Janie's Got A Gun (A 'The Walking Dead' Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven: What Cannot Be Seen

Noah told them that he had met Beth in a hospital that was still running in Atlanta, he managed to escape but she was still in there and now Carol was too. The group decided to go and save her.

First order of business was protecting the church, they demolished the pews, took the pipes from the organ and even took down the large cross which hung above the door, and reinforced the churches walls with them.
"I want to stay here with Carl." Janie said to Rick as they started packing up a van to leave.
"Really?" He asked with a shocked look on his face.
"Well he can't look after a baby on his own and Gabriel's not exactly going to be much help."
"I'm staying too." Michonne said stepping forward next to Janie.
"You sure?" Daryl asked his niece and she nodded,
"As long as I don't have to touch her." Janie said looking over at the infant in Carl's arms.
"You don't like kids?" Michonne asked and she shook her head making the group laugh slightly.

Everyone said their goodbyes and the church doors were closed and barricaded. As soon as they were, Janie grabbed some weapons and lay them on the ground infront of Gabriel who was sat on the floor looking terrified and pathetic.
"Pick one." She said but his eyes didn't even look up from the floor as he shook his head slowly. "You need to learn how to defend yourself." Finally Gabriel looked up.
"Defend myself?" He asked as Carl stood up and joined her.
"You're lucky your church has lasted this long." He said and Janie nodded in agreement. "You can't stay in one place anymore. And once you're out there you'll find trouble you can't get away from. You need to know how to fight." Still the priest didn't move. Janie sighed.
"This is probably the only time I'm going to be nice to you." She said. "You should take it." Finally Gabriel's hand slowly moved towards the line up of weapons, past the rusty axe and rifle and landed on the machete, the same one Rick had used to kill Gareth. He lifted it up and felt the weight of it in his hand. "Good choice." Janie said before crouching down and taking his hand before putting it in a different position on the handle. "This is better for when you're drivin' it into someone's skull." She said as she stepped back to see the position better.
"And you need to put in more strength than you think." Carl added. "The skull isn't as soft as you-" he was interrupted by Gabriel gagging, Janie laughed at him.
"I need a lie down." He said before walking to his office.

Two hours passed and Michonne went to check on Gabriel. She knocked on the door of his office but there was no answer so she tried the handle but it was locked. Carl was playing with Judith and Janie was carving pentagrams and upside-down crosses into the floor with a pen knife, they both looked up when they heard a large crash. Michonne was trying to break down the door. She slammed into the door three times before it opened and she exclaimed, "shit!"
The pair ran over to her to see that Gabriel wasn't in the room but instead four of the floorboards were lifted up to reveal the underside of the church and the machete was sat beside them.
"Son of a bitch!" Janie said.
Suddenly a yell came from outside followed by a chorus of groans.
"Let me in! Please they're coming!"
Michonne and Carl ran to the door and started to tug at the wooden planks that was nailed onto it, keeping it shut. Janie stayed where she was in the office conflicted, she didn't think Gabriel deserved saving, she warned him it was dangerous out there and he didn't listen, but she knew Michonne would tell Daryl what she did and she didn't want to disappoint him in fear he'd leave again. She sighed and looked over at them struggling, then she left the office and picked up an axe from the lineup of weapons she had left on the floor.
"Move back!" She yelled and Carl and Michonne stepped out of the way as she swung the axe over her head and hit the plank of wood, she continued to hit it as Gabriel's screams for help grew louder and light started to pour through the crack in the door. Then the door swung open and Gabriel ran in as Carl started to shoot at the walkers which were stumbling over the threshold and Michonne picked up her katana.
"NO!" Carl yelled and Janie looked in the direction he was looking, a walker was approaching Judith who was lay down on one of the pews. Janie sprinted towards the walker and let her axe come swinging down onto its head, splitting it's skull in two, then she gently picked Judith up, wrapping one arm around her legs and supporting her head with her other hand, and followed the others into the office.
"Go." Gabriel said pointing at the hole in the floor that he had escaped out of earlier.

Janie so badly wanted to yell at Gabriel or slap him or do anything to make him understand but she couldn't, she didn't have the energy. She wondered if being with these people was making her soft, she was bouncing a baby in her arms after all.
"Thought you didn't like kids." Carl smirked at her.
"Yeah, well she's not too annoying." Janie replied.
"Did I just see a smile?" Carl asked and Janie raised her fist and punched him in the arm.
"Shut up."
The low hum of a vehicle suddenly started to grow loud and a bright red firetruck came into sight. It stopped just outside of the church and Abraham jumped out of the cab followed by Maggie and Glenn and Tara and Rosita jumped off of the back.

It took an hour to get to Atlanta and everyone jumped out of the truck just outside the hospital with their guns risen. They walked through a pair of chain link gates and past a village of green canvas tents that the military would have set up when the world fell. The ground was littered with the dead, amo boxes and sandbags that everyone had to step over as they approached a second set of open chain link gates. As they did they saw Rick exiting the hospital slowly, behind him was Sasha, Carol and Noah. Janie hadn't even seen Daryl when she heard someone's gun drop to the floor, she looked over at Maggie who had just collapsed to the ground in a fit of tears. Janie looked towards the door once again to see Daryl, his eyes were red and his skin was blotchy as if he had been crying and Beth lay limply in his arms.

"We look not at what can be seen, but we look at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

Janie took Daryl's hand in hers and stroked his palm with her thumb as Gabriel's service came to an end and soil was dumped onto Beth's body.

- Princexiero xx