XXV

—/<3/—

"Rory can I talk to you for a moment?" Dale asked as Rory finished hanging her plants to dry outside her tent.

"Sure, what's up?" Rory brushed her hands off and rose to her feet.

Dale looked around skittishly before moving a step closer. "I saw something really strange between Shane and Rick today. We were checking the perimeter and when Rick went a bit further into the woods to deal with a walker, Shane pointed his gun at the back of Rick's head."

"What the fuck?" Rory whispered.

"I'm starting to get worried. He's getting dangerous. First the barn thing, then after you left yesterday, Shane was throwing a fit about the kid in the barn and now this?"

"Should we tell Rick?"

"I'm not sure, I don't know if it'll cause more trouble." Dale's thick brows furrowed.

"Lori's been saying Shane's dangerous too, I'm gonna talk to her, see what she knows and then I'll get back to you, sound good?" Rory offered.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks Rory. I'll try talking to the others and see if they feel the same way." Dale nodded and retreated back to his RV.

Rory bit her lip and turned towards the house. Beth had attempted suicide whilst they were in town looking for Hershel, so Lori had been in there taking care of her with Maggie.

She knocked lightly before she walked in, making her presence known by waving to Hershel and Patricia who were in the Kitchen. "Is Lori in here?"

"With Maggie and Beth," Patricia answered. Rory thanked her and walked towards Beth's bedroom.

Once again, she knocked after entering and walked over to where Maggie and Lori were watching Beth sleep with grim expressions.

"Lori can I talk to you outside a minute? It's important," Rory whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping teenager.

"Sure," Lori said, pushing off the wall she was leaning on and following Rory out the house. They took a seat on the porch and Rory cleared her throat.

"I want to talk to you about Shane..." Rory started. Lori sighed uncomfortably.

"What about him?"

"He's changed. He used to try take care of everyone, he was caring and now he's dangerous and snappy. He killed Otis, shot up the barn and Dale saw something earlier that freaked him out. He's losing his mind."

Lori looked down, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's because of me," she said quietly. "You probably know that we were kind of... together, before Rick came back. I thought he was dead, I'd never cheat, so I broke things off with Shane and continued my marriage. Shane didn't take it very well." Lori's voice began to shake. "At the CDC, he got really drunk and he found me exploring the place. He tried to have sex with me and I didn't want it, but he kept forcing it so I hit him and he finally backed off. He's been weird since then."

"Have you told anyone about this? We should've gotten rid of him ages ago. That's not okay Lori, it's sexual assault," Rory said, alarmed.

"I know, but how could I tell anyone? He's Rick's best friend."

"That means nothing now. Dale saw Shane pointing a gun at Rick's head whilst he had his back turned. Shane definitely doesn't consider Rick a friend anymore. He sees him as an obstacle to get to you. You're his wife, Lori, the mother of his child, of course he'd choose you over Shane."

"I don't know the babies father either, I think Rick resents me for that."

"You thought he was dead. He can't hold that against you, I'm not going to lie to you, I did think it was strange you moved on so quickly but it's not like you did anything wrong."

"I hadn't moved on, it was just a fling to distract me, but Shane fell in love and now he's going insane."

"That's not your fault. You stopped things with him as soon as Rick turned out to be alive, Shane was the one who took it too far."

"You're right, thanks Rory."

"You know, I think Shane and Andrea slept together the other day, they went off alone and came back all tousled. Andrea's been looking at him with heart eyes since."

Lori nodded in agreement. "She also convinced Beth to kill herself, gave her access to the bathroom and then left her alone. Maggie and I came back in and found Beth in the bathroom bleeding."

"God, looks like we have two crazies on our hands." Rory sighed.

—/<3/—

"I'm going on a supply run. You coming?" Rory asked as she stopped in front of Daryl's tent.

"Who's goin?" He questioned, wiping his hands free of squirrel blood with his red handkerchief. He was finishing up skinning his hunt from that morning. Since they'd arrived at the farm, Daryl had been reluctant to eat the food the Greene's were providing and preferred to catch his own meals. He still felt as though he wasn't part of the group.

"Just me and Archie. I saw a couple houses when we were driving round the other night and they only had a couple walkers round the front. We can't go back to the town now, so that's our best shot for supplies."

"They look abandoned? No chance of anyone livin' there?" Daryl stood up, grabbing his crossbow.

"Door looked broken and there were no reinforcements to keep the walkers out, so I assume so." Rory looked over to where Archie was waiting by his car. "You in?"

"Sure, could use a few things," Daryl said. Rory smiled and beckoned him over to the car.

"You two got everything?" Archie asked as he climbed into the drivers seat of his BMW.

"Yep," Daryl answered. Rory nodded as she placed her bag into the footwell of the passenger side.

—/<3/—

"This the place?" Archie stopped the car a while away from the two houses, not wanting to attract the attention of any walkers.

"Yeah," Rory replied.

"Don't look like there's many walkers about, this should be easy." Daryl observed the buildings before climbing out of the car, pulling back his crossbow string to save time if a walker popped up.

Rory and Archie followed, shutting the car doors quietly. They tiptoed to the half-caved-in front door, listening carefully for the familiar growls of the walkers. There was a couple inside by the sound of things and a few hanging around the outside of the smaller house off to the right.

"Should we take them out first before we go in? Saves us having to do it when they hear us and follow us into the house," Archie asked, keeping his voice low.

Daryl and Rory agreed and the three of them silently took down the walkers with a swift sniff through the skull before they entered the main house, the door creaking awfully as the broken hinges worked to hold what was left of the door up.

"I'll take the kitchen, Archer, you look for batteries, guns and ammo, Rory, look upstairs." Daryl ordered as he continued towards the kitchen to loot any preserved goods. "We'll check the second house when we're done here."

Archie and Rory nodded, not really minding that Daryl was taking the lead. Rory turned toward the stairwell and made her way up slowly, the old wooden stairs groaning beneath her feet. She unzipped her bag and cautiously pushed open the door closest to the stairs.

Luckily, there was no walker inside and Rory straightened up, trudging into the bathroom and heading straight for the medicine cabinet. There wasn't much in there, a bottle of advil and some sort of blood thinning medication, Rory took it anyway to give to Hershel, just in case he could use it somehow.

Then she turned to the cabinet under the sink, tearing open the doors. She smiled when she spotted a stock of feminine hygiene products, at least 6 packs of pads and two boxes of tampons. The camp has been running low recently and they hadn't managed to find any since their first trip to Atlanta when they'd stocked up.

Rory hadn't had a period since everything started. She supposed her body was too stressed and malnourished but she wasn't complaining. It was hard enough to deal with menstrual cycles but during an apocalypse, everything seemed to be ten times harder.

After collecting everything useful from the bathroom, she moved on to one of the bedrooms, grabbing her knife when she heard the grim moans of the dead.

She flinched when she saw the walker suspended from the ceiling, a noose around its neck and a chair kicked out beneath its feet.

What laid on the bed was even more disturbing and Rory's stomach turned at the sight. A newborn baby swaddled up in pink blankets, long dead, it's high-pitched growls mixing with the deeper ones of her mother's.

—/<3/—