37. council meetings

MILO

     TURNING THE PENCIL OVER AND OVER IN HIS fingers he tried to listen to Carol, but his mind kept wondering back to the crying kids and bloody corpses from this morning. Somehow the image was burned in his mind and refused to leave, no matter how hard he tried. He had spend so much time with the council to make sure these people were safe, he had sat through so many gatherings worrying about food and water only to see it crumble within in seconds.

'Patrick was fine yesterday,' Carol spoke, 'and he died overnight. Two people died that quick?'

Milo looked up from the pencil in his hands, his eyes scanning the people sitting around the table. Carol with her determined but worried gaze. Daryl, always with that alert spark in his eyes. Sasha with her fiery expression. Glenn, looking worried and tired. Hershel with his wise and calming features and finally himself. They were the counsil and were expected to handle these kind of situations even though he felt completely at loss how to handle this.

After the fight with the Governor Hershel had asked Milo to become part of the council, for reasons still unknown to him, and he said yes. He was more than willing to help turn the prison into a thriving community. It felt like he was honoring Axel and Oscar by doing so and of course all the other people that had died.

'We'll have to seperate everyone that's been exposed,' Carol said, making Milo turn to look at the woman.

'That's everyone in that cell block,' Daryl mumbled, 'that's all of us, maybe more.'

'We know that this sickness can be lethal,' Hershel spoke up. 'We don't know how easily it spreads. Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?'

Shaking his head Milo frowned, they didn't even know what the symptoms were. How could they determine who had them?

'We can't just wait and see,' Carol interjected, 'there's children. It isn't just the illness, people die they become a threat.'

Hershel nodded before saying: 'We need a place for them to go. They can't stay in D. We can't risk going in there to clean it up.'

'We can use cell block A,' Carol offered.

'Death row?' Glenn asked. 'I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade.'

'It's clean, that's an upgrade,' Daryl told him, then turned to look at Hershel. 'Think that'll work for Dr. S?'

'I'll help Caleb set it up,' Hershel agreed.

A short silence followed in which they all seemed to think about the options. They didn't have many, so this was the best plan for now. He picked up the pencil again, chewing on the end of it when coughs coming from the hallway interrupted the silence.

Immediately they all stood up, heading towards the door. Carol was the first one outside and when Milo stepped into the hallway he saw Karen and Tyreese standing there as Karen tried to hold back her coughs.

'We're just taking her back to my cell so she can rest,' Tyreese told Carol, who clearly had said something that Milo must've missed.

'Tyreese,' Hershel's calm voice spoke up from behind him. 'I don't think that's a good idea.'

'Why?' Karen questioned. 'What's going on now?'

An uneasy silence followed before Milo finally spoke up, saying the words hurt, as if it suddenly made them more real. 'We think it's a flu or something. That's how Patrick died.'

'Judith is in that cell block, she's vulnerable,' Hershel said, walking up to Karen and Tyreese. 'Anyone that may be sick or even exposed should stay away.'

'It killed Patrick?' Karen asked, panic sneaking into her voice.

'She's gonna be okay,' Tyreese said, sounding like he was trying not only to convince them but himself too. 'Now that we know what Patrick died from we can treat it, right?'

'Don't panic, we're going to figure this out,' Hershel told him. 'But we should keep you seperated in the meantime. We'll have Caleb take a look at you. I'll see what we have in the way of medications.'

'David,' Karen suddenly spoke up, 'from the Decator group, he's been coughing too.'

Glenn sighed. 'I'll get him. There's some empty clean cells in the tombs, right?'

Sasha nodded. 'Yeah, we'll meet you there.'

'Okay,' he mumbled before running away to go and find David.

Sasha walked up to Karen and Tyreese. 'Come on, let's get you settled.' And the three of them walked away.

'We'll have to call another meeting later,' Hershel said, looking at Milo, Daryl and Carol.

Daryl nodded, throwing his crossbow over his shoulder. 'All right. I'll get to burying the dead ones.'

'You wear gloves and a mask,' Hershel told him. Daryl hummed in agreement and the old man nodded at him before walking away.

Milo offered Carol and Daryl a small nod before turning on his heels and walking after Hershel. There had to be something he could do to make himself useful. Catching up to the old man, he slowed down, walking next to him.

'You think we'll get through this?' Milo asked the former farmer.

Hershel seemed to consider his words for a while, not answering straight away. When he did his voice was determined. 'Yes, we will.'

Taking a deep breath Milo decided not to ask anymore questions. The determination the old man had was something he respected, looked up to and he honestly wanted to believe the man's words.

Footsteps echoed through the hallway and soon enough Quinn came walking around the corner. Milo smiled at her. 'Where are you off to?'

She gave a small shrug. 'Just going to check on Michonne. She fell pretty bad.'

He nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder before watching her walk away. Lately he had struggled with trying to guess what his sister was thinking or feeling. Another thing that had ended when the world did. Sometimes he felt so disconnected to her that it pysically hurt but he knew he had to accept that everything that happened changed her.

They walked unto the courtyard, the sunlight immediately heating up his skin. He took a moment to breathe in the fresh air when he suddenly heard Maggie's voice echo over the field, desperatly screaming Rick's name.

Milo hurried forwards, his eyes scanning the perimeter and widening as he saw what the girl was so desperate about. Walkers had gathered at the fence, clustering together and pushing against the metal. It was starting to give.

A curse slipped out of his mouth as he started to run towards it, quickly grabbing a crowbar. Maggie was already stabbing the walkers through the eye and he quickly joined, noticing Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Sasha and Tyreese had joined them.

But no matter how many corpses they managed to put down, the fence kept on rattling loudly and because of the noise only more walkers kept stumbling out of the woods.

Groaning from the effort Milo pulled a crowbar out of a walker its head, looking around at the damage and noticing it was useless. Blood covered his arm as he stepped forwards and pushed the crowbar through the skull of a walker.

The fence was bending as the walkers started crawling over each other to get inside. They were pushing so hard the ones in the front their skin was pushed against the metal, ripping at their flesh.

Milo swallowed his disgust as he stepped forwards and put the crowbar through another ones head, and another, and another. There were so many that he soon lost count of the amount of heads he had stabbed.

'Are you seeing this?' Sasha suddenly yelled.

Milo stepped back from the fence, wiping his face clean of the sweat and dirt but forgot his arm and hand were covered in blood, which now covered his face as well. Sighing he jogged over to Sasha, his eyes staring down at what she was looking at.

The remains of the small furry bodies of a few mice were lying on the ground by the fence.

'Is someone feeding these things?' Sasha questioned.

He could hardly imagine anyone doing so but as he looked at the half eaten animals he couldn't think of what else it could be.

'Yo, heads up!' Daryl suddenly screamed.

Looking away from the mice his eyes fell on a part of the fence that was bending dangerously low. With the loud snarls of the walkers in his ears he ran forwards, driving the crowbar through the eye of a walker before pulling it out and pushing it through the skull of another. It was useless.

'It's gonna give! It's gonna give!' Rick screamed, pushing against the fence to keep it standing.

Walkers were piling up, pushing each other at the iron wires, leaving marks in their skin.

Milo gave up on killing them and started pushing against the fence as well.

'Everybody back! Come on, back! Now!' Daryl screamed and they all let go at once, taking a step backwards, looking at the sight.

'The fence keeps bending in like that, those walkers are coming over it,' Sasha spoke frustrated.

Crossing his arms over his chest he stared at the fence, his thoughts racing but coming up completely empty of ideas.

'Daryl get the truck,' Rick suddenly said. 'I know what to do.'

Daryl stared at his friend before giving a small nod and running away.

Rick threw a glare at the rest of them. 'Get to the gate,' he said before running towards the stable of the pigs.

They didn't need to be told twice and soon they were standing at the gate, opening it as Daryl drove through, with Rick sitting on a trailer with a box next to him. Milo suspected he'd put the piglets in there and watched as they drove through the field, coming to a halt behind the walkers. The noise of the engine immediately made the corpses turn around and stumble towards the men.

Milo watched as Rick waited for the walkers to get close until taking out a piglet, making a deep cut across its leg so it couldn't run away, before placing it on the ground. As soon as he did Daryl drove away to park the car a few feet away where Rick did the same thing once again.

The walkers fell down on the ground, attacking the piglet and ripping apart its flesh as the poor animal squeaked with high paniced sounds.

Milo turned around to help the others place some wooden poles against the fence to get it up again. The high squeals of the piglets were a torture to hear, but it had to be done.

Once the poles were in place he took a step backwards, watching as the walkers followed the trail Rick and Daryl had made and disappeared in the woods. A small sigh of relief escaped his lips. The danger was gone, for now.