"What did you say? She went out alone? You just let her leave?" Shane's face darkened upon hearing Richard's words. He really didn't expect Lori to be so impatient.
He knew exactly what Lori was trying to do, which made the situation even more concerning.
"Richard, right? Did Lori tell you where the hell she was going?" Shane grabbed Richard's shoulders anxiously. He didn't want to wait for his friend Rick to come back and find out that his wife had left the prison!
"Huh... She told me she was just going to look for something nearby. I thought she had authorization, after all, she was driving a truck. However, I didn't see her return after waiting for a long time, so I came to tell you about it..."
Richard was a bit scared about the situation. He had good intentions but ended up doing something that harmed the entire group.
"Damn it!"
Shane was growing more anxious by the second. The only way he could fix this now was to find a tracker and go after her together.
"What's going on, Shane?" Sam Valdez approached, sensing that something was wrong. His gaze shifted to Richard, who at this moment should have been guarding the gate.
He had felt a bit uneasy seeing that truck leave half an hour ago, but he had been informed that someone was scheduled to go out and scout the area around the prison. So he didn't move immediately. But now, it seemed something was really happening.
Shane, deep in thought about what to do, turned to Sam Valdez and said, "It's Lori. She left the prison, and it looks like she doesn't know what she's doing."
"So? What do you want to do?" Sam Valdez wasn't going to waste time looking for someone who left on their own. There was too much work to do in this place.
"I'm going to find her. I'll take a group with me to bring her back." Shane handed the radio from his waist to Sam. Now, he planned to move as quickly as possible.
Sam Valdez, on the other hand, was furious about the situation, which was going to waste everyone's time. Manpower was too precious to be spent searching for brainless people outside the prison.
"You know this is completely outside our responsibilities, right? Not only are you leaving your post to chase after a stupid woman, but you're also putting other people in danger."
After accepting the radio, Shane glanced at Sam. He knew his words were right. If it had been someone he didn't know well, he might have hesitated too. But the person who left was his best friend's wife. Shane nodded and said, "I have to go find her. I'll take care of it."
"Fine, but don't take more than five people. If you don't find her in a day, consider her dead." Sam Valdez paused and added, "You're a good leader. I think you understand my words."
"I got it!" Shane didn't pay any more attention to Sam Valdez. Though he was angry at the man's words, he had to admit that he was just speaking the truth.
Who should he take to look for Lori? A tracker... Yes, Daryl. He had to take Daryl to find Lori.
Shane tucked a pistol into his waist, grabbed a shotgun from his side, turned around, and walked out quickly, asking as he moved, "Did you see where Daryl was a moment ago?"
Richard nodded, motioning for Shane to follow him, and the two of them hurried off.
From a distance, Shane spotted Daryl and rushed over, shouting as he ran, "Daryl! Daryl!"
"Come with me, man, Lori ran off on her own! I need your help to find her." Shane spoke quickly, and long before Daryl could respond, he ran toward the people standing nearby.
"What?" Daryl looked at Richard, who was running alongside Shane, confused.
Seeing that Daryl didn't understand, Richard explained, "I was guarding the entrance, but Rick's wife came up and said she was going out to look for something and would be back soon, so I let her leave. It was confusing because she was driving a car and hadn't been stopped before, so I decided to go to Shane to tell him what happened after she didn't come back for a while."
"Stupid woman! What the hell is she thinking?" After hearing this, Daryl couldn't help but curse. He quickly walked beside Shane, while Richard hesitated for a moment before following them.
Shane ran off and casually called on a few people, intending to go out and search for Lori. Soon, Daryl and Shane were ready.
"Shane! I'll go with you too. After all, I was the one responsible for this mess!" Richard also stepped forward, showing some remorse.
"Alright! Then it's Daryl, Richard, Morgan, and Glenn. Let's go! Everyone, grab your weapons. We'll meet at the entrance in five minutes." Shane jogged toward a car after sharing the plan.
The rest of the group rushed back into the prison to grab their gear, taking some food and useful weapons before heading to the gate. By then, Shane was already waiting.
With five people in a car, they headed straight toward downtown Atlanta in an instant.
"Aren't we going to back them up? Keep in mind that most of them are civilians. They'll die if they run into another group of survivors," Marco said to Sam Valdez.
"No, they'll take care of it themselves. Right now, we need to cancel any further outings and establish stricter command to make sure no civilian takes anything and repeats this situation," Sam Valdez said with a cold expression.
He had promised to take care of this shelter while Jason was away. He had already allowed too many problems, and this wasn't going to happen again.
...
At that same moment, Lori was not far from the prison. After leaving, she had driven straight ahead. Unfamiliar with the road conditions or established routes, she had taken a side road the entire time.
Jason had also thought that every survivor in the community needed to learn to appreciate the privileges they lived under so that situations like this would make them fully aware of the consequences.
Fortunately, Lori soon found the main road, but this also made her completely lost. She continued driving forward until she finally reached a small town.
Rather than a populated town, this place seemed abandoned. It appeared that there hadn't been many residents, as there were only two streets.
The truck rolled through the town, and an eerie silence took over the surroundings.
The whole place seemed to be covered in a layer of dirt. A thick cloud of dust filled the air, staining the truck's doors and windows.
After driving for more than ten meters, Lori saw a bar that didn't even have a name—the sign simply read "Bar."
Lori knew that if she wanted to keep moving forward, she needed to find a map, at least to know the name of the town she was in and then figure out what to do next.
She also realized now how irrational it was to give up, so she hurried to look for a map.
"Maybe there's a map in that bar?" Lori couldn't help but wonder, so she decided to take her chances. She drew her gun and disengaged the safety, just as she had learned before. Then, she got out of the truck and carefully walked toward the bar's main entrance.
Crack!
The sound of the door opening was particularly loud in the bar. Before she could take a good look at the room's furniture, a foul stench in the air made her feel suffocated.
Lori quickly took several steps back, feeling her stomach churn. A wave of nausea hit her, and she began vomiting while clinging to the door handle.
"Ugh!"
Cough!
With her head lowered, Lori didn't notice that the many walkers lying motionless in different parts of the area outside the bar had begun to stir and slowly approach.
A walker with a rotting face took a few steps forward and clumsily kicked a wine bottle. The bottle rolled out of the bar's entrance, making a loud, jarring noise.
Still gasping for air, Lori heard the sound. She immediately lifted her head and saw several walkers heading toward her.
"Ah!" Lori fell to the ground in fear. She covered her mouth to stifle any sounds—she had never faced a single walker on her own before.
As the walkers drew closer, countless thoughts flashed through her mind as if she were watching a movie. She remembered Rick saying goodbye to her, Shane advising her to wait patiently by Carl's side, and then Richard's hesitant expression when he let her leave.
When Carl crossed her mind, Lori seemed to regain control of her movements.
She couldn't let Carl lose his mother at such a young age! And even now, she wanted to give birth to the child she was carrying—hers and Rick's.
Still sitting on the ground in shock, Lori suddenly sprang into action. She crawled forward, then turned and got to her feet, sprinting toward the truck she had arrived in.
However, this world was full of surprises—and, more often than not, misfortunes.
Just then, a walker suddenly appeared behind the truck out of nowhere. Seeing this, Lori's heart pounded violently, and she barely held back a curse.
Turning around and scanning her surroundings, Lori dashed toward a row of residential buildings on the other side of the street. When she reached them, she desperately tried to open a door, but it was locked. Just as she continued trying different doors, one clicked open.
Lori felt a rush of relief! She quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind her.
Panting heavily, Lori leaned her entire body against the door and slowly slid down, tears welling up in her eyes. She deeply regretted her decision to leave the prison.
However, just as she was about to bury her head in her hands and cry, a guttural growl echoed from inside the house. A male walker emerged from the far corner of the room.
Terrified, Lori immediately got back to her feet and raised her trembling gun. She aimed at the walker as it advanced toward her.
Bang!
Her first shot missed its mark, hitting the walker's body instead. Lori's hands continued to shake as she struggled to eliminate the creature closing in on her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After three consecutive shots, she was lucky enough to finally hit the walker's head. The corpse collapsed onto the floor.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door. Lori sat on the ground, unable to process what she had just heard. In shock, she stared at the walker she had just killed.