Cee sat against a tree, the fire before her glowed softly in the morning light. Three cans sat perched on the sheet of metal balanced above the fire, baked beans and egg rested inside each can. Cee sat dressed in black mid thigh shorts, red high top converses, and a clearly oversized red shirt with a small minimalistic planet sat in the top right corner. She flashed a wave over at her friend as they woke up. Penny offered up a smile, pulling themselves out of the truck. Their hair sat messily on their head,and grey eyes rimmed red.
"Morning, breakfast is beans and eggs." Cee greeted, making space for her friend to sit down next to her.
"Morning CeeCee." Penny greeted, waving over to the truck. "Imma get dressed first… Wait, eggs? Where'd you get-Nevermind I don't want to know." With that the tired friend made their way to the backside of the truck, out of view.
"You guys best be leaving." Shane grounded, walking up to Cee. "You've overstayed your welcome." The moment Shane finished his sentence, he was met with a half asleep green haired teen jumping from behind the truck bed and aiming a punch to his already bruised face.
"None of that." Before the fist could make contact, Penny found their way in between the two, and caught Jay's attack."No fighting you two, it's too early for this. I didn't even finish." Penny stood in a black tank top and beige camo pants with a pair of black steel toe boots, while having a beige camo jacket half on and half hanging off. One hand was holding the jacket up, while the other was holding Jay's punch from hitting its target.
"Uh?" Jay mumbled sleepily, shaking his head before realizing what was going on. "Oh… I guess even in my sleep I hate you."
"Fighting?!" Shane growled, pointing a glare at Penny. "This punk was the one who tried to punch me!"
"I mean, maybe if you weren't such an asshole my first instinct wouldn't be to beat the shit out of you." Jay retorted with a lot less hostility than the larger man. Already turning to change out of last night's clothes.
"If you hadn't come out here to try and drive us out, then this wouldn't be happening." Cee chimed in, eyes stilled trained on the breakfast over the small fire.
"Enough with this." Penny cut in, shaking their head. "We won't be here much longer, you should head back to your group." They turned, addressing the angered man.
"You know what?" Shane spoke after a moment of silence. "We don't know shit about, how do I know you aren't going to come back and try to take over?"
"Are you fucking serious?" Jay scoffed, walking back over in a different outfit. He adjusted to sweatshirt he wore, before turning to Shane. "If we were planning to do that, why would we have saved Sophia and Otis? I get Sophia, but Otis? Why risk ourselves?"
"You saved Otis so he could lead you to us." Shane growled, moving forward. He motioned towards his campsite where people were beginning to rouse. "You save two of our people, everyone would be too grateful to even consider what your motives are."
"So, do you two want breakfast or do you want to keep listening to this lunatic?" Cee cut in, sliding the food into flattened cans. "He's group'll take him away eventually. He's just all bark no bite, tug his leash and he'll back off."
"True." Jay nodded, dropping down to eat breakfast. Penny followed suit. Jay glanced up, and offered a smile when he caught sight of Sophia and Carol leading some of the group over to him. Sophia beamed a smile back, but it soon fell. A shot rang through the air followed by a shout.
"FUCKING ASSHOLE!." Jay jumped from his spot on the ground, his plate of food falling, and pressed a hand to his cheek. Pulling it back, he saw blood on his fingers. "You fucking shot me!" Jay glared at Shane, who stood with his gun held out. Jay growled moving towards Shane, only to be stopped again by Penny.
"The bullet just grazed you." Penny sighed, glancing over their shoulder at Rick who was now rushing over. "I can patch you up, they'll deal with the idiot"
"That's not the point!" Jay hissed, motioning the smug looking man. "He SHOT me. In the face. How do we not know he wasn't aiming for my brains! I could be dead if I hadn't turned to great Sophia!" Jay glared at Shane, who had lowered his gun and was now being swarmed by his people.
"Uh guys… Not to add onto things or anything but…" Glenn cut in, looking nervously among the people. Majority of them turning to look at Glenn, curious as to what was important enough to announce now. "There's walkers in the barn."
The simple statement cause an instant silence to fill the air. A second later a recharged Shane cursed and rushed off in the direction of the barn. Jay's eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Shane grabbing the bag of guns, while Rick and the others stormed after Shane. Rick trying to calm his friend so they could talk to hershel about things.
"Can he not focus on one thing at a time or what?" Cee deadpanned, looking over after the group slowly shrinking from view.
"This isn't going to end well." Penny sighed, shaking their head.
"So, wanna head over?" Cee questioned. "Or leave before everything gets messy?"
"I'm going over." Jay answered, already walking over in the direction of the gunfire. Before calling over his shoulder. "And if Shane fucked up, I'm bashing his brains in."
The trio stopped at the fire line, eyes taking in the open barn doors and the corpses littering the ground. Jay's blood boiled at the sight of the sobbing family on the ground. Penny stood stoic, hand resting on their handgun while eyes glanced around. Cee sighed, shaking her head, already knowing what was going to go down.
"Have fun." She whispered in her brothers ear. Jay flashed her a crooked smile, before turning, fueled to beat the living shit out of a certain man before a sound rang out from the barn. Everyone tensed, eyes glued to the door to see who or what would come out. A man stumbled out of the doors, his left arm was stripped to the bone and hung limply at his side.
"Fuck…" Jay whispered, eyes glued on the brown hair, browned eyed marshmallow. "Mark?" Rick turned over to us, eyebrows furrowed. Cee glanced over at her friend, only seeing Penny's face remaining stoic. Penny pulled his gun from his waistband, taking aim and shooting. The man fell, Penny turned, walking back to their truck without a word.
"You fucking asshole." Jay growled, rushing towards Shane. The green haired teen pushed the older man, anger clear in his eyes. "This was their family! Yes, they were dead, but you can't just-just take away their right to give them mercy."
"This was putting my group in danger." Shane answered, his demeanor and voice a lot calmer than what it was at the start. Most of the others all stood, shocked, confused, and watching the scene play out.
"I don't give a shit. You had no right." Jay stepped forward, pointing towards the sobbing greene family that sat on the ground. "That was their family, their wife, mom, kid, neighbour, you had no right to give them mercy." Before Shane could respond, or anyone could intervene, a punch landed across Shane's already bruised cheek. A gasped broke the silence between the groups, Shane growled before tackling the younger man.
Andrea, who had gasped, moved forward in an attempt to stop the two fighting on the ground. A snap sounded before she was met with a gun aimed at her face.
"Don't even try." Cee's voice was dead serious, Andrea froze, looking between the gun and the fight. The others still stood in a stunned silence, the only sounds were the hits and curses leaving the two wrestling each other. The longer the fight went, the more fidgety the blonde got. It took to the point of Jay finally getting the upper hand, and landing a few good punches on Shane before she spoke up again.
"We need to do something before he kills him." Andrea pleaded, looking over at Cee. Cee sighed, clicking her gun back in place and pocketing it. She moved forward, pulling the less angry Jay off of the bloodied man.
"We should go before we find Penny's bloody brains across the back of the truck." Almost as if those words broke the frozened group, all hell broke loose.
Jay, Cee, and Penny all sat inside the now empty barn, each tied to a chair. Jay winced slightly at each breath, his mind supplying the idea of a fractured rib, his lip split open again, and a bruises rest on his cheek and temple. Cee sat relaxed, a slight annoyance sat in her blue eyes at the fact that she was now missing her weapons, looking around the barn. Penny sat, vexed by the man in front of them, a glare settled in their stormy eyes.
"All I'm asking is if you can just check and make sure Shane doesn't have any serious injuries." Rick sighed, running a hand through his hair, standing before the pink haired captive. "Hershel just lost his family all over again, I'm trying to let him grieve." His was met with silence again, Penny's angered glare unwavering.
"You're wasting your breath." Cee cut in, her gaze still shifting to various parts of the barn. Rick turning his attention to her, confusion swimming in his eyes. "The last thing you want is Penny anywhere near Shane, besides he probably just needs to clean his face, and he'll be fine… Unlike the one struggling to breathe."
"Wha? I'm fine." Jay huffed, turning to shoot his sister a glare. "How would you even know?"
"Remember the time you got a broken rib from a fight?" Cee replied, rolling her eyes. "Everytime after that your ribs cracked easily, pretty simple to put that together."
"Well if Penny helps make sure Shane will be okay, he can check on your friend-" Rick started before the barn doors opened, turning he was met with a worried looking Otis. Rick raised an eyebrow, motioning his head towards the three captives.
"Sorry to disturb you Rick, but…" Otis took a deep breath and glance behind him. "Hershel is nowhere to be seen and Beth is in trouble."