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chapter sixty-five | the summer flu
A SCREAM ECHOED through Cellblock D, reaching the next cell block where Laurel lay asleep with the burly man next to her. The scream caused her to bolt upright, her eyelids were heavy but were wide open as her heart jumped out of her chest. She was wide awake now. Someone screamed walker, warning everyone.
Daryl felt her startle and woke up as well, just as a sequence of screams was heard. Laurel jumped out of bed, grabbed her knife from her holster, stepped into her boots, and bolted out of her cell. Laurel ran a few cells down, running inside her siblings cell to see both of them scrambling out of bed.
"Stay here!" She ordered, swinging the door to their cell shut closed. She turned on her heels and left immediately. Ethan went forward to try to stop her but Cassie grabbed him and tugged him back, telling him to trust her.
Laurel's heart raced as she ran down the stairs of her cell block to see absolute chaos rising. A few people were running away from Cell Block D into their cell block. She went the way they were running away from.
Daryl caught up with her, both of them running inside the cell block. Daryl had his crossbow but took a shotgun from a dude shooting blindly in a cell. Rick was escorting a few people out, taking the shotgun from Daryl and giving it to Glenn who just showed up. There was blood everywhere and she couldn't hear what Rick was ordering for them to do because of all the children's screams.
Laurel gasped when she saw multiple bodies lying on the floor, the walkers chewing on their insides. People she knows— no, knew. Daryl rushed forward grabbing a kid that was crying in a corner as a walker was approaching them. His movement broke Laurel out of her trance. She quickly ran forward and kicked it down, stabbing it in its head. Daryl handed the kid off to Karen, firing his crossbow at a walker following a group of people down the stairs.
Laurel took out two walkers that were feeding, Glenn showing up at her side. He lunged his machete into a walker's head that she was about to handle.
"Check all of them— every cell!" Rick ordered, carrying a wounded woman out of the cell block.
Laurel quickly did as told, yanking every curtain off cells, looking inside for any walkers. Almost every single cell had one. The others helped her clear them out quickly, Rick yelling out for confirmation soon after. "Are we clear down here?"
Daryl shouted yeah in response, grabbing ahold of Laurel's free hand and pulling her to the stairs. She followed him up with her knife high once they reached the top, Daryl reluctantly let go of her. Daryl had his crossbow up high, both of them splitting up to check the cells.
Laurel walked as quietly as she could, peaking inside to see if there were any walkers. She got a few cells down and she slowly pushed a curtain to the side until suddenly a walker lurched forward from behind the curtain, grabbing her shoulders. It pushed her back into the wall and she screamed, unable to stab it without letting it bite her. Its fingernails dug into her shoulders and its jaw was merely a few inches from her face. She was taken by surprise and struggled to keep its teeth away from her.
