Disclaimer: I owe neither Walking Dead or Harry Potter. Any characters or quotes that you recognize do not belong to me. I also make no promises of updates or to complete this story. I have, however, planned it to be a short story - maybe 5 chapters.
Chapter 1: The Meeting
In the ruckus and urgency of the situation, not one of the group noticed the watching eyes as Rick hacked Hershel's infected leg off.
"Holy shit," cursed one of the prisoners, arms coming up in surrender at the same speed as Daryl's crossbow came up in threat. For a second, there was silence - apart from Hershel's heaving breaths.
With luck, he might be saved. Without luck, well...that fate waits for us all. I was always a man to take my chances.
The rest of the group rush off to try to stabilize Hershel or kill him, if the case arise.
Arise, just like Lazarus. Well, not exactly. I think someone would have noticed and written down the dead walking and eating the living.
"There's no government, no hospital, no police," Rick informs the prisoners. "It's all gone."
The irony - a police officer still feels like he has to be in charge of the prisoners. Or is that a coincidence. Shit - English class never did me any good in high school. It damn isn't doing anything now.
The men in the group do not let the prisoners enter the cell block they've just cleaned out.
Who knows what type of men they are? And they don't know what type of men we've become. Only some of us were monsters before. The world has created monsters of us all if we want to survive.
I had to learn to survive from monsters long before the dead started walking.
"We were here first!" They were a raggedy bunch - a guard had locked them in the cafeteria for their protection and had never came back. That was ten months ago. The group met Tomas (the ring-leader that declared the prison theirs), Big Tiny, Andrew, Dexter, Axel, and a sixth member that certainly looked out of place ("He was in this place before I came. I don't know his name. He never talks. We call him Zeus - for his scar," Axel informs the group). Axel is certainly the most charismatic of the inmates.
I wonder how he got locked up. I wonder how useful he is to kill walkers.
The group and the inmates came to an alliance of sorts. They'd live separate but equal as soon as they cleaned out another cell block.
The stress was high as the truth set in. "He can't even walk," Maggie cries. "All we do is run." And who will be able to deliver Lori's baby comes up in conversation.
Why couldn't we run into a bunker of hiding doctors?
"Just remember to go for the brain," instructs Rick, right before leading the prisoners to a new cell block. Everyone could feel the crunch of time bearing down on them. "Stay in tight formation. No more prison riot crap."
Always the cop...
Big Tiny is the first to go down. Not quite dead yet, but infected.
The bigger they are the harder they fall?
Tomas takes care of the situation mid-debate with a crowbar. A few minutes later, Daryl has to save Rick's life from a walker that Tomas has shoved at him. When the horde is dealt with, "Shit happen," Tomas defends his actions as self-defense. Rick smiles and agrees. Rick's machete doesn't agree.
Not always the cop it seems. That's two of six prisoners down. Who are we cleaning out this cell block for? Will there be anybody left to live here by the time we finish?
The prisoner Andrew was not happy with Tomas' death. He is also no match for Rick's fighting experience and tries to flee. A baseball bat stops his escape and crushes his scull in one move.
That is a dead man that won't be walking again. Three prisoners down.
The mysterious "Zeus" wipes his bat on Andrew's shirt, cleaning the blood off.
Hot damn. And damn hot.
Regardless of the assistance just given, Zeus gets locked in the cell block with all the fresh corpses and the two other prisoners. "You just gonna leave us in here?" asks Oscar.
"Take it or leave it," Rick replies. "That was the deal."
The two prisoners bemoan their fate. The third and silent one sits near the bars of the cell block and stares into space. Daryl silently thanks him for his assistance with a nod of his head. No words are needed. For the first time, Zeus looks Daryl in the eyes. Daryl is taken back by how green and perfectly almond shaped his eyes are and how sincere just the action of a returned nod seems.
Just look but don't feel anything. Always just look never feel anything.
Hershel seems like he is going to recover from the trauma when they return to the block but Carol is still practicing should the worse happen. All things considered, when the heads hit the pillows that night, the group felt the safest it had felt since leaving the farm.
And if I dream of green eyes tonight...then a man cannot control his dreams.