Taking the Yard

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"You..."

Dale tried to say something.

Then Evan looked at him.

The rest of Dale's words caught in his throat and would not come out.

Evan walked up to him with blood still on his face. His voice was calm, almost gentle.

"What were you going to say, Dale?"

"The group agreed that when hard calls have to be made, my command stands."

"Or did that change while I was gone for two days?"

His voice was not cold, but it cut like a sheet of ice.

Dale trembled under that stare. His hands shook, and for a moment he could barely speak.

"No... nothing changed."

"Good."

Evan let the pressure drop.

He lifted one hand, patted Dale on the shoulder, and walked past him.

What kind of joke was this?

Evan was rational. He could listen to suggestions from the group.

That did not mean he had to obey them unconditionally.

Otherwise, what was the point of a chain of command?

To Evan, this was exactly the moment authority existed for.

From now on, the camp had to understand one rule.

Killing did not care about age or gender.

Anyone who threatened them died.

As Evan passed Carol, she stopped him.

Under his gaze, she took out a clean handkerchief and wiped the blood from his face.

"I knew you'd bring them back."

Her eyes were gentle. Since Ed's death, only Sophia and Evan had ever drawn that look from her.

"Thanks," Evan said softly.

Then he walked toward Rick.

Daryl and Merle moved with him, one on each side, weapons in hand.

After a brief hesitation, Carol followed.

Andrea came next.

Then Glenn.

Then Hershel.

Only when the whole group had faced danger together did they truly understand the advantage of command.

At least while Evan was here, no one could force them to their knees.

No one.

Evan stopped in front of Rick.

Rick had already slid the machete back into place. He was breathing hard, but he nodded.

"Thanks to you, Evan."

Only when Rick saw Evan standing there had the stone in his chest finally dropped.

The corrections officers had come fast. If Evan had not arrived in time, Rick could not imagine a cleaner way out.

As for Evan's ruthlessness?

Rick avoided Dale's eyes and saw nothing.

He saw only his wife and his son, alive in front of him, without a single bullet hole in either one of them.

That was enough.

Shane stood off to the side with his hands at his waist.

When he looked at Evan again, something in his eyes had changed.

Evan had done what Shane had wanted to do.

Evan had shown no mercy.

Shane had wanted him to show no mercy.

Enemy was enemy.

Family was family.

People needed to understand the difference.

"Where did these people come from?" Evan asked Rick.

As far as he knew, the guards inside the Prison should have been long dead. This group had appeared from nowhere.

"I don't know. We hadn't been here long. They came out of the woods on the other side."

"Every one of them had a gun. They caught us off guard."

Rick shook his head and explained what had happened in clipped sentences. Anger still sat under his voice.

When Evan heard it, he understood.

Rick's group had reached the Prison almost half a year earlier than they should have.

By the original timeline, these cowardly corrections officers would probably have been eaten by walkers or swallowed by another survivor group.

But because Rick's group came early, they ran straight into a pack that still lingered near the Prison without the nerve to take it.

"Cowards," Evan muttered, looking at the bodies.

A treasure vault had been sitting right in front of them.

Even with the keys in their hands, they had never dared open it.

What else could they be?

Evan shook his head and gathered everyone around.

"You can all see it. I said I would bring you to the Prison. The Prison is right in front of us."

"I said I would bring Daryl and Merle back alive. They're standing here, whole and breathing."

"So once we go inside, I expect everyone to follow my orders."

"Fighting each other will only split this group apart and put all of us in danger."

He waited until no one objected.

Then he took the keys from Rick and spoke fast.

"The yard is open. No blind corners. We clear the walkers there first, then camp in the yard tonight."

"Glenn."

Evan removed one of the chains from the gate and handed it to him.

"You're the fastest. When the gate opens, don't worry about the walkers inside."

"Your job is to get to the far gate as fast as you can and chain it shut."

"Got it?"

Maggie squeezed Glenn's hand, worry plain on her face.

Glenn patted her fingers, stepped forward, and took the chain.

"I've got it."

Evan turned to the rest of them.

"Same rule as before. Older people, children, and anyone not fighting stay in the fenced passage. Everyone else protects them."

A faint curve touched his mouth.

"The walkers inside are mine."

Before anyone could argue, Evan unlocked the gate and shoved it open.

The rusty squeal pulled every walker nearby toward the sound.

One swing of his hammer knocked two or three staggering walkers to the ground.

Finishing the fallen ones took another blow.

With Evan's current strength, facing twenty or thirty walkers in the yard alone was not a problem.

These walkers had been trapped behind fences too long. They were not as aggressive as the ones outside.

They stumbled and drifted, unable to box him in.

All around the yard, metal rang as Rick and the others struck the fences to draw the remaining walkers' attention.

Once Evan cleared the path ahead, Glenn shot forward like a released arrow.

He slipped around the walkers near him, reached the sliding gate before the ones inside could pour out, pulled it shut, and wrapped the chain tight.

"Done!"

Glenn turned and shouted.

He found Evan walking toward him with the giant hammer over his shoulder, walker blood still clinging to the stone head.

Evan smiled.

At that exact moment, a familiar light chime rang in his ears.

"Good timing. I'm done too."

Night fell.

During the hours between, Evan and Rick split the fighters into two groups and checked the four watchtowers around the yard.

They searched each tower and every corner of the fence for missed walkers or hidden survivors.

Only after confirming nothing had been left behind did Evan allow himself to breathe.

Back at the temporary camp in the yard, Carol handed him a bowl of mushroom soup.

"Once we find the prison cafeteria tomorrow, I am not eating this anymore."

He said it with such solemn disgust that the people around him burst out laughing.

The mood loosened at once.

There were still walkers watching them from the other side of the fence, but even that could not ruin the relief spreading through the group.

They looked around and felt something unreal settle over them.

"The Prison..."

"This is ours?"

At Greene Farm, they had imagined a future.

Now they were standing on the Prison yard.

At the very least, they had taken this stretch of ground.

And for that, they all looked at one person.

Evan stood quietly with his soup, nothing like the brutal figure who had crushed a man under a hammer not long ago.

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