A teenage girl by the name of Ayla Meadows is held against her will and experimented on by a crazed scientist. Although she manages to escape the horrors with the help of a sheriff and his group, she is forever haunted by the memories of her torture...
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"I had to decide what I was going to do, and what I was going to be. I was standing there, waiting for someone to do something, till I realised the person I was waiting for was myself." - Markus Zusak
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Lori returns within the hour. Carl and Ayla race outside to where she is exiting Shane's car and finds them fighting. The duo stay back and decide to listen in discreetly as the adults resolve their issues.
"He's my husband!" Lori is shouting.
Shane shakes his head. "Look, I'll go after him but I had to look after you first." He looks at her with intent. "You and the baby."
The baby? What baby?
Carl seems to mirror Ayla's thoughts as he steps forwards out of the darkness and lets himself be seen. "You're having a baby?" Shock is evident in his voice. Lori turns to Carl with her mouth hung open. She stutters over her words, trying to form a sentence but nothing intelligible comes out. "Why didn't you tell me?" Carl asks weakly. Lori looks at the boy with pity and then fixes Shane with a brutal glare.
After that Ayla decides to give the family some time to themselves. The mother and son head into the living room to talk while Ayla decides to sit on the staircase by the front door to keep a look out for Rick and Glenn's return.
She's staring at her feet, her mind a blank slate, when someone takes the seat next to her. Looking up, she comes face-to-face with Shane. The look she gives him is venomous. "I ain't come here to fight." He says and for some reason he is uncharacteristically sincere.
"Well you better leave then." Ayla snips.
Shane turns to her sharply. "I'm trying to make amends. Too many people in this group hate me right now."
Ayla turns to him with her eyebrows raised. "I wonder why that is."
Shane releases a soft growl. "Why you gotta act like this? I'm trying here." He says firmly. "I'm sorry for the way shit went down that night but it had to be done. If I hadn't of acted the way I did, Carl would be dead right now and I know you wouldn't want that."
Ayla shakes her head. "No." She says simply. "But you're not God, Shane. You don't get to decide who lives or dies."
"Maybe." He concedes. "But I can make sure that the people who live are the ones that I care about."
They sit in silence for a few moments and Ayla is prepared to just walk away from this pointless conversation when Shane speaks again. "Have you told Dale?" He mutters gruffly. "'Cause he's been snooping about, asking me questions. He seems to have a pretty good idea about what happened that night and he didn't get it from me."
