Me and Carl were running to where the cells were. Mama's would be far on the left, whereas Rick's would be far on the right. Just as we got to where I would go left, and Carl would go right... It all went wrong. There were men down the left corridor, pointing guns at us. There were people down the right corridor, pointing guns at us. They came from behind us, and in front of us. All of them, aiming guns at us. Me and Carl went back to back, me facing the left, and him facing the right.

"You didn't really think that you could go undetected in our compound did you?" The man who seemed to be in charge spoke, he was in front of me. "We know all about your little ploy to break out the crazy guy and the samurai. We're hunting down the rest of your little friends as we speak. And the traitor. You'll all be executed, together."

"We have no war to fight with you." Carl started. "Please, just let us take our people and we'll leave. Nothing here has to change."

The same man scoffed. "What will the old folk think if we just let you get away with that? We need you to be an example... Lock them in the cells until we find the rest of them."

Two men grabbed each one of my arms, and each of Carl's arms. They dragged me down the right, and Carl down the left. Why they swapped us over? I'm not sure. They put in me in a cell not to far down. They practically threw me in there before just walking away and leaving me. "Please, we can figure this out!" I yelled, hitting the metal bars. "Fuck." I muttered, turning to my cell. It had a small mattress and a small window. I went over to the window but it had been sealed shut. I knew that the cells used to be there for animals, so they must've just dragged the mattress from the town or something. I walked back over to the bars, and leaned against them.

"Yea, Johnny, she ate the last banana. I'm not sure how much longer I can be in the relationship. Like, that was a betrayal. I wanted that banana." I heard a man say to another guard as their voices drifted away.

I furrowed my eyebrows, wanting to know more about the story. When I was sure that the coast was clear, I reached into my bra and pulled out my pocket knife. I attempted to pick the lock, but the knife was too big to even go into the key hole. I rolled my eyes, fiddling with the blade in my hand. I walked back over to the window and watched the night. I knew it was only a few hours until the walker herd was on us. If I didn't get out? Well, I'd pretty much be locked in the cell while walkers took over. I'd either starve to death... Or, they'd find a way into the cell. I didn't know anymore with these variants. 

It was just before one in the morning when there was a man standing in front of my cell. I managed to still hold my knife, but in a way that he didn't see it. He was in a fancy suit, with a mask on. Since the other men weren't in suits, I realised that Chris didn't know that not everyone would be at the ball. They still had some lower level patrols. This guy though? He was important enough to have an invite. "What is your name, dear?" The man asked. His voice gave away how old he was. With his baldness, and the mask, it would've been hard to tell. Maybe he was in his eighties? To be fair, he was going strong.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked.

"Because I asked." He answered, like it was obvious. "Here, I'll start. My name is General Thompson."

"My name is I don't give a fuck, let me and my family go or we'll kill you all." I retorted.

"I don't see how you'll do that from inside a cell." He responded, I spied him holding the keys. "Where are your friends? We know there are more of you, but we can't seem to find them. Tell me where they are? And sure, I'll let you and the one eyed boy go."

I slowly walked over to him, making my voice as soft as possible. "You promise, General Thompson?"

He smirked. "Of course, I am a man of my word."

I leaned against the bars, looking left, and then right. He was alone. Dumb man. "Why don't you lean in closer and I'll tell you."

A smile etched onto his face as he did so. I brought my left hand up to one of the bars. "They're ripping apart everything you've built here." I hissed in his ear, before stabbing him through under his chin so that he couldn't scream out. He gurgled on his own blood, staring at me with wide eyes and an agape mouth. I grabbed the keys from his hand, before pulling the blade from his body. I smirked as I watched his corpse drop to the floor.

172.

I hummed quietly to myself as I sifted through the keys, finding the right one to unlock my cell. Once I was out, I dragged his corpse inside the cell and shut it. I hiked up my dress so that I could grab my handgun, before I took the safety off and cocked it. Slowly, with the keys in my left hand and and my gun in my right hand, I walked further down the row of cells. I counted them in my head, knowing which one Rick was supposed to be in.

Finally, when I got there... My heart broke in two. The cell was very similar to mine, except there was a bucket in the upper left corner. I saw a man laying on the bed, but his back was to me. Tears welled my eyes, but I forced them back. I tried all of the keys, until I found the correct one to his cell. I took a deep breath, before unlocking it.

Slowly, I walked over to the side of the bed. I put my hand on his side. It all happened to fast for me to react. He had sat up and grabbed my neck. He spun us around so I was pinned on the bed beneath him, he had his left hand around my neck and his right was holding a sharpened toothbrush to my chest. He clearly hesitated though. "Who are you?" He hissed. It was definitely Rick. His hair was longer and greasy, slightly grey too, he had a wild and untamed beard, there were more lines on his forehead and his eyes were sharper. He also had a scar to the right of his nose, it looked like it had been there a while. Rick had also lost quite a bit of weight, he was a lot smaller than I'd ever seen him.

I put the gun to my side, not wanting to spook him before I very slowly reached my hands up and pulled off my mask. Back in the day, he would've recognised me straight away... But, it had been six years. I looked different. His eyes trailed every millimetre of my face. Taking all of me in. He dropped the shiv onto my chest before bringing his hand up to trail my scar with his finger. "It's me, mama Rick."

His hand finally left my neck, so I could get a decent breath in. He didn't bother getting off me as he pulled me to sit up. He arms were around me in a bone crushing hug. I didn't hesitate to hug him back. Rick instantly started sobbing into my neck which made me shed tears of my own. "Ellie?" His voice was hoarse and rough.

"Yea, it's me." I whispered. "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry." My voice cracked.

"Don't be. It's not your fault, honey. It's never been your fault." Rick said, finally sitting to my side instead of on me. "I knew exactly what happened from the moment I saw your face that day. Not once have I blamed you. Not even a little."

Another sob ripped from my chest, as I remembered the situation. I tried pulling back, but his arms held onto me so tight. "I love this, but we have got to go. We'll catch up more later, there's a lot which you missed."

He pulled back from me. "How are you even here?" He moved his hands to my cheeks as he wiped tears from my face.

"Long story, secret mission." I responded, grabbing my gun. "They have Carl and mama- uh Michonne, in cells."

"Carl and Michonne are here?" Rick asked, standing up.

"So is Sophia, Rosita, mum, dad and oh Chris Evans." I told him, with a grin.

"The old guy you're in love with?" Rick furrowed his eyebrows.

"I- well, yea." I nodded, walking back to the door of his cell, I grabbed the keys and chucked them to him. I looked left, then right, before walking back the way I came. I saw two guards and didn't hesitate to shoot them both in the head. Me and Rick grabbed the machine guns off both of them, strapping them around our chests. "We gotta get those two out, find my dad and take off. Sophia, Chris, Rosita, and mum are getting the old folk out. There should be a herd coming this way in two hours."

174.

That's when we heard screaming. We both stopped in our tracks. "Two hours?" Rick repeated.

"Crap, if they're these variants then they're faster than Chris predicted." I responded. "Damnit, okay. We gotta go now." I picked up the pace and started running to where I saw them drag Carl, in the direction on mama's cell. I put my hand out to stop Rick when a few dozen walkers started running down the hallway in front of us. They were going from the west to the east, while we were going from the north to the south. 

"Did you just say variants?" Rick asked.

One of the walkers heard him. They stopped, in the middle of the crossroads of hallways, before it slowly turned to us. "Yes, I did." I answered, as it ran at us. I grabbed Rick's arm and we started running back down the hallway.

"We need to get to Carl and Michonne." Rick reminded me.

"We need to be alive to do that." I countered.

Rick wasn't as fast as he was back in the day. I didn't realise that, until I heard him yell. I turned and saw that the walker had tackled him the ground. I didn't hesitate to shoot it in the head, before pulling Rick up. "Thanks." He smiled.

"It would've got their attention, come on, we gotta move." I pulled him with me. I ran slow with him, I wouldn't leave him behind, but they were catching up. I had no choice but to open a random door and pull us both inside. I slammed the door behind us and locked it. Good thing too, because I saw the handle being jiggled back and forth.

I turned and saw us in a storage room. No windows, and the only door blocked by dozens of variants. "How do we get out of this?" Rick asked me.

I glanced up to him, and let out a heavy breath. "Good question, mother goose."