Chapter thirty-one: How to save a life.
"You are going to beat this world, my sweet boy, best thing I ever did."
I was sat pouring over the prison map I'd found when a shadow stood in the doorway.
"How'd it go with D?" I asked, the shadow moving closer and sitting beside me, stinking of Walkers, sweat and smoke.
"Had to kill three of 'em, one of 'em was bit, another tried to kill Rick and the third ran away, he got taken down." Daryl muttered, looking over my shoulder at the map. "Where'd you find that?"
"Carl and Sophia tried to go off on their own so I tagged along and found this after we searched the infirmary." I explained, the redneck resting his chin on my shoulder and sighing contentedly.
"Told you to stay put, didn't I?" Turning my head, I caught his eye and smiled.
"How's Hershel?"
"Better, he's awake and breathin' thanks to Lori."
Leaning our heads together, I closed my eyes, feeling Daryl's hand snake around my waist and pull us down, lying on the bed together; it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Nothing was said, but we listened to the others rejoicing about Hershel, Rick lecturing Carl about being reckless and T-Dog arguing with Andrea about what they should serve us all for dinner; Carol settled their argument in the end and I smiled, resting a hand over Daryl's chest and feeling his heart beating.
The next week or so was pretty chilled out for our group; we had food and shelter and could afford to let our guards down a little, so today was the day I decided to pitch my clothing run to the others.
"Hey, it's wake up time." I opened my eyes and scowled at Daryl, shaking my head and trying to go back to sleep as he chuckled. "Get up, I need to piss."
That had me out of bed, pulling out my jeans and looking for a clean shirt. Now that we had the stream, T-Dog and Andrea had been bringing in water, so Carol had settled into washing the clothing again, with Beth's help; I watched as Daryl stomped off down the stairs and into the common room, the bathroom was in there as well as a shower area, which we couldn't use yet as there wasn't a running water supply. After running my fingers through my hair, I rubbed my eyes and shoved my sneakers on; Lori smiled as she passed with Carl, who had been glued to his mother's side these past few days as she neared the end of her pregnancy.
Heading downstairs and outside, I yawned and squinted at the sun as it started to come up, Rick, Daryl and Carol were down in the field, getting the cars in and arguing about the prisoners they'd locked between the gates in the lower field.
Behind me, I heard the door to the Cell Block open up and out came Carl, Lori, Maggie, Beth, T-Dog and Hershel, who was using some DIY crutches to walk. I grinned and shaded my eyes as I watched the procession, feeling happy that Hershel had some of his strength and energy back.
"I got you here if you need it." Lori said softly, hand out in front of her to steady Hershel against falling forwards.
"Just take your time on those steps." Beth added softly as I waved at them.
"You're lookin' good Hershel." He nodded and paused to catch his breath, looking around at the courtyard Andrea and I had been cleaning yesterday.
"You cleared all those bodies out?" I nodded. "It's startin' to look like a place we could really live in."
"Hey, you watch your step. Last thing we need is you falling." Lori said worriedly, making sure that Hershel returned his eyes to the ground and the steps he was coming down.
"Alright, go Hershel!" We all turned our heads to see Glenn waving from behind the fences, down by the outer gate. Daryl shoved him roughly and pointed at the outer most fence and the Walkers that were gathering there, he must have said something because Glenn suddenly slumped and shook his head.
"You're doing great Daddy." Maggie said encouragingly, trying to hide her prideful grin as pride was a sin.
"You ready to race, Hershel?" Carl joked, bouncing about in front of the old man, who chuckled and shook his head kindly.
"You give me another day, I'll take you on." He warned and I laughed with Maggie, the wind blowing a strong smell of decay and trouble towards us and I saw Carl pale as he looked over his shoulder.
"Walkers, look out!" He shouted, immediately drawing his gun as a herd shuffled out of the previously chained courtyard; suddenly Beth was pulling Hershel back towards the Cell Block and the rest of us were trying to stem the tide.
"No!" Rick roared, trapped in the fences beyond the field, I watched as Lori took down a Walker with a steady hand, Carl and T-Dog taking up positions on either side of her. Maggie was covering Hershel and Beth's retreat as Andrea came out of the Cells and began to fire as well; taking down a couple of Walkers, I saw Maggie drawing Lori and Carl towards Block B, which hadn't been cleared and they shut and barred the gate.
"Stay outta the Cell Block!" I called and Maggie nodded, making sure that the doors were secure on both sides of them before drawing a knife from her boot and killing the Walker through the fence.
"Daddy, it's behind you!" Beth cried, Hershel responded to her panic by swinging his crutch at the Walker's head and killing it before continuing up the steps; Beth shut the gate behind herself as Andrea took to my side, T-Dog pointed at the gate.
"That gate is open!" We looked over at the gate and started to fight a way through to it, hearing Lori scream in pain, but unable to turn around. "It's won't lock, someone cut the chain." Patting down my pockets, I found a spare clip and passed it to him.
"Hook it through another link." He nodded, hands shaking as he hurried to clip the gate shut again.
"Come on!" Rick howled while rattling the top gate angrily as it came loose.
"Come on! Come on, come on!" Daryl chanted; finally he, Rick and Carol arrived, taking down the Walkers that were appearing from an open door leading out of B Block.
"What the hell happened?" Rick shouted at Beth and she pointed at the three of us through the fence.
"The gate was open!" She replied, Rick looking over his shoulder with a nod to where Maggie and Carl were leading Lori back to Hershel and Beth, Carol going to their side.
"She said the baby's comin'." Maggie announced as Lori clutched her belly, being led inside and to safety by the others.
"Those chains didn't break on their own, someone took and axe or cutters to 'em." Glenn panted, pointing to the chain, which now held the gate shut. "You think they did it?" He added, jerking a thumb to where the inmates were now clutching the fence and peering into the carnage nervously.
"Who else could have?" Rick snapped, as suddenly, some kind of alarm started to go off, attracting more Walkers.
"Oh! You gotta be kidding me!" Daryl snarled, shooting another arrow, as Rick whirled, looking up at speakers and pointing.
"Shoot 'em out." We all set to shooting out the speakers, shutting the noise off out here but we could still hear it within the prison itself.
"Kill it!" Andrea shouted, taking out the final speaker as we all looked around.
"How the hell can this be happening?" Rick demanded, aiming his gun at the head of one of the prisoners, Oscar, T-Dog had said his name was.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it has to be the backup generators!" He stammered and Rick tilted his head, worried as the flow of Walkers out of B Block began to falter.
"Well how do you turn those on?" A scream pierced the air as the inmate swallowed his eyes full of fear as he gathered his thought.
"There're three connected to a diesel tank, okay? Each one controls a certain part of the prison. The guards shut them all off when the prison was overrun!" He explained as Rick nodded, Glenn approaching him.
"Can someone open up the main gates electronically, with full power?" Oscar shrugged.
"Well, I only went in there a few days, I… I guess it might be possible."
"Come with us!" Rick snapped, opening the gate and letting the pair in. "Let's go!"
Daryl turned and squeezed my hand tightly before taking off after the others, T-Dog following as Andrea and I made to shut the second door, preventing any more Walkers from entering the yard as we panted.