Don't Fear The Reaper (R. Grimes & D. Dixon)

16

It's been months of traveling from place to place and scavenging, just trying to survive. Lori was nine months pregnant and ready to pop any day, her and Rick's relationship was always on edge before, but now he hardly looked at her or even acknowledged she existed. Lori and kits relationship was rocky at best most days, especially when Lori would bring up Shane. Those days usually led to Daryl being her shoulder to cry on literally at night. Even on her good days, you would still find the two together or nearby the next morning.

Kit walked back into the living room after helping take out a body from the house they cleared. She raised an eyebrow at Daryl, who was standing, plucking feathers out of an owl. she passed Rick and Lori, the latter hovering over rick, begging with her eyes for him to look at her

"where'd you find that?" she whispered, chuckling.

"jus sittin on a chair. beggin to be hit," he whispered, giving her a small smile

she hummed "better save me some," she said, patting his chest as she grabbed a feather before walking to the living room; Daryl followed, sitting next to her. Kit watched Daryl as he worked quickly. She could never pluck that fast. a loud bang startled her as she whipped her eyes to an open can of dog food rolling out of the fireplace, rick standing in front of it. She and Daryl looked at each other with raised brows.

"psst," t-dog hissed, getting everyone's attention as he nodded out the window to the approaching walkers. Kit sighed as they all grabbed their stuff. The location being yet another bust in a long list. They moved in a group quickly and quietly exiting the house, kit and Daryl leading bows ready as they quickly loaded back in the cars. Kit tossed her bow in the Hyundai as she passed to daryls bike, another thing that has become a constant over the months. It had begun to feel weird when they weren't riding together.

When they stopped again, it was miles away to regroup and look at the map for another location for possible shelter.

"We got no place left to go."

"when this herd meets up with this one, we'll be cut off. we'll never make it south" maggie points to the marked herds they've encountered

"what would you say, 150 head?" Daryl asks, leaning against the car next to kit

"That was last week. could be twice that by now."

"river could have delayed them" kit points to one blocking a path

"maybe so. if we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through there." Hershel points out the area near where kit indicated where one would have been blocked

"yeah, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way," t-dog points out

"the only thing to do is double back at 27 and swing towards Greenville."

"We picked through that already. we've spent all winter going round in circles," kit sighed.

"yeah, I know, I know at Newnan we'll push west. we haven't been through there yet. We can't keep going house to house. Need to find someplace to hole up for a few weeks." rick said, looking back at Lori, who was staring off into the distance.

"Right, well, I'll head to the creek before we head out. It won't take long; we gotta fill up on water. We can boil it later." kit said, t-dog following, leaving Hershel to deal with Lori. The older man being a complete saint about the situation after sitting kit down and having a heart-to-heart to find out why she wanted nothing to do with Lori or the baby.

When kit and Theodore returned, they were greeted with an excited rick filled with confidence she hadn't seen in him for over a year. With a plan and their new home location. A prison.