A Few Months Later
Daryl and Zayla were hiding in a bush, their sights set on what had to be the only deer they were going to find for a few days in their sights and they've been following her for the last 30 minutes; this was as close as they've managed to get. The doe looked hungry, but she still had enough meat on her for everyone to have a piece and they had to bag her. Daryl slowly turned to Zayla and saw that she already had her bow drawn, so he decided to let her take the kill, watching the doe yelp as it went down a moment later with an arrow through its right eye. They ran over to the fallen doe and Zayla retrieved her arrow from its head before taking her left knife out and beginning to skin the animal. Daryl was keeping watch and spotted a single walker about 5-feet away, so he shot it down and his eyes went wide at what was revealed.
He whistled to Zayla and she stopped her butchering to see what he was pointing to: a Prison.
….
Carol, T-Dog, Maggie, Hershel, Glenn, Zayla, Daryl, Rick and Hershel were going to be going inside and clearing whatever lurked inside the Prison while Lori, Beth Carl and Sophia were waiting in the courtyard, all the kids equipped with guns. As a squad, the adults were moving together towards the pair of watch towers, Maggie and Glenn taking the right as Daryl and Rick took the left, but their were no Wakers in either. The men found nothing inside theirs, but Glenn came out dressed in riot gear as well as with a ring of keys and Maggie had three grenades for Zayla; the redhead squealed in glee when she was presented with the explosives as she clipped them onto the loops of her jeans. They regrouped and Glenn tossed Rick the keys and after a few tries, he unlocked the courtyard doors. There was a small horde of 11 or so Walkers ambling inside and the group shot them down from the doors one by one, Glenn taking to stabbing at the ones that got close. Carol stayed behind to get the kids and Lori inside the Prison walls, so Rick gave her the keys while the remainder of the group kept exploring.
As everyone was reloading, they moved deeper into the Prison and found themselves on the Solitary Confinement level and it was dark, so everyone had their flashlights out as they slowly travled towards the echoing sounds of Walkers, shooting them as they came. Maggie was tagging the walls with a can of orange spraypaint to remember where they were going, but after a few minutes, they could no longer see her, only hear the echoing of the spraypaint, and that worried Hershel.
"We should go back." He insisted.
"We'll find Maggie." Daryl said, pointing to Zayla and Glenn.
Rick nodded and put his hand on Hershel's shoulder and T-Dog did the same as they followed the painted arrows back to the front while Zayla, Glenn and Daryl continued to follow the arrows, discovering a storage area, finding Maggie as she opened the doors. Before they could investigate, they heard an echoing scream come from down the hall and they raced halfway back through the darkness only to find Rick dragging Hershel away from a new horde. They all backtracked to the cafeteria and Glenn put a fire axe in the double doors to keep them shut while Rick settled Hershel on the ground.
"They got T." He told them as everyone made a crowd around Hershel, who was now sporting a bleeping cut on his ankle. Maggie was putting pressure on it while Daryl and Glenn were keeping guard. Before anyone could react, Rick began chopping at Hershel's leg with his axe and the elder man screamed in agony as his leg was swiftly amputated. "Who are they?"
Rick's questioning made the remaining survivors turn to four prisoners that were creeping into the room, seemingly coming from a closet.
"Get the fuck outta here." Daryl commanded and one of the prisoners, the Hispanic man, pulled a small gun, pointing it at him.
"This is our house ése! We were here before you!"
"We earned this place!" He argued. "Y'all was cuddlin' up in the fuckin' closet while we was offin' the Walkers!"
He pulled the hammer back and the tall black dude as well as the smaller blond man threw their hands up to surrender and backed away from him, but the short black man stayed by the Mexican's side. Tomas, the Mexican, explained that they were inmates and when the outbreak happened the prion was chaotic. He got a gun off a guard and since they couldn't get out, they decided to hide in the storage closet in the smaller cafeteria until it was safe. They couldn't open the door without the Walkers trying to get in, so they stayed locked inside for months. When we came barging in, they thought they could get out, but one of the men they were with, Big Tiny, got scratched on the arm and they saw what happens when someone got bit, so he 'blew his fucking head off and watched his brains paint the walls'. The group was unsure of if a scratch was fatal, but they might have been able to save him. Why was he the only one with a gun? You'd think big, scary, territorial criminals would find weapons and pick the Walkers off to get out of that cramped space.
Rick explained how the prison belonged to us because we spilled blood to obtain it and Tomas seemed to understand that as he lowered his weapon and Rick called everyone off. The banging at the door made all negotiations come to a stop and they were all reminded of the bigger problem. They had to get Hershel properly tended to and the Walkers were blocking their way. Everyone reloaded as Glenn went to remove the fireaxe from the door and opened one, letting the Walkers trickle in. The group shot them down for all of 15 minutes until they were out of ammo and down to their melee weapons and they were waiting for the next wave, but it didn't come. Glenn found a utility cart for us to use as a gurney for Hershel as they wheeled him back to Cell Block C, being followed by the prisoners against Daryl's words. In the block, they found Carl and Sophia cleaning out the bottom line of cells while Carol was keeping watch and she paled in shock when she saw the state of Hershel. They quickly rolled him to a cleaned cell and transferred him to the bottom bunk while Carol got the First Aid kit and was preparing to try to disinfect the wound; the bleeding was already under control.
….
Hershel was stabilized, but still in bed resting while the rest of the group were removing the Walker bodies from the inside of the Prison, burning them outside in the courtyard. The kids were still inside cleaning, but Zayla warned both of them to stay away from the locked gate keeping the Prisoners away because they were dangerous and not to be trusted. When they both came out, they informed the group that the Prisoners wanted to join their group and were against Tomas being violent. Rick decided to go speak with the remaining prisoner and told Daryl and Zayla that if he wasn't back in 20 minutes, they could go on a hunt for all the Prisoners, even the ones that seemed to be nice.
"Y'all gotta problem?" Daryl asked when the men didn't leave.
"We'd uh, we'd like to stay in your guys' cell block…be a part of your group if that's okay?" Axel, the blonde with a handlebar mustache, was a little timid and he looked scared as opposed to Oscar whose eyes were just pleading with Zayla's, but she wasn't giving in.
"It's not okay." Glenn denied. "We had a deal. You stay in your block and we stay in ours."
"I know, but there are a lot of bodies in our block…bodies of good men we used to hang with. We can't even go into the yard to burn 'em! Those things start clawin' at the gate when we open the door!"
"That's not our problem. Now go back to your block." Daryl dismissed, frowning at the former inmates.
"Please, we ain't like Tomas and Andrew. Yeah, we're all convicts, but me and Oscar didn't get arrested for murder and neither did Big Tiny…he was our friend." Axel continued to plead. "We were willin' to share the prison with you guys, ain't have a problem with it. We're still new to this and don't wanna be alone. We're nice guys, we won't start no trouble…we can pull our weight too! Oscar's got all the muscle for protectin' and I could fix up your guys' cars. Saw that nifty bike too, I could-"
"Don't fuckin' touch that bike." Axel's hands flew up to back down as Daryl growled and Zayla put her hand on his chest to keep him from lunging at the other man.
If Merle loved anything more than his brother, or himself, it was that glorified Harley-Davidson Sportster. He spent all his time and money on perfecting that bike to his liking and joined a motorcycle gang, which explains where the vest came from, when it was finished. He didn't even let Daryl touch it at first, but eventually, he taught him how to ride it and even took Zayla to work a on it few times. Ever since the group left that rooftop, Daryl didn't let anyone near his brother's bike as it was the only thing he had left of him; he snapped at Jim when he put an oily rag on it to show he wasn't kidding about how overprotective he was towards it.
Glenn's cheering brought everyone's attention to the courtyard where Hershel was using a pair of crutches as he got used to them, Maggie at his side. They were all relieved to see the man wasn't going to die, but they couldn't enjoy it as suddenly, there were alarms blaring from inside the Prison and Rick came running out of the doors. There were Walkers being attracted to the noise and they were pushing at a weak spot at the gate, making Rick and Daryl run over to keep the metal barrier up.
"The Generator Room!" Axel yelled and Zayla nodded pulling Glenn back into the Prison to act as an escort for the two Prisoners.
After cutting down ten Walkers, they found the room they were looking fpr and cut the alarms, going back to the courtyard. Daryl and Rick managed to secure the gate and Rick began doing roll call. They were now down to Glenn, Zayla, Daryl, Rick, Sophia, Beth, Carol and Hershel, leaving Maggie, Carl and Lori missing. Before anyone could begin a search for them, Maggie emerged from the Prison with blood-stained hands and huge eyes while Carl trailed behind her, holding something wrapped in his denim jacket.
When everyone began to hear the fussing of a baby, Rick began to lose it as he broke down in front of them all, screaming in utter agony and crying about Lori being gone.