Chapter 43 Michonne Leaving

After the Governors encounter with Michonne, he tells his man, "Bring Andrea to me."

The man says, "Right away, Sir." The man then leaves, and the Governor stands alone in the room. Rubbing his throat, still feeling agitated, he broods until Andrea comes. After the Governor opened the door, Andrea immediately came in, she said, "What's wrong? Your man said it was urgent."

The Governor says, "I need your help. It's Michonne."

Andrea asks, "What about her?"

The Governor answers, "She broke in, stole her weapon."

Andrea says, "She can't steal something that's her."

The Governor says, "Then she went into a private place and slaughtered half a dozen captive biters."

Andrea asks perplexed, "Why would you have captive biters?

The Governor says, "There's a good reason that I don't want to go into right now."

Andrea says, "Okay."

The Governor continues, "Point is, I tried to talk to her about it and she pointed her sword at my throat. Can't imagine that surprises you."

Andrea explains, "She wouldn't do that unless she felt threatened."

The Governor says, "She makes people uncomfortable. Some people want her to leave, and I don't want that. It's ugly out there, getting worse each day. But she put my back up against a wall here."

Andrea questions, "What are you saying?"

The Governor says, "I'm saying, what works out there doesn't work in here. You know, we're not barbarians, we have rules."

After this quick chat, Andrea leaves, going back to the room she shares with Michonne. Andrea walks through the door while sighing. Andrea says, "We got to talk."

Michonne says, "We got to go." She then begins to pack her bag in a rush, throwing in her clothes and canteen.

Andrea says, "The Governor told me what happened. Michonne you can't do things like this. You're freaking people out. You're freaking me out."

Michonne ignores her saying, "The northeast wall is guarded by some girl. We can escape there after dark."

Andrea says, "We are not prisoners here."

Michonne replies, "No one who comes here leaves."

Andrea says exasperatedly, "What are you talking about? It's safe. There's food, there's shelter. There's people, for God's sake."

Michonne says passionately, "That's what they show you. But you can't leave unless they make you."

Andrea says, "You are not making any sense right now. Mich, maybe you need to sit for a minute."

Michonne says seriously, "You need to trust me."

Andrea says, "And you need to give me more to go on. We got a good thing going here."

Michonne says, "I thought this was temporary."

Andrea says, "And I think we need this. I want to give this place a real shot."

Michonne says, "I tried."

Andrea remarks, "Breaking into houses? That is not trying. That is sabotaging."

Michonne says, "This place is not what they say it is."

Andrea and Michonne then leave the room together. Walking out of the building, they walk down the street, passing by some people who were still partying. Walking through the crowd together, each holding a big pack full of their stuff. As they are walking towards the front gate, a man says, "Hey, hey, hey. Y'all girls, where you off to in such a hurry? Huh?"

The man runs over to them as Michonne pulls Andrea's arm, pulling her to continue walking. The man gets in front of them and "Hey girls. Come on. Hey, y'all are really breaking my heart right now, running away like that."

Michonne says, "We're leaving."

The man says, "It's almost curfew, I'd have to arrange an escort. I mean, the party's still going on."

Andrea gives Michonne a look, seeing this the man says, "Alright. Wait here a second." The man then walks over to one of the guards standing on the gate, the man says, "Hey, Brownie." Then they continue to talk for a couple minutes. Andrea gets impatient and walks over to them saying, "The Governor told us we were free to come and go whenever we liked."

The man turns to her and says, "Sweetheart, nothing personal here, but you're gonna have to step back."

Andrea then turns around and slowly walks back over to Michonne. When she arrives, Michonne says, "See? There's always a reason why we can't leave yet."

A second later, one of the guards says, "Clear!" Then the gate begins to open. A man near the gate says, "If I was y'all, I would find some shelter before nightfall."

Michonne still unconvinced says, "They knew we were coming. This was all for show."

Andrea says, "Do you hear yourself? How can you know that? And why would they bother?"

The man by the opened gate says, "Ladies."

Andrea turns to him and says, "Close the gates."

Michonne says, "No."

Andrea says, "I practically begged The Governor to let you stay."

Michonne says, "I didn't ask for that."

Andrea says, "No you didn't, you didn't have to. That's what friends do for each other."

Michonne says, "It goes both ways."

Andrea questions, "So you want to run around out there with walkers on chains, eating twigs? I mean, is that right?"

Michonne says, "We held our own."

Andrea says, "8 months. Eight months on the road moving from place to place, scavenging, living in a meat locker. That was no life. I'm tired. I'm tired. I don't have another eight months in me. Not like that. And you, I..."

Michonne says, "What about me?"

Andrea says, "I'm afraid you're gonna disappear. We always talked about this place, didn't we? A refuge. That idea is what kept us going."

Michonne then says with a serious face, "Are you coming with me, or not?"

Andrea says, "Don't do this. Don't give me an ultimatum. Not after everything."

Michonne ignores her saying once again, "Are you coming, or not?"

Andrea just sighs. Seeing this Michonne walks past her saying, "You'll just slow me down anyway."

Andrea turns around and shouts, "Michonne!" But Michonne just keeps walking. The man then closes the gate as Andrea watches Michone walk away through the crack in the gate doors. Michonne then continues walking, her pack over her shoulder, katana ready for action. She passes by a broken-down car as she walks into the distance.

A while after Michonne left, Andrea sat down on a bench by herself, she was feeling quite lonely and almost betrayed because she had been through so much with Michonne, but she still left. The Governor then came over and sat by her. They then began to talk for a while. The Governor then leads her away, giving her his arm to hold.

In the evening, when the sky was dark, Andrea who had been walking around with the Governor, arrived at a coliseum like building. They walked in and sat down on the back row of some bleachers; the Governor greeted people as they made their way to their seats. They were sitting next to Milton and after they greeted each other, the lights came on. Exposing walkers who were on chains, then two fighters made their way into the ring.

The crowd cheering for their favorite fighter, "Chipper, Chipper, Chipper." The fighters put on a show for the crowd for a while. Chipper said toward the crowd, "I'm gonna kick his ass one handed. No, no handed." Then the referee blew a whistle, immediately after Chipper round house kicked the other fighter, Brownie, in the face.

Brownie was already struggling to get up, but Chipper was taunting Brownie, getting him riled up. Brownie swung a right hook, but he missed. Continuing his assault, he uppercuts Chipper's stomach. Chipper was barely affected, he pushes Brownie away with a hard shove, then he kicked brownie in the throat. Brownie falling a couple feet away, now on the ground, right near the chain walkers. Brownie was just barely away from the walker's grasp, he crawls away hurriedly, crab walking away. Standing up, while Chipper was distracted by the crowd, Brownie runs up behind Chipped and jumps up. Striking down hard with his elbow, Brownie successfully downed Chipper.

But Chipper wasn't down long, getting up while extremely angry, Chipper runs straight to Brownie tackling him to the floor. But Brownie acted quickly and headbutted Chipper, as his arms were pinned down. Chipper feel back onto his butt, Brownie jumped up and got behind Chipper, he then put Chipper in a hold. Brownie then picks Chipper up and starts to walk him closer to the walkers.

Arriving in front of the walkers, Chipper got nervous, but he reacted quickly and kicked the walker away. Putting his feet back on the ground, Chipper puts his one foot behind Brownie's leg, he then headbutted Brownie. Brownie fell to the ground with Chipper falling down onto him. Chipper then turned around, as Brownie had lost his hold on him. Brownie in a daze, couldn't react in time and was punched square in the nose, breaking it. As blood flowed out of Brownie nose, he pushed Chipper off of him and in a blind rage began to punch him rapidly. However, many of these attacks didn't hit their target, but one punch hit Chipper straight in the jaw, rattling his tiny brain.

Using this chance Brownie dragged Chipper over to a walker and the walker grabbed him. Chipper out of his daze was almost bitten, but he punched the walker away using his wrapped hands. Getting away quickly, the referee seeing that Chipper got away, pulled a lever. This caused the chains holding the walkers extended. This gave the fighters less room.

While this was happening, Andrea was overlooking this fight with a disgusted expression. She said, "How could you do this? Keep walkers for entertainment?"

The Governor responded, "We're just having some fun."

Andrea says, "That's sick."

The Governor says in a hushed tone, "It's fake, we removed all of the biter's teeth."

Andrea still looked sick and said, "Your teaching people that those things aren't dangerous."

The Governor says, "We're teaching them not to be afraid."

Andrea then goes silent as she looks back at the ring, seeing Chipper stands on top of Brownie, holding his hands up, still surrounded by walkers.

The next day the Governor sent a group out of Woodbury, he wanted them to catch Michonne. As they tracked her through the woods, they came to a small clearing, covered with leaves. Some walker parts were on the ground. Two arms shaped into a G, two legs shaped into a O, and a torso flipped over, showing its back. The men stood around for a while discussing what this meant. Before a younger man said, "She is saying, Go Back."

Another man says, "What?"

The young man, Neil, explained, "She spelled it out using walker parts. We shouldn't be here."

Chipper then starts to laugh but hearing the second half, he gets in front of Neil and pulls him close. Chipper says, "Hey, Hey. Knock it off. The hell's wrong with you. The Governor chose you because he thought you were ready. I want you to succeed. I do, but if you keep telling the world, that you are pissing your pants. I'm gonna have to smash your teeth in."

Neil was breathing heavily. Chipper turned away from him and looked toward where he heard some rustling. Looking through the woods he could see the silhouette of Michonne. Chipper says, "What's the deal Michonne? You gonna jump out of the woods, one against four, all of us armed to the teeth and you with just your little pig sticker? No, no, no. Michonne."

He was interrupted from speaking further when Michonne sneaks up behind one of his men. She decapitates him, leaving him no time to escape. Turning to the guy next to him, Michone stabs him through the stomach, seeing this Neil was backed up against a tree, hyperventilating. Michonne uses the body as cover from the bullet Chipper is shooting at her. Blocking a couple shot, Michonne then drops the body and flees the area. Running through the wood, Michonne is continuously shot at, one bullet, successfully hitting her leg. Michonne doesn't stop however, as she continues to run.

Chipper seeing that she got away, runs back to Neil, who was hyperventilating on his knees, in front of his friend's bodies.

Chipper says, "Let's go. She's hit. Slowed her down.

Neil says, "Tim and Crowly, they--"

Chipper interrupts, "We're close to the red zone. Them shots just pulled every biter in this area our way. Let's go. Get up."

Neil just continued to hyperventilate, so Chipper kicked him in the face, bringing him out of his daze. Chipper says, "Now you're going to rise to the occasion, son. Some serious shit's going down. I need you here. You hear me amigo.

Chipper says, "I don't want to die."

Neil says, "Yes. Yes."

Chipper says, "Get up. Now you know we don't ever let our own turn. Never." Chipper then stabs one of the men in the head. he then walks over to Neil and tells him to stab the corpse in the head.

Chopper says, "Come on. Do it." Neil then stabs the corpse in the head while looking away. Chipper then stands him up saying, "Come on, let's go. She ain't running, she's hunting. So are we! There we go. They then run through the woods, Chipper tracking Michonne, using the blood that is falling from her wound and her tracks. After running for a while, Chipper lost her trail, so they stop.

Suddenly, Michonne gets behind Neil, and she would have decapitated him if Chipper didn't block the sword with his knife. Neil was still cut however, and it was a long one, right across his chest. Chipper managed to disarm Michonne of her sword and tripped her. But as he was going to stab her with his knife. Michonne kicked him in the balls, then she double kicked him in the face. Chipper fell on top of Michonne cutting her a little with his knife, groaning, he tried to get up.

Biters suddenly come toward him and while dizzy he tries to fend them off. Pushing one away, another gets a hold of him, locking him in place.

While he is stuck, Michonne backs away from a biter that is coming her way. Backing away for a few feet, she reaches where her sword fell and grabs it. Swinging it as soon as she gets a good grasp, Michonne cleaves the stomach of the biter, causing its guts to fall over her and mask her scent as a living human. She then stabs the biter in the face, killing it, before she ran away, through the woods.

Neil managed to recover from his wound and stabs the biter pinning Chipper down, in the head. With that biter dead, Chipper made quick work of another biter, as he looked around. Seeing that Michonne had disappeared. Chipper and Neil then began to discuss whether they continue after her or not.

Chipper says, "You rose to the occasion, kid. When we get back, I'm gonna get you a beer."

Neil says, "Come on, she can't have made it that far."

Chipper says, "No, no, no, no. We're done. We're gonna grab a car and haul ass home. It's been a good day's work."

Neil says, "But she-- she killed Tim and Crowly."

Chipped responds, "Yep, but we messed her up pretty bad. Anyway, she's headed straight for the red zone. She's as good as dead."

Neil questions, "What do we tell the Governor?"

Chipper says, "What the hell do you think we tell him? Tell him we killed her. Like I said man, she's as good as dead.

Neil says defiantly, "I'm gonna keep going."

Chipper says, "She ain't right in the head. She's gonna die. Ain't worth our time."

Neil says, "This is some serious shit. That's what you said. I'm not gonna lie to the Governor about it."

Chipper smiles before turning around saying, "You're right. Can't cut corners on this one. You've come along pretty quick there, kid. How do you say your name again?"

Neil says, "Gargulio." He then steps forward as Chipper repeats, "Gargulio."

Chipper then distracts Neil saying, "You hear that bird?" While Neil was looking away, Chipper pulled his pistol out and shot Neil in the head. He then picks up Neil's pistol as he walks away, leaving the woods to look for a car.