Lauren gathered the bowl in her hand and quietly exited the tent. Daryl had fallen asleep soon after finishing the soup, and she wanted to let him rest. She slipped out the open flap of the tent, careful not to disturb him. She turned and zipped the flap closed again before walking back towards the house. She had borrowed one of Hershel's bowls and needed to bring it back to him.
As she started back towards the house, she noticed Shane walking towards the little make shift camp their group had set up. Her heart racing, she deviated from her current path and slowed down, hoping he'd get to the camp before she had to cross paths with him. She paused when he looked up and caught sight of her and smirked. She quickly pushed down the nauseous feeling trying to come up and continued onto the house. Opening up the screen door, she went straight to the sink in the kitchen, to place the bowl into the sink to soak.
"Afternoon, Ms. Patricia," she nodded, placing the bowl into the sink, pouring water from her bottle into the bowl.
"Oh, there's no need to do that, we have runnin' water here," she spoke, nodding to the bowl. "And please, just call me Patricia."
Lauren nodded, and capped her bottle. "Thank you for letting me borrow the bowl, Patricia," Lauren gave a slight tip of her head and a small smile. She grabbed her bottle again and pushed off the counter she had been leaning on and started back towards the door when Patricia called out to her.
"Lauren, be careful, alright?" She called, ringing her hands together, her brows pinched.
Lauren nodded slowly and studied the way Patricia was behaving before turning and walking out of the house. People were confusing.
Lauren was sitting in her tent, reading the books Dale had lent her a few days ago. She had already finished the first three and was currently on the fourth book, "Red is for Remembrance." And try as she might, she couldn't seem to focus on the words on the page. She grabbed her bag with a sigh, putting the book inside in frustration. From the front pocket of the bag she grabbed the small utility knife she had, and stepped out of her tent.
After standing in the sun for a moment and letting her eyes adjust to the brightness, Lauren walked towards the large maple tree that shaded their small camp. From around the base of the tree, she collected many of the small long twigs, placing them in a pile under the shade. Sitting herself underneath the tree, she grabbed one of the little sticks and trailed her fingers over it softly. She flipped open her knife, and began taking off all the small bumps and sticks from the bigger branches. It wasn't much, and she didn't even know if they would work properly, but it was all she could do for Daryl, considering his weapon could run out of ammo at any given moment, and she was trying to get on friendly terms with him. She slowly let the knife dig into the soft wood of the branch and let it slip up towards the tip of the branch. She'd work on getting the shaft as straight as she could before working on the tip and where the feathers would go.
Time passed slowly, the sun getting higher in the sky and the Georgian summer getting warmer. Lauren was down to shaping her last branch when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She lifted her head slightly, enough that she could see what caused the movement. She shook her head lightly as she saw Daryl attempt to make his way out of his tent. Not quite as subtle as she imagined he was hoping for.
Lauren closed her knife and let the sticks roll to her side as she quickly sprung to her feet and started walking towards the tent. As she rounded the tree, a hand snapped out and grabbed her wrist. Gasping from shock, Lauren tried to jerk her hand from the grasp. When Lauren realized that it was Shane - and not a walker - that had grabbed her, she doubled her effort. She could quickly feel the panic rising in her chest, making her lungs tight and her heart beat escalate. She stopped to catch a breath, "Shane, let go," she murmured. She could feel the bile rising in the back of her throat.
"Nah, I don't think I wanna do that," Shane said, letting a cocky smirk plant itself on his features. He let his eyes rove over her chest and down her legs.
Lauren resumed her struggling, jerking about widely trying to break the hold on her arm. "Shane, let me go!" She cried out, feeling tears well in her eyes as she felt the pressure on her arm increase. "Shane, please, let me go." Lauren hated herself - and him - at this moment, reduced to a whimpering, begging mess. She was still lightly tugging at her arm when she saw a dirt covered hand reach out and wrap itself around Shane's wrist.
"She said let her go." Daryl growled out lightly from behind her right shoulder. Lauren saw the muscles in his forearm contract as he squeezed down on Shane's wrist. Shane grunted, trying not to let the pain show on his face.
After a few minutes Lauren felt the grip on her arm ease up slightly and gave a harsh tug. Her arm slipped from Shane's grasp, making her stumble back towards Daryl clutching her arm close to her body. She felt more than she saw Daryl slip from behind her to stand between her and Shane, staring him down. After a tense moment, she saw Shane turn around and start walking away and Daryl turn to face her.
"Y'alright?" Lauren heard Daryl mumble. She felt heat creep up her face and bowed her head. She was sick of feeling weak and always having people have to rescue her. She pushed those emotions down enough to give him a tight lip smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." She murmured. She went to step around him to go back around the tree, there was no way she could face him like this. Lauren jolted to a stop as Daryl stepped in front of her and reached out this hand. She felt him take hold of her arm gently and turn it over in his grasp.
"Might bruise later on," she heard him mumble. Lauren looked down at her arm and saw the angry red marks left by Shane's rough hold and gently shook her head, there was nothing she could do about them now except wear long sleeved shirts.
"Thank you Daryl," Lauren murmured. She gently slid her arm out of his grasp and turned back towards the tree. She was going to collect her make shift arrows and head into her tent to continue them. She heard Daryl move around the tree to stand beside her as she crouched down to grab the sticks. She had to make a stop by the chicken coup on her way to her tent to get some feathers. As she stood up, her arms full of the make shift bolt shafts she heard Daryl clear his throat.
"What'cha makin'?" Daryl asked, chewing on his thumb nail, brows down in his usual frown. Lauren didn't blame him, it was hot out.
"Oh, uhm, nothing really," Lauren mumbled, glancing down at the bundle under her arm. She absentmindedly started picking at one of the straightened pieces of wood, twirling it between her index finger and thumb. "I was just thinking," Lauren paused to clear her throat, letting her nerves settle enough to speak confidently. "Your bow, you only seem to have a few bolts left, so since I really didn't have nothin' to do, I figured I'd try and make you a few." She held out her hand, the straightened piece of maple laying horizontal across her palm. "I don't know if they'll actually work, but I figured it was the least I could do." She raised her head, glancing at the bolt before looking back up at Daryl.
It seemed like it took forever for him to reach out and grab the long twig, turning it over in his hands, holding it in front of his face and looking down the length of it to see how straight it was. "Yeah, 's not bad. I guess." he grumbled. Lauren smiled, while it wasn't exactly what she was looking for it was a start on the right path towards a friendship with the man.
Lauren stood back at the entrance to the barn, leaning on the door frame, as she watched Maggie mount the Missouri Fox Trotter. When she was sure Maggie had properly mounted, she slowly approached the horse from the front, making sure not to spook the creature.
"Hey Maggie?" She asked, running her hand up and down the horse's nose, "Think you could use a hand on the run? Was kinda hoping to look for a few things myself." She asked, looking up at the young woman.
Maggie squinted, looking down at her with a questioning look. "You tell the rest of your group you were gonna tag along with me?" She asked as she dismounted her horse. She walked towards another one of the stables, waiting for the answer. When she got none, she looked over her shoulder to see Lauren running her hand up and down the muzzle, leaning her forehead against the horses jaw gently. "That's Mandy." Maggie called over her shoulder, unlatching the stable door to grab the reins of the silver dapple Rocky. "Had her since I was 14."
Lauren lifted her head. "She's beautiful." Her eyes softened as she glanced to Maggie and back to the horse. "And no, I didn't really bother telling anyone. I don't really think anyone's looking to make nice with me anyways." She slowly let her hand trail down the horses muzzle, stepping back and letting Maggie bring the other horse forward.
Maggie brought the horse forward, "Yeah I guess I get that." She grabbed one of the saddles on the wall, swinging it up onto the horse's back. "This here is Rich. He's one of the older horses we have here, but he's more than able to out run anything we come across." She watched as Lauren stepped up to the horse, holding her hand out flat to the horse's nose, letting the horse know she was there before reaching up and petting him the same way she did Mandy. "You seem to have quite the experience with horses. Have your own back home?" she asked, synching the saddle tight. She stepped back towards her own horse as Lauren walked around to the side of Rich.
"I used too." She said, letting Maggie lead both horses out of the barn. "My Paw used to own a ranch down in New Orleans when he was still alive. I used to spend the summer there. Got to know how to handle horses real well." She glanced over at Maggie and gave her a small grin. "Paw died when I was 18. Haven't been on a horse since, but it's nice to be back in the saddle."
The next half an hour was spent in silence, the only noise being the horses' hooves clicking on the asphalt. Pulling up to the edge of town, Lauren looked over at Maggie, inching Rich closer to Mandy. "You don't happen to have a map of town do ya?" She asked, glancing around them and peering down the road.
Maggie nodded once, reaching into the saddle bag attached to Mandy's left side, pulling out a small booklet with a map inside. Lauren flipped open the book and studied the map. "So from what I'm looking at, we should probably go around the town to the far side first. It has less of the stores we need to hit, but that way should we come across walkers, we won't have to worry about doubling back through a crowd." she said, passing the map back over to Maggie.
Lauren settled deep in her saddle, reaching forward to grab the fallen reins, ready to start on the way around the town. "It'll take a bit longer, but it should be safer in the long run, won't have to do any doubling back." She said, nodding her head with a smile over at Maggie. Maggie nodded and they started off again. It took them a good twenty minutes to get to the other side of the town market, making it so they had a clear view down the road back towards the farm.
Lauren hopped down off the bigger horse, un-strapping the metal pipe attached to the horse's saddle. She had found it and picked it up along one of the roads into town. It looked like one of the old pry bars her father used to use to attach their old trailer to the hitch of the truck. Lauren swung one of the shoulder straps of her backpack up and over her shoulder, letting the rest of the back hang for easy access.
Lauren glanced over at Maggie and gave a questioning nod towards town. Maggie grabbed her bag and nodded back. "Will the horses run off on us, or should we tie them down?" Lauren asked, rubbing her hand over the Rocky's front shoulder. Maggie reached over and grabbed Mandy's reins, "They shouldn't," she started walking towards the store front, gently leading the horse along. "We'll just leave them at the front of each store, so we don't have to run back for 'em." The two girls stood in front of the pharmacy side by side. Maggie looked over at Lauren and took a deep breath. "Ready?" She asked, and Lauren tightened her grip on both her bag and poll.
"Now or never."