Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Part 48 (30 Days Without an Accident)

It had been three months since the war with the Governor ended and the people of Woodbury were brought to the prison. The group had turned the prison into a community. There was a council, laws, rules. People had jobs. The kids had classes. It was just like the old days.

A real home.

Daryl was heading over to get breakfast from the outside food area. There was a shelter with picnic tables underneath, along with a cooking station, where Carol worked and prepared food most mornings with some help from Patrick, a kid a little older than Carl.

"Morning Daryl," Caleb, another doctor from Woodbury greeted.

"What's up, Dr S?" Daryl replied as he passed him and reached Carol.

"Mornin' Daryl."
"Mornin' Daryl."
"Hey Daryl!"

He didn't even know where most of the voices were coming from as he looked around the courtyard. "Smells good," he said, turning back to Carol, who watched him with an amused grin.

"Just so you know, I liked you first," she joked.

"Stop," he rolled his eyes as he ate. "You know, CJ and Rick brought in a lot of 'em too."

That was true, over the last three months, a lot of the original group had gone out to look for other survivors. They'd been pretty successful, working out a system to determine whether or not it was safe to bring someone back.

"Not recently," Carol pointed out. "You offer people sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love."

"Right," Daryl mumbled. He really hated the attention from everyone. CJ usually made fun of him for it, until she started getting similar treatment from people. Then, strangely enough, it wasn't that funny anymore. Not to her anyway.

"I need you to see something," Carol said. "Patrick, you wanna take over?"

"Yes, ma'am," Patrick nodded happily, coming over to stand by Daryl. "Mr. Dixon? I just wanted to thank you, for that deer that you and Clara-Jane brought back yesterday. It was a real treat, sir. And I'd be honoured to shake your hand."

Daryl glanced over at Carol, who was enjoying this way too much. Patrick was smiling brightly and holding his hand out. Daryl looked back at Patrick and licked his fingers clean before shaking the kid's hand.

Carol walked away before she started laughing and Daryl smiled at Patrick before following her, leaving Patrick with a very proud grin on his face.

Daryl caught up with Carol as they walked around to the front of the prison. "About today. I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run."

"The place is good to go, we're gonna move on it," he responded as he ate.

"Yeah," Carol sighed. "Thing is, we had a pretty big build up overnight."

The pair reached end of the courtyard and looked down the field to see the hundreds of walkers down by the fence outside the prison. There were a few people down there killing the walkers through the fence. But as one was killed, ten more came out of the woods.

"Dozens more toward tower three," Carol continued. "It's getting as bad as last month. They don't spread out anymore."

"With more of us in here, we're drawing more of 'em out," Daryl said. "You get enough of those damn fence-clingers, they start to herd up."

"Pushing against the fences again," Carol added. "It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long." She turned to look at him with a pout. "Sorry, pookie."