Disclaimer- I do not own the Walking Dead

Shadowoftheblackdeat- Thank you, I completely agree I was just trying to think of something that would make that happen and you've given me an idea.

Throughout the entirety of the prison/season 3 plot line of my story I haven't rewatched a single episode of the season 3. I wanted it to be my own story but it also shows how embarrassingly knowledgeable I am on the episodes. I think I may have watched the show a tad too many times.

Enjoy

Danny's POV

I jam the metal pole into the walker's skull through the chain link fence. The Walkers are building up against the fence again, making the fence bend in. These fences were always good at keeping the living inside but they aren't enough to keep the dead out. As soon as one starts trying to come inside the others automatically follow. If Oscar hadn't come and got us, by the time we woke up in the morning the fences could have been down with no hope of fixing them.

"BREACH", the word has barely made it out of Glenn's mouth when I drop the metal pole and take off at a full sprint towards where he's come running out of cell block C.

Daryl shouts stay here to some of the people behind me, they need to keep working on the fence because if that goes down there's no point in fixing the breach.

Glenn runs back inside before I can make it over to him. The door to the cell block is left open, I jump down the steps and rush over to him. He stabs a walker through the locked gate into the tombs. You can't even see through the gate, there is a huge group of walkers pushing up against it, making the door creak on its hinges. No wonder Glenn called, if more of them start pushing against it there's a chance they could break the hinges and the gate will come crashing down. I come to a sliding stop behind him, my knife now in hand.

I stab one of them in the head followed very quickly by another but then Daryl slides in next to me which forces me to move out of the way. I take a step back and bump into Merle.

"We need to get in there to stop them getting to this gate". I tell anyone who is listening. I then turn to see who is here with us. Sophia is standing by the front door. "Sophia, I need you to grab Riley and get in the truck. Keys are in the visor, grab Herschel and if this goes bad then you drive out of here. Go to the meet up point". She opens her mouth, looking like she's going to argue. "Now, please". Finally she nods.

"With me Squirt, Daryl". Merle bumps my arm and then runs into the cell section of the block. I follow after him as he pulls the keys off his belt and fumbles to find the right one. "We gotta close that fuckin' door". The door in question is the one that leads to the downed part of the prison. That door opens inwards and I think too many Walkers pushed up against it and have managed to get it open.

I switch my knife for my bat and bounce on my toes a few times as Merle finally manages to get the right key. He puts the key in the lock and then Daryl's voice comes from beside my ear. "You ready?"

I chuckle with fake humour. "Of course".

Merle turns the key.

Merle leads the way through the darkness which shows how many times he's come in here. He knows his way around each hallway, even though they all look exactly the same to me. It doesn't take us long to start running into the Walkers. When we see the first one it's alone, Merle steps out of the way to allow me to come up to it and smash it round the head with my bat, when the Walker hits the floor I roll my shoulder. I think it's gonna take some time for it to stop hurting, bashing skulls won't help the recovery though.

Walkers are like cockroaches, when you kill one more appear. Four emerge from around the corner just up ahead. Daryl sends a bolt into one and then Merle and I rush forwards to take down two more.

"Move", Daryl orders, Merle and Ĩ step back against the wall just as another bolt comes rushing past, embedding itself into the forehead of the fourth one.

We don't have time to recover though because more and more start to appear as we round the corner.

I can feel blood dripping off of my face and I can't imagine how much blood is on me right now. Daryl and Merle don't look any better. I grab the cleanest part of my sleeve and use it to wipe at my eyes. Merle has his back to the door that we've managed to shut but there are walkers banging their hands against the other side. The only Walkers that are left are the ones back at the gate but Glenn and the others will clear those, and maybe a few stragglers but we can get those on our way back. We needed a breather though before heading back.

Daryl is eyeing me up and down just like I did to him when we stopped. He's checking for any obvious bites or scratches but just like it was for him, it's hard to tell with all the Walker blood.

I square my shoulders and tap the tip of my bat against the floor, causing some brain matter to fall off. "I'm ready".

"Ah Shit", Merle sighs. "I'm fuckin' knackered. Ain't been like this since we first got here." He shoves off the door, "let's go" he then starts leading us back the way we came.

We appear in front of the gate Glenn and Maggie have cleared. The walkers bodies are piled pretty high, a couple are still moving a little but they're trapped under ones that are dead.

Daryl makes quick work of them and then he's carefully stepping over them to unlock the gate. I keep my eyes glued to the pile, not trusting the fact that they're all dead.

Glenn pulls the gate open. "It's clear?"

Daryl's reply is a little mumbly but I hear the words, "For now" extremely clearly. They bounce around in my head making me a little angry.

Daryl turns and offers me his hand which I take as I step over the pile of bodies. It's clear for now. We can't live for `for now`. Why can't we have something that will hold, that won't have us having to risk our lives to secure it again every couple of days.

Daryl lets go of my hand once I'm standing next to him. "How's the fence?"

"Carol said they've got it back under control again", Glenn says as he eyes up the state of the three of us. "Are you guys okay?"

I nod, "yeah but I gotta wash this blood off before it gets in my eyes".

I tie a knot on the scarf to secure Riley against my chest. I bop a couple of times to make sure it's secure against movement and then head back outside. The blood was a nightmare to get off and my clothes were completely ruined. We have all resided ourselves in having clothes that are never fully clean but the ones I've just taken off are going to be thrown away. There's no way anyone will ever catch me putting them back on.

"He was part of this group, they had him living here". I don't think Heather realises I'm here as she talks to Karen and Sarah.

Karen looks at me, "Heather stop".

"No, Something seems off. We get here and that man suddenly leaves, the next thing we know he's killed one of us".

I'm lightly tapping Riley's back as I stare at the three women.

"I can't make you believe anything I say". My voice makes Sarah and Heather swivel their heads so fast to look at me there's no way it didn't hurt. "But that man has nothing to do with us, not anymore".

Heather's look of surprise disappears as she stands up to face me. "But he lived here with you, how do we know you aren't all like him?"

"I guess you can't know that for certain, but you are choosing to stay here." I keep my voice calm, I'm not going to defend myself when I have nothing to defend myself for.

Heather casts a quick look at Sarah before turning her defiant look back on me. "Well maybe we shouldn't be". She's trying to bait me into trying to convince her to stay, she doesn't mean it and I won't be playing that game.

"I'm not keeping you here. If you want to go then be my guest, we'll give you your weapons back at the gate".

Karen hurries around the table. "Stop it Heather! We couldn't stay at Woodbury, if we can't make it work here then we have nowhere else to go. They have no control over what he does outside these walls".

"What he did is… is inexcusable", And I mean it. "I can never apologise enough for what he did but I can do my best to make up for it as much as I can. If you want to leave then go but if you decide to stay you can't sit around gossiping about things you don't know anything about."

"Everythin' alrigh' over here", Daryl appears beside me, he looks down at me.

I smile at him, "Yeah, we're just chatting".

He nods and then turns his Dixon stare onto the three women standing in front of me. "Good, if you three ain't busy we could use ya help removin' the bodies".

Heather and Sarah look a little disgusted by the thought of getting involved but Karen smiles. "No problem, where do you want us"?

I see the movement through my sight and I instantly know it's not a Walker. Its gait is too even, body is too solid when it moves and the gun on its back and the bat in its hand is another huge giveaway. We have a person.

I lean against the railing to make sure my arms are steady. "STOP!" I shout. For a second I don't think he heard me but after he takes a couple more steps he finally stops. He looks across the fence line before looking right up at me in the tower.

"I…..Merle" he shouts back, I don't hear most of what he says but I can work out Merle's name.

"Who is it?" Glenn shouts up at me from below me.

I don't take my eyes off of the man, "I don't know".

"Give me the binoculars", Glenn asks whoever is down there with him. There's a moment of silence as he must get them and look through them. "It's Martinez" He shouts back up at me.

I recognise that name. Isn't he the one who helped Merle and Glenn back at Woodbury, the one that came out with Andrea?

"Keep your hands up and come towards the gate", I shout over to Martinez. He does as he's told, he keeps his hands raised as he hurries towards the gate. He picks up a little speed when some Walkers start heading towards him. When he makes it to the gate I finally lower my rifle and hurry down the tower.

I shove open the door. "What are you doing here?"

Martinez looks at me through the chain link. "Andrea sent me here. I need to speak to whoever's in charge".

I shoulder my rifle and step up beside Glenn. "You're looking at her".

Martinez nods. "I'm not here to cause any trouble, Glenn and Merle can vouch for me. I'm just here to pass on a message".

"Why couldn't Andrea come here?"

He sighs heavily. "Woodbury's in a bad place, if she left things would go to shit. I had to sneak out to get here".

Glenn leans in closer. "We should let him in. He really did help us".

I nod my approval so Glenn opens the gate to let the man in. Martinez willingly hands over his gun to Glenn without even being asked and then steps through.

He tries to look over towards the prison like he's looking for someone. "Did the others make it, the ones Andrea sent".

"They made it, you can see them if you'd like?"

"Thank you".

I know finding out what Andrea needed to tell us is important but I know if I was in his shoes I'd want to make sure my people were okay. So I'm willing to wait a few extra minutes just to put his mind at ease.

Glenn and I lead him up to the prison, Oscar trails behind us keeping his eye on the man. Making sure he doesn't pull out some secret weapon.

The moment Daryl realises there's someone with us his free hand suddenly grips onto his crossbow. He goes from a relaxed stance to a I'm ready stance within the blink of an eye. He doesn't raise his crossbow but that doesn't mean he's not ready to use it.

Merle whacks his stumped arm against Daryl's chest, silently telling him to calm down and then he starts coming towards us. "Well look what the cats dragged in. What you doin' 'ere".

"I have a message from Andrea." He tells Merle but he isn't looking at him. Instead he's looking at the nine people that came from Woodbury and I know he knows there should be ten. He doesn't say anything but when he looks at them all in turn he has the question written all over his face.

Sasha comes a little closer, "Josh didn't make it". That's it, no explanation, no accusing glances, no secret message written on her face. Just plain and simple.

Martinez ducks his head briefly, "I'm sorry to hear that. He was a good man. Are you guys doing okay?"

"Yeah, Andrea was right about these people" Tyreese tells him. "They took us in, I just wish those at Woodbury could see how good they are".

Martinez's sigh is heavy. "Me too but that's why I'm here, it ain't going so well over there. She's gained some control over them, stopped the riots but it's fragile. They're watching her, one wrong move and it'll be over. The people, they… they don't trust you. They're willing to ignore you, to not take revenge but if they see you out there, anywhere near Woodbury they won't keep that promise. We can't stop people going out on runs and if you run into the wrong people they will fight you."

I look at Daryl, what do we do? We can do our absolute best to stay away from them but if we run into some people and they want revenge then we're going to fight back and that will definitely make things so much worse. Andrea will lose control completely, they'll no longer be able to trust her.

Daryl slowly looks away from me and back at Martinez. "What do ya want from us?"

Martinez shakes his head. "I'm just here to pass on a message, what you guys do is up to you, I ain't even gonna give ya my suggestion it's your lives so only you guys know what you should do". He looks at his watch. "This is just a flying visit, I gotta get back to Woodbury 'fore anyone realises I'm gone."

"Did you walk all this way", I ask.

He shakes his head. "Nah, left my car up the hill, didn't wanna drive up in case you were a shoot first type of group."