S2E65 - Face to Face

After a good thirty minutes of careful walking, we make our way to the generator room. The darkness of the tunnels sends shivers down everyone's spines, causing even Daryl to feel uncomfortable. After a bit of fumbling with the large collection of keys, I manage to find the one, hearing a satisfying click as I turn it. I turn to the group and say,

"Alright, come on!"

We walk through the door, cringing slightly as it creaks loudly. I hold the door open, letting everyone get through before shutting it behind us. Looking around, the room is dimly lit by a few small, barred windows running along the top half. Dust flies around, illuminated by the rays of sunlight coming in through the windows.

As I look around at the machinery, I hear Glen call out,

"I think it's still got some juice!"

I turn to him, seeing the small industrial generator sitting idle. I walk over, and say,

"How can you tell?"

He points at a gauge and wipes off the dust, revealing a fuel gauge. It hovers at just above halfway, closer towards F than E. I nod my head and pump my fist,

"Fuck yeah. That should be enough for us to clear the rest of this place out relatively safely. We should, if fate is on our side, be able to get this place clear by the end of today or start of tomorrow. At the very least, we won't have to worry about sleeping outside. I was damn near eaten by mosquitoes."

Daryl nods his head,

"You said it."

Shane gives the group a smile while we all look at each other and says,

"If this prison is off the grid, we may just be able to take some warm showers as well!"

Everyone laughs a little bit before Rick adds on,

"They also usually keep a store of ingredients too, meaning we could probably cook us up some good dinner tonight."

Maggie tags on,

"Honestly, I could go for some food now."

Everyone nods their heads, so I say,

"How 'bout we work our way towards the kitchen, then? That store of food should be there."

The group all nod their heads. Andrea says,

"That'd be nice. I can already feel my stomach getting angry at the amount of MRE's we've been eating."

Yup. No kidding. Everyone is gonna be super constipated after this. I motion towards Glen and say,

"Go ahead and fire her up. After we leave, we'll lock up the door again just in case."

Glen nods his head and looks for something on the generator before flipping open a plastic covering and pressing a button inside. With a low mechanical whirring sound, the generator roars to life. The lights in the room flicker for a second, while one over in the corner pops. Slowly, they all begin to light up. The smokestack of the generator seems to be fully sealed as well, so we're safe with that as well. I smile as I hear the low hum of the generator and speak loudly,

"ALRIGHT! LET'S GO!"

We all head out of the room, weapons up and ready. A few walkers had gathered in the area during our time inside, but they're taken care of by the group while I locked the door. Looking down the hallway, the drab, concrete walls are ever so slightly painted in a thin layer of dust, with the occasional splash of crimson. Whatever happened in the prison most definitely wasn't pretty. As I'm sure most things in prison aren't.

Daryl speaks sarcastically,

"Wow. How inviting."

I chuckle as we walk forwards and quip back,

"It'll look better once we add the finishing touches."

Daryl scoffs and says,

"Let's paint the walls pink. That certainly won't be creepy."

As we turn the corner, there's a small group of walkers ahead. Only four. I nod as we walk closer and say,

"Maybe we'll put some beige carpet down through the hallways and some floral wallpaper? Make it feel like a cheap hotel."

As I finish my sentence, my gladius finds its way up through the neck and into the brain of one of the walkers. Daryl responds while pulling his hatchet out of another's skull,

"You wanna make this place a hotel or grandma's house?"

I quip back while driving my gladius into the temple of one of the walkers,

"It's definitely got the mothball smell of grandma's!"

Shane speaks while smashing the skull of one of them with a crowbar,

"Hey, that's a good name for this place! Grandma's house!"

I chuckle as I pull my sword from the walker,

"Hahaha! That sounds more like some weird sex dungeon if you take a look at this place!"

A bit behind us, Glen and Maggie watch on with confusion. She looks over at Glen and says,

"Are they… Always like this?"

Glen shakes his head and says,

"No… This is definitely a first…"

—--------------------------------

After another twenty minutes of calm, relaxing head chopping, we finally find the room we were looking for. I also see the walker that got Hershel in the show. Goddamn Rick was stupid as fuck. Why the fuck did he bring a sixty year old man to clear the prison!? There's also a sizeable group of walkers outside the door. I peek back around the corner and say,

"Alright, so, the way to the mess hall is absolutely crawling with walkers. We're gonna be going guns for this, alright? Put on your ear protection. I want five of us watching up front, shooting the group of walkers, and the other two watching our rear. Maggie, Glen, you guys take the rear. If you two see even a single walker, pat one of us on the shoulder and we'll start to retreat back. We absolutely do not wanna be caught between two hordes. Everyone else, eyes forward."

Everyone nods and takes their positions. As we step out into view of the horde, a few begin to shamble towards us. I aim my rifle and take the first shot, watching as the bullet rips a hole through the walker's eye socket. The others open fire as well, systematically tearing down the wave of undead marching their way towards us. The walkers on the ground also begin to get up and shamble their way towards us, causing others to trip over them.

The suppressed guns fill the air around us with smoke, replacing the stench of death with the sweet smell of burning gunpowder. After a good forty seconds, the gunfire stops as the last walkers fall to the ground, their heads successfully aerated.

No walkers came from behind just yet, so I give the order to move forward,

"Alright, move up to the door. Look at every downed walker, any you don't see an obvious head wound on, double tap."

I get it, why would a walker play dead? Well, in the actual show there's the scene where Beth runs up to her moms corpse which turned out to not actually be dead. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

We walk through, taking out any potentially knocked out walkers and get to the door. Right outside, I tell everyone,

"Alright. If any prisoners or guards survived, they'd most likely be in here. If they're prisoners and they show any signs of aggression, we take them out, alright? If any of them draw a weapon, we drop them."

Everyone nods. Maggie looks hesitant, but she's not as naive as most of them. I grab the handle and give it a twist, motioning for Shane to get behind me, and push in.

Immediately, I push to the left. And there I see them. Six prisoners. Wait… Six?