Don't Get Dead | TWD | Volume 1

[44] All Hope Lost

Daryl managed to get Rick up from the ground, and onto his knees, but it didn't even seem like he noticed him doing it. He waved a hand in front of his face, but Rick just stared, not even hearing as Daryl spoke to him.

"Rick, you with me? Rick?"

A few metres away, Maggie handed the baby to Carl, before watching Daryl who was having no luck at waking Rick up from his trance.

"Let me see the baby," Hershel said.

Carl walked the small child over to Hershel, not looking up as he did so. He held the baby out for him to inspect. Hershel just looked at it, checking it with an occasional poke or prod as the baby continued to cry and cry.

The noise was starting to grate through my ears, and I had to release a breath that had been trapped in my throat since it started, turning away so I seemed less bitchy. Babies cried, that was what they did. That was all they did.

"What are we gonna feed it?" Daryl asked, turning away from Rick. "We got anything a baby can eat?"

Hershel was quiet for a second as he examined the small human. "The good news is she looks healthy," he said. "But she needs formula. And soon, or she won't survive."

Daryl shook his head. "No. No way. Not her," he was forceful. "We ain't losing nobody else. I'm going for a run."

"I'll back you up," Maggie said.

Glenn also took a step forward. "I'll go too."

"Okay, think where we're going," Daryl turned to the prisoners. "You two get the fence. Too many piles up, we got ourselves a problem."

Oscar and Axel gave a nod, running to where they could get some weapons to kill the walkers through the fence.

"Beth," he walked over to her, giving her some directions as he had done with everyone else, something I couldn't really hear. She gave an affirmative nod at whatever he had asked for, and Daryl turned to the cars. "Glenn, Maggie, vámonos!"

Metal scraped on the ground, and I saw that Rick had now stood up from where he was kneeling, grabbing his axe from the ground as he marched back inside the prison, ignoring the calls from me and Maggie.

Axe still in hand, I ran after him.

"Ace!" I heard Daryl yell.

I stopped, looking at him for a second. "You said we're not losing anyone else. That includes him."

I didn't wait for Daryl to try and stop me again, running into the building

Rick hadn't stopped in the cell block, and I thought I had lost him until I heard the sound of killing through one of the doors that led deeper inside the prison. I ran after him, into the darkened hallways, tapping my belt to make sure the keys were still attached. I did not want to get trapped somewhere in here.

There were one or two bodies near a door that led off into a different direction than the main path, and it was hard to tell which way he had gone until I heard him again, his echoes travelling down the main hallway.

I slammed the gate closed, locking it and whatever number of walkers there may have been in there before sprinting around the corner, to see Rick. He stood there, waiting for the walkers to approach him before he swung his axe.

There were three, no four, behind the first one, but Rick didn't care. He just waited longer, never retreating from the situation and going deeper into the onslaught of walkers, until he had taken them all down without being in any kind of danger. He had the situation under control.

Until he didn't.

A walker came out from a door near him, grabbing at his arm, and I pulled out my gun and shot it down before it got too close for me to comfortably aim around him. When he heard the shot, he spun around as fast as he could, drawing his gun from his holster and holding it up to me, but his hand lowered when he realised who I was. I took a step closer as he holstered the gun again, and turned away, back towards the path he was going to take.