CHAPTER 2 | NEW HOME

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   The forest air soon became humid and thick as the sun rose higher in the sky. Lauren had no idea how long they had been walking, but she figured it was a long time by watching the sun; the two men and Lauren were continuing their way towards the prison.

After internally complaining about the long walk, Lauren had finally seen a grey building in the distance, past the tree line they were coming close to. The closer they got, the bigger the building got, and the more Lauren anticipated a better shelter than her normal forest home.

The three reached the tree line, as the rising sun gleamed across the leaves, almost making Lauren forget that dead people roamed the earth. The brunette's tired feet carried her across a large field, separating the tree line and the entrance to the prison. In the distance, she could see a tall chain fence that surrounded the place, with barbed wire lined on top of it. Towards where they were walking was a gate, but it seemed to be a remade version of the original, probably from the damage of the apocalypse.

A woman with short brown hair came up to the gate and started prying it open for the three to walk in. She seemed surprised to see a new guest to come with the 2 men.

"This is Maggie," Rick exclaimed, introducing Lauren to her. The girl under the hood studied her, assuming she was in her early twenties.

"Who's this?" Maggie questioned Rick, with slight fear in her voice. She sounded a bit angry at him; she wasn't sure bringing in this mysterious and possibly dangerous girl was a good idea.

He looked at Lauren like he was waiting for her to answer, but she decided not to speak up. The young girl simply, but reluctantly, pulled down her mask, revealing her full face to the three. Rick sighed lightly, before responding for her.

"This is Lauren," he stated while looking between Maggie and Lauren.

Maggie looked annoyed at the situation at hand, but Lauren didn't care what anyone thought of her.

They continued their walk to the main building as Lauren got to study the place. On one side there was a small den that had a pig laying in what looked like to be mud. She also saw someone standing over the fence around the pen looking at the pig, but they were too far away to tell who this person was. The figure looked slightly familiar to Lauren, but she ignored the thought. Closer to the building she saw a small roof overhanging an eating area with lots of people.

Lauren huffed under her breath in annoyance at the amount of people.

"Most of the people there, we took 'em in," Daryl explained as they got closer. She could feel Rick looking at her but the girl still portrayed the same expression. Lauren wasn't one to smile anymore, it wasn't like there was anything to smile about. Lauren didn't care if he tried to give sympathy, she didn't need it.

Daryl walked up to a woman with short grey hair behind a counter, as he put something in his mouth to eat. The starving girl was pretty hungry just thinking about food, she hasn't had any for days. Lauren was almost impressed at the system they had going on.

"You can take any food you wa-"

She interrupted Rick as she grabbed a couple pieces of bread and walked off. Lauren didn't want to eat with the others, she didn't care for meeting people. Rick hesitated, but continued to follow the stranger.

"This is the cell block you'll sleep in, it's with our main group, the ones that didn't come from Woodbury," Rick explained. She gave him a questioning look, wondering what was this Woodbury he was talking about.

"I mean the people that we took in, they all used to live in another town." He answered.

Lauren said nothing in agreement, instead she just continued her way into the cell block. Lauren saw multiple people inside, all doing different things. The place looked a bit run down, but stable enough. Mainly everything was grey, and there were two levels of cells. As they walked inside, everyone stared at the new member. Most people had looks of confusion, others were neutral.

"This is Lauren. Daryl and I found her in on our run. She was alone, and answered everything, so she's staying here for awhile." Lauren crossed her arms, squinting and looking towards the ground. Some people said hello, others noded. If Lauren was going to stay anywhere, she had one motto, and always had since this started. Don't get attached to things, or people. She started that motto once everyone she got close to died.

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"I spy with my little eye...something that is yellow," Lauren said.

Sage hummed while looking around their little camp they set up in search of something yellow. She turned to see her own backpack with the colours yellow and grey.

"My backpack?" Sage asked, facing her sister again. Lauren groaned loudly and slumped her shoulders.

"Okay that was way too easy!" Lauren yelled while throwing her arms in the air and laughing. Sage laughed along with her, and started poking their small fire with a stick.

Lauren began to get up. "I gotta go pee," she said while walking into the woods behind her.

She headed enough into the forest where she couldn't see her sister, but before she could even find a bathroom spot, she heard people talking from back at her camp. She could hear a man yelling, and her sister arguing back. Lauren, only being 11, worriedly headed back, but hid behind a tree; there was a man pointing a gun towards her sister.

"C'mon, give me all your crap," He ordered while stepping forward and pointing his gun directly at her head.

"Hey, we can work this out, it's just me, if you just leave we can-"

"No deals hun, just gimme all your stuff and I won't kill you." Lauren gasped quietly at his words. She looked out from the tree to see his back facing her, but still out of her sister's eyesight.

"Please, it's just me, I don't have much and it will mean a lot-"

"Don't make me do this."

"You won't kill me," she stuttered out.

"I'll do worse than just kill you-"

A loud gunshot echoed through the forest, ringing in their ears. Sage looked up from covering her ears to see a gaping bullet hole in the man's head, as he lifelessly fell to the ground to reveal Lauren behind him. She had the gun, still pointed where his figure was, held with shaky hands. Tears were already streaming down her face. She was frozen in place, scared at what she did; what she was somehow capable of doing.

Sage ran forward and embraced her little sister in a hug, but Lauren still stood frozen in place. The tears had stopped, but she couldn't help staring at the man that she had just killed. Sage kept repeating over and over that it was to keep them safe, but somehow, she could almost feel darkness around her heart in the smallest amount.

Lauren had no idea that she would soon have a stone cold heart that was encased in darkness. She was blind to what the future would hold.

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Carl walked into the cell block from the back to see if his father had gotten back yet from his run with Daryl. Instead, he came into view with everyone standing up facing the main door. The boy furrowed his brows, pushing through the crowd of people. Carl sighed in relief to see his dad and Daryl back safely, but his eyes soon scanned to the left to see a stranger.

Lauren looked up from the floor to reluctantly glance at one of the lingering stares on her. Her jaw clenched as she saw a blue eyed boy staring with a surprised look on his face. She wanted to look away, but something told her to study him a bit longer. She knew she recognized him from somewhere, when she finally remembered.

Carl was the boy Lauren had almost killed that day in the tree.

Lauren squinted her dark eyes and loomed over his Sheriff's hat. She remembered that hat being on his head when she was about to shoot him.

Time seemed to stop for a moment as Carl observed the stranger. She was pretty intimidating looking, and she had a dark feel about her. The top of her hood shadowed her eyes, but she looked up for a second and he could see the darkness within them.

Carl hadn't met anyone his age since Sophia, since Lizzie and Mica were too young to understand the world like he did. A thought of being friends with her ran through his head, and he stuck with that thought. He took another look at her to see her quickly look away with a scowl, making Carl confused as to why she was acting this way.

The boy was in his own thoughts as he didn't notice everyone going back to doing their own things. Rick then trudged up the stairs, gesturing for Lauren to follow him. He took her to an empty cell, as Lauren studied it. Even if it was small, it was better than anything she has ever had.

Rick stopped her in her tracks before she was able to enter the dim cell. "You know I don't trust you yet. Don't make your stay harder than it's supposed to be. I'm gonna keep an eye on you at all times, you got that?"

She knew it was a privilege to be able to stay in a place like this, so reluctantly she nodded.

Rick then left the girl to do her own thing, as she slipped off her hood and started to eat the bread inside of her room. The taste of the fresh dough satisfied her taste buds, a low hum escaping her lips.

Meanwhile, Carl watched his father walk down the stairs and decided to go up to him.

"Hey dad? Who's that girl that you brought in? Is she staying here? Did you ask her-"

"Slow down there Carl," Rick said, interrupting the boy's frantic questions. "Her name is Lauren and she was by herself, we had a hard time convincing her to come with us, but I still don't know how long she might stay."

Carl nodded to him, trying to process everything he said. "No group?" Carl asks in confusion.

"No group. Just her." Rick answered, still in slight shock that she was all by herself.

Carl was pretty impressed, he thought that not many kids could survive on their own. The conversation was left at that, and Carl started to walk upstairs. Maybe he could try befriending her.

"Carl? Just, don't try and bother her too much. She's not much of a talker," Rick informed his son before he continued his way up. Carl processed what he said, then nodded in agreement. He then walked down the hall and into her cell to find her looking through her bag. When she saw him, she showed the same look as she did when she first saw him. It was almost a look of disgust mixed with anger.

"Uh, hi. I know you're new, and-"

Before Carl could finish saying anything she stormed out of the room, knocking his shoulder on the way out; his dad was right. Carl looked down to the floor, thinking that he might've done something wrong. The boy just wanted someone his age to be friends with. Carl clenched his jaw and went a couple cells down to his room.

Anger fumed through Lauren's body, she could practically feel the steam come out of her ears. The girl went outside of the cell block and plopped herself on the grass, away from any human being she could see. Looking up, she could see dozens of biters leaning against the chain fence, banging on it, trying to break through. She could see some people on the other areas of the fence killing them, maybe it's some sort of job.

The angry girl had nothing else better to do, so she went up to one area of the fence with a bunch of biters--well, walkers according the group--and picked up a sharp, long bar that was leaning against the fence.

Lauren began stabbing them in the head, one by one. She seemed to forget everything, the stress rolling off of her. It killed time well. She looked behind her to see Rick and some other people watching her.

Hopefully they wouldn't mind her help.

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[2065 WORDS/EDITED]

a/n: thank you for continuing to read my story! it means a lot :) feel free to give any feedback in the comments!