The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 41 - The Stand

We were making a stand.

But not all of us.

Dad would take Beth, Carl and Judith out to hide in the woods. Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carol would hide in the tombs, waiting for them to start their search before setting off smoke bombs, running them outside where Glenn, Maggie and I would open fire from above.

Carl was angry, fuming actually. He wanted to fight.

We were packing up everything we had and leading it into the cars so we could drive them out and conceal them beyond the fences so it appeared we had left.

"I've never seen him this mad." Glenn was saying to Carl. "Even with Lori. He just shut down."

"He's still a kid. It's easy to forget." Rick explained.

Daryl was readying the bike to load into the back of Betty. Carol and I wandered over. He had told us what had happened eventually. Merle had stood his ground with the Governor, killed 8 of his men, but had been shot in the chest. Daryl found him as walker and had to put him down.

"You know..." He started when he sensed us behind him, "Merle never did nothing like that his whole life."

"He gave us a chance." Carol said back.

He looked over his shoulder from where he sat on the ground and up at us until I held out my hand to help him up. He took it, getting to his feet, held on for a moment more, and then turned back to his bike while I went to Betty and lowered the tail gate, pulling out the planks of wood in the back for him to use as a ramp.

Before long the prison was cleared out and seemingly abandoned. I stayed inside my guard tower, the one that was closest to the prison, hiding away until it was time, Glenn and Maggie at different areas. I heard the vehicles first and then a loud bang followed by an explosion that could have been from a grenade launcher or something else to that effect. It sounded like one of the guard towers at the entrance to the prison was blown up. Then there was the sound of an automatic rifle firing over and over again. The sound stopped getting closer, but the firing continued for a while. My guess was that they'd hit the wire and blown their tyres.

I had moved down the stairs of the guard tower, further away from the top after I'd heard the other blow up, just in case they aimed for mine, but they didn't. More guns joined in, but by the sound of them they weren't aimed at the prison, most likely taking out the walkers in the courtyard to make it safe before they got out of their vehicles.

The shots stopped after a while and I heard a car engine once again, a few of them apparently making it passed the wire.

Someone was yelling for people to hurry up, to move faster. The front gate was knocked down and then there was more yelling. I slowly and quietly crept back up the stairs, scrambling to the top to glance outside briefly.

Martinez led them all into the cellblock, the Governor following along at a calm and steady pace. No one stayed outside. My eyes flicked to the automatic rifle that was on the back of one of the vehicles they had left near the wire. I glanced over to where I knew Maggie was hiding and then Glenn. They hadn't come out yet.

That gun was our biggest threat.

I started to make my way back down the stairs and then cracked the door at the bottom of the tower open, peaking outside before seeing that it was clear and bolting for the truck.

Maggie and Glenn had apparently now taken it upon themselves to glance out to the yard as well and I exchanged a look with my sister. She stared wide-eyed and shook her head, but couldn't say anything, needing to keep quiet.