CHAPTER 15 | NIGHTMARE

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  "How hungry are you on a scale of 1 to 10?" Rick questioned, Lauren's eyebrows knitting together in thought.

The four survivors had camped out in forest on their way to Terminus. It was a long journey, so many nights by a fire in the woods happened. Morning had come, and the fire was being poked by Carl.

"15," Carl answers, Lauren smirking while shaking her head.

"20," she answers, Rick turning to Michonne to ask her too.

"28," she replies, giving both Carl and Lauren a smile.

Rick chuckled. "Yeah, it's been awhile. I'm gonna go check the snares." The snares were the traps Rick had made to catch an animal for food Lauren was licking her lips just thinking of it.

"Can I go with you?" Carl asked, standing up with his father.

"Well how else are you gonna learn?" Rick replied, a smile playing at Carl's lips.

"Hey, you guys too," he added on, Lauren nodding as she stood up, kicking rocks onto the fire to put it out.

The snares were a few minutes of a walk away. The four began their journey towards the trap, walking along a forest trail.

"We'll stay another day or two, get some more rest," Rick explained.

"Finish healing up?" Michonne inquired Rick.

"I'm almost there," he responded.

Silence filled the air before Carl spoke up, "we're close now, right?"

"To Terminus?" Rick asked.

"Yeah."

"We are."

"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?" Lauren furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Tell them what?" Michonne asked while glancing at Carl in question.

"Everything that's happened to us, all the stuff we've done, are we gonna tell them the truth?"

Lauren shook her head while glancing towards the trail in front of her. There was no way in hell she was going to tell a bunch of strangers about the things she's done. If they did, they would probably be scared of her, and that's not what she wanted.

She didn't want anybody scared of her anymore, even if that meant she couldn't tell Carl all of the people she had killed. He knew to some degree what she had done, but if he knew everything, would he be scared of who she was? That fear ate Lauren alive inside.

"It's none of their business to know about my life," Lauren spoke up while walking faster, in front of the three. She didn't want them to see the fear in her eyes.

Lauren halted by the sounds of a walker's snarling. Her head shot up, looking towards the source of the sound. Out from behind a tree came a lone walker that Lauren was planning to kill as she reached for her dagger. But Michonne was already on it, walking past Lauren amd towards the walker, slicing her katana across it's forehead.

The four finally came to the trap, Rick excitedly kneeling down to the trap to see a critter caught in the rope.

"It's a small one, it'll do," he stated while untangling the animal and shoving it into his bag. After collecting the creature, Rick began explaining how the trap worked. All of it fascinated Lauren since she wasn't one to have survival skills.

She simply always found the wrong people at the right times, which kept her alive.

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"Why should I not kill you?" Lauren mumbled, the hood atop her head covering her dark eyes. A girl her age and an older boy stood in front of her, the two coming across Lauren's shelter. Lauren had been taking refuge in an old gas station, but normally when she came face to face with other survivors they were met with her bullets. She couldn't trust anybody but herself anymore.

After Freya, she vowed not to get close to anybody. Getting close meant losing them sooner or later, she didn't want to lose somebody she loved again.

"We have supplies, see?" The boy spoke, showing Lauren a bag full of food and meds. Lauren's eyebrows furrowed, a hum escaping her dry lips. Lauren was twirling a chinese throwing dagger between her fingers, that's what she always did when she was bored. She taught herself how to twirl it between her fingers in the spare time she had alone in this world.

"We can help you get supplies, we know this town better than anyone. With is dead, you won't find the best stores," the boy continued, peaking Lauren's interest. Her stomach clenched in fear of what that boy could be capable of.

Dark room. Loud scream. Impact.

"Fine," she exclaimed, her booming voice taking back the girl her age. Lauren's lip began to quiver, trying to stop thinking of the memories.

Lauren glanced behind them. "Dusk is already here, we leave tomorrow morning," she declared as the two nodded their heads in agreement.

Lauren told them to stay in their room, never to enter hers. That night she got zero hours of sleep, afraid that one of them would try to hurt her. She tried her best to hide her tired eyes the next morning to the strangers, and they bought it.

The three were raiding a small store nearby, thanks to the directions the two gave Lauren. One of the horrid creatures suddenly came into view, walking towards the girl Lauren's age. She screamed in terror, but Lauren was at the other side of the store.

"Kill it!" Lauren shouted to the brother, but he simply pushed it away weakly. It fell to the floor, before Lauren rolled her eyes and headed over there. The two began yelling at Lauren to not kill it, but she didn't oblige. Lauren stuck her blade into it's head.

"What the hell Lauren?" The boy exclaimed, holding his crying sister. Lauren gave him a strange look, wondering why he was so angry at him.

"No, what the hell to you. What was that?" Lauren asked, standing up and staring at the strangers.

"We could've let him live, you know they were people before that, right?" He yelled back, Lauren turning away in anger. Great, it was one of these people who thought they were still human inside.

"That's not how it works," she hissed while grabbing her bags of supplies and walking out.

These two were going to be hard to deal with.

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"Help!" A sudden voice shouted, bringing Lauren out of her thoughts. Before she could react, Carl stood up and ran towards the sound, his father calling for him to stop running.

"Dammit Carl!" Lauren shouted, chasing after him with Rick and Michonne trailing behind. They finally saw the person who was making the commotion. It was a man with glasses who was surrounded by a hoard of walkers. He continued his plea for help, Carl running towards him before Rick grabbed him from behind and backed up behind a tree. Lauren and Michonne followed behind.

"We can't help him," Rick whispered as the man screamed in pain, the walkers digging their teeth into him. Michonne seemed to look away, but Lauren kept a close eye on the man.

She wasn't afraid to turn away.

"We gotta go," Lauren whispered back, seeing a few of the walkers spotting them. Rick nodded in agreement, the four running the other way. The growling of the creatures continued as they came to some train tracks, making their way down them to escape the hoard that followed.

They halted in their movements when another few walkers were eating away at a dead human in the middle on the tracks.

They were surrounded.

Rick was already running forward, killing the first walker who stood up. Lauren reached for the dagger in her holster, walking towards a walker who had made its way over to her. The knife twirled between her fingers before she took ahold of the handle and dug it into its skull. Lauren ripped the dagger out, ready to fight the next one.

Carl seemed to be struggling against one in the distance. He was trying to push it away, but its arms were trying to grasp him. Lauren ran forward, close enough for throwing distance, and swung her knife towards its skull. The dagger hit just below the brain, not good enough to kill it. Lauren mumbled a few profanities before Carl kicked it down, letting Lauren get her dagger back. She eventually did, and slammed it through its skull successfully.

"Seems like you need some practice," Carl stated while chuckling.

"Oh shut up, princess," Lauren shot back with a playful glare, hearing another snarl from behind her. Twisting around, she immediately slammed her knife into the head of the creature.

"Let's go!" Rick shouted. Lauren turned around to see the hoard that had gotten that man only mere feet from them. Following behind Carl, she ran with the group down the tracks.

As they ran away from the walkers, Lauren placed her dagger back into her holster, hopefully for good for awhile.

➸ ➸ ➸

After another hour of walking and escaping the hoard, they found an abandoned car on the side of the road. There weren't many things left in there, but it was a good place to rest. Night had fallen, and the only thing that could be heard were the sound of crickets and the crackling campfire.

Lauren sat near the campfire with Rick and Michonne since Carl was tired and was trying to get some sleep in the car. The young girl raised her hands over the fire, trying to retain any warmth she could.

"That was one small rabbit," Rick stated truthfully.

"It was something," Michonne replied, which was also true. After eating that rabbit, she felt at least a little bit better.

"Have you noticed, it's all we ever talk about anymore? Food," Rick explained, Lauren nodded in agreement. "I forgot what this feels like."

"I didn't. I don't think I ever could," Lauren replied, Rick glancing to his right to face Lauren.

"Were you always alone, or were you with a group before this?" Michonne suddenly asked, Lauren turning to her with worried eyes. Her stomach clenched at the mere thought of her past.

"Something like that," Lauren answered while staring back into the fire.

Before anybody could ask anything else, the rustling of leaves were heard behind them. They all turned, but no one reacted or decided to look.

Michonne turned back to the fire. "You know you can trust us, right?" She asked. Lauren nodded truthfully, but didn't want to get into detail about anything.

"I think I'm gonna go to sleep soon," Lauren stated while attempting to change the subject.

"Yeah, we should all do that s-"

"Oh dearie me," a sudden voice boomed, a gun being placed against Rick's head in interruption. Lauren felt somebody put one on hers too, but that wasn't the part that bothered her.

"You screwed up asshole," the voice continued, Lauren hands beginning to shake in fear. Lauren sucked in a breath, her blood running cold and her stomach feeling queasy at the voice.

She could never forget that voice.

Lauren slowly turned her head to look at the man that was holding Rick at gunpoint, hoping that it wasn't true.

But it was.

It was like Lauren's nightmare coming to reality, it was her worst fears becoming real. It was all those memories flooding back just by examining the man's features.

It was Joe.

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[1880 WORDS]

a/n: GUESS WHOS BACK
BACK AGAIN

JOES BACK TADAAA

so if u didn't realize it yet, the man who abused lauren a year ago was joe and his group. but their group is a bit different now, and goes by different ways and are called the claimers obvs. basically they killed all the women and children in their group a bit after they left lauren (i think that was explained on an ep??) and are now called the claimers.