𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 || ᵈ.ᵈⁱˣᵒⁿ

XXXV

—/<3/—

"You're meant to aim for the head, not jump them like they're from an enemy prison gang," Rory hissed as she pushed the prisoners away from the walker and killed it swiftly with a knife to its forehead. "You're wasting time, energy and you're making unnecessary noise."

"She's right, there could be a whole group of them round the corner and you would've drawn them right to us." Rick agreed.

"You know, you were a lot prettier when you weren't talking." The leader got in her face, clearly not liking that he was being told what to do by a woman.

"Coming from someone who looks like they belong in a sewer." Rory didn't budge, looking him up and down.

"Enough!" Rick raised his voice. "Let's get this over with." The prisoner backed off with a nasty glare and the group continued around the corner towards the next cell block.

"It's gotta be the brain, not the stomach or the heart, the brain." Daryl reiterated as they stumbled across a few more walkers. He demonstrated by shooting an arrow directly into a walker's forehead.

One of the prisoners lunged forward and slammed his axe through the skull of the walker. "Like that?" He asked. Daryl nodded, keeping his eyes on the dead.

"Stay in formation, no more of that prison riot shit." Rick grunted as the group inched forward, taking out walkers in turns. That was until one of the prisoners, Big Tiny, got freaked out and broke away inching back the way they came. He wasn't looking where he was going, and didn't notice when a walker creeped up behind him and sunk its nails into his back. The leader, Tomas, pulled out his gun and shot the walker twice.

Rory, Archie and Rick glared at him harshly, but he ignored them.

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch," Big Tiny said, as Rick helped him unbutton his jumpsuit.

"You cut that man's leg off to save his life, why can't you do the same here?" One of the other prisoners asked.

"It's on his back, it's impossible to cut the bite out." Archie pointed out.

"Well there's gotta be something else!" Oscar yelled. "Can't we quarantine him? See what happens? It's just a scratch, maybe he'll heal."

"There's nothing we can do," Rick said.

Tomas lunged whilst Big Tiny wasn't looking at him and began beating his skull in with an iron poke. The man was most definitely dead after the first blow, but Tomas didn't stop until Big Tiny's head was nothing but a pile of brain matter, blood and bone fragments on the ground.

"Mon dieu..." Archie grimaced, turning away from the scene to stop himself from gagging.

Rory and Daryl gave each other a look as everyone stared at Tomas in disbelief.

"What?" He hissed. "He was gonna turn into one of those things."

"Did you really have to beat his head in though? He was dead the first time you hit him." T-dog stared at the scene in horror. Tomas didn't answer, and instead began walking in the direction of the cell block they wanted to clear out. The other prisoners followed reluctantly after giving their dead friend one last look.

"Talk about overkill," Rory murmured to Archie as they walked after them.

"You see the look on his face?" Daryl whispered to Rick as the group pushed on. "He makes one move, just gimme a signal." He continued. Rick didn't answer and he jogged ahead as T-dog pushed open the doors to the laundry room.

Daryl tossed the prison keys to Tomas' feet as the prisoner observed the door to the cell block and the snarling coming from behind it.

"I ain't opening that," he said.