Finally

Back to Woodbury

"Hey, Gov. Check out her journal," a familiar voice calls from behind me. I open my eyes quickly. It's Merle. He chucks my notebook to the other side of the room. I scan my eyes across the room.

The Governor.

I try to lunge at him only to find that I'm tied to a chair.

"Easy now, Seren. You wouldn't want to hurt yourself," jokes The Governor, chuckling.

"Where the hell am I?" I demand, then realization hits. "You son of a bitch, let me GO!"

The Governor slowly walks towards me and stares at me, inches from my face. I spit. He jumps, surprised, then looks at me again. With a quick movement he slaps me in the face, the pain searing though my cheek. It stings, but I just grit my teeth and look away. He grips my chin and squeezes, jerking my face to look at him. He breathes a bit, then speaks up. "You're gonna kill me, huh?"

I stay silent. I want to piss him off. I can take the pain of his beatings. I know Merle stabbed me in the leg. What could feel worse than that?

"Not gonna answer?" He stands up and turns away. "Take her in there with the prison couple. I'll kill her later." Merle kicks over the chair and cuts me off of it, but I'm still tied up, the rope burning against my skin. He kicks me again, harder this time, and jerks me up, leaving the room. We make it to another door and he throws me in, locking the door behind me, but not before he cuts the ropes on my hands. I untie my ankles and quickly hop back on my feet, looking around the room. My eyes fall upon a frightened couple staring back at me.

"Please don't hurt us," the girl pleads, her eyes wet with tears. She seems traumatized. The man stumbles upon his feet, ready to fight, but in no condition to. He has obviously been beaten half to death.

"No, no, I'm not going to hurt either of you," I quickly reply, putting my hands up, assuring them I mean no harm.

"Glenn, look at her," the girl starts, "they've beaten her, too."

The man looks at me and slumps back down beside the girl. My eyes find a dead biter on the floor. "How did you kill it?" I ask quietly.

"Chair," the man replies. He stands up and stumbles to the biter. He then breaks the arm, pulling out a bone, breaking it for the girl to have as a weapon.

"Good idea," I mumble, snapping another bone off for myself.

"Right now, let's just focus on getting out of here. Questions can be asked later," the girl quickly states. I nod in agreement.

We stand by the door, ready to attack. I ready my stance, the biter bone in my hand. Suddenly, the door flies open.

The couple instantly start attacking the henchmen. I join in and watch as the girl shoves the sharp bone into the man's neck. Suddenly my world goes black, or is it just my vision? I hear the struggling and the muffled screams of the couple as I realize we've been blindfolded and taken hostage once again. Shit.

Suddenly, I hear a loud explosion, then it gets harder to breathe. Smoke grenades, I think to myself. I feel a strong grip on my arm as I am being pulled away. A man removes my blindfold, an unfamiliar face. They're here to save us. The firing of bullets are the last sound I hear from the unfamiliar room of Woodbury.

The men hustle us through the town, hiding us from everyone. I now am unsure if they are kidnapping us again or saving us. I get the slightest feeling that it's both. They guide us into an empty building. Quick breaths escape everyone, myself included. A girl with a machete slips outside, but I think I'm the only one who saw.

"We're gonna lay out back here," says a man.

"Rick, how did you find us?" asks the girl who I was held hostage with.

"How bad are you hurt?" questions the man she called Rick to the man she called Glenn.

"And who the hell is this?" a man with a crossbow demands.

Glenn and the girl exchange looks. "Another hostage, I think," she states. "I don't know her."

"It doesn't matter," I argue. "Let's just focus on getting the hell out of here."

"Rick, I'm sorry we told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold up," Glenn mumbles, worried. "Daryl, it was Merle, I saw him face to face. He threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

The crossbow man looks up. "My brother's The Governor?"

"No, it's someone else, he's like Lieutenant or somethin'," the girl states.

Daryl starts worrying and begs Rick to let him find his brother, but Rick argues and says he needs Daryl. I can tell by the tone of Daryl's voice that his emotions were basically handed to him on a silver platter. He was hurting. Here I was with a group of strangers, not sure if they'll leave me or take me with them. I was in a live or die situation. By the way they treated the machete girl, I can tell they don't accept new members in their group very easily. I figured they'd leave me here to fend for myself. I immediately spoke before I thought.

"Please don't leave me here," I beg "That Governor is a horrible man. He murdered my family for no reason. I don't need to be here. He's looking for me. He'll kill me!" I sit down on the ground and bury my face in my knees, crossing my arms over them, and begin to cry. "I'll do anything to get out of this screwed up hellhole they call Woodbury. Please just at least help me get out."

The group exchange looks, then Rick sternly speaks up. "You make one hostile move, and you're on your own. We'll take you far away from here, but you're not going with us to our camp. We don't know you. This could be some screwed up trick." He nudges me with his gun. "We ain't takin' no chances."

I quickly nod my head, wiping my tears with my forearm.

Daryl pushes open the door and tosses out two more smoke grenades. The men scamper out, bring the three of us along. They start shooting at the guardsmen, who shoot back. Through the smoke we go, making our way through the town, through bullets and haze. We hide behind a corner and they discuss what our next move is. The girl fires a few shots before hiding again. Daryl throws another smoke grenade, releasing more smoke, blinding the air. A man on our team gets shot in the heart, and the girl puts him down with a bullet in his head, crying. She climbs back up on top of a bus. I make my way over it and follow the group out of Woodbury.

"Where's Daryl?!" Rick demands.