Don't mention it (Daryl x Reader)

|~Sickness~| (42)

Quick note, I'm going to be posting more on this story than I do my other Daryl Dixon story as this story is doing better.

As in this story had 17.2k, while my other has 892 reads, I'll still be writing it, but it'll be less than this one.

Y/n Y/l/n

We were doing the final rounds, I was walking around with Rick when a walker pushed against the bars of a locked cell.

It looked as if it was bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose, well, had been.

It looked to be one of our own, Rick grabbed the shirt, stabbing the undead person through the bars of the cell.

The body thumped to the floor, and I heard heavy footsteps behind me that belonged to no one other than Daryl Dixon.

~

Grabbing the doctor and Hershel, we asked them to have a look at the walker as we'd noticed the similar blood down they eyes and nose.

"No bites, no wounds" Rick explained, examining the body "I think he just died" He said almost bewildered

"Horribly too, Pleurisy aspiration" The doctor said 

"Ple- what?" I asked confused 

"Choked to death on his blood" The doctor clarified to me, I nodded slightly, fucking hell that sounds painful.

"Caused those trails down his face" Hershel explained, pointing to the blood trails down the mans face.

"I've seen them before" Rick said looking up at us as he was crouched down next to the body.

"Yeah" I said remembering now "They're on the walkers around the gates" I inputted. "Hey, they were on Patrick weren't they" I pointed out 

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up, like if you shake a soda can then pop the top, only imagine your eyes, nose throat and ears as the top" The doctor explained, my mind was elsewhere though, not listening to his vulgar euphemism .

I needed to talk to Carol about this, if there was an illness, it would spread quickly in the close quarters of the prison.

"It's a sickness" The doctor finished.

"From the walkers" Bob asked, just as confused as me.

"No, these things happened before they were around" The doctor told us, instinctively, I brought my jumper slightly over my mouth an nose, making it look as if I was cold.

"Could be pneumococcal, most likely an aggressive flu strain" The doctor continued.

"Someone locked him in just in time" Hershel said, I nodded, remembering all the information to relay back to Carol.

"Nah man, Charlie used to sleepwalk" Daryl pointed out as to why the cell was locked "Locked himself in, hell, he was just at the barbecue yesterday" Daryl pointed out.

My face soured at this, if Charlie had died from this sickness, and he was eating communaly with people before illness showed, that meant he was contagious, meaning, others could have it but are not yet showing symptoms.

Fuck, this could be worse than I thought

"How could somebody die in just a day from a cold?" Daryl asked confused 

"I had a sick pig, it died quick" Rick shrugged "Saw a sick boar in the woods"

"Pigs and birds, that's how these things spread in the past" Hershel reminded us. "We need to do something about those hogs" Hershel told Rick sternly

"Maybe we got lucky, maybe it's just these two cases?" The doctor said, trying to find a silver lining 

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a real long time" Bob said, crossing his arms.

"Pessimist" I mumbled under my breath causing Daryl to withhold a snigger 

"Bugs like to run through close quarters" Bob continued being the wet blanket over a fire "Can't get any closer than this" Bob voiced my thoughts 

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed" Hershel pointed out, a moment of silence as we let the news sink in

~

We were sat in a meeting, me, Carol, Daryl, Sasha, Glenn and Hershel, talking about the illness.

"Patrick was fine last night, and then he died overnight" Carol clarified "Two people died that quick?" carol asked "We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed" Carol told us

"That's everyone in that cell block" Daryl reminded, I nodded slightly.

"That's all of us, maybe more" I added 

"We know this sickness can be lethal" Hershel added "We don't know how easily it spreads, is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?" Hershel asked

"We can't just wait and see" Carol pointed out, I nodded "There's children, it isn't just the illness, if people die they become a threat" Carol told the group, I nodded, agreeing with her.

"Carol's right" I nodded.

"We need a place for them to go" Hershel said, wanting to take the peaceful route "They can't stay in D, we can't risk going in there to clean it up" Hershel started, trying to think of a solution.

"We can used cell block A" I suggested, Carol nodded.

"Death row?" Glenn glared at me, not believing what I'd said "I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade" He shook his head

"It's clean, that's an upgrade" Daryl sided with me "Think that'll work for Dr S?" Daryl asked.

"I'll set it up with Caleb" Hershel nodded.

Suddenly, there was coughing outside, everyone's heads whipped to the door, I walked outside with Carol.

"Are you okay?" Tyrese asked Karen, she nodded before coughing again.

"You sure, you don't sound so good?" I asked her, skeptically, the couple turned around.

"Yeah, we're just taking her to my cell so we can rest" Tyrese told us, rubbing Karen's arm

"Tyrese, I don't think that's a good idea" Hershel said to Tyrese.

"Judith's in that cell" I pointed out

"Y/n's right, she's high risk" Hershel added.

I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation

It was spreading.

Fuck, the sickness was spreading.

~

No pov

A dark shadow loomed over a sleeping Karen, she coughed and spluttered in her sleep, but suddenly, a knife plunged into the back of the sick woman's head.

A second person came it,

"It's done, let's get the bodied, the gas is already outside" A voice said, the person nodded.

The shadowed figures dragged out two bodies, a woman, and a man, Karen and Dave.

They dragged the now dead bodies outside, setting them on fire letting the corpses burn.