Title: To Live is to Suffer
Summary: When Andrea stands up to The Governor over his plans to kill Merle and Daryl, she finds herself taken out of Woodbury with one of the Dixon brothers and left for dead.
Notes: I've started a few different takes on the second half of season three, but this time I decided to go in a direction the show isn't going in because the fun is in making stuff that isn't happening happen.
I'm also going to pretend that the other group of survivors didn't find the prison.

To live is to suffer. To live is to find meaning in the suffering.

1. Survival

She'd always been proud of herself for how long she survived after the herd had hit the Hershel's farm.

She didn't have a clue, really. That wasn't real survival. Not like she went through with Michonne through the winter, months of hardship. And not like now.

But she was still proud of herself, because she'd stood up for herself, for her friend.

When Phillip had unveiled Daryl to the crowd she was shocked as hell, but she never imagined he'd rile the crowd up to have them actually call for the deaths of the brothers. So she'd done the right thing, she fought off Milton as he tried to stop her and she fought to the front, to try and talk some sense into Phillip. She pleaded with him, to listen to her, to not execute them.

"Someone has to pay," he'd said, coldly. He gave the signal and those armed around the brothers aimed at them. She looked over to Daryl, but he wasn't looking her way any more, he'd been more focused on Merle and the rabid crowd surrounding him. Now he was just looking at gun aimed at him and he looked terrified, he knew he wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Phillip, please..." Andrea begged she tried once again.

He pointed at Merle and the gunshots sounded suddenly and echoed into the silence as the crowd silenced momentarily before erupting in cheers.

Andrea couldn't tear her eyes off of Daryl as he looked across to Merle's slumped body. She looked over to Phillip and saw the smirk on his face. He was loving this.

She felt sick as she watched The Governor circle round Merle's body and then stand behind Daryl. She could see him tense from where she stood and he waited, let Daryl think about what he was going to do before he placed the hood over Daryl's head again. He pressed the barrel of a gun to the back of Daryl's head, let him think about it before it happened... and then he lowered the gun and shot Daryl in the side. His body lurched forward with the force but Phillip grabbed his bound arms and kept him standing.

"Take him away," he demanded as the two men who dragged Daryl out earlier, took him away again. There was almost no fight in Daryl this time.

Phillip circled the body of Merle, turned him over so he was on his back. All the shots were in his body and she looked, hoping maybe he was still alive but she saw no movement from his chest. Quieter, he spoke to one of the men "Take him away but remember I want the head," he said and he received a nod as Merle's body was dragged away.

It was all too much. "You sick bastard," Andrea said, lurching at him. The men who had been holding her back earlier had almost forgotten about her once she'd stopped struggling and she connected with Phillip's injured eye, digging her knuckle into it. He screamed in pain at the assault, before she was dragged off of him.

A vicious blow to the back of her head, rendered the world dark and when she next woke up, she was disorientated. Her head throbbed and then she realised she was blindfolded and in a car. She was reminded of the way she was bought into Woodbury. She struggled a little to sit up but was aware of a dead weight on top of her and she had a horrible vision of Phillip clearing out the dead from Woodbury and the image of corpses laying on top of her almost made her sick.

The car stopped and she heard the doors open. The weight left her and then she was dragged from the vehicle and ditched on the ground.

"Tie 'em to a tree," a voice demanded.

"Why?" a female voice asked. Haley?

"Because The Governor wants them eaten,"

"Their unconscious, tied up, beaten. They've got no weapons. They don't stand a chance!"

"Just do it!" The voice growled angrily. "I'm gonna rouse the biters this way,"

Andrea swallowed her fear. They were going to get eaten alive out here. Haley sat Andrea up against a tree and started to tie the rope around her. It didn't feel very tight. She paused half way through and Andrea wondered what she was doing. She lifted her blindfold up a little, her young face looking worriedly back at Andrea. Checking around herself again, she pulled a blade out of her pocket and put in in Andrea's hand. "This isn't right, but I can't save you," she said. Andrea looked to the body next to her that Haley struggled to shift against another tree. It was Daryl, no doubt about it. He looked unconscious and she hoped that if she couldn't free herself that he'd at least stay that way. It the walkers came...

She pulled the blindfold back to cover Andrea's eyes. There was some rustling as someone came running through the trees. "Found a coupla biters up ahead. They're heading this way. Should make short work of them," the man said. He sounded close and then Andrea felt him tug on the ropes, checking they'd been tied. he seemed satisfied.

"Let's go," Haley hurried him.

"One sec, need some fresh blood," he said. Andrea heard the sound of a boot connect with flesh several times and was certain Daryl grunted with pain. She hoped the pain wouldn't rouse him. "Should do it," he said. He hesitated, before pulling off her blindfold. She looked up at him, terror in her eyes. He simply smiled down at her. "I'll let you see what's coming." He left the hood over Daryl as he quickly got in the car and they drove away.

As soon as Andrea thought it was safe, she grabbed the handle of the knife and quickly worked on cutting through the rope. The knife was sharp and she felt it nick her skin several times but she didn't have time to be more careful. She could hear the walkers, heading in the direction the car had left and if they could smell the blood then they wouldn't have long until they were upon them.

She felt one of the ropes loosen and she started on the next one binding her hands together. She quickly cut through that, her grip on the knife slipping as it became slick with her own blood. She didn't care, she had to get the rope off tying her to the tree before the walkers got much closer. With her hands free, it was easier to cut the next rope off and she made short work of it. She pulled the rope free and stood up, her head pounded still but she needed to keep going while the walkers were near.

She spared a quick look down at Daryl to try and access how badly hurt he was.

It was clear enough he was still unconscious and he slumped to one side, she guessed from where that goon had been kicking him. Even though his clothes were dark, she could see a dark stain on his side. She guessed that was where he'd been shot and he'd just been kicked.

The moans from one of the walkers increased and she wiped her hand on her pants, then wiped the handle too, readying herself to fight. As the first walker broke through the clearing where they'd been left, she was surprised by how emaciated it was. It looked like it had never eaten. It lunged for her, the smell of her blood filling the air and she managed to side step it's advances and plunged the knife into the side of it's head. It crumpled to the floor quickly and then the second walker emerged. A female with long ratty hair. Her fury at the situation she was in caused her to side step until she was behind the walker. She grabbed the hair and yanked, expecting to pull the walker to the ground but instead she was left holding the hair and scalp that she'd partially ripped from the walkers head. The female walker didn't pay much attention to this as it started to advance towards Daryl. Andrea threw down the disgusting hair and scalp in her hands and plunged the knife into the skull with such force her hand came away covered in brain and gunk.

She took some deep breaths, attempting to calm herself and went over to Daryl before sinking to her knees beside him. She took a few minutes, taking deep breaths before she pulled the hood off him. The blood on the side of his face had dried and some flaked away just leaving him with a small cut.
She untied the rope from the tree and then moved to untie his hands carefully. There was some bleeding where he'd been bound, but not too bad. There was a deeper cut on his forearm but she didn't worry much about that either. She looked at the bullet wound and how it was bleeding still and she knew that sick guy had kicked Daryl in the wound to make him bleed more.

She let out a breath. She needed to be calm. Recalling the time Daryl had got himself injured looking for Sophia she drew inspiration from his own resourcefulness. He'd used his clothes to make a bandage. She took off the shirt she was wearing cut it a couple of times, then folded the fabric up on itself to help stop the bleeding. She then used the rope to secure it in place. It wasn't ideal but it was the best she could do.

She had no choice but to wait for Daryl to get himself together enough to return to consciousness and when he did, they'd have to start making a move.