My Damaged Protector

Chapter Thirteen ~ Seed

The winter was harsh. We had adopted a routine in order to make sure we were safe and stocked up on everything important. Wake up, eat, pack the cars, and take off. Day after day, month after month, we did the same thing over and over. The only upside was that the cold weather seemed to slow the walkers down a bit, giving us even more time when we were in a pinch.

The whole winter had us looking for a place to fully settle down in, somewhere safe for Lori to give birth to her baby. Currently, we were stood on the side of the road, a map spread over the hood of one of the cars, and the group huddled around it, trying to find our next route. Maggie reached forward and crossed a large X over one of the sections on the map. "We've got no place left to go this way." She signed.

"When this herd meets up with this one, we'll be cut off." I said, running my fingers over the circles of walker herds we had marked out. "We'll never make it south."

"What would you say? 150? It could be twice that now." Carol averaged the size of both herds if they joined together.

"The river could have delayed them." Glenn suggested.

"If we move fast, we may be able to shoot right through here." Rick traced his finger between both herd circles.

"It's like we spent the winter going in circles." I complained, running my fingers through my hair, and taking a glance at Daryl by my side to gage his reactions.

"We need to find a place to hole up in for a few weeks." Daryl gently bumped his shoulder with mine as the rest of the group began walking back to their cars to inventory what we had, and what we needed. I took a seat on the back of Daryl's bike, holstering my gun and picking at the dirt under my fingernails. A shower sounded great right now.

After exchanging a few words with Rick, he and Daryl walked up on front of me. "Let's go hunt." The three of us hiked through the woods, eyes out for threats, or any possible food. Rick had stopped at a small break in the trees, overlooking a creek and open space covered with a prison. "Wow." I breathed as I took in the vast prison yard that was only occupied by walkers.

The fences stood tall and strong around the building, walkers occasionally running into the chain links before turning back and stumbling through the grass. "That's a damn shame." Daryl mumbled and continued on to hunt.

The whole time we were hunting, Rick had this look in his eyes that told me he had an idea growing in his head, and I was right. When we got back to the group after an hour or so, Rick told them of the prison and how if we worked hard today to clear the yard, we'd be able to relax a bit and plan to take the actual building eventually. We had packed up fairly quickly and made the short drive over to the fence, stashing the cars a bit away to keep the noise from drawing all the walkers to our location.

"Watch the backside." Rick called quietly as Glenn got to work at cutting a large hole in the fence to let us squeeze through to the outer walkway. Daryl and I took our place at the back of the group, his bow up and my knife held tightly in my hand as we watched for any potential threats trying to sneak up on us. "Come on." Rick whispered, drawing mine and Daryl's attention to see the rest of the group on the other side of the fence.

"Go on." Daryl told me, jerking his head towards the fence and I quickly pushed myself through and turned to cover Daryl as he climbed through. Glenn then jumped forward to wrap wide and large d-clips into the hole, sealing the chain link back together.

We moved forward, running for the main gate of the fences, a large guard tower off to the left of it. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. Take the field by night." Rick was pointing to the gate that was open, connecting the field to the concrete of the outdoor spade by the building.