We Are One (Walking Dead Fanfic)

Lori #10

Brighton

.........

We lay there for a few minutes, clutching onto each other,  crying. Sobbing into his shoulder, I finally stopped, pulling away from him. I looked into those deep sea blue eyes that I missed. "I missed you!".

My crying stopped, but my lips still trembled. My hands sweated and my eyes where stinging from all of the crying. I pushed myself off of the ground and lifted my hand out toward him. "come on, we have to grow up a bit" I smiled at him and he grinned at me, taking my hand and pulling himself up.

I looked over at Rick who was still gobsmacked at me, when he told me run run into the forest, he must of thought I would have been dead by now. He walked towards me slowly, wrapped one arm around my neck and the other around my back, squeezing me tightly.

He changed a lot, his hair is longer, his beard. Holy crap. His clothes where also covered in blood.

"How did you do it?" He asked, I stepped away from the group "I realized that the world is not the way it used to be, so we have to change. It's not an option. So I got a grip and survived" Carl still smiled at me, eyes still red.

"Well we are glad to have you back" Rick announced making his voice loud so the group could hear. I smiled and nodded slightly. I gave Carl another hug then but not as intence as the last one.

We began to walk, all of us, some people I have never seen before like the ginger guy and a girl with pig tails. Me and Carl where talking, just catching up on everything.

"So what happened after we separated from you?" He looked into my eyes, I smiled "I just ran, I didn't stop for nearly a whole day. It must have been adrenaline"

.............

We headed through the forest, I was dehydrated but I could continue, Carl let me hold Judith. I felt like a big sister.  Something then clicked in my brain, Someone is missing, Someone I know, I was close with. I stopped in my tracks, still clutching onto the small child. I looked down at my feet, the crunching of the leaves under everyone's bloodstained boots stopped as I felt their eyes on me.

I breathed in, trying to go through everyone's names until the man with the ginger hair knocked me out of my daze. "Are you alright darlin?" his southern voice rang through my head, he grabbed my shoulder and leaned down. He must have grabbed the attention of Rick as he began to walk closer to me. He stood to the side, and his eyes squinted from the afternoon sun. I lifted my head up fully and straightened my back. "where's Lori?" Rick stepped back, I could see him hurting but trying to pull back the emotions and keep them at bay, he ran his hand over his face and down his black and gray beard. He didn't have to speak, I knew the answer in his eyes. The picture of her lying on the ground appeared in my mind. She was like a mother to me. A lump grew in my throat. "How?" I asked while picturing every way she could have been killed.

Walkers? People? Starvation? disease? a bite?  everything ran through my head until a little voice from behind Rick broke the silence. "Me" Carl emerged into my view. I squinted, "what?" I asked shocked. Maggie came up behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder. "She was going to die during labor, It was her choice, She didn't want to turn, She asked Carl to do It" Her soothing voice was comforting and I looked at Carl in sympathy. As if to say I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to make sure you were okay. I pushed my tears back and I smiled. "Lets continue, It will be getting dark soon" and with that I fixed Judith on my hip and walked deeper into the forest.