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Forever Rising Phoenix	By : ImagineLayla131 Category: S through Z > The Walking Dead Views: 7147 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NOR HAVE ANY AFFILIATIONS WITH THE WALKING DEAD FRANCHISE. ALL PROPERTIES OWNED BY FRANK DARABONT, AMC, ROBERT KIRKMAN AND TONY MOORE. NO MONEY/PROFIT IS BEING MADE OFF OF THIS FANFICTION!

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter seems really long, there was a lot to go over and I didn't want to split it up because of the ending. I have developed the other original characters, which of whom will be introduced in Chapter Five, and they are all based on people I am closest with in my life.
The inspiration for this story was based around the idea I came up with of everybody living in a Jelly Belly factory! Lmao I AM OBSESSED WITH JELLY BELLIES! That and the idea is out of the box, which is exactly how I am. I did A LOT of research, and all of the electronics mentioned, as well as solar and thermal power, CAN exist in an apocalypse or other disaster. If WOODBURY can have electricity, why can't Jellbany? Also, you always hear about the people that are saving up years in advance for an apocalypse (at least zombie) that will never happen, and this story really explores said people. I hope everybody likes the cover image I made for the story. If you haven't figured it out, Delilah is me. ;P Hehehe sorry but it's true!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NOR HAVE ANY AFFILIATIONS WITH THE WALKING DEAD FRANCHISE OR JELLY BELLY,. ALL PROPERTIES OWNED BY FRANK DARABONT AND AMC (TELEVISION SERIES), ROBERT KIRKMAN AND TONY MOORE (COMIC BOOK SERIES), DAVID KLEIN AND THE JELLY BELLY COMPANY, RESPECTIVELY. I ONLY OWN MY OWN ORIGINAL IDEAS AND CHARACTERS.
Chapter Four: Jellybany
"Rick and Carl Grimes, I present to thee, Jellbany! Welcome!" Delilah mockingly announced and parked the truck as Rick and Carl took in the sights of their possible new home.
The area was incredibly vast, with lots of trees and barely any dead grass or plants. Rick wondered how many people were there and what they did with all three of the buildings. They were not much bigger than the CDC, but smaller than the prison. He assumed the building with blackened windows consisted of the offices, and he saw that the building next to it said "Visitor's Center" along with a sign of the Jelly Belly bean logo. Five different float balloons of the Jelly Belly mascot were half deflated, and the parking lot still held a couple of the company's Volkswagen Beetles and vans. There were also a few delivery trucks, a Mustang convertible, a Dodge flat bed truck, a red fire truck, a Scope Ford F-650 XUV, a Cadillac Hybrid, and a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Everything appeared to look fine, except Rick noticed something they didn't have.
"You don't have a gate." He said as they all stepped out. Then again, the prison had gates, but had that really done them any good in the long run?
"I know, they didn't build one. Don't worry, we never get a huge swarm of walkers. Half a dozen at most, and they're usually taken out in less than a few minutes. Plus, we have a bunch of driveway alarms set up to alert us of movement within a four hundred foot range."
The uneasy feeling was creeping up inside Rick, Carl felt it as well, along with Delilah. "This place is kind of a long ways from town, a bit on the outskirts. I don't think you have anything to worry about, but I'll see what I can do. Tyresse said something about there being a makeshift gate at the prison, we'll figure something out." She smiled warmly at Rick, putting him at ease, before turning her sights back to Madison. "Mads, can you please grab Maggie and the others, tell them we've arrived? I'm going to give the boys a tour of the place, we'll meet you at Home Base."
"You betcha, city slicka!" She saluted her and ran off inside, leaving Delilah standing there, rolling her eyes before turning back to the boys.
"Believe it or not, she's not the most unconventional of us. Our group is pretty eclectic to say the least, but it's how things should be, integrated and diversified, don't you think?"
They both nodded. Rick wondered if she went to college, she articulated and acted like an aspiring politician or world leader.
"Alright, let's get to it."
They followed her until stopping in front of the stairs underneath the horse shoe shaped awning that had yet another Jelly Belly logo sign. The aroma of sweet candy wafted through the air, delighting their sense of smell. Delilah spread out her arms.
"This place is divided into three sections. The black building on the left are the offices, that's where we sleep and shower." She pointed to the offices.
"There's showers here?"
"Mmhmm. These Jelly Belly guys had the work discipline of scientists, so there were showers in all the individual office bathrooms, and the offices have since been converted into bedrooms. We lucked out with having a solar and thermal power plant on the other side of the factory, but the pilot light is broken, it has to be lit to get hot water, but it lasts about two hours. I'll show you that last, we're going to start with the Visitor's Center, also known as "Leisure Zone"." They walked up the stairs and followed her inside, where they looked around, in absolute awe.
LEISURE ZONE
The inside was all white with red railings and brightly lit from the sun, it looked like a shopping mall. The walls were adorned with vibrant Jelly Belly decals and Jelly Belly portraits of pop culture and patriotic themes. To the right was the gift shop and to the left was the cafeteria. Shiny plastic life sized Jelly Bellies of all colors dangled from the ceiling, along with more of the mascot in a hot air balloon and an airplane. It was remarkable how everything was still in pristine condition despite being abandoned.
"Isn't this incredible? I never did get a chance to go to the factory in Fairfield, and now I live in the one in Georgia. Ha!" Delilah turned around, smiling at their fascinated faces. "That was exactly how I looked when I first arrived." She pointed to her right. "This is the gift shop. There's lots of accessories, clothes, toys, and candy. Lots and lots of candy." Indeed, there was. The walls of the gift shop were lined up with ceiling high holsters filled with every single kind of Jelly Belly ever created, the counters had boxes and bags of candy assembled all over with chocolates and other candies. Even if the lights weren't working, the colorful array would have been enough to light up the whole room, if not the building.
"This… is… awesome!" Carl exclaimed, absolutely loving it. So far, it outranked the prison. Delilah's smile widened, she could tell that Carl was a good kid and had been through a lot, she enjoyed being able to make them happy and only hoped Rick would soon join in.
"You are absolutely adorable, Carl." She messed up his hat again, causing him to blush. "I always wanted a little brother." His smile kind of faded. Even though Delilah was almost nine years older than him, he didn't want her to view him as a kid. I'll show her.
"Over here is the cafeteria, which is used for the obvious and looks exactly like any other cafeteria but in bold colors. Before you ask, yes, there is other food here besides candy. I'll show you that when we get to the factory, also known as "Inventory Range", but there's more to see here. Let's go upstairs." The boys followed Delilah up the red and white wrap around staircase with Jelly Belly wallpaper covered columns, Rick seeing that there were sculptures made entirely out of Jelly Bellies. One of a duck in a marsh, one of Marilyn Monroe, and… He was diverted from the sculptures to see that Carl was blatantly checking out Delilah's butt. Sure, he had done it also, but he wasn't as obvious.
"Carl!" He hissed in his ear and lightly smacked his hat. Confused, he looked up into his father's eyes. "Don't even try to "what" me. I know what you were doing, have respect." Carl looked down, a little ashamed that he had gotten caught. He couldn't help it, Delilah wasn't like any other girl he had seen in real life, she looked like something out of a graphic novel. A voluptuous babe that would look good in any clothing.
Although she tried to act oblivious, Delilah was aware of the interaction behind her. If Carl had seen the old her, he probably would have looked the other way. She developed early and was in a D cup by the time she was thirteen years old. All the boys would leer at her and the girls would spread rumors that she stuffed her bra or got breast implants. She also had twenty pounds of "baby fat" that wouldn't go away despite her competitive figure skating, not until she stopped and it came off due to a growth spurt. Now, she was really a stunner, and became used to the male attention that wouldn't stop, but a part of her would always remain a bit unnerved.
"We spend most of our time in "Leisure Zone", from ten in the morning to seven at night for the kids and ten at night for the adults. This is the Arts and Crafts room." She opened the door and stepped aside, going back and opening all the other doors, as Rick and Carl stepped inside. The shelves were filled with various art supplies. Colored pencils, crayons, markers, glue, colored paper, beads, buttons, stickers, those fuzzy things kids like to play with, paints, clay. There was an easel and a desk on either side of the room, along with a sewing machine and kit, covered in various fabric swatches. There was a long oval table in the middle of the room, the walls were covered in various drawings. "The majority of art supplies were already here, we got more when we raided a Michael's one day. The little ones spend a lot of time in here. I thought it was imperative that there was an outlet available to allow them to express their creativity and allow their imaginations to run wild with everything going on."
"Sure." Rick realized something, and felt like a complete idiot for NOT asking sooner. "I know that things were pretty overwhelming earlier, but I forgot to ask, how exactly did you find us?"
Delilah turned around. "Besides vowing to drive all over the state of Georgia?" She pulled out a little two toned green device from her pocket. "This little baby helped. It's called an ACR Electronics Microfix Personal Beacon. It identifies somebody's exact location, name, and medical information. The only problem is every time I've used it and we got to where it said you were, you were gone. I guess I finally got you on time." She smiled at them, and couldn't believe she didn't mention it. Imagine how they'd react over the other surprise she had in store, she was rather embarrassed that she hid it and would have explaining to do.
"Impressive. Where did you get it?"
"I told you, Billy cashed in his life savings to buy a bunch of these things. Besides the keys to the truck, when I was pushed, I had a Voltaic Array Solar Charger backpack that held a bundle of electronics. The Beacon, headlamps, night vision goggles, LED flashlights, an ETON American Red Cross Solarlink FR360 Radio, a Jetboil Personal Cooking System, LIFESAVER water bottle, a solar concept tent, an Iridium Extreme phone. That phone was how I got into contact when I was abandoned. The Beacon will help us find the others, granted that they're where it says they are by the time we get there. Shall we continue?"
Rick nodded, and they kept going. The next room was the movie room. There was a Sony 65 inch GXD-L65H1 LCD TV with tons of DVDS and video games as well as their respective gaming systems, along with tons of board games. "I know what you're thinking, how can a TV work in a zombie apocalypse?" Delilah laughed. "This TV will survive anything. We can use it because of the solar power, but not very often. Once a week at most. We try to be scarce. This room was where the company would have promotional wine and beer tasting, so we kept those in here, also. Don't worry, they're away from the kids."
Following The Movie Room was the library, that was filled with all sorts of books, periodicals, magazines, and comic books. "Besides arts and crafts and games, I also feel it's important for the kids to get an education. We teach them English, American Sign Language, math, history, and science, as much as is allowed by the books and what the adults already know. They have to learn something, this isn't a real vacation. We also teach them survival skills." Rick admired Delilah for attempting to create a humane society in a now non-human existence.
The nursery was next to the library, with lots of kid friendly toys and accessories. Following the nursery was the main meeting room. There was a council, more or less, just like back at the prison. The rooms after that were rooms that looked down on the factory. Rick and Carl were pretty impressed, it was like Jellbany could have been it's own planet.
INVENTORY RANGE
The factory resembled that of any other factory, with the massive machines and everything in chrome, except there was a rainbow Choo-Choo train and even more Jelly Bellies dangling from the ceiling.
"Back in the day, they used to allow tourists to just walk on the factory floor, but for safety regulations, they added this Choo-Choo train. It still works, helps a lot when we have to add to the inventory. Want to see?"
"Yeah." Carl said, finally speaking after having taken everything in. He could get used to staying here and couldn't wait to meet the people of Delilah's group, but he wondered what his father was thinking. Rick didn't do much but nod here and there. They got on the train and took a brief but nice ride to the end of the factory, seeing the endless supply of unopened Jelly Bellies.
"We will never run out of Jelly Bellies, ever. It's pretty insane." Delilah finally got a laugh out of Carl and Rick. When the train stopped, The Grimes boys were surprised to see the massive, sky-high inventory. Stacks and stacks of boxes filled with facial wash, toothpaste, tissues, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, toilet paper, paper towels, body wash, batteries, hand soap and sanitizers, laundry detergents, razors, candles, cleaning supplies, all neatly labeled.
There was also food. Nondairy Creamer, Jell-O mix, cereal, energy and granola bars, emergency preparedness meals, jars of peanut butter, nuts, bags of dog food, cans of soup, boxes of pasta, bags of beef jerky, bottles of juices and water and cans of soda, carrots, potatoes, eggplants, apples, citrus fruits, dried fruits, processed cheese, tomato paste, beans, canned meat, herbs and spices, multiple kinds of candy, and of course, Twinkies. This place looked like a super-sized Costco, it had Rick and Carl moved to the point of almost tears.
"Delilah, how exactly did you acquire all this?" That question was inevitable. She turned to look at her pride and joy.
"All of this was what was in Billy's semi-truck. Everybody that I've recruited into this group has contributed to the stockpile. We go on runs and collect more, bring back one or two of each item, depending on the need, and we leave the rest of whatever's left for others. It would be selfish to take it all for ourselves, just enough to survive.
When I was on my own, I ran into Javier Esparza and Matthew Clemens in Atlanta. They're famous drag queen performers and lovers. Their Mustang broke down in front of Chanel, they hardly had anything but their makeup. I changed their tire and told them to follow me. From there, I came into contact with Ivan Hendricks, another doomsday prepper, over the Iridium phone. He had a bunch of electronics, all the lights and radios over there." She pointed to another pile of electronics, along side a pile of weapons and medical supplies. "He has the Scope Ford F-650 XUV you saw in the parking lot, which also held a massive food and necessity stockpile. It was him, his wife Brandi, his daughter Cadence, their pit bulls Peyton and Duke. The baby's real mother was bitten and they had to take her out, but he's the biological father."
Rick nodded. "I understand, that's a good way to go about this."
"Again, everybody contributes. So whatever you have, feel free to add it to the pile." Rick and Carl set down their newly retrieved items before following Delilah to the end of the factory.
"Who else is in your group?"
"With Brandi, Ivan, the baby, and the dogs, there's the Dorgans, they have the Cadillac Hybrid. Caitlin and Mark, their kids are Taylee and Dominick. She's six and he's two. I couldn't even imagine having a baby in this apocalypse, they're both strong people."
This made Rick immediately think of Judith. Looking back now and knowing the result, would he have had convinced Lori to take the abortion pill? It was a question he couldn't ever answer.
"It's easier when you have a lot of people around to help."
Delilah turned around, seeing his face and felt even worse. How could she be such an idiot to hide that Judith was on the bus and now in Jellbany? She thought it would be nice for them to have a surprise, but looking back now, she was sure they would consider her a selfish liar and leave. "Mmhmm, I agree. We do have a lot of people here to help each other. Caitlin and Ivan were both members of a Doomsday Preparation group, so they were family friends prior to this. They managed to contact some other members through on the Iridium, like Mac Lords. He's the one with the Harley, real tough guy, but he used to be a doctor, treated Glenn and the kids when they got here. After we all banded together, they followed me to the Jelly Belly factory. We found Caroline Griffin, her fiancé Vince Rivera and their five year old son, Lucas, they have the Dodge flat bed truck. Kaki and Savannah Schulte are sixteen year old twins that we found at a Best Buy with their two little brothers. Brock is fifteen and Jason is thirteen. You'll have somebody your own age to hang out with also, Carl. Tyler Ladd is the loner of the group, he stole the red fire truck and almost crashed into us. He had nothing on him but a change of clothes, a laptop, a bunch of bootleg CDS which he claims he got from his job at a record studio, and four pounds of pot. Stupid kid, he's a year younger than me and thinks he knows it all. We all range in age from toddlers to mid forties, the babies being the youngest and Mac is the oldest." She rushed through to the end of the factory. "This area is where the girls have dance class so we can work out. That's what I used to do before the outbreak. I was a flash mob choreographer and strip aerobics instructor."
Carl looked at her, confused. "Flash mob?" He knew better than to ask about the strip aerobics.
"Yes, it's when a group of people get together in a public place and start dancing to a routine. It's pretty funny. I started doing it after I retired from figure skating. Almost made it to the Olympics. I wish I could re-do that one." She heavily sighed, knowing there was no way to fix the past. "Come on, let me show you the backyard before we go back to Home Base." They walked outside. The land was just as wide as the front was. There were even more trees and a vegetable garden, just like in the prison, along with lawn chairs, umbrellas, a BBQ grill, and a huge hard top wading pool with a cover on the top. "The pool is only used under adult supervision and when it's hot enough. Apart from gardening, we use this area for target practice. Round up some walkers and time how long it takes to kill them. There's always room for improvement. There's also underground coolers." She lifted a lid off of a hole in the ground to reveal cool drinks. "How were you able to get ice?" This all seemed a little too perfect.
"Not every place was blacked out, there was still running electricity and freezers. It's how we got the ice, that and there's a refrigerator/freezer here. Would you like a drink?"
"Water is fine." She dug around in the cooler and threw out two ice cold bottles, watching as the boys downed them in less than a minute. "Whoa, slow down! You'll get a stomachache if you drink too fast." They shared a brief laugh before Delilah pointed to the towers across the way. "Those are the solar and thermal towers. There's these salts in the machines, so there's electricity at night still, but the rooftops were all lined with mirrors when we got here."
At this point, Jellbany blew Woodbury off the map.
"You're behind all this?" Rick couldn't believe that this young girl had managed to create a utopia paradise. She turned back to face them.
"I've had some help, but I'm a natural leader and am filled with ideas. Everybody contributes, I can't stress that enough, and it counts, but the final decisions are left up to me. We live a life of luxury amongst the zombies, and you can, too, if you decide to stay." Delilah beamed at them. She had them both intrigued and wanting to know more. "Ok, let's go see everybody!" She walked off, leaving Rick and Carl in a daze.
"Dad, what do you think so far?"
"I think Delilah is a very nice girl with a good head on her shoulders, things seem to be fine for the most part. I know you like her." He elbowed his son, they both exchanged a smile and a laugh. "What do you think?"
"I think we should stay. Can we?" They had been nomads again for a month, they needed as much normalcy as could be obtained, and Jellbany would be a pretty great start.
"We'll see, Carl. Let's talk to Maggie and everybody else, find out what they think."
Home Base
The trio walked up to the blacked out building. Delilah turned back to them, sensing the apprehension. "It's going to be ok, I promise. We don't bite. Everybody is really excited to meet you. Plus, I have a surprise for you both."
They looked at her, once again, confused. "You do?"
She nodded. "Yes, it's something I didn't mention earlier. and I feel like an idiot. Will you forgive me?"
"It depends on what it is. Show us first and we'll decide." Rick couldn't even begin to visualize what it was, but was praying they weren't walking into a trap. Except how would Delilah have obtained all that information on them? The only ones that knew were Maggie and Glenn, with Glenn being one of the last surviving Atlanta members and Maggie from the farm. Unless it was Carol, but she wouldn't have known about The Governor attacking the prison, except what if she had been watching them? That was impossible, he saw her drive in the opposite direction. His head was now swimming, he took a deep breath, trying to relax himself, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
"Ok." Delilah pulled out a walkie talkie. "Lila Loo to Bull Rider, round up Gleggie, Tyressha, and Bob and bring them in the lobby. Do you copy?"
There was a brief silence before hearing the walkie crackle and Madison's voice on the other end. "Bull Rider to Lila Loo, Roger that! Over and Out!"
"Those are nicknames we call them. Ready?" Delilah asked as she put the walkie away.
"Yes." They were as ready as they would ever be, and if anything were to happen, they had their weapons to attack. To be honest, this "surprise" had them a little on edge again. What could it possibly be?
Delilah opened the double doors and they followed her inside. The lobby had grey and blue tile floors, with a glass elevator and lots of plush furniture, as well as a huge wrap around desk. "The building is five floors and surrounded by more driveway alarms. The first floor is mostly used for storage with the extra office desks and chairs, we also have the toiletries, cleaning supplies, and food. Every room and floor has a mini stockpile of electronics, weapons, and medical supplies on hand like you saw in Inventory Range, as does Leisure Zone. The elevators still work, but we don't like to use them too often in case somebody gets stuck. The other four floors are used as bedrooms, but everybody prefers to be all together on the top floor. Each office has a bathroom with a shower and a closet, we have makeshift beds with air mattresses or what we found when we went on a raid to The Sleep Shoppe some time back. I've already picked out and organized your rooms. They're right next to each other, and a couple of rooms down from mine, which happens to be the master office suite. Showers have to be under ten minutes, every day starts at 9:45, bedtime for the kids is 8:00 pm and for the adults it's 11:00 pm. You can have the latter time, Carl." Before he could reply, she heard a bunch of shuffling. "Here comes everybody now." Delilah smiled and stepped aside as Madison came down with Maggie, Glenn, Tyresse, Sasha, and Bob. When both parties saw each other, their faces broke out into laughing smiles and their eyes started tearing up.
"Rick! Carl!"
"Maggie!"
"Glenn!"
They ran towards one another and collided in a mass of hugs, laughs, and happy tears. It was surreal, that they were together again, but it wouldn't be complete until they found everybody else. That would be the only way they'd be a family again. Delilah watched it all with a huge smile on her face, her heart swelling with pride that she accomplished something so huge and made such a selfless sacrifice for others. She turned her head to the side and blinked, letting two tear drops fall. It had been a long time since she cried. Madison walked over to her. "You ok?" She asked, wrapping an arm around her friend. Delilah nodded and smiled.
"I'm great."
Rick let go and stared at Maggie and Glenn, they were all still crying. "I can't believe this! We didn't know if we'd ever see you again!" Now that Delilah had been telling the truth, the boys felt more relaxed.
"So did we! We owe it all to Delilah over here." Maggie turned over and looked at her. "Thank you, again."
"You're wel-" Maggie swooped her up into a tight hug, which Delilah returned. In the past month, Maggie and Delilah had become very close, almost like sisters. Sadly, Delilah had a feeling once Beth was found, that would be gone, but she hoped not. They released from the hug. "You're welcome." She lowered her voice, almost to a whisper. "Except for what we discussed earlier, I didn't tell them."
Maggie's eyes grew wide. "You didn't?"
Delilah shook her head. "No, I figured it would be better coming from you."
"What's going on?" Carl asked. The uneasy feeling was increasing. What if Maggie and the rest had turned on them or something? She took a deep breath before speaking.
"Judith is alive. Lizzie took her out of the car seat and grabbed her onto the bus. She's here."
Rick and Carl now went wide eyed. The past hour and a half was unreal, but to find out that Judith was alive this whole time? Why had Delilah kept it a secret? Rick looked over at her.
"When you found us, why didn't you say that Judith was here all along?"
Both Rick and Carl were discombobulated and didn't know whether to be angry or thrilled. Delilah looked sad and guilty, but came up with an answer she hoped would suffice.
"My main focus was getting you here. I wasn't sure if telling you about Judith would be the right move, you might consider it a ploy, which is why I waited until we got back for your group to tell you. It would be more believable coming from them since I'm pretty much an outsider to you. I'm really, really sorry."
Once she broke it down, it actually did make sense in a way. Of course they were more inclined to believe about Judith coming from Glenn or Maggie. Delilah was strategic, but still truthful and had good intentions. After all, she had brought them back together, and was proving herself more and more.
"I see your point, more or less. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with it, but I think we can forgive you. How could we not? You've reunited us again. Thank you so much."
Delilah smiled proudly, relieved they weren't too angry. "You're welcome."
"Next time, just tell them everything. It'll make things a lot easier." Glenn said, and she nodded.
"You got it. Why don't you guys head to Leisure Zone? I'm going to show Rick and Carl their living quarters, it's almost time for breakfast, anyway. We'll catch up."
"Awesome possum, cherry blossom! C'mon, gang. Let's go fry up some taters and whip us some flapjacks!" Everybody shared a laugh before heading out. Rick immediately noticed how comfortable the others were around Delilah and Madison. Although he had a perfectly good reason, the second guessing needed to simmer down. It was rubbing off on Carl, and Delilah had done nothing wrong except for holding back about Judith. They followed Delilah up the stairs to the fifth floor, which was carpeted in dark blue with more Jelly Belly designs. That would eventually get boring in all it's redundancy. All of the offices were right next to each other, with the doors closed. Each door was decorated with different posters and name tags. Rick and Carl followed Delilah to two rooms near the end of the hall.
"This will be your room, Carl. Every single office has an adjoining door, so you'll all be connected to each other. There's also some posters and decals, you can decorate the walls however you want. Same for your room, Rick." She walked through the adjoining door, leaving them to inspect the room. It was baby blue with grey carpets, an air mattress on a makeshift bed with black sheets and a comforter, an office cabinet converted into a dresser bureau across from the bed, a closet off to right side of the adjoining door that had fresh clothes, and the bathroom door was on the left side of the bed, along with battery operated lights in the corner of each room. The bathroom had a sink with a mirrored medicine cabinet, a toilet, and a sizeable shower. Both the shower and cabinet were stocked with toiletries, as promised. Carl noticed on the bureau that there was a display of various action figures and comic books.
"Whoa, Dad! Check it out! Transformers and Marvel!" He started messing around with the toys and flipping through the comic books, Rick lightly chuckling, glad to see there was still a bit of a child in his son.
"Here's your baby girl." Delilah said in a sing song voice. Rick and Carl froze before turning around, seeing Judith wrapped up in a pink blanket in Delilah's arms. She looked exactly the same but a little bit bigger, her reddish brown hair a little longer. She looked at them for a few moments before her green eyes sparkled and she started smiling, indicating that even after being separated for a month, she still remembered her father and big brother.
"Judith!" Rick and Carl both started tearing up. Jellbany could have been a total dump, but they had now received the grand prize, which was being reunited with Judith. Delilah walked over to them and gently handed the baby to Rick, who held her tightly to his chest and kissed her face all over. "We're back together, sweetheart. I promise that Daddy and Carl will never get separated from you again." Carl stroked her hair and kissed her head. They saw she was wearing a white long sleeved shirt and a lavender jumper with floral print on it.
"She's an absolute angel, Rick. I hope when I have kids, they're as easy as her and Dominick." Her smile widened, this Hallmark moment sent her happiness levels skyrocketing. It was obvious that the little blunder of her holding back was long forgotten.
Rick looked over at her, letting the tears flow. "Thank you, again, Delilah. For everything."
Her smile was still in tact, keeping it there so she could hold back the tears that were threatening to escape. "It was no problem. My pleasure, really. I just wanted to help."
"Well, you did. In more ways than one."
Carl walked up and gave her a hug. Delilah hesitated, but hugged him back. It wasn't that she wasn't affectionate, but she was surprised that Carl was hugging her, he seemed to be kind of reserved. He couldn't help but notice his body was beginning to get excited when it came into contact with hers, and released before she noticed anything. Whatever it was, he wondered if he would experience it again in the future, whomever it may be with. Carl stepped back and over to Rick, who handed Judith to him.
"I've been working on something with her." She walked over to Rick and bent down a little in front of Judith, with her hands on her knees, and her voice changed to a sweet tone, similar to baby talk. "Judith, can you say "Daddy"?" There was a brief silence, the three of them in anticipation, before Judith opened her mouth.
"Da-ddy."
The boys gasped and started laughing, Carl jumped up a little with his fist pumped in the air as Rick hugged the baby to his chest. "Oh, my gosh! You taught her to speak?!" Rick was worried that this was all a dream, that he'd wake up and be camped out back in the cul-de-sac again, but it wasn't. They were finally home. Delilah nodded.
"Yep, and how to walk. There's one more." She turned back to the baby. "Can you say "Carl"?"
"Car-rl."
The laughter and smiles continued, Delilah was overwhelmed by the amount of pride and love in the room.
"This has all been so unbelievable, we really can't thank you enough."
"Again, there's no need whatsoever. Come on, I'll show you your room, then mine."
They all walked through Judith's room, which was decorated in pink and purple with lots of toys and stuffed animals, into Rick's room. It looked the same as Carl's but with black walls and blue furniture. "There's also shaving cream and razors, in case you want to shave, Grizzly Adams."
Rick chuckled. "I think I just might."
Delilah was glad that she managed to break them out of their comfort zone a bit. They went from Rick's room to the end of the hall. Delilah stepped aside for them to walk in.
"And this, is my room. The Princess Suite."
Delilah's room did indeed look fit for a princess. The walls were covered in various music and movie posters, and the furniture was all pink. Her bed looked to be about king sized with a leopard faux fur comforter and six pink and blue pillows, a white canopy hung above the bed, the whole room seemed to sparkle. What caught Rick's eye was the massive collection of purses, shoes, and jewelry that were poking out of the closet. There had to be at least a dozen of every single top designer haute couture brand.
"Where did you-"
Delilah cut them off. "I know what you're thinking. After being abandoned by my sister and Billy, I was so angry that I ransacked all the abandoned high end designer stores in Texas. It was pretty picked over, which is why I went to Atlanta, for the shopping! That and the CDC, I figured Georgia would be the best place to be in the event of a cure coming to light. Sadly, there's still a trace of a spoiled and materialistic brat with expensive taste in me, but I think I've more than made up for it. Consider it nothing more than angry power shopping for therapeutic purposes."
After all the good she had done, this was something hardly worth judging over, just took them by surprise.
"It's fine, we don't think anything of it."
Delilah smiled. "Good to know. You guys are probably exhausted. Why don't you hop in the shower and get cleaned up? I'll bring breakfast up to you and you can take a nap?"
"That sounds good, but we'll join everybody else." Rick was eager to meet the others, but a nice hot shower was way too inviting to resist.
"Are you sure? It's not a problem, really."
He shook his head. "No, that's alright. You've already gone out of your way for us enough. We hope to repay the favor."
Delilah smiled. "I'm sure you will. You can start by staying here. How's it looking so far?"
"Pretty good, we'll see what happens when we find the others." The chances of them staying were looking really good, but Rick didn't want to get her hopes up if they changed their minds.
"That's all I can ask. I'm going to go wake everybody up and get the day started. I'll come back and get you in about an hour, hour and a half?"
"Sounds good."
"Ok, see you then."
"Bye, Delilah. Thank you again."
"You're welcome, Carl. Bye, Rick."
"Bye."
They all walked out of her room and their separate ways, Rick and Carl going to put Judith down in her room while Delilah went to the end of the hall to start waking up the others.
An Hour and a Half Later…
Rick stood in front of the mirror, freshly showered and shaved. He felt exhilarated and looked even better, it was the first time he had seen his face beardless in almost a year, and he preferred the look. Clean shaven looked well with his longish hair also. The clothes Delilah had in the closet fit perfectly, he selected jeans, a red, white, and blacked checkered flannel shirt with a black t-shirt, and black and white sneakers. His thoughts were interrupted by Delilah softly knocking on the door.
"Can I come in?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." There was something about her, whether it be her beauty, intelligence, or charm, whatever it was, it made him a bit jumpy. After Lori's death, he hadn't allowed himself to think about being with another woman, even though he was only human and had urges and needs like any other male. It had been close to a year since Lori passed away, if this were the real world again, it would be about time for Rick to get back into dating. He thought Delilah was stunning, but could he really get involved with her? She had a lot of outstanding traits that he looked for in a woman, but he was sixteen years older than her! She was still a baby, he was old enough to be her father, and she was closer to Carl's age than his own. Rick knew Carl had a little crush on her, but it was impossible for them to be together, and it couldn't be anything more than that, just a crush. He knew Carl would come around, maybe he'd take an interest in one of the other girls. Besides, a girl like Delilah could have any guy she desired, she wouldn't want to go after a widower with two kids. Rick nervously began stacking everything back in the medicine cabinet as Delilah walked in.
"Everything okay? How are the clothes fitting?"
"Everything's perfect, the clothes fit well. Thank you again." He closed the mirror and turned around to face her, he watched as her face lit up in a huge smile.
"Wow! You look incredible!"
"Thanks." Rick smiled and chuckled nervously.
"I almost didn't recognize you. Can I touch your face?"
It seemed a bit ludicrous, but also so innocent at the same time.
"Sure, I suppose so."
"Thanks. My father never let us touch his face or his hair as kids, so every chance I get to touch some other guy's, I go for it. It's unusual, I know." Rick couldn't think of what father wouldn't let their kid touch their face or hair, maybe they were just different kinds of fathers. She walked over and began rubbing her hands up and down his face. "So smooth. What do you know, The Beast has turned back into a prince."
They both broke out into a short laugh, followed by an awkward silence. Delilah's hands were still on his face, making his heart beat accelerate as he gazed into her eyes. She looked a little nervous, but also amorous, before leaning in and kissing him softly on the lips…
THEY KISSED! THEY KISSED! WILL RICK RECIPROCATE AND HOW WILL CARL REACT?! THEY'RE FINALLY REUNITED WITH SOME OF THE GROUP! WILL IT BE FOR LONG? WILL THEY STAY IN JELLBANY? HOW WILL THE OTHER INHABITANTS INTERACT WITH RICK AND CARL? WHEN WILL THE OTHERS BE FOUND? JUDITH IS ALIVE! FYI: I SCREWED UP BY NOT MENTIONING EARLIER ABOUT HOW SHE FOUND THEM AND THAT JUDITH WAS ALWAYS IN JELLBANY, I CAME UP WITH THE IDEAS MIDWAY, SO I TRIED TO CLARIFY AND SUM IT UP HERE. PLUS, JUDITH IS ABOUT NINE OR TEN MONTHS OLD, IF NOT OLDER, BUT EITHER WAY, OLD ENOUGH TO BE LEARNING OR ALREADY HAVE LEARNED TO WALK AND TALK. THE PART WHERE SHE TOUCHES HIS FACE IS BASED OFF OF ME AND MY DAD NEVER LETTING ME TOUCH HIS FACE OR HAIR SO I TOUCH EVERY OTHER GUY'S. ;P FIND OUT ALL THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE IN CHAPTER FIVE: MIXED COMPANY, COMING SOON!
BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE STORY FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!
PLEASE READ AND REVIEW AND SPREAD THE WORD, ESPECIALLY SINCE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! NO FLAMES!
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Forever Rising Phoenix