Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 49

Author's Note: I've rewritten the whole herd thing three times and decided alright this isn't working. Basically Summer has Carl, Sophia and Mitch. Jewel was with Hershel and Rick and the rest is the same. So something's are going to change and be evident because Jewel's there. No brooding Rick, not happening. And all that craziness after baby is born, he may be allowed one chapter but hey you have a teenage 'daughter' and son who just had traumatic experiences! Reviews make me happy!

Mitch sat in the middle with Carl and Sophia as Summer drove. "Everyone's OK right?" Summer asked.

"We need to go back! Mom!" Sophia said.

"The plan…the plan was..the plan is to meet at the highway," Summer said.

"Do you think…they're all gone?" Mitch asked his voice quivering.

Summer glanced at Sophia and Carl. They had to be strong for him. No matter how scared they were, they were older, they needed to care for each other. "That's why we had a plan…."

Sophia glanced out the back window. "Is….that Daryl?"

Summer glanced in the rearview mirror and put down the window and waved her hand. She didn't want to make noise, she didn't know how far the walker's were.

Daryl pulled the motorcycle next to the truck. "Saw the weaving and I told Carol it had to be my unlicensed niece. Who you got with you?"

"Sophia, Carl and Mitch," Summer said.

"Mom!" Sophia said as she leaned out the window.

"Sophia!" Carol exclaimed.

"Follow me, you see anyone else?" Daryl asked.

"Saw Rick and mom….they set the barn on fire to give us all a chance, didn't see them leave," Summer said.

"Follow me, we're bound to pick up stragglers," Daryl said as he reached his hand through the window. "Let's go find the rest of the family," Daryl said as he squeezed his nieces hand.

Summer nodded as she rolled the window up. "Two found," she said.

"Dad will be heading to the highway," Carl said.

"They all will," Summer assured them.

"Why are we slowing down?" Mitch asked.

"Herd?" Sophia asked.

"No….Uncle Daryl's passing another car, I can't see who though," Summer said. She rolled down the window as the car slowed down to take the rear. "Glenn! Maggie!"

"Daryl said you were the child rescue wagon, thought we'd take the rear," Glenn teased.

"Be my guest," Summer said with a grin.

"Just don't expect her to stay straight, she's not the best driver in the world!" Carl teased.

"Excuse me, just because I hit two walkers and blew a couple stop signs," Summer said.

"Enough jabbing, let's go!" Daryl said. "A little exposed here to walkers!" he said as he hollered back.

"We picked up another car," Summer said after a few minutes later, as they pulled up to the highway.

Daryl parked his motorcycle as everyone followed suit.

Rick, Jewel and Hershel looked up from the highway. "Daryl!" Jewel said as she ran to them. "Carol!"

Summer got out of the truck. "Summer's taxi service," she said as she helped Sophia and Mitch out, Carl getting out from the other side. Summer hugged her mom.

"Dad!" Carl said as he hugged him.

"Don't I get one of those?" Lori asked getting out of the vehicle with T Dog and Beth.

"Daddy! Maggie!" Beth exclaimed as she ran to them.

Rick looked at Summer and hugged her. "Thank you."

"We're family," Summer said.

"Where did you find everyone?" Rick asked.

"Saw a car zigzagging and knew it either had to be the teen or the Asian. It was the teen, then I found the Asian, zigzagging. T brought up the rear," Daryl said as Rick grasped his shoulder.

"Good one," Glenn said.

"We knew the plan, we stuck to it," Summer said as she held Mitch close.

"Where's the rest of us? Shane? Andrea?" Lori asked.

Jewel and Rick glanced at each other. "Shane didn't make it," Jewel said.

"Andrea was with me for a while, I saw her go down," Carol said.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked.

Beth leaned against him. "They got her…took her right out of my arms daddy. Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV…it got swarmed, overtaken," Rick said. "You definitely saw Andrea go down?"

"They're were walkers' everywhere," Carol said as she held close to Sophia.

"But did you see her?" Jewel asked.

"No…" Carol admitted.

"I'm going to go back," Daryl said as he started to get on the bike.

"No," Rick said.

"We can't just leave her," Jewel said.

"We don't even know if she's there. She isn't, she's either there or somewhere else," Rick said as he held onto Jewel's waist.

"We're not even going to go look for her?" Daryl asked.

"There's walkers everywhere," Rick told them.

Jewel nodded. "He's right, we've got to keep moving. Get off the main road."

"Where do we go?" Summer asked.

"We'll have to find a place to stay for the night, somewhere off the main road, probably set up camp. Then make a plan in the morning," Jewel answered.

"Then we should head East," T suggested.

"We've got two three hours worth of day light at the best, we got gas but we should save it for during the day, scrounge more. Find somewhere off the main road for the night," Daryl said.

"Alright, let's go," Rick instructed.

Two Hours Later:

Carl looked around as they got out of the car. "Stay here? It's cold."

"We can build a fire, gather some wood for firewood," Summer said as Rick gave him his coat.

"Need some for arrows anyway, only got so many," Daryl said.

"Why don't we just keep pushing on for the night? We got gas for at least a couple days," Maggie suggested.

"We need a plan and travelin' in the dark without one isn't the way to go," Jewel said as she zipped up the coat on Mitch. "We left a car with some gas cans back at the farm, none of us could get to it, so we're done four? Plus ammo."

"Glenn and I can go make a run now, get some more," Maggie told them.

"No, we're all staying' together. God forbid you go out there get stranded, or attacked. We'll stay the night here, then go with a plan," Rick told them. "I know it looks bad, we've been through hell, but we're together. And if Jewel hadn't had the foresight to think about keeping bags in the car and gas, we'd be a lot worse off. We found each other, we had a plan, we stuck to it. We're going to do that from now on, and we stay together," Rick said. "We'll find some place to honker down for the winter, we may have to move but there's got to be some place safe out there."

"We thought the farm was safe," Beth said.

"We fooled ourselves into thinking it was safe. We won't make that mistake again," Hershel assured his daughter.

"How long Rick? The walkers' are migrating or something…." Glenn said.

"We'll make camp here, get a plan and get on the road at day break," Jewel said calmly.

"Does this feel right to you? Does this feel right to you? What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's? You know I found Randall, right? He had turned, but he wasn't bit," Glenn said.

Jewel and Rick glanced at each other.

"How's that possible?" Maggie asked.

"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori questioned.

"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to. And then the herd got him, we're all infected," Rick told them.

"What?" Carol asked.

" At the CDC, Jenner told me whatever it is, we all carry it," Rick said.

"And you never said anything?" Glenn asked.

"Would it have made a difference?" Rick asked.

" You knew this whole time?" Glenn asked.

" How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that moment was," Rick said.

"That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone," Glenn told him.

"Back off, Glenn. I knew too," Jewel said.

"Mom?" Summer asked.

"Rick told me at the farm house, right after Carl was shot. But I had my suspicions. The threat at the barn was immediate, Glenn. You told us because there was something that could possibly be done. This…this is nothing we could control. We thought it best not to tell everyone," Jewel said.

Jewel watched Rick walked down away from everyone. "Let's start building camp," she told them as she walked down. "Hey…you aren't allowed to pull away from me you know that right?"

Rick nodded as he kissed her.

"We do this together. I have to tell Lori….about Shane," Jewel told him. "It's on me…."she told him.

"I can tell her," Rick told her.

"No….it's on me, I did it," Jewel informed him as Lori came down.

"Can I help with anything? It's not fair the two of you do everything…" Lori said.

Jewel looked at Lori. "There's something' I need to tell you. I killed Shane. He was going to kill Rick then rape me then kill me."

"What? No…you must be mistaken. Rick….she's wrong right?" Lori asked.

Rick shook his head. "He killed Randall to get me into the woods. He planned it. Jewel insisted on coming with us, even though we both knew what he was planning. I gave him every chance, and he kept leading us further out. He made Jewel throw down her weapons. He pushed me and I let him. I knew what he was doing, what he was up to, but I kept going. I even tried to tell him we could forget about it. After all he did, I was still trying to be a better man. See that mark on Jewel's head, that's where Shane went after her with his gun handle."

Lori started to step back. "There had to be something you both could have done."

"We did….I had a knife in my palm and I killed him before he killed Rick. I'm sorry Lori….be mad at me, cuss me out, push me, but the fact remains the same, we're still here for you and that baby. But I did what had to be done to keep us safe," Jewel told her.

"It's not on her, Lori, I would have been dead otherwise," Rick said as Lori walked away devastated.

"She loved him…." Jewel said as she kissed him.

"Yeah," Rick answered. "You mind going overseeing the setting up of camp? I just need a minute or two."

"Alright, but you pull away, I push back," Jewel warned him as she kissed him. "Love you."

"Love you too," Rick said as he squeezed her hand.