"Okay...Let's do this, people."
Jane, Rick, Daryl and T-Dog turned their backs on the others who were safely enclosed within the outer ring of the prison fence, and prepared to begin clearing the interior of the yard. Individual walkers were slowly turning and lurching towards the foursome. Rick spoke in a low voice: "Remember, they're slow. We can take them on without the guns and don't hesitate to run away and regroup. We've got speed on these things."
The four of them spread out, keeping their backs to each other in an informal circle. Daryl took the first shot, hitting the closest walker between the eyes with a bolt, and then it was a frenzy of movement and sickening sounds of groans and thwacks and twangs. Jane swung again and again, sinking her machete into rotten skulls. It was oddly satisfying. The tide of walkers slowed and then no more came.
"This place better be worth it" Daryl grumbled, and his snark elicited a genuine grin from Jane. Adrenaline was coursing through her body and she felt like running laps of joy around the fence.
"You hear that?"
T-Dog titled his head, and Jane listened. Groans came from inside the prison. Of course, Jane thought. It just wouldn't be that easy. A mass of walkers wearing a tattered mix of prison orange and guard uniforms emerged from the prison doors and spilled into the sunlight.
"Now we use bullets," Rick shouted.
Glenn ran back to the first fence. "Open up! We need more ammo!"
The walkers came in waves and the bodies piled up as the horde thinned. Jane's arm burned from the exertion but she kept hacking and swinging alongside the others. Rick fired a last shot to draw out any lingering walkers, and none came. Satisfied that the majority of the mobile walkers were dealt with, they began the work of burning the bodies.
It was dark by the time they finished, and the piles of burning walkers glowed as the group built a smaller fire for warmth. They set up camp within the first fence tonight and decided to explore the inside of the prison in the morning. Jane was wholly exhausted. Her arms ached from taking down walkers and stacking bodies. There was nothing to eat and her stomach was sour from lack of food. She sat outside the circle of the others, lazily trailing her fingers through Emily's fur and watching the prison. She fell asleep on the ground with her head on her arms and her legs tucked into her chest.
Jane awoke in the morning to sound of Lori's morning sickness. She wrinkled her nose and sat up, stretching out her back. Someone had draped a jacket over her after she fell asleep and the gesture made her miss Dale with a sudden ache. That was something he would have done.
Daryl watched Jane out of the corner of his eye. He was testing the tension on his bow before heading inside to scout out the prison with Rick. He watched her touch her fingers to the jacket he'd put over her after she'd fallen asleep. He'd made sure she was asleep and hadn't seen him cover her with the jacket. She looked tired. He vowed to do what he could to get the group sleeping inside tonight.
Rick and Daryl cleared the first block of the prison and put down a small number of walkers. The long corridor of the first cellblock directed them to the cafeteria, where the door was bolted from the outside. Rick removed the bolt and Daryl raised his crossbow, ready for the onslaught of hungry walkers. Instead they found four men seated at a table, and they raised their hands in greeting.
Rick asked Daryl to gather the others, and everyone sat down together to a real meal of meatloaf and canned vegetables. The men had been locked inside the cafeteria since the outbreak started and were totally unaware of the scale of devastation outside.
Dexter, the most outspoken of the four men, led them on a tour of the prison. The prison was stocked with food, supplies and vehicles. It was exactly what they needed; fortified with two layers of high fencing and enough supplies to keep them alive and thriving. Rick might be right, Jane thought, we could make this place a home. Jane felt her hope grow as she imagined being able to actually sleep and feel safe again.
It emerged quickly that the men from the cafeteria were not guards. They were prisoners who were abandoned and locked in the cafeteria by the guards when the prison was overrun. Dexter was a large man with a baldhead and he was locked up for murdering his wife and her lover. Andrew was a skinny guy who was arrested for drugs and used right up until the walkers hit and the drugs ran out. Axel looked like a Harley riding Santa and had committed armed robbery. They all seemed tolerable to Jane, maybe a bit creepy but nothing close to walkers.
The fourth man was Thomas. He was middle aged and mundane and had been in prison for tax fraud. He made Jane uncomfortable. He didn't talk much and she steered clear of direct interactions with him as they mobilized to move the group inside.
Herschel thought he might be able to start a garden in the large prison yard, and Lori found prison uniforms in the laundry room that she was eager to sew into new clothes. The group decided to stay together until the whole prison was cleared, with everyone sleeping in one row of cells, Each individual cell had bunk beds and a heavy barred door that could be pulled shut. Jane chose a cell close to the end, near the door, and opted to sleep alone.
The prison mattresses were thin and slippery but they were tantamount to luxury bedding after months of sleeping on the ground. Jane stacked up a three mattresses to cushion the metal springs and pulled the door of her cell closed. The moon shone through the tall barred windows of the prison and Jane could hear the hushed conversations of the other members of the group as everyone readied for sleep. Jane patted the bed for Emily and the dog happily hopped up, circled a few times and laid her head on Jane's leg. The pair was snoring lightly within minutes.
Daryl lay awake in his cell long after everyone fell asleep. The still air of the prison was unsettling and the light of the moon cast long shadows across the walls. He heard Emily hop off the bed she shared with Jane and listened to the click of the dog's paws as the dog paced her cell. Emily understood; something was wrong about being in this prison, and he didn't intend to let his guard down until he knew what it was.