In the Very End: Book One

Chapter 21

"We cleaned out this courtyard yesterday. It was crammed with walkers, but we did it." She smiled that beautiful smile.

"Is it stable?" Lori asked.

"We don't know," Quinn replied. "Looks it, but guess we'll have to find out."

"What's the plan for today?" Lori asked, nodding towards where Quinn and I were before.

"We were gonna clean out that little area and eventually make our way inside the prison," Quinn answered.

They all nodded in agreement.

"It should go a lot smoother now that you're all here," I added.

"The walkers are dressed in prison uniforms, looks like this place fell pretty early," she notified.

"The supplies could still be intact," Rick added. "We could find a cafeteria, infirmary."

___

We had gone over the plan about staying together and we were now waiting at the gate to go inside. Carol, Lori, Beth, Hershel, and Carl would be outside of the fence, distracting some of the walkers while we got the majority of them. Rick, Quinn, T-dog, Glenn, Maggie, and I would be going through the first little area.

"Ready?" Rick asked as he prepared to unclip the two hooks.

We all nodded in unison and he slid the gate over. We made our way inside, taking down walkers and staying huddled, our backs to each other so we could see what we were doing without worrying about behind us. The others yelled to distract the walkers from us, which was helping a lot.

"Don't break form!" T-dog reminded.

"Almost there," Rick noted.

We came to another guard tower. Rick peered around it and immediately leaned against the wall. Our hiding position didn't last long as two walkers came around the corner dressed head-to-toe in full body gear. Rick and I closed another gate that held more than three dozen walkers dressed in prison uniforms. I looked over to see Quinn lift the helmet of a walker in riot gear just enough to shove her knife up through its neck and into its brain.

She smiled, her eyes wide. "See that?"

We all used her method to kill off the rest of the walkers that lingered.

"It looks secure," Glenn noted, looking around.

"Not if you look at that courtyard over there," I downed. I pointed to a walker dressed in regular clothes. "That's a civilian."

"So the interior could be overrun by walkers outside the prison," T-dog clarifed.

"Well, if the walls are down, what are we gonna do? We can't rebuild this whole place," Glenn mentioned.

"We can't risk a blind spot," Rick said. "We have to push in."

We followed Rick to a door and he gave us a silent nod as he slid the heavy metal open. We all filtered inside. Somebody slid the door closed as Rick pushed a metal gate. It creaked as it swung open. As we made our way into what looked like a kitchen, an eerie silence settled over us.

Shadows casted across our faces and drops of water splattered in some corners. Rick made his way up to a perch and showed us some keys. He slowly unlocked another gate and we entered a cell block. We all looked around, taking everything in.

Maggie and Quinn made their way up the metal stairs to more cells while I stayed down on ground level. I looked up to see Quinn and Maggie leaning against the railing with their arms above their head, staying out of a walker's reach.