Hello everyone thanks for tuning in. I love all the reviews I got last chapter. Like I said it was one of my favorites and I enjoyed reading all your reactions.
Guest reviwer!
Dione Robertson:
Greetings right back at ya! I have a Canadian viewer so cool!
Merle might have been planning to get Rick and Glenn killed. He certainly wouldn't have minded if it happened.
It's fascinating that you're taught that the war was about economics and not slavery. Here in America we focus more on the slavery aspect. Of course considering that slavery is our nation's greatest shame that makes sense. In truth slavery and economics were very closely linked considering that the southern economy was based on cotton plantations that relied on slaves. So both version are technically true. The characters in my story are going to discuss the many different view points and causes of the conflict. I would love to hear your opinion on those when they come up.
Good question about the natives! I don't know how Natives were treated up in Canada (and now I'm curious) but in the U.S. we didn't treat them so well. By the time the U.S. became a nation the vast majority of the natives had died due to disease. Those that remained were shunted on to reservations that were mostly west of the Mississippi. As result there would be very few natives in Georgia at the time of my story. That being said, I fully intend to have one or two make an appearance and the issues of anti Native American racism will be explored in depth. I'm trying really hard not to go on a full detailed rant about this issue and spoil what I plan to be a fascinating part of my story. :D
I hope you enjoy the update and continue to let me know your opinion.
Lori kissed him. He kissed her back his lips melting into hers. Shane had never felt anything like this before. He had slept with many women before the turn. Married women, single women, prostitutes. Shane had enjoyed all of them but some how Lori was different. She wasn't experienced or exceptionally beautiful, but it all seemed to mean so much more. Shane felt a calmness when he was with her. He felt like he was at home.
As they kissed Shane began to pull at the strings on the front of her dress. Lori reciprocated by unbuttoning the collar of his shirt and lifting it over his head. She ran her hands over his chest and shoulders as he slipped her dress off. Shane admired her in all her beauty. He smiled and leaned in for another kiss -. All of a sudden he woke up with a start. The darkness surrounded him in his small tent. He wasn't kissing Lori. No, she was in her tent probably kissing her husband or if not that sleeping next to him with his arm wrapped around her.
Shane tried to suppress the envy he felt rising inside him. He was happy his best friend was alive. Of course he was. Shane had only grown to love Lori and Carl because of Rick. All he had been trying to do was take care of them like his best friend would've wanted him to. How was he supposes to know that acting like a husband and father would make him feel like one? It wasn't his fault Lori was such an amazing woman. Rick didn't know how lucky he was. Hell, Shane wasn't even sure that Rick knew how to take care of his wife. The woman turned out to be more aggressive than Shane ever suspected and he couldn't imagine Rick ever matching that energy.
Shane shook himself, grabbed his coat and crawled out of his tent. Dawn had yet to break and only the dim predawn light illuminated the camp. He heard soft voices coming from the fire pit and he made his way toward them. When he got there Shane saw Rick standing still in the dark with Lori flush up against his back, her arms wrapped around him. Shane forced his face to remain neutral and walked over to them.
"Good morning Shane." Rick said nodding to him. Shane just nodded back staying silent.
"I'm going to go check on Carl." said Lori disengaging herself from Rick.
"Okay." Rick told her. She didn't say anything to Shane as she passed him and Shane watched her go with annoyance. The two men stood there in silence for a long moment. "I've never done anything like that before." Rick said quietly.
"What?" Shane asked. Had he done something new with Lori? If so he didn't want to hear about it.
"When I first saw a walker it was the stuff of nightmares, but when it came to fighting them it was just like the war. Easier even; the walkers are already dead it's harder to shoot a man. But yesterday? That was something else. I've never shot a child before, alive or dead. I know it shouldn't matter - it doesn't matter but still... it was harder."
Rick was talking about the incident the day before. Of course he was. "We're gonna have to get used to it." Shane told him, "There will come a time when we have to do something like it again."
"I know." Rick took a sharp breath. "We should leave Shane." he said, his voice quiet again.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"This place isn't safe Shane. We need find somewhere else."
"You said yourself that Merle brought those walkers here. If it wasn't for him nothing would have happened. This is the safest place we're gonna find."
"That's not the problem Shane. We don't have enough food. That lake isn't going to keep providing us fish and Atlanta is getting increasingly more difficult to enter. If we don't find someplace else we are gonna starve to death."
"No. That's stupid." said Shane, "Rick the moment we leave this camp we are sitting ducks. What happens when our little convoy gets ambushed by walkers on the road. We won't be able to run, our wagons won't be able to turn around and we'll all die."
"We can't stay here." Rick insisted, "We need to find a place where we can grow food, maybe where other people are. We can't be the only survivors."
"Maybe not, but we are surviving. We leave this camp and we risk that!"
"We don't have a choice."
"I disagree Rick."
Shane and Rick stared at each other for a long moment. "Okay." Rick told him, "Let's talk to the group. Let them decide."
Dale watched the voting proceedings with interest and trepidation. The problem was what was going on here wasn't a vote in the traditional sense. There was no agreement that the majority would rule. Just because more people voted to do one thing did not mean the rest would do it. Furthermore Dale feared the vote would divide along racial lines. The odds of this ending in disaster was very high.
"We need to leave." Rick said loudly, "Even if we could be sure that walkers would never come here again we are going to starve. Atlanta is too dangerous to enter anymore and we aren't able to hunt enough to feed ourselves. We need to find a place that has more food, maybe a farm where we can grow some ourselves, wherever we go we can't stay here."
"I disagree." Shane stated, "The moment we leave this camp we are vulnerable. We can fortify this camp make sure what happened yesterday never happens again and we can expand our foraging trips, try other places in the area. Even if Atlanta is too dangerous we can find other places to get food." Dale watched carefully as everyone took the information in. Andrea spoke first.
"I'm with Rick. I don't want to live in this place anymore."
"Me too." said Theodore. Jimmy eyed the freedman with animosity.
"What if there isn't any place that's better than this?" he asked.
"I believe that there is." Rick told him, "I have to. Tell me Jimmy can you imagine your children growing up in this place? Not knowing if they're going to get enough to eat the next day? I can't and that's why I plan to go."
"Do you truly believe there is somewhere safe for us ?" Carol asked in a quiet voice that sounded as if she had been crying.
"I do." said Rick, "We cannot be the only survivors, there have to be others. If we can find them we can find a safe place for us."
"Okay." the gray haired woman said, "We'll go with you."
"I agree with Rick." Glenn put in, "I don't know if we can get food from any other towns but I do know if we keep going into Atlanta we're going to keep losing people."
"I'm with Glenn." James said curtly. Dale watched as Jimmy struggled with his decision.
"What do you think Daryl?" Jimmy asked.
"What you askin' me for?" the woodsman asked sourly, "I don' know." He gave Rick a sideways look, "I guess maybe we should go. The woods around this place are dead. There ain't been a deer for miles."
Jimmy took a deep breath, "Alright then, my family and I are with you Rick." Rick nodded. There was a long silence as they all waited for someone else to speak.
"What's your opinion Dale?" Shane asked. Everyone looked a him and Dale realized that he had yet to say anything.
"Oh, I'm going with the groups decision." he said diplomatically.
Shane nodded solemnly, "Alright, I guess we're going then. Where are we going Rick?"
"I think we should go east to the ocean. Augusta might have been able to get help from overseas."
"We could check Athens as well." Jimmy put in. "It's not far off course on the way to Augusta.
"We could." Rick agreed, "While we're passing it we can send a couple people to give it a quick look."
"Sounds like we have a plan." said Lori, "When do we leave?"
"The sooner the better." Rick answered, "I say we pack up everything we need and head out today. Does anybody have a map?"
"I do." Dale told him.
"May I see it? Let's get a route planned out and see how far we can get today."
"I'll go get it now." Dale started back toward his wagon. Perhaps the day wasn't going to be so bad after all.
What did you think of the chapter? We had two new POVs today. Does hearing Shane's thoughts make him more likeable or less? And what do you think of Dale?
Note: You may have noticed that Lori, Jacqui, Amy and Jimmy's wife didn't "vote" during this chapter. That's because at the moment the idea of the male "head of household" making the decisions is still customary for them. This will break down over time and in fact it's already starting to with Andrea and Carol speaking up. However they're only speaking at the moment because there is no male family member for either of them. Eventually, (along with many other things) the absurdity of these customs will give way to need and practicality.
