Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Forty

It was only a few days later when everyone was back in survival mode.
Everyone was out in the yard doing something that involved distracting the walkers that were around the outside of the gates. Maggie and Carl were banging loudly on pots and pans, trying to keep their attention away from Glenn, Michonne and Daryl were putting down things on the floor, I think barbed wire, to stop the Governor and his men coming in by vehicle and destroying what was left of our defences.

"Let's go!" Maggie called out, throwing down what was in her hands and ran back with Carl, Glenn and Daryl running back to where I was standing.

I wasn't much help for them, I couldn't really do anything. What Daryl had said to me about protecting me was stuck in my mind but it didn't help the constant fear that the Governor was going to do something to my family... do something to me.
He'd already taken Maggie and Glenn once, what was to say he wouldn't do something like that again? He clearly had no decent or compassionate bone in his body, he was willing to do anything if it meant that he could have somewhere to live that was better than woodbury. For all he cared, we were on his turf and he was going to take out anyone who threatened his group.

"You okay?" Glenn walked up to me, resting a hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah," I half smile and run a hand through my long hair. "Yeah I'm fine." He didn't seem completely convinced, pulling me over to the back side of one of one of the prisons gates, where the chains were broken.

"Give me a hand fixing these?" It was definitely a rhetorical question. I nodded and walked over, tossing my plaid shirt on one of the tables that were around and started helping fix the chains that were falling apart on the gate. "You're not okay, Annora." Glenn spoke up amongst the deafening silence. "You act like you're fine but I know you're not. You're quiet, I don't know what made you quiet, but there had to be something. All I know is you're not okay." Glenn clearly was more perceptive than I thought.

I wasn't entirely sure why I was so quiet myself. Maybe it was my whole illness, I'd found out about it when I was so young and there was no guarantee that I was going to be alive when I reached mid twenties, let alone outlive most of the people on this planet. Maybe that was it. I'd not had many friends when I was younger, thinking about not making it through the night was something that always played on my mind, even now. Daryl didn't know I felt like that, although I had a thought that maybe he knew. Jacob didn't even know that.

"I guess I just like keeping to myself, that way I find out weaknesses of people when they think I'm not listening." I laughed half heartedly, trying to make light of the conversation.

"Maybe, but I don't think that's it." He smiled at me, locking up the chain that we'd finally managed to put back into place, along with the door that was slightly agape. "But I won't pry. It's your life." Apparently decent people were still alive and I'd had the pleasure of befriending one of them.

"Guys," I turn around as Daryl's voice calls out to us. "You seen Merle around?" He asked, seeing us struggle slightly with placing the fate.

Glenn didn't seem too impressed with the mention of Merle.

I knew what he had done to him in Woodbury, I knew what he'd let the Governor do to Maggie. There was a reason Glenn hated the Governor more than most and I'm pretty sure it's the same reason he hated Daryl's older brother.

Daryl walked over to me and wrapped and arm around my waist, bringing me closer to him and kissed me on the top of my head.

"Did he say he was sorry yet?" Daryl asked Glenn. "'cause he is."

Glenn had walked away from the now finished gate over towards a table where there were several bottles with rags hanging out the top. Apparently we were now making molotovs to keep the Governor out. "I'm gonna make it right, I'm gonna make him. There's gotta be a way." There was a part of me that was incredibly tired of Daryl trying to stick up for his brother; but then again, I'd have done the same if Jacob was in that situation.

"He tied me to a chair, beat me and threw a walker in the room." Glenn explained as he was standing a head of us. There was no way Merle was going to make it up to Glenn, not after he'd let the Governor do what he did to Maggie. Glenn couldn't ever forgive the older Dixon and I completely understood.

I had found out what the Governor had done to Daryl and for the first time ever, I'd actually wanted to hurt another human being. He'd tied him up in the middle of what I can only recall as being a fight ring and left the two Dixon brothers to fight it out either with each other or be eaten alive by walkers.

I hadn't let it show when Daryl had told me but I was livid.

Daryl didn't say much after that. It was like he was waiting for me to give my own input. I wasn't about to stand up for Merle in front of Daryl. He didn't deserve for me to stand up for him.

Daryl decided that enough was enough and kissed me again, this time lightly on the lips before walking off back inside the prison.

There was an eerie silence that had fallen upon Glenn and myself after that.

"Glenn," He looked over to me as I finally acknowledged him. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Daryl, but I completely understand why you're pissed, but he was only following orders."

"What are you doing? Why are you standing up for him?" Glenn was slightly angry with the fact that I was standing up for the older Dixon.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm so angry about what he did to you, but you know what the Governor's like." My justifications were completely relevant but making Glenn see that when he was so hell-bent on hating the guy was going to be hard. "You've also seen what the Dixons are like. Their main instinct is survival. You think that Merle wouldn't have been killed if he'd gone against orders? He was just doing what he could to stay alive." I shrugged and leant against the table where Glenn was still standing. Glenn didn't say anything after I was done talking so I decided, I should probably carry on. "I don't like having Merle in the same cell block as me. I do it for Daryl and yes, there is a side of him that seems to like me, but the feeling is not mutual." It was true. Merle and I got on relatively well before he'd left us in the middle of the woods and found Woodbury, but all of that was now gone. "We need him Glenn. He's the best chance we have at trying to fight against the Governor, he's the one that knows all his plays, all his tactics; weaknesses. As much as we don't like it, we need him." I sighed as the silence once again enveloped us, and grabbed my plaid shirt, slinging it over my shoulder, the dark colour contrasting against my white vest top.

Once the silence got too much for me, I patted Glenn on the shoulder and walked back towards the cell block, knowing that there was only going to be more things to do around the area to make this place safe before the Governor decided to come after us again.

That was giving me more anxiety than anything else. Knowing the Governor was simply sitting by and waiting for his plan to take effect; that scared me more than my hallucinations of Jacob did.