Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been pretty busy with uni work and stuff...but enough of that, chapter 21 is now up here for you all. As usual, thank you all for your support and for following and reviewing this story it does make my day! So please let me know what you think! Review, review, review!

Thanks x

Oh, p.s. I keep forgetting to put on those disclaimer things, so yeah, I don't own anything recognisable of course! I just like to mess about with the characters and situations for my amusement!

Chapter 21

We were up early the next day to clear out the small courtyard and cell block. We went into the courtyard back to back just like we'd done in the enclosure the day before. It was a bit more difficult in here, some of the prison guards had these riot gear helmets on that made it harder to stab them, you had to either rip the helmet off them, or, trying stab up and beneath them. We managed to clear the yard out without losing anybody though which was a plus. We stripped some of the guards for their stab vests and helmets, they may have been gruesome but they provided a few of us with a bit more protection.

"Why don't you stay out here with the others?" dad asked "we can handle the cellblock without you"

"I don't mind helping, dad" I told him.

"I know, but I think your mom is getting a bit worried…and I'm worried about her. Can you just stay with her?"

"Sure dad, I'll keep an eye on her" I nodded, pulling off my protective vest and helmet, "give these to someone who'll need them"

"Thanks, kiddo" dad smiled, taking the gear from me.

I crossed back to the tents, and sat down on a camp chair next to my mom, Beth and Carol. Beth tapped her hand nervously against the side of her chair and smiled nervously at me.

"I don't like all this waiting around" Beth murmured to me quietly "it makes my guts churn when they do things like this"

"I know what you mean. I hate all this…but what can you do, huh?"

"I hate it when you go in with them too" Beth confessed "you're my best friend. I don't want to see you get hurt"

I reached across to squeeze her hand.

"I know what I'm doing" I told her.

"That's not the point, I still worry" she sighed, glancing back to the group entering the cell block, "I wish Maggie didn't have to go in there either"

"I wish nobody did"

"Me too"

We all sat nervously, waiting to see what would happen in the cellblock, hoping that everyone would be ok. Mom was acting strange, just sort of sat there staring into space one minute then pacing around rubbing her stomach the next. She was pacing next to the fence, biting her lip. I pushed off from my seat and walked over to her.

"Hey mom…are you alright?" I asked her quietly, rubbing my hand on her arm.

"Hmm, what, sweetie?" mom replied a few moments later, blinking a little.

"I asked if you were ok…which obviously you're not" I repeated, muttering the last part under my breath.

"Oh, sorry…I'm fine, Daisy" mom told me "just tired…and worried for the others"

"Why don't you come sit with us? It's not good for you to be on your feet too much, mom, please sit down" I pleaded.

"You're a good girl, Daisy, for looking after me so much" mom sighed, reaching up to stroke my hair, "but you don't need to worry about me, I'm completely fine."

I was pretty sure she was lying to me, she wouldn't meet my eye, choosing to look past me instead. I gripped her hand and waited till she locked eyes with me.

"You're not fine, mom. What's wrong?"

"Nothing"

"Mom…"

"Daisy! Just stop it, just leave me alone. You're my child, not my mother, stop acting like you are!" mom snapped at me, ripping her arm from my grip and waddling away from me across the yard.

I bit my lip and tilted my head back to try and stop myself from crying. I knew it was probably just the hormones and the stress that made her snap like that but it still hurt. I turned my back to the group and rested my head against the fence. I was stood there for a minute, a few tears starting to roll down my cheeks, when I felt a hand on my back

"She didn't mean it" Dale said quietly from beside me "she's just a bit stressed right now"

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Don't let it get you down, honey, we don't like it when you're upset. Much better when you're skipping around the place entertaining the kids"

I gave him a watery smile, leaning in to hug the old man who was practically a granddad to me. I sniffled a little and dried my eyes and face on the dirty sleeve of my shirt. How hygienic? With a sigh, I headed back over to the others, sitting down on the blanket with Sydney, Aiden and Sophia. Sydney was playing with a Barbie doll we'd found in a house over the winter, it was one of those that wore a fancy ball gown dress, but the dress was torn and dirty, the doll's blonde hair was all knotted. Sydney was still obsessed with the Barbie, it was practically glued to her side most of the time. Aiden and Sophia were chattering to each other about a fantasy book that Carol had been reading to them when we found somewhere safe to stay. Between the two of them they practically had a little book club going. My brother hung around with them quite a lot, but he did seem to be separating himself a bit more now. He wanted to be with the guys, hovering around Shane, Daryl and T-Dog a lot of the time. I suppose he saw them as role models, people he wanted to be like, but he was still only young, he was only twelve – well we guessed he was, we'd lost track of the date now – he still deserved some sort of childhood. He was stood on his own now, his hand resting on the gun he'd been entrusted with. He was still wearing dad's sheriff hat too.

Beth squeezed my knee as I sat back down, and the others gave me sympathetic looks but nobody said anything. We were all sat nervously awaiting the others return when Carol jumped to her feet.

"They're coming out!" Carol said.

We all stood up and headed to the gate, all of us watching to make sure everyone came out of the cell block ok. I watched, my fingers crossed as one by one they walked out of the metal door. I let out a big sigh of relief when we knew they were all ok. Carl and I pulled open the gates. They walked through, covered in guts and goo.

"Is it clear?" Dale asked my dad.

"Yep, couple of guards, the rest prisoners" dad nodded "it looks good in there, safe"

"So we can move our stuff in there?" Janie questioned.

"Need to burn the bodies first" Daryl explained gruffly.

I wrinkled my nose, burning walker bodies wasn't exactly a fun task! Dad started assigning jobs to everyone, splitting us into groups. Shane sauntered to my side, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me to his side. I have him a half-hearted smile. His eyes traced mine and he frowned. He nodded at my dad before pulling me away from the group, further along the fence.

"What's wrong?" he asked me, tilting my face up to meet his.

"I'm just being silly…it was just my mom, shouting at me" I explained before rolling my eyes "I know, I sound like I'm five"

"What happened?"

"She kicked off because I asked her to sit down" I mumbled "it was completely uncalled for". I then topped that off with a stamp of my foot.

"Well don't you think on it, she's a grumpy pain in the ass at the best of times, her with a baby in the oven – well she was the same with you and Carl! Heck, she threw a breadknife at my head when she pregnant with you" Shane grinned, nudging me in the side.

"You probably deserved it" I laughed "you can be a jackass!"

"Watch it, cheeky!" Shane growled, landing a kiss on me, "now come on, no slacking lady!"

While dad, Shane, Daryl, Glenn, Dale and T-Dog hauled the bodies outside to be burned, the rest of us set about taking down our makeshift camp out in the prison yard and moving ourselves into the cell block. It was really strange inside the cell block. I'd seen cells before of course, at the police station that my dad and Shane worked in, but that was nothing like a prison cell block. There were some small barred windows that let some light into the room but it was still pretty gloomy. There was a small sort of open area when you first went in with some tables and benches nailed to the floor, some sort of lunch room. There were other doors around that led to other areas of the prison we hadn't been to yet. Through the barred doors were the cells, they were split onto two floors and lined one side of the room. There was some open area outside the cells which I suppose was nice, I guess it meant we weren't completely penned in…yeah right, we were going to be living in prison cells, you couldn't get any more penned in.

We spent a good hour or so scrubbing the place with bleach we found in a supply cupboard, trying to get some of the walker blood and guts off the floors and walls. By the time we were done, the men were back and we were working out who was getting what cell. I was sharing a cell with Shane on the upper landing, Daryl was in the cell on our right, and Beth was on our left. The rest of the group were in the cells on the first floor. The cells weren't huge but we were all so giddy to have a bit of private space that wasn't a cramped tent that we didn't care.

"I can't wait for bed" Beth laughed as she folded her meagre supply of clothes up on her bed in the cell next door.

"Why?" I called back as I put fresh sheets on the bed in my cell.

"Mattresses and fresh sheets…duh!"

"Good point! We'll all be turning in early tonight!"

Just as Beth and I were giggling, I felt strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me backwards. I giggled some more and wiggled till Shane let me turn around. He was grinning down at me mischievously.

"Don't get any idea Mister!" I laughed, pushing him away a little, "Beth is just next door, you know"

"It's true, I am!" Beth called back jokingly "keep it in your pants stud!"

I guffawed at that; Beth had come out of her shell a lot while on the road, laughing and joking along with the rest of us. Shane rolled his eyes and laughed along with us. I loved it when he laughed, it always made me smile and laugh even more – his happy moods were infectious.

"I was actually coming up to get my other knife" Shane said "I don't always think with my trousers, you know"

"Yeah, yeah, just ninety percent of the time" I joked "why do you need your knife?"

"We're scouting out some more of the prison"

"Oh…can I come? There isn't really anything else for me to do here?"

"Come on then, get your knife" Shane said with a roll of his eyes.

I grinned and followed him out of the cell, waving to Beth as we passed. Downstairs, dad, Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn, Maggie, Hershel and Dale were waiting. I high fived T and Glenn as I bounced over to them.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited to face walkers before" T-Dog chuckled.

"Oh please that doesn't excite me! It's not every day you get to explore a prison, T!" I replied gleefully.

"They ain't that exciting" Daryl grunted "visited Merle in the slammer enough times to know they're as boring as shit!"

"Don't ruin her fun, Dixon" Shane laughed "you know she's like a small child when you take her new places"

"Hey!" I squealed, elbowing Shane in the ribs. He feigned injury and I narrowed my eyes at him playfully.

"Ok, ok, enough teasing" dad said, winking at me.

"Let's mooove out!" I commanded in a deep voice, just like I'd seen on films and TV shows.

"You really do have problems, Daisy" Shane muttered to me as we headed through a metal door into another section of the prison.

"Yeah, but my weird is obviously a turn on for you" I whispered to him, flashing him a grin.

I turned away from Shane and drew my knife, holding it tight in my hand. The corridors were pretty gloomy so we all had flashlights, we all had to move along slowly, keeping our eyes open for any walkers. We stuck to the main corridor, not really veering off it and we didn't come across any real problems. We reached a dead end and walkers surrounded us, some at the end of the corridor, others from back the way we had come.

"Crap" I muttered as they shambled towards us.

I slashed at the nearest walker but missed its temple, ripping through the flesh of its cheek and sending a spurt of icky dark blood all over my top. Raising my knife once more, I drove it into the walkers skull, the zombie falling to the floor. We were backed up against the wall, all of us slashing and stabbing wildly.

"Force your way back!" Dad was yelling, pushing at the growing crowd of walkers.

We tried to push our way back up the corridor but it was proving to be difficult. In all the chaos and the moaning and the bodies and the biting, Maggie, Glenn and I got separated from the others, being forced along another corridor. There weren't as many walkers on the corridor so we managed to take them out quickly. Panting both from exertion and fear, we heard a scream. With wide eyes, Glenn, Maggie and I ran back out to the main corridor to see Hershel on the floor, his leg bleeding, being dragged through a metal door. Maggie let out a cry, pushing her way down the corridor to get into the room. Glenn and I pulled out our guns and shot the remaining walkers. The loud bangs of the gunshots echoed around us.

Inside the large room, Hershel was laying on the floor, panting slightly. I stared down at his leg, his pants were torn apart and his leg, well, it was clear a walker had bit him. Blood was pouring out of it profusely and the skin was torn and loose, mauled. Maggie dropped to the floor beside her father, sobbing. Dad was knelt beside Hershel too, running his hands across his face before dropping them to his sides, a new look of determination spreading across his face.

"T-Dog, give me your hatchet" Dad ordered before turning to look at the other men, "hold him down".

I wrapped my arms around Maggie, holding her against me as she sobbed. I watched with tears on my cheeks as dad ripped back Hershel's pants up to his knee. He took a deep steadying breath before raising the hatchet into the air. He muttered something under his breath before bringing the hatchet down onto Hershel's leg. Hershel's scream pierced the air as skin and muscle split, blood rushing across the floor. I felt my guts churn nauseously at the sight. Hershel's head slumped back as he passed out from the pain, a layer of sweat thick on his face. Dad raised the hatchet into the air once more, slamming it back down onto the remnants of Hershel's leg. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to look at the scene in front of me ; this was like something out of a horror film. I winced as I heard the crack of the bone splintering and cracking. I peeked open my eyes to see Hershel's leg from the knee down separate and on the floor. Blood was flowing freely from the stump that was all that was left of his leg. Dad peeled off his shirt wrapping it around the stump tightly to try and stem the flow of blood.

Suddenly, Daryl made a discovery. We were not alone in the room. We all looked up to see five men in prison jumpsuits watching us; some looked curious, others physically sickened by what they too had just witnessed.