The light coming through the tent's wall woke me up. I was squished against the wall of the tent with Sofia and Ace snuggled in with me. I squirmed out of my sleeping bag and sat up, stretching my arms above my head. I accidentally woke up Sofia while I was getting up. She shuffled around, getting out of her sleeping bag as well. This turned into a chain reaction, waking up Carl and Glenn as well. We all slipped on our shoes and went out to the campfire. Shane had taken the last watch of the night, so he was sat on top of the RV for a better vantage point.
"Good morning," Shane called down once he noticed us.
"Morning," I called back. Glenn, Carl, and Sofia also said their good mornings. I saw Dale come out of the RV, climbing up to Shane, relieving him of his watch duties. Shane climbed down and came to us around the campfire.
"Glenn, June, can I talk to you for a minute?" Shane asked pulling us aside. We walked out of the earshot of Carl and Sofia before Shane began speaking.
"Listen, last time we went into the city you relied on June to show everyone around. Since she isn't going this time, I think we should have a more secure plan, I think you should take the day to think everything out," He started.
"June, I need you to make a route on here, as well as a few detours if needed with Glenn and the group going to the city tomorrow," Shane told me.
"Okay," I said with a nod.
"Alright, once everyone's up, you, Jacqui, Juan (Morales), Andrea, Glenn, and T-Dog will go into the RV and figure that out together," Shane explained to me. I nodded to him and we all left to do our own thing. I climbed up to Dale to say good morning and to talk to him about what Sofia said yesterday. Glenn knew already but Dale always seemed to know what to do.
"Good morning, how are you today?" Dale asked when I came up. I gave him a quick hug before sitting beside him.
"I'm good, I just have something on my mind," I told him.
"Well, my ears are always open," Dale replied.
"I'm worried about Sofia and Carol," I whispered, not wanting anyone to accidentally overhear.
"I know. There isn't much we can do at the moment though," Dale responded.
"Sofia is getting hurt. She isn't safe," I explained to him in a hushed tone.
"I'm not sure what you want me to do," Dale said.
"I don't know what you can do. I'm just tired of doing nothing," I replied.
"Trust me, I am too. For now, it's Carol's decision and the only thing you can do is be supportive of Sofia. You did a good thing letting her stay with you last night," Dale said.
"I hurt when she hurts," I told him. I couldn't help my eyes becoming teary.
"I know. You have a lot of empathy for others. The only thing we can do right now to keep everyone safe is to show support to Carol and Sofia and show Ed that we won't tolerate his behavior," Dale repeated himself.
"He'll keep hurting them if we do that," I replied. My eyes blurred from the tears, but I felt Dale's hand on my shoulder.
"If we push it too far, Ed could take them both away and then Sofia and Carol won't have any support from us," Dale explained to me. I hated that he was always right. I nodded to him.
"I don't like it either, but Sofia is Carol and Ed's daughter. The only person who can remove Carol and Sofia from Ed is Carol or death," Dale said. My brain clicked the two together. Death. Carol and Sofia would be free if Ed died… Or was killed.
"Don't get any ideas about that," Dale warned me as if reading my mind.
"I'm not," I retorted.
"I can see you thinking about it. Don't even think about it," Dale spoke sternly.
"Fine," I replied. Though it was still on my mind. I looked over to see Carol, Ed and Lori were up. I caught a glimpse of a purple spot under Carol's shirt as she bent over the campfire as she cooked. My anger boiled up, thinking of how much worse it could have been for Sofia if I got into another fight with Ed.
"Carol has bruises on her back," I whispered to Dale.
"I know it's hard to watch. It never gets easier," Dale told me. I sighed at his response. I felt his hand on my shoulder.
"Take it out of your mind for the moment and go enjoy breakfast, alright?" I nodded to him, going to do as he asked. I climbed down and sat with Sofia and Carl. I was served breakfast with my friends by Lori. I said a quick thank you before eating my food. I tried not to think about Carol and Sofia as Dale asked, but I couldn't get myself to. It stuck in the front of my mind. The group slowly woke up, coming to the campfire for breakfast, then went off to do their own thing. Once everyone had woken up, Glenn came to get me.
"Hey, I'm going to get T-Dog, Jacqui, Juan (Morales), and Andrea. Go ahead and go to the RV," Glenn said as he passed by.
"Okay," I said, heading to the RV. I walked in to see Andrea and Amy already there at the table.
"Hey, June, what are you doing in here," Amy greeted me as I walked in.
"I'm supposed to make a route for the group going to the city," I told them both.
"I thought we were leaving at one?" Andrea said.
"No, It's been postponed for tomorrow," I stated.
"Who said that?" Andrea asked with a little snark in her tone.
"Shane," I informed her.
"He didn't say anything to me," She said, not moving.
"Then go ask him. Just be quick because Glenn's coming with the rest of the group going to the city," I said, ignoring her disrespectful tone.
"Hey, what's going on? Glenn said to wait in the RV for a group meeting," Jacqui asked walking into the RV.
"We are making a plan for our trip to the city," I explained to her. She nodded, closing the door behind her.
"And you know all about the city," Andrea said in a snippy tone.
"I'm sorry, do you have some type of problem with me?" I snapped at her.
"Yeah, you're a child who thinks they can boss just anyone around," Andrea replied.
"I tell people what to do because most of you don't know how to stay alive," I retorted.
"And you running into the woods after your puppy is the way to stay alive? Or picking fights for no reason?" Andrea snipped back.
"I don't start fights for no reason," I argued in a calm tone.
"Enough!" Jacqui stopped our bickering.
"She knows more than you when it comes to the city," Jacqui stated to Andrea.
"She's nine," Andrea argued.
"And she knows more than you!" Jacqui exclaimed. Andrea shut up with an annoyed look on her face.
"Amy, do you mind leaving us so we can discuss our trip to the city," Jacqui asked kindly.
"Yeah, sure," Amy replied, leaving the Rv just as T-Dog showed up. We all sat at the table together, with Andrea in between T-Dog and Jacqui. I sat beside Jacqui. Glenn and Juan (Morales) came in. Morales sat down while Glenn looked around for a pen and paper. Once he found a small notebook and a pen, he handed them to me before sitting down.
"Okay, we are here to plan out the run to the city," Glenn said to everyone.
"The majority of what we need is food, guns, and ammo," Glenn addressed the main priorities.
"Why not just go to the grocery stores for food? They should be fully stocked up," Andrea suggested.
"The grocery stores are all empty. When the outbreak happened everyone grabbed what they could and ran to the refugee center," I said. Andrea didn't look happy with my answer. She rolled her eyes at me but kept silent.
"All the ones I went to were empty as well," Glenn confirmed my statement.
"The supplies that were left at the refugee camp are too dangerous to get to as well, which is why we go through the apartments," I explained.
"That almost takes too long," Jacqui commented.
"It's the safest option," I replied.
"What about a gun shop or somewhere to get ammo," T-Dog asked.
"There's a pawnshop with guns inside but all the doors were locked so I couldn't get in to see if there was ammo," I explained.
"Any other places where ammo could be found?" Juan (Morales) asked.
"There's a gun shop, but it's close to the refugee center," I told him.
"Yeah, I saw that one too. I was hoping you knew of another one," Glenn said.
"It's less risky if you go through the alleys," I told him.
"Okay, how do we get there," Jacqui asked. I took the pen and drew a small square on the page.
"This is the apartment we stayed in," I told Glenn. "You remember how to get back there?"
"Yeah," Glenn replied.
"Then there's a wider road a few blocks down," I drew where the road would be on the page.
"The gun shop is further down here by the refugee center," I showed them.
"The pawnshop is on the way to the apartment. You can park in the alley beside it in between the pawnshop and there's a clothing store next to it," I explained.
"What apartments will we be going to," Glenn asked.
"There's a line of apartment buildings about six blocks away over here," I told them. I drew whatever I needed to on the map.
"Okay, then we will go through alleyways for the most part," Glenn said.
"Going out into the open as a group is the worst thing you can do," I warned them.
"If we take two people, scout the area and then have the rest of the group follow," Juan (Morales) suggested.
"That's a good idea. I can scout," Glenn volunteered.
"You guys should go for the apartments first," I said. "That way even if things go wrong, if anyone makes it back to the U-Haul they can still bring supplies,"
"Yeah, think about yourself," Andrea grumbled.
"I'm thinking about the entire group!" I fired back. Glenn tried to calm the situation down but I didn't give him the chance.
"If all but one of you dies, would you rather your sister have more food and supplies or nothing," I exclaimed.
"She's right. If anything happens I want my wife and kids to be taken care of," Juan agreed with me.
"Think of your sister, Andrea. You'd want her to have as much help and supplies as possible when she's gone. Thinking of ways to get the supplies back no matter the loss is in the best interest of the entire group," Jacqui said.
"Yeah," Andrea agreed begrudgingly.
"Alright, after the food is taken care of, we'll drive to the pawnshop and check it out," Glenn said. He took the pen and paper from me. He drew the pathway from the apartment we stayed in, to the apartments we would raid, to the pawnshop.
"Then we walk to check out the gunshop," Glenn said. "As long as we take the alleyways, and keep an eye on the herd we should be okay."
"We should have someone on the rooftop to keep track of the herd," Juan suggested.
"I'll do it," Jacqui offered.
"Good, I scout, Jacqui is our eyes from above, and the rest will do most of packing up," Glenn stated. Everyone agreed and we talked about a few other options for emergency situations before we left the meeting. I didn't know why Andrea had such a problem with me. We didn't have much interaction but she was clearly bothered by me. I climbed back up to see Jim and Dale sitting together. Neither of them noticed me so I climbed back down silently.
"June!" I heard someone call me. I turned to see Jacqui calling me over to her. I walked over, sitting beside her where she was folding some clothes that the other women of the group had washed and hung to dry.
"I wanted to see how you felt after what happened a few days ago?" Jacqui asked. I sat on the stool beside her.
"I'm okay," I said.
"Are you sure?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah, I'm more worried about the effect it had on Sofia," I told her, looking over at where Sofia sat with Carol beside the campfire.
"Ed has quite the temper tantrums," Jacqui replied.
"He hurt Sofia because of the fight," I confessed.
"Carol told me," Jacqui replied.
"I saw bruises on Carol too," I informed her.
"I have to. It hurts to see her be trapped in a relationship with that monster," Jaqui stated.
"Is there anything we can do?" I asked her, hoping she had a different answer than Dale.
"No, just be there for them, tell them that they don't deserve what is happening, and hope that Carol decides that he isn't worth the pain he causes them," Jacqui said.
"Dale said the same thing," I replied.
"Dale's a wise man. You should listen to him," Jacqui told me. I nodded to her before responding.
"I do, most of the time," I joked. She let out a light giggle at my comment. I smiled over at her. She was a very pretty lady.
"I'm going to go hang out with Glenn, okay?" I told her as I got up.
"Alright, sweetie," Jacqui replied. I walked off to Glenn, who was talking with Shane about the plan he and I had made with Juan (Morales), Andrea, Jacqui, and T-Dog's help. As I walked up, Glenn put a hand on my shoulder as he talked.
"We're going to have a lookout above us. We want to borrow the radio so we can update everyone here if we need help or if we are going to be late," Glenn told Shane.
"Yeah, I think Dale has some walkie-talkies in the RV," She informed us, walking into the RV. It took him about thirty seconds to come back with the walkie-talkies. He handed them to Glenn, but before Glenn went to put them into the U-Haul that they'd be taking to the city, Shane had stopped him.
"If y'all run into trouble out there, you know I can't risk the rest of the group," Shane started saying to Glenn. I looked shocked, but Glenn nodded.
"When you reach the city, you're on your own," Shane said. I understood what he meant and I kept quiet for the moment. That wasn't going to happen. Everything will go just fine. I assured myself. I followed Glenn to the U-Haul, where the supplies for their run were.
"Shane doesn't really mean that, does he?" I asked Glenn as Glenn opened up the back of the U-Haul.
"Yes, he did," Glenn told me. My heart dropped from his reply.
"Make sure you come back," I said to him.
"You don't have to worry about that, June," Glenn replied.
"Maybe… Maybe, I should go with you," I suggested.
"No, we already talked about this June," Glenn began to argue with me.
"I agreed before what Shane said," I retorted.
"That doesn't change anything," Glenn stated.
"Yes, it does," I argued back. "I was thought you would have us come to get you."
"June, you are staying here. If something goes wrong, you are staying here. If the group has to leave without us, you go with them," Glenn said to me, looking me dead in the eyes. I didn't want to agree, but I nodded anyway.
"Okay, we'll be going in the early morning, so don't freak out if I'm gone," Glenn continued.
"Wake me up so I can say goodbye," I said.
"Alright, but you have to promise me that you will stay here. You won't wander off. You stay within Dale's line of sight until I get back. Or stay with Daryl if he comes back tomorrow," Glenn asked me.
"I promise," I said.
"Thank you, now Ace is staying with you too," Glenn said.
"No, he's going with you! You need him!" I exclaimed.
"We are going to have Jacqui up top on the roofs watching out for us. We won't need him. Besides, if worse comes to worst, I'd rather know that you have Ace to protect you," Glenn explained.
"I still don't like it," I snapped at him.
"You don't have to like it; You just have to deal with it," Glenn spoke.
"Fine," I agreed. Glenn crouched down to me and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. I didn't want to let go when he did, but I forced myself to.
"I'm going to be fine," Glenn assured me. I nodded to him.
"You better," I replied.
"I will," Glenn said. He left after that to go off and get dinner. I honestly didn't feel hungry though. I slipped into my tent with Ace trailing behind me. I took off my boots and socks, curling into my sleeping bag. Ace laid beside me. I tucked my head into the sleeping bag since it was still light out. I felt my eyes water as I tried to go to sleep. I fell asleep after a few minutes. I just hope tomorrow goes without a hitch.
HELLO, THE NEXT CHAPTER IS WHERE RICK WILL APPEAR, BUT IT WILL TAKE ME LONGER SINCE IT IS A LONGER CHAPTER. THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO MY QUESTION. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!