The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 28 - Minced

We shuffled around the darkened corridors with nothing but torches to guide our way. Daryl and I were up the front while everyone else paired up, Rick at the back on his own.

"Man, it's too damn dark in here." The man I'd discovered to be Oscar said. He was the family guy.

"Gotta hold it up high out in front of you." Daryl instructed. Hell, these guys didn't even know how to hold a damned torch properly. "You're gonna hear them before you see them." He was whispering, keeping his voice low.

"It's coming!" Moustache, who's name I think was Ajex, yelled out... or maybe Axel, I think Axel.

"Shhh." Rick hushed him while we prepared for the incoming threat.

Daryl held up his hand to stop everyone, to wait and see just how many there were instead of charging in, but the second three walkers revealed themselves all five prisoners sprinted down the corridor sporting some less than impressive battle cries and proceeded to try and bludgeon the dead to death; kicking, hitting, restraining, punching, knocking down, beating. It went on and on, aiming for their stomachs, their arms, their legs, basically anywhere but their heads.

We all stood back, looking on in silence as I tilted me head to the side, furrowing my eyebrows.

"If we just walk away... the dead will kill them and we can take all the food." I whispered, looking over to Rick before he returned my comment with an unimpressed look. "They would be nothing to feel guilty about, Rick... we tried." I attempted reasoning.

"We try again." He stated as I took in a deep breath and sighed.

And so it went on. I never thought I'd have to explain to someone the difference between the heart and the brain.

"It's gotta be the brain." Daryl was saying as a lone walker approached the group and he readied his bow.

"Not the stomach, not the heart... the brain." I added as Daryl fired, easily hitting the walker between the eyes before I retrieved his arrow and quickly backed up as another came around the corner.

"I hear you." Axel nodded. "The brain."

Oscar jumped forward, slamming his axe down on top of its head. "Like that?" He asked.

"Uh-huh." Daryl nodded while I shoved his arrow back into the quiver and he reached for his hunting knife before I raised my machete at the ready, one more now heading for us.

Axel stepped forward, driving the sharp end of his pole through its forehead just as the fourth showed itself. "Kat." Rick ordered me to take care of it before I sliced through one of its eyes and it fell limp on the ground. "Stay in tight formation. No more prison riot crap." Rick was explained as I retreated back into the group.

Next a small herd of about six or seven joined us. The little guy, whose name I was yet to learn, whacked one across the head with a baseball bat while Rick pulled me back next to T so that the prisoners could take care of it. We stood on standby, watching closely as they took them out one by one.

"Where's the big guy?" I whispered after a second, looking around for him.

Rick heard me and then apparently saw him, taking off through on of the side door as I followed. Big Tiny was what they called him, he had apparently back away from the group and was fighting two walkers, but was losing. We came to late as one took a chunk out of his back. Rick removed the first while I went to the second, but before I could swing at it, two gun shots were fired and it fell to the ground. I quickly whipped my head around to see Tomas standing where we had come from, his gun pointed at the fallen walker.