++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated characters apart from my OC's ++++++

Twenty-Four

I had just finished cutting Jade and Sophia's hair when I heard Rick shouting outside the cell block to let him in that something had happened to Herschel. My first immediate thought was of the girls, I shoved them in the back of the cell and closed the door despite their protests. I geared up and positioned myself as guard when Carl opened the cell block door. I watched in shock as Rick and Glenn wheeled Herschel in on a table missing the bottom part of his right leg. "What the hell happened?" I asked Daryl when he stood back.

"Herschel got bit and Rick cut his leg off," Daryl answered.

I shrugged. "Well that will do it." I notched an arrow in my bow and waited alert at the cell door whilst the others dealt with Rick. It wasn't long before both Daryl and I heard footsteps followed by five men dressed in prison gear come in through the front door. We raised our weapons. The look on their faces told me that they hadn't seen a woman in a long time and never expected to see one standing there aiming a bow at them wearing mini shorts and a faded black shirt with Doctor Who on the front.

"That's far enough," Daryl warned them.

"Cell block C," growled a man of Mexican background. "Cell four, that's mine, gringo. Let me in."

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

I laughed. Daryl's a sassy motherfucker sometimes.

"What you got going on in there?" the Mexican asked us. "Who's the senorita?" he asked, flicking his gun in my direction.

"Ain't none of your concern," Daryl replied.

The Mexican growled at Daryl. "Don't be telling me what's my concern." He moved over to Daryl but I aimed high at his head.

"Best be watching where you aim that," I warned him. "I'm a bit trigger happy with this bow."

"Chill, man." A large African American man stepped up and looked at the Mexican. "Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free now! Why are we still in here?"

"Man's got a point," Daryl shrugged.

"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady," a second African American argued with the Mexican who was obviously their leader.

"Group of civilians breaking into a prison you've got no business being in, got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go," he growled.

"Why don't you go find out?" Daryl suggested.

"Maybe we'll just be going now," piped up a small, mouse of a man with red hair.

"We ain't leaving," the Mexican declared.

"You ain't staying," T-Dog cut in. His gun was aimed at the Mexican, I was amazed at the balls on this one, aiming his gun whilst three off us were ready to kill him at a moment's notice.

"Hey this is my house!" the Mexican yelled. "My rules, I go where I damn well please!" He stepped forward and quick as a flash I was on him.

I smack him in the bottom of the chin with my bow and swung my leg out to knock his feet out from underneath him. "Stay down hermano or I put you down like the dog you are."

"There ain't nothing for you here," Daryl smirked. "Why don't you go back to your own sandbox?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rick shouted, coming down the stairs from attending Herschel. "Everyone relax, here's no need for this. PJ, let him up."

I stood back and let the Mexican get to his feet. "What's your name?" I asked him.

"Thomas," he growled at me. "How many of you in there?"

"Too many for you to handle," Rick replied.

"You guys rob a bank or something?" Thomas asked us. "Why don't you take him to a hospital?"

"How long have you guys been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick questioned.

Thomas stared at me. "Going on ten months. Any other women with you?"

"I will hurt you again," I warned him.

"Name's Big Tiny," the large African American introduced himself to me. "A riot broke out. Never seen anything like it."

"Name's Axel," spoke the red head. "It was like Attica on speed, man."

"Ever heard about dudes going cannibal, dying, coming back to life? Crazy," frowned a third African American who was a few years older than me argued.

"One guard looked out for us," Thomas told 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 two hundred and ninety two days ago," Big Tiny finished. "We were thinking that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now."

Rick shook his head. "There is no army," he informed them. "Short of PJ here."

"Marine," I winked. "Better than the army. Piss ass little sissies. Kicked their ass in any war games."

Rick shot me a look. "There's no government, no hospitals, no police, it's all gone," he continued.

"For real?" Axel questioned.

Rick nodded.

"What about my moms?" Big Tiny exclaimed.

"My kids? My old lady? Yo, you got a self-phone or something so we can call our families?" the second African American shouted.

"You dumb fuck!" I snapped. "There are no phones, no computers. Half the population has been wiped off the face of the planet. Most likely there is more people dead than there is living."

"Ain't no way," Thomas argued with me.

"Shall we show them the fence?" I asked Rick. "Maybe let them see a walker up close?"

Rick nodded in agreement.

The four of us escorted our new friends outside to the claimed prison courtyard that was littered with bodies.

"Good Lord, they're all dead!" Axel gasped, seeing the bodies or people he knew.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences," Thomas frowned. He took a deep breath of fresh air

"You never said," Big Tiny spoke. "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 pointed.

The five of them looked in the direction that Daryl was pointing in.

"That easy, huh?" Thomas asked.

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

Thomas snorted."Easy for you to say."

Big Tiny started poking one of the walkers with a stick. "So what is this like a disease?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "But we're all infected."

"What do you mean, infected?" Axel asked us. "Like AIDS or something?"

"If I was to kill you, shoot an arrow in your chest," Daryl explained. "You 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," Thomas laughed. "Must be fifty bodies out here." He turned to Rick. "Where do you come from?

"Atlanta," Rick replied.

"Where you headed?" he continued to question.

Rick paused. "For now, nowhere."

"I guess you could take that area down there near the water," Thomas suggested, pointing towards the fence. "Should be comfortable."

"We're using that field for crops," Rick retorted.

"We'll help you move your gear out," Thomas continued.

"That won't be necessary," Rick informed him. "We took out these walkers, this prison is ours."

Thomas growled at him. "Slow down, cowboy. This is our prison. We were here first."

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

"We're moving back into our cell block," Thomas answered. The man was adamant that he and his crew were moving back into their cell.

"You'll have to get your own," Rick shrugged.

"It is mine!" Thomas shouted. "I've still got personal artefacts in there, that's about as mine as it gets!" He pulled his gun out but I kicked the back of his knee and forced him to his knees before holding an arrow to the jugular vein in his neck.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, maybe let's try to make this work out so everybody wins!" Axel pleaded. "There's no reason to hurt him, miss."

"I don't see a peaceful resolution to this," I told Rick. "The little bitch here won't go back to the cafeteria."

"There are other cell blocks," Axel agreed.

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

"We'll help you clear a cell block," Rick offered. "How stocked is that cafeteria? Must have plenty of food, five guys lasting almost a year?"

"It sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starving," Daryl smirked.

"There's only a little left," Thomas scowled. He gulped when I pressed my arrow deeper.

"We'll take half," Rick told him. "In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block. You pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it."

Thomas nodded. "Alright."

Rick looked at me and I let Thomas get to his fee. "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," Thomas agreed.