RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

alone with the quiet

BREATHE. Go through the plan again. Don't hesitate, be fast, and DON'T mess up.

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More of their people fell ill, the prison yard quickly becoming a burial ground. It hadn't been easy on any of them to dig so many graves and create so many crosses. Each day a new hole was dug, a new body buried, and another life mourned. 

Tyreese made the discovery of their newest victims, but it wasn't the illness that ended their lives.

"You found them like this?" Rick asked Tyreese.

Willow stood beside Carol and Daryl, looking down at the charcoaled bodies of Karen and David, the smell of burnt flesh watering her eyes.

"I came to see Karen... and I saw the blood on the floor." Tyreese pointed to the blood that stained the ground in a long trail as if they had been dragged to their placement. "Then I smelled them."

The bodies were stripped, what used to be their skin now only blackened bones.

"Somebody dragged them out here and set them on fire!" Tyreese yelled angrily. "They killed them and set them on fire!"

The three of them were cautious around Tyreese. He was a big man, not someone to be messed with.

He moved suddenly, getting in Rick's face. "You're a cop. You find out who did this and you bring them to me. You understand? You bring the to me!"

Daryl tried to get him to back off. "We'll find out who-"

Tyreese shoved him back. "Do I need to say it again?" His eyes didn't move an inch from of Rick's face.

"No." Rick said quietly. "No. I know what you're feeling. I've been there. You saw me there. It's dangerous."

"Karen didn't deserve this." Tyreese continued to yell. "David didn't deserve it. Nobody does."

"All right man, let's just-" Daryl tried again, only to have Tyreese come after him now, slamming him into the concrete wall.

"Man, I ain't going nowhere 'til I find out who did this!" Tyreese yelled at Daryl against the wall.

Willow, Rick and Carol lunged forward, but Daryl held his arms out telling them not to. 

"We're on the same side, man." He told Tyreese calmly.

"Hey, look," Rick was cautious with his words, "I know what you're going through. We've all lost someone. We know what you're going through right now, but you've gotta calm down." Rick grabbed Tyreese's shoulder lightly, but Tyreese spun back around to him.

"You need to step the hell back!" He shoved Rick back heavily.

Willow stepped between them, pushing lightly on Tyreese's chest. "Calm down. We all just need to-"

He shoved her aside as Rick continued to test him, throwing a punch at Rick, hitting him square across the jaw.

"Stop!" Carol rushed forward screaming. "Stop!"

Tyreese landed another blow on Rick, blood spattering out of his mouth and onto the concrete.

Willow ran at Tyreese again, Daryl wrapping his arms around the man from behind, both of them dragging and pushing him away.