"You talk with Daryl?" I ask Beth making my way into our cell. I don't hang out in there very much, letting her take over mostly. She nods without looking up from her book. "I'm sorry" I say to her, feeling bad and not really knowing what else to say. He's been here a couple weeks, and they both seemed to enjoy one another.
She shrugs, not looking back up to me "maybe you should go talk to him, he seemed upset."
"Thanks" I say before going to look for him.
I look back outside, and in some of the cells but he's no where to be found "I saw him a few minutes ago, he was heading that way." Patrick points off towards another area. I nod and thank him while heading that way.
"Daryl?" I call into the shower area. No one answers but I hear it running. I walk in slowly, not wanting to startle someone "Daryl?" I question again, there's no where else he could have gone. I stop a few feet away from where the shower is running, his body obvious to me through the shadow of the curtain. His hand rests against the wall, his head tilted downwards towards the ground as if he's watching the water fall. "Daryl, is everything okay?" I whisper out to him. He doesn't answer, or turn to me and I start to worry. I step closer to the curtain "Daryl?" I say pulling it to the side to get his attention. He finally turns his head to me, his eyes angry "what.." I gasp out a little at what I see.
On his back are scars, scars of a bad past. He mentioned to me that his dad was an abusive drunk, but I never imagined this. "You mind?" He snarls at me. I ignore him, and step under the water, not caring that I'm getting my clothes wet. I rub my fingers across one of the scars and he jerks himself away "you deaf or somethin'?" he snarls, his voice raising.
"Daryl.. I.." I go to say something but he interrupts me.
"Can't you just leave me alone?" He yells, turning his back away from me so it's facing the wall.
His eyes burn into me, my heart raising from what he said. I nod, feeling vulnerable and leave. I try to hide what I'm feeling inside, from him, from the others, from myself. I walk through the cell block, my clothes soaked and outside towards the fence wall. "Hey, everything okay?" Maggie asks me as I walk past her. I ignore her though, and the few others who try and get my attention. Everyone is done for the day taking down the walkers, there aren't many but I'll do what I can to try and get my frustration out.
"What's going on?" Rick comes over to the fence line where I am. I eye him for a second, not taking my attention off of the task at hand. He comes around through the gate into the walkway. "Sadie" he says,taking a hold of my wrist to stop me "you're scaring the others." he eyes behind me up towards the prison.
My hands tightly wrapped against the pipe I'm using but I sigh out slowly and loosen the grip. Rick takes it from my hand and I mutter "sorry."
"It's alright.." he puts his hand on my back "you wanna tell me what this is about?" He eyes me. I give him a look, one that says you already know "Daryl?" He asks to make sure.
"of course" I say back putting my head down "why do I let him get to me?" I question more to myself then to him.
"you know, I think you get to him too" He says after some silence. I look at him, like I haven't thought of that before and he smiles softly back to me "now, let's go inside before you catch a cold, it's not summer anymore" his smile widens and he takes off his jacket to pass it over to me.
I didn't realize till then that I was shivering. I thought I was shaking from the anger but maybe it was just the cold. I don't sleep well that night, tossing and turning in the upper bunk. Beth mumbles something to me in the middle of the night about it. I decide to get up early, make breakfast before the others get up. I walk outside into the rising sun. A haze of fog rolled in overnight, making it look clearer against the fences then it actually is. Glenn nods his head from the tower, him and Maggie taking the night shift. Rick and Carl come out an hour or so after I do, to start farming and taking care of the animals. Michonne leaves on the horse, and everyone starts the day as normal as we have been. I start to plate out some dishes when I hear echoed gunshots. The plate I'm holding falls to the ground in a heep, I turn to grab my knife and bow, resting against a pillar behind me.
Glenn runs out of the cell block "Walkers in D!" He shouts out to us all.
"What about C?" Rick asks worried as he makes it to the rest of us.
"Clear." Someone yells back, I think it's Sasha "Hershel's on guard."
"It ain't a breach!" Daryl yells, running forward.
Sasha adds on right behind him "We followed the plan!"
We get into D block and it's chaos. There, some of the people we used to know are now dead and attacking the others. Blood stains the floors and the walls and the deadbeats switch from their dead meals on the floor to the live bait that's running around. I kill whomever I know is already dead, stabbing them in their heads or stomping them out if they are already on the ground. People begin to file out of the D block as the rest of us take down the walkers. I make my way upstairs, checking the cells for any lingering people, too afraid to run. I go to peak into a room when a walker throws itself out from behind a sheet and grabs me "ughh.." I push against it, trying to fight it off.
"GET DOWN!" Someone yells and I try to duck, the walker soon letting its grip go. Rick comes over and offers me his hand.
"Thanks" I say to Daryl, noticing the arrow sticking out of the head.
Daryl looks down at the body "It's Patrick" he comments. He looks back out to the rest of the block "it's all of them."
I sit in on the council meeting with the others. Rick isn't there and I'm too worried about what happened to not participate in this particular meeting. "Patrick was fine yesterday, and he died overnight. Two people died that quick?" Carol starts the meeting, wondering how this could've gone down so quickly.
"We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed." I say, worried about getting the others sick.
Daryl speaks up in a low voice "that's everyone in that cell block. That's all of us. Maybe more."
"We know that this sickness can be lethal. We don't know how easily it spreads. Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?" Hershel addresses us all calmly.
Carol responds "we can't just wait and see. And there's children. It isn't just the illness. If people die, they become a threat."
Hershel nods agreeing with her words "we need a place for them to go. They can't stay in D. We can't risk going in there to clean it up."
"We can use cell block A." Carol recommends.
"Death row?" Glenn asks. "I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade."
Daryl comments "it's clean. That's an upgrade." He asks Hershel "think that'll work for Dr. S?"
"I'll help Caleb get it set up." He says back. We hear someone coughing out in the hall. All of us get up to see what it's about.
"You okay?" We hear a male ask.
"Mm-hmm." Someone responds back as we reach the door.
Carl is out in the hall first "you sure?" she asks "you don't sound so good." We're all huddled in the small space, staring at Karen and Tyreese.
"We're just taking her back to my cell so she can rest." He assures us she's fine.
"Tyreese, I don't think that's a good idea." Sasha disagrees in a soft voice.
"Why? What's going on now?" Karen asks, coughing into her arm after.
"We think it's a flu or something." I say back.
"That's how Patrick died." Glenn adds on.
Hershel steps forward toward her "Judith is in that cell block. She's vulnerable. Anyone that may be sick or even exposed should stay away."
"It killed Patrick?" She asks worried.
Tyreese speaks up upon her behalf "she's gonna be okay. Now that we know what Patrick died from we can treat it, right?" He looks to Hershel for relief, for his answer.
"Don't panic. We're going to figure this out. But we should keep you separated in the meantime. We'll have Caleb take a look at you. I'll see what we have in the way of medications." He explains to her and Tyreese.
Karen nods, speaking back "David from the Decatur group, he's been coughing, too."
Glenn moves off the wall "I'll get him." He turns back towards Sasha "there's some empty clean cells in the tombs, right?"
"Yeah, we'll meet you there. Okay." Sasha says back to him. She goes to her brothers side "come on. Let's get you settled."
"Have to call another meeting later." Herhsel informs the 3 of us who are still there.
"All right" Daryl nods "I'll get to burying the dead ones." He moves his bow to his shoulder.
Hershel instructs him as I move to the corner of the hall "you wear gloves and a mask."
"Uh-huh." He nods as Hershel walks past him to follow after Karen and the others.
"You all right?" Daryl asks Carol whose still standing there.
"I'm worried about Lizzie and Mica. They were around Patrick." She says to him.
"We all were. Karen and David are gonna be separated till they feel better." He tells her.
"You're right. Are you okay?" She asks him back.
"Mm-hmm." I hear him mumble back "got to be." He turns back from her to walk and get to work and stops when he gets to me "are you alright?" He asks me.
"Don't act like you care" I snarl back, still annoyed about the night before.
He grunts "fine, I won't." and he walks off.
"Someone seems touchy" Carol comes over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
I puff out "I know right" I roll my eyes at Daryl although he is already out of sight.
"I meant you sweetheart" she smiles back in a condescending way. "Whatever is going on, I think we have a more pressing matter at our hands. We need Daryl, and we need him focused." She says to me before walking out and leaving me alone there. Even though I know she is right, her words bother me. She's always been close with Daryl and I've tried not to let that get to me, but this just seems like her trying to push me away from him. I sigh out, and make my way to find Glenn to help get the new cells ready.