"WALKERS! Look out!" Carl's voice rang through the prison yard. It had started out as a good fucking day. Hershel was up and walking around, we had gathered up all the bodies and cleared it out for the most part.

"One fucking day!" I yelled as me, Rick, and Daryl made a b-line for the group who was retreating back into the prison. I could hear shots being fired and Rick was screaming for Lori. We all ended up in different parts of the prison.

"T-dog look out!" I yelled as I shot the walker that was biting into T-dog's shoulder.

"Come on. In here!" Carol said and I grabbed T-dog and we ran through a door and down a hall with walkers right on our asses.

"The fuck is that?" I said as an alarm started to blare through the prison.

"I don't know. Look there's a set of double doors that will lead to a corridor that'll get you guys back to our cell block." T-dog said as we made our way through the winding halls.

"T, you should stop." Carol said, reaching out for him.

"I'm getting you there!" He demanded and I could tell the bit was taking over him more than he would like to admit.

"T, slow the fuck down." I said as I was having a hard time keeping up seeing as I twisted my ankle running from those fucking things.

"Stop!" Carol said again and he did only for a moment.

"Why? Sit here and wait to die? Nope." He said and started to move again.

"I'll do what I have to. You're not becoming one of those things." Carol told him and he shook his head still moving holding onto his bitten shoulder.

"I can't ask that." He told her and I grabbed his arm.

"Then I fucking will. T, I won't let you die like that." I said genuine sadness filling my voice. He tried to refuse and I shut him up real quick.

"It's the pact, remember?"

"Na, this is god's plan. He'll take care of me. Always has. He's gonna help me lead you both out of these tunnels." T-dog said dragging on as we passed empty rooms and seemingly empty halls. We kept going and the trail of blood that followed behind T-dog started to get worse by the second. I could see the sweat beading up on his forehead as the fever was slowly over taking his body.

"T, you need to slow down. You're gonna burn your body out before anything else." I said as we ran through the halls.

"No can do honey. I gotta get you two safe." His determination shined through more than anything else.

"You can't do that if you're dead." I finally said coming to a full stop with Carol next to me. T-dog stopped too letting my words sink in.

"I will not die until I know for a fact you girls are safe." He said and then he just kept going. Seeing no point in arguing anymore with him we followed trying to stay right up on him. My ankle felt like it was on fire and the searing pain was now making itself more apparent. I was on one side of T-dog and Carl was on his other side as we made our way down a very darkened hall with some lights flashing in and out every once and awhile.

"We're almost there." T-dog said and that when we heard the disgusting growls of the undead just ahead of us. Carol pulled out her gun and started to shoot but nothing came out. I was out of bolts and bullets so we were, in short, screwed.

"Shit. Go back!" I said turning around with T-dog's arm still over my shoulder.

"No, no. We're close." T-dog said and he grabbed mine and Carol's hand and dragged us along once we got to the walkers T-dog charged them, shoving them against the wall and telling us to run.

"Go! Go!" Carol was crying and screaming but I grabbed her hand and dragged her along past T-dog. We got to a door and I shoved Carol though.

"Go. I'm dead!" T-dog yelled as the walkers tared into his flesh.

"Thank you." I said tears streaming down my face. T-dog's screams echoed through the halls and I could feel my heart being ripped apart like back when I lost my whole platoon right in front of my eyes.

It felt like hours had gone by. I had shoved Carol into a small closet and shut the door leading the horde of walkers we had on our asses away from her. Despite her telling me not to leave her I couldn't let her die the same way T did. Plus the girl had no more fight in her, she was exhausted and I could see it even when she was trying to hide it. This prison was like a maze and just when I thought I had lost the walkers I would turn a corner and there were a dozen more. Thankfully the alarm had stopped so it wasn't attracting anymore walkers. Not like I needed anymore on my ass. My body was being thrown about the halls as I tried to stay ahead of the deathly sounds coming from behind me.

After about half an hour I had lost them but I could still hear them which meant they were not far behind. Pulling on doors I found one that was open. It was an office of some sort. I closed the door quietly and managed to use my body weight to keep the door closed. There was no energy left in me to push something in front of the door. I listened as the walkers snarled and shuffled past the door. Occasionally a walker would slam its body into the door but it never opened. After a while it was quiet and I was so tired my eyes grew heavy and I could feel myself falling into a deep sleep. It would have been nice to stay there like that but, it didn't last long. I woke up in an instant as I watched a walker trying to break through a door that was already broken.

"Fuck no." I said as I got up stabbing the walker in the eye and shoving his body through the whole. Which I would have come to regret. As soon as I did that a dozen walkers came for the door and I watched it fall apart.

"Can't I catch a break." My voice was horse from lack of water and constant yelling as I pulled open the door to the hall and ran out the walkers following me out of the room I was in. I ran and ran with the little energy I had left till I rounded a corner and ended up right in the thicket of some walkers. I couldn't go back due to the walkers following me. I couldn't move forward since I had walkers coming right at me. Frantically I looked around and saw a door. I ran clamoring to get there as walkers ripped apart my clothes. Once I was inside I barracked the door with anything that was there and then my body. Loud bangs and snarls kept me awake despite my body wanting nothing but to rest. All I could hope was if I died that my new found family would be safe.

It felt like it had been days but, maybe it had only been hours. The walkers had lost interest in me about two hours after I locked myself up in the broom closet. All alone in the dark with nothing but my own thoughts and demons. All I could think is that they all died. That there's no one left and no one was going to come and help me. I was going to die alone just how I dreaded. Or maybe no one cared. Maybe they all thought I was dead or maybe they just didn't want to find me. My mind was making me doubt everyone around me as it raced one hundred mills an hour through every fucking scenario possible. The faint sounds of walkers came back down the hall like they were pacing waiting for me to just give up and walk out to offer myself like dinner to them. The occasional scratch at the door set me on edge. My body wanted rest but the sounds kept me awake and kept my mind racing. I wanted nothing more but to sleep or to let my body give out completely and scum to what is inevitable. The world was starting to grow dark around me and I felt the life slipping from me. At breakfast I hadn't eaten much due to the fact I wasn't really hungry. Now I'm laying here starving and starting to dehydrate.

'Is this it? Is this how I die? The great Raven Walker killed by the fucking elements. I thought I would die a hero. Or in some bloody battle. Not here. Not like this.' My mind was racing with these thoughts. As my breathing slowed and I let the darkness over take me. Just as I started to feel peace I was awoken by walkers slamming their bodies against the door and just like that I was woken up from my peace once more. All I wanted was some fucking peace and damn quiet.

"Can't a girl just die in peace." My voice was horse from the lack of water and sleep. My throat felt like it was on fire and honestly the bleach on the self in front of me was starting to look real good right about now. I gave myself a very airy laugh to my own suicidal thoughts. After almost 19 years now all of the sudden I was planning on killing myself, really after everything. I had been through so much and this. The thought of dying like this was going to be the thing that pushed me to killing myself.

'Fuck this shit is pathetic.' I thought to myself. As I felt the sunlight hit my face I knew another day had come and I was still alone dying at a slow agonizing rate. They all probably thought I was dead for sure. A very quiet and faint scream echoed in the halls jostling me out of my thoughts.

"Hello?" I called out as best as I could, my throat felt like it was being torn apart as I called out for anyone. After five minutes of calling out I gave up, slumping back against the door.

"Please someone. I don't want to die here." My voice was quiet barely above a whisper. Tears streamed down my face leaving clear trails on my cheeks and dropping themselves onto my torn clothes. Letting my tears fall I let my mind take me off into a daydream. A place where we were all safe. There were no walkers, no dead and decay. Everyone we loved was alive and well. We lived in a beautiful place with walls and it was secure. We didn't have to worry. There were kids playing in the streets and people growing old on their front porches.

"Raven!" A voice called me in my dream as I turned to see Daryl walking over to me. A baby wrapped in a pink blanket in one arm and a little boy no older than 3 holding onto his finger walking alongside him. The little boy had Daryl's bright blue eyes and my black natural curls.

"Mommy!" The little boy yelled as he ran up to me. I got down and picked him up, swinging him in my arms.

"Hey Johnny. How's my little man doing?" I asked him but, It was like I wasn't in real control of my body or my words. I was just meant to watch as this beautiful life folded in front of my eyes. Daryl got close to me, grabbing me around my waist he placed a kiss on my temple.

"Hey there darlin'." He said his voice was sweet and caring.

"Hi." My voice was soft and held a feeling I could not describe.

"Wanna hold her?" He asked me, showing me a beautiful baby girl with blue eyes with a hit of brown in them. She had short sandy blonde hair and was a spitting image of myself.

"Come to mommy." I said taking the little girl into my arms as she smiled my heart skipped a beat.

"My little Estrella. My little star." My voice barely above a whisper as I moved some of her hair and she gripped onto my finger with her tiny hands. "Come on, Johnny." Daryl said as we all walked back to our home. It was a beautiful home and had plenty of room for the four of us. I sat on the couch in our living room, my daughter in my arms as she sounded a sleepy little coos left her lips.

"Raven, baby. You can put her down. She ain't goin' nowhere." Daryl said coming up behind me and leaning over the couch.

"I'm scared she will disappear." I said, staring at the angel in my arms.

"Come on. Mommy need's sleep too." Daryl said as he gently took her and my hand leading us to her room. The walls were a very light pink and a small gray crib was in the middle of the room under a small window. Daryl laid her down and as I watched this little thing sleep he wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned back into his broad chest.

"This is perfect." My voice said with a choked back cry.

"You're perfect, Raven." Daryl said, placing a kiss to the top of my head. I left his arms and walked out of the room onto the front porch.

"Raven. What's wrong?" He asked me as I started to cry on the stairs.

"This. This is wrong. Because it's not real." I cried my own words now spilling from my lips.

"What are you takin' about?" He said sitting next to me wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I shoved him off and jumped up.

"THIS ISN'T REAL DARYL! YOU'RE NOT HERE. THOSE beautiful children aren't here. I'm dying in a fucking closet and you don't even know I'm there." I cried.

My eyes snapped open revealing the real world I was living in. My tears fell harder and horse cries left my lips as my breath started to escape me. I was full blown sobbing by now any amount of water I had left was leaving my body.

Another day came and went. I had grown tired of waiting to be saved so I moved the makeshift barricade and tried to open the door. I pushed but, to my surprise the door barely opened. I could hear voices. I pushed again and still the door only opened a crack.

"Carol are you sure she came this way?" A voice said and I knew that voice. I tried to call out but my voice failed me.

"Yes. She led them this way. After I knew all the walkers were gone I tried to follow them and get back with her but I got trapped in that cell." Carol's voice rang through the crack. I pushed again my body so weak from malnutrition and dehydration.

"What's that?" Carol asked, looking at the door that I was trying to push open.

"Probably a walker." Daryl tried to peer inside the room.

"He ain't going anywhere." He said and they kept going.

'No! Come back!' I mentally screamed thinking they could hear me. Using any strength I had I tried and tried to open the door with no avail. I heard a walker walk past and I could see it was one of the walkers I had stabbed my switch blade into before running in here. There was quiet and then a single gunshot rang through the halls. Listening sharply I couldn't hear any more walkers coming but I could hear footsteps and voices.

"I told you Daryl. She's down here." Carols concerned voice gave me hope that they were actually out there looking for me.

"Carol, it's been 8 days, if walkers didn't get her she could have starved to death or died of dehydration." I could hear the sadness in Daryl's voice and it hurt my heart.

"So, what you're not even gonna look for her." Carol said it sounded like she was almost mad at him.

"Carol just. Go back, I'll keep lookin'." He said with defeat in his voice. I pushed the door but it was like the two of them didn't even notice.

"No, I'm not leaving you here. If she's dead you don't need to go through that alone." Carol told him her voice now sounded like a caring mother.

"Just go!" Daryl yelled at her and then I heard footsteps leave. I pushed the door again and again hoping, praying he would just open it.

"Raven. Little bird where are you?" I could hear Daryl sliding down the wall just outside the door. I had to get him over here so I shoved the door more and more, not resting. Keeping it up I could hear Daryl get frustrated so he got up and kicked the door closed sending me back. Tears welled up in my eyes as I heard his heavy boots start to leave then they stopped.

"Please." I said my throat was being ripped apart from trying to talk. The footsteps came back at a quick pace as he started to pace the hall. Then he stopped and stood right in front of the door. I heard something being moved and the door was pulled open as bright light flooded the small closet. I closed my eyes, not used to it.

"Raven." Daryl said, moving quickly to right in front of me. I could feel his hands moving along my body, probably looking for bits or scratches considering my clothes were torn to shit.

"Raven, come on. Can you hear me? Please don't be dead." Daryl's voice was sad like he almost wanted to cry. I tried to open my eyes but it didn't work. Daryl had grabbed a hold of one of my hands and so with any strength I had I squeezed his.

"That's my girl. I knew you were strong. Come on." Daryl said and he picked me up bridal style. The feeling of his broad chest and strong arms soothed me. I could smell, leather, a campfire, and body wash. This smell I had gotten used to and fallen so in love with.

"Daryl." I croaked out as best as I could. I didn't want this to be a dream, another perfect fucking nightmare.

"I'm here girl. I got you." He said and that was all the reassurance that I needed. My body feels weaker than ever. I let the darkness of sleep take over me. Honestly I didn't know if it was sleep or death but, right there in that moment, in Daryl's arms. I was okay with dying there, or just sleeping. It was safe, secure, and almost full of love. Those were the thoughts that rang through my head as I let myself fall into the darkness.