Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 67

Author's Note: More reviews and followers! SWOON. These prisoners are taking up a lot of chapters but it's fun! Review please

Jewel knocked on the door. "It's me," she told the group who was on the inside.

Mar opened the door and let her in. "Where's everyone else? The prisoners?" she asked as she closed the door behind her.

"Pantry. They are giving us half of the food in the pantry for us helping them clear out a cell block," she told her. "Hershel?" she asked as she walked into the cell.

Carol looked up. "The bleeding stopped," she reported.

"No fever, but his breathing is labored," Lori told her.

Jewel bent down and took his pulse. "I'd feel better if he just opened up his eyes."

"He'll get through this," Lori told her as she squeezed her hand. "And when we do, he's going to need crutches."

Mar nodded. "He's a fighter, he's not going to leave us anytime soon," she told them as Maggie came up from behind them.

"You two are nurses, don't they teach you not to give false hope?" Maggie asked. "Don't they train you to prepare the families for the worse?"

Jewel got up from Hershel's bedside and went over to Maggie and put her hands on her other shoulders. "Yes they do, Maggie. But sometime's we make a conscious decision that the family needs hope because there's always hope."

Mar squeezed Maggie's hand. "And, Hershel is our family too. So we are not giving up hope. Prepare yourself for the worst, but hope for the best."

"The fact that he made it this far, that's a very good sign," Carol assured the younger woman.

Jewel nodded. "It's a very good sign. The fact that he isn't running a fever, that's amazing. Your father has all of us around him, why don't you go check on Beth?"

"Glenn can stay here and keep an eye on him for you," Mar told her.

Maggie nodded as she kissed Glenn and left. Jewel saw Glenn's look. "I believe everything I'm saying," she assured him as she clasped his shoulder. She heard the knock on the door.

"Food delivery!" T called.

"Carl get the door," Jewel told him as she went to the door.

Carl opened the door and let T and his father in. "That's half?" Jewel asked as her mouth dropped.

"Oh this is nothing' there's plenty more," Rick told his wife.

"What did you get?" Carl asked.

"Canned beef, canned corns, canned cans!" T exclaimed as he handed some of the food to Carl.

"How's Hershel?" Rick asked as he handed the food he was carrying to Carol who came to take some.

"Bleeding's almost stopped, no fever, his pulse is way down," Jewel told him as they walked to the cell.

"He hasn't opened up his eyes yet and his breathing is labored," Lori said as Mar took her spot next to Hershel and Lori came out of the cell.

Rick turned to Glenn. "Take my cuffs, I'm not taking any chances," he told the other man.

Glenn hesitated before he took them and went and put one on Hershel.

"We just told Maggie that him lasting this long is a good sign," Mar told Rick.

"So what about the prisoners?" Lori asked her ex husband.

"We're going to help them clear out there own cell block, they'll be there, we'll be here," Rick told her.

"Living beside each other," Lori said skeptically.

"We aren't giving up this prison," Jewel told Lori as Rick put his arm around her waist.

"One of them is a real issue, that's why we aren't letting anyone else be seen before we clear the cell block. And yes Rick I'm helping. My knife and I are going to be watching loud mouth prick," she told her husband as she kissed him.

"What about weapons?" Lori asked.

"Loud mouth prick had two guns," Jewel told the other woman.

"I don't know if this is even going to work," Rick told Lori.

"What are your other options?" Lori asked the pair.

"Kill them," Rick answered.

"You aren't a killer," Lori told him.

"To protect my family I am," Rick told his ex wife.

Jewel nodded. "And he wouldn't be makin' that decision alone. Keep an eye on Hershel," she told the other woman.

"I'm not leaving his side," Mar called from the bedside.

Jewel nodded as her and Rick walked away from the cell. "Could you do me a favor before we go deal with the prisoners?"

Rick nodded. "Of course. What?"

Jewel nodded up to where Summer was sitting against a wall with her knees against her. "Mitch said that he heard her praying when she was alone. She hasn't been down once, or said anything to anyone including Beth. I think maybe you would be better talking to her then me."

Rick nodded. "Tell T we'll be ready to go in a few minutes," he said as he walked up to where Summer was sitting.

Summer's POV:

Summer fingered the wooden cross silently with her head on her knees. She glanced at Rick as he came up and didn't say a word to him.

Rick sat down beside her. "Your mom said you've been sitting up here for a while. That you haven't even checked on Beth."

Summer glanced over at him before staring back ahead in front of her.

Rick put his arm around her. "Remember you made me a promise when I took you out driving? How many walkers' have you killed?"

Summer put her head on his shoulder. "I lost count. Does it matter anyway? Somewhere there's a walker or ten with our name on it," she said obviously dejected.

"Thought that's what might be going on. Your mom mentioned you two had talked right before we found the prison. That you were taking Sophia's death hard," Rick told the teen. "It's hard for us to remember that you are just a sixteen year old teen girl. And because we forget, we forget that you have normal teenage feelings. I mean I know how I feel after all this, I can't imagine how you do it," Rick told the girl that he considered his daughter.

"I thought we had a win finding the prison, I felt like finding a walker and sticking out my tongue at it and going 'we won we won,' before I killed it. But then Hershel….can't we have one good day dad? Can't we have a win without spilling blood?" Summer asked.

Rick held her tighter. "I feel the same way, sweetheart. And I'd probably let it eat me up if I didn't have your mom to balance me out. Lord knows Lori was never good at keeping me balanced. You cry when you need to, you get angry, you stick out your tongue at walkers if you need to, but what you don't do is pull away from family. Your mother, Uncle Daryl, me, Mar, we'll listen anytime. And we won't judge."

Summer gave a small smile. "So I'm not allowed self pity?"

"No, no teenage self pity allowed, sorry. You have parents' who love you, a brother who will drive you insane, an Uncle who will kill any boy who looks at you, a family who'd do anything for you, and a nice place to live," Rick teased.

Summer laughed. "Not to mention a bunch of dead corpses who want to eat me," she told him.

"Well there is that," Rick told her as he kissed the top of her head.

"I'm going to go check on Beth," Summer said as she stood up.

"That's my girl," Rick said as he stood up. "Love you."

"Love you too dad," the teen responded as she walked away.

Jewel's POV:

Jewel looked up from where she was standing with T. "She OK?" she asked.

Rick nodded. "Sometimes we forget she's a teenager," he told her.

"Anything we can do?" T asked.

Rick nodded. "Let's go take care of these assholes and give everyone a safe place to live," he told them as he walked out with them.

Daryl looked back at them as he heard the door open and close. "Everything alright? Hershel?"

"For now he's doing as best as he can be," Jewel answered.

Rick handed out some weapons to the prisoners, including baseball bats, an ax, and other weapons.

"Just give me the gun back and that'll take care of it," Tomas told them.

"Do you want to bring every walker in this prison down on you?" Jewel asked.

"They are attracted to noise," T informed him.

"You don't have to worry about using a gun, if our back gets against the wall, we'll fire the guns. Noise just riles them up," Daryl told them.

Jewel looked at Rick. "Two by two formation, the extra man in the middle? You and me in the rear, Daryl and T point?"

Tomas let out a disgusted laugh. "You let a woman give you orders? You must be whipped," he told Rick.

"That's my little sister you're talkin' about again, can it," Daryl warned.

Jewel turned. "That was a suggestion. This is me ordering. You're going to go in the damn middle, you're going to follow exactly what the hell we tell you, and maybe just maybe you'll come out alive. We stay in formation, you break it, it brings trouble down on all of us. Anyone runs off, you may get mistaken for a walker, and an ax will find your head. I don't know you, and what I know of you, I don't want you anywhere near me. But we're givin' you a chance, but you put any of my family in danger, I won't hesitate to make you walker bate. Now get in there and shut the hell up," she told the man.

Daryl smirked. "You aim for the head, that's the only way one of these things will go down."

Thomas smirked right back at him then at Jewel. "Aint got to tell us how to take down a man."

"They aint men, they're something else," T told them.

Rick nodded. "Just aim for the head. And, I listen to my wife's suggestions because unlike the five of you who were holding out in a broom closet, she's been out there with us fighting. We've all managed to stay alive, and against these things, that's a triumph," he told them. "Now let's do this."

Jewel took up the rear with Rick. "Just give me a sign if you want me to take Prick out, he's the ring leader."

Rick nodded. "Planned on it," he told them as Daryl and T started taking point.

"Man it's to dark in here!" Big Tiny told them as they walked.

"Hold the light up in front of you. You'll hear 'em before you see 'em," Daryl told him.

They all heard moans. "It's coming!" Axel yelled.

Both Dixon siblings looked at him. "SHH!" the both told him.

Two walker's come out of the shadows and before Daryl, T, Rick or Jewel can do anything the prisoner's run forward, scream and attack them anywhere but the head.

"I'm tempted just to let them get bit," T said as he stood back.

Jewel glanced at Rick. "Stupid pricks'," she whispered. She turned as she heard something behind her and took a walker out without blinking with an ax. "Bastard."

"You want to taste me?" Axel told the walker as he attacked him in the stomach.

Daryl pointed his crossbow and shot the walker in the head. "In the head. Not the stomach, not the heart, the brain!"

"I hear you, the brain," Axel told him.

"Then follow through!" Jewel yelled at them.

Oscar stabs a walker in the head. "Like that?"

"Uh huh," Daryl answered.

"Give the man a gold star for listening," Jewel said as she pulled the collar of a walker sticking her knife in his brain.

Rick hissed at the prisoners. "Get back in formation, none of this prison riot crap!"

"Incoming," T said as they all went back into formation and they all fought the walkers' except for Big Tiny who went behind a wall to shield himself.

Jewel stabbed the walker that was near Big Tiny. "Rick he's been bitten!" she told him as she pulled down the collar of his uniform.

"I'm telling you that I don't feel anything, it's just a scratch!" Big Tiny answered.

Rick looked at Jewel then at him. "I'm sorry man."

"I can keep fighting!" Big Tiny argued.

"That puts us at risk, you die you come back as one of those things," Jewel told him.

"You cut off that old man's leg to save him," Andrew told them. "You can save him."

Jewel glared at the shorter man. "This bite is NOT on a leg. Maybe if it was lower, but that's a damn shoulder bite. There's nothing we can do."

"Guys I'm fine…look at me, I'm not changing into one of those things," Big Tiny answered.

"Look, there has to be something you can do to save him! Just lock him up!" Oscar told them.

"Quarantine him!" Axel told them.

"We got to do something! Why are you just standing there, we got to save him!" Andrew yelled at them.

"There's nothing we can do," Rick repeated.

"I'm sorry," Jewel told them.

"You son of a Bitch!" Andrew yelled at them.

"Guy's I'm…" Big Tiny started to say as Tomas walked forward and stabs him in the head with a hammer then continued to stab him in the face. His face is covered in blood as he walked away.

Jewel let T and the prisoner's go in front of them, as Daryl, Rick and her took up the rear. "You see that look on his face?" Daryl asked.

"He's out of control," Jewel told the two men.

"He makes one move," Rick started to say.

"Just give me the signal," Daryl told them.

Jewel squeezed Rick's hand. "Me too," she said as she walked with them.

(TBC again. Sorry these guys are taking forever! But you aren't complaining. Please review!)