Forfeit ~Shane Walsh/OC~

Chapter Fifteen

“They should have been back by now,” I whispered to Shane as the two of us walked Carl to his seat at the table.

“They just got holed up somewhere. We’ll head out first thing in the morning,” Shane said as he pulled a chair out for me and then for himself.

“Carl, keep your head up okay?” I told him as I rubbed his head.

“Yeah, lemme tell you. He’s the toughest son of a-” Shane started but Patricia cut him off.

“No cussing in the house,” she said.

“Sorry,” Shane apologized then smiled at Carl and me and the two of us giggled.

“Lori, dinner,” Carol hollered into the next room.

“She’s not in there,” Maggie told her.

“Where is she?” Dale asked. We all looked around at each other wondering who was the last to see her.

“Carl, when was the last time you saw your mom?” Shane asked him.

“This afternoon,” Carl answered.

“She was worried about Rick and asked me to look in on Carl. We’ve been hanging out since then,” I told Shane and his face turned worried.

“She went after them?” Dale asked.

“No, I didn’t say that,” I told him.

“Nobody panic. I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” Shane said and we all got up and started looking for her.

*****

“We can’t find Lori. And the others aren’t back yet either,” I said out of breath as I approached Daryl’s small camp.

“The dumb bitch must have gone off looking for them,” he said poking his fire.

“What?” I asked.

“She asked me to go. I told her I was done being an errand boy,” he explained.

“And you didn’t say anything?” I asked him with my hands on my hips. He stayed silent as he kept poking his fire. “Don’t do this,” I told him.

“Don’t do what? We ain’t doing this again. I’m not your best friend. Don’t come to me with your problems anymore,” he snapped standing up and getting close to me.

“I’ve never come to you, Daryl. You’re the one prying in on my business. You’re the one asking me questions about Shane and my marriage. I’ve never come to you for anything,” I told him, getting even closer to him. If this is how he communicates then I’ll play along. He got quiet for a minute. I started to walk away but he stopped me and grabbed my arm. “What do you want to know now, Daryl? Wanna know what Dale told me today? Or how Shane feels about Lori being pregnant? You wanna know why Shane took the barn down or how I feel about-” Daryl cut me off with his lips crashing onto mine again. I pushed him away quickly. “You just said we ain’t doing this, Daryl,” I said as I whipped my mouth with my hand and stormed off toward our camp.

“She’s not at the barn,” I heard Shane say as I got closer.

“I checked the yards,” T-Dog told the group.

“Well, where is she?” Carl asked worried about his mother.

“She asked Daryl to go into town,” I told them what Daryl had told me. “Must’ve gone herself.” Carl started crying and stormed off into his tent.

“Did you know about this?” Shane asked Dale.

“No I wouldn’t let her go out there alone,” Dale told him. Shane quickly jumped in his car and took off. I rolled my eyes, annoyed with how worried he was about her. I turned on my heels and walked right back up to Daryl’s camp.