I had just met the group I had joined on the highway; Carol, Sophia, Glenn, Andrea, Dale, T-Dog, and Daryl. I was talking to little Sophia about the friends she’d met during her journey, when she brought up a boy named Carl.
“I met him and his mom while we were trying to leave the city. He’s really nice. He’s around here if you wanna meet him.” She smiled and then looked around her.
“Mom, do you know where Carl went?”
“He’s probably with Lori.” She answered.
My heart jumped.
“Did someone call me?” A voice from behind us made us turn around.
“Hey Lori! Carl! We have a new person here! Daryl saved her over there.” She pointed over at a pile of cars on the other side of the road. I had told her how I had come to join them.
As soon as Lori saw me she exclaimed, “Lin?!”
Carl smiled wide and then ran over to me. He gave me a huge hug.
“Lin! I thought you had left!” he cried out.
“I had, bud, but we got stuck.” I hugged him back and looked at Lori.
“Glad to see you again.” She smiled.
“Woah, hold on. You know her?” Daryl’s voice sounded confused.
“Yeah, before all this,” Lori motioned to the air, “we were pretty good family friends. Known her since Carl was born.”
“Small world.” We heard Dale say from the RV.
“It really is.” Lori snickered.
“So… where’s Rick?” I asked carefully, hoping he wasn’t dead.
“Oh, he’s back there searchin’ for stuff.” Lori pointed to where she and Carl had come from.
“Cool; I’ll go say hi.” I was suddenly a lot happier now that I knew some people. Rick, Lori, and Carl were like my second family and I felt blessed to have run into them. As I passed by the cars, following where Lori had pointed towards, I heard some shuffling and movement behind one of them.
I froze in place, heart racing.
“Rick? Is that you?” I prayed it wasn’t a walker.
“Rick?” a voice rose over the car as the shuffling stopped. “Lori, is that you again? I thought you said you didn’t want me to talk to you, what are you—” he stopped dead in his sentence as he emerged from where he was hidden.
“Shane?” my stomach flipped a dozen times in a row.
“Lin? What’re you doin’ here?” he asked, still standing in place.
The excitement I had for running into the Grimes' was now dead and a newfound anger filled the gap.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” my voice raised each word I spoke. “You left me! You didn’t come back after you told me you would!!!” Tears welled up in my eyes, “WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!”
“Woah, woahhh, you were safe, babe! I made sure you were safe before I left! I knew what I was doing; I left you with your family so that if I got stuck there, I knew you’d be okay! I’m sorry I didn’t come back but it was impossible at the time!”
I couldn’t speak becase I was crying too hard. So instead he continued,
“I thought Rick had died and I had to get Lori and Carl to safety. It all happened too fast, Lin; I didn’t have time to come back. You gotta understand, it was insane there!”
I slowly nodded, now just willing to accept anything he said. As long as he was here now, I could forgive him for what he did.
“Where are they?” he finally noticed I was alone.
“Mom and sis got separated. My dad… he… didn't...” and as if I wasn’t crying hard enough, I burst into even more tears.
I fell down onto my knees and he rushed over to me. I let it all out in his arms, all the confusion I felt and the disbelief of losing my family. All the relief I had for seeing him again and the gratitude I had for the others letting me into their group.
I felt him kiss the top of my head and instinctively smiled; if only we could go back to when the world was the way it had been. None of this would’ve even happened if there weren’t undead freaks roaming the earth…
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