Chapter 36-War plans

Hershel's P.O.V

Hershel stood on the catwalk early the next morning, watching as the sun rose in the sky. He looked at Jim as he walked outside and stopped by the older man. "How are you doing?" Jim asks Hershel.

"As well as can be expected," Hershel answers. "I was never supposed to outlive my children."

"Neither was I," Jim says softly. "I would have given my life for my kids if given a chance."

Hershel nods. "I want to get his body."

"Do you remember where it is?"

"No, but we weren't that far from the farm. We couldn't have been twenty minutes away from it. I want to give him a proper burial by his mother and brother."

"Merle will probably send a group back for supplies. Go with them," Jim tells Hershel. "We have a busy day ahead of us. We should get inside," Hershel nods as he walks away from the man. "Hershel, the pain, it never goes away. You just make room for it. But you still have two children. Don't forget that," Jim says as he walks past the man who follows him.

Merle's P.O.V

Everybody sat in the eating area, eating a bowl of stew that Carol had made. "I know we haven't had the best couple of days, but the Governor is still out there, and he isn't going to stop until we are all dead, so we need to get ready for the fight that is coming."

"How?" Tomas asks Merle.

"First, a group is going to go back to the farm. We have supplies stashed in the woods in case this ever happened. Food, medicine, weapons, stuff like that, we'll see if we can salvage anything from the basement. Hershel, Shane, Michonne, Jim, and Jacqui will go back to the farm. Take the truck outside. Jim, get my bike if it's still there."

Jim nods with a smirk. "We also need to get the walkers out of the tomb," Daryl says. "Oscar, Maggie, Sasha, Haley, Tyreese, Guillermo, Summer, Tomas, and I will handle that. We will figure out a way to block the entrance when they are out."

"We'll need more weapons than what we left on the farm," T-dog says.

"I know where we can get weapons," Rick says, making everybody look at him. "There is a military outpost outside of King's county. It got overrun not long after the turn. I can take a group and clear that and get the weapons," Merle nods. "Andrea, Glenn, Amy, Axel, Morales, Otis, and I will clear that and get what supplies we can."

"Rick, stop by the police station and grab some spike strips. We can use them against the Governor," Shane tells Rick, who nods.

"Okay, everybody eat, and let's get to work."

T-dog's P.O.V

T-dog sat on a bed in a prison cell as Kate changed his dressing. "Did Dale die quickly?" She asks T-dog, who nods.

"Merle, put him down quickly," T-dog tells her. She nods as he stands up.

"I'll look at it tomorrow. You should be fine," Kate tells him before he leaves the cell. T-dog looks up and looks at Lori as she walks into the cell.

"At least you didn't die," Lori says with a smirk as she sits down beside him.

"Dale and Diego did," T-dog says softly. Lori nods. "How's the baby?"

"She's doing good. She's with her brother right now," Lori tells him. "I'll let you rest. I just wanted to check on you."

T-dog nods as Lori kisses his cheek and leaves.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl led his group towards the back of the prison. Oscar was carrying the stereo they had found. They get to the back of the prison and stop. They hooked it up and started to play music on it. "Oscar, Tomas, Haley, take out any walkers that come from behind us," Daryl tells the three of them, who nods as the first walker comes out of the prison. Daryl raises his crossbow and shoots it through the walker's head. He reloads as another walker comes out of the prison, followed by more as they start to filter out of the prison. The group starts to kill the walkers as they get closer. Daryl stabs his knife through the head of a walker and then stabs his hand gauntlet through the head of another walker. As more walkers start to fill out, they start to back up. "Use your guns!" Daryl tells everybody, who nods as they withdraw their guns and start to shoot the walkers.

Behind them, Oscar, Haley, and Tomas shoot walkers as they come out from the trees. After twenty minutes of fighting, the walkers stopped coming out of the prison. Tomas disconnects the stereo and looks around at the bodies. "Everybody, okay?" Daryl asks everybody, who nods. "You three stay out here and clear any walkers that show up. The rest of us will go into the prison and clear any remaining walkers," Daryl tells Haley, Tomas, and Oscar, who nods as Daryl leads his group into the prison.

Hershel's P.O.V

Hershel climbs out of the truck and looks around the farm. He looks at his house and sighs. "I'll go with Hershel to find Diego. You guys get the weapons and see what you can find," Shane tells them. They nod as Shane follows Hershel towards the woods. They enter the woods in silence. Shane had his fire ax in his hands, and Hershel held his knife. Shane swings his ax into the head of a walker and pulls the ax out, letting the walker fall to the ground as Hershel kills another walker. They continue to walk and look around the woods for over an hour until they finally see Deigo's body lying on the ground. His stomach was torn open, his arms and legs had bites in them, and there was a bite on his neck. Hershel looks away from his son's body as Shane pulls off his coat and puts it over Diego's face and the top of his chest. He then pulls off his T-shirt and sets it on his stomach, leaving him in a tank top. Shane picks Diego up, making sure that his clothes remain over his body. "I got him. Lead the way back," Shane tells Hershel, who nods as he walks back towards the farm. They walk back in silence as Hershel wipes tears from his eyes. They get back to the farm and find Jim digging a grave. Shane laid Diego's body down.

"Thank you, Jim," Hershel says to the man, who nods.

"We found some sheets if you would rather wrap him up in that," Jim tells Shane, who nods as he walks away. He returns a few minutes later with a sheet and starts to wrap Diego up in it.

After putting Diego in the grave and filling the grave back up, everybody stood around the grave in silence. They slowly left after a few minutes leaving Hershel there by himself. He bends down and lays his hand on the cross on Diego's grave. "I'm sorry. I will protect your sisters, I swear. I love you, Diego," Hershel stands up and walks away.

Rick's P.O.V

Rick stops the truck outside of the military outpost and gets out of the truck. He pulls out his machete as the others pull out their weapons. They walked up to the entrance and saw the gate was on the ground. They walk through the base seeing bodies on the ground. "Stay within earshot," Rick tells everybody, who nods as they slowly start to split up. Andrea follows Rick as they go into a tent and look around. Andrea goes over to a chest and opens it. "Rick," Andrea says, making Rick walk over and look in the chest. The chest was filled with ammo.

"Good, now we have to find the guns," Rick says as Andrea shuts the create. Rick and Andrea walk outside of the tent and look at Glenn as he walks over to him.

"We found the guns. They're in a truck," Glenn tells Rick, who nods.

"Okay, then let's get the ammo and return to prison."

Guillermo's P.O.V

Guillermo sat in his cell after they cleared the rest of the cellblock. He looked up at Summer as she walked in. "How did you find out?" Guillermo asks her.

"Randall told me while I was visiting your grave," She tells him as she sits down beside him. "I didn't know what he was, G. I swear, if I knew you were still alive, I would have left to find you."

"I know," Guillermo tells her softly. "He's good at hiding who he is."

"How long did you know?" Summer asks him.'

"I knew what Dave and Tony were doing for a little while. I didn't know if he knew about it," Guillermo answers.

"I found his daughter. Penny, she was a walking chained up in that room he always keeps locked. He was treating her like she was still alive. He had fishtanks with heads in them," Summer tells him.

"He's insane. He has to die, and we'll make sure that we kill him," Guillermo tells her. "You'll like these guys. Daryl, the one with the crossbow and one hand. He's the one who killed the man that killed your son. He killed the men in King County."

"I guess I'll have to thank him when I get the chance," She says as she stands up. They hear Rick as he enters the prison. "Rick's back," She says as she leaves, and Guillermo follows him.

Shane's P.O.V

Shane put down the last box of guns and looked at everybody. "Even with the guns, he has more people than we do, and he still probably has more than us," Shane tells them.

"We can't even the amount of people. The Governor has at least a hundred people there," Summer tells him. "A lot of them don't know how to use guns, though. We can't beat him in an all-out fight, but maybe we can deal a blow to him, men."

"How?" Daryl asks her.

"Is there anything that explodes in there?" Summer asks Glenn, who looks through the creates and pulls out a grenade launcher. "Okay, what if we get a herd together, a big one, and we blow those walls to hell with this. Let the walkers get in. They'll be overwhelmed and won't be able to clear them very quickly. His men will either run or be overrun with walkers. If we take out Dave's men, we can win this. They are the only ones who know how to use guns," Summer tells them.

"We can use the stereo to attract walkers," Tomas offers.

"Daryl, how far do you think you can lead a herd?" Merle asks his brother.

"Pretty far. Why?" Daryl asks him.

"Because I know where we can get one. We'll just need to lead it back here."

Thanks for reading. The group is coming up with a plan to fight back against the Governor. I do still want to do some sort of meeting, but I don't know how I want to do that. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.