Chapter 61 A One-Sided Battle!

Rick Grimes stared directly at the former correctional officer standing behind him, refusing to lower his eyes despite the gun pressed close enough to kill him instantly. Something about Rick’s expression unsettled the man, and for a brief second the confidence he had been projecting cracked beneath the pressure. “You really think you can clear walkers with a blade?” he asked, forcing an ugly smile as though mockery could restore his authority. He grabbed Rick roughly, shoved him toward the prison gate, then pulled a key from his pocket and tossed it into the dirt.

The man pointed toward the machete hanging at Rick’s waist. “Go ahead, Deputy. Unlock the gate and clear every walker in that yard by yourself.” His voice hardened as he glanced toward Lori, Carl, and the others still held at gunpoint. “And if you don’t, your people die.”

Anger surged through Rick, but he forced himself to remain still. He slowly wrapped one hand around the machete handle, drew the blade, and bent down to retrieve the key while every instinct inside him screamed that opening the gate would leave his family completely exposed. A walker on the other side of the fence noticed him and stumbled closer, pressing itself against the chain-link while snapping its rotten teeth. Even from several feet away, Rick could smell the decay coming from its mouth.

A bead of sweat slid down his back as he stood in front of the gate without inserting the key. Once he crossed that fence, Lori and Carl would be left behind with armed men who had already proven they were willing to use a child as leverage. Shane, Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, and the others were still surrounded, and Rick had no guarantee the former guards would honor any agreement even if he somehow cleared the yard alone. For the first time since reaching the prison, the decision in front of him seemed to have no safe answer.

The officer jabbed Rick between the shoulder blades with his gun. “What’s wrong? Thought you said knives could handle walkers.” Laughter immediately broke out among the armed men behind him, louder and meaner now that they believed Rick had nowhere left to go. They were terrified of the dead inside the prison, yet seemed perfectly comfortable threatening unarmed families outside it.

Rick closed his eyes.

His jaw tightened.

He forced himself to think.

Then the radio clipped at his waist crackled.

Static hissed sharply through the air, almost hidden beneath the laughter.

“…Rick…”

His eyes opened.

Another burst of static followed, and then a familiar voice came through.

“Hey, unlucky bastard standing by the fence. Miss us?”

Rick froze for half a heartbeat.

Magnus.

A wave of recognition hit him so quickly that he nearly smiled. The timing reminded him painfully of Atlanta, when a voice over the radio had once appeared at exactly the moment everything seemed impossible. This time, however, Rick knew the man speaking wasn’t guiding him away from danger.

Magnus was telling him to move.

A sudden commotion erupted behind the kneeling group.

The officer guarding Rick hesitated and turned his head toward the sound, his gun pressing harder against Rick’s back as his attention shifted away. Rick turned just enough to see movement near the tree line, and another drop of sweat rolled from the bridge of his nose. The instant it fell through the air, Rick moved.

The machete flashed backward.

The blade struck the officer’s gun arm before he could react, cutting deep enough to make him lose control of the weapon immediately. The man screamed and stumbled away, staring at Rick in complete disbelief while clutching the ruined limb. Rick didn’t give him time to recover.

He lunged.

The machete swept across the man’s throat.

The former correctional officer collapsed.

Five minutes earlier, Magnus Vane had stopped his motorcycle beneath the trees and stared at the system map floating in front of him. A large section ahead had finally cleared from the gray fog, revealing an open area far larger than anything else they had encountered in the surrounding forest. His expression brightened immediately. “We found it.”

Daryl and Merle killed their engines as Magnus climbed off the motorcycle. The woods ahead were too dense to ride through comfortably, so the three continued on foot for several dozen yards until the trees abruptly opened and the prison complex appeared beyond them. None of them smiled once they saw what was happening near the outer fence.

Rick’s entire group was on their knees.

Armed men surrounded them.

Magnus dropped into the grass immediately, while Daryl crouched beside him and silently brought up his crossbow. Merle lowered himself on Magnus’s other side with his rifle already in hand, but before either Dixon brother could fire, Magnus reached over and pushed Daryl’s weapon down.

Daryl looked at him sharply.

Magnus shook his head.

Not yet.

He pulled the handheld radio from inside his jacket and pointed toward Rick, then toward the rest of the kneeling group. The message was obvious: if they attacked too early, one of the gunmen might shoot Lori, Carl, or somebody else before Magnus and the brothers could eliminate everyone. They needed Rick to know help had arrived, then they needed the captives to move at the same moment.

The three remained hidden and listened as Rick negotiated with the guards. Magnus’s expression darkened when the leader shoved Rick toward the prison gate and ordered him to clear the yard alone, threatening his family if he refused. Daryl’s grip tightened around his crossbow, while Merle’s finger rested against the rifle trigger. Magnus still made them wait.

Rick reached the gate.

He closed his eyes.

That was the moment.

Magnus lifted the radio.

Daryl and Merle both gave almost imperceptible nods.

The guards behind Rick burst into another round of laughter, and Magnus used the noise to conceal the brief crackle of transmission. He brought the radio close to his mouth and spoke calmly. “Hey, unlucky bastard standing by the fence. Miss us?”

The signal was sent.

Magnus dropped the radio into the grass.

Then he grabbed the Quality 5 Stone Sledgehammer.

His entire body twisted with the throw.

The massive weapon left his hand.

WHOOSH!

One of the armed guards barely had time to turn before the hammer struck him with overwhelming force. The impact lifted him off his feet and hurled him backward into a nearby tree, where he hit hard enough to go limp before collapsing to the ground. Every head turned toward the sudden attack.

That hesitation was enough.

Daryl’s crossbow snapped.

Merle’s rifle erupted.

Magnus was already moving.

Without the hammer slowing him down, Strength Lv10 turned his first few strides into an explosive charge. He crossed the distance before one of the guards could properly raise his weapon, crashed into the man, and brought him down with brute force. Magnus seized him, ended the struggle almost instantly, then pivoted and drove a kick into another attacker hard enough to throw the man several yards across the dirt.

The ambush completely shattered the guards’ control of the situation.

Shane moved the second the gun aimed at him shifted away. He grabbed his pistol, rolled across the ground, and came up firing. Two rounds struck the guard in the torso before the third hit the head, ensuring the man wouldn’t rise again after death.

Glenn reacted almost as quickly.

He drove his shoulder into the correctional officer standing over him, catching the man off balance and sending him stumbling. Maggie immediately tore the hunting rifle from her shoulder, brought it up, and fired before the guard could recover. The gunshot thundered across the prison entrance.

Everything ended within seconds.

The men who had seemed completely in control only moments earlier were suddenly scattered across the ground. Magnus had taken down several of them himself, while Daryl and Merle’s surprise attack gave Shane, Glenn, Maggie, and the others the opening they needed to fight back. Their leader already lay dead near the gate after Rick’s counterattack.

Only one remained.

The surviving guard looked around at the bodies of his companions and lost whatever nerve he had left. His weapon dropped from his hand as he backed away, then fell to his knees and raised both arms. “Wait! Wait, I give up!”

Shane stared at him.

“Lori.”

She looked over.

“Cover Carl’s eyes.”

Lori immediately pulled Carl against her while Shane tightened his grip on the pistol and walked toward the surrendering man. The guard started pleading, but Shane answered by driving the pistol grip across his face. He screamed and collapsed sideways, hands flying toward his nose.

For several people nearby, the sound brought a grim sense of satisfaction.

Shane raised the weapon again.

Dale hurried between them.

“That’s enough, Shane.”

Shane glared at him.

Dale held his ground. “There are children here.”

For a moment, neither man moved.

Shane’s breathing grew heavier as he paced away, then turned sharply back toward Dale as though ready to argue. Before he could get the words out, however, a scraping sound came from nearby. Metal and stone dragged slowly across the ground.

Everyone looked over.

Magnus had recovered his Stone Sledgehammer.

The barbed head scraped through the dirt as he walked toward the last surviving guard. Dale instinctively stepped aside when Magnus approached, while the man on the ground stared upward with growing terror. Magnus stopped in front of him and looked down without expression.

The guard swallowed.

“Please.”

Magnus’s eyes narrowed.

Minutes earlier, this same man had stood with the others while Rick’s family was threatened and Carl was used as leverage. They had laughed while forcing Rick toward a walker-filled prison yard, confident that guns gave them the right to decide who lived and who died. Now that their advantage was gone, the last survivor suddenly wanted mercy.

Magnus lifted the Stone Sledgehammer.

The setting sun cast the weapon’s enormous shadow across the man.

“No—”

The hammer came down.

THUD!

Lori immediately covered Carl’s eyes more firmly, while Carol pulled Sophia against her before the little girl could see. Amy and Beth both turned their heads away, unable to watch what followed. The rest of the group remained where they were.

Magnus slowly straightened.

Several drops of blood marked his face, but his expression was completely calm as he looked around at everyone. Nobody rushed to challenge him, and most didn’t even look away. The fear in their eyes wasn’t only directed at Magnus; underneath it was relief, anger, and the lingering realization of how close the entire situation had come to ending differently.

If Magnus, Daryl, and Merle had arrived only a few minutes later, Rick might have been inside the prison yard while Lori, Carl, and the rest remained helpless beneath those guns.

Nobody needed to say it aloud.

They all understood.

The prison was still filled with walkers.

But the first threat standing between them and their new home was gone.

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