Don't look back

Thirty one

"Carl! Look at me." Mary giggled, a riot gear helmet covering her head. Carl copied her, smiling too.
"Can you feel this?" Carl teased, knocking her helmet.
"Nope!" Mary laughed, grabbing a bullet proof vest too.
"You won't need that," Rick sighed, taking the vest off her "you two gotta stay put."
"You're kidding!" Carl exclaimed, taking his helmet off.
"We don't know what's in there. If something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing. I need you to handle things here." Rick explained gently. "You need to look after your sister."
"Sure." Carl sighed.
"Great. Let's go." Rick nodded, after lifting up Mary's helmet and kissing her forehead. Then they left, leaving only Mary, Carl, Beth, Lori, and Carol.
"I'm really hungry." Mary whispered to Lori, walking up to her.
"We have a tiny bit left in our car," Beth nodded, "I'll go get her it."
"Honey, thank you so much. I'll come too." Lori nodded, grabbing her gun.
Mary sat cuddled next to Carl as she waited for Lori and Beth to come back, playing with a long strand of her hair.
"Here. Two pieces each. We need more food." Lori sighed coming back with a bag a beef jerky.
"I can go find the cafeteria." Carl offered.
"No." Lori replied quickly.
"I'll be quick. And Mary can come. We're both a good shot."
"I don't care. Mary is four. No." Lori scoffed, passing them two pieces of jerky each, and then eating her share, as did Beth and Carol, leaving the other's theirs.
"Can I go play outside?" Mary asked in a whisper.
"No. Wait for daddy or Glenn." Lori replied gently.
"Or Maggie." Mary retorted, and Lori nodded.
"Why don't you go play, yeah?" Lori suggested.
"We're not little kids." Carl sighed in irritation.
Beth glared at Carl. "I'll play with you, Mary."
Mary grinned at Beth, and they walked away, Carl sat bored and alone.
"What do ya wanna play?" Beth asked kindly.
"Ermmm... Let's do drawing."
"Well, we got no paper." Beth explained slowly.
"Mommy Lori," Mary shouted, interrupting Beth, "Can me and Beth decorate the walls?"
"Sure!" Lori shouted back. Mary ran onto her and Carl's cell, and grabbed three sharpies from her tiny bag. It only held her three sharpies, a black fleece jacket, a pair of socks, a pair of leggings, and the boat Hershel had whittled for her on that perfect Christmas Day.
"I gotta blue, a black, and a green." Mary announced. She went down to the ground floor, and looked at the long bleak wall. "Let's draw ourselves. I'll draw the people, you write the names and draw flowers." Mary ordered.
"Alright." Beth laughed slightly.
Mary got to work, and drew eleven wobbly people, shaky, messy, and almost illegible, but fully adorable. A tiny girl with long hair and a green bandana, wearing dungarees. A tall man with a slight beard, almost curly hair, holding the girl's hand. A boy wearing a large hat, and chin length hair. A woman with a large stomach and long hair. Another woman, on the other side of the girl, holding her hand, with short, dark hair. A man with a shock of black hair and a large smile. A tall girl with a ponytail. A man with large wrinkles on his face, and a smile. A large bald man with a scar down his arm, taller than anyone. A woman with short hair and a dress (even though she never wore one). And a man with messy hair, a leather jacket without sleeves, and a large crossbow.
"There. Now we're here forever." Mary grinned as Beth finished writing the names. Mary Grimes. Rick Grimes. Carl Grimes. Lori Grimes. Maggie Greene. Glenn Rhee. Beth Greene. Hershel Green. Theodore Douglas. Carol Pelletier. Daryl Dixon.
"Now no one will ever forget us." Beth grinned back.
"Open the door," Rick screamed suddenly, "it's Hershel! Carl, come on!"
"Oh my god!" Carol gasped, as Carl unlocked the gates.
"Go go go go go! In there! Get him on the bed! He got bit!" Rick shouted, pushing Hershel on a metal trolley, going into a cell. Beth and Mary ran in, Beth crying. There Hershel laid, his leg hacked off, bleeding excessively. Mary grabbed ahold of Rick's arm immediately.
"Oh my god, he's gonna turn!" Beth cried, shakily uncontrollably.
"Did you cut it off?" Lori asked.
"Yeah." Rick nodded slowly, lifting Hershel onto the bed, with Glenn's help, making Mary let go of him for a second.
"Maybe you got it in time." Carol said slowly. "Oh God. Oh, I need bandages." She sighed, looking at the wound.
"We used all we had." Glenn whispered, his eyes full of fear. Mary grabbed Rick's hand now, squeezing it tightly.
"Well get more anything!" Carol snapped impatiently.
"Carl, go get the towels from the backpack next to my bed." Lori ordered.
"Is he gonna die?" Beth asked.
"No, no, no, he's going to be okay. He's going to be okay." Lori soothed, hugging Beth close to her.
"I think he died." Mary whispered shakily.
"He's not dead, Mary. You think you can stabilise him?"
"I need to keep his leg elevated. Get some pillows!" Carol demanded.
"He's already bled through the sheets." Maggie panicked.
"We can burn the wound to clot the blood. I can start a fire." Glenn offered.
"Oh God no. Please no." Beth cried shakily.
"No, the shock could kill him. It's not going to stop the arteries from bleeding. We need to keep it dressed let it heal on its own." Carol explained, as Glenn checked his pulse.
"Mary." Lori mumbled to Rick, and Rick looked down at the child, with some blood on her clothes, a pale face, and teary and fear-filled eyes.
"Mary. Go. Go to your room. Okay? Now." Rick said slowly.
"Is he okay?" Mary whispered.
"Go to your room. Draw on the walls. Anything." Rick ordered, and Mary nodded, but instead of going to her and Carl's room, she went to find Daryl. She saw him in the other room, pointing his crossbow at the door, the other door shut. Slowly, she walked in.
"That's far enough." Daryl growled, and Mary froze, thinking he meant her, but he didn't. Five men stood there, all in blue overalls. Mary hid behind a post, so neither Daryl nor the men could see her.
"Cell block C, cell four, that's mine, gringo. Let me in." A man snapped, with tattoos and long black hair.
"Today's your lucky day, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia. You're free to go." Daryl snapped.
"What you got going on in there?" The same man asked.
"That ain't none of your concern." Daryl replied harshly.
"Don't be telling me what's my concern." The man half shouted, and Mary hid back into the post even further.
"Chill man. Dudes leg is messed up. Besides, you're free now. Why we still in here." A tall black man explained, almost with a smile.
"Mans got a point." Daryl remarked.
"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady." The man added.
"Group of civilians breaking into a prison you've got no business being in, got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go."
"Why don't you go find out." Daryl remarked. Mary put her head round, and the black man looked at her. "What you lookin' at?" Daryl snapped, then he looked over. "What the hell you doin'?" He asked Mary harshly. "Come here."
Mary ran over to him, and he picked her up, holding her on his hip.
"Hey little girl. I'm Oscar. This your daddy? He's a good man. He's helping us." The man smiled gently.
"Don't you talk to her." Daryl growled, creating a silence.
"He's my Uncle Daryl. Daddy's helping Hershel." Mary whispered, looking at him in the eyes.
"Well, they helped us a lot." Oscar added gently.
"I said don't talk to her! Don't even look at her!" Daryl shouted angrily, and Mary put a hand over her ears.
"Maybe we'll just be going now." A different man interrupted, with a moustache and long hair, just like the other man.
"Hey, we ain't leaving." The man snapped.
"You ain't coming in either." T-Dog snapped, walking in.
"It is my house, my rules. I go where I damn well please!"
"There ain't nothing for you here, why don't you go back to your own sand box!" Daryl retorted angrily.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Everyone relax, there's no need for this!" Rick shouted. "Mary! What the hell you doing? Get here! I told you to go to your room!"
Daryl put Mary down, and she ran over to Rick, who picked her up and held her tightly.
"How many of you in there?"
"Too many for you to handle." Rick retorted.
"You guys rob a bank or something? Why didn't you take him to a hospital?" The man asked, creating a silence.
"They're gone." Mary whispered.
"How long you been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick asked with a sigh.
"Going on like ten months."
"Riot broke out. Never seen anything like it." Oscar added shakily.
"Attica on speed man. Ever heard about men dying, coming back to life cannibal? Crazy."
"One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria, told us to sit tight, threw me this piece, said he'd be right back." The man with dark hair explained, showing them all a small gun.
"Yeah, and that was 292 days ago." A short, skinny, black man added.
"Ninety four according to my..."
"Shut up!"
"We've been thinking that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now."
"There is no army." Rick explained slowly.
"What do you mean?" The dark haired man snapped.
"There's no government, no hospitals, no police. It's all gone." Rick said slowly.
"Not even any eggs." Mary added.
"For real?"
"Yep. No eggs." Mary whispered into Rick's shirt.
"Serious." Rick nodded, ignoring Mary.
"What about my mom?" The tall man asked.
"And my kids. And my old lady! Yo, you got a cell phone or something that we can call our families on?" Oscar asked frantically.
"You just don't get it, do you?" Daryl sighed.
"No phones, no computers. As far as we can see at least half the populations been wiped out, probably more." Rick explained yet again.
"Ain't no way!"
"See for yourself." Rick shrugged. T-Dog walked over to the door, and opened it, and the five men, plus T-Dog, Rick, Daryl, and Mary went outside.
"Damn the sun feels good." Oscar smiled, stretching happily in the sunlight.
"Good lord. They're all dead!" One of the men exclaimed suddenly.
"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences."
"You never said how the hell you got let in here in the first place."
"Cut a hole in that fence over there, by that guard tower." Daryl said.
"That easy, huh?"
"Where there's a will, there's a way."
"Easy for you to say."
"Well my daddy is a dumbass badass." Mary remarked.
"Hey! Language!" Rick snapped.
"It's okay, it a kind one." Mary insisted, and Rick rolled his eyes. "And Glenn is a hero, and Daryl says he is a tough son of a bitch."
"Mary Grimes!" Rick hissed, holding back his laughter, as the others laughed uncontrollably.
"What?" She asked innocently, her eyebrows furrowed.
"That's a bad word. A very bad word."
"Like bum?" Mary questioned, making Daryl laugh even more.
"Yes! Worse!" Rick sighed in exasperation. "No saying words like that."
"Glenn says it's okay if you're saying it in a kind way!" She insisted.
"Yeah, well, I say it's not." Rick sighed, shaking his head.
"Okay." Mary nodded solemnly.
"So what is this, like a disease?" One of the men asked suddenly.
"Yeah, and we're all infected." Rick nodded.
"What do you mean, infected. Like AIDS or something?"
"What's AIDS?" Mary whispered.
"A disease." Rick replied softly.
"If I was to kill you, shoot an arrow in your chest, you'd come back as one of these things. It's going to happen to all of us." Daryl explained.
"Ain't no way this Robin Hood cat's responsible for killing all these freaks."
"Must be fifty bodies out here."
"Where'd you come from?" The dark haired man asked Rick suddenly.
"Atlanta." Rick replied.
"Where you headed?"
"For now, nowhere."
"I guess you could take that area down there near the water. Should be comfortable." The man offered.
"Hell no!" Mary said suddenly.
"We're using that field for crops." Rick retorted. "You're spending less time with Daryl. Stop with the bad words." He whispered into Mary's ear, and she laughed cheekily.
"We'll help you move your gear out." The man offered.
"That won't be necessary. We took out these Walkers. This prison is ours."
"Slow down cowboy." He began.
"You snatched the locks off our doors!" Oscar snapped.
"We'll give you new locks if that's how you want it." Rick shrugged.
"This is our prison. We were here first."
"Locked in a broom closet," Rick scoffed, "We took it, set you free. It's ours. We spilled blood!"
"We're moving back into our cell block."
"You'll have to get your own." Ruck said firmly.
"It is mine! I still got personal artefacts in there. That's about as mine as it gets!" The dark haired man hissed, getting his gun out angrily. In retaliation, Daryl got his gun out, and Mary grabbed her tiny knife, which Rick took off her with a sigh.
"Woah, woah, woah," the man with the moustache began calmly, "let's just try to make this work out so everybody wins."
"I don't see that happening." The dark haired man said with a glare.
"Neither do I." Rick retorted.
"I ain't going back in that cafeteria for one more minute."
"There are other cell blocks!" The man with the moustache insisted.
"You could leave. Try your luck out on the road." Daryl suggested, creating a silence, until the dark haired man spoke up yet again.
"These three pussies can do all this, least we can do is take out another cell block."
"With what!"
The man looked at Rick, with challenge and anger in his eyes. "Atlanta here will spot us some real weapons, won't you boss."
"How stocked is that cafeteria?" Rick asked, "Must have plenary of food, five guys lasting almost a year."
"Sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starving." Daryl remarked harshly.
"There's only a little left."
"We'll take half. In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block." Rick offered.
"Did you hear him? There's only a little left!" The smaller man insisted.
"Bet you got more food than you got choices. You pay well play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it."
"Alright." The dark haired man nodded reluctantly.
"But let's be clear. If we see you out here anywhere near our people, near my kids, if I so much as even catch a whiff of your sent, I will kill you." Rick hissed, his eyes suddenly clouded with anger.
"Deal."
The men walked into the building again, the man with the moustache coming up to Rick.
"I'm Axel." He smiled shakily, fear yet hope in his eyes. When Rick ignored him, he spoke up again. "Your little girl is real funny. Not seen any little ones in a long time. I had a niece, but..."
"Stop talking, man," Oscar sighed, rolling his eyes, "he doesn't care."
"He's got a point." Rick nodded.
"He's nice." Mary mumbled, and Rick rolled his eyes, then put Mary down.
"You go with your mommy," Rick ordered, crouching down to her eye level, "and I'll go get the food."
"Okay." Mary nodded, walking away.
"Hey! Mary!" Rick said suddenly, and she span around. "Sit on the steps, for two minutes, yeah? Time out. For those naughty words."
Mary lowered her head, and nodded, walking away, towards the steps in their cell block.
"Little harsh, don't ya think?" Daryl laughed softly.
"Hey, I gotta pretend I'm parenting." Rick shrugged. "She thinks swearing and holding a knife is normal. I just want her to be a little kid."
"I see ya." Daryl nodded.
Rick looked at him, then nodded back. "Let's go get us some dinner."