Sanctuary

We were stopped in the middle of the road, again, we needed to have a plan on where we wanted to head next. I felt drained, my need for sleep was beginning to overpower all my other senses, which wasn't good. I stared down at our map that Maggie had sprawled over the hood of the SUV, the image of it wasn't making sense to me, it was just a blank stare as they spoke.

"We've got no place left to go," T-Dog said, looking down at all the areas we had circled, indicating where a large herd of walkers sat.

"When this herd meets up with this one we'll be cut off, we'll never make it South," Maggie analyzed it.

"What'd you say? It's about one hundred and fifty heads," Daryl now walked around the car to take a look at the map.

"That was last week, could be twice that by now," Glenn answered.

"This river could have delayed them," Herschel pointed to a location, "if we move fast we might have a shot to tear right through them."

We had tried desperately all winter to avoid these herds, running into them once and marking down their location, but we were now running out of places to go.

"Yeah but if this group meets up with that one they could spill out this way," T-Dog pointed to the herds on the other side, making Herschel's plan unlikely.

"So we're blocked?" I asked, finally breaking my stare with the map.

"Only thing to do is double back to 27 and swing toward Greenville," Rick explained.

"Yeah well we picked through that already," T-Dog scratched the back of his head, "it's like we spent the winter going in circles."

"Yeah I know, I know. At Newnan we'll push West, haven't been through there yet. We can't keep going house to house. We need to find someplace to hold up for a few weeks," Rick looked towards Lori who remained sitting in their car.

"Alright," T-Dog agreed, "is it cool if we get to the group before we head out, it won't take long, we gotta fill up on water, we can boil it later."

"Knock yourself out," Rick allowed them to. Maggie and Glenn went with him.

"She can't take much more of this moving about," Herschel now said quietly to Rick, referring to Lori.

"What else can we do there, give birth on the run?" Rick questioned.

Herschel placed his hand on Rick's shoulder, "Do you see a way around that?" he left that question pondering in our heads.

"Hey, Red," Daryl called out to me, he was loading up his crossbow, "while the others wash their panties, let's go hunt," he said, motioning to Rick to come as well, "that owl didn't exactly hit the spot."

I chuckled, agreeing.

We walked a little way into the woods, following a train track so we could easily find our way back to the road. We had to be quick, not wanting to leave our people for too long. There still weren't too many animals running about yet, we would maybe come across the odd squirrel or if we were lucky a rabbit.

"Man we gotta get off these tracks if we wanna find anything," Daryl said, scoping out the area. Other than our own, we hadn't heard any movement.

"Alright, we'll walk a little further up, and if we don't find anything we'll cut back through the bush," Rick compromised.

We were entering an opening in the tracks, it looked like we were up on a hill, just at the edge of the forest. The trees opened up to our right, allowing us to see our surroundings from high ground. I was just rounding the last few trees to the opening when I saw it. Just down the hill, across a small pond of water sat a high-security prison.

"That's a shame," Daryl said, referring to the multitude of walkers that littered the prison's yard, inmates and guards that didn't survive remained stuck in there.

I looked over to Rick, he breathed heavily at the sight of it, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. The place had two sets of ten-foot fences that would be able to keep walkers out, and there were guard towers stationed at each corner of the yard, which would be a great space for the lookout. From the looks of it, if we were to kill the walkers that had been trapped in the yard we could at least stay in there for the night. I could see the wheels turning in Rick's head. What Daryl saw as a death trap, Rick only saw a sanctuary. For me, I was prepared to fight my way through anything to feel safe again.

-----

As soon as we got back to the cars we brought our group back to the prison. We discussed it and devised a plan on how to clear out the yard, everyone was on board. This was exactly the place we had been looking all winter for. It would be difficult fighting our way in and claiming the field as our own, but it was necessary.

We got into our standard formation just on the outskirts of the first set of fences. T-Dog, Glenn, Daryl, and I attacked the surrounding walkers. Maggie, Carol, and Herschel stood watch closer to the woods, ready for any walkers to trail out. Carl and Beth stood on each side of Lori, making sure nothing could come her way. And as for Rick he currently worked away at the fence, cutting a hole with a pair of hedge shears, just large enough so we could shimmy our way through.

"Make sure to watch the backside," T-Dog called out, he just finished stabbing his fire iron through a walker's head against the fence.

"Got it!" Lori yelled back.

Finally, Rick clipped the last fence link and we filtered through as fast as possible. I was one of the last to go, I swiftly shoved my crowbar into the stomach of a walker, pinning it against the fence before lodging my knife in its skull. The blood trickled down my fingers as I extracted my weapons. I then slid through the fence links opening and tied it up with an old bungee cord we had found.

As we stood in the pathway between the two fences, walkers from either side threw themselves against the chain trying to get to us. We kept ourselves as quiet as possible, only speaking when necessary as we jogged up to the main gate entrance.

Daryl swung open the first gate that led to an opening, a space that looked to be used for guards to stop their cars before they entered the yard. He held his crossbow at the ready in case any guards remained by the tower. There was nothing though, the entrance was clear.

"It's perfect," Rick finally spoke up, "if we can shut that gate," he pointed just up the hill to where a second gate sat. This one looked to be an entrance into the cemented part of the yard before you reached the doors to the prison. "We can prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers and take the field by tonight."

We were all on board with the plan, but there was just one main flaw with it, "How do we shut the gate?" I asked.

"I'll do it, you guys cover me," Glenn immediately volunteered. We had to speak fairly loud now as the walker's sniffed us out, all crowding around the fence. They groaned and gurgled in unison with each other, making it hard to even focus on your own thoughts.

"No," Maggie objected, "suicide run."

"I'll go," I then nodded my head, "I'm the fastest."

"No, I can't cover you from that far away," Daryl interjected.

"Listen," Rick cut us all off, "You, Maggie, and Beth draw as many as you can over there," Rick spoke to Glenn, pointing in the direction he wanted. "Daryl and Scar, go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot, take your time we don't have a lot of ammo to waste," he ordered, he was going to run for the gate.

People were already running off to do their part. Daryl and I had to move quickly as the other tower sat all the way at the other corner of the yard. Along the way, we dragged our weapons against the fence trying to make as much noise as possible to get some walkers to follow us and get away from Rick's path to the second gate.

Once we got to the tower it didn't take us long to get to the top railings. Standing up here really was an advantage, it allowed us to see everything. I set up my sniper rifle, resting the barrel of the rifle on the railing, ready for Rick to make his run. We were all in position and I watched as Lori swiftly slid the gate open and then closed again, locking Rick in.

There was a small bus flipped on its side directly in front of the entrance, Rick made his way around that and hid from any walkers that heard the gate open. That's when we started firing, taking down any walkers that looked to be in Rick's path. One after another I dropped the walkers to the ground, Daryl seemed to be watching Rick closely, taking aim at any within a few feet from him.

His path there was easy, the hard part would be shutting the gate and finding his way back now that the walkers along the fence were becoming attracted to the sound of the gunshots. He finally reached the gate, sticking his fingers into the chain links and attempting to slam it shut. I watched through my scope as ten more walkers on the other side of the gate turned and ran for him. I steadied my hand and focused on my targets, shooting down two that ran for the opening. There was one more walker that stood at the entrance, reaching out to grab Rick before he kicked up his leg and hit the walker square in the chest, sending it to the ground. He then slid the gate shut and locked it.

I leaned my head back from the scope, taking in Rick's surroundings from a distance, there were too many walkers drawn to him now. No matter how quickly we could try and shoot them, he still had no way of getting back to us, they swarmed him. My stomach dropped, was this a mistake?

We all focused our attention on the walkers around Rick, trying desperately to help him. From where I was located on top of the tower I could only see Rick for a moment before he disappeared behind another tower. This was a mistake.