They spent the first night of winter in an abandoned cottage. They were all sleeping in the windowless basement, since the inhabitants had commit suicide in the bedroom, and the stench of rotting bodies was too much.
Jamie found herself a corner, but she started shaking.
"Jamie? You okay?" Rick asked.
She had her knees to her chest, and she buried her head in her kneecaps, shaking uncontrollably.
"Get over here." Daryl sighed, pulling her into his lap. "What's wrong, Jamie?"
"Don't wanna go to sleep. Too many nightmares." she whispered, looking up at him, tears streaking her cheeks.
"I'll wake you up if you have one. I promise." he muttered into her ear. It was clear the poor kid was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and she buried her head in Daryl's chest and finally fell asleep.
Daryl leaned back against the earth wall of the basement, settling down for the night as well. There was no WAY he was letting go of Jamie tonight- not when she'd almost slipped through his fingers today.
"NO! NO! Run, run, please go! Run! They're behind you! MOM!" her screams tore through the night, and everyone bolted awake.
"Jamie!" Rick jumped up and drew his gun, and Daryl bolted awake.
"Jamie, wake up..." Daryl muttered, shaking her lightly.
"Mom! No, run! I don't have any bullets! NOOOOO!"
Daryl clapped a hand over her mouth and she sat bolt upright, eyes wide, chest heaving.
"Mom?" she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Mom?"
No one knew what to say.
"Mama..." she buried her face in Daryl's chest and cried, and Daryl held her close and rocked her back and forth until she was asleep again.
"That happen a lot?" Rick asked.
Daryl nodded. "More often since her foot got screwed up, anyways."
"Keep her quiet. We already lost Andrea- the last thing we need is walkers." Lori said bitterly.
"Not like she can help it, Bitch." Daryl said, and Lori scowled. "Besides, y'all wanted to leave her for dead today."
Jamie was huddled against him, wordless.
"She doesn't seem like much of an asset anymore." Lori pointed out.
"Because she had a fuckin' bad day. She'll be back at it soon enough, just you wait." Daryl said.
Lori opened her mouth to say something, but was silenced by Carol.
"Don't. Just don't, Lori. It may be the hormones or the lack of sleep, but stop before you say something you regret." Carol said. Lori scowled before turning away to face the wall.
Daryl didn't look at her, but thanked Carol with his gaze. She nodded slowly- they'd all learned to deal ith Lori ver the past few weeks, but Jamie would NOT be left behind.
They spent the next week scavenging through a trailer park, and they were all hungry.
Jamie found some Fancy Feast cat food in one, and brought down all the seven cans she could find. She was quieter now, more reserved, but she was slowly coming back into herself. She set them down.
"Anybody want some?" she asked.
Everyone shook their heads, looking slightly disgusted, except for Daryl. She popped the top on one and found a spoon, scooping it up.
She took a bite and sat down, taking another.
"Hell, I'll try some." Daryl said.
"Try the chicken and cheese- it's the best flavor. That tuna in whitefish stuff sounds fancy, but it's shit." Jamie said between bites of catfood.
"Wait- you've done this before?" Maggie asked, looking surprised.
Jamie nodded.
"What? Were you like holed up in a pet store or something?" Glenn asked, looking slightly amused.
Jamie laughed, shaking her head. "No. Ryder dared me to eat some when we were kids. One bite of each flavor. It was for his science project. He got disqualified from the science fair, because they said having a younger sibling taste cat food was 'unethical'. Bullshit, if you ask me."
Rick chuckled and Jamie started to lick out the inside of the can, oblivious to how the others cringed.
Daryl took a bite and chewed, looking thoughtful. "It's not half bad. Tastes like bird shit, but if you don't really mind..."
"Swallow fast and it's alright." Jamie agreed.
"It actually has a nice aftertaste..." Daryl said, and Carol laughed at his expression.
"You two are something else..." she declared, and Carl looked over.
"Mind if I try some?" Carl asked.
"Carl- no." Lori said, putting her hand on her son's shoulder. "We don't eat THAT."
"But Mom- I'm hungry." Carl said quietly.
Jamie looked up, everyone did. Lori shook her head and turned away.
"Here. I been carrying this with me, figured I might need it some day." She tossed Carl a snickers bar, and he stared.
"Where'd you get it?"
"Found it while I was scavenging one day, 'fore I met you." she said.
"Thanks." Carl said, looking grateful, as he tore into it.
"We need to keep moving." Rick said. "There's no real food here, we can't hold out..."
"What we need is to find someplace by the woods, so we can hunt." Jamie said quietly. She'd started on her second can of cat food, now.
"Is that all you ever think about? Hunting?" Lori asked, and Jamie turned. Lori had been picking on her a lot lately, but she had to cut the woman some slack- she was pregnant and stressed about where she'd have the baby...
"Look lady, know you're pregnant and shit, but you don't need to talk to her like that." Daryl said. "You eat the shit we hunt, so I'd just be glad Jamie actually WANTS to risk her hide and get food for the group."
"So now you're going to give me a lecture in manners and gratitude? How ironic." Lori scoffed.
"Lori, I think you need to go calm down..." Rick said. He, too, had been getting fed up with his wife's behavior, but she was hormonal and stressed, so he'd been dealing with it as best he could. But it was grating on everyone's nerves.
"Are you telling me to take a timeout!?" Lori demanded. "I'm just trying to make sure this Hick doesn't go telling me useless shit..."
"Don't call my Dad that!" Jamie erupted suddenly.
Everyone stared. "Dad?" Beth asked.
Jamie nodded. "Hell, yeah. He done everything a Dad's s'pose to do... He went back for me when you bastards didn't, taught me to throw knives... He has every right to be called Dad." Jamie seethed, fists clenched, as she stared at Lori. "An' don't you EVER call him that again!"
Daryl was slightly shocked, but he felt honored. He'd thought of Jamie like a daughter for awhile now, and her calling him Dad seemed fitting. An affirmation she'd never leave him.
Lori snorted. "Really? Let me tell you then. He COULD be your daddy, but he isn't. Because he didn't FUCK your mother!"
"Shut up shut up shut up!" Jamie screamed, flying towards her. Daryl grabbed her and pulled her back, holding her as she squirmed.
"Jamie, Jamie, just calm down, Lori didn't mean it..." Rick said, shocked to see her fighting like this. But Lori was being such a bitch...
"Why you even defending her when she's carrying a baby that probably ain't even yours!?" Jamie screamed. And there was silence again.
Lori stared, shocked, blinking...
"That's right, bitch. I know the whole story. Andrea told me when I was out doin' watch duty with her. You fucked Shane for MONTHS. Guess it wasn't enough to fuck the sheriff, you just HAD to have the deputy too..."
"Jamie, stop." Carol said. Lori's eyes had filled with tears, now, and she backed up.
"Dammit, don't tell me you're gonna cry. Didn't cry when we lost Patricia, when we lost Andrea, when we thought Carl was gone. But you cry when I bring up how you FUCKED Shane? What the hell is wrong with you people?" She pulled free from Daryl, starting towards the door.
"Jamie, don't go out there." Rick said firmly. "You go out there, nobody's gonna come chase you down. We won't risk anybody else just because you decide to be a hothead and leave."
Jamie stopped dead. She was in front of the window now, and she made her choice, putting her fist through the glass and jumping out into the flower bed, starting down the road.
"Jamie, get back here!" Rick yelled.
"Fuck you." Jamie said, turning the corner and getting out of sight.
Rick swore pounding a fist on the windowsill. "Damn."
Lori started to cry, and Rick walked over and embraced her.
"Leave her behind." Lori said suddenly. "Don't let her come back. She's a bitch."
The others were struggling with the irony of the situation, now. Jamie was of more use than Lori, who was, as usual, complicating things.
Rick sighed. "If she's back by morning, when we move out, we'll let her stay with us. Daryl- you wanna go out after her?"
Daryl shook his head. "Ain't nowhere for her to go. She'll be back."
"There's a whole town for her to go through. She could be gone for hours." Hershel pointed out.
"No, she won't. She don't like towns- she'd rather be in the woods. She'll blow off steam for an hour or two max. She'll be fine. Now, I say we secure the basement for a place to sleep tonight..." and slowly, the activity started again. Daryl knew she'd be back by nightfall- she wouldn't want to risk sleeping without him near, and he wasn't worried about her in town. She could hold her own. He just hoped Lori's hormones stopped raging sometime soon- or he'd be tempted to go out after Jamie.
Jamie sighed angrily as she walked down the sidewalk of the town. Newspapers blew across the street, garbage was rotting in places... What she really needed was something to do. There was NOTHING for her here, no woods to hunt in, no abandoned cars to scavenge... She noticed a thrift store to her right and sighed, heading towards it. It was getting colder, she might as well...
The bell still rang when she opened the door, and she winced at the sound. Great. Just great. The lights were out, the place was deserted, but no walkers had come barreling towards her when the bell sounded, so it seemed relatively safe.
Still, it was dark in the rows further back. The ones near the huge storefront windows were illuminated by the light of day, and she gabbed a cart and started looking. A nice purple sweater- it reminded her if Carol, and she tossed it in the cart. A red jacket with a hood for Carl, a leather jacket for Rick... And gloves for Daryl. She noticed a baby bottle in the back, by the dishes, and headed towards it. It would be useful soon.
Just as she was reaching for it, she heard it. The moaning behind her- she turned to see a door to a storeroom, and milky eyes fast approaching her. She notched an arrow and let if fly, killing the walker. Still, who knew how many more walkers were in the back room- it had to be large back there, lots of room for surprises, and she grabbed the bottle, retrieved her arrow, and randomly grabbed some baby clothes she saw, throwing it into the cart and leaving.
She pushed the cart down the street, not sure where to go next. She stared up at the Walmart in front of her, wondering if she should go in or not.
There were walkers milling around the parking lot, so there would be even MORE inside. Some by the cart return gave her an idea.. She quickly shot one and dragged it behind a mini-van, slicing it open with her knife. Now came the gross part. She reached in with the hand that wasn't cut from punching through the window and tore out some putrid guts, taking off the jacket that had once belonged to Ryder and smearing them on her.
It smelled rancid, and her eyes watered slightly. "Don't be a pussy, there could be good stuff in there." she reminded herself. So she shoved her hand in again, ripping out what looked like a kidney and squeezing it above her her, rubbing the mess into her hair. She used the other kidney like a sponge, rubbing guts all over her. She slit the walker open even more and poured out some guts, rolling in them a little, before wrapping it's intestines around her neck for good measure. Rick had told her about doing this once before...
She entered then, still pushing the cart from the thrift shop. The walkers, amazingly, ignored her. She headed to the back, to the hunting section. One box of ammo was left, three hundred rounds, but she scrounged around under the shelving unit and found another box.
She slipped to the pharmacy, grabbing all the aspirin, fever reduces, and NyQuil she could, as well as bandage, before grabbing a trash bag from the aisle and heading for the checkout.
Lots of people had scavenged the aisles, but she had no interest in that- those who'd ventured in here before her had completely forgotten about the candy by the check out lines. She dumped the boxes that held them into the trash bag, struggling not to drool. Twix, Snickers, Hershey's, M&M's, Kit-Kats... There were so many, She even grabbed the gum and tic tacs, plus a few bags of cracker jacks...
But the rustling of all the wrappers seemed so loud to her, so she moved to the next checkout, this time dropping the whole boxes of candy in to cut down on noise. By that time, walkers had started venturing closer, so she dropped the bag in the cart.
She had a last-minute idea, though, and she forced herself to limp slowly back to the pharmacy. She grabbed three bottles of prenatal vitamins before limping back to the cart, struggling not to freak out. The walkers were in step with her now, drooling, snarling, but they seemed to still be falling for the guts act...
She started over to he cart, which had her bow, quiver, and coat in it, among other things. As soon as her hands closed on the plastic rail on top, she sprinted out.
Any walkers that had been following her couldn't keep up, and she was soon pushing her cart back towards the house, wondering what the'd think. She shouldn't have run off, but she'd been so goddamn pissed with Lori...
"Walker!" Beth pointed, looking scared, and Hershel held her.
"Wait a minute. It's pushing a shopping cart..." Carl said, looking skeptical.
"Hell, it's Jamie!" Daryl said, grinning. He opened the front door, and she pushed the shopping cart inside.
"Hey y'all. Got some stuff." She said, pushing it into the living room.
"You sure did..." Rick said, staring. She took the trash bag out and set it on the ground.
"What's in there?" Car asked.
"A surprise, I'll show it to you last. Carol- found you a sweater." she tossed it towards Carol. There were only a few guts on it from her touching it, and Carol smiled a her thoughtfulness. "Thank you, sweetie."
"No problem." she said, blushing and studying the floor.
She rummaged around again, tossing the leather jacket to Rick. "You always seemed like the bad boy type." she said, as if that explained everything, and Rick chuckled. Everyone else smiled a little...
"Daryl- got you leather gloves so your hands don't get numb when we're on the Harley."
"Thanks." Daryl said, ruffling her hair, which was crusted with walker guts.
"I... I got stuff..." she handed the baby clothes, a little monkey pair of footsie pajamas and a well worn Superman pair of footsies, to Lori, as well as the baby bottle and the prenatal vitamins. She did this all while looking awkward and not meeting her eyes...
"Thank you." Lori sad, looking down, slightly shocked Jamie would do this ofr her after what a bitch she'd been.
Jamie nodded and headed back towards the cart.
"Bandages, asprin, nyquil, and whatever other shit I could find." she said. Hershel smiled. "That's some good shit, as you call it." he said, and she beamed, looking proud.
"Found some ammo, too..." she handed the two boxes to Rick. "I know it ain't much..."
"It's better than nothing, and six hundred bullets is enough to keep us going." Rick assured her, and she nodded, looking relieved.
"What's in the bag?" Carl asked again.
Jamie beamed. "That's the best part. You ready for this?" she grabbed the bag, and Carl nodded eagerly. She dumped the entire contents out onto the floor, then, and Carl's eyes nearly popped out of his head...
The pile of candy was huge, Jamie had just grabbed as quickly as she could, not really thinking, but now as she and Carl stared at it, she realized she'd grabbed a hell of a lot of candy...
"Wow..." Car said, staring. He grabbed a pack f M&M's, staring. "How did yo get these?"
"No one checked the candy racks by the checkout, took what I could before the walkers heard the wrappers rustling..."
Carl grinned. "We're rich!" he said, throwing his hands in the air, and everyone laughed.
"This is like Halloween times ten..." Jamie agreed, eyes still wide.
"So let me get this straight- you covered yourself in walker guts so you cold break into an overrun Walmart and raid the CANDY?" Glenn asked.
Jamie nodded. "Pretty much. Got the other shit, but this, this is the Pièce de résistance, whatever the hell that is..." she said, and everyone chuckled. "I mean, look a it. Red dye, artificial flavors, riboflavin and other shit I have no idea what it is... it's like heaven!"
"We get it, Jamie." Daryl said, washing the cuts on her hand from where she'd punched through the window. "Just calm down, kid. I have to hose you off- you're stinking up the entire place. You smell like total shit." Daryl said. Yes, he was proud of his girl- she'd managed to not only have brawn, but brains out there, and they had enough food to last for a few days, maybe even a week if the rationed it right. But she still stunk to high heaven.
"Can I have some candy first?" she asked.
"No. Now go shower. There's still running water in the bathroom..." a minute later she was gone and the shower turned on.
Rick grabbed a Kit-Kat, Beth took a snickers, and everyone each grabbed a piece of candy.
"Still, you have to admit, she had guts, gong into Walmart like that. No pun intended." Glenn said, and Maggie smiled at him.
Rick nodded, looking down at the huge pile of candy thoughtfully.
"We'll have to ration it, everyone gets a piece or so per meal. When we find the woods and everyone can start hunting, we'll loosen that up a little, but until then everyone will have to get used to being hungry..."
Just then, Jamie ran out, soaking wet but somewhat clean, in her drenched clothes.
"You know when I said shower, meant take your clothes off and scrub down, right?" Daryl asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I didn't have time! I was afraid you guys were gonna eat all the peanut butter cups!" she said, pawing through the pile and grabbing a pack, breathing a sigh of relief.
"You really thought we'd ALL just take peanut butter cups and eat every single one in the five minutes it would take yo to have a real shower?" Rick asked, fascinated by twelve-year-old logic.
Jamie looked up. "Well, no... but, look. There are a lot of people in this group, and only so many peanut butter cups left in this world! And I must have them all! Or as many as possible." Jamie said, gnawing at one and smiling. "Mmm... I never thought I'd taste that again..." she finished the pack and grinned, looking like she'd never been that happy before in her life.
"Great. Well now we'll pack up the rest, since everyone's had some, and ration it..." Rick said, moving to put the candy back into the bag.
"Aww... But that's no fun. When you get candy, yo have to eat it all at once and get sugar drunk and puke it up. It's like alcohol." Jamie said, and Daryl laughed.
"Who taught you to drink? That's some bullshit philosophy right there... Now go shower. And wash your hair. It looks like wet straw." Daryl said.
Carl noticed the pack of M&M's in his pocket. "You chose M&M's?" he asked, intrigued.
"Yeah. Who DOESN'T like M&M's?" Daryl asked, looking a Carl like he was stupid.
"I only like the orange ones." Jamie said matter-of-factly.
"What the hell? They're all the same, Jamie." Daryl said.
"No. The orange ones are the best..."
"All M&M's taste the same." Daryl insisted.
Rick hid his grin behind his hand, and everyone watched, slightly entertained.
"Nope. The orange ones are superior..."
"Ever heard all men are created equal, kid?" Daryl asked. She nodded. "Well it's the same with M&M's. All M&M's are created equal."
"By that logic, M&M's should follow the law, since, like people, they're created equal. Meaning if somebody choked to death on an M&M, the M&M would be charged with murder and thrown in jail..." Jamie started.
"The hell? Who chokes on M&M's?" Daryl asked, looking confused. Everyone was laughing quietly, but Daryl and Jamie were both too enraptured in arguing to notice. "And even if some bastard DID choke on one, it's not like it's the M&M's fault..."
Everyone was cracking up, now, but the still didn't noticed.
"Asking who chokes on M&M's is like asking who believes in the zombie apocalypse. It happens when you least expect it." Jamie said, nodding. "Chew thoroughly, Daryl."
"Aren't you supposed to be getting a shower?"
"Not until you say orange M&M's are the best."
"Hell no." Daryl scooped her up and started towards the bathroom. "I ain't gonna say it, I'll just hose you down..."
A moment later there was a shriek and the sound of water running, but it wasn't loud, so no one was concerned about walkers.
"Jamie! What he hell!?" Daryl yelled. The both raced out a moment later, and Jamie dove behind Rick's chair. She was dripping wet, and she grabbed his hand.
"Save me!" she ordered, hiding behind him.
Daryl trooped out, dripping wet as well. He scowled at her. "You're a piece of work, kid, you know that?"
"Yeah. My teacher told me that once, before she retired in the middle of the year." Jamie said, and Daryl sighed, turning to go find a towel and dry off. But everyone was in much better spirits, now, and even Daryl was grinning as he left.