Sympathy for the Devil

"Rick, I'm not leaving without Daryl," I insisted, stepping in Rick's face.

He rubbed his index finger and thumb on his eyes, squeezing the base of his nose, "I know," he muttered, thinking about what he wanted to do. "You two, you know where they could have taken him?" Rick asked Lincoln and Boston.

They both looked at each other, one giving the other a long stare, "We think we might have an idea," Lincoln said, not sounding very excited about what he was thinking.

"Alright, you two are gonna take Scar and I there. Maggie, you'll take Glenn back to our car, make sure he's okay and watch her," Rick ordered. He gave Michonne a long look like he was threatening her with his eyes if she dared to try anything.

We walked through the woods, ensuring to stay out from the line of sight of the spotlights. They were leading us to the backside of the town. From outside of the walls the inside seemed to be fairly quiet now until we approached a makeshift wall of tin panels. Just on the other side, we could faintly hear a crowd of people cheering and chanting along together the closer we got. This side was unguarded, unlike the two front gates they had on the East and West sides of the town.

"What are they doing?" I asked, referring to all the shouting coming from the residents.

"It's a fight," Boston responded.

"Fight?"

"You'll see," Lincoln said, leading us up to one of the tin panels. He grabbed the side of it, linking his finger in a panel that looked to be loose and dragged it back on the dirt just enough so we could squeeze through.

We followed their lead, crouching as we ran up behind a large dumpster for cover. We remained hidden in the darkness, just out of the reach of the spotlights that lit up the makeshift arena they had made. I gasped when looking at the scene before me. Most of the town's residents stood on benches and crowded around the arena. The Governor stood just at the outskirts of the circle, watching as he had Daryl and Merle standing in the middle.

"The people have spoken. I asked you where your loyalties lie," the Governor shouted over the angry crowd of people, "You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother. The winner goes free. Fight to the death!" He ordered.

No, no, no. I watched as Merle looked over at his brother before looking back at the Governor. Right then and there he was deciding what he was going to do, but I don't think Merle had loyalties to anything.

"Philip please, don't do this," a woman pleaded with him. I looked over shocked to see Andrea held back by two men. She's alive? She's been here the whole time? Her pleads for mercy fell on deaf ears as the crowd cheered for a fight, the Governor ignoring her.

Merle then raised his arms to the crowd, antagonizing their cheers, "You know me. I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to prove…" Merle bellowed to his people before turning and punching Daryl in the gut, "that my loyalties to this town!" Daryl fell to the floor gasping for air and Merle kicked him again in the same spot.

I winced watching it, the dirt underneath Merle's shoes puffing up into little clouds of dust around Daryl from how hard and repetitively he kicked him. "Rick we have to do something," I pressed, trying to keep my voice low.

"Scar, we have to think this through. We can't just go in there guns blazing, we'll get him killed," Rick shushed me. I shook my head frustrated, bringing my attention back to the ring.

I watched as Merle had Daryl pinned to the ground, his hand pressed to Daryl's neck choking him. The Governor's men then walked five walkers into the ring, all of them attached to snare poles, creating a tighter circle around Daryl and Merle.

"Give me that," I said, grabbing the gun from Rick's hands, "I'm making the plan now. On my cue, you throw that smoke grenade into the circle. I'm getting him out of here." I ordered before running to our left to find higher ground. I climbed up onto the hood of a car that was parked up beside a cement wall. Placing the gun up on the ledge I peeked through the scope, watching as the walkers swung their arms at Daryl. The men were giving the walkers slack before yanking them back, making the ring smaller and smaller.

Daryl and Merle now both stood back to back, leaping forward and hitting any walker that lunged too close to them. I locked my aim in on one of the walkers, just a few feet from Daryl when I pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the left side of its skull, sending the crowd into a frenzy. That was the cue. As I shot down one after another, Rick tossed the smoke grenade into the arena, masking the air with fog.

The Governor's men began shooting back towards us, but their lack of knowledge on where we stood left the Governor to call off their fire. There was too much mayhem going on, with the town's people running in every direction for cover, screaming for their lives. Lincoln began to shoot out the spotlights around the arena, sending sparks flying as people hit the ground.

I returned to where Rick was, looking for Daryl to come running. Rick now stood up from behind the dumpster, shining a flashlight into the depths of the fog.

"Daryl, come on!" I yelled, spotting him as he emerged from the smoke. He ran past one of the Governor's men, yanking back his crossbow from his hands before jogging towards us. To my dislike, he dragged Merle along with him, looking back every couple of seconds to make sure he was still following.

We all ran back down to the entrance that we came from, our guns raised in case any men had already looped their way around to stop us.

"They're all at the arena! This way!" Merle shouted, pointing us in the direction of the spot we came in.

"You're not going anywhere with us," Rick said, firmly cutting him off.

"You really wanna do this now?" Merle said, he was the first to squeeze through the panels.

Just by looking at Rick's face, I could tell he was angry, he wanted to grab Merle by the collar and drag his ass back into the town, but there was no time we had to keep moving with Merle.

"A little help out here!" Merle shouted to us as we all began to file through. He knelt on top of a walker, bashing its skull in with his metal arm. All the noise the gunfire had made tonight, there was a fairly large herd headed our way. We helped shoot a couple down, making a clear route for ourselves into the woods. The rest of the walkers would be left to walk straight towards the town's walls. "We ain't got time for this!" Merle shot up from the walker he was on and now ran towards the woods.

Daryl looked back at Rick and me, ushering for us to follow Merle's lead. I glanced over to Rick and my face said it all. I was scared to follow Merle, I didn't trust him in the slightest, and what worried me most was how willing Daryl was of his brother. He no longer acted for us and himself, but instead for Merle.

Reluctantly, Rick nodded his head to me, telling me that it was okay to follow Merle. Our options were slim at the moment and we knew that we didn't have the time to turn this into an argument with Daryl. My gut told me not to, but my head was telling me to get as far away from here as possible.

------

The sun was beginning to rise by the time we made it back to where they had left the car. My body was exhausted, but my adrenaline kept me moving. The Governor knew where our camp was now and we had to make sure we returned back to the prison before any of his men got there.

"Glenn!" Rick called out, signaling that we were close. He called Glenn's name because he knew we were going to have to calm him down as soon as he spotted Merle with us.

"Rick? Oh, thank God."

"Look, now we got a problem here. I need you to back up," Rick stuck up his hand to slow Glenn as we approached each other.

Glenn instantly pulled the gun out of his back pocket, aiming it at Merle's head, "What the hell is he doing here?" He shouted.

Everyone was yelling over Glenn to try and get him to slow his role. He was fuming though, clearly angry with Merle and us.

Then Michonne pulled out her Katana sword, causing Rick to draw on her, "He tried to kill me!" She shrieked, her eyes bulging out of her head in rage.

"Look what he did! If it wasn't for him--" Glenn said before Daryl cut him off.

"He helped us get out of there," Daryl defended him.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you," I said, I wanted him to know that I was furious too.

"Hey, we both took our licks, girlie," Merle defended himself. Hearing him speak made me irritated. If Merle hadn't been Daryl's brother he'd be as good as dead right now. But that's what made everything so complicated, he was still Daryl's brother. Nobody wanted Merle, but we couldn't have Daryl without Merle.

"Jackass. What you doin' hanging out with that psycho anyway?" Daryl finally called him out.

"Oh, yeah, man. He's a charmer. I got to tell you that," Merle laughed, everything he said sounded amusing to himself. Just by the way he spoke you could tell he had some screws loose. He then looked over to Michonne, "Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby."

"Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked. I would have been just as shocked if it weren't for the fact that I saw her myself. Until now we all thought she was dead.

"Right next to the Governor," I answered Glenn.

Michonne lunged at Merle again. "I told you to drop that!" Rick stepped in front of her. "You know Andrea?" He questioned her.

"Yup, she does. She and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest," Merle inserted himself once again.

"We found them in the woods, Andrea was close to dead," Boston confirmed for us.

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah. So what you gonna do now, Sheriff? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards--"

"Shut up!"

"Oh, man, look at you. Pathetic." Merle laughed. This man was relentless. "All these guns and no bullets in them--"

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl shouted at his brother.

That set Merle off, something about Daryl standing up to him made Merle lose his mind, "Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll--"

Rick then turned and pistol-whipped Merle on the back of the head, knocking him out cold. He was finally quiet. That still didn't help the situation we faced. The Governor is going to want revenge and we had his right hand man unconscious on the ground.