just a note: each chapter title is the name of an elvis song. not all of them from the album elvis: 30 #1 hits, which is the cd sophia found in the last chapter, and some of these song titles are definitely deeper cuts from his library. from the end of the last chapter, and the title of this one, i think you know what's about to go down.

chapter word counts should fall between 3000-5000 or so, but this one turned out a little longer :s

four weeks after grady.

The first time I had told him my idea, Tyreese looked at me like I was crazy. In hindsight, it was a bit of an out there thing to suggest, but it also had its perks. The weapons, of course, but the supplies, too. There had to be food in there, and we could find some way to bottle up the water as long as the systems were still working. I didn't know the intricacies of how they worked, or if they had been damaged in the fight, so I was mostly running on hope with that one.

When we brought it up to everyone else, they seemed… nervous. I supposed I would, too, but I knew we would need those supplies sooner or later. Sure, we had food for a while, but water was harder to get, and we were starting to run low, drinking sodas and other things we could find to sustain us. Plus, we needed it to make Judith's formula, something we were also starting to get low on. I knew there was plenty left at the prison, had seen it myself, and overall, going back for everything we had there just made sense.

"Didn't you say your camp was overrun?" Alice asked. "Isn't that the whole reason you left?"

"We were attacked," I corrected. "And I'm not saying we move in, especially not since the gates were driven down. But with all of us, we could clear it. There's supplies in there, tons of them. We had a working water system. We had showers. It could very well still work, think about all the water we could bring back."

"I know it sounds crazy," Tyreese added. "But there's plenty of ammunition and weapons inside. We had spare, clean clothes, food for days. It's worth it to try."

After a long moment where all of them stared at us, Noah spoke. "I mean, maybe we could try?" He suggested.

"Are you sure we could do it?" Smith asked.

"I am," I assured them. "I know we could. I've- it's been done once before, when there were even more walkers than there are now."

"Plus, there could be survivors hiding out inside the prison," Beth added, and I knew she was thinking about Maggie and Glenn. "They could be trapped, need us to free them."

"It honestly doesn't sound like that bad of an idea?" Jay jumped in. "I mean, it's a risk, sure, but so is everything these days. And with all those supplies? Think about how set we would be."

"You've got a point," Jaime adds. "I mean, we've got food, but clean water's harder to come by. How many rotters did you say were at the prison."

"I have no idea," I admitted. "I mean, maybe forty or so, less? I was more concerned with getting out of there."

"But we've cleared it before," Beth said. "And there was more walkers then than there is now."

"If you'd cleared it before, why'd you run this time?" Sylvia asked.

"We were being attacked," Tyreese explained. "And we were all separated. We had no idea who was alive and who was dead, all we knew was that we couldn't stay where we were."

"We still don't," Beth whispered.

"How do you know the people who attacked you aren't still there?"

"They aren't," I said. "They were taking just as bad of a beating as we were. They couldn't have made it, and if they did, it would only be a handful of them. One or two, but I doubt it."

We all went back and forth for a while, debating it. Jay is the first one who came around, followed by Alice and Jaime. In the end, we convinced Sylvia and Smith as well, and while Abbott still seemed skeptical, he agreed in the end.

Over the next week or so, we came up with a plan. Mika and Cheyenne would stay back at the house with Noah and Abbott. The rest of us would split up into all three cars and head for the prison. The people without guns would stay in the vehicles, idling in the driver's seat, while we cleared the yard first and then the area around the buildings. Once it was empty, we would have the people in cars come up and we would split off, search the prison. Jay and I would get stuff from my cell first, then Mika's, then move to the guard building. Beth would go to her own cell with Smith, and then to where we kept all the formula, extra diapers, and all the rest of our supplies for Judith. Luke (who I have very reluctantly agreed to let come along) was going with Jaime to his room, then Tyreese's room to grab clothes and such for the man, and then to the library. Tyreese himself was going to lead everyone else to the food stashes, and the armory, where we would all meet back up with them.

When the plan was hammered out, we took a few more days to prepare before we actually set it in motion. Noah and I scavenged through all the houses in the area for every single backpack or duffel bag we could find, tossing them all in the trunks of our vehicles. The idea was that everyone would be able to carry a bag, and once that was full, they would throw in them in the car and grab an empty one, so we could grab as many things as possible.

Mika seemed a little perturbed by the fact that she didn't get to go with us, but she was soothed when I assured her that I would get all her photos and her camera for her. I think she was upset that she thought Luke got to go because he was a boy, and she had to stay because she was a girl, but the truth was that I felt bad that Mika knew how to shoot and Luke didn't, so I was letting him come on the trip to come get his own stuff.

A couple days after we figured out the plan, it was time to go. We ate a quick breakfast in relative silence before loading up in the cars. Tyreese, Beth, Luke, and I rode in the truck there, talking a little on the way.

"Do you think it'll be easy to kill all the walkers?" Luke asked.

"I don't think it'll be too hard," I replied. "They've done it before, and they had to clear out the inside, too. We should only have to clear the outside."

Beth hummed. "Do you think there was still any seeds left? Because I am not opposed to having fresh vegetables, I will say."

I actually laughed at that. "Well, of course you aren't," I teased. "You grew up on a farm, Beth."

She shrugged, but she was grinning anyway. "That's a fair point," she conceded. "I'll give you that."

"I just want to see if there's any ammunition left," Tyreese commented.

Beth seemed to think, before something passed over her face. "Isn't there supposed to be a second crossbow in the armory?" She asked. "I know nobody really used it, but isn't there one in case Daryl lost his or something?"

"I think so," I said. "I know they found one on a run or something, but I'm not sure what happened, if they ended up using it or giving it to someone. Maybe, though."

"I want it," she declared. "Daryl was trying to teach me how to use his."

"Fine by me," I replied. "I just want my gun back. My actual one, not the ones I've been losing and getting like crazy."

"Isn't that in your room?" Tyreese asked, making eye contact with me in the rearview mirror, and I shook my head.

"No," I answered. "When the prison went peaceful, Rick took Carl's gun, and I had to give mine up, too, since we weren't going to need it if we weren't going to be leaving the gates. I grabbed a pistol in the governor's attack, but that wasn't my gun, you know?"

"What was your gun, anyway?"

"A Glock," I replied. "One of the ones with the slots. Rick said it helped with the kickback."

"Huh."

After that, we all fell a little quiet. Tyreese started to hum along to the song playing, as did Beth. Luke fiddled with the knife I'd given him, and it made me miss mine. Unfortunately, while I knew my gun was likely in the armory back in the prison, my knife had been on me when I'd been kidnapped at Grady, and as such, they had it.

(Maybe we'd go back for Grady one day. I hoped to, at least. Now that Dawn was dead, maybe there'd been change, but was it enough? They'd taken so much from us.)

I shook thoughts from the hospital out of my head. The stretch of road we were flying down was mostly trees, but at this point, I was starting to see little things here and there that I recognized, so I knew we were getting closer and closer to the prison. Something rose up in me, but I couldn't tell whether it was nerves or anticipation. Maybe they weren't all that different, anyway.

When I could see the gates, still falling over, I blinked at the sight. I didn't affect to feel so… upset when I saw it, but it was like a physical reminder of what had happened.

Already, hearing the noises of the cars, walkers were starting to take notice of us, looking our way and shambling over. Tyreese reminded Beth and Luke to stay in the car as the two of us jumped out, immediately firing at the closest geeks. They went down easy, and behind us, the other two cars camel to a stop, people flooding out behind us.

It was even easier than expected to clear the prison. Sure, there was more walkers I had expected, but between all of us, there wasn't much of a fight. Honestly, I think the hardest part of it was probably walking up that hill, which seemed far more steep than I remembered it being.

The garden looked worse for wear, but that didn't stop me from checking it out. The animal pen was empty, and the crops were all unsalvageable, after having been abandoned without water as the Georgia heat was just starting to pick up. Still, I poked my head into the garden shed, rooting around for a while until I found what I was looking for: the seed stash. I empty the entire shelf into my back, and even though it wasn't a lot, I still felt a little pleased with the find.

After that, the rest of the group and I started for the main courtyard of the prison. All the fires had long since gone out, the tank included, but that didn't stop me from eyeing it cautiously, as if it would suddenly come to life because I was stood beside it. The area had been cleared, however, and I knew the only thing around here living was me and the rest of the group, but I still felt nervous.

Smith hailed down to the people in cars, and after a moment, they began to drive up the hill. The second they came to a stop, Luke hopped out of the truck's cab, but he froze the second his feet hit the concrete. I couldn't blame him. This place had been our home, everything we had, and watching people destroy it had taken something from us. I'd lost my innocence before the Governor had torn down our gate, but Luke had still been a kid. He'd seen things, but he was still young. Now, I was beginning to think he wasn't anymore, not really.

"Are you good?" I asked him, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. He startled at the touch, but relaxed when he glanced over at me.

"I'm fine," he assured me. "I just… I knew it looked bad, but I didn't expect it to seem this bad. The prison just seemed so..."

"Indestructible?" I suggested.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice quiet. "That."

I let him wallow in it for a moment before I ruffled his hair. He gave a half-smile as he batted my hand away, breaking the tension that was starting to settle over all of us.

After that, we split up. We'd agreed that nobody should go alone, just in case, and so Luke, Beth, and I each grabbed a partner and headed into the cell block, while everyone else went with Tyreese.

Those of our group new to the prison, Jay in particular, seemed a little wide-eyed as they looked around, especially at the cell block Beth and I both slept in. The two of us had convinced Daryl and Michonne to grab simple decorations and the like when they went out, and we'd done our best to decorate the block a little. It was still a prison, granted, but it was a little homier. It was our place.

We broke off from each other as we found our rooms. Luke waved to me once before he stepped through the door that led to Cell Block D, and Beth stepped into her own room while I tugged open the door to mine.

Walking into the cell, looking exactly as it had when Carl and I'd packed up and left for the guard building, I was a little stunned. It'd only been two months, less than that even, and still, it felt like walking back in time. The attack on the prison felt like it was somehow a year ago, but also yesterday, giving me a weird sort of vertigo.

Everything was the same. My blanket was still splayed across my cot, less made and more thrown there than anything. The calendar sat on the nightstand closest to the bed, a comic book face down beside it. A basket in the corner held both Carl and I's dirty clothes, and there was still a small rug in the center of the floor, courtesy of Daryl.

And the pictures, too. There was one on the dresser, of Carl, Rick, and Lori, but there were polaroids on the wall, too. Pictures Mika had taken and given to us. To be honest, she took more pictures of us than anyone, but that was partly because we never got upset about her sticking her camera in our faces, and partly because Carl'd been the one to get her most of her film. He'd always loved the idea of having something to look back at, something for Judith to remember.

Taking a step into the room, I made my way to the collage on the wall. There were several images splayed out before me. Carl and I, holding hands. Another one of us, with Patrick in the middle, an arm over each of our shoulders. Judith in Carl's arms, and a fourth of me and Beth, both of us sticking our tongues out at the camera.

Before I even started looking through the rest of my cell, I began to pull the pictures down, being as careful as I could not to rip or damage any of them. Jay didn't seem surprised, and instead, he took a step back, allowing me to work in peace. I was grateful, and he didn't ask any questions until I'd finished.

"Who's that?" He asked. "The guy in most of the pictures."

"That's Carl," I replied. "My boyfriend. Judith's brother."

"Oh."

Carefully, I grabbed the framed photo of Carl and his family, tucking the polaroids inside before putting it in my bag. After a second of consideration, I grabbed the comic book, too. While Patrick had often been the one borrowing Carl's comics, Luke had liked to read them, too.

When I moved onto the dresser and opened the drawers, there was still a few pieces of clothes in there. I rifled through them, staunchly ignoring the idea that Jay might be watching or judging as I grabbed a couple of Carl's shirts alongside my own.

Finishing up in my room, I did one last sweep of it before I left. There was a part of me that wanted to strip down everything and take it all with me, the pillows and the blankets and everything else there was to grab. Instead, I snatched the calendar off the nightstand, mostly on impulse, before leaving without a word.

Jay seemed to accept and respect my silence as I led him down to Mika's room. Her room was in the same block as Luke's, and we passed him on our way out. We made eye contact, but said nothing. Likely, the prison was starting to take a toll on him, too, but I didn't comment. Instead, I made my way up ththe set of stairs and into Lizzie and Mika's cell. It had been right next to their father's before… before Patrick had turned.

Ignoring that, I stepped into the room. There were clothes in neat stacks along the wall, likely because they didn't have a dresser like Carl and I had.

"Damnit," I murmured, glancing over the piles.

"What?" Jay asked.

"I don't know which clothes are Mika's and which were her sisters."

"Oh," he said. "They all look about the same size. Does it really matter?"

"Yes," I replied, a little more harsh than I meant to. "It matters."

"Well, maybe she wouldn't mind her sister's clothes?" He suggested. "Something to remember her by?"

I thought back to Tyreese telling me what happened, the haunted look that took over his eyes. "Maybe not in this case," I told him, and left it at that. After skimming through the folded shirts and such, I was able to pick out things I was sure I'd seen Mika wear before, and used that to figure out that all of her things were to the right of Lizzie's. I had Jay open his bag, and I stuffed as much of her clothing as possible inside of it.

We nearly left the room before I remembered her camera. It was sitting on the nightstand just like she said it would be. As gentle as possible, I picked it up and tucked in inside the little space left inside Jay's pack. Beneath it was her photo album, and I had to fight the urge to pull the cover open, so I managed to squeeze it into my now full bag to avoid looking at it.

"Well, I think that puts us both at carrying capacity," Jay remarked. "Do you want to take these back to the car and grab new ones?"

"Yeah, sounds good," I replied. "After this, we should hit the guard building."

"What's in the guard building, anyway?" He asked, as we made our way back outside.

"More of my clothes, Mika's clothes, some supplies," I answered. "Beth and I were staying out there with a couple of the kids, so some of our stuff is there. Sleeping bags, supplies for Judith, the like."

"Why were you out there with the kids?"

"There was an illness spreading around," I explained. "They moved anyone who had a lower resistance out there. Carl and I went to watch over the kids, Beth came to watch over Judy."

"Huh."

By now, we had reached the cars, and he opened the hatchback of Jaime's to trade out his bag for an empty one. After placing my own backpack inside, I grabbed a spare duffel, and Jay closed the trunk behind us.

"The guard building is the red brick one over there," I said, pointing it out. Jay nodded, picking up his pace until we were both jogging. I think being out in the open, even after clearing the courtyard, was making us nervous, so we hurried a little to the guard building.

Inside, the air felt dusky and stagnant, like it hadn't been disturbed in a while. It hadn't, and while there were some still ajar doors in the prison, cracked spaces in the wall and other things that've allowed the air to move around. The guard building, however, had been shut tight since the attack, and you could practically feel it in the air.

"This is a little creepy," Jay commented. "I mean, the whole prison thing was also kind of off-putting, but… this place has a weird energy."

"We didn't use it much," I said with a shrug. "I mean, they cleared it after they found the prison, but… until people started getting sick, there wasn't a lot of use for it."

"Huh," he mumbled. "Which way are we going, anyway?"

"This way," I directed, leading him down the hallway and to the room we'd been staying in. The door was hanging ajar, and when I pushed it open, I found everything to be the same, much like my cell had been. There were still sleeping bags on the floor, our packs lying around with clothes peeking out of open zippers.

"Grab all the backpacks," I instructed. "Three of them are mine, Beth, and Mika's."

"And the other two?"

"Molly and Carl's."

Apparently, that was good enough for him, because he started scooping them up. I hesitated, before making my way to where I had been sleeping. Carl's pack, a bright orange that stood out in the darker room, caught my eye, and I slipped it onto my back despite the fact that I was already wearing one.

When I reached for mine, however, something slipped off of it and fell to the ground with a quiet clink. It was silver, and small. The locket, I realized, the one that Carl had given to me for our anniversary.

With a small noise of disbelief, I picked it up. The chain was cold to the touch, and it felt delicate in my hands, like I could crush it if I squeezed too hard.

Jay sneezed behind me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Bless you," I said, rather absent-mindedly, as I shoved the necklace into the pockets of my pants and climbed back to my feet.

"Do you think we should grab these sleeping bags?" I asked

He seemed to consider it for a second, before nodding. "Sounds like a good idea," he decided, after half a minute or so, and together, we knelt down and began to roll them all up. We had to make multiple trips to the car so we could carry everything, but eventually, we had it all gathered up.

As we were finishing up, we noticed Beth and Smith heading our way. They were both carrying things, but while Smith seemed to be carting a large stash of Judith's things in his arms, the blonde was holding something smaller, more oddly shaped.

Beth came closer, and I saw what was in her hands. Brown, wide-brimmed, trimmed with gold. A cowboy hat.

Specifically, Carl's cowboy hat.

When I saw it, I stumbled back in shock, dropping my gun on accident. It clattered to the ground (without firing, thank God), but I couldn't tear my eyes from his hat.

No. No, he can't be… he can't.

Seeing the look in my eyes, Beth raised one hand palm out, as if surrendering. "No, it's not what you think," she assured me, and the breath came back to my lungs. "I just found it, by… by Judith's car seat."

"Judy's car seat?" I repeated. "Why was it there?"

She dropped her gaze, biting her lip. "Her car seat is covered in blood," she told me. "If I… if I had seen it, I would have assumed she was dead. That's how it looks."

"So he… he thinks she's dead?" I asked.

Beth nodded. "I think so."

"Oh."

We stood there in silence, each of us mulling over it in our heads, before Beth reached out and placed it in my hands. My fingers wrapped around the brim, and I stared down at it for a few seconds before placing it on my head. It was a little roomier than I remembered, but it had also originally belonged to Rick, so that was to be expected.

"Suits you," Beth commented, and I did my best to give her a smile, although I'm sure it came out weary. I said nothing as she and Smith began to empty their loads into the bed of the truck, and together, we all made our way back into the prison.

"One of you knows how to get to the armory, right?" Smith questioned, and I gave him a strange look.

"Yeah?" I answered. "Why wouldn't we?"

He only shrugged, and I blinked at him once before shrugging it off. In silence, Beth and I led the other two back towards the weapons stash, and once we started to get close, we began to her distant voices and low conversation. Back here, there was less natural light, and we were mostly depending on flashlights to see now.

The door was open, and when we stepped inside, several people pointed their lights at us, likely expecting us to be walkers. When they realized it was just us, they relaxed, going back to what they were doing. In the dim light, I could just manage to make out who everyone was. Tyreese stood near the rifles, Luke beside him, and both of their heads snapped up when we walked in the room.

When he saw me, Tyreese held something up "Looking for something?" He asked, and even in the lower light, I could make out what it was.

"My gun!" I said, lighting up, and he tossed it over to me with a smile. I caught it easily, glancing over the cool metal for a second. I knew it was silly to develop an attachment to such a thing, especially when such a thing was literally a killer, but they'd given me this when I found the prison. Carl taught me how to shoot with this. This had been my gun.

"Thanks, Tyreese," I called, as I tucked it into the back of my pants. It's weight there was familiar, even after having it confiscated for so long, and I was grateful to have it back.

"You guys sure had a lot of rifles," Jaime commented, shining his flashlight over all the weaponry. I shrugged.

"We had a long time to collect it all," I replied. "And a lot of help."

"How big was your group, anyway?" Sylvia questioned.

Beth hummed. "Somewhere around seventy or eighty, I think."

Jaime whistled, seemingly impressed. "That's a lot of people."

"It is," Tyreese said, but I could tell he was slowly starting to grow a little bit uncomfortable with thinking about that. To be honest, so was I, so when he quickly changed to topic and suggested we start loading rifles into the bed of the truck, I jumped into motion, scooping a few into my arms.

Together, we cleared the entire armory within several trips, including not only the guns, but all of the melee weapons and ammunition. It's mostly rifles, pistols, and knives, but after some deeper searching, we discovered that Beth was right; there is indeed a crossbow and a stash of arrows left here. Despite her normally quieter disposition, she claimed it the second she sees it, picking it up with a sort of reverence I'd never really seen from her before. Nobody saw fit to argue with her, and she slung it over her shoulder, along with the the arrows. Even though she looked nothing like him, seeing it made me miss Daryl a bit, and from the way she seemed to go a bit silent, I'm confident that she was thinking of him, too.

Once the truck is full guns, food, and just about everything else, we all came to a stand still around the cars. For a long, drawn out pause, nobody spoke.

"Is that… it then?" Alice asked, breaking the silence.

"I think it is," Tyreese replied. "Beth? Sophia, Luke? Anything else you need?"

Luke shook his head, as did Beth, but I stopped to think. For a year, this prison had been my home. I'd stumbled onto it, and everyone inside, after being scared and alone for months. It had kept me safe, and it had been my life. Bad things had happened here, but not everything that occured here had been that way.

"I think I'm okay," I said, swallowing down the lump in my throat. "We should get back, so the others don't worry."

Everyone nodded, but still, we hesitated. The other half of the group was waiting on us to move first, but we were all frozen in place, as if we were unable to leave. Finally, someone cleared their throat, and I shook myself out of my thoughts.

"Let's go then," I shrugged, before making my way over to the truck and climbing inside. Luke followed my lead, and behind him, everyone else began to move as well.

Tyreese hopped back into the driver's seat, pulling the truck out of the courtyard and driving back down the path. He didn't reach to turn on the stereo, and I didn't suggest it, either.

As I let my head lean against the window, watching the prison and all of it's memories disappear behind us, I had one thought.

We were going to find the rest of the group. Carl, and Maggie, and Daryl and Glenn and Rick and everyone else. We were going to make more memories.

Even if I didn't share in faith the way Beth did, in that moment, I had never been more sure of anything.

thanks for reading!

also: i know that i've just introduced a lot of new characters that you don't know and have no attachment to yet. i, of course, like them, but i've had a long time to work on them and create them and care for them. so, to help you get to know the new crew, i will be writing short character bios for each of them, and put two at the end of each chapter, starting from the next installment.

ALSO: check out my profile to enter a challenge. if you win, you get to ask two questions, and I will answer them, even if it involves spoilers