Sweet baby Jesus, you guys have no idea how tough of a time this chapter gave me. No words can express how sorry I am that the wait was so long, but this chapter would not come out. I had serious writer's block, tried to force it out, then decided what I had written was terrible and scrapped everything so I could over from scratch. It was only in the past week or so that I finally managed to get something decent down. I have a pretty good idea what I'll be doing for the next few chapters, though, so hopefully the wait won't be as long this time around.
Thank you to anyone who had added this story to your alert/favorite list, and a great big thank you to those who take the time to leave feedback, especially those who review consistently! Also, thank you so much to those of you patient enough to wait for updates and loyal enough not to crap out on the story just because it isn't going the way you might have liked. I know we're all anxious for a Jenna-Daryl reunion (believe me, I am too!) but we'll all have to wait a little bit longer. Hang in there!
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Walking Dead.
Chapter 26
About three weeks later…
The two story house was dark and felt stuffy with disuse when Jenna opened the front door and took one step inside, handgun raised in front of her and pointer finger on the trigger, ready to fire at the first thing that made a threatening move in her direction. She lingered in the doorway and let her eyes roam over every inch of space in sight, noting the overturned furniture and sporadic blood stains in the living room as the crisp winter air beat at her back. After a few minutes, when there was no unexpected movement anywhere and she was certain it was reasonably safe to enter, she finally moved further into the house.
Jenna stepped through the dimly lit living room and headed to a small archway on the left side of the room, which she discovered lead into the kitchen. The kitchen table was shoved to the side, a few chairs were scattered about, most of the cabinets were thrown open, and it smelled of rotten food. The general disarray of the kitchen – and the house, for the matter – hinted that somebody had come through looking for supplies at some point, which left her doubtful as to whether or not she'd actually find any food in the cabinets. Deciding to save that search for when the house was completely cleared, Jenna deemed the room clear and moved on.
Within five minutes an office, a small half-bath, and a laundry room had all been checked and cleared. With the first floor secure and seemingly danger-free, Jenna quietly headed for the staircase and slowly made her way up to the second floor. The light grew more and more dim with each step, so Jenna pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her jacket and clicked it on, raising it up until it was tucked underneath the hand she held her gun with. She paused when the beam of her flashlight bounced on a smear of blood on the wall, then went to swipe at it with the pinky of her fingertip – it was completely dry, which meant it had been probably been there for a while.
Gripping her gun a bit tighter and frowning cautiously, she ascended the last few stairs. She flashed her light, and her gun, around to check the hallway and saw that there were four doors in the upstairs portion, all of them closed. Jenna debated for a moment before starting for the one nearest to her.
Holding her breath, she grabbed the knob with the hand still clutching her flashlight and pulled it open, pointing her gun at whatever revealed itself in the blink of an eye. Jenna relaxed and shook her head when she realized it was only a storage closet full of bedsheets, pillowcases, blankets, and old, moth-eaten winter coats.
She closed the door again and moved left, heading for the only door on the left side of the hallway. This one opened up to a bedroom, a girl's room if the overwhelmingly pink walls and frilly, girly clothes strung all about were anything to go off of. Jenna ignored a brief twinge of sadness in her heart and stepped further into the room to check the closet, which was, of course, full of clothes, shoes, and cubbies full of dolls. No walkers, though, and no people hiding in the shadows.
Closing the closet again, she turned to make her way out the room, but paused when her eyes landed on a picture resting on the night-stand by the bed.
Jenna couldn't resist leaning closer to look at the picture, curiously studying the faces of three people smiling back at her. One was a decent looking man in his mid-thirties with brown hair, while the other two were female – the man's pretty, blonde-haired wife and his young, blonde-haired daughter. It looked like a picture from a vacation to some tropical place, as the scenery was definitely too exotic-looking to be anywhere in the States. And though they were all a little sunburned, it was obvious from their beaming grins they were all extremely happy.
Jenna frowned to herself a bit as she straightened up, wondering where this picture-perfect family was now and what might have happened to them in the months since the apocalypse hit. Were they still alive? Had they tried to stick it out here? Had they moved on, maybe even gone to Fort Benning when the military started taking in civilians?
She quickly pushed those thoughts to the side when she remembered that she still had work to do, though – there was no time, nor reason, to stand here and dwell on people she did not know.
Jenna left the girl's bedroom and walked back down the hallway, stepping toward the two remaining doors on the second floor. The first of the two opened up to a decently sized bathroom, and as soon as Jenna's eyes landed on the shower she could not help releasing a wistful sigh, staring at the glorious amenity that she had taken so horribly for granted. Words could not even begin to describe how desperately she missed having hot showers, how desperately she missed just being clean. It had been so long since she'd attempted to bathe that Jenna had actually lost count of the days by now. Not that she was even sure she wanted to know how long it had been, anyway – she was disgusted enough with her hygiene as it was; putting a number on it would likely only make her feel worse.
Jenna left the bathroom with one last longing sigh and headed for the last door, which she assumed opened up to another bedroom.
She put her hand on the door knob and pushed it open, but then immediately had to recoil. The scent that hit her the moment the door opened was so strong and so putrid that it stung her nostrils and made her eyes water. Jenna had to quickly press her nose into the crook of her elbow, gagging a bit as she tried to block out the foul stench. Blinking rapidly to clear the moisture from her eyes, she shined the light around the room, searching for the source of the smell.
Her light fell on two figures tied to two chairs on the far side of the room. They were both walkers, though one was much smaller than the other. Her appearance roused them from whatever mindless stupor they had been in, because now they had started struggling against their binds and were hissing with hunger, gazes locked on her predatorily. Alarm shot through her for a moment, but she quickly realized that the ropes keeping the walkers to their chairs were tied tight and secure and were ensuring they didn't budge an inch. Neither was posing any actual threat.
Jenna took a quick moment to check the closet and the master bath attached to the room, wanting to make sure these were the only walkers present. Convinced that the house was otherwise secure, she then slowly stepped closer to the walkers to get a better look at them.
She felt a distinct wave of sadness pass over her when she determined that the smaller walker was the same girl from the picture, the very same one that had slept and played in the bright pink room down the hall. Though she had been pretty and vibrant with youth in her picture, now, with her decaying features and the ugly look of ravenous hunger glowing in her dead eyes, she looked ugly and unrecognizable.
Frowning, Jenna stared at the girl for a second longer before shifting the light to the other walker, an older female. As she had suspected, the female was the same woman from the picture, the girl's mother. Shining her light over their forms for a moment, Jenna noted that both had multiple visible walker bites and that they both looked as though they had turned quite some time ago.
The light suddenly flashed off of something bright white, catching Jenna's attention. A piece of paper with a handwritten message on it had been pinned to the shirt of the older female. Leaning closer to see it better, Jenna saw that it read in large, bold letters: PLEASE DO WHAT I COULD NOT.
Given the situation, she could only assume that the note had been left by the man in the picture, the husband to the older female and father to the undead girl. Clearly he had not had it in him to pull the trigger on his family when they turned, even though they were already very much dead. Sighing to herself, Jenna straightened up again, eyes turning back to the small walker as it continued to gnash its teeth and snap at her hungrily.
This was not the first time she had a seen a child-turned-walker, but it still hit her like a sock to the gut. Seeing walkers like this always, without fail, took her back to the moment that Sophia had emerged from Hershel Greene's barn, no longer alive and with that horrible bite mark on her neck. Even now, it was not the face of the girl in the picture that Jenna saw. No, it was Sophia she was looking at. The face she saw was that of a young girl that had died too soon, a girl who she felt like she had failed. It was a face that she would never forget.
Jenna shook her head to get her thoughts back on track, then took a step or two back. If these walkers hadn't gotten out of their ropes by now then it was unlikely that they ever would, but if she and Erin were going to stay here for the next few days, there was no point in taking an unnecessary risk. It was only logical that she take them out and eliminate the problem before it had the chance to happen.
Normally she wouldn't waste her bullets on non-threatening walkers, but this time the situation felt different. Jenna had her trusty hatchet tucked underneath her belt and it would have done the job just fine, but in a way, it sort of felt…wrong to kill them with it. It was difficult for her to describe, but it felt like it would be too violent, too gruesome a death for these particular walkers. This girl that was reminding her so much of Sophia and her poor mother, who should not have been left here to just rot, deserved better. They deserved a quick death, a clean death.
Jenna turned to the older female first and raised her gun, pointing it directly at the walker's forehead. After only a second's hesitation, she placed her index finger on the trigger and squeezed, the trusty silencer she always kept equipped muting the shot. The walker's head jerked back as the bullet made contact, then fell forward again as its whole body slumped against the ropes. All movements and sounds from the older female ceased as blood started to leak from the hole in its forehead. It was dead.
Jenna shifted her attention to the other walker. As Sophia's face rushed to the forefront of her mind again, she found that she had to readjust her grip on her gun, her palms suddenly feeling sweaty. The walker snapped and snarled, its frustration growing with each second that passed where it didn't get the flesh it wanted, but Jenna could only stare back with sadness. She'd killed enough walkers by now to be able to handle most of them with absolutely no problem…but the turned children – the Sophia's – always got to her. Always gave her pause. Always made her heart ache a little bit.
"I'm sorry this happened to you," Jenna whispered, even though she knew the walker wouldn't understand her. Sure enough, the girl just continued to growl and bite at the air, discolored eyes alight with ravenous hunger.
Unable to stand seeing the girl like that any longer, Jenna sucked in a deep breath, aimed at the walker's forehead, and pulled the trigger. She watched the little walker slump in its chair after the bullet found its target, her heart feeling heavy as an anvil as she slowly lowered her gun again. Then, shifting her eyes downward so she wouldn't have to look at her anymore, Jenna turned and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.
With the house now clear, Jenna made her way back downstairs and exited the house, heading for the car parked in the driveway. They had recently gotten their hands on a functioning Toyota Camry when they'd spent a handful of days hunkered down on the outskirts of La Grange, and it was in this Camry that Jenna had left her travelling companion, Erin.
Normally Erin would have helped Jenna clear the house they were going to hunker down in, but the day they had left La Grange, the woman had come down with a serious cold that had only gotten progressively worse as time went on. By now she was looking downright dreadful. Her skin was lackluster, she had dark bags under her eyes, and she was so congested that it seemed a miracle she could still breathe. And that wasn't even mentioning the cough, which had gotten so bad at this point that Jenna feared her companion would lose a lung one of these days. Jenna, who had a fair amount of medicine courtesy of that run into town before leaving the group, had been stuffing antibiotics down her throat every single day, but none of them seemed to be helping. Erin's cold wasn't going away without a fight.
Jenna strode toward the car, cringing against the ice-cold wind that blew against her face and slid through her hair, making her shiver and curse the winter season. She was wearing several layers of clothing under her large, puffy jacket and at least three pairs of socks under her worn boots, but she still felt the chill of the air around her all the way down to her bones. There had been a few brief days a couple weeks ago where it had warmed up a bit for no particular reason, but any hope that the warmth would stick around was dashed pretty quickly. The cold had come back with a vengeance and there was no denying it now – winter was here, and this time it planned to stay.
Erin barely stirred as Jenna opened the passenger side door, moving only because the cold air that suddenly invaded the car made her shiver underneath her blanket. Feeling bad for her and thinking it wise to get her out of the cold, Jenna reached down to place a hand on Erin's shoulder and give her a gentle shake.
"Erin?" Jenna said softly, trying not to startle her.
Erin started a bit as she woke, her red-rimmed eyes popping open in surprise before swinging up to her. Upon seeing that it was only Jenna, she relaxed and her eyelids slipped back into the droopy, half-lidded position they had been in for the past few days. She sniffled a bit before turning her head to cough into the blanket she'd wrapped around herself, looking absolutely miserable as she winced against the pain in her chest. Jenna cringed and subtly moved back an inch or two – whatever Erin had, she didn't need to catch it, too. They'd be screwed if they both wound up deathly ill at the same time.
"Is it," cough, "clear?" Erin finally asked, her stopped-up nose making her words sound weird and nasally.
Jenna thought about the two walkers upstairs for a second, then pushed their faces to the back of her mind. "Yeah, it's clear," she said, nodding her head in confirmation. "Come on, we should get you inside," Jenna then quickly suggested, backing up a step so Erin would have room to get out of the car. "You shouldn't be out in this cold anymore."
Erin nodded, took a moment to collect her bearings, then slowly started to pull herself out of the car. Jenna moved to help her but was immediately waved off, so instead she went to open the door to the backseat and started grabbing their bags, keeping a close eye on her companion all the while. Erin looked a bit unsteady once she was on her feet again, but she pulled herself together enough to slowly start trudging toward the house, blanket still wrapped around herself protectively as she shuffled along.
Jenna grabbed as much as she could and then quickly followed after her, ready to catch her in case she suddenly took a spill. Though the process was slow, they made it into the house without incident.
"I can't wait to find a place to sleep," Erin commented drowsily, looking completely unaffected by the state of chaotic disarray that the living room was in.
"Well, just a bit of advice," Jenna said as she trailed behind Erin, "there's a bedroom upstairs to the right that I would avoid if I were you."
Erin sniffled and looked at her curiously…or at least, with as much curiosity as she could muster. "Dead walkers in there?" When Jenna nodded, she just shrugged and made a nasally sound of disinterest. "Too far anyway," she dismissed before walking over to the couch and promptly collapsing onto it face first.
Jenna sighed as she set the bags down near the foot of the couch, eyes trained on the sick blonde. Without a word, she kneeled down by the bag that held their medicine and unzipped it, quickly locating a bottle of antibiotics. With the medicine in hand, Jenna then grabbed a canteen of water and went to Erin's side, gently shaking her again before she could fall asleep.
"Take them," she instructed, showing the pills to Erin when the woman groggily opened her eyes.
"No," Erin protested, giving a small shake of her head. "They're not working anyway," she continued hoarsely. "We should," cough, "save them for – "
"Take them," Jenna interrupted, her tone firm and eyes stern.
Even in all her sickness, Erin still managed a heave of irritation. She didn't protest any further, however, and slowly reached up to pluck the pills from Jenna's palm and place them in her mouth. Jenna handed her the water canteen so she could wash the pills down, watching her all the while to make sure she actually took the medication.
She would have really liked to say that she and Erin had become friends in the weeks since their meeting in Greenville, but in truth, that simply was not the case.
For almost a month now they had been travelling together, yet Jenna still felt as though she barely knew Erin. It wasn't from lack of effort, oh no. She had made several attempts to connect with her new companion and had tried to build some sort of a friendship, but it had been to no avail. Conversation was scarce between them, and whenever they did talk, it was almost always about business – never anything personal, never anything meaningful, never anything that could result in them actually bonding. On the rare occasion that Erin did let something slip, she always quickly changed the subject before Jenna could ask any questions.
It had become painfully obvious by now that this arrangement was strictly business and that Erin was not interested in making friends. And, unfortunately, it didn't look like that would be changing anytime soon – if ever.
"Satisfied?" Erin sassed when she finished drinking the water.
Jenna took the canteen from her with a quirked brow, setting it on the floor near the couch in case Erin needed more. "You're welcome for taking care of you," she countered pointedly. That seemed to halt Erin's attitude right in its tracks, leaving her to look a bit shamefaced instead. "Get some rest," Jenna instructed, getting to her feet again. "I'll finish securing the house and then see what I can do about dinner."
Erin was quiet for a moment, but then, so quietly that it was almost inaudible, she said, "Thanks."
Jenna just nodded at her in response and then turned to head back outside so she could finish grabbing their things. By the time she returned, Erin had already fallen asleep.
While her companion slept, Jenna went about taking all the necessary precautions to fully secure the house. She revisited every room, double and triple checking to ensure she hadn't missed anything in the first sweep and scouring every inch of every room for supplies in the process. Though there was only a little bit of food to be found in the pantry and the cabinets, a look around the garage resulted in the finding of two still-sealed, five gallon Ozarka jugs and a small mound of old-looking firewood. Encouraged by the lucky findings, Jenna hauled the jugs and the wood inside with images of a warm fire, some hot soup, and maybe even a sponge bath dancing around in her head.
Once that was done, she spent what was left of the afternoon barricading furniture against the entrances and hanging sheets and blankets up over the windows to conceal them from the outside world. Erin woke up around sundown and stayed awake just long enough to eat the scant vegetable soup that Jenna had made for dinner using some of the water she'd found, a bouillon cube for flavor, and a can of vegetables for substance – it wasn't much, but it was hot and it seemed to help soothe some of the soreness that had been in Erin's throat.
After dinner had been eaten and Erin had fallen back asleep, Jenna finally caved and started heating up a large cooking pot full of water. She'd stripped off a lot of her layers once the fire had warmed up the house a bit, which meant there were no longer layers of clothing to conceal the stench starting to radiate off of her. Jenna had tried valiantly to ignore the way she smelled all night long, reminding herself that water was precious and should probably be saved for more important matters, but she had finally reached her breaking point.
She simply couldn't stand herself any longer. After weeks of denying herself the luxury, she was going to have a sponge bath.
When the water was hot, Jenna grabbed the necessary toiletries, a fresh set of clothes, and fresh underwear – her last fresh set of clothes and underwear. She then took her bathing supplies and clothes and made a beeline for the half-bath on the first floor, lighting a candle on the counter for light before closing the door behind her.
Once everything was situated, Jenna slowly started to peel of her dirty clothes. Her frown grew deeper and deeper as she revealed her own body to herself, eyes critical as they took in the sight of her naked form reflected in the mirror. This was the first time she'd really looked at herself since leaving the farm, and it was only now that she was realizing how much skinnier she'd gotten in the month since she'd left. Whatever body fat she'd regained joining the group had since disintegrated – her collar and hip bones stuck out sharply against her dirty skin and she was starting to get a pretty clear view of her ribs. Her skin was also the grimiest it had probably ever been and marred with countless scrapes and bruises – the result of constantly being on the move and constantly having to run for her life.
All in all, she thought it safe to say that this was the worst she had ever looked in her entire life.
Jenna located a washrag in one of the bathroom cabinets, dunked it and the bar of soap into the pot of heated water, then furiously began scrubbing herself clean. She lathered herself with the soap the best that she could and rubbed her skin with the washrag until it was nearly raw, sighing in relief as she felt the build-up of sweat, dirt, and zombie grime finally being washed away. Water splashed onto the bathroom floor and soaked just about everything in sight as she bathed, but Jenna couldn't bring herself to care – she almost felt bad for using so much water, but justified it by telling herself she'd probably be able to replace it once she'd searched the other houses in the neighborhood.
After she finished cleaning her body, she dried off with another towel she found in the cabinet and quickly redressed in her fresh clothes – the bathroom was simply too cold for her to continue to stand around naked for much longer. Now dressed, Jenna reached up to pull out the elastic securing her braid and shook out her beyond dirty hair, cringing at the smell and overall appearance.
Once upon a time her hair had been her crowning glory – it had been thick and healthy, shining coppery-red down to the middle of her back in a combination of waves and curls. All her life strangers had come up to her to gush over her hair and tell her how beautiful the color was. Now, however, she doubted anyone would be rushing to compliment the mess her hair had become. It hung around her shoulders in tangles and mats, the red had gone dull and lifeless, and it very much resembled a dead animal – even her split ends had split ends.
Jenna wasted no time to dunk her head into what was left of her water, then squirted what felt like half the bottle of shampoo into her hand and started scrubbing as though her life depended on it. She scratched her fingernails along her scalp to make sure she got every ounce of buildup out then dunked her head again to wash out the shampoo. Lastly, she doused her tangles with conditioner, combed through them with her fingers, then dunked her head for the last time.
Jenna straightened up again and looked at herself in the mirror again, this time giving a small nod of approval. "Better," she murmured aloud, squeezing the excess moisture from her hair. Already she could see some life coming back into it – instead of the smelly, matted, bird's nest that had been her hair the past month or so, she could actually see curls starting to form again.
Feeling cleaner than she had since her time on the farm and in a much better mood because of it, she left the bathroom without bothering to clean up and went to warm up by the fire. Erin was still asleep on the couch when she walked back into the room, so Jenna made sure to keep quiet as she tip-toed over to the pallet she'd made between the couch and the fireplace.
Sighing to herself the instant she was sitting down, Jenna took a moment to savor the warmth of the fire, feeling herself already starting to unwind. It was a massive relief to just sit down and relax for a change – after all, there wasn't much opportunity to do so these days. Even when Erin was healthy and it was her turn to be on night watch, sleep and relaxation were near impossible to obtain. Jenna had simply faced too much since the apocalypse hit, been forced to run for her life too many times for her to ever truly relax anymore.
But tonight, after a long, tough few days of watching over Erin and bearing the brunt of all the work, she was going to force herself to relax whether she wanted to or not.
With that thought in mind, Jenna leaned toward the couch to grab her bag and pulled it closer. Unzipping it, she found what she wanted right on top – the map. She unfolded it and spread it out on the floor, then rummaged in one of the side pockets until she found a highlighter. Pulling the cap off with her teeth, Jenna hunched over so she could read the map better and marked their progress for the day with the highlighter, circling the name of the city they were currently stopped in once she reached it on the map.
The journey itself was taking much longer than she had anticipated. After her truck died, their transportation situation became a bit sticky. It was only a week or so ago that they'd finally gotten their hands on the Camry they had now – up until then they'd either had to pray they found a car that could be hotwired and used for the day or, on several occasions, went about it the old fashioned way and simply legged it from place to place.
But even with the Camry at their disposal now, their progress had still been slow. Between them avoiding major highways as often as they could, roads being blocked by traffic snarls, and frequent run-ins with walkers that forced them to hightail it in whichever direction was most convenient at the time, there had been plenty of obstacles preventing them from getting to Fort Benning. The lack of friendship and camaraderie between her and Erin didn't make matters any easier, either – the obvious distance between them made it feel as though the already long trip was positively dragging.
Secretly Jenna was starting to feel more than a little frustrated with it all, but she managed to squash the feeling down by reminding herself that they were almost to Fort Benning. They were nearly to the outskirts of Columbus now, which meant that the next stop after that would be their destination. If they actually caught a break for a change and things continued to go as smoothly as they had for the past few days, then it was possible they could be at the base within the week. The thought of seeing her brother again – the only family she had left – and this journey finally reaching its conclusion gave her all the encouragement she needed.
Refolding the map, Jenna secured it in the side pocket before reaching into the bag again, this time to retrieve the notebook she'd been writing in in her spare time. The last empty pages in the old one she had found before leaving the farm had already been filled up, so she had since obtained another notebook and started a new journal, writing about everything that she did and saw while she was on the road to pass the time.
Jenna went to grab the pen that she kept stowed in the metal coils on the side of the notebook, but frowned when she saw that the pen had slipped from its home and disappeared. Setting the notebook down, Jenna dove into the bag again, letting her hand skim the contents in search of the missing pen. It was only a moment or two before her fingers brushed over something smooth on the bottom of her bag, making her pause.
She knew that texture – it was the glossy smoothness of picture paper.
Momentarily abandoning her search for the pen, Jenna grabbed the photos and pulled them out of the bag to look at them. They were the same ones she'd had with her since the beginning of the apocalypse, the ones that she had not looked at since the night she had almost kissed Daryl on the farm. There was the picture of her and her brother after he'd graduated bootcamp, the one of her mother when she'd been in her prime, the family photo from Christmas some fourteen years back – the very last family photo that had been taken before her father passed away from cancer.
It was the last photo Jenna looked at that made her pause – it was the one of her and Jon on their anniversary a few months prior to the apocalypse.
Setting the other photographs down, she leaned over a bit and held the picture closer to the fire so she could get a better look at it, ignoring her own face completely and taking in the sight of her former boyfriend's handsome, chiseled features and warm, friendly smile. It was with no small amount of guilt that Jenna realized it had been a very long time since she'd last thought of Jon. In fact, the last time she could remember thinking about him was when his truck had died on the 109 just outside of Greenville. It had been a devastating blow – not just because transportation was so vital but also because losing the truck had made her feel as though she'd finally lost that last little piece of Jon that she'd been clinging on to.
Jenna frowned as she pensively stared down at Jon's face. There had been a time when she couldn't even think about this picture because the pain of his death was still so harsh, but now she could look at it and only feel a brief twinge of sadness. Did that mean she was starting to move on? Or had the world and all the terrible things she'd seen simply numbed her to the point that she couldn't feel that kind of grief anymore?
BANG!
The crack of a gun in the distance brought Jenna crashing back to reality. Her head snapped to the window so fast that it nearly gave her whiplash, eyes wide and filled with surprise at the unexpected noise. Then, as her instincts took over, she scrambled to her feet and grabbed the first weapon she came across.
With a shotgun in hand, she strode to the window and moved the blanket covering a smidge to the right, making a space just wide enough for her eye to peer at the street on the other side. "Wha' was that?" Erin's voice sounded from the couch. It was unclear whether it was the gunshot or Jenna's scrambling about that had woken her.
"Gunshot," Jenna said lowly. "Sounded a little ways off," she added, still trying to catch sight of anything lurking about nearby. With only a sliver of the moon for light, though, it was difficult to get a good look at anything. "But if it was close enough to hear, that's too close in my book."
In the next moment, another gunshot sounded in the air, followed by shouting and a few high pitched screams off in the distance. Jenna jumped at the sound and felt her heart plummet to her stomach, a feeling of dread consuming her as more shots echoed after that. Someone was obviously in trouble, and though the good Samaritan wanted to run to their rescue – it was what Rick would have done if he'd been in her position – Jenna knew that venturing out into an area she didn't know when it was so dark outside was suicide. As infuriatingly frustrating as it was, there was nothing she could do.
"Poor bastards…" Erin commented deliriously.
Jenna shot a brief look in Erin's direction, then moved the blanket back into place over the window, trying to block out the sounds of the screams outside. "Those gunshots'll draw walkers for miles," she said, moving to grab a chair and place it by the window. "We'll need to lay very low, which means…" Jenna trailed off and looked pointedly at the fire.
Erin followed her gaze, then sighed. Lack of fire would mean they'd be in for a pretty cold night, but it certainly wasn't as though this was the first time they'd had to spend the night shivering their butts off. "Fine," she said in resignation.
Jenna nodded, set the shotgun on the chair, then went to collect the pan of bathing water she'd left in the bathroom. Walking back into the living room, she went over to the fire and dumped the water on top of it, dousing the flames and producing a giant cloud of smoke. She coughed and waved the smoke away as the room was thrown into darkness, then carefully made her way back over to the couch.
"Go back to bed," she instructed, blindly reaching for another blanket to throw it on top of Erin. "I'll wake you if anything happens."
And with that, Jenna turned to go back to the chair. Pausing only to pick up the shotgun again, she sat down and rested the gun on her lap before moving the blanket covering the window to the side again so she could see outside.
So much for relaxing, Jenna thought to herself as she made herself comfortable and settled in for her watch. No doubt it was going to be a very long night.
"You shouldn't go out there alone," Erin protested the next morning as Jenna shrugged on her puffy jacket and zipped it all the way to her chin. "We have no idea what those gunshots were about last night – and you said yourself the noise was gonna draw walkers for miles," she added pointedly, pausing for a brief moment to cough into her arm. "It could be dangerous out there," Erin finally said when she'd recovered from her coughing fit.
Jenna, who had started gearing up with the usual weaponry and supplies that she took on runs, paused and turned to face Erin with a quirked brow. "When isn't it dangerous?" She countered knowingly. When Erin didn't have a response, Jenna sighed. "Look," she continued patiently, "I have to go. We're low on food and we're low on gas – I have to check these houses out. If not, we won't make it to the next town, let alone to Fort Benning."
With that being said, Jenna slung an empty supply bag over her shoulder, grabbed a gas can, and snatched up her handgun from a table near the couch. "You should wait longer," Erin suggested for the third time, even though she seemed to realize nothing she would say would make any difference. "Anyone could be out there still."
"I'm fast and I'm smart – I'll be fine," Jenna said reassuringly, crouching down by the bags for a moment so she could grab Erin's shotgun. Once the weapon was in hand, she stood to her full height against and went to hand it to the runny-nosed blonde. "Keep this in reach," Jenna instructed, handing the weapon over. "If anyone tries to get in here while I'm gone, shoot 'em."
Erin looked at her for a long moment, then finally accepted the gun with a resigned nod.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Jenna said, heading for the front door so she could push the loveseat blocking the entrance out of the way. Once there was enough room for her to open the door and squeeze outside, she started to leave.
"Watch your back," Erin called after Jenna as she stepped outside.
"I always do," Jenna said back, before shutting the door behind her.
Once she was outside, Jenna did have to admit that she felt a little apprehensive. The streets were as quiet and as desolated as they had been when she and Erin had arrived the previous day, but Jenna had not forgotten about the momentary chaos that had erupted in this very neighborhood barely twelve hours ago. She peered cautiously to the left, then to the right, half expecting a horde of walkers or mob of bandits to jump out of the shadowed at any given second. But when a few minutes ticked by and nothing of the sort happened, Jenna sucked in a deep breath and headed for the house next door to begin her search for resources.
The first few houses she checked all turned up the same result – nothing. Jenna didn't know if the previous owners of the house had packed up all their valuables and hightailed it or if other survivors had simply already come through and raided the area, but whatever the scenario, there was nothing to find in the cupboards and the pantries but dust, dead roaches, and rat droppings.
The unlucky start was almost enough to have her feeling discouraged right off the bat. But, thankfully, as she turned the corner and started checking the houses the next street over, her luck took a turn for the better. By the time she had reached the last house on the street, Jenna had found three cans of kidney beans, a box of crackers, a packet of Starkist tuna, a huge jar of applesauce and an equally large jar of pickles. She wasn't particularly fond of pickles, but if it meant having a full belly, she'd suck it up and deal with it.
For the next forty minutes or so Jenna slowly made her way around the neighborhood, adding anything edible she came across to her bag and stopping sporadically to try to siphon gas out of cars that had been left behind to rust in their driveways. And luckily for her, she had obtained it with a minimal amount of confrontation – she only had to take out a handful of walkers as she went from home to home, killing the few that saw her in the street or those lurking in the shadows of the houses she searched.
Once her bag was starting to feel a little heavy, Jenna considered calling it a day and returning to the safehouse while luck was still in her favor. After thinking about it a little more, though, she decided to look around for a little bit longer – she hadn't attracted any attention to herself yet, and as long as there was still room in her bag and places to check, she figured she might as well keep searching.
But as Jenna slowly wound her way down the next few streets, going deeper into the neighborhood, it wasn't long before she started to rethink her decision. Maybe it was because she was going further into a neighborhood that she didn't know very well, or maybe it was just the knowledge of what had happened the night before lurking in the back of her thoughts, but a particularly ominous feeling was starting to encompass her the longer she stayed out in the open. And Jenna wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but she also couldn't help but notice the fact that the number of walkers roaming around seemed to be increasing the further she went.
She started to turn down another street when she suddenly had to backtrack and duck down behind a car to get out of sight.
The street was absolutely filled with walkers. There had to be at least forty of them, maybe even more – the biggest group she'd seen in a long while. The majority of them seemed to have congregated around a certain house about five or six doors down, but there were still several clusters of them crouched over things in various spots along the road. Upon looking harder, Jenna realized that the groups were feasting, and that the things they were crouched over were people.
The screams and the gunshots the night before came rushing back to her, and Jenna was certain in that moment that she had just found the group that had been in trouble. Perhaps they had been holed up in that house and had gotten overrun. Maybe they had been attacked by other survivors and the noise, which had been so loud it might as well have been a damned dinner bell, had simply attracted all the walkers now loitering about. Either way, it was all too obvious that the group that had been in trouble had not made it through whatever they had faced the night before.
Jenna, feeling a smidge guilty for not helping in some way, was just contemplating whether or not she should have a look around and try to locate any possible survivors when the silence of the neighborhood was shattered by another scream. She froze in her hiding spot behind the car and felt her blood run cold at the high-pitched, terror-filled scream. It was definitely female and, just like the night before, it definitely sounded as though somebody was in serious trouble.
With daylight on her side now, she didn't have to think twice before she was shooting out from behind the car and running in the direction the screams were coming from – thankfully, it was not in the direction the massive horde of walkers was in. But, unfortunately, Jenna was not the only one to hear the screams. The zombies in the area had heard it too and were already starting to mobilize again – Jenna chanced a look behind at the massive horde and cringed when she realized that several of them had spotted her and were now starting to follow.
Jenna turned right down the street the next street, then immediately had to duck out of the way of an incoming walker. She thought about killing it, but decided she didn't have the time whenever another scream pierced the air. Sprinting forward again, she left the walker behind to snap and snarl after her. There was no chance it would catch her, though – Jenna was simply too fast.
Another frightened scream sounded to the left, which had her turning again as soon as she could. Jenna dodged more walkers, hitting any that got too close with her gas can to make them back off, and ran further down the street, her breath starting to become hard and labored. The screaming was getting louder now, a sign that she was getting close to whoever was in trouble. Yet it was also attracting every walker in hearing distance, luring them from secret hiding spots and sending them flooding into the streets. Their numbers were starting to get alarmingly large, which meant that whatever Jenna was about to do to rescue this stranger was going to have to be done fast.
Jenna took one last turn and then finally found the source of the screaming. Not so very far down the road, two walkers had taken someone down and were trying very hard to turn them into their mid-morning meal. It was hard to see who they had captured because there was a pretty serious struggle ensuing, but judging by the screaming it was a female. And though she was kicking and flailing about and not making it easy for the walkers to sink their teeth into her, it was pretty clear that she was quickly losing the battle. One of the walkers was all but on top of her now, intent on taking a chunk out of her face but just barely being held off, while the other was trying hard to get a hold on to her wiggling, kicking legs.
A hungry growl that didn't sound so very far away jerked Jenna back to reality. Without bothering to look and see how many walkers had followed her to the source of the screaming – probably a lot, if she had to guess – she sprinted toward the woman in peril, running purely off instinct and adrenaline now.
When she finally reached the woman, Jenna saw that the walker on her legs was about to take a bite of out of her thigh. Jenna reared back and kicked the walker in the head, blood spurting out from where her boot made contact as the walker flew backward. She then swung her gas can at the walker on top of the woman with all her might, the unexpected blow sending it careening to the right. Almost instantly the zombies had recovered and were starting to come at them again, now looking at her with hunger filled eyes, but Jenna put an end to the problem by raising her gun and putting two well-aimed bullets in their brains.
With the walkers now dead, Jenna finally looked down at the woman she'd just saved. She froze and felt her spine stiffen with shock, however, when she realized it was not a woman after all. In fact, it was a girl. A young girl. A young girl that she recognized and knew.
It was Sophia.
For a moment in time, Jenna could only stare at her in dumbfounded silence, taking in the sight of her skinny, lanky form in those same cargo pants and that blue shirt with the rainbow in the center. Her hair was the same as she remembered, light brown and just barely hanging past her chin, her eyes wide and innocent face filled with fear. The vicious bite-mark that had been on her neck when she'd come out of the barn was gone, though, and the life was in her eyes again. This was how she had looked when Jenna had last seen her alive – this was how she would have looked if they had found her before she turned.
Jenna blinked and suddenly Sophia was no longer there. Realizing she'd only hallucinated seeing the deceased girl, she finally focused on the girl that actually was in front of her. She looked to be eleven or twelve, was skinny and dirty, had straight brown hair held back in a low pony-tail, and large, hazel eyes that were currently struggling to stay open. She seemed like she was trying to focus on Jenna but was having a difficult time doing so. Concerned, Jenna gave her a once over, frowning deeply when she spotted blood starting to seep through the arm of her jacket.
"Are you okay?" She asked, kneeling beside the girl. "Are you bit?"
The girl started a bit at the sound of Jenna's voice and quickly looked at her, but the way her eyes rolled around let Jenna know that the she was having a hard time focusing. "I...I..." She stammered out in a voice hoarse from screaming, before promptly passing out.
Jenna wasn't sure if the girl had passed out from shock, from a bad injury, or from just plain exhaustion after her struggle for her life, but one look around at the walkers steadily closing in on them reminded her that she didn't have the time to sit there and figure it out. Making the executive decision that questions and explanations could wait until they were in a safe place, Jenna dropped the gas can in her left hand so she could pick up the unconscious girl and throw her over her shoulder – bit or not, there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell she was about to leave a little girl to fend for herself. Not after what had happened to Sophia.
Jenna steadied the girl on her shoulder with one hand and raised her gun with the other, shooting the first walker that got too close. She glanced down at the gas can, hating the idea of leaving the precious fuel behind but knowing she didn't really have a choice in the matter – it was either the gas or the girl, and right now, the girl seemed more important. So after deciding that she'd just have to come back for the gas can, Jenna shot a few more walkers to clear a path and then took off, praying she'd be able to get back to the safehouse before they both ended up becoming a walker's lunch.
Oh my god, I apologize so much if this sucked. Its kind of a transition chapter, but don't worry - things will start to pick up a bit more after this. Please be gentle!
Thoughts?