Chapter 59 Weird Flu

It had been a couple weeks since John came back with Lee and his group. Sarah was now around 4 years old, and John had a small celebration for her with the rest of his family. John went out of the prison and came back with some gifts and candies for her. John then watched as Sarah opened her gifts with an excited expression.

Sarah then played with her new gifts, she brought them over to her friends and they started to play happily. Sarah was playing with Clem, Sophia, Molly, Riley, and Lily, she also had some friends from the daycare who joined them.

As the sun began to set and they all had dinner. They left the common area and went to their rooms for rest. On the way, John saw that some of the people were coughing heavily. They then went to sleep, all huddled together.

The next morning, John woke up early and left his family to rest by themselves. John walked out of their room, it was in separate area from everyone else, away from the cell blocks. John pretty much owned the whole main office, no one else was really near this area either.

Anyway, John walked out of the building, and enjoyed the morning sunrise. John walked over to Hershel who was sitting at a table in the courtyard. John sat down next to him as they sat in a comfortable silence, but they were interrupted abruptly by a gunshot.

John ran over to cell block D, he didn't have his guns, only his combat knife. Rick and some others also came running out of the other cell blocks and followed John inside. They ran through the hallways and reached the main area where people lived. Running in they saw walkers all over the place and some people had locked themselves in their cells in order to be safe. Some people were still wandering about and trying to fight the walkers away.

John ran in with his knife held in a reverse grip as he dashed at a walker. Arriving in front of it, he stabbed it in the hard harshly before he yanked it out. Rick and the other had also started to run over and save people.

As the last walker was taken down by John, they all started to examine the bodies. They saw that the eyes of some of the walkers were different from others. They were bleeding from their eyes and their eyes were huge, literally popping out of their skulls.

With the situation under control, Rick's group began to check all of the people for any bites. Carol who was looking at a man was about to cut his arm off to stop him from turning, but she saw a bite on the back of his neck at the last minute. Sighing she told the man, and he immediately begged her to look out for his two daughters, Lizzy and Mica.

He wanted her to adopt them and Carol without any hesitation nodded. She then went and got his daughters so they could say goodbye. They were crying softly and were holding his hand, they then watched sadly as Carol stabbed him in the head. Lizzy wanted to do it, but she couldn't at the last second, she started to panic as Mica showered her some flower to calm her down.

Tyreese who had gotten involved with a woman from Woodbury also ran over to her. He shouted, "Karen, Karen." They then hugged each other close as they sat down.

The aftermath of this incident was 7 deaths, three of them had the weird looking eyes. Hershel and another doctor from Woodbury observed the body more closely, Rick and Daryl were also standing around them.

Rick said, "No bites. No wounds. I think he just died suddenly."

Doctor Stevens said, "Horribly, too. Pleurisy aspiration."

Hershel said, "Choked to death on his own blood. Caused those trails down his face, also the bulging eyes."

Rick said, "I've seen this before, on a walker outside the fences."

Daryl said I saw them on Patrick too."

Bob asked, "Is it caused by the walkers?"

Stevens said, "No, it is most likely some aggressive strain of the Flu."

Hershel said, "Someone locked them in just in time."

Daryl said, "Charlie sleepwalked, he probably locked himself in. I can't believe it happened so quickly; he was just eating some barbeque yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"

Rick said suddenly, "I had a sick pig, it died quick. I saw a sick boar in the woods."

Hershel says, "Pigs and birds. That is how these things spread. We need to do something about those hogs."

Doctor stevens said, "Maybe we got lucky. Maybe there are only these two cases."

Bob said, "I haven't seen anybody be lucky for a long time. Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."

Overhearing this, John said, "We need to stock up on medicine, and quickly. We don't know if this will spread."

Rick agreed with John and then walked up to the stairs, when he reached the top he said, "Hello everyone. Can I have your attention?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Rick. They gather at the stair as they waited for Rick to speak.

Rick said loudly, "Everyone needs to stay in here. You might have been exposed to a virus; it is what caused this to happen." The people wanted to argue, but John glared at them. This calmed them down and they accepted.

Rick, John, and the group wrapped all the bodies in sheets before they started to transport them outside. John carried two bodies and walked out of the building, his women were about to run towards him, but he stopped them and told them to stay away. John told them to stay in their room for a while with the babies, as a virus was spreading around quickly.

The women then ran off to their room, while John and the others carried the bodies over to an open area and burned them, this was to help stop the spread of this disease. Carl ran over and hugged Rick, even though Rick tried to stop him. Carl had saved Michonne who had been coming back from a run.

Carl and Michonne had become great friends after Rick took her with them on a run. Rick and Michonne had some romance happening, but Rick didn't act upon it as the death of Lori still weighed on his mind.

Rick then walked away to the pig pen and shot each hog. John could see that Rick was having a difficult time. He had been hoping everything would stay normal as it was, but this situation made him remember that nothing will ever be completely normal. Rick then set the whole pen on fire, the smell of burning pig was quite enticing to John, he decided to leave Rick and take a shower before he ate some breakfast.

John then walked over to his room, but he didn't enter. He told his family through the door, that he would not be with them for a while because he didn't want them to be exposed. John also told them that he would go on a medicine supply run.

John then walked over to the cell block B, inside there was a library. This was where the main members of the group make decisions and discuss things.