"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Two: As If the Walkers Weren't Bad Enough

Glenn's POV:

I woke up the next morning and looked around before my eyes landed on Em and I smiled softly at him. I looked out of the watch tower that we had made our living area and back at Em before quietly getting into my backpack and pulled out the camera I took from the Big Spot and slowly crept closer to him and snapped a picture. The noise was enough to startle him awake and he looked up at me and smiled.

I pulled the camera back and laughed as I took the picture out of the camera. "Sorry." I said and smiled at him. He smiled back at me and started to slowly sit up.

"Changing to the guard?" he said and I nodded.

"Yeah." I said and he nodded. "I'll bring you breakfast after perimeter check." I said and leaned down and kissed him. He took the picture from me as we kissed and he pulled back to look at it.

"Oh my God throw that away." he said and I took it from him and looked at it.

"Yeah... Not going to happen." I said and smiled at him then began to move then blankets to get to the door. "It's mine." I said as I started to climb down and he laughed at me. I smiled to myself as I felt him kiss my hand as I closed the door.

'God I love him so much.' I thought as I started to check the perimeter.

Rick's POV:

Carl and I walked to the little farm to start our chores of the day when we ran into Michonne taking Lucky, she really loves Lucky though she doesn't like to admit it, out to prepare to leave.

"You leaving soon?" I asked her and she stopped to look at me and nodded.

"Yeah." she said and I nodded at her.

"Be careful out there." I told her and she smiled at me.

"Always am. Any requests? Like more comics, books, stale M&Ms?" she asked and Carl turned to me smiling.

"You're the one that likes stale M&Ms." he said and I smiled at him and Michonne laughed.

"I'll definitely be looking for some then. I'll try and find something you like too Carl." she said and ruffled his hair as she walked by him. "Why don't you wear your hat anymore?" she asked him and he turned to her.

"It's not a farming hat." he said and both Michonne and I laughed at that. "See you soon?" he asked and she smiled at him and nodded.

"Yeah, pretty soon." she said and he smiled at her. I smiled to myself at their conversation and listened to Carl jogging to catch up to me.

Once he was by me and knelt down and got to work pulling the weeds out while Carl held the buckets.

We worked in silence for a while before Carl broke it. "Dad?" he said and I looked up at him quickly to let him know I was listening and went back to working. "They only were able to clear one cluster yesterday and there's probably not going to be enough people down there today... I was thinking maybe we could help?" he said and I stopped and looked up at him and sighed and went back to work.

"I have plans. I have to work in the farm to make sure everyone gets food." I said and I felt him staring at me.

"Then... Maybe I could help?" he asked and I sighed and stood up holding one of the buckets and looked at him.

"WE have plans. That's what I should've said." I told him and he lowered his head to the ground and followed me silently to the pig pin.

"Dad." he said again and I looked up at him as I emptied the bucket into the feeding hole. "I'm sorry, I've been trying." he said and I gave him a confused look and nodded at him and took the bucket he was holding and repeated my previous actions as I spoke.

"I know you have and I'm very proud of you, as is your father and everyone else." I told him and he offered a small smile before it disappeared.

"Dad, when can I have my gun back?" he asked and I looked at him and smiled at him and looked down.

"Worms will give them extra protein." I told him changing the subject. He was about to answer when shots suddenly came from the prison. "Stay close." I told him and we ran to the prison.

"Help! Please help!" two little girls yelled and Carol ran to them.

"Cell blocks?!" Em yelled and I looked at him and shook my head.

"I don't know!" I yelled back and looked at Carl. "Get in the tower with Em and don't argue!" I yelled and he nodded and locked the pig pin and ran for Em and I ran to the prison.

"Rick the fuck's going on?!" Bri yelled and I shook my head.

"I don't know." I said and we ran to the prison together.

"Walkers in D!" Glenn yelled and my heart stopped.

"What about C?!" I yelled and Sasha came out then right from C.

"It's clear." she said and I let a little sigh of relief out and we all ran to block D. "We locked it so no one can get in or out right now." she said and I nodded and Daryl ran up to me.

"It ain't a breach!" he said and I looked at him. "Hershel and T are on Guard for C." he said and I just nodded at him.

"Stay close to me." I told him and he nodded and we continued to D.

Justin's POV:

"What's going on Justin?!" some lady asked me and I shook my head.

"I don't know. Right now I need you to get as many people, especially children, out here as you can." I told her and she nodded and ran to a group of kids huddled together and led them out. I turned and let myself go faster and began to punch at walkers and rip their heads open with my knives I now carried mainly. I was doing a good job when I turned and sighed in relief when I saw Bri and the others come in then.

We got to work helping people out and killing walkers when someone yelled.

"Help!" I turned and felt my heart drop when I saw a walker going for Kristy and Austin who were trapped by a wall and couldn't move.

Forgetting that I had two big knives that I could've thrown at it I ran and made it just before the walker got to them. I moved to stand in front of them and felt the walker bite into my shoulder. I screamed for a second before I bit the rest back and pushed a knife into its skull and it let go as it fell. I held my shoulder as I panted hard and turned Kristy and Austin, who were white with fear at this point, and smiled at them reassuringly.

"Go to Rick and the others now. They'll help get you out." I said but they both shook their heads.

"Y-you're hurt Justin! We can't leave you!" Austin yelled and I smiled at him and placed a hand on both their shoulders while ignoring the pain in my right one.

"Go, you both know I can survive this. I can survive anything remember." I said and they both giggled and nodded before hugging me and running to Rick. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for the pain about to get in my arm and quickly stood and cut the head of the walker that had tried to sneak up on me.

Brian's POV:

"How is this even happening?!" Daryl yelled and I just shook my head and kept shooting at walkers and helping people out of the cell block. I heard someone yell for help and I turned just in time to see Justin throw himself in front of Kristy and Austin and get bit on his right shoulder. He screamed for a second before stopping them and stabbing the walker in the head making it let him go and fall to the floor. He and talked to the kids for a second before they hugged him and ran for us and he got up and kept fighting.

And the whole time I was fighting to get to him.

"Get to Daryl ok." I told them as they came to me. They nodded and ran for Daryl who pushed them both behind him and made a point to have them on the wall so no walkers snuck up behind him and Rick came to help him.

I turned back and ran the rest of the way to Justin and placed a hand on his cheek. "You ok Sunshine?" I asked and he smiled and nodded but I could tell he was in pain. He was pale, sweaty and panting hard.

"I'll be fine. It's just where I got bit is all." he said and I gave him the 'I don't believe you but we'll talk later' look. He smiled at me before killing a walker that had come up behind me and we stood back to back killing walkers. When everyone was gone and it looked like the walkers were all dead everyone stopped and looked around.

"Are we clear? Are we safe?" Rick asked and we all looked around.

"Yeah we're clear." Sasha said and Rick looked up.

"What about up there?" he asked and Daryl, Glenn and I ran up the steps to look while Rick ran up to Justin to look at his bite.

"Get to Carol now so she can clean that and stitch you up ok. And no runs or perimeter checks for at least a week." he said and I smirked when I heard Justin groan in annoyance but left to find Carol anyways. I heard a growl behind me and Daryl and I turned just in time to see Glenn get pushed to the wall by a walker we both shot without thinking and the walker fell with a bullet and arrow in his head and Daryl ran over and helped him up and patted his shoulders.

"Were you bit?" I asked and sighed in relief when he said no. The three of us walked into the cell it fell into and we all felt our hearts drop when we saw that it was Patrick.

"Poor kid." Daryl said and I nodded and looked up when Rick came into the room.

Rick sighed sadly at the scene and pulled Daryl into him who happily came closer and we bowed our heads for Patrick. After a few seconds Daryl looked around and sighed.

"That's all of them. We might to make sure the ones that didn't make it don't turn." he said and we all nodded and went to work as the others came in to help. Em ran straight for Glenn and the held each other then Em started looking Glenn over for scratches or bites. When he was satisfied he sighed and pulled Glenn to him and went about helping with the fallen.

Justin came back in shortly after that looking sad. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him. "What's wrong?" I asked and he shook his head and looked up at me.

"I had to help Carol make sure a guy wouldn't turn in front of his daughters." he said and I pulled him tightly to me.

"I'm so sorry." I said and he nodded and pulled back and gave me a small smile. I smiled back and pulled his shirt down over his right shoulder gently to look at it. Luckily Carol got it cleaned and stitched up quickly but it was obvious Justin would be in pain for a while.

"So Rick more or less grounded you from the fun jobs." I said and smirking and laughed when Justin groaned.

"I swear that man likes to act like he's my father." he said and I smiled at him.

"Well you know he looks at you like a son." I said and he smiled brightly at me and nodded.

"He's a better dad then mine." he said and I laughed and nodded.

"That's the truth Sunshine." I said and let him go so we could go back to helping the others.

Rick's POV:

Daryl and I walked up to Charlie's cell and he came over to the door trying to bite me. I pulled him closer and stabbed his head and let him fall.

"No bites or scratches. I think he just died." I said kneel by Charlie as everyone came into the room.

"Looks like he choked on his own blood. What a horrible way to go." Hershel said and I gently stroked Daryl's inner leg as he stood by me while I was lost in thought.

"I saw this one a walker just outside the fences." I said and Daryl spoke up next.

"They were on Patrick as well." he said and everyone looked at us.

"This could be the case of the flu to the extreme." Doc. S said and we all stared at him.

"How's it spreading though. Maybe they were the only ones." Glenn said hopefully and Hershel shook his head.

"When is this group ever lucky?" he asked and everyone nodded at that.

"I had a sick pig that died quick. I found a sick hog in the woods." I said and looked up at everyone.

"Birds and pigs is how this used to spread quickly back then." Hershel said and looked at me. "We have to do something about those pigs." he said and I sighed but nodded anyways.

"Everyone in here as been exposed." he said and we all looked at each other then.

"I-I have to find Carl and let him know." I said and stood up and stopped when I felt Daryl's hand on my arm.

"I'll come with you. I need to see him too." he said and I nodded and wrapped an arm around his waist and led him outside.

We found him and Maggie helping a limping Michonne to the prison. Once Carl saw us he ran straight to us before we could warn him to stay away.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't see you guys come out." he said fighting back sobs. I held him close then.

"It's ok. I'm here, Daryl's here. Everything's ok." I said and he let go and ran to Daryl and hugged him tightly then backed up to look at us both.

"I had to use one of the guns at the fence but I swear I didn't want to." he said and I looked at the girls to explain.

"I came back to help and I fell. They helped me." Michonne said and I nodded at her.

"You ok?" I asked and she nodded and I sighed.

"What happened?" Maggie asked and I looked at her then at Carl then back at her.

"Patrick got sick last night with some flu that move quick. We think he died and attacked the cell block." I told her and watched as all their eyes widened. I looked back at Carl and knelt to look at his face. "I know he was your friend and I'm sorry. He was a good kid." I said and he hugged him tightly. I hugged him back quickly before gently pushing him from me.

"It'd be best to stay away from the people that were exposed, at least for now." I said and looked back at Carl. "Justin and the others are ok. Justin did get bit on his shoulder but he was the only one. We lost a lot of good people today though." I said and I watched as relief and sadness came into his eyes. Relief for Justin and the others were ok and sadness for those we lost.

"You stay with them ok. I'm going to get the counsel together to figure out what we're going to do." I said and Carl nodded and ran back to the girls and helped get Michonne inside.

I turned to Daryl and kissed him quickly before we turned to get the others.

Glenn's POV:

"Patrick was fine last night, and now he's died. Two people just died over night that quickly?' Carol asked looking at all of us. "We'll have to separate everyone that was in there from those that weren't" she said and Daryl spoke up.

"That's everyone in that cell. That's all of us, maybe more. Do you really think having their leaders separated from them because they were all exposed will keep this place calm?" he asked her and she looked at him.

"We know this can be lethal. What we don't know is how it spreads. Is anyone showing symptoms that we know of?" Hershel asked and I spoke up then.

"It's not just that Hersh. There's children and anyone who dies is a threat." I said and he looked at me.

"We could move them to cell A." Carol said and Daryl spoke.

"Death row? Not the best upgrade." he said and I looked at him.

"It's clean. That's upgrade enough. Think it'll be ok for Doc. S?" I asked.

Just then we heard coughing and everyone got up to see who it was.

When we got to the door we saw that it was Karen coughing and Tyresse was leading her back to the other cell block.

"You ok?" Carol asked and they turned around.

"Yeah she's ok. I'm just taking her back to my cell so she can rest is all." Tyresse said smiling at us and rubbing her back gently.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Daryl said and they both got confused.

"The thing that killed Patrick was a time of flu or something like it. It moves fast and Gus is in there and he's vulnerable. For now we need to keep people that might have it separate from the others." Hershel said and they looked at each other then at us.

"David was coughing earlier today." Karen said and I nodded.

"I'll go get him. Take her and everyone else showing symptoms to cell A and make sure it's clean." I said and they nodded.

Daryl's POV:

I watched Glenn run away from us and turned to watch Tyresse lead Karen to cell A and Sasha and the others went to get the sick. I looked at Carol and sighed.

"Do you think this'll work?" she asked and I shrugged.

"Don't know. It has to though, these people don't need more to be scared of." I said and she nodded.

"You're right. Are you ok?" she asked and I nodded.

"Gotta be." I said and walked away from her and looked at Hershel. "I'll start burying the dead ones." I said and adjusted my crossbow.

"You wear and mask and gloves." he said and I nodded and walked away from them.

As I was digging and saw Rick walking up to me out of the corner of my eye and I stopped digging to look at him. "I'm glad you were in there." I told him and he sighed.

"I wasn't much use without my gun." he said and I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"No, you were. You earned the break you got. We wouldn't be here without you." I told him and he smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"It was all of us." he said and I smiled and pecked him on the lips.

"It was you first." I said and he smirked at me.

"Rick! Daryl!" Em yelled and we turned to see him waving for us and pointing at the fences. I turned and felt my heart hit my stomach.

"Oh shit!" Rick breathed out and we took off for the fence.

Justin's POV:

"We need to find away to get rid of them so we can fix the damn fence!" Brian yelled as we tried to hold the fence up while killing walkers at the same time. I nodded at him and stabbed at a walker and tried to ignore the pain in my shoulder.

Just then Rick and Daryl showed up, along with T, Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, and Em, and started to kill walkers with us. We all just started to take walkers out but it was more than obvious we were losing and quickly at that.

"The fuck are we going to do?!" Brian yelled and stabbed at the walkers. I looked at him then at the walkers and smiled back at the others.

"I got a plan." I said and Rick smiled at me.

"So do I. I'll get the pigs. I hate too, but if they're really spreading this bug or whatever it is then they have to go. So do these fuckers." he said and I nodded at him sadly, knowing he grew rather fond of the pigs and knew they were a big source of our food.

"Alright. I'll go out there and start taking them out by hand. I'm the only one able to with my superpowers and all." I said smirking and Rick shook his head in amusement and ran for the pig pin and I ran for the gates with Brian following me. When we got to the gate he stopped me and gave me a kiss and pulled back.

"You stay safe." he said and I smiled and nodded and ran threw the gate when he opened it just enough for me to get threw. Once I knew the gate was closed I let my powers come to the surface and I ran at the walkers killing them all with my knives.

I was doing good at first, but it was obvious I was getting out numbered and I could hear the others begging me to get out of their, Brian's voice the loudest. I heard a truck coming my way and felt relief knowing Rick was coming. I killed the walker in front of me and turned to see Rick had just thrown a pig on the ground and he held his hand out to me.

"Get on here now Sunshine!" he yelled and I nodded and took his hand and Daryl floored just as the walkers attacked the pig. We stopped at three different times to drop a pig before every walker was away from that part of the fences and the others began to place logs to keep it up. I looked over and saw that Rick was silently crying and I hugged him tightly.

"Thank you." was all I said knowing he'd know what I meant. I felt him nodded and I pulled back and he smiled at me.

"Let's get back to the others and see if they're ok." he said and I nodded and we turned to watch the truck get closer to the prison gates.

When we got there Rick and I jumped off and Brian pulled me close to him and Rick pulled Daryl to him. Sasha came over to us looking pissed off and held up half of a rat. "Someone's been feeding these things!" she said and we all stared at the half rat in shock.

"Why?" I asked and she shook her head.

"I don't know but we need to find out and soon." she said and we all walked back to the prison.

Rick's POV:

I was silently taking apart the pig pin, trying not to think of what I just did to them, when Carl walked up to me. "Not this time." I told him when I saw him go to help me. He stopped and stared at me.

"Think the pigs made them sick?" he asked and I shrugged.

"Or we made the pigs sick." I said and he nodded.

"Hey dad." he said and I looked at him. "Carol's been teaching the kids... How to use weapons. How to kill" he said and I stopped working and looked at him. "Their parents don't know and she doesn't want you to know. I think you should let her. I know you're going to say it's not up to you, but it can be." he said and I looked at him for a second before I started to drench the wood with gas.

"Dad?" he said and I looked at him and smiled at him.

"Thank you for telling me." I said as I walked past him.

"Yeah." was all he said. I placed the gas down and walked back to him while searching my pockets for matches.

"I won't stop her." I told him and he looked at me in shock. "I won't say anything." I said and walked up to the wood and set it on fire. We stared at the fire for a few seconds before I looked at Carl then walked over to my tool box and knelt in front of it and opened it. "Carl." I said and he looked at me and walked over.

I stood up when he got to me with a piece of cloth in my hands and un wrapped it to reveal his gun. I stared at him as I handed it to him and saw doubt in his eyes. When he realized I wasn't going to pull it back he reached for it and took it from me. Once he had his gun I knelt back down rubbing my eyes and pulled my belt with my guns on it and stood back up to put it on.

Once I had it on I gently ran my hands threw Carl's hair and walked back to the fire and watched it as Carl slowly walked back to the prison.

I stared at the fire before looking down at my shirt and slowly took it off. I stared at it for a few seconds before throwing it into the fire then looked over when I heard growling and saw more walkers showing up.

I looked around at the other walkers that had been there then back at the fire then at the ground and sighed. I turned when I felt someone behind me and saw Daryl just standing there watching me. I gave him a small smile and held my hand out for him to take which he did without hesitating and I pulled him close to my side.

"Nothing's going to be the same anymore, is it?" he asked and I sighed and just kept staring at the fire as I tightened my hold on him.

"No, no it's not."