The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 21

Meredith

IT'S BEEN A few days since Hershel has been down. He's awake, alerted, talking and all. We found crutches for him and we've been allowing him to walk around the cell block slowly. Today is the day we're letting him outside, move on the crutches a little more and to get some fresh air.

"The others have been working outside, cleaning up, blocking out any weak-spots for walkers to get in. Everyone's been working hard lately and I like it. We're finally making this place to be what it is and it's going to be called home.

I enter Hershel's cell with the crutches. Beth and Lori reach their hands out to help Hershel climb out of the bed. I held the crutches out and he gladly takes them.

"You know, I think I'm pretty steady." Hershel says. I smile at his words. He walks forward on the crutches, going steady yet going at a fast pace. I didn't feel worried that he'd fall. I remained right by his side incase something did happen.

"That's a good start." I smile at him. "Wanna rest?" I ask him.

"Rest?" He asks, locking his eyes with me. "Let's go for a stroll." He chuckles. We made our way out of the cell and step outside. I stood before Hershel, walking backwards on the stairs as I kept my hand on his chest to keep him from falling forward. Lori stood behind him, holding onto his shoulders so he wouldn't fall backwards.

"Doing good, Hershel." I encourage. I kicked the door open and we finally let off the stairs. We step onto flat land and continued on with our stroll.

"You cleared all the bodies out?" Hershel asks, looking around the now cleaned courtyard. "It's starting to look like a place we could really live in."

"You watch your step." I say, knowing he was looking around as he walked. "Last thing we need is you falling."

"You're doing great, Daddy." Beth smiles.

"Ready to race, Hershel?" Carl teases.

"Give me another day." Hershel says. "I'll take you on." He winks. I turn my head and see Maggie off to the side of us, smiling and clapping at her father. Just over out to the perimeter fence is Rick, Glenn and Daryl. They all lined the fence, looking in our direction. Everyone was smiles all around, enjoying the one terrible thing that turned out great. A man lost his leg, but he's walking again. It feels more sincere or whatever being that we live in a world like this. We didn't have any modern medicine or technology to help Hershel, yet he came through and we saved his life. This was a great day.

"Walkers! Look out!" I turn my head and see Carl pointing behind us. Carl and I stood behind the bench and began firing our guns at the walkers. I turn my head and see Hershel, Beth and Maggie getting to another set of stairs with a fence. I look over to our cell block door and see it was clear of the walkers paths.

"Lori! Over here!" I calls. She turns her head and pushes for Carl. I held the door open and let the two run inside the fence, shutting the door behind us. Lori and Carl get to the door and they opened it up. We all step down the stairs and go off to our cells, waiting for the others.

"We'll wait here until everything's safe." I say. I reach for the door, but walkers slam themselves. "Shit." I turn around and guide Carl and Lori away from our cells. "In here." I call. I opened the side door and the two rush inside. I slammed the door shut behind me, seeing the walkers pressing their faces into the bars.

"We have to find some place to hole up until the others find us. We shouldn't risk waiting a few minutes then going back not knowing what's happening back there." I tell them. The sound of alarms blaring and a red light flickered through the corridors. Hearing the alarms blaring only caused me to think of one thing; it's drawing walkers right to our front door step.