26. plans of war

QUINN

     'DO YOU TRUST HIM?' SHE ASKED Michonne, shivering in the cold morning air as she played with a straw of grass in her hands. 'Rick?'

She turned to look at her companion who was sitting next to her, her katana placed at her feet. It was early in the morning, the sun had barely risen when the two had woken up. They were used to waking up early, getting up and trying to stay alive all day. Here inside the fences of the prison however there was no need to worry about safety and that almost felt weird to her.

Michonne didn't answer her question, instead she looked at the courtyard.

Quinn followed her glare and noticed Rick walking down from the prison unto the meadow, heading towards the graves that were set up in the corner of the field. She frowned when he kept on looking around as he arrived there, pinching the bridge of his nose. She had noticed that weird habbit before but now it almost seemed like he was trying to calm himself down somehow.

She turned to look at Michonne who had a frown on her face as well as they watched the man. Suddenly he turned around and ran towards the gate. Michonne reached for katana and Quinn felt herself taking one of the daggers firmly in her hand.

Had he seen something? Was someone coming? But as her eyes scanned the fences she saw nothing but a few lonely walkers out there.

Michonne walked up to the gate, closing it behind Rick as he ran towards a small bridge just outside of the fence.

Quinn placed her dagger back behind her belt and frowned at Rick, his hands outstrechted, touching nothingness that was clearly something to him. Looking at her friend she noticed she was staring at the man as well. Clearly not understanding what he was doing either.

'Come on,' Michonne finally said, looking away from the strange phenomenon and heading back towards the prison. Quinn took a deep breath before following her friend.

When they entered C block, Glenn and Carl were sitting on the ground, drawing a map on the floor with chalk. Maggie was watching from a distance and Milo sat on one of the chairs, biting his nails absentmindedly as he watched the map on the ground. Beth, Carol and Axel watched as well, while Hershel just came stumbling out of the cell block.

'You said you found Tyreese his group here?' Glenn said, looking at Carl while pointing at the makeshift map.

'Yeah,' Carl confirmed.

'We secured this,' Glenn sighed.

Michonne leaned against the wall as she listened to their conversation. Quinn went to stand next to her, still feeling like an outsider to their tightly knit family.

'He said he came through here,' Carl said, pointing at the map

'Means there's another breach,' the korean man took a deep breath, 'okay, the whole front of the prison is insecure. If walkers just strolled in then it's gonna be a piece of cake for a group of armed men.'

'Why are we even so sure he's gonna attack?' Beth asked quietly. 'Maybe you scared him off.'

'He had fishtanks full of heads,' Michonne suddenly spoke up, making Quinn turn to her friend with wide eyes. 'Walkers and humans, trophies.' She turned to look at Beth. 'He's coming.'

For just a second the entire room seemed to terrified to speak up when suddenly Glenn opened his mouth, offering an idea that made Quinn shake her head. 'We should hit him now. He won't be expecting it. We'll sneak back in and put a bullet in his head.'

'We're not assassins,' Carol spoke up from her position by the table.

Glenn jumped up from the ground, as well as he was able to with the injuries he had suffered at the hands of Merle. He stumbled towards Michonne and Quinn, looking at the both of them. 'You two know where his appartment is. The three of us could end it tonight.'

Michonne narrowed at the kid in front of her, looking towards Quinn who kept her face focused on Glenn. She didn't want to kill anybody but the Governor was a danger she couldn't live with. Not with Andrea so close to him, or the possibility of him attacking this place and killing Michonne or her brother. And so she nodded at Glenn. They both turned to look at Michonne who gave a curt nod as well. It was settled.

'Okay,' Glenn said, turning to walk back to the map they had drawn on the ground.

'He didn't know you were coming last time,' Hershel suddenly spoke up. 'And look what happened. You were almost killed, Daryl and Quinn were captured and you and Maggie were almost executed.'

'You can't stop me,' Glenn said, walking towards the old man.

'Rick would never allow this,' Hershel tried to change Glenn's mind.

'You really think he's in any position to make that choice?' Glenn snapped.

'Why are you so eager to kill him?' Milo suddenly joined the conversation. The whole room turned silent as Glenn turned to look at him. Her brother had his arms folded as he leaned back against the wall. 'Why?' He asked again.

Glenn didn't respond, his eyes trailing to Maggie instead. The girl inhaled sharply before turning around and disappearing into the cell block.

'You want to know the reason I was in here?' Milo said, making Glenn's gaze turn back to him. Quinn took a deep breath, biting her tongue, but Milo kept his eyes focused on Glenn. 'I, just like you now, wanted to kill a man to safe someone I loved. The only difference is that I actually ended up killing the man.'

Silence filled the cell block as Quinn tried her hardest to push away the memories of that night. The empty parking lot, Marcus his dark eyes...A shiver crawled down her spine.

'And believe me when I say that it destroys you. Yes, I killed someone who didn't deserve living all that much anyway but he's dead now, not able to feel any kind of pain and I'm still here, suffering because I made that choice.'

Glenn's gaze turned to the ground as he took a shaky breath.

'I'm not gonna let you destroy your life the way I destroyed mine. Even if it is to safe someone you love,' Milo finished.

That seemed to convince Glenn as he nodded and turned to look at the others. 'Alright, we'll stay and defend this place. We're making a stand.' Then he kneeled down, pointing back at the map. 'Carl, you and I will go down into the tombs. We need to figure out where the breach is.'

'You got it,' the kid responded.

'You'll need some help,' Michonne spoke up, taking a step forwards.

'No,' Glenn said, turning to her, 'in case anything happens I need you up here.' Suddenly he looked around, seeing everyone was in the room, he jumped up. 'Who's on watch?' When no response came he sighed and stormed outside, pulling the door shut behind him.

The gun felt weird in her hand as she raised it towards the makeshift target.

'Relax your shoulders,' Milo's voice sounded from behind her making her groan in frustration.

'I know,' she replied, trying to do so but failing. She lowered the gun, turning to look at her brother who had an amused smirk on his face. 'What?' She asked him.

'Carl's better with a gun than you are,' Milo said, his smirk becoming bigger.

She scoffed, turning back to the target. They had placed a piece of paper with a red circle on a bus that lay on its side in the meadow. Quinn had asked Milo to help her become a better shot. She knew the few men she had managed to take out in Woodbury had been lucky shots, or maybe just because it had happened in the heat of the moment. She needed to become better, the gun had to become a piece of her arm instead of something that felt so foreign.

'Alright,' Milo said, walking forwards and standing behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulder, pushing them down. Then he turned her body so she was standing straight in front of the target. 'Now, keep both your eyes open, raise the gun to eyelevel and only pull the trigger when you're confident enough. And I'm not just saying that because we're low on ammo.' He took a step backwards making Quinn inhale deeply, focusing her eyes on the target.

She tried to imagine the red circle being walker coming straight towards her. She had to pull the trigger to survive, she had to be able to do this.

Her finger went to the trigger as she bit her tongue, her eyes narrowed at the red circle before her. Then she pulled the trigger, the bullet flew through the air, making a mark just outside the circle.

Sighing she lowered the gun, turning to look at Milo who was trying his hardest not to laugh. 'What's so funny?' She snapped at him but felt a smile appearing on her face as well. 'Humans weren't made to survive an apocalypse,' she mumbled, turning back to the target.

'Yeah, that's a great excuse,' Milo chuckled behind her. 'Try again.'

Sighing she shook her hair out of her face before standing in the right position again, raising her gun and pointing it straight at the target.

'Try to keep your balance by leaning on the heel of your feet,' a new voice cut joined the conversation.

She turned to her right to see Michonne had come standing next to Milo. Her arms crossed over chest as she nodded at Quinn. 'It was becoming too painful to watch,' her companion said, the corner of her lips slightly curling.

Quinn dropped her arms as she turned to face the woman who had saved her life. 'Did you just make a joke?' When Michonne didn't answer Quinn felt herself laughing. 'Oh, you totally did, you just made a joke. You know I actually doubted if you were capable of anything fun-'

'Enough, just shoot already,' Michonne interrupted her ramblings but she was smiling. A real, honest smile. One that Quinn had never seen on her before and one she suspected had been hidden away ever since this all happened.

Shaking the smile from her own face she turned to face the target. Raising the gun, she took a deep breath, tried to relax her shoulders and keep her balance. She narrowed at the circle, took another deep breath and pulled the trigger.

The bullet was inside the circle this time, nowhere near the middle but at least it was inside the red line.

She turned to Michonne and Milo, ready to share her excitment when the sound of a gunshot echoed through the prison. A gunshot that hadn't been hers.

A scream came from the courtyard and she turned to see Axel his body falling down on the ground.

'This way!' Michonne yelled, all the joy had vanished from her face. She started running towards the bus, kneeling down behind it for cover.

Milo took a hold of Quinn her arm, dragging her with him as he ran towards the bus, hiding behind it.

'Where'd that shot come from?' Quinn asked, breathing heavily as she looked around. Milo shook his head, panic written all over his face. Before any of them had a chance to regroup however, more gunshots sounded.

They came from all around them, echoing over the field, raining down the courtyard, they were completely surrounded.

Michonne took the gun from Quinn her hands, looking around the corner of the bus and firing into the direction the gunshots had come from, before hiding back behind the bus.

Shots came out of each direction but from what Quinn could see, Axel was the only one who had been hit so far.

Shooting around the corner once again Michonne let out an angry groan as she hid back behind the bus.

'It's him,' Quinn breathed heavily, 'isn't it.' It wasn't even a question but she needed the confirmation anyway.

Michonne gave a curt nod, her eyes wide as she looked around the corner, shooting the gun once again.

'We have to get out of here,' Milo yelled above the gunshots. 'We're too exposed!'

'We can't make it to the courtyard,' Quinn replied, frantically looking around for a solution. She noticed Maggie had come out of the cell block and had handed Beth and Carol guns. They were shooting back at them.

Suddenly silence filled the prison. The Governer's men had stopped firing but she didn't feel safe at all. She felt exposed, it felt like waiting for a bomb to go off. The silence was interrupted by the sound of a fast approaching car.

Quinn looked around the bus and her eyes widened. A van was headed right towards the gates and it wasn't slowing down. She was about to scream a warning but it was too late as the van drove straight through the gates, taking them down, and came to stop in the middle of the field.

Taking a dagger in each of her hands she stared at the van, her heart beating in her chest as she dreaded what would come next.

The back of the van was thrown open and walkers came stumbling out of it, spreading across the field in seconds, groaning and biting into the air, searching for anything alive.

'Hershel's there!' Milo said, pointing towards the far end of the field where Quinn noticed the man lying in the grass.

'What's he doing there?' She yelled, panic taking a hold of her.

'I think he was talking to Rick,' Milo responded impatiently. 'Doesn't matter now. Let's go!'

Quinn threw a look over her shoulder seeing a yellow car she knew belonged to the Governor drive away. Gritting her teeth she jumped up, running towards the walkers with her daggers raised. Approaching the first one she let out a scream and pushed it into the creature its skull, pulling it back out she moved to the next one.

Michonne was cutting down walkers left and right while Milo had taken Quinn's gun and was shooting them down.

Quinn raised her leg and kicked an approaching corpse in the chest, making the creature fall down. She bend over and killed it by throwing her dagger into its eye socket.

A car drove into the field and she noticed Glenn was behind the wheel. A shaky breath of relief escaped her lips as he stopped the car and jumped out, pulling Hershel up and getting him inside the vehicle. Michonne had reached the pair as well, helping Glenn supporting Hershel.

She was forced to stop looking however as a walker approached her right. Screaming with anger she drove her dagger through its skull as Milo shot a walker down that was approaching behind her.

Glenn stopped the car right in front of them and Michonne threw the door open. The two siblings ran towards them, quickly jumping inside and closing the door making Glenn drive to the courtyard. Carl opened the gate and closed it behind them.

They jumped out of the car and Quinn let her eyes wonder over the meadow which was slowly filling up with more and more walkers. The gates were down, it was useless to shoot them all.

Her eyes wondered to the far end of the fence where she could see Rick standing. A small frown appeared on her face when she saw Daryl and Merle standing next to him. It appeared they had decided to come back and just time.

Just in time to see the mess the Governor had left them in.

A U T H O R 'S  N O T E

So, I think this chapter is one of my favorites. I really loved writing Milo tell Glenn to not take revenge. He's been looking after Quinn her whole life, giving her advice and helping her and now he's doing it for others too and I just love that about him.

I also wanted to show Quinn practicing with a gun. There are a lot of fanfictions in which the main character can just magically shoot a gun, or it's never shown to us how they learned to do it, they just can. Of course it isn't wrong to not include training sessions in your story but I wanted to tell how Quinn is slowly learning to defend herself. I mean she's excellent with her daggers but sometimes, like when the Governer decides to come and shoot your home, daggers are simply just not enough.

Oh and Daryl and Merle are back! So we can finally have more scenes with them and Quinn. Don't worry, she'll have a conversation with both of them very soon. :)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, if you did...well you know the drill. Leave a comment or a vote!

Lots of love,

UYM

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