61 S2E61 - Slow and Steady

As we pull up to the prison, we find it placed in a clearing in the woods, surrounded by about twenty walkers. We pull straight up to the gates and dismount. I grab backpacks from the back of the truck and toss them to people as they come by. Tony grabs the bolt cutters we have stashed, as well as a few metal zip-ties.

After Andrea grabs the last pack, I hop down and notice a few walkers getting a little close to the group, so I take aim. The first one is a bit of a heavyset prison guard who had his guts ripped open. I easily pop open his skull with a round, and then move on to the next one, popping it's skull as well.

As I look back to the group, I find that half of them have gotten inside the interior fence by now; so I start making my way over there. As I get to the cut open fence, Rick holds it open for me. I pass by him with a "thanks" and proceed to repeat the next step of the plan,

"Alright, now we head a little further down to avoid the walkers breaking through that weak part of the fence, then we start making noise."

The group lightly jogs behind me, pulling out their stabbing weapons which mostly consist of pieces of rebar we sharpened at the end. As we get far enough away from the weakened spot, we get to work.

Everyone starts clapping and yelling, getting the attention of walkers across the yard. What follows next is a long ass game of pin the rebar in the zombie skull. We all grow a little sick as the stench of raw brains and blood mix together with the heat from the Georgia sun creating a vile concoction from hell. Our eyes burn, and our hands grow tired from repeating this simple action over, and over, and over again. After clearing about ten walkers and a full two hours, we've finally cleared the inner yard.

I stand there, sweating in the heat, looking down at my gloved hand while clenching and unclenching it. I give everyone a few seconds to catch their breath before saying,

"Alright. I'm gonna go lock off the other section of the yard. I shouldn't need it, but if any walkers somehow get close to me, shoot them, alright?"

The group nods their heads and gets their rifles ready as Tony uses the bolt cutters to cut through the interior fencing. As he finishes, he holds one side open while Rick grabs the other. I squeeze through, briefly getting my shirt caught on the fence and tearing a small hole in it.

"God dammit…"

As I exclaim, I hear a couple of the group chuckle. I chuckle a little as well, and start to sprint for the gate. I see the group of walkers inside the section begin to move towards the opening and double time it, just in case. I reach the open gate and start yanking it closed. As it finally reaches it, I take out some industrial zip ties and tie the center closed just in time for a few walkers to reach the gate.

I wipe some sweat from my brow and back up, looking at the small horde of prisoners pushing against the fence. Soon after, I'm joined by the group. Rick's the first one to speak to me,

"Good timing. A second later and that coulda ended badly."

I shake my head,

"Woulda just meant more work for us. This is the easy part, after all. We still gotta go through the interior of the prison and clear it out."

He nods his head as Shane speaks next,

"That… I'm not looking forward to."

I nod and look down at the ground,

"Yeah… At least we brought armor, so this shouldn't be as dangerous as it coulda been."

Rick chuckles,

"Funny how we call magazines taped to our arms and legs armor now."

Andrea speaks next,

"Well, we'll all be knights in shining celebrity gossip."

Everyone collectively groans at the awful joke, earning a chuckle from Andrea. Daryl rolls his eyes and says,

"Jeez, that was worse than Dale's radiator jokes."

Andrea gasps and says,

"How dare you! Nothing is nearly as bad as those!"

Tony shrugs and says,

"Eh, it was pretty bad…"

As everyone jokes in front of the small horde, Maggie speaks up,

"Uh… I don't mean to be a downer, but shouldn't we make jokes without a crowd?"

We all look back at the group of walkers and nod our heads. I scratch the back of my head and say,

"Well, I'm starting to get hungry. Let's take an hour or two to catch our breath and eat."

The group agrees and we all walk down to the gate, cutting open the chain that was locking the gate shut, and pulling the vehicles in. We leave the suv, which in canon Shane and Andrea do it in, in front of the closed gate, just as double insurance while we're clearing out the prison interior. We set up one of those vertical tarps to get some shade from the sun, and grab a bucket of MRE's. Shane grabs the cooler and sets it under the tarp, while everyone else grabs lawn chairs and the bags of magazines and duct tape. I, myself, have on a pair of shin and wrist guards that I got from that surplus store, as well as a shemagh to give at least a little bit of protection to my neck.

As we all start munching down on some tasty rehydrated goodness, I start to go over the plan with everyone,

"Alright. We're gonna head over to the side of the fence and start drawing the walkers over there. We don't wanna clear them at the gate, that would be stupid. We'll get them the same way we did the others, and before we go in to check out the interior, we'll make a bit more noise to try and draw any stragglers out. After we've cleared the outside, I don't see us having enough energy to continue going, so we'll likely be sleeping outside in the yard tonight. First thing in the morning, we'll do some stretches to help wake us up, and drink some coffee. I want us all to be alert as we move through the interior. We'll each have lamps attached to our belts, and we'll have our guns out with suppressors on. If we come across a group of more than five, we open fire. If we encounter less, we move in for some melee kills. Understood?"

Everyone either nods or agrees in other ways. I'm the first to finish eating, so I decide to go ahead and start dragging the walkers over to the right area. I walk up to the gate and slowly move to the left, pulling them away from the gate and over towards a regular fence area. I feel someone looking at me, and turn back to find Rick coming up behind me. I nod to him, which he returns. He then speaks to me as we walk together,

"Y'know, I was skeptical at first. Back when Shane and I were arguing, that is. I thought for sure that, no offense intended, that a kid couldn't lead us. Course, I still find myself a little skeptical of your plans every now and then, especially when it pertains to strategies, but they always just seem to work out. After we do these plans, I go over what I woulda done in my head and… I never really seem to get everyone out alive. I mean, I had a dream that you never led us. That I took up the leadership position. First off, a lot more people died in the camp attack. Including Amy, Jim, Gerard, Tony, and Kim. Andrea, Dale, and Jacqi died in the CDC, deciding to take the easy way out. Sophia and… Carl… Got bit by walkers after being chased into the woods… Because I didn't have the guts to fight the walkers…"

Rick looks down at the ground with a slight melancholic expression. He then looks up at me and says,

"Lori seems dead set on tryin' to make me the leader of the group, even though I don't want it. She's been telling me that I should've been the one to make decisions, that we shoulda gone with one of my plans, and just other shit as well. I'll admit it, her words were taking an effect on me… Right until after the CDC. When you sacrificed your own safety to make sure Sophia and Carl didn't end up like my nightmares…"

Rick takes a deep breath and sighs,

"Thank you. I realize that I've never said that."

He looks at me with a genuine smile. I smile back and say,

"You woulda done the same if you'd have been there. But, you're welcome."

Right as we reach the area, I hear the others coming up behind us. I turn to face the group and say,

"Alright! Let's get to clearing!"