Jo

Executing Rick's plan was the hardest thing I had ever done. I wasn't stupid, he put Michonne and I together and put us in a place that if one of us went rogue and deviated from the plan we wouldn't get anyone else killed or effect the outcome. Which is how Michonne and I found ourselves standing in the doorway to cell block B. From here we could watch everything unfold and be ready to run in if things went south and we ended up fighting hand to hand.

The Governor and his men rolled into the prison in a convoy of four truck, machine guns blazing. I wanted more than anything to cover my ears as my head started to pound harder. Michonne stiffened beside me as Martinez fired a grenade launcher at the first guard tower. I flinched. He reloaded and fired again and again, blowing out the windows of two more guard towers including my own. I must have made some motion because Michonne lay a hand on my shoulder to keep me in place. When the fifty caliber machine gun started firing both Michonne and I dropped further back into the doorway. I gritted my teeth and covered my ears as the bullets winged off the buildings and chewed up the walkers in the field. Glass shattered and dirt sprayed.

I couldn't imagine the amount of ammo they were burning through shooting up the outside of the prison. I knew objectively that everyone of our people were safe, but I couldn't shake the nervousness running through me.

One of the trucks rolled over our buried spikes and even over the gun fire I heard the front tires pop. The group all jumped out of their trucks and ran in formation towards the door. Now all there was to do was wait. I peaked around the corner and saw Maggie, Glenn, Rick and Daryl moving into position.

"They will be fine," Michonne said in a quiet voice.

I turned back to her and frowned. Her eyes dropped to my hand. Without realizing it I had let my hand fall to the handle of my kukri knife. I let out a deep breath and nodded working my hand on the leather grip. Across the courtyard Daryl was moving into position on the rooftop. I watched him get situated and crouch down at the edge, his rifle up and in position. I breathed slowly, everyone was going to be just fine. It surprised me to find I was more worried about Daryl than I thought.

Right on schedule the screams started. Even from across the courtyard I could hear them coming. They piled out the door, pushing and shoving their way passed one another, desperate to escape. Just as their nerves were fraying our people opened fire. The screams started again and despite The Governor's attempt to rally them, his people threw themselves into their vehicles and drove off.

I stepped forward when I saw The Governor standing out in the open. When the guns turned in his direction he jumped into the last remaining truck followed by Martinez. As the last of the dust settled Michonne and I stepped out of the doorway. We jogged over to the courtyard as the other's emerged from cover.

Daryl met my gaze and he ran his eyes over me, then nodded as though satisfied I hadn't been hurt.

"We did it," Rick said, looking across the field. "We drove them out." His eyes ranged over the damage but I could see a grim kind of determination on his face.

Daryl turned his gaze back to Rick. "We should finish it," Daryl growled, his voice raspy.

"It is finished." Maggie argued motioning to the damage surrounding us. "Didn't you see them hightail it out of here?" Maggie asked, not understanding.

"They could regroup," Michonne said calmly.

"We can't take the chance," Glenn growled. "He's not going to stop."

Carol was breathing heavily, still holding her rifle. "They're right," she said firmly. "We can't keep living like this."

Maggie looked horrified at the idea of going back into Woodbury. "So we take the fight back to Woodbury, we barely made it back last time." Maggie argued.

"I don't care," Daryl's voice was a raspy growl. I lifted my eyes to his and frowned. His eyes were cold and hard, The Governor had killed his brother. I didn't blame him in the least for wanting retribution. I nodded at him, letting him see my own conviction. I would be going with him for the same reason.

Rick was looking at Daryl and he nodded. "Yeah," he agreed. "Let's check on the others."

<><><><><>

Daryl

I waited and watched as the others filed back into the prison. Hershel returned with Beth, Carl and Lil Ass Kicker. I nodded to him and he gave me a grim smile. Both he and Beth looked shaken up but Carl looked determined. He was a tough kid.

Jo didn't follow the group, instead as they turned to go inside she turned to face the field. There were only a few Walker's left from The Governor's men but she wasn't taking any chances with our gates down. I stepped up towards her.

She glanced over her shoulder at me and gave me a tentative smile. The smile made me feel uncomfortable and I shifted my weight turning towards the trees.

"Maybe..." I started to say, but stopped. I was going to piss Jo off, I knew I was going to but I did it anyway. "Maybe you shouldn't go."

She whirled on me, her eyes flashing in anger. "You can't stop me," she growled out the words then turned back to the field of Walkers. Her back was stiff and her shoulders tight.

I shook my head. "Wasn't planning on it," I scratched at my face. "I just meant that yer better, but being back there might not be...better." I chewed at my thumb nail and kicked the asphalt at my feet. I was not saying this right and now she was going to be mad at me, again. I snuck a glance at her.

Instead of looking mad, she was looking up at me thoughtfully. Her green eyes caught the light and I felt like I was short of breath staring into them this close. I rubbed self consciously at my chest and adjusted the strap on my crossbow. She never looked away.

"I won't freeze up on you," she said in a quietly confident voice. "I won't let you down if you trust me at your back." Her eyes narrowed with determination.

"No," I blurted out. "Not like that." I snorted and ran a hand over my hair. "I trust you." I said looking straight into her eyes so she could see that I was telling the truth. She watched me closely and I knew she was reading my body language, paying attention to the most minute changes in tone in my voice. She could read a person like I could read the forest.

She nodded and gave me a grim smile. "Good."

I nodded too because now I was uncomfortable and didn't know how to articulate what I was thinking. "I meant it might not be better for you," I spoke the words slowly, drawing them out as they took shape in my mind. I looked away from her now, out to the field of twice dead bodies. "It'll be a lot a kill'in."

Jo touched my arm, tentatively because she would know how I felt about it. I turned back to her and she was only inches away now. My heart started to pound in my chest. I could feel her warmth and smell the leather from her jacket. Her eyes were serious and intense as she stared at me. I thought back to that kiss on the road. She rose up on tip toes, her movements painfully slow, and brushed a soft kiss across my cheek.

"I'll be fine," she whispered in my ear, her breath warm across my neck. She lowered herself back onto flat feet. She flashed me a soft, confident smile, gave my arm a reassuring squeeze and walked away.

I let out the breath I had been holding in a rush and shook my head trying to clear it. I ran a hand over my eyes and looked back at the field counting the walkers who were still moving. "Get it together Dixon," I muttered to myself. Then I swung my crossbow into my hands, triple checked it and went off to find the others.

Michonne and Jo were loading gear into the silver truck when I came around the side of the courtyard. Rick looked up as I approached and nodded to me. I nodded back and carried my gear over to my bike. I opened the first saddlebag and froze as I spotted Jo's gear. I looked up at her, but she was still helping Michonne. I looked away so no one caught me staring and went around to the other side so I could stow my gear.

I would never say it, never even think it, but a small part of me liked the fact that Jo had claimed a small part of my stuff. There would be room in the truck but she planned on riding with me.

"Rick," Glenn called to Rick as he and Maggie approached holding hands. "We're staying." He said motioning to him and Maggie. "We don't know where The Governor is. If he comes back we will hold him off."

I stepped forward towards the group. I glanced around. "Just the four of us?" I asked, looking from Rick to Michonne and to Jo. "All right." I said nodding. It would mean a different approach and a different plan of attack but if only four of us could go, this was the four that should.

Rick nodded. "I appreciate you staying," he said with a smile. He was trying to make Glenn feel better when it was obviously Maggie's decision for them to stay behind.

"Sure," Maggie said.

I nodded to Glenn and swung into my bike. Without looking i waited, Jo climbed on behind me, wrapping her slim arms around my waist and pressing against my back. I kick started it and revved the engine to clear the carbs then glanced back at Rick in the truck. He nodded to me from the drivers seat.

"Let's do it," Jo whispered in my ear. I could barely contain the shiver her warm breath sent down my neck.

"Yes ma'am." I replied glibly, a smile in my voice.

<><><><><>

Jo

We were only a few miles from the prison when Daryl slowed his bike. I peaked over his shoulder.
There were three of The Governor's vehicles on the side of the road surrounded by bodies. Daryl and I were off his bike before Michonne and Rick were even out of the truck. There were bodies everywhere. All in various stages of death and transition. It was an absolute massacre. I looked around, unable to comprehend the magnitude of this. There had to be twenty people here.

Those who had already transitioned to walkers were so distracted by the fresh meat they didn't even notice us. I drew my kukri knife and struck down the walker closest to me. Daryl fired his crossbow at the next one who turned towards me.

We methodically made our way through the Walkers. Daryl moved around the carnage, his eyes on the ground. I had no doubt he was putting together what all had happened here. It amazed
me how his brain was able to do that. I glanced down at my own feet and saw only blood and death. I turned back to Daryl. He narrowed his eyes and walked on a deliberate path that led him to the large truck parked closest to us. As he approached Michonne, Rick and I dispatched the remaining Walkers and I went around to all those who hadn't yet turned and slid my hunting knife through their temple. It was gruesome work, but it wouldn't bother me like maybe it would some of the others.

My back was to the truck when I heard something slam against the window. I whirled around, my hand reaching beneath my coat for one of the knives I could throw. The knife was in my hand and I was facing Daryl before my brain was able to process the woman sitting in the front seat, her palm flat against the glass.

Daryl had his crossbow pointed at her and Rick had his gun out as he dragged her out of the cab of the truck.

"Please," she gasped. She was probably in her thirties, pretty with dark hair. "Help me," she whimpered.

Rick forced her into her knees in the middle of the road. He made her lace her fingers behind her head while he searched her. Daryl stood a few feet away, staring down his crossbow at her. It seemed like overkill as I watched the woman weep as she kneeled surrounded by the bodies of her friends. But I wasn't taking any chances either and had two knives out and was ready to jump in at the first sign of trouble.

"Please," she gasped again.

"What happened here?" Rick asked once he was satisfied the woman wasn't armed.

Tears and snot started to run down the woman's face. "He did this," she whispered, half horrified.

"The Governor?" I asked not quite understanding. I looked around at all the carnage. What could have possibly possessed him to kill his own people.

She nodded, fear shone clearly in her eyes. "We wouldn't go back and so he killed them all," she sniffled. "The only reason I survived was because i hid under the dead."

Pity flashed across Rick's face and he holstered his gun. Some of the tension seemed to leech out of the woman. She assumed Rick's actions meant she was safe. Never mind the fact that Daryl or I could kill her just as quickly as one of Rick's bullets.

"What's your name?" Rick asked in a gentle voice.

"Karen."

"Karen," Rick repeated the name and gave her a grim smile. "Do you think you could help us find our friend Karen?"

The woman sniffled again but nodded.

<><><><><>
Jo

It was dark by the time we crept through the wreckage surrounding Woodbury. We all had guns up and we moved as one. Michonne crept quietly behind Rick watching his back, Karen was in the middle while I followed Daryl on the rear. I had Daryl's handgun in one hand and my knife in the other. We moved silently through the wreckage until we hunkered down near the car I had hid behind only a week ago. The pile of walkers was still there. I stared down at the bodies.

Objectively I knew I had killed them all but I didn't fully remember. It was like it was a dream or it had happened to someone else and I heard the story second hand. I toed one of the bodies. Each one had been put down with clinical efficiency. Each strike was perfectly placed in either the center of the forehead or the temple or the base of the skull. I wasn't certain I could be that exacting anymore if I tried. I jumped as I felt something brush against my arm. I looked up and caught Daryl staring at me. He looked down and then back up at me. He was asking in his own, silent way if I was okay. I nodded and looked away from the pile of bodies. I didn't want to remember that.

Rick lifted his rifle over the hood of the car to get a look at the fence through his scope. Daryl and I crouched side by side near the rear quarter panel.

Something to Rick's left exploded from a gunshot and he and Daryl opened fire on the gate.

"Tyreese! It's me don't-" Karen yelled coming forward.

Rick grabbed her by the shoulder and jerked her down. "Get down!" he yelled.

"Karen!" a man's voice came from the wall. "Karen are you okay?" There was a hint of fear in the man's voice that made me wonder about their relationship. He obviously cared for the woman. And a tiny, brutally efficient part of my brain filed that away as useful knowledge.

"I'm fine!" She responded.

"Where's the governor?" The man yelled back, sounding confused.

"He fired on everyone. He killed them all," she explained. There was stunned silence from the wall.

"Why are you with them?" The man finally asked, though his voice sounded less sure.

"They saved me."

Daryl crept from the back of the car towards the front where he would have an easier time firing.

"We're coming out!" Rick hollowered, but Daryl shook his head.

"No," he gasped. He made a grab for Rick's arm to try and stop him but Rick stepped away.

"We're coming out," Rick said again, this time calmer.

Daryl was still shaking his head and ran around the back side of the car, raising his rifle to cover Rick. I followed behind, covering Daryl. When it came down to it, I was following Daryl's lead, not Rick's. There was still a small part of me that didn't one hundred percent trust Rick's judgement. And that had nothing to do with Rick's willingness to hand me over to our enemies, that I actually respected. I didn't trust Rick's ability to read people. But I did trust Daryl.

Rick came out with his hands raised followed by Karen. Daryl and I followed both with weapons still drawn. Daryl glanced over at Rick and shook his head in disbelief. Rick's hands were empty. He glanced back at me but I didn't know what to think. Then Daryl raised his own, the rifle still gripped in one hand.

The gate swung open, revealing a huge black man holding an even larger gun. He was followed by a smaller woman who resembled him enough for them to be related.

"What are you doing here?" The black man asked Rick. There was recognition on both sides. There was obviously some kind of history here I wasn't aware of.

"We came to finish this," Rick responded brutally honest. He clenched his jaw. "Until we saw what the Governor did."

"He-he really kill them?" the man asked in disbelief. There was something open and honest about this man that I liked. I watched his face and his eyes and the way his shoulders moved. He was a good man. He was large and powerful looking but not a fighter.

"Yeah,"Rick responded grimly. "Karen told us Andrea hopped the wall going for the prison. But she never made it. She might be here."

Daryl was uncomfortbale and kept his eyes on the wall around us. He had come planning on a fight and what we found was something very different.

For some reason I wasn't anxious, I thought I would be, returning to Woodbury, but instead I felt utterly calm, detached even. P

Tyreese stared each of us down in turn before he finally nodded and led us back through the gates.

We led the way into the bowels of Woodbury. It was clear by Tyreese's and Sasha's faces that they had never seen this side of it.

"This is where he kept Glenn and Maggie," Rick explained.

"The Governor held people here?" Tyreese asked, his voice rising with anxiety.

"He did more than hold them," Daryl growled. He had his rifle back up and his crossbow slung over his shoulder. The lack of a fight seemed to unnerve him more than if we had faced a dozen soldiers.

Michonne, Daryl and Rick led the way. I trailed behind, keeping my eyes open for any more people who might be loyal to the governor. Though it seemed as though most of them were already dead. It felt like a ghost town. He had taken all he had for able bodies soldiers and then killed them all. He was even more insane than I thought.

We moved down a long hallway that I recognized vaguely, though I tried hard not to dwell too much on the memories associated with this place. At the end of the hall was a corrugated steel door.

There was thumping and the quiet scrape of steel that made me think of Walkers though The Governor had never kept Walkers in this part before. Michonne slowly drew her sword and I knew she was thinking the same thing.

"Will you open it?" Michonne asked Rick. Rick nodded and Daryl raised his rifle. Rick held up his gun.

"One, two" and he jerked open the door.

Milton lay in front of us, his body stretched out on the floor. He looked like he had just made the transition to Walker before someone killed him.

A pair of legs and bare feet were stretched out just around the doorway.

"Andrea!" Michonne exclaimed and ran in, dropping her sword on the ground. It's clatter against the cement floor echoed through the nearly empty room.

I followed behind at a more sedate pace, still not trusting anything in this place. Daryl had stepped deeper into the room, grief clouding his gaze.

"I tried to stop them," Andrea said weakly.

"You're burning up," Michonne said, her hand resting on Andrea's forehead.

Andrea nodded and painfully pulled her jacket aside to reveal an ugly bite at the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

The effect was immediate, the grief spread among the group as they knew what it meant. I glanced at Daryl but he was watching Andrea and Michonne.

Andrea leaned forward towards Rick. "Judith, Carl, the rest of them," Andrea gasped out the words as the question burned in her eyes.

"Us." Rick corrected, taking Andrea's small hand in his own. "The rest of us."

Andrea smiled weakly at him as Michonne smoothed the hair back from her forehead. "Are they alive?" She asked a little desperately. I had never really liked Andrea, though my experiences with her had been limited. I had judged her harshly for her treatment of Daryl that night in the nursing home and for her ignorance about The Governor. But now, I felt bad the woman was dying. She really did seem like she had a good heart. She was a woman who had done what she thought was best within the circumstances she was given. I had to respect that.

"Yeah, they're alive." Rick told her,
his voice cracking.

She smiled serenely and took Michonne's hand. "It's good you found them," she said gently.

Tears began to flow down Michonne's cheeks and she nodded.

Andrea turned her gaze to Daryl and gave him a weak smile. "No one can make it alone now."

Daryl nodded grimly, keeping his composure but I could see how badly this hurt him. "I never could."

Andrea looked back at Rick. "I just didn't want anyone to die," she tried to explain and tears swam in Rick's eyes.

Andrea moved to push herself to her feet. "I can do it myself." She said resolutely.

"No," Rick's answer was immediate.

"I have to, while I still can," Andrea spoke to Michonne who nodded in understanding and began to weep softly.

"Please?" She begged Rick. "I know how the safety works," she assured Rick with a gentle smile. A bitter sweet smile flashes across Rick's face and I assumed that was some inside joke between them.

Rick hardened his face as he fought back his emotions. He looked away for a moment and then back at her and nodded resolutely. He handed her his gun.

"Well I'm not going anywhere," Michonne said firmly, her voice was strong despite the tears that were running down her face.

"I tried," Andrea said sadly, as though she couldn't believe she had failed.

"Yeah," Rick agreed. "You did."

Daryl gave her one last long look and nodded and I wasn't sure if it was a goodbye or to show he respected her and her choice. Maybe it was a little of both.

Daryl stepped over to me and placed a gentle hand on the small of my back to guide me towards the door. The three of us filed out of the room, leaving Andrea laying in the circle of Michonne's arms.

The tension outside the door was like nothing I had ever felt. Rick waited next to it, his face practcally touching it. I sat next to Daryl on a stack of pallets, wishing there was something I could say to him to make this better. We sat close to one another with out legs lightly touching but I didn't know what to say. There wasn't really anything to say.

The gun shot sounded and I was the only one who flinched.

<><><><><>

It was morning when we returned to the prison. I was exhausted and my eyes burned with the need for
sleep but I still didn't give up riding with Daryl. We were close and I didn't want him to feel alone. There had been so much loss over the last few days.

We parked the bike next to the truck. I had climbed off by the time the bus drove through the broken gate. We would need to fix that before tonight.

Carl came out of the cell block, a rifle in his hands.

"What's this?" Carl asked his father angrily.

The door to the bus opened and people began filing out. They looked like refugees, each clutching bags of their meager possessions.

"They're gonna join us," Rick said, resting a reassuring hand on Carl's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

Rick looked around as Sasha and Tyreese led the new arrivals in through the door. He looked as though he were waiting for something. He took in the new people, the wreckage from the battle for our home, and the soft morning light as it filtered through the trees and reflected in the dew on the grass. And he smiled peacefully.