A/N: Here is the third chapter in the honor of The Office day. I hope all you Office fans out there are handling it well. Loads of love 3

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 3

Jim and Dwight decided not to drive their car all the way to the camp, but instead they parked it on the road leading to the clearing. There was another car on that road as well; most likely one belonging to the group. Not all of them would even fit into the van that was at the clearing.

Even though Dwight had found something special in the group – especially in Michael – something which Jim was still looking for, he agreed that they should stay alert. Leaving the car a walking distance away from the clearing was part of that; it was packed full of weapons and food, and it might be a temptation for some people in the group to steal from them.

Dwight also overdressed himself with weapons attaching two guns to his holster on his hips, and the shotgun to a special holster on his chest. He hid even more knives into both of his socks, and grabbed a crossbow into his hand. Jim politely declined from Dwight's offer to holster him up. Instead he took an ordinary knife to his belt; Jim and Dwight had learned, the hard way, that firing guns only attracted more undead freaks to the scene, so they put their trust mostly in quieter weapons, like knives and crossbows. Guns were for emergencies only.

With concentration and carefulness Dwight placed the arrows to their respectful places on top of the crossbow, and Jim could do nothing else than give him a quizzical look.

"It is vital that the arrows are lined right so they are easy to use in an emergency. It's not like I have time to do this when the zombies are attacking. And besides, you will be thanking me when my careful planning will stop that Roy guy from smashing your face in, because you're drool over his girl," Dwight said and started to walk away.

Jim stood completely stunned for a second and then turned to go after Dwight.

"I'm not drooling over anybody. And you are more in danger of getting your face smashed in once the people hear you talk," Jim shouted after him, but couldn't help the flash of Pam's laughing green eyes that appeared before his eyes. Inwardly he groaned as he made his way to the clearing after Dwight.

Jim didn't even bother trying to stay with Dwight as he forced himself into Michael's company with a confident stride. For a second Jim considered joining some of the others. Maybe Meredith and Creed who where having a conversation near one of the tents; maybe Kelly who seemed to be talking Darryl's ears off; maybe Angela or Toby who both were sitting by themselves. Looking at the group of random people, Jim decided against it. None of them looked like they had anything common with Jim, so he casually checked the clearing for Pam.

Jim hadn't yet had a conversation with her. Well they hadn't even exchanged 'hey's' yet, but Jim was sure that if they ever did, they would get along great.

When Jim's eyes landed on her, as she was standing next to a tent that Jim could only assume was hers, he could not kill the smile blossoming on his lips. Then Pam turned to look at him, slowly melting into a tiny smile herself. Her hand looked so small when she waved at Jim, and Jim's feet moved before he had time to even think about it. Pam also took a step towards him, obviously interested to meet him, but was stopped as Roy exited the tent she had been standing near.

Again, Jim's feet made the decision for him when he stopped at the first glimpse of Roy. He told himself, that he was silly for not going there anyway, Roy or not Roy, but he had a feeling that Roy wasn't that fond of him.

It was proven right when an apparent heated conversation started between the couple. Jim couldn't tear his eyes away when Pam made a motion against him, but found quickly the ground interesting when Roy gave him an ugly look. The conversation was soon over, and Pam was whisked away to an opposite way from Jim. She threw Jim one last look and shrugged.

So solitude it was for Jim, which he really didn't mind. He walked to the edge of the forest, and sat down in a sunny spot after checking that nothing was behind him. The spot was perfect to keep an eye out for the camp, and watch the others go about their business.

The group seemed to work surprisingly well together, even though there were some clear personality clashes. It went from Angela's eye rolls to Meredith's straight out accusations, to Michael's clear hate for Toby.

"Quite the show, eh?" came voice from next to Jim that caused him to jump and automatically his hand flew to the handle of his knife. But it was only Creed standing next to him just in the shadow where he had appeared out of nowhere. Jim did a double take towards the people on the clearing and noticed that Meredith was indeed lacking a conversation partner.

Jim wasn't happy with himself that someone had been able to sneak up on him. Had it been someone or something else, he would be already dead.

"Sorry?" Jim asked, being unsure what the old guy was referring to. He also eased his grip from his knife, but didn't move it too far away; one could never be too careful.

"This camp. Sometimes, I sneak away for a while and watch people interact, and sometimes even watch them fight. Oh, it's a good show," Creed explained and sat down to the ground. So obviously Jim wasn't granted his solitude, but he had to do some mingling. Swallowing his sigh, Jim silently willed Darryl or maybe even Pam to come and save him from this crazy old man, and his weird ramblings. Probably pretty much everyone else would be a relief.

"I don't know if would I call it a show. It's just a group of people trying to survive in this crazy world. But I do enjoy seeing actual people, and watching that there are still some normal human behaviour," Jim answered very politically, and avoided sounding creepy like Creed. His thoughts briefly stopped at his and Dwight's usual behaviour and he was damn sure that it wasn't normal. But he was also sure that Dwight had never been normal.

"Oh yes. There is definitely some human behaviour still left in this camp. Meredith mostly takes care of that," Creed chuckled and gave a little wave to the redhead who just happened to be looking at them.

Slowly Jim turned his head towards where Creed was looking and to his horror Meredith was swaying towards them. Creed's words started to make sense in Jim's head when he thought about all the winks and suggestive hand movements Meredith had given him. He swallowed hard and took back his wishes that someone would join him and Creed. Only Creed was better than Creed and Meredith.

"She is quite the woman. Reminds me of some of the girls I met back in the 60s when we were touring the country," Creed added, but before Jim had time to ask any of the dozens of questions that popped into his head because of Creed's sentence, Meredith reached them.

"Hey there, fresh meat," Meredith greeted with a hungry smile dancing on her lips.

"Hey," Jim answered and tried to look unaffected by Meredith's staring.

"Getting some sun, are we?" she asked with a smirk and proceeded to sit down without invitation. Jim looked up to the sky when Meredith's skirt revealed a bit too much in the process, and he also kept sure that he kept looking around because there was no way he wanted to see what was under there.

"I'm not. Sun has a weird affect to my skin. I feel very hot and uncomfortable in my own skin whenever I expose myself to the sun too much," Creed said nodding enthusiastically to make his point.

Suddenly Meredith's hand was on Jim's shin – under his jeans.

"I don't think anyone would object you sunbathing without a shirt," she purred and eyed him up.

Jim was on his feet at once.

"Umm, thanks I guess, but I really need to check on Dwight," Jim said quickly and left the scene fast. He was pretty sure Dwight was fine, but he was going to spend some time on it anyway.

"What a surprise you are already chasing tail," Angela's disapproving voice came from Jim's left after mere six steps away from Meredith and Creed.

"It won't help your popularity with the group," she stated and cocked her head a little.

"I'm not chasing tail! We were just talking and she… Why am I explaining myself to you?" Jim said and just walked away. He could hear Angela making a surprised sound, but he just kept walking. This bunch was completely crazy and he was wondering if it might be better for him and Dwight to just disappear into the night.

But Dwight was nowhere to be seen. Irrationally Jim slid into a slight panic. For so long he and Dwight had been forced to see each other every minute of everyday, and now when he was absent, Jim's mind started racing. He would never forgive himself, if Dwight got himself killed, while he was getting hit on.

"Dwight!" Jim called out, but got no answer. He looked around himself, and yelled again;

"Dwight!"

"What are you yelling about?" Dwight angry voice came from behind Jim, and in that moment, Jim could have hugged him. In matter of seconds, he had convinced himself that Dwight had been in danger.

"I just... couldn't see you," Jim said, and felt stupid after hearing Dwight just scoff.

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you. I feel like you are the one I should be worried about, since you so carelessly give out our location, but I have no time for babysitting," Dwight told Jim.

"Okay, let's count. How many times you have had to save my ass?" Jim challenged.

"Well the first obvious time was back at Utica-"

"And I returned the favour a second after."

"-there was the time at the farm-"

"Doesn't count as saving because we were both in quite the trouble then."

"-the time you fell asleep your window open-

"It was you who told me to open the window."

"-and the time when you walked off screaming that you will rather get eaten than spend another second with me. Never have been so wrong, have you?" Dwight said smugly and swung his crossbow on his shoulder.

But Jim wasn't hearing him anymore. Pam and Roy had just walked past and now Pam was walking towards the pond alone, her arms full of clothes, while Roy turned to walk back.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do that. Thanks, Dwight," Jim said, patted his free shoulder and turned away, leaving a very confused Dwight behind.

"What? Jim, let's do what?" but Dwight words were not heard as Jim jogged to Roy.

"You're Roy, right?" Jim asked when he deliberately set himself on Roy's path.

"So?" he asked looking Jim from head to toe; only stopping for a second at is gun.

"That girl who just went by herself to the pond; she is your girlfriend, right?"

"So?" Roy asked again, making it harder for Jim to keep his cool and not just hit him in the nose, for making her go down there all alone.

"Well, I'm just wondering, are you going to go with her? At times like these no one should go anywhere alone. She might get attacked," Jim presented his point in a way that probably wouldn't make Roy jealous.

"I have no time to sit around and watch her do laundry!" Roy exclaimed and it took all Jim's strength not to tell him that he was a jerk.

"I could go. I'm new here so I won't get any real duties in a while, which makes me perfect choice to do the boring chores," Jim kept his tone light and hid his excitement. He could see from Roy's face that he was buying all the bullshit Jim was feeding him.

"Yeah, that sounds cool. It would be a shame if something happened to Pam. She is good one to spend the time with, if you get what I mean," Roy laughed.

Jim wished he didn't have to laugh with Roy, because he did know what Roy meant, and it didn't even matter that if Pam turned out to be a bitch. Nothing like that should be ever said about any woman.

"Okay! I'll head down there!"

"I hope for your sake that she doesn't take as long as usual. Sometimes she can take hours!"

"I would definitely not want that to happen!" Jim could hear how fake his laughter was as he bumped Roy's waiting fist. Thankfully after that he was able to walk away and let the horrible laughter die.

Dwight was still at the spot where Jim had left him and he just looked at Jim with confusion obvious on his features.

"I'll talk to you later, Dwight," Jim said. Dwight looked at him for a second before nodding.

Jim started to make his way towards the path slowly at first, as to not blow his cover with Roy, and when it was absolutely sure that the other man couldn't see him, he hurried his steps being genuinely worried about the poor woman.

From what Roy said, it sounded like this happened often. 'Sometimes she can take hours.' Jim wondered how many times of those Roy had actually been worried, or gone down there to see what too so long.

It didn't take Jim long to get the pond into his view, and there she was. She had rolled her jeans up, and she was standing in the pond humming very quietly, while working very slowly. She didn't look like someone living in this unhappy world, she actually looked quite content.

"Hey," Jim said as he walked to the pond. Pam turned to look at him, looking a bit guilty.

"Hey! Jim, right?" Pam smiled and Jim nodded, "I'm Pam. Did they send you to check on me?" Her hands worked a bit faster on the clothes.

Jim kicked his shoes off, bent down and rolled his jeans up.

"Nope. I am actually on a top secret mission here, and it includes keeping away all the possible walkers from the highly efficient laundry lady," Jim said with a smile as he walked into the pond.

"You don't say? This laundry lady must be something very special then, huh?" Pam answered, and Jim had to turn around to see her facial expression. She was smiling and she had a twinkle in her eye.

"I wouldn't know. I have just arrived here. You might have not noticed it – there was this big brute that wanted to kill us and then there was this weird little man in a Hawaii shirt to put him into his place."

Pam's laugh was like a breeze of fresh air and it caught Jim off guard. He had expected them to get along, but there was just something very special about her.

"That big brute happens to be my fiancé Roy, and the weird little man is my boss. Well ex-boss, I suppose now."

"Oh yeah?" Jim ignored the sinking feeling that appeared to his stomach at the word fiancé and walked out of the water. He smiled a little when he noticed that the clothes had slipped off Pam's had altogether now. Jim sat down to the edge of the water, so that he could still dip his toes in.

"Yeah. But you are not the only one here with weird encounters for the day. I, for one, met two guys who appeared out of thin air to our well hid camp. One very sophisticated looking guy, who still introduced himself with his last name and other one was this weird tall guy," Pam smiled sheepishly, when Jim couldn't help but to laugh. He rarely was the butt of the joke when there was an option between him and Dwight.

"The tall one is a weird one. Especially after having to put up with his end-of-the-world partner for so long."

Pam let out another laugh, as she concentrated to washing the rags for a while again.

A silence fell, and Jim racked his brains for anything to say. In the end he went with the only thing he knew for sure was a conversation topic in this world:

"So…. What's your weapon of choice?"

He immediately regretted the words as they came from his mouth and he felt so stupid saying it, especially when Pam looked up and seemed confused.

"Choice of weapon," Jim pulled out his knife of his belt to wave it at Pam.

"Oh, of course. Well I don't have one. Roy thinks women should leave the fighting for men," Pam explained and blushed a little.

"That's ridiculous. What happens when you don't have a man to protect you? What happens when it's you against a walker and no one there to help you? Roy is a big guy, he could probably take on few walkers without having a weapon, but all you could do is run!" Jim talked before he had time to think about it. Seeing Pam turning her face back to the clothes and awkwardly biting her lip, he hoped that he hadn't said anything, but he just couldn't stop it. That Roy seemed to be a major jerk, and one day Jim just might tell him that.

"What about you?" Pam asked and Jim was genuinely surprised to hear her voice. He thought that maybe he would have to just awkwardly sit there in silence till she was ready.

"My weapon of choice, you mean? To be honest, I am flexible. I usually have a knife and a gun on me; a knife as the silent choice, and a gun as the long distance or emergency choice. But as of today, I was handed a machete, because Dwight thinks it is better than normal knife. The funny thing is that he had been preparing for the end of the world for years – he was prepared for every scenario possible – so he had it all. Still has, actually. In the car," Jim talked and stifled a laugh that came from the memory of first time seeing Dwight's 'panic room'.

"What?" Pam asked from the water and had once again forgotten the clothes that she was supposed to be washing. They were floating around her on the water.

"I was just remembering the first time Dwight introduced me to his 'panic room' and how full it was, of everything. Even things you don't think you would need. He had boxes and boxes of tampons. Claimed that once the word got out all the women would be begging to get some."

Pam threw her head back in laughter.

"I swear you are just making this up!"

"I wish! But I am not. He even grabbed some with him when we had to flee, I can show you – they are still in the trunk!" Jim was laughing as well. He enjoyed making her laugh and forget about everything.

"So what is the story there? With you and Dwight? You lovers or something?" Pam asked. She was standing in the water to her mid calf and she had her hands firmly placed on her hips. But her eyes sparkled and her lips were curved into a teasing smirk.

"Thanks a lot Pam, for getting that image into my head!" Jim pressed his palms into his eyes, "We are not gay. At least I'm not. Can't be too sure about Dwight."

"So what then?"

"Okay, to make a long story short, me and Dwight use to be a salesmen in a same paper company—"

"No way! I use to be a receptionist at a paper company. What was your company's name?"

"Dunder-Mifflin."

"What!" Pam ran out of the water and fell onto her knees next to Jim. Being that close to her, made Jim's heart raced a little faster. "Which branch?"

"Utica," Jim furrowed his brow, not sure where this was going.

"Scranton branch!" Pam yelled. Jim lifted one of his eyebrows and shrugged, showing that he was still not following.

"I worked in Dunder-Mifflin, Scranton branch! So did Roy, in the warehouse, and so did Creed and Toby. And Michael, he was our manager!"

Jim couldn't help but to smile.

"That is unbelievable!" What really was unbelievable to him was that he had been so close to this woman in a world where was hope, but by the weirdest twist of fate they ended up so far away from each other.

"And that also explains Dwight interest in Michael. We had a female manager in Utica, which Dwight hated. Karen…," Jim needed to cough to get over the awkwardness it caused to him to say her name, "Karen was a good manager, just the wrong gender for Dwight to take orders from."

Pam nodded as an answer and Jim hoped she hadn't noticed the toughness of his voice. He didn't like to talk about Karen.

"Tell me more about you and Dwight," she demanded as she plopped to properly sit on the ground.

Jim thought about his words for a moment. He had no idea how to explain his and Dwight's relationship.

"We were never friends. We still aren't. I think we have stayed with each other because it's safer to be together than alone. And we helped each other out of the office when the hell broke loose. But before anything went down, we had this back and forth prank thing. "

"Pranks? I love pranks! What were your best ones?" Pam's voice was eager. Jim looked her in the eye and smiled. Where had she been when things were okay?

"One of my go to pranks is – was – to put his things into jell-O. Calculator, stapler, stuff like that," Jim told, and remembered the countless times Dwight were furious over finding his things in jell-O. Pam giggled next to him.

"Sounds like fun. Wish I had been there to see that!" she exclaimed and sighed.

"That would have been fun. Maybe we could have pranked him together."

"Maybe we could have, yes."

A silence fell upon them as they were thinking about all the things they could have done. Jim briefly thought how much better his days would have been with her around.

"Hey, Pam?"

"Hmm?"

Jim turned the knife he still was holding around and offered it to Pam the handle first.

"I know what Roy said, and I know you think he is right, but I don't. No one, absolutely no one, should be walking around as an easy target. Especially you. You might the only thing that's going to keep me sane here," Jim smiled and lifted the knife closer to Pam, "Roy can't decide these things to you."

Slowly Pam reached out and took the knife into her hand.

"I know he can't. I have known it for a while. That's why when I am forced to come here alone, I mostly just sit idly by and wet the clothes a little, so it seems like they have been washed," Pam shrugged as she studied the blade. Jim laughed.

"Roy did say that you might spend hours down here. I guess that's the point, eh?" Jim laughed, and Pam's eyes lightened up a bit again. She smiled and nodded.

"Guilty as charged."

They exchanged smiles and then they both turned away simultaneously.

"I saw you and that other girl, Angela, down here earlier," Jim admitted.

"That was you? You startled us really badly! We just grabbed our things and ran, but everyone refused to come back down with us. That was the only time I have ever managed to convince Angela to come here with me. I don't know how long you spied on us, but in the end she refused to do anything, and now she refuses to come with me again. So, someone has to do it. Plus, Michael still sometimes treats me like I still am his secretary, " Pam explained.

"First of all, I did not spy on you. I just happened to hear you and then I wanted to know who was talking. Second of all, you really should stand up for yourself. Do you really want to be treated like secretary?"

Pam just glanced at Jim.

"I don't mind coming down here. Sometimes it beats being up there," Pam told Jim, and she looked hurt. Either because of Jim's words, or by something else that goes on in their camp.

"Anyway, I should get this done, so we don't have to be here all night," Pam said pointing to the clothes floating around in the pond. She got up and placed her new knife to her belt. Jim wanted to point out that he wouldn't mind just chat with her for the whole night.

"Was Karen more than your manager?" she suddenly asked before moving.

Jim was completely caught off guard. So much for hoping that she hadn't noticed his voice changing when talking about her.

"She was. In one point. We had been split a while before everything went down," Jim told Pam. She nodded and made her way to the clothes. Jim felt bad for not telling her the whole truth, but he also knew that their friendship was very new, and telling the truth might not be a good idea yet. Even though he hadn't lied to her, he hadn't told the whole truth either.

The whole Karen ordeal was something that Jim avoided thinking about. It always made him feel so hollow, and now maybe Pam would be there to help him heal. But he wasn't sure could he tell her the truth. Well, there weren't a lot of things to be sure about in the unsure world.

Jim's eyes travelled along the woods, and again he briefly wondered whether or not he and Dwight should stay. It was pretty surroundings, if nothing else.

Lazily, Jim turned his eyes back to Pam, who was completely oblivious to the world as she walked in the pond picking up the stray clothes.

It took Jim a second to register the walker making its way to Pam. He knew that he would never make it running as he scrambled himself off the ground.

"Pam! Duck!" Jim yelled as he pulled his gun off his belt. Pam didn't question a thing, but crouched down on command. The walker wasn't even a single step away from Pam, when Jim fired his gun. Pam let out involuntary scream as the bullet sank into the things head making blood spill all the way to Pam and making her fall to the water.

"Are you okay?" Jim rushed to Pam's side pulling her up from the water.

"Yeah, yeah. I just didn't see it at all," Pam said. Jim saw that she was visibly shaking so he pulled her into his arms by instinct. He could hear her sigh, as she just leaned into him.

Their moment of relief was brief. Jim's trained ear picked up more heavy breathing and dragging of feet. Instantly he had pushed Pam behind his back and turned around to face what was coming.

There were at least ten of them, if not more. Jim could feel Pam pull her weapon out and ready herself. Jim took aim and shot two more, all the time backing away, pushing Pam first.

"Run, Pam. To the camp!" Jim didn't need to tell her twice. She turned and sprinted off towards the path. Jim stayed behind thinking that he can't let these make it to the camp. There were too many people there. So he replaced his gun with his knife to not attract anymore attention and got ready to fight.

"Jim!" Pam's voice screamed and suddenly she was back again. She took a hold of Jim's hand and pulled. "I am not leaving you here!"

There was no time to argue, and the walkers were getting close.

"Go!" he yelled and started to run with her.

Their escape was short lived when more walkers had made their way behind them. Jim squeezed Pam's hand and gave her a little nod before letting go of it. Then he ran to the first walker, slashing his machete into the walker's brain and yanking it off quickly.

He was horrified. He would have been less scared to be in that situation alone, but he had Pam to take care of, to whom no one had ever bothered to teach how to best protect herself in a situation like the one they were in.

Silently he willed Dwight to appear, as sliced another walkers head off and getting face full of blood. There were too many of them to make it to the path. Especially since Pam seemed to have frozen from horror. She was looking around herself like a scared rabbit.

A walker took a hold of Jim's left bicep and he twisted himself around to deliver another deathly blow.

Another one took a hold of the very scared Pam's left arm and was scarily close of getting a bite.

"Pam!" Jim screamed, but he was blocked by two walkers, and he knew there was absolutely no way he could make it to her.

Hearing his voice seemed to set Pam alive though. The shaky hand that was holding the knife squeezed it harder and plunged it into the walker's eye. Blood sprayed all over her face and the walker fell on top of her, crushing Pam's tiny body to the ground under it.

Absolutely horrified Pam tried not to scream, and Jim could see the tears welling up in her eyes, but she was covered with walker blood and was being crushed under one; it was getting hard for her to keep it under control.

While Jim fiercely sliced left and right to get to her, she tried to wriggle first her hands free and then the knife from the thing's eye. Another one was already leaning over her, and Jim pulled his gun out. Nothing could be done to the sound that was going to attract more of them.

But Jim had underestimated Pam. Even from her horrid point of view, she managed to remove the knife from the dead one's eye and insert it to the new ones face. She gagged as the blood poured on her face.

"Hang in there Pam. I'm coming," Jim called out, even though he didn't know how he could make it to her, and he didn't see Pam being able to throw more stunts like the last one.

"Jim!" she shouted as she saw more coming towards her.

But Jim was getting swarmed by the walkers. He had no idea how many there was and he was barely able to see Pam anymore. He was just able to hear her begging for help.

That was when a very familiar 'swuush' of an arrow took out the walker about to bite Jim. Then another and another. Jim hit his machete on top of the head of the last walker attacking him and then he ran straight to Pam.

With the confidence he received from having Dwight there, he dropped his knife and threw the walker off of Pam. Pam was a shaking mess when she was able to move and she clasped onto Jim very tightly immediately when she could.

She was unable to speak, she just squeezed him tight. Jim didn't mind, but he wished the hug would have happened under different circumstances, so he wouldn't have to push her away and help her up.

There were still walkers to kill around them, and Jim wasn't about the get surprised for the third time during the same attack. Jim gave Pam a reassuring smile, and then scanned their surroundings. But there was none left; Dwight was already collecting his arrows from the dead things, and a few of the others were running down the path to see what was happening.

"Add that to the list of the times I've saved your ass," Dwight said smugly when he walked closer to the bloody pair. Jim let his hand rest on Pam's shoulder and he just let Dwight be. Pam's arms were around Jim's waist and she kept them there when she talked to Dwight.

"Thank you, Dwight. I think… I know that without you, we would be dead. Really, thank you," Pam said looking Dwight in the eye.

"You just owe me one now," Dwight dismissed it, and Jim knew he was feeling uncomfortable to be receiving such a praise. He liked to brag with Jim and keep count and be just a general pain in the ass, but it was different with other people.

"Babe!" Roy's voice came from the path and Jim let his hand fall from Pam's shoulder. Slowly Pam let her arms fell as well and then she stepped few steps forward to Roy's embrace.

Jim had already forgotten Roy's existence and he looked away from the awkward play in front of him. He closed his ears from the murmured talk and he definitely didn't want to see the small kisses exchanged, but he could not avoid looking at them when Roy came right in front of him. He had Pam squeezed to his side, and she looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I don't think I can thank you enough for being here today. You really saved her. Thanks, man," Roy said and extended his hand to a handshake.

"Yeah, no problem," Jim said and grabbed his extended hand.

"C'mon, babe. I'll make you feel better in out tent," Roy murmured against Pam's hair, and steered her away.

Jim wanted to be sick. He knew too well what Roy meant by making her feel better, and Jim also knew that it would not make her feel better. She almost died tonight. And she would have died if Jim hadn't given her that knife. All because of what Roy thought.

"What a disgusting man. He refused to come down here and fight when we first heard the gun shot and Pam scream," Dwight remarked, and it made Jim's fury burn red hot.

"Yeah, well, he also denied her the right to carry a weapon," Jim told Dwight as he picked the knife he had earlier given Pam. He tucked it away, to give her back later.

"In normal circumstances I would agree with him. Men are much more skilful with battles and using weapons, but times have changed."

"What happened here?" Michael yelled from the path.

"We were taken by surprise," Jim grunted as he started to move around the dozen dead walkers. If they were left to the water to rot, it would be useless.

"That's what she said!" Michael yelled, and laughed at his own joke.

Dwight joined his companion in the cleaning, and to both of their surprises, so did Creed.