Future Ghosts • TWD

44. Leaving.

"Let go a' me! Let go!" Rosie screamed as a man pulled her through a hallway. "Glenn! Maggie!"

"Stop your squirming, girl. You're lucky we haven't killed you," the man holding her spat, his grip around her arm tightening. As they continued walking, Rosie started to hear gunfire. A lot of gunfire. "Ah, fuck," the man growled.

He switched his hold on her to his left hand so he could use his gun in his right hand. Rosie took this moment to her advantage and ripped her arm out of his grip. She tore the bag off of her head and started running.

"God damnit, kid!" she heard the man shout from right behind her. Before she knew it, she was back in his hold, but this time, she could feel something pressing into the back of her head. "You're gonna cooperate or I'm gonna kill you, do you understand?" the man said. Rosie didn't say anything, but she didn't try to run again.

The man lowered his gun to her back and started leading her towards a crowd. There were bleachers and torches lit to light up what looked to be an arena. People were chatting amongst themselves like everything was good and normal. Rosie couldn't believe what she was seeing. She couldn't say anything about it because every time she made any sudden movement whatsoever, she could feel the man press his gun harder into her spine.

"Sit," the man hissed, shoving her down onto one of the bleachers. He sat down behind her and kept one hand on her shoulder while the other still held the gun to her back. Looking across, Rosie could see Merle looking at her. She glared at him. She hated him now. She really, really hated him.

After a few minutes of waiting, Rosie tensed as the Governor walked out into the center of the arena. He had a white bandage over his right eye now. "What can I say?" he said. The people went silent. "Hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed. And I thought we were past it- past the days when we all sat, huddled, scared in front of the TV during the early days of the outbreak. The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I failed you. I promised to keep you safe. Hell, look at me. You know, I should tell you that we'll be ok, that we're safe, that tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I- I won't. Because I can't. Because I'm afraid."

You're afraid? Rosie thought. You're the one who kidnapped me and my friends and put a gun to my head.

"That's right. I'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have," the Governor shouted. Rosie was so confused. Did he think that they were trying to take from him? From what Rosie could tell, he was trying to take from them. "Who want to destroy us! And worse... because one of those terrorists... is one of our own," the Governor pointed over to Merle. "Merle. The man I counted on, the man I trusted. He led 'em here. He let 'em in. It was you. You lied, betrayed us all!

Rosie stared at Merle, confused, but he looked just as confused as she did. But he also looked angry. He didn't have the knife on his right hand anymore, but Rosie wondered what he would do if he did.

After a moment of looking at Merle, Rosie's attention was directed over to two men pulling someone in with a bag over their head. For a moment, Rosie worried that it was Glenn or Maggie, but then she saw the clothes he was wearing and the tattoo on his chest. It wasn't Glenn, it wasn't Maggie, but it was Daryl.

What is he doing here?!

"This is one of the terrorists," the Governor announced. He pulled the bag off of Daryl's head. "Merle's own brother!"

Daryl stared at Merle and Merle stared back. Rosie realized that it was the first time either one of them was seeing the other alive. After a moment, Daryl looked away from Merle, his eyes scanning the crowd. When his eyes landed on Rosie, a dark bruise under her eye, clad in a white dress, something in his chest started to hurt. As Rosie looked back at Daryl, she wanted to jump out of her seat and help him somehow, but the moment she even made the tiniest move, the man behind her pulled her back roughly, reminding her of the gun pointed at her back.