++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated characters apart from my OC. All rights belong to Kirkman and AMC ++++++

Sixty-Four

Everything was just happening so fast.

Between taking down walkers and those trying to destroy our home, there was far too much death and destruction going on around me. I was trying to focus on my surroundings but I was too distracted looking for Rick and Carl. Spirit jumped on a walker, ripping its throat out and completely removing its head before I finished it off with my boot knife.

"RICK!" I screamed. "RICK! Spirit, go find Rick!" I ordered him.

My white and red companion took off running, chasing something that I couldn't see.

"Focus, PJ!" John snapped. He broke away from me and struck down a walker, carving his own path through the danger around us.

That's when I zoomed in on Rick…and that son of a bitch who had ruined everything.

A low grow escaped me and I broke into a run, pushing passed walkers and humans of both sides until I was close enough to them. The Governor was on top of Rick, beating him into the ground. I dove at him, grabbed him around the neck in a headlock-one that John had used on me when I was a kid.

"I am going to kill you, you son of a bitch," I hissed in the coldest voice I could muster. "And I'm going to enjoy it, enjoy watching you die, take that last breathe…you picked the wrong people to piss off you asshole."

I reached from my knife and stabbed him, twice in the back before pushing him out of my way. Judging by the look on his face, he hadn't expected to be attacked at all. I stepped around him, ignoring the gurgling sound he was making and helped Rick to his feet. Amongst all the blood and bruises, he was happy to see me.

Spirit took down a walker to my right that was making for us.

I grabbed Rick's hand. "I love you," I whispered.

"I love you," he responded.

"Don't kill my brother," I told him, shooting a look off to John who was helping us. "I'll see you soon. I promise."

"Carl?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "Haven't seen him, I promise, I'll see you soon. Go find your son. I'll go look for Judith. Spirit! Come on boy!" I squeezed his hand tightly than ran away from him, heading up to the courtyard where we'd had plenty of BBQ's and late night parties.

"MUM! MUM! PJ! HAVE YOU SEEN MY MUM?" came a voice to my left.

I glanced over at Sophia who ran over to me. "Sophia?"

"I haven't seen her since her and Rick went out on a run," she breathed. Sophia didn't look like a little girl anymore, gosh, she was too far from it, a young woman. "Uncle Matt doesn't know where she is either."

I looked down at Ollie, he was covered in blood, just like Spirit. I glanced back, shooting a young man in the head followed by a walker, I couldn't see Rick anymore. "Come on," I urged her.

"Where are we going?" she asked me.

There were too many people, too many walkers…the prison was lost to us now and the only way we were gonna survive. "We gotta get out of here," I told her. "Have you seen Judith?"

Sophia shook her head. "No…but what about my mum?"

I grabbed Sophia's arm. "Come on."

Sophia growled but she started to follow me.

The two of us broke into a run and headed straight into the prison where we headed towards the admin building where one of our escape routes was if we ever needed it. We rounded the corner and I froze when I saw Judith's baby carrier. It was empty and splattered with blood.

"Who the-" I started.

"Lizzie and Myka had the carrier," Sophia blurted out. "I saw them."

I curled my fist around my gun and squeezed it tightly. I'd delivered Judith…I was there when Lori died and now she was dead. Lizzie…I laughed in my head. Fucking Lizzie…

Sophia glanced at the carrier and dragged me into the building.

Silently we ran through the admin building, grabbing supplies where we found them, it was what was left over from the young and elderly being kept there to escape being sick. We were gonna be on the run again and we both knew what it was like to go for days without food and starve.

"Where are we gonna ago?" Sophia finally asked me when we broke free of the building. In the background we could hear the sounds of fighting.

"North," I replied. "We gotta find some train tracks…head north."

"Why north?" she asked.

"Tell me what happened," I urged her.

"They killed Herschel," Sophia trembled. "He…he cut his head off with Michonne's sword…where were you?" she cried.

"I wouldn't have made any difference," I answered as we ran through the grass. I'd mourn later…the closest thing I had to a father…the man who beat me periodically in chess was dead…it made me glade I stabbed him and left him for dead…let the Governor become the thing he hates the most-a walker. The walkers that usually gathered around here weren't there anymore, they would be making their dead way to where the noise was, to where the food was.

"What about everyone else?" Sophia asked me.

I stopped at the tree line and looked back at the prison…this was the second time I'd left Ebony behind but there was nothing I could do. I'd be dead if I went back and Sophia wouldn't make it on her own.

Hell-I wouldn't make it on my own, not like this.

I was a hair away from falling apart.

Sophia grabbed my hand and pulled me into the tree line so I was out of site. She whistled low to the dogs, just like Matthew had been training her to, and they came into the bushes. "PJ-we gotta find somewhere to stay tonight…we'll come back and look for Rick and my mum…but tomorrow okay?"

Okay…I told myself…tomorrow.