I hate you (Daryls daughter/ Carl love story)

Baby Shane

The dark hallways echoed with sounds of their footsteps, both human and walker. Diana didn't know when it happened but Beth and Hershel weren't with them anymore. It was only Maggie, Carl, Lori, and herself.

This wasn't good.

Not one bit.

They had one knife and two guns between the four of them, along with a hoard of hungry walkers after them. 

Luckily for them they found a room to hide in. Diana wasn't really sure when or how they had found it. All she knew was that one moment she was in the hallway and the next she pressed against the door. 

  She slid down against it, breathing heavily. "Where are we?" She panted and wiped the sweat off her face. 

  "Boiler room." Maggie pressed a finger to her lips, trying to quiet the group down. 

  Diana pulled herself back to her feet shakily. "What do we do? There's walkers out there!" 

  Carl pressed his ear to the heavy metal door. "They're still out there." He breathed. "Do we just wait?"

  "What other choice do we have?" Maggie rubbed Lori's back, concern drawing her eyebrows together. "Lori? Are you okay?" 

  Diana straightened up. Why was Lori's breathing so... fast? And uneven? And why was she hunched over with her hand on her stomach? 

Oh no.

No this could not be happening now.

Not now.

Why now.

Why not tomorrow.

Or why couldn't it have been yesterday. 

"The baby's coming." Lori realized with horror.

 "Can't you hold it in?" Diana squeaked and rushed over. "Even for an hour?" 

  "That's not how it works." The woman grimaced, placing her hand on the wall to balance herself. "I need Hershel... or Carol... for the C section..." 

   C section?

What was a C section?

"You're gonna have to do this naturally." Maggie panicked, swallowing her fear. "Maybe stand?" 

  Lori did as asked and prepared herself to deliver the baby.

———

Thirty minutes went by.

No change.

The baby wasn't coming out, and no one had found them yet.

The walkers still could be heard from outside and the alarms kept going off.

Carl had pressed into Diana's side with his hand firmly in hers.

Diana's mind was spinning wildly.

What if the baby was dead? 

What if it was a walker?

Had it gotten enough food?

Would it be healthy?

What if they had to cut Lori open to get it out?

What would they do?

Would the walkers smell the blood and then burst in and eat them?

She squeezed Carl's hand tighter, attempting to block out the noise of Lori's breathing and Maggie's worried pacing.