Chapter Twenty-Seven

Daryl's POV

The next morning everyone was more than anxious to get inside the prison. We were all starving and somewhat well rested but we were still constantly on edge. Rick came over and asked me to come inside with him Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog to clear the inside of the prison so we could start moving everyone in. Summer begged to come with us but I wouldn't let her. She needed to stay here and stay safe. Rick also needed her to watch the perimeter just incase we had any walkers come through. She told me to be careful and I told her we would be and we headed in to the prison.

We were approached by walkers in every direction and we were all killing as many of them as we could. We finally felt like we were done and then a bunch of walkers in riot gear came around the corner. We all looked around at each other unsure of how to kill them with the riot gear on. Maggie charged at one of them and lifted the helmet and jammed her knife up the walker's throat. It dropped to the ground and Maggie yelled at us to go under the helmet. Within a few minutes we had successfully cleared the prison yard. As we were standing there and surveying the damage I noticed a few of the walkers were civilians.

"The inside could be over run by walkers from the outside," T-Dog said, "there could be a breach somewhere else."

"That doesn't matter," Rick said, "we have to push in."

We all pushed our way inside the prison and found a somewhat empty cell block. We killed some of the walkers outside the block and the cell block was locked. Rick ran up the stair case to the office to try and find a set of keys. As he was running back down the stairs he tossed me a set of keys and used the set he had to unlock the cell block. We sent Glenn, Maggie, and T-Dog back out to get everyone else and to also clear anything we might have missed on our way in. Rick and I took out all the walkers in the cells and dragged the bodies outside. When we were done everyone made their way inside the block and I could see the look of relief on everyone's faces.

"Alright everyone pick your cells," Rick called out, "get some rest. We're gonna go look for an infirmary and cafeteria in the morning."

"I ain't sleepin in no cage, I'll take the perch," I said and walked up the stairs to the second floor of the block.

Summer, carrying Harry, followed me up the stairs and took a cell right next to the catwalk so she could be near me. I helped Summer and the baby settle into one of the cells and grabbed a mattress for myself and set it up outside the cell. The next morning Rick woke me up to let me know we were ready to go. I followed him down the stairs and Maggie, Glenn, T-Dog, and Hershel were waiting for us to get going. I wanted to say goodbye to Summer but I knew we didn't have much time and she needed her sleep.

We headed out of the block and down some corridors to try and find the infirmary and cafeteria. We turned a corner and were met with a huge wall of walkers. Rick shouted for us to turn back and we all start running. Once we were in a safer area we noticed Glenn and Maggie weren't with us. We went back to try and find them. We couldn't see them anywhere and the next thing I knew we were hearing Hershel scream. We ran in the direction of the sound and noticed he had been bit in the leg. Rick stabbed the walker that bit him in the head and I covered them as we made our way to the cafeteria. We found it and Rick laid Hershel on the ground. I sealed the door and T-Dog went to block it while I went to help Rick with Hershel. Rick took off his belt and tied a tourniquet right above the bite.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him.

"We need to amputate his let to stop the infection," Rick said calmly grabbing his axe.

"Are you fucking serious?!" I said, "What if he dies of blood loss or infection!?"

"Just shut up Daryl," Rick said, "this is what needs to be done."

"He's right," Hershel said, "he needs to take it off."

I looked at the two of them like they were crazy and shrugged my shoulders and decided to keep watch. I heard the sound of the axe hacking through Hershel's leg and I heard Hershel screaming and I wanted to be sick. Rick shouted that he's bleeding out and we needed to find something to stop the bleeding. Glenn ripped off his shirt and handed it to Rick. Rick tied it around the stump as best he could and I looked around the perimeter one more time and noticed a couple prisoners staring at us from the opposite side of the prison.

"Rick, duck," I said and adjusted my bow and aimed it at them.

I stared the prisoners down and Rick finally noticed what my concern was. Glenn noticed too but he didn't care. He ran over to the area near them and grabbed a food cart dumping everything off of it in the process. He wheeled the cart over to us and him and Rick put Hershel on the food cart and wheeled him out of the cafeteria and I followed them out with my bow still trained on the prisoners. The last thing I wanted was these bastards to follow us. Who knew what they were capable of and we had women and children to worry about. I took down as many walkers as I could while leading them back to the cell block safely. Once we got to the cell block I noticed the prisoners were right behind us. Glenn and Rick got Hershel on a cot and Carol immediately took over and went into doctor mode. I still stood outside of the cell block entrance with my bow trained on the prisoners. I could see Summer coming down the stairs carrying Harry out of the corner of my eye.

"Summer stay back," I spat at her.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Just get the hell up the stairs and back in the cell," I said.

I could tell she looked hurt but as she turned to go up the stairs and I saw her notice the prisoners and immediately she ran up the stairs. Hearing my conversation with Summer caused Rick and T-Dog to join me outside of the block.

"How the hell did you get in here?" one of the prisoners asked.

"We're the ones who are asking questions now," I said not lowering my bow.

Rick started explaining to them what the world was like outside and then told him to follow us. We lead them outside to the prison yard and showed them all the bodies of the walkers we had killed the day before. They looked disgusted and I'm pretty sure one of them was about to vomit. After they soaked everything in Rick struck a deal with them. We would help them clear out one cell block in exchange for half of the food in the cafeteria. The prisoners agreed to the deal and we headed back inside to the cafeteria to get some of the food.

Summer's POV

After Daryl, Rick, and T-Dog left with the prisoners I went back down the stairs to check on Hershel. I helped Carol and Lori with his leg and did my best to keep Hershel calm. Carol said we needed more bandages and something to clean the wound to keep it from getting infected. None of us even knew where to begin to find the infirmary. A few minutes later Rick and T-Dog came in with a bunch of food and Rick handed me his cuffs.

"Handcuff him to the bed," Rick said to me, "just as a precaution."

I nodded and apologized to Hershel, who was now passed out, as I cuffed him to the bedpost. It felt like we were just sitting there for hours when Maggie asked for a minute alone with Hershel. We all obliged and I went back upstairs to check on Harry. A few minutes later I heard Maggie calling out for her father and I ran down the stairs. He had stopped breathing. I quickly handed Harry to Lori and immediately preformed CPR on Hershel. He sat up with a huge breath and grabbed my shoulders. He then let go of me and fell back onto the bed. It was clear as day that we all thought he had turned but once his head hit the pillow his breathing was steady and he looked up at me and smiled slightly before falling asleep. I took Harry back from Lori and went up to my cell. It was just too startled from everything that had just happened.