Eventually, the walkers were dead and the group went around to the next area, waiting for the walkers to appear. CJ stood to the left of Rick, slightly behind him. Her gun was holstered and she had a knife in each fist.
"It's gotta be the brain," Daryl reminded them as he shot a walker with an arrow. "Not the stomach, not the heart. The brain."
"I hear ya, the brain," Axel nodded.
Another walkers appeared and Oscar quickly took it out, whacking it around the head. "Like that?"
"You got it," CJ replied.
Two more walkers appeared and Axel stepped forward to kill one of them. He re-joined the group and Rick got the other one.
"Stay in tight formation," Rick said. "No more prison riot crap."
They continued on down the hallways until they came across another walker-infested area. It seemed liked they'd kill one and two more would appear. As they were dealing with the dead, Big Tiny yelled out from the back of the group. Turns out a few walkers had come up behind them and they were attacking him.
Rick went to take out one of them, but CJ grabbed his arm to pull him out of the way when she saw Tomas raise his gun, right before he shot the last walker three times. The sound of the gunshots bounced off the walls and Rick and Tomas stared at each other. Tomas' face seemed blank. But CJ noticed the look in his eyes, the cold, twisted, psychotic look. If she hadn't of pulled Rick away, the bullets would have hit him.
Big Tiny was bleeding heavily from a wound on his back. CJ went over to him and inspected the the injury with a flashlight. "It's a scratch," she observed out loud. "A bad one."
"I'm telling you, I don't feel anything," Big Tiny said, turning around. "Its just a scratch."
"I'm sorry man," Rick sighed.
"I can keep fighting!" he exclaimed.
"You cut that old guys leg off to save his life," Andrew protested.
"The bite is on his back," CJ shot back. "What do you expect us to do?"
"Guys, I'm fine!" Big Tiny yelled before taking a deep breath to calm down. "I'm fine. Look at me. I'm not changin' into one of those things."
"There's gotta be something we can do?" Oscar asked. "Can't we just lock him up?"
"Quarantine him?" Axel suggested. Daryl and the others came round to join the group at the sound of the commotion.
"We gotta do something! Why are you just standing there?" Andrew argued. "We gotta save him!"
"There's nothing we can do," Rick replied calmly.
"You son of a bitch," Andrew snapped at Rick.
Big Tiny sighed again. "I'm alri-".
He was cut off by Tomas striking him over the head with a crowbar, knocking him to the ground. he sound of the metal colliding with the bone echoed through the hall. Tomas raised the crowbar, almost like he was inspecting it before continuing to beat and butcher Big Tiny on the ground. CJ grimaced at the sight as splatters of blood coated the insane prisoner's face whilst he grunted with every swing of the weapon.
Everyone watched in shock as Tomas finally ended his assault and looked at what he'd done, breathing heavily and covered in blood. It was almost as if he got off on killing Big Tiny, like he was using the bite as an excuse to kill someone. Tomas looked right at Rick with a glare, almost daring him to say something before walking away like nothing happened.
CJ didn't know Big Tiny well enough to be sad, but he did seem like a good person. He definitely didn't deserve what just happened. The rest of the prisoners, lead by T-Dog, began to move off again whilst CJ, Daryl and Rick hung back for moment before following them. The three kept their eyes on Tomas the whole time.
"You see the look on his face?" CJ asked them quietly.
"He makes one move..." Rick warned, matching her tone.
"Just give me the signal," Daryl replied before turning to CJ. "Stay by me, I don't like the looks he was givin' you."
"Yeah, you and me both," she muttered.
They made it to a laundry room and slowing filtered in one by one, scanning the area for walkers. At the other side of the room were a set of double doors leading out into a different hallway. CJ could faintly hear the growls of walkers in the distance. Any noise they made in the room would attract them. Daryl grabbed the set of keys from his belt and tossed them to the ground by Tomas' feet.
Tomas looked down at the keys before looking over to Daryl. "I ain't openin' that."
"Yes you are," Rick shot back. "If you want this cell block. You're gonna open that door, just the one. Not both of them. We need to control this," he explained slowly.
Tomas huffed and bent down to pick up the keys. He hesitated and sent a look to Andrew, which didn't go unnoticed, before taking a few steps towards the doors.
As he turned the key, Andrew slyly moved over to stand on the other side of Tomas, across from Rick. He had a subtle look of smugness in his eyes. Rick watched him for a moment before preparing for Tomas to open the doors.
"You bitches ready?" Tomas asked, turning to face the others briefly. His eyes stayed on CJ for a moment before her turned back to the door.
CJ raised both her knives in her fists and crouched slightly, ready to fight the uncertain amount of walkers they were about to take out. She had noticed the way Tomas looked at her, but there wasn't much she could do about it right now.
Tomas tugged on the door handles a couple of times before eventually opening both, allowing all the dead from the halls to spill in at the same time.
"I said one door!" Rick yelled as everyone took a few steps back.
"Shit happens!" Tomas shot back before taking out one of the walkers.
The room was full of growl, grunts and yells as the group fought against the endless sea of walkers. CJ took out any that got close enough to her with relative ease. Driving her knives though their temples and letting the bodies drop to the floor. As she put down another, she saw Tomas swing his crowbar around to Rick, who luckily was able to duck down to avoid getting hit.
She stabbed another walker in its head, but had no time to pull her knife back out before Tomas grabbed a walker, stabbed it in the back and practically threw it at her. She managed to push against it's shoulders, her second knife slipped from her hand as she did so. She stumbled backwards until it had her pinned to the ground, almost knocking wind out of her. The walker growled in her face and she grunted, trying to push it off of her.
"T, mind the gap!" Daryl shouted as he went around T-Dog to reach CJ. He put his knife through the top of the walker's head and it dropped to the ground. He held his hand out and grabbed her arm lifting her up from the ground. "You good?"
"I'm fine," she replied with a small cough. Breathing heavily, she went to grab her knives and Daryl stayed close to her as they took out the rest of the dead.
When the room was finally clear, Rick was staring at Tomas with nothing but anger in his eyes. CJ lent over and rested her hands on her knees, still trying to catch her breath. Daryl gently patted her back a couple of times when she coughed.
"You alright?" Rick asked her, taking his eyes off of Tomas for a moment.
"Yeah," she sighed, standing up straight again.
Rick turned back to Tomas and stared in silence.
"It was comin' at me bro," Tomas shrugged.
"Yeah, I get it. I get it," Rick replied, almost whispering. "Shit happens."
There was a long pause. The sheriff and the prisoner not moving or saying a word. That's when Rick swung his machete at Tomas and cut into the top of his head. His body fell to it's knees and Rick kicked him away. Andrew let out a yell and went to swing his baseball bat at Rick, but Rick kicked him hard in the stomach and he fell to the ground in shock.
"Easy now," Daryl warned the other prisoners as he raised his crossbow at them. T-Dog and CJ both unholstered their guns.
Andrew quickly got to his feet and made a run for it, darting out of the room without looking back. "I got him," Rick announced before following him.
"Hey, get down on your knees," Daryl ordered.
Oscar and Axel, the last two prisoners, slowly knelt down with their hands in the air in surrender. CJ stood besides Daryl as they pointed their weapons at Oscar's head, whilst T-Dog stood behind Axel.
"We don't have no affiliation with what just happened," Axel defended. "Tell them, Oscar!" he yelled, clearly panicking.
"Stop talking man," Oscar sighed.
CJ kept her gun raised as Rick came back into the room without Andrew. Without saying anything, Rick pointed his gun at Oscar.
"We had nothin' to do with that," Oscar said calmly.
"You didn't know? You knew," Rick shot back angrily. "Daryl, lets end this now!" he yelled, turning to point his gun at Axel. Daryl rushed over to Oscar and held a knife to his throat. CJ slightly lowered her gun and took a step back.
"Sir please! Please listen to me!" Axel cried. "It was them that was bad, it wasn't us."
"Oh , that's convenient," Rick replied.
"You saw what he did to Tiny! He was my friend," Axel went on. "Please, we ain't like that. I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer. Oscar, he's a B and E and he ain't very good at it neither. We ain't the violet guys, they were! Please, I swear to God! I wanna live!" he begged.
Rick stared at him for a moment before quickly turning back to Oscar. "What about you?" he asked quietly.
"I ain't never pleaded for my life. Ain't about to start now," Oscar replied. "So you do what you gotta do."
"Rick, they've seen what happens if they try anything," CJ started and Rick turned to look at her, his gun still trained on Oscar. "It's your call. But we need to get back."
Rick hesitated for a moment, as though he was having a debate with himself. After a few seconds he holstered his gun and gestured for everyone to get up and follow him out of the laundry room. The group followed him into the now clear cell block. The bodies of prisoners were laid at the doors of every cell. They all had bullet wounds in their heads and pools of dried blood were scattered on the ground around them.
"Oh man. I knew these guys," Axel grimaced. "They were good men."
"Let's go," Rick said to the others.
"So, you're just gonna leave us in here?" Oscar asked. "Man, this is sick."
"We're locking down this cell block," Rick replied. "From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it, that was the deal," he added, turning away.
"You think this is sick?" Daryl asked, taking a step forwards. "You don't wanna know what's outside."
"Consider yourselves the lucky ones," Rick added before walking out.
"Sorry. About your friends," CJ said sympathetically before following Rick, Daryl following closely behind her.
"Word of advice," T-Dog began, causing Oscar and Axel to look over at him through that bars of the door. "Take those bodies outside and burn 'em." With that, T-Dog left to join the others and the two prisoners were left in the cell block.