It'd been five months since Christmas which meant eight months since we left the farm. Nobody talked much anymore, all life was about was surviving, making it to the next day. Dad taught me how to use his crossbow, he taught me and Sophia how to shoot properly as well. I was already pretty good but now I was one of the best shooters in the group. Sophia wasn't so good with a gun, which is why she carried around a machete. On her belt dad had attached a machete holder thing and she could defend herself well now. Sophia had a growth spurt and was almost as tall as my dad now, so she could easily reach the height of most walkers just fine.

Rick had taught Carl to shoot too, he was also pretty good with a gun. Everyone had learnt how to defend themselves, apart from Lori because she was pregnant. I'd become closer with everyone but especially Glenn, Carl and T-dog who'd become like brothers to me. Sophia and Beth had become closer as well, and not to say I was jealous... But I was a little jealous. I did like Beth though; we were really close but not as close as her and Sophia.

We were taking a break from the four hours of straight driving. Hershel, Maggie, Rick and T-dog were looking over the map over the front of one of the cars. "Daddy, I need the toilet." I said to him.

"Me too." Sophia agreed.

"Alright, come on, girls." Dad said to us before turning to the others. "We'll be back now." 

Rick nodded. "Watch for walkers."

Dad led us out into the forest until we couldn't be seen by the others. He pointed to some bushes before turning his back. I went around the bushes but something else caught my eye. I abandoned Sophia as I walked a little farther into the trees. My feet hit train tracks and I walked along them for a little, that's when I saw it. A prison. It was large and there were probably about fifty walkers in the field that was surrounded by fences. I didn't realise how long I'd been standing there. "Ellie, you done? We gotta head back!" Sophia called.

"Yea, grab my dad and come here!" I replied, completely abandoning my need to use the bathroom.

Soon Sophia and my dad ran over to me and I pointed to the prison. "That's a shame." Dad said, commenting on the walkers.

"Should we show Rick?" Sophia asked.

"Why? It's overrun." Dad stated.

"We should tell him anyways." I insisted.

"Fine, I'll wait here. You girls go get him." Dad nodded.

I smiled at Sophia, and we ran back to the group. "Mother Goose!" I called to Rick as me and Sophia approached.

"You gotta stop calling me that." Rick laughed and shook his head.

"Uhm... No, no I don't think I will." I shook my head.

Rick sighed. "What do you want?"

"Come on, we gotta show you something that Ellie found." Sophia grabbed his hand and started dragging him through the forest.

"What did you find?" T-dog asked me.

"A prison." I replied. "It's overrun. Sorta. But figured we better tell the boss anyways."

Rick liked the whole prison idea so with bolt cutters, we cut a hole in the fence. We took out the walkers on the outside of the prison quite easily, whether we could take out the ones on the inside was a different question. We all went through the first fence; it was about seven meters wide of gravel going all the way along the prison before there was another fence which on the other side was the overrun field. Glenn and my dad sealed the hole with wire so no walkers could follow us through. We ran all the way along and went through the first gate before shutting it behind us, we were faced with an entry way to go into a watch tower and another gate which led into the main field.

"It's perfect." Rick stated.

"You're welcome." I stated proudly causing Sophia to laugh and Carl to shake his head with a small smile.

There was a small gravel road that led up to yet another gate which led onto a yard before you could get inside the prison. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight." Rick explained.

"So, how do we shut the gate?" Hershel asked.

"I can do it, I'm fast." I offered.

"No." Literally everyone said in sync.

"You guys have literally no faith in me." I shook my head.

"We ain't sending a kid in there." T-dog shook his head.

"I'll do it." Glenn offered.

"Didn't I just say no kids?" T-dog raised his eyebrows.

"Dude, you're like five years older than me." Glenn furrowed his eyebrows.

"Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, T, and Beth, I want you five over there. Draw them away and pop them through the fence.

"Daryl, go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot, take your time, we don't have a lot of ammo to waste." Rick said to her. She nodded before going with my dad.

"Hershel, Ellie and Carl, I want you three on this tower." Rick pointed up.

"Aye, aye, Captain." I gave a two-finger salute before following Carl who was following Hershel. Me, Carl and Hershel stood at the top of our tower, I could see my dad and Carol getting to theirs as well. We all prepared our guns to cover Rick as the others were drawing most of them away from him. Me, Carl and Hershel started focusing on the ones in the middle of the field that were just hanging around because Rick had gone out of our shooting range. I got a head shot every time which seemed to infuriate Carl who missed a couple times. "Steady your gun, Carl." I stated.

"Steady your face." Carl retorted before looking confused at his own answer.

"What?" I asked.

"What?" He repeated, equally confused as me. I laughed it off before continuing to shoot the walkers. I saw that Rick had just about shut the gate before locking himself in another watchtower. He got to the top of the tower. Even though he was pretty far away, I could see the overjoyed look on his face as he also started shooting the remaining walkers.

We'd killed all the walkers in the field. Me, Hershel and Carl met up with the others in the space between the two fences. "Hey, Carl. How may walkers did you kill?"

"Twelve." Carl replied with a smile.

"Hah, I got sixteen." I grinned.

"That's because... Your face distracted me." Carl tried to form a defence.

I laughed at him. "Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"I was aiming for insult." Carl replied, causing me to laugh more. "Hey, I've never had a sister before I'm working on them."

"Ellie, it's not a competition." Beth told me.

"You're only saying that cause you lost." I smiled at her causing her to smile and shake her head.

We all entered the green field, dead walkers scattered pretty much everywhere but if you ignored the bodies, it was amazing. Carol ran a little. "Oh, we haven't had this much space since we left the farm."

I heard T-dog laugh. "Whoo!" He let out. This was the best win we'd had in a very long time.

We'd brought in the vehicles to the space in between the fences, we wanted to bring them in, but the big gate was blocked by an overturned prison transport bus. My dad was standing on said bus doing patrol. Rick was walking around the edges of the field, making sure the fence was not compromised in any way. Everyone else sat around a fire we'd made to cook our food.

Glenn hummed. "Just like mum used to make." He said sarcastically about the dead squirrels we were eating. I was sitting in between T-dog and Sophia, happily munching away to the taste I'd gotten quite used too. Carol was walking over to my dad to take him some food because he wouldn't eat otherwise.

"Tomorow we'll pull the bodies together. Want to keep them away from that water. Now, if we can dig a canal under the fence, we'll have plenty of fresh water." T-dog stated.

"And the soil is good. We could plant some seed, grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, soybeans." Hershel agreed.

"Also, that's Rick's third time around the field. If there was anything wrong with the fence, he would've found it by now." Maggie pointed out.

"This'll be a good place to have the baby. Safe." Beth said to Lori who just smiled back at her.

I looked to my dad and Carol to see him giving her some form of massage on her shoulder. "Is there something going on between those too?" T-dog asked, eyeing my dad and Carol.

"Ew." Me and Sophia said at the same time.

The others quietly laughed at us. "I'm just saying, they real close."

"They're just friends, T-dog. And you're just trying to distract me from the fact that I won another thing off our Bingo list. I'm a box closer to winning the all-inclusive trip to Hawaii." I grinned.

"The what?" Lori asked.

"Me and the kid have this Apocalyptic Bingo thing of things we wanna do in the Apocalypse. She won kill fifteen walkers straight with no misses." T-dog shook his head.

"With an extra kill, sixteen walkers, all head shots, no misses." I bragged. "The winner gets to go to Hawaii on a first class plane to an all-inclusive hotel. And they get to bring one person with them. Anyone who's ever existed." I added. "And I'm winning. T-dog's four away, I'm one away. I just gotta fine a cop walker who has a doughnut on them."

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard." Lori shook her head with a laugh.

"Guess you're not coming to Hawaii with me." I smirked.

"Or me, cause I'm gonna win." T-dog insisted.

"No, you're literally not." I denied.

"Mmm-hmm. We'll see." T-dog grinned.

"Yes, yes we will." I nodded.

"Bethy, sing Paddy Reilly for me." Hershel requested after we'd been sitting in silence for a while. "I haven't heard that, I think since your mother was alive."

"Daddy, not that one, please." Maggie requested.

"How about... The Parting Glass?" Hershel asked.

"No one wants to hear." Beth shook her head.

"Why not?" Glenn questioned.

"Okay." Beth hesitantly agreed. Then she started singing the song, she was good at singing, and it made everyone smile.

My dad and Carol had re-joined the group, dad sat behind me so I leaned back into his chest, and he rested his chin on my head as he put his legs on either side of me and wrapped his arms tightly around me causing me to laugh quietly at the over exaggerated squeeze. Carol sat in between me and Sophia, Carol rested her head on my dad's shoulder while Sophia leaned into Carol's side. I shut my eyes happily as I was with my family, listening to Beth's singing. I was surprised when Maggie joined in, but it made me open my eyes and smile again. I noticed Rick had joined the group again and was now sitting between Carl and Lori.

"Beautiful." Hershel commented when his girls were finished singing.

"Better all turn in." Rick said. "I'll take watch over there." He nodded towards the bus. We got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.

"Look, I know we're all exhausted. This was a great win. But we've got to push just a little bit more. Most of the walkers are dressed as guards and prisoners. Looks like this place fell pretty early. It could mean the supplies are still intact. They'd have an infirmary, a commissary." Rick explained.

"An armoury?" Dad asked.

"That would be outside the prison itself, but not too far away. Warden's offices would have information on the location." Rick replied. "Weapons, food, medicine. This place could be a gold mine."

"We're dangerously low on ammo." Hershel pointed out. "We'd run out before we make a dent."

"That's why we have to go in there... Hand to hand." Rick nodded. I put my hands over my dad's, I knew he'd be going in there and we've delt with a lot of danger before, but I still hated the idea of him going hand to hand with a bunch of walkers. "After all we've been through, we can handle it, I know it. These assholes don't stand a chance."

"Can I go in too?" Sophia asked.

"No." Everyone said in sync.

"I've gotten really good with my machete." Sophia pointed out.

"Doesn't matter, we can handle it." Rick responded. "Thank you for your offer though." Rick smiled at her, Sophia nodded and looked down to her hands before Rick walked away again which made Lori follow after him.

Dad put his knitted poncho over me as I lay down more while using him as my pillow. "Goodnight, princess. I love you." Dad whispered to me quietly.

"I love you too." I responded. I fell asleep by the fire as my dad gently played with my hair and Teddy was tightly secured in my arms.