A/N All characters belong to the writers and creators of The Walking Dead. Except those that arose from my own twisted imagination.

Chapter 40-In Sickness and in Health

Rick read the statements from Greg, growing more and more angry with himself.

"Daryl told me not to bring him in and I did it anyway." He looked at Alice. "Greg said it started after a walker attack?" She nodded and handed him another paper.

"He doesn't know how but he wrote here that several walkers were fresh and obviously had been sick, that they weren't torn up, just like some of the ones we've seen lately outside the fence. It was a few days later that symptoms started to appear in their group and everyone that got sick started out just like Cassie. And she's had symptoms for two days. Greg told her not to say anything or we'd kick them out. He's a heartless bastard." Alice took a deep breath and tried to focus on the current situation rather than on how much she wanted to kill Greg. "Hershel and I talked about this happening this morning right after I checked on Jesse, that some diseases could be transmitted by walkers. That's why he instituted the extra precautions for working the fence but I don't know if that's enough or if it's already too late." Rick closed his eyes.

"So this might be something that we could get from the walkers? That we've got it here already?" Alice shook her head.

"Rick, it's too soon to tell. Right now, Cassie is the only one that's symptomatic. Greg is running a slight fever but that could be due to his injuries. And I still don't know for sure what type this is, if it is meningitis. I'm just goin' off the symptoms Cassie has. There's blood and lab work you have to run to know for sure and I can't do that here." Rick frowned and shook his head.

"And I sent Daryl, Michonne and Taylor out there to find that group thinkin' we had another bad bunch out there. If I'd known, I never would have…" He ran his fingers through his hair. "I should have listened to Daryl." Alice put her hand on his shoulder.

"Rick, you thought you were doing the right thing. And maybe they'll find somethin' out that can help us." Rick looked down.

"I can't believe I fell for it." He looked up at Alice. "So her parents didn't die a week ago?" Alice shook her head.

"Greg said they left the main camp two days before y'all found them, right after Cassie's mother died. Cassie's father was sick, as were others in camp, and told Greg to get Cassie out. They didn't make it far before Cassie started showing signs that she had it. That's why they camped where they did. They hadn't been there long before you and Daryl found them." Rick looked around the yard at all the people living right on top of each other.

"If you had checked them out, would you have been able catch this before we put them with other people?" Alice shook her head.

"No. Almost all of the people that we've found have been malnourished and dehydrated. That, in and of itself can trigger fevers, delirium, stomach issues, joint and body pain and infections because those conditions hamper the immune system. Even in the ER it was difficult to diagnose meningitis without doing a spinal and blood work. Here, we guess." Rick nodded and looked at her, concerned.

"What about you? Could you catch this? I mean, you were treating her." Alice shrugged.

"Out of everyone here, Bill and I are probably the safest. He got the vaccine when he went to Africa and I got a booster at the hospital when we had an outbreak a few years ago. Greg might even be ok because he should have been vaccinated along with the rest of the ER staff. Everyone else is potentially at risk, especially Carl, Rachel and Tyreese because they had direct contact with Cassie. I've got all three of them in the infirmary now but both she and Greg were in D for hours before the fight. We'll have to talk to Janet, monitor anyone who has a fever or flu like symptoms or complains of a headache or neck pain over the next few days. We can contain and treat this Rick. I've started Cassie on the antibiotics I have on hand so she should be ok, so long as this is bacterial and not viral." They both looked up as the Dodge sped up the drive.

"Well let's see what Daryl and them found out."

Dave Saunders turned off the excavator and took a deep breath. It was hot today but he was getting chills and his neck was stiff. He'd had a headache for a few days but hadn't thought much of it. Now he realized he must be coming down with a summer cold. His wife always told him that summer colds were the worst and would baby him whenever he caught one. At least she had before succumbing to lung cancer seven years ago.

He climbed down from the excavator and had to steady himself. Bobby waved at him from the back fence.

"Dave! You ok?" Dave waved back and nodded.

"I'm fine! Just gonna go inside for a bit. Get out of this sun." Bobby nodded.

"You need to take it easy old man. You don't have to work like a dog all the time. Bill said you were up on the front fence killin' walkers last week when you said you were gonna take a day off." Dave shrugged and headed in to D block. He may be an old man but he sure as hell wasn't gonna just sit back and wait for the arthritis in his knee to take over his body. Building the wall in the back of the prison made him feel useful. Killing walkers on the fence did to, for the twenty minutes he was able to do it before his knee gave out. It was dirty, disgusting and bloody work but it was necessary. The crowd at the fence was growing with no sign of slowing down. Bill had set up supports between the outer and interior fences but still warned that if too many walkers piled on the fence, it could give way. Dave had wanted to be on the other crew that went out with the truck, gathered the bodies and drove them to the back corner of the prison to burn them but Glenn and Marcel said he should rest up his knee. Being old when there was work to do was an annoyance. Hell, Hershel got around just fine on one leg.

Inside D block, Dave gave Janet a quick peck on the cheek. She reminded him of his daughter who had lived in Seattle with her husband when this had started. Dave had no idea whether or not they were still alive.

"How's everything going sugar?" She smiled at him.

"Everything's ok. A few people are coming down with a cold, but they're doing ok." Dave rubbed the back of his neck. He must have slept on it wrong.

"Well, add me to that group. I just feel like hammered shit." Janet squeezed his shoulder.

"You're working too hard Dave. You need to rest more." Dave thought about arguing with her but decided that a nap did sound pretty good.

"You're right honey. By the way, you got any aspirin or anything? I've got a headache that's about to split my head open." Janet opened her medicine kit and shook out two white tablets. Dave took them and the cup of water she offered. "Thank you sweetheart. I'm gonna go lie down for a bit. Don't let me sleep more than an hour though. I've got stuff to do." Janet smiled and nodded. She put her medicine kit back up on the shelf and decided that she'd just let him sleep as long as he needed to. If he got mad, well, he'd just have to get over it. She coughed and stretched her back and neck. She was so stiff and seemed to be coming down with the same cold that the others had. She thought for a second about going to see Alice or Hershel but decided against it. It was a cold and they couldn't do anything for a cold other than drink fluids and rest. Down the hall, she could hear a few people coughing. She thought of going down to check on them but felt a bit weak herself. She'd take a quick nap and then talk to Alice.

"Daryl did you find the camp?" Daryl nodded.

"Yeah. They're all dead." Alice's eyes were wide.

"You're sure? Even Ed Dolan? He's dead too?" Taylor hauled the gas cans out of the trunk of the car and nodded.

"I don't know how many people were there originally but there was only one guy left alive and he was straight up crazy. Running a fever, covered in blood, talkin' about how he'd killed all the sick ones. He had a rash all over and died having a seizure right in front of us. When I went to Emory, there was a meningitis outbreak on campus and a few of the kids had rashes like that, ran high fevers and all but no one died. I don't know what this is, Alice." Rick frowned.

"And you're sure this was the camp?" Daryl pulled his bag out of the car and slammed the door shut.

"The guy knew Greg, Cassie and Ed. Said they had three doctors that couldn't fix this." He walked closer to Rick. "Is that asshole sick?" Rick shook his head and Daryl felt a twinge of relief.

"He's not. But Cassie is. She's in the infirmary now. Greg said she's been sick for a few days and told her not to tell us." Daryl gave Rick a hard look and then started towards the prison door. Rick hurried after him.

"Daryl wait."

"I'm gonna kill that lyin' sonofabitch." Rick got in front of him and put his hand on his chest to stop him.

"You go in that infirmary, you're gonna expose yourself to whatever it is that Cassie has. Alice is treating her and we're gonna check out D block to see if anyone else is sick. Greg said this started after a walker attack. We've seen walkers that fit his description on the fence, ones that didn't turn from bites. This might be somethin' that we would have got whether or not we brought them in. Beatin' on him more won't help." Daryl ran his fingers through his hair, the frustration apparent on his face.

"How's Dani and Jesse?" Rick nodded.

"They're fine. Dani was babying those chickens like she always does. She had Jesse with her and took him back inside for his afternoon nap a while ago." Relief flooded through Daryl and he looked at Alice.

"Check out D. Anyone's sick, let us know alright?" Alice turned to Taylor.

"Did you get vaccinated at Emory?"

"Yeah," said Taylor. Alice nodded.

"Great. You're with me. We'll cover more ground if there's two of us." Alice and Taylor hurried over to D. Rick looked at Daryl.

"What are you gonna do?" Daryl frowned.

"I'm gonna check on Dani and then tell Hershel what we found out." Rick nodded.

"You'll stay away from the infirmary, right?" Daryl looked away and then nodded.

"For now."

Carl sat by Cassie's bed in the infirmary watching her sleep. He felt guilty for not realizing that she was sick earlier. Rachel put her hand on Carl's shoulder.

"If you hadn't checked on her when you did, it could've been awhile before we found her." Carl nodded but didn't respond. Greg was sitting up on the side of his bed, one hand on his taped ribs. Tyreese looked at him hard.

"You takin' any of this in?" Rachel turned on him.

"Tyreese, not now." Tyreese shook his head.

"No, someone needs to make this guy take responsibility for what he's done." He stood up and walked over to Greg.

"Are you lookin' at this? Do you see what you did?" Tyreese pointed to Cassie. "She could've died! You were a doctor, man! Her daddy trusted her with you and you almost killed her! No wonder Dani wanted to keep her daughter away from you. You don't give a damn about no one right? Only one you're looking out for is yourself. We should have let Daryl kill your sorry ass instead of saving it!" Tyreese shook his head and turned his back on Greg. When he walked back over to Cassie's bed, Rachel glanced up at him.

"He can't even talk. What did you expect him to do?" Tyreese shook his head.

"Nothin'. I didn't expect nothin' but more lies and excuses." He put his hand on Cassie's forehead. "She's not as hot as she was. That's good right?" Rachel nodded and held Cassie's hand.

"We'll just have to wait and see how she does." She patted Carl's shoulder again.

"How are you feelin' Carl? You don't feel sick do you?" Carl shook his head.

"No I'm fine. I just feel bad, you know? I left her alone and she didn't have anyone with her. I know why she didn't want to talk about her mom though. She watched her mom die just like I did." Rachel frowned.

"Carl what happened to your mom, that was different." Carl whirled around to face her.

"The hell it was! I watched my mom hanging off the pipes in the boiler room while she tried not to scream to loud. I watched the blood run down her legs. I watched as she decided to die so that Judith would live. I listened to her tell me not to let the world spoil me. I watched Maggie cut my sister out of Mom's stomach and I heard her scream when the knife cut her. I was the one that put the gun to her forehead and ended it. Cassie watched her mom get sick, watched her mom go crazy and forget who she was and then watched her mom have a seizure and then saw her mom come back before they put her down. The only difference between us is that I can talk about it and she can't. I can accept what happened because I understood it. She didn't know what was happening." Rachel was again stunned at how mature Carl was and that, even though he and Cassie were in fact the same age, he would always be years older than her.

Alice and Taylor entered D block and went straight for Janet's cell. Janet was in bed asleep and sweating. Alice put her hand on Janet's forehead and looked at Taylor.

"She's burning up." They could hear coughing coming from further down the hall. "Go check on the others. I'll be there soon." Taylor hesitated.

"She can't be this sick from Cassie already." Alice turned on him.

"Don't just stand there! Go check the others!" Taylor hurried down the hall to the nearest occupied cell. Cedric was sitting on the edge of his bed with his nine year old son, Darnell. They had been found shortly after the remaining Woodbury group had been brought to the prison and had actually been the first outsiders Taylor and Abraham brought in. Cedric was rubbing his neck.

"Hey man," said Taylor as he walked in. "You ok?" Cedric shook his head.

"Nah man, I feel like hell. My neck is all stiff and my head's about to split in two. Can you get me some aspirin or somethin'? Every time I stand up, I get all dizzy." Taylor looked at Darnell.

"Darnell, you doin' alright?" Darnell nodded.

"My daddy's sick." Taylor nodded.

"It's ok. We'll get your daddy some medicine. I'll be right back." He hurried down the hallway and peeked into several more cells. The next few occupied rooms housed healthy people, healthy but scared. When he got to Dave Saunder's cell near the end of the hall, he found the older man completely unresponsive.

"Alice! Hey Alice I need you down here!" He listened to Dave's breathing and found his pulse. It was very weak. Taylor tried rubbing his knuckle hard on Dave's sternum like he'd seen the doctor do to his mother when she had passed out and was taken to the ER. She had responded and the doctor's had been happy that she "responded to painful stimuli". Dave didn't even flinch. Taylor did it again, harder but still didn't get a response. Alice entered the cell.

"Dave!" She knelt down next to his bed, pushing Taylor out of the way. The older man was burning up and Alice saw the familiar rash on the inside of his arms. She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Taylor, keep checking on people. I need to know how many we're dealing with here." Taylor turned to leave and saw one of the girls from the nearby cells watching them. Kristen was twenty-three and her sister Jessica was had just turned twenty. Kristen's eyes were wide with fear.

"Taylor, what's going on?" He didn't answer at first but then had an idea. Alice said that he should be ok because he'd been vaccinated at Emory. He knew Kristen and her sister had both gone to college before this and he could use some help.

"Did you get any shots or anything when you went to school?" Kristen looked startled.

"What are you talking...?" Taylor cut her off.

"Did you get any shots when you went to school like for meningitis or anything like that?" Kristen nodded.

"Yes, I did. My freshman year. I remember because the nurse was surprised I hadn't gotten all of that taken care of the summer before." Jessica poked her head out of the other cell and Taylor jerked his chin at her.

"Did she?" Kristen nodded.

"I told her to." Taylor smiled slightly and then grew serious again.

"Good. I need y'all to help me. We need to see how many people are sick. Headaches, stiff neck, thinkin' they got the flu, a rash, anything like that. Can you do that?" Kristen nodded and Jessica joined her sister as they ran down the hall. Taylor turned to Alice.

"I'm gonna get Rick and Hershel. They need to know what's goin' on in here. This can't be because of Cassie. It has to be the walkers." Alice glanced at him and nodded.

"Go to the infirmary too. Grab an IV kit, a syringe and a vial of Ampicillin. I need to get Dave hooked up now. Don't answer too many questions. I need that medicine now." Taylor ran out towards the infirmary.

Kristen had turned down the hall when she heard cries coming from Marci Walker's cell. The woman was due to give birth and hadn't been feeling well for about a week. Kristen ran to the cell and saw Marci sitting on her bed holding her knees and pushing.

"Marci! What are you doing?" Marci's eyes were wild and her face was red.

"It's got to come out. I don't want it to die in me. It has to come out now!" Kristen walked in to the cell to try to calm her and saw the top of the head emerging between Marci's legs.

"Oh shit! Marci stop. I'll get Alice!" Marci shook her head and pushed again.

"It's got to get out now! It's gonna tear me up!" Kristen looked around frantically but didn't see anyone. She thought about calling to Alice but didn't know if she would hear her or get to Marci on time. Kristen instead reached between Marci's legs and put her hands on the baby's head, helping guide it from Marci's body. She pushed again and Kristen was able to get the baby free. It was a boy and seemed lifeless in Kristen's hands. She turned him over, slapped his back and tapped the bottoms of his feet. Finally, the baby began to cry and Kristen breathed a sigh of relief. She looked up at Marci.

"He's fine. You hear him Marci? You've got a baby boy." Marci began to cry and reached down to take the baby from Kristen.

"He's ok? He's not one of them?" Kristen shook her head and got a good look at Marci's legs. They were covered in a red rash. Marci was kissing her son and stroking his cheek.

"He's perfect."

Taylor didn't see Hershel, Rick or Daryl on his way to the infirmary. He quickly grabbed the supplies Alice had requested, ignoring the questions Rachel and Tyreese threw at him. As he hurried back to D block, he saw Hershel walking towards D.

"Hershel!" Hershel saw what Taylor was holding and frowned.

"Daryl told me what's goin' on. Who's sick?" Hershel opened the door to the cellblock for Taylor and followed him inside.

"Janet's got it but Dave Saunders is the one…" Taylor's words drifted off when he saw Alice standing in the hall outside Dave's cell, a blank expression on her face.

"Dave is dead. Marci Walters just had her baby and she's got it too. Janet, Cedric and six people so far have symptoms and the others have probably been exposed. I don't have enough antibiotics to go around and I don't know who to treat first." She finally focused and realized Hershel was standing in front of her. "It was just like you said Hershel. It's the walkers. Everyone who's sick either worked the fence or disposed of the bodies. Even Marci worked the fence until I found out she was still doin' it and made her stop a few days ago. This is comin' from the walkers. It's not just D block, everyone could have this and it could kill them, just like it killed Dave." She covered her mouth with her hands and Taylor saw blood on her fingers as she started to cry.

"I don't know what we're gonna do."