AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"It's overrun," Rick said, shaking his head as Daryl walked up from his inspection. Glenn remained behind with Rick, but T-Dog had accompanied Daryl on a long walk around the outside of the prison grounds.
"There's a hole in the back," Daryl said. "Somethin' knocked it down. I think that's how a lot are gettin' in."
"Why would they all want to go in there?" Rick asked. Daryl was certain it was rhetorical, but he decided to at least address it since he and T-Dog had already discussed the same thing.
"There's a lotta civilians in there," Daryl said. "Either they went in because they could smell the prisoners that was locked in there and couldn't get out, or they went in there because there was some kinda noise that just drew 'em in."
"We thought an alarm or something," T-Dog offered. "Doesn't matter what got them in there, it looks like most of them are stuck."
"Easier to get in than it is to get out where that wall is collapsed," Daryl said. "They can practically fall in from the outside, but they can't crawl back out."
"So that's it, then," Rick said. "The place is overrun."
"I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about," Daryl said. "So that's it? This is the safest damn place we gonna find. It was built to keep people in that they wanted to keep in and keep people out that they didn't want comin' in there to get others out. We won't find a single damned thing that's more secure. You oughta know that shit."
"But it belongs to the Walkers," Rick said. "There aren't enough of us to clear out that many bodies. We'd be overrun immediately. And we don't have enough ammunition to stand out here and pick them off one by one. Besides—shooting would just draw more of them."
"Maybe we sit down and we think about it," Daryl said, "but we don't give up that easy. I want this. The whole damn thing. And if I gotta put down a couple dozen Walkers to get it, then that's what the hell I'ma do."
Rick laughed to himself.
"It's more like a hundred Walkers. Just saying you want it doesn't mean that we can get it," Rick said. "We don't even have enough hands to attempt something like this."
"Then we stop countin' people out just because they got tits," Daryl said blankly. "We put guns in hands and we add Carol, Lori, Maggie, and Beth to our numbers."
"They can't shoot," Rick said.
"So we teach 'em enough to get us in the door," Daryl said.
"Shane already tried to teach them," Rick said.
"Shane dicked around with a couple guns for a couple days," Daryl said. "And Carol didn't go 'cause nobody could watch Sophia an' Lori ain't gone because of somethin', and Beth didn't go 'cause she was too young or something. Hershel can watch Sophia a couple hours. And before you even start any kinda shit about it, the kickback on a handgun ain't gonna hurt your wife or injure your kid or whatever."
"We don't have enough ammunition," Rick said. "Even if we had enough to clear this place or to teach them all how to shoot well enough to take out Walkers, we don't have enough for both."
"Are you just tryin' to shoot down everything I say?" Daryl asked. "Because if that's your mission, just let me know now. I'm startin' to think you don't want us to find somewhere safe."
"I want us to find somewhere safe," Rick said. "I'm just saying that this? This is not somewhere safe. This is a prison full of Walkers. It's a death trap, Daryl. A suicide mission."
"Wait," T-Dog said, interjecting into the conversation. "It doesn't have to be an all or nothing situation."
"What do you mean?" Rick asked.
Daryl and T-Dog had already discussed the prison and the challenges they would face in clearing the place. The walk around the prison had given them plenty of time to hash things out. They were able to discuss things as a conversation, as well, instead of making it seem like one of them was on trial for even suggesting that the location might still be the best possibility that they had in finding a safe place.
Daryl was more than happy to let T-Dog take the lead in presenting the information to Rick. He had a feeling, after all, that Rick might accept it from T-Dog a little bit better at the moment.
"I'm sure you know the way that a prison yard is set up," T-Dog said.
"I never worked at a prison this size," Rick said. "But I've got some idea."
"Lucky for you," Daryl offered, "we got some decent idea of how it's set up."
He swallowed back a smile at both Rick and T-Dog's expressions. Their expressions were very different, though both were amusing. And their expressions, he knew, were for very different reasons. Daryl offered nothing else on the matter, and neither did T-Dog, other than to explain the layout a little.
"There's a series of gates and fences," T-Dog said. "They separate the yard off into a number of different sections."
"It allows you to separate different prisoners that need to be separated out for whatever reason," Rick offered. "And it lets you lock down parts of the yard in a hurry in case something's going on. It keeps the prisoners divided."
"The same way it worked then," Daryl said, sensing that Rick was no longer on the offensive, "is how it can work our favor."
"We don't have to take the whole prison at once," T-Dog said. "We can take it piece by piece."
Rick looked back toward the prison yard that was crawling with Walkers. He crossed his arms across his chest and adjusted his stance. Daryl could tell that he was starting to rethink his earlier stance that the prison was little more than a deathtrap that couldn't be taken.
"You've got some kind of plan?" Rick asked.
T-Dog looked satisfied when he glanced at Daryl. Daryl nodded his head at T-Dog to give him permission to outline, for Rick, what they had discussed while they'd been walking around the prison.
"If we all went running in there," T-Dog said, "it probably would be like committing suicide. Especially if we tried to take all the Walkers at once. But we only need to make it to that first gate up there. We can send in our fastest person. Lay down cover fire if we have to. Get someone to that gate just long enough to pull it shut. That leaves us with only the Walkers in that area to pick off. We can call them down. Make noise. Get them to come to the fences. We can pick them off with knifes. Blades. We can save bullets that way."
"The fences will hold," Daryl said when T-Dog stopped talking like he'd said everything that he needed to say for the moment. "We can see that. We'll test 'em even more when we're in there. We can close ourselves into the first little area there and stay as long we want. We can call Walkers down. Pick them off through the fences. And the whole damn time we're doin' it, we'll be protected because they can't get at us from out here."
A smile slowly spread across Rick's face. He nodded his head more to himself than to either Daryl or T-Dog.
"And then, eventually, we'll clear out all the Walkers in there," Rick said. "As they come to the fence."
"It'll get trickier as the bodies pile up," Daryl said. "We don't want 'em gettin' too high or too heavy. We can stay there for a while pickin' 'em off, but we better not do it too long."
"Eventually our runner's going to have to go for the next gate," T-Dog said. He started walking and, without any explicit need for instruction, Daryl and Rick followed him. Daryl already knew what he wanted them to see, but Rick hadn't seen the whole prison. He'd remained facing the front of the complex. "See over there? That's the second set of gates. We could move into that second section if a runner could close the gate. We'll repeat the process. That'll take us right up there near the actual entrance of the prison. One more gate until we've got access to the building."
"So, we do the same thing again," Rick offered.
"That last one, there? If we close it, we'll shut out that whole area that's been compromised," Daryl said. "For good measure, we oughta pick it clean so they don't bunch up too bad and bend the fences, but we don't gotta have that area for a while."
"We'll fix something temporary to keep more Walkers from getting in for a while," T-Dog offered. "A stopper. Then, when we're settled, we'll have time to figure out how to properly fix the fence so that it's just as dependable as the rest of the fences."
"Eventually," Daryl said, "we'll clear the whole damn place out. But even if we rested a whole fuckin' day in between each of them gates, we'd gain access to the buildin' in like three days. And by the time we got access to the building, we've done cleared everything out front. That's plenty of room for all kinda shit. We can worry about what else we need later, but that'll give us room for a lot right away."
"And it'll be safe," T-Dog said. "Protected by the fences."
"Then we have to clear the prison," Rick said. "And we don't know what's in there."
"Whatever the hell is in there," Daryl said, "we can handle. If we gotta, we'll get bodies on one side of the door. Force it almost closed. Let Walkers out one or two at a time and anybody can pick 'em off. We'll keep 'em from comin' out heavy an' bunchin' up. Might mean we're cleanin' the place out for a week or even two, but we can sleep in the yard in the meantime. We can look at them towers for a place to sleep. Hell—we're movin' our vehicles inside, so we can sleep in them. The point is, no matter how damn long it takes us to clear out that building, we're sleepin' with the protection of fences."
"And every damn day we spend clearing Walkers out of the prison is a day closer to not having to live clearing Walkers out of anything every single day," T-Dog said with a laugh.
Rick held his hands up in surrender at both of the men and flexed his fingers in the familiar cop method of trying to calm someone down. Then he spoke.
"I'm not trying to tear down your idea," Rick said. "But there are other things we have to consider."
"And I just know you're gonna tell us what the fuck they are," Daryl said with a laugh.
"Water," Rick said.
"Creek," Daryl responded. "And around here, you can bet your ass that creek is well-fed from a river. There's underground springs and wells every other fuckin' foot in this area. We'll spend a while haulin' water, but eventually we might dig a well."
"If we're here long enough," T-Dog offered, "we might have the opportunity to figure out how the hell to get a pump system going."
"And you already know that Carol's gonna purify that shit 'cause she ain't been able to count on a fuckin' soul to help her so far, so she's used to boilin' water while she does about a dozen other things."
Rick recoiled slightly, and Daryl could tell that the man hadn't missed his intended jab. Daryl was almost satisfied that Rick looked at least a little apologetic and, even, a little sheepish.
"It's been a challenge to divide tasks," Rick offered.
"Save your half-assed excuses," Daryl offered with a laugh. "I don't wanna fight about it right now. My point is that this is what the hell we need right now. I'm hearin' you got a kid on the way every other hour." He held his own hand up in Rick's direction to stop him from saying anything. "That's fine. I get it. If I had a kid on the way, I'd be shittin' bricks, too, I reckon. I'm chompin' at the damned bit to have a place where Sophia can live. Really fuckin' live. I want her to know what the hell it's like wakin' up in the same place every day an' it ain't the seat of a truck."
"What Daryl's trying to say is that this is a place where we can make a home. Build a life," T-Dog said. "We can sleep here. All of us. At once. And we don't have to pack up when the sun comes up and we don't have to go to sleep wondering when the hell we're ever going to settle down."
"We don't have to take the whole place at once," Daryl said. "We can take it a couple of feet at a time. But, eventually, the whole damn thing is going to belong to us. Beyond if we want to expand. Put up more fences eventually."
Rick stood and considered the prison for a moment.
It was an old prison. Georgia had probably lowered funding for the place to the bare minimum to be able to funnel those funds elsewhere—and likely into somebody's pockets. The yard, at this moment, crawled with Walkers who ambled in one direction and then another because, in an abandoned prison yard, they had very little to draw their attention and give them direction.
Even the morning was overcast and the sky threatened to piss pour rain. It made the entire scene in front of them seem gray and damp and dirty.
But Daryl could practically see a heavenly glow blanketing the whole scene.
The prison would be safe. They would take control of it and, eventually, and like T-Dog said, they would turn it into a home. They would build a life there. Daryl could imagine a place where it was safe to let Sophia play. It was safe to sleep at night without worrying about what might surprise them as soon as their eyes were closed. Daryl could imagine a place where it was safe enough to settle and to really have something that he'd never dreamed of having before.
He was prepared to fight with everything he had for that prison.
And when Rick's expression shifted ever-so-slightly, Daryl knew that they were finally on the same page, even if it was only for a brief moment.
Rick was willing to fight for that prison, too.
Rick smiled to himself.
"We better get started if we're going to teach any of the women how to shoot well enough to lay down cover fire without killing anyone," Rick offered. "And we've got to figure out who can run the fastest."