Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 104

Author's Note: There are some chapters that I have had bits and pieces planned out for a while, this is one of them. Of course, when I started to write it, it didn't exactly work out as I planned. Originally, the kid that Carl shot was going to be Joey, but in my head Summer couldn't stop Carl fast enough. So, the kid that was shot is still shot, but Joey was with him. Confused? Yeah me too! Darn characters! Review please.

Woods:

Summer held her gun up and listened at the gun fire from the prison. She gave a small supportive smile to Lexi as Beth held Judy.

"You think they're alright?" Lexi asked.

"They're strong," Summer responded. "And that's what we need to be, strong," she responded. "That's what they expect from us."

"We've all got jobs to do, right Daddy?" Beth asked.

Hershel nodded. "That's right Bethy," he answered.

Axel looked over at Mitch. "You got a grip on that gun better then I do. You're pretty good."

"Got to be," Mitch answered. "Carol said my job was to help protect you since you aren't a good shot," he told the man with a mustache.

"She did huh, that was nice of her. And it was nice of you to tell her you'd help protect me," Axel told him.

Carl looked back at them. "Can you two please be quiet?"

"Carl, there's no harm in them talking," Summer told him. "Just take it easy."

Lexi turned her head. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

Summer held up her hand for everyone to be quiet and motioned them to get down.

"Where are we going to go?" a young teen asked as he ran.

"Anywhere but back to Woodbury," another male voice said.

"We aren't going to survive by ourselves, my Uncle is back at the prison with the Governor," the first male said.

"If you want to go back, Jody be my guest, but, " the 2nd voice said as they turned to see Carl stepping out with his gun.

"Don't shoot!" the first teen said.

"Hey easy, we don't want no trouble," the older of the pair said. "We're going to throw down our weapons. Jody," he told his companion as he dropped his weapon. "Come on Jody, just do it."

"Yeah alright," the younger one said as he stepped closer to Carl.

Carl raised his gun and shot the boy as he was about ready to drop the gun.

"Carl!" Summer yelled as she jumped out of the tree line. "We don't kill the living!" she told the boy. "What the hell? He was dropping it!"

The older boy looked at her. "Summer?"

Summer turned with her weapon on the male and looked at him. "Who the hell are you?" she asked. "Carl give the gun to Axel. Now!" she hissed.

"They were attacking our family!" Carl yelled at her.

"They were dropping there weapons! They were running away! Don't make me tell you again, Carl," she warned. She turned her attention to the male. "Kick it over. Who are you?"

"Joey London," the man said. "Your uncle didn't tell you?"

"No," Summer said as she held the gun in his face.

"You know him Summer?" Hershel asked.

"I punched him when I was six," Summer answered.

"Look, you know me, Summer. I dropped my weapon, Jody was dropping his," Joey told her.

"I don't know anyone anymore," Summer answered. "How many walkers have you killed?"

The dark haired teen blinked. "You mean biters? I don't know. Does anyone really know? Considering I'm still here, plenty," the teen told her.

"I used to count, like it mattered. But it doesn't, because we may survive them, but then it's the wackadoodle people like your Governor that is more of a threat then the Walkers'," Summer told him. "How many people have you killed?"

"Two," Joey answered.

"Why?" Summer asked.

"It was at the beginning of the turn, my mother and sister, they got bit. I had to put them down," Joey informed them.

"What are we going to do with him?" Lexi asked.

"I can go back with you," Joey told her.

"Joey, shut up," Summer said as she punched him. "Help me put him in the car," she instructed Carl.

Prison POV:

Jewel grinned as she joined the rest of the group. "Hells bells, we did it!"

"We drove them out!" Glenn said.

"We did it!" Maggie said as she grinned.

"It aint over, the Governor is still alive," Merle pointed out.

"But he left, we chased them out," Mar pointed out.

"Doesn't matter sweetheart, we leave him alive, he'll be back. Don't matter when, but he will," Merle insisted.

"I hate to agree with Dumbass, but he's right," Jes said. "Best way to do it is take the fight back to Woodbury."

"You really not going to let up?" Merle asked.

"You forgave Rick yet? No? Alright, then see me when you do," Jes informed him. "I know these people Rick, they aren't bad people. Yeah you have the bad apples, but every group does. We've got a sour one in our mix right now," she said as she cast a glance back at Merle.

"Girl this is going to get old fast," Merle warned her.

Jewel grinned. "Oh I'm likin' this Karma thing big brother. All these years of your attitude, now it's coming back on you. We need to finish this, Rick, for the safety of our family, for our kids."

"I'll go with you," Tyreese answered. "I know some of the people too, and Jes is right, they aren't that bad."

"I'm in," Daryl answered.

Rick nodded. "We take this fight back to them. They may see what type of man he is now," he pointed out. "You want to come?" he asked Jewel.

Jewel grinned. "Yeah, I want to," she told her husband. "Michonne you in?"

"Thought you'd never ask," the woman told her.

"We got incoming," Mar said as she nodded to the cars coming.

"I'll get the gate," Sasha said as Maggie and Glenn ran to distract walkers.

"I'm counting an extra head," Carol said as she nodded to the cars.

Jewel turned and counted the people in the car. "She's right, they got a straggler."

"Whoever it is, they should have left them out there," Merle said. "Killed them on sight."

"We don't kill the living," Jewel told her big brother as she rolled her eyes.

"No we just let them kill us," Merle huffed.

"Do you ever think before you talk?" Daryl asked. "You know what, don't answer that question."

Rick walked up to the cars. "Hershel?"

"We've got a problem, Rick," he said as he got out of the lead car.

"Yeah, I see that," Rick answered.

"No, that's not the problem. There was two of them, one younger then this one. He was throwing down his gun, this one already threw down his gun. Carl shot the younger one, he would have shot this one too if Summer hadn't stopped him," Hershel told him.

"Carl? Is that true?" Rick asked.

"I did what I had to do, and I should have killed this one too. I didn't kill that walker that killed Dale, and looked what happened. He attacked us," Carl told him. "Now we're bringing him here, so he can kill us?"

"We don't kill the living, Carl," Jewel and Summer both said.

"We go down that road. If we do we're no better then the Governor, or any other types we run into," Summer said. "I don't want to just live, Carl. Killing them without a reason, that's just wrong. I don't want to turn into them. I want to be able to live with myself. I want to know that when I have to kill someone, it's because right then and there they were a threat. They were running away, Carl. They put there guns down. They were surrendering," she told him.

"Get out of the car," Daryl told the boy. "Come on."

"You heard him," Mitch said as he held the gun on him.

"That's a pretty brave kid you got there," Axel told Mar.

Mar smiled. "They are all pretty brave kids," she answered.

The young man got out of the car, a black eye evident.

Merle sighed. "Jes, you may want to get your angry behind down here. They brought back someone you know."

Jewel looked at Daryl. "That isn't who I think it is?"

"Joey London, yeah I think it is," Daryl responded. "Looks like Summer punched him again. I'm not going to make her apologize this time kid," Daryl told him.

Rick looked at Summer. "You hit him?"

"Punched. Thought that was better then killing him," Summer responded.

"Summer," Jewel warned.

"You know him?" Rick asked Summer.

"The kid that Uncle Daryl made me apologize to for hitting when I was six. Seemed that Uncle Merle wasn't in a sharing' mood that he was in Woodbury," the sixteen year old glared at him.

"Wasn't my place," Merle answered. "JES! Get your ass down here now."

"Jes is here?" Joey asked as he stood up from his leaning position.

"Back down, or I'll let Summer hit you again," Daryl warned.

"Guys, maybe we should take this inside? We're drawin' attention," Carol said as she nodded to the walkers' on the gates.

"Do you want us to clear them out?" Lexi asked.

"Yeah, go take Mitch and Carl with you. We'll talk later," Rick told the boy.

"Of course we will," Carl said as he went down to the gate.

"I'll go down with them," Mar said as she walked with them.

"Joey?" Jes asked. "I see that another Dixon uses fist firsts."

"Better then a bullet," Summer said as she passed them.

Rick and Jes's POV:

Rick sighed as he unlocked the door where they put Joey. "Jes can I speak with you alone for a minute?"

"I'll be right back," Jes told the young man as she stood up. "Yeah Rick?"

"Need you to tell me his story," Rick told her.

"Why don't you ask him Rick? It's not my story to tell," Jes said as she leaned against the wall.

"I don't know him, I know you. You proved yourself to me, you've earned your place. I don't know anything about him, except that my daughter seems to like punching him," Rick told her. "He came here with the Governor, he came into this prison and he was shooting at my family. So I need to know what you know about him. Why you seem to care about him. This is the person you were talking about leaving behind right?"

"Yeah," Jes answered. "Did you see him firing in here? No, he was caught running away, with another teen. He did what he had to do to survive, waited for his chance to escape, played it smart. Just like I did. Otherwise he would have just been another head in the Governor's fish tanks. That's why I knew he'd survive, because he's smart. He knows between right and wrong, Rick. Something your son is struggling with," she told the former sheriff as she looked at him. "Hell, we all struggle with it, even before the world went to shit," Jes told the man. "You want to know what happened since I brought Jewel back here, you're going to have to ask him. I can tell you what I know about him. I was stationed at Fort Benning when all this went down, his father was stationed there too. We were involved, and when I say involved, I mean we rolled around in the sack when ever we had a need. We got orders that we were going to bomb Atlanta if shit went bad, which obviously it did, but we and a few others deserted. Probably a whole hell of that went on. People wanting to be with families. Well I didn't have any. So my objective became getting Mason to his family in Georgia. Ex-wife and kids. His oldest son was in Atlanta with a very pregnant fiance. We were planning' on getting to them after we got to the rest of them. Didn't happen obviously. When we got to his ex wife's house, Joey had already put down his mom and twelve year old sister. They had been bitten at the start, before anything was really known about all this. Joey, well he blamed his dad. Called him weak. We were on the run for a while, I developed a bond with him. Don't know why, but the kid needed a friend. Not a parent, not a sibling, just a friend. I don't like little people, like your daughter Judith or Mitch. They are too needy. Carl and Lexi, they are getting to the age that I can somewhat stand on there own, but still, they don't usually want to tell you what's on there minds. Now when they get older, like Summer and Joey, they say what's on there minds just to get a rise out of you. I like that. I still do it," Jes admitted. "Well while we were on the run and at Woodbury, I saw exactly what kind of man Mason was. Weak, a sheep. Perfect mind for a man like the Governor. I didn't abandon them earlier cause of Joey. He may be almost 19, but he still needed someone. I knew he'd understand why I left, why I killed Mason. I don't even know if he knows, but I know that kid in there is ten times the man his father ever was. Now you want to know why he stayed, why he came here, that's for him to answer, not me. You want to see if he fits in with this family you made, you need to ask the tough questions. But the one thing I know is that you got pretty good kids. Carl may have shot Jody, but he did what he thought was right for his family. Summer stopped him from killing Joey, well she was doing what she thought was right. I'm going to go draw some maps out of Woodbury," Jes said as she left Rick standing at the cell.

TBC