My eyes fluttered open the next day, much like they had the day before, but less peaceful. I took in a deep breath and rolled on to my back, rubbing my eyes as they adjusted.
"You didn't sleep well." Daryl stated, still lying next to me.
"No. I didn't wake you at all did I?"
"No, I barely slept." He informed, saying he had his own sleeping issues. He went to move out of bed, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back lightly that he complied to.
"Not yet." I whispered.
He looked over his shoulder at me and stared for a moment before leaning down and hovering an inch above my lips for a second before I closed the distance. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down a little further as he readjusted his position. His hand had only just slipped under my shirt and rested on my side when a gunfire echoed throughout the prison, pulling us apart.
Daryl leapt to his feet and quickly grabbed a shirt as I got to mine and ripped on some jeans over my bike pants. He grabbed his crossbow and gun while I grabbed mine and the machete.
We came running down the stairs, meeting up with Sasha and Tyreese at the bottom.
"There's nothing here." Sasha informed.
"D block." Tyreese stated.
"Dad stay on watch!" I yelled over my shoulder to my father who came out of his cell before we took off outside.
"Lock the gates!" Daryl added.
"Walkers in D!" We heard Glenn yell as we came running down the stairs and out into the courtyard.
"What about C?" Rick yelled back worried about Judith as he came running through the gate after he'd been down with his crops and pigs.
"Clear!" Sasha quickly informed. "We locked the gates to the tombs. Hershel's on guard."
"It ain't a breach." Daryl added.
We kept running until we came to D block. A guy stood with a shot gun, firing at a walker, but he wasn't the most skilled shot. His stance and the way he stumbled back upon firing a clear indicator. Daryl snatched the gun from his hands and moved into the cell, handing the gun over to Rick who didn't have a weapon. I ran behind Daryl as Rick stayed at the entrance ushering people out, asking if they were bit as they ran past him in a panic.
There weren't many walkers in the cellblock, but most people in D were the leftovers from Woodbury, the ones who couldn't fight.
"Get up!" Daryl yelled at a young boy named Luke who had fallen over on the ground, right in front of a walker that tried to crawl it's way over to him. Daryl ran to the boy and lifted him up and away as I drove my machete through the back of its head. "Take him out." Daryl instructed, handing me Luke and not really leaving room for argument so I ran back to the door with the boy and took him outside.
Everyone was in a panic outside, but there were no walkers, it was safe out here. I put Luke down and went to go back, but the boy grabbed my hand.
"I have to go back." I said. He looked like he was in shock, words not able to form as he simply just shook his head. "Go to C block." I then told him. "You know my father, Hershel?" He nodded. "He's on guard there, tell him I said it was okay to let you in. It's clear in there, okay?" He nodded again. "Alright, go." I lightly pushed him along a bit before he took off to C block, everyone else remaining outside in the courtyard before I left to go back to D.
"Are we clear down here?" Rick yelled out as I skidded through the door.
"Yeah." Sasha yelled back.
A small group of people had locked themselves in one of the cells and they just now started to exit, beginning to make there way to the door, around the few dead walkers and humans that lay at their feet. Karen stayed with Tyreese, curled into his chest.
Daryl started to make his way up to the second level where Glenn already was. Rick and I followed right after, our steps kicking into a run when we heard a struggle followed by Daryl yelling "Down!" We just reached the top as Glenn slid to the ground against a wall where he'd been pinned by a walker and Daryl shot it through the head with an arrow.
"Thanks." Glenn said as Daryl helped him to his feet.
Rick moved over to the walker and looked down on the young body. It took a second but I soon recognised him just as Daryl spoke.
"Oh, it's Patrick." He had blood running down his face, probably from where he'd taken a bite from someone. There was a long moment of silence before Daryl spoke again. "That's all of them." He informed, looking about the cellblock.
"We need to go around, make sure none of the dead come back." I stated. Daryl nodded before he leant forward and pulled his arrow out of Patrick's head.
Rick didn't seem to move for a while. I also noticed he'd given the gun Daryl had handed him to someone else. He never carried anymore, not since the Governor, not since Carl killed that kid in the woods. The only thing he ever really had on him was a pocket knife. He kept busy with farming, he kept Carl busy with farming, never even contributing to the walker build ups on the fences. It was a good thing really, sometimes at any rate. Today it was just dangerous.
Eventually he did though, pulling out his pocket knife and moving to a dead body of one of the walker victims.
People soon came back into the cell block, looking over the bodies and their fallen friends, sobbing and covering them up with sheets before dragging them out to be buried. Only one person that had been bitten was still alive. I didn't know his name, but I knew his daughters; Lizzie and Mica. They were friends of Carls. He'd been bitten on his arm and the back of his neck, he'd die soon enough.
Carol sat with him, making promises to look after his daughters before going to get the girls to say goodbye. That was when I made my way back to the top level, not wanting to witness or accidently over hear any goodbyes.
I caught up with Rick and Daryl again just as they stopped by a closed cell, the sound of a walker coming from the inside. Rick waited till it made it's way up to the bars and stabbed it in the head. The body hit the ground and Rick opened the cage doors.
I assumed he must have been bit and locked himself up, but Rick soon silenced that thought.
"No bite marks." He said.
My eyes narrowed slightly before stepping closer. He had blood running down his face, much like Patrick had.
"Someone get Hershel!" Rick yelled over the railing down to the people bellow.
I crouched down beside the body to have a closer look over it, but found nothing. The blood came from the man's eyes, ear, nose and mouth, his own blood. I also realised to was similar to the blood that covered Patrick and that the boy most have died the same way. My dad soon arrived and with him was Caleb or Dr S and Bob.
"No bites. No wounds." Rick explained for them as Dr S took my place crouching down and I stood back up between my dad and Daryl. "I think he just died."
"Horribly, too." Dr S informed. "Pleurisy aspiration."
"Choked to death on his own blood." I translated.
"Caused those trails down his face." Dad added.
"I've seen them before." Rick said. "On a walker outside the fences."
"They're on Patrick, too." Daryl added.
"They're from the internal lung pressure building up," Dr S started, "like if you shake a soda can and pop the top. Only imagine your eye, nose, and throat are the top."
"It's a sickness from the walkers?" Bob asked.
"No, these things happened before they were around." Dr S informed.
"Only we had medicine." I stated as he nodded. "The walkers could be spreading it though. That walker on the fence caught it somewhere else, it killed him, but now he's out there probably with others like a walking contamination."
"Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an aggressive flu strain." Caleb continued.
"Someone locked him in just in time." Dad stated.
"No, man." Daryl shook his head. "Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"
"I had a sick pig, it died quickly." Rick said. "Saw a sick boar in the woods."
"Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past, now with walkers in the mix. We need to do something about those hogs." Dad said to Rick, referring to the piglets. They were most likely contaminated too and we couldn't risk it.
"Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it." Caleb said.
"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time." Bob said. "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."
"All of us in here, we've all been exposed." Dad said.
"Rick, where's Judith?" I asked.
"With Beth."
"She's the most at risk." Dad added. "They should be isolated. You shouldn't go near her until we know you haven't caught it."
"Maggie hasn't been exposed either. She's on guard duty just outside." Glenn said. "We should get her to tell everyone in C block what happened, keep them separate."
"I'll go out and tell her." Rick said, starting to make his way out.
"Rick?" I called. "Luke's in C."
"I sat him down with some breakfast. He wasn't near the others." Dad spoke.
"I'll bring him back out." Rick nodded and then left.
Rick came back with Luke who quickly walked over to Daryl and I. I gave the kid a curiously look, but soon smiled and held out my hand for him to take which he did, stepping closer. He was 8 and had no parents. I wasn't sure how his mother died, but his father was killed by the Governor after the attack when he turned on his own people.
I took Luke away from the groups of people from D and over to a bench where I sat him down.
"Why are we so far away?"
"There's a, um... cold going around." I said. "You don't want to catch it, do you?" He shook his head. "I'm going to need you to do me a favour. I don't want you to talk to anyone for a little while. I want you to keep to yourself and you can't go back into D block."
"I don't want to go back in there." He shook his head and I nodded.
"Okay. It'll just be for a little while. As soon as we know that you're clear, I'll make sure you're moved straight over to C block." I reassured.
"Okay." The boy nodded in agreement just as Daryl made it over to us.
"Council meeting's been called." He informed me.
I gave Luke another smile before leaving with Daryl for the council meeting. The council consisted of my Dad, Glenn, Carol, Sasha, Daryl and I. Maggie also often joined, but not today to keep her away from those of us who had been exposed while she was with the people in C block. Rick also wasn't here for this meeting. He hadn't joined for a while although was still technically on the council. Michonne was also a part of it if she chose to attend, but she was often away hunting the Governor. But she wasn't here now for the same reason Maggie wasn't.
"Patrick was fine yesterday, and he died overnight." Carol was saying. "Two people died that quick? We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed."
"That's everyone in that cell block." Daryl said. "That's all of us. Maybe more."
"We know that this sickness can be lethal." Dad said. "We don't know how easily it spreads. Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?"
"We can't just wait and see. And there's children." Carol said. "It isn't just the illness. If people die they become a threat."
"We need a place for them to go. We can't risk going in there to clean it up."
"We could use cell block A." Carol said.
"Death row?" Glenn questioned, that cell having been used for inmates that had been sentenced with the death penalty. "I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade."
"They're just rooms." I shook my head.
"It's clean." Daryl agreed. "That's an upgrade. Think that'll work for Dr. S?" Daryl asked my dad.
"I'll help Caleb get it set up." Dad nodded.
The sound of a woman coughing stopped out conversation from going any further as we all looked to the door and got up, heading out into the corridor to see Karen and Tyreese.
"You okay?" Tyreese was asking her as she coughed into her hand. She nodded a yes, but Carol quickly spoke up.
"You sure? You don't sound so good."
"We're just taking her back to my cell so she can rest." Tyreese informed.
"Tyreese, I don't think that's a good idea." Dad said.
"Why? What's going on now?" Karen asked.
"We think it's a flu or something." Glenn explained when everyone else remained silent. "That's how Patrick died."
"Judith is in that cell block. She's vulnerable. Anyone that may be sick or even exposed should stay away." Dad stepped forward.
"It killed Patrick?" Karen questioned.
"She's going to be okay." Tyreese stated. "Now that we know what Patrick died from we can treat it, right?"
"Don't panic. We're going to figure this out." Dad said. "But we should keep you separated in the meantime. We'll have Caleb take a look at you. I'll see what we have in the way of medications."
"David from the Decatur group, he's been coughing too." Karen informed.
"I'll get him." Glenn said. "There's some empty clean cells in the tombs, right?" Glenn asked.
"Yeah, we'll meet you there." Sasha said before she stepped over to her brother and started ushering him and his girlfriend away.
"Have to call another meting later." Dad said once they were gone.
"All right." Daryl nodded. "I'll get to burying the dead ones."
"You wear gloves and a mask." Dad said right away.
"Uh-huh." Daryl nodded before he left, leaving Daryl, Carol and I.
"I'll go find you those gloves." I said to Daryl before wandering off to go look.