Disclaimer - I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I only own my original character Rayne and anything else that seems out of place.
I am so sorry for the year long delay, I hadn't realized that I hadn't posted in that long. But, I'm back now and ready to jump into season 4.
Thank you to Klarie88, Sakura Tsuki206, RaysonInTheSun, Sarcastic Rain, Ice and Fire dragon, louise53, elljayde and WheresMyBones for choosing to follow and favorite this story.
As always reviews are appreciated.
Enjoy!
Rayne wakes up the next morning wrapped in Daryl's arms, she rolls over smiling as she sees he's still asleep. She brings her hand up brushing back the tendril of hair that has fallen down onto his face. Kissing his lips lightly she gets up and quietly gets dressed before she leaves their room.
Walking outside she meets up with Michonne, who despite everyone's insistence, has decided to go back out looking for the Governor. So, being the good friend that she is, Rayne saddled up the horse and brought him out to Michonne.
"Be careful, okay?" Rayne said.
"Always. See you soon."
Just as Michonne rode out through the gates giant booms were heard from inside of the prison. Rayne ran alongside Rick into the courtyard where Glenn told them there were walkers in cell block D. Sasha, Daryl and Ty come running out of cell block C, Daryl tosses Rayne her bow before they all run for D block.
Quickly Rick, Daryl and Rayne start clearing out the people, Rick making sure to ask them if they are bit, they didn't need anyone else turning on them.
Glenn joins Daryl and Rayne in taking out the walkers, as they hurdle the kids into a cell with Karen to keep them safe.
"Daryl!" The hunter turns to see his girlfriend heading up the steps to the top level. "Back me up."
He nods running up behind her and covering her back as they check the upstairs cells for more infected. Glenn is already up there, he's checking a cell when a walker comes at him, he can't get his knife up to kill it as he's trying to hold it back from him.
"Down!" Daryl yells before shooting it through the head with an arrow.
Rick helps Glenn to his feet, together they all look down at the walker to see who it is.
"It's Patrick." Daryl says, the kid who was enamored with the two hunters. "That's all of 'em."
Daryl, Rayne and Glenn move cell to cell, making sure that the dead stay that way. Rick finds a walker still stuck in a cell locked, no way it could have gotten out or been bitten. He pulls it towards him and stabs it in the head. He looks up perplexed at Daryl and Rayne, Hershel walking up beside of them.
"No bites. No wounds. I think he just died."
"Horribly, too. Pleurisy aspiration." Their doc tells them.
"Choked to death on his own blood." Hershel tells them. "Caused those trails down his face."
Rick nods, "I've seen them before on a walker outside the fences."
"I saw 'em on Patrick, too." Daryl says.
"They're from the internal lung pressure building up- like if you shake a soda can and pop the top. Only imagine your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are the top."
"It's a sickness from the walkers?" Bob asks, having walked up while they were all talking.
"No, these things happened before they were around. Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an aggressive flu strain."
"Someone locked him in just in time." Hershel surmises.
"No, man." Daryl tells the elder man. "Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"
"I had a sick pig, it died quick." Rick told them. "Saw a sick boar in the woods."
"Pigs and birds." Hershel nods. "That's how these things spread in the past. We need to do something about those hogs."
"Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it." The doc said.
"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time." Bob says. "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."
Hershel says what they were all thinking, but no one wanted to say. "All of us in here, we've all been exposed."
The council convenes in the library to discuss what had happened and what they were gonna do now. Rayne grabbed a chair turning it around backwards as she sat down beside Daryl.
"Patrick was fine yesterday, and he died overnight. Two people died that quick?" Carol questions as they all sit down. "We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed."
"That's everyone in that cell block." Daryl says. "That's all of us. Maybe more."
"We know that this sickness can be lethal." Hershel adds. "We don't know how easily it spreads. "Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?"
"We can't just wait and see. And there's children. It isn't just the illness. If people die, they become a threat." Carol mentions.
Hershel nods, "We need a place for them to go. They can't stay in D. We can't risk going in there to clean it up."
"We can use cell block A." Rayne offers knowing it isn't an ideal place, but it's all they got to work with.
"Death row?" Glenn asks clearly not thrilled about the idea. "I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade."
"It's clean. That's an upgrade." Daryl tells him. "Think that'll work for Dr. S?"
Again Hershel nods, "I'll help Caleb get it set up."
The group hears coughing coming from out in the hallway, they all stand up and walk into the hallway where Karen and Ty are.
"K, you alright?" Rayne asks her friend.
Karen nods, covering her mouth with her hand. "I'm fine."
"You sure? You don't sound so good." Carol says eyeing the woman.
"We're just taking her back to my cell so she can rest."
"Tyreese, I don't think that's a good idea." Hershel tells them both.
"Why? What's going on now?" Karen asks starting to get afraid.
"We think it's a flu or something. That's how Patrick died." Glenn tells them as no one else speaks up.
"Judith was in that cell block. She's vulnerable." Hershel says. "Anyone that may be sick or even exposed should stay away."
"It killed Patrick?" Karen asks, her voice shaking.
"She's gonna be okay. Now that we know what Patrick died from we can treat it, right?" Ty questions.
"Don't panic. We're going to figure this out. But we should keep you separated in the meantime. We'll have Caleb take a look at you. I'll see what we have in the way of medications." Hershel says trying to make her feel better, he knows this is scary for her, for all of them.
Karen nods, "David from the Decatur group, he's been coughing, too."
"I'll get him." Glenn says starting down the hallway. "There's some empty clean cells in the tombs, right?"
"Yeah, we'll meet you there." Sasha tells him as he leaves the hallway.
"Come on. Let's get you settled." Sasha tells her brother and Karen, leading them down to the tombs where they would be away from the others.
"Have to call another meeting later." Hershel tells Rayne and Daryl.
"All right. I'll get to burying the dead ones." Daryl says.
"You wear gloves and a mask." Hershel warns him.
"Uh-huh." Daryl nods, turning to Rayne. "I'll see you outside, k, babe?"
"Yep, I'm gonna go talk to Hershel about what to do next." She kisses his cheek before she walks back down the hallway following Hershel.
Daryl pauses, turning to Carol he sees the worried look on her face. "You all right?"
"I'm worried about Lizzie and Mica. They were around Patrick."
"We all were. Karen and David are gonna be separated till they feel better."
"You're right." She nods. "Are you okay?"
"Mm-hmm. Got to be."
Daryl is outside digging graves, Rayne's bandana tied around his face. Despite his hatred of having to wear it, he couldn't help but smile underneath of the fabric. Every time he breathed he could smell her on it.
"Glad you were in there." Daryl says as he sees Rick walk up to him, standing on the edge of the hole he was digging.
"Wasn't much use without my gun."
"No, you were." Daryl admits, pulling the bandana down around his neck. "All this time you've been taking off, you earned it. We wouldn't be here without you."
"It was all of us."
"No, it was you first. You gonna help us figure this out?"
"I screwed up too many times. Those calls you got to make, I start down that road I almost lost my boy- who he was. Whatever else this place needs, I'm here for it."
"Like I said, you earned it. But for what it's worth, you see mistakes. I see when the shit hits, you're standing there with a shovel."
"Rick! Daryl!" Maggie screams, they turn to see the walkers pushing on the fence and it's slowly giving way.
"Oh, shit." Rick says as he takes off running, Daryl grabs his crossbow and runs after him.
"The noise drew 'em out and now this part's starting to give."
Rayne heard Maggie yelling, she quickly grabbed Sasha, Ty and Glenn. They ran down into the dog-run, grabbing a crowbar or anything sharp and started stabbing the walkers, trying to lessen the weight on the fence.
Maggie falls backwards, Glenn reaches out a hand to help her but she waves him off. "Don't. We're supposed to stay away from each other."
"Are you seeing this?" Sasha yells, the group coming over to see several dead rats on the ground by the fence. "Is someone feeding these things?"
The weight of the walkers on the fence starts to bow the chain link. "Heads up." Daryl calls the group coming over to help him.
"It's gonna give! It's gonna give! Everybody back! Come on, back, now." Rick yells as the fence starts collapse back towards them.
"The fence keeps bending in like that, those walkers are coming over it." Rayne states, they had to find someway to reinforce the fence before it collapses.
"Daryl, get the truck. I know what to do." Rick says.
Daryl and Rayne run up to the vehicles, Rayne jumping in the back of the jeep as Daryl started it up and drove back down to the fence line. Rick loaded up the pigs he had left in the trailer, they weren't of any use since they were probably infected like the other that had died.
Maggie opened the gate as they drove through and out into the field where the walkers were.
"Ready?" Daryl hollered back to Rick, Rayne taking aim with her bow in case things went south.
Their plan starts to work as the noise of the jeep attracts the walkers their way.
"Let's go." Daryl says seeing Rick's hesitation to what they were doing, but after all it was his plan.
Rick picks up one of the pigs, taking out his knife he cuts a fresh line on its hind quarters before setting it on the ground. "Go!" He yells to Daryl as Rayne stabs a walker that had gotten too close for her liking.
The walkers pounce on the injured animal immediately devouring it, the poor animal wailing as it is eaten alive.
Daryl drives them further away from the fence, right about 100 feet Rick yells for him to stop. "All right! Hold up!" Again he takes out another pig, repeating the same procedure as with the first. "All right, go. Go."
While Rick, Daryl and Rayne lead the walkers away from the perimeter, the others brace the inside of the fence with logs and pieces of wood. The three then return back to the courtyard, where Rick immediately leaves them, heading down to the pig pen that now sat empty. He was busy tearing it down when Rayne walked down to speak with him.
"You okay?" She asked as she leaned against the shed.
He looked up at her and sighed, "I've been against carrying my gun and now I find out that Carol has been teaching the kids to use weapons to protect themselves."
"So what are you gonna do?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm gonna let her. If this has taught us anything, it's that we need to be prepared at all times."
Rayne nodded, "That's good. So, in the spirit of practicing what you preach." She pulled Rick's gun out from her waistband and held it out to him. "I think you should take this back."
Looking into her eyes Rick sighed, but he nodded knowing she was right as he took his gun from her and placed it into his holster.
"Thank you." Rayne smiled, leaning up she kissed his cheek. "Glad I don't have to worry about you so much now."
"Worry about me? Who's the older one of us?" He smiled.
"Me, most of the time." She laughed before making her way back up to the courtyard. She finds Daryl waiting for her, he hugs her as she stops in front of him.
"You feelin' okay?" He asks her, concerned for her safety.
"I'm fine. Are you okay?"
"Right as rain." He smiles before he leans down and kisses her.