"It's okay, Lydia. We're just trying to help," Lori reached out and tried to touch me.
"No!" I jerked away from her, stumbling slightly as I backed up.
"What's going on?" Lori asked Sam.
"She has some emotional problems. Without medication, she can be...delusional," Sam told Lori. "It's also possible that she's pregnant," The rage just kept building up inside me.
"No!" I screamed again, knowing it was absolutely futile. There was no way anyone was going to believe me now.
"Sweetie, calm down, it's going to be okay. We'll help you get through this," Lori tried to close the space between us once again and I took action. I sprinted away from them, running faster than I'd ever ran in my entire life. I entered the woods and sticks and rocks dug painfully into my bare feet. I ignored it.
I must have run for ten minutes, blinded by tears before being caught up by someone in the woods. I screamed, thinking it must have been a walker, but whatever this thing was it was holding me off the ground.
"Whoa there," A hand clamped over my mouth. "Can't be screamin' like that. There's walkers out here, ya know," I groaned and sobbed through what I now recognized as Merle's hand. The feeling of his body against mine took all the energy away from me.
"Lydia!" Sam had caught up and I could hear two more sets of footsteps following. Merle moved his hand from my mouth and I felt his head turn to look over his shoulder.
"No, please, no, no, no," I sobbed in a whisper.
"Lydia!" Sam said again as he reached us. "Let go of her!" By now Merle had turned to face him, forcing me to face him as well.
"Hold on now. I don't think she wants me to let go," That wasn't exactly true. I did want him to let go. I didn't want another man to touch me for at least a year, maybe not even then. However, I definitely didn't want Sam to get ahold of me again.
Sam lunged forward and grabbed Merle's arm, trying to pull it away from me. Merle backed up quickly and drew a pistol from his hip and pointed it at Sam.
"Do it," My whisper was so small Sam didn't appear to have heard it. Merle did though, and I felt him look down at me.
"Merle, drop the gun!" Shane shouted, pulling his own firearm as he caught up. Lori stopped in her tracks, covering her mouth in shock.
"Not this time, Officer," Merle insisted.
"Merle, you let Lydia go right now! She's going through enough. You're scarin' her," Lori marched into the scene, suddenly fierce and ready to take on a man with a gun.
"Stay out of this, woman. I ain't scarin' her. I think it's this prick doin' the scarin'," Merle waved his gun at Sam.
"Don't be ridiculous," Sam growled and took a step closer.
"Don't think I won't shoot your ass," Merle straightened up and firmed his grip on the gun. In my mind I was begging Sam to come just a little closer because I knew Merle was crazy enough to kill him.
Sam stopped, fists clenched tightly at his sides.
"Stop this!" Lori stepped right up to Merle and pulled me away from him. I tried to keep a hold of his arm, but gave up quickly. I dissolved into sobs again.
"Put the gun down, Merle. We're going to talk about this right now," Shane demanded, taking calculate steps closer with his gun still raised.
"What'd he do to you, sugar, huh?" Merle, gun still pointed at Sam, glanced over at me. "He hit you?" I wished it had only been that. "Go on, now. You can tell ol' Merle. He'll take care of it," I collapsed to my knees, shaking and wishing I could speak. I wished I could tell him the whole story and he'd kill him and get it over with.