War on the Body [1]

[16] Pigs and blood

That night Patrick had died and with that he became a walker.

There was a breach in Cell block D, many people had lost their lives and joined the undead, but the group wouldn't know until the gunshots rang out the next morning.

As the gunshots rang out, Paige had run into cell block D. She pulled her handgun out and started to shoot at the walkers closest to her. She was soon joined by more members of the group; they had cleared the cell block in no time but as they finished Carol had yelled out Paige's name.

Paige ran into the cell to see Carol preparing for an amputation.

As Paige was going to start the surgery, she noticed the back of the man's neck had scratch marks, they had to kill him.

Paige left it to Carol and left to help with the upper-level sweep.

Paige reached them just in time for Daryl to put down the final walker.

"Oh god, it's Patrick" Paige said, shocked by the loss of the teenager

As they came to Charlie's cell, he has no wounds or bites. Paige was quick to figure out the cause of death, pleurisy aspiration.

"He died of pleurisy aspiration, he choked to death on his own blood. It caused those trails down his face"

"I've seen them before on a walker outside the fence" Rick told the girl

"Saw them on Patrick too" Daryl said

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up--" Dr. S started before Paige interrupted, seeing it was confusing the people that weren't doctors before

"-like if you shake a soda can and pop the top. Only imagine your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are the top."

"It's a sickness from the walkers?" Bob asked

"No, these things happened before they were around. Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an aggressive flu strain." Paige said

"Someone locked him in just in time." Hershel said

"No, man. Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold? " Daryl asked confused by the death

"I had a sick pig, it died quick. Saw a sick boar in the woods." Rick added

"Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past." Paige said as she stood from examining the body

"We need to do something about those hogs." Herschel said

"Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it." Dr. S said

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time. Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this." Bob spoke up

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed." Paige said with a worried voice

Paige called a council meeting, they had to be proactive and follow all precautions to save as many lives as possible.

As she sat beside Daryl, Carol was the first to speak.

"Patrick was fine yesterday, and he died overnight. Two people died that quick. We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed."

"That's everyone in that cell block. That's all of us. Maybe more." Daryl said

"We know that this sickness can be lethal. We don't know how easily it spreads. Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?" Hershel said, Paige once again was in almost shock. As they were talking everything sounded blurry