CHAPTER 11 | LOST HOME

_______

  The hot sun beat down on Lauren's face, the teenager placing her sweating hand on her forehead to block the harsh heat. Hershel was helping Michonne drag out the dead bodies after Lauren had helped, but Hershel insisted Lauren took a rest.

Michonne had been talking about the time in high school when she went to a school dance, and found out her date was cheating on her. She then explained how she threw her drink on him, and drove herself home in his car. Lauren couldn't stop smiling at the story.

"Wow, if he could see you now with your katana," Lauren stated, Michonne chuckling while grabbing one of the dead bodies.

A strange rustling noise erupted from the forest, making Lauren's smile immediately falter as she swiftly grabbed the pistol that clung to her hip.

"I'm gonna check it out," Lauren murmured, a worried look on Michonne's face appearing. Lauren shook her head, telling her it was fine and she shouldn't worry.

Making her way out of the clearing and past the tree line, the rustling continued. Lauren went farther in, her gun held tightly between her two hands.

Suddenly she felt her body fall to the ground, something smacking across the back of her head. Everything became dark.

➸ ➸ ➸

It seemed like no time had passed at all when Lauren woke up, but she wasn't in the forest, she was inside a trailer.

Lauren looked to her left to see Hershel and Michonne both tied up, glancing downwards to see that she was tied too. The grip of rope around her hands gave her the eerie reminder of the cellar. The three were sat on a bench in an rv, a man sitting across from them. He had an eye patch, and tussled brown hair.

"You should eat, it's gonna be a long day," the man ordered while handing some type of food towards Hershel.

"Nobody's gonna hurt you," he continued, Lauren glancing towards Michonne in worry. She glanced back, almost not having an answer to Lauren's question of safety.

"I don't believe that," Hershel stated.

"Well, I don't care," he shot back.

"Just tell us what this is, please."

"It isn't personal."

"Then what is it?"

"Michonne I want you to know. Penny, my daughter, she was dead, I know that now." Lauren jaw dropped slightly, turning to Michonne as if wondering why this man knows her.

The man continued. "Now I don't wanna hurt you, I don't wanna hurt anyone. I need the prison, that's it. There are people I need to keep alive."

"Who the hell are you?" Lauren cut in, the man turning away from whatever he was doing to face her.

"That's not important," he replied while changing back to the subject, "you three are gonna help me take it, no one needs to die."

Bullshit, Lauren said to herself. She contemplated stating it out loud, but Michonne cut her off.

"I'm gonna kill you."

"No you won't," he replied nonchalantly.

Lauren was fed up with the mans passiveness. "Fine then, I'll do it, you piece of-"

"Stop it," Hershel interrupted, Lauren turning to him in anger, but then glancing to the floor in understanding. He seemed to want to negotiate instead, which was not one of Lauren's fortes. "You want the prison?"

"Yeah, and I'll take it as peacefully as I can." The man answered.

"Governor-"

"Don't call me that," he interrupted. Lauren leaned back slightly, now knowing his name. Who was this Governor guy? He obviously knew the group before Lauren joined.

Hershel continued. "Your people, our people, we can find a way to live together." Lauren knew the Governor was lying about all his passiveness, or else he would simply join the rest of the group and not try and take over.

"These people you need to keep alive, do you love them?" Hershel continued.

"You're a good man Hershel, a better man than Rick," he replied while trying to stray away from the question.

"Everything you've said, the way you've said it, you've changed. So has Rick."

"The two of us, would never be able to live together. Michonne and I, we'll never be able to live together."

"We'll find a way-"

"I found a way!" He yelled back, turning to Hershel harshly. "I'm trying hard, there's all kinds of ways I could do this. This way you get to live and I get to be..." the Governor began to trail off, not wanting to finish the conversation as he got up and began to leave the trailer.

Lauren spoke up before he could leave. "You keep saying you wanna take this prison as peacefully as possible, yet you'd be willing to hurt people to get it. There are...families in there, that's who you'd be hurting. If you understand what it's like to have a family, then how are you willing to kill someone else's?"

The Governor paused for a moment, staring at the pleading girl. Lauren never imagined she would be this desperate to keep the prison, but that place had changed her. Her sanity was mended, and there were good people there.

"Because they aren't mine," he replied, finally exiting the trailer. Lauren let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, wondering how this was going to play out.

➸ ➸ ➸

Hours had passed, and the three were suddenly taken into a truck, hands still tied together in front of them. At one point Lauren hadn't realized her hands were shaking, the feeling of roped hands making her stomach clench and breath shudder. Michonne had placed her tied of hands on hers, trying to stop the shaking. Lauren thanked her with a glance, the bumpy truck ride continuing.

They had finally stopped, but they weren't taken out immediately. There was an explosion sound, making Lauren begin to sweat as nervousness corrupted her body.

The Governor then began speaking to Rick presumably, talking about the council that the man would have to talk to.

"Is Hershel on the council?" He asked, Lauren's eyes widening as their vehicle was opened, a woman grabbing Hershel and dragging him out on the grass to kneel. They seemed to be all parked just behind the gates of the prison.

"What about Michonne?" He questioned again, somebody taking her out too.

"And what about this little girl, she in the council too?" Lauren knew this was when she would be taken. A man then grabbed her arm, dragging her out the truck as Lauren struggled against his grip. It was no use, as he placed her on the ground to kneel beside Michonne.

The light burned her eyes, the girl squinting against the sun. As her eyes got used to the light, she could see the group behind the fence separating the giant prison yard and them.

From where she was she could see Carl in his Sheriff hat, struggling against Daryl's pull. He was attempting to do something the minute he saw Lauren come out of the truck, but even struggling against Daryl's grip he knew he was useless.

"I don't make decisions anymore!" Lauren heard Rick shout.

"You're making the decisions today Rick," he replied. Lauren grit her teeth in anger, having the urge to sock the man in the jaw.

"Come down here, let's-let's have that talk," he continued.

It took a moment before Rick finally gave in, creaking open the gate and walking across the yard.

"Let 'em go right now. I'll stay down here, talk as long as you want." By now Rick was close to the fence separating them and him, the man glancing at Lauren in worry. "But you let 'em go. You got a tank, you don't need hostages."

"I do," the Governor contradicted, "this is just to show you I'm serious, not to blast a hole in our new home. You and your people, you have till sundown to get out of here, or they die."

"Doesn't have to go down this way."

"I got more people, more firepower. We need this prison. There it is. It's not about the past, it's about right now."

"There are children here, some of them are sick, they won't survive."

The Governor paused for a moment. "I have a tank, I'm letting you walk away from here. What else is there to talk about? I could shoot you all. You'd all shoot back, I know that. But we'll win and you'd be dead, all of you. Doesn't have to be like that. Like I said, it's your choice."

Before Rick could answer, the familiar snarls of walkers came into earshot, the Governor shooting at them from behind the tank he was standing on.

The man continued. "Noise will only draw more of them over. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to get out of here. We got maybe about an hour of sunlight left, I suggest you start packing."

Rick looked downwards in thought, the Governor repeating himself. "The longer you wait, the harder it's gonna be for you to get out of here."

"We can all-we can all live together. There's enough room for all of us." Rick negotiated.

"More than enough, but I don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you were under the same roof." Lauren felt tempted to scream out the fact that a few hours ago he told her he had no family. This man was a walking lie.

"We'd live in different cellblocks, we'd never have to see each other, till we're all ready."

"It could work, you know it could," Hershel spoke up.

"It could've, but it can't. Not after Woodbury." Lauren bit her lip in thought, remembering when Rick told her of that place when she first came here.

"Rick decided to reply. "Look I'm not saying it's gonna be easy, fact is it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder than standing here and shooting each other. But I don't think we have a choice."

"We don't, you do."

"We're not leaving. You try and force us, we'll fight back. Like you said, the gunshots will just bring more of them out. They'll take down the fences. Without the fences this place is worthless. Now, we can all live in the prison, or none of us can."

This seemed to anger the Governor, as he hopped off his tank, grabbed something, and held it in front of Hershel's throat. Lauren turned to her right to see the weapon being Michonne's katana.

"You-you in the ponytails, is this what you want? Is this what any of you want?"

"What we want, is what you got. Period. Time for you to leave asshole," somebody in the Governor's group yelled. Lauren internally grunted at man. Rick began worrying, before making a grand speech that gave Lauren hope for the group.

"Look, I fought him before. And after we took in his old friends, they've become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk trough those gates, you're one of us. We let go of it all, and nobody dies. Everyone who's alive right now, everyone who's made it this far. We've all done worse kinds of things just to stay alive. But we can still come back. We're not too far gone. We get to come back, I know we can all change."

From the Governor's moment of silence, he seemed to be rethinking everything. Lauren's eyes filled with hope for the people in her group, knowing that that could be the turning point.

"Liar," the Governor suddenly whispered, the inevitable sound of the katana slashing across Hershel's throat filling the silence. Lauren took in a sharp breath, holding it in shock. The old man fell to the ground, Rick screaming and pulling up his gun.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

Rapid gunfire began from both sides, Michonne quickly nudging Lauren to move. The two began rolling away from the fight, unable to stand up with hands tied. The loud shooting pained her ears, but that wasn't the problem at the moment. Lauren crawled behind a truck, turning around frantically to see Michonne no where in sight.

Suddenly she could see the woman ripping her rope against the sharp part of a car, Lauren deciding to do the same. Pushing herself up, she ran the rope along the sharp edge, attempting to cut it quickly.

The rope was just about to split, before the man who had brought her out the car began to run past her. He turned, seeing Lauren trying to escape. Before he could react Lauren lifted both legs up using the car to hold, kicking him to the ground. The rope broke, the man struggling to grab his gun on his right side when Lauren spotted her knife in a holster.

Getting down on her knees, she ripped the dagger out of his holder and slammed it into his chest. The man choked on the blood escaping his mouth, his body becoming still and lifeless.

Her holster had also been around his leg, so she took that back too. Quickly wrapping it around her thigh, placing her knife in it and grabbing his machine gun, Lauren ran behind the cars unnoticeable. Sadly Michonne had left without a trace, so Lauren had to find a way back on her own. She could try to kill people from where she was at, but that would be a suicide move.

Lauren got to a part of the fence where it was broken up slightly, making her way through. She got through the same tower that her, Rick and Carl got through when the walkers broke the fence. Making her way through the other side, she made a run for it down the pathway. She could sense a person shooting at her, but she sped up her running to avoid getting shot.

Lauren's chest burned and legs raidiated with pain, but she kept going. She got to one of the cell blocks on the other side, ran through and out to the courtyard outside of it. By the time Lauren reached her destination the tank had already broke the front fence and was in the yard. A plethora of cars drove in too, men and women hopping out of them and beginning to aim at the group. From where Lauren was at she could only spot Daryl, but somebody began shooting so she duck down behind some large crates.

Lauren's heart was racing so hard it felt like it was beating out of her chest. Her palms were sweaty, and her throat was raw. Lauren peeked above the crates, throwing her gun up to begin aiming. One car had 4 men around it, and she began to aim at one at a time. One down, two down. The third man was hiding behind the car, and the fourth had found her, aiming towards her crates. Lauren ducked down just in time, the bullets penetrating the crates. They were getting busted fast, so Lauren bolted towards the nearest large barrels.

Lauren began to incoherently murmur curse words as the tank began firing. The barrel of the tank began aiming in her direction, her eyes widening in shock. Not knowing what to do for a split second, she shook her head in realization and bolted further towards the cellblock and away from the explosion. The tank fired, hitting the walk above her. Lauren fell to her knees with arms above her head, getting out of the crawling position and away from the rubble. She raced to some food crates, hoping the wouldn't aim in her direction again.

Before she knew it, the tank busted though their fence, driving through her only way towards where the rest of the group could be. The amount of curse words escaping her mouth continued, before the only way to go was to head in the cellblock and through it to the other side. Sprinting towards a side door behind her, Lauren opened it and ran through. There were people hectically running around, but Lauren couldn't just stand there and do nothing. She heard some people talk about going to the busses, hopefully that was the right decision.

Lauren quickly jumped on a table, getting everyone's attention. "Listen up! Everyone head to the blue busses out that door to get to safety. Now!"

Soon everyone made their way to that exit, Lauren waiting till everyone filed out. When they did, she made her way through and towards the busses. Lauren had no intention on joining it, she needed to find Carl and know that he was okay. In fact if anybody was okay.

Making her way up the stairs, Lauren frantically looked around to try and spot Carl's face. Sadly he wasn't there, so she immediately ran out to find him.

For some reason her body took her to the same cellblock she was at before, her mind and thoughts running at a hundred miles per hour. Her vision was blurry, and she felt slightly dizzy. Lauren realized that he wasn't here, so she ran out and into her cellblock.

"Carl?" She screamed, but no answer. Lauren trudged up the stairs, grabbing her backpacks and any water and food.

As she made her way down the stairs and about to leave the door, the tank must had shot at the cell block, making her fall back against the wall. The rubble was flying towards her from the blast, as she fell behind some tables for protection. Her whole body felt dizzy at this point, not knowing which way was up.

It took Lauren a few minutes to process everything before stumbling out the door to see the bus long gone. Her lip trembled in fear as the hair on her face stuck to her with sweat.

There was no one in sight, and no bit of hope left. Until she turned a corner and met eyes with a blue eyed boy.

"Thank God you're alive," Carl breathed out while running to her and enveloping Lauren in a hug. She didn't seem to expect that as her arms awkwardly hung behind him. Slowly, they wrapped around him too, thankful she wasn't alone anymore.

Lauren let go of the hug slightly, "I-I couldn't find you anywhere, I thought you guys left."

He shook his head. "I would never leave you, ever." Lauren's jaw hung open slightly, blinking in shock. Not once had anybody told her such a thing, it made feel loved once again, like she had a purpose to be alive.

The two let go of each other and stood back a bit, not sure what to do. "Where do we go now?" Lauren questioned out of breath.

Carl nudged his head toward a direction, the two teens making their way to God knows where.

"Carl?" Rick's voice boomed from behind a corner, as the two rounded it to see two walkers headed towards him. Carl and Lauren both shot the walkers down, looking up to see a beaten down Rick. He must have fought harshly, his shirt was ripped and his face was smeared with blood. His face and eyes were also swollen.

A weeping Rick soon met with a running Carl, the two sharing a hug.

"Judith, where is she?" Rick questioned as all of them gave each other a worried look.

"I don't know," Carl answered as both of them helped carry Rick through the prison. They went down one area to try and find her, and found a baby's carseat. That must be Judith's. But as the three got closer, they could see that no Judith was held inside. Lauren let go of Rick's grasp, holding her hand near her mouth in shock. Was she dead, or had somebody taken her? A blood splatter was in her place, making it seem like she was long gone. Lauren felt utterly bad for the two Grimes that were crying in her loss, she felt guilty for not trying to find her first.

A walker came into view from behind some smoke, Carl striding up to it and shooting it multiple times with the shotgun. He continued shooting it after it's death out of anger; Lauren knew the feeling. She had many angry episodes in her past where all she wanted to do was burn a house down.

"Carl!" Lauren shouted with tears brimming her eyes, holding him from behind to stop him from trying to shoot the walker any longer. Carl began to hysterically cry in her arms, almost falling to the ground. Lauren picked him back up, attempting to calm him.

"We gotta go, okay? Shh..." she stated as Carl fell into his father's arms. As they shared a hug, Lauren paced back and forth, wiping the tears from her eyes in anger. Both Carl and Lauren went to Rick's side, helping him walk while venturing past the prison and into the forest.

Lauren took one look back, saying her goodbyes to the wonderful place she called home.

_______
[3460 WORDS]

a/n: yikes this was a pretty big chap. btw lauren's backstory is NOT finished, i just skipped it this chap because of how long this chap already was. next chap u will see her backstory continue obvs in the italic area of the chap