Chapter 29: Resting Here With Me

With an awkward jolt to her chest, Jordyn woke up with her heart racing and a cold sweat beading over her body. Nightmares were common to her now and they all ended the same way: with every person in them turning into a Walker. The only difference this time was that it happened at the Greene farm.

Previously, Jordyn's bad dreams had been in her family home, her apartment or even in a subconsciously-stylized version of Las Vegas - all in places she'd been in the past or wished she could be. It made her anxious that this nightmare had taken place in her current location. Jordyn had never been superstitious; but then she'd never believed the dead would walk around.

Trying to shake off the grotesque images of her undead friends moaning and shuffling towards her with their arms outstretched, Jordyn kicked off her blankets, noticing Marnie wasn't beside her. She was standing at the window looking out. "They're digging," she told Jordyn when she saw she was awake.

"Hey, what are you doing up already?" Jordyn spoke in a hushed whisper, the wall clock told her it was just past six in the morning. "Do you feel okay?"

Marnie nodded but didn't look away from the window. "You move around too much when you're sleeping," she said.

Reaching out her hand, Jordyn beckoned Marnie to come to her. "Okay, I'll sleep on the floor tonight," she ran her hand across her forehead to feel her temperature. Marnie was a little warm. "Climb back in here," she lifted Marnie across her lap and settled her back into bed. While she was tucking Elroy beside her, Jordyn noticed an unsettling crinkle in her sisters brow. "What's up, baby?"

"Who died?" Marnie asked wrapping her arms around her beloved teddy bear.

Jordyn stiffened as she flattened out a second quilt over her sister. "What makes you think someone died?"

Untucking one of her arms, Marnie pointed to the window. "Daryl and Shane are making dead holes," she said fiddling with Elroy's ear. "At Echo camp, Rosie called them dead holes 'cos they put the dead people in them."

The first instinct that came to Jordyn's mind was to deny the death, tell Marnie it had been a bad dream and what she'd seen out the window wasn't real. But Jordyn didn't like lying to her, especially when it wouldn't do any good in the long run. Her sister was young and naive, but she wasn't stupid. She would notice Dale missing. "It was Dale," Jordyn admitted. "Dale died."

Marnie hugged Elroy tighter. "Did he turn into a monster?"

"No, he just..." Jordyn exhaled, unable to think of a way to phrase it that wasn't blunt. "It was an accident."

Curling herself up into a ball, Marnie used Elroy as a pillow and closed her eyes. "I wish Mummy was here," she mumbled quietly.

The corners of Jordyn's mouth twitched and her eyes became wet. "So do I."

xxx

As the morning became afternoon, the group held a burial for Dale.

His grave was beside Sophia's, already filled in, with a fresh bundle of flowers on top. Everyone gathered around the graves in clumps of two or three. Together, but not really together. Rick gave the eulogy, a mark of the profound impact Dale's death had on him. And again, Rick's priorities changed. Randall was going to live; they were going to give him some supplies and drive him into town.

With Marnie bundled in two coats, two scarves and a woollen hat and carrying Elroy, Jordyn allowed her sister to attend the funeral. She felt it was important, considering all the people Marnie had lost and never had the chance to say goodbye to. Their parents, Connor, God knew how many people at those camps. And Marnie liked Dale, he took her to look at the horses in the barn before she got sick. So for the time it took to farewell Dale, Jordyn silenced the nagging doubt about Rick that she'd been feeling lately. The worrying niggle that made her doubt their leaders leadership. For now, all that mattered was Dale.

"Dale could... could get under your skin," Rick was saying. "He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had - we've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us - the truth who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity."

Jordyn clutched her arms tighter around Marnie, afraid of even taking one hand off of her.

"He said this group was broken," Rick continued clutching Lori's hand. "The best way to honour him is to un-break it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives... our safety... our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on... we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honour Dale."

After a moment more of silence, the group all parted to get on with the task of the day: moving everyone inside the Greene home. Hershel finally relented, citing that due to the cold weather, they could all make a place inside his house.

Jordyn didn't have anything to move, since they'd come back with Marnie she hadn't left the house and everything she owned was in the back of Merle's truck anyway. So instead she took her sister for a wander to see the horses like she had in the past with Dale.

They were only out for a few minutes before Marnie started coughing, so Jordyn gathered her up and took her inside. It was only while forcing her sister to lie down in bed that they both realized they'd forgotten someone.

"Elroy!" Marnie cried.

"Where is he?"

"I left him with the horses," Marnie looked ready to burst into tears. "Daddy gave him to me, I need Elroy!"

"Marnie," Jordyn took her sisters face between her palms and smiled. "It's okay, I'll go get him."

Lori took over watching Marnie while Jordyn jogged back out to the stables hoping she'd find the bear just sitting there waiting to be picked up. But she wasn't that lucky. It took two scans of the stables before she found him face down in a puddle of mud. "Dammit, Elroy," Jordyn snatched up the teddy and wrung him out like a towel, but the water had soaked him through and he was covered in stains Jordyn hoped were just dirt.

There were a couple of buckets of water by the stable nearest to her, but Jordyn didn't know if that water was earmarked for something. The Greene's had wells, but they collected rain water too for the horses to drink, then there was water set aside for washing up. There was a system, and Jordyn didn't know where cleaning a muddy bear fit into it. And, for some reason, that made her angry.

"What are you doing?" Daryl was walking by on his way to the farmhouse.

"Marnie wants her bear," Jordyn said holding up Elroy. "But he smells like shit so I have to wash him before I give him back to her but I don't know if I can use this water or if it's something for the horse or for people or what."

"Just tell her he's dirty."

"She won't understand."

"What's to understand?"

"I don't know!" Jordyn snapped. "I don't know what she understands about any of this," once she started ranting she couldn't seem to stop. "She says she knows Dale's dead but I don't even think she's sure what that means. She calls the Walkers monsters like they're not real! How the hell is she going to understand that I don't know if I can wash her bear when we all take showers, drink water, and do laundry? She doesn't know what rationing is. All she's going to see is something else she can't have, something else I can't do right."

"It's just dirty toy," Daryl shrugged as he took the bear from her hands and tossed him into one of the buckets. "Wash him up and he'll dry. And why don't you try to be a little Zen or something? I like you better when you ain't strung out." He didn't wait for her to reply, he just kept on walking.

xxx

By the time the sun set, Randall had escaped.

Somehow, he had escaped. When T-Dog went to retrieve him for his drive, all he found were bloodied handcuffs. Jordyn was fuming; what she feared would happen had happened. That kid was on his way back to his pervert gang and he was going to lead them straight to the farm. And Shane was gone, too. Possibilities of what had happened ran through Jordyn's head: Randall breaking out and killing Shane, Walkers coming through and eating them, Randall's crew coming back for him and taking Shane as a hostage. Each scenario seemed just as plausible as the other. That was until Shane came storming out of the tree line.

"Rick!" Shane roared. He was fuming, too. He informed them all that Randall must have picked the lock on the cuffs because when he went in to check on him, the kid slammed Shane's head into the wall, broke his nose and then ran off. Shane said he'd followed but had passed out; and when he woke up Randall was gone - along with Shane's gun. "He can't have gone far," Shane panted, wiping blood from under his nose.

"T-Dog, Jordyn, get everyone in the house," Rick instructed. "Find Andrea, you three guard until we get back," Rick turned to Daryl and Glenn. "You two go that way," he pointed behind the chicken shed. "Watch out for each other; the kid's got a weapon." Then, he and Shane took off into the woods.

Jordyn fled back to the house with T-Dog, ushering everyone inside and locking all the doors and windows. Andrea appeared from Dale's trailer and took watch on the front porch with a shotgun. Night fell quickly. Upstairs, Jordyn sat with Marnie. The commotion was keeping her awake, so Jordyn busied her sister with folding her own clothes and organizing her toys. Even Maggie helped her, grateful for a distraction from her worrying about Glenn. Plus, after scrubbing Elroy clean and getting rid of the stable smell on his fur, Maggie had become Marnie's new hero.

It was less than a half hour later that Glenn returned safely. He was a little shaken, but otherwise okay, when he informed them that Randall was dead and they didn't have to worry. Behind him, Jordyn saw Daryl at his makeshift camp stoking his fire. Grabbing the black suede jacket Maggie gifted to her, Jordyn slipped it on and made her way across the field while Glenn continued to talk with Hershel, Andrea and T-Dog.

"You're sure you found him?" Jordyn asked Daryl as she approached him. "Randall?"

"Yeah, he's dead." Daryl confirmed, but his eyes were narrowed like the sun was blinding him.

"Then why do you look so weird?

"He was a Walker," Daryl explained sitting on the log just in front of his tent. "But he wasn't bit. He had a broken neck and no bites."

Jordyn gnawed her lower lip. "Maybe he got Walker blood in a cut or something?"

"Maybe," Daryl set his crossbow down at his feet. "But he died from a broken neck."

A chilled wind rustled through the air making Jordyn shiver inside her jacket. "You should come back to the house," she told Daryl. "It's too cold out here,"

"I got a fire," he shrugged and began to count his arrows.

To make a point, Jordyn stood between Daryl and his fire. "Your fire sucks and the house is warm."

Daryl gave her an odd look. "Being in that house ain't gonna make this group less broken,"

"You still think that?"

"You don't? You said you wanted to leave."

"It's not that I want to leave, but if I had to..." she trailed off, not in the mood to argue. Instead, she found another mood taking her over. A mood she had until now been ignoring. "And we're not broken," Jordyn echoed Rick's eulogy, his sentiment to Dale. "We have to pull together, and take control of our lives." Heeding a surprise surge of strength from Rick's words, Jordyn planted a hand on either of Daryl's shoulders and sat herself right on his lap. "Not broken."

When she kissed him, he reacted almost instantly. He dropped his arrows and grabbed her firmly by her backside, making his intent clear. He paused, an offering of escape if she had suddenly changed her mind. But she hadn't. She kissed him again, harder, and he pulled her hips down so she slid right up against him.

He yanked off her suede jacket, pulled open the buttons of her shirt and slid his hand up the warmth of her back, feeling the healing scabs on her skin. Another cold gust swirled in the air, so Jordyn began to lean against Daryl until he got the picture and they scooted backwards towards the tent.

Once out of the cold night, they resumed their position. Jordyn straddled Daryl before he could sit up fully and crashed her lips against his. She slid his angel-winged leather vest off his shoulders and then tugged at the press buttons of his shirt until they all came free. It was dark; she couldn't see him, but she could feel him. And he felt warm, inviting, and comforting. Overwhelming.

Now shirtless, Daryl pulled off Jordyn's already unbuttoned shirt and ran both his hands up her spine underneath her bra strap, unhooking it. She let the bra slip off her shoulders and wrapped her arms tight around Daryl, pressing their chests together. The warmth of his body against the chill of her own sent shivers rocketing through her veins. He manoeuvred his hand between their bodies and palmed her breast; feeling the heat from his hand engorge her nipple under his touch. Lifting her slightly, Daryl rolled Jordyn onto her back and lowered himself down on her. One hand was lost in her hair, the other was unzipping her jeans.

Gasping, Jordyn angled her face so she could kiss him fully on the mouth, her own hands were at his waist unbuckling his belt. When she reached into his jeans, Daryl's hand was rubbing inside her thigh, and her touch made him grunt against her lips.

And then they heard the gunshot.

It was close; that's what caught them off guard. It wasn't far out in the distance, muffled by the trees or acres of land. The unmistakable sound was close. Very close. On the farm close.

Once outside the tent, partially dressed Daryl and Jordyn squinted into the darkness. "I don't see nothin'," Daryl mumbled.

But Jordyn did. Behind the barn, across the paddock, spreading like an oil spill. Walkers. Easily fifty, with more and more expanding out of the woods behind them. And all of them were ambling directly for the Greene family home.

xxx