Somewhat Safe (The Walking Dead Fanfic)

Chapter 19 - Destroyed

A/N SPOILERS! Please don't read this if you haven't watched season 4 episode 8/9.

I thought we would live a long, happy life in that prison. OH! How I was wrong.

Carl and I were sat on our bed staring at our newly decorated wall. We had spent the past hour or so drawing all over that fucking blank slate. There was no specific design, it was really just things that made us happy. My art wasn't very good but it was better than the boring beige.

I rested my head on Carl's chest, clutching my locket in one hand. Maggie let me use Glenn's camera to take a picture of Carl and me, which I then cut out and stuck in my locket. I refused to take it off; it hung around my neck at all times.

I stared up at Carl's eyes and got lost in oceans that they were. I could've stayed like that for hours..... but that stare was soon broken.

It was so sudden. The ground beneath us shook, dust from the ceiling fell to the ground, a loud crash rang through the air, and Carl tightened his grip on me. We sat frozen, not knowing what to do for a second before we both jumped up and bolted outside.

We ran outside, being followed by Beth and Maggie, to meet Bob (he was new, very nice), Daryl, and Rick outside. Horror spread across everyone's faces to the site we met.

Down by the fences was a tank, a full-blown army tank, with a man standing on top, an eye-patched man I didn't recognize, but everyone else seemed to. Surrounding him were cars filled and surrounded by more people, men and women, all armed.

"Rick. Get down here, we need to talk." Called out the man.

"I don't make decisions anymore, we have a council now," Rick called back.

"Is Hershel on that council?" He signaled a woman to go to a car, from where she pulled out Hershel, hands tied behind his back, and shoved onto his knees. Beth and Maggie stood teary-eyed, in shock to their father kneeling on the ground in front of the tank. "Michonne?" the man called again, as another man brought out Michonne. I could feel Carl boiling beside me, seeing his best friend being held captive. I reached and interlocked our fingers as we both stood frozen. "You're making decisions today Rick." 

Rick accepted he needed to do something. He turned around to face Carl, he placed his hand on his shoulder. They exchanged nods, expressing a whole conversation in silence, and Rick turned back to enter the courtyard.

I couldn't hear the conversation but I knew it wasn't going well. Everyone stood in silence staring down at the scene. I took this opportunity to ask who the fuck this guy was.

Our fingers still interlocked, I tugged on Carl's arm to make him look at me. "Who is that?" I whispered not wanting to draw the attention of anyone else.

"The Governor," he whispered back. The shakiness in his voice told me he was terrified.

"What's he doing?"

"Probably trying to take the prison from us. He's sick in the head I swear. He killed Merle, Daryl's brother, and assaulted Maggie." My eyes widened. I had never met this guy but I already hated his guts.

I hadn't noticed Bob and Daryl were handing out guns until Bob handed me one. Daryl led Carl and me behind a fence where we propped our guns so they were pointing through the fence, straight at the governor.

They just kept talking, the suspense thick. The dumb ass started shooting walkers. The shots would easily draw moreover, though I can't imagine that wasn't his intention.

Daryl and Carl had started talking and through my hazy mind, I managed to catch some.

"I'm a good shot... I could end this right now." Carl said holding his gun more firmly. The determination in his voice was somewhat scary.

"Yeh.. or you could start something else." Daryl stomped on his plan. Carl didn't reply. 

Everyone started leaving the prison, heading towards the bus. That was what they were meant to do if anything like this happened, but did they really think we were gonna lose the prison just like that.

I now couldn't hear the conversation. In fact, I couldn't hear anything. I was too busy trying to block out all the "what if"s running through my mind. The only thing I could make out was the governor was trying to force us out the prison. That's it.

All of sudden the dickhead jumped down from his post on the tank. He was handed a sword, I could make out that it was Michonne's. He walked around the back of Hershel and held the sword to his neck. Panic started to build inside of me. Beth and Maggie panicking even more behind me.

They continued to talk, Hershel still being held at sword point. I could feel my face getting hotter with either rage or panic. I couldn't tell which, probably both.

Rick went off on a giant speech, raising his voice at certain points making his voice loud enough for me to catch a sentence. "You walk through those gates..... And become one of us." I'm guessing this was Rick's only way to get past this situation. Have them move in with us instead of giving in to them. We couldn't fight them off, he had a tank for God's sake and they weren't just gonna leave.

Rick lowered his voice again, going out of earshot. But whatever he was saying seemed to be working. The governor was slowly lowering the sword. Relief filled my body briefly.

Rick stopped talking. Everything went oddly quiet. 

But the governor hadn't given in.

He swung.

Without warning, swinging Michonne's sword straight into Hershel's neck.

I lost it.

Everything turned red.  My mind spun out of control. I couldn't hear. I couldn't see. Just red. 

Rick's scream brought me back to reality, and all hell broke loose.

We all started aimlessly firing, rage filling our bodies. 

Tears streamed down my face as I gasped for air. But I was still hopelessly firing my gun.

The governor still hacked at Hershel's neck another three times, fully decapitating him after the third. Blood-curdling screams filled the air, but the most distinct ones were from Maggie and Beth. Hershel was a father figure to all of us, but he was their actual father.

The tank started moving. It drove straight forward, crushing everything in its path, including the prison fence. behind it came the rest of the governor's little gang. On both foot and car, they piled in and spread themselves out.

It wasn't until I ran out ammo I realized Carl and Daryl had fucked off, leaving me. I'm sure they didn't mean to, I completely zoned out. 

I didn't know where to go. I couldn't see anyone I knew, just the governor's men and the prison being quickly destroyed.

I cleared my blurry vision as much as I could and ran. I don't know where I was aiming to go, I just ran, dodging gunfire as I did. 

The sound of an explosion filled my ears from behind me, ringing out painfully.

Walkers drawn by the noise started piling in, blocking off every exit out of the prison.

Not being able to escape, I ran inside. I kept running until I found an open cell block.

I stopped to take a breather, spotting the cell keys on a table. 

Out of pure instinct and stupidity I ended up locking myself in a cell, cornering myself, where I was most likely be blown to smithereens. Or blocked in by walkers. Not being able to escape. Consequently starving to death. Smartest idea Leigh has ever had.  

A/N Yup.... How nice. Of Fun Fact this is the longest chapter I've wrote so far.