[A/N: Hello new followers and favouriters! Thanks as always to reviewers - glad you guys have stuck with me. You rock!]
Asha split her stance, hefted the crowbar – grateful for the umpteenth time that day that she'd injured her left hand rather than her right – and drove the end of it through the broken toothed face pressed hard against the chain link fence. The walker slumped to the ground as she yanked the bar back, its place quickly taken by one of the dozens of dead swarming behind it.
Heft, jab, pull. repeat. Heft, jab, pull, repeat.
She lost herself in the monotony of the action.
The walkers seethed in a never ending mass against the fence, groans filling the air. Asha's gaze tracked across them, automatically searching for her brother's height and build. She snapped her eyes shut, biting hard on the inside of her cheek, tasting blood.
Stop it. That's no use to anyone.
Heft, jab, pull, repeat. Heft, jab, pull, repeat.
She rolled her shoulder to loosen up the building ache.
Heft, jab, pull, repeat.
The constant weight of the dead dragged at the chain link and it sagged and bowed. It was as vital a demarcation between safety and danger – between life and death – as it had ever been, but it was one that was increasingly flimsy.
How was Carol going to cope on her own out there?
What was she going to do about Rick's plan?
Asha grimaced. She'd thought about telling someone else about his plan, but Hershel had gone into cell block A to treat the sick – over Maggie's tearful and strenuous objections – which really only left Carol and Maggie. Carol was out for obvious reasons, there was just no knowing how the woman would react.
Asha looked down the fence to where Maggie was thinning the dead with her own metal pole, stiff faced and blank eyed, hard lines gouged at the corners of her lips. With Glenn and Hershel in cell block A she was already at breaking point. Asha couldn't pile Rick and Carol on top of that.
What she really wanted was to tell Daryl and Michonne about it. She ground her teeth together, trying to force the tightness in her chest to loosen. It was only just getting dark. They weren't even late back yet.
Heft, jab, pull, repeat.
'Here,' Maggie suddenly screamed, running away from Asha to a section of the fence that was doubling in under the weight of the dead. The log bracing the fence pole started to slip. Stomach dropping, Asha sprinted after Maggie.
'The log!' Maggie's voice was panicked. The wood slipped another inch and the outer fence bowed in, the razor wire coils dipping dangerously close to the inner fence. Asha launched herself at the log, wrapping her arms around it, feet scrabbling in the gravel as she struggled to hold it in place. Maggie's arm was a blur as she drove the metal rod into the dead in a desperate attempt to thin them.
Asha's feet slipped backwards.
'This isn't working Maggie!'
'I know!'
Asha glanced desperately up the dog run. They were going to have to run for it – but if the outer fence came down, the inner fence was going too, and those things would be into the yard.
What else could they do?
She swore, heart in mouth, and braced herself harder against the log.
'Maggie, get down.' Rick's voice ripped through the air.
For a moment Maggie continued stabbing desperately at the dead, then she dropped to the gravel, adding her weight to Asha's against the log. The air above them was immediately shredded by bullets. Asha's eyes jerked to the yard to see Rick and Carl, rifles shouldered and firing into the dead, before she turned her face away from the chunks of walker raining under the barrage of bullets.
After a long minute of gunfire, the pressure on the log eased, and then a moment later the bullets ceased, leaving behind a heavy silence. Panting as though she'd run a marathon, Asha shared a look with Maggie. Her friend was wide eyed with flecks of flesh and blood dripping through her hair. Together they wedged the log more firmly against the fence pole, as Rick and Carl started dragging another log from the yard into the dog run to help reinforce the weak part of the fence.
Chest heaving, Asha wiped her good hand across her shoulder and flicked away the chunks of blood. 'That was too damn close.'
Maggie nodded. 'We need better fences.'
'Yeah, they're called walls,' Asha said dryly.
Then her eyes narrowed as she examined the fences. They did need walls, and why shouldn't they have some? Woodbury had managed it, made of trucks and busses mostly, with metal sheeting built around it.
She walked back a few paces to get a better view of the sagging fences. They would want to build the wall inside the dog run, up against the outer fence so that it held it up. Walkers weren't climbers of course, but the added height of the chain link fence would work against any living attackers – they'd be easy pickings if they tried to climb over it.
Asha didn't even hesitate over the cold blooded thought.
Of course, there was currently no vehicle access to the dog run, the only access being through the concrete towers at corners and the ends. She grimaced, the state some of the outer fences were in it would almost be worth taking some of them down and then rebuilding them. She shook her head slightly to herself, better to keep the fences up if they could.
She looked more closely at the internal fence. They'd only have to take down a section of it to get vehicles into the dog run. They'd probably have to cut the chain link to do it, but – provided they could raid enough suitable material from a hardware store - it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some way of patching it or braiding it back together with wire.
It would be better than what they currently had.
She chewed her lip as she thought about it. Possible, it was definitely possible. Woodbury was burnt out, but Asha was sure at least some sections of the walls had survived and could be scavenged. If not, there were plenty of abandoned trucks on the road.
Maggie was watching her look upwards at the inner fence as Rick and Carl finished with the extra log.
'What are you thinking?' she asked.
'Walls,' Asha said with a small smile, and then explained her plan.
Rick scratched his beard as she finished. 'Well, we definitely need them,' he said tiredly. He looked around at the fences before nodding. 'I think it could work.'
'We'll make it work,' Maggie said firmly, with a small but determined smile at Asha. 'If only you'd been here to think of it months ago.'
Asha flinched.
If only she hadn't been off chasing her dead brother's shadow.
'Oh Asha,' Maggie said, eyes widening and stretching a hand towards her, 'I didn't mean to it like that.'
Asha closed her eyes and shook her head, gritting her teeth against the bitterness rolling in her stomach.
'I know,' she said, voice thick. She forced her eyes open, blinking quickly a couple of times. 'It's ok.'
Maggie nodded, her shoulders slumped and the defeated lines back at the corners of her mouth.
'Let's go back, Rick said. 'I think we've cleared the dead enough for the fences to last the night. I'll take first watch whilst you two get cleaned up.'
Asha rubbed at her face, nodding, her injured hand suddenly throbbing as though it might explode. She realised as they started back to the cell blocks that her posture matched Maggie's dejected slump.
She paused, fingers twisting in the chain link fence as she looked out at the empty road and black trees in the fading light. Nash had been strong, but even he hadn't managed to survive out there alone.
Why aren't they back yet?
Rick stopped beside her, and she felt his hand on her shoulder. 'Come on,' he said softly. 'It was always unlikely that they were going to make it back tonight.'
Asha nodded jerkily, but her fingers tightened on the fence as she struggled to breathe.
Where is he?
Daryl turned the piece of jasper over and over in his hands, the roughness scratching against his fingertips. Beneath him the tyres of the van they'd hotwired after running the first vehicle into a horde of walkers hummed across the tarmac as the midday sun beat down outside. He spared a glance a Michonne, grim faced behind the steering wheel. She had her foot down.
It wasn't fast enough.
Although he displayed no particular outward signs of it, he seethed with impatience to get back to the prison.
How many of their people were dying whilst they hauled ass across the state?
What if Asha was sick, dying, whilst Michonne tried to coax more speed out of the damn beaten up van?
Not Asha. She hadn't been any more exposed than he had been and he wasn't sick. He grimaced. Even he knew it didn't really work that way.
He glanced at the back seat where the precious bags of medicine and equipment sat between Tyrese and Bob, lips flattening as he looked at Bob, blank faced and staring out the window. Bastard was lucky he hadn't tossed him off the walkway into the dead. It was what the damn idiot deserved. At least he hadn't tried to touch the bottle of booze he'd scavenged. Daryl's lips twisted in disgust and he looked back out the windscreen.
They were only a few miles from the prison. Without there being any one particular landmark, a sense of familiarity at the woods and road resonated through him. He was used to the feeling now, it had been happening every time he'd come back from a run for a while. But it was a feeling he hadn't had for a long time before that, not since the tiny town he'd grown up in.
Home.
He flicked the jasper over in his fingers, clenching his fist around it and squinting through the windscreen in anticipation of the prison coming into view.
When it did, his stomach sank. It was too still, too quiet. A few lonely dead pressed against the fence, but around to the right from the gate, a bloodied and rotten heap of corpses were massed against the chain link - barely upright and heavily braced by logs.
Nothing moved in the prison except the long grass rippling lazily in the breeze. There was no one in the courtyard, and no sign of anyone on watch in the guard tower.
Daryl sat forward in his seat as the distance to the fence closed. He tried not to think about what it meant that they couldn't spare anyone to keep watch to open the gate for them.
The pulled to a stop in front of the gate, which stayed obstinately shut.
Sharing a tense glance with Michonne, he kicked the car door open and got out.
For a moment only the undulating grass moved, then there was a sudden flash of ginger fur and the cat streaked away from the gate in the direction of the courtyard. Daryl watched the feline for an instant, then exhaled heavily as Asha unfolded from where she'd been hidden in the grass, semi automatic cradled somewhat awkwardly across the forearm of her injured hand. She scanned them all quickly before her eyes latched on Daryl, and he felt a jolt at the intensity in her eyes.
'I didn't recognise the car,' she called, voice flooded with relief.
She started immediately for the gate, dropping the rifle and working the pulley system awkwardly with her one good hand. The heavy gates inched open.
'Go,' Michonne said to him, climbing back in the van. 'We got this.'
Daryl nodded, shouldering through the gates as soon as they edged wide enough to squeeze through and taking over the pulley system from Asha.
The van roared through, continuing straight on to the courtyard.
'Who put you on gate duty?' Daryl grunted as he pulled the gates closed.
Asha gave a half snort. 'We're a little light on people at the moment.'
'More people get sick?'
'Nah. Hershel went in there to treat them. There was some gun shots earlier.'
His head jerked up sharply and she put a hand on his arm.
'Maggie's in there now,' she continued. 'It's under control, but…' She was looking up at the prison walls and her nails were digging into his arm. 'I've been waiting to hear more gunshots all morning. Rick and Carol are out on a run, raiding one of the suburban areas for meds too. We...we didn't know how long it would be before you got back.' Her eyes were desperate when she looked back at him. 'Please tell me you got what we needed.'
He nodded. 'Got everything. Michonne and the others will be takin' care of it now.'
Her lips trembled into a relieved smile. 'And you're all ok?'
He felt a muscle twitch in his throat at the thought of what Bob's stupidity could have cost them, but he nodded anyway.
They stared at each other in silence. Her eyes flickering anxiously all over his face. He was distracted for an instant by the green of her eyes - the same shifting green of the sunlight through the leaves in the woods - then he realised how bloodshot they were, and how the black circles seemed gouged into the pale skin beneath them.
She suddenly wrapped her good hand in the front of his shirt and leant in, resting her forehead against his shoulder.
'I'm so glad you're back,' she mumbled.
Something surged in his chest, but still he hesitated a second before cupping his hand around the back of her elbow.
Ya ain't been outta my thoughts.
Instead of saying anything, he just mumbled incoherently instead. 'Hmmm.'
He could feel her shaking and suddenly realised the exhaustion with which she was leaning into him.
Stomach suddenly contracting, he slipped a hand under her chin to lift her face, pressing his other hand to her forehead. She felt warm, but not too warm - at least he didn't think she felt too warm. ''Ya ok? Ya ain't feelin' sick or nothin'?'
'You told me not to get sick remember,' she said with a weary smile. 'Don't be in cell block A?'
'Yeah but ya ain't never listened to me before.'
'I'm fine Daryl, just tired, been running pretty light on sleep is all.' She blinked those bloodshot green eyes a couple of times. 'You too I'm guessing?'
He grunted, letting her head fall back to his shoulder as he scrubbed tiredly at his eyes with the heel of his hand. Truth be told, all he wanted to do was crawl into his cell and sleep for a week, but he could also feel his shoulder tingling where Asha's weight pressed into him, and he thought it might physically hurt if she moved away. He took a deep breath - ain't no one around t' see ya damn it - and then pressed his hand against the small of her back, pulling her into him so her body pressed against the length of his.
She made a low, thick sound of satisfaction in the back of her throat as she shifted slightly, face turned in so he could feel her breath on his neck. He tightened his arms around her, breathing easily for the first time since he'd left the prison.
'Ya need to go sleep,' he forced himself to say after a minute.
She leant back, a shadow of something passing across her face. 'I've gotta wait for Rick and Carol.'
'I got it.'
She shook her head, face tightening and shoulders stiffening as she stepped back. 'Nah. But you can wait with me?'
He nodded, eyes narrowed at her.
'Good.' She looked away and scraped a hand through her hair. 'There's something I need to tell you about Carol...and Rick'
[A/N: Hope you liked it! Sorry they're not super long updates at the moment, but I'm going to keep trying for regularity at least!]