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𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 

𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐖𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒

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"𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒," I murmured, fishing through my can of beans before passing it off to Daryl, "and you'd think we could've, I don't know, gone in the direction I wanted to go in by now."

"Rick's just wantin' to keep us together," he murmured between bites. He sat on the seat of his bike in the dirt path up to the house as we traded the can and a cigarette back and forth like they were our last salvations. In a sense, they kind of were. "You know how he feels about splittin' up right now."

"Not my fault we're the best shooters and his goddamn wife went and got pregnant," I muttered before saying through a sigh, "Sorry."

"You still got that fancy lace bullshit from the house?" he asked, motioning to my backpack.

"You mean the bra?" It was a pretty purple, not my color, but one I couldn't pass up on. I didn't have a lot of nice things, especially now, but something lace and pretty always could make my heart flutter like old times.

Daryl scowled and nodded.

"What about it? You tryin' to wear it for me, Dixon?"

His scowl worsened but when he spoke, his voice was light like a laugh trying to escape. "Give it to Lori, she can wear it for Rick."

"You're disgustin'." I traded the cigarette for the can and changed the subject. "We can't stay here long."

"I know."

"The place reeks."

"We cleared it quicker than the last."

The last had been at least twenty minutes of trying to get Beth and Nancy to shoot through a walker's eyes in the kitchen while Daryl and I fended off a pack of five, not a herd but might've well as been. A whole big family, trapped and dead inside their pretty ranch house. All peeling white paint and wooden panels broken and chipped on the floors.

We were house hopping, moving further and further through the east when we needed to start heading west. The West Georgia Correctional Facility was my beacon of hope and we hadn't gotten near it yet. I understood not veering off the path and sticking together but I needed to get away. If Daryl and I could slip off, for an hour or two, we'd find the prison and scope it out entirely. If we were lucky now, I'd say we circled the prison and could be on the backside or off just slightly on the east block.

How did I tell Rick I needed to leave? That I needed to see the prison myself and alone, to understand how John had gone here for a three month stint for a DUI and reckless endangerment of a minor? Conner stuck in the back seat of the swerving car when John struck a mailbox and nearly drove through the front window of the liquor store? Was this worse when I drove to the gas station for him? No, nothing could be worse than endangering Conner. It was the worst thing John could've ever done was hurt him, and he did it so much it seemed normal, like a habit. Familiar.

"We could say you needa go to the store again," offered Daryl, who'd become my confidant when Rick wasn't moody and Glenn and Beth weren't with Maggie. Carl couldn't talk to me like this, not yet, while he filed under Rick's wing. He was getting scarily good with his gun, a silencer. "Say Lori needs more pills."

"Vitamins," I corrected.

"Whatever."

I shook my head. "She's full for now, but we need a place with medical supplies. She'll give birth soon, it could be in the next few weeks or months."

"How can you tell?"

"The size of her belly."

Daryl nodded, humming through his cigarette. It always depended on who wanted it more that got to finish it, and today, I let him. "How old were you when your brother was born?"

"Fifteen, goin' on sixteen."

"So, you remember it all?"

I nodded.

"That means you can help her," he said with a shrug. "Better than Carol, I been seein' her try to get the right cut on a walker a few times. Practicin' a c-section."

"At least she's doin' somethin' about it," I said with a shrug that mirrored his. "I know how deep to cut but not where." Lori had an old scar that I could follow but without the proper medical supplies, she could hemorrhage and bleed out before ever getting the baby delivered in time.

"You gotta ask him again, Sam."

"I can't. He's been pissy."

"He's been an asshole since leavin' the farm."

I frowned. "Can't you cover for me? I can leave tonight, be back in the mornin' easily."

"He threw the kid's dog food out, he ain't gonna listen to me but he'll listen to ya."

A sour image of Rick snatching the dog food cans Carl had found out of his hands scratched my brain angrily. He tossed them into the fireplace, spewing artificial meat chunks against the brick.

"He won't listen to me," I said with a sigh, pushing away from the bike as movement caught my eyes in the trees. I nudged him and he stood, whistling to the others inside the house. "If he didn't listen when I said I wanted to go back for Andrea the first few weeks, he won't now 'bout the prison, either."

"He'll listen if you hit 'em first."

"Maybe," I said, "but it wouldn't be that fun watchin' him bleed all over the place. Be pathetic."

"Might be a little fun."

"Maybe," I laughed, swinging my ax back and striking the walker through the skull.

Seven months of being on the run, using my muscles over and over with more strength and precision. The winter created monsters out of us all. We were running back and forth between passing herds, marking them through my map and ignoring the little stars I'd drawn around the prison. We couldn't focus on that when we were avoiding the collision of two, possibly three, herds.

I crushed a walker's face inwards with the heel of my boot, the sound squelching and squishing. Brain matter, rotten and brown, oozed over my shoe as I destroyed the dead. Daryl had his bike running and the group was packing their cars. We'd collected a nice truck, more advanced than the old blue one we'd abandoned. I had hated that truck.

"Come on," he grunted, revving his engine and kicking off the dirt.

He gave me a slight running start to catch up but it was easy to swing my leg over the back and grab hold of his shoulders. We'd been playing around the past few months to see how easy it would be for me to jump on rather than for him to wait. Slightly more dangerous but it made the winter months more livable with the enjoyment of it all.

We drove until we were good enough away before stopping on the road. I had my map out before the others had even slowed their cars down, my eyes running along the lines and towns I'd crossed off and traced. If I was right, the prison would be closer than it had been a few days ago. I'd been tracking it the best I could through the places we'd stopped through.

"I'm gonna scout it out," I said, already pulling my ax from my waistband and hooking my backpack across my shoulders and clasping the strap against my chest into place. "Tell Rick not to fuck off towards Newnan again, herd'll cross us up there if we don't head west by now."

Daryl nodded, already heading to the group hovering around Maggie's car's hood with their bigger map. They were circling towns and drawing lines to where the herds would finally meet as I danced off into the woods for some much needed alone time. We'd be here for twenty minutes, maybe thirty, more and then head off to find the next house in hopes that it'll keep us safe for the next month until Lori's birth.

We were close to old train tracks and once I found them, I followed them through the woods and up to a small bank of grass. I could see more clearly around me as I headed down, spotting not a single walker on the trail.

It gave me time to think. Nancy hadn't said much through the winter, something I was grateful for, but unsure if it was because of Dale's death. The pair had become close, which I was still unsure how that could've happened when Dale was so optimistic and Nancy so...well...

We'd tried, together, to head back to the highway to look for Conner. We'd tried to trace her last few steps but we couldn't get back to Atlanta, not unless we wanted to come face to face with another mega-herd from the city. But there was still this awful nagging inside of me, screaming and biting, telling me I wasn't searching hard enough but how far could I go before I lost track of my group? Where would I go that Conner could be? We didn't know anything about his last whereabouts, not really. Nancy got lost, got separated, and they were just gone.

Didn't seem fair how Rick could find his family so easily but mine was still just out of reach.

I broke through into a small patch where there were no trees on either side of me, only a deep gully and muddy trench down below the tracks. I looked down at my map and traced the lines before marking a little star exactly what was in front of me. My heart skipped a giddy beat and I clasped my hands to my mouth to stop the squeal.

Yes, I almost squealed, sue me.

With my map in front of me, I could tell exactly where we were. This map had been old and the prison wasn't even marked on the one we'd been using by the cars. This...this had been one drawn up by some family before even Hershel. They'd been just a little off, but here it was.

The backside of the prison, lined with thick fences and a small pathway between two fences which I guessed was once used by guards making rounds and or/escorting prisoners or people from the different cell blocks. There were tall towers, meant for guards to watch over the premises, and they were lined by the main courtyard and between the fenced in walkway.

An excited feeling rushed through my body, my fingers and feet burning with the need to go inside and I didn't stop myself. I didn't even think before I took off through the grass and towards the large lake near where the main road met the gates in the rear. I slowed my run to look around more, noticing a few walkers roaming the grass outside the prison but none seemed to have gotten in between the two fences and the main yard.

From what I could tell through the yard, everyone either wore prison jumpsuits or guard uniforms. There weren't any civilians but that didn't mean there weren't any within the prison or from a fallen section of the perimeter.

The top of the fence was lined with thick barbed wire but I'd be damned if I let that stop me. I should just wait for Rick but my mind was racing with all that was inside the prison just waiting for me to take it.

I think that's what made me stop and turn back. It wasn't all mine to take, it was ours.

I found my way back through the woods and came out onto the road where the cars waited. People were waiting in and outside the vehicles and when I came up the side of the grass and back onto pavement, Rick jumped from his spot leaning against the car once he spotted me.

"You've been gone for nearly an hour!" he shouted.

"For good reason!" I said back in the same snippy tone as him. His eyes softened, like this was some game we used to play, and I waved my map through the air. "I found it."

"You found it?" There was realization dawning in his eyes as Daryl stood from his bike, nearly dropping the knife he was using to sharpen his arrows.

Daryl echoed Rick's words, approaching with more speed. "You found it?"

I waved the map again. "Yes!"

Daryl had his arms wrapped around me and was lifting me into the air before I could stop him. A laugh escaped him as he spun me around, my hands clutching his shoulders and back of his neck as I let the same laugh leave my own lips. Happiness felt strange to us but it was oh so welcomed.

When he lowered me to my feet, Rick was next and I had to let out a small breathless laugh, wiping tears from my eyes as I said, "Don't get too excited, we got a lot of work to do first." I smiled brightly. "Just wait 'till you see it."

It didn't take us long to get the cars pulled up near the lake, bypassing the gates in case more walkers were attracted there. There were more than just a few wandering the grass outside the fences. I took my sweet time picking them off, drawing them from the group and stabbing through the skulls with my long knife, which might've been Daryl's at one point but now we weren't so sure. We'd been sharing shit for so long now, it felt like it was all of mine even if it was still his.

Rick cut an opening in the fence, peeling back the gap so everyone could crawl through. He signaled for me and I pushed a walker against the fence, rattling and clinking, before shoving my knife under its chin and into its skull. I followed the rest of the group through the fencing before Rick and Glenn threaded thick wire through the links and closed the gap so nothing could wander or push in.

"We gotta circle around to the gates," I said, pointing to where the road met the metal gates to the prison yard. There was a large bus on its side by the entryway where prisoners and guards seemed to have tried to make a desperate escape.

Walkers in the yard came rushing towards the fence as we ran past. They pressed with bodies against the fencing, bending and moving the metal but not enough for it to collapse. There were more than I'd thought at first glance but not enough that I'd be too worried going in there alone. If I'd cleared the yard myself, I would've drenched my clothes in a walker's blood again, making sure I was completely invisible to their scent before striking. Yet, with a larger group, I didn't need to worry about that as much as before.

We could send people up the towers, along the fence, and draw walkers back until I got to the gates that would lead us into the courtyard and towards the cell blocks. I knew I'd be the one to run, I was the quickest and I was expendable.

Okay, not as expendable as I once thought, but it made sense, didn't it? Send Sam in, she can fight them off. Send Sam, she can get away.

One day you won't make it away.

I threw open the fence door, because it wasn't exactly a gate, whereas a door made of the same fencing material that lead to a small area which would've been designated for guards to check incoming vehicles and people coming into the prison. Mostly for transportations and food deliveries as we were stationed in the rear.

"Okay," I breathed, dropping my backpack on the ground and going to the gated door that would take me out into the yard, "let's think about this smart." I pulled my ax from where it had been secured behind my belt and pointed to the gate towards the courtyard with the blade. "We gotta shut that gate and once it's secured, we can knock off the walkers in here."

Rick nodded. "If we can prevent more swarming, we can pick off these walkers easily. We'll take the field by tonight."

"So, how do we shut the gate?" asked Hershel. He had a beard growing in and a thick mustache, all white and pretty even for how filthy he was.

"I'll do it," said Glenn, "and you guys cover me."

Maggie instantly began to shake her head. "No, it's a suicide run."

"And you're not that fast," I said and Glenn narrowed his eyes and bit back, "Okay, yeah, maybe, but I thought I'd offer so you wouldn't have to do it."

I smiled.

"You, Maggie, Nancy, T-Dog, and Beth draw as many as you can over there, all along the way we came," said Rick, pointing to Glenn. If they rattled and shouted at the fence hard and loud enough, the walkers would turn and go to them. "Pop 'em through the fence."

"Daryl, go back to the other tower," continued Rick, pointing behind him. "Carol, you've become a pretty good shot. Take your time. We don't have a lot of ammo to waste." He went to his son next. "Hershel, you and Carl take this tower. I'll run for the other tower inside the yard and Sam–"

I nodded. "I'll run for the gate."

There were walkers already pushing on the fence near us and I approached as Daryl got the chain with the two eye hooks attracted on each side for me. We had a few of these, which we found in an old storage locker near the beginning of winter. Thank god we kept them.

I struck my knife through the holes in the fence, using my ax to keep the walker's fingers from catching my sleeve. I stabbed a few more, watching them crumple and fold on each other in the grass. There was a familiar burning in my arms from the use of muscles over and over again, and I relished in it. I loved it. I could slash and stab all day with that exhausted feeling creeping up and I would finish knowing I'd succeed. The tiredness was a victory. I finished off the small pack of seven until Daryl handed me the hooks and murmured softly.

"You just love bein' the hero, don't you?"

"And don't pretend you don't think it's hot when I do."

He rolled his eyes in return but I caught the smile on his lips when he turned. Rick met me at the door as Lori waddled over, big belly swollen under her shirt.

"You know," I whispered, out of her ear shot, "you're gonna have to talk to her at some point."

"Not now, Sam," he muttered back.

I narrowed my eyes. "Ah, so you're gonna be an ass all the way up until the baby's born, huh?"

"What she did–"

"She's pregnant and sad," I snapped back. "Be a father and be a husband, you're all she's got besides Carl." And Carl would barely look at her. It seemed her indiscretion with Shane had left the Grimes family feeling sore towards its matriarch. I couldn't blame them. I'd be pissed too.

"You ready?" said Lori, gripping the sliding gate.

I nodded, ax in one hand and the hooks in the other. My knife secured in its sheath against my thigh and my gun strapped in its holster on my opposite hip. If I went down, I'd have two more weapons to use at my disposal.

Rick nodded a second later and Lori opened the gate. I let Rick take the lead with his gun raised as we circled the back of the bus. He rounded the side and I came out on his left flank, keeping the distance between me and the walkers before I had to make a run for it.

Rick fired his silencer, dropping a walker to the ground before running past. I glanced around, making sure the gravel path was clear before breaking out into a sprint. I raced past Rick and pulled the gate close before any walkers could turn their head in time. They were slow here, probably starving.

I kicked back one that tried to charge me through the opening as I shut it close, hooking the chain between the gate and the fence. It jostled when the walkers on the other side tried to grab at me through the small holes in the fence, but it stayed.

I could hear gun shots all around me as Rick made it to the tower, throwing a walker out and shooting it in the skull before racing up the stairs. I made out my targets easily and smiled, this was fun.

I raised my ax above my head with both hands, ready to bring it down on a walker's skull when an arrow shot through its left eye, dropping it to its knees and then chest. I let out a whine of protest and found Daryl in one of the towers. I flipped him off and went for another, shielding my eyes when the back of its skulls exploded.

I nearly wanted to stomp my feet and cry out. Where was my fun? Everyone got target practice and I hadn't made a single kill. It was the stagnant winter in me screaming to strike. We didn't need to be using all of our bullets. If they'd just let me and Rick out here for a few minutes, the walkers would've been taken out easily with just our hand held weapons. But no one ever seemed to listen when I'd scream don't waste our fucking bullets!

"Light it up!" shouted Daryl, drawing his finger in a circle above his head in the air.

I got my chance and swung my ax through the neck of a walker dressed like the rest. Dirty blue uniforms. His neck had been nearly bitten halfway through, his head lobbing to the side. My blade went through his flesh like warm butter and I stomped on his skull as I struck my knife, now gripped tightly in my left fist, under the chin of another.

Forcing that same walker backwards, using its dead weight as leverage, I shoved it forward and into three trying to charge me. If they'd been smarter creatures, they would have circled me. Going straight towards me was the easiest thing they could've done.

I stood on one of the walkers arms and slashed through its skull. Bringing down my ax, over and over, until all that was left was rotten mush. Black, brown, and oozing green. Nothing could even live through something like this. The level of decay was a reassurance that none of these monsters were who they had been once in their previous life. Nothing was left but old remains.

Walkers fell left and right and I was granted the last kill courtesy of Daryl and Rick cheering. I slammed the blade into the top of the walker's skull and used its shoulder to tear the weapon free, letting the once-man collapse onto his side.

I heard cheering and whoops, as well as an excited Carol exclaiming, "We haven't had this much space since we left the farm!"

As the others approached, I felt giddiness rise up inside of me. Through my throat and chest, a burning of complete pleasure and delight overtook me entirely. I'd waited so long for this place, it had become my lighthouse in the storm. There was this nauseating feeling for so long that we'd never find it, that it truly was some pipe dream, but then it had appeared like a beacon. Hope felt good.

I threw my arms in the air as Daryl approached and he lifted me with startling ease with one arm. He carried me a few steps with his own shaking joy, his fingers gripping the warm skin of my side as I wrapped an arm over his shoulders and pumped my other fist in the air. I could've kicked my feet and giggled, resorting straight back to childhood before the bad things happened.

Maybe this joy now was making up for all the horrible things that had happened before. At least, I could hope that it was.

───── ⋆⋆ ─────

𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐃 around a fire eating from cans of beans and what Daryl had caught while we drove our cars to the entrance. I picked through my bowl, carrying it across the field and back to where I'd been huddled before. Daryl had taken post on top of the fallen bus, giving him a good view of the yard and the field beyond the fences as Rick walked the perimeter. While I could be doing the same, I had a feeling I would need the rest for now.

"Help me up," I murmured, the lip of the bowl between my teeth. It was flimsy enough that I could bite it and keep it steady as I was hauled up by Daryl. I passed the bowl off to him. "You think things will ever go back to normal?"

"What you mean?" he asked, sucking the fat off one of the bones. I left that for him, I didn't like the way the gristle felt between my teeth.

"Still feels off," I said, sitting down with my legs hanging off the edge. My heels banged against the roof and the sound echoed. "Ever since we got off the farm, everyone's been weird."

He shrugged. "Probably still pissed Rick took the defensive."

"Glenn barely talks to me."

"Poor you."

"Glenn's my best friend! And he's still mad I took Rick's side."

Daryl frowned. "Best friend?"

"What?" I scoffed. "You thought I'd say you?"

"Shut the fuck up."

I smiled, leaning back against my palms. "Wanna know somethin'?"

"Do I got a choice?"

"Just say yes, asshole."

"Yes."

I looked out over the yard, watching how the fires little flames licked and danced in the air. "My dad was here for three months. I visited him once."

"You know the layout?"

"From the front, yeah, but the back? Not so much."

Daryl nodded, licking the grease from his thumb. "What he in for?"

His lack of grammar made me chuckle. "DUI."

"Three months?" I nodded. "He charged with somethin' else?"

"Reckless endangerment," I said, before murmuring, "of a minor." Daryl grunted. He knew little of my father but I knew we shared a similar upbringing. The scars on his back I'd seen for the first time when we'd fallen down that stupid hill at the farm and the few times I'd catch him changing. "He got out on good behavior, if you can believe that."

"I can't."

I remembered how life had been with him gone. We'd been happy, just the three of us without his abuse and cruel words. No one lurking at the bottom of the stairs, no one behind corners ready to drag you somewhere you never wanted to go.

"He could be gone for a whole year," said Conner, his feet dangling off the back porch. He was eleven and I was home for Conner's holiday break, off work for the first time in months. John had surprised us both with the car accident, resulting in him calling me home in a delighted voice from the hospital.

My heart had sunk so deep into my stomach I thought I was going to be sick once I got the call after my last final was done. He had three stitches under his chin but other than that, he was fine. John on the other hand...

"Maybe he'll get sent to solitary," he murmured with excitement again, "and–and he'll have to stay longer." Conner was obsessed with old prison and cop shows. "And we can stay together. Without John." Never dad. Always John.

"Maybe," I murmured, rubbing a small circle on his back. He'd been coughing a lot today, too much roughhousing on the playground is what Nancy told me but I knew better. John's lingering effects.

"It'll be just us," said Conner, for must've been the third time that evening. "You, me, and him..." There was never any mention of Nancy who sat crying in the TV room like John would magically reappear. I never realized then how those tears could've been from joy. Conner took my hand and squeezed it. "I can stay with you until..."

I tucked him under my arm, to keep him impossibly close, as I said, "We'll get you out of here for good, buddy. We're tryin'."

"You'll find 'em, you know," said Daryl, drawing me from my thoughts. I looked up, meeting his gaze with my raised brows, and he clarified. "Your brother's out there."

"I don't wanna have that kind of hope," I said back, thinking about how that kind of hope would eat me alive. If I believed I'd find him now, after all of this, I'd turn rotten to my core. My hope would eat and eat until there was nothing left. Hollowed out, empty, gone. "I just...I can't think 'bout him."

"That's how it is 'bout Merle," he told me. He never liked to talk about his brother but it was getting harder and harder to avoid it. Me and him...we were the same. Two brothers, lost, presumably dead, one half of the other's heart. "He's one tough son of a bitch, I ain't worried 'bout him out there but..."

"But the state he could be in is what worries you."

He nodded. "One hand's not gonna last 'em long out there."

"He's resourceful, I'm guessin'." I shifted, folding my leg under my other so only one would dangle. "What was he like, before all this?"

"An asshole."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah."

"You've gotta give me somethin' else."

"He joined the military," he said, slinging his crossbow over his back and tossing some of the bones from his bowl into the grass. "Got dishonorably discharged."

"Why?"

"Punched a sergeant."

"That...checks out." I patted the spot beside me and Daryl sat down. From across the yard, I could hear Beth singing softly. "Glad to know he was still a dick even before all of this shit."

Daryl shrugged, throwing another bone. "He'll always be one."

"It's a shame," I said with a sigh, "to see 'em so filled with hate."

"Shane was the same way."

"Yeah," I said with a little more fire than intended, "and I said what a goddamn shame, okay?" Daryl was laughing. "It's not fuckin' funny. What happened to him...it–it still hurts sometimes."

"Yeah, but you didn't love 'em."

"No...but he cared for me."

"Perversely."

I narrowed my eyes. "How do you even know that word?"

He rolled his eyes and from up ahead by the fire, Rick whistled for us to come over. Daryl stood and made his way off the bus before helping me down. It was easy to ignore the warmth in his palm against my back as he helped me, the warmth from him entirely. I was a liar. It coated me all over, like honey, like something rich and like something I had been feeling all winter.

"You tellin' them the plan?" I asked as we approached.

Rick nodded. "Tellin' them how we should all turn in for the night. Big day tomorrow."

I smiled. It was all finally coming together. "It's gonna suck in the moment but–but it'll all be worth it once we can get inside."

"What we did today...this was a great win," said Rick, "but we gotta push just a little bit more. Sam scouted this place, she knows what is inside waitin' for us. Most of these walkers...they're dressed as prisoners and guards."

"It means this place probably fell pretty early," I finished for him. "There's always the possibility of a breach somewhere we can't see, but from the yard and the courtyard..." I smiled.

"With it fallin' early, that means the supplies could still be intact."

"I'd say they are."

"That'd mean an infirmary," said Rick, going through the list I'd presented him when I first discussed finding the prison. "A commissary."

Daryl threw his chin up. "An armory?" Asking the smart questions.

"That would be outside the prison itself, but not too far away," explained Rick, which had been something I was unaware of when we'd sat down and thought it all through. "Warden's offices would have info on the location. Weapons, food, medicine. This place could be a goldmine."

"We're dangerously low on ammo," explained Hershel. "We'd run out before we made a dent."

Rick sighed, grimacing. "That's why we have to go in there. Hand-to-hand." All together, faces fell, but Rick rallied. "After all we've been through, we can handle it, I know it."

I nodded, folding my hands together. "We've been practicing all winter. I've shown you how to distract walkers, pull their focus, and strike without their arms and jaws tryin' to grab at you. We've been doin' this for, like, seven months. This prison," I waved an arm towards it, "is our sanctuary. If we can get inside, find the infirmary, find the cafeteria, and get keys to the armory...we'll have real food to eat and beds to sleep in."

Rick smiled back and his gaze went down to Carl as he murmured, "These assholes don't stand a chance."

He stood and only a few moments later did Lori, too, following him from the fire. I could only hope he listened to what I'd said earlier about somehow reconciling with her but knowing Rick, it would be much longer until then.

I looked around the faces by the fire and I smiled, not even close to calling it a night and curling up around Daryl's crossbow. "I know it'll seem hard, y'all, but trust me. We've gotten you to this point when we had nothin' and look at all this. Carol, you said so yourself. This is the most land we've had in months. We never thought we'd get a chance at all this again. But we're here and we're gonna be inside that place by tomorrow night."

"If you think it'll work..." murmured Glenn, nodding slowly, "...then so do I."

"It'll be hard," said Maggie, "but nothin' we haven't seen before, right?"

I nodded, feeling that giddy eagerness spear through me. "We'll move as a unit, get it done together. But for now? Let's finish off this food and get some sleep."

Watching everyone slowly gather themselves for bed, unrolling sleeping bags and laying rifles and pistols by their sides, I headed back towards the bus. I didn't like sleeping on the ground where something could get me, even if we were safe and had Rick watching the perimeter and T-Dog taking up a post near the guard towers. I wanted to be up high regardless of our safety precautions.

I climbed the bus where Daryl was waiting. He pulled me up the rest of the way and I took a lasting look over the yard. When we'd been running from place to place, I'd spent a lot of my time camped out with Daryl but that didn't stop me from sleeping in tents or cars with Beth and Carl. Yes, it was another excuse to avoid Nancy but I'd spent the winter mostly curled around each of the kids. Here, they could sleep out in the open and under the stars without me by their sides. They didn't need me to protect them here, not yet.

"Sleepin' bag or blanket?" asked Daryl, forcing me out of my head. He was good at that.

"Blanket," I said, holding my hand out. I laid my weapons out beside me and then wrapped the blanket over my shoulders. "Can we...?"

He didn't hesitate with his answer. "Yeah. Come 'ere."

It started on the road and I didn't think it would end anytime soon. No moves were made, just ones in sleep that we'd wake up to. Ones we began to like, ones we chose to do before closing our eyes.

He laid back on the sleeping bag, laying his arm out and open for me. I wasted no time coming up beside him, resting my head on his shoulder so his arm could come back around me. The nights when I'd wake from nightmares of Shane's face, biting and bloody, and Conner's with vacant eyes, Daryl's arms would find themselves around me. Or he'd find me sitting outside the cars waiting for morning, like he'd woken from a dream and knew he'd find me there.

We were constantly drawn back to the other, always aware of the other's presence and where they were next. The winter had been rough, but he'd been there.

"Tomorrow," I murmured against the scratchy fabric of his vest, "we'll figure out how to work the water in the prison."

"You sayin' I smell?"

"You reek, actually."

His chest rumbled. "You ain't so fresh, either, princess."

I hid my smile against him and his arm tightened around me, pressing me closer.

He'd been so gentle with me, the first time he'd wrapped himself around me. We'd decided to share the hallway by the front door in one of the homes we'd stayed in. The walls were peeling with yellow wallpaper, the ground was made of wooden planks, all splintering and chipping.

I remembered the dream I'd had that night, of Shane's awful face and the burning barn behind him. He'd been calling out to me with gruesome flesh between his teeth, his fingers covered in gore, his chest an open wound. I'd gone to him, frightened, and he reared back his head and opened his fractured jaw when I'd woken with a harsh start.

Daryl had been so kind. He'd been awake, taking watch, like always. I thought he'd ignore it, look the other way as I calmed my breathing to a lull and could sleep again but he'd moved. He didn't speak a word until he was lying behind me on my sleeping pad, curling himself around me. His arm had gone to my waist, pulling me back against him like something solid, like something I'd needed for so long. Just a little contact. Just something to help me breathe.

When I'd woken the next morning, he had left but I didn't care because the next few months after he slowly began to stay longer until he was there when I woke. Each time, just a little longer. It made me wonder, if we were building up to something else, something bigger. There would come a time when he wouldn't leave again, but there was a pull in my gut telling me that wouldn't be the case.

Nothing ever truly lasts in this new world. Not like we think it should.

───── ⋆⋆ ─────

𝐈 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐋 just as the sun began its slow crest over the earth and to the trees. Dawn was here, peeking her glorious head over the skies and our new home. The prison, my personal hell and heaven. Seeing it now, looming over our heads as I raised my own, it was like an ominous entity waiting for us to walk into its bleeding mouth.

Home was always a cemetery, a grave, a beacon.

Daryl's hand moved over the exposed skin on my back, warm and gliding. "What you lookin' at?" he said in a low grumble, his voice groggy with sleep. He was squinting, draping his free arm over his eyes. "They all awake?"

I shook my head, looking down at the peaceful group curled up together by the dead fire. Rick, though, was pacing along the fence across the yard. It made me wonder how long he got sleep for once Daryl and I took watch around what seemed like midnight. We'd been up, two hours, three, before Rick was back and walking. He couldn't stand it, being still for long.

I couldn't stand it either.

I didn't like feeling trapped, this was known, but looking out across the field I didn't think you could feel trapped here. There was so much space and I knew, once we got inside, there would be plenty more. The thought of a bed and four walls nearly made me shiver.

"Sleep a li'l longer, will ya?" muttered Daryl, tugging the end of my shirt.

"Can't," I responded, already grabbing my weapons and hooking my holster through my belt loops. "You know me, always gotta be ready for somethin' and–"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He was already rolling over onto his side.

I swung my legs over the side and hopped down, taking the chance to stretch my limbs properly once in the grass. I moved my hips from side to side before reaching down to touch my toes. I repeated this until I moved on to stretch my hips and quads against the ground. When I was done, I headed across the yard as Rick made his way against the fencing near the gate we'd have to open to get inside.

It was daunting, how close we were to so many walkers and how many of them we still had to kill. We didn't know how many were inside the buildings themselves and if there were any viable cell blocks leftover, but considering the clothing the walkers had been wearing inside the field, I had hope.

Hope, it seemed, was constantly biting and nipping at my heels.

I fell into step with Rick before he slowed entirely, his back to me as he stared out into the courtyard. I could see the tension in his shoulders, noticeably from a lack of sleep and stress. I knew we could take the prison but I worried about how strong we'd be going in. Too many of us were liabilities.

"You sleep well?" he asked over a few seconds of silence between us. When I nodded, with him catching it out of the corner of his eye, he muttered, "He help?"

"Jealousy doesn't look good on you, Rick," I murmured, moving to stand shoulder to shoulder. The walkers on the opposite side of the fence weren't bothered by us.

"I..." He made another sound, as if to say what we'd both been thinking since our first day off the farm, but he thought against it and said, instead, "We gotta go in back to back."

"I agree," I said, motioning with my hand towards were a small pack of walkers lingered and grew in size every so often. Here, I could see exactly what the walkers wore and looked like, an issue strangling me deep within my throat. "We need to close whatever gate is open near there."

"Seems like a breach."

"A wall could be down on the other side, somewhere in the foundation."

"How can you be so sure?" His brows furrowed and he didn't need me to answer before muttering, "Civilians."

I nodded. "They're wearin' normal clothes. Not all o' them are in that prison crap."

He rubbed his jaw where the scruff had grown all winter. "I'm not sure we can rebuild a fallen wall in the state we're in."

"Not sayin' we gotta," I explained with a sigh. "Just gotta block it off somehow if we ever expand." I glanced towards the swaying walkers nearly hidden fully from view behind some of the walls and gates. Some were wearing long dresses, others things as normal as jeans and khakis. "There's a town nearby, right?"

Rick patted the side of his jacket until he found what he was looking for, pulling out the map I'd been so attached to. He unfolded it and we took a moment to follow the old scribbled lines and words I'd jotted down to keep track of where we'd been and how far we'd need to go.

"There should be," he muttered, searching alongside me. "Here."

"Those walkers could've come from there," I said, brows furrowing. "I know you ain't gonna like this but...but once we get situated here, I think you should let me go on a run here. See if it's overrun. If it is, let me clear it. We don't want walkers comin' from all over right here, we'd be caged in if we came across another herd."

"Sam..."

I scowled. "Don't say it again." He'd been saying the same thing all winter. Sam we can't–

"–risk losin' you."

"Just 'cause you're scared doesn't mean the others are too," I said as he folded the map slowly, as if he needed something to busy himself with. "Once we're settled, I need to go. I need to explore, scout out the neighboring places because we can't have another Randall incident. We can't have that kind of threat loomin' over us in a place like this."

"In a place like this?"

I nodded. "It's big. It's got medicine, food, weapons, beds, security..." I sighed. "If I were someone else, Rick, I'd want to take this place for myself and for my people."

He was silent as people began to rise from slumber behind us. He lowered his voice, like he wanted us to be alone again and said, "First we clear it and then..." He looked up from the grass and met my gaze, a gaze that always seemed to hold more than it should've. "...then we can send scouting trips."

We didn't discuss it more as the group woke up and gathered themselves. With a small breakfast in our bellies, we prepared to go inside by the gate. I stood in front of Maggie, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl as Rick scouted once more down the fence with the others so they could shake and scream to attract walkers their way.

"Listen closely," I said, not speaking to Daryl but more so the others. I held my ax up for them to see. "Strike quick and pull back quicker. You'll be back-to-back. If one of you steps forward, you gotta step back into line or we all gotta follow you. We stay tight and we call our names to signal when a walker is coming someone's way."

"Sam will be leading us," said Rick, handing me an eye hook. "She'll be our scout as she heads towards the open gate we gotta close."

"Have each other's backs in there y'all," I said, keeping the hook clipped to my holster belt. "There's a few in there with helmets on and masks. Go under and up," I demonstrated with the hilt of my knife on Rick, "through the neck and chin to reach the brain, like this." I tapped the side of his head gently with the hilt. "Your weapons won't go through metal and plastic like you think they will. Push the walkers back until you can get in there."

"Ready?" asked Hershel who was preparing to pull the gate open and close it for us once we were inside. We would be trapped with them.

"Stay close," I barked as the gate opened and I swung my ax through the neck of the first walker lingering right in our way. I didn't even need to look before snapping, "T, you!"

He stepped forward from behind me and slammed the end of his crow bar deep within an incoming walker's eye. I heard Rick say Daryl's name as I moved forward, side stepping a walker and taking out its ankle with my foot, sending it to the ground for Glenn, a few paces off my left, to take the kill.

It wasn't difficult to get further into the courtyard, the group huddled close behind me as I drove further and further in. I needed to get to the gate and from what I could tell behind a corner, there were plenty more walkers than we had anticipated. The breach, or whatever it truly was, must've been far bigger than what we'd noticed just by the trickle of walkers coming and going in civilian clothing.

I heard Rick shout at T-Dog and the sound of what must've been one of the plastic shields slamming into a walker's body from behind. I took a quick glance before pushing myself against the wall. The walkers behind the corner were all that was left and I motioned with my hand from Rick to bring everyone closer.

There were two walkers in riot gear coming out from behind a dumpster, one civilian, and the entire body of walkers behind the fence and gate I still needed to close.

"Remember," I whispered as Daryl held up his crossbow to take aim as two more walkers in riot gear, with helmets and padded armor, came wandering around the side of our corner, "up and under the helmets."

I slid my ax into my waistband and went forward, drawing one of the armored walkers away from the other as it neared the group. I was able to do what I'd done before, trip the walker and force it to its side on the ground where I was able to come at it from above. I pushed the helmet back as Rick's group moved, slamming my knife under its jaw and into its skull. I watched Maggie do the same, shoving the helmet back and using her machete to slam the blade home into the brain and bone.

While the group handled those walkers, I got the hook off my belt and went for the gate. I kicked back a walker trying to escape through the gate and got it pulled shut before anymore could slip past. Watching my fingers and hands through the metal fencing, I got the eye hook attached to either side, keeping the gate firmly closed. Behind me, I felt the presence of a walker but it was gone in seconds.

When I turned, I tore the arrow from the walker's eye and stabbed my knife through the chest of another, forcing it back and towards one in riot gear as Maggie fought off one in a gas mask that had stumbled out of one of the doors leading inside.

Both walkers fell to the ground where Rick stabbed one through the back of the head as I did the same to the last. When the final walker was killed and the blood across our clothes had finally begun to seep against our skin, we took a collective breath and looked around.

The walkers against the fence and gate behind us roared and shook the metal. I motioned with my knife, not as breathless as the others as I said, "We need to kill 'em through the fencing here. Minimize their size in case this fails on us."

"After," said Rick, motioning to the red metal door where the gas-masked walker had come from. "We gotta go in."

"Why? It looks secure out here," said Glenn.

Daryl pointed back to the mass of walkers being held back. "Not from the look of that courtyard over there." He pointed to another walker and said what Rick and I already knew. "And that's a civilian."

T-Dog rested an arm against the brick wall near the door, sighing, "So the interior could be overrun with walkers from outside the prison."

I cleaned my knife against one of the walker's dresses, smiling as I stood. "Only one way to find out, right? Not like we can rebuild what walls are down, but if we find which cell blocks have breaches and lock the doors, we can be safe."

Rick nodded. "We can't risk a blind spot. Sam's right, we have to push in, see what we can manage."

This time, I let Rick lead the way. We headed across our cleared out courtyard and opened a door that led into a box staircase surrounded by more linked fencing. It was rusted and brown and the door creaked when opened. It led us up one flight and to another red metal door where Rick looked at me, seemed as if he would let me take the lead, but slid open the door himself and led himself, then me, into the darkness.

The next door, only a few feet inside, was a bar gate, like the ones on prison cells. Rick opened this one too and I slid in beside him into the open room. There were no cells in this room but a large viewing area above us with four glass windows to overlook the room. Not exactly a panopticon but the halfway point between, as it sat near the wall, with one window pane looking down into the stairs that would take you to the door to get in. Inside the glass viewing room, there was blood splattered against the window. Rick motioned for Daryl to look into the next room which would lead us to the cell block as he went up the stairs one by one.

Daryl tried the next barred door, finding it locked, as Rick confronted whatever was waiting for him inside the watchtower. We heard no sudden movements of walkers or from Rick before he was headed back down the stairs with a set of keys in his hands.

He went to the cell block doors, barred like so many of the ones we'd come in through and seen, and got it unlocked. He held the door open and let me go inside first, finally allowing me to lead the pack like I had so wanted in the other rooms we had explored. I waited a moment to hear any movement from the cells or further in and when I didn't, I officially walked into Cell Block C. It had two main floors, the one I was walking into now and another where you had to take a flight of metal stairs up to a second floor.

Debris littered the floors. Old bed sheets, garbage, papers, and ruined blankets and pillows. There was a walker in the first cell I passed and I let Maggie enter it to quickly make sure it was fully dead with a stab to the head. Up on the second floor, I could hear moaning but it was contained. It didn't make me worried. Inside two cells, side by side, were walkers who had died during the beginnings of the outbreak. I could tell only by how decomposed they had become. Their arms and fingers reached through the thick bars, trying to grab at Daryl and Rick as I watched from the staircase. They didn't need me for that.

T-Dog began dragging the bodies out as Daryl dropped the walkers from inside the cells over the railing. They hit the ground with large thuds as Maggie and Glenn went to get everyone from outside. It would take us a while to move the bodies out and fully clear the courtyard, but for now it felt safe. We had bars and locks on the doors that lead to other cell blocks and the hallways, and we had cell doors we could lock. They were our own personal bedrooms. We wouldn't have the privacy we were granted at the farm, which had been a luxury we overlooked, but this place could keep us safe.

It gave us beds. It gave us a place to call home.

"What do you think?" Rick asked as Glenn led the group inside with sleeping bags under arms and bags over shoulders.

"Home sweet home," muttered Glenn, claiming a cell for him and Maggie.

Rick nodded, coming to stand by me on the stairs. "For the time being."

Lori looked around, gazing up to the second floor. "And it's secure?"

"This cell block is," said Rick. He had left me to walk to his wife, who's eyes finally found him with an emotion I could not read. A bad part of me hoped they never reconciled but another hoped for it. No one needed animosity, especially not now.

You're a liar, Sam. You were built and bred off opposition and hostility.

"What about the rest of the prison?" asked Hershel.

Rick shifted. "In the morning, we'll find the cafeteria and infirmary."

Carol's lip curled up when Beth asked, "We sleep in the cells?"

He ignored her comment because the answer was obvious. "I found keys on some guards. Daryl has a set, too," Rick turned away from Hershel after handing him a pair, and found me as I descended the stairs finally, "and so does Sam." He tossed them at me and I caught them with one hand, barely moving from my spot. I was wondering when he would finally give me them.

"I ain't sleepin' in no cage," muttered Daryl as he claimed the landing spot on the stairs, "I'll take the perch." He glanced at me and I couldn't help but nod. I didn't want to sleep in a cage but if I had to, I knew I could.

But that wouldn't be who I was, fundamentally. I needed freedom. I couldn't be trapped. So, yeah, maybe that's why I agreed on the perch with Daryl a little too quickly. It was definitely the only reason.

After I'd gotten my things, I noticed Hershel and Beth had claimed a cell, Lori and Carol upstairs with Nancy in the room beside them with a bed waiting for me that I would never claim, and T-Dog, Carl, and Rick all with their own cells. Rick, for the time being, took a spot on the floor against the wall to look at the cells and to keep an eye on the door.

I set my bag against the wall besides Daryl's things and slept better than I had all winter. When morning came and everyone came creeping from the chosen spots, I decided it was time to finally head down to loot the bodies. The prisoners didn't have anything but the guards we'd killed? I couldn't hold back my smile as Rick got up from his spot to follow me. Even Daryl followed with T-Dog in tow.

"Why're you smilin' like that?" asked T-Dog as I made my way back through the hall to get outside. "You're creeping me out."

"This is like Christmas," I said, throwing open the door to the courtyard, the metal clanging.

"You're a freak, you know that?" came Glenn's voice as he trailed after us. "How the hell is this–" He gestured to the bodies. "–like presents and hot cocoa to you?"

"Because," I drawled, grabbing hold of one of the guard's shoulders and throwing him onto his back, "look at all this."

Glenn peered over my shoulder as I bent down. "You think they all got this on them?"

Rick and Daryl were already dragging the others onto their backs to grab whatever weapons they could find. In the end, we had a sizeale pile of goods and we hadn't even found the armory. We put everything we'd found on one of the tables in the common space we'd found the keys in.

"Not bad," said Daryl, holding a flashlight.

Rick nodded, naming off the items we'd now secured for ourselves. "Flashbangs. CS Triple-Chasers...not sure how they'd work on walkers but we'll take 'em."

Daryl made a show of holding up a helmet we'd taken from one of the guards, the face shield still intact but as he turned it over, slop and mush fell from inside. "I ain't wearin' this shit." He looked at me and raised a brow, "Are you?"

T-Dog answered before I could laugh, "We could boil 'em." More sludge leaked from a glove he held up.

"Ain't enough firewood in the whole forest," muttered Daryl. "No. Besides, we made it this far without 'em, right?" He practiced a baseball swing with a club.

From the door leading to the cells, Carol spoke softly, "Hershel. Sam." I knew what she was calling us over for and it made something sick unfurl around my spine and stomach.

Rick caught on and asked, "Everythin' all right?"

"Yeah," said Carol with an inconspicuous smile. "Nothing to worry about."

I followed Hershel towards the door and patted Rick on the back as I left. Lori had kept herself pretty scarce this morning, barely leaving her bed when we'd had breakfast and showed Carl the batons we'd found.

When Hershel took a seat beside her and I leaned against the wall in front of her, I understood why.

"It's the baby," she whispered to us. "I think I lost it."

Hershel began with an obvious question, "You haven't felt it move?"

Lori shook her head. "Nothing. And no Braxton-Hicks. At first...I thought it was exhaustion or malnutrition."

"You're anemic?"

She nodded but her shoulders slumped and she let out a sigh. "If we're all infected, then so's the baby." She was now telling us a horrifying fact we'd all looked over once Rick confessed so long ago. "So...what if it's stillborn? What if it's dead inside me right now?"

"Lori," I sighed, moving so I could drop to a knee in front of her. I wasn't her biggest fan of how she'd handled things with Shane, but he was a monster and she was easy to manipulate when it came to him. "You're going to make yourself sick with worry."

"What if it rips me apart?" she urged me.

"Stop," said Hershel. "Don't let your fear take control of you."

I nodded, forcing her to take my hand and squeeze it rather than her leg. She had been white-knuckling her thigh and knee moments before. "It's completely understandable to worry 'bout things like this but you're as healthy as you can be right now. You gotta stay hopeful, for the kid's sake."

Lori nodded but her face was still pale from her anxieties. "Then let's say it lives and I die during childbirth."

"That's not going to happen," urged Hershel but Lori shook her head and she said, "Why not? How many women died in childbirth before modern medicine?"

I answered quickly, "Not as many as you'd think, considerin' the time. In the 19th century, it was one in every one hundred or two hundred women, mostly caused by dehydration, hemorrhaging, exhaustion, or, hell, infection. But you want to know why it seems like so many? It's because most of those women were poppin' out five to eight kids and you've had one. This is your second kid, this isn't your eighth."

Lori's eyes softened and she squeezed my hand. "But...if I come back, what if I attack it? Or you two? Or Rick? Or...Carl? If I do, if there's any chance, you put me down immediately. You don't hesitate. Me, the baby, if–if we're walkers," she choked back a sob, "you don't hesitate and you don't try to save us. Okay?"

Hershel stared at her a long time before he barely nodded his head. Lori's eyes went to mine and I nodded back. Once I knew she was dead, if the time came to it, I wouldn't hesitate to slide my blade through her temple.

She sniffled deeply. "It would've been better if I'd..."

"If what?" asked Hershel, his tone harsh.

Lori shook her head. "If I'd never made it off the farm."

Hershel shook his head. "You're exhausted, frightened–"

"Yeah, that's true," she murmured. "But my son can't stand me and my husband, after what I put him through..." Her infidelities with Shane had not gone unnoticed by the group and Hershel sighed.

"We've all been carryin' that weight," he said. "All winter."

"I tried to talk to him," she cried, softly. "He..."

"He'll come around."

I nodded. "If he needs an extra push, Lori, I'll push him towards you until you two can have a real conversation. We're finally in a safe place, all the stress he'd been under tryin' to find us a sanctuary has been lifted from his shoulders. He'll be in a better place to talk now."

"He hates me," she continued. "He's too good a man to say it, but I know. I...I put him and Shane at odds. I put that knife into his hand."

"You know who doesn't give a shit about all that?" said Hershel and I chuckled at his profanity. "This baby. Now, let's make sure everything's all right." He placed his hand against her stomach and pressed gently to her sides.

I moved to sit on her other side so Hershel could kneel in front of her. I kept her hand in mine and gave it another squeeze. "You know, you can't blame yourself for what Shane did. We all saw what he was like towards the end."

"But I was what set them off," she whispered. "I thought my husband was dead and then...then he wasn't."

"Shane would have always tried to go after Rick, even if you hadn't done what you did together." I used my free hand to press into her side, feeling along her belly. I knew a way to make a baby move and I gave her a smile before gently moving her bump. "What happened between them had been buildin' up way longer than we'd all thought. They would've gone for each other's throats even if you weren't involved at all." I moved her belly again and Lori made a gasp. "See?"

She pressed her hand to her stomach and Hershel laughed softly.

"Sometimes, babies just need a little reminder that you're there," I said, dropping my hands from hers and her stomach. "Maybe she'll be the quiet type, if she likes to be this silent here."

"She?"

I nodded, a smile I hadn't realized came to my face brightened more. "Yeah, I'm placin' my bets on it bein' a girl."

───── ⋆⋆ ─────

𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐒 of the chest protector against T-Dog's back as I picked up one of the helmets we'd cleaned and handed it to Carl. He made a face, probably because it smelled, but put it on his head anyway. It sagged forward, far too big for him, and I pushed it back until he could see me through the mask.

"You won't need that," said Rick, holding his hand out for the helmet. "I need you to stay put."

Carl's smile dropped instantly from his face. "You're kidding."

Rick sighed. "We don't know what's in there. Something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing. I need you to handle things here."

Carl, realization dawned on him that he could be the man in charge if something awful happened, straightened back his shoulders and nodded. "Sure."

"That means," I said, with a smile, "you get my keys for the time being." I handed them over and they rattled in his hands. He'd grown a lot on the road, his hair shaggier and longer in the back. He was getting older and it squeezed my heart, knowing he'd be taller than me one day.

"Great," said Rick, glancing back at the group that was ready to head out. Glenn, Hershel, Maggie and T-Dog all wore the protective gear. "Let's go."

Carl shut the door behind us, locking it and we ventured into the common space. We were leaving behind Lori, Carol, Nancy, Carl, and Beth, and that didn't make me feel good. Carol was our best fighter if things came down to it, but Lori was a liability and so were Carl and Beth. Nancy could do what was needed but I had a sinking feeling she'd run and leave the kids at her first chance. But hey, maybe she'd changed since being on the road.

I fixed my nearly empty backpack over my shoulders as we made it to the door that would lead us into the darkened hallway. I had some extra ammo, a few clean shirts, and a granola bar at the ready. I had a plan of what I'd bring back with me once we found the infirmary. We had a lot still leftover from the farm and what I'd gotten from the school, but we needed more gauze and a hell of a lot of painkillers and sterilizers for Lori.

Rick and I took the lead down the hallway with Daryl and T-Dog taking the rear. We sandwiched Glenn, Maggie, and Hershel in the middle. With a flashlight in hand, Rick took us slowly around a corner. Everything was dark and looked the same here. All white and gray and dirty.

As we got deeper down the hall, it's when the bodies began to appear. Not ones that were walking but ones on the floor, half eaten and decaying. I took note of a few, some so rotten and dead they were nearly skeletons. Had they been burned?

The bodies didn't seem right.

We were entering what seemed to be another Cell Block, cells lining either side of us. I made another mental note of how some of these corpses looked bloodier than others. The red and brown mess around them looked nearly wet as our flashlights went over them. I surveyed the hall as the others looked around briefly. The walkers here weren't okay. They'd been fed on recently.

"Fresh," I muttered, pointing to one of the bodies as Daryl fell into step beside me. "Look."

He nodded, silent. We didn't need to speak much to understand.

From behind me, Glenn drew an arrow pointing back the way we came with a spray can.

Maggie yelped when she turned into Glenn and suddenly, it was like our breathing was amplified. Glenn drew another arrow as we rounded another corner, and it felt like we were going in a big square. The prison was huge, there was no way we'd clear it all tonight nor would we be able to enter the parts that had been exposed.

We made it down the next hall and stopped at the corner as Rick prepared to look either way. We were at a fork in our road. A walker lay dead in front of us, its legs cut off or perhaps chewed from the knee and below. We took a right and I held up my hand to cut Glenn off from spraying. I could hear something, not far off. At first, it was a thud but I could hear them if I strained my ears.

I pulled on Rick's elbow and he froze.

"Turn back," I hissed, hearing the shuffling. "I'll see how many."

I didn't need to turn the corner to know there were at least five to six. Instantly, the group was in a panic. Rick snapped first.

"Go back! Move, move!"

Hershel stumbled and Maggie grabbed him, propelling him forward with T-Dog. We raced down the hallway but the walkers were coming from very angle, forcing us deeper. I heard Glenn shout and I caught a glimpse of him and Maggie throwing open a door and running inside as the walkers tried to clamor in behind them. Their bodies made loud bangs as they rammed themselves against the door.

We ended up crouched down and out of sight of the walkers on the other side of the wall. We couldn't hide in the cells for long but everything had gone to shit. It felt like we'd gotten turned around with all the hallways and corners to go around.

"Where are Glenn and Maggie?" asked Rick.

"We have to go back," hissed Hershel.

"But which way?"

We slowly stood, walkers moving in the opposite direction of us through the bars in the door. Rick motioned, deciding we would find a way back the way we came. Rick took the lead and I covered the rear, walking nearly sideways to try to cover both my front and back down the hallway. Hershel called out Glenn and Maggie's names softly as we passed a fork in the hallway.

Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog kept going forward when Hershel stopped. I paused beside him and he pointed back the way we came as a door shut not far behind us.

"Daddy?" came Maggie's whisper echoing down the hall.

Hershel let me go first, taking the lead back and stepping around a walker on the ground. I kept myself on the opposite side, clear of debris and was about to round the corner when I heard the old man yell. It wasn't the kind of yell that meant he'd stumbled or been frightened, but of true guttural pain.

I didn't hesitate to turn and slam my ax into the head of the walker against the wall that now had fresh blood around his lips and jaw, flesh hanging between its teeth. The walker had appeared dead before, probably emaciated and in a slumber until the next thing with a heart beat finally came by.

"No!" cried Rick, already rounding back for us as Hershel lay crippled on the ground.

Maggie was crying out for her father the way Hershel had tried to go, people were moving around too quickly, so I snapped out a command. "Rick, Glenn, grab him now. Maggie, turn around!" Walkers were coming from the way we'd come and where Rick had just been, we had to go down the fork in the hall. We would be going deeper int the prison rather than back towards our cell block. "Daryl, you're in front with me, and T-Dog, watch our backs. Fuckin' move!"

There was a door ahead of us, closed with a pair of handcuffs. I slammed my ax into them and threw the doors open as the herd closed in behind us.

"T, Daryl, the door!" I cried as we got everyone inside. T-Dog ran to slam the doors shut, barricading them closed as Rick and Glenn laid Hershel on the ground. "Who's got the cleanest knife?! Somebody, hurry!"

I was grabbing at Rick's belt, he was the first man in front of me. I got it unbuckled and pulled out from his loops far quicker than I'd like to admit. I dropped to my knees as Hershel whimpered and cried. I used the belt as a tourniquet, the best I could do for the time being, below his knee and just below the start of his calf. The bite had gotten him around the fatty part of his calf, right above his ankle. If we moved fast enough, the infection wouldn't have gotten far in his system.

Beside me, Rick grabbed his ax. It was the only weapon, besides my own, that could do the trick. "Rick, the ax, now!" I snapped, holding down Hershel's leg at his knee. Maggie held his head in her lap, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sniffled and sobbed. "You know this is the only way, now come on, dammit! Rick, the ax!"

He pulled it free from his things. It was still shiny and new. We'd deal with infection later, once I found the infirmary, but Rick raised the ax and brought it down into Hershel's flesh and bone. It cracked and crunched under the blade, squelching with blood so red it looked like corn syrup and red food dye. It looked like liquid jello, so bright and warm, right before you'd put it in the fridge to solidify.

Rick's ax finally hit the floor and I yanked open my backpack. There goes my clean new shirts. I wrapped them around Hershel's stump, his blood seeping through and onto my hands. I could feel his heartbeat, even in the wound, drumming into my palm.

"Duck," whispered Daryl and I had to ignore whatever he saw behind me as I worked the wound with Rick. I could hear muttering and I glanced behind me, fear finding its way to my center.

One of the prisoners on the other side of the grate, separating us from them in the cafeteria and kitchen, spoke only two words, but I knew we were screwed. He didn't have to say much for me to be worried, but it sent a new panic through me.

"Holy shit."

There goes all the joy I had at finding the prison. This world had a way of sucking out the hope before you could fully bask in it. It tore down every ounce of joy. If you were happy, even for a second, then the chance of something worse happening was more likely to occur. My joy at securing the prison, at finally finding what I'd been so hopeful for, had easily been flipped into a nightmare.

This world was built on nightmares, not hope and childish optimism.

AUTHOR'S NOTE━━ummm heyyyy long time no see 

my netflix subscription changed so i had no way of accessing the walking dead!! but im back for now thank goddd!! let me know what y'all thought about this one.....it felt super rushed and i might go back and make some edits but i wanted to get this out there for yall!!

pls pls pls vote/comment <33