Ellie Dixon

Stranger Danger

Hershel woke up yesterday. He fully recovered from the bite since Rick chopped off his leg before the infection could spread. Other than the fact that Hershel would be walking with crutches when he got up, he was okay. We were all outside, apart from Carl, Lori and Beth. Dad, Rick, T-dog and Carol had moved the bus that was covering the gate that the vehicles could come through. Don't ask me how, it was moved by the time me and Sophia came outside. Glenn and Maggie were in the guard tower... Again. They'd been spending quite a bit of time up there together. Me and Sophia were on the gravel, in between the open fence that connected the field and the yard, playing with a skipping rope we'd found a couple months back. We'd tied one end to the gate, and it was Sophia's turn to swing the rope while I jumped over it.

We'd been playing for about ten minutes when we heard footsteps coming from inside the yard. We looked, assuming it was Carl and Beth but checking in case it was walkers. That's when we noticed two of the men that were in the prison the other day, the other three had died while they were clearing a cell block. Oscar and Axel, the two surviving prisoners were called. Those two seemed to want to leave when the five confronted my dad and T-dog. "Hey, girls." Axel said to us.

Sophia dropped the rope, and we started backing away from them. "No, no, no. We don't want to hurt you." Oscar put his hands up, he and Axel stopped walking when they realised, they were probably scaring us. I wasn't scared, I just didn't wanna be close to them.

"Didn't I say that I would kill you if I saw you again? Especially if I saw you near our girls." Rick's voice said, grabbing me and Sophia to pull us back and stand in front of us. I felt T-dog put his hands on my shoulders while Carol put her hands on Sophia's shoulders as my dad stood next to Rick.

"Please, mister. It wasn't us who said those things about your girls. It was Tomas. We don't wanna hurt them, we don't think like that bout kids." Axel responded. I had literally no idea what he was talking about, so I looked over to Sophia who looked equally as confused.

"Either way, we had an agreement." Rick responded.

"We know that. We made a deal. But you gotta understand, we can't live in that place another minute. You follow me? All the bodies... People we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts." Axel explained. Maggie and Glenn came out of the watch tower and walked over to our little gathering.

"Why didn't you move the bodies out?" Dad asked.

"You should be burning them." T-dog added.

"We tried; we did. The fence is down on the far side of the prison. Every time we drag a body out, those things line up." Oscar nodded. "We're just dropping the bodies and running back inside."

"Look, we had nothing to do with Tomas and Andrew. Nothing. You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be a part of your group. Just, please, please... Don't make us live in that place." Axel begged.

"Our deal is not negotiable. You either live in your cell block, or you leave." Rick shook his head.

"I told you this was a waste of time." Oscar said to his friend. "They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys. You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out in the last twenty-four hours? Just threw them out like trash. These were good guys. Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in this joint, like Tomas and Andrew. We've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not going to pretend to be a saint, but believe me... We've paid our dues- enough that we would rather hit that road than to go back into that shithole."

"Ellie, Sophia... Can you two girls go back inside, please?" Rick requested without taking his eyes off of the prisoners.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I said so." Rick said in the same tone and volume, he wasn't mad, but he just didn't think we should be there for what was going to happen... Rick wasn't letting them into the group. Sophia took my hand and led me back inside.

"What do you think they're gonna do?" Sophia whispered to me as we walked through the yard.

"Not let em in, that's for sure." I responded.

Me and Sophia were in the table room playing cards when we heard a noise, so we turned to see Hershel coming out with his crutches, Lori and Beth were helping to support him while Carl was following along. "Look at you." Sophia smiled.

"Good as knew." Hershel grinned.

"Yes, sir." I nodded as I watched him walk pretty quickly for a dude who lost his leg yesterday.

He started walking towards the steps that lead outside. "Where are you going, daddy?" Beth asked.

"I said I wanna go for a stroll. I wanna do that outside." Hershel responded.

We got Hershel up the stairs, outside, down a couple more steps and then into the yard. There weren't any more bodies in the yard. "They got rid of the bodies." Lori realised.

I looked up to the basketball hoop. "Hey, do you reckon we could get a ball on the next run? I personally believe that a game of basketball would really boost morale." I stated.

Beth laughed. "I'd play."

"It's starting to look like a place we could really live in." Hershel commented.

"Hey, watch your step. Last thing we need is you falling." Lori reminded him.

We walked over to the far fence that separated the field and the yard. We could see my dad, Rick and Glenn coming in through the original hole in the fence we'd made, and they were bringing in firewood. "Alright, Hershel!" We heard Glenn yell with a smile when he saw Hershel up on his feet... On his foot, sorry. We also saw Carol, T-dog and Maggie by the cars, moving them so they'd be ready to drive quickly if we needed a quick escape.

"You're doing great, daddy." Beth said with a smile.

"Ready to race, Hershel?" Carl said jokingly.

"Give me another day, I'll take you on." Hershel responded.

"Sports Day: End of the World Edition. Best title ever." I laughed.

It was quiet. All of us happy that Hershel made it. We all felt like this could be a place that we could call home. We felt safe. It was safe... Until it wasn't.

"Walkers, look out!" Sophia yelled.

Beth started helping to quickly get her dad to safety since Hershel couldn't really fight off a walker anymore. Me, Sophia, Carl and Lori started shooting at them. There had to be at least thirty starting to make their way towards us. Where did they even come from?

"Get out! Get out of there! No!" I heard Rick yell as he and my dad started bolting towards us. Glenn had to stay back to lock up the fence to make sure no outside walkers broke in. We had enough of a problem as it was.

Maggie, Carol and T-dog joined us pretty quickly. The way the walkers surrounded us forced me to separate with everyone else. I saw them being backed towards another door. Carol and T-dog had been separated from Maggie, Carl, Lori and Sophia. Carol and T-dog had been forced to enter the building because there were way too many surrounding them. 

"Ellie, get inside!" Carl yelled; he saw me by a door. Lori forced Sophia who was trying to get to me inside, Maggie was trying to shoot walkers getting too close to me and Carl was being held back by Lori.

I opened the door I was next too. "I'm okay! Get inside!" I yelled, opening the door and quickly shutting it behind me, hoping that would make Carl and Maggie go inside too. However, there was now one problem... I was alone.