AN: Shorter than chapter 1; but chapter 3 shall be longer. Special thanks to my beta gameovaries :)

Chapter 2: Timid Without A Hand

A cacophony of sirens blared in Jordyn's eardrums. She drew her hands away from her tear-streaked face and covered her ears, crouching into a tight ball, hoping she would disappear. Two still bodies lay at the bottom of the basement stairs ahead of her. They were hardly recognizable anymore.

Jordyn wasn't sure that what she had seen was real. The snarling, the moaning, the blood spilling from their mouths. They had been people but not anymore. They had looked possessed. Like animals.

After locking the basement door, Jordyn had retreated to the corner and there she still sat; annoyed that she couldn't stop her muscles from twitching and her breath from coming in quick puffs. She kept thinking of the shotgun, her boss's shotgun. He kept it upstairs under the bar for unruly patrons. Jordyn had only used it once, and that was a test shot. But she suddenly wanted it; needed the security she felt it would give her.

Before she could even attempt to calm herself, a loud cracking of splintering wood made her jump.

A man burst through the basement door . He was built like a football player, he had shaggy black hair and was wearing a rumpled sheriff's uniform. He eyed the bodies by the stairs and then spotted Jordyn. "You!" He pointed his shotgun at her. "Were you bit?"

"No! No!" Jordyn managed to reply as she stared down the barrel of his shotgun. Fear rippled over her already trembling limbs; she'd never had a gun pulled on her before.

"Is there water or food down here?" He asked. His eyes were still flared but he lowered his weapon.

Jordyn pointed to the shelf to her left where there was a couple of cases of bottled water. It had been there for awhile, bottled water wasn't as big a demand as beer in a sports bar. But it was sealed.

"Come on." He reached his hand down to her. "Get up, let's go."

"What?" Jordyn asked, eying his Sheriff's badge.

"You can't stay here, they're swarming the city." His voice was commanding, but there was a ripple of uncertainty in his words. "Know how lucky you are to have just met two?"

Jordyn's breath caught in her throat. "I can't-"

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. "Move!" He instructed, pulling her over to the shelf with the water on it. He took two cases and loaded them into Jordyn's arms. "Carry this. My truck's outside with a woman and her son in the back. Just run, I'll cover you."

"No, I can't!" Jordyn's eyes flicked over to the bodies again. "I have to stay here."

He took her shoulder tightly in his hand. "Run." He instructed pushing her towards the stairs. "RUN!"

Forcing herself to focus on the staircase and nothing more, Jordyn gripped her fingers around the cases of water and ran.


The memory of the first time Jordyn met Shane, Lori, and Carl often replayed in her mind. If she ever had a spare second to think about how on earth she'd gotten to this place in her life, meeting Shane was the first thought she had. That was how it began for her, all in the basement of her former workplace. Sometimes she wondered what would have happened if she'd just stayed home that day. She didn't have time to wonder, not right now.

Of all the strange things that had happened, Jordyn was constantly assuring herself she'd seen the weirdest of the weird. And then something else would happen. It had just happened to her group. The trek to get the guns hadn't been without incident, a gang came out of nowhere, snatched Glenn and left one of their own behind. Rick had led his friends, armed and ready, to rescue Glenn from the gang, only to find that they weren't at all what they expected. They were just more survivors who stayed in the abandoned hospital taking care of the elderly who had been left behind. They were good people. Helpful people. Glenn was returned unharmed, and Rick left them some guns to protect their numerous elderly patients.

So, group back together and extra guns in hand, they headed back for the van they'd driven into the city. But it wasn't there.

The group of five stood dumbfounded starting at the space where there van had been. Jordyn, despite herself, was the first to speak. "Who the hell would take our van?" She asked, looking around as though the robber would spring out of nowhere and just toss her back the keys.

"Merle." As soon as Rick said it, they all knew it was true.

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." Daryl sounded almost apologetic.

"We gotta move." Rick said, taking off. "Fast."

Glenn and Rick took the lead, Jordyn and T-Dog followed a behind setting a wide berth between them. "This was such a waste of time." Daryl muttered under his breath as the group jogged across the train lines. "Merle's still gone, we gave half our guns away and the kid almost got himself killed."

Jordyn was distracted trying to get her rifle strap untwisted. T-Dog had managed to wind it around on itself in knots. "Well, we got Connor back." She shrugged smoothing out her strap and looping her rifle over shoulder, vaguely aware that T-Dog was eyeballing her. "And at least we got some of the guns, so..."

"Keep up." Rick instructed from up ahead as he lead them up the hill towards the main road out of town. "It'll be getting dark soon."

After an hour of nothing but heavy breathing and scuffing boots, the group finally reached the top of the incline and were all relieved to find their feet on relatively flat ground. Their formation had spread out, Rick and Glenn in the lead, Daryl and Jordyn in the middle and T-Dog at the rear, struggling with the box of tools promised to Dale and Jim. "Do you really think your brother is still alive?" She asked Daryl out of curiosity.

Daryl flashed her an angry glare. "Yeah." He said coldly. "We ain't found his body and the van's missing, so he ain't dead." He licked the inside of his bottom lip. "Is Connor dead?"

Jordyn's feet froze on the spot and snapped her head around to face him. "Excuse me?"

"Before." Daryl stopped just ahead of her. "You were talking 'bout Glenn and you called him Connor." He started walking again. "He your husband?"

Coughing over the lump in her throat, Jordyn followed him trying to seem nonchalant. She didn't remember saying Connor but she sure as hell wouldn't have talked about him with anyone. But before she could come up with an excuse, a multitude of screams rang through the forest up ahead.

"Shit." Rick took off. "Everyone move!"

Jordyn slung her rifle over her shoulder so she could run faster and bolted after Rick. The screams were quickly drowned out by gunfire and urgent voices screaming orders. It was their camp; it had to be. There was no one else on the mountain.

As she ran, Jordyn found herself hoping that it was just Merle scaring everyone. She didn't like him in the slightest, but one mad racist would have been easier to handle instead of the scene she ran into.

There were Walkers everywhere. Snarling, groaning, hungry Walkers. Jordyn had never seen so many up on the mountain at one time. They were all in various states of decomposition, many without limbs and greyish skin dangling off their bones. Their glassy eyes were as intent as Jordyn had ever seen, and she realized that was because they were starving. She knew first hand that the city was overrun with the dead; so now the Walkers were breaking out of the city in search of human flesh. Suddenly, Jordyn became very aware of how close their camping site was to the city. They could still see the buildings, the highway, even some power lines. They should have kept going, kept moving deeper into the jungle or further away from Atlanta.

Pausing to catch her breath and arm her rifle, Jordyn barely dodged the decaying arm that struck out of the bush beside her, clawing for her. A Walker then fully burst out of the brush right by her head, she smacked the butt of her rifle across what was left of its slacken jaw and kicked it to the ground before firing a bullet straight through its head. Her ears buzzed with sound of gunshots and hungry, non-human moans. Before she even moved from her spot she aimed and fired at two zombies approaching Dale's camper where the bulk of their camp were gathered. But as Jordyn loaded up her rifle she could already see members of their group scattered across the ground either dead or dying.

Jordyn's eyes scanned who was still standing as she aimed her weapon and took down three more Walkers. The group she'd travelled in with were all there, as were Lori and Carl, Sophia and her mother, Jacqui, Jim, Dale, the whole Morales family, and Andrea. As Jordyn approached the camper she realized Amy was there, too. Jordyn's eyes investigated every shadow and rustling she encountered as she approached the camper. She didn't turn around when she heard Carl scream for his father and, out of the corner of her eye, saw him fling himself into Rick's arms. Instead Jordyn's eyes fell on Amy and the visible pain etched across Andrea's face.

Amy was clearly dead. She bled from bite marks to her arm and neck. Andrea was covered in her sister's blood; sobbing loudly over her limp body.

Another lump formed in Jordyn's throat and her eyes felt hot. Another death. Another lost friend. Another body to bury. Her mind cruelly showed her Connor again; and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from screaming in pain. But she didn't say a word, or make a sound. She was silent Jordyn Emery and she intended to stay that way.