CHAPTER TWELVE

Andie's shoved into the room where they're keeping Glenn, and his eyes widen when he sees her with three men and no shirt. His jaw clenches and he raises the weapon in his hand — an arm broken off of the chair that he was taped to — and gets ready to swing at them. He's forced to stop when the Hispanic man with them aims a gun at Andie's head.

"Drop it." He tells him, and the chair arm thuds on the concrete.

"We're through with games." The man holding Andie's arm says. "Now one of you is gonna give up your camp."

The brunette's face is like stone as she stares ahead, not wanting to look at Glenn. But he knows her, he can see the fear in her eyes, despite her refusing to meet his gaze.

The man at her side can see the anger on Glenn's face as he looks at them, and he steps closer to her. Her jaw tightens as he reaches up to brush her hair away from her face, but she won't falter in her determination not to cave under his tactics.

"The prison." Glenn blurts when he sees the man's hand getting ready to touch her body.

"The one near Nunez?" Merle questions.

"That place is overrun." The man at Andie's side says.

"We took it." Glenn tells him.

"How many are you?"

"Eleven."

"Eleven people cleared that whole prison of biters?" He questions. "Huh?"

He then shoves Andie at Glenn, and she stumbles because she wasn't expecting the sudden movement. Glenn reaches out and grabs her, steadies her, then he pushes her behind him. The brunette's still covering herself as she shrinks behind him, and he glares at the three men, trying to act as a barrier between them and her as he keeps her at his back.

As soon as the men shut the door after leaving the room, Glenn pulls his shirt over his head and turns to face Andie. He quickly raises it up and puts the dark t-shirt over her head before pulling it down her body, over her arms that are still crossed over her otherwise bare chest.

The teenager stands there for a moment before slowly moving her hands, then she puts her arms through the sleeves of Glenn's shirt. He looks down at her, but she still won't look at him, won't meet his gaze. He's never seen her this rattled before, not even on the farm.

"Please say something...tell me you're okay, anything." Glenn begs, his voice a whisper.

Andie stands there silently for a moment before leaning against the wall behind her. "He didn't hurt me." She tells him, then she slides down the wall and sits on the cold cement.

He sits beside her on the ground, and she leans toward him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop Merle from taking us." Andie says, looking at the side of his face, and that's when she sees just how much blood is coated on his skin. "I'm sorry that I couldn't stop him from..."

"You know, it seems like you take the blame for things that aren't your fault." He shakes his head as he looks at the terrified brunette. "You couldn't have stopped any of this. Not what happened yesterday, and not this either."

She offers him a weak smile, one that doesn't reach her eyes. "Thanks for protecting me." She says, fighting back tears, and he knows that she means by giving up the prison so that that man wouldn't touch her again.

Glenn reaches over and squeezes her arm. "We're family."

The brunette then wipes a tear from her cheek, and he takes a deep breath as he turns his head and looks over at the walker that he killed. He then stands up again, groaning in pain in the process, and walks over to the corpse.

Andie doesn't say a word as she watches him pull its arm off of its body. Then he snaps the arm with his foot before pulling a piece of bone out from under the flesh. She looks up at him as he walks back over and holds the bone toward her, giving her a weapon to protect herself when the men come back.

The pair then walk over and wait by the door, not knowing when they're gonna come back for them. As soon as the door opens again, Glenn rushes out and grabs Merle, and Andie pins the other man to a wall and stabs him in the neck with the bone that Glenn gave to her. As he goes down, he squeezes the trigger on the automatic he's holding and fires off quite a few shots.

They all drop, and as soon as the gunfire stops, Merle aims his gun at the brunette. Glenn jumps on him before he can shoot her, tackling him to the ground. Merle gets the upper hand easily enough, but Andie stands over him with the automatic before he can stab Glenn.

"Get off of him!" She yells, and Merle looks up at her.

"Okay." He smiles, and she hears the men behind her walking up with guns.

The teenager turns her head the slightest bit, and then Merle lunges forward and takes the gun from her. Once she's disarmed, he looks at Glenn and yells at him to get up. The three men take Glenn and Andie into one of the rooms and force them down on their knees.

"This is the second time I've been taken for execution since I met you." Andie turns her head to look at her friend.

"I'm so sorry."

"At least I'm not alone like I was when you found me." She says right before a cloth sack is put over her head.

"On your feet! Move!" One of the men yells before forcing them both up.

Andie and Glenn are stumbling, unable to see as their captors lead them out of the room. A loud bang suddenly sounds, and everyone starts coughing as smoke fills the small space. They both fall, but then Andie's yanked up and the sack is removed from her head.

Her dark, red-ringed eyes land on Daryl, and relief floods her body as he wraps his arm around her and pulls her out of the room. Gunshots ring out behind them, and he gets her out first before following closely after.

They're running through the streets, Rick and Maggie helping Glenn because he's having such a hard time. He groans as they near a sidewalk, and then Rick tells everyone to quickly get inside the nearest building.

Andie's the first one through the door with Daryl right behind her to check for any possible threats, and the others file in after them. Once they see that they're alone in the room, Daryl reaches out and grabs Andie's arm, making her turn around. She flinches until she sees that it's him, then her eyes fill with tears as her shoulders sag.

"There's no way out back here." Oscar — one of the men from the prison — tells them.

"Are you okay?" Daryl asks as he looks down at Andie, and her lower lip quivers as she forces an unconvincing nod.

"H-How did you guys find us?" The brunette asks as he reaches toward her, and she then moves forward before burying her face in his chest.

"How bad are you hurt?" Rick asks Glenn as Daryl wraps his free arm around Andie, his crossbow in his other hand.

"I'll be alright." Glenn says.

"Where's Michonne?" Maggie asks, and Rick turns to look around.

"She was right behind us." Their leader says before squatting to look out a window.

Daryl still has his arm around Andie as she leans into him. Her hands are covering her face, like she's trying to hide as she takes comfort in his presence. He's always been there to protect her, from the second that they first met, and she knew that if anyone came to save her, it'd be him.

"Maybe she was spotted." Oscar says. "Want me to go look for her?"

"No." Rick shakes his head as he looks back at his people. "We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own."

"Daryl, this was Merle." Glenn says, and he looks over at him. "It was. He did this."

"You saw him?" Rick asks as Daryl looks down at Andie for a moment.

"Face to face." He nods as Maggie helps him get a shirt on. "He threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

"Why are you—" Maggie cuts off her own question as she turns and looks at Andie, seeing her in her boyfriend's shirt.

"S-So, my brother's this Governor?" Daryl asks.

"No, that's someone else." Glenn says, his eyes flickering to Andie as she moves her hands to look over at him. "He does the Governor's dirty work."

"Does he know I'm still with you?"

"He does now." He says before looking at their leader. "Rick, I'm sorry, I told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."

"Don't. No need to apologize." Rick tells him, and Andie crosses her arms over her chest as she leans into Daryl's side.

"They're gonna be looking for them." Maggie says, her gaze back on Glenn.

"We have to get back." Their leader says. "Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out."

"I'm good." Glenn tells him, and they pull him to his feet.

"Hey, if Merle's around, I-I need to see him." Daryl says, and Andie's jaw tightens as she swallows the lump in her throat.

"Not now. We're in hostile territory." Rick says as he looks over at them.

"He's my brother. I ain't gonna—"

"Look what he did." He cuts him off, and Daryl's hand falls from Andie's waist as she walks away from him. "Look, we gotta- we gotta get out of here now."

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

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight."

"Mags, I need a gun, a weapon." Andie says, and she looks up at her. "Anything." Her hand shakes as she reaches for the pistol being passed to her. 

"Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt." Rick tells Daryl. "Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this Governor catches up to us? I need you. She needs you." He whispers as he looks over at Andie. "Are you with me?"

"Yeah." Daryl nods.

They get a few supplies together, and then Rick opens the door. Daryl throws out a canister that releases tear gas, and they use it as cover as they run. They're all firing off shots as they go, and they're getting a lot of return fire as well.

"Behind you!"

After not long of shooting their way through the street, they find a spot to run and hide, cover themself while they ready more weapons. They're all huddled together while Daryl goes through the duffle bag.

"How many?!" Rick asks, yelling over the sound of the gunfire.

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

"Doesn't matter." Daryl says. "There's gonna be more of 'em. We need to move."

"Any grenades left?" Rick asks as Andie looks down at Glenn. He's clearly in a lot of pain as he sinks against the brick wall.

"Uh-huh."

"Get 'em ready. We gotta gun it to the wall." He tells him.

"You guys go on ahead." Daryl says as he passes out guns. "I'm gonna lay down some cover fire."

"No." Andie looks down at him. "We have to stay together."

"It's too hairy. I'll be right behind you." He says, not looking up to meet her gaze.

"No. I'm not going anywhere without you."

"You don't have a choice." He tells her as he stands up. "You ready?" He asks right before throwing another one of the smoke grenades.

"Move! Move! Let's get out of here!" Rick grabs Andie and makes her go with him.

"No!" The brunette yells, but then Oscar grabs her and pulls her over to a school bus that's against the wall. He gets her and Glenn on top of the bus before he ends up shot in the side. "Oh, shit..."

"Andie." Glenn pulls on her arm, and she reluctantly turns before helping him over the wall.

—

Andie's watching the fight going on inside of Woodbury through a scope. She's looking for an opening to take a shot, and then she finally gets a clean one. She pulls the trigger on the rifle in her hands, taking out the walker trying to attack Daryl, next she shoots the man who was holding the walker on a snare pole.

The screams start before Rick throws out a smoke grenade, and Andie lifts her aim to take out the spotlights surrounding the arena. Once in the dark, they're both using their scopes and shooting at anyone with a gun who can potentially go after them or Daryl. Andie puts down a couple more walkers as well.

Rick uses a flashlight to show Daryl where they're hiding, and he runs toward them with his brother right behind him. He snakes his crossbow from a man as he makes his way past him.

"Daryl." Their leader looks at him as he runs over with his brother, and the Dixons pass them.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Daryl grabs Andie and keeps running; she keeps pace with him as she clings to his hand.

"They're all at the arena. This way." Merle tries to direct them.

"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick tells him.

"You really wanna do this now?" He questions before trying to tear an opening in the wall, it looks like it's made out of the same kind of metal that those rooms are made of.

"Rick, come on. We gotta go." Daryl says once his brother gets it open, ushering Andie toward the exit.

The rest of them make it out and see Merle beating a walker with the metal prosthetic on his severed hand. "A little help would be nice." He tells them.

"Fuck you." Andie mutters before starting in the direction that they sent Glenn, Maggie, and the other woman earlier.

"Let's go." Daryl looks at Rick when he hesitates on following while Merle's with them.

They make their way through the woods as quickly as they can, but the sun's already coming up before they make it to the cars that are parked in the road. Rick calls out to Glenn and Maggie, and they both rush over to their group with Michonne not far behind.

"Thank God." Glenn sighs, sounding out of breath.

"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Their leader says, and Glenn and Michonne both pull weapons when they see Merle.

"What the hell is he doing here?" He questions, his gaze flickering to Andie.

Everyone's yelling, but Maggie looks over to Andie as she keeps distance between herself and the rest of them. The older girl reaches for her, and Andie quickly walks over to her and Glenn.

"Look what he did!" Glenn yells. "If it wasn't for him, Andie could—"

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl tells him.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Rick argues.

"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle says.

"Jackass." Daryl mutters, watching as Glenn backs up until he's standing directly in front of the two girls with his gun still raised.

"Enough!" Rick yells at Merle when he keeps talking, then he has to force Michonne back.

"Hey, get that thing out of my face!" Daryl snaps, pissed that Glenn's gun is still pointed in his direction.

Merle starts laughing. "Man, looks like you gone native, brother."

"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there!" He says as he turns around to face his older brother.

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that." He then looks at Michonne. "Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." He starts making provocative noises.

"What?" Glenn questions. "Andrea's in Woodbury?"

"Right next to the Governor." Daryl nods.

"Who?" Andie looks at Maggie.

"Blonde. We thought she died that night on the farm." The older girl explains.

Michonne tries to advance on Merle again, and Rick steps in her path. She's holding a sword that she's obviously pretty eager to use on the man who's casually leaning against a tree.

Andie reaches out and tugs on the sleeve of the sweater Glenn's wearing, and he turns to face her and his girlfriend. He steps toward them, blocking her view of Merle, and her gaze drops to the dirt at their feet.

"You know Andrea?" Rick questions as he looks at Michonne. "Hey, do you know Andrea?" He repeats when she doesn't answer.

"Yep, she does." Merle says. "Her and blondie spent all Winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mm-mm, yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it."

"Shut up, bro." Daryl snaps as he turns back to him again.

"Hey, man, we snagged 'em out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying."

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks Michonne, but again, Merle answers.

"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs." He tells them. "So, what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards, man."

"Shut up." Rick snaps at him, and he laughs.

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns, no bullets in them."

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yells.

"Shut up, yourself! Bunch off pussies you roll wi—" Merle's yelling when Rick pistol-whips him, and he drops.

"Asshole." Their leader mutters as he looks at him in the dirt.

Glenn turns to face Andie, and she looks up when she feels his hand on her arm. "Are you okay?"

The younger girl offers him a weak smile. "Tough as nails, remember?"

"That's not an answer." He says, shaking his head, but she doesn't reply before walking away from them, heading toward the cars.