Jason Kreuger Myers

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YA GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!

So in this world...Claire's boyfriend still left her or was he killed in the opening days?

With more people convincing him I think Hershel will come around easier and I have a BAAAAAAAD feeling about Andrea is finished...too bad, one of my favorite comic characters :(

Anyways, with that being said, I now truly think if it happens SAYID should be the main focus for the Randall prisoner thing cause as said he was a former interrogator and torturer so after multiple soldiers I don't think a former high school student would be much threat...and he would be the one to study if Randall is telling the truth or not.

Makes me wonder if your making good ole Benjy the leader of the Living or what not.

Finally, I AGREE with Morgan/Rick comment! At the eve of the greatest war that Rick Grimes has ever known...one of the ones who stand by his side is to this day his oldest ally and one of his closest friends!

Alright so first, Claire has indeed been alone because her boyfriend bailed as before. As for Hershel, he interest has been peaked with Rick and Eko as they are both good men with a flip on religion. He can tell Eko is just a bit conflicted while Rick seems to have lost faith. As for Sayid it's safe to say he'd take lead with prisoners but who knows if he'll live that long…..

Jestalnaker94000

Good chapter! :) i couldn't imagine how relieved Shane was, XD.

I think the happiness Shane felt there was more than we've ever seen in the show lol

thedarkpokemaster

So Shane got away with it then for now that it but who knows how long that will last as well and now we find out that Lori is pregnant which is bad news I still think Aaron will be born on the farm or at least very soon.

I can confirm that Claire will be having Aaron on the farm. As for Shane, no one suspects anything yet as well all know Dale becomes increasingly suspicious over time.

Don 77

Man things sure seem like they are heating up and at least things seems to be calm right now but just how long will this last.

The calm never last as we all know but of course it's important for the group to have these little moments where they can reevaluate the situation.

Kevinrock8899

Cool so it seems there is still no sign of Andrea right now, this makes me wonder where she is right now and Daryl found Sophia's doll too which I know later she can give to Judith.

Good idea about the doll, to be honest I never thought of that. I just wanted to show that Daryl still cares for this family.

XavierWaverly

Really like what you're doing here. Hope you will keep up till the end unlike some authors who discontinue their stories inspire of having talent.

Thanks man, nice to hear that you enjoy this and that you feel it's worth me continuing.


Enjoy

Lori's eyes flickered open and she peered around the tent, she let out a little frown as she saw Carl and Rick nowhere to be seen. She reached over to the side of her little pumped up mattress and grabbed a clock, she could see it was already ten. She stood up and got dressed quickly, she sat on the ground and reached outside her tent to grab her shoes slipping them on. She let out a little sigh and stepped out of her tent and waved to Dale who was walking by.

She turned her attention to Carol and Claire who were busy hanging up clothes to dry, "I can't believe I slept in." She said as she sauntered over to them and picking up a shirt,

"Must have needed it." Carol said with a small smile as she finished clipping up a shirt to the clothes line,

"You feeling alright?" Claire asked a bit concerned,

"Fine, but next time wake me up. Especially on laundry day." Lori said with a little smirk as she slung some wet clothes over her shoulder,

"Oh, I think me and Carol can manage just fine." Claire said with a sarcastic confidence,

"You know I've been thinking, I have an idea to run by you two." Carol said with a small smile,

"And what's that?" Lori replied as she clipped up a shirt,

"That big kitchen, I wouldn't mind cooking in a real kitchen again. Maybe we all pitch in and we cook dinner for Hershel and his family tonight." Carol said with a hopeful grin,

"After everything he's done, he's earned at least that much." Lori said with a nod,

"One of you mind extending the invitation? I just think it would sound better coming from one of you." Carol said hanging her head ever so slightly,

"How so?" Lori asked with a raised eyebrow,

"Well your Rick's wife, kinda makes you our unofficial first lady." Lori looked at her in a bit of surprise, "And to be honest I doubt he'd turn down a pregnant woman's request." Lori looked over at her shocked and confused only for Claire to let out a little laugh,

"Are you asking me to use my baby for evil?" Claire said with a grin,

"I don't think dinner is evil." Carol replied with a smirk helping Lori calm down.

Nearby Lori heard Rick call out Amy and Sayid, "Come on guys let's get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover." Lori let out a small smile as she watched Rick walk over to a picnic table and roll out the elevation map once again.

Everyone made a small mental note that this was the first day since they met Rick that he wasn't in his sheriff's outfit. Rick looked around at the table and made sure everyone was accounted for, that was joining the search party today. "All Right, Everyone's getting new search grids today." Rick said looking around at them. "If she got turned around at this creek bed as Locke thinks then she could somewhere in this section here." Rick explained as Shane rolled his eyes at this 'fool's errand.'

"I'd like to help." Jimmy said timidly from just behind them, "I know that area pretty well."

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked with a raised eyebrow,

"Yeah yeah. He said I should ask you." Jimmy said quickly,

"Alright, thank you." Rick said with a nod while Eko stared at the boy for a moment getting a read on him.

Just then they heard Shane let out a scoff, "Am I the only one hearing that this is Locke's best guess here, nothing about what he and Daryl told us screams Andrea to me."

"We're not just giving up." Amy said sternly with a hard glare, "Maybe we'll pick up her trail today."

"No maybe about it, I'm gonna borrow a horse, and head up to this ridge here." Daryl said pointing at the map. Amy let out a relieved smile seeing that he as well wasn't giving up.

"Yeah good idea," T-Dog said with a nod then he let out a little grin, "Who knows maybe you'll see that Chupacabra."

"Chupacabra?" Rick asked confused,

"You have not heard this yet?" Eko said looking over to him,

"No I have not." Rick said shaking his head with a smirk,

"Me either." Anna said resting her hands on her hips,

"Our first night at camp Daryl tells us this whole thing reminds him of the when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra." Dale said with a quick raise of his eyebrows as he unpacked the gun bag,

Rick let out a little chuckle and Anna shook her head, "What are you braying at jackass?" Daryl said glaring over to him,

"So you believe in a blood sucking dog?" Anna asked with a grin,

"Do you believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl said as he slung his crossbow over his shoulder,

Just then Jimmy reached out for a pistol, "Whoa, you ever fired one before?" Rick asked taking the gun from the kid's hand,

"Well, If i'm going out I want one." Jimmy said with a small shrug,

"Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees." Daryl said with a scoff as he walked down towards the stables.

Anna looked over to Jimmy who was walking away slowly, "Hold up a second, if you're serious, me and Shane are both certified instructors."

"That's right, we're starting training tomorrow." Shane said with a nod,

"Don't worry, for now he can stick with us." T-Dog said as he and Locke finished loading up. Anna let out a nod and Jimmy returned to table. Rick quickly separated the map into five grids. The teams split into, T-Dog, Locke and Jimmy. Sayid and Amy. Anna and Eko, whom she requested to be paired with today. And lastly Rick and Shane. The final grid was left to Daryl who chose to head out alone today.

Twenty minutes later everyone who went out on the search was loaded up and drove off of the farm. Glenn, Claire and Charlie were all sitting on the porch listening to Charlie playing his guitar, "You all everybody!" Charlie sang with a grin while Glenn just shook his head,

"Still can't believe that you were in Drive Shaft." Glenn said in awe,

"Aye, we had our moment in the sun." Charlie said with a nod as he finished the song,

Just then Maggie stepped out of the house and peered over to them. Glenn quickly got up, "Hey." He said with an awkward smile,

Maggie gave him a little nod, "Nice guitar." Maggie said pointing to Charlie,

"Oh, thanks. Dale found it on the highway." Charlie said as he continued to tune it. Maggie nodded and started to walk down the steps. Charlie glanced up to Glenn who was watching her every step, "Don't be daft, go talk to her." He said as he rolled his eyes,

Glenn looked back at him then back to Maggie before running down to steps and catching up to her, "What's that all about?" Claire said pointing to him,

"Glenn fancy's her, and she does as well." Charlie said with a shrug, "Right, so want to hear Wonderwall? Used to play it a lot on the streets." Claire gave him a smirk and nodded.

Meanwhile Glenn walked over to her with a smile on his face, "You know, we still have eleven condoms left."

Maggie let out a smirk, "You see eleven condoms, I see eleven minutes of my life i'm never getting back." She said with a small rolling of her eyes,

Glenn let out a soft chuckle while his smile faded away, "It, uh, it wasn't that bad was it?"

Maggie stopped and turned to him, "Look, I don't even know if I like you." She said losing her smirk,

"But you're think about it." Glenn said leaning in, "You should." He said with a small raise in his eyebrow. Maggie let out a small scoff and turned around walking away. Glenn watched her for a moment and felt his confidence drop as he figured he just screwed everything up.

Two hours later in the woods Ana and Eko walked through the woods, Ana had a yellow shirt draped over her shoulder while she hammered a piece of it into a tree to mark their path. "So do you wish to tell me why you asked to be with me today?" Eko asked softly,

"Why? Is this a bad thing?" Ana asked with a little grin,

Eko looked at her smiled warmly, "No, no it is not. Yet I know you have a reason."

Ana looked at his for a moment as she wiped her brow, "Alright you got me, Shane and Rick. They have some things they need to work out, so by pairing with you they had no choice but to stick together today."

"And what do they need to work out?" Eko asked as they resumed walking,

"Let's just say they both need to hit common ground with this group before it starts to tear apart." Ana said with an almost annoyed tone, "After all we've been through and those two are gonna fight over nothing soon."

Meanwhile after not talking at all for hours Rick finally spoke up to Shane, "Do you remember the name of that waitress from the dairy queen? When we were in high school?" He said with a little smirk, "I know you, Shane, well enough to know that there is only one sure fire way of engaging you in a conversation, and that is to start asking you about girls you did in high school. I don't want to, but I'm willing to do it if that's what it takes."

Shane looked at him with a half cocked smile, "Maryanne. I told you about her?"

"Oh in excruciating detail." Rick said shaking his head,

"Excruciating my ass." Shane said with a grin, "You used to live for those details."

"Well, I was impressionable." Rick said causing Shane to chuckle softly, "And I may have be vicariously living through you."

"Why wouldn't you, with my impressive list of accomplishments?" Shane said proudly, "I was an artist in his prime. I was a protege."

"You mean prodigy." Rick corrected,

Shane frowned at him for correcting him, "Maybe. Is prodigy what you call a young high school stud that bangs thirty year olds on the regular?" He said with a little devious smirk,

"What thirty year old were you banging in high school?" Rick said with a scoff,

Shane took a pause, letting him milk the story, "P.E. teacher." He said with a grin,

"Mr Daniel?" Rick replied with raised eyebrows,

" Mrs Kelly." Shane said with a smirk growing across his lips,

"No way, she was married." Rick said not believing him,

"Believe what you like." After a moment Shane looked back over to him, "Let's talk about you high school love life then, huh?"

"That is a short list of one." Rick said hanging his head a bit,

"Oh that's right, it was just you and Anna-Lucia right?" Shane said with a laugh,

"Yeah well, it was a short lived experience." Rick said shaking his head,

"Yeah that's right it was, short lived as in only doing it once." Shane said with a laugh,

Rick's cheeks reddened ever so slightly, "We were friends, should have stayed that way. That's why it was only once."

Shane shook his head as the two of them went silent. "You know we shouldn't be talking about this stuff. They're all gone, ain't no reason to even think about it, or them." He said a bit coldly,

"Well if we don't remember them, who will?" Rick said peering back to him,

Shane stared at him for a second then scoffed, "Damn man, you been hanging around Eko a bit too much. You ask me that guy ain't got this world figured out yet and I'd bet he never will."

"He's doing just fine if you ask me." Rick said with a shrug, "And we can't just forget everyone."

"The hell we can't." Shane said wiping his brow, "Nostalgia. It's like a drug, keeps you from seeing things the way they are. People like Eko need to learn that, it's a danger. You got people depending on you, you need to be in the now." He said slapping his hands together for effect,

Rick turned back to him, "You think I don't know that?"

Shane let out a shrug, "I don't know. What are we doing? You got almost every able body at your disposal out scouring these woods for a woman we both know is likely dead."

"You think we should abandon the search? We found Sophia why not Andrea too?" Rick replied in a bit of defiance,

"It's not my call, is it?" Shane said turning his head,

"I'm asking." Rick said as Shane pushed past him, "I'm asking." He said a bit more forcefully,

"Survival, Rick. It means making hard decisions. But you've got this knack. You spread us thinner and thinner. I'm trying to save lives here and you're out saving cats from trees." Shane said raising his voice,

"Is that what you think Andrea is? Just a cat in a tree?" Rick said running ahead of him forcing him to stop walking,

"Don't do that, man. Don't twist my words." Shane said shaking his head,

"She's one of our own Shane, we don't just leave 'em behind. It's that mentality, that's why Sophia is alive and so is Desmond because we don't just push on." Rick said firmly,

Shane let out a scoff, "So you mean to tell me you honestly think we're just gonna find Andrea alive?"

"Are you that sure we won't?" Rick asked back,

"We being completely honest?" Shane asked,

"I'm counting on you to be." Rick said narrowing his eyes,

"It's math man. Love or not, Andrea, she only matters to the degree in which she don't drag the rest of us down." Shane said causing Rick to immediately look at him in disgust. Shane let out a small laugh, "Hell man I thought you wanted honest." Shane added bitterly as he turned around. He smacked some over brush and turned back to a silent Rick, "If we had just moved on we'd be halfway to Fort Benning right now and Carl wouldn't have gotten shot. You said so yourself. But we're out here, we're risking lives. Your own son almost died! Otis, he paid that bill, Desmond almost did too. What the hell are we still doing this for?"

Rick stepped right up to Shane angrily, "We don't just leave people behind. Sophia, Desmond, they both are alive because we took a chance and went for them. I think Andrea is still alive and I'm not-" Rick paused trying to calm himself, "I'm not gonna just write her off.

Shane looked away and let out a little huff and pointed to a nearby tree, "It's blue." He said causing Rick to turn and see a blue piece of fabric in a tree, "That's T-Dog and Locke. Looks like we wandered into their grid." Shane explained before turning back leaving Rick and that conversation behind.

Meanwhile Daryl road a horse through the forest stopping occasionally to shoot a squirrel. Eventually he peered to his right and looked down an embankment that held a small pond. He stopped the horse quickly as he saw Andrea's little satchel sitting against a log, he hopped off the horse and made his way down. He picked up the satchel which was soaked and looked around, "Andrea!" He called out but heard no response.

He waited around for a few minute but after not seeing her he returned to the horse and started to ride slowly through the forest trying to see if he could spot her anywhere. Suddenly the horse bucked wildly tossing Daryl off of it as a snack spooked it. Daryl hit the ground with a thud and started to roll down the embankment, along the way his only arrow pierced him through the abdomen. "Son of a bitch!" Daryl groaned out as he laid in the pond while his blood leaked into the water.

He put his hand onto his wound and began to crawl towards the land quickly. He took out his knife and cut off his sleeves, he quickly tied them together and tied it around his waste in an attempt to stop the wound from bleed too much. He picked up a stick and looked up at the embankment unsure if he would be able to climb it. Just then he heard some branches snapping nearby and that's when it hit him, his crossbow was at the bottom of the pond.

He waded back through the water making his way towards where he landed and started to poke around until he was able to find the crossbow and get it out of the water. He returned to the embankment and looked for an easy spot to climb up. He took a few quick breaths and began to climb up the steep hill, groaning and wincing with pain in each step.

Back on the farm Charlie was walking around the camp when Lori passed. She instantly felt his eyes on her and she spoke up quickly, "Just mind your own business Charlie."

"Glenn told me what that thing was, you're pregnant?" He whispered out to her as he walked over,

Lori let out a little gasp and looked over to him in fear, "You can't tell anybody." She said pleadingly,

Charlie looked behind her and saw Rick and Shane walking up the driveway, "You haven't told him, are you mad?"

Lori looked at him for a moment before turning around, Charlie looked at her and held his tongue not wanting to make this worse. He turned around himself and walked away just as Rick spotted her and began to walk over. "Something wrong?" She asked as she could see neither one of them looking at each other,

Rick waited until Shane was out of earshot, "I just had a long talk with Shane." Rick took a long pause before continuing, "He want's to call off the search."

Lori took a moment before asking, "What do you think?"

"What if it was Carl? Wouldn't you want us to keep looking? That's Amy's sister, her family." Rick said hanging his head,

"If it was Carl yes, i'd want to know one way or another." Lori said with a quick nod,

"Shane...he thinks the people like me and Eko, the ones with good intentions. We're making us weaker. He doesn't think I can make the hard decisions for the good of the group." Rick said shaking his head,

"They're all hard decisions." Lori said quickly,

"But maybe I'm holding on to a way of thinking that doesn't make sense anymore." Rick said doubtfully, "He says it's math, just supplies. No room for being soft, makes life pretty simple when you think of things like that."

"Hey." Lori said taking his head with her hands making him look her in the eye, "None of us were prepared to be living life this way. You are making the best decisions you can with the information you have. I don't see soft in that."

"Excuse me ." Beth squeaked in from behind them, "My dad wants to talk to you and Eko." Rick let out a nod and started to head into the camp to grab Eko.

Meanwhile Daryl had been able to get nearly all the way to the top of the embankment but the trip was taking everything he had. His stick snapped most of the bottom off and Daryl tossed it away and took a deep breath, without the extra support he was getting slightly concerned. He let out a angry grumble, "Come on. You've done half, stop being such a pussy." He made a leaping grab forward but came up short and tumbled back down to the bottom landing hard on the ground yet again.

Back at the farm Rick and Eko made their way to the stable where Hershel was finishing gassing up the generators. "Excuse me, you wish to speak with us." Eko said softly as they walked forward,

Hershel glared up at them, "One of my horse is missing." He said sternly, "Did one of your people take it?"

"I was given the impression you knew about that." Rick replied,

"I did not." Hershel said looking at him agitated,

"I'll have a word with Daryl." Rick said with a nod,

"And Jimmu? You took him out today. Did he also give you the impression of my consent?" Hershel asked as he tightened the cap on the generator,

"No he told me outright." Rick said shaking his head,

"I knew the boy was lying." Eko said suddenly causing Rick and Hershel to look at him confused and a bit surprised,

"And if you knew this why would you not tell me or stop him." Hershel said curiously,

"He must be allowed to make his own choices and mistakes, then suffer the consequences." Eko explained,

"Jimmy is seventeen, he is not kin but I am responsible for him." Hershel said shaking his head, "You need to clear these things with me."

"Looks like we all need to work on our communication skills, what do you suggest?" Rick asked,

"Keep it simple. I'll control my people, you control yours." Hershel replied.

Rick let out a nod as did Eko before they both turned and started to walk back towards camp, "You want to explain to me, why you didn't feel the need to tell me about Jimmy?"

"When I was only twelve I had already taken a man's life to save my brother. If Jimmy wishes to act like a child at his age fine, but I will not treat him like one." Eko said firmly,

"I understand you want to make him man up but we need Hershel to let us stay here. We can't give him a reason to turn us away." Rick said stopping Eko, "So please, if you know something tell me." Eko took a quick breath and gave him a nod of agreement before they continued back to the camp.

Alright sorry for the wait on this chapter but I hope you all enjoyed it none the less, if you did leave me a review telling me what you liked or if you have any questions. Anyway I'll see you all in the next one!