"Who the hell are you?"
Rick and Shane stared in surprise at the prisoners. "...There's actually survivors," Rick muttered.
"Not for long if he keeps that gun pointed at us." Shane threatened loud enough for the prisoners to hear him.
"Whoa, mister, we don't want any trouble," the only caucasian man said quickly while raising his hands slightly.
Finally, Gray stepped forward with his rifle pointed directly at Tomas. "Lower your gun and step out. All of you."
For a few tense seconds, nobody moved, then Tomas slowly lowered the weapon in his hands. Shane immediately moved forward and ripped it away from him while Rick frisked the others one by one. Andrew looked pissed the entire time.
Merely from the way he stared at them, Gray already knew he would become a problem sooner or later.
Once the prisoners were disarmed, the tension lowered slightly. Rick finally introduced himself first. "I'm Rick. That's Shane and Gray."
The larger prisoner nodded slowly. "I'm Oscar."
The huge inmate beside him awkwardly lifted a hand. "Big Tiny."
The skinny caucasian man spoke next. "Axel."
Finally, Tomas pointed toward himself and the younger inmate beside him. "Tomas. That's Andrew."
The prisoners immediately started throwing questions afterward.
"What happened out there?"
"How long's it been?"
"Where are the guards?"
Rick exchanged a glance with Shane before finally answering honestly. "The world's gone," he continued anyway. "Dead people started coming back. Cities fell. Government too."
Axel frowned. "...What?"
"The dead walk now," Shane said bluntly. "And if they bite you, you're dead too."
Tomas barked out a laugh. "Man, that's bullshit."
While Rick explained everything else, Gray stayed mostly quiet, observing the prisoners carefully.
'Oscar seems reasonable... Axel too. Big Tiny doesn't look dangerous either,' Gray thought while watching them. 'But Tomas and Andrew are definitely problems waiting to happen.'
Still...The prison was massive, they needed manpower. More people meant more guards, more workers, and more fighters. Even dangerous people could be useful if handled properly.
Eventually, Rick finished explaining the basics of the apocalypse, but none of the prisoners looked convinced.
Finally, Gray sighed. "Alright. Easier to show you." Without waiting for an answer, he motioned for them to follow.
The group slowly walked outside the cafeteria. Once the prisoners were out the doors, they got hit with the smell of all the corpses outside. Andrew hunched over, throwing up the breakfast he had eaten earlier. "What the hell is this!?" he exclaimed while looking in horror around the hallways.
The moment the prisoners stepped outside, their expressions changed completely, bodies, hundreds of them, way more than they had seen inside the cell block. Walkers stacked near fences, corpses being dragged toward massive fire pits, blood covering entire sections of grass.
T-Dog and Morales were hauling bodies across the yard while Andrea and Jim worked near the burning pits.
Even Daryl paused while dragging a corpse to glance suspiciously toward the prisoners.
"...Holy shit," Axel whispered.
Meanwhile, Tomas' expression hardened instead. "This prison belongs to us," he suddenly snapped while turning toward Rick. "We were here first."
Andrew immediately backed him up. "Yeah. Y'all can't just take our place."
Rick's expression darkened slightly while Shane immediately stepped forward. "Your place?" Shane laughed coldly. "Buddy, this whole damn prison was filled with walkers when we got here."
Tomas opened his mouth again- CLICK.
Everyone turned.
Merle had walked over at some point and now had his handgun pressed directly against Tomas' forehead. "Boy," he said calmly, "you lower that tone real quick or there ain't gonna be a tomorrow for you."
Tomas froze instantly, and even Andrew took a step back and kept his mouth shut. Shane looked toward Rick seriously. "We should get rid of 'em now before they become a problem."
That immediately made the prisoners tense up again. Before things escalated further, Gray finally spoke. "Or..." Everyone looked toward him. "They earn their keep."
Rick frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
Gray gestured around the prison yard. "Look around. This place is huge. We need manpower." He pointed toward the fire pits. "Cleanup. Fence repairs. Guard duty. Supply runs." Then he looked directly at the prisoners. "If they want to stay, they work."
"And if we don't?" Tomas challenged immediately.
Gray shrugged casually. "We just put a bullet through your brain, or we lock you back in cells until we figure something else out."
The prisoners clearly didn't like that answer, Andrew started muttering curses under his breath while Tomas looked ready to argue again, but one glance at the armed group surrounding them made him think better of it.
Rick stayed quiet for several seconds before finally speaking. "...We'll put it to a vote once we get back to the farm."
Shane didn't look happy about it, but he didn't argue either.
"For now," Rick continued firmly, "you stay locked up."
The prisoners immediately started protesting. "Man, come on! This is bullshit!"
"We ain't animals!"
Axel looked especially nervous while Big Tiny just stayed quiet, but with Rick, Shane, Gray, Merle, and Daryl all armed and staring them down, none of them had much choice.
Clearly outgunned and outnumbered, the five prisoners reluctantly started moving toward the cells.
After locking them up, Gray stayed behind while Rick and Shane started dragging all the corpses out from inside the hallways.
"Trust me, this is the better outcome for now," Gray addressed the five prisoners.
For a few seconds, nobody said anything, then Tomas slammed both hands against the bars. "Man, that's bullshit!" he shouted. "We ain't done nothin'!"
Andrew immediately joined in, grabbing the bars of his own cell. "Yeah! Let us out! We already told you we ain't looking for trouble!"
The noise echoed throughout the block. Gray remained leaning against the railing outside the cells, completely unimpressed.
Tomas shook the bars again. "We could've helped you clear this place!"
Andrew pointed accusingly toward him. "You got no right locking us up!"
Gray simply stared at them for a moment before speaking. "I saw the way both of you looked at us."
That immediately made both men pause.
Gray pointed directly at Tomas. "You." Then he pointed toward Andrew. "And you."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Tomas asked.
Andrew scoffed loudly. "You don't know us."
Tomas nodded. "Yeah. You don't know a damn thing about us."
A small smirk appeared on Gray's face. "Don't I?"
The question made both men frown. Gray slowly pushed himself away from the railing. "If you had more people than us..." He pointed toward the prison yard outside. "...and more guns than us..."
Then he looked directly into Tomas' eyes. "You would've shot us in the back the first chance you got."
Tomas' jaw tightened. "That's bullshit."
"Maybe, but that's a chance we are not willing to make." Gray started walking away, "I'll bring you guys some food and water later," He opened the cell block door, and before stepping through, he looked back at them one final time. "And Tomas?"
The inmate looked down. "What?"
Gray's voice became noticeably colder. "If you keep acting like that, some people in this prison are gonna start agreeing with putting you down."
The warning hung in the air, Tomas wisely kept his mouth shut. Satisfied, Gray stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him.
The sounds of shovels scraping dirt and corpses being dragged across grass greeted him immediately. "Finished babysitting?" Merle called out from across the yard while hauling a walker by one leg.
Gray sighed. "Yeah...I hate being out in the sun."
Then he grabbed a corpse by the ankles and started helping with the cleanup. The prison wasn't going to clear itself.
For the next several hours, the prison became nothing but hard labor.
Gray spent most of his time in the inner courtyard, grabbing walkers by the ankles and dragging them toward the growing fire pits. The smell had become almost unbearable by now. Rotting flesh, dried blood, and burning corpses mixed together into something that made even Merle stop complaining every once in a while.
Inside the cell block, Rick and Shane handled a different kind of cleanup.
Every corpse they found inside the prison was dragged out into the courtyard and eventually passed along to the others. Cell by cell, hallway by hallway, they slowly cleared the mountains of bodies left behind by the cleanup. It was exhausting work.
By the time the sun climbed high overhead, everyone looked miserable. "Ain't never smelled anything this bad in my life," Morales muttered while dropping another walker beside the fire pit.
"Pretty sure this smell is gonna be stuck in my nose forever," Andrea replied.
Gray didn't disagree. A little after noon, Rick finally called for a break.
People immediately found patches of shade around the courtyard and sat down with water bottles. Gray dropped onto the grass beside Rick and Shane while wiping sweat from his forehead.
For a few minutes, nobody said anything. Then Shane broke the silence. "So what are we doing about the prisoners?"
Rick sighed immediately. "As I said, we'll put it to a vote and decide with everyone."
"They're trouble," Shane replied.
"I don't think all of them are," Gray said.
Shane got up and started walking around, "We don't know that, hell, they could escape when we leave later today."
"They won't," Gray continued, "I'll stay here tonight to keep an eye out on them."
Rick looked toward him. "You sure?" he asked.
Gray nodded. "If they're planning anything stupid, I'll know." In reality, Gray had another reason. 'I need to be alone so I can buy a shit ton of supplies before everyone moves in, the smell is killing me...mops, buckets, bleach, disinfectant, trash bags, and a hundred other things. I can just say I found them deeper in the prison.'
Rick eventually nodded. "Alright."
"Whoa, if the kid's stayin', I'm stayin' too." Merle sounded offended.
Gray sighed. "No, you're not," he continued, "If something happens at the farm, they will need you over there. I can handle this place for one night."
Merle just grunted and kept quiet.
Finally, with a bit of quiet, Gray opened his system to check on his gold.
Gold: 10,229,949
'Damn...barely halfway there for the next upgrade, I will need to catch up on multipliers...after the upgrade, I'll buy a lot.'
After 30 more minutes of resting, they finally went back to work.
Gray looked toward the massive pile of corpses remaining inside the inner courtyard. "Let's focus on this section first."
Everyone followed his gaze, most of the bodies closest to C Block still hadn't been moved.
"If we clear the area around the cell blocks," Gray explained, "we'll have a clean living space ready much sooner."
The group quickly reorganized. Four people dragged bodies from the inner courtyard toward the center while the remaining four hauled them the rest of the way outside the fences.
Gray stood still for a moment before entering Cell Block C. Approaching the prisoners, he asked, "Who wants to start earning some trust?"
Tomas scuffed his foot against the ground and turned around, with Andrew mirroring his actions. Just as Gray was about to speak again, Oscar stood up and declared, "I'll do it."
Gray smiled, walked over to his cell, and opened it. "Perfect, we need help dragging the bodies outside."
Oscar nodded and walked alongside Gray. Once they were outside, people stopped and stared at them.
"What the hell are you doing?" Shane was the first to speak.
Gray simply gestured toward the bodies. "We needed more help, so I asked for some," he explained. "Give him a chance, will you?"
"If something goes wrong, it's on you," Shane said as he walked away.
Gray shrugged. "Sure thing, bud."
After showing Oscar what they were doing, the work became noticeably faster.
Lines of corpses slowly disappeared as the prison yard became cleaner and cleaner.
Hours passed.
The first fire pit filled completely, then the second.
"Damn it," Jim groaned while looking at the overflowing pile of bodies.
Gray rubbed his forehead. "Alright. We need more pits."
Taking one person from each team, they grabbed shovels and started digging new trenches outside the fences. The Georgia soil wasn't easy to work with, but eventually they managed to create two more large pits.
Slowly but surely, the prison began to look less like a battlefield and more like a place people could actually live in.
Finally, with the sun beginning its descent toward the horizon, Gray looked around the courtyard and made a decision. "That's enough for today."
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing.
Gray nodded toward the vehicles. "Go back to the farm. Eat. Rest. We still have work tomorrow."
Within minutes, everyone gathered their gear and headed toward the trucks. Before leaving, Rick approached Gray. "You sure about staying?"
Gray nodded. "I'll be fine."
Soon afterward, the vehicles rolled out through the gates and disappeared down the road. Silence slowly settled over the prison. Gray watched until the trucks vanished from sight.
First, he chained the outer gates shut, then the inner gates. Only after making sure everything was secured did he begin walking back toward C Block with Oscar right behind him.
"Thanks for helping today, I'll be sure to put in a good word with the rest of the group," Gray said, extending his hand towards Oscar.
Oscar stared at the extended hand for a few seconds before firmly shaking it, "I just want to ask for a favor down the line if it's possible."
Gray looked surprised, "And what would that be?" he asked.
Oscar seemed hesitant, but he finally spoke. "My old lady and kids might still be alive out there...if I could go and check on them, I would deeply appreciate it."
"Your family, huh?" Gray thought about it for a moment and continued, "I'll tell you what, once this prison is clear of any walker and corpse, I'll personally go with you to check on them. If they're still alive, we'll bring them here."
Oscar exhaled in relief and muttered. "...Thank you"