Complex
A Walking Dead Fanfiction by Sassy Lil Scorpio
Title: Complex
Fandom: The Walking Dead
Character: Shane Walsh
Theme Set: Eta
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Shane Walsh, Rick Grimes, and all other characters from The Walking Dead are from the creative imagination of Robert Kirkman. This author makes no claim of ownership. No monetary gain is being made from this work.
Author's Notes: 50 Sentences based on 1 character is a Live Journal (LJ) community. Some sentences may come off as run-ons. I might have some comma-splicing; I did my best to proofread for that. This form of fanfic is harder than it appears, especially when you come across a word and don't know how to relate it to the character you're writing about. I highly recommend this exercise. It's a good break from writing longer fics and allows you to delve into one character's mind and experiences by writing one sentence a piece. Of course, you can always expand that one sentence into a longer fanfiction.
Dedication: For my beautiful and awesome friend, Margaux-Vanessa, who indulges me in my constant chatter about The Walking Dead, especially my favorite character, Shane Walsh. I love you and I'm so grateful for our shared faith and your friendship! Thank you for everything and most of all, thank you for being you.
01. Fair Play
"Fair play" didn't exist anymore, no matter how much Dale and Rick wanted it to be that way; Shane knew the right choice was the one that kept him alive—anything else led to the death of himself or his loved ones.
02. Bones
Shane watched as the herd of walkers lumbered past the cars and hoped he wasn't destined to become a walking bag of bones after his life was over.
03. Desire
Lori—he wanted to hold her, kiss her, be inside her, protect her, love her…Rick had returned, but his desire for her hadn't disappeared.
04. Flower
Shane brought in a vase of flowers from Lori's garden and had a one-sided conversation with Rick about how Carl had finished school with good grades; when it was time to leave, he stood in the doorway and wondered if his best friend would ever wake up from his coma.
05. Hat Box
Rick gave him a hat box for his 23rd birthday as a joke since he knew Shane loved wearing baseball caps.
06. Jump
It wasn't a mere jump, but a huge leap in forcing himself to accept and adapt to this new reality of surviving in a world full of walking rotting corpses.
07. Mother
Grandma Jean became his closest mother figure during his childhood and adolescence, after his mother cheated on his father.
08. Father
When he found out Lori was pregnant, he promised himself he would do anything and everything to protect his baby and the mother of his child.
09. Saliva
Eighteen miles out from the farm and now face to face with his best friend, Shane felt his mouth and throat dry up when Rick confronted him on what really happened to Otis and what he had done with Lori.
10. Kaleidoscope
This insane new world turned Shane's easygoing life into a dark and macabre kaleidoscope; every time he turned in a new direction or made another unthinkable decision, things changed drastically out of his control.
11. Primary Colors
When they drove away from Atlanta, Shane, Lori, and Carl played a word game of listing items from A-Z that were primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—it was a fun distraction from the mounting fear and surrounding chaos.
12. Ideal
Shane wished he could be the good guy and live to see the end of the day, but he quickly learned that the outbreak had broken all the rules that had worked for him before.
13. Challenge
Shane kept challenging Rick and his decisions because he knew there was no room for wishful thinking and idealism—you had to fight to survive and he would keep drumming that philosophy into his best friend's head until he stopped breathing.
14. Scar
He shaved his head after that hellish night, but every time he saw or felt the scar, he was reminded of the fight with Otis—what preceded it and why it happened.
15. Face
Shane stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, his eyes dark and empty; he hated who he had become—a murderer—and he didn't know how he would face the group from now on.
16. Unzipped
He wandered into the woods and purposely left his pants unzipped so that Lori could yank them down in time to engage in yet another passionate love-making session.
17. Comfort
There was no one to give him support, or whom he could confide in, after what he had done to Otis.
18. Homeland
Shane was afraid that their homeland was completely overrun and that finding a permanent safe haven was impossible.
19. Window
While Rick droned on about preparing for the winter, Shane stared outside the window at the lone walker wandering in the field; he thought about how he and the walker were going in circles with no end in sight.
20. Try
He tried to keep his emotions from boiling over; anger, fear, and anxiety, were always simmering beneath the surface whenever Rick and him argued about everything: Hershel's barn full of walkers, what to do about Randall, and most of all: Lori and Carl.
21. Black Cloud
Leaving Rick in the hospital always hung over Shane's head like a black cloud; although he had pushed the hospital bed in front of Rick's room to protect him, he wished he could've done more for his brother and best friend.
22. Call
When Sophia shambled out of Hershel's barn to everyone's shock, he hung his head down and asked himself silently if he had made the right call to break open the building.
23. Design
Lori cuddled up next to Shane and laid her head on his chest after that first night; unbeknownst to her, he traced the design of a heart with his finger on her open palm.
24. Concentrate
He knew he was being tough on her, but he wanted Andrea to concentrate on the target and squash all interfering emotions, so that she would be confident in her ability to protect herself and others.
25. Bite
Shane couldn't figure out how the two dead cops became walkers since there were no bite marks—he had no way of knowing that when he became a walker, it would confirm for Rick what Dr. Jenner had told him at the CDC.
26. Power
Shane admitted to himself that he enjoyed leading the Atlanta group before Rick returned—there was something powerful about people looking up to you, depending on you to protect them.
27. Fingers
With his dying breath, Shane's bloody fingers gently touched Rick's neck in an effort to apologize for his actions that contributed to their broken friendship and destroyed brotherhood.
28. Damage
He knew the damage was done after he threw that wrench at Rick—not long after that, Rick chose Daryl as his second-in-command.
29. Glue
Shane would've come undone if not for Lori and Carl; they were the glue that kept him together—with nobody in his life and nothing to live for, he would've fallen apart at the beginning of the outbreak.
30. Natural
It was difficult as it wasn't his usual way of doing things, but Shane was trying to make it come natural to him: shutting down his feelings and acting first, especially when he knew someone important was counting on him.
31. Respite
He enjoyed those brief moments when he had a respite from living in constant life-threatening fear: making love to Lori, teaching Carl how to catch frogs, and joining the group to fry fish.
32. Disaster
When the outbreak first started, Shane thought the disease was a biological disaster; he figured it would get better, and soon realized that society had totally collapsed.
33. Accuse
Dale could accuse him as much as he wanted—Shane would maintain that Otis sacrificed himself to save Carl; he saw no reason to be transparent with someone who constantly judged and criticized him and who had already made up their mind about his actions that night.
34. Morning
He couldn't sleep all night after returning from the school; when morning came, he was struck by the fact that Otis would never experience seeing the sun rise again.
35. Haunted
Shane couldn't forget the horrifying images of Otis being eaten alive no matter how much he tried, and when he saw Carl walking around Hershel's farm, he was reminded that he had murdered an innocent man to save the life of his best friend's son.
36. Wrong
"Wrong" wasn't black and white anymore, it had various shades of gray; he learned this after reflecting that sometimes he did the wrong thing for the right reason, and the right thing for the wrong reason.
37. Note
While still deciding to leave or stay with the group, Shane thought about writing Rick a note, explaining and apologizing for everything that had transpired since his coma.
38. Go
I'll go somewhere far from here—where I don't need to see them in front of my face, he thought, when he saw Lori and Rick showing affection for each other—it wasn't the first time he had thought about leaving the group.
39. Upside Down
The world as he had known it, his entire life, his friendship with Rick Grimes—the outbreak had turned Shane Walsh's universe upside-down and there would never be a way to reverse it.
40. Keep Out
Hershel told him to keep his mouth shut and had even told Rick that he didn't want Shane around anymore after the infamous barn massacre.
41. Sides
The once united group seemed to split into two sides—Rick's and Shane's—Shane was grateful that at least one person, Andrea, reached out to him.
42. Separation
No one had officially separated him from the group, but Shane couldn't be with the woman he longed for and nobody understood where he was coming from (except Andrea on some level), so his loneliness increased.
43. Trail
Sophia's trail had gone cold for so long that Shane didn't understand why Rick continued to engage in this useless search, knowing it was risking the lives of the group, and especially given their previous work experiences in searching for missing persons.
44. Liar
Lori's labeling him a "liar" stabbed him in the heart; she had no idea what he had witnessed and experienced when he tried to get Rick out of the hospital.
45. Hour
It took less than an hour for Shane to plan Rick's murder; he knew if he took care of Randall first, Rick would follow right after.
46. Easy
Shane almost confided in Andrea what he'd done to Otis, but he couldn't bring himself to fully voice it aloud, so when he confirmed what Rick had suspected, he felt shock, anger, and hurt that Rick threw it back in his face after their fight: "can't be that easy killing someone, you know that."
47. Tie
He enjoyed teaching Carl how to tie different knots since he was a fast learner: overhand, slip knot, clove hitch, sheet bend, and figure eight.
48. Sense
During their "search" for Randall, Shane turned to Rick and stared at him without saying a word; he wondered if Rick had any sense about his approaching death...
49. Education
Shane believed in the School of Hard Knocks—life experience was the best education.
50. Change
Out of everyone in the group, Shane Walsh had adapted the fastest; he became a hardened survivor ahead of his time, and it wasn't until much later that Rick Grimes understood why his best friend had changed into someone who would kill to protect those he loved.