A/N All characters belong to the writers and creators of The Walking Dead. Except those that arose from my own twisted imagination.
TRIGGER WARNING. I've finally written a tiny bit from Cash's POV and it ain't pretty.
Chapter Twenty Two-Ambush
When Axel's blood hit Rick in the face, it took him a moment to register what had just happened. He saw Axel drop and then heard the gunfire but it sounded muffled. Everything was moving in slow motion. Tyreese was screaming something at him from the guard tower, motioning him to get down as he fired into the woods. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a truck parked just beyond the tree line. Someone was pointing a gun towards the prison. Rick turned and started to run back towards the prison, hearing the sounds of bullets rushing past him. He saw the door to the cellblock open and watched Daryl and Oscar run out, take cover behind the barricades they had built and start returning fire. Finally, the world caught up and he could see everything in real time. The noise was deafening. Rick made it to the barricades, braced himself and started returning fire in the direction of the shooters.
"How many?" Rick yelled over to Daryl. Daryl turned his head slightly and held up his hand and then three fingers. Eight shooters that he could see. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Maggie and Danielle duck down behind another barricade and begin to open fire. A roar of a truck engine behind them startled Rick and he saw Glenn and Hershel fly past in the truck, both firing towards those in the field. Rick heard more gunfire from the overturned bus and saw Michonne. They clearly had the advantage. Glenn spun the truck sideways against the gate, blocking it. Both Glenn and Hershel leaned out of the truck windows, shooting point blank at the gunmen, taking out two.
Danielle rose up slightly as she looked at the truck from Woodbury. It was him. The Governor. Andrea wasn't lying. That son of a bitch had survived. She saw he kept himself back and barricaded behind the truck, leaving his men open targets. The coward. She aimed carefully and fired directly at the truck, taking out a headlight and causing the smug bastard to duck down. She didn't have time to gloat as bullets ricocheted off the barricade and she dropped down flat to her stomach. Rick motioned for her and for Maggie to stay down as their attackers opened fire, aiming at the girls. Tyreese stepped out of the tower control room onto the catwalk and swept the yard, dropping two more. He dropped back into the tower room as he came under fire.
The Governor smiled as he watched the prison group dive for cover. The scared little rats. They should be afraid. He had an army. He had the power. They should never have challenged him and just given up the prison. At least, they should never have given shelter to that Danielle and Michonne. He blamed Merle for letting them both escape. But he learned that the old saying was true: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
Cash carefully drove the truck over the pile of bricks at the back of the prison. He could feel the tires slip but keeping the truck in four wheel drive kept them from flipping over. It was easier than they had thought to get on to the prison grounds. Tripp looked worried as he noticed the number of biters.
"There's more here then we figured there was." Cash shrugged.
"So what?" He held up his gun. "It's not like we can't handle it." One of the two younger guys in the back looked like he was about ready to piss himself. Neither of the boys were over seventeen but the Governor had ordered them with Cash and Tripp anyway, not wanting to spare Martinez or one of the other better trained men and women in Woodbury.
They drove until they reached the first gate. Making the two teenagers guard their backs, Cash and Tripp used the bolt cutters to break the lock and open the gate. Cash tried one of the doors on the other side of the gate and found it open. He turned to Tripp.
"Y'all get in there. Try to find out where they're all holed up." Tripp nodded and motioned to one of the teenagers to follow him. They closed the door behind them, leaving Cash and the other boy to continue towards the front of the prison. There were few biters here. Obviously, the prison crew had cleared the place out. For some reason, Cash was annoyed by this. How in the hell did a few people clear this whole prison? Obviously, it wasn't entirely secure. The backside was still crawling with biters. The downed fence was impossible to fix. When Merle was in charge, Cash had gone with him many times to inspect the prison and keep an eye on the group there for the Governor after they learned that people were there. Cash hoped he could find that little bitch Danielle and kill her. It unnerved him when the little slut's new boyfriend, Merle's brother, had asked Cash if he had been the one that raped Danielle. It wasn't rape if it was the camp slut, just like what happened last summer wasn't rape when he and their old group raided that camp with that guy and his two daughters. He didn't think about the other times before the world went to shit. He just knew that bitch deserved to die for spreading lies. He could hear the gunfire from the front of the prison. Before he could say anything to the kid, Cash heard him scream. He turned and saw the kid being taken down by three biters. Leaving him, Cash continued towards the front of the prison.
Oscar could see the entire yard from his position. Dani had taken a risk rising up to aim for the Governor and was now pinned down. She was trying to unjam her weapon, a panicked look on her face. Maggie had moved into another position and Dani was on her own. Daryl, seeing her like that moved to go to her but Oscar stopped him.
"I'll cover her." Daryl nodded. Oscar waited until there was a break in gunfire and made a run for it. He knelt by Dani.
"You alright?" Her eyes were wide.
"I don't know what I did. I can't clear the jam." They both ducked down as more bullets hit the ground beside their barricade. Oscar positioned himself so he blocked Dani while she continued to work on her gun and fired in the general direction of their attacker. He couldn't see everything as clearly as he could from his other position. As he opened fired again, he felt two sharp pains hit him in his back and another in his shoulder. He fell against Danielle.
Rick turned when the gunshots started behind them. He saw Oscar go down and then saw someone standing just beyond the corner of the building, firing at their backs. He heard Daryl yell Danielle's name as he opened fire on the new shooter, cutting him down. Rick heard the truck start up and saw the dust trail as it sped back down the road. The attack was over, for now.
As soon as the shooting stopped, Daryl ran to the barricade where Oscar and Dani had been, Rick right on his heels. His nightmare was coming true. He pulled Oscar off of Dani. Her shirt was covered in fresh blood and she wasn't moving. Her hair was slick with blood and there was more on the ground. Daryl was vaguely aware that Rick was checking on Oscar but could only focus on Danielle. He carefully touched her face, afraid to see if she was still breathing, still alive.
"Dani?" She groaned and brought her hand to her head. It wasn't until she moved that Daryl realized he'd been holding his breath.
"Daryl? What happened?" She opened her eyes and looked confused. "Where's Oscar?" Daryl looked over to Rick. Rick shook his head.
"Oscar's gone." Dani's eyes widened in shock.
"No he was just here!" She tried to sit up but couldn't. Her head throbbed from where she had hit it against the ground. Rick dragged Oscar's body a short distance away and fired a single shot into his head. Oscar was one of their own and he wasn't going to let him turn. Daryl helped Danielle to her feet just as the truck pulled up. Glenn, Michonne and Hershel got out. Rick looked nervously at the woods. Tyreese joined them.
"They're gone. I don't know how many we got but the rest of them took off right after that guy came out." Tyreese nodded towards the kid lying on the ground. Hershel and Maggie helped Dani into the cellblock while the rest of the group went to check on the intruder. He was dead, that much was apparent. And Daryl recognized him.
"It's Cash." Rick glanced up at him.
"Are you sure?" Daryl nodded.
"He was one of the ones that dragged me to the Governor in Woodbury." He turned to survey the woods, uneasy about the silence. "They left right after he started shooting. Like it was a signal or something." He looked down between the buildings and saw two walkers heading towards them. "Ah shit." He raised his gun and fired.
When they were all barricaded back in the prison, everyone was in shock. Losing Axel and Oscar like was a blow to the group. The prisoners had more than proven themselves and they were family. They wanted to bury the bodies but didn't dare. No doubt Woodbury scouts would be watching. The fact that Cash had snuck in had disturbed Rick. He and Daryl both knew that there was no way that Cash made it in alone. After dispatching the two new walkers, they had taken the truck around to the back of the prison to check for other invaders. They found another truck in the back, found the open fence and another fresh body being consumed by walkers. Cash's buddy no doubt. They re-secured the fence and killed the walkers on their side of it before returning to the cellblock.
"We knew the back fence was down," said Glenn. "There was nothing we could do to fix it." Rick was pacing, furious.
"We should have had someone watching the backside of the prison. We knew it was vulnerable. We still don't know if anyone else was in that truck. They could have gotten inside and are sneakin' around the tombs, just waitin'." Rick shook his head. "No more going outside, no more runs through the prison, no more acting like we're not at war." Daryl approached him cautiously.
"Rick, we've got watches at the towers. We need to go into the prison and search for signs of anyone back there." Rick nodded but Beth looked fearful.
"If those guys from Woodbury can get in, that means walkers can get in. That whole place could be filled." Tyreese agreed.
"She's right. When we got in here, they were everywhere. Some of them were prisoners but there were a lot of civilian roamers back there. We're safe up here for now but who knows what it looks like now, especially with all that gunfire. If we go down there, we need to be prepared for the fact that we can't push through and get out as soon as we can." Maggie raised her hand.
"I'm in." Dani raised hers too. Glenn shook his head and Daryl narrowed his eyes at Dani, shaking his head slightly.
"Maggie, no. And Dani, you're in no position to go in there." Maggie frowned at Glenn.
"Why not? You need bodies back there, especially if there's a herd of walkers in the tombs." Glenn started to speak and then stopped, looking frustrated with himself. He looked almost on the verge of tears.
"Maggie, we need you here in case something goes wrong and we don't come back. You, Sasha and Michonne…if something happens and we," he paused to indicate Rick, Daryl, Tyreese and himself, "don't make it, the rest of the group needs you." Maggie nodded and blinked back tears. She didn't want to think about losing Glenn, having to live without him. She walked over to him and kissed him. He held her tight, not wanting to let her go but knowing it was necessary.
"Glenn." Glenn turned to Daryl who motioned towards the door. Rick left first, followed by Tyreese and Glenn. Daryl paused one moment to look back at Dani. He nodded at her and she mouthed the words "Come back." He couldn't respond and followed Glenn into the prison. Beth locked the door behind them.