Lori sat in the rocking chair for several more minutes, the sounds of the poor baby the only thing breaking the silence of the room. She began trying to figure out what she was going to do. Reggie had given up her pursuit for the moment, but this was the other woman's territory, there could be any number of means for her to get in the room or get Lori out.
And then there was the matter of the baby. She would have to put it down; it was the only humane thing to do. Yet, she could not fathom killing a baby of any kind with her own hands. Even though it was already dead, to put that scalpel through its skull just seemed inarguably wrong. She thought about her own baby, growing inside of her. What if one day something went wrong and her baby died? Who would be the one to put it down? Her? Rick? God forbid, Carl? If the baby would even make it out of her womb and into the world at all. A shudder rippled through her body. She decided to just get what she had to do over with.
She winced as the rocking chair creaked loudly when she stood up. Padding her way over to the crib, she stared at the baby for another minute, her hand that was holding the scalpel shaking badly. The baby continued to grunt and snap at her. She was sure would never get the image out of her mind. Some movement caught her eye; the baby's foot had moved out from beneath his blanket and had slipped free from the bootie. She reached one had in the crib to touch its foot, hoping she could provide some sort of motherly love to the baby before committing her act. It was hard to believe he didn't have any feelings of fear or loneliness anymore. She had never taken the time to actually note what a Walker's skin felt like, with good reason. The baby's foot was cold, dry and papery, reminding her of a dead flower petal. A few tears leaked out of her eyes and she felt sick to her stomach, not for the first time in the last day. Before she could get herself together and raise the scalpel, a soft knock sounded on the door. Startled and slightly confused, she turned her head to look at the source of the sound.
"Lori," Reggie's voice came from the other side, eerily calm and collected. "I think you should come out from there now. I'm not going to hurt you."
Lori stepped away from the crib, not intending to come out but she was still shaking too badly to properly attend to the matter at hand. She wiped her eyes and stared at the floor, listening to Reggie and waiting for her brain to come up with a brilliant escape plan.
"I know you're in there listening to me. I suppose you can stay in there if you want to, I'm not going anywhere, but you're running out of time." Reggie paused, "and I thought you might like to know that husband of yours is back."
Lori's eyes widened and snapped back towards the door. Rick? Why would he come back? Did he see them? No no no…it had to be a trap. She'd been tricked like this before. When Shane made her come back to the farm by telling her Rick was already back. She wouldn't fall for it a second time.
"I haven't harmed him, but it's vital that you come out. For both your sakes," Reggie still spoke with that disturbingly calm tone. It belied her obviously shaky hold on sanity. Reggie was crazy, but smart. This was possibly the scariest kind of crazy.
Lori tried to breathe deeply, but between her congestion and the stench of the baby she couldn't manage much. She felt herself panicking inside. She still had no real way out of the room, and her husband may or may not have come back for her and put himself back into danger. It did sound like something he would do, if he had seen Reggie drive past. But that was a big if.
Ultimately, she couldn't take the chance. With no solid plan or way out, she decided to face Reggie once again. Maybe if she finally cooperated the woman really would let her go. Unless whatever she had in mind to help Lori was actually going to end up killing her. She sighed and trudged over to the door, bracing herself to push the heavy furniture back out of the way so she could reach the knob. Once the door was clear she paused once more before opening it, keeping the scalpel ready in her hand.
Reggie's face appeared on the other side, hair disheveled and red splotches on her pale skin but she smiled serenely. "Good choice."
Lori stepped out of the room, scanning the other woman for weapons. Reggie appeared to be empty handed, but Lori kept her guard up. She quickly pocketed the scalpel again so Reggie couldn't try to take it away from her. It was very likely there would be a greater need for it later.
"Rick's not really here is he?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," Reggie replied honestly, pausing she furrowed her brow. "But now that I think of it, what did happen to him?"
"Well since we're not bein' truthful with each other I guess it doesn't matter does it?" Lori replied, her voice icy. This woman really was a piece of work.
Reggie's expression switched back to neutral as she shrugged. "Fair enough. But just so you know, if he's trying to make it back to where you came from, I highly doubt he's going to get very far on that leg. But lucky for you both I've cleared out most of the infected ones in this area so he probably won't go that way. Perhaps blood loss combined with dehydration."
Lori flinched inwardly. Reggie was really far too casual in speaking of death. She treated it so nonchalantly, like it was just another statistic for her medical records. She found her anger towards the doctor rising once again. "He wouldn't be dehydrated if you hadn't kept us like prisoners in your basement. And if you hadn't stolen our car we could have driven back safely."
"But then you'd be dead soon too. If you would just cooperate with me, perhaps we could finish in time to find and help your husband."
"Okay," Lori sighed, exasperated with the riddles from Reggie. "I'm not going one step further with you until you tell me why you think I'm going to die and why you need to help me. I haven't been bitten or scratched. When I said I was infected it's because we all are. We all carry the virus. A doctor at the CDC told my husband that."
She watched as the other woman's face flicked back to confusion. "But…you have a fever."
Lori nodded. "Yes, because I'm sick. I have a throat and chest infection."
Reggie's shook her head back and forth slowly and then more rapidly. "No…no you're lying. I'm not infected. That's a lie. The virus can't be in everyone. That doesn't make any sense."
"Some of us have seen it. People that were perfectly fine and died some other way turned, a man whose neck was broken and another," she paused, still finding it hard to believe Shane had turned. "He was stabbed," she finished. "It's true Reggie, I wouldn't make this up."
"Then you're mistaken!" Reggie snapped. "That doctor was wrong or he was lying. I've done my own research; they must have been infected some other way." She lowered her head, her features momentarily flickering with grief and shame. "The virus can be spread by an infected needle."
Lori's brow pinched and her eyes narrowed. "Is that what happened to the baby in there?" If she didn't have a way out of there she figured it was worth a try to get all of her questions answered.
Reggie hesitated before making eye contact. "yes. Which is why you need to help me," she replied, the panic in her voice rising once again. "We can save him together. You said you have a son, right? What if that were him?"
"Is that your son?" Lori asked gently, feeling genuinely sorry for the woman for the first time. Had she accidentally infected her own son? That would be enough to drive any mother mad. She pondered the question posed to her as she waited for the other woman to answer, if that baby were Carl or the baby in her womb and she had been responsible for the death of either one of them she may have lost her mind too. She finally understood Reggie's motivation for everything she was doing. But after all she'd seen of this world, she couldn't believe that there was a way back from it. That baby was dead. No amount of research or experimenting could give it life again.
"It is," Reggie finally said. "Now let's go, we're running out of time," she demanded, reaching for Lori's wrist.
"Wait!" Lori blurted, desperate to buy more time to figure out a plan. She didn't know what would happen to her once the doctor got her back to the clinic. "The baby lost his bootie, do you think he might be cold?" She realized how ridiculous the statement sounded once it left her lips, but she was banking on the fact that Reggie was unstable; perhaps appealing to her emotional connection to the baby would work.
It did.
"Alright," the other woman nodded. "After you," she gestured towards the room. Lori cringed, despite all of her issues Reggie wasn't making the mistake of turning her back on her captive again. She stepped sideways back into the room, keeping the blonde in her line of sight.
Reggie walked in after her and pointedly shut the door. She walked over to the crib and reached in to fix the baby's clothing. "I appreciate you looking out for him," she almost whispered, turning her head slightly. She looked back in the crib. "There you go, all better now," she said affectionately to the baby, whose growls became more aggressive again with another person within reach. With her back turned, Lori realized she could probably attack Reggie and perhaps get the upper hand, but she couldn't bring herself to do that while a mother was attending to her child, no matter how twisted the situation was. She finished up and walked back toward Lori and out the door.
"Was it just the two of you here?" Lori asked, following her out.
"No, we lost my husband and other son," she replied detachedly, going back into doctor mode as she led the way back towards the clinic.
"I'm sorry," Lori mumbled, she thought about telling Reggie what happened to Rick and how she thought he was dead when the whole thing started, but she realized that may aggravate the woman's irritation with her, because she got her husband back and she still had Carl. Instead, she silently followed the doctor. It didn't appear that she intended to do harm, but it was the fact that she believed Lori to be infected that worried her. And she had just stated that she accidentally infected her own baby with a needle. Lori didn't like the chances of that becoming her fate too.
The two women arrived downstairs and began moving through the kitchen back to the exam room. Lori kept her hand close to her pocket containing the scalpel, just in case, and scanned the room for other potential weapons or ways to escape. Her hope dimmed when she the other woman snapped the lock in place before shutting the door behind them, sealing off the other part of the house. A quick glance in the other direction confirmed that the door leading to the back hall had been closed too, probably also locked.
Reggie sat down on her stool and gestured for Lori to sit on the exam table. She decided to try to reason with the other woman once more. "Please Reggie, I'm not infected. The only thing you need to treat me for is a common cold. Can't you hear the congestion in my chest? Look at my throat!"
The doctor shook her head. "The virus would weaken your immune system and allow you to contract other viruses very easily," she actually looked sympathetic as she looked into Lori's eyes. "I'm sorry, Lori, I know this must be difficult for you to face. But you must accept it and allow me to help you." She opened a cupboard and pulled out a syringe. "Please, take a seat."
Lori watched her peel open the plastic wrap that covered the syringe, her own hand moving to brush the handle on the door behind her that would take her back out into the waiting room so that she could escape through the pharmacy – her last hope. The handle barely budged when she tried to twist it; she was trapped.
On the other side of the bed she stared wide-eyed as Reggie punctured the rubber stopper on a vial and began drawing clear liquid from it, filling the syringe.
Backing up until her spine was pressed solidly against the door behind her, Lori held her breath, shaking her head. "You can't," she pleaded, her hand moving to rest over her belly protectively. She reached for the scalpel, her hands shaking so badly that her fingers tangled in the fabric of her jeans, fumbling around the metal handle as the other woman began to approach her.
The needle gauge looked huge as Reggie neared and Lori felt the blood drain from her face as she zeroed in on its sharp end, the moisture evaporating from her mouth. The scalpel in her hand had become twisted into the fold of her pocket and she yanked on it, her sweaty hands sliding over the handle too easily as she lost her grip, the metal blade sliding through the thick ball of her palm under her thumb. The weapon clattered to the floor at her feet and she began to skirt away from the other woman, her back pressed to the wall.
Not even a flicker in the other woman's eyes gave Lori any kind of warning before she launched forward. Lori lifted her arms defensively but the movement was useless to block the syringe from stabbing into her arm. Pain followed quickly by intense lightheadedness had her slumping forward into Reggie, the frame of her body turning to jelly.
"There you are, sweetheart," Reggie discarded the needle on top of the shoulder-height cabinet behind Lori and closed the sagging woman into her arms. Lori felt as though she had suddenly found herself inside a fish bowl looking out at a room that swayed disproportionately around her. Everything had become so loud and silent all at once and she found herself floundering to bring her head above water.
Her uncooperative limbs jerked then collapsed like a broken puppet as she was walked and pushed back onto the exam table.
"… to help… relax… bit," Reggie mouth moved, her words filtering almost through a sieve that wouldn't allow them all through. Lori caught them one by one, her sluggish brain refusing to hold them long enough for her to interpret meaning. Turning her head she watched with a chemically induced calm as her arms were secured with straps to the sides of the table.
"Reggie," Lori could hear the slurring of her words as she watched the other woman tie a latex band around her bicep. "Reggie, don't…" her words died off as she was forced to swallow around what felt like a wad of cotton in her mouth. "Pregn-," she tried to explain, lifting her doughy head from the table. "I'm pregnant."
The other woman paused, the needle of another syringe hovering just inches away from the exposed skin of the crook of Lori's arm. "That's manipulative, Lori. Do you expect me to believe that everything you would just happen to tell me this now."
"It's the truth," Lori laid her head back down against the table, but kept her eyes fixed on the doctor's. "Please don't hurt my baby."
Reggie seems to hesitate, her eyes flicking between Lori and the syringe. Finally she set it down on the small table beside her. "If you're infected then your baby is too. I could save you both," she said decidedly, getting to her feet. Lori watched her back for a few moments while she collected something from under the sink. When the other woman turned back around she recognized the small piece of equipment in her hand immediately.
"Will it work?" Lori asked, her heart picking up speed.
Reggie set the Doppler on the tray and began working Lori's clothes out of the way to expose her abdomen. "Only if you're actually pregnant," she emphasized her doubt and flicked the machine on before pressing its wand low on Lori's stomach.
Lori held her breath, listening to the sound of the microphone scratching, her heart pounding in her chest. She winced as Reggie pressed harder into the spot just above her pubic bone then froze as a soft rhythmic thumping accompanied by whooshing sounds picked up over the speaker. "Is that my baby?" she asked, closing her eyes against an unexpected onslaught of tears that dammed up in her eyes.
Reggie seemed focused on her task, her teeth sinking into her lower lip. She didn't seem to be breathing either. When she lifted her eyes to meet Lori's, hers too were bright with tears. "This," she swallowed hard. "This is a miracle."
Lori sniffled, a small chuckle escaping her lips as a tear slid over her temple.
"If you can make it through the treatment without miscarrying it will definitely be safe to use on my baby," Reggie pulled the machine back and placed it on the table beside her.
At the other woman's announcement, Lori's groggy body stiffened again as she fought to process everything. Her tears shifted from those of relief to instant fear and immeasurable disappointment; she hadn't expected Reggie to act so callously, even after everything that had happened since their meeting. She'd know the woman was nuts, but her calculated cruelty was chilling. Lori shook her head slowly, turning her head to look frantically at the straps binding her arms.
"Lori, I don't want you to be afraid," Reggie patted her thigh reassuringly. "I have been working on this for several weeks now and I really do think that I have made a significant breakthrough," she explained, replacing her gloves with a fresh pair.
Tugging on the straps, Lori fought back the waves of fog that kept pulling her from her task. Her attention drifted back when she felt Reggie grip her forearm and pin it to the table.
"Get your hands off me," Lori groaned as she fought against the doctor. She winced as a cannula was forced through the papery skin of her arm and into her vein. The IV was a simple line with a bag filled with a milky substance. Lori eyed the bag as Reggie began hooking its port to the thin tube attached to her arm. "What is that?" she demanded, her voice waning as her energy level began to slip after expending much of it on her rollercoaster of emotions.
"The hair of the dog," Reggie offered her a small smile, hanging the bag on a pole next to the bed. "A mixture of antibiotics and an antivenom of sorts." Turning away from Lori, she began adjusting the flow of the fluid that had begun collecting in the drip chamber. "If we can get you both through this we will have all made medical history. We won't just be saving Charlie, we'll be saving the world."
Tears blurred her vision and Lori blinks rapidly to clear it, her eyes fixed on the milky fluid that had slowly begun to work its way through the tube towards her arms. "Please," she croaked, squeezing her eyes closed as helplessness overwhelmed her. "Please don't do-," a loud bang startled her and her eyes flew open as she door exploded with splintered wood.
Reggie's skull exploded next, a shower of blood and grey matter splattering against her face and throat. Lori watched as the woman slumped to the floor, her skull smacking hard against the edge of the table on her way down, further fragmenting its cracked surface as more brain oozed from the deep wound.
In a flash someone else was in her field of vision and she found herself staring down at a pair of muddy brown leather boots and dusty faded black jeans. Lifting her eyes she trained them over a large tear in the knee of the pants to the cuffs of a leather jacket that partially concealed calloused, dirt-stained hands.
"Daryl," she muttered, watching as he inspected the tube in her arm, his fingers pinching it closed just above the cannula, stopping the fluid from entering her vein.
A chilly hand rested against her cheek and she leaned into the palm, turning her face to find her husband's.
"You alright?" he asked, smoothing her hair back from her forehead with his other hand. He spared a glance at Daryl then began to work on unfastening the strap on the wrist closest to him.
Lori turned at a sudden pain back to Daryl who had yanked the i.v. from her arm and was looking at it with a mixture of disgust and curiosity. She whimpered as her ruptured vein began to pour with blood, quickly pooling in her joint and dripping crimson down her pale arm. Her view was blocked seconds later by a red rag that Daryl quickly clamped down over her arm, squeezing tightly to stem the flow.
She wanted to inquire about the cleanliness of the cloth but was stopped short by a glare he sent her way, as though he'd read her mind.
Rick had leaned across her and had unbuckled the other strap and she suddenly found herself able to move. She attempted to sit up but found that her body was unwilling to follow her commands as she raised upwards, her muscles shuddering and giving out until she was falling backwards again. Rick moved quickly to catch her, muttering a soft woah, and Daryl's hands fell away, leaving her to wrap her arms around her husband's shoulders.
"You alright?" he asked again, his palm steadying the back of her head as he lifted her up until she was resting against him, her head dropping onto his shoulder.
Lori closed her eyes, exhausted by the tranquilizer in her system and the day's events. "Can you get me out of here?"