Surviving the Dead
"You found them like this?" Rick asked Tyresse who was standing over the charred remains of Karen and David
"I came to see Karen... and I saw the blood on the floor. Then I smelled them. Somebody dragged them out here and set them on fire. They killed them and set them on fire!" He yelled and moved to Rick, "You're a cop. You find out who did this and you bring 'em to me. You understand? You bring 'em to me!"
"We'll find out who-" Daryl started to say moving to pull him away but Tyreese cut him off still facing Rick
"I need to say it again?"
"No. No. I know what you're feeling. I've been there. You saw me there. It's dangerous."
"Karen didn't deserve this. David didn't deserve it. Nobody does." Tyreese says and Daryl moved over to him again
"All right, man, let's-" He put his hand on Tyreese but he spins around and pins Daryl to the gate, me, Rick and Carol move forward but Daryl held his hand up to us
"Man, I ain't going nowhere till I find out who did this!"
"We're on the same side, man." Daryl reassured him
"Hey, look, I know what you're going through. We've all lost someone. We know what you're going through right now, but you've got to calm down." Rick tells him slowly putting his hand on Tyesse who then whipped around and pushed Rick
"You need to step the hell back!"
"She wouldn't want you being like this." Rick says and Tyresse punched him in the face
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Carol shouted moving over to Rick but Tyresse punched him again
"Tyresse stop!" I yell at him stepping in front of Rick but Tyreese shoved me out of the way and I landed on the ground, I see Daryl jump at him wrapping his arms around him
"That's enough. That's enough." Daryl tells him and Rick gets up and punches Tyresse in the face, Tyresse falls to the ground then Rick kicks him and starts punching him again
"Rick." Daryl says moving over to him grabbing him, "Stop."
"Let go of me!" Rick yells and I stand up moving over to Tyresse, "Let go of me!" Rick yelled again shoving Daryl off, Tyresse starts to cry and I put my hand on his shoulder rubbing it and I look at Daryl.
I walked over to the graves seeing Tyresse digging a hole, "Let's get you cleaned up, man. You might even need a couple stitches." I tell him squatting next to the hole
"Not until they're in the ground." He says still digging the hole
"You should at least let Hershel or Dr. S take a look at you, make sure nothing's broken." I said and he looks at me
"When they're in the ground." He said and continued digging, I sighed standing up then grabbed a shovel and started digging as well, "I'm sorry." I look at him confused and he looked at me, "I'm sorry I shoved you."
"Please, like your the first man to push me down?" I said with a smile and I saw he lips twitch a little, "I'm sorry about Karen, you're right, they didn't deserve this." I tell him and he nodded and we went back to digging the holes.
"It's spread. Everyone who survived the attack in cell block D. Sasha, Caleb, and now others." Hershel tells me, Carol, Glenn, Daryl and Michonne who was standing away from us
"Oh, Jesus." I said
"So what do we do?" Carol asked him
"First things first. Cell block A is isolation. We keep the sick people there like we tried with Karen and David."
"What the hell we gonna do about that?" Daryl asked and I looked at him but my mind kind of went hazy listening to them
"Ask Rick to look into it. Try to make a timeline- who's where when. But what are we gonna do to stop this?" Carol asked
"There is no stopping it. You get it, you have to go through it." Hershel replied
"But it just kills you?" Michonne asked him
"The illness doesn't. The symptoms do. We need antibiotics.
"We've been through every pharmacy nearby. And then some." Daryl tells him
"That veterinary college at West Peachtree Tech, that's one place people may not have thought to raid for medication. The drugs for animals there are the same we need."
"That's 50 miles. Too big a risk before. Ain't now. I'm gonna take a group out. Best not waste any more time." Daryl said standing up
"I'm in." Michonne says
"You haven't been exposed. Daryl has. You get in a car with him..." Hershel started to tell her
"He's already given me fleas." She says and I gave a light chuckle
"I can lead the way. I know where everything's kept." Hershel tells us standing up and I slowly follow
"When we're out there, it's always the same. Sooner or later we run." Daryl mentioned to him, Hershel may have a fake leg now but he's not as quick as he was before
"I can draw you a map. There are other precautions I feel we should take."
"Like what?" I asked Hershel holding myself on the back of the chair and I see Daryl glance at me
"There's no telling how long it'll be before Daryl and his group return. Wouldn't it make sense for us to separate the most vulnerable? We can use the administration building. Separate office, separate room."
"Who is the most vulnerable?" Glenn asked him
"The very young."
"What about the old?" Glenn asked again
"Son of a bitch is about a quart low." Daryl tells me and Michonne checking the oil in Zack's old car
"You still keep it in the bottom of tower three?" Michonne asked him
"Yeah."
"I'll go get one." She says and starts to walk away
"Hey." Daryl called to her and she looked at him, "I'm glad you're here."
"Where else would I be?"
"Running off." He tells her
"You know I'm not running off." She tells him and he nods his head, "So it's just gonna be me and you like in the old days?"
"Yeah, and Bob. Still, feels like we could use another person."
"Who else isn't sick?" She asked looking at me then back at Daryl
"We don't ask Rick. He wants to stay here with Carl and Little Ass-Kicker. Keep them safe. Plus there's plenty of stuff he could do here."
"So who else we got?" She asked, "Sam?"
"I think I'm gonna sit this one out, I can help out here more then out there." I told her and Daryl looks at me
"Alright, I'll go grab that for you." She tells Daryl and walked away
"You alright?" Daryl asked me and I nodded
"I'm good" I said moving from the wall but at soon as I did it hit me, everything went double and Daryl moved to me
"Whoa hey easy."
"I'm ok" I tell him but as I went to move again I stumbled and he wrapped his arms around me
"Sam!" He yelled and I blacked out
Daryl POV...
"Oh, there you are." I said to Tyresse when I see him standing at the doors over A block, Samantha was in there now after she fainted, now not only did I need to get these meds for other people but for her too, she's my baby sister, "Took me damn near forever to find you. Whatcha doing?" I asked him
"Somebody needs to stand watch."
"Man, I want to find them, too. Put a bolt in them for what they did." I tell him and I hear faint coughing, "These people are cut off. Ain't no way anyone's getting in and out without a whole bunch of people seeing 'em."
"Sasha's in there. I ain't going nowhere."
"Look man my sister is in there too and standing guard ain't gonna do no good unless we come back with them meds." I say and he turns back to the door, "All right. We're gassing up by the front gate in case you change your mind." I tell him and walked away
I walked over to a window that looked into the cell block and I saw Samantha standing there, "How you holding up?"
"I'm doing okay I guess." She tells me, stubborn as ever, "I'm staying up at the top level far away from everyone, I'm not as sick as them."
"You should rest."
"I will. Heading out?" She asked then coughed a little
"Mmhm." I told her and looked down
"Daryl" She said and I looked up at her, "I'll be fine, as long as you can get back here with the meds for all of us."
"Just don't want to lose ya." I said and she put her hand to the glass
"Ain't gonna lose me, I'm to tough for that." She says and I give a half smile, "I love you big brother."
"Me too sis, get some rest."
Samantha POV...
I laid down on the bed in A block trying to rest, I felt like I was hungover without the actual drinking part. Whenever I got sick as a kid Daryl took care of me, especially after our mom died, Merle always told me to suck it up and pulled Daryl away from me to go hang out.
I was brought out of my thoughts when there was a knock on my cell door, I moved my head and saw Hershel standing there, "Here, Elderberry tea it'll bring the fever down." He says handing me the cup and moved away
"Thank you." I tell him and take a drink, it was gross but hey if it helped I'm all for it, "How's everyone else?"
"Some are better then others"
"Glenn? Sasha?" I asked
"They hanging in there, just worry about getting better." He told me and I took another drink then coughed
"Yes sir." I said with a smile and he returned it
"Drink up, your brother will be back before you know it" He says and leaves
Daryl POV...
We walked into the tech building and I raised my crossbow slowly opening the door, when I saw it was clear I motioned for the others to follow and we entered a lab, "All right let's make this quick" I tell them and we spread out grabbing supplies then heading out of the room.
"How'd you do?" Bob asked me and Tyresse when we walked into the room they were in
"Bags, tubes, clamps, connectors. Everything on the list." Tyresse tells him
"What about y'all?" I asked them
"Yeah, we got it all." Bob answered
"Yeah. We're good." Michonne adds
"All right, let's roll." I tell them grabbing my crossbow and we made our way down the hall, we near another room and I hear snarling, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." I said softly and the walker spotted us so we rushed away
"Up ahead." Michonne says as we move forward and go around a corner and entered a dark room
"Hey! Door's busted." Bob whispered and I walked over
"Oh. Hold up." I tell him going to the door latching it as best as I can when walkers started banging on it
"There." I hear Michonne say as she points her flash light towards a stair case, we walk towards it when a walker pops up but Tyresse kills it. Michonne tries the chain on the door when suddenly walkers bang up against it
"How many?" I asked her shining my light through the door
"I can't tell."
"We can take 'em." Tyresse says as the walkers from the other side manage to
"No! They're infected. Same as at the prison. We fire at 'em, get their blood on us, breathe it in. We didn't come all this way to get sick." Bob tells him
"How do we know the ones in there aren't any different?"
"We don't." Michonne replied
"Well, it's gotta change sometime." I said and kicked a table breaking the leg off and Michonne takes out her sword, "Ready?" I asked them
"Do it!" Tyresse yells and I break the chain letting the other walkers in and we start killing them, luckily there was only 3 of them
"Come on." I say grabbing my crossbow and we make our way up the stairs
We enter another hall and see a walker down it and go the other way only to run into more, we come to the end of the hall and Michonne trys the door but it's locked
"Back." I tell her moving to kick it but it wont budge
"Don't have an exit." Michonne points out and I see a window and climb onto the wall ledge
"Then we make one."
"Get down!" Tyresse yells and throws a fire extinguisher at it breaking the glass
"Come on, move it! Jump down to the walkway below." I ordered helping Michonne up and she went out the window, followed by Tyresse, then me then Bob who jumped out and fell down with his bag hanging over the side and some walkers start to grab it.
"Bob, let it go." Michonne tells him
"Let it go, man. Just let it go." Tyresse says trying to pull him up
"Let go of the bag, man." I tell him as well but Bob manages to get it free pulling it up and it hit the roof, I hear a loud thunk as it does, I walk over to it and see a whiskey bottle, "You got no meds in your bag? Just this?" I asked him holding up the bottle and he just stared at me, "You should have kept walking that day." I said and went to throw the bottle
"Don't." He says and I see his hand on his gun I walk up to him pissed as hell and get right on his face, my sister is laying in the prison sick and could be dying or dead and this kid wants to shoot me over some whiskey, I grab his gun from him and stay in his face then grabbed his shirt.
"Just let it go, Daryl. The man's made his choice. Nothing you can do about it. Just gotta let it go." Tyresse says to me and I let Bob go
"I didn't want to hurt nobody. It was just for when it gets quiet." Bob says
I push the bottle into his chest, "Take one sip before those meds get in our people or my sister, I will beat your ass into the ground. You hear me?" I asked him and walked away
Samantha POV...
I maybe slept for what felt like 2 hours when I woke up in a coughing fit, I put my hand to my mouth and when I pulled it away I saw a little blood on it
"Oh god"