Self Inflicted

13

We get maybe 10 miles out and come across three of the governors vehicles sitting vacantly in the road. We grab out weapons and walk up to them. There are bodies scattered everywhere with bullet holes. A few walkers are eating the bodies and they snap their attention to us. Daryl shoots one through the forehead with his crossbow, Michonne slices through one's head and I walk up to two of them and slice through both of their heads in one swing. I huff and flick the blood off of my sword. Rick walks to the second vehicle and we follow as he puts a knife into a walker's head. Just then, there is a bang from behind Daryl on the window of a truck and he jumps back. One of the governor's people has her hands up against the window with a frightened look.

Daryl opens the door and waves her downward with the hand he holds his knife in. Rick raises his gun in her face and quickly puts in down when he sees she has no weapons. Her dark brown curly hair is covered in dirt and grass and is a tangled mess. She explains to us how the governor fired on all of them and then just took off, he wanted to go back and the rest of them didn't want to keep fighting.

-

It's dark by now and we continued on our way back to Woodberry to finish things. We left our cars a mile or so back and walked through the woods. We are weaving between littered cars in front of the gate with our guns up when a shot hits the group beside us. We duck quickly behind the cars and start shooting. I aim for the top of their fence and shoot up where the bullets are coming from. There's two people up there shooting. The shooting ceases and Karen, the lady we found, takes the chance to stand up and yell at one of the shooters. "Tyreese! It's me don't shoot!" Rick yells and pulls her back down behind the car.

"Karen! Karen are you okay?" The man yells back. She stands back up and yells back.

"I'm fine!l

"Where's the governor?"

"He fired on everyone, he killed them all," she shouts back. We all share glances behind the car as they talk.

"Why are you with them?"

"They saved me!"

"We're coming out!" Rick yells and puts his gun on his back. "We're coming out." He throws up his hands and stands, walking forward beside Karen. Daryl, Michonne, and I follow suit putting out weapons straight up in the air. They open the gates and a big black man and a black woman walk forward holding guns. We stop and lower our hands and weapons.

"What're you doing here?" The man asks, tyreese.

"We coming to finish this. Until we saw what the governor did," Rick replies slowly.

"He-he killed them?" Tyreese asks in shock.

"Yeah," Rick mutters. "Karen told us Andrea hopped the wall, going for the prison, she never made it. She might be here." We walk back to where they had found Glenn and Maggie when the Merle held them, assuming she might be there.

"This is where he held Glenn and Maggie," Rick suggest.

"The governor held people here?" Tyreese sounds as if he can't believe it. The governor really is a charmer, these people had no idea.

"Did more than hold em," Daryl grunts. I heard about what he did to Maggie, bent her over a table shirtless and threatened to cut off Glenn's hand after Merle beat the shit out of him. We keep our guns up as we round corners and come to a silver door and there's blood leaking out of the bottom. We throw the door open with our guns up and see a body, then Andrea against a wall. Michonne and I rush to her sides, Michonne holds her against her body. Andrea is painting and burning up. Then she shows us her shoulder with a big bite wound. Oh my god.

"No! No!" I shout and tears well in my green eyes.

"I tried to stop him," she breathlessly mutters. "Judith, Carl, the rest of them?"

"Us. The rest of us," Rick says sternly.

"Are They alive?" I grab ahold of her hand and close my eyes tightly.

"Yeah, they're alive." Andrea looks at me and Michonne and smiles.

"It's good you found them," I muster a smile back and my breathing comes out in gasps. "No one can make it alone now."

"They never could," Daryl shakes his head.

"I just didn't want anyone to die," the blonde woman looks back at Rick and takes a deep breath. "I can do it myself."

"No!" Michonne protests.

"I have to. While I still can," she nods. She seems so calm for some reason, her demeanor is accepting.

"Andrea," I mutter through the tears streaming down my face.

"Please," she looks at Rick and smiles. "I know how the safety works." Rick pulls out his python from his side and puts it in her blood-stained hands.

"Well I'm not going anywhere," Michonne trembles.

"Me either," I choke.

"I tried," here breaths are heavy and her words carry the weight of the world. Rick's blue eyes can't seem to stay in one place and it's hard for him to look her in the eye.

"You did. You did," he nods slowly she looks at the ground. He and Daryl exit, closing the door behind them. I caress her face in my hands and smile weakly through tears.

"Thank you," I whisper and tears keep flowing. She looks at Michonne and I and nods with a smile. She slowly cocks the gun and faces it toward her and I place my hand on her leg and tightly shut my eyes after she raises the gun to her head.

The thank you was for everything. For being my friend, for protecting me, for loving me, for putting up with me, for showing me another way. For opening my eyes to something better, something different. To something other than war.

BOOM.

I open my eyes and she's gone. My hands shake as I look at her beautiful lifeless face and I continue to gasp and cry. I slowly pick up Rick's gun and stand shakily, opening the door and facing them. I bite my lip to keep myself from crying and hand Rick his gun. I shuffle past them the bast I can and find my way back out onto the street. Daryl meets me outside and just stands there looking at me.

"She-she was so bullheaded. All the damn time," I choke out between tears and sobs. It was true, but it wasn't meant to be mean, just out of love. Daryl just looks at me with deep eyes and nods his head slowly, pursing his lips. She drove me crazy most of the time but my god I loved her. She was like an older sister to me, reminding me a ton of my older brother. We took care of each other, all of us. She was family.