"If I don't make it back- run back to the highway- back to the others straight the way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." Were the last words Rick told Sophia before he ran off distracting the walkers from Sophia.
Keep the sun on your left shoulder.
Keep the sun on your left shoulder.
Keep the sun on your left shoulder.
This became Sophia's mantra as she made her way through the creek, climbing out and walking in the direction Rick ran them through while keeping the sun on her left shoulder.
Keep the sun on your left shoulder.
Keep the sun on your left sho-"
There was a snap of twigs, causing Sophia to pause and listen closely. There was a rustlings of leaves.
A snarl.
A rotting walking corpse.
And Sophia ran away, straying from the path she was heading and looking for somewhere far away from the monster that was chasing her. In the midst of her running, Sophia caught the attention of two more walkers, and when looking back she didn't realize how far she ran until she almost ran of the edge of a hill and into a shallow creek.
She looked down from the edge choosing between risking a climb down into the creek or she could turn around and try to find a different path.
Her options became limited when she turned around and saw four or five walkers limping in her direction.
With a silent prayer and her eyes clenched closed, Sophia started making her way down the creek, tucking her bear in her pant's pocket and holding tightly to strong vines and jutted rocks.
She was six feet above the ground when she heard a snap and before she knew it she was falling feet first towards the ground.
She landed awkwardly.
When she tried standing, Sophia whimpered in pain when her ankle had ached and when she looked down she saw that part of her body turn purple and swell.
"No no no." She said, gently poking her ankle and tearing up when she felt how much pain she was in.
Her heart started pumping even more when she heard the snarl of a nearby walker, and when Sophia looked up from her ankle, her fears were confirmed when she saw the two walking corpses staggering towards her.
She let out a scream and tried scrambling back avoiding the walkers but they only got closer faster than she could scramble back.
When they were eight feet in front of her, Sophia once more let out a loud whimper and she got on her knees, attempting to crawl away from the walkers who were snapping their rotten teeth at her and growling in hunger.
Sophia heard two more pairs of feet, but ignored them and continued crawling she felt as though the walkers were behind her.
When she turned around, she was surprised to find that the walker was two feet behind her, but instead of its gross teeth chomping on the nearest body part near it, a machete blade had buried itself through the brain of the walker causing it to land face first into the water with the machete protruding from the back of its head.
Sophia then turned to the second walker when she heard the sound of a loud thump and when she looked she saw the walker on its hands in knees, about to rise again only for the sound of a muffled bullet entered its head, making it drop dead into the water.
"Are you okay?" Sophia looked from the even more dead corpses to the source of the question.
Sophia saw a woman covered in dirt and sweat, her messy bun had dark brown ringlets falling out at random places, and she wore big wired square glasses, a loose green tank top tucked into waist-high denim shorts with a black sweater tied around her waist. Her olive brown skin glistening in the sun and beauty marked chest rising up and down as she breathed heavily.
"Are you alright?" She asked again as the person who was with her walked up next to her.
Sophia simply nodded.
"Can you walk?" Asked her companion.
Sophia only looked down at her ankle making the other two look down as well and the woman winced and sucked in air through clenched teeth when she saw it.
She got closer to Sophia to take a closer look only for Sophia to move back as well, slightly hesitant to the woman.
"It's okay." Said she putting her hands up in surrender. "I'm only going to take a look at your ankle, okay?"
She slowly walked closer to the little girl who stayed put.
When she reached closer she crouched down and gently took the little girl's ankle in her hand and observed it.
While that happened, Sophia looked at the man who was standing over them and also glancing back to make sure there weren't anymore of those things behind them.
Sophia noticed that the man shared the same olive brown skin tone and light brown eyes, only his hair was cropped and he didn't wear glasses. He had freckles and was in the same messy state as his companion. He wore camouflage cargo pants, a dirtied white shirt and black combat boots. He had tattoos on his arms and hands, and a dog tagged necklace as well as two necklaces with golden crosses.
"That's my brother." Said the woman, gently turning her foot earning a wince from the smaller girl.
"Well from what I can tell, your ankle isn't broken but it sure is twisted, you must've took a nasty fall, huh?" The woman said giving Sophia a small and gentle smile.
Sophia once again, simply nodded.
The woman pursed her lips contemplating something, and with a quick look to her brother who simply raised a brow at her actions, she looked back at Sophia with a raised brow.
"You know, I never really got the chance to introduce myself, did I?" She asked the girl who only gave her a questioning look.
"My name is Victoria" She said gesturing to herself and with a thumb over her shoulder she said "This is my older brother, Joshua. People usually call us Vic and Josh though, so feel free to call us that."
"I'm Sophia." The 12 year old said shyly.
The siblings smiled at the little girl who finally decided to talk.
"Sophia." Repeated Joshua, causing the young girl to look up at him. "That's a very pretty name." Said he smiling at her.
"Thank you." She said looking down, flustered.
"Sophia, I'm going to be completely honest with you." Said the woman - Victoria - as she looked at Sophia with a somber look. "You are in absolutely no condition to walk and I don't think you can survive out here considering that fact, so I'm going to give you three options - you can either get a piggy back ride from me, from my brother, or you I can give you a weapon and some food and you can wait for someone to find you - you choose."
Sophia gave the woman a confused and horrified look.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"Well, it gets dangerous at night, so we're going to go try to find some shelter, and soon." Said Josh, looking up at the darkening skies.
"So, what do you choose?" Asks Victoria raising a brow.
"Your back, if you don't mind." She said timidly.
"No problem." Said Victoria smiling in relief, standing up and giving her backpack to her brother before turning her back to Sophia and patting it.
"C'mon then." She says patting it.
"I'm a little wet." Sophia hesitates, not wanting to make the kind woman upset.
"It's alright, Sophia. What's wet eventually becomes dry, right?"
And so Sophia got on Victoria's back and the woman got up, adjusted Sophia and took a couple of steps to stand in front of her brother.
"When we find a place to sleep, I'll wrap your ankle up and then we'll talk some more, okay?"
And Victoria looked over she shoulder and saw the little girl nod.
Victoria kind of hated herself for giving the young girl that last option, but after what her brother and herself had went through, she was hesitant to even trust young children.
The three of them made their way through the Georgian greens for about half an hour before stumbling upon an area that was surrounded by bushes. Victoria had quietly placed Sophia down and stretched her back before turning to the small girl and signaling her to be quiet and gently shoved her in front of herself so that she could limp between her brother, so she could watch their backs.
Her brother scouted the area, before deeming it safe enough for them to spend the night. No fire was made, but Victoria had heat pack, she sacrificed hers to Sophia and instead bundled herself into a blanket and her sweater.
Victoria offered to watch over her brother and Sophia as Joshua watched over her all night the day before, so she made it up to her brother.
"Good night Vic, you too Sophia." He said before closing his eyes and resting on a blanket and his duffle bag.
"Night."
"G'night."
It was into the night and Victoria was doing some light reading when she heard the sounds of whimpers and the shuffling of branches and leaves. She looked out into the rest of the greenery before looking at the two sleeping peoples before noticing that it was Sophia who was making the noise.
She crawled over to Sophia and gently shook her.
"Sophia?" she whispered shaking her.
Sophia woke with teary eyes, some escaping and running down her cheeks as she quietly sobbed.
"Shh." Victoria said hugging the child close to her chest, muffling her cries. "You have to be quiet, Sophia, or you're going to attract the corpses." She said as soothing as possible.
"They got me." Sophia whimpered, but Victoria didn't understand, so she let Sophia leave her chest.
"What?"
"They got me. No one found me. I died, Victoria. I died." She cried, before going back into Victoria's chest and hugging her as if her life depended on it.
Victoria didn't know what to say.
She only met the child some few hours ago, and she's had very limiting experiences with children as she only had her older brother, so she did the best that she could.
Victoria stayed the next half hour comforting Sophia before she eventually fell asleep in the arms of Victoria between her legs.
Fortunately for Victoria, they were placed by a tree so she was leaning on it for support as she cradled the 12 year old.
Another 3 hours passed before her brother woke, and he offered to watch over them until the sun rose.
Victoria had gently moved herself and Sophia onto the blanket, and the two stayed asleep until the sun woke them up for the rest of the day.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was sad to see Sophia go in season 2 and then Daryl being all angst. But at least there was character development.
I decided to keep Sophia alive because in the comics she was canon but in the show she wasn't and I thought, "Hey, what if I mash the two up!" So i did and i decided to mostly focus on the show with bits of the comic version here and there.
I hope to introduce the atlanta and farm group soon, so I can get moving with this.
I hope you all like it :)
Thanks for reading.