Asperity - Daryl Dixon

XIV

Eight months after the hurried exodus from Hershel's farm, the survivors roamed the desolate landscape in search of sanctuary. As Lori's pregnancy neared its culmination, desperation clouded their hopes until they stumbled upon a prison. Mounted on Daryl's bike, Vanessa glimpsed the formidable structure and couldn't help but entertain a fleeting hope that perhaps this would be the safe haven they so desperately needed.

For Rick, the prison held the promise of safety, a stronghold to shield them from the relentless onslaught of the undead. However, before they could claim it as their refuge, they had to confront the legions of walkers infesting the premises.

Vanessa expertly wielded her bow, thinning the herd with each precise shot. But one sneaky walker managed to approach her from behind, ready to strike. An arrow soared through the air, piercing the undead assailant, and Daryl's gravelly voice cautioned, "Be more careful," before he ventured off to engage more walkers.

Among the undead defenders were armored walkers, their impenetrable helmets a formidable obstacle. Vanessa quickly realized that even though they couldn't reach their head, it also meant that the walkers couldn't bite them. After struggling for a bit, she finally found their vulnerability and, armed with her knife, devised a strategy to disable them, by stabbing her knife at the base of the back of their heads to reach their brains. As the others observed, she skillfully dispatched one with a swift strike to the back of its head. Proud of her accomplishment, Vanessa looked as the group learned to exploit this weakness to dispatch the remaining armored walkers.

Eager to assess the prison's viability, they ventured inside, only to face a grim reality. Hershel, their resident doctor, had been bitten, his condition deteriorating rapidly. Rick made a drastic decision to amputate Hershel's leg. Vanessa, though overwhelmed by the grisly procedure, gritted her teeth and assisted Rick by securing a makeshift tourniquet. As Hershel's blood spattered their faces, Vanessa fought the urge to succumb to nausea, determined to help in any way she could.

In the dimly lit prison corridor, chaos unfolded as Nessa and Rick worked with urgency on Hershel's leg. Suddenly, a subtle movement caught her eye, diverting her attention. The group's collective realization struck like a silent shockwave: they were not alone. Inmates stood at the door, their gazes colliding with the shocked survivors.

Reacting swiftly, Daryl and T-Dog positioned themselves as a protective barrier, Glenn pushing a table toward Rick, Maggie, and Nessa, instructed, "Lift him!" Tensions rose as one of the prisoners questioned, "Who the hell are you? You don't look like no rescue team."

"What the hell? A rescue team, really?" Vanessa retorted incredulously, her directness cutting through the tension.

Once Hershel was on the makeshift stretcher, Rick called, "Let's go! T-Dog, get the door!" T-Dog cleared the way of walkers while Glenn, Maggie, Rick, and Nessa pushed Hershel toward safety. Daryl joined them, reaching the door where Rick urgently shouted to Carl, "Open the door, it's Hershel!" The door creaked open, revealing a shocked Carl.

"What happened ?" Carol's voice echoed in the chaos. Nessa answered her in a rush "He got bit, we cut it off but he's losing a lot of blood."

Moving swiftly, they led Hershel to a cell, and Rick directed, "Put him on the bed." Concerned voices filled the air as Beth cried, "I-Is he going to die?" Lori reassured her, "He'll be fine. We'll make sure of it." Yet, an air of uncertainty lingered among the group.

Amidst the tension, a voice disrupted the solemn atmosphere: "I can go where the hell I please!" Nessa's gaze met Daryl's, and Beth questioned, "What was that?" Nessa, still locked in a silent exchange with Daryl, replied, "Prisoners." Rick adds "We found them in the cafeteria, they followed us." Nessa and Daryl suddenly gets up and head to the source of the noise, Rick joined them quickly, trailing them as they confronted the source of the disturbance.

The groups convened, leading to a disagreement. In the aftermath, Rick reluctantly extended an offer to the prisoners: in exchange for half of their food, the survivors would assist in clearing a part of the prison for the newcomers. The atmosphere remained tense, particularly between Rick and the unpredictable leader of the prisoners, as the fate of their uneasy alliance hung in the balance.

~~~

In the aftermath of the confrontation and compromise, Daryl and Vanessa took a moment to discuss the new dynamics with the prisoners.

"What do you think about them?" Vanessa asked, leaning against the wall. Daryl glanced up from cleaning his crossbow, replying, "They look like idiots. Won't make it; they don't even know how to kill the dead." Vanessa nodded, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. Guess we'll see. They're coming to clean block D with us."

As the group—Rick, T-Dog, Daryl, Vanessa, Tomas, and his group—headed to clear block D, the prisoners' lack of skill in dealing with walkers became apparent. Rick signaled to attack, but the prisoners charged ahead with poor fighting technique. Vanessa exchanged a glance with Daryl, suppressing a laugh. "Well, that's kind of entertaining to watch," she whispered to Daryl, who smirked. T-Dog nodded in agreement, sharing a smirk with Vanessa.

In the midst of the struggle, Big Tiny suffered a scratch in a non-amputatable area. A brief argument ensued about what to do with him, only for Tomas to brutally kill him. Vanessa shot a look at Rick, questioning whether she should deal with Tomas, but Rick subtly signaled, "Not now."

Upon reaching the cell block, Rick asks Tomas to open one door to get rid of the walkers but Tomas disregarded Rick's instructions and opened both doors, causing dead to flood in. "FUCK, ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?" Vanessa shouted. Amid the chaos, Tomas takes a swing at a walker, killing it but in the process takes another swing at Rick. Tomas then pushes a walker into Rick, attempting to get him killed, leading to a tense confrontation. Daryl intervened, saving Rick from the walker Tomas had pushed toward him. After clearing the walkers, Rick walked toward Tomas, and a lethal confrontation unfolded.

"It was coming at me, bro," Tomas justified. Rick retorted, "Yeah, yeah. I get it. I get it. Shit happens," a small silence unfolded before Rick brutally splits Tomas' head with his machete. Andrew retaliates by attacking Rick with his baseball bat but the latter swiftly knocked him off. However Andrew quickly got back on his feet and started running into the now clear corridor "I get it." Rick quickly says before running after him. Axel and Oscar, the remaining prisoners, were left kneeling as Rick pursued Andrew.

Daryl, Vanessa, and T-Dog took charge of watching Axel and Oscar. Daryl, pointing his crossbow at Oscar, ordered, "Man, get down on your knees." Axel pleaded innocence, "We don't have no affiliation to what just happened. Tell them Oscar." But Oscar only answers him "Stop talking man." Vanessa, bow aimed at his head, advised, "You should take the advice." Axel complied, looking at the floor, while Oscar urged him to stop talking.

Rick returned, threatening to kill Axel and Oscar. Axel pleaded, "We didn't have nothing to do with that." Rick, growing increasingly agitated, pointed his gun at Axel's head. Axel implored, "You knew. Daryl, let's end this now." But Axel continues to plead "Sir, sir, you gotta listen to me, please! It was them that was bad. It wasn't us."
"Oh, that's convenient." Rick sarcastically replies."You saw what he did to Tiny. He was my friend. I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer. Oscar here, he's a B and E, and he ain't very good at it neither. We ain't the violent kind, they were! Please, I swear to God! I wanna live!" After his monologue, Rick aims his gun at Oscar's head. "What about you?" However Oscar remained composed, stating, "I ain't never plead for my life. And I ain't about to start now. So you do what you gotta do."

Rick lift his gaze towards his group, taking advice about the prisoners honesty. Vanessa nodded at Rick's questioning glance, signaling her approval to let them live but with a warning. "Let's just bring them to their cell block. But if we see you after that, we'll kill you." The group escorted Axel and Oscar to their now cleared cell block, full of bodies of the former inmates for who Axel looks sad.
"Sorry about your friends man." Daryl tries to comfort him. "Take those bodies outside and burn them" T-dog adds. Vanessa then finally says, feeling kind of bad for them "I hope you'll be alright." And they leave the pair, returning to their own block where Hershel is still unresponsive.