𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

3.05 - intrude

"but we don't have to talk about it"

eventually, rick had come around. it took a day to get eased into the normal group setting, but he had come around and had started to be normal. it was good to see him relatively okay, at least that was the way he acted in front of the group. he was outside in the fields, waiting for maggie and glenn to return from a run for the baby's formula, when he came inside with not only a basket of formula, but a limp woman in his arms. it sent everyone into a spiral as they tried to figure out what was happening. who was this woman? why has she got formula? where's maggie and glenn?

where's maggie and glenn?

the woman quickly became defensive as she was put on the floor, reaching for her mighty katana and holding it up for the group to see. briar held her machete tightly by her side, carl hiding behind her as rick coaxed her into answers. "how do you know we have a child?" he asked smoothly, acting as if she was a rabid animal ready to pounce - which is what it felt like to the group. "heard two people talking about a baby, a pretty lady and an asian boy," she said, narrowing her brown eyes at the man in front of her, "they got taken." briars heart dropped. no. she couldn't deal with more loss. especially not glenn, especially not maggie.

after some more conversation with the woman who started to warm up but still had a defensive wall up, they found out that they were taken to a place called woodbury, which had high walls and a lot of security, but they might be able to "slip through". which was their plan exactly. they would take michonne, and oscar with them, and take out anyone that they needed to in order to get their people back.

during the thick of the night, they slipped through a gap in shifts on one of the walls and hid in a house, needing to take out a man in the process. the small chunk of the group which had went to get glenn and maggie knew that they needed to act fast before it could be too late. michonne had described this "governor" as a deranged psycho who wasn't who he seemed to be. that's all briar needed to hear; it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

they had found the place that glenn and maggie were kept in, throwing a smoke grenade through a side door and shot all the men that they could see. briar had a large assault rifle which shot three men, before she grabbed maggie by the arm and sprinted out. and chaos had been let loose. gunshots were fired from every direction, and the group sprinted for the fence between two houses and started to climb over.

boom!

a thump was heard from behind briar as she was third last person to climb up. she gasped loudly. it's oscar or daryl. whipping around, she saw oscar's lifeless body on the ground with a bullet hole through his head. is it bad that she felt relieved? it was bad - she felt like she wasn't herself; as if someone had crawled into her body and relaxed her shoulders as she climbed over the fence and ran.

it was until they made it a mile away before they regrouped. briar counted the people in her head. one, two, three, four, five. five. there was supposed to be seven. she counted again. one. two. three. four. five. five. she counted twice more before she started looking at the faces. rick, michonne, glenn, maggie, me. where was daryl..? "guys, where's daryl?" her frenzied thoughts came over her as she continued to scan everyone, hoping that she was just being stupid.

they had left daryl. he had been killed, taken, or lost.

they decided to go back. even though glenn was adamant on keeping maggie away from that place, she made the decision herself to go back and find daryl - even if it got her killed, or worse. briar lurked behind a wall as she watched in disgust; daryl and merle were stood while the governors soldiers lurked around them in a circle with walkers chained dangerously close to them. they were forcing them to fight. it made a cold shiver run down briars spine. she had to snap out of it. she had to save daryl. rick threw another smoke bomb into the middle of the pit, scaring the town of woodbury and stunned the guards while daryl and merle ran as fast as they could. briar shot a few times before deciding that her machete would be her best bet, throwing it around and killing aimlessly at any of the towns people that got close. they all ran and climbed over the fence yet again, running through the woods as it got lighter and lighter.

they stopped momentarily as michonne, glenn, and maggie realised who was with them, merle. even that name made a foul taste work it's way into briars mouth, remembering the scuffle in atlanta and all of the countless times he was just a prick. "he is not coming back with us!" glenn yelled, as michonne yet again held up her katana with a cold look in her eye. "then i ain't comin' back, either," daryl sneered, "he's my brother."

heartbreak was all she felt. was he really going to pick that asshole over people who had been nothing but generous? he was going to pick merle over them?

and he did.

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GRAY SPEAKS!

HEY omg i actually updated be proud 🥹 i missed this book and enjoy writing it a bit too much x but fr thank u for 4k reads i'm feeling famous (kidding pls) anyways im now going to play roblox so thank u for all the support i love u all 😆

word count: 1001