Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Her Angel, His Strength

21 Sick

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl took a few steps towards the prisoners.

"Who the hell are you?" Was his answer.

"He's bleeding out, we gotta go back!" Rick screamed, bringing Lily's attention back to Hershel. "Come around here. Put pressure on the knee! Hard! Hard! Push, push!" He told Maggie, who was still crying but had stopped sobbing.

"Come on out of there. Slow and steady." She heard Daryl talking.

"What happened to him?"

"He got bit."

"Bit?" One of them asked, as if they were crazy, as if he never heard of someone dying because of a bite.

Lily helped Maggie press the cloth to Hershel's stump. He was bleeding too much, they had to go back to their cell or they'd lose him.

"Don't look like no rescue team!" She heard one of them say and she almost want to laugh at him.

"If a rescue team's what you're waiting for, don't!" Glenn arrived with a table for them to carry Hershel. "Come on, we gotta go! Now! Come on, I need a hand here! One, two, three, go!"

"Holy Jesus!"

"T, the door!" Rick bellowed.

"Are you crazy? Don't open that!"

"We got this." T-Dog reassured him. The prisoners still had a disturbed look on their faces. They ran back to their cells, Lily still pressing the cloth to the stump, her tears dry on her face.

"Stop, stop!" Rick screamed, and they all looked to see the prisoners following them. They had no time for this; they had to keep going. Rick appeared to have the same opinion as Lily, and soon they were back on their run.

"He's losing too much blood!" Maggie said, looking at the cloth they still were pressing against Hershel, it was soaked in crimson red.

"Open the door! It's Hershel! Carl, come on!"

Entering the cellblock, the rest of them came to see what had happened. Beth instantly started to cry. They entered an open cell and hurried to put Hershel on a bed.

"He got bit." Rick told them.

"Oh, my God, he's gonna turn!" Beth cried.

"Did you cut it off?" Lori asked, as she and Carol got to work. Lily ripping the bed sheet to substitute the bloodied cloth she and Maggie had been holding.

"Yeah."

"Maybe you got it in time." Lori said, and Lily hoped she was right. They had never tried this before.

"Oh, I need bandages!" Carol cried.

"We used everything we had!" Glenn answered.

"Well, get more! Anything!" Her voice was desperate.

"Carl, go get the towels from the back, right next to my bed!" The boy left, for the first time listening to his mother's order without an angry face.

"Is he gonna die?" Beth asked.

"No, no, no, he's gonna be okay." Lori said, holding her close.

"You think you can stabilize him?"

"I need to keep his leg elevated. Get some pillows!" Carol ordered and Lily left to look for them.

"He's already bled through the sheets!" Maggie observed, seeming out of it.

"We can burn the wound to clot the blood. I can start a fire." Glenn suggested.

"No, the shock could kill him. It's not gonna stop the arteries from bleeding. We need to keep it dressed and let it heal on its own."

"We'll need antibiotics. You know the ones I make will not be strong enough." Lily said to Carol.

"Yeah, get them anyway, it's the only thing we have." Nodding, she left to her cell to grab her almost empty first aid kit.

"What was that?" Beth asked just as Lily got back and started to search through her findings. Giving it to Carol, she gave the woman some space to work, knowing there was too many people around.

"Prisoners, survivors." At their panicked look, Rick said, "it's alright, everybody stay put." Motioning with his head to Glenn and Lily to follow him, he led them outside. "Do not leave his side!" He told Glenn, "If he dies, you need to be there for that. Think you can do this? Maggie will be there."

"I got it." Glenn told him, after hesitating.

"I can bring T in…"

"I got it."

"Good." Rick continued walking, motioning for Lily to stand behind him. Carl closed the door behind them.

"There ain't nothin' for ya here, why dontcha go back to your own sandbox?" They heard Daryl growling at the strangers.

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone relax, there's no need for this." Rick exclaimed, making his presence know.

"How many of you in there?" The one in the white wife beater asked, the one with the gun and the dangerous look.

"Too many for you to handle."

"You guys rob a bank or something? Why don't you take him to a hospital?" Rick, T-Dog, Daryl and Lily shared a look.

"How long have you been locked in that cafeteria?"

"Going on like ten months." He answered.

"A riot broke out. Never seen anything like it." The big one of them told them.

"Ever heard about dudes going cannibal, dying, coming back to life? Crazy."

"One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria, told us to sit tight, threw me this piece, said he'd be right back."

"And that was 292 days ago." The big one continued.

"94 according to my…" The one with the moustache corrected.

"Shut up!"

"We were thinking that the army or the National Guard should be showing up any day now."

"There is no army." Rick told them.

"What do you mean?"

"There's no government, no hospitals, no police. It's all gone." Their faces told them that they did not believe Rick.

"For real?"

"Serious."

"What about my moms?" The big one asked, making Lily feel sorry for him. How horrible it must be, not knowing what was happening all this time.

"My kids, my old lady! Yo, you got a self-phone or something so we can call our families?" One of them asked, still not understanding their situations.

"Ya don't get it, do ya?" Daryl said standing by Lily's side.

"No phones, no computers. As far as we can see, at least half the population's been wiped out. Probably more." Rick explained.

"Ain't no way." The one who appeared to be the more dangerous of them said.

"See for yourself." And they lead them to the courtyard of the prison.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences." One of them remarked, eying the walkers outside.

"You never said. How the hell did you get in here in the first place?"

"Cut a hole in that fence over there by the guard tower." Daryl answered.

"That easy, huh?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way."

"Easy for you to say."

"So, what, is this like a disease?" The bigger man asked, poking one of the dead walkers.

"Yeah, but we're all infected."

"What do you mean infected?" The man with the moustache asked. "Like AIDS or something?"

"If I was to kill ya, shoot an arrow in your chest, ya come back as one of these things. It's gonna happen to all of us."

"Ain't no way this Robin hood cast's responsible for killing all these freaks." Lily frowned her thick eyebrows at the man, she really didn't like the way he looked at them.

"Must be fifty bodies out here." One commented, looking around.

"Where do you come from?"

"Atlanta." Rick answered.

"Where you headed?"

"For now, nowhere."

"I guess you could take that area down there near the water. Should be comfortable."

"We're using that field for crops."

"We'll help you move your gear out."

"That won't be necessary. We took out these walkers, this prison is ours." Rick told him, his face showing Lily he would do whatever was necessary to make sure they all knew this.

"You snatched the locks off our doors."

"We'll give you new locks, if that's how you want it."

"This is our prison. We were here first."

"Locked in the broom closet? We took it, set you free, it's ours, we spilled blood."

"We're moving back into our cell block."

"You'll have to get your own." Rick told him firmly.

"It is mine. I've still got personal artefacts in there, that's about as mine as it gets!" Lily wanted to know just why he was arrested, the dangerous glimmer on his eyes made her nervous.

"I ain't coming back into that cafeteria for one minute."

"There are other cell blocks." The one with the moustache said, Lily thought he was the best one among the criminals.

"Ya could leave. Try your luck out on the road." Daryl suggested.

"If these three pussies and their bitch can do all this, the least we can do is take out another cell block." Lily and T-Dog had to restrain physically Daryl at those words, his face murderous.

"Daryl!" She whispered sharply.

"With what?" The big one asked, and Lily was thankful as the attention moved away from her.

"Atlanta here will spot us some real weapons. Won't you, boss?"

"How stocked is that cafeteria? Must have plenty of food, five guys lasting almost a year?" Rick asked and Lily realised for the first time the truth on that.

"It sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starvin'." Daryl gave a look at the big man.

"There's only a little left."

"We'll take half. In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block." Rick proposed.

"Didn't you hear him? There's only a little left!"

"Bet you've got more food than you've got choices." Rick told them calmly. "You pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it."

"Alright." The mean one agreed, though by the tone of his voice, Lily knew he was planning something. Apparently, Rick felt it too, for he got closer and threatened:

"Well, let's be clear. If we see you out here, anywhere near our people, if I so much as even catch a whiff of your scent, I will kill you."

"Deal."

Arriving at the cafeteria, T-Dog asked:

"You never tried to break out of here?"

"We tried to take the doors off. But if you make one peep in here, then those freaks will be lined up outside the door growling, trying to get in. Windows got bars on them that He-Man couldn't get through."

"Bigger than a 5'8."

"You won't find me complaining. Doing fifteen. My left leg can barely fit on one of those bunks." The big one said, making Lily smile, he didn't seem too bad. Daryl looked annoyed at her, making her wipe the smile from her face.

"Yeah, they don't call him Big Tiny for nothing."

"You're done jerking each other off? I'm getting sick of waiting back here." When they entered the pantry, Lily gasped. They could survive for months with that food.

"That's what ya call a little bit of food?" Daryl questioned.

"Goes fast."

"You can have a bag of corn, some tuna fish..." The one with the gun said, starting to point at the cans.

"We said half. That's the deal." Rick cut him off. Seeing a door, he pointed: "what's in there?"

"Don't open that." Big Tiny warned, but Rick didn't listen. The smell was so bad, Lily felt bile rise to her throat instantly. Gagging, she pressed her face to Daryl's back and tried to easy her stomach, breathing through her mouth.

"Oh, my God." She moaned, tears on her deep-set eyes from the stench. The prisoners laughed.

"You wanted to know!"

"Can't wait for my own pot to piss in." Lily groaned at that.

Daryl turned around and lifted her chin. He, too, had a smirk on his face. She grimaced at him, pushing his chest. Catching her hand, he brought it to his lips for a second, making her smile at him. Returning her smile, he kissed her forehead lightly, before starting to grab the food they would be bringing back to their cell.

"Food's here!" T-Dog announced happily, when they returned with the food.

"What you got?" Carl asked excited.

"Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans! There's a lot more where this came from!"

Lily went inside the cell to see Hershel. He was still sleeping; nevertheless, when she pressed her hand to his forehead, no fever was in sight. Lily breathed a sigh of relief.

"How's he doing?" She asked Carol.

"No fever but he's still bleeding and his pulse is weak." Lily looked at the woman and the two shared a worried glance. While Lily did not know much of medicine, she had spent more than her fair share of her childhood on a hospital, thanks to her father's work. They both knew what that meant.

"Where did you find all these things?" She pointed at the clean grazes and medications inside a bag.

"That was Carl. Crazy boy went all by himself to the infirmary."

"What? Oh, my God! Lori must had gone crazy on him." Carol smiled at her, giving Lily a look and opening her mouth to tell her what happened when Rick entered the cell.

"Lily." Looking up at Rick's voice, she nodded, and giving Hershel's hand a squeeze and a pat on Carol's shoulder, she followed Rick.

"Why do I need this, when I've got this?" The one with the gun, she learned was Thomas, asked grabbing the revolver, after seeing the weapons they had for them.

"Ya don't fire guns. Not unless your back's up against the wall. Noise attracts them, really riles them up." Daryl explained.

"We'll go in two by two. Daryl will run point with T; I'll bring up the rear with you." He pointed at the prisoner named Andrew. "Stay tight, hold formation, no matter how close the walkers get. Anyone breaks ranks, we could all go down, anyone runs off, they could get mistaken for a walker, end up with an axe to the head."

"And that's where ya aim." Daryl pipped in. "These things only go down with a head shot."

"Ain't gotta tell us how to take out a man." Lily gave Rick a worried glance. So now, they knew how Thomas had gotten himself in prison.

"They ain't men. They're something else." T-Dog claimed.

"Just remember, go for the brain." Rick warned one last time before they left.

"Man, it's too damn dark in here!" Big Tiny complained as they walked slowly through the corridors.

"Gotta hold it up high out in front of ya. Ya're gonna hear 'em before ya see 'em."

"It's coming!" Axel screamed, starting all of them.

"Shhh!"

A few walkers arrived. While Rick, T-Dog and Lily waited for Daryl's sign, the prisoners ran ahead, screaming and attacking them by aiming everywhere but the head. Lily looked at her companions, the four of them sharing shocked looks. When they finally took action and killed the walkers themselves, they made a point of showing just where to stab them for the walkers to remain dead.

"What the hell was that?" Rick hissed at prisoners when they finally managed to kill the threat. "I told you to stay on formation! I told you to aim for the head! You want this cellblock? You do as I say."

"It's gotta be the brain!" Daryl said as they encountered another walker on their way, as he shot a bolt into a walker's head, making it fall instantly. "Not the stomach, not the heart, the brain!"

"I hear you, the brain." Axel agreed. Oscar went to stab another walker in the head, effectively killing it.

"Stay in tight formation, no more prison riot crap!" Rick commanded. As more walkers walked through, they kept fighting them, this time with every one aiming for the brain. When it was finally over, they turned around and saw that one of the walkers passed through them and went for Big Tiny. Rick killed the walker, but another, coming from behind, managed to bit the prisoner's back. Lily didn't have the time to feel bad for him before flinching at the gunshots. Thomas killed the walker that bit his friend.

"I'm telling you! I don't feel anything, it's just a scratch!" He said, panicked at their faces. The prisoners didn't fully understand just what being bitten meant. That there was no way for him to be treated.

"I'm sorry man…" Rick sighed.

"I can keep fighting!"

"You cut that old guy's leg off to save his life!" Andrew said, his tone an accusation.

"Look at where the bite is!" Rick hissed back.

"I'm fine! Just… I'm fine. Look, look at me, I'm not changing into one of those things."

"Look, man, there's gotta be something we can do; we could just lock him up!"

"Quarantine him!"

"He'll die from the fever. He'll turn, and then we'll have to kill him anyway." Lily said in the gentler tone she could conjure.

"Lils' right. There's nothing we can do." Rick confirmed.

"You son of a bitch!"

"I'm al…" Big Tiny didn't finish his sentence before Thomas stabbed him in the head. He kept stabbing him, even after the man was long dead, each stab making Lily take a step back until she was beside Daryl. Grabbing his arm, her nails left moon marks on it. She couldn't look away from the scene.

When he was done, he turned to face them. His face bloodied and his eyes… Even the others prisoners seemed frightened by his eyes.

They kept walking, Lily still glued by Daryl's side.

"Ya see the look on his face?" He asked Rick.

"He makes one move…"

"Just give me a signal." Lily gulped and Daryl looked at her. Her face was pale and he knew he didn't have to ask her to stay away from the man. Lily had no plans of leaving Daryl's side while Thomas was around.

Arriving at a room with a set of two doors that lead to the cellblock, Daryl threw the keys to Thomas' feet.

"I ain't opening that."

"Yes, you are." Rick said. "If you want this cell block, you're gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. Because we need to control this." They could hear the walkers outside as Thomas picked the keys up.

"You bitches ready?" He asked, trying to open the door, but it didn't bulge. "I got this." He opened of both them, and the walkers walked through.

"I said one door!" Rick hissed.

"Shit happens!"

While shooting arrows at the walkers, Lily could see Thomas sending a walker on Rick, who fell on the ground.

"Rick!"

"T, mind the gap!" Daryl said, moving closer to their friend to stab the walker on top of him. When they were finished, Thomas said:

"He was coming at me, bro!"

"Yeah…" Rick nodded. "Yeah, I get it. I get it. Shit happens." He stared at Thomas for a few seconds, and before the later could react, Rick stabbed him on the head.

"No!" Andrew screamed, coming at Rick with a baseball bat, but Rick managed to kick him giving Daryl time to point at him with his crossbow.

"Easy now."

Andrew turned around and ran away, with Rick following him. The rest of them stayed in the room, T-Dog pointing a gun at Axel's head and Daryl his crossbow at Oscar's. Lily stayed glued to where she was, her eyes moving around, trying not to look at Thomas, whose head was split in two. How she wished she had stayed with the others to look after Hershel…

"We don't have no affiliation to what just happened! Tell him, Oscar!" Axel cried.

"Stop talking man." His friend shook his head at him. Lily felt sorry for them. They didn't look as bad as Thomas, not nearly as dangerous; however, she knew it would be Rick's decision.

Rick came back without Andrew, making Lily wonder what happened to him. She couldn't blame Rick if he had killed him, and the thought made her wonder if she was losing her humanity. What would Dale think, she pondered.

"We didn't have nothing to do with that." Axel told Rick, whose face was sceptical.

"You didn't know? You knew! Daryl, let's end this now!" He said, pointing his gun at Axel's face while Daryl put his knife on Oscar's neck.

"Sir, please, please listen to me!" Axel begged. "It was them that was bad! It wasn't us!"

"Oh, that's convenient!"

"You saw what he did to Tiny! He was my friend! Please! We ain't like that! I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer! Oscar here, he's a B and E and he ain't very good at it neither! We ain't the violent kind, they were! Please! Please, I swear to God! I wanna live!" Lily knew then that both of them were innocent. His tone said it.

"What about you?" Rick asked Oscar, pointing his gun at his head.

"I ain't never pleaded for my life." The man said calmly. "And I ain't about to start now. So you do what you gotta do." Rick nodded and lowered his gun. At his nod, Daryl left his position and stood up, coming to Lily's side. They continued their track of the cellblock.

When they finally arrived, they pushed both prisoners inside.

"Oh man!" Axel cried when he saw the dead prisoners on the cells. "I knew these guys, they were good men."

"Let's go." Rick said.

"So you're just gonna leave us in here? Man, this is sick!"

"We're locking down the cell block. From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it, that was the deal."

"Ya think this is sick? Ya don't wanna know what's outside." Daryl told them.

"Consider yourselves the lucky ones." Was Rick's final words to them.

"Sorry about your friends, man." Daryl nodded at Axel, and putting his hand on Lily's lower back, pushed her gently out of there, walking back towards their block.

When they arrived, Hershel was still sleeping.

"Hershel stopped breathing, mom saved him." Carl blustered out making Lily's heart stop for a second, coming back to life at full speed. She hurried inside where everyone else was gathered.

"Still no fever." Lori said, making her feel relieved.

Slowly, as if feeling they were all together waiting for him, Hershel opened his eyes. His still human eyes. Lily smiled with everyone else, watching as Rick took the cuffs off. Looking up, she caught Daryl's gaze and, when he motioned for her to follow him; she went after taking one last look at Hershel.

"Still mad?"

"Still gonna lock me inside my cell for a week?" He laughed and brought her closer. Their kiss was all the reassurance Lily needed.


If there's no reviews, there will be no update.

English is not my mother tongue, if you find a mistake, please let me know.

Thank you,

Mel.