Forager || Rick Grimes

t w e n t y - s e v e n

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Natalie stood beside Daryl, even though tens of people were screaming and pointing for them to be killed she couldn't take her eyes off of Chris.

As she watched him, he too, stared at her.

What was he thinking?

Did he hate her all of a sudden?

She knew that whilst they were married they didn't have the best relationship however they had come to a level of civilness. That they would remain together for Emilia.

But any compromise they had agreed to was non-existent. None of it was present.

Not a single look of empathy or regret on his face.

Not an ounce of love in his eyes.

He looked as though he wanted to kill her with his bare hands.

He stalked over to her and went behind her. She tried following him with her eyes but he pushed her head forward roughly so she wouldn't look at him.

He undid the ropes and when she went to turn around to face him, "Chris, we can talk about thi-"

"Shut up and turn around," he said sharply then talking to the side. Natalie's eyes widened in shock.

"I asked you where your loyalties lie." The Governor spoke making her turn her attention to him, "You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." He looked over to Natalie with the same amount of hatred in his one eye.

"We don't wanna waste any more time than we need to, so we'll throw her in there too," he said harshly, causing the crowd to shout in agreement, "Winner goes free. Fight to the death."

"Daryl..." Natalie said starting to get scared.

Merle suddenly looked up from the ground at the crowd and rised up his arm, "Y'all know me. I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove..." he suddenly turned around and punched Daryl in the stomach causing him to fall to the ground and Natalie to gasp.

Natalie instantly went to stand in front of Daryl, as a protection of sorts.

"...that my loyalty is to this town!" Merle shouted coming closer to them both.

"Don't you dare," she snarled at him as he came closer with his fist raised.

He brought it down aiming for her head but she crossed her arms in front of her face and blocked his fist.

"Don't be stupid," she scowled, as Daryl got back up from behind, "you think that they're gonna let one of us go?" she argued staring directly at him but never letting her guard down.

The guards started to bring out walkers and led them towards the trio by the chains by their neck.

Daryl nudged her to the side as he stormed over to Merle and punched him. Merle reciprocated a punch and Daryl fell to the floor but also bringing his brother down with him.

He gripped him by the neck as they mumbled to eachother, Natalie watched intently trying to decipher what was going on.

Merle stood up and dragged Daryl up too, he grabbed Natalie by her arm and dragged her towards them as she stood in a circle facing towards the walkers.

They started to push the walker in towards them causing the trio to push and shove them back.

Natalie punched the jaw of one causing it to come off with the slime remaining in her hand.

She groaned before shoving it back, "what the hell we gonna do?" she shouted and she kicked another right in the chest.

"What we're doing now, girl!" Merle shouted back as he punched the walker with his metal contraption instead of his hand.

As Natalie went to kick the next walker it instead fell to the ground from a gunshot.

She looked over to the corner from where the bullet came from to see Rick, she smiled in relief.

Then she saw nothing as a smoke grenade was thrown in blurring her vision. She went to turn around to find Daryl but only to meet a punch to the face.

She moaned loudly in pain as she fell to the floor. Looking up, she saw the face of her husband looking ominously down at her with the smoke swirling around him.

She quickly got up and jumped on him and trying to push him to the ground. But he was quicker and her grabbed the back of her head pulling on her hair so her face was a facing the dark sky.

Her hands were wrapped around his neck and his left arm was in her hair.

She felt him fumbling his other hand for the knife at his thigh, he brought it up but Natalie took one hand off his neck and blocked the knife.

She shouted in pain and frustration, as he was obviously stronger than her she tried to bring up her head to his arm that was holding her by the hair and she succeded.

She bit, casuing him to cry out and let go of her, she kicked him in the chest and she stumbled back but still reained balance. But she didn't wait for him to attack again.

She ran into the smoke to try and find her group. "Daryl!" She shouted out hoping to find a familiar face.

She felt someone come up behind her and she turned around to punch but Daryl grabbed her arms and pushed them down, "Come on!" he said running.

Daryl spotted a guard that held his crossbow and snatched it out of his hands, as they neared the corner, she was snatched to the side of the wall.

She screamed and pushed them away only to realise it was Rick, her face morphed into happiness as she quickly crawled back to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He did the same, burying his head in between the skin of her neck and shoulder. One hand on her waist and the other on the back of her head.

"You're okay," Rick said as he caressed the back of her head.

"We gotta go!" Natalie said as she saw the Governor approaching them over Rick's shoulder.

Rick nodded as she turned away she saw Maggie, "you good?" she asked her older sister and passed her a gun.

"Yeah, just a bit bloodied up, nothing I can't handle," she stood up and touched Maggie's shoulder in comfort and love.

She followed the group, as they navigated them out of the town.

Her chest falling up and down at her quick and shallow breaths. She was shocked at what had just happened in such a small amount of time.

"They're all at the arena. This way," Merle directed, he led them to the metal wall and began to push his away out.

"You're not going anywhere with us," Rick said roughly.

"You really want to do this now?" Merle shouted and crawled out.

The rest followed him to see a couple of walkers. "A little help would be nice," Merle said as he bashed the head of one.

Natalie raised her gun and shot one in the head, "We ain't got time for this." Merle said before running off.

"Let's go," Daryl shouted and following him after.

Natalie and Maggie looked at Rick for confirmation, he looked back at them and he nodded back.

He didn't want to but he knew that this was no time to deal with Merle.

"Let's go."

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Stay safe everyone
#justiceforgeorgefloyd