Anything - Carl Grimes

xxi. He's blood

.

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

The voices and shouting from the crowd echoed through Dottie's ears. The Governor had them at his mercy. If he wanted to kill them, he would. It's not like they could do much about it. Dottie is pretty sure that not even begging for mercy would make the Governor change his mind.

Dottie turned her head to look at Andrea, who was trying to fight off the Governor's men. "Let him go," Andrea ordered. "Philip."

"Stay out of this," One of them told her while the other held her back. Andrea made eye contact with Dottie, apology written all over her face.

"He's my friend," Andrea argued.

"It's not up to me anymore," The Governor started, staring at Daryl and Merle. "The people have spoken."

"What?" Andrea sighed in disbelief.

"I asked you where your loyalties lie," The Governor pointed at Merle, and one of the guards uncuffed Daryl. "You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all." Dottie clenched her jaw and hands into fists as she sent daggers at the Governor. If he does this- if he hurts Daryl, this town will burn down until there's only fog and sparkles of ashes left of it, Dottie promised herself. "Brother against brother."

Dottie bit her lip, shifting on her feet as she exchanged looks with Daryl. The crowd agreed, making her blood boil even more. She couldn't believe the crowd was thinking of them as some animals. Sure, she wasn't all sunshine and rainbows herself, but at least she still had her humanity. "Winner goes free. Fight to death." The Governor started walking around, and the crowd started cheering.

She heard Andrea begging the Governor to stop this, but she wasn't focusing on Andrea or the crowd that was cheering them to start. Dottie wasn't tied up or blindfolded. She had a chance to jump in. To help Daryl. Her ears rang as she tried to focus on what she was going to do next.

Once Merle kicked Daryl in the stomach, he fell, coughing roughly. Dottie tried to step in, but one of the guards grabbed her bicep, preventing her from moving. She sent him a glare, contemplating whether she should bite him. She turned around to look at Daryl, who was getting the crap beaten out of him.

Daryl could fight. He was a good fighter. Of course, he didn't fight back because Merle is family. Damn him and his big heart, Dottie thought to herself. C'mon, Daryl, get up. A lump formed in her throat once a few men walked past her, leading Walkers to the pit. Her breath caught in her throat as she figured out what was about to happen next.

Once Daryl saw the Walkers, he finally decided to punch back, but Merle wrestled him to the floor. Dottie could see that they were talking but couldn't hear what they were saying because of the crowd cheering and Walkers growling. Suddenly, Merle helped Daryl up, and they turned back to back, preparing to fight the Walkers surrounding them.

They started pushing and punching Walkers away, which was pretty easy because Walkers were on the leash. Everyone in the crowd screamed once the Walkers were shot, and so were some of the guards and people. Everyone started running off to somewhere safe, and a fog grenade was thrown in the pit.

The man who was holding Dottie let go of her and ran off, and she took her chance and ran to Daryl. "Stay close," He yelled to her, holding her arm so they wouldn't lose each other. "Merle, come on!" He yelled at Merle, and they started running off to the gates, Daryl still holding Dottie tightly.

They ran to the man who had Daryl's crossbow, and Daryl took it from him before they went back to running out of the gates. Dottie could hear Merle behind her, punching the man. They ran into Rick, and he led them out.