All Nightmare Long
Chapter 539
Author's Note: I've been working on this story for five years today. Thank you all who have read and reviewed. Please review more! I should be doing the episode with Carl, and the ending part with Tara, but I miss Rick and Jewel. I'll get back in order, everyone needs to wind up in Alexandria at some point anyway. So right now, Rick, Jewel and Aaron. Please review.
Rick, Jewel and Aaron POV:
Rick woke up with a start as he rubbed his eyes in the back of the truck, Jewel sat up and stretched.
"What time is it?" Aaron asked from the corner of the van.
"Just past 5:30," Rick answered. "How long you been up?" he asked Jewel as he kissed the side of her cheek.
"For a while, didn't really sleep, neither did you or Aaron. And when we did, well nightmares woke us up," Jewel said as she kissed him.
Rick nodded. "Let's go," he said.
"We should eat something first," Jewel said as she unzipped the supply bag. "Carl and Michonne aren't going to come," she said as she held out a power bar to him.
"We should save these," Rick said as he put down the radio.
"We aren't going to be good to anybody back home if we pass out from hunger," Jewel told him. "Take it," she insisted.
Rick gave a shake of his head as he took it. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Aaron," Jewel said as she handed him one.
"Thanks," Aaron said as he stood up to open the gate of the truck.
Jewel took out a bar and ate it. "You'll be thanking me later," she teased Rick gently.
Rick gave a small smile. "I always do," he said trying to feel something other than anger.
"Didn't see that last night," Aaron said as he opened up the back of the truck.
"Didn't see what?" Rick asked as Jewel finished putting on her boots.
Aaron pointed to the gate that could be seen further out.
Jewel got up and joined them and got out of the truck walking with them, seeing the sign. "Well someone wants to keep people away."
"We have today and only today to find something," Rick said as he took out his machete. "They could be back tomorrow, could be back now," he told them.
"Ok," Aaron said as he took his knife out, Jewel already having hers out, as all three of them jumped over the fence and walked.
Jewel glanced at Rick as she kept a distance from him, Aaron keeping the same distance from her. Rick motioned them both as they came toward a sign.
"This guy, he's armed, has food, supplies, ammo," Rick said.
"The only possible way you have read this far without being shot, is that I am dead," Aaron continued reading.
"Have at it Assholes," Jewel finished. "Well, that is a great welcoming," she said as the three of them looked at each other. "He has grenades and weapons, and we aren't dead, so we should assume he is. And if he does have grenades and weapons, we aren't giving them to Negan."
"Jewel," Rick started to say.
"Don't Jewel me. We are out here with just knives and a hatchet, if someone was out there, we'd stand no chance. I'm out here with you because I know what we need to do to survive, to make sure everyone lives, but that does not mean I'm going to let us be unarmed given a chance. And when Quinn gets back home, I'm sure she'll agree with me. I am having the same nightmares as you and Aaron. I was there, right with you, where I've been since you showed up at the camp in Atlanta. That isn't going to change. Glenn and Abraham were killed, not by you, but by Negan. And we both, all three of us," she said including Aaron in the conversation, "want the same thing, for all of us to survive. But it may not be in the way you want," she said as she walked in front of them.
"She's a fierce to be reckoned with," Aaron told Rick.
"One of the many reasons I fell in love with her," Rick answered.
"Um guys, you may want to see this," Jewel called out to them.
Aaron and Rick joined her and looked out at the mote with walkers' in it. "It looks like he protected his supplies," Aaron stated.
"Looks like they're still protected," Rick responded.
"Today and only today right?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah," both Rick and Jewel stated.
"All these bullet holes, this'll take on water quick," Rick stated.
"We'll row fast," Jewel stated.
"We can probably make it to the canoe. Probably," Rick said.
"Way to sound confident," Jewel teased as she hit his arm playfully.
"If you two want to stay back," Rick started to say.
"Don't even think about finishing that statement," Jewel told him.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," Aaron said as he walked to the sign and kicked off pieces to make ores with. "I'm seeing this through, all three of us are," he told them.
"You two row, I'll take out walkers that get close," Jewel said as she unsheathed two knives.
Rick nodded at them as Jewel got in the canoe then the two of them followed pushing off. Jewel didn't move from the middle but managed to kill walkers that came to close.
"We're almost at the canoe," Rick said.
"We're taking on water quick man," Aaron stated.
"We know, Aaron," Jewel stated.
Jewel and Aaron saw a walker come to the front of the canoe.
"On your left," Aaron called out.
"Rick!" Jewel exclaimed as she stabbed a walker in the head.
Rick fell back on her as him and Aaron both used part of the sign to fend off walkers as she used the knife.
"We're almost there," Aaron said as him and Rick continued to row.
"It won't be soon enough," Jewel stated.
Aaron reached for the canoe, pulling it closer as a walker raised up grabbing at him.
Jewel and Rick both moved at the same time to stab the walker in the head, while they were doing that, one reached up behind Aaron and pulled him in the water.
"Aaron!" Jewel yelled.
"Get in the canoe," Rick instructed her, as he helped her in. She quickly rolled the dead walker out onto the water. "Hold on!" Rick yelled at Aaron.
"Stay…in the canoe…I can…just," Aaron gasps as he goes underwater.
"Aaron!" both of them yell.
"No! Aaron!" Jewel yells to him.
"Aaron!" Rick joined her.
"I'm OK, I'm alright," Aaron says as he comes up from the water. "I'm OK," he whispers to himself.
"Thank God!" Jewel said as she took a breath, as Rick rowed to the tub, Aaron climbing the ladder, collapsing on deck. He reached out his hand when Jewel climbed the ladder then Rick, both of them collapsing.
"You aren't bit?" Jewel asked Aaron.
"Surprisingly, no," Aaron stated.
"Good, that's good," Jewel stated. "This thing better run, I'm not going through that again," she said as she sat up.
"You know how to drive this thing?" Aaron asked.
"No, do you?" Jewel asked.
"No, Rick?" Aaron asked.
"No, I guess between the three of us we'll figure it out," Rick said giving a good laugh for the first time in ages.
"I guess we will," Jewel said as she laughed, Aaron joining in.
On the land:
Jewel picked up a box and took it to the truck before jumping out as Rick and Aaron picked up a heavier one.
"You know out there, I didn't mean you couldn't do it. It's just…going this far, risking this much to get things for them, people don't agree with it. Jewel doesn't agree with it, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't," Rick told Aaron.
"I may not agree with you, but what I said before that adventure, I still mean. I'm with you, always," Jewel said as she kissed him.
"I was there, I saw what happened on the road. What we're doing is going to keep people living. We get to do that, it doesn't matter what happens to us," Aaron told them.
"Carl and Michonne doesn't call this living," Rick stated.
"Mitch is angry, Mar is depressed, that's cause of Daryl...being out here, doing this, if it's going to keep him alive just another minute, then that's what I've got to do," Jewel told Rick.
"And I'll do whatever it takes to keep him alive," Aaron told her. "Committing to a choice like this, after living how we did, free, I get it," he told them. "It's hard, it's giving up everything, right up to your own life. But either your hearts beating, or it isn't. Your love ones hears beating or they aren't. We take what they give us so we can live," Aaron said.
Jewel eyed the guns, then looked at Rick. "I'm not going to push it this time," she said. "Our hearts are still beating," she told him as she squeezed his hand.