A/N: Here it is, the first and second chapters of my second Walking Dead story, which will follow Serena and the group throughout season two!
I'm posting it a bit earlier than I thought I would (I had originally planned on the afternoon of the 17th) but the wait for the third will be a bit longer, since I haven't finished it yet. I got sick, and my brain didn't want to produce words. :( I hope to finish the third chapter and have it ready to publish this week, and have it up next week or so (that way I'll have at least one, maybe two other chapters ready so you can read one while I'm writing the other, if that makes any sense).
Anyway, these two should keep y'all busy for awhile, because this chapter I think is the longest one I've ever written! However, the second is pretty short, since it was more of a filler between the first and third chapters, stuff that is during the same time of the end of this chapter, but it was WAY too long already, so it became the second. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism welcome! :)

Have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead, it's plot, or it's characters.
I own only my OCs, Serena Sanders, and her brother, Ross Sanders.

I watched as she helped them make arrangements to go out and look for the missing girl again.

She was methodically packing a backpack, inspecting a knife before putting it into the side pocket. The way the sun shimmered on her dark hair and shone on her tanned skin, she looked beautiful.

"I still think I should come with you," she said stubbornly, handing the backpack to Rick. "I could help."

"I know," Rick answered, slinging the pack across one shoulder. "We don't doubt that you can help, but I think it's best if you sit this one out. Like we talked about earlier, I need you to stay here, help Dale keep an eye on things." He gave her a meaningful look.

Serena's eyes went to T-Dog and she sighed. "Okay, but when you get back, I want to know everything." When he nodded and assured her that he would tell her all that happened, she looked at him imploringly and said with emphasis, "Everything. Don't leave out anything."

Rick chuckled and said with a smile, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, we won't keep you in the dark."

Serena smiled back appreciatively before saying, "Y'all be careful out there. Bring Sophia back."

Rick nodded and went to give the backpack to his wife.

Daryl came up behind Serena and touched her on the shoulder to get her attention. She turned.

"Keep your eyes open," he said. "If another herd comes through, stay hidden til' they're gone"

Annoyance flashed in her eyes upon seeing him. "Is that what I'm supposed to do?" she asked sarcastically. "I thought I was supposed to stand out in the open and yell at them with a bullhorn."

Daryl glared. "Don't be stupid."

"Don't be such a jerk," Serena said, returning Daryl's glare.

"I wouldn' have to be if you weren't bein' such an idiot," he snapped.

I held back a laugh as I watched them bicker.

"You know what?" Serena said with a huff after a while, looking at him with a hurt expression. "There's no sense in arguing. We're wasting time better spent looking for Sophia. So get going and be careful."

Daryl looked at her for a moment, seeming as if he were going to say something. Instead, he just nodded once and left her to join the others.

The moment Daryl had turned his back, Serena closed her eyes tightly and ran a hand through her hair before going to sit beside Dale on the RV.


One Day Earlier

After we had left the CDC behind, we had stopped in a small town for the night, as far away as we knew there wouldn't be walkers swarming that might have possibly heard the blast when the CDC had exploded.

The next morning, we had taken stock of all the supplies we had, and gathered what we could from the nearby cars and buildings. We made the decision to leave behind some of our vehicles, since we were running low on fuel. T-Dog's van and Shane's Jeep were left behind. Daryl gave T-Dog his truck, while Daryl chose to ride Merle's motorcycle. But I suppose now it's Daryl's motorcycle.

We haven't given up on Merle, at least Daryl and I haven't, but at the moment, there just isn't anything that can be done. If we find him, we'll need a safe place to take him back to, and right now, we don't have a safe place. Rick mentioned something about trying for Fort Benning, so I guess that's what we're doing.
However, we're still going to keep looking. We'll keep looking for signs of him, and I plan to spend a day or two of searching as soon as we're settled somewhere.

"Does everybody have all of their stuff packed?" Rick asked.

"We're all ready to head out," Shane replied.

When Dale gave the word, everyone got into their vehicles. I jumped into the back of the truck of T-Dog's truck.

"Wait a minute!" Daryl said, and T-Dog paused in starting up the truck. "Wanna ride with me?" Daryl asked me.

I raised a brow. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Thought you might want to."

I rested my elbow on the side of the truck and yawned. "Maybe some other time. I'm thinking of taking a small nap, and I don't think I could do that on a bike."

He nodded. "I was thinkin' of havin' a nap myself." He turned and looked back at the motorcycle. "But I guess that's out of the question."

"Unless you want to crash," I said.

He looked sideways at me in amusement. "How about we trade places? I'll take a nap, you drive."

"What's the hold up?" Shane said in annoyance, hanging out of the RV.

Ignoring Shane, I said, "I tell you what. The next time we stop, I'll swap places with you."

"Fair enough." Turning to Shane, who was still looking at us, he said, "Let's get goin'!"

"Have fun," I said, leaning back and closing my eyes.

"Have a nice nap," Daryl replied, in a mocking tone.

I laughed as we pulled out onto the road, but it faded, and I soon fell into a daze.

X*X*X*X*

"Ren, slow down before you fall!" Ross said, laughing, as I ran down the bank to the quarry.

Pausing, I looked back to him. "Hurry up!" I giggled and continued my hurried pace in excitement.

I had waited for our annual First Day of Summer Camping Trip for almost three months. Ross finally got time off of work yesterday, and he decided that we could go camping this weekend.

"I win!" I shouted when I reached the edge of the water first. I sat down on a rock and waited impatiently for him, watching him carry our fishing poles and tackle box with him.

Ross set the tackle box down and laid the poles on the ground. He grinned. "Good for you, Ren-Ren."

"Don't call me Ren-Ren. I'm not seven anymore," I grumbled.

"You're not?" he asked, pretending he didn't know. "Oh, yeah, that's right. You stopped being seven the day before yesterday."

I grinned proudly. "Yep! That means I'm almost a grown up!"

"Don't grow up too soon. Before I know it, you'll be graduating high school, going off to college, and have a boyfriend."

"No I won't!" I stood up objectively. "I hate school, so I don't wanna go to college, and I won't have a boyfriend, because boys are gross!"

Ross laughed loudly. "Keep thinking that way until you're forty." He got a worm out of the bucket and started baiting the hook of my pole.

I cringed while I watched the hook go through one side of the worm and out of the other. "Does it hurt them when you do that?"

"I don't know," he said, then dangled what was left of it in front of my face. "Maybe you should ask him."

"Eww!"

He laughed again and handed me my pole, then baited his hook and got the boat into the water.

I loved fishing and being out on the water, even if we didn't get any fish. I loved the warm sun and the cool breeze that blew across the lake.

Mom and Dad never did anything this nice for me. Ross was the only person that cared.

"Having fun yet?"

I nodded, watching the reflections of the clouds moving on the water.

"You talked nonstop all the way here, now you're quiet," Ross said with some concern. "Are you okay?"

"I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"How come Mom and Dad was never nice to me?" I asked, holding back tears.

Ross bit his lip and looked out across the water. "I don't know. They were never nice to me either."

I remembered some of the times I had overheard Ross and our parents fighting. "Why didn't you leave?"

He nudged my arm with his shoulder and said with a smile, "Because I could never have lived with myself if I'd left you behind. You're my baby sister. It's my job to look after you."

I hugged him tightly. "You're the best brother in the whole entire world," I mumbled. "Promise you'll never leave me by myself?"

He hugged me back just as tightly and kissed my head. "I promise."

The truck slowing brought me back to reality. I opened my eyes and looked around.

There were cars on either side of us, on the sides of the road or in the lanes, those of which we went around carefully. Turning around, onto my knees, I looked through the window to see out of the windshield. Ahead of us were more cars, getting closer together as we got further. I leaned around the side of the truck toward the open window.

"Can we go on through, or is it blocked?"

"I can't tell yet," T-Dog responded.

Daryl rode on ahead to see if there was a way through, while the rest of us drove on slowly. Suddenly, a cloud of steam rose up from the front of the RV.

We stopped, and everyone got out and went up to the RV. I picked up a sword from beside me and jumped to the ground, tightening the belt around my waist as I went to join my friends, gathered around Dale.

"Can't find a radiator hose here," Shane was saying.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl said, who was now digging through the back of one of the cars.

"Siphon more fuel from these cars, for a start," agreed T-Dog, going to his truck to get an empty gas can and a hose.

"Some water?" asked Carol hopefully.

"Food?" Glenn added.

I hoped there would be both. We weren't exactly successful in our raid of the few small buildings early this morning, and we hadn't seen much of anything except for open road the past couple of hours.

"This is a graveyard."

At Lori's words, everyone looked around at each other and the cars with mixed expressions.

"I don't know how I feel about this," she added quietly.

"I get that," I said, looking at her in understanding. "But we have no food or water, and we're running low on fuel. There aren't any other options." I went over to a purple four-door Ford truck and, after checking that there wasn't anyone inside, opened the door and pulled out a suitcase from under the back seat.

"Come on, y'all," Shane said. "Just look around, gather what you can."

T-Dog walked ahead a ways with a gas can and a hose, while others joined in looking inside the cars for anything useful, and Dale instructed Glenn on how to fix the RV while keeping watch with Rick.

"We'll need clothes," I heard Carol say as I moved further ahead.

Carl and Sophia were making their way around some of the cars curiously.

"Carl," Lori said. When he turned, she instructed, "Always within my sight."

"You too, Sophia," Carol said.

The two children nodded and went on looking.

I glanced ahead of them for a moment before going back to the station wagon. Like Lori, I also wasn't sure how I felt about going through strangers' personal belongings, especially in that of which could only be described as, in Lori's words, a graveyard. I felt as if I were a grave robber, intruding on someone's final resting place. But I also knew that if we were going to fix the RV and get much-needed supplies, there wasn't any other choice.

Seeing a large woven basket with folded blankets in it, I took it out and set it on the ground beside me. I didn't see anything else that we could use besides clothes, which it appeared Carol had found plenty of by now, so I picked up the basket and put it in the pile of things Carol and Lori had found, then went to another car.

It was a nice one. Dark blue, small, nothing fancy, but it had a sunroof. I opened a door and found a purse abandoned in the passenger seat, some pennies and dimes in the cup holder, and a 'Hits of the '80's' CD case on the dashboard. In the back seat was small pile consisting of two heavy blankets and two pillows.

I popped the trunk. Inside, I didn't find much. Two overnight bags of clothes and toiletries. A cooler full of melted ice, now stagnant, and Ziploc bags with spoiled sandwiches, and four unopened bottles of water.

I took the bottles, closed the trunk, and set the bottles down on it.

I made to turn to another vehicle when Daryl came up behind me and whispered in a hurried tone, "Walkers. Hide."

Walkers? Wonderful. It must be more than a few, otherwise we would be taking them down, not hiding from them.

"Is everyone else hidden?" I asked urgently, looking back the way Daryl had come, seeing none of my friends. What I did see were the dead, shambling towards us. I crouched down, then I gasped, remembering. "T-Dog's still up there!"

I took a step to go get T-Dog, but Daryl held his arm out and blocked my path.

"Where?" he asked.

I pointed. "Up there."

"I'm goin' ahead. Hide," Daryl said, and hurried along quietly, staying low.

I started to get under the car, but it was too close to the ground. I wouldn't fit. My heart pounding, I dove into the car through the open passenger door, pulled it until it gave a quiet click, but not risking the noise of shutting it all the way, and scrambled into the back, into the floor. I grabbed a blanket and covered myself with it just in time.

I heard the walker's shuffling footsteps as they passed, the stench of their rotting flesh so strong I wanted to gag.

I peeked around the blanket carefully, looking through the back window, but I was unable to see anything except their shadows and an occasional glimpse of a head. I covered my face and gritted my teeth, waiting for all of them to be gone, and praying all of my friends were out of sight.

If one of us was seen, by even just one walker, all of them would attack. There would be no escape.

Seemingly an eternity later, the footsteps became fewer in number, and then I heard none at all.

I sat up a little, my sword digging into my hip uncomfortably, and looked first out the back window. It was clear, so I sat up fully and looked through the windshield. They were all making their way unhurriedly down the road, not a single one seeming remotely interested in its surroundings.

I waited three minutes before throwing the blanket off and crawling out of the car, staying low and quiet as a precaution, and picked my way back to the RV.

I saw Glenn and Shane, then Rick, Lori, Carol, and the kids under cars, all with relieved looks on their faces. Glancing up, I saw Dale on the roof of the RV.

"Where's Andrea?" I asked.

"Inside," Dale answered.

Sophia began making her way out from under the truck. I hurried forward to help her, and a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me roughly.

I stumbled, falling onto my back, and looking up into an unfamiliar woman's ravaged, snarling face. The walker bent down, and I kicked it in the stomach, knocking it over. I rolled up onto my feet and pulled out my knife to kill it, but Sophia's startled cries distracted me.

My eyes shot to her in alarm as a growling walker knelt and reached for her with a decaying hand.

"Serena!" Carl's frightened voice said in warning.

I kicked the walker in the face as it crawled, reaching for my ankle. The walker after Sophia was trying to get under the truck.

"Sophie, get out from the other side!" I said, driving my knife into the walker's skull when it spotted Carl.

Sophia's terrified screams ripped at my heart. I left my knife and pulled out my sword, killing three walkers. The walker that had tried to grab her got to its feet and went around the side of the truck, another walker following.

I groaned as three more walkers came from behind a van.

"I'll get Sophia, you take care of those!" Rick said as he ran to follow Sophia and her pursuers down the bank.

I killed the three walkers and looked back, thinking I should follow Rick and help, but they had disappeared in the woods, and I didn't know which way they'd went.

"Lori, there's two walkers after my baby!" Carol cried, running over and stopping at the guard rail, and covering her mouth in horror and sobbing.

Lori wrapped her arms around her, trying to calm her, while Carl went to his mother's side.

Dale, Andrea, Glenn, and Shane hurried over, looking to see what was happening.

I wiped the walkers' blood off of my sword on their clothes and put it back in its sheath.

"Should I go after them?" I asked Shane quietly.

He shook his head. "Just wait. Rick will bring her back."

"Hey!" Daryl called out behind us. "Somebody give me a hand!"

I looked up to see Daryl supporting T-Dog, who looked as if he were about to pass out, a huge gash on his forearm, blood streaming.

Shane hurried over and helped Daryl lead T-Dog over to the RV. T-Dog collapsed to the ground, and would have fallen over if Shane hadn't placed a hand on his shoulder and held him up.

Dale went inside the RV to get bandages. He came back out with a roll of gauze and electrical tape.

"This is the best I could find," he explained.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I was trying to hide," T-Dog gasped out. "Scraped it on a piece of metal."

While Dale and I did our best to stop the bleeding and patch up the wound, Shane filled Daryl in on what had occurred with Sophia and the few straggling walkers.

After dragging a dead walker out of the RV that Andrea had killed, I helped Dale get T-Dog inside and lay him down on the bed. He was groaning in pain.

"Do we have any medicine to give him?" All of them medical supplies I had stored in the old U-Haul back at our old camp had been taken when we were robbed in the middle of the night, thus prompting a continuous watch, but Dale had to have something, didn't he?

"I have some Ibuprofen and Tylenol," Dale said, going to the sink and pulling a box out from under the cabinet. "The Ibuprofen will help with the pain, swelling and infection."

"Should I stay here with him?"

"Me and Andrea'll keep an eye on him."

I went back outside and helped Daryl and Shane drag all the dead walkers away from the group, then went over and stood next to Carol with Lori, comforting her as much as possible.

Ten minutes later, Rick returned. Without Sophia.

Carol's gasping sobs were heartbreaking.

"Serena," Rick said, and gestured me over to his side, with Shane, Glenn, and Daryl.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"We're gonna go out and find Sophia," he said. "We want you to come and help."

I nodded and followed Rick's lead, back to where he had left Sophia to draw the walkers away from her.

It was a small, shady creek area. There was what was left of a fallen tree creating an overhang of mud and roots where Rick had told Sophia to hide.

Sophia was nowhere in sight.

"You sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked.

"I left her right here," Rick insisted. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction, up the creek." He pointed. "She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off back to the group." He pointed in another direction, one that would lead back to the highway. "I told her go that way, keep the sun on her left shoulder."

Glenn was standing in the area Rick had indicated, looking around as he listened to Rick.

"Hey, Short Round," Daryl said to him. "Would ya step off to one side? You're muckin' up the trail."

Glenn took a step back.

"The kid was tired and scared, man," Shane said to Rick. "She had a close call with two walkers. Gotta wonder how much of what you said stuck."

"Some of it must have," I said, spotting depressions in the mud.

Daryl looked to where I was pointing. "We got clear prints right here." He turned to Rick. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out!"

I stepped back to allow Daryl room to pass as Shane gave first him, then Rick, a helping hand up the bank.

"We're gon' find her," Shane said reassuringly to Rick's stressed expression. "She's probably tuckered out, hidin' in a bush somewhere."

We followed Daryl as he followed Sophia's footprints into a grove of trees. Daryl stopped and kneeled, looking at the ground closely.

"Doing just fine 'til right here," he muttered.

We stepped closer to look at where he had indicated, Shane kneeling to get a closer look.

"All she had to do was keep going," Daryl continued. "She veered off that way." He pointed over to where the trees thickened.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked.

"Maybe she saw something?" Shane suggested.

"Walker?"

Daryl shook his head. "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

"So what do we do?" Shane asked. He looked up at Rick. "All of us press on?"

"No," Rick answered decidedly. "Better if you, Glenn, and Serena get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking."

Worse than they already are? I thought, but I stayed silent. I didn't really want to go back. I felt that I should keep looking, but it was Rick's call.

Shane got to his feet.

"Let them know that we're on her trail, and doing everything we can," Rick instructed. "But most of all, keep everybody calm."

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars," Shane said, nodding. "think up a few other chores. "I'll keep 'em occupied."

"Keeping them occupied is the easy part," I said. "Telling Carol that we still haven't found her daughter is going to be the hard part."

"That's where you come in," Shane said to me. "You were always good with the kids. Carol trusts you."

That may have been true yesterday, but I wasn't sure how much she trusted me now.

Shane and Glenn began on the way back to the road, but I paused and turned back to Rick. "Don't beat yourself up. This ain't your fault. If blame falls on anyone, it falls on me."

Back on the highway, breaking the news to Carol that we didn't find Sophia yet was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Lori was still sitting beside Carol when I found her. Shane had disappeared to talk to Dale. Glenn sat in the doorway of the RV, watching me and Carol nervously.

"Carol," I said gently, getting her attention.

She didn't ask whether we had found her or not. She must have seen it in my face, because disappointment filled her eyes, and she shut them tightly.

I kneeled in front of her, continuing speaking in gentle tones.

"Daryl found her footprints. Sophia seemed to have followed Rick's instructions for a while, but something made her go off the path. Rick sent me, Glenn, and Shane back, to keep an eye on things, while he and Daryl keep looking."

Carol hanged her head, shaking with silent sobs.

"Don't worry, Carol," I said softly. "We'll find her."

I sat with her awhile, Lori having gone to talk to Shane.

"Serena!" Andrea yelled to me. "Can you give us a hand?"

I looked at Carol, but she waved me away.

"You don't have to sit with me. I'll be fine. I'm just going to go over here and wait for them to get back." She stood and went over to the guard rail.

While we waited, I helped with the chores. Not that I had a choice. I would have helped anyway, but Shane was like a slave driver.

We cleared some of the cars off the road to make a path through, found what other supplies we could from the cars, and now were carrying it over to a pile near the Winnebago.

"We're not going anywhere 'til my daughter gets back," Carol was saying to Dale and Shane.

"That goes without saying," Lori told her.

"Rick and Daryl are on it, okay?" Shane said in a comforting way. "It's just a matter of time."

"Soon they'll be back with Sophia, and we can get off this highway," I said.

Carol nodded and went back to staring at the woods worriedly.

"Can't be soon enough for me," Andrea said, sipping from a bottle of water. "I'm still freaked out by that herd that passed by. Or whatever you'd call it."

"What was that? All of them just marching along like that?" Glenn asked.

"Herd," Shane mused. "That sounds about right. Like that wandering pack that attacked camp that night, only fewer."

"Herd, pack, swarm," I said, naming off a few things that could describe it. "Whatever it was, I don't wanna see another one."

"Me either," Glenn agreed.

"Well," Shane put in. "We still have a lot of work to do, so let's get on it."

Glenn sighed, wiping sweat from his brow. "We couldn't take a longer break?"

"We're burnin' daylight!" Shane called back to him.

"Hey." I nudged Glenn with my elbow jokingly in an attempt to ease the tension. "As soon as the work that obviously needs to be done is finished, go help Dale keep watch. Eyebrows can't keep a three-sixty view on everything at all times."

He chuckled. "'Eyebrows?"'

I shrugged. "I thought it would be a good nickname, but that first day was too soon. It would have been viewed as an insult."

"What would your nickname be?"

"That's for you guys to decide."

"Less talkin', more workin'!" Shane said to us.

An hour later, with everything sorted, and enough cars moved, I found the little dark blue car that I had seen the '80's music CD in. Luckily, the CD was in it's case, so I put it on the seat of T-Dog's truck, intending to play it later.

"How's the radiator hose coming along?" I asked Dale.

"Pretty good," Dale answered.

"How's T-Dog?"

"Not much better. He's asleep now."

Dale was focused intently on getting the hose fixed, so I thought I would go, instead of bothering him.

Somehow Shane kept finding things for us to do, so I didn't get to rest but a few minutes.

As I worked, I kept glancing up at the woodline, waiting for Rick, Daryl, and Sophia. Work was no longer keeping me occupied, and I was anxious, especially with night less than thirty minutes away.

After an orange glow had settled over us, I saw them walking up the bank, back onto the road. Sophia wasn't with them.

My throat tight, I went over to hear what they had to say.

"You didn't find her?" Carol asked, crestfallen.

"Her trail went cold," Rick said wearily as he stepped over the guard rail. "We're gonna pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own, to spend the night, alone, in the woods," she sobbed.

"Huntin' in the dark's no good," Daryl said. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people'd get lost."

"She's twelve! She can't be out there on her own!"

Sophia is out there by herself, with hardly any knowledge of how one would go about taking care of oneself if they became lost in the woods. My heart going out to Carol and Sophia, I wanted to cry.

"You didn't find anything?" she inquired of Rick.

Rick put up his hands in a soothing manner. "I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."

"We tracked her for a while," Daryl put in.

Rick turned to the rest of us. "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

Carol looked away, processing what Rick and Daryl had said. Her eyes landed on Daryl. "Is that... Is that blood?"

I looked at him closer and saw what Carol had seen.

Daryl looked down at himself and then back up, first to Carol, then everyone else, seeming unsure how to answer.

"We took down a walker," Rick said for him.

Carol's breathing was becoming heavy. "Walker," she choked out, her voice fragile. She looked light-headed and as if she were about to faint.

I stepped closer to her in concern, ready to catch her if needed.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia," Rick went on in that same calm, soothing tone.

"How can you be sure?" I asked, the same time Andrea said, "How can you know that?"

Rick and Daryl shared a reluctant glance before Daryl answered.

"We cut it open. Made sure."

At this, Carol sat down on the guard rail, trying to steady her breathing for a moment, then turned accusingly to Rick. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She turned her gaze on me. "And how could you not kill those walkers when you had the chance? You could have prevented this from happening!"

Shamefaced, I looked to the ground. "I know." Looking back up at her, I added, "I'm sorry."
I didn't know what else to say.

"How could you just leave her?" Carol said mournfully to Rick, ignoring me and my apology.

I felt an arm fall on my shoulders, and I looked up into Glenn's eyes, which were comforting and without blame.

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw 'em off." Rick leaned down to Carol. "It was her best chance."

Shane came up beside Rick. "It sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."

"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child."

Rick knelt in front of her. "It was the only choice I could make." His voice cracked with emotion.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane said.

"My little girl, left in the woods." Carol seemed lost, disconnected.

Heartbroken, disappointed, and worried, everyone appeared as if they were frozen momentarily before slowly going back to what they had been doing. Glenn squeezed my shoulders and followed Dale. Andrea sat next to Carol, and she and Lori did their best to comfort her and assure her Sophia would be alright. Rick got up and walked away, down the road. Carl stood still, crying, and so I went over and pulled him into a hug.

Carl wrapped his arms around my waist and sobbed.

"Shh, we're gonna find her," I whispered, closing my eyes tightly. "She'll be okay."

X*X*X*X*

After a small meal, everyone drifted to bed, Dale continuing to keep watch.

I sat atop the little dark blue car, my knees pulled up to my chest, arms around them, my glazed eyes on the stars. Crickets were chirping, a soft breeze blowing. In other circumstances I would have found the calm and stillness relaxing.

My mind hadn't stopped whirling since the herd. I had thought so many 'I wish's' in the past half hour;

'I wish I had gotten over there sooner.'

'I wish I had seen those walkers.'

'I wish I had killed them quicker.'

'I wish I had followed Rick.'

The list went on.

How could I ever make this up to Carol? I was right there, dang it!

I had visualized so many scenes in my head of how the situation would have gone over better.

I should have drawn my sword sooner and killed the walkers. Sophia would never have run off into the woods. She would still be with the group.

I balled my fists, filled with a strong desire to break something.

I slid down from the hood of the car and briskly walked, aimlessly, down the road.

Ten minutes later I stopped, breathing heavily. I fell to my knees, resting my hands on the cold asphalt, gasping, tears falling to the ground.

'I will do everything I can to ensure that no harm comes to any of you.'

My words that night at camp came back, hitting me like a blow to the gut.

How many more times would that promise be broken?

First Merle, now Sophia. How many more?


"Where'd she go?" Daryl asked, agitated.

Dale pointed. "I didn't see her when she left. The last time I saw her, she was sitting on that car over there." Daryl looked to the one Dale had indicated. "The next thing I know, she's halfway down the road."

"You don't know why she'd've left?"

Dale shook his head. "She's been upset all day. Since the walkers."

Dale didn't have to say that it was when Sophia had run off for Daryl to know the cause of Serena's stress. She was an emotional woman. She either bottled it up, or, when it got to be too much, she let it out in unpredictable ways.

Daryl had witnessed only one occasion in which Serena didn't try to hide her feelings, and that was when their camp had been attacked. It had been uncomfortable for him; going to her aid, taking her away from all the onlookers, and sitting with her until she stopped crying.

It had been uncomfortable because he wasn't sure what he should do. It had been uncomfortable because Serena, who didn't let anyone see her cry, had asked him to stay with her, even going so far as to admitting that she was afraid she would fall apart if he didn't. Why did she trust him?

More importantly, why did he trust her? He didn't trust people easily, if at all, but he had trusted her since the first day at camp.

"It's been a stressful day for all of us. She's probably out there upset," Dale mused above him, interrupting the turn Daryl's thoughts had taken. "For all we know, she's still walking."

After today and all of the emotions flying around, and Serena blaming herself for Sophia's disappearance, along with Carol snapping at her, for all they knew, she could either be out there trashing cars in a rage, or bawling her eyes out.

"Should we go find her?" Dale asked.

Daryl sighed, frustrated. "Stupid woman," he muttered. To Dale he said, "I'll go get her."


Footsteps caught my attention, so I pulled out my knife and peered into the mess of cars.

"Do you have any idea how dumb you are, coming all the way out here?" Daryl turned sideways to squeeze between two cars.

I nodded, putting my knife back into my boot. "I know it was dumb, but I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"That kinda stuff can get you killed y'know," he said, leaning against a car across from me after making sure there wasn't anything inside it.

With a small shrug, I turned away from him.

"Sophia runnin' off wasn't your fault," he said suddenly. His tone was soft and careful.

"It was, and everyone knows it," I insisted.

"Dale told me what happened. There were more than the two walkers. There was eight. You were fightin' 'em on your own. We're lucky the both of you didn't get bit."

"I should have moved faster. If I hadn't been so slow-"

"Do you believe she's alive?" he interrupted.

"Absolutely," I answered, without hesitation.

"Do you believe we're gonna find her?"

"Of course I do."

Daryl stepped over to me and bent down to look me in the eye. "Then quit stressin' out so much. She's out there, we'll find her, and she's gonna be just fine."

I turned my head. "I should have done better."

Daryl grabbed my chin and made me look at him. He said strictly, "Don't blame yourself anymore. When you look at everything that happened, it's whoever made that virus's fault. If they hadn't done that and started this, then she wouldn't be missin'. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," I mumbled, trapped in his stern gaze.

"The herd couldn't have been prevented, but the virus could have been." At the end, his voice became harsh and angry.

I was startled by how sudden his anger was, but I knew he was right. What shocked me most was that he didn't blame me.

Daryl suddenly let go of my chin and took a step back, his expression unreadable. "It's best if you get back to the group. Dale's worried."

"Why?"

"Because he's Dale."

"Then I guess it's best if I get back to the group."

He half-smiled. "Smartest thing you've said all day."

On our way back, we went silently. I had no idea how far I had walked. I was surprised Daryl had found me.

I stepped carefully around an overturned van. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep tonight. I was having a hard time staying focused whenever I no longer had a distraction.

But at that moment, there was a distraction that got both mine and Daryl's attention.

Glass crunched and cracked, and we came to a halt. A heavy, rattling gasp brought our eyes to a dark shape in the shadow of that overturned van.

Daryl brought up his crossbow.

"Please, don't shoot," a man's voice pleaded hurriedly.

My eyes widened. I froze in shock, and Daryl tensed beside me.

Whoever that figure in the dark was, he was alive.