CHAPTER THIRTY NINE » BLOODBATH
"Aren't you going to tell them to put the guns away?"

♔

"Mom?"

"Blaire," she replied calmly, her voice steady, not wavering with any kind of emotion. My heart seemed to come to a sharp stop, my jaw dropping slightly, unable to even process what was unfolding right before my eyes. "It is you."

All the things I wanted to say flooded through my mind at once, the words burning on my tongue. But as I parted my lips to speak, nothing happened. All I could do was stand there and stare.

Every single person in the group had their gun still firmly pointed towards my mom, who was watching Rick with narrowed eyes, seeming to become increasingly more irritated. "Aren't you going to tell them to put the guns away?" She snapped sharply, shooting me an all too familiar harsh stare.

Finally snapping out of the state I was in, I shifted my weight uncomfortably, my eyes meeting hers. "No," I responded firmly, holding my gaze as I lifted my chin up. She seemed surprised by my reply, raising her eyebrow in an obvious effort to question the fact that I would even dare challenge her like that.

"Excuse me?" The words tumbled from her mouth almost instantly, venom tainting them.

"I said no," I repeated, frowning at her as realisation dawned on me as soon as the words left my mouth. "You were with them," I finally said, allowing a silence to lapse between us.

I took the opportunity to glance over her appearance. She was fairly clean, only a few specs of dirt littering her clothes and face. Her dark eyes seemed to hide something behind them, and there were notably more wrinkles covering her skin. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she was dressed fairly well – black jeans and a fitted beige shirt. Most of all, she appeared to be supplied with good weapons, some better than what we'd managed to get our hands on.

Of course I was relieved that she was here, alive and well, she's my mother. But it was evident that she'd been with the group we'd started war on. This wasn't going to be easy; not for me, not for the rest of the group. "You were shooting at us."

"I'm your mother," she snapped back, the sudden outburst causing me to flinch slightly. I found myself at a loss for words again, unsure on what to say.

I hated this whole situation.

Instead, Rick stepped forwards, standing beside me, the gun now lowered back down to his side. His head was, however, still held high, his posture showing her not to even consider messing with him. "Can we trust you?" My mother didn't reply, she just continued to stare at me, her eyes still holding a glare. "Can we trust you?" He ground out again, his voice a lot harsher. But she didn't even flinch.

"Man, we don't have time for this," Daryl cut in impatiently, earning a wide-eyed look from Olivia, who then proceeded to nudge his arm.

"Daryl!" She hissed quietly as I glanced back at the two of them, giving Daryl a small nod.

"He's right. We don't have time for this," I turned back to my mom, my jaw clenching as I noticed her watching everybody carefully, a judgemental look on her face. "Start talking," I commanded firmly, our eyes meeting once more. "Now."

~

My mother's story did not quite sit well with everyone, including me.

The night Glenn, Maggie and I were captured and made our escape, it turns out I hadn't been hallucinating– I had in fact seen her. And she'd seen me too– whilst apparently trying to take out Daryl. This obviously did not go down well with him, and he spent most of the time staring at her with a look that could kill.

After figuring out what was going on, her only option to get here was allegedly to come pretending to be a soldier trying to take us out. In my opinion, that still didn't make the fact that she shot at us, twice, any better. The others seemed uncomfortable in her presence too, which I understood completely.

My mother had always been quite a cold hearted and intimidating woman. We never always saw eye to eye, and quite frankly we never recovered from a huge argument we'd had just before her and dad were due to go on holiday. But the apocalypse seemed to enhance all of that a lot, which was odd. In all the scenarios I'd conjured in my mind about finally seeing my parents again, everything was perfect. There was no tension between us, and my mom certainly was a lot softer.

Yet, even when I asked her about dad, she barely bat an eyelid when she told me he didn't make it. And she certainly showed no remorse for trying to kill us all, whether it was intentional, staged or not.

Rick, as always, had proposed a deal. She'd been at Woodbury, thus she could get us in there. And after a long, reluctant pause, she surprisingly obliged.

I knew the others were thinking it, heck even I was thinking it– what if she's playing us? What if she's trying to double cross us?

Apparently it was a risk Rick was willing to take. So we were ready to go.

We had to split the groups slightly, making sure both sides had equal amounts of people with abilities. In the end, our group was myself, my mom, Daryl, Rick and Michonne, whilst the others stayed back at the prison.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Glenn asked for the umpteenth time. I knew he was referring to the news about my dad, and it warmed my heart how much he cared. As much as it hurt, I'd prepared to never see both of my parents again, which had somewhat softened the blow. I also remembered Rick telling me it was important to compartmentalise things, which is what I pushed myself to do.

"I'm fine, I promise."

"Okay," he finally gave in, smiling softly. "Be careful."

I responded with a slightly teasing smile of my own. "Always."

Gently, he pressed a careful kiss to my lips, his hand softly cupping the side of my face.

As we moved away, I felt my smile falter slightly upon feeling my mothers cold stare behind me. Eventually I shook it off, focusing my attention on Glenn, and then to Rick as he headed over.

"I appreciate you staying," he told Glenn, Maggie and Olivia, who all looked a little nervous about the upcoming situation.

"Sure," Glenn responded casually, but I could sense how much he'd wanted to come with us.

Sharing one last lingering look with Glenn, I made my way into the truck, quickly moving to sit beside Daryl in a desperate effort to avoid my mother.

"You okay?" He questioned as I focused my attention on looking through the window. Involuntarily, I let out a heavy sigh, watching as Glenn and Maggie began to pull the gate open for us.

Every time I found myself going somewhere without Glenn, I couldn't help but wonder whether or it was going to be the last time I ever saw him.

"I've been better," I eventually responded, defeatedly leaning my head against the window as I tried to shake any negative thoughts away.

My mom was sat, to my dismay, facing us, but I was having trouble telling whether her watchful gaze was on me or Daryl.

We'd only made it down a few miles of the road when the truck came to a sudden halt. I sat up straighter, glancing out of the window properly, hoping we hadn't ran into serious trouble.

As I peered from the window, I realised we'd come to, what appeared to be, the remnants of a massacre, with mutilated  bodies completely littering the ground.

I was the last out of the truck, but immediately beginning to dispose of the walkers, taking them down one by one with a strong jab to the head with my knife.

It was absolute carnage.

"What the hell happened?" I muttered, looking to Rick for answers, a force of habit, but he looked just as confused as the rest of us.

There was an unexpected loud crash from one of the vehicles and I immediately whipped around, instinctively pulling my gun out. Inside, a terrified looking woman watched us with wide, pleading eyes, her hand pressed against the window.

Rick clicked his gun, training it on the woman as Daryl slowly began to open the door. She stepped out fearfully, her body shaking. Then she stopped, her eyes widening when she locked sight on someone– my mother. "Tania?"

"Karen," my mother greeted with a slow nod, showing no emotion whatsoever on her face. "Did the Governor do this?"

"Who the hell else would do it?" I found myself biting back at her, beginning to become a little stressed out by the nature of the situation. I was desperate now, desperate to end this. We knew what atrocities he was capable of, and we had to stop it. "Of course it was him. Nobody else would dare do something so sick and twisted. So we've gotta get the hell back to Woodbury, right now."

"Blaire's right," Daryl spoke up as I felt myself glancing at Rick. "We need to go now."

~

Being back inside Woodbury again sent chills down my spine. A sickening feeling rested in my stomach, and a lump of anxiety seemed to form in my throat.

I hated the place, I hated the people, I hated the bad memories, and I hated the nightmares I had to endure because of it. But I had to push all of that aside.

A man named Tyreese and a woman named Sasha, who I remembered seeing at the prison very briefly before being informed they left, were the ones who had let us in, albeit after a long while of deliberation.

Apparently Andrea had left to go to the prison, but obviously never made it there. It didn't take a genius to figure out where she might be.

"This is where he had me, Glenn and Maggie," I informed Rick as we reached the familiar looking building. Fleeting moments of that day flashed over in my mind, but I quickly shook the thoughts away.

"The Governor held people here?" Tyreese asked in disbelief, obviously never having imagined the Governor to be that kind of person. Nobody else seemed to answer his question, so I nodded, keeping my gun drawn as I scanned my eyes around the area.

"He did more than just hold them," Daryl eventually commented bitterly, catching up and walking beside me.

The horrid, ear-splitting, sound of metal squeaking echoed around us, along with a couple of other loud crashes and bangs. Rick and Daryl immediately took off, and I followed suit, only pausing when I saw blood pooling from underneath a door. I immediately feared the worst.

"Will you open it?" Michonne asked. Rick glanced back to me and nodded, Daryl and I both registering the signal and raising our guns.

My heart pounded heavily as Rick reached to unlock the door, silently nodding at us again. "One, two..." The door was ripped open, and I swallowed thickly, spotting Milton, the guy with the notebook I'd met the other day, drenched in blood on the floor; his own, or someone else's.

"Andrea!" Michonne cried out, her voice startling me as my eyes directed to a pair of feet. I took a hasty step inside, lowering my weapon upon seeing Andrea slumped against the wall, completely coated in blood too – whether it was her's or Milton's, or both.

"I tried to stop them," she said quietly, her voice hoarse, as Rick knelt down beside her.

"You're burning up," Michonne commented, suddenly becoming very concerned. I looked down at my friend again as she dropped her head, peeling her shirt away from her skin.

Tears stung in my eyes as I caught sight of the missing chunk of flesh in her shoulder. This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening.

"Judith, Carl, the rest of them..." she trailed off, as my breath caught in my throat, beginning to come to terms with what was happening.

"Us," Rick corrected her. "The rest of us."

"Are they alive?"

"Yeah, they're alive," he said as I offered her a comforting smile, unable to stop tears from falling down my cheeks.

She noticed me, giving me a watery smile back before turning to Michonne, who appeared to be doing her best to hold back her own tears. "It's good you found them. No one can make it alone now."

"I never could."

"I just didn't want anyone to die," she said softly, as I squeezed my eyes shut, taking a breath. "I can do it myself."

"No," Michonne immediately argued.

"I have to," she said, looking back towards her friend. "While I still can." She turned to Rick. "Please? I know how the safety works."

After a moment or so had passed, he nodded, beginning  to remove the gun from his belt. I swallowed an emotional lump in my throat, unsure of how much more I could take.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," Michonne said, sniffing slightly as she gave her friend a reassuring smile.

Andrea looked up at us, her eyes eventually finding Rick. "I tried," she whispered defeatedly.

"Yeah you did," he assured, a few tears spilling down his cheeks. "You did."

Rick stood up slowly, beginning to make his way out of the room. Daryl placed a steady hand my back as we both began to follow. I glanced towards Andrea one last time, wanting to say something else, something that would give her some kind of peace or comfort in her last moments. But I just couldn't find the words.

Instead, I gave her a small nod, leaving the room in silent tears. Daryl closed the door behind me as I put my face in my hands, finding myself stumbling towards Rick, who began to pull me into a hug. I lifted my head up, finding Daryl's hand as the three of us stood close together for comfort, my sobs the only sound filling the silence.

The gunshot soon rattled through the air, the sound causing me to flinch. My chest felt tight as I struggled to hold back any more cries, squeezing my eyes shut as I desperately tried to steady my breathing. We finally found Andrea and we didn't even get chance to get her back properly. All because of that man, that horrible, twisted man.

Michonne left the room a while later, her face expressionless as she began to make her way out of the building. I let go of Daryl and Rick, wiping under my eyes as the three of us began to follow her. My mother was the first person I saw once we were back outside, and her eyes strangely seemed to soften when she saw the state I was in.

For the first time in a while, I found myself in my mothers arms again as she gently stroked my hair, whispering comforting words. In the moment, I forgot all the past feelings between us, and let her hold me.

I let myself feel safe again, just for a few minutes, whilst I still could.

❃

Words: 2580
Published: 20th June 2017

First of all, I'm incredibly sorry for leaving the story on a cliffhanger and not updating for like three months. I've been revising for and sitting my gcse exams during that time and have honestly had no time to write at all.

I've finally finished all of my exams now and am on summer break, which will hopefully give me lots of time to write and update.

So, now you've had a chapter on her, what are your thoughts on Blaire's mom?