"Everyone good with the plan?" Penny questioned from the truck bed of the red truck they had hijack for the ride to the farm.
"Yup." Jay piped from the driver's seat, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Nope." Cee spoke up from her spot in the truck bed next to Penny.
"It's simple." Jay rolled his eyes, flashing a glance through the rearview mirror.
"Not simple when you're the one that has to face, what's his name? Shane?" Cee retorted.
"Don't touch him if you see him." Penny warned.
"What why?" Jay all but whined.
"It's okay, he just wanted to be able to bring the supplies to the kid, he just made a tough choice…" Otis cut in the bickering, only earning him a glare from Jay.
"Can I get throw happy?" Jay asked.
"No." Came the monotone reply from his sister. Jay smirked at the soft giggle that left the little girl seated in between him and Otis.
"Fine, Fine." Jay sighed, pulling the car to a stop. "Is this far enough?"
"Yea, the farm is a few trees further down." Otis nodded, looking around the area.
"Okay, we'll be in the trees incase anyone attacks you guys." Cee spoked, jumping from the bed along with Penny who held their rifle.
"Or if you attack someone." Penny added as a warning, before the two of them, disappeared into the tree line on either side of them.
Jay sighed, before pulling the car back into drive and made his way further up the dirt road. He kept his eyes on the road, smiling slightly when he saw the fences from the distance. He caught sight of forms of people moving beyond that.
"Please, just leave Shane alone." Otis spoke again, looking over at Jay.
"I'll try." Jay responded, pulling to a stop in front of the set of people who stood before them, guns drawn. Jay was just glad they got a truck that had tinted windows. "Stay here, kay? I'll call you out." Jay slipped out of the car, closing the truck door behind himself.
"Who are you?" Jay stared blankly at the man in the sheriff's uniform, before realization dawned on him on who the man in the beard was.
"Ah, Rick." Jay grinned, noticing the way everyone tensed. "It's good to see you, was a tad worried you'd already move on your way."
"How do you know his name?" Jay's eyes flickered to the man in a vested flannel and held a crowbar eye level with Jay.
"You must be Daryl." Jay whistled, glancing back at the truck. "Who knew a little girl could be so descriptive-"
"Sophia?" A tiny, silver haired woman cried, stepping forward. "What did you do to my baby girl?" The only person stopping her from moving forward was the redneck.
"I didn't do anything, do I really seem that bad?" Jay glanced down at his outfit, an oversized grey sweatshirt with 'Just Peachy' written on the top corner, black ripped skinny jeans, and grey converses. Before anyone else could respond, Jay spoke up. He pointed a glare at a tall man in overalls with a shave head. "I have a few of your friends, some of you would like to see them, others might not." Jay tapped on the hood of the car, everyone on the yard tensed.
The door open, and out stepped Otis who helped Sophia out. Almost immediately Sophia's mom ran forward, hugging her daughter while Otis's wife ran forward and kissed her husband. Everyone else stood shock, Jay didn't pick up his glare on Shane, and Shane noticed.
"Now that you can see, we kept Sophia fed and even saved Otis life." Jay ran a hand through his pastel green hair.
"How did you find her?"Rick stepped forward, his gun still held up in case he needed it. "Even with Otis?"
"If you plan to keep me in arms reach, I recommend refraining from being trigger happy. Your people are behind me." Jay jerked his head towards the four reuniting. "As for how I found them, Sophia literally ran into me out in the woods, and I saved Otis from being herd food out in front of the school." Jay answered the questions, shooting a quick glare to Shane who looked beyond worried, and looked back at Rick.
"You should stay for dinner." Carol turned to him, tears slowly sliding down her face, her arms wrapped around her daughter. "As a thank you for saving Sophia, and even Otis."
"Wait, we don't know him!" Shane jumped in, turning to Rick. "For all we know he can have a group waiting to attack and steal our things!"
"They are good people. We can trust them." Otis responded, his wife clung to his side, who nodded in agreement.
"Just cause they saved you doesn't mean shit." Shane spatted, glaring at Jay. "Besides, he has a group but didn't bother bringing them along."
"Calm your fucking shit, there are kids." Jay hissed back with just as much anger as Shane was expressing. "There's only two more and they are off hiding in case of shit like this, in case you weren't the nice group Sophia and Otis told us about." Jay replied, his glare not faltering from the man who glared back. Rick caught the anger rolling off of Shane, and moved forward, placing a hand on his best friends chest.
"Shane calm down, we need to find out about who we're dealing with." Rick whispered low enough for Shane to only hear but the man just pushed his friend off, moving closer to the teen.
"I'll calm down when this little punk watches himself." Shane growled, standing close to Jay, leaning over him. Jay snorted at the intimidation tactic, instead of backing down he took a step forward.
"I'll watch myself when you stop being a backstabbing asshole." Jay growled low enough for only Shane could hear him. That did it, Shane's face turn red. The large man pushed Jay hard, seeming surprised when all it got was a few steps back before anyone would react the teen had punched Shane straight across the face. Everyone stood frozen for a moment, long enough for Shane and Jay to take the fight to the group, getting in a few good punches.
Rick shouted for the two to stop, just as a pink haired person came running from the tree line. Rick pulled his friend away while Penny pulled his back.
"Jay, I thought I told you no fighting." Penny growled, holding the struggling teen before the teen relaxed in his hold. Jay huffed, crossing his arms, ignoring the pain in his face.
"I didn't start it this time." Jay all but whined back, his demeanor did a full one eighty. "He was the one being an asshole."
"I know, I saw and heard it all." Penny deadpanned releasing their hold. "Next time just be a better person." The two turned to be met with guns drawn back up. Jay sighed.
"Guys relax, this is Penny. They are literally a toasted Marshmallow." Jay waved his hand dismissively.
"You know Shane?" Rick asked, looking back at the retreating form of his best friend going to the farm house and the green haired teen who just smiled.
"No." Penny cut in before Jay could speak. "Jay is just known to irk the wrong people."
"How many more of you are there?" Rick asked, his gun lowering.
"One more." Penny answered. "Her name's Cee and-"
"She's an antisocial serial killer, who happens to be my sister." Jay cut in with a smile. "We can have dinner without her-"
"Dinner? Dinner after that show?" Penny shook their head, pushing Jay towards the truck. "You caused enough drama, we'll be on our way."
"Wait, No!" Jay whined, digging his heels into the ground. Despite the shout from her mother, Sophia rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Jay's waist. "Seeeeee, she doesn't want me to go!" Jay hugged the little girl back.
"They should at least stay for dinner" Patricia stepped forward, looking over at Rick. "As a thank you to them for saving Sophia and Otis. I'm sure Hershel will be okay with it, we can do a campfire."
"I don't know, we need an okay from Hershel first, this is his land." Rick answered, before turning back to the two. "But we need to talk about this 'serial killer' of yours."
"Oh, we usually keep her locked in a cage until moments like this when we do risky meetups." Jay answered, earning a slap on the back of the head.
"Don't listen to him." Penny corrected. "Cee isn't a bad person, and she won't hurt any of you guys-"
"Aside from Shane, but that's his fault." Jay cut in.
"Why would she hurt Shane?" Rick asked, Jay noted the way he tensed at the notation.
"He started bad blood with her brother." Penny answered before Jay could, earning him a pout from the teen. "But she won't hurt anyone as long as no one becomes a fatal threat."
"Can you bring her out?" Rick asked, a skeptical look in his eyes.
"Sure." Jay nodded, turning to shout over his shoulder. "CEE"
Almost immediately a five foot one, one hundred and sixteen pound girl stepped out from the tree line. She wore a blue tank top, black ripped jeans, red high top converses and a red varsity jacket tied at her waist. Cee walked towards her friends, waving at the other group, in her other hand she flipped a black rectangular box.
"This is your serial killer?" Daryl asked, disbelief in his eyes.
"Watch what you say around her." Penny warned.
"What is she? Like eight?!" Glenn asked.
"Are you trying me?" Cee asked when she got to her group, her rectangle morphed into a gun, pointing straight at Glenn.
"No, bad Cee." Jay scowled, earning him a roll of her eyes. Jay turned back to Glenn the moment `the gun were put back. "What! She's older than me! She's nineteen!"
"Careful, Cee takes things very literal." Penny warned, but before anyone in the group could respond, and older man came rushing towards them.
"What's going on here!?" Hershel froze, looking over at the friend he thought he lost. "Otis?" Hershel moved forward, pulling his friend into a hug.
"Yea, Otis." Jay agreed. "We saved his life, just so you know."
"Can they stay for dinner?" Patricia asked, walking over to Hershel and her husband. "We can have a campfire cookout, they wouldn't have to go into our home. Just let 'em stay the night."
"You saved Otis?" Hershel turned to the three strangers.
"That's what I said." Jay deadpanned, but Penny cut in before anyone could pay him any mind.
"Yes we did. We also brought back Sophia, but we don't have to stay for dinner." Sophia looked back at Hershel with wide eyes.
"Can they please stay the night?" Her voice was small, and soft that Jay held back a coo. Jay joined in, giving the old man puppy dog eyes.
"You saved Otis, the least we can do is let you stay the night." Hershel answered, giving them a small smile. "But, you'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast."
"YAY!" Jay grinned down at Sophia who grinned back up at him.
"Who wants moonshine?!" Jay smirked, holding up a mason jar filled with clear liquid. Everyone
stopped eating their dinner to look up. "If you don't want, that's fine, more for me." Jay downed half the jar in one go, holding it out for anyone. The first person who grabbed it was Daryl, while Penny drank from his own jar and passed it along.
"Can I have some?" Beth asked, looking over at her older sister Maggie who laughed.
"You aren't old enough to drink." Maggie reminded, which earned a snort from Jay.
"New world, new rules." Jay reminded her, holding out a jar to Beth. "All up to you." Beth paused for a moment, looking over to her sister who shrugged. Beth took a sip, immediately followed with a cough and shake of her head. Everyone laughed, turning back to lightish conversation.
"So, how many walkers you taken down?" Rick asked, turning back to his dinner which consisted of squirrel and peaches.
"Walkers?" Penny responded. "That what you call the dead?"
"Yea, what do you call them?" Glenn jumped in.
"Marshmallows" Jay jumped, smiling at the odd looks they gave him. "They are soft and squishy."
"It makes them look less threatening." Cee answered with a shrug. Shane who had been walking towards the campfire glared at Jay.
"That's the problem with you people." Shane spoke in, taking a seat next to Rick. "You act like this is all a game."
"You do realize that the end goal of all the video games are basically to not die."Jay quipped back, keeping his stare down with Shane.
"Unlike the video games, we only have one life." Shane retorted, annoyance clear in his voice. Rick gave his friend a look, hoping he'd calm down.
"Regardless the end result is death." Jay answered with a dull voice. "It's not like we'll be living forever-"
"Does anyone know where Penny is?" Cee cut in, breaking the depressive mood that was settling. Then everyone turned to look over at none other than Penny… Dancing the Pennywise the Dancing Clown dance.
Jay bursted out laughing at the dead, blank look that sat on Penny's face, Cee joined in soon after. The people in the group looked at Penny with wide, scared, and worried eyes.
"Their okay." Jay chuckled, jerking a thumb in their direction. "They sometimes do this when their drunk."
"Is he going to stop?" Rick asked, looking over at the two kids in the group. "He is scaring the kids."
"It's They/Them, not He." Jay corrected before continuing. "Yea sure, I can stop him." He reached over, grabbing an empty jar of moonshine before tossing it in Penny's direction. The moment the jar made contact with their forehead, they were down for the count.
"Are they okay?" Lori asked, only to be answered with a loud snore.
"Yup, that's their off button when their drunk." Cee answered, while Jay was too busy laughing his ass off.
"Oh, you asked us how many Marshmallows we ganked." Jay sobered from his laughter turning to Rick and the group who still seemed a little stunned. "One thousand, six hundred sixty six."
"You kept count?" Glenn asked, his eyes wide.
"Yup, I keep the Marshmallow counts." Jay jerked his head in the direction of his sister. "She keeps human count."
"How many people you killed?" Rick asked, Jay caught the underlining worry in his voice.
"After the apocalypse" Cee started, looking into the corner in thought before answering. "Two hundred sixty six."
"For Survival." Jay quickly cut in when he noticed the group tense, his eyes catching Shane resting his hand on his gun. "If we didn't they probably would have killed us."
"You killed before the apocalypse?" Shane asked, his voice hard. Jay glared at him.
"Like I said, we kill for survival." Jay spoke, voice just as hard. "Not everyone can live in a small, happy town in the middle of goddamn nowhere."
"Anyways, I guess it's time for me to get Jay and Penny to bed." Cee cut in the tension. "Thank you for the dinner, see you in the morning."
"Wait, I'm not done with this ass-" Jay's objection was quickly cut short by a mason jar hitting him in the head and knocking him out cold. A snore left him a few moments later. The Grimes' gang was left staring in shock as Cee dragged away Jay and Penny by the arms.
"What the hell did we get ourselves into…" Dale spoke up for the first time that night.