OK, I promised two chapters, but only got one done, please done kill me! This chapter is nearly 3,000 words so I hope it holds you over. Review me to let me know what you think! I would like to thank my readers, followers, and especially those who have taken the time to review my work thus far. It really means a lot for a newbie and I've found that the reviews have surprisingly made my day a happy one! :)

"Man, anybody else notice how sassy Carol's been getting' lately?" Shane asked loudly and obnoxiously to anyone who would listen. T-Dog was the only one who made any kind of laugh, while everyone else was completely engulfed in the search to clear out the remaining side of the prison and to eliminate any remaining threat.

"Man shut the hell up and keep ya mind off of her," Daryl snarled to Shane. Daryl had a hard enough time keeping Carol off his mind, but having Shane openly speak about his attraction towards Carol made his blood begin to boil. He got it, Shane was male and Carol, female. She was beautiful inside and out but Daryl was not going to stand here and have Shane talk about Carol however he liked.

"What's your problem there Dixon—" Shane started to retort back but cut off by Rick.

"Hey! Cut it out, let's just clear this cell block then get back with food and supplies," Rick impatiently said trying to keep quite. Maggie shot an annoyed look at Shane while T-Dog kept quite in the back of the pack along with a now annoyed Shane. Glen was walking ahead with Rick, periodically drawing arrows on the cell walls so that everyone knew which direction they were headed in. Daryl's irritation with Shane got abruptly caught off when a pack of walkers greeted them around the corner.

"Get back!" Rick bellowed to the group. They all tried to keep in formation as they followed the arrows which led them to the safer and already cleared out part of the prison. However, when they rounded the corner, more zombies were there to greet them. Daryl took down the closest one to them, unfortunately having to sacrifice his arrow. Turning over his shoulder he saw T-Dog breaking chains on a door and bursting through it. They all piled in and made sure to secure the door, everyone was panting, frantic, checking themselves and each other to make sure that nobody got hurt during their escape.

"Holy shit…more survivors?" A scrawny man with a thick crow bar mustache said behind a gate that separated his group from four other men. Daryl was the first to react, pointing his crossbow at the inmates while the rest of the group stood in formation ready to meet the new comers.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl gruffly asked, noticing a Spanish man walk forward with a small revolver in hand. These men didn't appear to look like a complete threat but looks can be deceiving; Daryl was keeping his eye on the only man with the only real potentially harmful weapon at hand. The largest member of the group of inmates spoke first.

"Whoa man, we ain't looking for any trouble," he said while glancing a nervous eye at Daryl's raised crossbow to Rick's hand resting on his python. "My name is Big Tiny, this Oscar, Thomas, Axel, and Andrew. We been locked up in here since guards of the prison shoved us in here and locked us in... It's just been us, we don't know what's goin' on. But we been living off of food that we have stored— "

"Man shut up!" Thomas suddenly exclaimed. "We don't know nohin' bout these people."

"Yeah, don't look like no rescue team," Who Daryl believed was Axel, said.

"If a rescue team is what you're looking for, then don't", Rick said.

"You guys have food? Have much?" A very curious Glen questioned.

"What's it to ya?" Thomas snarled back, gripping his gun all the tighter.

"Look," Rick said stepping forward. "We just cleared out part of the prison, and now we're fixing to clear out the rest. How 'bout a compromise? You give us some rations of food, and we'll help clear out another cell block for you guys to live in. But we draw a line, nobody passes each other's side of the prison otherwise there's gonna be problems."

"Man who do you think you are? Just coming into my prison and demanding shit?! Why you guys burst in here anyway? What's going on? Where are the guards that locked us up? We free now? Something happen in the big ole government? Makes me think that you're bursting in a prison, there ain't no place to go," Thomas frantically asked the group.

"You really have no idea what's been going on?" Glen asked in disbelief. As Shane and Rick began to tell about how the world went to hell, Daryl began to walk around the room to get a feel with who they were messing with. When he reached the kitchen area, his felt his jaw hit the floor. There was more food stocked up in their food closet than had ever seen in his entire life. The group needed this, Carol needed this, hell he needed this! This prison was a big win, and Daryl suddenly got an image of how proud Carol would look when she saw him walking around their prison block with bags of food in his arms, and that just made his heart swell a bit; Carol knowing that he could provide for her made him feel—Ugh man up Daryl! Makes my heart swell?! What. The. Hell. Is. Happening. To. Me? At this point, Daryl was beginning to wonder if thinking about his best friend this much was even healthy. Almost every thought he had was centered on her, he desired her approval and affection. Shit. Now who sounds like a helpless puppy wanting a scratch behind the ear? Merle would call him a pussy, so far gone and nothing physical has even happened between him and Carol. Fuck Merle. Daryl would never even think about jeopardizing what he had with Carol and not everything had to be about sex. Shit, Daryl could barely massage the woman's shoulder without his thoughts drifting off, causing tightness in his pants. He felt like an immature teenager at times which made him scared to death that if and he and Carol did anything even slightly romantic; he would most likely fuck it up.

"Hey, what'd you find," Rick whispered to Daryl as he made it back to the group; efficiently snapping Daryl's thoughts away from Carol, for the time being. Shane was finishing up explaining his tale of how the world is what it is.

"Man, they're loaded. We need this. If we ration it right, we could live off of it for months," Daryl replied while watching Thomas, as he was watching Daryl.

"Alright," Rick said, cutting off Shane's story and not allowing the inmates to speak. "You know what kind of world we live in. You can stay, and we'll help, but we want half of your rations. Or you can leave and pack up as much as you can carry. But we fought for this prison, cleared it out, and nearly killed ourselves. We're not leaving. Do we have an agreement?" The inmates looked at a loss for words, which Daryl understood considering they didn't really give the poor bastards a lot of time to process everything. They nervously looked around each other, not really sure who should speak or what their decision should be.

"Uh, give us a damn minute," Thomas snarled to Rick while turning to his fellow inmates.

"Rick, are you sure about having them living near us?" Maggie asked in concern, while Glen put his arm around her middle. "We don't know anything about them, and, it's weird to suddenly have other people living around us."

"We cut them loose, we're practically killing them ourselves. They ain't got no weapons, we're not gonna spare 'em either. I don't want nobody's blood on my hands," T-Dog piped up.

"We cut them loose, they know where we are. Could sneak up on us, maybe we should just kill 'em…" Shane suggested causing Daryl to give him a sideways glance.

"Kill them Shane? That's your solution to any problem, huh?" Rick scoffed in disbelief at his long-lost best friend that he was, for some reason, still holding on to. Daryl could see the tension begin to rise and he knew that this was somehow going to go back to their boastings about who a better father is and who Lori belongs to.

"Aye, why are ya'll locked up in here anyway?" Daryl loudly asked to the inmates.

"I like my narcotics…" Axel lamely said, and with his mustache, Daryl believed him.

"I had a lot of fines I had to pay, but never had the money to. Didn't know I could get locked up for it," Big Tiny stated.

"Drug possession, distribution, and robbery," Oscar said, he didn't look like he regretted anything or was trying to get out of any situation.

"I murdered some asshole who nearly killed me," Andrew stated. Everyone from the group tensed up. Finally looking at Thomas.

"Well uh, we're men right? I like me some damn fine pussy; only thing is, they don't always like me, but I get what I want anyway," Thomas said all too nonchalantly. Everybody was now glaring at the man, Daryl decided right there and then that he wanted this man dead. He'd gladly put a bolt through his head right now. If he so much as looked at Carol or the other women hard, Daryl would slowly skin the man alive. Slowly cutting off each limb, making him immobile, and followed by slowly slicing off his worthless balls, then burning them off. Daryl could barely think right now; if this man even got close to Carol…Daryl was having a hard time to process this monster in front of him let alone breathe.

"Well, we take ya up on your offer farm boy." Thomas finished with a smile which was directed at Rick. Daryl's head snapped to Rick's so fast he heard his bones crack with surprise.

"Rick…" Shane said with a tentative warning. Glen pushed Maggie behind him while glaring at Thomas, while T-Dog came over to block anything that was showing of Maggie. Daryl was in complete disbelief, why didn't he think to ask this first? Why didn't any of them? Daryl would forever hate himself if the situation turned south… he swore to protect Carol, not make a bed next door for a murderer and some damn fucking rapist. There was no way that they could let these two threats live, but then again, they needed the supplies and food and they couldn't exactly just revoke their offer that they basically demanded. Rick seemed to think along the same lines of Daryl.

"Okay. We help you clear out another cell block and you stick to it," Rick snarled while stepping close to Thomas—who seemed to be the leader of the pack. "But you come to our side, if I so much as get a whiff of you near my people, I will kill you where you stand." Daryl still wasn't completely relaxed with this compromise, but shit if his people needed food to survive and the game in the woods was becoming scarce. Thomas, however, was not backing down.

"Deal."

After clearing out the cell block with the inmates, keeping them ahead of them at all times, got things settled for them in cell block D, then returning to retrieve their share of the food and then bring it back to the group, they were all exhausted. It was decided that Rick would gather everyone immediately and tell them about the situation.

"We have a bit of a problem…" Rick began. Daryl gravitated towards Carol's side; wanting her to know that he was there with her while Rick told them all. Daryl also noticed that Shane had his hand on Lori's shoulder—whatever game he was playing needed to end, if stupid ass Shane knew any better, he should just keep sticking his nose up Lori's ass. Carol gasped and covered her mouth when Rick told them all about their defenses, specifically Thomas's. Daryl couldn't help but lightly place his right arm around Carol's middle—mirroring Glen's actions from earlier—and drawing her in a little closer to him while tightly gripping his crossbow's strap with his left hand. He vowed to protect Carol and to not let her down, again, and he planned on fulfilling that promise. Looking around, he could see that everyone was close to each other, all scared about the threat, yet confident that they could handle the situation if it ever escalated into anything. Daryl would make damn sure that the situation would be handled. After Rick told them of what happened, everyone seemed to disperse a bit. Maggie went to nap, while Glen, Shane, and Rick wanted to make sure that the fortifications were secure. Daryl decided to hang back on this one; after taking night watch then basically clearing out the yard and half of a prison in one day left him utterly spent. He also wanted to stick around for Carol, if he could offer her any reassuring support; he would—even though he had no idea what he was doing. Carol, Beth, and Herschel went to go start cooking while T-Dog began to unpack their latest food and sort through it. Daryl decided to hang around a bit in the dining area, and then take a nap himself.

"What do you think…about them…" Beth timidly asked Carol and Herschel, although Daryl was just sitting atop a table watching Carol like a hawk. He didn't think he did it in a possessive manner, and he sure as shit hoped that he didn't come off as being creepy; he just simply liked to watch her, watch and study her fluid movements so that he could take the images with him when he went hunting or hopefully carry them on in his dreams. Shit. I am going soft…

"We don't know Bethie. Some of them sound dangerous, but we can't condemn the rest of them for the two," Herschel softly said, of course, everyone was mainly worried about Thomas and Andrew.

"Don't worry dear, nothing will happen to you," Carol softly said to Beth, giving her a reassuring smile as the two cooked. Daryl decided to call it a day as he headed for his waiting makeshift bed. He gave Carol a nod and Herschel a pat on the back as he headed towards the stairs, leaving the rest behind in the dining area.

Their dinner was almost done; everyone was completely engulfed in their tasks that they didn't bother looking up as they heard the entrance cell door which led to the court yard open—assuming that it was T-Dog coming back with more food or one of the guys coming back from their perimeter check.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? I didn't know your group had ladies in it..." Thomas trailed off as he eyed Carol and Beth up and down like they were a starving man's last meal; Andrew was behind Thomas, only carrying a baseball bat. Both Carol and Beth gasped as Carol pushed Beth behind her while simultaneously reaching for her hand gun.

"Young man," Herschel yelled from the table he was sitting at. "I know that Rick made an agreement with you, so I ask you, why are you here in our cell block?" Herschel's face was bright red as he stood in front of Carol and Beth but also close to where the inmates were standing near the door on the top steps. Carol wasn't sure if Hershel realized it, but he practically yelling at the two men and Carol desperately wished that Daryl or anyone else was there.

"THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!" Carol whipped around to see Daryl sprinting out from the door and stopping abruptly in front of the two men.

"Whoa! Calm down there redneck, I'm more than willing to share that pixie woman or blonde over there, I was just coming back to see if my dope was still in my mattress—" but whatever else Thomas was going to say was cut off as Daryl quickly removed his buck knife and stabbed it in the man's upper thigh. Complete and utter animalistic uproar occurred. Daryl was on top of Thomas punching and kicking and stomping the shit out of Thomas while removing his buck knife from his upper thigh to his arms and lower legs, completely ignoring Andrew who was whacking the shit out of Daryl's back. Carol was panicking and Beth was clinging to her, Hershel tried to rip Andrew off but Andrew turned around and sent Hershel into an unconscious bag on the floor. Beth ran towards her unconscious father while Carol did the only thing she could think of at the time, she raised her gun and pulled the trigger.

Ah, precious cliff-hangers! If all goes well, another chapter will be out tomorrow night. Thanks for reading and sendme some love along with helpful critiques or ideas!