murky waters | carl grimes¹

14. flu season

"why didn't you call for help?"

Things progressively got much worse over the course of four days, most of those who stayed in D were isolated in cell block A. Dr. S said that Patrick died by choking on his own blood and found that others who stayed in D got whatever Flu that Patrick had. 

There were already two deaths, Karen and David. Their bodies were burnt outside of their isolation rooms and no one could find out who did it. The place that once bored me but protected me was starting to kill itself.

The night that Beth had a sleepover with Talia was the last night I got to see Talia as they put the elderly and the children into their own section. I was exposed to the D block and I wasn't going to risk Talia getting sick after seeing what it did to Patrick. 

That night was the last night I saw Carl too. He went inside with the children with his gun, he was to protect them at all costs. I knew that Rick wanted him in there to protect him as well, there was nothing stopping Carl from the same fate Patrick was dealt. 

I spent most of my days at the fence, killing as many of the dead as possible. More people ended up in isolation as the days went by and the more that got sick the less people we had to protect the prison. 

My body was screaming at me to stop but I pushed on as I stabbed my knife through the chained links. I was one of the only ones left outside at the fences at this point. With Daryl, Bob, Michonne, and Tyreese gone to get medicine for the sick and Rick and Carol gone for a supply run, getting help around the prison was rough. 

Maggie and I spent hours trying to control the groups of walkers who threw their bodies against the fence. Every time we took down a decent amount of them, we were forced to stop piling their bodies as more walkers came out from the woods. It was never ending and exhausting. 

I never stopped pushing. While Maggie went to check on Beth and later her father who forced his way into cell block A, I stayed by the gates. When I did take a break my eyes never left the dead. Their hands pressed against the fence trying to grab at me.

Each of them looked different but I always saw the ones who had looked like Patrick. 

And every time I got back up from my break and killed those ones first. 

Rick came back from his run later that night, alone. My mind was racing with questions as I approached his car, Carol wasn't seated inside. "Where is Carol?" I asked as he opened his car door. 

"We will talk about it when Daryl gets back," Rick answered, his eyes never met mine. 

"Is she dead?" I asked, I pressed my lips lips together, stress written across my face. 

"No," he answered simply. 

Before I could get anymore questions thrown at him, Maggie's voice came from behind us, "Rick the cluster's getting bigger than the one that took the fence down. We need to do something." 

Rick took one look at me and then headed towards the car, "we will," he said to her before he got in and drove the vehicle to the prison's entrance.

Maggie threw her hands up as he drove away. I walked past her, "did he tell you any different?" she asked. She didn't do much talking to me lately, she tried at first but when I wouldn't respond she stopped trying. I adored Maggie but if I let my focus down something bad would happen. 

"Not much more," I answered as I headed back down to the fence, "he never does." 

When Rick returned, he took Maggie out to cut down small trees, I stayed tending to my fence like I've done for the last few days. The walker's moans and grunts were nothing but background noise to me anymore, their smell vanished. I was so used to looking at the dead at this point I was more shocked whenever I saw another living person.