𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬.

𝟑 | 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫.

Lori's POV.

A mother without her child, how does she go on? How do they wake up everyday and continue to live when grief has no expiration date?

Earlier in the day.

Trying to remain hopeful was becoming more difficult for me after leaving the CDC. We all knew it was a long shot but for it to go that awful, I couldn't wrap my head around why Shane would think the military base would be any different. Especially after the group's military members didn't even want to go.

We're all exhausted running off barely any sleep with little to no food and barely enough water to keep us from dying of thirst. Now with losing Sophia on top of it, everyone is on edge. I haven't even started to worry about my Shane problem yet.

Being around Rick is troubling enough but Nate? He's caught us having our spats a couple of times. He's not a stupid man. He's bound to figure it out and my paranoia is killing me. I can't stop thinking I'll look the wrong way to him and he'll know from the beads of sweat off my forehead.

Maybe Shane leaving without a word is for the best? They'll assume he's just unhappy with how things are being handled. But knowing Rick and Nate the way I do, I know they'd go after him. Nate and his friends most likely.

Things were never supposed to be like this. I felt awful for leaving Rick back at the hospital. I wanted to go back for him but Shane told me he was gone, he said neither one of them made it.

Everything just happened so fast. I was terrified of losing the last thing I loved in this world, my son. Shane was there, he always had been there for our family and so I just I let him comfort me when I thought all hope was lost. He was protecting us and I was weak. I can't let that destroy my family now that I have a family to keep.

My thoughts get interrupted by Andrea. "I see you have a gun."

"Why want it? Take it." She grabbed it as soon as I held it out.

"I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you." I turn speaking to Carol. "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through but you need to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him.
When Sophia took off he was the first to run after her and he hasn't stopped thinking about her or how to get her back since. That's my husband, my son and my brother out there right now looking for her.
I don't know that anyone else could've done things differently. Anybody?"

Crickets. Not one person spoke up. They just stared at me like children getting scolded by their mothers.

"He's not perfect. None of us are. Before we left camp Nate said if you came with us— you were his family. He would fight for you and would die for you, same as Rick. How is that not enough for you people to stop blaming them for what goes wrong, when they're the two trying to make it right? They're keeping us going. If you think you can do this without them go ahead. My family doesn't need to be risking their lives for people who don't even at least appreciate it." I finally did it. I said exactly what was on my mind and it felt like a weight has been lifted.