The Walking Dead - Drained and Insane ([Daryl Dixon]Fanfic)

Chapter 26: Contagious

"RICK! WALKERS IN D!"

Evangeline did not recall what happened in the next few moments until she burst into the cell block followed by Daryl and other members of the group with a machete ready in her hand. The shrill screams merged together and created a dull, white silence and Evangeline could only hear fragmented shrieks and yells. She frantically scanned the chaos in front of her and located the nearest person in danger. Calum was screaming as he tugged and pushed against a drooling freak and with a quick slash of her knife she hoisted him up and ordered him towards Rick who was directing the uninfected people out. 

Evangeline glanced down at the walker and was puzzled by its odd appearance. It had not decomposed like the others usually did, the mans eyes were completely covered in a dark red, his face veiny and blotchy. She was brought out of her trance when she heard another scream and her head flicked up to see Charlotte scrambling away from a walker that was tugging on her feet. With a few quick strides Evangeline sliced its head in two with a swish of her knife and without a word or feeling of presence, dragged her towards the exit where Rick was, stabbing and slicing as she moved. 

Once Charlotte was safely out, without a word or clear thought, Evangeline continued to sweep the cell, helping whoever she could and repeating the same procedure until there was not a single life left in the cell. She had dark purple blood splattered across her entire body and it took Daryl several attempts to get her senses back where she could finally think straight and not just hear her own heartbeat. 

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"Does anyone remember anyone looking or saying they felt unwell in the past few days?" Rick asked. Members of  the council stood beside him, while the rest of the people of Woodberry crowded in front.

"I remember Patrick asked to skip class because he felt unwell," Carol stated, there was a low murmur in the crowd.

"I heard someone get up in the middle of the night last night to take a shower," a lady from the crowd added.

Rick sighed and rubbed his forehead roughly, the weight of his position was showing its effects and aged him greatly. He cleared his throat then began to set out orders. 

"We're going to clear out the cell. Anyone who has someone in particular that they would like buried, come and speak to me. We'll burn the rest."

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"You right Ange?" Daryl hollered out.

"Yep!" she replied, continuing to drag the lifeless corpse out of a cell, "I got it."

Blood and flesh were spilling out across the floor as she struggled to drag the extremely large man towards the back exit that lead out to where they were going to burn the bodies. 

Daryl scoffed at her stubbornness and strode over to her, taking the mans legs as she took the arms. 

"Don't you think there's something odd about this?" Evangeline inquired.

"Someone's gotta have let 'em in. There might be someone from Woodbery stabbin' us in the back in this place." 

They got to the pile of rotting bodies and placed the man across.

"I guess but... look at his eyes, does he seem like a normal walker to you?" Evangeline said, pointing to the man's iris which were tinted a sickening yellow and surrounded by dark red, "Ain't look like a normal one to me."

When they returned to the cell block they were called up to a cell in the top level by Hershel. Evangeline and Daryl made their way to the cell, joining Rick, Hershel and a doctor who was inspecting a walker.

"Patrick," Evangeline breathed, grief hitting her in the chest.

"He looks the worse out 'a all of 'em," Daryl commented. 

Patrick's face was swollen and tinted with purple and red, his eyes similar to the man Evangeline and Daryl had been carrying. There was purple blood pouring from his eyes and mouth, Evangeline couldn't even imagine what it would be like to die and become like that. 

"There's something wrong," Hershel said, motioning to the doctor who was tilting Patrick's head to the side, Evangeline noticed the clear knife indent on the side of his head.

"He's not bitten. Whatever he had, it was not from a walker, some kind of infection. I don't know how this thing is transmitted, whether its air-born of the transfer of bodily fluids. But whatever he was exposed to, every person in contact with him and the other walkers he infected has also been exposed to it to."

"So you're saying..." Evangeline began, feeling sick to her stomach at what she knew was to happen next.

"We've all been infected with it."