
"Okay," I dragged out slowly, frowning at him as he silently began to head towards a quieter space. I followed him, noticing him glancing around quickly before coming to a stop. "What's up?"
"When I spoke with the governor, he made me an offer," he began with a heavy sigh.
A feeling of dread overcame me, and I began to prepare for the worst. "What kind of offer?"
Rick shook his head, as if the words were too difficult to say out loud. "If we give him Michonne, Woodbury will stand down."
I stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was actually considering this. Of course, we didn't know Michonne, but it was common decency. We couldn't just hand her over, that would be like sentencing her to death. Plus, she'd been a great help to us. I even thought she was beginning to fit into the group, become one of our own.
I noticed the look of guilt on his face, and shook my head firmly. "Please tell me you're not considering this," I said, trying to meet his eyes but he'd looked away, confirming my thoughts. "Dammit Rick–"
"I already spoke to Merle," he interjected, cutting me off. "We're gonna make it quiet–"
"Are you serious?" I snapped back, causing him to put a finger to his lips, begging me to be quieter. "Rick, you can't just do this," I lowered my voice into a harsh whisper. "We don't do things like this."
"We have no other option," he responded, but I shook my head in disagreement, turning away for a moment to compose myself.
"There's always another option," I defended, glancing behind me again, suddenly feeling paranoid that someone was listening. "Look, we don't even know if he'll keep up his end of the bargain. I've dealt with assholes like this, and so have you. There's no way in hell I'm letting you do this–"
"All due respect Blaire–"
"No," I bit back firmly, not allowing my opinion to be dismissed like that. "If this was me, I'd want someone fighting my corner. So I'm gonna fight for Michonne, because this–" I paused, eyeing him with disgust. "This is just wrong."
"Blaire–" he started to interject again, but I cut him off.
"Who else knows?" Rick's eyes diverted down to the floor, but he remained silent. I felt myself becoming more and more agitated, and I began to raise my voice again. "Who the hell else knows?!"
"Merle, Daryl and Hershel." Upon hearing both Daryl and Hershel's names I shook my head, gritting my teeth in anger. I was beginning to leave and go find them until Rick tugged me back, obviously anticipating my reaction. "Blaire, don't. Please, we have to keep it quiet."
"Right," I said, pulling away from his grip. "We have to keep this quiet, why? Oh, because other people aren't gonna agree. Because this is cowardly and disgusting and–"
"You think I want to do this?"
"Then don't," I snapped, unable to even look at him, to what he'd turned into. "There's always another way, Rick."
"Then what do you suggest because I'm out of damn options?!"
I swallowed thickly, my eyes finally searching Rick's. "I don't–" I paused, exhaling heavily. "I'm prepared to take my chances, to fight."
"Well I'm not," he dismissed. "It's going ahead, whether you like it not."
Before he walked away, a thought crossed my mind. "You've gone cold, Rick."
He froze and I hoped my words would linger in the air for a while. Even if I couldn't change his mind, I had to do everything I could to try.
~
"Hey," Daryl called out as he headed towards Glenn and I. I tilted my head up, watching him as he walked towards us. "You seen Merle around?" I ignored his question, letting Glenn answer instead with a silent shake of his head. "He say he was sorry yet? 'Cause he is. He's gonna make it right," Daryl said, as Glenn and I both shared a look, in no way believing that was ever going to happen. "I'm gonna make him. There's got to be a way. Just needs to be a little forgiveness is all."
"He tied me to a chair," Glenn reminded, standing in front of Daryl. "He beat me, and threw a walker in the room. Maybe I could call it even. But he– he beat Blaire too, interrogated her. And he took Maggie to a man who terrorized her."
Daryl looked away and towards me briefly. Knowing neither of us were going to budge, he let out a final heavy sigh before picking up his crossbow and walking away. I groaned as Glenn turned back to face me, an anxious look on his face. "I'm not being too sensitive about this, am I?" He questioned, causing me to smile a little at his question.
"Glenn," I started, taking both of his hands in mine. "You're adorable." He chuckled lightly as I continued. "And no, of course not. What Merle did to us is unforgivable. We don't have to suffer in silence and be around a man like that if we don't want to be."
"I just– I hate seeing you hurt," He said softly. "I care about you more than I care about me."
"Listen," I started, my heart warming by his words. "I don't want you to worry about Merle or worry about how you should or shouldn't be feeling. Things could change, but they might never. Just focus on the good things we've got right now, because god knows how long we've got left. All of us."
"Yeah, you're right," he said, giving my hands a small squeeze. "I love you."
I leaned closer, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips, pulling away with a smile. "And I love you." I hesitantly broke away from his gaze, glancing towards the prison. "Now, I hate to be a pain but I've gotta go and speak to Rick about a thing."
"A thing?" He questioned, a confused expression crossing over his face.
I thought for a moment, trying to think of a decent cover up. I hated keeping things from Glenn, but the less people who knew about this the better. "Uh yeah, I don't really know what it's about. He just said to meet him so..." I trailed off, unsure about what I was even trying to say.
"Okay," Glenn said unsurely, nodding his head. "See you in a bit."
I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before starting to head back to the prison, actually hoping to locate Daryl, which I fortunately did quite quickly.
"You know Rick's absolutely bullshit plan–" I started, slightly out of breath from having to jog to catch up with him.
He stopped in his tracks, whipping his head around to face me. "How do you know about that?"
"Because you're not the only one in the inner circle dumbass," I rolled my eyes. "Anyway–"
"It's off," I heard Rick call out from behind me with impeccable timing. Daryl and I turned away from each other as Rick started to head towards us. "We'll take our chances."
"Oh, thank god," I breathed out, almost dramatically, to emphasise my relief. This was definitely the right decision. "He's finally seen sense."
Rick shot me a hint of a glare as Daryl spoke up instead. "I'm not saying it was the wrong call, but this is definitely the right one."
Rick glanced from Daryl, to me, and then frowned, his eyes scanning around the courtyard. I immediately sensed something was wrong, following his gaze. "What's up?"
"I can't find Merle or Michonne," Rick said, as my stomach suddenly dropped. I began to fear the worst. "They've gone."
Daryl glanced between us both for a moment as worry flooded through me. "Come on," he said, already storming towards the prison. I shared a worried look with Rick as we followed Daryl through the cell block and to the boiler room. "He was in here. Said he was looking for drugs," Daryl explained, as my eyes swept over the room, hoping to find something. "Said a lot of things, actually."
"Like what?" Rick asked as I began to head towards the other end, in search for anything that might help us find them.
"Said that you were gonna change your mind," I heard Daryl reply. "Here we go." I made my way over to them both, noticing Daryl holding some kind of material in his hand. "Yeah, he took her here. They mixed it up."
"Damn it!" Rick exclaimed angrily as his blazing eyes found their way to the door. "I'm going after him."
"You can't track for shit," Daryl retorted, so truthfully that I had to stifle a laugh.
"Then the both of us," Rick corrected, but I shook my head, as did Daryl.
"No, just me. I said I'd go and I'll go," Daryl dismissed. "Plus they're gonna come back here. You need to be ready. Your family too–"
"I'm coming with you," I spoke up quickly, but Daryl looked like he was about to disagree. "I'm not taking no for an answer. Let's go," I pushed past him and headed through the door, eventually hearing the sound of his reluctant footsteps as he followed me into the courtyard.
I slowed down, turning to face him, waiting for him to tell me the plan. "We gotta go on foot," he finally told me. "It's easier to track that way."
And after sharing a mutual nod, the two of us began running.
~
"Definitely Michonne's style," I commented as Daryl and I stepped over a severed walker head, making me grimace. You'd think, after all this time, one would become accustomed to seeing that – but it was actually still super gross. "Over there," I said, indicating with my hand towards Michonne, who was busy pulling her sword out of a decapitated walker head.
"Where the hell is Merle?" Daryl growled, immediately stomping over to the woman. I jogged after him, my legs and feet absolutely burning from all the running we'd been doing. "Hey!" He called out as we neared closer to him. "Where's my brother? You kill him?"
Michonne shook her head, gritting her teeth as she attempted to remove the sword from the walker again. "He let me go."
"He let you go?" I questioned, completely shocked and confused that Merle Dixon would, well, do such a thing – I mean, unless it had benefited him in some way.
She nodded and Daryl, looking just as surprised as I was, glanced back at me. "Don't let anyone come after me."
"Daryl–" I started as he began running off again, causing me to groan in annoyance at the decision I had to make. If Merle had gone, that meant he was likely going to take on the governor alone, which probably meant him dying. Of course Daryl would do anything to save his brother, but I couldn't let anything happen to him – not because he was trying to save scum like Merle. I turned back to Michonne, meeting her eyes firmly. "Don't let anyone come after us."
I took off sprinting as fast as my aching legs could be bothered to move, hoping to locate Daryl in the distance because I really wasn't very good at tracking. Fortunately, I saw him up ahead, darting through some trees.
I followed, being careful to watch my surroundings. As I headed further, I began to hear the vibrations of a loud booming noise in the distance, seeming to come from a radio. I halted where I was, pulling out my gun. The Governor must be here – if not him then someone else. And walkers were bound to be littered around this place. I couldn't afford to take chances.
The obnoxious music was suddenly shut off and I slowed down slightly, listening out for anything or anyone. There was silence. A horrible, ominous silence that creeped me out thoroughly. I did not have a good feeling about this.
Up ahead, I noticed that Daryl had just turned a corner. I decided it was best not to shout him and draw attention, just in case anyone was still lurking around.
He came to a pause, killing a walker swiftly with his crossbow. Grimacing, I stepped over the battered corpses, their insides, and god knows what else, spread out across the ground. "Daryl," I hissed quietly, catching his attention. He glanced behind him, not even seeming surprised that I'd followed him. Quickly, I caught up to him and he nodded his head in greeting, the two of us continuing on in search of Merle.
Daryl walked ahead of me slightly as I looked around at my surroundings, wondering what the hell happened. I was also curious as to where the music came from. Who had been here? Was it Merle? The Governor? Someone else?
Hesitantly, I placed my gun back in my pocket, switching it for my knife instead. There hadn't seemed to be much of a human threat, but I knew there were going to be loads of walkers loitering around. I couldn't afford to be wasting bullets on them.
In the distance, there was a low growling sound, followed by the horrific chewing sounds of a walker feeding on something. I snapped my eyes back up in front of me to try and spot it, watching as Daryl came to a sudden halt in front of me. I glanced past his shoulder as a walker that had sensed our presence looked up; it's eyes glazed over, blood smothered around it's cold, lifeless face, intestines hanging from it's mouth.
The walker was Merle Dixon.
"No," I heard Daryl whimper in disbelief, as I stood stunned, staring at Merle, my feet feeling heavy on the ground, as if I was stuck there. Daryl's soft cries began to fill the air as Merle slowly began to drag his feet towards us. It felt as if my throat had closed up, the air leaving my lungs. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Neither of us moved as Merle stumbled closer to us. I cast a heavy look down at my knife whilst Daryl backed away, still shaking his head, his eyes glistening with tears. I took a deep breath, unable to bear any of it much longer. I took a step between the two of them, rising my knife up and plummeting it into Merle's head, just as his fingers grasped the material of my shirt. The weapon felt heavy in my grip, as blood soaked my hand.
He fell and I tumbled down to my knees with him, quickly pulling the knife out and slamming it down once more, allowing the sticky blood to coat my skin.
If Daryl wasn't there, I likely would have jammed it in a lot more times. But the anger I felt towards Merle Dixon had to be reigned in, especially when I finally glanced back over at Daryl, who was watching the scene unfold in shock, his whole body shuddering.
My heart ached heavily in my chest as I began to stand up, meeting Daryl's hurt gaze. I couldn't find the words to say once I reached him again. His eyes were glued to the mutilated corpse of his brother on the ground, and I placed my clean hand on his face, begging him to look away. "Daryl–" I started as choked sobs began to escape from his lips. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He gripped on to me tightly, hands trembling, head shaking. He started to fall to his knees, me falling down beside him, holding on to him as tightly as I could. To my surprise, he wrapped both his arms around me, holding on to me as if I was some kind of lifeline.
"It's okay," I told him as he sobbed quietly, his whole body shaking in my arms. "I got you," I whispered, my voice cracking slightly, becoming hoarse. I felt hot tears spring to my own eyes, but I knew they weren't because I felt any remorse about Merle Dixon. "I got you."
❃
Words: 2750
Published: 4th March 2017
Sorry for not updating in ages.
Only a couple more chapters now until the end of season 3...