Settling in with this group has been the best decisions I've made in a long time. I ended up getting the cell right next to Carl's, which was really no shocker to me. Lately, everything's been calm at the prison, and I've got a feeling that something bad is going to happen, something big. I was right.

A few hours later, when I had some free time and was lying on my bed, Carl ran in the cell, grabbed my arm, and pulled me up. "Walkers! A lot of them!" he panted as a cluster of zombies shuffled through the cell block. We ran down as fast as we could, our hands held tightly, to the nearest exit and never looked back. Next thing I knew, I was alone in a dark hallway and had no clue as to where I was. "Great," I muttered to myself, "you've been with the group for two weeks now, and you still don't know your way past the cell block." Then, I remembered one other place in the prison, which was conveniently nearby. It was the only room that had a ladder underneath the window.

As I turned the corner, at least a dozen walkers were there. At the door to the infirmary, a walker stood, swaying. There was one crucial thing I noticed before I was going to go into a zombie killing frenzy. They didn't notice I was there, and I was standing still in the center of the hallway. Maybe I could weave through them, I thought. After silently taking of my combat boots, I dodged limbs and stray clothing as I tried to stay as crouched as possible. I was almost there until one walker wearing a faded pinstripe suit decided to sway a little harder. He crashed into me, which caused me to fall on the ground with a really loud thud.

All those silver eyes turned to my direction. As I got through the door, I ran to the window and went down the ladder as fast as I could. I was in such a hurry that I didn't have time to close the door before the zombies followed suit. When I got to the middle rung of the ladder, they spilled out the window in an attempt to get me. There were just as much walkers on the ground as in the infirmary, so I had to think of the quickest escape route possible.

I saw the hole in the fences I used to get to the ladder when I lived in the trees. It wasn't patched yet, so I ran towards it. I easily slipped through and continued running, adrenaline rushing in my veins. As soon as I got at least a block away, I hastily climbed up the closest tree to my left and sat on one of the highest branches. Idiot, I thought to myself, you leave everyone you care for to save your own god damn self! I started to think of everyone in the group that had meaning in my life, which was about all of them. T-Dog acted like a father to me, and so was Hershel. Rick was like one of those semi-distance yet close uncles. I was just finally bonding with Daryl, and Carl was like that best guy friend that would be there for you through everything. Everyone in the group was important to me, even if I didn't think of them as much as I think of T-Dog and Carl. They were all my family and I couldn't bear for anything bad to come to them.

Time passed and I started walking back towards the prison. The walk didn't take very long, but by the time I saw the rest of the group gathered by the inner fence, Rick was on the floor, crying his eyes out and Carl had a face of steel. When he finally saw me, I rushed towards him and wrapped my arms around him. "C-Carl, I'm s-sorry that I l-left," I sobbed on his shoulder as he held me tighter. "Come on, Jay. Let's head to my cell," Carl finally said as he held my hand and walked silently with me until we reached his bed.

"Carl, what happened?" I finally asked when he finally got me to stop crying. "I had to shoot my mom," he told me with a grim expression. I squeezed his hand and felt him ease up slightly. "Jay, I..um.. have to tell you something," Carl said, scooting closer to me.

Author's note:

First of all..yay! I finally managed to update the story on a Thursday! Second, you may have noticed that I go back and forth for the term for the undead from zombies to walkers. If you don't really understand why I did this then let me explain. Before Jay met the group she had been calling them "Zombies". Since she is integrating with the group, who calls them "Walkers", Jay is still getting used to the fact that they are called walkers and not the name of zombies that she has been using since the ZA had started. I hope that makes sense..

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! R&R! To Continue or not to continue? :P