Chapter II: Search and Rescue

The group was gathered around the Kirijo supply crate in the centre of the room, inside of the prison. After introductions were over and done with, the persona users and survivors started mingling with eachother. T-Dog was trying to guess the code and Daryl was entering it into the crate.

'So, why did you decide to come to this shitstorm?' Rick asked Mitsuru.

'The whole world's a shitstorm, and our job is to stop it.' She responded.

'How? You can't kill every walker out there, no matter how strong you are.' He told her.

'Which is why we have to hit it at the source, where it all started.' She looked at him.

He looked back at her. 'Where?'

'Kirijo.' She turned and walked away.

'I'm telling you, it's 1-2-3-4 man.' T-Dog told Daryl.

'Who would put the code to all these supplies as 1-2-3-4?' Daryl asked.

'I don't know, the same person who would name their daughter Sees?' T-Dog laughed.

Daryl grunted and entered the code 1-2-3-4, which surprisingly worked. He backed away and it opened to reveal three compartments, full of all the supplies they would ever need. Everyone looked upon it in shock and disbelief.

'Holy shit.' Daryl spoke quietly.

'These are our supplies, as well as care packages for others.' Mitsuru explained. 'There are more in that plane, the code was supposed to be easy to guess. There yours.'

'What? Why would you do something like that, give away your supplies to strangers?' Hershel asked.

'Why did you let us stay here the night?' Mitsuru asked back.

'Because we're good people.' He replied. 'Something that's hard to come by these days.'

'Exactly, and there's more.' She continued. 'I can get you all to safety until this mess is dealt with.'

'Why do I feel like there's a but coming next?' Rick asked.

'It's not an issue, we can handle it fine, we just need our girl Fuuka Yamagishi to make contact with them, unless you can find a working power grid somewhere.' She explained.

'Forget unless, I'm going back out there now and searching for Fuuka.' Yukari stated.

'You can't so close to nightfall, otherwise you stand no chance of making it far.' Glenn told them.

'Try to make radio contact with her, Yukari, see if you can't get a location on her.' Mitsuru ordered her.

As the night engulfed the prison, the persona users were still up and walking around the prison. Mitsuru walked into the courtyard and looked out over the field of walkers and into the woods, taking a deep breath. Yukari was sat on the steps across from her, trying to make contact with Fuuka and almost falling asleep. Soon after, Rick and Daryl came out and saw them, so they decided to try and encourage them to get some rest. Rick approached Mitsuru and stood next to her, looking out into the distance with her.

'I'll openly admit that I didn't expect it to be this bad out here, the thought of loosing one of my team cuts deep.' She told him.

'I know the feeling, we've lost too many people to count.' Rick looked down and bit his lip. 'Women, children, good people.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.' She glanced over him. 'I can't imagine what you've been through or seen.'

'Yeah well I'm sure you'll find your friend.' He tried to comfort her.

Meanwhile, Yukari was on the radio when Daryl approached her and leant against the wall, looking down on her.

'Fuuka? Fuuka, you there? At least let me know you're safe!' She pleaded into it.

'Let the girl sleep.' Daryl said. 'You should do the same.'

'How can I sleep knowing that my friend might be out there dead?' She asked.

'You can try.' He answered her.

'No, I need to contact her.' She told him.

'It won't do you any good if you pass out tomorrow because you're too tired to carry on.' He replied.

Mitsuru and Rick approached them. 'He's right, you know.'

'I guess so, but I don't like this one bit.' Yukari told them, getting to her feet.

Rick and Daryl watched them leave and then went about their night time patrols of the area. The next morning, Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, Daryl and T-Dog were gathered around outside of the cell block.

'There's finally a way out, huh?' Glenn confirmed.

'Yeah, but we need to find this girl first.' Daryl reminded them.

'You mean, they have to find her, right?' Glenn replied.

'No, I was thinking of going out there with them, they'll need my tracking skills.' He replied.

'What? Why would you be so willing to put your life on the line for them?' Maggie asked him.

'Hell, they just gave us a huge ass crate of supplies, it's the least I can do.' Daryl stated.

'He's right, helping them is better than sitting here doing nothing.' T-Dog stated.

'When did we become the kind of people that would question helping another living person?' Hershel questioned them.

'When the living became more dangerous than the dead.' Maggie replied.

Mitsuru, Yukari, Junpei and Akihiko walked out of the cell block and into the main room, towards the entrance, shortly followed by Rick, Carl and Beth. Daryl walked down the stairs and shouted for them to wait up.

'No goodbye?' He asked. 'I'm coming with you.'

'No you're not.' Mitsuru replied.

'You'll need my tracking skills.' He stated.

'Say you die out there, then it's me who's to blame and it's me that has to tell these people and it's me that has to live with the consequences for the rest of my life.' Mitsuru explained herself.

'Which is why I'll be coming with you too then.' Rick walked forward. 'No responsibility there then, right?'

'We know the area better, we can help you.' T-Dog nodded to them. 'I'm in.'

'Me too.' Glenn stood forward. 'We can split off into pairs, cover more ground and we're less likely to attract as many walkers that way.'

After a bit of debating, they agreed to go together and reached a farm surrounded by woodlands, which had walkers roaming the place.

'She's here?' Mitsuru asked.

'Yeah, somewhere in this area at least.' Daryl confirmed.

'Right, we'll split off into pairs now then.' Rick said. 'Mitsuru and I will take the farmhouse.'

'I'll take Yukari into the woods then, show me what you can do with that bow.' Daryl smiled.

'Akihiko and I have got the barn then.' T-Dog stated.

'That leaves the windmill to Junpei and I then, let's get this over with.' Glenn concluded.

Daryl and Yukari walked through the woods, looking around for Fuuka. Suddenly Daryl spotted two walkers coming over to them, so he signalled Yukari and they got into position. He gave the signal and they both got direct head shots.

'Not bad.' Daryl laughed.

'Why did you pick a crossbow, anyway?' Yukari asked. 'A bow is much lighter and faster.'

'Same reason time saw it replace the bow, the power is the same every time, and can easily get a walker straight through the skull.' He replied.

'You did your homework, I'm impressed.' She responded.

He laughed. 'Yeah, I guess I did.'

'So, do you have a girl back at the prison? I noticed Glenn and Maggie are somewhat close.' She asked.

'Yeah they are, too close for my liking some nights. I don't have anyone though.' He replied. 'What about you? Anyone waiting for you back home?'

'No, he died.' She looked down.

'Sorry to hear that.' Daryl apologized. 'Walkers get him?'

'No, he died before that, saving us all.' She explained. 'Mitsuru, Akihiko, Junpei, Fuuka, Aigis, Ken, Koromaru, he didn't even get to meet Labrys.'

'What happened to the others?' He asked.

'Aigis and Labrys went down with the plane and I haven't heard anything from the others since the outbreak.' She looked down again and kicked a stone over towards a cave.

'Aren't you worried about the two that went down with the plane?' He asked.

'Not at all, they can't be infected and Fuuka will find them easily.' Yukari smiled.

'Well two skyscrapers crumbled down on top of it, so you never know.' He stated.

Yukari kicked another stone which landed in a cave and hit something, which made a noise. Daryl raised his hand and they slowly approached the cave, taking out their knives. Daryl took out his flash-light and shone it into the cave, revealing Fuuka who was cowering in there.

'Fuuka! You're alive!' Yukari shouted.

'These things are easy to avoid when you know where they are coming from.' She stated.

'This is Daryl, he's one of the survivors we found at that prison.' Yukari explained.

'Oh no.' Fuuka suddenly froze.

'What? I'm not that bad am I?' He laughed.

'Look out!' She shouted.

A walker suddenly came around the corner and grabbed Daryl's hand, making him drop his crossbow. He quickly backed it into a tree which gave way and collapsed under their weight. Daryl held the walkers head up and took his knife, stabbing it in the head. He then looked at the slope the tree was rocking on. Yukari and Fuuka came over and Yukari extended her arm to him, which he quickly jumped and caught, dislocating her shoulder, making her automatically drop him, but he managed to grab hold of another tree.

'There are six of those things coming for us now.' Fuuka stated.

Yukari was in a lot of pain. 'Shit, I can't use my bow.'

'Fuck it, down the slope and hope for the best!' Daryl ordered.

He went down first and made it to the bottom in one piece, so Yukari and Fuuka went down together, narrowly avoiding the walkers as they grew closer. They then went back to the farm and regrouped with the others.