THE WRITTEN SONGS OF OUR SOULS, the walking dead

II. The Last Great American Dynasty.

—WHILE THE OTHERS were upstairs, dealing with someone they referred to as Dixon, she kept waiting for gunshots. There wasn't any. It hadn't entirely mattered, not since the dead were pounding at the doors with fists and rocks. They already knew they were in there. In other circumstances, it was easy to avoid the dead. All you needed to be was quiet, quick, and ready to move anytime. Lorna usually followed her instincts. Until now, they did her and Livius good. She realized that the entire way into Atlanta, she knew it was wrong. Now, it would be the death of both of them. 

"There's some formula in the next store," Orpheus had said, breaking the silence. He stayed, muttering something about Trailer Trash before he kept throwing stuff in bags. She wondered why Orpheus was with them. They didn't seem to like him very much and she just knew it was the same for him. She tried to ignore it but she could feel his eyes on her. She wanted to ask but thought better of it. "Thank you," She said. "Not just for the formula. For saving me out there too," What would she have done if he hadn't pulled her into the alley? If he didn't lead her back here? She needed to thank Glenn, too. She needed to thank all of them. 

She hadn't been around this many people in weeks. The last one, before Rick, was a guy in his seventies, who had let Lorna stay in his cabin. It had lasted for four days before he turned in his sleep, Lorna just barely waking up in time to get out. 

After that? It was just her and Livius. 

"I'm sure you would've managed. You've lasted this long on your own," She blinked at him, several times, as she realized that he paid more attention than she thought. Unless you were paying attention, listening to the little clues Rick and Lorna had dropped unwittingly,  you would've thought they were together long before this. 

"Maybe," She only answers. "And you? How did you make it this long?" Lorna's interrupted by the sound of Rick and the group, consisting of everyone but T-Dog and the man with the gun. "I need your help with something," He says grimly. "And it's not going to be pretty. If we want to live, if we all want to live, we're going to have to get to a car," 

"In those streets?" Orpheus asked, raising a brow. He was cool and collected like he was hiding a way out of all of this. Or, maybe he was one of those men who refused to show emotions, considering themselves to be weak. Lorna hoped he was close to pissing himself. That he would. She wanted him knocked down a few pegs. "None of you will make it," Lorna kept her eyes on Rick. "What is it?" She had to trust in him, in Rick because she didn't know what other option she had. She needed to trust him in ways she never had to trust anyone before. In this world, you couldn't survive on your own anymore. 

That was just the way things were. 

Rick's nose crinkles. He shakes his head slightly, mouth opening and closing several times before he spits the words out. "The dead notice the living by smell," He begins. It dawns on Lorna sooner than she would've liked. "We need to smell like them," She says. It makes sense. "How are we going to do that?" She asks. 

"Guts," Is all Rick says. 

Within a few minutes, the group finds themselves in a small room, far away from the pounding dead. Though, if she listens, she can still hear their moans and snarls. It was something she'd gotten used to. It was never quiet, not really. There might not have been the sounds of hundreds of car engines anymore, no more sounds of laughing and screaming children, no more overhearing small talk between two friends. 

There was nothing but the moans of the dead. On the bright side of things, Lorna was slightly grateful for it when they made their presence known. She didn't have to worry about them sneaking up on her when the scent of human, living flesh sent them into a feral frenzy. She wasn't grateful for it now when it sounded like a dinner bell. 

Jacqui holds Livius, bouncing him slightly, cooing at him as she keeps him away from Wayne Dunlap, the dead walker on the floor. "I'm going to tell my family about him when I find them," Rick spoke softly. She was sure she heard Orpheus scoff beside her. She had a hard time remembering that the dead were once living. If she hadn't put her down, Livius's mother would've been one. She shook off the thoughts that most likely, all her family was dead. Her twin brother, Lucas, had been in Atlanta. When she had decided that college wasn't in her future, when all she wanted was to be a cake decorator, Lucas had wanted to be a doctor like their father. He'd made them proud, the little time that they had. 

Lorna knelt down, interrupting Rick's speech as she stuck her knife in the walker's stomach, her knife easily gliding through the rotting skin. She didn't bother bundling up like Glenn and Rick had. Lorna wasn't supposed to go but how could she trust them with Livius's survival? No one would fight harder than her to get them out. She looks at Jacqui, her brown eyes wide with shock as she stares down at Lorna. "Can you watch him while I do this?" Without hesitation, Jacqui agreed. She didn't exactly trust anyone else with him. Maybe Glenn, but he was going with them. Andrea was slowly beginning to grate on her nerves, T-Dog was upstairs, and Orpheus was a prick. Morales would be needed if the dead broke through. 

"You're not going," Rick immediately argued. She knew he would. To Rick, she was a child. He'd told her a day prior he was thirty-six. She was nineteen, turning twenty in nine months. She was closer to Carl's age than his own. "I am," Lorna says, her voice dry. She wouldn't let him have room to argue. "You can't stop me, Rick. We're doing this together. Me, you, and Glenn. They need to get out. Morales's daughter has asthma. He has the inhalers she needs. If we fail, not only do we die but so does someone back at their camp. The world has already lost too much," 

Morales blinked at her. She had overheard him mention it to Glenn. He'd been ecstatic at finding it unopened, in someone's old bag. 

With cold hands, Lorna dug her hands into his stomach, the stench overwhelming, and began rubbing it on her bare arms, her shirt, and her face. She dragged her fingers through her hair, soaking the strands. "We'll be back for you," She said to all of them. Dead or alive, she would be back. 

(AUTHOR'S NOTE)

unedited.