The Walking Dead: Warlord

The next morning we all wake up slowly. As I crawl out of my tent I notice I’m the second up, after Shane. I guess he took the last watch. I look around at all the other tents and see all of them zipped up save for two, Shane’s and Andrea’s. I stand up and do a few stretches, trying to wake myself up fully.

I hear Shane’s voice ring out over the sound of the crackling fire,

“Mornin’ sunshine. We already got some coffee brewed.”

I nod at him and take a seat on the other side of the small flame, noticing a small metal kettle sitting to the side. I grab one of the mugs placed to the side, one with the Waffle House logo on it, and pour a glass full of some nice bean water. A bit of steam comes up from the cup as the wind picks up, sending a chill across my body. After I take a sip of the warm drink, I speak to Shane,

“Seems like fall’s right around the corner.”

I look down check my watch, seeing it read out:

[Sep. 27th]

“Yup, it’s almost October. Good thing we already got some winter clothes. We’ll probably need to go to a store and stick up on a ridiculous amount of blankets just in case. I doubt prisons are known for their good insulation, especially ones like this that’re built more like a castle.”

Shane nods his head and says,

“It’d be good if we could get some solar panels and space heaters. Hell, even a genny would be good too. We could potentially get the plumbing back in working order too if we did that. Imagine taking warm showers again, and regularly!”

I nod my head,

“Most prisons should have a backup generator kinda like the CDC, but I imagine this one might be so old that it doesn’t. If it does, that’d be enough to get us through winter.”

As we finish talking, I see Andrea coming back from around the front of the car, zipping up her pants. As she sees me, she says,

“Morning!”

I nod and raise my mug at her,

“Morning.”

Seeing her, I’m reminded of the talk I had with Clem and Amy before sleeping. Clem was going on and on about all the things she did that day she played with Sophia for most of the day, then Dale gave her a pack of crayons and a hello kitty coloring book to play with. I told Clem that we should be done either today or tomorrow, and that I’d be back to see her soon. 

Amy and I talked about things. She said that she was excited for the challenge of turning a prison into a home, and all the different things she could do. She wants to do a mural on the walls to help liven the place up, which I’m all for. We kept skirting around the topic that’s currently burning a hole through both of our minds, threatening to break out at any moment. But, I really don’t think I’m in a place to be in a relationship. Plus, I think we should get to know each other a bit more before jumping into anything.

And… I still can’t help but see her as a character. She doesn’t really look like her TV counterpart, but she’s still the Amy that dies in season one to me… I mean, I didn’t even know she liked art until she mentioned doing a mural. Maybe once everything is less chaotic… Something may have the chance to bloom.

Andrea’s voice brings me out of my thoughts,

“So, got any plans for the clearing?”

I nod my head,

“Yeah, I’ve got a few. Once everyone else is up, we’ll go over everything and see what everyone thinks. For now, I think I’ll get some breakfast.”

———————————

About an hour later, everyone’s up and ready to go. We all sit around the embers of the dying fire and go over a game plan. The first to speak is me,

“Alright. So, what I’m thinking is that we work on a cell block basis. Most prisons will have their blocks differentiated by letters. Like cell block A, B, and so on. So, we clear in an alphabetical order. We go through A, clear out all the walkers, and go through it again just in case before locking it up so nothing else can get in after. Anybody else got any ideas?”

Rick is the first one to speak up,

“Yeah, so prisons don’t usually have a lot of windows on the interior hallways, meaning it’s gonna be dark as hell in there. If we can, I’d like for us to get to the generators first and see if we can’t turn them on, making it a little bit safer for us to clear it.”

I nod my head,

“I agree. If we can find a good map of the prison, we should definitely see if we can get those on. Clearing out dark hallways sounds like an actual nightmare. Also, any ‘corpses’ we come across, make sure you can see damage to the brain. If not, assume it’s alive.”

Daryl is the next to speak,

“Any ideas on what to do if we meet any living prisoners?”

Everyone goes a little silent, and slowly looks to me. I nod my head,

“First of all, if they show aggression at all we kill them. Regardless of what got them in there. If they don’t, we’ll lock them up until we can find what exactly they’re in for. If they’re in for a violent crime, like murder, rape, or anything similar, we’ll also kill them. I don’t wanna take any chances with this. If they’re in for something like theft, or drug charges, I’m fine with living with them.”

Daryl nods his head at me, while Shane speaks up,

“We’ll need some laws set up in order to protect everyone. Not now, but eventually.”

I agree with him and say,

“Yeah, we’ll have a vote on the laws eventually. Though, I will say, we’re gonna need them to be a lot more severe than what they were before.”

After this, we all chat for a bit and let our food settle. With this, we go ahead with the plan.

We slowly walk up to the gate—saving our energy for when we get inside. I cut off the metallic zip ties with the bolt cutter and toss it aside right by the entrance, just in case. We notice another gate to the side that’s still chained shut. I motion for everyone to stay quiet and point to the gate, getting everyone to raise their rifles. We all have on light backpacks with a few more mags inside, just in case along with our chest plate carriers. We slowly move to the side and see another rather large group of about twenty walkers standing outside. As they spot us, they all start moving towards us one-by-one. I speak just loud enough for everyone to hear me,

“Alright, aim for the heads. No automatic fire.”

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