Chapter 11

Janis felt the muscles in her legs seizing up. She walked through the pain, telling herself she was nothing but grateful that their camp was that far away from the city.

"You forgiven me yet?" Glenn asked, looking at Janis in the moonlight.

"Not yet." Janis smiled at Glenn. They were almost the same height, she always forgot that.

"You can't stay mad at me." They were lagging behind the rest of the group slightly, "I'm too cute."

She rolled her eyes, "Sure you are...sweet cheeks." She slapped his ass, running ahead of him as he stopped in his tracks, shaking his head at her, smiling through it.

"Ya'll stop fuckin' around...if you want your friends to keep all their appendages, we better hurry up."

Janis laughed, earning her a wary look from RIck.

"He's joking...Merle ain't that bad."

"You say that as an adorable little white girl." T called from across the road "but me and Glenn will definitely be losin' a finger or two, depending on how methed out he is."

"I ain't adorable, I'm a walker killin' machine."

T cackeled as Daryl shot them dirty looks. He stalked ahead of them, getting faster and faster the closer they got to the camp.

They were nearing the camp when they heard gunshots, Janis automatically looked for Glenn, who was slightly dragging behind. He nodded at her, running up to meet the group as they all sprinted towards camp.

"If that's your brother." Rick shouted as he ran, his gun already cocked and ready, aimed ahead of him.

"Ain't Merle."

"You better hope so."

As they ran through the trees Janis focused ahead of her, watching as Glenn ran, carefully avoiding all the roots.

They crashed through the trees, not caring that each one of them tripped over their noise makers, cans clanging around them Janis took in what was happening. Their whole group was on their feet, Shane and Morales both attacking Walkers, bats swinging as blood flew everywhere. Janis' eyes barely grazed over Amy dying on the ground, Andrea covered in blood standing above her.

Her hands reacted before her head, turning on the first walker she pulled her trigger, wincing as the blood splashed her face. Gun shots were exploding around her as she heard bodies literally hit the ground following each one.

It wasn't long, maybe five minutes before the massacre ended. Each one of them stood, the night suddenly feeling much darker as the camp was no longer lit up by the gun shots. She could hear the heavy breathing coming from the men around her, looking for Glenn she glanced to the right, spotting Daryls outline, his crossbow glinting in the moonlight, his breath just visible in the sky.

"Ya'right?" He asked, nodding in her direction.

"Yeah...yeah good, you?" She was still breathing heavily, Daryl just nodded, barely visible in the dark but Janis saw it.

Glenns hand landed on her shoulder, turning she took in his face, pale in the moonlight, but untouched. She fell into him, finally letting go of her emotions, crying into his shoulder as he patted her back.

"We're okay...we're." He couldn't finish his sentence, knowing that people they knew, people they cared about had died.

She clutched at him as the walked further into camp. Watching as Carl ran into Ricks arms, Lori not far behind. Amy crouching over a now un-moving Amy, crying as Dale stood over her, warily.

"What do we do?"

"Ain't nohin' to do tonight, too dark. We make sure there ain't no more, then sort it out in the mornin'" he nodded at the other side of the camp, indicating that's where he'd be as Glenn and Janis got to work with the rest. They worked in silence, checking each of the walkers, making sure they were dead, securing the perimeter.

She crawled into her tent, still covered in blood, but too physically and emotionally drained to do anything about it. She heard Glenn talking to Rick outside, the rest of the camp quiet as Rick told him to get a few hours, Daryl was on watch for now.

Glenn climbed in after that, he sat, staring through the entrance of the tent.

"Hey...we ain't dead yet." She tried hard to cheer him up.

"No...but they are, Amy, Ed, Sam...they're all dead."

"We can't let it finish us...WE aren't done" she emphasized it by grabbing his hand, pulling his gaze away from the night outside.

He looked at her, his eyes dark as she remembered how they met the group they were now mourning.

Glenn and Janis had been with the group for a over a month, maybe even closer to two now. They had all met on the highway. Not surprisingly, the metal graveyard that used to lead to Atlanta was full of lost families and survivors in the days after the announcement of a safe zone. Janis and Glenn didn't react straight away, Glenn for one was skeptical, he was convinced they were better off solo. However after a close call at a garden center, trying to get a tent, they finally gave in. Frantically packing anything he could get his hands on Glenn threw anything he could find into the back of Janis' truck, packs and packs of dried noodles, clothes, bedding, a baseball bat.

Janis had been wary at first, but with the news that the Atlanta safe zone wasn't so safe, she agreed to join the older man with the RV.

Since then, she hadn't looked back, since then she had not only helped these people survive but they helped her. She remembered the coffee Amy had tried to make, filtered through a pair of tights. The way Dale looked to her, not just Shane, when making decisions. In two months they had become family. And her family was dying around her.

The next morning, everyone stood around the group, looking like none of them had slept. Janis stood wearily, looking around at the bodies, everything now looking much worse in the sunlight.

They carried on with what they started last night, Daryl held a pick axe in his hand. Deftly breaking each walkers head with one swing. Janis was using a knife that used to be Ed's, wincing at how close she had to get to the walkers in order to make sure they were dead.

Janis looked up as Rick came into view. He joined the rest of the group, who were standing around, apparently too good to be smashing brains. Janis wiped the sweat from her forehead with one bloody hand, smearing it across her head, watching as Rick tried to approach Andrea.

Before Rick could say a word Andrea turned on him, her gun in his face.

"I know how the safety works." She said, loud enough for Janis to hear.

With one finally stab at the final walker, Janis headed towards Glenn and T-Dog who were lifting all the bodies into the back of Janis' truck.

As she walked she could hear Daryl and Rick.

"What do you suggest?"

"Take the shot...Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No."

For what it was worth, Daryl was right, they couldn't risk it anymore. Sentimentality was one thing, but putting the whole groups life at risk wasn't something she could agree with.

Before she got to Glenn she filled her bottle with water, scrunching her nose up at how warm it was.

"You guys should take a break, you're doin' all the heavy lifting today." She handed over her bottle which Glenn took happily.

"They need stop arguing and just get stuff done, would be a lot easier if we were all working."

"This work is too good for Officer Shane." Janis answered T-Dog, trying her best to emulate Shane as she said his name "Wait till there's a woman to save or a group to boss around he'll show up."

"What are you guys doing? This is for geeks." She heard Glenn shout, pulling her away from her conversation with T-Dog. "Our people go over there." He was pointing to the neat line of bodies they had assembled, trying to give as much respect to their dead as they deserved.

"What's the difference? They're all infected." Daryl was nonchalant as usual, squinting at Glenn in the morning sun.

"Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there." Janis stood behind him, silently backing him up as Daryl looked the pair over.

"You reap what you sow."

"You know what? Shut up, man." T-Dog was backing Glenn up, standing with his arms crossed next to the pile of dead walkers in the truck.

"Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming." With that Daryl continued to drag Ed's body towards the row of their friends. Janis followed him, not before Glenn grabbed at her hand, silently telling her to be careful.

"It's Daryl, I can handle him."

"Hey...Hey wait up." She called after him.

"Why? So ya can tell me to calm down?"

"No." She grabbed at his arm, spinning around he stood a good 4 inches taller than her, his chest puffed out as squinted at her "Look...You're pissed." He snorted "you have every right to be angry, but it ain't gonna help at all."

He said nothing, continuing to look at Janis, his face slightly softer now.

"Merle...he's gonna be fine. I mean, he's fucking crazy right? Walkers are scared of him."

He almost laughed, not quite, but almost.

"He ain't dead, I know that, don't need no jumped up city girl tryin' to make me feel better."

She sighed, used to his jibes by now,

"Right now Daryl, we need to focus on this." She waved her arm behind her, indicating the mayhem of their camp.

"Why should I help out a lotta dicks that couldn't give a shit 'bout me."

"I give a shit."

"Nah you don't, it was just a easy way to get the squirrels first. Merle just wanted some tail n' so did you."

"Oh shut up Daryl, if you really wanted to go out there and find Merle, survive just the two of you, you wouldn't have stayed when you realized he wasn't at camp." Janis turned back to camp, not allowing him to answer but a smile playing across her face when she heard his soft footsteps behind her.