I'm Not the Only One

Chapter Two: I Love Corn

"They are so cute!"

"They are like mini Maggie and Glenn!"

"They are not like us!"

"My son better not have corrupted that girl."

"Oh, shut up, Rick. Jade wouldn't dare let him that close!"

"I think she'd kill the little shit if he tried."

"I wish I had my iPhone so I could take a picture."

"I don't think any of us will be forgetting what this looks like anytime soon."

"I have a feeling we'll be seeing it again!"

(If any of you recognize that dialogue I'll love you forever)

Carl squeezed my hand, letting me know he was awake. I smiled and groaned, "Guys! Cut it out!" Some of them gasped and others jumped. Sheriff and I opened our eyes to glare at them. "He hasn't corrupted me by the way. Daryl's right, I would kill him if he tried." Sheriff gulped.

"I think that's a serious threat, guys," Carl said. I nodded and smiled at him.

I tore the blankets away from of bodies and climbed over Carl. The group stood still, waiting for somebody to say something. I picked up Sheriff's sheriff hat and placed it back on his head. He adjusted it and smirked at me. God, I wish I could kiss him - Jade! Stop it!

"So... what's the plan?" I really wanted to look for Char, but they had to get to Washington. I had to look for her, but I couldn't leave them. You see my dilemma?

"Beth is still missing. What if she was taken to the place Jade's sister is at?" Maggie asked hopefully.

"We have to go to Washington," Abraham fought.

"No, we have to find our people. Jade's one of us now, and if Jade's sister is missing then we gotta find her," Rick finished.

"Yeah, and she might be right," Tom added, referring to Maggie. "I don't know who Beth is, but the place we're talking about is a lot like Terminus was... except about the food part. They're a community."

"I'm in, Sarg," Rosita told Abraham.

"Me too. We have to find these people," Eugene commented.

"It's not a part of the mission," Abraham demanded.

"As I've said. Even after we save the world, we still have to live with ourselves," Eugene wisely said quietly, probably only intending for Sargent to hear it, but the scientist isn't the best as whispering.

Abe made a whining noise and agreed to come.

"Okay," Tom chirped. "Let me tell you all about the place Charlotte and possibly Beth are. It's called Zone Seventy-Four, or ZSF for short. We sent Charlotte there after she figured out what we were doing and demanded we stop. Gareth loved you both very, very much, Jade. You need to understand that. You two were the reason he kept fighting. He knew that Charlotte was going to have to leave, but he couldn't lose you too. If you think Mary lost it when you left, you could only imagine what Gareth was like. He went ballistic, yelling at anyone who tried to talk to him. He knew you'd come back though.

"It was when you left that I decided I needed to leave, too." I know what you mean by leave, Tom. "I reached out to a few people, but they didn't agree. They almost told Gareth on me, but I begged them not to. Gareth told you that Mary tried to leave and find you, she loved you, she really did, but she never left. Unfortunately you revealed your loyalties to her before I could confront you. Then when Mary went to 'go to the bathroom', she told Gareth everything. It was smart, the way they planned everything out. Of course, we were smarter, but still...

"Anyways, Zone Seventy-Four is a camp in North Carolina that has a little over five-hundred people living there last time I checked. They've been around since a little after the outbreak. They gather people from the east coast and from a few of the states not on the coast. If they have Beth I don't know why they wouldn't wait for anybody that was with her. It doesn't make any sense. If she's there, then she's safe though," Tom ended.

"And it's on the way to Washington," Carol added.

"But what if Beth's still in Georgia?" Daryl asked.

I nodded, "I'd do anything to find my sister, but Beth could still be here. We can't take that risk."

"Yeah, but what if she's in ZSF?" Sasha countered.

"Okay, what if half of us go to North Carolina and half of us stay in Georgia and search for Beth?" Tom suggested.

"No," everyone unanimously chorused.

"Splitting up is never good," Sheriff told him with force

"Okay, so what if we go to ZSF, get Charlotte and possibly Beth and if we don't find Beth, then we come back here and look for her?" Eugene proposed.

We looked around at each other for signs of approval or disapproval.

"Okay, everybody think it over and tonight at dinner we'll make a decision," Rick ordered. We muttered responses and went on our way. Everyone left the room, except for Carl, of course.

I wanted to be alone right now, but I also needed answers. "So, what happened while I was out?" I sat on the bed. Sheriff echoed my actions.

"Well, we all got to know Tom and trust him. We told Tom about all of our pasts, and he told us what he knew about you and Charlotte. He said nobody knew much about you and your sister at Terminus, but he also said that everybody loved you guys, which we all understood. Tom told us very little about him and said that he didn't like to talk about what had happened to him.

"We traveled a little, we're maybe fifty or so miles from Terminus. We found three cars, so we've been using those. Right now we're in a little development. We went on a couple runs here and there and we found a lot of guns, knives, ammo, we found like sixty arrows for you and Daryl. Everyone missed you like crazy... I missed you."

I kissed his cheek and thanked him for the information. Then I took his hand and we walked downstairs. I found the kitchen and started looking through the cupboards. JACKPOT! Canned corn! I looked at Rick who had entered the room asking if I could have it with my eyes. Hey, I'm not the only one who has to eat around here. Rick gave me a spoon he was holding behind his back.

I smiled and grabbed the spoon from him and took a seat at the table. Instead of looking for a can opener or asking for one, I smashed the spoon into the lid making a little slit. Then I jammed the spoon into the slit and popped the top off. I grinned at my handy work and started eating giant spoonfuls of corn.

I love corn.

So chapter three deleted itself so I have to rewrite that... lol