"Hey Ivy." The warm smile of Maggie Rhee was the first thing Ivy awoke to before quickly sitting up quickly. "It's okay, don't worry." Ivy stood up and thought about everything that had happened in the last couple of days. Saving Glenn, the woman that died in her arms. It was all so much.

"Is Carl okay? My dad?" Ivy badgered and Glenn replied with a nod and a smile. Everything seemed to be fine. It was bright, everyone seemed happy enough. "I'm gonna find Carl, alright?"

"Ivy!" Glenn yelled. Ivy poked her head back through the cell door. "Thanks for saving my life." Glenn smiled.

"You owe me one." She scrunched her nose and ran down the stairs, she no longer felt weak, her muscles were slightly sore but she didn't feel weak. Ivy had known about Karen and David, she didn't know them but the fact that there was someone in the building who murdered them didn't sit right with her. Ivy maneuvered through the cell blocks hoping to find Carl but the only person she ran into was Liam. She stopped in her tracks and stared up at him.

"Hey." Liam mumbled with a straight face.

"Hi." Ivy returned.

"I heard about you putting the tube in Glenn's mouth. That's awesome actually." Liam smiled and Ivy nodded her head.

"It wasn't too crazy...I think actually-" and then all Ivy felt was her body flying against the wall. She didn't even hear the explosion at first until the ringing began to play in her ears and she thought about what had just happened. She looked over at Liam who was already crawling to his feet. He stretched his arm out but Ivy refused, pushing herself up.

"What the hell?' Ivy spoke but it sounded as if it was all in her head. She didn't know whether or not she was talking or if she was thinking. All she knew was that she was leading Liam out of the building through the hole in the side of the concrete. The light hit her eyes hard and she shielded them with her face before making out the figures of the people in front of her. "Carl! Chaos!" She yelled for whoever would come and once the fog cleared a bit more, she saw her group. She pushed forward and waited until she could stand straight before saying anything.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"Ivy, come on." Daryl tried to grab Ivy but she turned too quickly. A mistake she wished she had never made. Against her will, she stared at the man hat appeared in her shattered dreams every night. The man that she continued to peek over her shoulder for, all the time hiding from him and there he stood.

"No." he whispered. She looked over to her father who had nothing but pure rage on his face.

Ivy turned to see Liam with her sword in his hands to which she quickly grabbed and strapped to her back. She didn't know what to do. Everything stopped as Rick stared ahead.

"It's not up to me!" Rick yelled. "There's a council now...They run this place."

"Is Hershel on the council?" A chill crept up Ivy's spine as he spoke and then that chill was replaced with a pain as a tall, brunette man appeared from behind a truck with Hershel in his arms. Ivy watched the pain on Maggie and Beth's face escalate quickly. She pressed her body against the fence and let out a whimper as she saw Hershel.

"What about Michonne?"

"No!" Ivy gasped, jumping forward, she felt the arms of Daryl pull her back. "No!" Ivy called out again as the dark skinned woman appeared from around the tank. The man guiding her out pushed her, Michonne dropped to her knees with a straight face. Ivy searched for any hint of fear in the woman's eyes and yet, she saw none.

"She on the council too?" Michonne appeared, her hands tied behind her back with a cocky but angry look drawn across her face.

"I don't make decisions anymore!" Michonne and Hershel were placed on their knees, facing directly towards the group. On either side of the two, there stood what seemed to be guards with guns.

"Well, you're making the decisions today, Rick."

The sun beamed down on Ivy's skin, her breathing was shaky and all she could feel now was anger. When it was just an issue that lay within her own body, she couldn't feel anything but sad, but as she stared at Michonne and Hershel on their knees, it was something much deeper than that.

"Come down here. Let's have that talk." The governor spoke calmly.

Ivy could almost see the sweat on Michonne and Hershel's skin. Hershel seemed oddly calm for his situation and Michonne just seemed angry. Ivy tried to analyze for anything that she could possibly sneak around to, a weaker link, anything. Nothing came up.

A look was exchanged between Daryl and Rick and he began to move. Ivy felt nothing but panic. Rick placed his hand on Carl's neck and exchanged words with him before moving to his daughter. He gently grabbed her head and held her tight before whispering, "We can do this." Ivy nodded before pulling away and watching her father walk across the grassy field. Ivy moved towards Carl and placed her hand tightly on his shoulder and Carl grabbed Ivy's hand. He could feel her discomfort and tried his best to keep her calm with his touch.

"We can't take 'em all on." Daryl whispered to the group.

"So you want us to split up?" Ivy asked.

"We'll go into the admin building then through the woods like we planned." Daryl sighed. "We ain't got the numbers no more."

Ivy turned her attention back towards her father in the field. "Let 'em go, right now." He demanded. "I'll stay down here. Talk as long as you want but you let 'em go. You got a tank, you don't need hostages."

"I do." Ivy thought the tank was a bit excessive but with this man, she had no idea what to expect. Facing this man, all she wanted to do was grab a gun and beat him with it. She thought about what the woman in the cell had said to her and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Liam and Oliver stood about ten feet from her, watching intently as the events played out.

Ivy moved towards the bins with guns in them and carefully grabbed out as many as she could fit in her hands which was four before handing them to Liam, Oliver, Carl, and Tyreese. She tried to focus but her stomach churned, she felt ill. She was trying to stay as calm as possible and avoid making eye contact with the governor in fear she would start something that didn't need to be started.

"I have a tank and I'm letting you walk away from here." The governor was beginning to get agitated and Ivy could see it in his eyes. She knew that look, she knew every look and what it meant. "What else is there to talk about?"

"I could shoot you all." The governor yelled. "You'd all shoot back, I know that. But we'll win and you'll be dead. All of you." Hershel's breathing began to get heavier. "It doesn't have to be like that. Like I said...it's your choice."

Two gunshots fired at walkers which didn't get a ration out of anyone like Ivy felt like he had hoped. "We got to do something." Carl announced. Ivy sat beside him, waiting for his idea.

"Your dad's got it." Daryl huffed.

"They're talking. We could kill the governor right now." Carl pleaded.

"Please do so." Ivy sighed.

"From 50 yards?" Daryl asked.

"I'm a good shot." Carl sighed. "I could end this right now."

"Yeah or you could start something else." Daryl suggested. Ivy sat next to the two. She didn't know what to do or how to make any of it stop.

"We can all...We can all live together." Rick pleaded. Ivy stood with rage in her veins that the suggestion would even come to her father's head. "There's enough room for all of us."

"More than enough. I don't think my family would sleep well knowing you were under the same roof." That sentence enraged Ivy. no one out there knew that man was a rapist, no one knew he was a murderer. No one knew he was a monster. She wanted to say something, she had to, but she couldn't.

"We'd live in different cell blocks, we never have to see each other until we're all ready." Rick begged.

"It could work." Hershel spoke for the first time in what seemed like forever. Ivy knew it wouldn't work. She'd kill him or he'd kill her. One of the two. The prison genuinely wasn't big enough for the both of them and neither was the world. "You know it could."

"It could've...but it can't." Michonne exchanged a look with Ivy. "Not after Woodbury. Not after Andrea."

"Fuck!" Ivy groaned as she kept her head in her hands trying to hold back whatever it was she was feeling.

"Look, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. Fact is, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder than sitting here shooting at each other but I don't think we have a choice."

"We don't. You do."

Moments passed and all Ivy could do was examine everyone around her. She took everything in, every small detail, every hair on Carl's head, the way the people around her drew in their breath. She stared out at the man that had abused her for days on end. She saw the way his knuckles gripped the handle of the sword as i he never planned on letting go.

"If you walk through those gates, you're one of us." The governor moved down and stood next to Hershel with Michonne's sword drawn at his neck and Ivy held her breath as she watched him. We let go of all of it and nobody dies." Ivy's eyes began to swell with tears as she gripped the hot metal fence. She didn't know what to do, her chest began to tighten as she stared at the governor. His knuckles were gripped so tightly around the sword. Hershel turned his head slightly towards Ivy as if they both knew what was going to happen next, though nothing could have prepared either of them.

"Everyone who's alive right now. Everyone who's made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back. We're not too far gone." And with those words, the governor began to remove the sword. Hershel looked proud of Rick and Ivy thought for once they would get a happy ending. "We get to come back and I know, we all can change." Ivy slowly stood as he pulled the sword away and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you." She prayed to whatever could hear her. For some reason, a small shred of hope had grown inside of her, a very small shred of hope. For only a second, she thought it would go back to normal, or whatever their normal was.

"Liar." And with that one singular word and in one singular second, the governor swung the sword down and Ivy heard it slice into Hershel's skin. She heard the hack and everything fell apart in just a singular second.

"No!" Ivy screamed as she stood and watched the blood spew from his neck. Everything was silent yet so loud. Maggie's scream rang but somehow Ivy couldn't hear it. She felt Beth's cries, she felt their pain, she felt their rage and their anger and their sadness and for her, that was enough.

The gunshots firing snapped Ivy into something she had never felt before. Immediately, Ivy stood, unsheathing her sword from behind her. Fear no longer existed in the moment she was living in and she knew exactly who she was going for. She stood there with her sword as the men began moving into the building.

She could only hope that everyone got out of the prison but she couldn't go back and try to help. She continued placing one foot in front of the other, slashing down whatever walker stepped into her path which as of now, were very few.

As everyone held them off, she went for the people who managed to get in. The woman with curly hair stood face to face with her and Ivy decided to make the first move. She gripped her sword and stood to the side as she swung for the gun in the woman's hand. Her only focus in the moment was dodging any bullets fired at her by the woman in front of her. In such close proximity, a gun wouldn't help, especially a large one.

Ivy swung and flexed her arm tight as the metal clashed with the gun, knocking it loose from the woman's hand. Ivy dropped her sword and swung at the woman, her fist making contact with the brunette's mouth. Ivy felt the woman's teeth against her knuckles and winced in pain as she pulled her arm back. She managed to dodge a punch from the woman but got met with another one that connected to her cheek. She let out a groan as the bones made contact with her skin.

Ivy used her foot to sweep the woman off of her own. She heard her back collide with the ground before punching her once in the cheek and another in the nose before pulling back. She didn't want to kill this woman, she wanted the governor. Gunshots continued to fire and explosions went off that startled Ivy to her core. Everything seemed to go by ridiculously fast until Ivy was finally out of the gate. The bus was gone now and the only thing she could see was her father on the ground, the governor on top of him, beating him to a pulp. From there, Ivy ran.

"Ivy!" Someone called her name but she didn't bother stopping. Ivy had never felt the urge to murder a human being until now. She had hate, she felt anger, but never something this strong. As she saw the governor wail on her father, his helpless body on the ground unable to move, she knew she had to do something. She ran forward, unable to stop herself before flying into the governor. Something hit her hip as she rolled over before swinging her fist into the man's face. She used the strength she had to lift her body off of his before reaching for her sword on the ground. She turned before holding her sword up and meeting it with the governor's neck who had managed to stand up. The two were now standing face to face, the only thing stopping him from reaching her was her metal blade against the skin of his jugular. Never would Ivy had thought she'd be standing face to face with the man that destroyed her.

She wanted to say something but she couldn't find the words. As she faced the man, she remembered the rope against her wrists and ankles, the smell of mildewed bedsheets, the pain of losing her innocence and the even worse pain of knowing it was stolen, his touch on her skin, the way his fingers traced along her neck, and rage.

"Today is your last day alive." Ivy spoke confidently knowing nothing was about to stop her.

No other words were spoken between the two, only a look of understanding. One of the two weren't walking away alive and Ivy knew it wasn't her. She sat her sword to the ground and lunged forward, digging her nails into the side of the man's face before tackling him to the ground. She felt sharp pains repeatedly in her ribs but she forced herself to keep going. Ivy balled her fist and put every bit of strength she had into landing he solid hit on the man's nose. She heard a crack followed by a groan of the governer and she smiled as he cried out in pain.

Her smile was quickly wiped off her face as she felt his fist connect with her mouth, the other with her cheek. Ivy cried out in pain as she toppled over. The weight of the governer on top off her overwhelmed her, she began to panic.

She looked up a the man and suddenly, allan could see was Liam's face, the way he looked at her from behind the glass. She saw Hershel's head roll off his shoulders, heard Maggie and Beth's screams. She remembered her mother telling her she was going to make it in this world, begging her to keep her brother safe.

With that, Ivy pushed her knees into the governor's chest and yelled out before rolling over and gripping her sword on her hand. She stood quickly and before the man could arise, she shoved the blade against the skin of his throat, teasing him almost.

She stood for a moment, no words spoken. She had many words, she thought about this moment for a long time, nothing could come up. Instead, she brought the sword down and shoved it into the man's stomach. Blood shot from the wound directly onto her skin and he let out a groan.

She didn't move back. Not because she was frozen or simply couldn't, but because of the feeling of power. Knowing it was his blood smothering her rather than her smothering him made her feel good. Knowing that the man that had driven her insane was now thriving on the ground in front of her and she had every option in the world was something overpowering. Ivy watched as the stream of blood seeped into the soil underneath him. She watched his eyes lose their spark, their life, the same way that he had watched hers dwindle down into nothing just months before.

Yet, he was still alive. He looked up at Ivy with almost a smirk on his face. It was as if he was saying, "Look at me, I'm still alive." It was as if he was taunting her. Punishing her. She watched the wound begin to only pour instead of spew, finally she took a step back.

"I'm done with you, he's not." With that, a snarl was heard from Ivy's left side and before anyone could see, the large dog appeared from behind her, teeth bared as he lunged for the throat of the governor.

Muffled screams were heard as Ivy turned to walk away. Snarls and growls came from her dog.

She couldn't tell if the feeling of power was going subside and the sadness would come back, and that was something that terrified her.

ꕥꕥꕥ

2983 words

Authors note
Well.