The Dead World

Twenty Five ~ Rebuilding

It had been six months since they took in the Woodbury group, things were looking up. In the past six months several things had changed, their smallish group had expanded and the prison was now home to a total of sixty five survivors so far.

Those who went outside the prison for either runs or hunts would keep an eye out for any other survivors asking them the three new important questions before deciding to bring them back or not.

That decision had been made by the council leaders, another new idea that had been implimented. Rick had decided to follow Carl's suggestion taking a step back and all the survivors voted on six members to make up the council, those six members had turned out to be Hershel, Phoebe, Glenn, Daryl, Carol and Sasha.

The three new questions all new members had to answer were simple.

How many walkers have they killed? This was to get a rough idea of their experience levels not that they'd turn people away for lack of but it was nice to know in advance.

How many people have you killed? This question was to simple get a idea of how far they would go to survive.

And the last question was why? Why they had killed anyone if they had or hadn't, was it simply kill or be killed? Did they kill someone for poor reasons? Or did they never have to do so?

Of course most new members had to answer in front of the council the main reason for that being Phoebe could read if they were lying or not but a lot of the time it was Phoebe and Daryl finding them outside of the prison.

The rest of the survivors had taken well to the prison, each finding jobs to  keep themselves busy. Several of the newcomers had been handymen and electricians or simply being good at building which was handy as a survivor name David had helped the group have steady access to the stream just outside the prison meaning they had constant water.

A elderly man named Andy had helped build an electrical shed which held an engine generator and several power cords that Phoebe had no clue what they were or how it worked but it brought electricity to the prison so she didn't question the man.

Most of the women had taken to the farming making sure the fruit and veg that had been planted was thriving helping to feed the growing numbers, the one farmer that had shocked Phoebe was Rick, he had a skilled green thumb apparently having found it when he had sworn off his gun.

The group had several smaller groups to man the fences trying not to allow big groups of walkers to build up, there were also a small number of people that tended to the few animals the group had been able to find. 

Michonne had found a horse, spent weeks trying to catch it before she was successful and she'd named it Flame saying the horse had fire.

Phoebe and Daryl had found a very fat pig on a run, Daryl of course had gone to kill it but Phoebe had noticed the engorged teats on the pig and had stopped him. She had pleaded with him to take it back to the prison, it was silly really because they would end up using the pig as food but she had worded it that once the piglets were old enough it would be more food for the group.

Daryl had crumbled the moment she turned to him with pleading eyes, the pair hadn't had anymore close calls but they continued to grow closer. Where one was the other wasn't far behind, they had taken to hunting together, taking watches together too, it was rare for them to be seperate now.

Daryl had even moved into her cell as he was no longer comfortable being out in the open with so many new people around, Merle of course had violently denied Daryls presence in his own cell claiming he wasn't going to share with his brother like they were children so Phoebe had offered the empty bed above hers.