Winter was rough and spring wasn't much better. Lori's belly grew as the temperatures dropped and it was clear that soon she wouldn't be able to keep up with the group's current lifestyle.
"When these herds meet up we'll be cut off, we'll never make it south." Maggie pointed at the map.
The group was hunched over the hood of a car, trying to decide where they could go next. Almost the entire winter had been spent running. Hit a house, grab the food, and move on. Maybe getting a place to sleep for a night if they were lucky. They were getting desperate, having combed through almost every building in the surrounding area with no luck. It had gotten so bad at one point she had actually seen Carl eat a can of dog food.
"This river could have delayed them. If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through this." Hershel suggested.
"Yeah but if this herd meets up with this one, they could spill out here." T-dog said, pointing at the map.
Lauren sighed, running a hand through her hair. "So we're blocked in."
"Only thing to do is double back at 27th and swing towards Greenville." Rick declared.
"We picked through that already," T-dog shook his head, "it's like we spent the winter going in circles."
Rick nodded. "Yeah, I know. I know. At Newnan, we'll push west. We haven't been through the area. We can't keep going house to house, we need to find someplace to hold up for a few weeks." He said, glancing at Lori who was sitting in the car.
"Alright." Lauren agreed. "Is it cool if we get to the creek before we head out? It won't take long. We gotta fill up on water, we can boil it later."
Rick nodded and she held her hand out to Daryl. He handed her his bottle and nodded in appreciation. The two had grown quite close over the winter, well, close for Daryl. Though, they still had yet to talk about the kiss that night on the porch. When Lauren still hadn't brought it up after a few days on the road, Daryl just assumed she had come to her senses. Once the buzz wore off and she wasn't overcome with emotion, she realized that she'd made a mistake. No way would she have kissed a redneck like him if she was in her right mind. Yet for some reason, he couldn't keep the memory from lingering in the back of his mind.
They had become slightly less aggravating to one another over the winter. Don't get it twisted, the two of them were far from best friends, but it became easier to talk to him without the two of them bursting into a full-on argument. However, that still did happen quite often.
"So... you and Daryl?" Maggie said quietly with a smirk as she and Lauren followed behind T-dog Carol and Glenn.
Lauren scrunched her eyebrows together. "What about 'me and Daryl'?"
"You two have gotten pretty close." She said, nodding to the bottle in Lauren's hand.
"What? It's just a water bottle, I'm not exactly saving his life." Lauren laughed.
Maggie rolled her eyes "I know that, he likes you though, more than he likes any of us."
"He likes my dog, that's all." Lauren told her, looking down at Tank.
"Just sayin, it'd be nice for you to have someone. It makes this whole thing a little more bearable." Maggie said as they reached the creek, looking fondly at Glenn who was filling his bottle.
"Look, I'm real glad you two found each other and all, but I don't need y'all to start playing matchmaker for me. I got more important things to deal with." Lauren told her, unscrewing the lid to both hers and Daryl's bottles.
"You're telling me there's not even a little tiny part of you that's considered it?" Maggie raised an eyebrow.
"What, me and Daryl?" Lauren asked, focusing on the water in front of them. Maggie nodded. "No. He's rude and he's stubborn, and most of the times we've spoke have been arguments."
