S u r v i v o r s [ Daryl Dixon ]

Chapter 29

I had just left prison to join Rick and Carl when we heard the screams of others.

"Walkers in block D!"

I immediately ran in the right direction, pulling out the machete and I had to take a deep breath before I ran among the people. Because I knew them. I brought most of it here, and now... The woman who used to be Lucy lunged at me and I mechanically dodged and plunged the blade into her head. There was chaos everywhere.

"Outside!" I screamed and started checking more cells. And when I saw Walker, I did what I had to do.

Suddenly I heard a growl right behind me. I turned around and the zombie turned out to be closer than I thought. He lunged at me and I lost my balance. I dropped the machete, fell, and Walker was inches away from me. I wanted to push him away, but I wasn't strong enough. I started to reach into my shoe, where I had another knife. I could smell rot and blood. I was out of strength when suddenly an arrow shot through the zombie's head. Walker stopped kicking, so I easily pushed him off me. Daryl was already on top of me.

"Are you..."

"I'm fine, and..." at that point I reached for the machete and pulled Daryl towards me. The zombie was centimeters from his shoulder but I pierced it just in time and cut off its head.

I could see that it was already relatively calm, so I moved to help the others when Daryl grabbed my hand. I glanced at him and he seemed uneasy.

"Are you sure he didn't scratch you?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah."

"Lizz..."

I don't know why I did it but I just took off my shirt and stood in front of him in nothing but my bra. Daryl raised his eyebrows and I spun around.

"See? Just a few bruises" I put on my shirt. "Now go to the rest."

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally followed me. We started to check the whole block when we found another Walker upstairs. It was Patrick. As soon as we sorted out the block more or less, Doctor S came to see him.

"No bites. No wounds. I think he just died" Rick said.

"Horribly, too. Pleurisy aspiration. Choked to death on his own blood. Caused those trails down his face" said Doc.

"I've seen them before on a walker outside the fences."

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up-- like if you shake a soda can and pop the top. Only imagine your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are the top."

"It's a sickness from the walkers?" I asked.

"Well, these things happened before they were around. Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an aggressive flu strain. Someone locked him just in time."

"Locked himself in" said Daryl. "Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"

"I had a sick pig, it died quick. Saw a sick boar in the woods" Rick said.

"Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past" Hershel said.

"We need to do something about those hogs" Rick announced. "Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it."

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time" I whispered.

"Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this" said Doc.

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed" Hershel said.

Then we decided to isolate the sick, but the mere thought that this flu could kill someone in one day made me busy and lost my mind. In the distance, Daryl was burying the dead while Maggie and I were cleaning the fence. However, there were so many of them that the fence began to tremble dangerously.