A/N: Another chapter written for you lovely fans! Who watched TWD this week? It felt a little empty NGL but I guess we'll have to get used to it. Sorry this chapter is a bit rubbish, not proud of the quality of it but it does have action in it relevant to the season 4 stodyline!
Thanks to all the people who favourite and follow! LittleMissMikaelson1, mercenary2.0, pandasninjasndkiwis, AquaRoseWater, Priestess Luna, Miss Cassandra. Also to my lovely reviewers who motivate me to write these chapters!
Ryane: I know stupid kids! With their sexual tension and feelings they won't admit and sort out! But that's the nature of the slow burn. Ahh interesting prediction but you are wrong... I have a place in my mind it'll happen and it's not then!
Purplepecky: I miss your enthusiasm! I'm so glad you reviewed and that you're still reading! I'm still working out what should happen next myself lol but we shall see! Ah well in regards to Negan I'm sending this story towards the end of season 6 because I think it's a good place to stop and I can't bear all the deaths that come after it!
Kylo Ren Emily Skywalker: oh I know me too! What did you think of this episode? I think they did well considering you know. But it felt a bit empty. Thank you enjoy this one!
Disclaimer: I don't own the walking dead etc. Only my north star.
An alarm clock ringing faintly from another cell snapped me out of my half sleep. I groaned and tried to pull the covers back over my head from the bright sunlight coming through the sheet.
Moving around on the bed I stretched my leg out kicking something hard. I cracked an eye open to find Daryl still sitting, slumped against the wall with his head bent forward. He was snoring.
I kicked him a little more forcefully on his arm as his head snapped up immediately and his eyes opened.
"Daryl," I whispered.
"Huh? Pol?" He asked rubbing his eyes.
"What are you doing in my cell?" He asked tiredly as I rolled my eyes.
"This is my cell genius. You must have fallen asleep." I smirked at him.
I could hear the slow movements of a pair of boots outside pacing the cell block. I pushed myself out of bed and began lacing up my boots. I patted my hair down and peeked a head out of the sheet hanging from my door seeing Rick and Judith.
"Hey." I whispered quietly.
"Hi." Rick turned around and smiled slightly bouncing Judith in his arms.
"It's 6am." I deadpanned checking my watch.
"Yeah." Rick said raising his eyebrows.
"Early." I emphasised.
"Farm life starts early." He smirked as Carl stumbled out of his cell.
"Hey Pol." He smiled tiredly.
"Why are you awake?" I asked his crossing my arms over.
"To help dad." He rubbed his eyes.
"Why don't I help you? And Carl can go back to sleep." I suggested.
"No I'm fine I'm up." Carl blinked trying to focus on his surroundings.
"Go to sleep kid." I rubbed his hair as he walked back into his cell and I could hear a thump.
"You sure?" Rick asked as Beth walked down the stairs to take Judith from Rick. I stopped her and bent down to kiss Judith's forehead.
"I'm never one to shy away from hard work."
Rick's smile disappeared as he glanced behind me and it was replaced by a frown.
"Daryl." He nodded stiffly at the archer.
Oh Daryl. Couldn't you have stayed in the cell just a little while longer!
"Hey man." Daryl tiredly waved a hand at Rick before slumping up the stairs to his perch. Daryl was out like a light and his snoring echoed in the cell block once more.
"So shall we go?" I asked trying to diffuse the palpable tension.
"Yeah." Rick's mind was elsewhere.
"Let me just get my gun." I turned around to go back into cell.
"You won't need it." Rick's hand stopped me as he began walking out of C-block.
"Beth I got music in my cell if she gets irritated." I whispered to the girl who smiled.
I jogged after Rick out of the cell block and through the cafeteria, until we reached the courtyard. We walked through the fences out into the field where the crops were.
There was an uncomfortable silence between us as we stepped outside into the morning light. I looked up to the guard towers which were empty. Glenn and Maggie must have fallen asleep.
There were a cluster of walkers banging against a region in the outer fence which was bending over quite furiously.
We walked over to a fenced off patch of dirt where there were plants growing. Rick wordlessly handed me a bucket to hold as he put thick gardening gloves on.
He began pulling crops from the soil and placing them inside the bucket. There were potatoes and cucumbers growing, some of them had gotten rotten but the vast majority where edible. Due to Rick's hard work we had a growing food source.
"Daryl just fell asleep in my cell last night. We were talking." I said feeling the need to defend my actions.
"What you and Daryl do in your own time is none of my business." Rick said easily.
"If you think me and Daryl would sleep together then you don't know me at all." I said defensively as Rick glanced up at me.
"I never said that." He stated.
"No but the judgement is clear in your eyes." I pointed out, Rick had the decency to look down.
We continued in the silence for a while until it was becoming unbearable.
"You know what Rick, you have no right to judge me. None. I opened my feelings up to you that night and you rejected me. That's fine I'm over that. But just to make it clear I can sleep with whoever the hell I want!" I finished dropping the bucket and storming off.
"Wait!" Rick shouted after me.
"Enjoy the farm life Grimes!"
...
It had been an hour later and I was still on the boxing bag, releasing my anger and frustration all over it. My fists were beginning to hurt from constantly hitting it. But I didn't care.
I was too busy imagining Rick's face. Karen walked past me and stopped with her eyebrows raised.
"I'm not in the mood." I snarked.
Karen picked up the gloves and tossed them to me before walking off. I paused my boxing and wrapped the gloves on, to hit the bag once more.
Out of breath I paused, to catch feeling in my lungs once more. He frustrated me so much, first he acted like he liked me. Then he rejected me and now he judged me because Daryl spent the night in my cell. Who was he to do that?
Stomping back to my cell I walked into C block seeing the sheets still drawn.
"You can go help your dad now." I said, annoyed to Carl who gave me a look.
I collapsed on my bed and closed my eyes, not wanting to deal with people anymore.
Specifically certain blue eyed Sheriff's deputies named Rick Grimes.
...
I walked on over to C-block, slightly calmer in myself but still fuming at Rick's insinuation.
"Are you alright?" Karen asked as she walked over from Tyrese.
"I'm fine Karen." I sat on the stairs.
"You don't look it." She took her space next to me on the metal stairs.
"Do I look like I'm in the mood to talk right now?" I snapped at her, but my mood didn't faze Karen at all. She gave me a pointed look, not impressed at my taking out the anger on her.
"Sorry." I said quietly.
"It's alright. Something's clearly botherin' you though." She sighed.
"If I were to hazard a guess. Rick?" She asked as I nodded.
Just as I was about to tell her, loud snarling could be heard from one of the cells. We jumped to attention immediately as a Walker stumbled out from behind the white sheet, dripping blood and flesh onto the concrete. The rotting smell hitting our noses.
Immediately screams and shouts of terror, filled the cell block, with people scrambling for cover.
I grabbed the knife I had luckily brought with me and made my way over to the bastard but I was pushed down by panicked people. The walker bit down hard on a woman's neck, her dying screams filling the block. People were shoving themselves into the cells, closing the doors in to save themselves.
But there were walkers everywhere descending on us.
"Karen get a rifle!" I shouted at her as I slashed, the remains of people I knew.
A loud shotgun sound filled the air, as a Walker dropped dead behind me. I turned around seeing the smoke from the barrel of Karen's gun but all hell had already broken loose.
We switched between herding people out of the cell block, whilst keeping an eye on walkers that attacked us.
I was pulled back and shoved to the side, by a familiar archer who began firing his crossbow off.
"Daryl!" I shouted alerting him to the pack of Walkers going after Tyrese.
"Pol!" I turned around as Rick came into the fray, he grabbed my shoulders harshly.
"Are you bit?" He shouted.
"No! We gotta help them!" I said as we began shooting the walkers down.
A number of terrified people were running down the steel steps and out of the cell block as Rick got them safely out. I watched his back, cutting down the walkers with my knife that tried to bite him.
People were walking around with teared up limbs and large bites embedded in their arms and legs.
"Glenn!" I screamed running over to him to slash the knife into the head of the Walker crawling behind him.
"Thanks." He huffed as I nodded.
"Karen, Tyrese get out of here! Take others with you." Rick instructed the happily united couple by the cell. I scouted the cell block, as people were running out getting to a safe place. I spotted Carol, dragging someone into one of the cells and followed her.
"Ryan." I said pushing back the sheet and spotting the man groaning on the bed.
"I couldn't find Hershel." Carol said strapping the belt around his upper arm.
I came beside her and found the nasty bite embedded into his arm. I looked at Carol worriedly as she continued making the tourniquet.
"We gotta amputate to stop the infection from spreading." Carol said.
"I can do it." I said firmly inspecting the arm.
"You sure?" Carol stopped to look at me.
"Yeah, I got to." I gave her a tight smile.
I took my machete and held Ryan's arm.
"Bite down on this." Carol gave him a belt.
"You can do this Polaris." Ryan nodded firmly.
"I'm supposed to reassure you." I joked.
I leaned over his arm and stopped, subtly motioning to Carol to look. There was sizeable bite on the back of his neck. There was nothing we could do. Ryan was a father, and now a dead man.
"It's happenin' isn't it?" Ryan asked, the sweat dripping down his face. I gently threw the knife across the cell, focusing on comforting the patient.
Me and Carol gently laid him back as I inspected his face. His pupils were dilated, he was running a fever, there were sores starting to appear around his mouth and he was sweating buckets.
"You're in shock, you need to rest." Carol gently held his forehead.
"Lizzie and Mica, you care about them." He directed his statement to Carol.
"They don't have anyone else. Kids on their own, they don't stand a chance. Can you look out for them? Like they're yours?" Ryan's voice broke.
"Yeah I can." Tears pricked my eyes at Carol's answer. She had lost her own daughter, and now she was taking responsibility for another man.
I placed a hand on Carol's shoulder and left the cell, giving them privacy coming out into the open. Finally the people were out of the cell block and the walkers dead.
"You good?" Rick's hand hovered over my arms as he looked down into my eyes.
"Yeah." I said backing away from his touch, remembering what he said just this morning.
"Check the cells." He called out to me, Daryl and Glenn.
We went through each cell, finding more than a few dead bodies. People we knew. I sighed sadly seeing the fallen men and women, thrusting my knife through their heads just to be sure, then throwing sheets over them.
"How did this happen?" I looked at Daryl as we moved between the cells.
"I dunno. They couldn't have got in." Daryl said walking over to Rick.
"But they did."
Rick killed a walker lurking in one of the cells.
"We found Patrick. Bleeding at the mouth, like he was infected or somethin'" Rick said as I stood beside him.
"Walkers infected? What like a virus?" I asked him in surprise.
"I don't know." Rick shook his head.
"I heard Patrick was running a fever. Dr S and Hershel said it could've been a airborne virus carried in with the walkers." I said.
"But it turned our own into them?" Glenn asked.
"No bites, no wounds I think he just died." Rick stated bending over another one of the newcomers, Charlie's body as Dr S and Hershel both came into the cell.
"Horribly too. Pleurisy, aspiration. He choked to death on his own blood." Dr S said sombrely.
"I saw Walkers like that outside the fence." Rick said.
"Is it a sickness from the Walkers?" I asked.
"No around from before them. Pneumococcal, most likely an aggressive flu strain." Dr S suggested.
"Hell, Charlie was here just yesterday eatin' barbeque." Daryl said.
"How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"
"I had a sick pig, died quick. Saw a sick boar in the woods." Rick stated.
"Violet?" My eyes flashed over to him in surprise.
"Yeah." His blue eyes met mine.
"That's how these things spread in the past. We need to do something about those hogs." Hershel said morosely.
"Maybe we got lucky, maybe these cases are just it." Dr S said hopefully.
I shot him a look with my eyebrows raised, he surely couldn't be that naive.
"All of us here. We've all been exposed." Hershel said.
I stepped out of the cells breathing heavily. We could be infected, all of us here could be infected with whatever that was. Which meant we were doomed.
"You alright?" Rick asked.
"You want the truth or the lie Grimes?" I chuckled sarcastically.
"No I'm not fine." I shook my head in response.
"You?"
"No." Rick said uneasily as we walked in silence out of C-block.
"Listen," Rick began.
"Rick, please. Let's just leave it." I said quickly, hoping to avoid the subject.
"No I gotta say this." Rick said as we stopped walking.
"I didn't mean to suggest that there was anything between you and Daryl. Not that there's anythin' wrong with it. It's your choice and I shouldn't interfere with it." Rick apologised looking sincere.
"You're right. It is absolutely my choice. But when I say nothing happened, I mean it. And you didn't believe, you didn't trust me on a small thing like that." I said firmly testing him, as we left the corridors.
"I know. I'm sorry, I had no right." Rick said more seriously.
"I know." I echoed his words.
"To make up for it," Rick stopped me with his hand. He reached down into his back pocket and pulled out a small purple flower handing it out to me, with an unsure look on his face.
"A flower?" I raised an eyebrow at him, suppressing a smile.
"Uh yeah. I haven't found anymore books for ya." Rick scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
"What makes you think I would like flowers?" I asked.
"You don't?" Rick asked, his eyes widening.
"Lucky for you I do."
I took the flower wordlessly from him as he approached the door from the courtyard.
"As far as apologies go, that wasn't bad." I cracked a small smile looking ahead as we walked. I smiled warmly to myself, holding the precious flower in my hand.
Whether he liked me or not, the flower caused a warm feeling to wash over me and a small spark of hope. But that feeling was fleeting and gone, the moment I remembered what had just happened. That we weren't even safe behind our own walls.
"Yeah?" Rick managed a small smile as he pushed the door open and held it for me, gesturing for me to go through.
"Yeah."
"We lost a lot of people." Rick said looking down, the change in mood instantaneous.
"Don't you dare blame yourself." I said firmly, feeling the loss of our people.
We walked under the connecting fence bridge seeing Carl and Maggie supporting an injured Michonne in the middle of them. Carl threw Michonne's arm down and ran towards us as quickly as he could.
"Carl!" I shouted.
"You might wanna stay back." Rick said warily to his son, as he wrapped himself in a hug.
"Dad, I'm sorry. I didn't see you come out." Carl's voice cracked, as my heart broke at the sight of him. Sometimes it was hard to forget, he was still so young and vulnerable.
"It's okay. I'm here I'm fine." Rick said reassuringly.
"Pol." Carl's attention turned to me as his head came crashing into my chest as he hugged me.
"Carl." I rubbed a hand down his back.
"Back away kid." I gave him a gentle shove away from the both of us.
"I had to use one of the guns by the gate, I swear I didn't want to." Carl said defensively as Rick looked at him.
"I was coming back. I fell, they came out and helped me." Michonne said leaning against Maggie.
"I'm glad you're safe." I sighed in relief, seeing my best friend.
"What happened in there?" Maggie asked holding Michonne's hand over her shoulder.
I looked at Rick, at a loss for words.
"Patrick got sick last night, some kind of flu. We think he died and attacked the cell block." Rick explained.
"Look, I know. I know he was your friend. I'm sorry." Rick bent down to Carl, his voice wavering slightly.
"Glenn and your dad are ok, but they were in there." Rick spoke to Maggie.
"You shouldn't get too close to anyone that might've been exposed, at least for a while. All of you." Rick spoke to them as Carl rushed back to Michonne.
"Take care y'all." Maggie gave us a small smile as they helped Michonne off.
"Now what?" I asked the man in charge, no matter how much he didn't want to be.
"The council are gonna meet, they'll decide what to do.
...
"Daryl wait up!" I shouted to the archer who was heading out towards the field. He turned around seeing me and stopped, holding a few shovels in his hands.
"You shouldn't have to do it by yourself." I said softly, walking up to him.
"I don't mind." Daryl shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'm helping you. No room for argument Dixon. Let's go." I took one of the shovels as we walked together to the site, to bury the bodies.
"Here, use this to cover your nose and mouth." Daryl threw me a dirty looking red neck scarf.
"I'm not gonna lie, this doesn't look hygienic." I turned my nose up at the rag, but quickly tied it around my face at Daryl's disapproving look.
The bodies were wrapped in white sheets on one side, as me and Daryl started digging. An hour later we had dug and filled two of the holes and were working on the third.
"I've already thought of too many inappropriate jokes." I shook my head morbidly eyeing the body wrapped in the sheet.
That was Patrick. Eager to please everyone, eternally grateful to Daryl for the deer.
"People process grief differently." Daryl said.
"Yeah." I stuck the shovel into the soil and threw the dirt out of the hole we were digging.
"I don't think I have any tears left to cry anymore." I shook my head.
"You can surprise yerself." Daryl said simply. I looked up seeing a familiar man in that awful brown shirt approach us.
"Glad you were in there." Daryl said, a black scarf around his own face.
"Wasn't much use without my gun." Rick looked around the field.
"No you were. All this time you've been takin' off. You've earned it." Daryl said removing the mask.
"He's right, we wouldn't be here without you." I praised the man who was eyeing the shovel.
"Nah, it was all of us." Rick took the shovel and approached the grave.
"It was you first. You gonna help us figure this out?" Daryl turned to his friend.
"I screwed up too many times. The calls you have to make. I start down that road, I almost lost my boy, who he was." Rick expressed sadly.
"Whatever else this place needs, I'm here for it." Rick said firmly, not wavering from his position.
But truth be told, the council were doing well. However we needed a strong leader like Rick, Hershel disagreed with me on that thinking Rick would better be served in other places.
"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." Daryl said diplomatically.
My lips drew into a smile of amazement at Daryl's words.
"What are you smilin' for?" Daryl asked.
"Oh nothin' just didn't know you were capable of such a sentimental pep talk." I said as Daryl pushed me down into the dirt.
"Oi!" I complained.
"RICK! DARYL! POL!" Maggie came running over the hill screaming our names, as she pointed to the fence.
The outer fence was close to collapsing now, at least hundred Walkers were leaning on it, growling and snarling. Threatening to knock it down. The three of us immediately jumped up to run after Maggie. We reached the weak part of the outer fence and grabbed the hooks, stabbing their brains to push them back.
"Noise has drawn them out. The fence is starting to give!" Maggie said urgently.
I watched Rick, eye the long metal hook reluctantly.
"It's okay." I reassured him, plunging one into a walker.
Rick's blue orbs snapped to me as he nodded, thrusting the metal rod into the brain of a walker, reaching it's clawed hand through the fence.
"There's more of them coming!" Glenn called out. Sure enough, there were more walkers drawing in from deep in the forest, joining the ones already tearing down the fence.
"Are you seein' this?" Sasha called out from one side. I jogged over to her, finding dead rats on our side of the fence, their entrails staining the grass crimson.
"Is someone feeding these things?" She asked in disbelief as we all shared horrified looks.
"This side of the fence quick!" Maggie shouted as we all rushed over, trying to push the walkers back.
"Woah," Glenn pulled me back slightly as the fence was almost parallel to our heads and the walkers hands were almost in contact with our skin.
"It's gonna give! It's gonna give!" Rick shouted urgently as we all pushed back against the fence, screaming from the exertion.
"Okay, back. Come on back now!" Daryl shouted as we all took our hands off the fence, staring helplessly as the growls became louder.
"Daryl get the truck. I know what to do." Rick stated.
"This is the most reckless idea you've had!" I shouted back to Rick, over the roar of the truck. Daryl was driving through the gate and out of the prison, with Rick standing on the cart attached.
"Not true!" He called.
"Don't you remember Atlanta?" Rick cracked a wry smile as I shook my head disapprovingly. Atlanta seemed like ages ago now. A different time.
Daryl steered hard the truck and stopped, until we were a decent distance away from the prison fence, behind the horde of walkers.
"Ready!" Daryl shouted.
"Rick they're close enough." I growled at him as the walkers turned their attention towards us.
"Let's go!" Daryl said urgently.
Rick reached inside the crate on the cart and pulled out one of the piglets squealing in terror. He took his knife and sliced the throat dropping the pig onto the ground. Daryl started up the truck as we drove a distance away from the walkers, now distracted by a different food source. They tore into the pig as I turned my head in disgust.
"And there goes the bacon!" I cheered sarcastically.
"Alright stop!" Rick called out as he pulled out another pig, releasing them to the walkers who were following us. I looked back at the fence where Sasha and Glenn were reinforcing the fence with thick wooden trunks, supporting the weakness.
We drove far away as Rick collapsed onto the cart, blood stained on his face and the brown shirt.
...
After taking a shower I walked outside passing Carl who was making his way back inside.
"You alright kid?" I asked his forlorn face.
"Yeah, you might wanna check on dad though." He said seriously before walking off.
Rick was standing in front of the broken pen, burning the wooden fence pieces in the fire. He had his hands on his hips as I walked up to stand beside him, watching the fire.
"You got your belt back on." I noticed seeing the gun, strapped into his holster.
"Yeah, I think it's time. Don't you?" Rick asked.
"Yeah. We need you Rick, and not as a farmer." I said seriously.
"I know." he nodded, the blood still on his face.
He looked down at the brown shirt and dabbed it, feeling the crimson liquid. He began undoing the buttons on the shirt and took it off as he stood before me. Shirtless.
"Uh Rick." I raised an eyebrow at him. Not entirely complaining. He threw the shirt into the fire wordlessly looking sombre.
I had so many words lined up to say to him in that moment, glad that he finally got rid of the brown shirt. But seeing the serious look on his face, I stopped. Under different circumstances, I would have enjoyed seeing his shirtless torso a lot more. But I couldn't.
I shrugged my outer shirt off, leaving me in a t shirt and wrapped it up around his shoulders.
"Thanks." Rick looked down at me smiling.
"Wouldn't want you to catch a cold." I smiled at him.
I coughed into my hand a few times, as Rick rubbed my back soothingly.
"Pol?"
"Yeah no I'm fine."
A/N: what did you guys think? Until next time!