Chapter Twenty-Eight

Daryl's POV

After Rick and T-Dog came back from dropping off the food rations we went to find a cell block to clear out. We came across a huge herd of walkers and we told the prisoners what to do. They all charged like madmen at the walker herd and started wailing on them. I looked over at Rick and he gave me the same look back. We didn't trust these people.

"It's gotta be the brain, not the stomach, not the heart. The brain," I shouted over the commotion.

We went and helped the prisoners take out the entire herd of walkers and one of the prisoners got bit. The most violent prisoner, who I was informed was named Tomas, walked over to the one who was bit and viciously slaughtered him by bashing his head in. I gave Rick another look and we let the prisoners go ahead of us.

"I don't know how I feel about this, that guy is clearly not sane," I said, "My wife and son are in that cell block and so are yours. You see the look on his face?"

"He makes one move," Rick said.

"Just give me the signal," I said.

We reached the cafeteria again and Rick told Tomas to open one of the doors. He opened both of them and we were flooded with walkers. We killed them most of them and Tomas threw a walker at Rick. I ripped the walker off of him and stabbed it through the head. Rick stood up facing Tomas and took his axe and buried it deep in his skull. One of the other prisoners ran off and Rick chased after him. I told the other two, Oscar and Axel, to get down on their knees and pointed my bow at Oscar while T-Dog held his gun to Axel's head.

"We're not affiliated with them I swear," Axel said.

"Just stop talking," Oscar told him.

Rick rejoined us and we led Oscar and Axel to a cell block and helped them clear it out and Rick gave them clear instructions that they were not allowed to enter our cell block and we would leave them alone. They agreed and we headed back to our block. As we walked back in the first thing we did was check on Hershel.

"He stopped breathing, Summer saved him," Carl said.

"It's true," Glenn added.

"Still no fever," Lori chimed in.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"In her cell," Glenn replied.

I walked up the stairs and entered the cell. Summer explained to me what happened with Hershel after I brought her downstairs to see him since he was awake. We went back up to the cell and she had the look on her face like she wanted to have a serious discussion.

"I want you back in the cell," she said to me sitting on the mattress, "you need to stop being in protection mode. I would feel safer with you inside the cell not just sleeping outside. I feel like you don't want to be around me with you sleeping out there. I feel like you're distancing yourself from me and Harry and I don't like it at all. So get your ass in this cell and sleep next to me."

"You're right," I said, "and I'm sorry that I've been acting like that but I just want to make sure that you're safe. I feel like I have to be alert and ready at all times incase something were to happen. I will not let anything happen to you."

"And you can do all of those things from right next to me," she said.

I agreed with her and dragged my mattress inside the cell and made it into a makeshift bed for Harry. Summer laid Harry down on the mattress and I undressed and climbed into bed with her. She laid her head on my chest and I pulled her close to me.

"What happened to those prisoners?" she asked me.

"Two of them are in a cell block past the cafeteria," I said, "Rick killed one of them and the other one ran off. Rick went after him but we're not sure where he went. He ran outside so we think he ditched the place."

"He's still out there?" she asked concerned.

"He's not gonna come in through here and if he does I'll be ready," I said and readjusted my bow next to the bed.

"Good," she said and kissed me before cuddling closer to me to fall asleep.

The next morning we were all up and ready to start moving the cars into the prison and set up some sort of barriers. Summer left Harry with Carol and Beth and we went outside to the prison yard.

"Where are Glenn and Maggie?" Summer asked, "We could use some help."

"In the guard tower," I said, "They've been up there since last night."

I called for them to come down and they joined us and the prisoners came out from their cell block. Me, Summer, Rick, and T-Dog walked over to them and the two of them pleaded with us to join our group. Rick told them to hold on and we walked away from them to discuss what to do.

"Let them stay with us, we need the man power," T-Dog said.

"We should just leave them where they are," Summer said.

"I grew up with guys like them," I said, "they're degenerates not psychos. I could just as easily be in there with them then out here with you guys."

"So you agree with me?" T-Dog asked.

"Hell no! My wife and son sleep in there, I ain't lettin them anywhere near us," I said.

Summer smiled at me and Rick went over to the prisoners to tell them what the decision was and we decided to give them food for a few weeks. We continued to clear our the yard and I went with the guys to pile the bodies and burn them. Lori, Carl, Beth, and Carol brought the baby out and Hershel since he was doing fine and was trying to walk on crutches. We were all more than happy to see Hershel up and about. It was definitely something that brought everyone's spirits up.

We continued to pile the bodies when the yard was overrun with walkers. Rick and I were at the outer fence cleaning up the bodies and we both started running back toward the inner yard screaming for Summer and Lori. As we were charging up to the yard I saw Summer go into one of the cages at the top of a stair case with Hershel, Beth, and the baby and lock them in from both sides. Maggie ran inside with Lori and Carl. As we approached Summer Rick asked her if she saw anything. She told us that T-Dog was bit and that Maggie took Lori and Carl inside. Out of nowhere an alarm started blaring. Harry immediately started to cry and Summer tried her best to soothe him. I ran off with Rick to try and find the prisoners to see if we could figure out how to shut this alarm off.

We met up with Glenn and the prisoners and headed into the prison to try and find the generator room. Rick started frantically looking for Lori and Carl and he told the rest of us that we all need to split up to find the generator room. He told us the first group to the generators has to shut them off. We split up and I made it to the generator room first closely followed by Rick and Oscar. As we entered the room I tried my best to keep the door shut from the walker herd that followed us here. We noticed that the escaped prisoner was also in the generator room. He tried to kill Rick and in a panic to try and save rick I slipped and let the door open. I killed the few walkers that made it through and slammed the door shut.

In all the confusion Rick dropped his gun and the prisoner was advancing on him. Oscar picked up Rick's gun and I pointed my bow at him not sure of what he was going to do next. Oscar shot the other prisoner in the head and I let my guard down. He handed Rick his gun back and we managed to shut the generator off. The three of us left the generator room and ran into Glenn and Axel on our way back to the block. As we walked through we came across some walkers eating T-Dog and I felt my stomach twist. We killed the walkers and as we were leaving I saw Carol's scarf on the ground. I picked it up and we walked outside. We reached Summer, Beth, and Hershel and let them out of the cage and they came down into the yard with us. I pulled Summer close to me and Rick was going on about needing to go find Carl and Lori. At that minute Maggie came out of the building with Carl and she was carrying a newborn. She was covered in blood and the baby was wrapped in her jacket. Rick looked at Maggie and she shook her head with tears in her eyes. Rick started crying and dropped to the ground in tears. I pulled Summer and Harry in closer to me. I couldn't even begin to imagine what Rick was going through. I felt horrible for him. I don't even think I would be able to go on if I had lost Summer. It was one thing when I wasn't sure if she was alive or not, it would have been a completely different situation if I had known for sure that she was gone. I could feel Summer shaking next to me and I knew she had started to cry and when she noticed that I was holding Carol's scarf she started crying even harder. I let go of her and walked over to Rick. I put my hand on his shoulder and he shrugged me off. Maggie walked over to Hershel and handed him the baby so he could check it out and make sure it was ok. Rick pushed past me, grabbed an axe, and ran into the building. We all called after him but he wasn't listening to us. He was on a mission, and to be honest if I was in the same situation I would do the same thing.