Apocalyptic Love

Chapter 17 Reality Check

The next morning during breakfast, Lori, Carl, and Rick sat together eating. Rick is lost in thought about what Lori had told him yesterday, not so much about the pregnancy, but the hesitation when he asked if she and Shane had gotten together because she thought he was dead. Could Lori have been cheating on him with Shane long before all this had happened? Rick was beginning to find it odd they Lori and Shane could fall for each other so quickly after his supposed death. He glanced up at Shane, who was staring at Lori, then looked down at his food.

Rick started to think back to when Lori supposedly went out with her friends or went to pick up something she forgot at the store. Were those excuses to meet with Shane? Rick continued to stare off into space and jumped when he felt Lori's hand touch his face, “Hey, where'd you go?”

“I'm here,” Rick said and continued to eat as Lori leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Rick quickly looked up to see if Kagome had seen, but she was busy talking to Carol, Sophia, and Amy. Kagome could feel Rick's eyes on her, so she turned to look at him and smiled. He smiled back at her. When the group was almost finished with breakfast, Dale motioned to Glenn to tell the others what he knew.

“Um, guys. So...the barn is full of Walkers.”

You could have heard a pin drop with how quiet everyone got. The group stared at Glenn for a moment, then Shane leaped to his feet and took off towards the barn with Rick chasing after him; soon, everyone else followed behind. When he got to the barn, Shane peered in through a hole and counted about a dozen Walkers in the barn.

“You cannot tell me you're all right with this,” Shane shouted.

“No, I'm not, but we're guests here, this Isn't our land.”

“This is our lives!”

“Lower your voice,” Glenn said to Shane.

“We can't sweep this under the rug,” Andrea added.

“It ain't right. Not remotely. Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right, or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time.”

“We can't go.”

“Why, Rick, why?!”

Rick hesitated; he didn't think it was right to blurt out that Lori was pregnant, “Because, we can't.”

Shane scoffed and started pacing. Rick grabbed his arm, “Keep your hands off me!”

“Now, just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out.”

“What are you gonna figure out?!”

“Give Rick a chance to talk to Hershel, Shane,” Kagome said.

“Shut up, bitch!”

“What did you call me?!”

“Don't talk to her that way,” Rick yelled.

“You heard me,” Shane said to Kagome.

“Come say that to my face, asshole, and I'll break more than your wrist.” Kagome challenged.

Shane stalked towards Kagome, but Glenn got in his way. He shoved Glenn to the ground and kept walking towards Kagome. Kagome got into a defensive stance and waited for Shane to attack. The minute he got close enough, Kagome swept his legs out from under him, jumped on his chest, and punched him once, breaking his nose.

Rick pulled Kagome off of Shane before she hit him again, “You two stop it!”

“Don't you ever call me a bitch again, fucker, or we'll finish this fight,” Kagome said.