Lori was jolted out of her sleep by a banging sound, causing her to twitch and hit her head against something behind her. She heard a groan and suddenly remembered that she was sleeping against another body - her husbands - and she'd apparently banged his head with her own.
"Sorry," she slurred, still half asleep. She reached behind her to stroke his face, frowning when she realized her head was beginning to throb from the inadvertent collision. Looking around to inspect her surroundings, she soon spotted the reason for the bang, Reggie had set another tray of food down at the top of the stairs and had evidently slammed the door after her.
She sighed, relieved that there didn't seem to be any more immediate danger.
"We're not supposed to be beatin' each other up here," Rick muttered from behind her.
Lori chuckled, turning around to inspect the damage. "Sorry, where did I get ya?"
"Ah, only unhinged my jaw a little bit," he teased.
She leaned forward to press a kiss to the spot he'd gestured to. "If it makes you feel any better I'm probably gonna get a knot on my head."
He smiled sympathetically, placing his hand lightly on her head. "You sleep alright?"
Lori shrugged, taking note of the morning light filtering through the small window. "As much as possible, I guess, under the circumstances." She was reminded of the reason they were awoken. "I'll get the tray."
Using the floor to help pick herself up, she took a moment to shuffle her feet that had lost circulation during her sleep. She really hoped Rick's leg would be able to heal correctly.
Breakfast was more crackers, water, and applesauce. Lori was thankful Reggie had left out the peanut butter cups. She decided to pass on the crackers to try to keep her throat from being further irritated. She opted for the applesauce while her husband took the crackers.
"You think Carl's okay?" she asked after a moment.
"I don't know…but I'm sure he's hopeful we're alive. When the farm fell and we were all separated, he was so insistent that we wait for you. He wasn't gonna leave that highway. He knew we'd find you and he was right."
Lori smiled, her boy hadn't been hardened by this world yet, she hoped he never would. "Yeah…I guess he takes after his daddy that way." Both times their family had been separated they ended up finding each other again. She had to believe they could do it again one more time.
XXXX
They spent the next few hours alternating between sitting, walking around a bit to keep the blood circulating to Rick's leg, and reluctantly utilizing the designated corner behind the stairs. Between that and the decaying Walker corpse, the aroma of the room was fast becoming very unpleasant.
Lori opened her mouth to suggest they try to break the window open, if only for the fresh air, when they heard noise coming from upstairs. She and Rick both turned their heads up, straining their ears to try to get a good idea of what and where the noise was coming from. It started out very faint, she thought for a moment it could have been coming from outside instead. Then it got closer and she was sure of the source; the groans of several walkers and also dragging chains. Her eyes snapped back to Rick who shuffled back to the wall to grab his pipe. Lori reached in her pocket for the scalpel he had given her, she unwrapped it and gripped it tightly. The noise got louder and closer until it was right outside the basement door. Rick motioned for her to come closer to him, standing near the bottom of the stairs.
"This could be our next chance to escape. Be ready to fight," Rick whispered. "And if you get an opening, run."
Lori nodded, not bothering to argue about the logistics even if she knew she couldn't go off on her own unless Rick was dead. She shuddered at the thought. The door opened to reveal Reggie holding several chains attached to Walkers, each one with a trap on its foot connecting to the chains. They moved slower than usual, dragging the metal devices along with their legs. The blonde woman walked several feet ahead of them and looked for all the world like she was taking her pets out for a walk. Lori blinked, utterly confused as to how this woman was so close to Walkers without them attacking her. As if to prove her point, the Walkers began growling and lunging in earnest when they spotted Lori and Rick.
Reggie paused and looked from the Walkers to Lori. "That's odd. I wouldn't think you'd bother them if you are infected."
Lori faltered a moment, weighing the questions on her mind to decide which was the most important one to ask. She was concerned that Reggie kept referring to her as infected, as if she had been bitten or scratched, but she decided against bringing that up for the moment.
"Why aren't they attacking you?" she asked the other woman.
Reggie took a moment before answering, seemingly pondering whether to share the information or not. She held up the severed hand of a Walker, Lori couldn't tell if it was one of the ones behind her or not. "It appears they are not interested in me when I have this," she answered in a detached, professional tone that she might use when explaining a diagnosis to a patient. "The smell of others like them seems to negate their attraction to a human."
"What are you doing with them?" Rick asked.
"Getting them to the closet," Reggie replied, once again treating the situation as if it were perfectly normal.
As she passed them to lead the Walkers to the closet Rick turned his head and nodded. Lori returned the gesture and raised her scalpel; mentally preparing herself for whatever it was she'd have to do to make it out of the basement alive and not infected. Her husband inched forward, quietly until he was behind the last Walker. He lifted his good leg and pushed hard with his foot, throwing the Walker off balance and sending it forward into the other two, toppling like dominos. Reggie stumbled, falling onto her knees and losing her grip on the chains and the severed Walker hand which skidded across the floor.
Rick immediately turned around and motioned for Lori to go up the stairs. She started to run, but had only reached the third step when she heard Reggie scream, Rick grunt and the sound of two things colliding. She whipped her head back to see that Reggie had launched herself into her husband and they landed in a heap on the ground.
"Rick!" Lori yelled, running back down to try to help him. Before she could reach the two she skidded to a halt, seeing that one of the Walkers had gotten back up and was headed straight for her.
She jumped back to avoid its flailing arms and raised the scalpel, but the thing was moving too much for her to get a good angle to harm it without doing the same to herself. She ran across the room and picked up the tray from their food delivery that morning. The Walker followed right behind her and she swung around, throwing her body weight behind it. The tray connected solidly against the Walkers forehead, successfully knocking it down to the ground. She ran around behind its head to be clear of its clawed hands, swiftly plunging the scalpel as hard as she could into its forehead. It grunted and gargled for a few seconds before going silent.
Lori ran back in time to see the other Walkers up and headed for Reggie and Rick who were still struggling for dominance. Reggie seemed to have gained the upper hand when Rick used his arms and legs to push her off of him. She landed against the opposite wall with a thud. Rick found his pipe on the floor near his head, using it to strike the Walker closest to him. Lori ran up and struck the other with the tray repeatedly, getting it far back enough to give Rick space to get up.
"Go now!" he commanded, pushing her forward with his hand on her back. "I'm right behind you."
The two made their way up the stairs, not bothering to look back. When they made it to the top Rick only paused for a moment to slam the door shut behind them. "'Keep going, I have no idea if she'll make it back out or not, but if she does we need to be gone."
Lori nodded, dropping the tray and beginning to run again, trying not to cough. They passed through the exam room and reception area pretty quickly but slowed down once they made it back to the main pharmacy area - the last thing they needed was to step into another trap.
When they reached the front doors and stepped outside Lori paused. "What do we do now?! We still don't have the keys."
Rick sighed. "Don't have the car either, remember? Don't know where she put it and no time to search now. We have to keep moving in case she happens to make it out of there."
They continued on foot down the street. Lori thought now would be a good time for the search party to come looking for them. She couldn't remember how long the drive was from town to the tire yard since she had fallen asleep on the way back, so she was clueless how long it would take walking. Most likely several hours for healthy people. The two of them were basically cripples, considering his leg and her weakness and exhaustion from infection and pregnancy. But she refused to give up now, when they finally were free from Reggie.
Lori watched Rick move awkwardly, trying to keep the majority of his weight on his good leg. "How's your leg?"
He shook his head but said nothing, continuing on further and veering to the side of the road near the forested area. She was confused but followed until he stopped just inside the tree line. He turned to face her, wearing that look on his face that Lori had seen many times before. It told her she wasn't going to like the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
"You remember that thing you didn't want to do? I'm gonna have to ask you to do it now."
She narrowed her eyes. "If you're referring to leaving you behind the answer is still no," she pressed on before he could speak again. "We just got away! Why would you ask me to do that now?"
"Lori, my leg feels like it's about to fall off. It can't be much longer before I'm gonna have to start crawlin'. Either way we're not going to get far." Lori began to protest again but he continued. "Our people could be looking for us now. If you meet up with them you can lead them back here. Or you could get lucky and find a car…"
She shook her head, dismissing the idea. "We can take breaks! We'll both sit in the trees here until you're feeling up for more walking and continue on…"
"That's only going to double the time it takes to get back," he took her by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "Look, I'm not expecting to die out here, okay?"
"What about Walkers? You're literally just a sitting target out here," Lori could tell her argument was weakening.
"I've got my trusty pipe," he waved it in his hand.
She smirked but couldn't stop the tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't wanna do this." She wished she could justify that as a good enough reason not to, but he was right. If he kept going with her he would likely do even more damage to his leg. If she could make it back to their group she could bring them back here and get Rick, then Hershel could help him. Too many ifs. But that's all they had.
Rick nodded, observing that she had made the decision to go along with his plan. "We should find you a stick or somethin' in case you run into any Walkers on your way, that scalpel isn't going to be enough to fight em off."
It didn't take much searching to find a good sized branch that had falling off one of the trees. Lori selected it but set it back down so she could say goodbye to her husband, pulling him into a hug.
"I hate this," she sniffled.
"I know, you've told me…several times," he teased.
"Stop tryin' to be funny," she pulled back, wiping her tears.
He checked to make sure she knew the way to go before sending her off. "You better get goin', get back to our son and then I'll see you soon." He leaned in to kiss her, cupping her face as she reached up to hold his head, letting his hair slip through her fingers.
They pulled apart after a moment and she stepped away before she changed her mind and decided to argue some more. "I love you," she told him, desperately hoping it wouldn't be the last time.
"I love you," he replied firmly, stepping back towards a large tree.
She watched for a moment as he leaned back on the tree, sliding down so he could sit against it. Turning, she picked up her pace, determined to make it back as fast as she could.