⌜ chapter fourteen ⌟

Maggie and Glenn are sitting together on the floor, she's now wearing his t-shirt. He's covered in blood, and she's trying to hold it together. MJ's pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, unable to stay still. She tied her shirt at the bottom so that it stays closed, but part of her bra is still visible.

"Maggie, did he—"

"No." She cuts Glenn off as she looks over at him. "No. He barely touched me."

"I'm still gonna kill him." MJ says, not breaking her stride. "And Merle."

"He's Daryl's brother." Glenn says as he looks at her.

Her steps falter slightly. "I know."

Maggie sighs as she looks down at her hands in her lap. "All this time running from walkers... You forget what people do, have always done." She says, and MJ stops walking, becoming completely still. "Look at what they did to you."

"Doesn't matter." He says. "As long as he didn't..."

"No." She shakes her head. "I promise."

He pulls Maggie closer to him, and she hugs him. His eyes land on the walker that he killed earlier, it's laying a few feet away.

"M?" Maggie looks over at her, she's still frozen in place. "Are you alright?"

MJ blinks a few times as she glances in her direction. "I'm fine." She lies. In reality, her thoughts were on the family that kidnapped her and Sam a few years ago, the things that they did to people — and to her.

Glenn gets up and walks over to the walker that's still laying on the floor. He proceeds to pull its arm from its body. Then he breaks the bone and pulls it from inside the flesh, giving them a weapon when the others come back.

The door eventually opens, and Glenn rushes at Merle. MJ goes for the guy that he has with him and she stabs him in the neck with the piece of bone, but his finger squeezes the trigger on the automatic gun he's got. They all jump out of the way, dodging bullets, but one grazes the outside of MJ's thigh.

The gunfire stops, and Merle raises his gun, but Glenn grabs him again. Merle flips him and holds his knife to Glenn's throat. MJ now has the gun and she aims it at Merle's head as Maggie steps out of her way.

"Let him go." MJ says, her voice steady.

He smirks as he looks behind her. "Okay." He raises his hand and his knife as more people make their way over with guns raised, most of them aimed at her.

Merle disarms MJ and then yells at Glenn to get up. He and the other men force them back into the room and push them onto their knees. He circles the three of them with a gun in his hand.

"Glad we could catch up." Merle says.

Glenn grabs Maggie's hand as he looks at her. "Just keep looking at me." He whispers, and she turns her gaze to him with tears in her eyes.

"I love you." Maggie says, and one of the men puts a sack over her head.

He does the same to the others, and then they pull them to their feet. They make them walk out with their hands bound in front of them. There's a loud bang, followed by a flash, and then smoke fills the air.

The three with sacks over their heads fall, and they each pull it off. Rick quickly grabs Glenn as Jo helps Maggie to her feet. MJ pushes herself up and starts running along with the others.

They run from the gunfire behind them, and then Dean looks down at his sister. "What the hell happened to your shirt?" He questions, anger evident in both his face and his voice.

"Focus, big brother. We need to get the hell out of here." MJ says as they keep moving, she hasn't seen Sam yet. He's behind her.

Rick leads them into a building, and Dean grabs MJ to make her go faster. She's grabbing her leg as she runs with them.

"Ain't no way out back here." Daryl calls after checking part of the building.

"Who did this to you?" Sam makes his sister look at him. He's focused on the blood on her face and her swollen lower lip.

"Sammy?" Tears fill her eyes as his hazel ones meet her dark brown ones.

"You look like hell, M." He says, and she immediately hugs him.

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asks as she helps Glenn, he's on the ground holding his side.

"How bad are you hurt?" Rick asks as MJ pulls away from her brother.

"I'll be alright." Glenn says.

"What happened to you?" John asks as he looks at the damage done to his daughter.

"I'll be fine, Dad." The brunette says.

"Your leg is bleeding." Mary says, and MJ sighs.

"Yeah, that's not the only thing. My shoulder hurts like a bitch." She grits her teeth as she moves her shirt. MJ then looks at her mom, Addy, and Jo with a smirk playing at her lips. "You know, I'm really starting to see why the men in my family love blondes so damn much."

"You've been stabbed, beaten, shot, and nearly killed multiple times today." Jo says as she looks at her best friend. "How the hell are you cracking jokes right now?"

Because she has to.

"It's a gift." MJ smiles.

"Where's that woman?" Addy asks as she looks around the room. "Sam's friend."

"She was right behind us." Rick says.

"Maybe she was spotted. Want me to look for her?" Daryl asks, trying not to look at MJ — the sight of what was done to her is making him angry and he needs to be able to think straight.

"No. We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own."

"I can't just leave Michonne." Sam says. "I'm going after her."

"You don't know where she went." Dean says as his brother quickly walks back toward the entrance. "Sam!" He whisper-yells, but the younger boy slips out the door unnoticed by anyone outside.

"Daryl." Glenn looks at him as Maggie helps him put a sweater on. "This was Merle. It was. He did this."

"You saw him?" Rick asks as Daryl steps closer to them.

"Face to face. Threw a walker at me, and then at MJ. He was gonna execute us."

"S-So my brother's this governor?"

"No, it's somebody else." Maggie tells him, still helping Glenn. "Your brother's his lieutenant or something."

"Your brother's the Governor's bitch." MJ says as she peaks out the window.

"Does he know I'm still with you?" Daryl asks.

"He does now." Glenn says.

"Rick." MJ walks over to him, and he turns her. "We told him where the prison was, I'm sorry. I-I couldn't hold out. He was gonna kill Glenn."

"Don't." Rick looks at her. "No need to apologize." He says and then heads back to the window.

"They're gonna be looking for us." Maggie says as Ellen walks over to MJ.

"Are you okay?" The older woman asks, and she forces a smile.

"You kiddin'? I'm made of steel." MJ chuckles half heartedly. "I've survived worse than some prick with a knife."

Most of them are convinced, but Dean can see it — the chink in her armor. It's exactly the same as when he pulled her out of that bedroom in those hillbillies house. A part of her broke in that room tonight, brought her back to how she felt all those years ago. Not just vulnerable, but completely exposed.

Ellen takes off her flannel over shirt and then cuts a piece. She tears off a long strip and then uses it to wrap around MJ's leg where she's bleeding. It's meant to be a makeshift tourniquet until they get them back to Matt so that he can stitch her up.

"We have to get back." Rick says, snapping the oldest of the Winchester siblings from his thoughts. "Can you walk? We got a few cars a few miles out." He's talking to Glenn.

"I'm good." Glenn says, and Rick and Maggie help him up.

"Hey, if Merle's around, I-I need to see him." Daryl says.

"Not now." Rick looks at him. "We're in hostile territory."

"He's my brother. I ain't—"

"Look at what he did! Look, we gotta— We gotta get out of here now."

"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out." He argues.

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight." He reasons. "Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk, MJ's losing a lot of blood. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need you. Are you with me?" He asks.

"Yeah." Daryl says.

"How's your leg?" Addy asks as she looks at her best friend.

"It's fine." MJ insists. "Can we just go, please? I don't wanna be here anymore."

"What about Sam?" Dean asks, and she sighs.

"Son of a bitch." She hisses.

"MJ?" Rick looks to her.

"No, like you said — we need to get Glenn and Maggie out of here. And my leg isn't getting any better just standing around." She says. "I know my brother. He'll get Michonne, and then they'll get out. We gotta move."

They come up with a plan to get out of the building and out of the town. Daryl pulls out two things of teargas and then he tosses them into the street when Rick opens the door. The group quickly leaves the building.

They run out and everyone's firing off shots as they go, shooting the people who are shooting them. It's a long drawn out fight as they run for a way out, sticking close to each other. They find a spot to duck for cover.

"How many?" Rick asks.

"I didn't see." Oscar tells him.

"Don't matter. There's gonna be more of them." Daryl says as Glenn leans against the wall for support. "We need to move."

"I can't leave Sam." Dean says.

"I don't want to leave him either, but we don't know where to find him." MJ says as she looks at her older brother. "We can't just run around this place blindly."

"Any grenades left?" Rick asks.

"Uh-huh." Daryl nods. He's looking through their bag of weapons.

"Get 'em ready. We gotta gun into the wall."

Jo, Maggie, and Addy are still firing at the others. John pulls Glenn off the wall, ready to help him so that he doesn't slow them down.

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna lay down some cover fire." Daryl says.

"No. We gotta stay together." MJ tells him.

"Too hairy. I'll be right behind you." He says, and she doesn't argue. "Ready?" He steps out and throws another smoke bomb.

They all start running again, headed for the wall to make their escape. When no one's watching her, MJ follows after Daryl. He looks at her when she kneels beside him and starts shooting.

"Get out of here, woman!" Daryl yells over the gunfire, he's shooting as well.

"Not without you!"

Rick and Dean start calling for them, but they don't move from their spot. Daryl calls for them to go, and Rick has to force Dean over the wall. Something that pisses him off.

MJ has to stop to reload her gun and a man rushes up behind her. He grabs her, and she tries to fight against him. Daryl turns with his gun raised, but stops when he sees that the man has his own gun against MJ's temple.

"Put it down or I'll kill her." He says, and MJ's jaw tightens as Daryl looks at her.

All of the gunfire stops as Daryl lowers his gun and another man walks up and grabs him. The men bind their hands behind their backs and put sacks over their heads.

—

MJ and Daryl's hands are still bound as they're pushed somewhere that they can't see. MJ recognizes the Governor's voice as he gives some bogus speech.

"These are two of the terrorists." He says as MJ and Daryl are pushed forward. They're both struggling, and he walks up behind them. He then removes the sacks. "Merle's own brother, and the leader of his previous group."

Daryl looks at his brother as the Governor pushes them aside. MJ stumbles into Daryl and she barely manages to steady herself with her injured leg. She turns to look at the Governor and she sees that he's now got something over his eye. He didn't have it the first time that she saw him — he must have been injured recently.

MJ looks around at the others surrounding them and her eyes land on a familiar blonde woman in the crowd, someone that she thought was dead — Andrea. It would be a relief if it weren't for their current situation.

The Governor continues. "So what should we do with them, huh?"

"Kill them!" A man in the crowd yells.

"What?"

"Kill them!" They all chorus.

Andrea watches, shocked and confused as she glances between her old friends and the crowd behind her. She's never seen Daryl or MJ look so scared before. They both have tears in their eyes as they look at the crowd chanting for their death.

"Hey, Ponch." MJ whispers, and Daryl looks down at her. "Any ideas?"

"Uh-uh."

"Yeah, me either."

"You wanted your brother." The Governor says as he walks over to Merle. "Now you got him." He looks out at the crowd, they're all still chanting to kill Daryl, MJ, and Merle.

"Any chance your guardian angel is gonna make an appearance tonight?" Daryl asks, his voice low.

"I'm thinkin' not." MJ tells him.

"What do we do?" He asks, and she looks up at him, unsure of what to say. He looks down at her and sighs as she shakes her head.