Changing To Adapt ➵ TWD

➵ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ

After his high school failed to offer him the protection he and his friends needed, Lucas had been in and out of all sorts of places. Before the farm, before the C.D.C., before the quarry.

With Kaine, Nicola and Rachel, he'd taken off towards their hometown, searched house by house to find their families, to grieve, to loot.

Days on edge in the open, in the woods, dark and cold, struggling to ration.

They'd managed to make a place of their own, height advantages in a stocked warehouse found in the weeks of travel.

Venturing out for food was what did it.

Kaine was bit.

Not that it mattered, now, because you could turn from anything that killed you.

Nicola and Rachel left him, after the former threatened to end his life.

He had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. He was stumbling through small towns, empty roads, and dark woods, on nothing but Kaine's last promise of fighting till the end.

So he had his fair share of sleeping in the woods. But the others? Lucas feels like he's back with Kaine, Nicolá and Rachel when they first attempted camping in the trees.

Scared. Noisy. Erratic. Forcing themselves to stay awake.

The Greene siblings flinch at the wind moving through the leaves, Carol doesn't sleep, doesn't even try, and Lori won't let Carl escape from her arms. Lucas had gotten used to it in those few weeks. It didn't get any easier, but he got used to it. And so would they.

"Here," Lucas reaches over Carol to hand an armful of twigs and dry branches for the fire.

Daryl takes them, sitting on the other side, "Thanks." And tosses a few extra sticks in to keep it warm.

"We're not safe with him," Carol whispers, bluntly, sitting between the two. "Keeping something like that from us."

Lucas prods his tongue against his cheek and glances at Daryl.

They weren't exactly in agreeance.

Carol looks over her shoulder to check for Rick, then turns back, "Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down."

Rick's the only reason they're alive. And Carol dares to stab him in the back so quickly?

Lucas scoffs, shaking his head. The fire lights up the side of his face, the shadows sharp under his eyes and across his cheeks.

"Nah." Daryl squints at her. "Rick's done all right by me."

Carol leans closer, "You're his henchman." She peers up at Lucas, still standing with his eyes on the horizon. "Both of you. And I'm a burden. We deserve better."

Lucas clenches his jaw. He thinks to strike back in defence for Rick, but Daryl does it for him.

"What do you want?" The steady words come out in a rumble.

"A man of honour."

Lucas doesn't know what Carol's trying to get at, but he doesn't agree with it.

"Rick has honour," Daryl grumbles, tossing another stick into the fire.

If Carol wasn't bad enough, Maggie speaks up from the other side of the fire. "I think we should take our chances."

"Don't be foolish." Hershel sends her a look, holding Beth close to his side. "There's no food, no fuel, no ammo."

"But-"

Like a whip, Lucas cuts her off, voice low in the event that Rick is close enough to hear. "Rick's kept us alive this long."