It Comes With The Name

Chapter 21: Hoax

Lauren blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog of disbelief that clouded her vision, momentarily distorting her perception of reality. Tank's snarling transformed into excited yapping. His hair lay back flat and his tail began to wag. He went to move towards Sophia, not understanding that it wasn't actually her.

"Tank, no." Glenn said, moving forward to grab his collar, stopping him from going any further. Tank turned back, confused. Lauren swallowed the lump in her throat, willing herself to move, say something, or do anything at all.

She lowered her gun, reaching out beside her and clutching onto Glenn's arm. She looked over at him, searching his eyes for confirmation, seeking reassurance that what they had just witnessed was not a figment of her imagination. Glenn looked back at her, just as horrified.

No one moved, they were all just... frozen, unable to process what was in front of them. Carol let out a gut-wrenching sob and hurried towards her daughter... or, rather, what was her daughter. Daryl quickly stopped her, gently wrapping his arms around the woman, preventing her from going any further. She collapsed onto the ground, taking Daryl down with her.

Lauren felt sick to her stomach, she couldn't bring herself to raise her gun. They all knew what needed to be done, but talking about what needed to be done and actually doing it proved to be very different.

Rick did what no one else could. Moving forward slowly, he raised his gun to her head and ended it. Lauren's grip on Glenn's arm tightened, it seemed to be the only sort of movement she could will her body to do. Glenn pulled her in, wrapped her in a hug, and turned her away from the scene.

Sophia's body dropped to the ground and Lauren heard the impact of it as it hit the dirt but she couldn't bring herself to look. The only sounds after that came from Carol and Daryl. Lauren heard Carol's weak cries as she called out her daughter's name.

"Don't look, don't look." She heard Daryl muttering, presumably still holding her back. Lauren heard some shuffling and a frustrated grunt as Carol shoved him away, she turned around in time to see Carol running off towards the RV. She needed time to process what had just occurred... they all did.

Her eyes shifted to the Greene family. Most seemed to still be in shock, staring at the scene. Maggie was gripping her father's shoulder, who was still on the ground, and Beth was sobbing into Jimmy's chest. The boy was doing his best to comfort her, but there was only so much he could do.

She broke away from Jimmy, eyes fixated on a particular body on the ground. She wove through the group, heading towards the corpse.

"Beth-" Lauren said weakly, moving to stop the girl. Beth pushed past her, doing the same to Rick when he attempted to block her as well. Lauren watched as Beth continued, letting out hiccuping sobs as she stepped over a few scattered bodies until she finally reached the one she was looking for. She stopped in front of two walkers, one collapsed over the other. She took a moment before she gently moved one walker off of the other, touching it as little as she possibly could. Lauren watched as Beth knelt down in front of the body that had been on the bottom.

"Ma?" Lauren's heart broke when she heard Beth's broken voice utter the word. Her sobs turned into whimpers as rolled the body face up, looking at it closely.

Within seconds of being flipped over, the walker's eyes snapped open. Apparently, the brain hadn't been hit. It moved remarkably fast, reaching up to grab hold of Beth's pigtails, attempting to either pull her down or pull itself up.

Beth's cries suddenly turned to shrieks of terror as she tried to pull away. Lauren sprung forward, her body finally granting her the ability to move again. She rushed forward along with almost everyone else. She reached the girl at the same time Shane and Rick did. Lauren and Rick immediately grabbed hold of Beth, trying to untangle her from the walker's grasp. Glenn ran up as well, attempting to help Shane pry the walker off of her. Maggie and Hershel hurried over, this had seemingly snapped him from his trance.