The start

Crossbow

I walk out of the church and search outside for Jay. I could hear her voice giggling. I went around the side of the church, there's no one there but Daryl and her. She's holding up a crossbow aiming it at a tree pulling the trigger as the arrow went straight into the tree. She had the wildest grin on her face as she looks at Daryl. Daryl smirks at her.

"Hey you." I walk up to them.

"Harls." Jay hands the crossbow back to Daryl. She runs up and hugs me.

"Rick said you saved Gabriel." I look down at her as she pulls away.

"Yeah, he freaked out when a walker was getting too close to him. Rick thinks he knew her." Daryl shoots an arrow into the tree.

"He probably does know her. It's a local food bank right near his church." Jay and I walk to Daryl.

"Wanna see me shoot the crossbow?" Jays eyes brighten up.

"Sure." I chuckled lightly. Daryl hands her the crossbow as she steadies it. She lines it up to the tree and shoots. A few centimeters away from the arrow she previously shot. She turns and faces me.

"Christmas present, right?" She laughs.

"If I find one, you can have it." Daryl says as he walks to the tree and pulls out the arrows.

"That would be awesome. New toys. Harls you should try it." Jay hands me the crossbow. It was a bit heavy but I'm sure once you get used to it will be as light as a feather.

"I'm no good at these things. I prefer my knives and guns." I try to hand the crossbow back to Jay as she steps back.

"Daryl can teach you." Jay walks back to the church as she leaves me and Daryl. Daryl walks over to me and points to a part of the crossbow.

"Put your foot in the stirrup which is right here. At the front of the bow and pull the string back across both sides of the barrel until you here it click." I grab the string and pull it back til it clicked.

"Alright, place the arrow in the barrel, aligning it up. Make sure its secure." He hands me an arrow as I set it in there.

"Looks secure." I said.

"Pick it up and aim." I pick up the crossbow and aim it toward the tree. I pulled the trigger but it hits the side of the tree.

"Thought you were a good shot." Daryl hands me another arrow.

"With guns. I've never held a crossbow before." I set it back up again. Aim it at the tree but this time Daryl walks up to me.

"Your stance is wrong. This isn't a gun. Its a bow with a trigger."

His hands are placed on my hips as he directs my stance a little more like a shotgun stance. He pushes my arms a little higher than what I normally would hold a gun at. I look at the end of the arrow lining it up with the tree.

"Shoot." He whispers in my ear. It sent chills down my spine. I pull the trigger and hit dead center of the tree.

"This ain't so bad." I smile.

"Wait til you get something moving or a walker." Daryl mumbled as his hands leave my hips.

"I'll leave that up to you. Thanks for the lesson." I smirk handing him his crossbow back.

"Don't mention it." He grins as we walk toward the church.

"So are you and Carol a thing or were one?" Daryl stops and looks at me.

"I just thought since you guys are so close and the way you react to her. You guys use to be together or have feelings for each other." I look down at the ground.

"Nah, she's like a mom to me." My cheeks heat up as I was embarrassed. God, Harley why do you always jump to conclusion?

"Like someone else." He mumbles. Someone else?

We get inside the church see everyone running around trying to prepare for food. I see Jay talking to Carl, she giggled as he smiles a little. Those two are going to be great friends. Carol's right all they needed to do was get used to each other.

"Hey Harley, can you take Judith for a second." Tyreese walks up to me.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I haven't held a baby in a long time. I only held Jay til she was 1, she is 15 now. Tyreese hands me Judith, from what I can remember I always carried Jay on my hip. So I place Judith on my hip and wrap my arm holding her back so she wouldn't fall. My other hand grips the other arm for support. Her eyes look me up and down. She had a blank facial expression. No smiling, no crying, no nothing. As if she was observing me wanting to know if I could be trusted.

"Hey hun." I cooed her. Her lips twitch to a smile for a split second and then back to the blank expression.

"That's lil ass kicker right there." Daryl walks by and kisses her cheek. She giggled at him as he smiles.

"Lil ass kicker? You're not really a people person are you? That's okay, I don't get along with people at first either. Jay never liked people when she was your age. She always cry. You're different." I take the arm that was gripping the one arm that was supporting her back and pinch her cheeks lightly. She smiled and looked away from me. As if she was embarrassed.

"You are adorable." I smile at her. She lets out a laugh as I laugh back. Rick walks up and smiles.

"She likes you." He says.

"Well, she sure will break some hearts when she is older." I chuckle lightly as Rick takes her off my hands.

"Go ahead and get yourself something to eat. Thanks for watching her." Rick walks over to Tyreese and sits on the floor.

I grab a plate and walk over to the table of bowls. There was corn, beans, carrots and several different other foods. After giving me a few spoonfuls of each bowl I walk over to Jay. She stuffed her food in her mouth.

"Slow down." I laughed.

"Its so good." She exaggerated the 'so'.

"I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham stands up as everyone gets quiet we stare at him.

"I look around this room and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the survivors." Abraham raises his glass as we all raise ours and cheer.

"Is that all you want to be? Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat? 'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength. You got the skill.
Thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now, we get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip. Eugene, what's in DC?" I look at Eugene who seemed to not wanna talk but he did anyway.

"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge." Nerd talk. I didn't understand one thing he said other than food, fuel and refuge. That's what we need.

"Restart. However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one.
Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there who don't got nothing left to do except survive." Abraham finishes his speech. The room was silent until Judith started mumbling.

"What was that?" Rick asked Judith.

"I think she knows what I'm about to say. She's in. If she's in, I'm in. We're in." Rick agrees as Judith starts laughing. Everyone cheers and claps.

"I guess it looks like we're heading to Washington." I look at Jay. She smiles at me with her cheeks puffed out. A mouth full of food.

"Your ridiculous." I laugh and shake my head.