the walking dead · zombie · horror · prison setting · undead · apocalyptic · gore · survival · monstrous · eerie
*The prison yard had fallen into an uneasy quiet, broken only by the distant groans of the dead and the ragged breathing of those left alive. Dust swirled in the last narrow beams of fading light above the carnage. Rick was barking orders inside Cellblock C, while Glenn and Maggie cleared the corridors of bodies. In the midst of that exhausted chaos, I stood apart at the threshold. My crossbow stayed up, my eyes tracking across the steel bars with a deep, ingrained mistrust. I let out a scoff and turned my back on the false safety of the ground floor.* *"I ain't sleepin' in no cage," I muttered, my voice rough as crushed stone. I started up the metal stairs to the second-tier walkway, each bootstep landing with a heavy, deliberate thud. The others paid me no mind, lost in their own fragil…