The Darkest Storm

“Shit.”

Darcy unbuttons her holster in an instant and brings up her pistol, holding it tightly in her hands as she ignores all the uproar and clamor around her, desperate to try and take back the prison that had somehow been overcome with walkers in a manner of seconds.

They creep closer and closer, forcing all but the three who were locked inside the outer fences to be backed up against the walls with nowhere to run. It was until a small gap was formed that Darcy made the instinct action to pull Carl off of one of the metal picnic tables he climbed on to help take out the walkers, and push him in the direction towards his mother and Maggie where they stood hurriedly in the cellblock entryway.

After seeing that Hershel and Beth have also made it out of the yard safely, Darcy makes the quick, and undoubtedly irrational decision, that Daryl might have had her head for if he was there to see it, to rush towards a door that was just inside the yard.

Although, it may have not been so crazy because not a second later Carol and T-Dog came running up behind her, trying to do the same. It was until T had noticed the door, to the first gate they had shut since their take over of the prison was in fact busted open, that the three tried to make small gaps in order to close it again.

“Make sure that door is ready just incase we need a quick getaway.” He points hurriedly, scooting himself over and firing a few bullets at strays nearby, stretching to reach the gate.

T-Dog nodded to Darcy over their gunfire and she ran towards it, taking down a few more walkers along the way. She wrenches the copper rusted door open and aims inside wall to wall, and up and down for precautious measures and sees nothing.

As Darcy narrows her eyes into the darkness, a wave of pure fear washes over her as
Carol screams. Darcy whips her head around to see where her focus is: T-Dog is bit closing the gate, and not in an easy area like Hershel’s to do anything about it.

Her gut twisted as she pulls on Carol’s arms into the tombs, pushing her to safety and waving T-Dog inside for the time being. He makes it, clenching his eyes in pain and breathing heavily, all the while weary eyes kept a close watch on him.

Movement down the halls shot the three’s heads up and into the shadows; they had to get moving, most likely to their cellblock to meet up with the others. In all reality though, they weren’t sure if the prison was overrun again, or what had even caused the panic. It was all happening way to quickly.

Darcy had always made the mistake thinking there were limits to how bad things can get. Once again, she was dumbfounded as she grabbed her ears and closed her eyes at the sudden sound of an alarm blaring throughout the entire prison, like she was back in an elementary school fire drill – only this time; it was downright serious to a whole other degree. She felt like she couldn’t keep up with it all.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She screams over the loud blare.

“Where is it coming from!?” Carol yells back, also holding her ears.

“I don’t know.” T-Dog clenches his right shoulder and pushes forward, crouching and wincing with every breath. His eyes suddenly widen. “I know this way – there’s a way out, I’ll lead you both back there.”

“Maybe you should rest –“ Carol’s face has small drops of tears as she tries to support his weight.

He shakes his head and waves Darcy to the front, “No, I’m dead anyways – I gotta get you two outta here. Darcy do you –“ he winces, “Do you remember those sets of double doors that – that will lead you to a corridor and get you back to our cell block?”

“Yes, but, you should stop –“ Darcy paces back and forth, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for any sounds or movements that seem unstable and too close for comfort while giving quick glances to the two behind her. As soon as she reaches a corner edge, she jumps around it, moving her gun forcefully and steadily from side to side looking for anything that might be there.

He shakes his head again and doesn’t listen, “I’m getting you there –“

“You should stop!” Darcy suddenly comes to a halt and pulls on his other arm, tugging on T-Dog with such force but he simply shrugs it off.

Her throat is tight as she fights back fearful and hopeless tears. She’s not daft. Darcy clearly understands that T-Dog is going to die here, either in these halls or in their cellblock and when he does, he will turn just like the others.

“Why?” T-Dog starts walking again, “So I can sit here and wait to die?”

“We’ll do what we have to-“ Darcy urges him.

“We’re not letting you become one of those things!” Carol tells him.

“I can’t ask that.” T-Dog shakes his head, attempting to stand up straight but struggles with his fast past.

“It’s the pact, remember?” Carol pleads.

“This is God’s plan. He’ll take care of me, always has. He’s gonna help me lead you out of these tombs.”

-

“You didn’t see her? Anybody else?” Daryl holds within himself a deep sense of panic when he asks Hershel and Beth, who still stood on top of the staircase within a cage, where Darcy was.

Hershel confidently shook his head while Beth answered vocally, “I couldn’t tell.”

Daryl found the lack of knowledge extremely unsettling – not knowing where she was, who she was with, if she was even okay. The gate was forced open, by whom they didn’t know for sure. All eyes went immediately to the two strangers slowly walking and gaping at the scene at the once cleared yard from the lawn.

He looks down at his hand that throbbed and noticed he had it clenched so hard it was turning white. He shakes it loose, looking for Rick for the next step. Daryl himself didn’t know where to go or what to do, without Rick’s lead, he would go straight into the halls and look for her, while taking every son of a bitch out that got in his way.

But the voice inside his head vibrated to him on the wind, told him not to be afraid, but to relax and let things unfold as they had to – she was deep in the prison by now, hopefully with a trusty companion like Carol and T-Dog since their whereabouts are a mystery as well. After all, it was the end of the world and there was nothing he could do.

-

“We’re almost there.” T-Dog tells the two women. Darcy nods in confirmation, noticing the spray painted arrows on the sides of the walls. She peers around the corner, and it’s quiet besides the racket of the alarm that was still blaring throughout the prison.

Darcy looks back to Carol who now holds up T-Dog’s weight in almost entirely – she is about to wave them forward when the all too familiar gut wrenching sound of shuffling feet and growls are heard from where she just looked. She looked around, and sees the sudden shadows.

Carol raises her gun but she is out of ammo, when Darcy takes aim, T-Dog pushes the gun down and tells her, “Save that ammo. I’m getting you out of here now.”

Confused, but at the same time knowing exactly what he means, she shakes her head and blinks away the tears. “No.”

“We’re close.” He sprints forward, just avoiding his dear friends hands, and charges at the group of walkers.

T-Dog pins them to the wall with what energy he has left, letting them rip the flesh off his bones piece by piece in order for Darcy and Carol to get by. He yells back at them, ignoring the seizing pain at every angle, “Go! Go!”

Darcy takes Carol’s arm and pulls her along, but she is glued holding herself up against the wall watching in horror. In a few seconds, she finally snaps out of it – going along with Darcy through the double doors and down another hallway.

They both try and figure out their new surroundings while attempting to avoid the threat that lingered around almost every corner. The alarm has stopped abruptly, and Darcy feels a numbness in her heart that Daryl has something to do with it. Her and Carol both fight back tears and the pumping, not to mention overwhelming, adrenaline that ceased to rush through their veins as they desperately try and find their way back to the group.

Darcy slides on her heels after having to quickly back track her steps after following a hunch in a tunnel. The walker that howled at her turned quickly, causing the attention of the dead around him to focus on the two and lunge forward. She pushes Carol and they run down another hallway. Like a maze, they are confused and flustered. They impatiently await familiar surroundings and non-decaying faces.

Soon, they come to a hall that has cell doors, but not like the others. These are purposefully for solitary confinement. Hesitating, they look at each other, their chests rising and falling with their heavy breathing, but quickly run into the closest one as they see both exits are blocked by oncoming flesh-eaters.

Darcy fires a bullet that is one of her last at a walker just in front of the door. It falls in front of the entry, and she edges her self in after Carol who gave a fatal attempt at stabbing a walker but only through it’s neck. Darcy uses the body as a slight roadblock for anything that may want to make its way inside.

Darcy is pushing the door closed with her back and fighting against the force of the herd on the other side. With a final ‘click,’ the door is shut and no amount of pushing and pounding they hear, or the vibrations of on that door they feel will cause it to open again.

Propping herself on her knees, Darcy places her hands lightly on the top of her head and looks up through her disheveled strands of hair. She cannot see anything. She cannot see Carol, the bench, or the door handle to the side of her. It is utter darkness, the worst kind of darkness. She can only hear the walkers on the other side of the heavy metal door and the slight whimpers of Carol somewhere in the cell with her.

Still breathing heavily, she tries to adjust her eyes for a moment, thinking maybe that would help. Darcy then remembers the lighter in her pocket. She fumbles through them until coming up empty handed. Aggravated, Darcy slams her right hand against the door, knowing she must have dropped it somewhere in the maze.

Pulling at the roots of her hair, Darcy slides down with her back still up against the door, sprawling out her legs in front of her and wondering what the hell they were going to do now.

-

Daryl follows Rick through the familiar, and the way they should be, abandoned tombs towards a sound they really don’t fancy seeing at all. The gnawing of teeth and the munching of skin was just on the other side of the corner, where a small window was shining in, having the ability to trick the world into thinking it would be a good day.

The prisoners and Glenn follow them – the sound of the alarm still ringing in a consistent pattern in their ears. Andrew, the man that Darcy and Rick had left out in the courtyard for dead had made it out, and set a plan to take back the prison that was supposedly his.

He was dead now, no chances taken this time.

Rick holds the flashlight out in front of him as he finally takes a deep breath in and lights up the hallway towards the sound. They see two walkers hovering over a body that couldn’t have been mistaken if they tried.

T-Dog was gone, a good friend and fighter. He was now an empty cipher, a colorless color. A mind that his family and friends could no longer talk to, just scattered memories and a collection of habits and tendencies that will forever be remembered as T-Dog.

Rick shoots them down, shaking his head in sadness and disheartenment. Daryl hangs his head, avoiding looking at his friend’s body to never remember him in the mauled up frame. A glimmer of light catches his eye, something small that sits in front of the slightly ajar double doors.

Daryl leans over, picking up the gold lighter and holding it gently in his hands. The feeling in his chest was hollow as he stared and thought over options and different circumstances as to why it was there – and where was its owner. But somewhere in his gut, he has a feeling and it’s starting to slowly eat him alive.

He feels the weight of Rick’s eyes in his direction, and he gives him a quick look before swallowing the tightness forming in his throat. Rick looks at the lighter, and back to Daryl who has quickly shoved the token in his pocket. He runs a rough arm over his eyes and blinks, nodding to Rick for the next move.

-

Darcy held her breath as she squinted through the small slither of an opening into the hallway. Above her, Carol closed her eyes to block out any distraction as she strained to hear what was going on outside.

“What’s happening out there?” She whispered frantically.

“Shh, don’t be so impatient Carol, we have to wait it out.” Darcy sighs, barely making out the slow figures through such a small opening. “We can’t take any chances.”

Darcy could just catch a few silhouettes at a stand still near the corner of the hall way. She jumped back slightly when a few more stumbling corpses crossed her eye’s path.

“Fuck.” She hisses angrily. “It’s no use. I don’t have enough bullets to get us out of here and we don’t even know what’s down that way.” She points with her thumb towards the opposite hall. “We’re trapped until – “

“Until what?” Carol narrows her eyes and awaits her answer.

Darcy sighs heavily. “Until someone finds us or the herd clears.”

Carol’s voice is shaky, “How long do you think that will take?”

Darcy finds the wall with her hand and leans her back up against it and rests her head back as well, “I don’t know. I hope very, very soon.”