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THE LEADER gestured for all of them to follow behind him, opening the door and creeping out, a quiet squeak echoing around them.
rosaline gripped her kukri tightly, almost so much that her knuckles were starting to turn white. although, she had to keep calm so that they could all find glenn and maggie. getting chased in a maze in a prison wasn't ideal.
the group started to scan over almost every corner, unsure if the two had left their hiding place in attempts to find them. the walkers were scattering everywhere and it was hard to choose where to go without being chased after.
hershel started to call out for them hastily, "maggie? glenn?"
everyone followed after him, hoping that the two would show up soon.
"ahhh!"
screaming alarmed all of them, it sounded like hershel.
fear coursed through rosaline's veins, sending a chilling sensation down her back. the group raced to where hershel was, a walker ripping into the flesh of his bottom foot.
rick put it down with a shot. it would have told the other walkers exactly where they were. they had to work fast.
the older man wailed in pain on the ground. the noise had also led the lost couple right back to the group.
"no!" maggie cried out.
"maggie!" rick yelped out.
the moans of walkers were getting closer. rosaline felt like screaming, they were going to be stuck.
"daryl!" the former sheriff yelled out.
the marksman sacrificed an arrow to put the first walker down to buy them some time.
"glenn!"
"we're blocked, get back! get back!" the korean screamed, stumbling backward to a clear space down the tombs.
a large door was in the hallway. it was their only way out of that situation. under rick's command, daryl smashed the lock, letting the group in. the whole room was clear.
"shut the door!" rick demanded, laying hershel on the floor with glenn.
rosaline raced to help the old man on the floor, trying to find anything to use to ease the pain. there was only one thing to do to stop the infection from spreading further into his body.
they'd have to cut hershel's leg off.
rick scrambled to take his belt off to cut off the circulation to herhsel's leg in order to stop the blood from circulating. it would help him not bleed out. he tied it tightly around the area, cauterizing it.
maggie held her father close, the palm of her hands placed on his cheeks, trying to comfort him as rick made a life or death decision.
"only one way to keep you alive." rick declared to him, taking the hatchet off the floor, beginning to lacerate his lower leg.
from the side, rosaline grimaced, looking the other way for a moment as blood splattered everywhere. if she wasn't so afraid, she'd be feeling sick watching the sight.
the leader dropped the hatchet to the floor with a clank, his hands bloody, "he's bleeding out." he announced.
daryl's head rotated to the side. five figures had risen above a counter to look at them from the grating. the marksman pushed rosaline to the floor, whispering 'duck' to the whole group before rising and pointing his crossbow at them.
when the girl dared to look up, it looked like the five figures were prisoners. they were dressed in prisoner clothing and seemed like they hadn't been out of that space in a long time.
"holy shit." one of them tumbled out, eyes widening at the scene before him.
daryl slowly stepped towards them, crossbow following their every move, "who the hell are you?" he snapped.
"who the hell are you?" one of them repeated.
rick seemed to have no time for the situation at hand, "he's bleeding out. we gotta go back."
rosa looked at him, "there's no way we can make our way back through that."
"come around here, put pressure on the knee. hard and push!" he demanded. since rick used to be a sheriff, he knew a thing or two about serious wounds. this was one part of it.
the girl followed his instructions, trying to use all her strength to keep the wound pressurized. glenn and maggie joined her shortly.
meanwhile, daryl was dealing with the strangers, "why don't you come out of there? slow and steady..."
the prisoners followed his instructions, but they seemed more interested in what was going on with hershel, "what happened to him?" one of them asked.
he had long hair, some growth in his face. a white tank top and long blue overalls that he was wearing at the waist. a typical outfit for a felon.
"he got bit." daryl barked back.
"bit?" he'd replied with confusion.
t-dog also took out his pistol aiming it at them in order to back up daryl.
"whoa, whoa, whoa. easy now." he soothed trying to get them to back up, "nobody needs to get hurt."
from the floor rick was still giving out instructions, "i need you to hold this," he requested maggie.
she dipped her head, hands shaking, "okay."
"as hard as you can."
"i'll help." rosaline offered, placing her hands on top of maggie's and pressing down. it was vital for them to keep hershel alive.
"yes." maggie said, her voice wavering.
glenn rushed toward, "you have medical supplies?"
"whoa! where do you think you're going?" one of the prisoners asked, scowling at the asian as he pushed past them.
the banging of walkers on the door grew significantly louder along with their hungry snarls. t-dog had found something put between the handles so it wouldn't open.
"who the hell are you people, anyway?" the prisoner that first spoke queried, slightly annoyed.
"don't look like no rescue team." the ginger one pointed out.
rick finally stood up, finding their presence aggravating, "if a rescue team is what you're waiting for, don't." glenn tipped a table over, rolling it to a passed out hershel on the floor, who was lifted on the top, "come on, we gotta go! now! come i need a hand here."
glenn ran over lifting the older man with their leader. the prisoners couldn't believe what was going on as rick counted down.
"holy jesus..." one of them muttered.
"rosaline, the door." rick demanded.
"are you crazy?! don't open that!" a prisoner shouted.
"we got this!" t-dog cried out, rushing to the girl to help her.
rosaline threw the pole out from the handle, the dead pushing themselves through. the girl raised her knife above her head, bringing it down on a walker while t-dog did the same with an armored one.
"daryl! daryl!" rick called to the redneck getting him to back out of the room. they needed to get hershel to their cell block.
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swiftly, the group pushed through trying as fast as they could to get themselves back through the tombs and to their safe spot in order to work on helping the elderly man. if they didn't do something quickly, he'd die from blood loss.
"he's losing too much blood." maggie informed, unable to do something herself. she couldn't possibly lose her father.
rick's face had changed red with color as he cried out, "open the door! it's herhsel! carl! come on."
rosaline knew the prisoners were following them through the tombs, potentially they were making themselves walker bait. however, they had a big problem on their hands.
"oh my god!" carol gasped.
"daddy!" beth squalled, dropping beside the metal table he was being rolled in on.
"go, go, go, go, go, in there!" rick directed.
the bed was rolled into a cell and rosaline turned to daryl. he looked at her, then gently grabbed her shoulders, lifting up her braid to look at her neck. he checked over her arms, legs.
she swiveled around to face him, "nothing got me." she reassured. in the cell, everyone gathered around doing everything possible to help the bleeding man, rosaline would join them but beth and maggie were enough along with rick, "those prisoners. it looked like they were following us."
"ya i know, get your bow." he conducted, "we have to be ready. don't go near them, if they jump i got it."
she sprinted up the steps and into her cell. rhaegar was laying down on her bed, her bow leaning against the wall at the end. she patted her knee and he followed after rosaline post-haste as she loaded her bow. he knew he had a job to do by the commotion going on.
the girl took her stance next to daryl, both of them keeping their sights on the door where the prisoners could come out from. they couldn't allow them to go near their cell block.
she looked down to her dog, "guard."
footsteps approached, revealing all of the strangers they'd seen. daryl warned them first, "that's far enough,"
"cell block c," one of them announced, "cell four. that's mine, gringo. let me in."
rosa scoffed, "not anymore, stop there."
the man with long her scanned her body up and down hungrily, raising a brow, "ah what have we got here? pretty lolita."
she could feel daryl shift uncomfortably at the names he was calling her, his finger itching on the crossbow trigger so it could drive the bolt right through his puny head, "today's your lucky day, fellas. you've been pardoned by the state of georgia. you're free to go."
"what you got going on in there?" the dark-skinned prisoner questioned.
daryl beat her to answering again, "it ain't none of your concern."
"don't be telling me what's my concern." the other one shook his head, taking a step forward threateningly.
the german shepherd beside them growled menacingly, knowing what people with malicious intent sounded and looked like. rhaegar hadn't seen one of these for the first time.
the ginger one turned his head at the dog, "cop dog. he yours?" he nodded to rosaline.
she nodded, tensing her bow more protectively against them, "yeah, and he's got a pretty strong bite on him."
the prisoners seemed to be quite wary of the dog. german shepherds were often working dogs in the police force and prisons, so remembering their force of a bite on a person was probably not foreign to them.
"chill man. dude's leg is messed up." the largest one of them tried to calm down his friend, "besides, we're free now. why are we still in here?"
"the man's got a point." daryl praised his eagerness to get out.
"yeah, and i gotta check on my old lady."
huh? what is he talking about? rosaline thought to herself, extremely confused at his lack of awareness of the present world around them, hasn't he heard the news about the pandemic over a year ago. they'd been locked in here, living off of something right?
"a group of civilians breaking into a prison you got no business being in... got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go." the most snarky one of them replied, shrugging his shoulder. he was still right. both daryl and rosaline knew that.
daryl didn't want them to stick around any longer, "why don't you go find out?" he rasped.
"maybe we'll just be going now." the ginger one announced, unsure.
his friend completely disagreed, "hey we ain't leaving."
"doesn't look like you have a pass in here either." rosaline countered. at her side, t-dog had joined them at the standoff, pointing a gun once again.
the prisoner laughed patronizingly lifting his own gun, "and you little lady, think you can tell me what to do?"
she rolled her eyes, "you'd be surprised. you want my dog to rip your hand off? no? best keep your mouth shut."
that angered him, yet when rhaegar snapped his teeth at him, he didn't dare wander further, clearly not planning on injuring himself.
"hey, this is my house, my rules. i go where i damn well please." the man retaliated.
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bless hershel, for something like that to happen to him at this time. the survivors are taking an interesting approach towards rosaline and her four-legged friend. hopefully, they won't underestimate her.
don't forget to vote and comment, it provides for what for the story!
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