A week had passed since the Sophia incident and the group was still in shock. Daryl spent most of his time alone out where she had been buried. Every time Carol tried to join him, he would just get up and walk away. There was one day that she could have sworn she saw tears, but Daryl wiped his face before she could really be sure. As for Carol, her tears seemed to have run dry. The first few days after Sophia's burial, she would lay in her tent curled around Sophia's doll sobbing. It wasn't clear why she had finally stopped, but no one really wanted to ask.
After spending the whole morning gathering up the courage, Carol finally decided to make Daryl talk to her. When he got up to leave Sophia's grave, she moved in front of him. Daryl said nothing, but tried moving past her instead. "Daryl." Carol demanded causing him to look at her. She could see from his face he was fighting back most of his anger. "What?" he seemed to spit the word at her. She did nothing but stare at him for a moment before going on, "You need to stop this."
"Stop what?" he asked eying her.
"Alienating yourself from everyone. Sophia wouldn't have wanted it for either of us."
"And what would a mother who doesn't even mourn the loss of her own daughter know 'bout what she would've wanted?" he asked angrily.
Carol felt a strongly worded retort building up in her, but at this point, she knew this was how Daryl handled any sort of situation. "I have done my share of mourning." she replied silently, "But, I found a comfort in knowing she doesn't have to suffer in this world anymore. I miss the hell out of her, but I can't be sad knowing that she doesn't have to deal with this."
Daryl stayed silent looking at the ground taking in a deep breath before looking back at the grave. He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but no sound came out. Pursing his lips, he pushed past Carol to go back toward the farm house. When he was half-way across the field, a loud gunshot rang in the still air. Time seemed to stand still as the whole group froze and looked in the direction the sound came from. Instinct kicked in as Daryl ran to the camper grabbing a shotgun and joining Shane, Rick, and Andrea at the swamp's edge. Just as they were about to enter, another shot rang in the air. Without hesitating, the four took off into the swamp their guns ready to fire at any walker to cross their paths.
"Who the hell is out there?" Shane asked gruffly glancing over at Rick.
"No one from the group" Rick answered quickly, "Dale would have said something if someone had wandered off."
Suddenly, Andrea tripped over something and fell to the ground. Shane went back to help her up noticing that she had tripped over a dead walker.
"Whoever it is, they know what they're doin'" Daryl mumbled looking at the single gunshot to the head. The sound of twigs cracking caused them to snap up their guns at the ready. A small young woman stepped out from the bushes a handgun pointing straight at Andrea's head. As soon as she saw that they weren't walkers, she lowered her weapon. Her face was dirty and blood stained her white undershirt as well as the red plaid shirt she wore over it. Small mud clumps clung to her hair making it clear she hadn't had a good day in a long while. Andrea stood up and walked over to her slowly not wanting to alarm her.
"You can come with us" she said calmly to the woman, "We have clothes and a shower."
The word shower seemed to be the only thing to catch the woman's attention because as soon as it was spoken, her eyes gained a little light. Not a single word was spoken as the five made their way back to the farm house except the occasional question Rick decided to utter. When he came to terms that the woman wouldn't speak, he kept quiet. Daryl would glance over to her only to let his eyes drop as soon as she looked back. When they finally made their way back to the house, Hershel directed the woman to the bathroom.
An hour passed before the girl came down the stairs dawning an outfit Lori has leant her. Her long brown hair hung flawlessly over her shoulders as she took a seat at the dining table. She devoured the soup in the bowl Maggie had placed in front of her in what seemed like seconds.
"It's been a while since you've eaten." Rick stated sitting in the chair across from her. She nodded quickly looking at him with kind eyes. "What's your name?" he asked softly. She looked away pursing her lips and furrowing her brow as if in deep thought. Eventually, she brought her gaze back to Rick's tapping on her throat with her finger and shaking her head. "You can't speak?" he added. She shook her head and looked at the table. Dale sat in the chair next to her with a pen and a notepad.
"Just write your name for us, sweetie." he said silently sliding it over to her. She took the notepad jotting letters on it before resting it in front of Rick. "Your name's Danielle." Rick said with a slight smile before Danielle pointed at the rest of what she wrote, "But we can call you Dani."
She smiled a little and nodded before looking over at Daryl who looked away from her again. "If you need to rest, there's a bed in my camper you can use." Dale chimed in causing Danielle to smile over at him with a nod. She took one last look at Daryl before following Dale out of the house and to the camper. As soon as she laid on the bed, she drifted to sleep her heart racing as another nightmare began.