**Pre turn: July 1868**
"How are things with Rick?"
Lori looked over at her friend sitting on the other side of the tea table, "I don't know Jane. I don't feel like we connect anymore. Maybe we never really did."
"What do you mean?" Jane asked leaning back in her chair to listen.
"Ever since he came back from the war he won't talk about it. Ever. Not with anybody. He doesn't hang out with any of his old friends except Shane and we haven't so much as gone to visit our parents since the Confederacy fell. It's like Rick is hiding from the world out here."
"Do you still love him?"
"Yes." Lori said quickly, "I mean, I think so. I have to right? He's my husband."
Jane opened her mouth to respond when Carl's voice rang through the house, "Mom! Shane and Dad are back!" Lori looked warningly at her friend and stood up. Rick wasn't supposed to back for another day or so but sure enough as she made her way to the front door Lori could see their wagon was coming up the road to the house. As she looked at however, Lori noticed that it was still full of cotton and there was only one person riding it.
Shane brought the wagon to a stop and got out of the vehicle slowly. His face looked grave as death and Lori felt fear in the pit of her stomach. "Where's Rick?" she asked. Shane didn't answer; he just walked up to her silently and looked at her eyes wide and full of guilt.
"I'm sorry." he whispered.
"Where is Rick?!" Lori demanded. Shane swallowed.
"He's dead."
**One day ago**
Shane kissed her softly on the lips. "How was your day?" he asked. Lori kissed him back.
"It was good. As good as these days go anyhow." She smiled, "Carl will be here any minute. You should go."
"Tomorrow in the woods again?" Shane asked.
"Yes." He smiled at her and let her go. At that very moment Carl entered the tent.
"Hey there little man." Shane said turning around and ruffling the boy's hair.
"Hey Uncle Shane," the eleven year old responded.
"I was just heading out. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Hey Shane?" Carl asked stopping Shane before he exited the tent "Can I help you chop wood?". Shane turned around and squatted next to Carl, he gave Lori a quick glance.
"Absolutely. Tell you what, tomorrow I'm gonna be a little busy but the day after I'll take you out with me and show you how it's done alright?"
"Sure, that sounds good."
"Great." Shane stood up and ruffled Carl's hair one more time and gave Lori a look that said, 'what are we gonna do now?' Then he turned around and left through the tent flap.
**Present Day**
Rick smashed a window pane with the but of his gun. The horde of walkers were bunched up a few windows down reaching and grabbing toward the second floor where he had been about thirty seconds ago. He pointed his rifle down toward the ground capped it, cocked it and fired. Immediately the walkers looked over and began to shuffle toward him. It was working. He heard the faint crack of Andrea's pistol from the other side of the building and he pulled out another cartridge to reload.
"You fought in the war?" Glenn asked him from where he was standing a few feet back.
"Yeah." Rick said as he pulled out his ramrod and tamped his ball down the barrel.
"We're you an officer or something? You took charge pretty quickly up there." Rick was heading out to the hallway.
"Yeah, well no offense but you guys didn't seem to have any plans."
"None taken, like I said it's usually just me. Large groups don't tend to work well sneaking in and out."
Rick kicked in a door and made his way to his next window. They had decided to shoot at every fourth window as every other window seemed like overkill. "Yeah I don't doubt it." Rick said breaking the glass, "What made you guys decide to bring more people this time?"
"Needed more supplies. I can only carry so much."
"Right." Rick fired down at the ground again and watched as the walkers began to move toward him. Andrea's pistol echoed.
"What we should have done was bring one other person who was willing to watch and learn. Then we could have split up stayed quiet and still gotten double the supplies. Do that with a few more people and we'd be just fine."
"That would have been a much smarter idea." Rick agreed as fitted his next ball into his barrel, "Why didn't you do it?"
"I don't make the decisions." Said Glenn.
It only took about five minutes before all the walkers were at the front of the building and Rick and Glenn ran for the first floor. Andrea and Jacqui came down the stairs right behind them. All of them stopped at the back door where Jimmy and Theodore were waiting. "Everybody ready to go?" Rick asked they all nodded. "Alright, Glenn you lead."
The Asian opened the back door and peered out into the alley. He stepped out and waved at them to follow him. Glenn quickly proved his ability to move around the city effectively. Crouching low the young man stayed close to the sides of buildings as he sidled quickly down the alleyways and streets. At each corner he would stop and peer around it after which he would either wave at them to continue or quickly back track to another route. They spent forty-five minutes doing this, nobody saying a word just keeping a sharp eye out for open doors and stray walkers. Finally they made it to a long stretch of empty road that crossed the railroad. When they reached the tracks Glenn came to a stop and spoke.
"The tracks stay clear for the most part." He said, "When the trains were still bringing people in I think the walkers were all drawn to the stations and when they stopped running there was nothing to bring them out here."
"So we follow the track's out of the city?" Rick asked.
"We follow the tracks until we hit Foster Street." Glenn him, "Then we take Foster Street out of town where we'll meet James and the wagon."
Lori squatted by the thin stream running through the camp and washed the big pot used to make their lunch. Carol and Amy were helping her with Carol washing some of the dishes herself and Amy drying them off and putting them away. The other women were out harvesting berries and the men were trying to see if they could build some type of fence around the camp. Carl was watching them and helping when and where he could. Dale, the only man who wasn't working, sat in his wagon looking down the side of the mountain with his spy-glass.
"I can't believe Andrea and Jacqui went off in those pants!" Carol commented. "They looked flat out scandalous!"
"Well I don't exactly blame them." Lori said, "I wouldn't want to have to run away from a bunch of walkers in a dress."
"But they just wore them out in front of everybody!" Carol couldn't seem to get over it, "And Andrea actually wore trousers. They looked like a second skin!"
"Yeah I don't know what my sister was doing." Amy put in, "I asked her why she was wearing them this morning and she told me they were easier to move around in than both dresses and pants."
"We got a wagon coming up the trail!" Called Dale. All three ladies dropped what they were doing and made their way to the camp entrance.
"Is it them?!" Amy asked.
"I think so!" Dale responded.
"They shouldn't be back this early." Said Carol, "Did something go wrong?"
Shane arrived at the trail head along with Meryl, Ed and Carl. Shane and Meryl had their guns in their hands. Carl came and stood next to her. "Ladies stay back!" Shane ordered.
"Yeah it's them alright!" Dale called from the back of the camp, still in his wagon. "It looks like they got somebody new with them though." Lori waited the next few minutes anxiously until the wagon pulled around the corner. She couldn't see anyone except the young Negro boy James who was driving the horses and the Asian kid Glenn who sitting next to him. She watched curiously to see who the new person was behind them.
"Glenn!" Shane demanded, "Why are you back so early? You got walkers on your trail?!"
"No. No walkers behind us. We just ran into a little trouble in town." the Asian hopped off the wagon, "We also ran into somebody who helped us out. Everybody meet Rick!"
Lori's mouth dropped open in complete and utter shock. She stared at the man who for the past month she had thought was dead. Here he was however, somehow brought back to life.
"Dad!" Carl cried and sprinted at the wagon.
"Oh my God. Carl." Rick said hoarsely as he practically fell out of the wagon to meet his son. Lori ran after her him and threw herself at her husband holding onto him for dear life. Vaguely, out of the corner of her eye she saw that everybody was staring at them. All the emotions hit Lori at once, shock, joy, love, anger, betrayal. Where had he been? How was he alive? Why the hell had Shane told her he was dead? And holy shit Shane!
Rick didn't realize how hungry he was until Lori offered to get him some lunch. He hadn't eaten since noon the day before but everything had been so crazy he hadn't noticed. A gray haired woman named Carol had offered to cook so that Lori could stay next to him. Both Rick's wife and son were wrapped around him as he sat next to the large fire pit in the center of the camp. Rick took a moment to survey his new home. There were nearly twenty people all told and every one of them looked worn and ragged. Rick figured he probably looked the same. All the women, including Lori, wore stained, plain dresses and their hair either hung loosely or was held in a simple design in the back. The only exception was Andrea who was still wearing her trousers as if it were completely normal. Most of the men were wearing white cotton shirts that expanded at the elbow before tapering to the wrist. Some had their sleeves rolled up while others kept them at full length. Most of them wore pants of either brown or grey that were held up by braces*. There were two exceptions to this 'dress code'. Ed a pudgy man who sat off to Rick's left was wearing a full dress outfit. It was the same thing that everyone else wore with the addition of a vest, frock coat and top-hat. Everything he wore was clean. The other exception was much more remarkable. A rough looking fellow who's name Rick hadn't caught sat directly across from him cradling a Springfield rifle between his knees. His dark hair was cropped short and instead of a thin white cotton shirt he wore a thicker grey one that had buttons running from collar to stomach. On top of that he wore a dirty black vest that was unbuttoned and hanging loosely on his shoulders. Perhaps the most notable thing about him was the presence of a belt. Few people other than soldiers wore belts and everybody else in the camp, including Rick and Shane, had braces. This fellow had a belt though and large knife was sheathed on his left hip while two leather pouches were on his right. Rick assumed those held the cartridges and caps for the Springfield. The man hadn't said much since Rick had arrived but he didn't seem like the quiet brooding type.
"So you were asleep that entire time?" Shane asked him as if he couldn't believe it.
"Yeah. A coma is apparently what the doctor called it." Rick told him.
"How the hell did you not starve to death?"
"Some kind of medical contraption. They stuck a tube down my throat and fed me a mix of milk and eggs."
"Did it hurt?" Carl asked.
"I don't know son. I don't remember it." He kissed the top of his boy's head.
"I thought you had died." said Shane, "When you got shot and you just fell... I thought you were dead."
"You weren't wrong to think so. There was no reason to believe otherwise."
"Who were ya fightin'?" Asked the rough man Rick had noted earlier. His voice had a heavy rasp to it.
"I was fighting Klansmen." he said. The entire camp went deathly silent.
"And why were ya doin' that?" the man's voice took a nasty turn.
"I was trying to stop a lynching."
The man stood up and spat, "Fucking nigger lover." he said with disgust, and walked away. Everybody stayed was quiet.
"You shouldn't have mentioned that." Shane whispered.
"Why not?" Rick asked.
"That's Merle. He and his brother were part of the Klan."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Look with things the way they are now Rick we got to live with these people. You need to be careful about who you go around offending." Rick nodded in acknowledgement. Shane changed the subject, "So you guys didn't get any supplies while you were in town is that right?" he asked Jimmy.
Jimmy cleared his throat, "Yeah."
"Why not?"
"We brought too many people." said Glenn. Jimmy glared at him but the Asian didn't seem to notice. "I've been going in and out of town safely since we came out here I know how it's done. If you want to get more supplies I can bring one maybe two with me tops."
"Is that right?" Shane asked.
"No we-" Jimmy started to say but Andrea interrupted.
"Jimmy we were surrounded within a few hours of entering the city." She sounded exasperated, "Glenn's right, we brought too many people."
Shane looked at her curiously for a few moments before he spoke, "Alright then who's going to Glenn tomorrow?"
"I will." said Rick.
"What?! No!" Lori cried, "You can't! Not after you just back to us!"
"Lori's right Rick." Said Shane, "There's no need for you to do this."
"There is." Rick told him, "The man who kept me alive while I was asleep came with me to Atlanta. We got separated but as far as I know he's still alive. If he is I need to find him."
Shane looked at him consideringly, "I don't like it." he said.
"I have to go Shane. Besides Glenn says he can get in and out of the city no fuss right?"
"Yeah. That's right." said Glenn.
"I should be fine then." Rick looked down at his wife and son, "I should be just fine."
So there's chapter seven! A bit of Lori POV which I actually didn't plan on doing at first but just seemed to be necessary for this chapter. The opening scene was very important to me. I thought the show did a good job when they added that flashback back in the second season(?). It illustrated that Lori and Rick were having problems before Shane even came into the picture and it also showed that two people can still care for each-other even if their relationship doesn't work anymore.
* "Braces" are suspenders. The word "suspenders" just sounds ridiculous to me and I can't imagine Rick saying or thinking it. I will be using the word braces for the rest of the story. Braces were part of every day wear for men in the 19th century. For some reason belts were only worn by soldiers and western settlers. I'm not entirely sure why. I've never worn braces but they seem far less practical than belts are. I'm sure they hold pants up just fine but for carrying knives, guns, ammo or tools, the belt seems infinitely better.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the reviews!
