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Chapter 9

The gun didn't fire, it jammed. Lori screamed as the Walker grabbed her.

"Shit!" I cussed, hitting the gun on the side with my other hand. Immediately it fired. I looked up in horror, not knowing if the bullet had hit the Walker…or Lori.

Lori stared at me with her eyes widened. The Walker behind her toppled over and hit the asphalt with a loud thud. I let go of the gun and grabbed hold of my chest," damn..."

Lori dropped down on her knees and clasped her hands over her stomach.

"Too close," She muttered," too close."

"Are you alright?" I asked her. She lifted her head and gave a short nod.

I got out of the car and slowly made my way over to her. My legs were shaking, probably too much adrenaline, caused by fear, pumping through my veins.

She grabbed my extended hand and without warning wrapped her arms around me once she was up.

"Thank you Maddy." She said to me in a raspy voice.

I gently pushed her back and gave a small smile," let's go back to the farm. Everyone is probably wondering where we are."

I walked back to pick up the gun, my right leg was still shaking. I really dislike guns. I'm glad I hadn't accidentally shot Lori. Even if the gun hadn't jammed…I had a lousy aim. Lori walked past me as I bent down to take the gun from the ground.

"Lori?"

She didn't reply or stopped. She kept walking into the night, into the other direction, away from the farm. I left the gun and jogged after her but stopped immediately as a pain shot through my right leg. I must have hurt it when we crashed with the car.

"Lori, stop! Where do you think you're going?" I knew very well where she was going, and I doubted she had a case of disorientation. Trying to ignore the pain, I hobbled after her.

"We're near the town, right?" Lori said to me as she kept on walking," We'll go into town, find Rick, Glenn and Hershel and safely drive back with them to the farm."

"For goodness sake…" I gritted my teeth together to stop myself from cursing the hell out of that woman.

"For all we know they're already at the farm." Lori stopped and this allowed me to catch up with her," Please, Lori." I winched as I halted next to her.

"I can hardly walk as it is." I continued," and you've got blood on your head."

Lori raised her arm and touched the side of her forehead, blood stuck to her fingertips. She still had that determined look in her eye, to go on and find her husband.

"Don't make me knock you out and drag your butt back to the farm, because I will."

Lori glanced down at my right leg, and then she turned around and continued her walk. Son of a,-

"Fine, you go ahead. I'll tell your son how much you cared about him or the safety of others." I was done with this. I followed her example and turned around, but headed into the other direction, back to the farm.

The sound of two vehicles approaching caused me to forget my anger, and then three headlights shone brightly into our direction. I had to lift my arm to cover my eyes from the bright light. A car stopped as did a motorcycle.

"Madison!" a voice called out. Daryl, thank the heavens. He got off his motorcycle and hurried over. I sure was glad to see his face.

"We saw the car, are you alright?"

At that moment, Shane stepped out of the car," Where's Lori?" He demanded. Not even a, how are you doing or are you hurt?

I pointed at the faint silhouette behind me," she's right there." I told him and he hurried after her.

I turned back to Daryl who was eyeing my right leg. The denim was dark coloured.

"Only my leg," Daryl moved his gaze and took a quick glance at the rest of my body.

"Stop it." I told him, feeling rather embarrassed," it's only the leg, I'll ask Hershel to take a look at it when we're back at the farm."

Daryl shook his head," they're not back yet."

"They're not?" I glanced back at Lori, who was apparently in some sort of discussion with Shane. I felt my right arm move and was surprise to see Daryl next to me, having a firm grip on my arm and supporting my body.

"Let's get you in the car." He said.

"No." I replied immediately," I-I really do not want to be near..." I glanced at the car and then shifted my gaze to where Lori was. I didn't want to be near either of the two, a car or Lori. But I kept that to myself. I realized how much I must have sounded like a whiney little girl, at that moment I could care less about it, luckily Daryl didn't ask questions.

Quietly we walked to his motorcycle and he helped me get onto the bike. I flinched as he moved my right leg.

"What were you thinking going with her to find Rick?" Daryl asked me after he had made sure I was sitting properly on the back.

"I couldn't let her go alone." I answered.

"So you decided to play the hero and accompany her?" He said.

"She was already in the car… Nobody wanted to go with her." I countered.

"She never asked anyone else, except me. I told her it was a bad idea."

"I'm sorry?" I frowned.

At that point Shane and Lori were on their way back. He opened the passenger's seat for her and she stepped into the car.

"I can't believe that," I pressed my lips together into a tight line. I was absolutely furious.

"I've done enough lately." Was Daryl's answer," just as you've done enough for them," Daryl added as he got on his bike.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, but my question was lost in the noise of the engine. I placed my hands on his sides, but he grabbed them and placed them around his waist. Good thing that he did, otherwise I might have ended up on the side of the road again.

::::::…::::::

"Hey, wake up," I heard the faint voice of Daryl echo in my head," Mads, we're here." '

I opened my eyes and saw the farmhouse. The car with Lori and Shane was in front of us. We rode past the fences and stopped. Almost everyone was coming our way when they heard us. Lori and Shane stepped out of the car, while Daryl helped me get off the motorcycle. They weren't expecting us to come back the way that we did. Lori and I looked like an absolute mess. She with blood on her head, shirt torn and pants stained with blood from the Walkers. Compared to Lori I didn't look much worse, except for my leg. The others were pretty shocked when they saw us.

"Oh my God, are you two alright?" Andrea asked as she ran up to me.

"What happened?" Dale looked at Lori and Shane.

"They had an accident," Shane answered, while Lori quickly replied," I'm fine, where is Rick?"

No one answered her question. Everyone simply looked at one another.

"They're not back?" Lori turned her eyes at Shane," Where are they?" Anger written across her face, and I understood immediately that Shane had lied to her in order to get Lori into the car.

"I had to get you here."

She didn't appreciate it. She went up to Shane and started to lash out at him," Asshole, he's my husband!"

"Lori, I'll go after him, I'll go find him." Shane said as he held her," first things first, I gotta look after you, gotta make sure the baby is alright."

A baby, Lori is pregnant?

"Pregnant?" I whispered softly.

"You're having a baby?" This came from Carl. Another silence fell over the group. Was Shane the only one who knew about Lori being pregnant? Judging by the way everyone else responded, it seemed to me as if no one knew.

Daryl ignored the announcement and pulled me with him towards the house," let's get you inside."

We headed to the house. The front door opened, revealing Sophia and Carol.

"Maddy!" Sophia ran up to me and collided against my body. She would have knocked me to the ground, had it not been for Daryl who had a firm grip on me. She did manage to knock the wind out of me.

"Easy kiddo," Daryl said to Sophia.

"I knew you'd find her Daryl." Sophia said with a smile. Then she noticed the way Daryl was holding me and her eyes moved downwards.

"You're hurt." She turned her head to her mother. Carol walked down the porch steps and came up to my other side. She placed my arm around her shoulder and together she and Daryl guided me up the steps.

"What happened out there? Is Lori alright?" Carol asked with a worried look.

"She's fine…" I replied.

Carefully they placed me on one of the couches and I leaned back as Sophia sat down next to me.

"We got surprised by a Walker, took a tumble and when we woke up it was already dark outside." I closed my eyes," We got attacked by a Walker as we tried to crawl out of the car. After another visit from a second Walker, Lori still wanted to keep going to look for the others…"

"You're lucky you two survived the crash." Carol said as she inspected my leg," I'm going to fetch Patricia, perhaps she can help." I thanked Carol and waited for her to be out of sight before turning my attention to Sophia.

"We need to talk."

I looked at Daryl," would you mind giving us a minute?" I asked. Daryl nodded and moved to the other side of the room.

"Daryl?" I called after him, he halted," Thank you."

He didn't reply, but that was alright, I'd learned by now that Daryl was not a man of many words. He nodded once and instead decided to leave the room.

"I thought you had left again," Sophia said," but then I found your backpack in the hallway. You'd never leave your backpack."

"Sophia,-" I tried to interrupt her but she kept on going. I couldn't recall if she used to do this when it was just the two of us.

"We noticed Lori missing too, and immediately we all started looking around the farm. Then mum and I went to Daryl and asked him if he had seen you or Lori. And then he went to look for you with Shane." She looked rather proud, that if she hadn't gone and spoken to Daryl, Lori and I would still be gone.

"I'm glad he did." I told her," but that's not what I want to talk about." Sophia cocked her head.

I forgot what I wanted to say to her. After the barn incident, I had thought up a whole script inside my mind, what I wanted to say to Sophia, about her behaviour towards me and to her mother. But somehow it didn't seem to matter anymore. There was only one thing I wanted her to know, and that was for her to know, the reason why I came back. The door to the room opened and Patricia walked in, together with Carol.
"Let's have a look at your leg." Patricia said.

"Come on Sophia, let's give them some privacy." Carol extended her hand towards her daughter.

"Thank you," I nodded at Carol," I'll see you later." I smiled to Sophia.

Patricia, as it turned out, was Hershel's assistant. She couldn't do everything he could, or knew as much as him, but she knew enough to figure out what had to be done.

"You're going to need stitches." Patricia said, she looked up," There's a deep cut in your leg, and from the look of it, if we don't stitch it up you could get a nasty infection."

Suddenly the image of the cut on my leg from this afternoon sprang into my mind. I never gotten around properly cleaning it or taking care of it after the barn incident.

"I can't believe I was that stupid…" I mumbled to myself.

"I should tell you beforehand," She continued," We don't have any anaesthetics."

"Ugh…terrific," I groaned.


Slowly trying to weave in some Daryl moments, R&R please ^^ Thank you