One of Brannon's men opened the gates for us. The five men pushed Daryl and I in line with our group. Brannon stared me down with an evil smirk and I stared right back with fire in my eyes.
"So," Brannon started. "you think you can just come into our hideout, kill some of my men, and take away my play toy?" He chuckled to himself.
"You guys didn't do a good job at covering up your tracks." Scotty laughed.
"Please, let some of us go. Most of them didn't do anything." Rick begged. "It was all-" Rick was cut off as one of the men bashed him in the face with the butt of his gun.
"Shut the hell up. I don't care who did anything. I just want some revenge." Brannon said.
He began walking towards me. I clenched my fists, ready to fight if I had to but he didn't do anything. He stopped right in front of me and looked me up and down. He grinned and pushed my wet hair out of my eyes and behind my ear. I stood stiff as a board, barely breathing. His hand made it's way to my cheek and then to the back of my neck. He paused there before latching onto my hair and throwing me forward on the ground. I slightly screamed, not expecting the sudden action.
"Ellie!" I heard Daryl growl from behind me. I looked back to see him being restrained by two men.
"Now," Brannon circled me as I sat helplessly on the ground. "What shall I do to you?"
I laughed hysterically. "What haven't you done to me? You've beaten me, killed my friends."
Brannon's grin disappeared and he pulled me up to my feet. "You've done the same to me, Ellie!" He yelled in my face. "You don't think I feel the pain that you have caused me? I have feelings too dammit!"
"Do you think I care? I have no sympathy for you." I coldly mumbled.
I could tell I really pushed his buttons and I immediately regret it. Brannon's fist hit my left cheek sending me to the ground again. I held my cheek as it throbbed in pain.
"Stupid bitch." I heard Brannon mutter behind me.
I stumbled back to my feet and turned towards Brannon. I stared into his eyes before throwing a punch at his nose. He didn't fall to the ground like I did but he did pause for a second and gently held his nose.
"I'm fucking sick of your shit!" Brannon groaned as he pulled out a gun and pointed it right at me.
I felt as if the world stopped for a second. Brannon held his gun at me while my group, my family, watched in horror. The gun went off and I braced my self for the bullet but it never reached me. Instead, a body leaped in front of me and took the bullet to the chest. It was Merle.
His body hit the ground and blood immediately spilled all over his chest. "Merle!" I screamed and dropped down to my knees, trying to stop the bleeding but it just kept coming. His blood was quickly covered all over my hands. "We have to save you, I have to-" Merle cut me off by gently caressing my cheek.
"There's nothing you can do sweet cheeks." Merle choked out with a small smirk. He coughed and blood spilled out of his mouth.
Tears welled up in my eyes and I clenched my fists. Merle's breathing slowed and his hand slipped from my cheek. His eyes fluttered shut. He's dead.
I jumped up and ran at Brannon, tears streaming down my face. "You son of a bitch!" I slapped and punched at him as he tried to hold me back. "You killed him you asshole! You killed him!!" I screamed.
"I don't give a shit!" Brannon grabbed my wrists tightly and pushed me back over to Daryl. "He killed himself. I didn't force him to jump in front of you."
Brannon walked away from us and started whispering things to his group. I looked over at Daryl to see tears running down his cheeks. I didn't realize that he just lost his brother. Yeah, I was sad because Merle and I were close but he's Daryl's brother. I can't imagine the pain he's in right now.
I quickly wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tightly. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and his head rest on my shoulder. He cried softly.
"Hey! No touching each other!" I heard Scotty yell from behind me.
"Shut the hell up Scotty. Let them mourn." Brannon said. I pulled away from Daryl but kept one arm around his waist, holding him close to me. "See Ellie. I'm not that bad of a guy." he smiled. I rolled my eyes in disgust.
"Okay. I am going to choose a few of you to have the great honor of living. The rest, well, they die." Brannon said. "Oh and just a heads up, most of the women will live for...reasons." He smirked.
I watched his eyes scan the line of us. He then pointed to Sasha. "You. Go stand over by Scotty."
Sasha didn't move a muscle. She did look like she was going to burst into tears though. Brannon walked up closer to her. "Go." He deeply said. Sasha stumbled over in front of Scotty. "This goes for the rest of you. If I point at you, go stand by him."
Brannon then pointed to Maggie, Beth, Amy, Michonne, and Glenn. They all walked over to Sasha and Scotty. "That's it. Kill the rest." He commanded. All his men pointed guns at us and I clung to Daryl, waiting for our death.
"Wait! Wait!" Rick yelled out. Brannon held up his hand, stopping his men. "Please," Rick begged. "spare my son. Please."
Brannon looked at Carl as he just looked at the ground. Brannon then spoke, "Go, boy." Carl quickly hugged his dad and cried 'I love you' into his ear. He ran over to Michonne, who held the crying boy.
Brannon stood silently, dozing off into his own world. One of his men walked over and tapped him on the shoulder. "Boss? You okay?"
Brannon shook is head vigorously, shaking himself back into the world. "Yeah." His voice was quiet but It got loud again. "Here's a new plan. The rest of you, I will personally kill."
He walked over to me first and then looked at Daryl. "Hold him back." Brannon's men latched onto Daryl and held him away from the two of us. Daryl kicked and screamed my name, trying so hard to fight back.
Brannon smiled at me. "So, here we are again."
"Yep." I responded.
Brannon stifled a laugh. "How should I kill you?"
"As painfully as possible." I coldly said.
Brannon chuckled. "You got it."
His fist hit my stomach and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. He kicked me in the side and his men cheered. He got on top of me and beat my face to a pulp. I spit blood up and braced myself for another hit.
I don't feel anything anymore. I can feel the pain he's causing me but I don't care. It's almost numb to me.
This man is something worse than evil. He's made my apocalyptic life hell. I hate him more than I hate these damn walkers. I'm just going to lay here and let him beat me. He wins.
Suddenly, I saw through my swollen eyes, Merle bite down on Brannon's shoulder. He screamed out and blood sprayed all over him and I.
I heard a commotion go on between our group and his and someone pulled Merle off of Brannon. I took this chance to knee Brannon in his stomach and push him off of me. I immediately saw a full on battle between the two groups. We were winning.
I jumped on top of Brannon and wrapped my hands around his neck. I began squeezing as tight as I could but he did the same to me. I looked around for something to help me and my eye caught a nearby rock. I kept one hand strangling Brannon and reached for the rock with the other. I finally took hold of the rock and slammed it into Brannon's head. His hands let go of my neck but he was still moving. I felt all the anger and pain he caused swell up inside of me. I let go of his neck and held the rock with both of my hands, slamming it over and over into his head. His blood sprayed all over my face but I continued to smash his head flat. Once I was definitely sure he was dead, I sat the rock down, rolled off of him and laid in the blood stained grass.
I win.
I looked up at the blue, cloud filled sky, breathing heavily. The sound of people fighting other people was the only thing I could hear. It soon stopped and I could hear talking now. Daryl's face appeared as he hovered above me. His hand landed on my cheek and he smiled at me.
"Hey, Ellie." He whispered, his voice very calming to me.
"Hey." I choked out. For some reason I just felt like crying.
"We killed his entire group." he informed me.
I smiled weakly and began to cry. They were happy tears because I was glad it was over, and then they were sad tears for the loss of Merle.
Daryl helped me sit up and then wrapped his arms around me. One of his hands stroked my bloody wet hair and the other rest on my waist. Daryl leaned in my ear and whispered, "It'll be okay now. Everything will be okay."