My heart was racing as we neared the prison, and I felt every minute of how much time we'd lost. If it wasn't for the fact that we needed more fuel, I would have yelled at everyone to get back in the car on the highway. My hands gripped together, my fingers turning white, and it felt like my heart was in my stomach.

They're all fine. They're all fine. They're all fine. I expected myself to be repeating that aloud, only a hundred percent sure I wasn't when I bit the inside of my cheek so hard that it drew blood. Didn't matter, it was a small pain compared to the one I'd be feeling if anyone else at the prison had died.

There was a hand on my shoulder, which I looked at, following the length of the arm to Tyreese. "They're gonna be okay," he assured me.

"I know." No, I didn't.

"We'll know for sure, now," Daryl said, and followed up with, "We're here."

Towards the prison, against one of the fences, a small herd was gathering. I didn't understand what caused them to come back after we lured them away because anyone inside was either sick or quarantined. Rick and Maggie were the only two I knew that were left to be working. Something went wrong. Something noisy happened to lure in that many walkers.

We waited at the front gate for at least a minute before it swung open, with Carl there to close both areas off behind us. At the top of the field, in the courtyard, Rick pulled the third gate open, allowing us through.

I was out of the car before it even stopped moving, rushing to the back to open the boot. Daryl was close behind me as I reached in for my bag, yelling, "We got the meds! Let's move!"

"Wait!" Rick called out, and my stomach dropped. "We need some help out here on the fences, otherwise they're gonna come down!"

I was stuck for a minute, the same as everyone else. They would need help in the sick ward to administer all the medication. I wanted to go in and make sure that Glenn and Isaac were good, alive, well, but if the fences came down, they would be far from it.

I turned to Daryl, a panic in my voice that I couldn't seem to get rid of. "Most of the stuff is in my bag, take it and go! I'll stay here and help Rick."

"Are you sure—?"

"Yes! Just go!" I said, shoving the bag into his hands. There would be nothing I could do in the sick ward, I would be no help. At least out here, I could be useful and stop the fences from coming down, or kill the walkers if they did. "All of you, make sure they're okay!"

The others ran off with their bags in their arms, sprinting as fast as they could to Cellblock A. I turned back to Rick, who grabbed a second pipe from against the weapon stash and handed it to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder, led me through my workshop area and passed the guard tower where the fences were piling up.

"The supports you made already have been holding," Rick said. "But the noise from inside lured more and more walkers here. I don't know how much longer we can keep it up."

"What noise from inside?" I stopped.

Rick stopped when he realised I had, and stared at me for a second. He breathed out and said, "Ace, I'm not gonna lie to you. There were shots in there; something happened. I don't know who's dead or alive, but I really need you out here. I really need your help."

Shots inside. Shots inside meant that people had turned, too many people to deal with quietly. People had died and turned in cellblock A where Glenn and Isaac were. They turned and I wasn't here to protect them.

"Ace," Rick repeated. "You can run inside and send someone else out, but we need help out here."

I shook my head and took a step to the fences. "No, I got it. I can help."

"Good, thank you," Rick said and nodded his head for me to follow after him as he jogged away.

Carl had taken the side gate to get to us from the bottom of the field, and he was already there, stabbing a sharpened branch up into some of the walkers.

"You're back!" He ran over and hugged me, dropping his stick on the way.

"Yeah," I agreed, giving him a squeeze.

"Come on," Rick said, and Carl stepped back. "We need to get to work."

"Okay," Carl nodded.

Thinner logs had already been chopped up and dragged over.

"Where's Maggie?" I asked.

"She went in when we heard the shooting," Rick answered simply, grabbing a log and lifting it with my help.

I nodded, slightly panting as I moved on to the next one.

The amount of noise coming from the walkers was enough to give me a headache, which it did. My forehead squeezed tight, apparently trying to kill me. I could barely think straight with all the snapping and snarling in my ears.

"Think they're okay?" Carl asked.

"If things were going bad, we would have heard more shots," Rick said. "Maggie would have gotten us. We have to do this."

"Let's do it."

Rick started lifting one of the logs next to me at the same time I did, laying it diagonally against the fence to support the chain link. Carl leaned forward to lift the bottom to help him when Rick looked back at him over his shoulder.

"I got it."

"Let me help," Carl said.

Rick looked back and nodded as I finally got my own into place, happy that it would hold its position at least for a short while. Carl lifted the bottom for their log so Rick was able to put it into place, holding back the chain-link fence from bending in on us.

"Alright, set it down," Rick said. "Alright."

As they placed it down, the first thing I heard was snapping noises. There was a crunch as one of the logs bent downwards and broke, leading to a chain of more logs breaking as the fence became less and less supported.

Rick jumped over one of the logs, slamming his body against it as he pushed back before the fence could fall inwards. There were too many walkers though, all pushing back and Rick had to jump out of the way.

"RUN!"

Carl and I spun around, sprinting until we made it to the bottom of the guard tower. When I looked back, I realised that none of the walkers had caught up to us because Rick had been pushing them down behind us. As he slammed into the last one, tacking it, he fell to the ground after it and barely made it back onto his feet.

"Dad, run!"

We stepped back into the tower as Rick yanked the door closed behind him. The walkers had followed us up the walkway, and I could now hear them pounding on the metal door. My heart was pounding as I turned to Rick, but he pushed us ahead and we stumbled out the other side of the guard tower, back into the workshop area.

"What do we do?" Carl asked, looking at Rick.

"Maybe I can back the bus up against the fence," Rick said, completely unsure.

"Will it hold?"

No. probably not. Words that both me and Rick did not want to answer, because there were just so many walkers pushing to get to us, and the one log that was leaned up against the tower was not going to help either.

Rick looked between the fence and Carl, a distraught look on his face as he came to the same realisation of me. He grabbed Carl's arm and pulled him back away from the fence, and I followed after them.

"Come on," he said.

I chased after them as Rick led us back towards the courtyard, down the length of the fence. He stopped at the bins we stored guns in, grabbing the familiar black machinegun and holding it back towards me,

"Remember how to use these?" Rick asked.

I looked at the M4. The last time I held one was when I got shot in the chest, and Hershel told me that the kickback of the bigger guns could cause my broken bone to puncture my lung. I'd used rifles since then, and remembered how to use the gun I first killed with.

"Yeah," I nodded, taking one from him, and then leaning over the bin to grab more magazines, shoving them in all available pockets and filling my small pouch on my holster. It was going to take a lot of bullets to deal with this.

Rick then turned to explain it to Carl. "Alright, listen to me."

"Alright."

"Magazine goes in here, release is here," he demonstrated as he led us back towards the fence. "Make sure it latches. Pull back the operating rod and rounds feed up. Keep squeezing the trigger for rapid fire, okay?"

"Alright," Carl seemed unsure.

Rick grabbed his arm, and they stopped in front of me. "You shoot or you run. Don't let 'em get close, okay?"

"It's coming down!" I yelled as the fence collapsed

We all ran forward together, raising our guns to the oncoming herd of walkers heading our way. I took a few single shots, taking out the walkers coming down from the left so they didn't get by us. I regretted this plan a lot when I saw the sheer number of them that trampled down the chain link.

The shots exploded in my ears, and I cringed wondering whether my ribs would be able to keep this up, hoping there wasn't still any weakness from where I had been shot. I held it together as I started rapid-firing the line that began growing closer to us.

Rick crouched beside me, taking a few shots at a different angle. I wanted to see how Carl was doing, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the walkers that had come closer down my side, and I managed to take accurate burst shots on all of them.

"I'm reloading!"

I hoped they could pick up my slack while I changed magazines, and when I was ready, I started firing again. Despite now having a loaded gun, and shooting down what felt like a hundred walkers, they started piling in and it was getting hard to take down a row before it was replaced by the ones in the back. They got a few metres closer to us, which was when I started to worry.

"Back off!" Rick yelled, and he and Carl dropped their magazines as we all took a few steps back.

Rick couldn't get his magazine back in fast enough for one of the walkers to catch up to us, and I knocked it down with the butt of my gun before it could take a bite of him. As Rick started to kneel to take it out, Carl shot it. Rick looked up at him as he threw Rick another magazine.

Carl took a few steps forward as he continued mowing down the herd, and I joined in, shooting from back where we took our positions. I met Rick's eyes when I saw him glance my way and gave him a nod, saying that we'd get through this. He had a look I couldn't read, so I assumed that he needed some form of encouragement.

Maybe it was about Carl, how well he adjusted to using guns and killing walkers again when he made him take a break. I couldn't think about any of that right then, and needed to get back to work, helping Carl shoot the walkers. Rick joined in again, walking forward beside me.

"Almost done!" I shouted.

Before I knew it, the herd was taken care of. My gun was up long after the last body fell because I was in disbelief that we'd even done it. We had just killed an entire herd of walkers with just three people. I never even thought something like that was possible.

Rick looked calmer, not happier or smiling, but more at peace now that it was dealt with. "Check the bodies, stab them in the heads. We can't risk making more noise before we get that fence back up."

I went to follow Carl when there was a hand on my shoulder, and I looked back at Rick. He was staring at me with a concerned expression for a moment, but I just kept my face blank and waited for him to say something.

"If you need to head inside now—"

"Not until we're done here." I wanted to go inside more than anything, but there was work that needed to be done. Rick trying to convince me would only make me run inside faster. But I couldn't. I couldn't go in there to find Glenn or Isaac dead. My body was humming, restless, needing something to do. "There's too much going on right now."

"No one is going to blame you if you do," Rick continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"I'm okay."

Rick stared at me for a moment, and he gave a nod, understanding. "Okay."

I walked along the ground laid with walkers, kicking a body before slamming my axe into their heads anyway. I wasn't taking the risk of getting bitten on the leg. Anybody that didn't have a clear head wound was stabbed again.

Rick moved with Carl, probably to keep an eye on him; letting him work didn't mean that he had to make him do dangerous tasks alone. One of the bodies they came across was stuck under one we killed. Rick squatted down and stabbed it in the head with his knife.

When I finished, I waited for more instructions. I should have been more proactive, deciding what the next course of action was because Rick didn't want to be in charge anymore. But the more I thought about doing something the more my mind hummed in restlessness.

"Carl, you should head off to bed," Rick suggested. "We can handle it here."

Cal gave a nod. "Okay, just come get me if you need me."

I waited until Carl was out of earshot before voicing my concerns. I didn't want to add any more worries that were probably running through his head right now, so I kept my mouth planted closed until he was done. I didn't even get a chance to ask the question before Rick spoke up.

"What the hell are we going to do about those fences?"

"Back the bus in the opening?" I suggested hopelessly, immediately shooting down my suggestion. "But then they'd go under it. And we'd have nothing to put the sick people in if anything bad happens."

"Yeah," Rick agreed.

"We could tie it to one of the cars and pull it back up, use whatever logs we have left to support it. Maybe even stick a whole car behind it so it can't just be pushed over right now," was my next suggestion.

Rick thought for a moment, then gave a nod. "Get one of the cars and pull it outside before the walkers start coming back."

I did as I was told, going for the truck while Rick said something about getting rope. The engine rumbled to life, and I drove the car down to the gate. I would have gone back through the holes in the fences if the bodies weren't still there or the barbed wire wasn't on the ground.

Rick had navigated over the fence and corpses with a rope over his shoulder. He walked to the window as I pulled the car up, and I opened my window. "I'll prop it up with logs for now, but if it doesn't stay up, leave the truck out there holding it until we can get better supports past the bodies."

"I can leave the truck out there and help you with the logs anyway, I'll just have to run back around to the gate and close it first," I said.

Rick gave a nod. "Okay."

When Rick had stepped back inside the fence, I looked in the mirror to make sure he was out of the way. He waved his hand down as a signal for me to start driving, and I did. I went maybe a metre and stopped. The fence was holding down, making the wheels spin under me in the dirt, but I pushed through it, shoving my foot down as far as it could on the accelerator as I kept the bite point up on the car so as not to stall.

Eventually, the fence started bending upwards, pulling back into the position it had been in since we found the place. If the car moved backwards the fence would spring back down, I could feel it pulling back against the truck, the rope pulled as tightly as it could be.

I stopped the car and climbed out, and I could see Rick placing logs back up against the fence. Some must've survived the break-in, because I watched as he picked one up off the ground to get it back into position.

I walked past the spikes, rolled the second gate open and closed behind me. I then pulled the ropes down so the red gates swung closed before walkers could follow me into the clear area I created before.

Rick glanced over as I walked up to him. "Couldn't untie it?"

"No, it was going to come straight back down," I said. "If the truck keeps it pulled back in the right position then I think it might just put itself back into place. Reshape it back to the original structure. But I do have to do something better for this."

"We'll be here to help you," Rick reminded me.

"You work on the farm, and it isn't exactly like we have the manpower we used to," I said. "I'm holding reservations until I'm a hundred percent sure that there's someone to help me."

"I will," Rick promised.

It took no time at all to get the logs back up because they were going to do nothing to help the truck keep the fence up. When Rick decided it wasn't worth our time, he gave a nod for me to follow him back towards the prison.

"Someone's going to have to go out and burn these," I said, finally.

"We'll see who's available in the morning." Rick let out a long yawn, which reminded me of how tired I was and made me yawn. I wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep for the next three days, but after this, I had to check in on Glenn and Isaac. "I don't know whether they'll need anyone else in to keep an eye on the sick."

"Maybe," I shrugged.

As we were standing in the middle of the Walker graveyard, I saw a body round the corner. I would've thought that it was another walker if the person hadn't been walking with so much determination towards us.

"Hey!" Daryl called. "Heard all the shooting, everythin' good?"

"We took care of it. Keeping the truck out there to hold the fence in position until we can do something better with it," Rick explained. "How are they?"

"They lost a lot of people in there." Daryl looked at me, and I was glad that the next thing he said was, "Glenn and Isaac are alive. They had to get Glenn on the bag 'cause he was choking on his blood. Lucky we got here when we did. Isaac saved his life, apparently ya can give mouth-to-mouth through a mask."

"Oh my God," I muttered.

I know the first thing he said was that they were alive, but it sounded like we were just going to lose Glenn as we arrived. The pit formed in my stomach and I couldn't breathe for a second, thinking how close we were to losing him.

"It's okay," Rick placed a hand on my shoulder. "They're okay."

"Sasha and the kids are still alive, too," Daryl said. "And some of the others."

"How was everything out there?" Rick asked.

Daryl looked at me, seeing if I would answer, but when he saw that I was still going over everything in my head he took over. "Not great. Herd on the road, couldn't kill the walkers at the university 'cause they had the sickness, and Bob grabbed a bottle and no meds. Threatened to shoot me when I tried throwing it away."

"Shit," Rick muttered. "You dealt with it?"

"Best I could," Daryl answered. "He was a medic in the army, we needed him."

"Yeah," Rick breathed out. "There's something I need to tell you," he said and glanced at me. "Both of you."

"Now?" Daryl questioned.

Rick thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "No, it doesn't have to be now. But soon."

Daryl gave a nod. "Okay."

"We're done for the night out here," Rick said after a moment and turned to me. "I can come into A with you."

I know why he wanted me to go in; I had to see them at some point and I was hiding out here. With what I heard about Glenn, I wasn't even sure I wanted to see what condition he was in. Even if we had the medicine, that wasn't a guarantee. He'd been sick for two days now.

For now, at least, they were both okay, so I had no reason to avoid it anymore. "I can do it," I nodded. "I might take watch after, keep an eye on the fence."

"No," Rick stopped me. "We all need rest."

I trudged my way over to A block, saying a quick goodnight to Rick and Daryl. Part of me couldn't believe that I was finally getting the chance to see them, after convincing myself that I may never get the chance while we were on the road. Bob directed me upstairs for both of them, and I came across Glenn first.

He looked awful, lying on the ground with a pillow behind his head. I could only see his face, the blood that had been smeared as they wiped it from his cheek, and the dry splotch on the ground beside him that made me realise just how badly he'd been bleeding before we got there. The tube came out of his mouth, and the IV hung off the bed connected to his arm.

"Ace?" I could just barely see Maggie sitting on the ground beside him, squeezing a bag in the shape of a rugby ball which was connected to a tube that went into Glenn's mouth. The silence crawled around me, and I couldn't tear my eyes from him to face her. Not even when she said, "He's going to be okay."

It didn't look like it. The feeling reminded me of when Carl had been shot, seeing him on the bed in the farmhouse, dying. Glenn looked the same way. The pit in my stomach opened wider, it might've swallowed me whole. I barely felt like I was breathing, and my chest was hollow and empty.

"Are you sure?" I couldn't tell whether I made any sound, whether my voice had carried the metre to make it to Maggie.

"I'm sure," she nodded. "Daddy said that most of the blood has come up, and when he wakes up and starts breathing on his own again he can have this taken out."

I gave a nod. "I . . . do you need rest?"

"No," she shook her head. "I can't leave him like this. But it looks like you need rest."

"I'll check in tomorrow morning," I assured her quietly.

"I know," she said. "Isaac is at the end of the walkway if you want to see him."

I gave a nod and turned to leave.

"Goodnight, Ace," she said.

"Goodnight, Maggie," I answered.

I stopped just before Isaac's cell, almost afraid to see how he was doing. He looked terrible when I found him sick, and I couldn't imagine that it was any better. And I was right. He was paler than when I left. His eyes slowly opened when he heard me enter the cell, and I could see the tiredness.

"I'm sorry," was the first thing I said. "I shouldn't be here, I should let you rest."

"No," Isaac stopped me. "I'm glad you're here. Daryl told me you were okay, but then we heard the shooting and . . . it's good to see you."

"You too," I whispered.

I couldn't see his expression past the face mask, but his eyes no longer matched the sickness of his expression. They were more awake now, alert and yet unsteady. Neither of us knew what to say at that point, both of us were just glad to see that the other was alive apparently.

"You look like shit," Isaac gave a small cough.

Says you. "Yeah, I bet," I gave a weak smile.

The pit in my stomach didn't go away, despite him being awake and well. There was a stain coming from the inside of his mask, red turning brown. Blood. If we had taken any longer, Isaac would be in the same state as Glenn. He was just as pale, had worse bags under his eyes and . . . duct tape around his wrists, over the blue surgical gloves.

"What, uh—what's going on with your hands?"

"Glenn duct-taped gloves on so I couldn't wash them anymore," Isaac answered simply. "I can't get them off. Not from a lack of trying."

I knew soap could try out skin, the oily pole of its structure pulling away any uncleanliness from your hands. That along with the antibacterial aspect probably wasn't healthy to constantly be rubbed into your hands.

"You might have to keep putting cream on them," I said.

"Yeah, Hershel said something about stripping my hands of their natural oils or something stupid like that," Isaac nodded. "He said he'd make a plan to find medicated stuff for me to keep in case something like this happens again. I know they're gonna keep making sure I don't wash them too much anymore."

"I didn't realise you were." Not that I was in any position to notice something like that. I imagine that Glenn and Hershel only found out because they had to keep checking to make sure he was alive, and that was something that came up.

"Well, I do it more than normal people," he said with an eye roll. "But these past two days it's been bad. I'm not going to put a number on it, but I do know what that number is. And it isn't pretty."

"Sorry," I winced. "Do they hurt?"

"Kinda."

"Must suck after you get the brace off and then you're stuck in those."

"You could help?" He raised his hands to me weakly.

"Sorry, I can't," I smiled. "Didn't mean to lead you on or anything."

"Yup," he gave a nod, his hands dropping back in his lap. "Really sucky of you."

I gave a small chuckle, all I could bring myself to do at that point. Isaac also laughed weakly, before coughing again, reminding me of how sick he was. I shouldn't be there.

"How was the run?"

I only had one answer. "Bad."

"I figured that one out when you took a day longer than you should have," Isaac said. "It got bad here too."

I wanted to say that I could tell, see what happened like I had been here myself. People died and turned as Glenn was on his way out. I wondered if I should have been here myself, left the run to the others and stayed here to protect everyone, but I probably would have stayed on the fences the entire time.

Part of me wished they didn't get to as bad conditions as they were because seeing them now just made me feel all the more guilty that we took that extra day. Glenn wouldn't have almost died and we would've saved more people.

"Thank you," I choked out after a minute, trying desperately to stop the tears from falling. "For helping him."

"I almost couldn't," he said, his eyes lowered. "I almost let him die. He started coughing up blood and I couldn't . . ."

His expression was different now, not sad or tired, but with his chin tucked into his chest, he almost looked ashamed. Daryl told me he'd given Glenn mouth-to-mouth to keep him alive, which was far more than I ever expected. He must've gotten overwhelmed when Glenn got worse, blaming himself for not being able to hold out.

"Don't thank me," he said after a minute. "I don't deserve it."

"You did what you could, and because of that, he's alive," I said. "You do deserve it."

Isaac glanced up for a moment, his mask expanding outwards as he let out a breath. "Yeah, well . . . I thought you would've died if something happened to him."

I probably would've.

The truth was, I couldn't make it far without Glenn, and I didn't need him gone to know that. I was so worried that he had already died that I was already on my way out. The feelings that went through me today were too much, only now being taken over by the small amount of relief that they weren't dead.

"He wasn't the only one I was worried about."

Isaac lifted his head now, and I could see his cheekbones come up over the face mask, the corners of his eyes coming together as he smiled. A new warmth rushed through my chest, and a thought entered my mind that maybe this was our moment, a confirmation that maybe we were something more. I couldn't think more of that now, knowing that we were both too exhausted to be thinking straight anymore.

I straightened up, pushing myself from the wall. "I'll let you rest."

"Ace?" Isaac stopped me before I could turn away.

"Yeah?"

"This cellblock," he started, glancing around. "I'm out of here tomorrow. I don't care if I have to sleep outside."

"I believe it," I smiled. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


Just letting you all know that the TikTok is out! It's under the same username (Bobbie15Jo - bobbie15jo?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc) and there are currently two edits there for you to binge. Brodunskii taught me a lot about editing for it so give their TikTok some love too, there's a lot of funny ones and edits for all of her books.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and lmk what you thought :)