Tribulation

Chapter 2: The Plan

One by one step, I dawdled myself up the rusted staircase that lead to the upper level cells. I slowly peeked my eyes into the second cell, quickly noticing the brunette headed woman I was searching for, she held precious Judith in her lap, as she babbled and fiddled around with Lori's wedding ring.

"Hey." Rick quietly spoke up, swiftly entering halfway in her cell, as he stuck his thumb in the belt loop of his black jeans.

Lori quickly looked up, alerted by the husky sound in his voice. "Hey," she flashed him a weak smile. As she gently held onto Judith's small and delicate wrists, continuing to bob her up and down on her knee.

Rick eyed her arm, that was wrapped a couple times in bandage. "How is it?" He asked, nodding toward her wound.

"Hey sweetheart," Lori abrupty greeted, as the presence of Beth caught her eye, watching her stand halfway in her cell.

"Did you want me to take her?" Beth asked nicely, her sweet blue eyes met Judith's, which always put a huge smile on her face. Rick stepped aside a bit, letting her walk in.

Lori grinned, looking down at Judith who played with her fingers. "Sure," she said, carefully giving Judith over to Beth's open arms. "Here's her bottle," she added, handing her a half full of powered milk baby bottle. She flashed her another smile, before Beth fled off with Judith, heading down the stairs.

"You're such a good mother." Rick gently complimented, as he still kept a distance from her.

Lori's pale face looked to him, trying to hold up yet another smile. "It's not easy," she shook her head. She picked at her grimy fingernails, feeling his eyes on her still, as he stood there and shuffed in place abit.

Rick licked his dry lips, feeling like he couldn't agree more with her. "Yeah." He muttered just enough so she could hear. He gazed down at his muddied, worn out boots. "I keep forgetting that I can't treat Carl like I did before." he snickered to himself, raising a brow.

"He's so grown up," she closed her eyes, recollecting back when this whole thing started, how young and inoccent he was, so innocent he came nowhere close to handling a gun, or daring to shoot anything that walked..

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'So what you're saying is, we're basically trapped in here?" Glenn, who gathered with some members of the group in the cell block, exclaimed in disbelief, putting his hands on his hips.

"We just gotta clear that field man, take em' out." Daryl butted in, as he threw his crossbow around his shoulder.

Glenn nodded, looking to both him, Hershel, and Michonne. "Me and Maggie can take the guard tower, I'll go find Rick and see what he wants to do about fixing that main gate."

"Nah, I'll take it," Daryl shook his head, wanting to change that plan around. "I'll take a few out, gives you guys a chance to fix the fence." "Have Maggie take watch." He suggested.

"We could use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Michonne shrugged, exhanging looks with Daryl and Glenn.

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel shook his head.

"So we are basically trapped in here." Glenn threw his hand up, letting it drop and slap his upper thigh. "There's barely any food or ammo." he exclaimed.

Daryl huffed. "We've been here before, we'll be alright." he shot Glenn a look, scratching the back his neck.

a couple days later -

--- Lori, who was sat at the round table, accompanied by Maggie and her sister, tucked one leg under the other. She nonchalantly played with her two week expired, cold oatmeal. She raised her eyes, only to be met by Maggies, who had a quiet smile crawling across her lips. "I don't remember the last time I had a decent bowl of this," Lori sniggered, pointing down at her oatmeal with her plastic spoon.

Maggie smiled, continuing to softly braid Beth's greased blonde hair. "I always loved mine with fresh blueberries." her smile slowly faded by the memorable thoughts of picking freshly grown berries with her dad everytime they were in season.

Lori's eyes soon wandered into cell block c, catching a glimpse of Rick, and Daryl who stood infront of him, nodding his head in what seemed like agreement. Her eyes squinted in curiousity as Rick pulled a map from his back pocket. She quickly focused her eyes elsewhere, as they walked towards them.

"We got a plan," Rick announced, mainly to Maggie, who stopped braiding Beth's hair.

Rick leaned over the table, setting out his map, pointing to a tiny location that had to be atleast 10 miles from here. He pursed his lips tightly, exhanging a slight look to Lori who had a dull look on her face. "Andrea passed on the message that the Governor wanted me to meet him at this spot by high noon." He said, staring intently down at the map, having a weird feeling in his gut about this.

Maggie scrunched her eyebrows, holding the map up to see. "He doesn't seem like the type of man to negotiate anything.." Her eyes peered up to meet his.

Rick tilted his head. "Yeah, I know. That's why I don't know about this."

"Just go with your gut." Lori's voice quickly intervened. Shooting a hesitant stare up at her husband, as she continued to stir her now cold oatmeal around with her spoon.

Rick swallowed, nodding softly at her. Though having a feeling of doubt that she was ever able to get on the same page with him..

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