These Things: The world's gone to hell – there's just no other way to put it. A sickness spread across the US, infecting the young and the old alike. I'm a long way from home and I may never see my hometown again, but I have to keep fighting. It's them or us; the dead versus the living. Apocalypse: 1, Iva: 0. (OC/Shane)

Disclaimer:I don't own any of the characters from the famous comic book (turned television adaptation) The Walking Dead, but sometimes I wish I was a writer on the show's staff! I will be the first to admit that the characters are a mish mash of their comic book and television personalities. Some might even be horribly butchered, but I've done my best. Iva, Libby, and a few others are my creations, so please give them a bit of respect.

Rating: This story is rating M+ for Mature Audiences. Gore, violence, language, intense situations, sexual innuendo, and sexual scenes occur throughout the course of the story. Chapters containing sexually explicit materials will be properly labeled, but it is advised that children do not read this story.

Chapter Content Warning: Naughty bit ahead.


"I'm not a bad man, I'm just overwhelmed. It's cause of these things, it's cause of these things." – She Wants Revenge, These Things

These Things

~Chapter Twelve~

Daryl dusted his hands off and surveyed the bed of the pickup, hands on his hips. "I think we've got just about everything that might be of use. Plus they ain't no more room."

The bed of the pickup was stacked several feet high, cases of supplies tied down with rope and ratchet straps. Additionally, we'd crammed more supplies into the black Jeep that Shane and Glenn had rode in on the ride to the Dollar General store. Daryl's observation seemed accurate – I didn't think there were any more useful supplies left in the store.

Glenn, who had seemed distracted the whole time we were gathering and loading supplies, stared at the truck's back tire for a long few moments before he abruptly lifted his head. "Huh? Oh, yeah." He tugged his hat off of his head and rubbed his hand over his hair briefly. "I think we've got about all we're going to get. I – Maggie and I already got everything from the pharmacy. Should we check out any other places?"

When Shane glanced up at the afternoon sky and shook his head, I shrugged. Shane scratched the back of his head and addressed them lazily. "Nah, best to wait til morning. Took us longer in here than I would've thought. I think it would be a good idea to check out that tractor supply, but it'd be best to take a couple of us in case we gotta clear anything out. You two go on. We'll make sure we didn't overlook anything."

Both Daryl and Glenn hesitated for a moment before they climbed into the pickup truck, Glenn waving in farewell. Frowning, I lifted a hand and waved as Daryl started the truck and the vehicle eased away, rumbling quietly before disappearing from sight.

I had purposely climbed into the truck with Daryl before leaving the farm, partly due to my curiosity about his crossbow and partly because I wasn't certain spending more time with Shane was ideal. He hadn't seemed to notice, and I'd spent the drive into town coaxing Daryl into conversation. We mostly spoke about the possibility of good game around the farm and the likelihood that he would be able to get a good sized buck in the next couple of days.

When I'd asked Daryl if he had noticed Glenn acting strangely, he'd shaken his head dismissively. "He was acting like he got to wet his wick yesterday. 'unno why he was acting so weird this morning. Maybe Maggie done broke him in."

I'd laughed in reply but had mentally considered the possibility that Maggie and Glenn had used their together time to do more than search for supplies at the pharmacy. Considering that Shane and I were guilty of said accusation, I couldn't exactly rule out the possibility.

Shane wandered into the store and I followed behind him, casting a quick look in the direction of the pile of stiffs where he'd tossed the man's body the day before. The pile hadn't been disturbed, which meant that he'd successfully stopped the man from coming back – assuming he'd been bitten in the first place. It was a bit of a relief to know that the attacker wouldn't be coming back, but we still had no idea whether or not he'd been telling the truth about being camped with others.

I shut the heavy door behind me and stepped aside so that Shane could slide the heavy stack of cases of plates and utensils in front of the door. Since we'd blocked ourselves in when Glenn and Daryl had been working with us to gather supplies, I wasn't too terribly surprised. After our terrible confrontation the day before, I didn't want to risk the possibility of someone sneaking inside while we looked over the store one last time.

I strolled through the back room and began to walk down an aisle, searching the near-empty shelves for things that might have been overlooked. All of the boxed and canned food had been cleared out, same with the packaged foods such as potato chips. I spied a single can of coffee laying on its side on the floor and picked it up to study the label.

"Columbian roast. Good stuff," Shane offered conversationally. I tossed the can over my shoulder at him and he caught it with ease.

I scoured the hardware area one last time, disappointed to find that we'd cleared it completely. They'd even taken the boxes of nails and screws, thinking there might be some possibility of using them for some sort of redneck security system they planned to rig over the next few days.

"Looks like we've cleared it out. Though there are some blankets left over here." I ran my fingers over the soft fabric of the two blankets that remained and tugged them off of the shelves. Shane stood only a few feet away, but he'd sat the can of coffee down at some point. "What?"

"Nothing." He'd discarded his blue hat in the Jeep at some point while we were loading up supplies, so his hair was a little ruffled. "You been avoidin' me?"

"Avoiding you?" I folded the two blankets slowly before I stacked them on a small coffee that was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. "Why would I be avoiding you? I saw you at dinner last night. We ate breakfast together. We just spent two hours loading supplies into vehicles." I lifted a brow and dusted my hands off on my jeans. "Are you waiting for me to climb you like a tree?"

His lips twitched. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm just curious if you're actually okay after yesterday. Shooting that guy, I mean. Can't have been easy."

"Wasn't the first person that I've had to kill since the world went to shit, Shane. But then, that doesn't surprise you, does it?"

"Not so much. Didn't even flinch yesterday. Most women would've just fallen apart, I'd think. You weren't unaffected, but it didn't ruin you."

I tapped my fingers on my thigh. "If you're looking for someone to take Lori's place-"

"What?" he interrupted, eyes narrowing. Shane took a step towards me and I took a step back when he tried to put a hand on my shoulder. My obvious retreat caused him to pause in his tracks. "Why do you say that?"

"The others might have mentioned it in passing. Explains that unspoken tension between you and Rick, though. What? You didn't really think he didn't know, did you?" He clenched his jaw and I tucked one hand into the front pocket of my jeans. "He watches you when you glance at Lori. She probably didn't tell him, but he knows. Deep down, I think he knows."

"We thought he was dead. I went to the hospital and-"

"I heard, or I heard parts of it, really. You thought he was dead. Barricaded the door. Weeks later he found his way to Atlanta and Glenn saved him from a group of the dead. Just happened that Glenn was part of a group that was camping in a quarry. With you. Lori and Carl." I shrugged. "Shit happens during the end of the world. If he hasn't killed you for it yet, I doubt he's going to bother. Long as you aren't still fucking around behind his back, that is."

Shane looked away briefly and then met my eyes, a fierce fire burning within their dark depths. "It was only a couple times, and once Rick was back – we thought he was dead. You gotta understand, I couldn't hear no pulse, couldn't hear him breathing. I thought barricading him in that hospital room would at least save him from facing the possibility of the walkers ravaging him."

I shrugged indifferently. "Yesterday was nice. Really nice," I corrected with a shake of my head. I wasn't sure how to tell him that I didn't want him fucking me while picturing Lori, so I forged ahead. "Not sure I'm willing to be a stand in, no matter how good it was."

"Stand in? You mean Lori."

"You sure you weren't a detective? You're good at deducing the facts of the matter."

His lips twitched. "I have a real hard time thinking about anyone else when you're around – since yesterday. That bothers me."

"It bothers me, too. It was a spur of the moment never-know-when-the-world-is-gonna-end type moment, Shane. It's not a one and done and forever after type thing. That's not how any of this works." I paused for a moment and then pulled my hair free from the elastic that had kept it out of my face. "Dark hair, dark eyes. She's taller than me and we have different shapes but-"

"You're completely different, far as I'm concerned. But it's fine. Yesterday was damn good, you're right. If you want it to happen again, you let me know. Til then, no skin off my back, right?"

I'd always prided myself on my ability to read people, and I felt confident in my assessment about Shane. But, people had changed since the world had ended. It was hard to use my head when there was something about Shane that the rest of me, mostly my body, was already decisive.

"No internet, no television. Not a whole lot of ways to pass the time."

He tilted his head to the side slightly. "There is that." Part of me thought that Hershel allowing us to use his facilities to take brief showers was another check in the plus side, another sign of encouragement. "Come 'mere."

I knew it was stupid to step towards him, to loop my arms around his neck. I knew that it would lead us back to the dangerous road we'd charged straight down just the day before. But, he made my skin tingle and my body flush in a way that made me feel almost drunk. Between the chances of living to see another day being remarkably low – and my body's very human sexual needs – I couldn't seem to talk myself out of it.

"Okay, fine. We've got some time to kill," I agreed before I tangled my fingers in his hair and drew myself up on my tiptoes to slide my lips over his. The sound of his soft groan made me smile in victory. "You barred the door, right?"

His immediate response was to remove my weapons and sit them on a nearby shelf, his soon followed. Then his hands were roaming over me, exploring, teasing, stroking. When he tackled his boots and jeans, I piled a couple comforters I'd pulled from their packaging onto the floor. I focused on tugging off my own boots and then found myself laughing when his hands found their way to my belt.

We were a bit more carefree than we'd been the day before, lingering longer and exploring one another unlike the day before, where we'd rushed to come together as quickly as possible. It seemed fantastical and whimsical to lay down side by side on the thick comforters in an abandoned Dollar General, no immediate worries on our minds but tasting and teasing until we could take no more of the sensuous torture.

It seemed entirely too risky to be laying underneath him, bare flesh sliding and rubbing. But, I felt lost in the warmth as he trailed his lips all over me. I'd known the moment I'd tugged that condom package out of my pocket and teased him that it was a bad idea. I didn't know the man, didn't know much about his past or if he'd be interested. Oh, I'd seen a glimmer of intrigue in his eyes when I'd dumped the boxes upon boxes of contraceptives into the cart, but until that moment I hadn't even been certain he'd be interested.

He had been though, and still was. Of that, at least, there was no doubt.

Sheathed in lubricated latex, he took his time easing his cock in, hissing as I shifted my hips to take him in deeper, faster. I ran my nails over his back, cupped his firm cheeks, and eased one leg up and over the back of his knee.

There on that small pallet of comforters, we explored and took and took and took until only exhaustion and the realization that the afternoon had faded was cause for quits.

And it left me with no doubt whatsoever in my mind that there would be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that – until one or both of was completely sated.