*unedited

CHAPTER TEN
x. WE JUST NEED A LITTLE TIME

RUTH

SHE SAT ON THE BED BESIDE LORI. Ruth's fingers trailed up and down the sheets, feeling the rough linen in her fingertips. It was a strange an peculiar texture, but she didn't mind. It was something new to touch besides her grime-covered clothes. Even her fingers were lined with a dirt she wanted to remove. It made chills run up her spine with each touch.

"You don't have to stay with me all the time." Lori teased, her eyes looking down at the woman next to her. They were both about the same age, so talking to Ruth was like talking to her twin. "You don't need to gain my respect, you already have it."

Ruth shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips. "It's not just that." She replied. "I'm always concerned about the baby. I feel like I have to make sure that you're getting the proper necessities."

Lori smiled, one of her frail hands reaching to tuck a loose strand of Ruth's hair behind her ear. "I think we would have been best friends before all of this, you know."

Ruth laughed, feeling her body slump forward on the mattress. "I think we would have."

They held a long silence, Lori rubbing her stomach almost subconsciously. A look of worry adorned her face. Ruth noticed this, but she didn't ask what was wrong. The woman flipped her gaze between the two who sat in her cell. "Can you get Hershel for me?" Ruth nodded and pushed herself off of the bed.

Her feet carried her outside of the cell, Carol walking beside her. "Do you know why she needs him?" Ruth asked. Carol shrugged, her eyes staring straight ahead.

"Probably just unsure with the baby." She replied. Ruth glanced at her, noticing how her gray hair had grown over the winter. It was losing its militaristic style.

Ruth nodded, her eyes trailing to where the others gathered. The two met up with the rest, who surrounded a pile of discarded guard armor.

"I ain't wearing this shit." Daryl muttered, his hand holding one. It oozed with a weird substance that Ruth knew was once a person.

"We could boil 'em."

"Ain't enough firewood in the whole forest. Besides, we made it this far without 'em, right?"

Ruth leaned against the railing of the stairs. "Hershel." She called out to the older man. He turned, and she gestured for him to follow. Rick watched as he followed Ruth back to Lori's cell, his brows furrowed slightly with concern.

"Everything all right?" Rick asked.

Ruth hinted at a small smile, and she nodded her head. Carol spoke from beside her. "Yeah. Nothing to worry about." Carol replied. Rick nodded, and Hershel followed the two women back to Lori's cell. The woman sat up in the bed, her head down to the floor. The look of worry she held before looked like it increased tenfold.

"It's the baby. I think I lost it." Lori said quietly.

"You haven't felt it move?" Hershel questioned. Ruth's arms tensed at her sides. Could she have lost the baby? After everything she had done, and they still didn't live? Maybe she didn't do enough.

"Nothing. And no Braxton-Hicks. At first I thought it was exhaustion or malnutrition." Lori muttered. Lori locked eyes with Ruth, and Ruth could see fear in her eyes. Ruth's heart was in her throat as she said the next words. "If we're all infected, then so is the baby. So what if it's stillborn? What if it's dead inside me right now?... What if it rips me apart?"

Ruth shook her head. She had thought about it a few times, but there was no way the baby would be born a walker, right? "Stop. Don't let your fear take control of you." Hershel replied, his eyes holding only pure sympathy for the woman in front of him.

"Okay. Then let's say it lives and I die during childbirth."

"That's not going to happen."

"Why not? How many women died in childbirth before modern medicine? If I come back, what if I attack it? Or you? Any of you. Or Rick? Or Carl?" Lori asked, her eyes looking to the woman who had become closer to her these past couple of weeks. Ruth froze, her eyes threatening to fill with tears. "If I do, if there is any chance... you put me down immediately. You don't hesitate."

Ruth put a hand to her head, running her fingers into her hair. "Lori..." She warned the woman.

Lori shook her head, a small smile that seemed forced coming to her lips. "Ruth, it's okay."

A slight irritation towards Lori ran through her system. She wanted Ruth, the girl who had been helping her survive this entire time to just kill her? After everything she had done to keep her living, and she just wanted to give up. "No. You can't think like that." Ruth muttered, her eyes narrowing.

"Me, the baby... if we're walkers, you don't hesitate and you don't try to save us. Okay? It might have been better if--"

Carol interrupted the rambling mother. "If what?"

"If I never made it off the farm." Ruth's heart skipped a beat at the words. Did she really mean such a thing?

"Don't start with that. You're here for a reason, Lori. You're a survivor. If you never made it off the farm, Rick wouldn't be the same. Carl wouldn't be the same." Ruth argued.

Lori shook her head. "My son can't stand me. And my husband, after what I put him through."

"There is still time for-"

"No, there's not. Not enough time in the world, Ruth. He hates me." Lori interrupted.

Ruth sat down on the bed once more, feeling the way the bed sunk underneath her. The mattress dipped as she leaned back. "Maybe he acts like it Lori, but he still loves you. He's just hurt. He needs time. But you know what? This baby right here? It can bring you guys closer and help him heal."

"You really think that?"

"I know it." Ruth assured. She placed a hand on Lori's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "It's going to come out okay. You'll have this baby, and we're going to be here to help you and Rick raise it."

Lori smiled slightly, but it went as quick as appeared. "He has all of that hurt on his shoulders. He carries that weight."

"We've all been carrying that weight." Hershel replied. "All winter."

"I tried to talk to him."

Carol stepped further into the cell, a sympathetic smile reaching her face. "He'll come around."

"He hates me. He's too good a man to say it, but I know. I put him and Shane at odds. I put that knife in his hand."

"You know who doesn't give a shit about that? This baby. Now, let's make sure everything's all right." Hershel announced, crouching down to Lori's height. Ruth patted her shoulder once more before moving out of the way. She left the cell, feeling the air get uncomfortable after Lori's request to end her life for a second time if she turned.

Why would she ask Ruth of something so morbid? To make her shoot one of her only friends was like making a child kill their mother. It made her heart ache in her chest, and she had to blink hard to keep tears from arising. It was a painful thing to do, but if it meant somebody else wouldn't have to, she would. It was a hesitant and a painful agreement that in a world before this would seem malicious and homicidal. In this one, it was mercy.

Ruth watched the group huddle near the exit of the cell block. Rick talked to Carl, the son refusing to stay with Ruth and the others. She picked at the dirt under her nails, thinking about how many times she had done it. It was a nervous habit, and with part of the group leaving to find the food supply, it made complete sense.

"We don't know what's in there. Something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing. I need you to handle things here." Rick defended. Ruth admired the way he talked to his son. He treated him like an adult, even if he was still a child. Carl seemed to like that as well, because he nodded in agreement.

"Sure."

"Great. Let's go." Rick commanded to the group. They held their rifles pointed to the ground, but their heads were held high. Rick was the last one to leave, his gaze a perplexed one. He turned his head to face Ruth, his teeth biting down on his lip. "You sure you don't want to go?"

Ruth crossed her arms over her chest, feeling the nerves do anything but settle. She frantically shook her head no. "Somebody has to be here with Lori." She said with a smile.

"Is she gonna be okay? Lori." He mumbled, his blue eyes reflecting the emotion itself. His beard was growing longer, and he seemed to age with the stress. His blue eyes were brighter when shadowed with the purple underneath them, like a gem in the shadows hoping to shine in the dark.

Ruth smiled at the man. "Yea. I'll watch over her, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Don't worry about it." She said.

She watched the relief wash over his face like a dumped bucket of water. The lines in his face seemed to soften just a bit more as he stared at her with an unspoken gratitude. "Thank you." He said.

The girl shook her head, glancing at the man with a shrug of her shoulders. "Anything is worth it for her."

**

Carl and Ruth sat on the steps, tapping their feet in a weird rhythm. The boy beside her had his sheriff's hat drooped low over his eyes in an attempt to hide his face. The cellblock echoed with the loud tapping, and the only other noise was the silence itself. In a way, silence was its own noise. The breathing of the two humans on the steps seemed loud, even if it was below a whisper. Words echoed between the two, even with the slight whispers that were emitted. With the metal walls, everything was amplified like Ruth was shouting in a cathedral.

Ruth flicked the hat further down over his eyes, and Carl let out a frustrated huff. "Ruth." He whined. Ruth laughed as he readjusted it, huffing and looking away from her. Their serene moment was curtailed as shouting came from the entrance. The group members came through, their bodies drenched in blood. Carl immediately jumped from his spot at the call of his name.

He fumbled with the keys, finally unlocking the door. The group held a sense of panic that was indescribable. Their eyes moved frantically with their lips, each one shouting different things. Maggie looked the worse, with tears falling down her cheeks. That was when she saw who they were carrying.

A one-legged Hershel Greene.

**

SEEKING OUT EVIL

JACK

HIS TIRED EYES GAZED over the wall of overturned trucks. He blankly stared at the ground outside, it's unchanging scenery becoming etched in his brain. Woodbury's leader, the Governor, put him on constant watch of the walls. The man clenched his jaw, feeling a slight irritation at his tedious assignment. It frustrated him like no other, considering his medical skills were needed much more than a standing man. They had been there for weeks, maybe months at this point. Jack's fingers wrapped tightly around the gun in his hands, feeling a slight anger with how he and Erin had wound up at such a place.

The man still wondered where Ruth found herself. Was she dead? Jack shook his head, ridding himself of such thoughts. She was too smart to find herself in a plight such as death, he believed. Her bravery, on the other hand, was her Achilles' heel. She was so insistent on protecting everyone when he and Erin were with her, no matter what it was. Ruth managed to surprise Jack in all the ways that made him question her state of living. Her fatal flaw was the insistence to risk her life for the survival of others, and Jack had a feeling she may have been dead because of it.

"Jack." He heard someone call from below. He turned, noticing Erin on the ground. She tapped her fingers on the sides of her legs, the nervous nature something Jack had become accustomed to. He walked down the stairs, feeling the unsteady steps rock beneath him.

"Yea?" He asked when he finally reached her. Instead of a reply, she dragged him down the street. He was used to this, but it still surprised him every time she did so. The voices of Woodbury citizens rang through his ears like an annoying buzz. It hurt his ears to hear the joy of so many people who were clueless to their leader's intentions. Erin stopped at a small break in the fence, letting go of his jacket.

Jack began to protest, but was hushed by a hand placed to his mouth. Erin glared out the small gap of the vehicles, her eyes narrowing. Erin glanced back at the man, her brows scrunched into one of almost terror. "Just watch." She whispered.

He didn't understand what she was talking about until a few of the soldiers came into view. They held the biters on poles at a distance away from their faces, and the corpses struggled. Jack narrowed his eyes, leaning forward to get a clearer view. "They're on-"

"Yes, Jack they're on poles." Erin huffed and rolled her eyes. "The question is... where are they taking them?"

They watched for awhile longer as the men disappeared into a building further away. The building seemed abandoned, but Jack figured it was hiding something.

"I don't trust this place," Jack mumbled. "not one bit."

Erin looked to the man beside her, her shoulders slumping forwards. "The Governor... he's not who he says he is." She whispered. "I've watched men do this every single day, but what is the point? Where are they going?"

"Maybe those ones were near the fence. Had to move them away." Jack muttered.

The woman looked to him, a look of disbelief washed over her face. "Jack, why would they gather them if they could just stab them in the brain? He's planning something. Something bad." She said slowly, as if he would somehow awake from his idiotic stupor. Jack didn't trust the Governor, but Erin despised the man. From the start she was a peasant oppressed under his rule, and she wanted to overthrow the king.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of metal scratching against pavement. They ran back to the main street, watching as the gates of the town opened. The noise was loud, and the screeching of metal was enough to make Erin flinch beside him.

Erin closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to avoid lashing out. Three large trucks rolled into the town, ones that would be a part of a military convoy. Numerous men stepped out of them including the infamous right-hand man, Merle Dixon. His blade could be seen reflecting the sun like a mirror from where the two stood, and an arrogant grin littered his face like a disease. Jack wanted to punch him from the start, and a glare managed to make an appearance on the boy's face.

What he didn't expect was for two women to step out of the vehicle behind Merle. The blonde looked sickly, her skin pale. She walked slowly beside the other woman. The dark-skinned woman held a glare at her surroundings, and the katana that adorned her back stuck up like the tail of a scorpion. In a way, her threatening and suspicious eyes were the stinger, and she seemed ready to strike.

"Let me just say this," Erin paused, a hint of anger in her tone. "It was only a matter of time before you saw a form of evil in the Governor. I saw it all along."

**

yay! another chapter down! hope it was ok for you guys

also thank you so much to everyone who voted for my story on these award books! it really makes my day seeing how many of you read my stuff, and i thought it was pretty cool to see that there were tons of you voting!

until next time lovelies

cass <3