Violent Delights¹︎ | D.Dixon

2.03 ➸

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CHAPTER THREE
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          LEONA STUCK WITH LORI AFTER Shane and Rick decided to stay back at the church to continue the search, Carl remaining with them. The rest of the group walked the other side of the creek bed, deciding it was time to head back to camp.

Leona was tired. Her legs ached, her feet felt bruised despite wearing her boots, and the collar of her shirt was beginning to stick to the thin lining of sweat along her skin. She was only 33, but felt like 60 as her back began to ache with a vengeance like no other.

To top it all off, her back was aching and her chest hurt, all signs of an impending menstrual cycle with terrible timing.

Glancing over at her sister-in-law, she could tell she was just as uncomfortable as she was, and there was a weariness in the way she moved that told her they were in the exact same boat.

If Leona had know there would've been so much physical activity at the end of the world, she would've used her gym membership more.

She and Lori made up the back of the pack with Daryl leading and Glenn right behind him. Carol was after, and then Andrea directly in front of them. Despite the small interaction they had earlier, Andrea had been shooting glares in their direction for the last ten or so minutes.

The others had glanced back at the pair as well, the doubt clear in their features, but nothing near the anger that Andrea had been sending in their direction. But Leona knew why. Daryl had given Lori his spare gun after Rick had offered his. Lori hadn't wanted him unarmed and, to spare them all from the exchange they knew it would turn into with Andrea watching, Daryl offered up his spare. Lori had taken it and tucked it into her waistband to make Rick feel better.

Leona did her best to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Lori, or offer her a supportive glance any time Andrea or one of the others looked back at them.

It didn't bother Leona, really. She understood them to some degree. If the situations were flipped and she didn't know Rick the way that she did, she wasn't all that sure she would trust him, either. Although, in her mind, that didn't give them the right to treat her and Lori any differently. Even Daryl had been sending Leona uncertain glances, the doubt in his mind in relation to her brother loud and clear.

"So this is it?" Carol sat down onto a log, the exhaustion they were all feeling from walking all day beginning to win her over. Seizing the opportunity for a break, Leona sat down, too, a few feet from the woman. Lori sat down right beside her a second later, both of them trying to slow their breathing. "This the whole plan?"

Daryl stopped, noticing the three women had stopped. Andrea and Glenn did the same. "I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups."

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea chimed in, sending a disdainful look in Lori's direction. "I see you have a gun."

Anger started bubbling in her chest, and she moved to stand and snap something back at the woman for her bitchy tone when Lori stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She stood, grabbing the gun and holding it out towards Andrea.

"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. Us. All of you." Andrea grabbed the gun, and Lori sat back down before turning to Carol. "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through, and I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you."