All Nightmare Long

Chapter 479

Author's Note: Stuff is getting serious. Negan is lurking and I am about ready to put my babies Summer through hell. I'm sorry, not sorry. I mean it's not my fault, it's the writers for bringing in big bad Negan. And I'm obliged to put my babies through hell, even though I am dreading killing Glenn. I'd love to keep him alive, but it's important to move the story forward. Just like Steven Yeun said, it was so important to the story. Jes took over this chapter. Please review.

Jes POV:

Jes bent down and looked for tracks then up at the sky. "The car ran out of gas, they went by foot. Damn I taught Joey good, he wiped the tracks. Summer would know how to do this by herself, the two of them together they're dangerously good."

Garza gave a laugh. "Sounds like you may actually respect them."

Jes stood up. "And you make that sound like that's some kind of crime. It's going to get dark soon, they will have found somewhere to hold up for the night. We won't catch up with them tonight, they are at least half ahead of us."

"They could have made it to wherever they were heading to," Garza said.

"Summer would have wanted to push through. She's thinking with anger, Joey would be the calm one. He would talk reason into her, not risk being out there with the savior's. He'd make her see reason, if she wouldn't, he'd make her, even by forcing her inside," Jes said. "She'd be mad, but in the morning she'd see reason. Dixon's brains shut down through anger, and nothing makes them angrier than them thinking someone hurting the people they love.I shouldn't have let them go, should have made them go back home."

"You blaming yourself for stupid kids putting themself in danger?" Garza asked.

Jes glanced over her shoulder at him. "You've been hanging around Shaw to long. They aren't stupid kids, they're family."

"You just called someone family. That's a change from the Sanchez I knew, worked with, dated," Garza said.

"We didn't date, we had sex," Sanchez told him. "You know I had a conversation like this, walking through the woods, looking for my people, having conversation about my past, I'm getting a serious case of deja vu. Didn't like it then, don't like it now."

"That person still around?" Garza questioned.

"No," Jes answered.

"Bit?" Garza questioned.

"No, he died protecting his sister. Summer's mother actually," Jes answered.

"You were close to the girls uncle then? That why you stuck around?" Garza asked.

"I asked you to come with me because my people may be in trouble, and I don't do things alone," Jes told him.

"You used to," Garza answered.

"Let's take cover in the car. You take the back, I'll take the front," Jes answered. She turned and looked at him.

"Well at least that hasn't changed," Garza said as she opened the car.

Jes looked at him as she got in. "You have something to say to me, say it. Don't beat around the bush," she said as she got in the car. "Never liked people who beat around the bush."

"I remember that too," Garza said.

"So, since I don't plan to sleep anytime tonight, go ahead and say what you feel like you have to say," Jes said as she turned slightly in the front seat.

"Back when I knew you, you didn't need anyone else, always wanted to do things alone. So I was really shocked that you came back and asked for help, that wasn't an act for Shaw's benefit. So what changed?" Garza asked.

Jes gave a small laugh. "Oh I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the world ended, the dead outnumbering the living, and yet people are still more dangerous than the dead."

"So why stay with these people?" Garza asked. "You called them your family, something you would have never done back then."

"World ended, people are outnumbered, and dangerous people," Jes repeated. "Think we covered that," she told him.

"You still aren't sharing anything personal, that hasn't changed," Garza said.

Jes sighed. "I met Summer's uncle Merle back in Georgia, we were both part of a community called Woodbury. Joey and his father had came in with me. Woodbury was ran by a psycho that called himself the Governor. Woodbury was like the Hotel California, you could check in but you never could check out, not alive anyway. Merle captured three people of his old group, including his sister, brought them back. The Governor wanted me and Joey's dad to take her out, kill her, bring her head back for him to put in a fish tank. I made a decision, I killed Joey's father and got Jewel back to her family. The group had to go back and get the other two, I went with him. It started a war, we won the first battle," she explained.

"But there was a second one?" Garza questioned.

"Yeah, he brought a tank and blew up the prison we had made a home out of. And that's what it was, a home. That was due to Rick and Jewel. For the first time, I was asked my opinion. I wasn't told what to do, gave orders. I was needed, I was embraced as a member of the family, a real family. When the prison was destroyed, we all got separated. The odds of finding each other, we shouldn't have been able to, but we did.I went in undercover, Jewel was very pregnant, she needed someone. I had never admitted how I felt about these people, I kept saying it was just a job. But it wasn't, not anymore. I held a newborn in my arms, someone trusted me holding a precious life like Hope. I didn't even think about staying behind in Georgia when we were heading here. I would die for anyone of these people, if it saved one of them, I would give my life. It was more than me being a soldier. I count Joey as my son. So you ask me what's so special about these people, there's no words to describe it, but these people are my family. So if I have to chose anyone, it's going to be them, it's always going to be them. Shaw's lucky I'm not as trigger happy as I used to be, because I might have shot him before for that comment about me abandoning them. It's not going to happen, ever," Jes said. "Now, get some rest."

TBC