Chapter 98 - Are you afraid?

Merle seemed taken aback and turned his gaze back to Martinez after he asked, "Is what she said true?" 

Upon hearing this question, Martinez quickly shook his head and then pointed at Michonne before explaining, "Don't listen to her nonsense and make a snap judgment, we didn't kill her partner! She stole our stuff and we only caught her to take her back to our safe house."

Martinez's words changed in the best way to survive. Of course, he did not want to tell the truth to these people. If the other party found out what they were really doing, then their end would come much quicker than expected. 

Merle, as if he were a judge in court, turned his head towards Michonne, pointed at Martinez, then asked, "That idiot said you were a thief, how can you explain that?"

Hearing those words, Michonne's lips quivered with rage, she screamed her head to look directly at Merle and then said, "I'm telling the truth, I can show you my friend's dead body." 

Merle shook his head and then said in an apologetic tone trying to help Michonne, "I'm so sorry dear, but she's probably by now a walker!"    

"That's impossible, she was shot and not infected by walkers!" 

Watching the hatred overflow in Michonne's eyes, Merle immediately figured out which side was telling the truth, so he pointed out, "Well, no matter how it is you die, everyone will eventually become a walking piece of meat."   

Regardless of Michonne's shocked expression when he finished speaking, Merle turned to look at Martinez, "Haha, I think I've decided who the winner is, but you ball of assholes are lying to my fucking face." 

As he spoke, he raised the gun for the first time in his hands. Seeing this, Martinez's expression changed drastically. Just when he thought he had succeeded in persuading the other party, it turned out not to be the case and he pointed out, "No, no, please don't shoot! We're just following orders, our shelter leader asked us to do this and it's not something we can interfere with." 

"Are you confessing that you did it?" Merle's tone turned cold, and at the same time he reached out and grabbed the radio in his vest.

"Zz... Tyler, we've got the rats under control. Just before they killed a survivor, how should we deal with these people?" 

"Zz... Merle, this is Airon, hold on a moment while I head towards your position." 

"Understood!" 

After a brief exchange of words, Merle left the radio and said, "Take your weapons and bring them to me. You guys just wait, don't make a wrong move." 

"Airon!" 

Merle guarded his cynical expression at this point, shook his head and began to narrate everything he had discovered about this group. 

Airon's eyes scanned all these people one by one. Of course he knew who some of these people were, but he simply did not expect to meet Michonne under these circumstances.

If Andrea is still in the prison, he doesn't understand how Michonne had also made it to the Governor's shelter. This situation was confusing and needed to be handled carefully, so he thought carefully about what to do. 

As he finished listening to Merle's words, Airon lowered his gaze and then asked Michonne, "If you said they killed your friend, why did they do it?" 

When she heard this, she said, "I don't know, we didn't have any kind of conflict, we didn't argue or steal anything, just me and Janet spent a night in their camp." 

The more Michonne talked, the angrier she got about what she had experienced. Airon for his part thought silently and deciphered how it had all unfolded. 

If she didn't run into Michonne with Andrea like in the original story, she somehow managed to run into this woman named Janet. This time the outcome was different, Janet decided to leave the Governor's shelter which caused her imminent death. 

Now Airon knew what would have happened to Andrea if she had left that shelter when Michonne did, everything was told to him, from the first encounter with those people to how she got here. 

After listening to the narration Michonne gave him, Airon looked at Martinez and the others in his group, walked slowly towards them and then began to speak.   

"They know, don't they? I can kill you all right this very moment, all I need is to say one word for your hearts to stop beating!"    

Hearing these words, Martinez's face was covered with cold sweat, and the others could only remain silent with feelings ranging from nervousness to terror. They could not explain it, but they felt that the man in front of them was a real killer. 

But this feeling only lasted for a moment, there was no need to shout or point a gun to feel it. When everyone looked up again, they saw a man smiling at them. But this smile was not at all comforting, and immediately everyone thought Airon was crazy. 

Martinez, who was always fighting to protect his life, looked at Airon and persuaded: "Friend, I recommend you not to kill us. We will leave now if you let us go. I'm serious, we have a lot of people in our shelter, you and your people definitely don't want to be our enemies!" 

When he heard Martinez's words, Airon said with a strange look, "First you implore me for your life, then you threaten me, am I to think that leader you have have no fucking idea where we are?" 

After pausing, Airon lowered the tone of his voice and said, "But okay, I can let you go, but you have to answer me some questions I want to ask you honestly." 

When everyone heard Airon's words, they were very surprised, although it is true that the defenses in the prison are now very strong, very few people understood what Airon wanted to do. 

Michonne on her side was the most affected, she looked at Aiorn and shouted, "No! You can't let them go, these people are murderers."   

Airon gestured to stop Michonne from speaking further, then turned his gaze back to Martinez and waited for them to respond.   

The few people saw that there was hope of leaving, so they nodded frantically without caring about anything else. 

Getting a response, Airon nodded and said, "I want you to think three times about your answers before you say them, I don't like lies. From what I heard, it seems that your leader asked you to kill these people, how many times has he asked you to do the same?" 

Although Airon is no different in issuing similar orders, such as when he asked Sam to take care of some troublesome people such as Carol's husband, among a few other men. He wanted the surrounding people to know the threat they were about to face, and the kind of madman he was about to get involved with. 

"There have been a few times, you must know there are a lot of mouths to feed in our shelter, we had to do it for them." Martinez said with an unnatural tone. 

"How many people have you killed, does your leader do it personally or does he just order you around?" 

"I don't remember, but when we go out, the governor is the one who gives the orders. We just follow orders to survive, you must understand that." 

"That I understand, I can't blame you." Airon paused and asked, "What I'm curious is to know, if the people in your shelter know how you and their leader get the resources they feed on, do they know?" 

Martinez was silent for a moment, then shook his head. Seeing this, Airon was satisfied with what had happened, then said, "Very well, you and your friends behind you should listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you next." 

Everyone nodded with a nervous expression. Sighing a little, Airon took a step forward and said, "I just want you to consider one thing and be clear about it. I let them live today so I won't have conflicts later with your people, I always give people two chances. If the Governor of your refuge or you decide to attack us, then me and my people will not mind killing you, eliminating the trash that you are." 

Martinez and the others finally saw the opportunity to leave this place, so they didn't care much about taking Airon's words seriously, Martinez even didn't notice that when they searched him a moment ago there was something in his pocket. 

"Thank you very much, like a good leader you made the right decision. We don't want unnecessary bloodshed either." Martinez said with an expression full of gratitude. 

"Very well, if you are going to leave, hurry up and don't waste my time anymore." 

After speaking, he watched as Airon signaled in the vicinity and everyone lowered their weapons as they retreated with Airon and the others.  

Martinez also retreated in front of them, until he retreated more than a dozen meters, then turned and went under the protection of the trees in the surrounding area. 

Ignoring the few people who left, Airon turned to look at Michonne, motioned for her to follow him, then began walking towards the base. 

During this time Airon had made plans to solve the governor's problem without having to spill so much blood, and this plan was now in motion. 

Michonne, who stayed behind, did not follow them. Instead, she decided to ask a question that many were asking, "Why didn't you kill them, are you afraid of them, letting them go is a stupid decision, it will get you in trouble later!" 

Airon smiled, he looked at Michonne and said, "At least I was able to trick you, I'm glad those people didn't discover this game. Do you really think that I let those people escape out of fear?

"Give me my gun and I'll go alone!" Michonne had no intention of following Airon's group, but she said as she looked at the sword behind Merle.

I understand what she wanted, Airon walked to Merle and took the sword from him, threw it to Michonne and then said, "I can't force you to follow us, but you will definitely understand my choices in depth if you do." 

When he finished saying those words, he turned around and continued on his way back to his people. Michonne was a strong woman, no matter if she decides to follow him or not, he can't force her considering the character and what is the way she thinks. 

At that moment, Rick looked at the hesitant Michonne, he hesitated and said, "I was a cop before the end of the world, I guarantee you Airon didn't just let them leave this place. He's a good person, he and his people risked their lives to save many survivors, not everyone understands what he does, but I can be sure he's never wrong." 

Michonne looked at the man in the sheriff's uniform in front of her. For some reason, she found that her subconscious did not reject the people in this outfit. Seeing this, Rick had no intention of persuading the other party any further, he turned away and followed his group. 

Michonne frowned and then looked at the group that was getting farther and farther away, thinking about what to do next.