Atlanta

"You must have been though hell and back," Lori remarked, as she began to unpack the poles for setting up the tent. It was much later, and since we were all getting tired, I helped Dani fix up her tent so she could sleep. Now Lori was helping me with mine while her son Carl was sleeping.

"I guess. It's been the craziest day of my life, but I don't imagine i've been through worse than you all have." She nodded, as we began to assemble the tent. We remained in silence for a few more minutes, before I pushed the question that had been bugging me for a while. "What happened to Carl's dad?" She continued in silence again, before giving me a weak smile.

"Rick." She laughed quietly to herself and then continued to set up the tent. "He, well...it was about 3 months ago." I felt the atmosphere grow tense, and I instantly regretted asking her.
"I'm sorry Lori. You don't have to go on if you don't want to."

"No, don't be silly. You've told us plenty about you." She flashed me a quick smile as we finished the tent together. "Well that looks good enough!" We both collected my things from her tent, and we dumped everything into mine. I emptied everything from my bag onto the floor of the tent as we continued our conversation. "He was a cop. Sheriff. We fought more than i'd liked, but he was a good man. He was a good father to Carl." She sighed again, and I pulled out the blankets I had packed.

"What happened?" She gazed up at me, and then to the floor.

"He was on duty with Shane. Car chase." My eyes widened slightly.

"Shane was a cop too? And he knew Rick?" She nodded.

"They were best friends since high school, by each other's side through everything." I nodded in understanding, now having a different perspective of Shane for some reason. "Shane did all he could but...he was shot. He...he- he." Lori stopped suddenly to control herself. "He was in a coma. And then Shane came back from the hospital one day. He was dead. They were forced to pull the plug." I nodded slowly, a lump in my throat. I looked over to Lori, who was on the verge of tears, but was evidently trying to stop herself.

"You don't have to bottle it up you know," I advised her, and she chuckled quietly.

"I do. For Carl." I gave her a sympathetic smile, before pulling her into a hug. I felt such pity for her, it must have been so horrible to lose her husband, and then be plunged into something like this, left to fend for herself and her son.

"Well you have you, and you have your son. And you have Shane. And everyone in this camp. And me," I added with a smile, and she nodded, her smile a little brighter.

"Thanks Michelle. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight." I smiled in return, and watched her leave the tent. Once she was out, I began to put some of my things outside, and spread the blankets across the floor of the tent. I then moved everything back in, sorting things into piles around my tent. I rearranged things for a couple of minutes, before giving up and putting things back in my bag, but still in specific piles. I had a quick glance outside to make sure no one or nothing was outside, and then zipped it up tight. Shane had informed me that he and Dale were keeping watch tonight, but it didn't make me feel entirely safer.

I changed out of my clothes and pulled on pajamas, before slipping into my sleeping bag. It wasn't until I had gotten comfortable, that I realised just how warm it was. This whole time since we had gotten off the plane, we were so concerned about getting somewhere safe that we hadn't stopped and noticed how warm it actually was. We had gone from 10 degrees to about 30. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, I shifted myself out of the sleeping bag and decided to just lie on top of it. Pulling my light jacket on top of me for a sense of protection, I finally let my body settle - I was absoloutely exhausted. My mind was a completely different story. My mind wouldnt be sleeping tonight.