The time passed, blurred into nothing, slowly fading away, the nights and mornings slowly coming together. The simplicity of the act, keeping track of time, which once didn't matter, but it did now. Time, time forming days, 97 to be exact. Lorelei had been in Alexandria for exactly that long.

Lorelei slept in walls, locking her doors at night, sleeping in a bed, eating out of a pantry and waking up to brew a fresh cup of coffee. The normalcy of things left stings on her soul. She didn't walk around armed, she had neighbors, kids went to school, and she slept peacefully. All of the above being true, except for the last, Lorelei didn't sleep, she never slept.

Lorelei tossed and turned in the confines of a white comforter, in a decorated bedroom, behind painted walls, behind rusty gates. Safety they said. How come she didn't feel safe?

Children played, as adults chatted among themselves with small talk. The inside of the gates paint the perfect picture of a town you would only find in a tv show from back in the day about a small town where nothing ever bad happened and the people were always happy. They were weak, the environment made them weak, Lorelei didn't want to be weak.

Lorelei had been in the real world, killed, starved, loved, lost, there was no safety anymore. There was just pain, pain in love, pain in the fight, pain in trust, pain everywhere. She didn't want to feel pain anymore.

She didn't want to get close, but she got screwed. Aaron and Eric. Demons. Luring her in with wide smiles and jokes and spaghetti. That stupid fucking spaghetti. An act, hiding their true intentions to dig their claws into her skin. To crack her walls just wide enough for them to slip through before they closed again. They were in.

There she was prowling through the woods Aaron by her side, Eric somewhere else. Week after week hoping there was something to find, even when the odds were low. Week after week, silence, nothing. However this time was different, there was potential.

They searched for people. In the last 97 days they'd found none, Lorelei was their most recent addition. But now there was a chance, a group of 16 strangers that had the potential to be more than that.

So they waited, and they watched. She watched, she watched the hunter, she watched him walk, speak, hunt, cry, she watched him hurt. She watched the cowboy and the baby in his arms, she watched their leader lead. She watched them all. She watched them trail away from the dead unfazed, she watched them use each other as mental crutches.

She let Aaron have control, water in the road and a creepy note, how bad could things turn out? Not counting her personal favorite, "Why don't we just go introduce ourselves?"

She sighed looking down, pinching her eyes closed and running her hands down her face, "You wanna roll up and say 'oh hey, we've been watching you.' Really, that's your plan?"

"It worked with you." he countered.

"I almost shot you." she retorted.

"But you didn't."

"There's sixteen of them."

He pursed his lips, "We wait for some to break away, then we go, hands in the air."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh great so now we're unarmed and stocking a loner." she glared.

"There's no other way Lorelei," she growled an animalistic noise pursing her lips in defeat.

"Fine," she snarled, "But if they start shooting I'm using you as a shield," she said, jabbing a finger in his face. He let out a chuckle and swatted her hand away.

Aaron and Lorelei waited for someone to split off, it ended up being 2 women around Lorelei's age, one was wearing a white t-shirt, and she had medium-length brown hair. The other was African American with dark hair and a rifle slung around her.

Lorelei tapped Aaron gently, "You're up." she nudged him. The two raised their hands slowly in the air, to show no threat and walked into their line of sight carefully.

"Hey, hi, we uh didn't mean to interrupt. Good morning, my name is Aaron, and that's Lorelei." He said pointing to her "I know, stranger danger, but I'm, we're a friend. We'd like to talk to the person in charge, Rick right?"

"How do you know..." "why..." they both trailed off, speaking at the same time in suspension and confusion, and in defense, they raised their weapons. Lorelei took a deep breath slamming her eyes shut, she knew it was a stupid plan. She opened her eyes again once Aaron started speaking.

"We have good news," Aaron says, just after the air becomes rigid as a tinkering music comes from what seems to be a jewelry box. The noise drew everyone's attention.

Lorelei focused her attention on the box, "That's creepy as hell."

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