Changing To Adapt ➵ TWD

➵ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱɪxᴛʏ ᴛᴡᴏ

It didn't feel right. Knowing Rick, Daryl and Hershel were going alone to see the Governor. Andrea was convincing enough for it to happen, but that doesn't mean it's right.

One meeting, to figure things out.

Lucas didn't trust it. Who's to say the Governor didn't plan some sort of ambush? Didn't plant his people on the outskirts in preparation?

It's a good thing Daryl's with them, then, he supposes. He's the god's eye.

On the flip side, Merle's being a fucking menace now that his brother's gone. Yeah, plot twist, now it's them trying to get Merle to stay.

He wants to take off after the breadcrumbs they left behind, and gun down the Governor.

It's understandable, but also stupid.

One wrong move and their people are dead.

"The hell do you think you're doin'?" Lucas ducks down the steps quickly in order to snatch the packed bag out of Merle's hand. He's taking their supplies. Food, guns, water. Merle holds tight, and they end up chest-to-chest in a showdown.

They both know who'd win. It was proven in that fight at Woodbury. Lucas swallows thickly.

"You're not going," Glenn orders, blocking the exit.

Merle lets go of the bag, "I don't need your permission." Only to grab another one, and repeat his earlier actions.

Lucas has to close his eyes in order to take a breath.

"I can't let you." Glenn stands his ground.

"You can't stop me."

"If you're gonna live here with us, it's gonna be on our terms." Maggie says, standing on the other side of the table. When Merle ignores her and starts walking away, she raises her voice. "If Michonne can do it, why can't you?"

Merle snaps back around, "'Cause it's my brother out there, that's why. What's the matter with y'all?" He promptly rushes up the steps, but Glenn plants his feet.

Walking in from the cellblock, Michonne eyes the situation with a heated stare.

"I'm not gonna let you put them in danger," Glenn says, calmly.

"Nut up already, boy. This guy cops a feel of your woman and you pussy out like this? Get out of my way."

Lucas grabs a handgun from the table. Checks the magazine.

"No."

He's at ripe positioning when Merle tackles Glenn down the steps. The moment they finish rolling and Merle grabs Glenn in a chokehold, Lucas clicks the safety off.

He presses the cold metal to Merle's temple.

They still.

"You ain't gonna shoot me." Merle rasps. He notices he's severely outnumbered, Michonne and Maggie on either side of him, grabbing his arms.

Lucas's jaw clicks shut. He aims the gun past Merle's head and pulls the trigger, wincing sharply and tilting his head away.

In the long run it probably wasn't a bright idea. But it worked.

Merle swears brightly and lets Glenn go in order to cradle his ear, the closest to the crack of the gun. "Let me go!" He yells at the two women, and rangles himself free.

Simultaneously, the five of them notice Beth at the cellblock's entrance, a gun in her hand, pointed toward the ground. She was ready.

Lucas nods at her. She lowers the gun and swallows thickly.

With the situation settled and Merle in a reasonable state of not fucking up their entire plan, they move the guns away from him.

"Being prepared like that." Lucas starts when he passes Beth in the main room. "It's good." She smiles at him, teeth on show, and Carl looks a little jealous from where he sits.

He doesn't have anything to worry about, though.

Lucas doesn't reciprocate the same smile, but he gives her another generous nod on the way out.

It takes half a day for the others to get back. But they're unharmed, and that's all Lucas could hope for.

It means the negotiations didn't go up shit creak. Good news. Right?

"How's the shoulder?" Lucas watches Rick lock the gate behind him. Not a good sign, usually. Tipping the scales toward bad news.

Rick glances at Lucas, letting go of the gate after giving it a test rattle, and nods, "Better." He juts his chin at Lucas's shoulder. "Yours?"

"Better."

Rick leads them into the cellblock, setting himself up in the centre to announce the Governor's terms.

"So, I met this Governor. Sat with him for quite a while." He starts, but Merle cuts him off.

"Just the two of you?"

"Yeah."

"Should have gone when we had the chance, bro." Merle whispers when he walks past Glenn, to which Lucas shakes his head and chews on his tongue to hold the words down.

"He wants the prison. He wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury." Nodding slowly, Rick looks out at them. To the people he helped survive. To live. 

And he tells them, straight up.

"We're going to war."

Lucas is terrified. There's no other way to put it.

Fighting against walkers is one thing, but people? Guns against guns? Casualties will follow, he's almost sure of it.