The Sheriff and The Archer

Chapter Twenty-Four: Trouble, Dark, Dangerous

Warning: there's a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter. I'm updating later tonight or tomorrow so you can wait if you want.

PS THE WALKING DEAD COMES BACK ON TONIGHT THE MARATHON IS SO PERFECT I LOVE IT!

"Come here, Mitchie!" I smiled at Judith and held out my arms. Judith was crying loudly and wiggling around in Kelly's arms. Kelly violently shoved her in my direction. I circumspectly took her away from that monster and cradled her. I shhhed her and prayed that she would quiet down.

After a minute she did, I looked at Kelly to tell her that was how it was done, but she was no longer sitting at the table. I looked to my left and then right to see her walking away... with a cigarette in her hand.

I rolled my eyes and told everyone I'd be going up to my room so Mitchie could sleep better. They nodded, believing me, so I took some baby food and a few diapers and made my way up.

Judith's eyes were so amazing, they were just like Carl's. I missed him. I missed the whole group, sure it had only been a day without them, and I had only been with them for a few weeks, but they had grown on me. It was like I was being pulled towards them. I hated that I depended on them, but at the same time I was so happy that I found people who cared about me as much as them.

I looked at the backpack I brought with me to important places. The items contained were my scrapbook, stuffed animal turtle and my fathers dog tags. I sighed and looked at all of the pictures. I saw a nine-year-old me and my family. My friends.

Who knows? Maybe my friends are still alive, but my family sure as hell isn't. I missed my pre-shitworld friends. They were great, but at the same time I think that I would miss the people I've met now more. I would have never met them and I couldn't stand the thought of that.

I would never have know how much Rick cares about us, or how motherly Michonne is even if she doesn't see it. I would have never met Tara, who I had come to love dearly, or Judith who's the cutest little ball of energy. I would have never know how much of a hard ass Daryl is, but how much he loves everyone around him despite what he's lost. I would have never met Carl, who makes me feel things I never had, confuses the hell out of me, and can make me realize how much I have to live for.

The truth is I wouldn't be alive without these people, and I wouldn't know about how bad the people were at Terminus. I owe them so, so much. I know that they'll make it out of here. I just know it.

I fell asleep a few hours later, after working out the details of my operation - yes, I'm now calling it an operation - and creating and makeshift bed for Judith out of a large bin and a few blankets.

I woke up to her crying at about nine-ish (by the sun). So, I fed her and decided today was the day I was going to begin Operation SHOT: Stop Head-Hunters (another word for cannibals) , Obliterate Terminus.

If you're following me, you know my plan isn't just to save my family, I want to stop Terminus. Permanently. Which means I will have blood on my hands, I'll have to personally kill people I loved. It makes me sad that I'm forced to do so, but saving the groups life is more important to me than sparing people who will just kill more humans after I leave.

Judith fussed around on the floor and stopped playing with frisbee I gave her. She looked up at me for a second, blinked, and then started wailing. She wasn't hungry - I fed her. She couldn't be sleepy - she's slept enough. Oh God, have mercy on me. She needed to be changed. I knew that all babies had complete toxic waste, I'd smelled baby crap before and if I really thought about it I could still smell it. I was so screwed...

Operation SHOT will have to start a little later than planned, I have a baby to take care of. Plus, I have to get ready for it."

.o.O.o.

"Lights will guide you home. And ignite your bones. And I will try... to fix you." I sang softly to Judith to coax her into sleeping. She slept a lot. After singing Fix You by Coldplay, her blue eyes faded and fluttered until they shut.

"Open up, Jade," a voice called that I couldn't quite remember. Fearing whoever it was, I looked through my little peep hole just to see the odd-one-out of Terminus, Thomas. Otherwise knows as Tom.

He never fit in, he came a little bit after me. Now that I thought about it I didn't know why they kept him alive, now that I thought about it. Char and I were kids, so they probably didn't want to harm us just yet, but Tom's a full grown man. Scrawny, yes. He had brown curly hair that was cut fairly short. His cheekbones were pronounced, and made him look even skinnier than he is. He almost looked like a rat. He must have been six five, and totally unlikely to survive in this world, but I once saw him take out six walkers with one knife. He also has this... aura around him. Like he was bad news, trouble, dark, dangerous.

I took Judith in my arms protectively before I opened the door to the creepy man. He walked in before I could even step out of the way and gently sat himself down on my sloppily made bed. I opened my mouth to ask him why he was here, but he beat me to it.

"I know what you're planning... What you're going to do." His amount of confidence made mine rattle. I shook my head before he cracked a smile almost mocking me saying he could see through me.

"Yes, yes. I know what you're aiming for. You want to save your new friends and kill everyone here." To let me know he was finished, he clapped his hands once.

"You're wrong. I would never -"

"Uh, uh, uh," he raised his right bony, index finger and switched it from left to right three times. "I want to let you in on a few secrets, but you have to do one thing."

"I don't know what you're talking about, really. Please leave me room so I can take care of Jud-Mitchie! I meant Mitchie." Shit.

"You even call the kid by what her parents named her."

"It was her brother, he brother named her," I said slowly and stared at the sleeping baby.

"You love them. I get it. I'm going to help you, but you do have to do one thing for me."

I thought for a second before agreeing and asking what exactly he wanted me to do.

"Simple," he replied. "kill me."

NEW CHARACTER! YAY, I loved writing Tom. He's very interesting to me.

I really don't know how I feel about this chapter. It was like a filler to me, ugh. I'm planning to finish this book on Sunday (TWD COMES BACK ON OH MY GOD) or on the 14th of this month (in 9 days) because that would be exactly two months since I started this book.