++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated characters ++++++

Twenty-Five

Once I was properly dressed and outfitted for close quarter's combat I made my way to the area just outside of Cell Block C where Rick had T-Dog handing out melee weapons to the prisoners. I nodded to Rick as I tied my quickly growing hair into a bun, making a mental note to myself to cut it short when we returned back to the cell block.

Thomas waved his crowbar around with a look of disgust on his face. "Why do I need this, when I've got a gun?"

"You don't fire guns," Daryl warned him. "Not unless your back's up against the wall. Oise attracts them, really riles them up."

"PJ, you got anything?" Rick questioned me. He looked over the table at me with just the slightest glint of admiration on his face. "You got a plan?"

"Could do," I answered. "We should go in two-by-two," I started. "Daryl will run point with T, you and me will bring up the rear," I told them, pointing at Rick. "We stay tight, hold formation, no matter how close the walkers get. Anyone breaks ranks, we could all go down, anyone runs off, they could get mistaken for a walker and end up with an arrow in the head."

"And that's where you aim," Daryl warned them. "These things only go down with a head shot."

Thomas snorted. "I don't need some skinny white bitch telling me how to take out a man."

Daryl and I glanced at each other. "You're the skinny white bitch," we both retorted at the same time.

"Enough," Rick growled. "As long as you remember to go for the brain and keep formation everything will go just fine."

We made our way to Cell Block D where we would be helping the prisoners clear out the block in return for the food they had given us. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the prospect of being neighbours with a group of men who posed a huge danger to us all but I wasn't the group leader. I kept an arrow notched in my bow the whole way, head flicking backwards and forwards like a meerkat on crack. This was just like being back in the middle of war, my squad having my back, escorting a group of civilians…

"Can you at least look like you're not enjoying this?" Rick whispered in my ear.

I smirked. "Is it that obvious?" I asked him. "Daryl said the same thing to me yesterday."

"Man, it's too damn dark in here," Big Tiny complained.

"You gotta hold it up in front of you," Daryl warned him, stopping to correct him in how to hold his weapon. "You're gonna hear 'em before you see 'em."

Just as those words left Daryl's mouth, the familiar guttural groaning sound that all walkers made hit our ears. Daryl put his hand to his mouth to warn the prisoners to be silent. The prisoners issued a charge before they ran passed T-Dog and Daryl straight at the walkers that came around the corner, the four of us watched them attack the walkers anywhere but the head. Daryl looked slightly bemused and Rick appeared like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"It's gotta be the brain!" Daryl shouted, shooting a walker in the head. "Not the stomach, not the heart, the brain!"

I fired an arrow at a walker near Axel. "Eyes open!" I ordered.

"I hear you," he grumbled.

One of the prisoners, who I hadn't had the pleasure of speaking with, stabbed a walker in the head as more started to arrive.

"Stay in tight formation!" Rick shouted. "No more prison riot crap!"

More walkers started coming around the corner towards us. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Big Tiny rush behind a wall to hide. Turning my attention back towards the fight I concentrated on the walkers, firing arrow after arrow until they were all down thanks mostly to our efforts, not theirs. As I collected the arrows I had loosened, I could see Rick and Thomas focused purely on Big Tiny who had a chunk of skin missing from his shoulder.

"Daryl, PJ, keep a look out," Rick ordered us.

Both Daryl and I went to watch for more walkers, I could hear them arguing over Big Tiny and his bite mark. I shoved all my arrows back in my quiver bar one that I notched in my bow. "I can watch if you wanna go back up Rick," I told him.

Daryl paused. "You're wasting your time," he grumbled at me. "Chasing after Rick. He's got Lori and Little Shane."

"It ain't like that," I argued back at him. "I don't need you lecturing me on the merits of feelings, Daryl Dixon." I kept my attention on the corridor but I could sense he was still there. "If it blows up it's only me it backfires on. And if it does you can be there to say I told you so as much as you want. Go back up Rick and T-Dog, I'll call you if I need you."

"Just holler if you need me," Daryl frowned.

I smirked. "Daryl, I think you'll find I'm quite the screamer." I chuckled as Daryl headed back towards Rick and T-Dog, muttering under his breath at something. After a moment of silence the group came passed me, their formation was all wrong, Daryl and Rick were talking in hushed tones behind the prisoners and Thomas was covered in blood. "Big Tiny?" I asked the boys.

They shook their head.

I followed in silence until we arrived at the entrance to Cell Block D. Daryl chucked the keys at Thomas who immediately dropped them on the floor.

"I ain't opening that," Thomas snapped.

Rick nodded. "Yes you are. If you want this cell block-you're gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. Because we need to control this."

Thomas picked the keys back up, pausing as we all heard the walkers behind the doors. "You bitches ready?" he asked, trying to open the doors. "I got this." The stupid fool wrenched open both door, allowing the walkers to pour right into our path.

I swung my bow around, connecting with the first walker that came at me before I stabbed it in the head. Loosing myself in the moment, I continued fighting my way through the walkers until it was just us once more. There was so much tension in the room that you could cut through it with a pocket knife. I hadn't seen what happened but when Rick stabbed Thomas in the head I didn't move to his defence. I closed my eyes and sighed, when I opened my eyes in time to see Rick give chase to one of the prisoners who had run away.

"Get down on your knees!" Daryl snapped, aiming his crossbow at Axel and Oscar.

"We don't have no affiliation to what just happened," Axel argued. "Tell him, Oscar."

"Stop talking, man," Oscar grumbled.

"Fubar," I mumbled under my breath.

"Fubar?" Daryl growled. "Do you hear the shit that comes out of your mouth?" he asked me.

"It means fucked up beyond all reason," I retorted. "It's military slang and it describes the situation perfectly."

Daryl rolled his eyes at me as Rick came back.

"PJ, go back to the cell block," Rick ordered. "I don't want the other's caught off guard, I need you there if something happens and they won't put Herschel down."

I nodded. I had no idea what Rick was going to do to either Axel and Oscar but I did know that whatever it was, Rick was doing it within good reason-it was to protect us. I could have done it-I could have killed them but Rick didn't want me to so I was just simply following the orders that were issued.