"Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed." — Irene Peter
The woods were not the most ideal place to be at night, but Joanna Moore needed the cover to get away from a large herd of deadies that she had accidentally stumbled upon coming out of Atlanta. Her car had broken down the day before and she didn't have the tools or know-how for syphoning gas out of the abandoned cars on the side of the road, so she had to throw her backpack on and continue by foot. That was when the deadies seemed to come out of nowhere. Or maybe they had been behind her the entire time but she had been too lost in her daydreams to notice them approaching.
When their gasps and snarls grabbed her attention, she had thrown a terrified look over her shoulder and jumped over the guardrail along the side of the road and tried running down the embankment. She caught her foot in a clump of soil and lost her balance. She rolled somersaulted and rolled the rest of the way down, landing on her backpack like an overturned turtle. A few of the deadies had begun to follow after her, so she had to get back up to her feet as quickly as possible.
Once she was upright again, she hobbled into the woods, wondering if she had sprained her ankle or not. It didn't hurt that bad but it wasn't exactly feeling wonderful either. She couldn't focus on that, though. She had to focus on getting away and finding some place to hide.
Joanna, or Jo, as she preferred being called, did have a gun until recently when she ran out of bullets. Also she had anymore to protect herself was a pocket knife, which would require getting up close and personal to the deadies; something she'd rather not do if it could be helped.
Pushing branches and leaves out of her face as she ran, Jo found a pretty gnarly tree, literally and figuratively. It was perfect for climbing; something her father would've built a treehouse in for her when she was a child. Reaching up, she grabbed onto the branches with her hands and then lifted her legs, hooking her feet here and there to climb up high enough that the deadies couldn't reach her when they finally came that way.
Balancing in-between the trunk and a limb, she held on tight and waited with bated breath when two of the deadies began to amble on by, none the wiser as to where she'd gone and she smiled with success. But she wasn't about to count her chickens before they hatched. She watched them for a good while, just wandering around the vicinity, not really going anywhere and she wondered if they could still smell her close by. All she could do was stand there and wait, for however long she had to.
After an hour, they seemed to finally get distracted by a small animal in the brush and amble away, but Jo wasn't convinced it was safe to climb down just yet. Instead she merely bent her knees and sat down on the branch to give her tired legs a rest from standing in the same position for so long. She turned her body slightly, so that she could sit on the limb with a leg dangling down over either side and she could lean back upon the trunk.
Sighing to herself, she just sat there and let her mind wander for a while.
However, a while turned into something longer than that because at some point she must've dozed off. When she woke, it wasn't as dark anymore. In fact it was pretty damn bright out beyond the canopy of trees. Reaching carefully behind her, she pulled her backpack off and sat it on the limb in front of her. Quietly unzipping the front pouch she pulled out a pocket watch that used to belong to her father. Opening it up, she checked the time to see that it was nearly one in the afternoon.
Jo couldn't believe how long she'd slept but she figured her body must've needed it.
Just as she was preparing to climb down out of the tree, she heard the rustling of leaves underfoot and someone panting.
Peering through the trees, Jo spotted a young girl running along by herself and holding a doll in her hands. Her natural instinct took over and she leaned forward to make herself more known.
"Hey. Girl," she called out, spooking the poor thing.
She was thin with chin length blonde hair and her doll looked considerably soiled. When the girl looked around and spotted Jo in the tree, she seemed less scared.
"Hey," Jo said again. "It's all right. Is something chasing you?"
The girl hesitated, which was understandable; stranger danger and whatnot. "Not anymore," she finally replied, hugging her rag doll to her chest. "I was supposed to wait for Rick to come back for me but, if he didn't, he showed me which direction to go; to keep the sun on my left shoulder."
"Is Rick your father?"
The girl shook her head. "No. My dad's dead. Rick's a cop. He's, like, the leader of the group I'm with," she said, looking around. "Walkers were chasing me into the woods and Rick came after me to help."
Jo figured that walkers are what the girl referred to as deadies. She liked the sound of the word walkers. It seemed more befitting. "Walkers chased me into the woods last night. That's why I'm in this tree." Climbing down, Jo landed on her feet with a soft thud and threw her backpack over her left shoulder. "Do you want me to help you find your group? You shouldn't be alone."
The girl tensed as Jo approached. "I don't know you."
"My name's Jo. It's short for Joanna. I used to teach first grade." She held her hand out to the girl to shake as a sort of peace offering.
The girl considered and then relented, reaching out and shaking Jo's hand. "I'm Sophia."
"Hello, Sophia," Jo smiled. "Is your mom with that group?" Sophia nodded. "She's probably worried sick about you."
"Are you with a group?"
"No, I'm by myself."
"Were you ever with a group?"
Jo shook her head. "No, not really. I mean, I've been around people after everything happened, but I haven't traveled or lived with them." Jo offered her hand again to Sophia. "Here, take my hand so we don't get separated."
Once more, Sophia hesitated, but she really had no options. She was clearly lost, on top of being alone. Placing her hand in Jo's she smiled appreciatively. "Do you have any kids?"
"Just the ones I used to teach," Jo replied as she began to walk along with the girl. "Do you have brothers or sisters?"
Sophia shook her head. "No, it's just me." She looked at Jo's hand she was holding and became curious. "You're married?"
Jo nodded. "Yes."
"What happened to your husband? You said you're alone."
"He got sick when the outbreak first happened. I locked him in our bedroom when he died and came back. I was scared and didn't know what to do. All my neighbors had either left or died. I couldn't call for help and there was nothing I could do for him anymore, so I just packed some things and I left as well."
"You didn't kill him? After he turned, I mean."
"I couldn't," Jo regretted. "I wasn't strong enough then."
"Are you strong enough now?"
Jo smirked. "I'd like to think so. None of us really have a choice anymore, do we? If we want to survive in this world now, we have to do things that are really scary, but very necessary."
After several minutes of walking hand in hand in silence, they both stopped dead in their tracks when they spotted a few walkers coming near.
"Do you have a gun?" Sophia asked nervously, tightening her grip on Jo's hand.
"Only a pocket knife," she replied. "But I try not to use it because I would have to be real up close to those things and I'd rather not if I don't have to." Gesturing a different way, as she spotted two more walkers not far behind within the trees, she pulled Sophia's arm. "C'mon, let's go this way."
The pair hurried through the trees, but the walkers were on their trail. As they came upon a creek, Jo believed they had had lost the walkers. She breathed a sigh of relief as they stopped. Looking around, everything seemed quiet and peaceful, with the exception of their breathing and the babbling of the water.
"Where do we go now? How do we find my mom?" Sophia asked.
"If you got chased into the woods, you were probably on that main road, right?" Off Sophia's nod, Jo bit her lip and tried to figure out their next step. "I don't think we can go back the way we came without running into those deadies."
"Can you call them walkers? Deadies sounds sad."
Jo leaned down and smiled at Sophia. "Sure. Walkers, it is." Straightening back up, she looked around and then pointed upstream. "I think we might be able to continue this way and then circle back at some point. You're gonna have to bear with me though. I don't know these woods."
"It's okay. Thank you for helping."
"You're welcome. And thank you. I was starting to get really lonely on my own."
Sophia reached for Jo's hand again as the pair walked into the water. "You can be with my group when we find them. We lost some people a couple days ago. It'll be nice to have someone new."
"I'd be honored."
Jo and Sophia walked along the edges of the creek, staying away from the trees for the time being when they came upon a small tree trunk lying across the shallow water. While stepping over it, Sophia lost her balance and slipped. As she fell to her knees, she let go of Jo's hand and her hold on her rag doll, which got lodged under the trunk. Jo was quick to grab the girl and check to see if she was physically all right. When Sophia looked down at her doll, she went to pick it back up, but stopped and jumped back when something caught her attention coming from the trees on the side of the creek.
Jo noticed it, too.
It was one of the walkers from earlier.
"Let's give it the slip," Jo advised.
She led Sophia out of the creek and back up into the trees just as the walker stumbled down into the water, knowing its footing wouldn't be as nimble as theirs. As they ran a little ways, parallel to the creek, they cut down into the creek once more, before climbing back up into the trees again; zig-zagging to throw the walker off.
When they were in the clear again, they continued to walk in silence for quite a while.
"I'm hungry," Sophia mumbled.
Jo looked down at her and stopped. Removing her backpack, she held it in front of her and unzipped the larger pouch. She pulled out a can of sardines and offered it to Sophia. "It's not the greatest thing to eat — in fact, is smells horrible — but it's better than nothing."
Sophia took the can and stuck her finger into the tab, pulling the lid back. As she brought it closer to her face and got a whiff, she made a face that looked as if she would vomit. "You weren't lying. It smells like a sewer."
Jo laughed. "I know. It's gross," she agreed. "Try holding your nose while you eat them. That way you'll only taste them, not smell them."
Wincing, Sophia sat down on a rock and set the can on her lap. Plugging her nose with her left hand, she picked one sardine up with her right and hesitantly put it in her mouth. Jo's suggestion seemed to work and Sophia was able to eat the remainder of the can without any urge to throw up. Jo took a seat beside her on a smaller, neighboring rock and pulled out a can for herself. It was best to eat while they could.
Afterward, she pulled a water bottle out of her backpack for them to share before suggesting they start walking again.
Soon enough they had made their way upstream enough where they could cross over to the other side where it wasn't too steep. They scaled the slight incline together and then continued through the trees, but in the direction they had originally come from, just on the opposite side of the water; with hopes of making it all the way back to the road before sundown.
Running away from the walkers had put them slightly off track and Jo didn't want to admit, but she was considerably turned about.
The tree coverage overhead was so thick, she could barely tell which direction the sun was heading. All she had was her father's pocket watch which told her it was now after four in the afternoon. In a few more hours it would be getting dark again and if they hadn't made it to the road by then, they would need some place safe to take cover in for the night. But that was considering they could find anything at all.
"Did you and your husband want kids?" Sophia asked after a while when the silence became tiresome.
"Yeah, we did eventually."
"What was his name?"
"Oscar."
Sophia giggled. "Like the Grouch."
"Oh, he was anything but," Jo assured with a smile. "He was a wonderful man; very loving and very funny. He always made me laugh."
"What did he do? What was his job?"
"He was a guidance counselor at the high school, the same one we went to when we were teenagers."
"Were you, like, childhood sweethearts?"
"We were," Jo nodded. "We first met in second grade. We were in the same class. We didn't become friends, though, until middle school, and then we didn't start to date until the end of junior year. Neither of us had dates to prom, so we went together and we just kinda realized we really liked each other. We've been together since."
Sophia smiled. "How long were you married?"
"Five years this past April."
"I'm sorry your husband died."
Jo sighed, looking straight ahead. "Me, too." Thinking back to the girl's earlier comment, she added, "I'm sorry your dad died."
Sophia shrugged. "He was mean and he hurt my mom a lot," she admitted. "Is it wrong that I'm not sad he's dead?"
"I don't think it's wrong. We all feel differently when people die. I think it's perfectly all right if you're not sad or don't miss him. If he was mean and hurt your mom, it's probably for the best he didn't make it."
"Walkers got him," Sophia continued. "My mom destroyed his head with an ax so he wouldn't come back, but she was crying while she did it. I don't think she knew I saw her, but I did."
Jo couldn't think of anything else to say to that and decided to just let the silence fall between them again.
Despite the growing lateness of the hour, the heat was still just strong. Releasing her hand from Sophia's, Jo pulled a hair tie off her wrist and pulled her long blonde hair up into a ponytail. She also pulled tightened the long sleeve shirt she'd had wrapped around her waist that felt like it was slipping.
Looking up at the trees, she knew she would have to make a decision about what they would do about when night fell.
"Sophia?"
"Yeah?"
"It's gonna be dark soon enough and trying to find our way back to the road at night is gonna be very difficult and not safe. We're gonna need to find some place to sleep for the night," she said. "We'll start out again first thing in the morning."
"But my mom—"
"—won't go anywhere without you. No mother would," she assured, crouching down to Sophia's level. "Your group is probably out looking for you right now, but even they won't be able to do much tonight."
"Where do we go then?"
Jo shrugged, looking through the trees. "The woods gotta come to an end somewhere. Maybe we can find a house or a barn to sleep in. Does that sound okay?"
Sophia nodded.
Standing back up, Jo took the girl by the hand again and veered slightly to their left. As they walked along, Jo could sense that Sophia was occasionally looking up at her. She smirked slightly at the attention, assuming the girl wanted to ask her something or just talking in general.
"What is it?"
"What—oh. Nothing."
Jo smiled knowingly. "Go on. What's on your mind?"
"What happens if we don't find my mom or my group? What happens to me then?"
"Well, I won't leave you. We'll stick together," Jo insisted, giving Sophia's hand a reassuring squeeze. "We won't give up hope of finding your mom."
"But what if we never do? What if she's been eaten by walkers? What if my whole group is dead?"
Jo stopped walking again and looked down at Sophia. "Like I said, I won't leave," she repeated. "But let's not think about the negative possibilities. We need to focus on the positive. It's what'll keep us going."
Sophia nodded.
After another half hour of walking, the girl tugged firmly on Jo's hand and pointed at something through the trees. Initially, Jo thought it was another walker or two, but then she saw there was a clearing up ahead, and some sort of building.
"Good eye, Sophia."
Leading the girl toward the clearing, she hesitated at the edge, looking out for any walkers. Pursing her lips, Jo whistled. She waited a few more moments until she was content there was nothing around in the immediate area.
The building was an old, rundown Victorian farmhouse that had been abandoned long before the outbreak occurred. Walking up to it with Sophia, they approached the front door. Jo let go of Sophia's hand and pulled her pocket knife out of her pocket and then took her backpack off, handing it to Sophia. Gesturing for the girl to stay right there and not make a sound, Jo pushed open the front door and stepped inside. But, before going any further, she banged her fist on the wall and whistled.
Then she waited.
Nothing came out from the other rooms, so Jo leaned her head back outside and beckoned for Sophia, letting her know the coast seemed clear. Jo then had Sophia remain in the kitchen while she checked the upstairs, which was also clear.
She figured that if this place had been abandoned for years, there would be no real reason why any walker would have a reason to be drawn to this place. There were no animals or other signs of life. Even though the walkers could hear sounds, smell human life and see movement, those senses were limited and seemed triggered by instinct rather than cognitive thought. It was like muscle memory. The brain functioned enough to keep them going but they were nothing more than mindless creatures now; albeit dangerous mindless creatures.
"I think this place will do for tonight," Jo deduced. "What do you think?"
Sophia nodded. "Yeah."
"We'll sleep downstairs, in case we need to get out quick. I'll bring down some blankets."
"I'll sleep in the pantry. I'll put the blankets on the floor."
"You can have the couch," Jo insisted.
Sophia shook her head adamantly. "If something comes into the house while we're sleeping, I can hide in there."
Considering this, Jo nodded. "All right; if that'll make you feel safe."
"It will."
"All right."
After settling in for the evening, Jo and Sophia sat around the kitchen table, eating more of the sardines. There was a small trash bin that they used for discarding the empty cans, something Jo insisted they use.
Just because the world fell apart didn't mean etiquette had to.
While Sophia busied herself with making the pantry floor comfortable for sleeping with a pillow and blanket, Jo sat on the back stoop to the house with her hands folded between her legs. She was watching the sun setting below the horizon and thinking about how she had survived another day in this changed world.
"Jo?" came Sophia's voice.
Jo turned her head and peered back inside the house. "Yeah?"
"I found some cards. Will you play Go Fish with me?"
Jo looked back toward the sunset and smiled. "Sure thing."
Standing up, Jo pulled the back door shut and headed into the kitchen.
"We won't be able to play long, though. It's getting too dark," Sophia frowned, holding a pack of playing cards in her hands.
"Never fear," Jo quipped. "I have a few candles and matches in my backpack. See if you can find a short jar or an empty food can."
Heading out to the front door, Jo walked down from the porch and crouched down to scoop a big handful of dirt into her hands. Walking back inside the house, back to the kitchen, she found Sophie holding an old tin can with a label on it for pear halves.
"What's the dirt for?" Sophia wondered.
"To keep the candle from tipping over," Jo replied, emptying the dirt out of her hands and into the can. Wiping her hands on her pants she gestured to her backpack. "Middle pouch, there are three tall candles. Grab only one. We need to make them last. There's a matchbook in the same pouch."
Sophia obliged and unzipped the middle pouch, digging around and successfully pulling out one tall, red candle and a small matchbook. She handed it over to Jo and then took a seat at the table with the pack of cards. Jo stuck the candle in the middle of the can, surrounded by the dirt which kept it upright. Ripping a match out of book, she struck match head along the coarse strip and a little flame erupted. Lighting the candle, Jo sat down at the table across from Sophia and blew out the match.
"Alright, Sophia, show me what you're made of," she teased.
The following morning, Jo awoke on the lumpy, old sofa and sat up, taking a moment to remember where she was. Eventually she stood up and made her way back to the kitchen and then knocked lightly on the pantry door before pulling it open to find Sophia curled up in a tight ball. The girl was waking up, stifling a yawn, as she sat up and stretched her legs outside of the pantry.
"Morning, sleepyhead," Jo greeted.
Sophia smiled up at her before she got to her feet. "Good morning."
"I have some crackers we can eat before we head out. We ate the last of the sardines last night."
"That's okay."
After sitting at the table, eating packages of saltine crackers Jo had swiped days earlier from an abandoned diner, Jo made sure her backpack was had everything in it they would need. She'd placed the candle back into the middle pouch and also shoved the pack of playing cards inside as well. Pulling out her water bottle, she attempted to see if faucet worked at the sink. Turning the knobs, the pipes groaned and sputtered but nothing came out of the tap.
Frowning, Jo looked over at Sophia, who looked back naively. "We're gonna have to head back to the creek and fill the bottle up with some water," she explained. "It looks like it's gonna be another really hot day and we need to keep hydrated."
Upon leaving the house, Sophia reached for Jo's hand again and they both walked back toward the edge of the woods they had come out of the evening before. And, as they walked along, to keep themselves occupied, they played word games or just chatted about themselves to each other in an attempt to get to know each other better.
By early afternoon, they found the creek again but it was just a matter of getting down because it was the steeper side.
Grabbing onto a random branch, Jo tried to manage down the incline but she lost her footing and slipped the rest of the way down. She landed on her side with a sharp sensation of pain in her right arm. Sophia cried after her and climbed down as carefully as she could, running up to Jo when she managed her way over.
Jo was lying in the water and lifted herself up to see that a rock had cut into her arm and she was bleeding pretty badly.
"Shit," she groaned.
"Oh no, you're bleeding."
Looking around, Jo noticed Sophia's ragdoll a little ways downstream, lodged under the log from the day before. "Help me up."
Sophia grabbed onto Jo's opposite arm and let the blonde woman use her as balance for standing. She hobbled downstream, mad at herself. The fall down the incline had aggravated her foot which had originally hurt slightly two nights ago when she took that tumble down from the road. The two females walked along with Sophia placing her hands upon Jo's wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
"Your doll. I'm gonna need it."
Sophia frowned, but agreed. The girl hurried over to the doll and knelt down and dislodged it. Bringing it over to Jo, Jo took it and pressed it against her arm and sighed. She walked the rest of the way to the trunk and sat down and Sophia sat down next to her.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Sophia asked with worry in her voice.
Jo nodded. "Yeah," she assured. "It's not a big cut. It just needs to clot." Leaning down, she stuck the doll into the water and gave it a quick rinse before placing upon her cut again, which made her wince from the sting of cold water upon the open wound. Looking down at Sophia, she smirked. "It's okay, I promise," she continued, when the girl still seemed unnerved. "It makes for an eventful day. At least we aren't bored."
Jo winked at Sophia and gave the girl a playful nudge to the shoulder. She didn't want Sophia getting too upset. She was still just a child and deserved to not have so much to worry and fear about in this life; or at least as little as possible.
"Sorry about your doll," Jo apologized after a while.
"A friend gave it to me before her family left our group."
"Maybe I can rinse it off real good and it will—"
Sophia shook her head. "It's all right. I don't need it anymore," she insisted. "I'm twelve years old. I probably shouldn't be playing with dolls anymore anyway."
"Pfft," Jo muttered. "I played with Barbie dolls until I was thirteen." Removing the rag doll from her arm, the bleeding seemed to have stopped considerably. "I'll find you a new one as soon as I can."
Sophia smiled appreciatively and took her doll away from Jo and dropped it down into the water beside the trunk. She then leaned down and scooped up a palm full of water which she splashed onto Jo's arm to rinse away the rest of the blood for her. She then reached into Jo's backpack and grabbed the empty water bottle and filled it up for them with the creek water.
It wasn't very clean, but it had to suffice.
"Thank you," Jo nodded. Turning around to look over their shoulders, she gestured further downstream. "We should keep moving."
"Yeah," Sophia agreed.
Jo and Sophia came upon the same walkers from the day before after a while, and Jo had managed to put one down but the others were too much for them to manage with only one pocket knife; not that Sophia would've been much help anyway. She was too scared and cowered behind Jo the entire time. They had to run off in a different direction, going further into the woods than they wanted, and eventually seemed to shake the walkers off their scent.
Because of this, however, they were now lost and hungry again. They sat down within some overgrowth and ate the rest of the saltine crackers and drank some of the dirty creek water, which both spat out. When they got back up to continue walking, Jo tried peering up at the sun to figure out which direction they might be head, but once again the canopy of trees made it hard to tell which was east and which was west by the arch of the sun.
After walking aimlessly around for a few more hours and taking a few breaks to sit here and there, Jo made the tough decision that they find some thick bush coverage to use for sleeping in for the night, which would fall in couple more hours.
Sophia looked saddened and Jo apologized that they had not been able to make it to the road just yet. She claimed, however, to be very hopeful the next day would prove fruitful.
Burrowing down for the night, Sophia curled closely against Jo and they both laid there within a large grouping of bushes, tight like a ball, so no limbs stuck out in case a walker or two ambled by. Because of that fear, Jo barely slept a wink that night.
At first light, she was completely awake and woke Sophia up as well.
Pulling themselves up and out of the bushes, they continued walking and this time it really was a fruitful venture.
By earlier afternoon, they had made their way to the edge of the woods and found the main road. Climbing up the embankment, and then over the guardrail with each other's help, Jo and Sophia stepped onto the pavement and looked around at all the abandoned vehicles.
"Do you see your mom's car?"
Sophia shook her head. "Me and my mom were in the same car as Rick and his family. There was an RV the others were in, but I don't either of them."
"Are you sure we're in the right spot? Maybe the car and the RV are up further that way," Jo suggested, pointing to their left.
"No," Sophia shook her head again. "I remember that yellow car right there." Sophia was gesturing to a beige 1967 Ford Mustang. "They left. They left without me."
Jo placed a sympathetic hand on the girl's shoulders. "Maybe they just took their vehicles and backtracked down the road. They couldn't have gone forward. There are too many abandoned cars in the way."
Sophie shook her head. "They probably think I'm dead, that those walkers that were chasing me bit me and now I'm a walker, too."
"You can't think like that."
"They didn't even leave a note in case I came back this way," Sophia commented, feeling dejected. Looking up at Jo, she pouted. "You said if we didn't find my mom and my group that I could stay with you, right?"
Jo nodded. "Of course. But I still think—"
"Then I wanna stay with you."
Frowning, Jo placed her hands on either side of the girl's face. "Are you sure you don't want to wait here? They might double back. We can wait in one of these cars."
Sophia shook her head. "My mom would've left a note. There is no note," she repeated. "They gave up."
"I doubt that's true."
"I should've stayed where Rick left me. I shouldn't have gotten scared and ran off. I should've waited longer for him to come back. It's all my fault they couldn't find me. It's all my fault they gave up."
"Sophia, you need to stop that," Jo spoke adamantly. "Whatever happened, wherever they went, I don't believe they gave up. But it's up to you want you want to do now. Do you want to wait here in case they come back or do you want to keep walking and hope we find them along the way?"
Sophia scratched at her head and looked around. "I want to keep walking."
"All right, then that's what we'll do." Offering her hand to the girl, she smiled. "Onward?"
Sophia nodded, taking Jo's hand again. "Yeah."
Together the woman and child walked in the direction of road, heading away from Atlanta, weaving around the abandoned vehicles and keeping a wary eye out for walkers. Up above, the unrelenting sun beat down upon their heads, but they had each other which made the journey ahead of them easier to bear.
A few hours later, Carol was standing on the road beside the beige 1967 Ford Mustang with a message written on the windshield.
SOPHIA STAY HERE
WE WILL COME EVERY DAY
Carol was staring at the message as Andrea walked up behind her, placing a hand sympathetically to her back.
"We'll come again tomorrow," Andrea assured. "You know there's always the chance—"
"Don't," Carol cut her off. "I really don't need to hear it anymore, Andrea. Save the thoughts and prayers."
"You never know, Carol," Shane commented.
Carol simply held her hand up to shush him. "I'm serious. I'm not the one who needs thoughts and prayers right now," she insisted. "Rick and Lori do. Their son just died last night."
Shane bowed his head and lowered the shotgun he had brought with him for their protection. As he limped away, he sighed. "Don't remind me," he replied sadly.
