Trying to Make It Right

Life According to Lori

          Lori stared at the group of vehicles being loaded, her mind the clearest that it had been a while, wondering just what she was going to do now. On one hand going along with the group, no matter how much she hated seeing Rick with that hick and the state of her marriage, was the best idea. This world was not meant to be lived in alone, now more than ever. She was pregnant, and the dead were walking, it only made sense to stay with those who could protect her in this state. But following the herd also meant dealing with the looks of disgust and pity that were only growing by the day. People that used to respect her, listen to her now disregarded her like she meant nothing. All because she had slept with her husband's best friend when she had thought he was dead and hadn't reacted well to the consequences when he returned.

          She wasn't perfect, she had never claimed to be no matter what the others may say behind her back now. And sleeping with Shane was just one of her many mistakes in this life. It had been satisfying to do, especially when she remembered the things that she had heard about the day that Rick had been shot and how Shane had reacted to him being wounded. She had been so... angry with Rick for almost dying that she had drawn up the divorce papers, unsure that she could live through another incident like this, and she had been disgusted with Shane. She had spent several long days lamenting just how involved that pervert had been in their life, wondering if he had always had those feelings for Rick and not knowing how she had never realized it before.

          Before the dead started walking and taking bites from the living, she had been going to demand that Rick never see his friend again when he recovered. She wasn't going to have that perversion in their lives anymore, so even if she did file the papers, it would have been one of her demands really. But then the world had ended, and Rick had 'Died' instead of waking up and protecting his family from this newest horror and Shane had been her only option for protection. Any dislike she had for him had to be swallowed down for the sake of her son and her own survival. Some people may give her looks for that if they ever found out, but she had been practical. She was smart enough to know that caring for Carl in these conditions wouldn't have been easy and that men got... creepy when there was a single female out and about when the world was normal. She didn't want to imagine what would happen to her when the world was like this. She'd rather enjoy herself then deal with what would happen if she had to bargain for her survival under duress.

          Besides, Shane had been with plenty of women in his life. She knew that he had, and before she had been told about what he had done when Rick had gone down, she had never had a suspicion that he was in any way like that . She had seen his previous girlfriends, heard him complain about their bad habits and thought that those silly little girls hadn't known what they were losing. Whatever sickness he had when it came to her dead husband? She could ignore that now that Rick was gone, and she could remind him what life was like with a mature woman who knew how to please a man. And it had been good for a while.

        Shane was a fantastic partner in bed, better than Rick in so many ways. And he was the defecto leader of their camp of survivors. People looked up to him because he had been a cop when the world ended, they depended on him to keep them safe in a world where nothing was really safe anymore. She could admit to herself that she had enjoyed the respect that being his woman brought her and hadn't even considered the fact that she hadn't had her monthly during all of this. She felt like an idiot for not tracking that now, because having a child after the end of the world seemed like the dumbest decision ever. If she had been actually thinking she would have done everything that she could to prevent such a thing from happening. However, she had just been living in the moment, and obviously hadn't considered what might happen long term.

         Honestly, she didn't know how far along in this pregnancy that she was because the best part of fighting with Rick had been the eventual make-up sex. Now that she was thinking clearly that in itself was a problem, even if she managed to end the pregnancy she didn't know if the remains would still manage to be her own end. She shuddered at that thought, imagining the thing inside of her chewing its way out of her body as revenge for ending its life. No. They obviously had to keep the baby alive, and pray that the birth was an easy one, even if they did have a doctor in their camp now thanks to Rick bringing him along when he had returned.