++++++ I do not own Supernatural or any affiliated characters apart from my OC's ++++++

Six

The following morning when I emerged from our tent I found that the sun was high in the sky and a warm bite had already settled over the farm for the day. I looked down at my watch, it was almost midday, cursing myself for having slept so late I quickly prepared myself for the day. My plan was to head back to the jam on the highway and scavenge for supplies-maybe Daryl or Rick would come with me. Once I was dressed, I scribbled down my notes in a small pocket diary and did a supply check.

"Are you going out again?" Ebony questioned, sitting a basket full of washing down on the table beside me. She looked over at the map and at the location I had circled, "Rick said that that was where they got over taken by the herd."

"We need supplies," I told her. "Herd or no herd, Eb, we need supplies. Meds for the kids, meds for us. We need anything we can get our hands on."

Ebony sighed. "Can't you just rest up a bit?" she pleaded. "Babe, we're amongst friends."

"Amongst friends?" I asked, spying the basket of washing. "I'm assuming that's from Lori?"

She laughed. "Yeah, First Lady Grimes asked me if I could bring this over to you and wake you up. She thinks you've slept enough. Her and Rick had a full on argument about you in the RV."

I snorted. "Bitch." I folded the map up and put it, along with my note book in my pocket. "You see Daryl?" I asked her. "I'm gonna see if he'll come with me to do a run."

Ebony shook her head. "Nope. But I did hear Herschel complaining about Daryl taking a horse so he's probably gone out already. Maybe Rick will go with you," she smirked.

I raised an eyebrow. "Ok, Eb. I've seen that smirk a million times before, what is it this time?"

She shook her head. "Oh nothing. I just know you, PJ you have a thing for guys with accents. And Rick, my friend, has that perfect southern drawl that makes a girl wanna do all sorts of things."

I folded my arms and leant back against the table. "Ok-so that must mean since you have that Aussie accent that I totally wanna screw you, right?" I asked her. Ebony screwed her face up causing me to burst out laughing, "come here, babe, give us a kiss."

Ebony pushed away from me, the two of us laughing loud enough to draw attention from Lori and Shane who at that moment were talking in hushed tones on the deck of the farmhouse. She waved at Lori who turned away from them and stalked off. "I really don't think she likes us. Andrea was saying she doesn't like anyone, apparently her husband was barely even dead before she hooked up with Shane. But then Andrea told me that Shane told Lori that Rick was dead. Then when Rick came back it was all hush, hush." She picked up the washing basket, "I'll go hang this out, you be back before sundown, madam."

"Yes, sir," I saluted. Simultaneously we bumped fists and made little explosion movements with our hands before we split. Having a quick search, I eventually found Rick talking with the Asian kid and an African American whom I had yet to be introduced to. "Afternoon Rick," I smiled with a wave.

Rick turned his attention away from the boys. "Good to see you up and about," he smiled. "Corporal Lucas, you haven't met Glenn and T-Dog, yet."

"PJ," I corrected him. "Please call me PJ." I shook both the boy's hands in turn. Both boys seemed nice enough to me, they wanted to know how come I hadn't been killed like all of the other soldiers that they'd come across in the last couple of months, I didn't know how to tell them that me and a bunch of other soldiers in my unit, including my commanding officer, had deserted to be with our families. "I wanted to see if you would come on a supply run with me," I explained to Rick. "Whilst I was looking for signs of life on the highway I marked a whole bunch of cars that had clothes, food, weapons. No walkers but I've also got a few tricks up my sleeve. Wanna come?"

Rick paused. "I should really stay here."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself, Rick but I'm heading out. If I leave in the next ten minutes we'll make it back by dark."

"But you're still wounded," Rick pointed out, trying his hardest to make me stay. "You'll need a spotter and I don't think anyone is a good enough shot to go with you."

"All the more reason you should go, Rick," Glenn answered, backing me up. "With a cop and a soldier out there, what could go wrong?"

Rick sighed. "Let me run it by Lori," he asked me before stalking off.

I scoffed. "Let me run it by Lori," I mimicked. "Guy could grow some balls." Glenn and T-Dog looked at each other before leaving me alone to wait for my answer. It was at this time that Shane chose to make his presence known to me by grabbing my arm roughly and yanking me behind a car. "Let go of me!" I snapped, grabbing one of my throwing knives off my belt and slashing his arm with it.

Shane pushed me away from him and pointed his finger right at my face. "Get this straight, Corporal Lucas-I don't trust you."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You don't trust me? I have done nothing to earn this, Shane. Nothing. I kept Sophia safe when I could have let her die-if anything you should at least trust me for that. If anything I shouldn't trust any of you since your man shot me." I held the knife out in front of me, his eyes stayed on the weapon. "And like you can talk about trust-fucking Rick's wife after you lied to her about him being dead." I stared Shane down like one did a rabid dog and he stared at me like he was going to rip me limb from limb, "Rick and I are going out on a supply run, Shane, if, whilst I am gone, you lay a finger on Ebony or Jade I will cripple you and leave you on the highway to die." I slipped underneath Shane's arm and walked back into the open just as Rick came over to me, he was armed and ready which I assumed meant that he was coming on the raid with me. I cleaned the knife off on my jeans and held my arms up, waiting for an answer. "Yes? No?" I asked.

Rick nodded. "Yeah I'll come with you. Mainly cause Lori seems to think you'll report back to another group."

I snorted. "Yeah totally." I opened the Jeep door, "it's people like Shane and your wife that made me stay away from groups."

"Lori's a good person," Rick tried to convince me. "A very good person. She's just got things on her mind."

I nodded, pretending to agree with him. "Ok-so, I promised Ebony I'd be back by nightfall so let's do a general raid, stockpile anything we think will be of importance then come back tomorrow morning for what we left behind. Down the highway toward the city I found one of those huge Lories that does deliveries for Walmart, I'm thinking-well, hoping that there will be food there. It's just a case of getting it back to the Jeep since the closest we can get is a about six hundred metres close, even then we could get stuck."

Rick shook his head with a smile.

"What?" I frowned.

"I wish we had found you sooner," Rick replied, "some people could still be alive that aren't." I sighed, Rick, like me, had the weight of the world on his shoulders, birds of a feather we were, I just hoped that nothing would go wrong.