Chapter 6:

After leaving the CDC, the group decided to siphon the gas out of Daryl's truck and Shane's Jeep so they could save on gas. That was fine with Daryl because he could ride Merle's motorcycle, but that left Jennifer and Shane without a ride. They had to cram into the RV with Dale, Andrea, Glenn, T-Dog and Sam.

Jennifer sat in the back of the RV with T-Dog reading one of the books Dale had. Shane and Andrea were talking about guns, Sam was coloring, and Glenn was studying a map while talking to Dale, all was peaceful… for a moment.

"Here," Jennifer heard the small voice say forcefully. Jennifer lowered her book and saw Sam in front of her with a juice box in her extended hand.

"What?" Jennifer asked. Seeing how the straw was already in it she didn't need Jennifer's help with that.

"You're supposed to drink it," the young girl whined.

"Put I don't want it," Jennifer whined back putting the book down on the bed.

"Drink it!" Sam screeched as she stuck the juice box closer to Jen's face.

"No!" Jennifer said moving her hand from her face.

"Yes!" This time the little girl tried to stick the bendy straw in Jennifer's mouth but the woman just turned her head making it difficult for the younger girl.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

The two went on like this for a few minutes, attracting the attention of everyone in the RV without realizing it. Finally Jennifer caved and yelled, "Fine!"

She snatched the juice box from the child and held the straw as she drank from it. She looked up and saw Andrea smiling and giggling a little. Next, her eyes moved to Shane who was smirking at her as he cleaned his gun.

Jennifer didn't know why but she turned her head to the side and felt her cheeks tingle a little, alerting her that she was blushing.

What is wrong with me? Why am I blushing?! All we did was fuck, she thought as she continued drinking her juice. As Sam trotted off Jennifer picked up her book and continued reading while she drank her juice.

"Oh jeez," Dale said making everyone turn their attention to him. Jennifer put her book down and made her way closer to the front to see what the problem was. Ahead of them was a long line of cars that had once belong to people trying to escape this mess and an overturned eighteen wheeler.

They watched as Daryl passed on his brother's motorcycle stopping at Dale's open window.

"See a way through?" Dale asked the redneck.

Daryl didn't say anything only nodded his head at the path behind him and drove off in the opposite direction of the RV.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back," Glenn said examining a map as Dale slowly inched forward, "There's an interstate bypass-"

Once again, Jennifer heard Daryl's motorcycle and watched as he passed ahead of the RV, as Dale responded to Glenn, "We can't spare the fuel."

Dale was doing a good job navigating through the mass of cars behind Daryl. The redneck was wearing only a vest on his torso with a pair of angel wings on it. This made Jennifer smirk knowing that he was anything but an angel.

"Jeez," Glenn said as they passed a number of cars some flipped over completely, others torn apart, and some looted with absolutely nothing left.

They were following the redneck when all of a sudden something in the front of the RV clanked and a rush of white smoke came from the hood. The engine began to sputter and the RV slowed.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale said as he threw open the RV's old door and walked out, followed by Jennifer who was relieved to finally get out of the compact vehicle, "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem Dale?" Someone asked as Jennifer stretched her back making it pop up and down her spine.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-"Dale began but stopped when Daryl walked past him and reached into the back of an open car, "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane trailed off looking at the cars surrounding him.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl said as he continued rummaging through the back of one of the many abandoned cars.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog began to walk through the cars as everyone realized what a gold mine they had struck.

"Maybe some water," Carol said clutching her daughter. This made Jennifer look around for Sam who was by the RV staring at Jennifer with big eyes. Jennifer motioned for the girl to come near her and soon the blond was clutching onto the brunette's hand, "Or food."

"This is a graveyard," Lori said. Jennifer rolled her eyes as everyone looked to Lori as if she were stupid, "I don't know how I feel about this."

"Who cares?" Jennifer said earning her a look from Lori she really didn't appreciate, "We have supplies sitting right in front of our face, might as well get them while we can."

"Alright y'all look around and gather what you can," Shane said to the group as everyone went off in their own direction to scavenge what they could.

Jennifer led Sam down a row of cars as they passed some with dead bodies in them. If it weren't for the terrible stench, accumulating flies, and decomposing flesh you could imagine that the bodies were just sleeping people. Unfortunately, Jennifer didn't have a very active imagination and she couldn't bring herself to believe that these people were just sleeping.

"Ed never let me wear nice things like this," Jennifer and Sam had ended up by Carol and Lori. Carol had found a pretty red top that would suit her so well. When she made that remark Jennifer could hear the crack in her voice and pitied the woman.

"Then taken it," Jennifer said with a warm smile even though she was encouraging stealing, something usually frowned upon, but it wasn't like these people were going to need it back. As the smile on Jen's face held the woman realized that this was the most she had ever smiled in a while. She realized that she was beginning to get accepted by the group and the group was starting to accept her, too. Maybe I've finally found a place I can call home, Jennifer thought before she focused back on Carol and reassured her, "It would look nice on you."

Carol smiled back at Jennifer as she held onto the red blouse, "We are going to need clothes."

"Can I stay with Sophia?" Sam said tugging on Jennifer's hand.

"Of course," Jennifer said smiling. Even though the young girl seemed to act aggressively and always bickered with Jennifer, the two had grown a strong bond ever since her father died. And Jennifer felt that she could relate to the young girl, being that she had also lost her mother at a young age.

Jennifer found herself a nice revolver in one of the cares before she made her way over to Shane who had just found a truck full, of water and was now opening a bottle and letting it poor all over him. He and Glenn were laughing like idiots as Glenn began quickening the pace at which he was turning his screwdriver.

"Save some for the rest of us, cowboy," Jennifer said as she approached the dowsed man. He smiled at her before splashing some water at her. She quickly backed up not wanting to get her rifle wet, "Whoa, watch it."

Jennifer still had the smile on her face when she looked up and saw Rick with his rifle raised. Must be a walker, Jennifer thought as she caught sight of Dale on the RV. He was lowering himself to the ground of the RV when Jennifer felt a pull on her arm and she was brought to the ground.

"What?" Jennifer asked as the two rolled under the truck Shane had just been getting water from.

"Shh," the man said as he brought his arms around Jennifer and held her close to him. She felt the water from his shirt seep into her clothes as he held her to his chest. Jennifer's thoughts were all over the place wondering what was happening until she heard the low groans and saw feet walking past the truck they were under. That's when Jennifer realized what was happening. A herd was passing through.

Jennifer squirmed in Shane's arms as she searched for Sam. His grip tightened slightly on her but she was finally able to spot the small girl huddled under a car a little while down. Sam stared at Jennifer with wide fearful eyes making the woman want to run down and save the child.

The herd had finally passed and Shane was beginning to loosen his grip on Jen. And that's when she heard it. The sound of Sam screaming. Jennifer watched as the walker tried to grab Sam from under the car. The blond quickly scooted out from under the vehicle and made a break for the woods as two walkers followed her.

"Jennifer!" the young girl yelled before disappearing into the wilderness.

Jennifer immediately broke Shane's grip and rolled out from under the truck. She ran for the side of the highway as she heard Shane close behind her. Without even stopping, Jennifer jumped the railing only to roll down the steep hill. Jennifer hit the ground and left herself no time to recover before she got to her feet. She would have continued but she soon felt Shane's muscular arms wrap around her.

"I have to go get her," Jennifer said looking up at the man with frantic eyes. Rick passed them as he chased after the girl and Jennifer continued to try to break Shane's hold to no avail.

"Jen, calm down," he whispered to her, burying her face into his chest as he rested his head on hers.

"Get the fuck off of me! I have to get Sam!" Jennifer screeched as she thrashed in the man's hold. The more she squirmed the tighter his grip got until she finally calmed down and Shane relaxed a little.

"Look, we're going to go out there and find her," Shane said in a calm voice as he looked into her eyes and gripped the side of her face.

"Okay," she breathed as Shane helped her up the hill and back onto the highway. When Jennifer looked to the group she saw sullen faces on all of them except one. Daryl stood there with a cold look as he gazed at the two.

An engine revved in the background and Jennifer listened to the sound of tires slapping pavement. Shane, Glenn, and Daryl had gone off to help Rick, but soon Shane and Glenn had returned. Shane had gotten the group to start clearing the cars from the road so the RV could pass.

"Why aren't we all out there looking?" Jennifer asked as she approached Dale. She ran her thumb under the strap of her rifle, "Why are we moving cars?"

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running," Dale said as he made motions with his hands and looked at the younger woman as if they weren't in the current situation they were in. Jennifer knew what they were really doing, they were trying to preoccupy everyone from the current situation and apparently it was working for Dale, "Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map."

Jennifer turned as Shane approached, his hair was still a little damp from the water, as were his clothes, his tan shirt was unbuttoned revealing his toned chest and the 22 necklace he always wore, and he carried his shotgun as he breathed heavily from the heat of the sun.

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess," he spoke not looking at Jennifer but instead at the sea of cars before them.

"We're not going anywhere until we find Sam," Jennifer said matter-of-factly to him.

"Hey, that goes without saying," Lori said to the woman.

"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay?" Shane spoke once more and this time he looked at the woman and stepped closer to her. He spoke as if she were a child that had lost a toy and that didn't sit well with Jennifer.

"I understand that," Jennifer said trying to cool her fiery temper as she turned to walk away. Unfortunately she couldn't hold her tongue, "And if you ever talk to me as if I were a child again, Shane, I'll fucking kill you."

The sun was setting painting the sky a mixture of orange and blue with white puffs here and there. Jennifer was still sitting on the car she had positioned herself on hours ago as she bit the last of her nails waiting for Sam. She heard footsteps but didn't turn her head; she kept her gaze focused on the woods waiting for something, anything.

The footsteps slowed as they got closer and it wasn't until Andrea put a hand on Jennifer's shoulder that she turned to the blond.

"It's going to be dark soon," Jennifer said as she looked from Andrea, to the ground, and then back into the forest.

"They'll find her," Andrea reassured the woman. Jennifer looked into the woman's blue eyes and saw a genuine look before looking back into the woods as she felt the hand leave her shoulder. She appreciated Andrea because there was something about her attitude that differed from Lori's, something that didn't want to make Jennifer want to punch her every time a word left her mouth.

Jennifer watched the woods once more as she tapped her fingers on the hood of the car trying to calm her wild nerves.

She heard rustling in the trees and immediately jumped from the car to go stand at the edge of the highway. Rick came into view, followed by Daryl, but nowhere could she see Sam. Jennifer felt a heavy weight fall upon her shoulders as she asked the question she already knew the answer to, "You didn't find her?"

"Her trail went cold," Rick said as he stepped over the railing. The shirt he wore was once white but was now dirtied by blood, dirt, and sweat, "We'll [pick up again at first light."

"You can't leave her out there on her own. Jennifer said pleaded.

"Out in the dark's no good," Daryl said in a hoarse voice, "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost."

"She's only six, she can't survive a night alone in the woods," By now the group had gathered behind her listening to the three.

"I know this is hard," Rick began as he held his hands up to calm the girl down, "But we know she's out there."

"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl said as Jennifer bit her lip and stared down at the ground before looking up at the men and nodding. She knew they were right but that still didn't change her mind about running into the woods and looking for her. Jennifer didn't know if she could take this… again.

"We have to make this an organized effort," Rick addressed the group, "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

"That's blood," Jennifer asked as she saw the stain on Daryl shirt and her eyes widened. This was the most flustered they group had ever seen Jennifer and they hoped that they would find Sam soon to relieve the woman's stress.

"We took down a walker."

"Fuck," Jennifer said as she ran her hands through her hair.

"There were no signs that it was anywhere near Sam," Rick said trying to calm the woman.

"How can you know for sure?"

Rick hesitated then looked to Daryl for him to answer, "We cut the sum bitch open."

Jennifer got a little light headed and sat on the railing next to her. Carol, Lori, and Andrea soon filled the open space next to her as they rubbed the woman's back and gaze her hopeful words, but Jennifer could only watch as the men walked away wishing to go back out in to the woods to search and knowing that she would.

"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick said as he unfolded a bag of tools Carl had found.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea said as Jennifer picked up a hatchet and examined it, "What about the guns."

"Guns are too loud," Jennifer said dropping the weapon to look at the blond, "And these will kill a walker just as well as a gun."

"And we've been over that," Shane said from the shade of the RV, "Daryl, Rick, Jen, and I are carrying them. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about."

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us," As Shane spoke, Jennifer set down the hatchet and picked up a machete with a curved blade. She could her Shane talk but wasn't really listening as she focused on picking out a weapon, "So you need to get over it."

Jennifer heard Daryl talking and then saw his icy blue eyes meet hers. All was silent and she assumed he had asked her something so she just nodded pretending that she had actually been listening.

"Stay quiet, stay sharp," Rick said, "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."

"Everybody assemble your packs," Shane said flipping a water bottle in his hand. Jennifer had finally decided to use the hatchet as she sheathed her knife and put her pistol in its holster. She gave the other one to T-Dog for just in case purposes.

Jennifer had been pacing around the cars when she overheard Dale and Andrea arguing over something.

"Gratitude?" Andrea asked Dale, "I wanted to die my way. Not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But-"Dale began only to be interrupted.

"But you know better?" Andrea shook her head before continuing, "All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless, horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away Dale and you expect gratitude?"

A tear slipped from Andrea's eye as she scanned the man's face, "I don't know what to say."

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife and I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say," With that Andrea walked away from the blanked face Dale. The group followed the blond as they began the hunt for Sam.

Daryl led the group through the woods with Jennifer and Shane bringing up the rear. Shane had his shot gun in hand and Jennifer had the hatchet just in case any spare walkers came wondering through.

"Shane, look, " Carl said with excitement as he turned to the man showing him a small knife, "Dad said I could carry it and mom said as long as I was-"

"Keep it down. We're looking for Sam," Shane said to Carl making his smile disappear, "You need to focus on the task."

"Got to keep up," Lori said to Carl as the defeated kid caught up to his mother.

"I am," he whispered as Lori watched Shane and Jennifer linger behind.

"You didn't have to be so hard on the kid," Jennifer said once Lori and Carl were out of ear shot.

"Yeah, well we need to focus," Shane said as the two slowly continued.

"You're right," Jennifer said as she continued on at a faster pace, leaving Shane behind. Jennifer passed others in the group and came up behind Daryl and Rick. In the distance, she could see a gray and yellow tent behind a thicket of trees. The group slowly crept behind Daryl as they approached the tent.

"She could be in there," Shane stated the obvious.

"No shit Sherlock," Jennifer whispered to the man as she looked at him from the corner of her eye, "There could be a whole bunch of things in there."

Rick motioned for the group to stay behind as him, Daryl, Shane, and Jen approached the tent. Daryl had his crossbow poised and was ready to fire at anything as they made their way to the tent. When they were a few feet from it Daryl motioned for the three to stay behind as he pulled out a hunting knife and crept closer to the tent.

He sat the crossbow against an ice chest and positioned himself at the entrance of the tent. He peeked in through the small crack in the door before moving to the side to check the covered windows. He lifted his arms up; not knowing what was in there.

"Jen," Rick said as the trio approached the tent, "Call out softly. If she's in there yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sam," Jennifer said softly as Rick had warned her to, "Are you in there?"

Daryl stood at the entrance with his knife up ready to stab anything that wasn't Sam.

"Sam, it's Jennifer."

Rick crept closer to the tent and Shane followed. As he passed Jennifer, he rubbed his hand against her back and continued on.

Daryl slowly unzipped the tent and pulled the curtain up revealing a chair with someone in it. The back was facing the entrance but judging from, the foul smell that escaped the tent it had to be a dead body. The stench was even strong enough to reach Jennifer where she put her hand over her mouth and pinched her nose shut to avoid the odor.

The men at the entrance were gagging when Jennifer called out, "Daryl?" He had disappeared inside of the tent and they were unable to see his actions through the thick cloth of the tent's doorway.

"It ain't her," Daryl said exiting the tent.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said opted out," as he spoke he picked up his crossbow and wiped some dirt off of the front where it had been on the ground before slinging it over his shoulder, "Ain't that what he called it?"

Just then, in the distance, the sound of church bells ringing could be heard. The group looked around curious of the noise's origin. They quickly found the direction from which they were coming and the group took off in that direction.

"That way," Jennifer pointed as she jumped from a large rock as the group followed close behind.

The group followed Jennifer into a clearing where an old white church stood. There were grave stones throughout the area and it looked like a normal church except it was missing one thing.

"That can't be it. It has no steeple," Shane had also noticed the flaw in this church but Jennifer pressed on anyways, eager to investigate.

"Jennifer," Shane called out. She ran for the church and the group quickly followed as she weaved her way through the scattered grave stones.

They approached the pavement in front of the church and swiftly checked the enclaves to assure themselves that there were no walkers. Rick was the first up the stairs with Daryl close behind. They slowed at the large red doors and removed their weapons ready to attack.

Jennifer quickly hopped up the stairs, hatchet in hand, and ignored Rick and Daryl's precautions, it was hot and she had had too many disappointments recently, she was starting to get pissed. She kicked the door open and saw three walkers sitting in the pews. They turned to her snarling as she ran up the first one buried the hatchet deep into her head. The second was only two pews away so Jennifer easily jumped over one and cleanly cut through the walker's head. The final walker was at the far end of the room and in one swift movement Jennifer withdrew her blade and threw it at the walker. The knife dug itself into the right side of the walker's face sending it to the floor with a loud Thump! She moved to the fallen walker and pulled her knife from its head before looking to the others.

Everything had happened so quickly that they were still standing there with their weapons raised, a look of awe covering everyone's face. They had known Jennifer could fight from what they saw with her and Daryl but it didn't hit them until now how good she was.

The men entered the church and searched a bit as Daryl made his way to the cross in the front of the church with Jesus hanging from it.

"Yo J.C., you taking request?"

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple," Shane said peeling Jennifer's attention from the redneck to him, "There's no steeple."

As if what he said had triggered it, the bells began chime again. Daryl pushed his way through the crowd at the door, making him the first one out as he raced to the side of the church. They hurried to the side of the church were a speaker sat under the shade of the roof imitating the sound of church bells. Glenn opened the box it was hooked to and pulled a lever making it stop.

"A timer. It's on a timer," Daryl said raising his weapon to the speaker. He was panting and Jennifer didn't blame him, it was so hot and they had done so much walking and running. She even felt a little worn after taking out those walkers.

"I'm going back in there for a minute," Jennifer said as she found her way back into the church. She heard Lori follow her into the church and Rick with Carl soon followed. She placed her palms on the table in front of the Jesus statue that sat at the front of the church. Her nails were digging into the wood as she spoke soft words.

"Father, forgive me," the group heard her muffled voice as they sat outside in the shade, "I don't deserve your mercy, but she does. Please, Father, punish me however you wish, but show mercy on her."

Jennifer looked up at the statue only to see resting his head bowed downwards with his eyes closed. Something caught her attention to her right and she saw a stain glass window that held another Jesus, only this one had his eyes open and was staring at Jennifer.

"Don't just stare at me!" Jennifer yelled as she picked up a nearby candle stick and threw it at. The glass shattered and fell to the ground outside. The group rushed to the window only to find Jennifer staring back at them, breathing heavily, with a hostile look in her eyes.

So much for this being her new home…

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