after Andrea had left, I held the clothes she grabbed in my hands, crossed in my chest, to keep my towel hung up. I turned to the bed, a large king bed, placing the multiple colored clothing down, looking at a shirt I had picked out of the bunch, it was a light gray shirt, with sheer short sleeves and a floral pattern on the bottom right of the shirt. I thought that was cute, so I put it off the side for now.

in the pile were also different genres of pants, bell bottoms, jeans, and shorts, I didn't know what to wear, but I chose the jeans because I remembered it was winter and I need thick layering of clothing.

I took the shirt I put off to the side and brought it over my head putting my arms through the arm holes, then I pulled the jeans up over my thighs, and they were a little loose, I tried looking through the walk-in closet for at least 1 belt, but none to be found.

I heard a knock at the door, I turned, startled by the sound. I sped-ran to the door and opened it to see the large man standing at the door.

the large man was leaning against the doorway, with one hand above his head, and one hand in his back pocket, he had a black vest that covered his chest tightly, quartered off sleeves that ended just before his forearm, showing off his veins along his arm. he had dark grey work pants on with a black belt wrapper around on the third loop. he was a large man, not weight-wise, just tall and muscular.

"you decent?" he asked after watching, me at the door.

"what do you think?" I say stepping back and spinning in a circle showing off the outfit.

the man watched me twirl. he had a smirk on his face. I was too happy to be clean and in fresh clothes to notice the hungry look on his face.

"yeah, it's nice" I looked down and grabbed the empty belt loops on the lip of the jeans. "But..it is a bit lose"

"oh I see that, well here, I got an extra belt I can lend you, just in my room, come, I'll show you," he said motioning his hand towards the hall signaling to follow him.

he walked out of the doorway and walked down the hall, this was the first time I have gotten to see the rest of this community. the public areas were open. he opened a brown wooden door, leading outside.

I covered my eyes with my arm, the sun was bright, I heard people talking and laughing, even light music playing. I noticed this and questioned.

"Music? won't that lore the walkers right towards us?"

"no, we have walls, along with that guard at the walls changing shifts at all times" he points to the left, and down the road.

I looked down where he was pointing, and noticed a group of military men. they had large machine guns,
And they were all laughing with each other.

"So, where were you before we found you hurt in the woods?" He questioned

"Um.. a prison" I hesitated "this guy found me and my boyfriend at a market looting for meds. He had a crossbow and-"

My sentence was caught off short by a pale bald man.

"A crossbow? W-was his name Daryl?"

Before I could even comprehend what the man had said to me, before I started to realize that, this man that was talking to me, was the same man that shoved me in a bag, to end up in this place"

"You're.." I said hazily

"Yeah look I'm sorry, that I like put you in a bag all rough and shit, but you were seriously hurt. You almost died to two walkers."

"I was fine"

"Yeah sure.. anyway- you said a man with a crossbow?"

"Uh- yeah mid length hair about to his ears, blue eyes, black vest" I said motioning what I was saying.  putting my hands to measure the length of the hair I was describing, to my ears and pointing to my eyes, and back.

The large man who greeted me looked at the bald man.

"Is that your brother?"

"That's Daryl for ya' what a pussy"

The bald man smiled that same grin he smiled right before putting me in a bag. "My names Merle..Daryl's brother"

I blankly stared at him.

"While we're introducing ourselves here." The large man looked at me. "You can call me 'Governor'."
I shook his hand.

He had a firm handshake, a handshake that said "you don't want to mess with me".

"We can finish, what we started" he then said, again motioning to follow him.

Merle had then walked away, and I heard him mumbling something not sure exactly what, he was saying.

I had continued to follow the Governor, he led me to a large brick building, with white trims along the edges and roof of the building, the door was a dark oak wood.

He opened the door for me, and let me walk through.  The building was nice and old timey, there was a grandfather clock and a long staircase.

"My part of the building is upstairs"

I started walking upstairs, and he handed me a silver key.

"You have to use this key to get into the room, I'm just gonna go talk to Merle one second. Help yourself to a drink, and I'm my closet is plenty of belts."

"Thanks"

He then turned around and left closing the large dark oak door behind him.

I walked up the stairs, they were a beautiful dark oak marching the door at the entrance. I kept the silver key tight in my hand.

When I got to the door at the top of the stairs, I took the key and put it in the key slot, and slightly turned it to the left, unlocking the door.

When I opened the door, there were beautiful decorations everywhere, potted plants, book shelves filled with hundreds of books, a big large window to look down into Woodbury.

The Governor had said that he had spare belts in his closet. I looked to the left of the room where I saw a door. I made my way to the door to see a table with a book.

Inside the book were names. And they were crossed out. The names lined the whole page top to bottom, but the bottom struck me. The last name of the page was "penny" it had multiple lines scribbled across it.

It's not like me to go through other peoples stuff but now I'm interested. When I turned the page, I was confused, pages and pages to be filled with slashes. — /// —-they had been on the last couple pages before the book ended.

I was still pretty confused so I went to go get back to what I was doing before. I went to turn the doorknob but it was locked. I then noticed a spare key on the chain he had handed me. I went to grab the key but I was interrupted by the Governor opening the room door and staring right at me.

"Woah-woah-woah" He said walking up to me with his palms facing me.

"I'm sorry I was just trying find the belts" I handed him the keys.

"Yeah well, this is the wrong closet, I meant the closet in my bedroom." He pointed to the doorway on the other side of the room.

"Omg I'm so sorry" I had said , leaving my mouth open in shock.

"I-it's okay, just. I should've been more clear" he said inhaling a large breathe. "Here" He walked quickly into the room and came out walking with a black belt with white stitches across the outer sides. He handed the black belt to me and watched me, as I put the belt through the loop holes of the jeans.

"Thank you" I finally say.

"No trouble"

"A drink? Bet you haven't had one in a while?" He stepped around me to the large cubbered, he pulled out some whiskey and gin, and shook them so the liquid made a remarkable sound.

"No, I haven't had one in a while" I stepped closer to him as he had grabbed plastic cups and poured a small amount of gin into them. But he was doing something with the cups, something I couldn't see because the large man's shoulders blocked my view.

He then turned around and handed me a cup. I took the cup gracefully "thank you" I said before taking a swig of the gin.

"No problem" he said taking a sip of his.

We got to talking about how this community works. Like the rules and the exceptions, and especially the work. I have to put a little effort in since they did 'save' me.

After talking for a few moment my head began to feel dizzy. I couldn't look straight properly. I think the gin fucked up my head. My vision began to grow darker and darker before I fell to the ground.