Make it Till You Don't

A Virus Outbreak

I was startled awake by screaming, causing me to rush out of the cell with my ax in hand. Running to where it was, I ran into D block and saw Walkers as Lizzy and Mica came running out of a cell. "Lizzie! You and your sister go warn everyone! Go!" I shoved them towards where I came from, killing a Walker.

Without thinking, I rushed forward, killing as many as I could, gesturing everyone to get moving when Rick and Daryl ran in, leading them all out. Glenn ran up behind me, stabbing a Walker I didn't hear coming. "Thanks!"

"Check all of 'em! Every cell!" Rick yelled as I killed another Walker, going upstairs to check the cells with Glenn. "Are we all clear down here?!"

"Yes!" I heard Sasha shout back.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, seeing Daryl and Rick as Glenn shouted, a Walker had him pinned. "Get down!" Daryl exclaimed, shooting an arrow into its head. As he went to help Glenn, Rick and I joined them, staring down at the body. "Oh, It's Patrick. That's all of 'em."

I walked down to the other cells, stabbing those that were killed before they could turn. Once I finished up, I went downstairs where the others were. "Everyone alright?" I received nods from a few as I glanced around before dragging the bodies out of the cells. I sat down on the stairs, wiping my forehead from the blood.

Rick went and got Hershel and Dr. S to come in, seeing if they could figure out what happened with one of the people that died in their sleep, blood dripping from its eyes. I let out a sigh as Rick came down the stairs. "So what happened?"

"We think he died from some kind of flu, which seems to be spreading fast." He paused, looking down at the ground. "All of us here have been exposed."

I nodded my head, knowing we can't take any risks. "So what are we going to do?"

"For now, keep our distance from the others. Hope it doesn't spread more." He told me before making his way out.

———

I was outside with Maggie, killing Walkers, when we noticed part of the fence was beginning to buckle. "Go, go get the others and I'll stay here!" I told her, killing another as she ran off quickly to alert those in the field.

I backed up a couple of steps as it buckled some more, stabbing another Walker as Maggie and the others joined in. "Are you seeing this?!" Sasha yelled out, looking to the ground. "Is someone feeding these things?"

We looked down, seeing half eaten rats. "Heads up!" Daryl drew our attention back to the fence.

We began moving back as the fence caved in more. "Hold on, hold on. Hey, hey, hey!" Glenn exclaimed as Walker began climbing on it.

"It's gonna give!" Rick shouted as we began pushing back against the fence.

"Everybody back! Come on, back now!" Daryl shouted, causing all of us to back away.

Sasha pointed to the fence. "Fence keeps bending in like that, those Walkers are coming over it."

Rick looked out to the field for a moment. "Daryl, get the truck." He looked at Daryl, a look crossing his face. "I know what to do."

With a nod, he ran up to the prison as Rick went to the pig pen, the rest of us staying to kill the Walkers. I watched as they loaded the pigs in the truck, taking them outside the fence before Rick began taking one pig at a time and cutting it, before letting it go for the Walkers to snack on.

They repeated the process, until they got far enough away to lead the Walkers away from the fence. When enough walked away, Sasha and Glenn began propping tree logs against the fence to stabilize it from bending any more.

"We need to find out who's feeding these things..." I trailed off, letting out a huff of air. "If this keeps up, we're going to end up with a collapsed fence."

I walked back to the prison as Daryl pulled the truck in, him and Rick getting out as Tyreese came over, fuming.

"Rick, we got a problem." He gave Rick a look, walking off. Sharing confused glances, we followed after him before we came to see two burned bodies and Carol standing there.

"I came to see Karen... and I saw the blood on the floor." Tyreese trailed off. "Then I smelled them. Somebody dragged them out here and set them on fire." He then raised his voice. "They killed them and set them on fire! You're a cop, You find out who did this and you bring 'em to me, you understand? You bring 'em to me. Tyreese walked towards Rick.

Daryl grabbed onto Tyreese's arm. "We'll find out who-"

Tyreese jerked his arm out of his grasp, staring at Rick. "I need to say it again?"

Rick shook his head no. "I know what you're feeling, I've been there. You saw me there, it's dangerous."

"Karen didn't deserve this." Tyreese interrupted. "David didn't deserve it, nobody does."

"Alright, man, let's-" Daryl went forward, grabbing Tyreese's arm before being pinned to the wall.

"Man, I ain't going nowhere till I find out who did this!" Tyreese shouted at him.

The three of us rushed forward to rip Tyreese away, when Daryl held his hands out to stop us. "We're on the same side, man."

"Hey, look." Rick spoke, holding a hand up. "I know what you're going through. We've all lost someone, we know what you're going through right now, but you've got to calm down."

Rick touched his shoulder, setting Tyreese off. "You need to step the hell back!" He let Daryl go, pushing Rick back.

"She wouldn't want you being like this." As the words left Rick's mouth, Tyreese punched him.

Carol ran forward, telling him to stop as Tyreese punched Rick again. Daryl came up behind him, holding him back as Carol and I checked on Rick. "That's enough."

Rick stood up, swinging at Tyreese and Daryl let go as he fell down to the ground. Rick went over, lowering down to his level and began throwing punch after punch.

"Rick." Daryl called out. When Rick didn't stop, he went over and grabbed hold of him.

"Let go of me!" Rick shouted to Daryl as he was pulled off of Tyreese and shoved away. Rick seemed to finally come to his senses as Tyreese sobbed on the ground.

Rick looked down at the blood on his hands and left without a word as Carol went over to Tyreese, helping him up. "Let's get you cleaned off."

I glanced at Daryl before looking at the bodies. "We gotta find out who did this... sick or not, no one is safe." I let out a sigh.

"Yeah, and we don't know who all could be sick either." Daryl spoke up. "At the meeting we figured it could be anyone from block D to all of us who were in it."

I nodded my head. "Seems logica-" I was cut off as I began to cough. I glanced over to Daryl, frowning as I saw the look on his face. "Let me guess... coughing is a symptom, isn't it?" When I didn't receive an answer, it only confirmed it. I began to worry as I glanced back down to the bodies. Is that going to happen to me too?

———
Published: 08/03/2024