Once they had gotten back to the prison in relative silence, Parker went up to the watchtower and Daryl went to tell Beth the bad news about Zach. She sat with her feet dangling over the edge as she tried to figure out how the camera worked, fiddling with the dials and batteries. It was one of those old-fashioned Polaroid cameras, so she had made sure to get a handful of cards before things had gone to shit at the supermarket. Parker sat in silence, looking out over the fences to make sure nothing was out there besides the occasional walker. 

There was no one to talk to, and she was able to be alone with her thoughts. This was the place Parker went to when things got bad, and after they walked through the front gates she didn't want to be around anyone. She was tired of losing people and seeing Zach die had hurt her more than she thought it would have. He was just a child, naive enough to think that he could make it in the new world, but brave enough to face it. He didn't deserve what happened to him, and what hurt her the most was the reminder that it could have happened to any of them. 

As Parker worked on the camera and took a photo of the field to test it, she heard footsteps behind her. She didn't turn around to see who it was, recognizing the familiar footsteps as she took the card from the camera and shook it, waiting for the picture to develop.

"I knew I would find you up here."

"Where else would I be?" Parker asked in response, tilting her head back to look at Daryl. "Look what I grabbed."

"A camera?" Daryl sat down next to her, looking at the camera as if he'd never seen one before.

"Yes," Parker nodded her head, showing it to him. "I realized that I have nothing to remember any of you by, so I'm going to start taking pictures. So... in case something happens, I'll have something to remember you."

"That's morbid." Daryl took the camera from her and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, it's a bit dark. But it's also realistic. Pictures make moments last longer."

"You okay?" He placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it. "I talked to Beth."

"I'm okay." She placed her hand over his giving it a small squeeze. "How's she doing?"

"She'll be fine," Daryl sighed, setting the camera on the floor beside him. "I'm tired of losin' people."

"Same here," Parker agreed, resting against the bottom bar of the rail. "Glenn and I were talking about kids today."

"Sounds interesting," She looked at him with an unimpressed look, he didn't find it interesting at all.

"You came up here so you're stuck listening anyway. As I was saying, it made me think, you know?" Parker looked ahead, her eyes tracking a few walkers who joined a larger group on the fence. "I don't want to be afraid to live."

"But what about what happened to Lori?" Daryl watched her not knowing where she was going with this.

"We didn't have the medical equipment and still don't," Parker said, trying to contain the sadness that came over her as she thought about her sister-in-law. "I'm not saying we should try because it's definitely way to soon. But there's only so many ways we can be careful, you know? If it ever happens... how would you feel?"

"Always wanted to be a dad," Daryl responded, his voice low. "And we'll figure it out when the time comes." Parker nodded her head, accepting his answer.

"Oh, just so you know, Glenn already said he wants to be the godfather." Daryl laughed at the news.

"Why ain't I surprised? You and him are attached at the hip."

"Yeah, well he's been my best friend since the beginning and God knows there aren't many people left from the original Atlanta group." Daryl pulled Parker towards him, hugging her tightly.

"We're still here."

"Yeah.." She agreed with him quietly before letting out a gasp. "We need a picture of this."

"I hate pictures."

"Get over it," Parker leaned over grabbing the camera, plastering a smile on her face before clicking the button. When the image faded onto the small card, Parker shook it a bit and Daryl raised his eyebrows.

"I never thought you'd get that excited over a camera."

"It's like giving Judith a new toy," Parker told him, showing off the picture. "Only I'm an adult."

"You're still a kid at heart," Daryl laughed at the look she gave him even though she agreed with his words. They stayed in the watchtower for the night, using the blankets Maggie and Glenn left for when they were on watch and things got cold or... in their case hot.  It took a while for Parker to fall asleep, afraid of the nightmares that might arise from the dark parts of her mind. But eventually, exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep in Daryl's arms. 

The next morning, Parker headed back to the prison a single gunshot went off and she paused midstep. It wasn't until she heard the rapid fire of gunshots that she felt terror settle into her gut. Two little girls, Lizzie and Mika, ran out of the prison screaming for someone to help them.

"Help! Help!"

"Please! Come quick!"

"Is it the cell blocks?!" Parker shouted, seeing Rick running over from the pigs.

"I don't know!" He answered back, instructing Carl to do something as they all ran to the prison.

"Walkers in D!" Glenn yelled at Rick and Parker, who ran as fast as they could.

"What about C?" Rick panicked, clearly worried about his kids.

"Clear," Sasha informed him. "We closed the doors to the tombs. Hershel is on guard." She assured them all, opening the gate to let them in.

"It ain't a breach," Daryl announced as they ran towards D block.

"We followed the plan." Parker checked back over her shoulder to see who was coming. She caught the gun Glenn tossed her as they all ran down the hallway, Daryl and Rick hot on their heels. As soon as they stepped foot into the cellblock, Parker saw the utter chaos. People were screaming as the walkers came from all angles, clawing their way out of the cells and attacking the first person they could grab a hold of. It was useless to use a gun in such a close-range environment, and Parker didn't want to risk shooting any of the living. Swinging the rifle over her shoulder, she grabbed her knife from her belt, ran at the nearest walker, and stabbed it in the head before it could attack the person hiding in their cell. 

"Are you bit!?" Rick repeated to everyone as he evacuated the cellblock, Carol and Tyreese locking children and random adults into cells in attempts to keep them safe. Parker saw Daryl grab a child and pull him away from a walker trying to bite him, she rushed over, grabbed the walker by its hair, which peeled its scalp off, and drove her knife into the side of its head. When she pulled the knife out blood splattered all over her shirt and she grimaced. Throwing her knife, she watched it embed itself into the back of a walker's skull and it collapsed at Glenn's feet. Everyone stopped when they thought it was safe, quickly looking around to make sure no more walkers were coming. "Are we clear down here!?" Rick shouted from one of the cells. "We're safe?"

"I think so, yeah," Parker answered back, climbing up the stairs with Daryl behind her. Glenn was already up there, checking the cells and as he checked through a sheet that hung in front of one, a walker sprung out and pinned him against the wall.

"Get down!" Daryl yelled, aiming his crossbow and killing the walker, the arrow flying through the bars of a cell door into the side of the walker's head. Parker helped Glenn up and yanked back the sheet which is when they saw the walker on the ground. She gasped, her face falling, her chest clenching painfully.

"It's Patrick.." She sighed sadly, his whole face covered in blood. Once they were all sure the cellblock was a hundred percent cleared, only the dead remained. Parker went back down the stairs, blade in hand, stabbing each person they had lost in the head to make sure they wouldn't reanimate. It was difficult because they were all innocent people, and she whispered a silent apology to each one she killed. She pushed herself off the ground, wiping the blood off her knife onto her pants, she looked around and found Glenn watching her. She bit her lower lip to stop it from shaking as she looked at all the bodies that littered the ground. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know," He replied honestly, looking around at the aftermath.

"Hey, Parker!" Daryl called from the second floor, she quickly jogged up the steps expecting something bad. Rick was crouched next to a walker in one of the cells and when Parker looked at the blood covering its face, she frowned.

"No bites... no wounds," Rick explained to her, "I think he just died."

"Horribly too," Doctor S commented from beside Rick. "Pleurisy aspiration."

"What is 'pleur- pleurisy insperation'?" Parker muttered completely lost, not knowing what he was talking about. "That doesn't sound right."

"Pleurisy aspiration, he choked to death on his own blood," Hershel explained, noticing their confused faces. "Caused those trails down his face."

"I've seen them before, on a walker outside the fences."

"I saw them on Patrick too," Daryl added.

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up," Doctor S explained further. "It's like if you shake a soda can and pop the top. Only imagine... your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are the top."

"Is it like a sickness or a disease spread by the walkers? Did they start this too?" Parker asked Hershel and Doctor S.

"No, these things happened before they were around. It could be pneumococcal. It's most likely an aggressive flu strain."

"Some locked him up just in time," Hershel said, rattling the cell door a bit.

"No, man." Daryl shook his head, keeping a distance from the group at the entrance of the cell. "Charlie used to sleepwalk. He locked himself in. Hell, he was just eatin' barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"

"I had a sick pig, it died quick," Rick shared with the rest of them. "Saw a sick boar in the woods."

"Pigs and birds," Hershel spoke sadly. "That's how these things spread in the past," Hershel sighed, realizing their food was what was causing the sickness.

"Okay, then we need to do something about the boars. They're the main cause of this."

"Maybe we got lucky," Doctor S tried to remain hopeful, although their luck had pretty much run out right after they found the prison. "Maybe these two cases are it."

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time," Bob said, arms crossed over his chest. "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed," Hershel concluded, all of them sharing concerned looks.

"So what do we do now?" Parker asked worriedly, what if Rick got sick and ended up like Patrick or Charlie? "Quarantine?'

"We need a council meeting," Rick announced, looking around at the people in the room. "Now." That was where Parker found herself next, sitting in the prison library alongside Daryl, Sasha, Carol, Glenn, and Hershel. The council was formed as a way to free Rick from his leadership, giving him the freedom he needed to raise his daughter and repair his broken bond with his son.

"I saw Patrick yesterday and he seemed perfectly fine. He had to have died while everyone was asleep." Parker told them, her voice trembling a bit near the end.

"Two people died that quick?" Carol repeated what she had heard earlier. "We'll have to separate everyone that's been exposed."

"That's everyone in that cellblock," Daryl responded. "It's all of us. Maybe more."

"We know that this sickness can be lethal," Hershel started, all eyes going to him. "We don't know how easily it spreads. Is anyone else showing symptoms that we know of?"

"We can't take the risk of waiting that long." Parker cut in, picking at the dried blood under her fingernails. "There are children. We all live in the same cell block as Judith."

"It isn't just the illness," Carol added to her argument. "If people die, they become a threat."

"We need a place for them to go," Hershel said, "They can't stay in D. We can't risk going in there to clean it up."

"We can use Cellblock A," Carol suggested and Parker hummed in agreement.

"Death row?" Glenn asked questioningly. "I'm not sure that's much of an upgrade." He chewed on his thumbnail.

"Now that you mention it being death row, keeping sick people in there doesn't seem like a very optimistic idea."

"It's clean," Daryl inferred, "That's an upgrade. Think that'll work for Doctor S?"

"Well, we don't got that many options," Parker spoke, looking nervously at Glenn who sounded a bit stuffy.

"I'll help Caleb get it set up," Hershel volunteered. A cough from outside made everyone stand up and when they left the library they saw Tyreese and his girlfriend, who seemed to be the one coughing. When they asked if she was alright she told them yes. Parker however was not convinced, Karen was one of the people who lived in Block D, meaning she was exposed to the disease long before anyone else. They all came around the corner as Karen brushed off Tyreese's hand when he offered to help her walk.

"You sure?" Carol asked, "You don't sound so good."

"We're just taking her back to my cell so she can rest" Tyreese explained to them, rubbing her arm carefully.

"Tyreese, I don't think that's a good idea," Hershel stopped him.

"Why? What's going on now?" Karen looked around at all of them nervously.

"We think it's the flu or something," Glenn informed the couple. "That's how Patrick died."

"Judith is in that cellblock," Hershel added, glancing at Parker. "She's vulnerable. Anyone that may be sick or even exposed should stay away."

"It.. it killed Patrick?" Karen stuttered over her own words, shocked at the news.

"Yeah." Parker nodded, looking down at her feet.

"Well, she's gonna be okay," Tyreese stated confidently, looking around at the group. "Now that we know what Patrick died from... we can treat it. Right?" 

"Don't panic," Hershel said calmly, sensing the rising panic silently building up. "We're going to figure this out." He assured everyone, "But, we should keep you separated In the meantime." Karen and Tyreese looked unsure, looking at one another to see what they thought was best for them. "We'll have Caleb take a look at you. I'll see what we have in the way of medications."

"David from the Decatur group. He's been coughing too," Karen said, sounding exhausted.

"I'll... I'll get him" Glenn sighed, realizing this was a lot worse than any of them had expected. "There's some, uh, empty clean cells in the tombs, right?" He asked, not wanting to lock people up on death row.

"Yes, we will meet there, come on." Sasha led Karen and Tyreese away. "Let's get you settled."

"Have to call another meeting later," Hershel said quietly, turning to the last three remaining council members.

"Alright." Daryl agreed with him. "I'll get to burying the dead ones." He swung his crossbow over his shoulder, and Hershel stopped him before he could walk off.

"You wear gloves and a mask," Hershel advised as they got further away.

"Are you okay?" Parker asked Carol.

"I'm worried about Lizzie and Mika," Carol replied, her eyes filled with worry. "They were around Patrick. They were all close."

"We all were," Daryl responded before changing the subject. "Karen and David are gonna be separated. Till they feel better."

"You're right," Carol sighed, the stress of everything overwhelming her. "Are you guys okay?" Parker nodded as Daryl said his favorite phrase.

"Gotta be."