S4E2P3

Rick tried to ignore the bodies below, the sounds of loss and devastation. The prison was supposed to be safe, so how had this happened?

The final cell on the top floor rattled as a walker pressed against the closed bars. It growled as he grabbed its shirt and pulled it forward, using his knife to end it.

He pulled open the gate as Daryl, Hershel and the new doctor came to him. Before they could ask, he knelt down beside the body. Another with a face covered in blood, only this didn't seem like the blood that came from feeding. Hell, the one in the cell wouldn't have had the chance to, locked in as it was.

"No bites." He said after a cursory glance. "No wounds. I think he just died."

"Horribly, too." The new doctor – Caleb – said. "Pleurisy aspiration."

"Choked to death on his own blood." Hershel summarised. "Caused those trails down his face."

Rick swallowed, a sense of foreboding heart beating faster.

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

"I saw them on Patrick, too." Daryl pointed out.

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up – like if you shake a soda can and pop the top." Caleb grimaced. "Only imagine your eyes, ears, nose, and throat are the top."

"It's a sickness," Bob said from his position outside the cell. "From the walkers?"

"No, these things happened before they were around." Caleb said. Rick looked up, that sense of foreboding growing. "Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an aggressive flu strain."

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath, subconsciously covering his mouth as he did.

"Someone locked him in just in time." Hershel said.

"No, man." Daryl said softly. "Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?"

"I had a sick pig, it died quick." Rick said. "Saw a sick boar in the woods."

Hershel sighed.

"Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past. We need to do something about those hogs."

"Maybe we got lucky." Caleb said, though he didn't seem to believe his own words. Difficult, Rick imagined, when you were a doctor and knew well how these things worked. "Maybe these two cases are it."

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time." Bob sighed. "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."

"All of us in here," Hershel said, sharing a look with Rick. "We've all been exposed."

He tried not to think about it, about how they'd had no protection as they'd hacked away at bodies likely infected with something bordering on worse than the walker plague – at least in terms of how you died. There was no definitive yes or no. With bites, you could tell. If you weren't bit, you were fine. If you were, you weren't. Now, any one of them could be sick with a deadly disease.

Including Ava. And Glenn, Daryl, Tyreese, Hershel. He could only thank God that he'd told Carl to go to Maggie and that the twins weren't in this cell block. He had to find Ava, had to warn her before she went to them. He picked up his knife and ran.

Ava looked up, wiping the sick from her mouth and groaning.

"Must be a shit-show in there to make you puke, Posh."

Ava could only manage a weak smile as Merle approached, Michonne propped between him and Maggie. Carl headed towards her.

"Are you okay? Where's dad-?"

"Hey, you might want to stay back." Rick said, running out of the Cell block. Ava looked up, confused as he held a hand out to Carl. The boy saw his father and ran to him before Rick could finish his sentence.

Ava noticed Rick pursing his lips, keeping his hands away from Carls' body, and frowned.

"Dad, I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't see you come out. I didn't know if-"

"It's okay." Rick sighed. "I'm here. I'm fine. But back away."

Carl let go and Rick stepped back a few feet, looking to Ava and gesturing for her to move back as well. She did, coming closer to him.

"I had to use one of the guns by the gate." Carl said. "I swear I didn't want to."

Rick frowned.

"I was coming back." Michonne said. "I fell. They came out and helped me."

"I helped too, you know."

"Your dumb ass did nothing," Michonne growled.

"Whatever," Merle grumbled. "What happened in there? Where's my brother?"

"He's fine," Ava said.

"What happened in there?" Maggie repeated.

Rick turned to Ava, taking her hand.

"Patrick got sick last night." He said, to her and to them. "It's some kind of flu. It moves fast. We think he died and attacked the cell block."

Carl looked down.

"Look, I know he was your friend and I'm sorry. He was a good kid." Rick looked away from his son, to Maggie and Merle. "We lost a lot of good people. Glenn and your dad are okay, so is Daryl, but they were in there. You shouldn't get too close to anyone that might have been exposed, at least for a little while."

Carl nodded and returned to Michonne and Maggie, going with them into Cell block C. He gave Rick and Ava a small smile before disappearing. Ava turned to Rick.

"How bad is it?"

"Seems pretty bad. Caleb said it's like choking to death on your own blood. Seen a walker with this as well as Violet, the pig. That's what killed her."

Ava swallowed hard.

"And we could have it?"

Rick rubbed her arm, pulling her close and taking a deep breath of her, remembering her. She wouldn't get sick, he told himself, but the fear was still there. The fear of the unknown.

"There's no way of knowing, love. But we might do. We have to stay away from everyone else. Everyone."

She stiffened, pulling back, tears shining in her eyes.

"Of course. We can't go anywhere near Aidan and Amy, not if there's a chance we could give them this." She looked away and sighed, blinking back tears. Rick wiped some away.

"I wish I had made you stay out here with Carl."

She smiled softly, cupping his cheek with her hand.

"No point in thinking like that, Rick. What happened, happened. Now we do what we can to make things right."

He kissed her, the two of them holding on to one another. It was only a moment, a brief second in which they could comfort one another, but it ended too soon.

"Daryls' calling the council," Rick sighed.

Ava nodded.

"I better get going then," she said, reaching up to kiss him one more time before heading towards the Library.