Desert Eagle
I don't own any rights to the original script, characters or any part from the series. The only character i own is Gwen. And some added script lines from the other characters. I just wanna make that clear so nobody gets the wrong idea that i'm just copying everything from the show, because that is not the case. Again i just wanna see how it would all go from a different from a new character.
So now that this is season 2. We get to see Gwen stepping up to responsibilities and take on a bigger roll as well as Daryl.
Setting: What Lies Ahead
Chapter 1 Stepping Up
It was day three since we all escaped from the CDC. We came across a town with a gas station, not much but is was some to keep us going. We went back to the to the place were Glenn and I were thought to be taken hostage, were we met Guillermo. The entire place was deserted. In bad condition, some bodies laying around. It must have gotten overrun. But why? With all the muscle they had, how can this possibly happen?
Since night was approaching us, we all stayed the night their, in the hallway. Rick and Shane, came to a conclusion that we ditch some cars to reduce the use of gas.
"Get what sleep you can. Tomorrow, we head to Fort Benning." Rick announced to us all. Almost everyone went to sleep right away.
About an hour or so went by. I still hadn't been able to fall asleep, i kept tossing back forth. I try turn to my back, but still nothing.
"Somethin bothering you?" I turn my head and see Daryl looking at me.
"I cant sleep." He says nothing. Truth was, nothing was bothering me. I saw something in him, that was bothering me. It looked like he wanted to get something off his chest.
"It seems to me that I'm not the one that's being bothered." I confront him about it. He looks at me for a bit.
"Back at the CDC, when the door came down. Everyone rushed to get out. You didn't, you hesitated. Why?" I flip on my side to face him.
"To tell you the truth, I figured it be easier. For a moment Jenner was sounding pretty convincing to stay, rather than risk our lives out here everyday." He narrows his eyes.
"But?"
"But I couldn't. I couldn't leave you alone here. It was also cuz I made a promise to Amy and the others. To keep fighting, and keep hope alive. It wouldn't of made sense to go back on my word." Daryl says nothing. He faces away from me and goes back to sleep.
"You wanted to know." I say before I finally fell asleep.
The next morning, Shane and T-dog ditch their cars and load up their stuff in the RV. I see Daryl unloading Merle's bike that was now his.
"Were ditching the truck. Bike takes up less gas." I didn't argue with him on that one. What ever important stuff we had, we loaded it up on the bike. Shortly, everyone loaded up, with now only, the bike, the RV and the truck. Heading to Fort Benning, with Daryl and I leading the group. As we were leaving Atlanta, some walkers tried to follow. To bad for them.
It wasn't till we got out on the highway, ways away out of the city, when we came across a roadblock of cars. I put my hand up to let the one's in the RV know, to wait. Daryl moves forward to find a way for the rest of the cars to get through. Thankfully their was. A nice open gap between the cars. Daryl turns around to head back to the RV. Dale pokes his head out the window.
"See a way though?" Daryl looks at Dale, then points his head back. We circle around our cars, and back up to the front to lead the way though. About half way though the yard of abandon cars, I hear a shriek behind us. I look back and see the RV smoking.
"Baby, stop." I notify Daryl. He stops the bike and we get off.
"Problem Dale?" I hear Shane ask as we approach the RV with everyone gathered around.
"Just a small of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…" Dale stops himself and looks around. "Okay, that was dumb." He corrects himself. Daryl begins to look through the back of an open car.
"If you cant find a radiator hose here…" Shane looks around at all the broken down cars. Daryl pulls out something from the car.
"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find."
"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog grabs a hose nearby.
"Maybe some water."
"Or food." Carol and Glenn add.
"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Lori shot everyone down
"It doesn't hurt to look." I snap. "What ever happen to your hope? Jeez you gotta rain on everyone's parade?" I look at everyone. "All these people were heading far way from the city. What's to say they didn't pack any valuable stuff of use. Such as clothing, First-aid, water. Theirs plenty of cars to look around in. Anything could be of use. We may never get this opportunity again. Lets make this count." Everyone remained silent. Lori kept her mouth shut. I walked away, irritated of her bullshit. Its not so much that we can barley find any supplies anywhere, and now that we found a landfill of cars that can possibly have as much as supplies as we need. No she has to go and shoot everyone down with her negativity.
I look around in each car to hopefully find something of use. To all of us. In one specific care I found a bunch of clothes. The clothes we all had were not gonna last us long. We needed as much as we could get. I spot Daryl near me by a car.
"You find anything yet?" I ask him.
"Some band-aids. You?" He hands me the band-aids.
"Found a shirt."
"Pff." Daryl continues to look.
"What?"
"Where suppose to be looking for supplies not shirts." I chuckle a bit.
"Did you not hear what I was saying back their. Anything could be of use."
"Yeah I caught your little speech." He refused to make eye contact. I smiled knowing I have something he may like.
"Well how about these for supplies?" I show him a few arrows. Daryl looks at my hand then up at me. Without a work he takes them.
"Your welcome hot stuff." I walk away to look for more supplies, that could be of use. T-Dog got Daryl to help him open a gas tank, so he can siphon the gas from it. As I continued to look I find Sophia and Carl looking around. I approach them.
"Hay." I look at the little girl before me.
"Hay." She looks up at me a bit intimidated. I didn't want her to be. I meant no harm to her or Carl.
"Find anything you like?" I ask her. She shakes her head.
"No, not yet." I look at a nearby car and spot a doll that she might like. I walk over to it.
"How about this?" I show her the doll and hand it to her. A smiles grows on her face.
"Its pretty thank you." I continue to look around. For some reason, something told me to look back at her. When I did she was looking at my gun. Poor thing was scared of it. I lean down and take it out. I see her stiffen up.
"Don't worry. The safety's on. See." I show her that the gun was secure, and that she had nothing to worry about.
"Sophia, I don't want you to be intimidated by me, I can see that you are. I mean you no harm. I just wanna be your fiend. Its all." She losses up and smiles.
"Can we be friends?" I kindly ask her. She nods her head.
"Yeah." She agrees. I open my arms to her. She walks in and I wrap my arms around her. Our moment was ruined when Rick came running around.
"Lori, under the cars." He sees, Carl, Sophia and I. "Guys get down." I see Carl run under a car. I look around to find a car for the both of us to hid under. I grab her hand.
"Sophia come on." We both hide under a car. Everyone was as well. Walkers must be around. It was then when I began to hear the groans of what sounded like more than one walker. I feel Sophia shake next to me, I put an arm around her and hold her close. "Shh. Just stay quiet now. Its gonna be okay." I whisper. The feet of more than a dozen walkers passed by right in front of our faces. I put one of my hand over Sophia's mouth to keep her quiet. Feet, feet and more walker feet pass by. I couldn't help but think if Daryl knew about the walkers and if he was safe under a car. It was killing me that I didn't know. The loads of feet passing by died out. Soon, I didn't see anymore or hear any groaning. I let go of Sophia and look at her. "Okay I think were safe." I begin to crawl out to the edge from under the car. Sophia was right behind me. Right before I got out, one last walker spots me and lunges down at me. "Shit!" I struggle to get back under the car. The walker growled and reached for me. I tried to get my gun free from under me, while trying to kick the walker away with me feet. I could hear Sophia whimpering behind me. I look behind me and see her backing away to the other side to get out. The walker stops trying to get at me and begins to walk around the other side. "Shit! Sophia no!" I see her get out the other side and take off running into the woods. I get out from under the car as fast as I could and run out into the woods and run after her. It wasn't long when I caught up to her. I wasn't the only one. Rick somehow managed to come after her as well. "Sophia are you okay?" I ask out of breath. She only whimpers. I spot two walkers closing in.
"Rick." I get his attention. He looks at the walkers than back at me.
"I need to lure them away. Stay here. When their out of sight, go back up to the highway." He looks at Sophia.
"Are you okay? I need you to come with me. You ready?" She only whimpered in confusion. He picks her up and runs off. As soon as the walkers were out of sight. I run as fast as I could back to the highway.
"The one time I don't have my machete with me, this has to happen?!" I tell myself as I ran. Eventually I get back completely out of breath. Everyone was gathered around the RV by then. They have received the news about Sophia. As soon as Carol saw me, she ran up to me.
"Where is she? Where is Sophia?" She begged, crying her eyes out.
"Rick Is with her…he's luring the walkers away from here….he told me to come back here." I have a seat on the rail, trying to catch my breath. When I did I walked back to Daryl's bike and grab my machete.
"What happened?" Daryl comes up to me.
"When the herd was passing by. Sophia and I were hiding under a car together. When I tough they had all passed, a straggler saw me and attacked us. Sophia got scared and ran off into the woods, two walkers followed her in. I ran after her."
"Did you find her?"
"I did, Rick ran after us as well. The two walkers were still after her. So Rick told me to come back up here, so he could lead them away from the highway."
"Why didn't you just bring Sophia back with you?"
"I don't know, Rick just picked her up and took off. Maybe because he knew the walkers were after Sophia. I'm not sure." Daryl remained silent.
About 20 minutes later Rick comes running back, looking like he's seen a ghost. He frantically looked around.
"Is Sophia back?" The group gathers around.
"We haven't seen her." Glenn looks at Rick. Carol begins to cry on Lori's shoulder. Rick looks at everyone.
"Okay, Daryl, Shane, Gwen come with me. Were going back to find her." Shane gets himself a gun. Daryl grabs his crossbow, and we head back in the woods.
We reach a creek, were Rick claimed he had left Sophia. Rick and Daryl jump in the creek while Shane and I took watch.
"Sure this is the right spot?"
"I left her right here. I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." Rick explained a bit frustrated.
"Without a paddle…seems where we've landed."
"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her, go that way and keep the sun on here left shoulder." Rick points in the direction back up to the highway.
"Rick why didn't you just let me take her back. That's why I ran after her." I protest.
"I figured the walkers were after her. That they can somehow smell her sent so that's why I wanted to draw them away from the highway as far as possible. It be meaningless to go back up to the highway just for the walkers to come back." He explained himself again. Daryl looks up at me from down the creek.
"Gwen, step off to the side, so I can see the trail." I move aside hoping I didn't mess it up. I guess Sophia came up through here.
"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane points out.
"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick countered.
"Kids tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."
"Got clear prints right here." Daryl interrupts. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Lets spread out, make our way back. She couldn't have gone far." Daryl hops back up from the creek and begins to follow a trail that non of us saw but him.
We followed him for a while until we came to a halt. He kneels down looking at the ground.
"She was doing just fine till right here, all she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." He points in an off direction.
"Why would she do that?" I ask.
"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane adds.
"A walker?" I answer unsure. What else could of scared her to run off in a different direction. Daryl shakes his head.
"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."
"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane looks at Rick.
"No, better if you and Gwen get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all keep everybody calm." Rick suggested to Shane and I.
"I'll keep em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few chores, I'll keep em occupied. Come on." Shane looked at me. Before I walked to him. I look at Rick and hand him my machete. He looks at me.
"Daryl has his crossbow. This is quieter than you gun. If your gonna search the woods, might as well do it stealthy." Rick grabs it.
"Thank you."
"I want it back." I notify him. I walk by Daryl putting my hand on his shoulder and let it slide off as I walk pass by him.
Mine and Shane's way back up to the highway was a bit quiet. Nether of us ever really talked to each other, this was actually our first time alone. It felt a bit strange. I wasn't use to being around him alone. He finally broke the silence.
"So you and Daryl huh?" He asked me. The tone in his voice sounded friendly. So I might as well pay him back with some kindness myself.
"Yeah, were a bit of an odd couple I know. Its not the first time someone had brought that up to me."
"No I'm not saying anything judgmental. Its just that, how do you put up with him? The way he is and everything. I kinda figured you'd of left him a long time ago, just by the way he treats you sometimes."
"I've learned to live with the way he is. He's not much of an open person. He likes to keep to himself. At least that's how it was when Merle was round. Now that he's gone. I can see he's slowly opening up to me. Not just me, but everyone else." Shane looks at me unconvinced.
"Okay Daryl may come off as a hothead asshole may times. But the truth is, deep inside all that rough exterior. He's a caring person. I wouldn't be around if he didn't care about me as much as he does."
"And how much is that? Cuz it sure doesn't seem like a whole lot."
"Look from all the people that I've talked to about this whole me and Daryl thing, seem like they don't wanna see us together. As if their scared to see such odd couple being happy with each other, even if one person doesn't show it that much. Yeah our relationship is not perfect, but who's is? Nobody's. Daryl loves me, and I love him, its all that matters us." He looked at me as we kept walking.
"Well then, sorry if I ever doubted you guys." He pauses "Not to get into detail, but have…"
"Yes, we've done everything a couple should do. To answer your question. It still surprises some people that we've lasted this long." We both chuckle.
"How long you two been dating?"
"Three years, and I've known him for five." I see Shane eyes widen. Never gets old.
"Wow, that's….that's quite a long time. I'm surprised you two aint married yet. Or at least have a kid." Right then is when he killed the mood. It hurt me to think about that, simply because I knew nether two would ever happen. Shane noticed the sudden mood change in me.
"Hay look sorry I brought that up. I didn't know…"
"No, its fine. It….just sucks thinking about the fact that, that will never happen. Not in a new world like this." Shane grabs my shoulder.
"Hay, all more reason to stick together and love the ones your with that much more." His small words of encouragement made me smile again.
It wasn't long when Shane and I made it back to the highway. When everyone saw us, they all approached us.
"Alright everybody, listen up. Rick and Daryl are on her trail. There gonna do everything they can to bring her back safely. While we wait for them, why don't we continue to scavenge the rest of these cars, see if we can move some out of the way to clear a path. Dale see if you can get the RV going. Lets move it people. Come on."
Everyone spreads out again to different cars. Shane goes up to Carol as she cries on Lori's shoulder again. I felt bad. I wanted to go back out their to help find Sophia. It was kinda my fault she ran off. I didn't hold on to her when that walker was attacking me. I should of just brought her back when I found her. That was my intension, but Rick had to show up with some half-ass plan. The important part is that Daryl has a trail on her so hopefully they find her. I was just growing fond of her.
I was looking through a car when I see Carl heading my way. He had a sad face on him. Poor little guy. Like Sophia, I was beginning to grow fond of him as well.
"Little man. What ya got their?" I ask him, trying to lighten up his mood.
"An arsenal." He kept walking
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's wrong?" I step in front of him from going any further. I kneel down to his level.
"Shane. I think he's mad at me." I narrow my eyes.
"What makes you say that?"
"I don't know, he's been acting real mean to me lately."
"I don't think he really means to do it. He's probably going through a lot of stress right now. We all are. He'll come around." I rub his head. I manage to get a smile out of him. I look at the arsenal he had in his hands.
"Can I take a look?"
"Sure." I take it from his hands and set it on the hood of a car and unroll it. Carl stood next to me, looking at it as well. There was a lot of goodies I saw that I wanted to keep for myself, but one particular caught my attention. A berretta. The only gun in the pack. I grab it and put it in my gun holster, replacing it with Daryl's gun I was holding on to for a while. Now I have my own.
"I'm keeping this. Don't tell anybody." I whisper. His smile fades gain.
"Mom wont let me keep one." He pouts.
"Awe. She's just overly protected of you, that's all." Their was a moment of silence.
"I'm suppose to go gives these to Dale." I wrap the arsenal back up and hand it to Carl. He makes his way to the RV. Before I could continue to search any other car. I hear a car engine start. It didn't sound like any of the car's we had so I go to check it out. I wasn't the only one. Everyone else came about too. As the car was on, a voice came on the radio, but it was somewhat static.
"This is a civil emergency?" Glenn questions.
"Is it even a local signal?"
"Its got to be within 50 miles of here." Me and Dale add. The voice on the radio came clear.
"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way. The emergency Alert system has been activated. The office of Civil Defense…" Shane cut the radio off. The broadcast was obviously old. Everything it said we already know. And we know it had all failed miserably.
"Asshole. Okay. Lets get back to work." He tells us all. As told we all go back to our duties.
It was late in the afternoon. I managed to find some decent bandages. Glenn asked me to properly clean and bandage up T-Dog in the RV. I didn't know the story as to why he got such a gnarly cut on his right forearm. As I was attending to it, he looked at me.
"What?" I ask.
"Were you a nurse or doctor before all this?"
"No, why?"
"Well I was just wondering. You bandaging me up properly. Back at the senior center when you help out the old man. I figured you had some medical history in the past." I chuckle.
"Nah. I did study it a little bit, like back in school, but that was it. Most of it came natural, hanging out with Merle and Daryl. When ever they got deep cuts or stuff like that. I always attended to them." T-Dog nodded his head.
"Well your pretty good at it."
"Thanks. How did you manage to get such a nasty cut in the first place?"
"When the herd was passing by. I was trying to avoid them. I didn't know everyone was hiding under the cars, so I just kept hiding behind them. Then I somehow slipped and as I was trying to catch myself I sliced my arm open on a broken glass window. I was beginning to bleed out. Some of the geeks must of smelled my blood and found me. I really thought I was done for. But then here comes your boy, seriously out of nowhere and nails it in the back of the head. Before any other geeks could smell me, he throws it on on top of me and one on top of him. Sure enough they walked right passed us. They didn't even smell us. After the herd passed, he helped me back to the RV. That's when we found out that Sophia had ran off and you and Rick chased after her." I didn't say anything. Their really wasn't anything else to say.
"So I must admit." T-Dog continued. "I don't think Dixon is such a bad guy after all."
"Of cores not. If he was anything like Merle he would of let you die, but he's not. He saved you life."
"And I thank him for it. Dixon….I mean Daryl is alright by me." I sigh.
"If only everyone else could see that." I look out the RV window and see Rick and Daryl approach the rail gate.
"Their back." I was relived that nothing had happened to them. But the downfall was that their was no Sophia. T-Dog and i head out the RV and join everyone else near the rail gate.
"But she's 12. She cant be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" I hear Carol's shaky voice as I approached them.
"I know its hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick tried to explain to Carol, who continued to cry.
"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl added still on the other side of the rail.
"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." Carol looks down at Daryl and spots something. Her eyes widen.
"Is that blood?" Daryl looks down then back up at her. He doesn't say anything. I could hear Carol's breathing deepen.
"We took down a walker." Rick confesses.
"Walker? Oh my god." Carol looked like she as about pass out. Lori sticks close by to make sure Carol wouldn't pass out on us.
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick looks up at Carol who was looking down.
"How can you know that?" Andrea objected, sounding like she was questioning them. Rick looks at Daryl for answers.
"We cut that son of a bitch open, made sure." Carol has a seat on the rail. Lori has a seat next to her. I see her expression darken, looking up at Rick.
"How could you juts leave her out their to begin with?" She looks at me with the same dark expression. "Both of you."
"What?" I was shocked that she was also blaming me for Sophia's disappearance. After all I did show up back here without her.
"How can you just leave her?"
"Those two walkers were on us." Rick tried to explain.
"If I had brought her back with me, they would of followed us." I add trying to explain myself.
"I had to draw them off. It was her best chance. For all of us." Rick went on. Shane has a seat on the rail.
"Sounds like the didn't have a choice Carol."
"How was she suppose to find her way back on her own?" She continues to plead. She looks at me again. "You couldn't have gone with them instead? I thought you were suppose to be the toughest woman here!"
"I had to come back, Rick told me to, I was…."
"She's just a child" she cut me off as I tried to explain myself. Now she just made me feel like a total piece of shit. I couldn't stand being around her any longer. Not with this guilt I had in me. I walk away back to Daryl's bike and have a seat. Why? Why is it that when I try to help, it fires back at me twice as hard. I figured after being treated like shit for so many years I'd get use to it. But I haven't, each time it different. Each time it hurts in different ways. I'm sorry Sophia, I'm sorry that I told you the close was clear when it wasn't. I'm sorry I didn't just bring you back with me. I should have. We would have been on our way by now.
"Hay." I look up and see Daryl standing before me with my machete.
"I hope we find her soon."
"We will. I got a pretty good lead on her trail. We had to come back because the sun is close to setting." Since Daryl was close enough to me. I wrap an arm around his waist and rest my head on his belly.
"Carol was right." I speak
"On what?"
"Why didn't I just go with Rick and stayed with Sophia?"
"Its not your fault she ran off."
"But should of stayed. It was only two walkers. I could of easily taken them out with that." I look at my machete.
"Why didn't you?"
"Because Rick came along and had this crazy ass idea and.."
"Okay first of all." He cuts me off "Stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. What ever happens, happens. You cant fix it. Well find her tomorrow and we'll be on our way. Got it?" I slowly node my head. "Lets get to the RV, its gonna be dark soon." He helps me up as we head to the RV.
The next morning, everyone gathered around the hood of a car near the RV. Rick puts the arsenal on the hood and unrolls it.
"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick stepped back to let the rest of the group take their pick.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need, What about the guns? Andrea complained. I had had enough of her bitch attitude lately.
"We been over that." Shane pointed out near the RV door.
"Would you rather go shooting off guns to echo through the woods so every walker near by could hear and lead them straight to us. Do you want another herd to come pass by and lose someone else? Is that what you want?" I tell her. She says nothing but glares at me.
"Daryl, Rick, Gwen and I are carrying. Since were the only one's who know how to shoot. Besides Gwen is right, we cant have you people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane tells the group.
"Its not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea countered. Are her ears fucking painted on? Did Shane and I not make it perfectly clear that you guys cant have guns because you don't know how to use them?!
"Listen to what Gwen just said. Somebody fires off at the wrong moment, and a herd happens to be walking by. That's game over for all of us."
"Easy for you guys to say. You got guns." Andrea argues.
"Get over it." I snap. She remains quiet.
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. Its her only landmark." Daryl broke the tension between Andrea, Shane and I.
"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick announces to everyone.
"Everybody assemble your packs." Shane added, assembling his. Daryl and I walk to a blue Dodge truck. Instead of both of us assembling two different packs, we only did one. All Daryl really needed was his crossbow and hunting knife. So most of the stuff in the pack was mine. Everyone was doing the same when we hear Dales voice raise.
"You chose suicide."
"So what's the to you? You barley know me." Andrea argues back.
"I know Amy's death devastated you." Everyone, including Daryl and I looked in their direction.
"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"
"I saved you life."
"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"
"Maybe just a little gratitude."
"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way. Not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."
"But-"
"But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away from me, Dale. And you expect gratitude?" Dale looked at her, stunned by what she had just said. Everyone was silent.
"I don't know what to say." He admits.
"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I'm sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." Andrea walks away passing us. The rest of us follow.
In the woods, Daryl led the group. We all formed a line, to keep from anyone getting lost. It wasn't long until we approached a yellow tent. Daryl points at the tent and kneels. Rick signals everyone to do the same. Everyone except for Shane.
"She could be in there." He points out.
"Could be a whole bunch of thins in there." Daryl corrects. He slowly makes his way up to the tent. Rick and Shane follow close behind. I stay behind to guard the group. Rick and Shane stop a few feet in front of us as Daryl went up to the tent. I was able to see him searching around the tent, but nothing. Rick turns around and signals Carol to join them. Daryl waits outside the tent door.
"Call out Sophia." Daryl looks at her. Shane turns around and signals me to bring the rest of the group up with them. I stand next to Carol and Rick as we all regroup.
"Sophia, its Mommy." Carol speaks out, but no answer. "Sophia. We're all here, baby. Its Mommy." Again no answer. Rick approaches the tent. Daryl slowly unzips the tent door and opens it. He coughs for the rotting smell coming from inside, but he goes inside anyway. With no answer coming from inside, Carol begins to worry.
"Daryl?" No answer "Daryl?" she calls to him again. Moments later he comes out with nothing.
"It aint her."
"What's in there?" I ask him
"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Aint that what he called it?" He briefly explained. Off in the distance, everyone hears church bells ringing. Everyone looks at each other and takes off in the direction from witch the ringing is coming from. As we continued to run, the bells sounded like they were coming form various directions. We all stop trying to pinpoint where they were actually coming from.
"Witch direction?" Shane asks.
"I think its coming from that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick looks forward.
"Its hard to tell out here."
"If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too." Me and Carol add.
"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn points out.
"Or signaling that they found her?" I consider the possibilities.
"She could be ringing them herself. Come on." Rick opposed. We all continue to run forward. Running and running, we emerge from the woods and spot a big white building, this was the church from witch the bell ringing was coming from.
"That cant be it. Got no steeple, no bells." Shane points out. Rick ignores him and moves forward. He eventually begins to run again, as did the rest of us, cutting across a cemetery. We all reach the church out of breath. Rick and Daryl go up to the main entrance. The rest of us wait at the bottom of the stairs as they swing open the big red doors. The three figures inside the church slowly turn around, reviling that they were walkers. Rick walks to the left side of the room as one walker approaches him. I hand Daryl my machete, he takes it and hands me his crossbow, taking the right side or the room. Leaving Shane to take the middle. Rick kills his walker in an instant. Shane stabs his walker in the head without breaking a sweat. Daryl approaches his female walker, getting her attention by making kissing sounds. With one strong swing of the machete, he just about cuts the walker's head in half. It falls forward to him as he jumps back, not wanting it to touch him.
"Sophia!" Rick yells out. Daryl walks to the front, up to the alter. I heard him mumble something to the Jesus Christ statue but I couldn't make out what it was.
"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. Its got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane looked at Rick, unsatisfied. Right then, the bells begin to ring again. It was for sure here. The bells were so loud. It couldn't have been anywhere else. Daryl bolts out the door as Glenn and I follow along with the rest of the group. Outside Daryl spots the bell ringing. It was an automated bell. Not a real one. Glenn checks the circuit box and cut the power to the ringing.
"A timer. Its on a timer." Daryl informs everyone.
"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol speaks out, heading back inside the church. It just seemed the everyone's hopes of finding Sophia had been crushed. She was nowhere to be seen. Everyone spreads around to rest. We been at this for half the day now. We were all exhausted. Daryl and I switch back weapons. I take out a water bottle from out pack and hand it to him.
"Thanks." He downs almost half the bottle in one, to two gulps. Boy was he thirsty.
"If we don't find her today-"
"We will." He cuts me off, knowing what I was about to say.
"Do you have any idea where she could be?" I ask.
"From last I saw, she should still be by the creek." He pauses "Lets go inside. Its hot as hell out here." The both of us go in the church, it was a bit cooler than outside, but not much. Still, it was better than staying out in the blazing sun.
Inside the church, I saw Carol up at the alter speaking to the statue. With Daryl and I being in the back, I couldn't hear a word she was saying. It was very faint. Shortly Lori comes in and has a seat at the very front. While we waited, I looked around the church. Though it wasn't much and was defiantly not the time to think about it. I couldn't help but imagine Daryl and i finally getting married. I know it will never happen. But still, its something that kept a smile on me face.
"What are you smiling about?" Daryl asks. I didn't realize that, that smile actually came across my face. I didn't know what to tell him, it was not the place or time to be smiling about anything.
"Um, nothing."
"Your lying." He pushed on, for me to tell him.
"I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Stuff."
"Anything I should know about?" I debated whether I should even bring up the subject about marriage. I never talked to him about it before. Simply because Merle was always around. And now that he's gone and I can see Daryl slowly becoming his own person. I couldn't decide to tell him.
"If I told you. You'd probably just brush it off, or get angry. And I don't want nether, not right now." He narrowed his eyes looking at me.
"Try me." He pushed.
"Oh trust me, I don't think I wanna go their now."
"Its to late. You already brought it up." The more he was pushing me to tell him, the more I wanted to just give in. I took a deep breath. I looked at him for a moment. I saw that he was waiting for me to start speaking.
"Now is not the time to talk about it." His expression drops.
"Your kidding?"
"No. I'm not. It's really not the time to talk about it." Everyone begins to make their way outside. I was gonna follow when Daryl grabs my arm.
"What's so damn important that you wont even tell me. Are you pregnant?"
"No. Daryl it hasn't even been long enough for me to find out. Besides even if I was, you probably hate me for it." He reminds silent. "And no, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about in the first place." I walk out to join the group, they were all standing under the shade of a tree. A few feet away Rick and Shane were talking to each other. I join the group and seconds later, Daryl was standing behind me. Rick and Shane finish their conversation.
"Ya'll gonna follow the creek bed back. Okay. Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."
"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl questions Shane's decisions.
"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."
"I want to stay, too. I'm her friend." Carl spoke up. Rick and Shane look at each other, then back at Carl.
"Just be careful." Lori gives him the okay.
"I will."
"When did you start growing up?" She gives him a hug. Rick approches her and gives her a kiss.
"I'll be along soon enough. Here, take this." Rick hands her his only gun. "Remember how to use it?" Lori shakes her head.
"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Daryl steps to her handing her the extra gun he had found earlier.
"Here, got a spare. Take it." Lori looks at Daryl in a way I've never seen before. In a thankful way. She takes the gun. He and I begin to walk away as the others follow. I look at him.
"That was sweet of you." I tease him
"Rick offered her a gun. She refused cuz she didn't want to leave him unarmed. Figured I give her the spare. I sure as hell aint gonna need it." He looks at me, pointing his head at my berretta. "And you have yours." I smile at him as we continued to walk.
It was already passed mid-day as we continued to walk through the woods. Nobody said anything. Until Carol did.
"So this is it? This the whole plan?" I looked behind me and saw Carol resting on a log.
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl answered her question leaning up against a tree.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea opposed. She looks over at Lori. "I see you have a gun." She then looked over at me with her bitchy attitude "And I know you do Gwen. That berretta you found in the arsenal." How the hell did she know I got it from the arsenal.
"Why do you want mine? Here take it." Lori leaned up giving Andrea the gun. "I'm sick of the looks your giving me." She wasn't the only one. Andrea takes the gun. Lori sits down on the same log Carol is resting on.
"Honey, cant imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick….." She pauses and looks at me "And Gwen. It is in your face every time you look at them. When Sophia ran, nether of them hesitated did they? Not for a second. I don't know that ether any one of us would have gone after the way they did. Or make the hard decision that Rick had to make that anybody could have done it any differently. Anyone else?" Nobody answers. "Ya'll look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori took a drink out of her water. Nobody said anything for a moment.
"Rick, aint the only one who's been blamed for not being perfect." I point out. Informing that it was Daryl who's been blamed for many things. When all he really wants to do, is do his best to keep everyone satisfied without having them bitch at him. Andrea hands Lori back the gun, she takes it.
"We should keep moving." Lori and Carol get up as they walk in our direction. Daryl looks at me to keep moving. I do as he followed. Not long after we continued our walk, we hear a gun shot echo in the distance. It didn't sound far from were we where. Something didn't feel right.