train wreck | rick grimes

chapter nine

"HAVE YOU SEEN DANIELLE?" Rick asked Michonne, who just shook her head, answering his question.

"Last time I saw her was outside not to long ago, talking with Hershel." Michonne paused, crinkling her eyebrows in confusion. "I haven't seen both of them since."

"Dammit." Rick sighed heavily, wondering where they were.

Meanwhile, Danielle was starting to get impatient with the Governor's antics.

"Danielle, it's gonna be alright." Hershel assured the girl who looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

"It's not." Danielle breathed out shakily, tears starting to brim her eyes. "This is the group I was with before."

Hershel caught onto what she was saying, widening his eyes slightly. "We're gonna get out of here."

Before Danielle could respond, the door flew open violently, revealing one of the Governor's men. He grabbed Hershel's arm, pushing him out from the RV and grabbed by another man and put into the back of a truck.

As the man tried to grab Danielle however, she dodged his hand. "I can walk by myself." She snapped, walking into the car and sitting beside Hershel.

-

The woman looked at the prison, scared that this was the last time she should see it in good shape.

She was starting to get a fever again, her lungs were starting to burn slightly, but she fought through it.

The governor fired his tank, hitting the west guard tower, making the ground shake with it. He stood on top of it, looking all high and mighty, making Danielle's blood boil.

Within a couple of minutes, Danielle saw Rick, running towards the gate cautiously.

"Rick!" Governor yelled, getting the groups attention. "Come down here. We need to talk."

Rick sighed deeply, yelling from behind the wall. "It's not up to me!" Just hearing his voice gave Danielle's stomach flip, which she thought was strange. "There's a council now! They run this place."

"Is Hershel on the council?" Some man opened Hershel's door on the right and grabbed him harshly, walking towards the tank and setting him on his knees in front of it.

"How about Danielle?" She could almost see the smirk on his face as he said her name. The same man grabbed Danielle's arm, squeezing so tightly it would surely leave a bruise later. He set the woman next to Hershel, also on her knees.

The look on Rick's face when he saw Hershel Danielle in front of that tank was pure fear. He made eye contact with Danielle, the two of them having a conversation with their eyes.

"I don't make decisions anymore." Rick stated, almost growling with anger.

"You're making decisions today, Rick. Come down here. Let's talk." Governor was almost begging him to come. Threatening his group members that if he doesn't come down here, the two hostages will die.

Rick turned out of sight, and Danielle could tell that the Governor was getting impatient. Not two minutes later, Rick came out, walking over towards the gate, so now there was a gate splitting in between him and the Governor.

"Let them go, right now." Rick told him, making eye contact with Danielle, his blue eyes softening once he saw how pale she was. He looked to the Governor, almost pleadingly. "I'll stay down here, talk as long as you want but you let them go." He paused, sighing. "You have a tank, you don't need hostages."

"I do. This is just to show you I'm serious." Governor pointed to the tank. "Not to blast a hole in our new home. You and your people, have until sundown to get out of here or these two will die."

Danielle was starting to lean over, not being able to stand the excruciating pain all over her body. I should have stayed in bed. The sick woman thought.

She couldn't hear anything and wasn't paying attention because she was too busy on focusing on not falling down into the ground. Well, that was until the Governor walked down from the tank and grabbed a machete from the truck. Danielle's machete to be exact and put it against Hershel's neck.

Rick pointed to a girl with a pony tail in her hair. "You. Is this what you want? Is this what any of you want?!" Danielle could hear Maggie and Beth's cries from here as they saw their father's life being threatened.

"What we want is what you got. Period. Time for you to leave, asshole." Some guy from inside the tank yelled at him.

Rick took a deep breath and looked to Danielle, who gave him a nod, saying she was alright. "Look, I've fought him before. And after, we took in all his old friends. They've become leaders in what we have here. Now if you put down your weapons, and walk through those gates, you're one of us. We let go of all of it, and nobody dies. Everyone whose alive right now, everyone whose made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we could still come back, we're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change."

Danielle could see that the Governor was moving the sword away from Hershel's neck, believing Rick for a second. But it was just a second. Time seemed to slow down as the sword swung and sliced through Hershel's neck, blood splattering on Danielle's right side of her face, her eyes widening in fear.

"No!" Rick yelled, aiming his gun, firing it, the Governor flinching in pain as he held his right shoulder.

This is gonna be one hell of a war.