Michonne was gone more often than not. Every couple of days she would leave the prison, disappearing for a week at a time or longer with the horse so she could search for the Governor. But she never found him. When she was here, she'd spend some time with Carl and a little with Isaac (not that I knew anything about that) before she carted off with her horse again.
Almost a month and a half passed, but that didn't stop her from looking, though. His absence just seemed to agitate her, make her angrier that he wasn't dead. And after a while, she just stopped being angry, and her search was more based on habit. Just something for her to do until his death was confirmed.
The longer it went on, the more I started to agree with Rick. I wanted the Governor dead, I wanted him dead more than anything, but I was starting to doubt that he would ever resurface. I was glad I stayed the first time she left because it had been too long—it was too long before she started searching, and now it seemed almost impossible.
It got to the point where I had too much to do, too much had built up for me to worry about where the Governor was. I was busy. Our defences were a shadow of what they were before the war, and every time I tried getting started on something, another problem would arise. The towers were unfinished, having to be put on halt by our most recent issue, the fences.
Everything happened all at once, and one morning we came out of the prison to see a pseudo-herd clinging to the fences, pushing and pulling them, weakening the chicken wire. The clue crew was overworked, people who would have switched between the fences and night watch were only able to kill walkers or the problem would start getting out of hand.
People on the council had to take time out of what we were doing to help them out, which pulled back from more jobs around the prison. Everyone was tired, and aching. We had to send people down to the fences in the middle of the night to kill what they could and spread the walkers out to put less strain on the fences. Cars were sent out to drive walkers away and count the herds in the area so we could work out why they were coming here.
The back fences were checked, but no walkers were drawn in around the back of the prison because the back of the prison was never used. No people were ever sent out there, apart from the occasional guard who was perched on the roof to make sure no people would try and cut their way into the back of the prison; I spent too long rebuilding the fences and the walls at the back for us to get broken into again.
When the problem became manageable—and most of the walker population outside the fence had been wiped out—everyone was fucked.
We continued doing a night walk to spread walkers out before they became a problem, but it seemed futile. They kept piling up in the same way herds worked. The corpses could see the workers throughout the day, which just brought more of them out and against the fences.
What I didn't understand was why it never got this bad before, before we started accepting more people into the group. Sure, the walkers could see more people, but any people should have been enough to pull them out of the woods. They weren't picky, and they weren't usually more drawn to some people over others, not unless they were eating, which they weren't. Right?
And despite this being a wake-up call, there was nothing else we could do.
"The only other thing I can think to do is build walls," I mumbled, lifting my head off the table in the middle of the council meeting. "But then we'd have to start using ranged weapons to kill walkers that lived outside. We can't waste those kinds of bullets."
"Not only that, but it'd take months to build," Sasha agreed. "We don't have the resources, the manpower, or the supplies. Aside from supporting the fences with logs, we have nothing."
"The problem isn't going to go away," Glenn added. "Yeah, it's better now, but if we don't get ahead on it, then we're screwed. They're good for now, maybe the next couple of months, but after a while those fences won't hold up."
"They'll hold for now," Daryl said. "With the herds around we can't get more wood to prop up against them, but when we can, that is all we can do. I've been checking and the wire is still good. Getting more people on the cull is all we can do right now. We need those towers done first."
"I checked the herds yesterday," I started. "I think we'll be good for a while, they've started moving away from us."
"Which means we can give the cull crew a break for today," Hershel agreed. "They need it. We can't expect the level of work from them that they've been doing for the past week."
"I'm going to keep going down and spreading them out, though," I said. "I'm trying to get them as quiet as they were when we moved in. There were a few on the fences and most of them just wandered around. It's weird that they keep coming so close, even with people in the fields."
"I know it's better now, but I'm still worried about it. Any chance that turret still works on the back of the Governor's truck?" Sasha asked. "We could lure them out there and gun the suckers down."
"No, I fucked that thing up really bad," I shook my head.
"We'll be conscious of it," Herhel said. "But for now, there is no more we could do."
As much as I hated it, he was right. Aside from killing the walkers or luring them away, there was nothing else we could do to help reduce the strain on the fences. We couldn't make them better without the walker number low anyway, and we didn't have the resources to do anything completely drastic.
Not only that but the last time the Governor attacked, he had a grenade launcher and trucks at his disposal. Even if he had fewer people or vehicles, there would be no telling what kinds of weapons people could get their hands on. If he showed up with something similar, or even worse, then making drastic changes to the fences wouldn't stop him.
Really, the fences were a timebomb and all we could do was just to try and keep adding time.
Part of me hoped that was it, that the talk about the fences and what to do for the cull crew was finished, so we could go. Council meetings were boring otherwise, and a lot of the other things that needed to be done didn't involve me. If it wasn't a run or something to build, then I had no part in it.
"Moving onto our next course of action," Hershel continued. "We need something for the children, we're getting so many coming in with families and their parents need to work. They need schooling, something for them to do."
"We don' got teachers," Daryl said. "And kids living in a prison are gonna get bored. Not much we can do there either."
"Carol started reading to them," I shrugged. "That is as good as school is going to get around here."
"I suppose the story time would be enough for them to learn for now," Hershel said. "Maybe when they get older we will set up a more efficient schooling system for them, teach them maths and English."
"Could always ask for volunteers now, find some workbooks on the next run and get a grownup to help 'em," Daryl shrugged. "If it doesn' take away from the cull then I'm not worried 'bout it."
"But Ace is too busy to tell them why she adds extra letters into words," Sasha agreed with a smile.
"It's because American companies were too cheap to spend a couple extra pennies to print the letter U into their newspapers," I said, shooting her a look. "Why you spell everything with a Z instead of S is just you guys being wrong, a point that I had to argue over with many teachers in the past."
"I didn't expect you to actually know why," Sasha said.
"It was just a theory, it could be wrong," I shrugged.
"Well, as much as you'd like to teach the children the correct way to write," Hershel chuckled, but I didn't miss the sarcasm in his voice. I suppose being the only British person among Americans meant that I was the wrong one, but I would never let them know that. I would just give them a silent victory. "You never really get much free time to help them with school or learning."
"Send them out when I'm in the workshop and they'll learn a bit," I said.
"Yeah, like swearing in a British accent," Glenn grinned.
"And they'd remember it forever."
"I'm not sure I can get that past their parents," Hershel laughed.
"I know this isn't where we were going with this, but I do think that at some point the kids are going to have to learn how to kill walkers," I said. "What happens if the fences do come down or we have to leave for whatever reason? We just drive the kids away on a bus and then they're living on the road. They should be prepared."
Unsure expressions filled the room.
"I'm not saying that we send them out and make them kill on the fence or anything, maybe we can just teach them some weapons, how to shoot, use knives," I finished.
"I'm worried about them learning that too," Sasha agreed. "But how could we even start that with them?"
"It would be something their parents would have to agree to," Hershel said. "From what I've heard, they're just happy that their children don't have to worry about any of that. They just want to give them a break from what they've seen already."
I sighed, shaking my head.
I couldn't convince Hershel if the parents weren't on board, and apparently they weren't. I didn't want the kids to kill walkers, to see what I've seen, but there was nothing to say that it wasn't going to happen for them.
"Well, there's always that basketball courtyard," I shrugged. "Give them a ball and let them have at it."
"Don't we have some balls here?" Sasha asked.
"Well, there's a whole court out there. It'd be pretty silly to go through the trouble of making one to then not have any of the supplies." I realised that was probably the mean way of saying it halfway through, and instead changed my answer quickly to, "There's a storage cupboard."
I hated myself for being so mean or snappy lately, but for some reason, I couldn't think of a way to stop it. Sure, I was sarcastic before, but it was always in good humour. Lately I just got agitated at every little thing, and I couldn't stop myself from showing that agitation.
I remembered being the same way after I was beaten in the Winter. I never wanted to face Carl because I always felt so mean. Carl didn't want to be around me then, either, which made me feel worse about myself.
"I need to start heading out huntin' again, too," Daryl said out of nowhere. "We can save the tins, and eat some real meat. We have 'nough food to last us for a lil' while, but we prob'ly wanna keep it that way."
"That is a good idea," Hershel agreed. "If the fences stay quiet, you should probably head out tomorrow."
I tried thinking back to the last time Daryl even went on a hunting trip. The last time I remembered was a few months ago when he brought Isaac back to the prison. Since then, he'd been working around here, or his trips were cut short whenever he found a person—
"Ace?" Daryl called.
"What?" I asked, now suddenly back in the room.
"You wanna come hunting tomorrow, get some shooting practice in?"
I shrugged. "I guess, but I still have to work on the towers."
"I'll help you with that when we get back, or the day after. We'll get 'em done," he said.
"Yeah, okay," I nodded quietly.
"Okay, we'll head out tomorrow. Up nice and early," Daryl said and stood up. "We all done here?"
"Yes, I believe that is everything for today," Hershel said.
I stood up and left the library, walking through the tombs with Glenn who stopped when someone called out for his help. I considered going with him but remembered that what I wanted to do was get a headstart on the guard towers, so instead, I made a beeline through C Block and outside.
When I made my way into the cell room of C Block, I passed Beth who was bouncing Judith in her arms. I waved at her, which must've been my first mistake, because Beth called after me and I had to stop to see what she wanted.
"Ace, you mind taking Judith off my hands for a while?" Beth asked.
"But I was going to go out and—"
"Please, I haven't eaten anything all day," she said. "Rick should be finishing work soon."
I was going to head out for the guard towers, but Daryl said that was something we could do after the hunting trip tomorrow. I didn't have to get a start on them now, but I just like being prepared and getting my work done early under the guise of getting a break afterwards which never came.
Letting out a sigh, I held out my arms and nodded. "Yeah, okay."
"Thanks," she leaned forward, giving Judith to me.
I took Judith and Beth turned to leave the cell block, going to get something to eat and spending some time to herself, I guessed. I held Judith in the cell block for a little while, but she continued giving me a grumpy face that I didn't understand. She just stared at me with her eyebrows furrowed, almost looking angry with me.
"What?" I asked like she was going to give me an answer. "What? What is it?"
Judith stopped when she saw someone else walking past, "Hey Ace."
"Hi," I waved back awkwardly with one arm.
Judith made cooing noises and then turned back to me when the woman disappeared behind the wall, which I guess she didn't like. When she started getting heavy, I walked us into the common room and sat down at one of the tables, sitting her down on my legs.
She kept trying to lean forward, making grabby hands at things she couldn't grab, which was the most adorable thing in the world but was becoming very inconvenient for me who just wanted to hold her still.
A shadow blocked the light from the cell block, and I looked up to see Isaac standing in front of me. "Stuck with the baby, huh?"
"Her name is Judith," I said. "And I never look after her, so I guess this was a long-awaited kind of karma. I'm just waiting for Rick and Carl now, I guess."
Judith kicked her feet into my thighs and started jumping up and down, over and over and over again, not ever planning on stopping. It hurt my legs as she just jumped and jumped and jumped, laughing her little head off.
"It was easier when she didn't want to use her legs," I said, squirming to get a better grip on her. I tried pushing her legs out to get her to sit down but she found a way to tuck them under herself and stand them back up.
"Not good with babies?"
"I've never held a baby until a few months ago," I said. "You have?"
"Why?" Isaac asked with a grin. "That strange for some reason?"
"Well, you know, babies get dirty and sticky and messy and all the things you told me you can't stand to be around," I reminded him. I went to grab Judith's hand to show him, but when I touched hers they were completely clean.
"I can clean a baby," he said. "Not easily, but I can."
I nodded, and Isaac sat down on the table opposite me, leaning his arms on his knees. He began smiling and making faces to keep Judith occupied when I noticed something. Isaac didn't have a sprained wrist anymore, which is what I could only assume from the fact that his brace was gone, instead leaving a bruised mark on the side of his wrist.
"Got your brace off?"
"Yeah, finally." Isaac rolled his eyes and let out a groan. "Dr. S said there was a good chance that it was probably broken, which is why it took so long to heal. But Hershel said a sprain can be that bad. I don't know, they just keep debating it."
"I sprained my ankle once playing netball," I said. "Took about a week to stop hurting."
Isaac seemed confused. "Netball?"
"A sport for girls, not an American thing I guess," I explained, and started walking outside with Isaac following. "Like fake basketball. You can't move if you have the ball, so you have to pass."
"Sounds boring," he shrugged.
"If it was so boring I wouldn't have sprained my ankle," I reminded him.
"I guess not."
Judith started bouncing again, which made me sigh and I sat there patiently waiting for the assault on my legs to be over, something that never seemed to have an end to it. I guess after almost five months of not being able to use her legs, she was just enjoying the fact that with someone holding her, she could bounce around.
I just hoped she hadn't been fed recently.
Carl and Rick were back by the end of the day, which was when I gave them Judith back and Rick sat down to feed her. This was when I finally got something to eat and stayed with them talking until I finished my meal.
They just spoke about what Hershel told them about the farm, what they did that day and how it was better out there now the walkers were gone. I'd only been outside once that day in the morning, and it was so much better.
Isaac had disappeared at some point, and I didn't even really notice that he left. It must've been around the same time everyone came inside to turn in for the night. I was busy with Judith, so I was a little distracted.
When it got dark I thought about turning in for the night, which was when I remembered that I said I would go outside and move the walkers around, putting less strain on the fences. I needed to do that soon so I could get some sleep before hunting with Daryl.
"I have to go spread the walkers out," I said, standing up.
"Can I go help?" Carl asked his dad.
Rick seemed unconvinced, but instead, he just glanced at me. "If it's okay with Ace?"
"Yeah, fine with me," I shrugged.
"Okay," Rick nodded, still very unsure, but continued, "Don't be out too late, we've got a long day tomorrow."
Yeah, me too. Carl just nodded, thanked his dad profusely and followed me out of C Block. I grabbed a torch from the cage before we made our way into the courtyard, and then down towards the field. It was quiet out now, for once. We'd heard nothing but walkers for about four days.
When we made it outside, Carl said, "I'm surprised he let me," Carl said.
"How come?"
"He doesn't let me do any other work now, just the farm and playing with the kids," Carl explained.
"Well, you should be doing that stuff. It's better . . . easier."
"My mom said if it seems easy it's probably wrong," Carl said.
I suddenly felt very awkward. Carl hadn't brought up his mother since she died, and honestly, no one ever really expected him to bring her up again. He was so angry after she died, so angry after what the Governor did that everything seemed to roll into one.
I think he only killed that kid to prove that he was capable, and now that he told me, to do hard things. Except it wasn't the hardest thing, keeping that boy alive would've been so much harder because it would have put him in a situation where he had to forgive the people of Woodbury like we did for Karen.
Carl hated it, and we did it anyway. But he was getting better, I think he was understanding now that this was the best thing we could have done, and that this followed what his mother told him to do. He seemed happier, despite not being allowed to do the so-called harder jobs.
We passed the front tower to enter the gap between the fences and headed down the side to start moving the walkers away from each other. I held my torch up and flashed it at them, waving it around towards the prison to further get their attention and make some of them follow me along the fence.
As we made it to the bend, I stopped when it looked like a body was inside the fences, and prayed that someone didn't leave the cut hole open when they left or something. I aimed the torch up at the body and saw a small blonde girl laughing and smiling at the walkers.
"Lizzie?"
"Oh, hi," she turned and smiled at me.
"What the hell are you—?"
I stopped Carl by pinching the back of his arm and took over. "What are you doing out here, Lizzie?"
"I was just going for a walk," she said.
"Well . . ." I glanced at Carl hoping he could explain anything, but he just looked at me with a funny glance, shrugging his shoulders. "You shouldn't be on this side of the fence, you have to stay in the field."
"But it's safe," she said.
"Yeah, I know," I nodded. "But I'm sure everyone would feel better if you stayed on the other side. I don't want you to get caught in the middle of it."
She looked disappointed but didn't say anything else. I turned around to find someone on watch, and told Lizzie to follow me down to the front of the prison when I saw Sasha coming towards the front gate of the prison doing a patrol while the other members on the night shift did more of a stationary watch,
"Sasha?!" I called, rather loudly, for the middle of the night.
It seemed to get her attention, though. She aimed her torch down towards me and started walking down between the fences to meet us. "What's going on here?"
I didn't have time to explain, and honestly, I really couldn't tell her what Lizzie was doing there because I didn't know. "Can you take Lizzie back up to D Block? I gotta spread the walkers out."
"Yeah, sure," she nodded, glanced at Lizzie and held the rifle out. "You're gonna have to take over watch until I get back."
"Yeah," I agreed, taking the gun from her hands.
"Come on, Lizzie," Sasha nodded her head and Lizzie followed her, giving me a small wave as she walked up the field towards the prison.
I turned to Carl. "Can you spread the walkers out a little while I keep watch?"
"I got it," he nodded.
"Thanks."
When Carl was done and Sasha was back, we headed back into the prison to get some sleep. Carl didn't have anything to say on the Lizzie matter, just that they only really hung out if they were in the same room or something and that they preferred Patrick.
I said a quick goodnight and went to my cell to get some sleep before hunting the next day.
Daryl woke me up early the next morning, something I wasn't very happy about. I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get dressed quickly enough and met him in the common room to grab food for the road and a rifle.
On our way down the field, we saw Rick working out alone on the farm. When he saw us, he stood out and walked our way.
"We're heading out," Daryl said. "Ya wanna come?"
Rick shook his head, his hands resting on his belt. "No, I have things to do here. Do you mind checking the snares while you're out there?"
"Yeah, yeah," Daryl nodded. "We can do that."
"See you," I smiled.
"Be careful," Rick called after us.
I nodded, waved goodbye and followed Daryl towards the holes we'd cut into the fences.
"We can go through the fence with all the walkers gone," Daryl was saying.
He pulled the clasps open and held the fence apart for me to duck through. He closed it behind him and then did the same with the second face, but this time went through himself to keep an eye out for walkers as I closed the fence behind.
When we made it into the woods Daryl wanted to walk out as far as we possibly could from the prison and start hunting first, because the shots from my gun would most definitely bring walkers to us and scare animals away.
Daryl started by killing the first few animals we saw with his crossbow, rabbits and squirrels. Another way to stop scaring away any animals before we could get enough catches for everyone at the prison.
The hunting trips were longer than they used to be for that reason because we had many more mouths to feed. It wasn't just the case of going out and getting a few things to bring back anymore, hunting now was basically a full-time job, a reason that I wanted the farm to be successful, which it should, Hershel believed. The more food we could grow and farm, the less we had to hunt.
Part of me wondered if this would be the downfall of the hunter-gatherer, but Hershel told me that agriculture was very recent in the way of humans. Farming didn't happen for a very long time and only started very recently, because people were too scared by deities rather than facts. And it was hard to remain in one location and grow farms, which was the trouble we had for a lot of the time. Hunting was just an easier system to set up.
"Okay," Daryl whispered. "This one's all yours."
I breathed out, lifted my gun and aimed it at the squirrel that was halted on the tree. I lined it up with the scope and shot. The squirrel fell backwards and landed dead on the ground behind it.
"Good one," he tapped my shoulder. "Okay, we'll check the snares now, head back. People are gonna be happy back home."
I nodded, watching as he walked forward to grab the squirrel off the tree.
The snares were set up closer to the prison because Rick and Daryl were normally the ones who came out here to set them up and check them. Animals normally came close to the prison too, in my experience, probably because of the food we had there.
We caught a few things in the first few snares, which Daryl set up. The ones with nothing in he just glanced at and led me past. When we made it to the last one, there was a rabbit that got its leg caught in the string, which Daryl seemed happy about.
"Got a lot of stuff from these snares," Daryl was saying, and knelt on the ground to start unhooking the rabbit.
I gave a hum, and glanced around, making sure no walkers would've heard us. I'd shot a few times which would've drawn attention to us, but we'd been on the move so walkers would've been lured around in all different directions. I just didn't want us to get snuck up on—
"Ace?"
He was saying something and had been asking something that I completely missed. I felt my cheeks start to turn pink and I turned to face him. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Ya ever set a snare before?" He asked again slowly.
"No, no," I shook my head. "Sorry."
Daryl wiped his hands on his knees, before pushing himself to his feet. He stared at me for a second, which made me glance away, swallowing a lump that I didn't realise had gotten caught in my throat. My hands wrapped around the other wrist and I waited for him to say something, hopefully about snares.
"You okay?" He asked. "Ya jus' seem a lil' distracted lately."
"I just—" I shook my head because I didn't know how to answer. My mouth dried up, and I breathed out through my nose. "It's been hard to focus. I don't know why."
Daryl nodded.
"I'm jus' checkin'," he assured. "Been somewhere else in meetings, now. Just always look lost."
"I don't know what it is," I repeated. "I've been trying."
"I know," Daryl agreed. "Been workin' hard too. Everyone's just been worried a lil' is all."
"I can't help it," I said again."
"Not askin' ya to, just wanted to see if yer oka. If there's a reason behind it or somethin'."
"No," I shook my head. "Well, maybe, actually. But if there is then I don't know what it is."
"If ya jus' need a break or somethin' then let us know," Daryl said.
I nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it. Just not doing the council or something. But then I'd still be working on building this place up anyway."
"And we need ya help with a lot of the things 'round the prison," Daryl agreed halfheartedly.
"Yeah," I mumbled.
I shuffled my foot against the ground and watched as Daryl turned back towards the snare, kneeling down next to it again. "C'mere," he said. "I'll teach ya how to set a snare."
When he was done with that, Daryl stood up and we walked back to the prison.
Just some filler and characters that I kind of forgot to introduce while I was all happy to have Isaac around. He's very high maintenance. More fun stuff going on where I'm actually writing so that will be getting to you soon.
Hope you enjoyed :)