⌜ chapter eight ⌟

"Walkers!"

"Look out!" Carl and Ellie's shouts immediately gain everyone's attention.

"No!" Rick yells.

"Shit!" MJ curses as she and the three men with her all start running over to them.

"Get out!" He calls out as Glenn goes back to tie the wire through the fence, closing the hole that they use to get in and out of the prison. "Get out of there! Now!"

Bela's getting her dad and Beth away from the walkers. Lori, Carl, Ellie, and Jack are shooting at the dead as Maggie runs over to the four of them. T-Dog, Carol, Dana, and Addy aren't far behind her. Maggie gets Lori and the three kids to safety as quickly as she can.

MJ's ahead of Rick and Daryl and she uses her set of keys to unlock the gate. She's in a rush and it causes her to fumble with the lock and the chain. She finally gets it open, and they all start running again.

"No!" Carol screams, causing Dana to turn around. The two women watch as T kills the walker that bit his shoulder while he was resecuring the gate, locking it again.

"We have to go." The teenager grabs Carol's arm. "Mom!" She yells as she looks around.

T-Dog runs over and grabs Dana, forcing her to go with him and Carol. "Trust me, if anyone can handle these walkers on their own, it's your mom and MJ." He tells her, and they head into the prison.

MJ runs over and stabs the walker that's trying to bite Addy. She and the guys just made it to the courtyard.

"What the hell happened?" Rick questions, looking at Beth, Hershel, and Bela who are in a closed off gated area.

"The gate was open." Beth tells him as MJ rushes over and passes her gun through the bars to Bela.

"I know you're a damn good shot." She tells her. "Anything comes too close for comfort, you shoot it. In the head."

"I remember." Bela nods.

"Where's Lori, Carl — everyone else?" Rick's asking.

"Maggie led Lori and the kids into C block." Hershel tells them.

"And T was bit." Beth says.

"Anyone else?" MJ asks.

"I couldn't tell."

"Where were my mom, Jo, and Matt when all this started?" Addy asks.

"Inside cleaning up." Bela says. "They were gonna meet us out here."

"Alright, stay put." MJ says as she and Rick turn around. Glenn and Daryl have still been killing walkers.

"Those chains didn't break on their own." Glenn says as he runs back over to the other four still in the courtyard. "Someone took an ax or cutters to 'em."

"A dead someone when I find out who." MJ says as Rick turns to look at the prisoners who are slowly making their way forward.

"You think they did it?"

"Who else?" Rick questions, and then an alarm starts blaring.

"What's that?" Addy asks as they look around.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Glenn yells.

MJ sees more walkers making their way toward the prison, coming out of the woods as they're drawn to all of the noise. "Son of a bitch." She mutters.

Addy raises her gun and shoots one of the loudspeakers. Glenn shoots another. Rick runs over to the prisoners with his gun raised.

"How the hell can this be happening?" He demands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Oscar holds his hands up. "It has to be the backup generators."

"Well, how do you turn those off?"

"There's three that's connected to a diesel tank, okay? Each one controls a certain part of the prison. The hacks shut them off when the prison was overrun." He tells them.

"Can someone open up the main gates electrically with full power?" Rick asks.

"Look, I only worked in there a few days. I guess it might be possible." Oscar says.

"Come with us!" He orders, and they start running.

"M, I have to find Dana." Addy says as she grabs her best friend.

"She was with T and Carol." Bela calls from where she is with the others. "He pulled her away from the walkers."

"We will find her, I promise." MJ says as she grabs Addy's hand. "But first, we gotta shut off these damn alarms."

The two women take off after the men and catch up quickly. They head into the cellblock and have to kill a few walkers, but other than that, it's empty.

"Lori!" Rick calls. "Carl!"

"My mom." Addy says. "And Jo. They were in here with Matt. Where are they?"

"Hey, hey." MJ quickly makes the blonde look at her. "We will find them. We'll find all of them, I promise. We'll find our girls and the boys, everyone."

"We took out five of 'em in there." Daryl says as he, Glenn, Oscar, and Axel make their way back into the cellblock.

"There were four in here, but no sign of Lori or any of them." Rick tells them.

"They must have been pushed back into the prison." Glenn says as Daryl loads his crossbow. MJ goes to get herself a new gun since she gave hers to Bela.

"Somebody is playing games!"

"We'll split up and look for the others." MJ says, twisting her angel blade in her hand. "Whoever gets to the generators first, shut 'em down!"

—

"Daryl, get the door!" Rick yells as they run down a hallway.

Addy, Glenn, and Axel split off from them to cover more ground. Now Rick, Daryl, MJ, and Oscar are in the room with the generators.

"How do you shut these down?!"

"Go help him." Daryl tells Oscar. "We got it."

Oscar leaves Daryl and MJ at the door, they're both pushing against it with as much force as they can manage. He rushes over to Rick, and then they're attacked by a man with an ax.

Andrew.

"Do you trust me?" Daryl asks, still struggling with the door.

"Yes." MJ barely manages.

"Get back." He says, and she steps away from the door, raising her gun.

Daryl lets the door open, and she shoots the first walker that comes in. He gets the next with his knife and then slams the door shut again. There's a lot of loud banging noises coming from Rick and the two prisoners as the others make sure that the door's secure.

"Shoot him!" Andrew tells Oscar, who now has Rick's gun. "We can take back this prison. What are you waiting for? Do it! It's our house! Shoot him!"

There's a gunshot as Daryl and MJ make their way over to them. Oscar shot Andrew, and he still has the gun raised. He then lets it spin around his index finger and hands it back over to Rick. He takes the gun and shuts off the generators.

"Let's go." Rick says after the alarms stop, and they head out of the room.

They quietly make their way through the hallways and eventually run across Glenn, Addy, and Axel. They keep going, careful not to draw any unwanted attention to themselves.

They round a corner and see two walkers eating someone. Rick shoots them both, and they all rush forward. It's T-Dog... It was T-Dog.

Daryl picks up the scarf that Carol had wrapped around her head this morning and then MJ sees something on the floor catch the light. She kneels down and her heart sinks as tears fill her eyes.

"What is it?" Addy asks as MJ picks up the golden pendant.

"Dean's necklace." MJ reluctantly tells her as she grips it in her fist.

"No." The blonde starts shaking her head. "No."

Dean threw it away awhile back, after Cas gave up his search for God. Dana pulled it out of the trash without him knowing. He'd worn it since they were kids, it was a symbol of his bond with his younger brother — Dana refused to let him get rid of it. So she kept it.

"We need to keep moving." MJ says as she stands up straight, wiping tears from her face. "We have to find the others."

They make it out of the prison, back into the courtyard, and head over to where they left Hershel and two of his daughters. "Hershel!" Rick calls out.

"You didn't find​ them?" The older man asks.

"We thought maybe they came back." Glenn tells him, and he shakes his head.

"What about T? Carol? Dana?"

"They didn't make it." Daryl says as Addy starts sobbing.

"That doesn't mean the others didn't. We're going back." Rick says.

"Addy!" Jo runs over with Ellen and Matt right behind her. "What the hell happened?"

"What's going on?" Ellen asks when Addy slams into her and hugs her. She wraps her arms around her daughter.

"Walkers came into the cellblock. There were too many for just us." Matt tells them, and then he sees that MJ's trying to compose herself. "We couldn't get out here to tell anyone sooner, we got pushed farther into the prison. Hey, look at me." He reaches up to wipe her tear-stained cheeks.

"I'm fine." She tells him.

"What happened? Is it Ellie?" He asks, panic evident in his voice, and she shakes her head.

"It was the other prisoner — Andrew." Glenn explains. "He opened the gates, turned on the alarm. He wanted to take the prison."

"Where's everybody else?" Jo asks.

He hesitates. "T and Carol...and Dana didn't make it." He says, finding it even harder to tell her about her niece than the others. "We haven't found the others yet."

MJ stumbles away from Matt, not wanting his comfort, just wanting to get the hell away from it all, but Daryl places his hand on her back. She stays frozen at his side, looking down at the necklace in her hand as tears run down her cheeks.

"We're going back in." Rick repeats. "Daryl and Glenn, you come with—"

They hear a baby crying, and everyone turns around to look for where the other group is coming from. Jack's holding the baby, and Carl and Maggie have Ellie between them. She's limping on her right leg. Jack looks stunned, while the girls are both crying, and Carl's trying his hardest not to. Jack's the one leading them, holding the baby against his chest.

Rick walks forward, dropping the ax in his hand.

Matt rushes forward to check on his daughter, and Maggie looks at him. "I-I think it's just sprained — her ankle." She tells him through her tears. He picks Ellie up, and she wraps her arms around his neck.

"Where— Where is she? Where is she?" Rick asks Jack, he wants Lori.

The youngest doesn't know what to say, and Rick starts to walk past him. Maggie tries to grab him, but he moves past her too and looks at his son. Carl took a step back after Matt took Ellie from him and Maggie. Rick's now sobbing just as badly as Addy, and Carl's staring at the ground.

"Mom." Jack says, looking at MJ. He didn't mean to call her that, but he makes no effort to call her anything different after. "Take— Take her. Please." He says as he walks over to her with the baby in his arms. "I can't... I don't know how to..." He's never held a baby before and he's afraid of hurting her.

"I got her." MJ says as she takes the baby, making sure to cradle her head. "I got her."

Glenn walks over and hugs Maggie, who's crying even harder. Matt's still holding Ellie, and Ellen hugs Addy a little tighter. MJ keeps the baby against her and she looks over at her own daughter, hearing her sobs. Rick collapses on the ground, still crying.

MJ turns to Daryl then, and he takes the necklace that's hanging from her fingers. The baby's wrapped in Lori's jeans and she's crying as MJ tries to sooth her. She looks over at Jack.

"I-I tried." He starts. "I did like you said. I stayed with Lori and the kids. I... I tried."

"No, hey, Jacky." MJ shakes her head. "You did— You were..." She can't clear her head, not with the baby crying and everyone that they just lost.

"You did good, kid." Daryl says as he reaches out and places his hand on Jack's shoulder. "You did exactly what you were supposed to." He tells him, and MJ nods, trying to smile.

Jack walks back over to Carl then, seeing as his dad isn't doing too well. He wants to keep doing like MJ's told him from the beginning — take care of the kids.

MJ looks back up at Daryl again, and he wipes a tear from her cheek. She's rocking the baby as best she can. She takes deep, shaky breaths as she looks down at the crying infant, keeping the two of them close to Daryl.