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“The Governor’s here.” Maggie said to Rick, stepping between him and Daryl just as it seemed that Daryl was going to knock Rick out. She figured it was about Carol being banished, but she wasn’t going to get in the middle of that. Besides, they had more important things now. “He has a tank… And Carol.”
Daryl looked at Rick and scowled, his face inches away from Rick’s. “Somethin’ happens to ‘er. It’s on you.” He growled before pushing passed Rick.
Rick looked to Maggie and turned away from her, following Rick outside of the prison. Once he was close enough to see The Governor, with Carol on her knees in front of him.
“Rick! How nice of you to join us. Why don’t you come on down here and have a chat?” The Governor’s voice was mocking, teasing. Taunting.
“I don’t make decisions anymore. There’s a council, they make decisions.” The irony of Rick pulling up the council now was that Carol herself was on the council and he’d banished her without their consent. But she’d killed two people without the council’s consent. He had originally thought he had done what was done, but now he wasn’t so sure. The Governor had found her, how right of a decision could it have been?
“Today it’s just you and me and you’re making decisions.” The Governor didn’t budge. Rick felt his gun in his back, just in case. He glanced at the people he called family, giving them a nod before walking down to the gate.
“Whatever you want…It’s not my call anymore.” Rick said to the Governor, shaking his head desperately.
“Was your call to kick her out.” The Governor nodded to Carol, bringing his hand up to touch the womans head. Rick looked at her desperately, he was just trying to protect Carol. Protect everyone. “What did she do to deserve that?”
Rick glanced at Carol and then back at the Governor. “That’s not important.” He said, glancing back at everyone behind him. “There’s enough room here, we can… You can have part of it. We’ll stay on our side, you stay on yours. No one has to die tonight.”
“Give us what we want and no one does.” Another voice said. It was the man sitting inside of the top of the tank.
“Is that what any of you want? Is this what any of you want?”
The man in the tank spoke again. “What we want is what you have.”
“Look, I’ve fought him before. And after, we took in his old friends. They’ve become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk through those gates… you’re one of us. We let go of all of it, and nobody dies. Everyone who’s alive right now. Everyone’s 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. We get to come back. I know… we all can change. “
Rick was getting desperate, he knew that. While he had hoped that the speech would be enough to convince the Governor, he (and the Governor) both knew that there was no way the Governor was going to live in this prison.
Rick glanced at the woman he had banished and tightened his fingers around the gate. This was his fault. She nodded at him, trying to let him know that it was okay. That she forgave him. Rick leaned his head against the gate, there was nothing he could say. There was no way out of this.
“Liar.” The Governor whispered and reached around his back and pulled out his pistol, making a point of cocking the gun and holding it to the back of Carol’s head. Rick pulled out his colt and aimed it towards the Governor, cocking it and trying to aim through the sudden tears that formed in his eyes.
“No.. No.. NO!” Rick screamed as The Governor’s gun went off and Carol fell to the ground.