setting: episode 2 "Sick"

Damnation

Chapter 10 - Threat

Boston – The Hoag, January 2007

It started with a simple bump. Connor and Murphy had been walking in one direction and Julio Mendez, member of a violent prison gang and rapist of five girls, in the other. The younger MacManus had accidentally bumped into the man, and this was enough to start something that felt like a war. The only problem wasn't just the fact that they were locked up with the most violent criminals of Boston. Connor's oh so beloved brother made it worse with his temper. It didn't just feel like all those prison bars were bringing out the worst of those other prisoners, it seemed to change the younger MacManus just as much. He was incredibly angry all the time, and it took even less to make him lash out at anyone who got too close or said the wrong things.

His older half knew what it was about. The lack of cigarettes every now and then certainly played a part there, but he could also tell that Murphy was secretly afraid, although he would never really show that or tell him. So when he bumped into Mendez and the latter made a cocky remark on that it was enough to make the dark-haired twin lose it. It was like he was a trapped and nervous dog, and there was no stopping him. Just in a matter of seconds Murphy was on the prisoner and buried his fists in his stomach and face. Connor tried to get his brother away from the fight, jumping at any of the other prisoners who decided to join the mess. And once again he was reminded that they really weren't invincible, that prisoners were the worst people you could ever imagine. It was all about anger and frustration and violence in here, since no one had anything to lose. No one - if you didn't count the Irishman in. Because Connor had something to lose, and that was his brother, who was really getting into his third prison fight now.

Murphy had expressed his desire to kill every last scumbag in here more than once, and it certainly looked like he was trying to achieve that now. But they were just two and the others were many, too many. By the time the guards finally reached the cafeteria Julio Mendez was nothing but a bloody pulp, Murphy and Connor only had scratches. Vocal and and physical fights had been going on ever since the Saints had entered the prison, which was why the guards already knew what was going on and who was causing them trouble. They instantly grabbed a few other prisoners and the younger MacManus to put them in solitary, no matter how many times his brother tried to reason with them and almost begged them not to take his twin away again. But everyone knew the brother's only weakness – separation.

What pissed the others off the most was the lack of a true reaction from Connor whenever the brothers were together, but it was a whole different story when they were alone. It wasn't like the older twin doubted his brother's ability to defend himself against those scumbags. Of course he could do that. Murphy had balls of steel, Murphy didn't need him. But Connor needed Murphy, needed to see him, and if he didn't see him then he needed to know that his younger half was safe. He had always been far more obsessed with his twin and he had always felt the need to secretly mother-hen him whenever he could. He knew that Murphy wasn't safe in here, in solitary, in this prison, he knew that they needed to be together to survive this. Not only so they could watch each other's backs, but also because they physically couldn't take a separation that lasted longer than a week. If Murphy kept going like this then it would break them sooner or later, and they both knew it. Trouble was that this knowledge made the younger MacManus even more reckless, violent and angry, which made everything just worse. It was an endless vicious circle.

As Connor watched how his yelling twin was taken away from him his eyes met the ones of Juan Castillo, who had been watching the whole fight from the table which he considered his domain. He was the worst of gangster them all, because he was like an exact copy of the older MacManus. He just happened to use it for the dark side. He never really showed any reaction and always seemed calm, but one could just tell that his brain was coming up with all sorts of plans. Fucked up plans. He was just as twisted as Connor, just as much out for blood, and he certainly enjoyed using his skills and authority to kill people and let them suffer. Mendez happened to be part of his gang, which had been the reason why the older MacManus had been even more furious when Murphy had started the fight, the fight that started everything.

When their eyes met Juan started grinning at frowning Connor. He nodded at the door through which they had dragged Murphy out, and then made a slicing motion across his own neck. The blonde's blood ran cold when he saw that gesture. Once again his heart and entire body got filled with nothing but hatred and disgust. He narrowed his eyes and just stared back at the man, trying not to look intimidated or scared at all. But he knew what it meant. He knew how fucked up gangsters like Castillo were. The gang wanted his brother dead, and just for a second he agreed with Murphy's silly idea. They needed to kill every last prisoner.

Because he hated them, because they were all a danger to them, to Murphy, because they all deserved to die. Connor kept staring at Juan and clenched his fists so hard that his nails actually cut his palms. His eyes kept piercing and piercing until even the tough gangster opposite him stopped smiling. Maybe he was a bit intimidated by Connor, maybe it made him just as deadly serious, but both men understood what was going on. This meant war.

now...

Daryl and Connor were watching the door to the entrance hall of their cell block. It had taken the group a couple of minutes to relocate injured Herschel and bring him back to their cells, and it was the friends' job to keep an eye on everything now that the group was busy and prisoners were on the loose. Daryl positioned himself close to the door and behind one of the cafeteria tables, then he put an arrow in his crossbow and took aim at the dark hallway. Connor was standing on the other side, a bit closer to the exit, both guns ready to shoot.

"I'm telling you, 've got a bad feelin about those fuckers" he murmured after a while.

They could hear the group of prisoners roaming through the corridors. Daryl just snorted.

"Seriously, you've got to stop it with yer bullshit. What've I told yah? Yer saint bullshit ain't worth crap now. They're prisoners, so what? We got it covered."

"'They're prisoners, so what?' Are ye fucking kidding me?" Connor muttered and both men glared at each other.

They didn't have time to discuss the issue, because right then the prisoners decided to enter their hall, with Tomas and the slim African-American up front.
They all turned their heads and eyed the hall floor to ceiling, and when they wouldn't stop walking Connor undid the safety of his Berettas.

"That's far enough."

Tomas smirked and pointed at the door behind Daryl.

"Cell block C. Cell 4, that's mine, gringo. Let me in."

Daryl just looked at him, crossbow pointed at the prisoner's head.

"Today's your lucky day, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia. You're free to go."

Connor shifted and glared at Tomas, who wouldn't stop coming closer.

"Well, we'll see about that" he murmured and the other man eyed him head to toe with a snort.

"Sorry, you were sayin? Yah even speak English? How about you go back to the end of the rainbow, and me and my buddies we're gonna go back to our block?
What you got going in there?"

Connor just glared at him.

"It ain't none of your concern" Daryl spoke up to keep the two from fighting, but Tomas grabbed his gun nevertheless and pointed it at the hunter.

"Don't be telling me what's my concern" he growled and Connor darted forward, pointing one of his guns right at the prisoner's head.

"Put the fucking gun down and stop pointing it at him or you're dead."

"Chill, man! Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free now, why are we still in here?" the large African-American said.

Connor and Tomas glared at each other for a little while longer, and when the latter saw that Daryl was still pointing his crossbow at his head he lowered his gun.

"Man's got a point" the hunter agreed and the other member of the group spoke up as well.

"Yeah, I gotta check on my old lady."

Tomas wouldn't stop glaring at Daryl this time.

" Group of civilians and a bunch of psychos who've just broken out of prison breaking in to a prison they got no business being in?
Got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go."

"There ain't no place fer a scumbag like you anyways" Connor growled and wouldn't stop glaring at the man he was still pointing his gun at. Daryl moved closer.

"Why don't you go find out?" he joined in, threatening the prisoner with his crossbow even more.

"Maybe we'll just be going now" the man with the beard and blonde hair said and put his hands up.

"Hey! We ain't leaving!" Tomas spat and Connor pressed his gun to his temple.

"You ain't staying either."

Tomas suddenly moved and pointed his gun at the Irishman's head as well. Daryl darted forward and pointed his crossbow at him.

"Hey hey hey! Drop the gun right now!"

"This is my house, my rules. I go where damn will!" Tomas spat and Connor narrowed his eyes.

"Aye, how bout you go straight t'hell you piece of shit?"

"How about you go there first, mick?" Tomas yelled and undid the safety of his gun as well.

"Put the gun down now!" Daryl spat and the other prisoners apart from the blonde drew their weapons as well.

Tomas snorted and looked at both Daryl and Connor.

"Or what? You think we're scared of Robin Hood and his leprechaun boyfriend?"

"Alright, that's it motherfucker!" Connor said and was just about to pull the trigger when Rick came running in.

"Hey hey hey hey! Everyone relax! There's no need for this!" he shouted and came to a halt right next to Daryl.

He placed a hand on both the hunter's crossbow and Connor's gun and pressed their arms down.
The Irishman withdrew with an angry growl and kicked one of the tables. Tomas was now eyeing all three of them, until he fixed his eyes on Rick.

"How many of you are in there?"

"Too many for you to handle" Rick answered and glared at the prisoner. Daryl wouldn't keep his eyes off them, but moved closer to Connor in the meantime.

"Are yah insane? You trying t'get us killed?" he whispered and his friend snorted.

"Oh, fuck off. I ain't got time fer any of this sensitive talk bullshit with those prison scumbags."

"Why don't you take your wounded guy to a hospital?" Tomas asked their leader and the members of the Atlanta group looked at each other for a moment. Connor returned his gaze to the prisoners and took a closer look at them, now that it wasn't so dark anymore. Once again he couldn't stop looking at the blonde prisoner, who had his arms folded over his chest and who was shaking a bit. He seemed rather nervous, even a little scared in fact. Connor then turned his head to eye the other three remaining members of the prisoner group. Tomas was a no go. He was absolutely sure. The man was a ticking time bomb, and he just knew that sooner or later the guy was going to mess things up, that sooner or later he would have to kill him. Connor turned his head and looked at Daryl and Rick who were explaining to the prisoners that life as they knew it had ended a long time ago. The Irishman sighed and looked at the others again. He just knew that he had to kill at least one of them sooner or later. Whether the others wanted it or not. The Irishman listened up when they started talking about what had happened inside the prison.

"A riot broke out. Never seen anything like it" the large African-American said and the nervous blonde prisoner nodded.

"Like Attica on speed, man."

"Ever heard about dudes going cannibal, dying, coming back to life? Crazy" Tomas said and looked at his inmates. "One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria. Told us: sit tight, threw me this piece" he went on and showed them the gun, then he kept pointing it at Connor. "Said he'd be right back."

The other African-American prisoner nodded.

"Yeah, and that was 292 days ago."

"94 according to my cal.." the blonde tried to correct him, but Tomas interrupted him mid sentence.

"Shut up!" he spat and the other fell quiet, looking at him in surprise and then staring at his feet. This made it very obvious who was the small fish and who the bully. Connor narrowed his eyes and decided to concentrate on Tomas for now. He would have to think about the other prisoners later.

" We were thinking that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now..but.." one of them went on and Rick sighed.

"Yeah. Half the population's been wiped out. Probably more."

No one said anything for a while and especially the prisoners seemed shocked and devastated. Tomas snorted after a moment.

"Ain't no way."

"See for yourself" Rick answered and pointed at the door that led outside.

They were on their way out with the prisoners up front when Daryl placed himself next to Connor again, who wouldn't stop pointing his gun at Tomas' back.

"Will yah knock it off now, you dumbass? Yer putting the whole group in danger with yer crap."

The Irishman snorted.

"I ain't the dangerous one here."

"We don't know shit 'bout them. Just look at them. Two giants, one grandpa, one beanstalk and Mr all hat and no cattle, they ain't no threat to us."

"Prisoners are always a threat, Daryl. All of 'em. Ain't no reason fer them ta be in here otherwise. And you fuckin saw this guy.
Swaying his gun around and threatening both me 'n you. Especially fucking me. "

Daryl frowned.

"Well, you dumbass wouldn't stop provoking him, so don't be all surprised now. Just calm down for once. Rick'll sort it out."

Connor snorted once more.

"Yeah, I'm so sure about that" he murmured and walked faster.

As soon as the prisoners were outside they started looking up at the sky, some of them seemed very happy in fact.

"Damn this sun feels good" said one of them and stretched his legs and arms.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences" Tomas joined in and Connor shook his head with a snort.

"Yeah and that's damn right were ye belong. Behind them, you fucker" he murmured and earned a kick from Daryl.

Tomas didn't seem to have heard the Irishman's comment, he kept walking and eyed the prison yard. Just watching him made Connor cringe. He could see how the prisoner was making his way down the yard, walking like he owned the place, like he was the toughest of them all. The Irishman fought the urge to take aim and blast the guy's head off, because it reminded him way too much of the prisoners they had been with inside the Hoag. Especially that fucking Castillo guy. Tomas was almost EXACTLY like this man and all these oh so tough gangsters. They had been walking around just like that when had tried to get between him and Murphy. Guys like Castillo who had almost killed his brother more than once inside the prison. He felt so much hatred all over again, to an extent where he was quite surprised himself. For the past year he had been so caught up with running from walkers. So many things had happened, Murphy's death, his depression, his suicide attempt, his recovery, the bite, the immunity... So many things had happened that he had almost forgotten about his past. What it had been like to live a "normal" life, what his former beliefs and morality had been about. All those years he had spent shooting bad guys, and most importantly, how much he had hated guys like Tomas. He had forgotten all about that for the past year, but now it was all coming back with such a force and so much hatred and darkness inside him, that it scared him a bit. Whenever he was looking at Tomas he could feel it boiling inside, the urge to kill. The urge to take revenge.

"You never said. How the hell did you get in here in the first place?" the slim prisoner asked and snapped Connor out of it.

He turned around to look at the man. Daryl was the one who answered.

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

The prisoner turned his head to see where he was pointing, and Connor got closer to Daryl.

"Ye don't need t'tell them shit about us, man. Stop it" he hissed and Daryl snorted.

"Oh, fuck off."

"That easy, huh?" the prisoner asked and Daryl shrugged.

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

"Easy for you to say."

Connor chuckled angrily.

"What, just because ye were t'stupid t'break outta prison? Yer fault, dumbfuck. Damn right where there's a will there's a way" he said and started walking again.

"Connor. Knock it off" Rick demanded and gave him a death glare. The Irishman put his hands in the air and shook his head. He walked away and headed for the fences.

The largest member of the group of prisoners poked one of the corpses on the ground with his pipe.

"So what is this, like a disease?" he asked and looked at Rick.

"Yeah, and we're all infected" the former policeman answered and the prisoners looked at him.

Connor reached one of the fences and leaned against it with a sigh.

"More or less" he murmured and kept an eye on their surroundings.

He had pulled up the sleeves of his leather jacket by now, because it was way hotter outside than inside the cool prison buildings. He watched the walkers on the other end of the property, but after a moment he couldn't stop staring at the scar on his left forearm. When he turned around again he saw how the slim prisoner was staring straight at him, with wide eyes fixed on his arm.

"What do you mean infected? Like AIDS or something?" the man with the beard asked and folded his arms again.

"If I was to kill you, shoot an arrow in your chest, you'd come back as one of these things" Daryl answered and pointed at one of the bodies.

"It's gonna happen to all of us" the hunter went on and Connor looked away again. Not all of us, he thought and scratched his arm.

"Ain't no way this Robin Hood cat and is responsible for killing all those freaks" Tomas said and pointed at the bodies.

"Must be fifty bodies out here!" his slim inmate joined in and nodded. Tomas moved closer to Rick and Connor got back to the group as well, simply because he didn't like the idea of them being too close to any of them.

"Where'd you come from?"

"Atlanta. Connor's from Boston" Rick said and looked at the prisoner. The other man kept coming closer.

"Where are you headed?" he went on and Connor had enough.

"That's none of yer fuckin business. One more step.."

"Nowhere" Rick spoke up and placed a hand on Connor's chest to push him back.

Tomas eyed the former policeman with a smirk, then he nodded to his right.

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

Connor snorted.

"Aye. Fer you, asshole."

"We're using that field for crops" Rick said and Tomas nodded once more.

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

"We said we ain't leaving!" Connor spat and the prisoner turned his head to look at him, grabbing his gun tight while doing so.

Rick looked up to face Daryl and gave him a slight nod after a while. The hunter nodded back and moved to get his friend.

"Come on, better watch that fence over there. Think I saw something" he said and grabbed Connor by his arm. The Irishman snorted.

"Yeah, af course."

"Just leave Rick to it. He's our leader, not you."

"We took out these walkers. This prison is ours" Rick said and gave in to an intense stare down.

"Slow down, cowboy" Tomas said and the slim prisoner moved forward.

"You snatched the locks off our doors!" he said and placed himself next to Tomas.

"We'll give you new locks, if that's how you want it" Rick countered and the prisoners snorted.

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

"What, locked in a fridge like scared little bunnies? Do us a favor and fuck off" Connor answered and walked back, despite Daryl's tries to keep him away from Tomas.

"We took it, set you free. It's ours. We spilled blood" Rick said and came closer.

"We're moving back into our cell block" the prisoner growled and moved closer to Rick.

"You'll have to get your own" the former policeman said.

"The thing is ours now. Deal with it" Connor joined in and Tomas gave him a death glare again.

"It's mine! I've still got personal artifacts in there, that's about as mine as it gets!" he spat, pulled his gun and pointed it at Connor's head again.

Rick and Daryl drew there weapons. Connor just looked at the muzzle of the gun and smirked.

"Woah woah woah! Maybe let's try to make this work out so everybody wins!" the blonde with the beard tried to reason with both of them.

"I don't see that happening" Tomas growled and Connor nodded.

"Neither do I."

"I ain't going back in that cafeteria for one more minute."

"I could kill you if that makes it easier fer you. It's either that or you just leave. No fucking in between" the blonde went on and Tomas gave him a look like he was just about to murder the Irishman himself

"Just leave" Daryl, who was pointing his crossbow at the man with the gun, growled and looked at both me, now that he was freaing a fight between the men.

"Try your luck out on the road."

Tomas just stared at Daryl and the look on his face made Connor laugh.

"What's wrong, Tommy? Are ye scared? Don't wanna go out there because af all those scary monsters walking around?
Not such a tough gangster now, huh?"

Tomas turned his head to look at the Irishman, and when no one of the Atlanta group would drop their weapons he finally backed off.

"If these pussies can do all this, least we can do is take out another cell block for us" he said and looked at his group. The largest prisoner frowned.

"With what?"

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

Connor raised an eyebrow.

"You wish."

Rick looked at them for a while, then he put a hand on Connor's shoulder to pull him back.

"How stocked is that cafeteria? It must have plenty of food. Five guys lasting almost a year?"

"It sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starving" Daryl observed and Connor grinned at him.

"There's only a little left" Tomas said but Rick shrugged.

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

The slim prisoner shoved Rick.

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

"Hey! Hands off!" Connor growled and pointed his gun at his head. Tomas pointed his gun at Connor again, but Rick stepped between them.

"Bet you got more food than you got choices" he said and looked them straight in the eye.

"You pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it."

It was quiet for a while, and Connor felt uneasy about the whole deal. He didn't want those prisoners in here with them. He wanted them gone. He moved closer to Rick with a frown.

"Rick, are ye sure that.."

"All right" Tomas interrupted him, and Rick ignored the Irishman. He stepped forward and looked at the prisoners.

"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, We will kill you."

The two men glared at each other for a while until Tomas nodded.

"Deal."

Rick nodded and turned around.

"Alright. Let's keep moving."

The others started moving as well. Except for Connor and Tomas. They were glaring right at each other, until the Irishman shook his head and gave the prisoner a smirk.
He moved closer until their noses were almost touching.

"Yer as good as dead" he said and looked the prisoner in the eye for a little longer, then he turned around and went after his group.