Jimmy was gone. The young man's screams echoed through the R.V. as the dead poured in, taking him as their first victim. Lauren's heart ached with guilt as she turned her back on him, but she knew if she stayed in the vehicle a moment longer she would meet the same fate.
While the walkers were still focused on Jimmy, Lauren managed to lock herself in the small bathroom and somehow hoisted herself through the sunroof.
She was out of immediate danger for the time being. Now the question was, how the hell was she supposed to get off the roof and back to her family?
Lauren watched the vehicles peel out of the farm one by one, desperately wishing they would turn back for her. The sound of a bike engine fading away hurt the most.
Once the realization hit that she really was on her own, her brain immediately went into survival mode. She remembered the story Glenn had told her the first night Rick joined. How they had escaped the city masking their scent with walker guts and were able to pass through the horde. As disgusting as it was, it was seemingly her only option.
Quietly dropping back through the sunroof, she cracked the door of the bathroom just a bit, enough to pull one of the dead inside with her. After quickly stabbing the skull of the walker, she took a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for what she was about to do.
Pulling her hood on and zipping up her sweatshirt all the way, she covered her nose with one hand and plunged her knife into the belly of the corpse with the other. The insides of the walker spilled out onto the floor and the putrid smell confined in the small space was enough to make her gag.
Doing her best not to puke, she smeared the thick liquid all over her hoodie, careful not to get it on her skin. She wasn't sure exactly how the infection worked and she wasn't willing to risk it. She pulled the hood over her head, spreading the guts over the top of her head as well. She had to stop several times and gag before she felt satisfied enough with the application.
She clutched her knife, trying to psych herself up for what she was about to do. It was a crazy plan, she knew that, but it was the only plan she had. She took a breath, tugging her hood down further on her head and opening the door. She took a step out into the RV, fully accepting the fact that she could be stepping out onto her death. To her surprise, she wasn't pounced on and torn apart like she had feared. In fact, there were only two walkers that remained in the RV. She moved slowly, taking small steps until she reached the front of the vehicle. Her stomach churned when she saw the blood smeared and splattered all across the window and front seats. She had to blink back tears when she spotted Jimmy's body outside the RV. The horde had dragged the boy's lifeless corpse out onto the grass in front of the camper, pieces of his insides were scattered on the lawn. A group of the dead was crowded around him, still tearing him apart to feast on his flesh.
With a large portion of the dead distracted, Lauren was able to slip out of the RV, slowly making her way towards the woods, figuring she could slip into the trees and find the road from there. She tried to ignore the guilt that pooled in the pit of her stomach. Jimmy was only in the RV because she had asked for his help. His death was on her.
The pit in her stomach grew worse when she looked ahead at the sea of walkers she would have to get through if she wanted to make it to the woods. She moved slowly, still clutching her knife in her hand, trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible. So far the whole scent-masking plan seemed to be working, but she wasn't about to lull herself into a false sense of security, there was no telling if or when the dead would figure out she wasn't one of them.
She made it about three-quarters of the way across the field before something went wrong. Somehow, one of the dead had caught a whiff of her very much alive smell. She tried to shuffle away but it just followed her, drawing the attention of another walker nearby.
"Shit." She cursed to herself as she realized there was no way she would make it all the way to the trees with these walkers on her ass. The first geek lunged at her and she did the only thing she could do, plunging her knife into the skull. Unfortunately, that move caught the attention of several other walkers, drawing them away from the herd and towards her. She yanked her knife out of the skull of the first walker, whipping around and taking down the closest one before taking off in a dead sprint towards the forest.
Before she could reach the trees, however, she was knocked off her feet. From out of seemingly nowhere, one of the walkers that had broken away from the herd had lunged at her hard enough to knock them both to the ground. She swung her knife wildly as her back hit the grass, knocking the wind out of her. She was just hoping and praying it would somehow make its way to the brain of her attacker. Unfortunately, it did not. The blade sunk deep into the neck of the walker that was now on top of her.
"Fuck." She hissed, yanking to no avail at the handle of her knife with one hand and trying her best to push away the body on top of her with the other. It was plunged too deep into the walker's flesh for her to pull out and her arm was burning from the effort of keeping the dead's clamping jaws at bay. The dead were closing in around her fast but she was nearly to the trees, if she could only make it a little further she would be home free. She felt tears of panic and frustration well up in her eyes as she looked up at the herd closing in on her.
Great, just great. Alone, covered in guts, weaponless, and crying. She thought to herself. What a pathetic way to die...
~~~
Daryl dropped Carol off a few miles out on the side of the road, leaving her with his gun.
"Just stay quiet and shoot if anything happens, I'll hear." It was reckless. Carol was terrified and had just learned how to use a gun, he shouldn't have left her alone. But he was only thinking about one thing at that moment; Lauren.
He told himself he was doing it for Carl. That if she was really dead, the boy deserved that closure. But deep down he knew that wasn't the reason. That girl had done something to him. He wasn't sure what he felt for her or how she managed to make him feel that way and as much as he hated to admit it, it scared the hell out of him. But what scared him even more was the thought of losing her.
He sped back down the road, turning onto the dirt driveway of the Greene farm. The barn was still burning, the glow of the flames illuminating the hundreds of bodies roaming the property. His heart sunk when he scanned the field and saw no signs of her or any living person for that matter.
"Lauren!" He shouted, not even bothered by the fact that his yelling would most definitely catch the attention of the dead. "C'mon, woman, where are ya?"
The RV. The last place he saw her was in the RV with Jimmy. He put the kickstand down on his bike, leaving it on the dirt road away from the herd, and took off towards the burning barn where the RV was parked. The blood smeared on the inside of the windows wasn't promising and as Daryl approached he got a sinking feeling in his stomach when he saw a body just outside the RV door.
As horrible as it may sound, Daryl couldn't help but feel relieved when he got closer and realized the body belonged to Jimmy. He was almost unrecognizable with two walkers crouched down, peeling chunks of flesh from his mangled body. It was a ghastly sight, nevertheless, it wasn't Lauren.
He ran back across the field, heart racing with adrenaline. She had made it out. Well, at least made it out of the RV. But there were no vehicles left on the farm that he knew of, so where the hell was she?
"Lauren!" He shouted again, hopping over the fence and jogging back towards his bike. He stopped short when he spotted one walker in particular a few yards away from him. It was a bit separated from the rest of the herd, with something odd sticking out of its neck.
"What the hell?" He mumbled, loading his crossbow and firing a bolt into the skull of the dead. The body dropped and Daryl made his way across the field, hoping he wouldn't find what he thought he would. His heart sank when he knelt down and pulled the knife from the corpse's neck. Laurens knife.
He tried to push down the emotions bubbling up in his throat. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be. But if she was alive then where the hell was she? Running through the forest weaponless? Or bleeding out somewhere in the grass? Imagining any of those scenarios made his chest tighten in worry. He was about to head back out into the field to look for her again when a shot rang out. It wasn't close, it sounded like it must've come from the road.
His mind suddenly snapped out of the almost daze he was in, finally allowing him to focus on more than just the thought of Lauren. Carol.
Jumping back onto his bike, he raced back down the dirt path and onto the main road. It took maybe five minutes for him to reach the area he had left her. Pulling off to the side of the road, he parked the bike and hopped off.
"Carol?" He called quietly, not wanting to draw more walkers to the area. "Y'aight?"
Carol emerged from the shadows, stepping out from behind one of the large trees. She looked terrified but relatively unharmed.
"I-I'm okay." She stammered out. "There was just one that came out of the trees, I got it though."
Daryl glanced over to where she was gesturing to and saw a walker on the ground, a bullet hole in its head. He had to admit he was impressed.
"You didn't find her?" Carol asked meekly.
Daryl felt his chest tighten again. "What?"
"Lauren... that's why you went back, right? To look for her." She took a step forward, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I went back to see if there was any of our people left." He lied. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to admit going back just for her, it made him feel ridiculous. "There weren't."
He shifted uncomfortably when a small sob came from Carol. She muffled her cry with her hand. Daryl wasn't sure what to do, he had no idea how to be of any help in comforting anyone. The only experience he had with comfort was when his Dad and Merle would tell him to "get over it" or "man up", but he was pretty sure neither of those phrases would be helpful in his current situation.
"We should get goin'." Daryl cleared his throat awkwardly. "It ain't safe to stay here."
Carol sniffled, looking up at him with watery eyes. "Where do we go?"
"M' bettin' Rick headed back to the highway. Seems like our best bet." Daryl guessed, nodding his head towards the bike. "C'mon."
~~~
Lauren's lungs burned as she stumbled through the trees, suddenly regretting all the times she had passed up the invitations to morning runs from her best friend before the world ended. She wasn't sure exactly how long she had been running but long enough for the sun to begin to rise. Pinned down by the walker she had somehow managed to wriggle out from underneath it and scramble into the treeline before the rest of the herd could pounce on her. On the downside, she'd had to leave her knife behind, still lodged in the neck of the dead.
Now here she was, tripping over roots as she made her way through the woods with no real idea of where she was going. She figured if she ran for long enough she was bound to find the road at some point... hopefully. With the darkness fading as the sun rose, it was becoming increasingly easier to see and soon enough she stumbled out of the trees and onto the side of the road.
She sank down to the ground with her back against one of the trees on the edge of the asphalt, finally giving herself a rest after an entire night of chaos. With the road as a path, she felt a hell of a lot better about actually finding her family. Having something to follow was much more promising than just stumbling blindly through the woods.
Groaning as she hoisted herself up from the ground, she let out a puff of air. If she knew her brother, she knew that the most likely place he would go would be somewhere he thought the others could find easily, so the highway was her best bet. Now her only issue was how to get herself there.
"Okay, so the sun sets in the East... or is it the West?" She thought aloud to herself. She had always been what Rick and Shane liked to call "directionally challenged". It was usually something she would laugh about and shrug off. After all, before everything went to shit, if she needed to get somewhere she would just use her car's navigation. She had never planned on being stranded in the middle of who knows where and having to boy-scout her way out of it.
"Oh, fuck it." She finally groaned, choosing a direction and hoping it was the right one.
As she walked down the road, she thought about her family. She thought about everyone that was on the farm. Who had made it out? Jimmy was gone, she knew that much, but who else had fallen victim to the dead? Lauren was never a religious girl, she's always considered herself an atheist but desperate people find faith, so after walking for a while longer, she found herself praying.
After Rick and Carl had escaped the burning barn, she had lost track of them, but she prayed they had been in one of the cars she watched leave the farm. She prayed that Maggie and Glenn had listened to her and got the hell out of there with Tank when things went bad. She prayed that T-dog and Andrea had gotten Carol, Beth, Lori, and Patricia and that they were all safe somewhere. She knew Daryl had made it off, she had heard the roar of his motorcycle as it left the scene.
After maybe a half hour of walking, she came across a traffic jam. It wasn't the same one they had come across before, this one was much milder, had fewer cars, and looked much easier to maneuver through. She made her way to one of the empty cars and let out an almost delirious laugh when she found it to be unlocked.
Thanking whatever higher power that was looking out for her, and her old college roommate that had taught her how to hotwire a car, she managed to get the engine running. As she suspected, it didn't take much work to weave her way through the pileup and soon enough she was back on track.
~~~
The bike engine rumbled as Daryl rolled up behind the green SUV and blue truck. Everyone emerged from their cars and shared a tearful reunion. Maggie and Beth rushed to their father, and Lori ran to Carl. Rick walked over to Daryl and they shared a brotherly handshake.
"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick questioned, moving over to his wife to give her a tight embrace.
"Well, those guys' tail lights zigzagging all over the road... figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." Daryl quipped playfully at Glenn.
Glenn gave a half laugh half eye roll. "Good one."
"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked, glancing around the group, scanning for the one face he was hoping to see.
"We're the only ones who have made it so far." Rick sighed.
"Shane?" Lori asked. Rick just shook his head, not meeting her gaze. Daryl couldn't say he was particularly sad about that. He never really liked Shane, since the first day they'd found camp he just seemed like kind of a dick.
"...Lauren?" Glenn asked quietly, almost like he was afraid of the answer.
They all looked around, waiting for someone to answer. Lori finally spoke. "Last I saw she was in the RV with Jimmy."
"W-what about Jimmy? Is he okay? I mean, maybe they got out together." Beth suggested hopefully.
Daryl shook his head. "RV was overrun, they got Jimmy. But I didn't see Lauren... M' gonna go back"
"We can't. It's too dangerous." Hershel said.
"We can't just leave her," Daryl said incredulously. "And what about Andrea? We gotta find her too."
"We don't even know if they're there. Either of them." Lori said.
"They aren't," Rick said. "They can't be. Hershels right, it's too dangerous."
"We gotta go back." Carl said, looking at his dad like he had grown two heads. "It's Aunt Lauren! We have to."
Rick looked like his heart was breaking as he spoke. It was clear that he wanted to go back but couldn't in good conscience send anyone back into that mess. "Carl, we can't, we just-"
Rick was cut off by the sound of a car engine approaching. The group looked around, nervously, everyone on edge. An unfamiliar car pulled up to the group and everyone immediately tensed up. Daryl thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest when Lauren stepped out of the driver's seat. Looking bloody and tired but very much alive.
Carl barreled into her, practically tackling her with a hug. She squeezed him so hard she was afraid she might actually be hurting him, but he voiced no discomfort. Tank barreled forward, letting out a few excited yelps as he sprinted over to them. Lauren laughed through tears as he ran into her full force, knocking her on her ass.
After a minute, she got up from the ground and her brother pulled her into an embrace, letting out a shaky breath as he did.
"I was so worried you didn't make it out." He told her.
She smiled tearfully. "Can't get rid of me that easily."
Rick released her and she immediately ran to Glenn, tackling him in a hug. He caught her, stumbling back a few steps with the impact but embracing her just as hard.
"You're okay." She mumbled into his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm okay." He laughed.
Lauren paused, releasing Glenn and looking around at the whole group. Her eyes lingered on Daryl for a moment, almost like she wanted to say something but decided against it. A lone walker stumbling down the road caught everyone's attention and it was agreed that they needed to get the hell out of there.
One long honk from Rick's car had Glenn braking so fast that Lauren was jolted awake, her head slamming against the back of his seat as she was thrown forward from the sudden stop.
"Shit sorry, Lauren." He apologized.
"It's cool. I needed to wake up anyway." She half laughed half groaned, holding the side of her head. Everyone exited their vehicles, leaving Tank in the backseat with a cracked window.
"We're running on fumes." Rick proclaimed.
There was some debate on what to do. They couldn't all fit in one car so that was out of the question. Maggie and Glenn offered to go out and collect fuel but Rick quickly shut them down, saying he didn't want anyone to get stranded without a car.
"Rick..." Glenn grimaced, "we're stranded now."
"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure... I really wasn't... but we did." He confessed. "We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."
"Rick, look around," Glenn argued. "There are walkers everywhere man, it's like they're migrating or something." After some more back and forth, Rick declared that their group would stay on the side of the road for the night and regroup in the morning.
"This doesn't feel right." Carol murmured and pointed out that a group like Randall's could pass through any minute.
"They found Randall." Lauren finally spoke up, her eyes not leaving their fixated spot on the ground. "Said he didn't have any bites or scratches... how is that possible?"
Lauren finally met her brother's gaze. He paused, as if unsure of what to say. It felt like an eternity before he finally spoke.
"We're all infected."
Glenn was furious. Daryl was, as always, impossible to read. Carol and Beth were terrified, Rick and Lori had gone off to "talk", and Lauren was left trying to process the information she had just gotten.
They were all infected. No matter how they died, they would inevitably become one of those monsters. And worst of all, her own brother had known all this time and he hadn't told her.
Lauren sat in silence next to the fire, knees pulled to her chest and back against a fallen log, staring into the flames, trying to lose herself in them. The flickering embers were a welcomed escape from reality. Her attention only shifted when she felt someone sit beside her on the forest floor.
"Hey, Buddy." Lauren greeted her nephew with her best fake smile.
"Mom and Dad are fighting again." He sighed.
"Shit. I'm sorry dude." She empathized. She wished she could muster up the energy to be more comforting but after the night they'd had all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and never wake up. "This whole 'end of the world' thing has been hard on them."
He scoffed, shaking his head. "Yeah it's been hard on everyone, but you don't see anyone else running around and arguing all the time"
"Everyone copes differently Carl. This shit's really hard, especially on kids like you. But when you need somebody to help or even just hang out, you know I'm here."
"I know, you always are." He said as Lauren wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
When his parents returned, both looking frustrated beyond belief, Carol spoke. "I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move now."
"Nobody's going anywhere." Rick declared
"Do something!" She yelled. The poor woman was terrified, but Rick was already upset with Lori, and Lauren could tell that Carol's comment was the final straw.
"I am doing something!" He exploded. "I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"
Lauren's eyes widened as she grasped what he had just said. Her brother had killed his best friend. One of her best friends. The man Carl called his uncle. Her heart sank. She and Shane had hit a rough patch in their relationship for sure, but he was still her brother... losing him felt like a blow to the chest. She knew he had been erratic lately but she figured it had just been the pressure of leading for so long. What the hell happened in those woods?
Everyone else must have been trying to process it as well as it was silent for a moment.
"You saw what he was like," Rick continued, "how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing and led me out there to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice."
He was nearly in tears now, though Lauren couldn't tell if they were from anger or sorrow. "He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean."
Carl was sobbing into Lauren's shoulder at this point, and the rest of the group had looks of both shock and fear on their faces.
"Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe... maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe... maybe I'm fooling myself again." He threw his hands up in a mocking manner. "Why don't you... Why don't you go and find out for yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door." It was silent as he paused.
Okay dramatic much?
"No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying? This isn't a democracy anymore."
Lauren couldn't sleep. After Rick's big speech, everyone had sort of dispersed, staying within the confines of the small makeshift camp they had set up for the night but separating enough to where they weren't on top of one another. She looked down at Carl who was asleep, his head resting on his mother's lap and jacket draped over the top of his body.
She pulled her knees to her chest, looking around at the rest of her people as she sat beside the dying fire. Almost everyone was asleep, or at least pretending to be, Lauren suspected that no one really felt like letting their guard down enough to get any actual rest but was too exhausted to do any talking. She saw the archers silhouette on the edge of the small camp, sitting against a large oak tree and presumably keeping watch. She slowly got up from her place by the fire, careful not to disturb her nephew as she did. Lauren made her way over to the tree. Daryl barely moved when she reached him, he simply turned to look at her briefly before returning his gaze to the forest in front of them.
Lauren sunk onto the forest floor beside him, leaning her back against the large trunk as well. It was silent, the only noise coming from the crackling fire and wilderness surrounding them. Lauren fiddled with a loose thread on her jeans, unsure of how to start any sort of conversation.
"You need somethin'?" Daryl asked, almost as if he was annoyed by her mere presence.
"No." She didn't look at him when she spoke, keeping her gaze fixed on the thread in her fingers.
Daryl cleared his throat awkwardly after a moment, fiddling with something on his waistband before turning to her and holding something out in his hand. "Here."
Lauren's brows furrowed as she looked at what he was holding. "Is that my knife? Where the hell did you get this?"
"Found it shoved in some dead prick's neck." He shrugged, not looking at her fully.
"Yeah, but, you left before I even got outta the RV. Did you... did you go back?" Lauren's eyes widened in genuine shock.
He shrugged again. "Went back to make sure we didn't leave nobody."
"Thank you," Lauren said sincerely, looking down at the knife before letting out a small laugh. "Y'know, for someone who gets on my ass about running into dangerous situations so much, you... sure like to run into dangerous situations yourself."
"That's different, you got Carl and Rick and Glenn... people that need you here." He said.
"Well, so do you." She said, furrowing her brows again.
Daryl scoffed. "Ain't nobody here that needs me."
"Yes, we do... I do." She said the last part softly, almost to herself, looking down at her jeans again and not meeting his gaze.
Daryl stared at her. Had he heard her correctly? She needed him? He opened his mouth to respond but no words came out.
"Thank you again for the knife." Lauren said, clearing her throat and getting up. She started to walk away before pausing. "And try to get some sleep, you look like shit."
A small smile crept onto his face at her comment. He could almost hear her smirk as she said it before making her way back over to the fire.
Lauren sunk against the log, looking down at Carl who was still sound asleep next to her. She smiled to herself, seeing the peaceful look on his face. It seemed like the only time anyone seemed to look at ease these days was in sleep.
She sighed. They had made it through the spring, but the worst was yet to come. Winter was just around the corner and with no food, plan, or place to call home, she knew it would be hard. But there was no doubt in her mind that they were gonna make it, they had to... they were Grimes, after all.