𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

43 | INFECTED

She was up before dawn broke through the night sky, her and Daryl sitting on the perch of the watch tower. Her back rested against his chest as they watched the orange sun hide the silver moon, marking the start of a brand new day. When they got up properly, Daryl went into the cell block while Tori stayed outside, taking on her first task for that morning.

It was all quiet in the courtyard. She was sat outside with Carol, the two of them cleaning up the barbecue to start preparing the first breakfast shift, though there was nobody else outside yet besides Rick and Carl, who were working on the crops. It started off as such a peaceful day, ordinary, sunny, peaceful.

The calm before the storm, one might say.

The two women talking and laughing about something as they worked when the first two gunshots rang out from the building behind them, the rumbling sounds echoing all the way to the courtyard like claps of thunder in a storm.

Two little blonde girls, sisters Lizzie and Mika, came rushing outside screaming for help. "Please, come quick! Help!"

"Cell blocks?!" Maggie yelled down from the guard tower.

"I don't know!" Tori called up, pulling her gun from her belt and running to the door. "Girls, you go into the tower with Maggie," she told the two sisters, who immediately nodded and ran.

Panicking and quick on her feet, she ran inside, following the gunfire and the screams as she entered cell block D. People were rushing around in a total panic while walkers were growling, reaching for anyone that was close enough. She recognised all the blood-covered dead faces. Her body working fast while her brain tried to catch up with what was happening, wondering how the hell any of these people had died during the night.

The rest of her group came rushing in seconds after she did, gunfire making her ears ring as they scrambled to clear the block. When she ran out of ammo, Tori focused on getting everyone else to safety, swiftly getting everyone who didn't have a weapon to either get outside or close themselves into the cells.

Fresh blood splattered on the floor, and as she ran through it, she left boot prints on the cement ground. It made the cell block smell metallic, iron and torn flesh mixing in the air of the confined space. Like a total bloodbath, all she could see was the red. Forcing herself to look past the crimson tint to everything and focus on making it safe.

A little boy was stood in the corner crying as a walker crawled toward him, and Tori stomped on its head, lifting the boy up and running to the nearest cell where Karen took him from her arms.

Three more shots rang out upstairs, and Rick used a blunt metal pole to smash in the head of the final walker on the bottom level. "Are we clear down here?!" he yelled out. "Are we safe?!"

"Clear!" Sasha shouted back from across the block.

Tori ran up to the top level with her knife in hand, making sure everyone was out. One of the cells was open, a sheet covering the doorway. Her hand reached out, and her fingertips had barely touched the white sheet when it was yanked down and walker grabbed her from inside, shoving her against the wall.

"Get down!" Daryl yelled, and she crouched, giving him a clear shot of the walker's head.

She exhaled sharply once the walker dropped dead, and Daryl rushed over to take her hand, helping her to stand. "You okay?" he asked, touching her cheek for a second.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Tori quickly nodded, dusting off her shoulders where the walker had grabbed her.

They both looked inside the cell to double check, seeing the body that had fallen to the ground on its back when Tori shoved it away. Only it wasn't an it; it was a face they knew. A young teenager, only a year or so older than Carl. Always had a smile on his face, always happy to help. But that smile was gone, the expression left behind was completely blank. His skin grey, blood staining it, looking like it had poured from his eyes.