Take On The World

17. Living a Lie

       The ride home was quiet, Merle kept giving me dirty looks, but Daryl would look at me, shake his head , and chuckle/grunt.
    We both look at Daryl when he stops the car and gets out... at a lake. I try and fight when he opens my door and grabs me. I start laughing as he drags me to the lake.
"No Daryl! Stop it." He starts laughing too. I'm pretty sure I can hear merle laugh too, but I could be hearing things. Daryl stops at the shoreline and starts to throw me.
"One... two... three." I cringe expecting to be plunged into gross and cold water, but laugh when I realize he still has a hold on me.
"Come on it's getting dark." He says ruffling my hair.
     I passed out as soon as we get back on the road. I think Daryl carried me back into the prison, cause next thing I know it's morning. I walk down the stairs to see Rick and A few others getting ready to leave.
"Hey Mason!" Daryl calls me over.
"Listen, Andrea got is a meeting with the governor, I want you to stay here, and... just stay here."
"Okay I will, be careful." I say awkwardly. He rubs the back of his neck nervously.
"When I get back we need to talk about something."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, it's not really a bad thing... don't worry about that."
"Okay? Tell Philip I said hello." I say with a smirk, and Daryl laughs.
"Make sure you eat something."
"I will, see you later." He nods his head and walks away. I decide to go find Carl and see if he wants to walk the perimeter.

It's been a few hours since Daryl left, and I'm starting to get a little worried. I mean you can practically smell the crazy coming off the governor, and we can't trust Andrea that's for dang sure. I mostly sat around and worried all day, and then I started thinking about what Daryl was gonna talk to me about. He said it wasn't bad, but he looked really nervous.
I hear the vehicles pulling up to the gate and run over to them. Daryl is getting off his bike when I see him first.
"Hey squirt."
"Hey..."
"What happened?"
"Nothing to worry about."
"But what did he say?"
"Well he knows you're not his daughter which is a step in the right direction." I can tell there's more to it though, "But?" I say clearly wanting the full story.
"But, he wants you dead."
"Okay so nothing to worry about?!" I say trying not to yell or freak out.
"Hey calm down and yes, nothing to worry about, cause it's never gonna happen, survivors honor." He says with a smirk.
"Okay, but..."
"No buts, you're gonna be just fine."
"I gotta go talk to the rest of the group."
"What else?"
" you're not gonna like it,"
"I didn't think I would."
"the governor wants Michonne back."
"No!"
"Mason, I know it's not ideal but if we do this, he'll leave us alone."
"No he won't, he's a psychopath, We can't just give her to him, she saved me from him! Daryl please help her, don't let them."
"I'm gonna try my best, but if it boils down to her or us do you know what I'm gonna do."
"Daryl she is one of us now, she saved me, Judith if we hadn't got that formula she wouldn't have made it which means Lori would have died for nothing. She helped you get Maggie and Glenn back, she helped Andrea when she didn't even know her, what more does she have to do to be accepted... We can't do this!" I say turning to leave.
"Hey! Mason!" Daryl yells, but I just sprint away, and he surprisingly doesn't follow me.
I run to the edge of the fence. I grab a stick and my knife out and start to file it into a pointed end. I get up and start to hit the fence and wait for walkers and start stabbing them to clear my head.
"Hey," I turn around when I hear Glenn coming.
"Hi."
"Does Daryl want you out here."
"Who cares."
"I thought we were over the tough kid act."
"Me too."
"Why's it back?" He says sitting down in the grass.
"Why does it matter, being a good little girl makes you look weak. Look what happened to Sophia, I'm guessing the governor's daughter Penny, probably morales daughter Eliza."
"Mason, their deaths weren't because they were weak, they were accidents."
"That could have been prevented!"
"I'm not gonna stay quiet, or in the shadows! I'm gonna be strong for them! For Sophia, for Eliza, for Penny, for Lori... for Judith."
"So that's what this is about."
"I'm gonna protect her for Lori, and I'll do anything I need to to help protect this group. I'm young, but I'm not stupid or helpless."
"I never thought you were."
"Thanks." I can already feel a migraine coming on so I sit down next to Glenn and close my eyes and start rubbing temples.
"Come on. It's gonna be dark soon, and I think we have something that can help with your migraine."
     We get up and as soon as we get back he finds me some pain killers. Luckily their really strong and they kick in fast.
   I look over get nervous as soon as I see Daryl walking towards me. I know he has something on his mind just by looking at his facial expression.
"I need to talk to you."
"I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Not about that, but I understand where you're coming from, but you need to let the adults do the decision making." I just stay quiet because I know he won't like what I have to say about that.
"So...?"
"Let's take a walk." I just nod and follow him outside.
We sit on some bleachers and he sighs and looks at the sky for a minute making me really nervous. After what feels like forever, he finally takes something out of his pocket. It's getting dark, but there's still enough light for me to make out what it is.
"You found my picture!" I exclaim as I take it from him.
"I thought I would never see this again." I say more to myself than to him. I honestly can't help but tear up, this means the world to me, it's the only thing I have to remember my momma by.
"Mason who is that?" Daryl asks quietly.
"My momma, but I never knew her. She left me and my daddy after I was born."
"Mason, what did your daddy tell you about all of this?"
"Nothing, I asked about her one time and... well let's just say I never asked about her again."
    Then Daryl told me something that completely rocked my entire world and everything I've ever known, or thought I'd known.
"Mason, I don't know exactly how to say this... but I knew your momma... and her brother Scott."

I'M SO SORRY ABOUT HOW LONG IT'S BEEN, I HAD SOME MAJOR WRITERS BLOCK, AND THEN I KINDA STOPPED WATCHING THE WALKING DEAD BECAUSE I GOT INTO ANOTHER SERIES... I PLAN ON GETTING BACK INTO UPDATING MORE REGULARLY, I HAVE SOME COOL IDEAS FOR MASON'S CHARACTER, AND I LOVE GETTING ALL THE FEEDBACK LATELY, ALL THE COMMENTS HAVE REALLY ENCOURAGED ME TO KEEP WRITING SO THANKS FOR HELPING ME KEEP GOING❤️ YOU GUYS ARE LITERALLY THE BEST

(February/15/2021)