Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 34 ↣ You don't even see it, do you?

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."

— Agatha Christie

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Kathryn

"OKAY," RICK STARTED, "let's get the other car in. We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard."

"Good," Daryl said. "Our vehicles camped out there look like a giant vacancy sign."

"After that we need to load up these corpses so we can burn 'em."

"Gonna be a long day," T observed, looking at all the bodies.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Carol asked. "We could use some help."

"Up in the guard tower," Daryl said, gesturing to the one closest to us.

"Guard tower?" Rick asked, totally oblivious. He turned to us. "They were just up there last night."

"Rick," I said, "there is a lot to do up there, y'know." With a well placed wiggle of my eyebrows, he finally got it.

"Oh," was all he said.

Daryl snickered before yelling, "Glenn! Maggie!"

After a moment, Glenn appeared, shirtless. "Hey, what's up, guys?" he called from atop the tower. I then noticed he was fumbling with his belt also. We all chuckled.

"You comin'?" Daryl yelled, causing the group to laugh even more.

"What?" Glenn responded.

Daryl raised his voice. "You comin'? Come on we could use a hand."

"Y-Yeah we'll be right down," Glenn stuttered.

We all turned around to go and pull the vehicles in, but T called for Rick which caused us all to stop and turn. I followed his gaze to see the prisoners approaching us. Rick's smile had dipped into a scowl. He looked at Daryl, T, and I and said, "Come with me."

We obliged and followed him. Rick said, "That's close enough. We had an agreement."

The prisoners stopped just in front of the guard tower, and Axel said, "Please, mister. We know that. We made a deal, but you gotta understand...we can't live in that place another minute. You follow me? All the bodies—people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts."

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl deadpanned.

T added, "You should be burning them."

"We tried," Axel defended. "We did."

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison," Oscar told us. "Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. Dropping the body and just running back inside."

"Look," Axel said, gesturing to Oscar, "we had nothing to do with Tomas and Andrew. Nothing. You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be part of your group. Just please, please...don't make us live in that place."

"Our deal is not negotiable. You either live in your cell block, or you leave," Rick said. His tone left no room for questions.

Oscar turned to Axel. "I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys." He looked back at Rick. "You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out like. Humph. These were good guys. Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Tomas and Andrew. We've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not going to pretend to be a saint, but believe me...we've paid our due—enough that we would rather hit that road than to go back into that shithole."