Worth It

Chapter 20: Killer Within

"Okay, let's get the other car in. We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard." Rick says, pointing over to the other side.

Daryl puts his hand around my waist. "Good. Our vehicles camped out there look like a giant "vacancy" sign." I rolled my eyes.  Rick just ignores him. "After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn 'em."

I sigh. "Gonna be a long day." I mutter. Daryl stops me. "You don't need to be out here. You might have a concussion."

"I need to help out." 

"Where's Glenn and Maggie? We could use some more help." Carol asks. Daryl chuckles. "Up in the guard tower." Rick looks at us. "Guard tower? They were just up there last night." I stifle another laugh.

Daryl chuckles. "Glenn! Maggie!" He calls out.

The door clicks open. "Hey, what's up, guys?" He steps out without a shirt. I started laughing. "You comin?" I call out to him."What?"

We all start chuckles again "You comin'? Come on, we could use a hand." Daryl says, clarifying my question.

Glenn looks back at Maggie before calling down to us. "Yeah, we'll be right down."

I laugh and Daryl slings an arm around my should. "you comin? Real classy Chloe." Carol says laughing. I shrugged. Couldn't help it.

"Hey, Rick." T-Dog calls out. We all turn around. Axle and Oscar were standing up on the courts. "Come with me." He says to T-Dog and Daryl. Obviously I tag along.

Rick sticks his hand out. "That's close enough. We had an agreement."

Maggie and Glenn open the guard tower and come out. "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?" I ask them, crossing my arms. "You should be burning them." T-Dog adds.

He nods. "We tried. We did."

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

"Look, 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 tells them.

Oscar sighs. "I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys. You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out. We've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not gonna 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."

We all look at each other before looking back. 

Daryl locks the door to the exit, locking them out.

"C'mon, dude." Axel calls out.

Rick is leaned up against the truck next to T-Dog. "Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you? They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons. You want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

T-Dog looks up at him. "I never stopped. Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves."

Carol folds her arms. "After all we've been through? We fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it?" I nod my head.