Lone Survivors

I stood patiently by the bench, watching Hershel and Andrea talking in hushed voices. The man with glasses looked up at me, but once I gave him a stern glare he went back to writing in his notebook. I didn’t want to make conversation with the enemy. The man had mentioned earlier that he was the Governor’s advisor, which meant he no doubt would have advised him to kill us. I felt a small temptation to put a bullet in him to kill the brains behind Woodbury, but decided against it. I wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer. Hershel came back and gestured backwards with his head.

“Go talk to her,” he said in a kind but strict voice. I nodded and strode over to my friend. Andrea kept her head in her hands when I sat down, but eventually looked up. Her face was wet with tears and her eyes reddened.

“Can I ask you something?” she wondered cautiously.

“Of course.”

“Did the Governor touch you too? I heard about Maggie, and I know now that you were at Woodbury too, and…” Andrea’s voice got quieter and quieter, wavering so much that she could no longer speak.

“Not him,” I answered. She seemed to show a bit of relief, but then worry about the obvious unasked question of ‘who’. “He forced Merle to. Maggie broke first, so he didn’t get too far.”

“Forced Merle? Are you sure he didn’t do it willingly?” Andrea questioned.

“Yeah. We had a talk, and I understood his point of view. I forgave him.”

“How? How do you forgive someone for doing something like that?” she breathed.

“Because he’s Daryl’s brother, because he’s a decent guy once you get past the rough exterior, because he was truly forced to do it and didn’t want to, because he’s not a sick and twisted person like the Gov-” I stopped myself mid-sentence, realising what I was saying.

“Go ahead. Trash him. I know the truth now…” Andrea mumbled, a fresh tear falling from her eye.

“You can’t go back with him. There is no way he can ever be forgiven for what he’s done,” I said, hoping she’d understand my logic.

“I… I don’t know what to do…”

“Do what ya gotta do to survive,” I told her after a pause, repeating what Merle and I had talked about not too long ago. “I’d be… delighted, if you came back with us today. I’m sure everyone would be.”

“Thanks,” Andrea smiled weakly, placing her hand on top of mind and giving it a squeeze.

“I miss you a lot. I wish we were together instead of fightin’ to the death,” I breathed. My own eyes were getting watery, but I swallowed my feelings down.

“Hopefully one day soon,” she reassured me.