THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

iv. broken hopes

LUKE ANXIOUSLY FUMBLED with the hem of his shirt with sweaty fingers as he approached a kind-looking lady, with beautiful chestnut-coloured hair. Her face was slightly pointed, but glowing with a distinct beauty. She was propped neatly against her vehicle, with a young boy innocently at her side.

Through the crowds and swarms of bustling, terrified individuals had been wild, it had been her that Luke had spotted. Lori Grimes. An unaware angel of circumstance. Luke deemed the young boy to her side as her son, and nervously took a deep inhale of breath before gaining her attention.

Luke cleared his throat awkwardly, and outstretched his shaky hand out to greet her, "Excuse me, my name is Luke Sommers. I hope you don't mind me interrupting."

The woman smiled back, outstretching her hand to meet his as they shook them politely, "Hi, it's nice to meet you Luke Sommers. I'm Lori Grimes."

Luke flashed a warm smile in return, displaying his infamously charming toothy grin at her, and continued, "Lori Grimes... I'm glad you're safe. Does anybody know what's going on? I'm with my sister and her young daughter, we need help."

Lori's face crumpled to a frown, and shook her head as she replied, "We're not certain, nobody can find anything out," she reached out her hand and placed it gently on his bicep, "We can help you in any way that we can."

Luke sighed in relief, clenching his eyes shut as the relief swam over his entire body, "Thank you. We were headin' into the city to see if we can find our family."

Lori sighed, and glanced off into the distance for the man she had been searching for. Once Luke's eyes landed upon the man, his eyes instantly lit up with excitement. There had been a ghost of his past, though not much of a past as only days prior they had seen one another. It had been surprising how disconnection from the internet and the outside world of internationality would impact on their interactions. The man before him had simply been a stranger, when in reality, mere days had been between them.

"Shane fuckin' Walsh!" Luke hollered deeply, displaying his masculinity as he had been stunned by the man's decorum and kindness as he spoke to fearful citizens of Atlanta along the highway, "Dude, what's going on?"

"You two know each other?" Lori flashed a soft smile to Shane, her eyes twinkling seductively against the sunlight, which baffled Luke as he recognised her surname Grimes to be in association with a long lost friend — Rick Grimes.

Once the two men were within range of one another, they did not hesitate to pull one another into an embrace of bravado, patting the other on the back loudly, though the two were more than relieved to see a familiar face. Shane flashed Luke a toothy grin, and handed him a pistol from his holster, despite Luke's confused glance.

"You left this at the station," Shane stated with his eyebrow raised, playfully nudging the man as he added, "Again."

"Hey, man," Luke warned jokingly, but still held a permanent scowl on his otherwise attractive face. "We could use some help, if you're willing. I got my niece in the car with Eleanor."