Entombed

"We've got a heard of walkers following us in from town." Glenn said as he emerged from the bushes. His head was down as he walked through the brush, providing Rick and I enough time to separate from one another.
"We've gotta shake them off, can't lead them back to the farm." He sighed.

"There's a few safe houses on the outskirts of town that we should be able to make it to okay, stay there until the morning." I mumbled.
"That's fine, but I need to get this boy medical attention." Hershel said, reminding us of the extra baggage in the front seat.
"You guys go to this address." I said as I scribbled on a piece of paper. "I may be off with the number, but its a white house with blue shutters, hard to miss."

"Where will you go?" Glenn asked.
"There's still some houses we haven't searched yet, I'm going to try to find supplies so we can take care of this kid."
"No, it's too dangerous." Rick said protectively.
I glanced at him and pulled my backpack onto my shoulders. "I've done this over a hundred times."
"Never at night, though" Hershel pointed out.
"Look, it's going to take one of you to clear the house and two of you to get the kid to the second floor. I'll be fine." I reassured them again.
Hershel nodded and climbed into the drivers seat. Glenn followed him to the cab of the truck, carefully sliding the unconscious boy over​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ and climbing in.
"I'm not okay with this." Rick mumbled as Hershel started the truck.
"I'll be okay, I promised." I smiled up at him as I pushed off the truck to stand. "Have faith in me."
He smiled slightly and nodded.
I waited for the truck to fade from sight back into town before I sprinted down the streets. The dark had its advantages and disadvantages. Walkers may not be able to see me, but that also meant that I wouldn't necessarily be able to see them either. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Just before their departure, Rick handed over his rifle with the flashlight connected to it. This came in handy as I weaved in and out of houses, empting cabinets and shoving things into my bag and pockets.
I stumbled clumsily over my own feet as I walked through the growing grass and felt my heart still racing below my skin. It was a similar feeling that I had to Glenn's kiss, but this time it was so much more intense and there was more built up anxiety behind that one kiss than in all of Glenn's kisses. And it threw me for a loop. Here was this married man, one kid and another on the way and he was pulling me in, dragging me down, and I had no objections.
I finally found what I needed, some gauze and tape, both dusty but good enough. I found a bottle of alcohol, which would have to be good enough as a sterilizer. I found two cans of ravioli, which I just about fell to my knees and thanked God for. Along with my little treasures, I found some candles and dark blankets to cover the upstairs windows with and protect our night shelter.
---
"Rick?" I said quietly and ​​​​​​​​​​​​cautiously as I pushed the front door closed behind me in the darkness.
"Shannon? We're up here." Rick called, coming down three or four steps.
He greeted me with a kiss to the forehead and his hands on my cheeks, just out of the sight of the others and I smiled up at him. "I found dinner."

"Please tell me you said dinner." Glenn said as Rick led me into the bedroom they had laid the still unconscious boy​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ in. Hershel was sitting beside the boy, adjusting the tourniquet and applying pressure to both the top and bottom of his bleeding leg.
"I did." I smiled. "I also got as many supplies as I could." I dumped out my bag and began handing supplies to Hershel. Rick helped by cutting the boys pant leg from the thigh down so Hershel could get to his wounds. Glenn and I covered the windows with the blankets I had gathered up so we could light some candles and not waste the little batteries that we did have.
I noticed the chimney running through the room and grabbed some matches and the cans of ravioli I had found. "I'm going down stairs to warm these up."
"Want some help?" Rick asked.
I smiled faintly. "Sure."
Downstairs Rick and I gathered pieces of discarded paper and broken furniture to build a small fire or at least get some hot embers to at least warm up this meal. Rick was patient where I was frustrated and he eventually got enough sparks to light some paper and start a small burning fire.
"Thank you." I whispered, using a knife to open one can after the other.
"It's the least I can do." He said, placing the open cans beside the fire and making sure that our little flame didn't go out.
I sat and waited in front of the fire, my legs pulled up to my chest. I watched Rick stir the fire with a stick, turning he cans now and then.
"Shannon, I wanted to apologize." Rick said quiet enough for only me to hear.
"For what?" I looked at him puzzled.
"For the kiss, I guess."
"Don't be sorry for that." I whispered.
"I just don't want to hurt you, you know?" He said, looking away from me. "I know what Lori's done, what she did when she thought I was dead. But it doesn't make what I do right, either."
I sat there quietly, unsure of what to say. Rick looked at me, trying to force a half smile but it looked sad. I slid myself over to him and put my hands on his cheeks, mocking the motions he went through with me when I returned to him.
"Lori is first and foremost your wife, and the mother of your children. She needs you more than I do." I said, looking into his eyes.
"That doesn't mean that I don't feel any less about you. I mean, from the moment you walked into my life I felt like I had to protect you. And I'm going to protect you." ​​​​

"You promise?" I asked without thinking about the words before they left my mouth.

He laughed slightly and kissed the top of my head. "I promise."

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​I didn't know what to say so I pulled him into another kiss, running my fingers through my hair. A pop from the fire pulled me back from him until he engulfed me in his chest with his arms and held me tight there.
"Can I tell you something?"​​​​ He whispered into my hair.
"Anything." I answered.
"I don't think this baby is really mine." He sighed, ashamed to hear the words coming out of his mouth.
"Don't say that." I frowned up at him.
"I'm serious, Shannon. Think about the timing, put two and two together. If she was with Shane around the same time I was with her again, it could be either of ours."
I waited a long time in the silence, watching Rick pull away from me for a moment to turn the cans before he pulled me back again. "What are you going to do."
"I have no idea." He whispered.
We sat there like that for a few more moments before we came to the agreement that we return upstairs. I used my hoodie to carry the hot cans up stairs while Rick stomped out the fire.
"It's not perfect, but it's the best we've got." I said, handing a can to Hershel for him and Glenn to share while Rick and I shared the other.
"Thank you." Glenn whispered.
"Is he going to make it?" Rick asked Hershel, looking at the pale boy laying bloody in the bed.
"I guess we're going to find that out in the morning."
---
After the sun rose high enough the sky to venture back to camp safely, we did just that. Upon pulling onto the farm, people from Rick's camp ran toward the truck and yelled at Hershel's family in the farm house to come outside.
Lori came out the front door of the house holding Carl's hand, a relieved look on her face. Rick glanced back at me and I gave him a small, sad smile before climbing out of the truck.
Rick paused a moment before getting out as well, pulling Carl into his arms as he ran towards him. Lori hugged him as well, pulling the three of them together.
Shane stumbled his way over too and that's when I noticed his black and purple eye; my handiwork.
Maggie ran towards Hershel, but ran right past him and into Glenn's hesitant arms. I could see from Glenn's reaction that he wasn't too sure of the way Maggie came straight to him. He kept walking in fact, neglecting to return her hug, and I followed behind him.
"Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery." Hershel said as he climbed the stairs to his house.
"Are you hurt?" Lori asked Rick."
"No, but what happened to you?" He examined the cleaned up cuts and bruises on her forehead.
"I was in a car accident." She looked down.
"Accident?" He repeated. "How?"
"I went looking for you." She looked up at him.
I rolled my eyes and followed behind Hershel into the house. I needed a shower, and I definitely wanted to avoid the confrontation about Randall that I already heard brewing outside.
---
As I emerged from the hot water and my shower to my bedroom, I heard Hershel raise his voice to Shane.
"Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all, this is my farm. Now I wanted you gone, Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor, keep your mouth shut."
After a few seconds of silence, the screen door slammed shut. I listened as everyone began clearing out of the house. I pulled on clean clothes and piled up my dirty ones in a basket to be washed once the Randall situation had calmed down. I was about to leave my room when I heard Maggie's voice, and I paused with the door slightly opened.
"Can I talk to you?" She said, presumably to Glenn. "What's going on with you?"
"Your dad saved my life today." Glenn said quietly. "And Rick saved both of us. And I... I froze."
"Well you were being shot at." Maggie reasoned. "You don't have anything to prove."
"You know, all I've done.. and this, okay? It's because of what you said." He stumbled.
"That I love you?" She asked in confusion.
"Yeah. A bullet hit the wall behind me and I thought of you. Losing me, hurting. And I couldn't take it, so I hid. To stay alive."
I pushed on my door hard enough for it to open and hit the wall. With that, I walked out the front door, the door slamming behind me as if in on my anger. It's incredible that he could look me in the eyes and say he trusted me over Maggie and how I didn't tell him how to live, yet he falls down like a coward because of three stupid words.
"Hey, Shannon. What's wrong?" Rick says to me quietly as I walk past his family's tent.
"Nothing, just thought I would go help Hershel is all."
"The shed is in the other direction."
I paused as he caught me in the lie and I sighed. "Fine, I was going for a walk."
"Let me join."
I nodded and waited for him. We walked down the dirt road out of the farm together but I paused just outside of the farm to sit in the grass and look down the empty road. Rick sat beside me in silence, but I could tell something was bugging him.
"What is it?" I asked, throwing grass at him.
He smiled slightly and looked towards me, but the smile faded as he started to talk. "Lori told me today that Shane thinks the baby is his."
I nodded slightly. "And what does she think?"
"She told me that no matter what, the baby is mine. She also said that she thinks Shane is delusional, that he is dangerous."
"He is dangerous Rick, just look at what he did to the barn."
"She also said that." He sighed. "She's convinced that Shane is convinced the two of them are meant to be together."
I frowned.
"You know, I killed two people today."
"I have too." I whispered.
"But I did it so that I would live, so I would be there to protect all of you."
I looked down.
"I said all of you." He repeated, forcing me to make eye contact. "That does mean you too. Shane supposedly thinks that I can't protect anyone, that I'm just going to get all of us killed."
"That's not true."
"I know that it's not. Its my job to protect you. That is my promise to you."
I nodded at him and rubbed his hand gently. That was when he leaned back, and pulled me down too.A