I woke up to painful cramps twisting my empty stomach and slowly I blearily came to my senses. Crust at the corners of my eyes that I tried to rub and nearly put my own eye out with the handle of the knife in my hand.

My dry mouth made it hard to swallow but the lump in my throat made me try to anyway.

It's still dark out but the sky just beginning to turn from black to blue is a good indicator that it's almost dawn but I'm not that tired. Aching and mentally exhausted but energy-wise I think I'm good.

It gets dark around 6-7ish these days, I don't know how long I was running after it got dark but it certainly wasn't anywhere near 6 hours. That means I must've gotten at least 5-7 hours of sleep. I don't know how in the Valkyrie's homeland I managed to actually get a near full night's sleep after yesterday, but maybe it's precisely because of yesterday.

Sometimes pure exhaustion can be a wonderful thing.

I licked my lips as I pulled my stiff legs up, setting my knife down next to me so I can use the inside of my shirt to rub the crust off my eyes (last thing I wanna do now that I've seen my hands is rub this disgusting old dry blood into my eyes) before using the wall to stand up.

My bones cracked and legs ached in protest but aren't complaining nearly as much as they once did.

I might up my training regimen a little, now that I know it's working the way I intended for exactly what I need it to.

I cracked and stretched my neck, trying to loosen up my muscles a little bit. The absence of adrenaline makes all these pains a little harder to ignore, especially the ones in my hands.

I was smart enough to think about training my legs and arms and all that, regrettably I did not think about the more obscure things I should've been training; like my hands and wrists.

My stomach cramped sharply again followed by a growl that actually relieved the pain a little for a few seconds.

I have to get out of here. I don't know how much longer I can handle this.

It feels like being trapped underground.

My head snapped over when all of a sudden an eruption of growling, a stampede of footsteps — not all of them shuffling — and a harrowing scream echoed through the hall like a horror movie.

Not a second later I almost had a heart attack at a loud bang followed by a distant short yell echoing off the concrete walls.

Not a bang like a gun shot but a bang like a door being slammed.

In a heartbeat I hit the cell bars with almost my entire body shoving my hand between the bars with the keys to unlock it — I practically threw them at the wall the second it was open — and pulled my knives, running towards the sounds of someone fighting for their life.

How did the others manage to get down here so fast? It's only been one night — it was dark — there were so many walkers — how did they even find me!?

I raised my knives up as the sounds came from just around the next corner and a short scream burst from my lips as I ran smack into a chest and almost flew backwards.

Both of us barely managed to realize in time that we're not dead and it took a moment to process the brown eyes staring back at me.

"T-Dog!?"

"Eve!?"

I pushed him out of the way and angled my already raised knife up again and let the walker stumble straight into it all by itself.

It dropped as T-Dog caught his breath behind me, leaning over on his knees. "Boy am I glad to see you."

Likewise, ma dude.

I smiled in simultaneous disbelief and relief, and offered him a hand to straighten back up.

"How did you wind up down 'ere?" He asked and that's… a complicated question.

I waved it off, we don't have time for that right now — not here. "I'll tell you later. Carol?"

"I don't know." He shook his head and started walking back the way I came, being cautious and looking around the corner first but not as cautious as normal because I came from that direction and well, it's safe to assume probably everything is dead.

"We got separated after we were chased outta the courtyard. By the way, thanks for covering our asses out there."

My eyebrows furrowed as I walked in tandem with him, watching my step over the corpses and other debris in the long hallway.

"If there had been even one more walker in that courtyard, I don't think both of us would've made it inside. What about Lori, Maggie, Carl? I thought you got inside the cell block with them? What happened?"

My breath caught and I looked away, swallowing before answering. "Cell block was filled with walkers. We got chased down to the boiler room. Lori went into labor... She didn't make it. I gave Maggie and Carl a chance to escape with the baby."

T-Dog put his hand on my shoulder. "You did the right thing. Do you know what those alarms were?"

I shook my head. All I know is the two of us probably have the same information.

Those were definitely something like riot or lockdown alarms for the prison but as far as I can tell, it was just sirens nothing else.

I don't know how the gate got opened, if the walkers broke it. I don't know how the alarm got turned on but there's walkers all over down here, and we don't know where that alarm's switch is, it's possible that a walker bumped something in his little dead daze and switched it on by accident.

"Come on, from what I can tell this side of the prison is almost exactly the same as the other. There should be a way out somewhere up ahead."

Thank god. I can't wait to get out of here.

I nodded and followed his lead, glancing behind us just to make sure we're not gonna get snuck up on.

A few minutes later he glanced at me and down at my side a little. "You good?"

I looked over, half expecting to see blue eyes but instead I met the concerned dark brown ones of someone I consider family.

"You're shaking."

I glanced down at my hand, halfway bringing it up.

I swallowed and nodded, gripping the handles of my blades tighter and glanced behind us again. It's a long straight hallway, there's not much opportunity for something to sneak up on us but we're coming up on a corner so it's more to know what's around us, just in case. I should've kept those keys with me.

His eyebrows went up as his eyes widened, realization dawning on his face. "Oh, yer claustrophobic."

I looked at him, taken aback. There's no way he could've figured that out. I didn't tell anyone that except Daryl — did Daryl tell—

"I remember you had a panic attack at the CDC."

Wait you saw that? And you remember it?

"Don't worry, just hold on a little longer ok? We're almost outta here."

I nodded. Even though it didn't help much, I appreciate him trying and the fact he did, is what worked.

He was right. 10 more minutes of wandering down dusty halls and I pulled open a door that made me gasp and then melt, taking a deep breath in.

I could cry —I feel the urge to— but thank god. Fresh air at last.

Opening this door and seeing the orange rays of the sun coming up behind the building feels like that moment when you wake up from a long nightmare.

Except this nightmare doesn't end.

The yard on this side looks almost exactly like the one on the other side minus the entry gate, and it's just a little smaller, and those 3 were right. Directly ahead of us is a massive gaping hole in the fence like someone drew an armored truck through it.

"Oh Hell no." T-Dog groaned just behind my shoulder.

The yard is filled with walkers but they're mostly on the other side. Looks like they're wandering in from another hole on that side but there's at least 6 of them between the 2 of us and the fence.

That's our way out. We can easily get past these ones, swing around the outside of the prison along the fence, all the way back around to the gate and hope someone's on watch to let us in.

I looked at T-Dog with a ready face and the second I did, he sighed, already knowing that we're doing this.

I spun my knife and held the handle out to him, seeing as how he doesn't have a weapon. I don't know how he lasted without one but that would explain why he was running from a single walker.

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