Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.

"Welcome to Hayfield." Eddie said as the group approached a fenced community. The fence didn't look like it could withstand an attack from the walkers but looks could be deceiving.

"Hayfield?" Wyatt asked.

"Yeah… that's what the boss calls it." Eddie said.

"So, who is this boss if you don't mind me asking?" Luke said.

"His name's Jonah." Ryan said. "And he'll decide if you're staying." He grumbled as he walked up to the front gate.

"What's his problem?" Russell asked.

"Ryan's the enforcer of our little community." Eddie said. "Try not to take it personally. The dude's been through a lot especially when he's second-in-command."

Clementine looked over to Ryan as he talked to one of the guards at the gate. "…f***** Eddie… He found a bunch of strays."

The guard nodded and he talked into his radio. "Hey sir. The team came back with some people… They just escaped from Carver's… Yes sir… But sir, are you sure? We don't want to stretch ourselves too thin… Okay… I understand… Yes sir." He lowered the radio and nodded to Ryan. "Jonah wants to see them."

Ryan sighed and shook his head. He turned to the group of newcomers as the gate opened. "Alright! Listen up!" Ryan shouted to get everyone's attention. "Jonah is willing to see you, but if you do anything stupid, I will kill you and every damn person in this group… including the little rugrat and the kids!" He pointed to Genevieve and then to Clementine and Gill. "Do I make myself clear?"

All the group could really do was nod. "Good. Do not waste Jonah's time. You are to answer his question; no beating around the bush." Ryan said. He went into the community with the group following behind him. Clementine felt nervous. Ryan didn't seem to friendly. He almost reminded her of Troy, but unlike Troy, he seemed to respect this man named Jonah where Troy had nothing but disrespect for everyone. She looked around and noticed that there were some houses still standing in the community. A couple appeared to be too damaged to be of any use.

She also noticed how the people were looking at the group and whispering to each other. In their defense, she and everyone else in the group didn't look too good. After all, they were covered in walker entrails. In comparison, the people within the community appeared to be wearing clean clothes and they seemed rather relaxed. As they made their way through the community, they walked up to a large building. She could see a middle-aged man standing outside of the building with two armed guards next to him.

Ryan approached with the group behind him and immediately got out of the way. Luke was now face-to-face with the man. The man smiled, and in a soft-toned voice, he said, "Welcome to Hayfield." He had his arms stretched out to gesture to the small community. "It is nice to meet you all. My name is Jonah." He had a medium build and wore a brown leather jacket, a black plaid shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of brown boots. He was balding with some hair being tied into a pony tail in the back.

"Hi. My name's Luke." Luke said.

"It's good to meet so many new people. How about we all come inside and get out of the cold." Jonah said. He turned and entered the large building. Luke and the group followed behind him. Jonah's armed guards didn't leave his side.

Once inside, Clementine looked around. It appeared that the large building was once a factory; however, it appeared that it now was a survivor's shelter. While most of the machines were shut down, there were other machines that were in use; some people were running the machines.

"Here we go… This office should be nice and quiet." Jonah said as he approached a small office. "Greg, Jack, can you boys stay out here?" He was talking to his armed guards.

"Yes sir." One of the men replied while the other nodded. He made a gesture for Luke to come in with him. Luke nodded and entered the room with Jonah following behind him. The door closed. It seemed that Jonah was going to interview them one-by-one. Clementine considered it be a smart move. If their stories didn't line up, he could take swift action to ensure that they wouldn't cause any harm.

However, she was a little worried about Gill. He hadn't been in the group for very long. He had no idea what had happened at Howe's for the most part. The only thing he could tell Jonah was how Carver had captured him and tortured him.

And Sarah was not in a good state of mind now. She was traumatized by losing her dad and her boyfriend.

Clementine looked back to the door. She felt almost anxious. She wasn't sure why. This man was nothing like Carver. She shouldn't have to worry about what would happen. They were finally in a safe community.

Zeke's POV

Zeke sat upright in the bed. He huffed as he got up from the bed. "Good… here." Jane said as she tossed him some new clothes. I found some clothes that could fit you. "Get them on and then we need to go." Jane said. He noticed that she was wearing a different set of clothes. The skinny jeans that she wore were replaced with a darker pair and she wore a new red jacket.

"Thanks." Zeke said.

"Hurry." Jane said.

Zeke removed his old clothes and put the new clothes on. He wore a new pair of jeans that were a darker blue compared to his old jeans, a grey shirt, and a brown hooded sweatshirt to go on top of it. "That'll do. Come on." Jane said. "We need to get out of here."

"Okay. Can you tell me what's going on?" Zeke asked.

"Listen." Jane said. Zeke did exactly that. He didn't hear anything at first and only shrugged, but then he heard it.

"Why are we doing this, man?" A man's voice was heard.

"We got to be thorough." Another voice was heard.

"People." Jane whispered. She shook her head.

"What do we do?" Zeke whispered. "Can we take them out?"

"I'd rather not try. There's only three of them, but they're armed." Jane said. "Look around for a way to escape."

"Okay." Zeke said. He looked around for anything that he could use to escape the trailer without being seen by the scavengers. He looked out to see that it was still daylight outside much to his surprise. It seemed like it was late in the day. He ducked down before any of the scavengers could see him.

Upon finding nothing of use, he went back to Jane. "Is there any way out of here besides the front door?" Zeke asked.

"The window…" Jane said. That wasn't much better. He did notice that the trailer they were in was close to the gate. Zeke looked around the room for anything of use until he noticed that there was a skylight. "What if we got up on the roof through that skylight?"

"Hmm… that could work…" Jane said. "But it's risky… if they see us, we're toast."

"Hmm… You got a point." Zeke said. "Do we have anything to fight with?"

"Just my knife…" Jane said. "There wasn't much here."

"Okay…" Zeke said. He pondered on whether to attack the three men outside or try to escape through the roof. It wasn't going to be an easy decision. He shook his head and he said, "We'll go through the skylight. We should be able to jump onto the other side of the fence, right?"

"Yeah. I can agree to that plan as long as we make it out of here alive." Jane said.

"Alright. So, we need to find something that'll get us to the skylight." Zeke said.

"What about that shelf in the other room?" Jane said. "It looked like it was the right height."

"Awesome. We'll use that." Zeke said. It seemed like things were going to work out for the two after all, but Zeke was surprised when he heard the doorknob twist.

He looked over in time to hear someone say, "What the hell? I think this thing is stuck or locked."

"If it's locked, that means someone is in there." Another man's voice was heard.

"Shit… Grab that shelf." Jane whispered as she went over to the shelf. Zeke got to the shelf as well and they started to move it over.

They heard the doorknob twist some more before they heard loud bangs from the door. They were trying to bust the door down. "We know someone's in there! Let us in now, or we're going to kill you!" A man snapped. Zeke could see the door starting to break.

They ignored the man's shouts and managed to haul the shelf into the room. Jane slammed the door shut in time for the front door to break. Zeke caught a glimpse of three men. He knew that they were running out of time. Jane locked the door as Zeke pushed the shelf underneath the skylight.

"Come on." Jane said. She got up on the dresser and lifted Zeke to the roof of the trailer home. Zeke turned back and offered his hand to help Jane. She accepted his hand and he proceeded to help her out of the trailer.

"Jump!" Jane exclaimed once she was on the roof of the trailer. She walked back before running and leaping over the fence.

Zeke also walked back a bit before running and leaping over the fence. He almost didn't make the jump. He landed on the other side of the fence and got up. He then followed Jane through the woods. He could hear the gunfire from the trailer park. It was probably those three men. He knew that they wouldn't be able to make the jump since he barely made it himself and he was lighter than them. Plus, they would have to deal with the walkers before they could catch up to Zeke and Jane.


After running for a while, the two stopped to catch their breaths. "Well… Thanks again for helping me back at Howe's." Zeke said. "Is that the third time you saved my life?"

Jane nodded and she said, "You put yourself in danger too much."

"Not like I could help it." Zeke said. "Now… I need to figure out where the group went." He started to look around for something he could use to track down the group. He knew that would be almost impossible. He probably would have to go back to Howe's first and track them down from there.

"Why?" Jane asked. Zeke stopped and looked up to Jane. He was surprised when he heard her ask that question.

"What do you mean 'why'?" Zeke asked.

"Why would you risk your life again to find those people?" Jane asked. "They're all going to die especially when you're not there willing to sacrifice yourself for them."

"Hold on. These are good people." Zeke said. "They might not always think things through and are a bit too trusting, but I think that's helped me."

"They lack survival instincts. That's something you and I have." Jane said as she started to walk through the forest. Zeke followed behind her. "I know they're good people, but good people don't survive very long. If you ask me, they're living on borrowed time."

"Regardless of whether that is true, I'm not giving up on them. I'm going to find them." Zeke said.

Jane stopped and looked to him. "I don't understand. What did they ever do for you to make you so loyal to them? Why are you risking your life for them?" Jane asked.

"What else is there for me to do? I tried surviving on my own. It didn't really work out for me." Zeke said. "I was miserable every day. It wasn't until I found people who would talk to me and help me that I actually felt alright again. Plus, I'm dating that girl in the glasses."

"Love is a commodity that you can't afford now." Jane said. "She's only going to slow you down. She's not strong enough. She can't accept this new world." Zeke couldn't help but agree that Sarah couldn't accept the new world. Sarah had gotten stronger, but she was still too morally idealistic. She trusted people far too much. There was a pause before Jane sighed. "It hasn't worked out for me either. That's why I'm asking if you want to stay with me."

"Really?" Zeke asked. He wasn't too sure about joining Jane, but he figured that he owed her for saving his life three times.

"Yeah… So… what do you say?" Jane asked.

Zeke pondered on what the best course of action was. He knew that he owed Jane, but he didn't want to abandon the group that he cared for. "Alright." Zeke said. "I'll stick with you." He wondered if there was more to Jane. Maybe she was like him. Maybe she was grieving over someone who she cared about and needed help figuring out what to do and who to talk to.

A small smile formed on her face and she said, "I didn't think you would say yes."

Zeke nodded and he said, "So… what do we do now?"

"We find some supplies and wait for that herd at Howe's to move on. I didn't like that place much, but it does have everything we need." Jane said as they proceeded to walk through the forest.

"Sounds like a plan." Zeke said. Zeke looked to the young woman before he said, "You ever thought about leading your own group? I think you would be really good at that."

Jane shook her head and she said, "I was in a lot of groups before I decided that it was better to just be alone. None of them worked out. If the walkers and psychos didn't get them, they would usually kill themselves."

"That's understandable…" Zeke mumbled.

"How about you?" Jane asked.

Zeke thought about telling Jane about his past. It didn't hurt as much to think about Decker, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to talk about him again. Zeke huffed and he said, "When the world ended, it was me, my little brother, and my abusive dad. At some point, that monster that I call my dad attacked Decker… my little brother. I had no choice. He was going to kill him… so I aimed my bow at him and released the arrow… I killed him… After that, Decker and I were on our own. We did well… until this scum of the Earth held us at gunpoint. I could tell that he had lost his mind a long time ago. He kept asking who wanted to die first… I tried to get over to Decker to shield him. If there was going to be one of us who would make it, it was going to be Decker… In the end, it didn't matter… He shot Decker. I… I tried to save him, but it was a fatal wound… That psycho that shot him laughed and said that he would spare me for 'putting on show'. Then he left. All I could do was comfort Decker in his last few moments while cradling him in my arms." Zeke tried his best to fight back the tears. "I put him down when he turned… and buried him…. I then went after the psycho that killed him. I put him through hell, before I finally started torturing him and then I killed him." He looked up to Jane to see the shocked look on her face.

"Holy f****** shit..." Jane muttered.

"Yeah… after a few weeks on my own, I found Christa and Omid. They helped me in more ways than one." Zeke said.

"I know how you feel… I lost my sister, Jaime, but nothing like that." Jane said. "Jaime… just gave up."

"You're not saying…" Zeke said.

"Not like that. I dragged my sister across four states. Every morning, she would say that she wasn't getting up, so I would convince her, push her, hell even carry her if I had to. Until this one time…" Jane said. "Walkers cornered us and forced us to the top of the roof. And then when they kept coming… I…I couldn't make her jump. Couldn't throw her. So, I tried something else. I told her that she could have what she wanted. And I left her there."

"Damn…" Zeke muttered. "I'm sorry you had to do that."

Jane nodded. "It killed me for a long time. But I finally realized that I had put her on a forced march through hell, but all she really wanted me to do was let her go." Jane said. "You and I are the same… We're older siblings who lost the one we cared about the most."

Zeke nodded his head and pondered on her words. She was right. They were the same. He remembered how Carver was always saying that he and Clementine were the same; when in all reality, they couldn't be any more different. However, Zeke couldn't help but see how similar he was to Jane. As they walked through the forest, Zeke wondered what it would be like if Decker and Jaime had made it. Even though Zeke had never met Jaime, he figured that her relationship with Jane was like his relationship with Decker. They weren't just siblings, they were best friends.

To be continued.