The Walking Dead is owned by Frank Darabont, I don't own any other characters except Ashley and Aliyah. I am only using them for writing purposes. And I don't own some of the things that will happen in this story and a lot of the dialogue. Most of this come right from the TV show.I made things that go in between the thing that happen in Season 1 and Season 2.

Chapter One: I'm Sorry

The camp was silent as we all heard the sound of the CB radio;. I sat in the corner my younger sister leaning against me in one of the many lawn chairs that we had. I brushed her blonde hair out of her face over and over again watching my mom and my daughter, Aliyah, as she kept her entertained. When we heard the CB we all jumped up. Amy and I were the first ones to get the radio. The first voice we had heard since everything had happened.

My boyfriend, Daryl, and I had barely gotten out with his brother Merle and Aliyah and had barely gotten to my mom's house in time to get her and my sister out, along with my asshole of a stepfather. I was also fortunate enough to find my brother Glenn. Glenn was Korean, but he was adopted. My father had adopted him when my mother and him had split up.

They were the first words we had heard from someone that wasn't a member of our group, "Hello? Can you hear my voice? Hello? Can anybody hear me?" Amy ran over and grabbed the speaker for the CB radio.

"Hello?" She pushed her long ultra blonde hair behind her ear.

The CB brought us back the answer. "Can you hear my voice?" The man sounded disoriented, like he was in a hurry to find something.

Amy pushed down the button and spoke back. "Yes, yes, I can hear you, you're coming through..." She paused. "Over."

"If anybody reads this please respond. Broadcasting on emergency channel, will be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. If anybody reads please respond." Clearly we didn't have a very good connection, he couldn't hear us.

"We're just outside the city." Amy tried desperately to warn him, we knew that the city was no good, it was overrun and we already had some people out there. "Dammit." The radio went static. "Hello?" She tried again.

Dale put his hand on Amy's shoulder. She looked up at him. "He couldn't hear me, I couldn't warn him Dale."

"Try to reach him again." Dale looked over at Shane. "Come on son, you know best how to work this thing, get over here."

Shane looked up and stopped what he was doing. When he reached the log that the CB was sitting on he slammed the ax into it and picked up the radio. "Hello, hello, is the person who called still on the air?" He waited a second before speaking again. "This is officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown, please respond." He stood up and wiped his hand across his forehead. "He's gone."

Lori looked up at Shane with a concerned but hopeful look. "There are others, it's not just us."

"We knew there would be, right? That's why we left the CB on."

"A lot of good it's been doing." Lori had a load of sarcasm on her voice. "I've been saying for a week that we need to put up signs on 85 to warn people away from the city."

Amy spoke up. Her voice sounded a little reluctant, she didn't want Shane to snap at her. "Folks got no clue what they're getting into."

Shane shot back before she was even done talking. "Well we haven't had time."

I looked over at him. "Shane, I think we need to make time."

Shane never seemed like he liked me much, I wasn't sure why. "Well that's a luxury that we can't afford, we're surviving here, we're day to day."

Dale looked over at me. "And who the hell do you suppose we send?"

Lori spoke up when I opened my mouth. "I'll go, give me a vehicle."

"And you know I'll go with he-" I was cut out.

Shane started to raise his voice. "Nobody goes anywhere alone and you know that."

"She wouldn't be going alone, am I not a person?"

"Just drop it you two." Shane picked up his ax again.

Lori turned around with a sigh and began to walk away, leaving behind a faint. "Yes sir."

That night was rough for a lot of us. I needed Daryl there with me, I hated sleeping alone and he had been gone all day long, so I cuddled up with Aliyah to try to calm my nerves. He was one of the main reasons that I was even able to sleep. I walked out the next morning and sat next to Lori with Aliyah on my lap as she waited for Amy to come back from looking for mushrooms. When she showed up we both sighed with relief.

Lori smiled at her. "Any luck?"

Amy showed her what she had inside the bucket. "How do we tell if they're poisoned?" She handed the bucket to Lori and took Aliyah's hand, playing with her.

"Uh, there's only one sure way I know of." Lori chuckled to herself.

I smiled at her. "Ask Shane when he gets back?"

"Yea, you got it." She looked up at Amy. "Thank you."

When everyone got their lunch and finished eating Amy, Aliyah, and I sat around a small fire, it was windy out during the day and there weren't many ways to stay warm. I was freezing even huddled up in Daryl's giant Cabela's sweatshirt that he used to go hunting. "How much longer do you think we can keep this up?" I broke the silence.

Amy pushed her hair behind her ear and looked up from her hands. "I don't know, I don't like this. Especially with my sister being gone."

"I don't even like the fact that Daryl is out in the woods alone, I can't even imagine what you're feeling with your sister being out there." I always let my worrying get the best of me. Daryl was an amazing hunter and an amazing tracker; he learned everything that he knew from his dad and Merle. "Merle and Glenn are out in the city too, but Merle and I… we're not as close and I know that he'll be alright, he definitely knows how to take care of himself. Glenn on the other hand, he's fast, but he's not as tough as Merle. I told him to watch out for him." I let a tear fall from my cheek. I just wanted the three of them to come back, especially my big brother.

"At least you've got someone that can look after you; you've got your mom, your sister, and your daughter here still, there's no way you could be alone." Our gaze went from each other over to my sister, my mother, and my step-dad, and then down too little Aliyah. She was only eight months old, this wasn't exactly the life I had wanted for her.

I sighed. "The only reason my mom and my sister are here is because I made Daryl take me there. He didn't want to at first, but then I reminded him of Sophia." I chuckled. "Sophia and Aliyah have got him wrapped around their little fingers."

I hadn't heard any of us laugh in the longest time but Amy let out a huge laugh. "She's a cute little girl." She grabbed Aliyah's hand and shook it a little, then tickled her belly, listening to her giggle. "And so are you."

I walked over to Dale with Amy later than night and stood in front of him, not saying a word until he looked up at us. "It's late, they should have been back by now." Dale knew just who Amy was talking about.

He itched his forehead that was hidden under his hat. "Worrying wont make it any better."

"Daryl should be back by now too, I think we need to send someone to look for him." I could hear the panic in my voice.

"He's a good hunter and he's a big guy, he can take care of himself. I'm sure he'll be here soon Ashley."

I could feel the tears coming on so I turned around and walked over to Sophia and sat down next to her. Her and Aliyah crawled over to me and buried themselves into my arms. "What's wrong Ashley?" Sophia looked genuinely concerned. Aliyah crawled farther up into my lap and I kissed the top of her head, listening to her say "Mama." over and over again and bouncing..

I hugged my free arm around Sophia and pulled her closer. "I'm just worried about Daryl; he should have been back by now. Glenn and the group should be back by now too."

My mom walked over to me and put her hand on my shoulder, the most I have gotten out of her in years, ever since she had married my step-dad, Ed, we hadn't had much of a relationship. "I'm sure he's fine Ashley, he's the best hunter and the best tracker I know. Both of those boys are, him and Merle. Have some faith in your boyfriend and have a little in your brother, he's a fast kid."

"Mom, they're the only hunters and trackers that you know. That explains everything." We all chuckled a little.

Sophia kissed my cheek and looked into my eyes. "He's okay, Ash. I promise."

"I promise he'll come back to you baby girl." My mom kissed my forehead and then the top of Aliyah's head, rustling her hair, and walked back over to help out the others to clean dishes and clothes.

I had moved out of my moms house and in with Daryl as soon as we got together, my house had not been a friendly house since Ed had moved in.

By the next afternoon we had caught signal from the group that was out in the city. "Base camp, this is T-Dog to base camp. We're trapped in the department store, there's geeks, hundreds of them , surrounding us." While Dale picked up the walkie and talked to him we all talked over what we were going to do.

Lori looked up at Shane. "He said the department store, we know where that is." No one said anything for a little while. "Shane." Lori looked like she was ready to plead with him.

"No way, we do not go after them, we do not risk the rest of the group, you know that." Shane sighed.

Amy began to panic. "So we're just going to leave her there?""

I began to raise my voice. "Merle is out there and so is Glenn, I don't care how many of us don't like Merle, he's out there. If he doesn't come back Daryl is going to tweak, and then we're going to have our hands full. We can't just leave them there Shane. If my brother doesn't come back because you left them there it's gonna be your ass."

"Look girls, I know that this is not easy-" Shane was cut off.

"Andrea, Merle, and Glenn volunteered to go, they volunteered to risk their lives for us so that we could have everything that we needed." I looked Shane directly in the eyes.

"I know, and they knew the risks right? They're trapped, they're gone, so we just have to deal with that, and we'll handle Daryl, don't worry about him. There's nothing else we can do."

"She's my sister you son of a bitch." Amy stomped off and I followed behind her saying only a couple words to Shane. "Merle and Glen are important to this group too, asshole."

When I walked away I went straight to Aliyah and my mom. Aliyah stood on my lap and held onto me around my neck.. "It's okay Ashley, they'll come back and then Merle will be back for both you and Daryl." My mom took my hand and squeezed it.

At the fire that night I took Shane off to the side. I couldn't sit here any longer and worry about Daryl. He was out in those woods and I had no idea if he was okay. "Shane, what are we going to do about Daryl? He should have come back by now.

"I'm sure Daryl is fine Ashley."

"Well what if he isn't? What if something happened to him?" I was beginning to sound panicky.

"If he doesn't come back he doesn't come back. I don't know what to tell you Ashley. We can't risk anyone out there." Shane sounded annoyed with me.

I began to yell at him, putting my face directly in his, grabbing his shirt with my fist. Everyone began to circle around us. "He volunteered to go and try to get food for us and now that he hasn't come back in a few days we're going to just sit here on our asses and do nothing about it?"

Shane broke my hand away from his shirt and turned around walking away, muttering under his breath. "I'm sorry."

I could barely sleep that night. I knew that Daryl was out there, I knew that there had to be something wrong, something very wrong. It wasn't like him to stay gone for this long. I snuggled up even closer to the dog.

Daryl and I had been able to get our dog out and he was one thing that the geeks wouldn't touch, we had that tested when we went to my moms house. Rocket was a Pit Bull; he was a blockhead Pit Bull which meant he was way bigger than he should be. We didn't need to keep him on a leash seeming as he followed Daryl and I around constantly. Daryl got him for us on our first anniversary and he had been with us since, four years now. He had his head lying directly next to Aliyah's when we all finally fell asleep.