Why Were You Gone So Long?

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"We're in the administration area," Evan said. "The building beside us connects into Cell Block C."

"There are also A and B Blocks. Looks like all three were used to hold inmates."

"Behind the main cell areas, there are the inmate cafeteria, the library, a recreation room, and workshops for labor programs."

The Prison was not especially complicated when seen from above.

That only made it look easier than it was.

Deep inside, walkers still wandered through several areas. Worse, most of the interior was completely dark. Without power, nothing worked, and the darkness alone raised the difficulty of clearing the place.

Evan looked away from the map and studied the computer sitting on the desk.

"If this belonged to the warden, it should connect to the Prison's camera system," he murmured. "Assuming the system still works, all the feeds should run through here."

"Which means we take the Prison one step at a time."

"Generator room first. I remember this place should have generators strong enough to run the whole facility."

"Get the power on first. That makes clearing the interior much easier."

"But in the plot, turning the generator on also triggers an alarm. To flip the main power safely, we need to shut that alarm down first."

"A switch like that could be in the warden's office."

Except Evan had already searched the office from top to bottom and found nothing.

"It's probably not because I missed it," he said after a moment. "If it isn't here, then the alarm control should be in a guard station."

"Guard station. Guard station..."

His finger moved across the structural map.

He finally found the right place in the narrow connection between Cell Block C and Cell Block B.

Strictly speaking, there were several guard stations spread across the Prison.

But the one between C Block and B Block was the only one specially marked.

If there was an alarm shutoff anywhere, Evan believed it would be there.

At least the administration building had not been cleared for nothing.

"Tonight, everyone can move in here," he thought aloud. "Daryl said there was a cafeteria on the first floor with an iron door. They can sleep there safely enough."

With that decided, Evan crossed into the deputy warden's office to search it.

He found another pile of the same bright adult supplies he had found in the warden's desk and muttered a curse under his breath.

No wonder the Prison had fallen so easily. If the warden and deputy warden had both been this useless, they had probably wasted the last good hours doing everything except their jobs.

He opened the filing cabinets.

Inside were more costumes and bedroom supplies, packed tight from top to bottom.

Evan's temper snapped.

"Not even one gun?"

Then he swept every last item into his system inventory.

Not one piece stayed behind.

Down on the first floor of the administration building, Rick looked up the moment Shane came down the stairs.

Their eyes met.

For one heartbeat, Rick found something familiar in Shane's gaze.

The building around them was noisy. People moved back and forth, voices overlapping. Yet for the two of them, it felt almost like standing outside the sheriff's department years ago.

"Hey. I'm Rick. I'll be showing you the ropes from here."

"Sir. Shane Walsh, Academy class thirty-nine. Glad to be working with you."

Then the memory folded away.

Rick's face now carried a layer of beard, and the whole man looked as if the world had aged him twenty years.

Shane had stopped at the bottom of the stairs, but he was not the young hothead from those days either. His shoulders were broader now, heavy enough to carry responsibility whether he wanted it or not.

The two men stared at each other, and the scattered conversations around them faded.

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Most of them could feel that something had shifted, even if they did not understand it as clearly as Rick did.

Maggie glanced instinctively toward the second floor. If Rick and Shane exploded into a fight, Evan might be the only person who could stop it.

After a short silence, Shane pressed his mouth into a hard line and walked to Rick.

The air around them almost froze.

Glenn started to step forward to smooth things over, but Shane spoke first.

"Sir," Shane said. "I'm sorry. I'm back."

The words did not fit together in any ordinary way. Sorry followed by I'm back should not have made sense.

But Rick, who had never looked away from Shane's eyes, understood.

His gaze trembled.

Then, in front of everyone, Rick pulled Shane into his arms.

His fingers went white against Shane's back as both men held on hard.

"Brother..." Rick murmured beside Shane's ear, his eyes reddening despite himself. "I'm the one who got hurt. Why were you gone so long?"

Rick had been angry. He had blamed Shane.

In the end, though, he had chosen to let go.

The damned apocalypse had ruined everything. It came down like an avalanche and buried every person standing beneath the mountain.

Rick could not truly blame Lori.

He could not truly blame Shane either.

If Shane had not been there at the beginning, what would have happened to Lori and Carl?

What would have happened to Rick himself?

He did not dare imagine the answer, but he could feel the shape of it.

That was why Rick had tolerated Shane for so long.

Unless guns came out and blood was about to spill, Rick would not be the first to move against him.

His bond with Shane had never disappeared.

And Shane's bond with him had not been half as shallow as it had seemed.

There had simply been a wall between them that neither man knew how to cross.

Sunlight angled through the office windows and fell across Rick's face, warm enough that even Shane seemed to feel it.

For that moment, their hearts were closer than they had been in months.

Both men had the same strange feeling.

The wall between them had finally cracked apart.

"Welcome back, brother."

Rick tried to pull himself together, but his mouth still trembled.

After losing nearly everything, Shane felt to Rick like real family, no less than Daryl was to Merle.

Rick patted Shane's shoulder gently. The solid weight of it steadied him.

Shane looked back at him and was about to speak.

Then a third voice came from behind him.

"...Did I pick a bad time?"

Everyone turned.

Evan was coming down the stairs with the Stone Sledgehammer over one shoulder.

He did not look surprised by Rick and Shane embracing. If anything, he looked as if this was exactly how it should have gone.

"How's upstairs?" Rick asked, wiping at the corner of his eye and changing the subject fast.

"Not bad," Evan said honestly. "Not much in the way of supplies, but I found a few useful things."

He did not mention the treasure cabinet in the deputy warden's office.

"Shane, second floor was clear?"

Shane drew a breath and answered, "No walkers found. Just the dozen or so from before."

Evan had glanced around on his way down and seen nothing unusual, but he wanted Shane to say it.

That would reassure the group and, at the same time, let Shane's actual work start rebuilding his standing in camp.

After all, Shane had cleared the second-floor walkers himself. Evan had not helped.

"Good."

Evan stepped into the center of everyone's attention.

"Then the administration building is officially clear."

"Everybody push a little longer. Keep the protective gear on and haul the walker bodies out onto the grass."

"Tonight, we move into the administration building. Everyone can sleep in the first-floor cafeteria."

Relief went through the group like a breeze.

This was the first real day of clearing the Prison. No one had said it aloud, but most of them had been carrying unease since morning.

Now that Evan had declared the building secure, everyone let out the breath they had been holding. Smiles spread openly across tired faces.

"Daryl found some spaghetti and cornmeal in the cafeteria," Merle called, throwing one arm up with a cheer. "Couple of camp stoves too. We can roast meat tonight."

He raised his rifle and broke into an ugly little dance.

"Jesus," Daryl said from beside him, scowling before kicking him in the leg. "Can you stay still for ten seconds?"

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