Lizzie and Carl stood in front of the house near the one they were in, looking over its size and calculating how much they could retrieve from it.

"We both know how this works, don't we?" Lizzie asked while keeping her gaze upon the house.

"…Yeah." Carl flatly and quickly replied. After what had happened between them, he really didn't have much to say to her.

"Well, alright then." Lizzie acknowledged as she proceeded to move forward towards the house. Carl followed shortly afterwards, still keeping a somewhat tense expression on his face.

The two made their way to the porch and Lizzie slowly and carefully, reached her hand to the front doorknob and turned it.

"Door's open." She whispered. "Go in, grab everything we can and then get out…" Lizzie went to open the door. "Ladies first, am I right?" She briefly turned back to Carl to sort of lighten the mood, but she found that he still had a tense look on his freckled face.

"…Carl!"

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Carl finally responded. "No wait, no. I'll go in first." He said as he moved for the door. Lizzie's hand was on the knob, ready to turn it. He couldn't think of anything else but nod, and she quickly opened the door, as he quickly entered the house, gun raised. Lizzie followed shortly after. Carl gave another quick nod to Lizzie, signaling for them to disperse and find supplies. He quickly began to shuffle towards the living room while Lizzie briefly stood there, directing a questioning look at Carl before heading upstairs herself.

Lizzie shuffled about the area carefully. She clutched her gun with both hands, her two pointer fingers lightly touching the trigger, ready to press down on it should any surprises come along. She could pass for a cop the way she looked, or maybe even a super spy, she thought. She went into one room and made a quick sweep. She closed the door, just in case, and looked around the room for anything to take. She found that the room was quite barren. There were no photos, posters, or accessories of any kind, just a bed and an empty desk. This wasn't the first time Lizzie had been in such a room, but in spite of that, or probably because of that, she was beginning to wonder if people had their priorities straight when everything first started. After all, it would be quite impractical to pack in all those stuff and things when you could have more weapons or at least less weight on you. She then went into the room's closet and found that there was quite an abundance of clothing. Based off of those, it appeared to Lizzie that the former inhabitant was a teenage girl, probably a little older than she. Lizzie took two shirts and a pair of pants and packed them. She made her way out of the room and briefly retook her guarded stance before heading into the next room. This room was more barren the last; all there was, was a computer sitting there, somewhat staring back at her. Lizzie remembered the old days, when she would randomly browse the Internet in her free time, looking at random information and random blogs. How carefree she was back then, she thought to herself. She then left the room, empty handed, and proceeded to walk to the next room she saw. She didn't have her guarded stance on this time and walked straight; it didn't look like there would be anything that would jump out on her anyway. But when she opened the door to the next room however, she found a corpse lying on a bed. She gasped and twitched upon seeing it, and then afterwards looked to her left and saw another corpse. It looked like a teenage girl, perhaps the one whose clothes she took. It had a bite on its arm and a bullet in its head. Lizzie looked sadly upon it. What if that could be Mika in the future? What if that could be her? And she suddenly remembered, didn't she hear Tyreese say something about Carol having a daughter? She then directed her attention towards the corpse on the bed. Long blonde hair still flowed from its decaying head, while clothing was intact on its decaying body. It might have once been the teenage girl's mother. But she really wouldn't know. But what Lizzie did know was that to her, this corpse reminded her of her mother. It was an even sadder sight to Lizzie. As much as she had made peace with it, her mother's death and its circumstances were a brutal symbol of the regret, sadness and anger that she had in her heart ever since everything started. She holstered her gun and reached out and put a hand on the corpse. Funerals and casket burials were dead institutions now, so that was her way of paying her respects. She took an audible deep breath before removing her hand from the corpse. But as she did, it suddenly sprung back to life and grabbed her by the wrist. The dead woman had turned out to be undead. Lizzie cursed under her breath as she fought hard to keep the walker from bringing her wrist to its mouth. After a short struggle, Lizzie quickly grabbed her knife and stabbed it in the head. Now, the corpse truly was a corpse. But just as Lizzie was catching her breath, she heard a noise coming from a closed door in the room. She clutched her knife as she carefully approached the door. After a moment's tenseness, she opened it. It was a bathroom, with a white curtain covering the shower and a square mirror complementing the sink. But there was nothing in sight. After making sure of that by looking into the shower, Lizzie found that the noise she heard was from knickknacks on the bathroom window that were sounded off by the outside breeze. Lizzie sighed in relief at the false alarm, but she suddenly felt a hand grab her shoulder. She rapidly turned back with a loud gasp but found that it was just Carl.

"…I saw the mess here." He said after a few rather awkward moments.

"…No kidding…" She replied flatly in spite of her more pronouncedly loud breathing.

"Are you okay?"

Lizzie nodded shakily. "Yeah." She simply said.

"Well…I couldn't find much here… We'll have to go to the next house."

"…Alright… Let's go." She concurred while straightening up.

Lizzie turned the knob of the front door to the other house but it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked." She said, and she began digging her hands into her pockets.

"Wait. I think I can handle this." Carl thought out loud as he began to back away.

"What?" A perplexed Lizzie inquired, but just as she did, Carl began to charge towards the door, apparently in an attempt to knock it down. The attempt failed and Carl soon found himself lying on his back on the ground. Lizzie chuckled at this and took two paper clips from her pockets. She unfolded them and then used them to pick the lock.

"Men. Everything the hard way." Lizzie joked, but Carl just looked blankly and picked himself up.

"Ladies first." Carl gestured after a short but rather awkward silence. Lizzie held her gun and went in, with Carl following shortly after. She didn't understand. It wasn't too long ago that they would laugh about something like what had just happened. What was it that made him act so cold towards her, she thought. Was it something about her confession? Was it something about their kiss?

"Same thing? Me on top and you under?" She asked, thinking nothing, for now, of the questions she held in her.

"Yeah." Carl softly said. And the two made their ways to their respective areas.

"That kinda came out wrong, didn't it?" Lizzie asked, making another attempt at putting a touch of humor. But all she got in response was a very light and "blink and you'll miss it" smile from Carl. She was thinking to herself, why was she the one making the bad jokes now?

As Lizzie began to make her way upstairs, Carl looked through the kitchen. Thankfully for him, he was able to find more than he did in the previous house. Searching through the cupboards, he found jars of peanut butter and strawberry jelly, canned macaroni, canned mushroom soup, corned beef and even a nice and sharp kitchen knife. Carl couldn't help but grin at the comparatively better luck he had in this other house, and he hadn't even searched through the pantry yet. He went and opened its door, but was suddenly ambushed by a walker. It pinned him to the ground and crunched maniacally at Carl, who was using all his strength to keep its teeth from touching his skin. Fortunately, Carl still had the kitchen knife he had found in his free hand, and so he dug his other arm against the walker's neck, elevating it just enough for him to get a clear shot and drive the knife into its skull. Carl sighed in relief as he got back up and removed the knife, and then found Lizzie, who was just about to intervene, standing by the stairs, having just lowered her gun.

"So…" Lizzie began. "I saw the mess here." She joked with a smile. But Carl only looked at her blankly while breathing heavily.

"Did you find anything?" He asked seriously. Lizzie sighed, her smile disappearing into it.

"Not much. I was only in one room when I heard the noise." She replied.

"…You should go back up then." Carl instructed, beginning to turn away. "I still have to look for stuff in the pantry."

"Carl." Lizzie called, just as his back turned to her. He turned his face just sideways enough for him to acknowledge her. "Is there something you need to say to me?"

A moment passed without him answering.

"…You should look upstairs." He finally replied, and he turned away to go look into the pantry, as Lizzie sighed and made her way upstairs.

Lizzie grabbed whatever clothes she could. Apparently, the family that lived in this house had children her age, a boy and a girl. It also apparently had a baby, as she also picked up a shirt that she knew would fit Judith. She rummaged some more through the rooms and found something she never thought would be relevant to her after everything started. She found an iPod. At seeing it, she remembered how she would always study hard for math tests to try and get her parents to buy her one. It had been so long; she couldn't even remember what model it was. She picked the tiny music box up. The earphones were still plugged in, and it was time for the moment of truth. She pressed the button on top of its upper left corner, and low and behold, it turned on. The time said 2:22, but Lizzie wondered if that was actually the time. It didn't matter. She smiled as she shook her head and pocketed the little music box.

In the forest, a walker was shambling, as lifeless as the corpse it really was. But as it walked, something captured its attention, and it then began to snarl and shamble faster. But it's shambling was met with a machete slicing through its head. Carol fought through the nagging pain on her shoulder. Why, she asked herself, did she have to be right handed? Carol tendered and stretched it out as she saw Tyreese take on an incoming walker and bash its head repeatedly with his hammer. Carol looked uneasy at seeing this, but not afraid.

"You're welcome." She said rather nonchalantly as she continued walking.

"Excuse me?" Tyreese replied with a rather resentful tone.

"I was the one that got that hammer. I was gracious enough to give it to you since that axe would always get stuck in their heads."

"I don't have to thank you for nothing…" Tyreese replied blankly, the blank but angry expression on his face unchanging.

"You sure she ran through here." Carol asked after a short silence.

Tyreese nodded in reply. "Yeah. You can see the footprints if you look hard enough."

They continued to walk on. It had been a while since Lizzie ran away. They wanted to search as soon as they could, but Carol needed to heal.

"Yeah I see them…and others too. Looks like she had company."

"You think they got her?"

"No!" Carol asserted. "We'd find a body if they did…" And the two walked on.

That may have been her reasoning, but Carol had other reasons for why she felt in her gut that Lizzie was still out there, alive…

Carl sat on the couch, having arrived back at the house after his and Lizzie's run, slicing open a can of beans. Lizzie came and sat beside him.

"Look what I've got." She said, showing him the iPod she had found. But Carl was silent, moving his head around but not speaking. Lizzie sadly sighed, and proceeded to get up.

"What model is it?" Carl finally asked. Lizzie turned around and saw an uneasy expression on his face. She had to admit she found it kind of cute.

"I don't know." She said, looking over the device. "I'd ask you the same thing."

Carl laughed lightly. "Which house did you find it in?"

"The second one…" Lizzie replied.

"…Cool."

The conversation, as great as it was to be having one, was awkward. That much was obvious to both of them. It was nothing like the ones they would have before in the prison, or right before Lizzie admitted to what she did.

"I'll…uh…I'll get you a bowl for that…" Lizzie finally said after a short lull.

"No," Carl interrupted as she began to turn to the kitchen. "I'll get it."

He stood up and began making his way to the kitchen, but stopped for a while when he reached where Lizzie was standing.

"You should…you should sit. I'll get one for you too."

"Thanks." Lizzie said sweetly, and she noticed that Carl was lightly holding her arm. He then he continued to the kitchen.

They ate beside each other on the couch. It was silent, the loudest sound being that of spoons scraping the bowls. Lizzie looked out the window behind them and noticed the sky was beginning to darken. Apparently, the iPod indeed had the wrong time on it.

"It's gonna be dark soon." She pointed out, breaking the silence in the process.

Carl looked out the window as well. "…It's gonna rain soon…" He added in a worried tone. He turned back to Lizzie.

"Why? What's wrong?" Lizzie asked.

"Okay…" Carl began. "I think what we have now can only last us so long, so we're gonna have to spread it out over a few days, and I was thinking, we should have something for us each day so we that we won't…you know, go hungry…"

"So you're saying…" Lizzie interrupted.

"I'm saying we should hunt. I mean, there are a lot of things to go around here, squirrels and whatnot, but if it rains…" Carl looked worriedly at the darkening sky.

"They'll hide. Shelter themselves. And we're not trackers…we won't find them."

"And, we won't really be able to do much in rain anyway," Lizzie added. "I got it. When are we heading out?"

"Let's go as soon as we can…now." Carl asserted, and he got up to prepare for the impromptu hunt.

"Carl." Lizzie called out, and Carl turned back to face her. She took a deep breath.

"I know that it wasn't easy for you, to keep someone like me around, especially after what I did. I don't know if you're just saving me for later, or if you've somehow decided to…to spare me, but I just wanted to say thank you."

Lizzie found the courage to look directly at Carl.

"I know that what I did was bad, and I may not want to die, but I know I deserve to… So thanks. For giving me a little more time…"

Carl ponderingly looked down for a moment. "Get ready." He said, his voice heavy. "We're going hunting." He quipped as best as he could with as best a smile as he could muster, and he made his way upstairs.

After a moment of staring, Lizzie inhaled deeply through her nose and leaned forward, resting her arms on her lap and clasping her hands together. She looked down on the ground and let the tears fall.

Carol and Tyreese arrived back at the house. Mika was standing in front of them as they came in.

"Still didn't find her?" She asked meekly.

"No." Carol sadly replied. "The trail went cold honey."

"You're gonna try again tomorrow, right?"

"Of course we are. Don't worry." She assured her. "…How is everyone?"

"Luke and Molly still won't come out. They're still scared of you… And Judith, she's just being Judith…"

Carol nodded uneasily. "Alright… Tell them we're gonna be having dinner soon… We brought squirrel…"

Mika nodded and then proceeded upstairs.

"You should set up a fire outside." Carol told Tyreese.

"Looks like it's gonna rain soon…"

"I picked up shade on a run." Carol stated before moving for the living room as Tyreese slowly nodded.

"Sure we'll continue looking again?" He followed up, and Carol turned to face him.

"Look, I know the trail didn't cold enough for us to lose her, but Carol, it just goes on and on. We'll be miles away from here by the time we find her, if we find her."

"I think it's worth looking for her regardless, don't you think?" Carol fiercely replied.

"You can rest for a while. I'll help you with the fire when it's time." She added.

Without a word, Tyreese made his way to the living room and put his gun, hammer and other equipment on the side table. Carol put away her machete as well. She took out her gun, and after briefly uneasily staring at Tyreese for a moment, put it on the side desk as well, and switched her route to upstairs.

Elsewhere, Rick Grimes took several guns from display. He had hit the jackpot when he found a weapons and ammunitions shop on the road. After stocking his car with the much-needed weapons, including hand guns, semi-automatics, and a sniper rifle, he went back in, and continued to drive on. While the tracks he was following were faded, they were still visible. Thank God for that…

Lizzie and Carl made their way through the forest. It was pretty dark, and their vision was limited, but thankfully it wasn't non-existent.

"Are we actually good at throwing knifes?" Lizzie suddenly remembered. "I mean, we can use them, but can we throw them?"

"Well…the idea I guess is to creep up on them, so they won't see us coming."

"…So you don't know how to throw knifes?"

"…No."

Lizzie giggled at this, and surprisingly for her, so did Carl.

"All that time we spent with Daryl, and you never got him to teach you that? Or at least about how to hunt…"

"I think he did share some things with me, but I think I forgot it all…"

They chuckled some more, until they heard a rustle in the bushes. Carl and Lizzie put on their game faces and followed the noise. It was a rabbit, foraging on the ground. They both held their knives as tried their best to creep up on it. After a moment, Carl took a deep breath and lunged. Whether it was because it had exceptionally quick reflexes or because Carl had gone wrong somewhere, the rabbit escaped into the bush, leaving Carl face down on the forest floor. Lizzie tried to follow the rabbit, but it was just too quick.

"We'll have to split up." Carl asserted. "We'll meet back here." He proceeded to then carve an X on the nearest tree. They then dispersed.

Carl went one way, and tried to take in the sounds of woodland creatures and pinpoint their locations. It was a tall order, something only the likes of Daryl could accurately pull off, but he did his best. He followed the sound of where he though he heard a twig snap, and whether it was by luck or skill, he found a squirrel. It was just making its way up a tree, unaware, and Carl slowly made his way towards it, doing his best to sneak up on it. But he kept his attention too much on the squirrel and ended up stepping on another twig. The snapping sound was enough to startle the squirrel, and it quickly made a run for farther up the tree. Carl, hoping for a miracle, threw his knife at the tree, but it just clanged and bounced off of it, having gotten nowhere near the squirrel. Carl cursed under his breath.

Meanwhile, Lizzie wandered through the forest as well, keeping her eyes and ears open for any signs of potential food. From a distance, she though she heard a noise. She followed where she thought she heard it and went to investigate. Just like with Carl, she lucked out and could see movement behind a bush. She pushed the bush, knife ready, but found that the animal behind it was a bobcat…a fully-grown bobcat that noticed her, took a defensive stance and growled at her. Lizzie was practically frozen solid. She knew that these were capable of taking down deer, what more a girl like her? Trying her best to remember what she heard she should do when encountering an animal like this, she straightened herself and kept eye contact with it. Don't make yourself look vulnerable, she thought. And please let there not be any walkers, she also thought. Finally, after a stare down, the bobcat finally moved away, and Lizzie let one big sigh of relief.

Carl picked up his knife and turned to leave, but was slightly startled at the sight of a rattlesnake slithering by. A lot of animals have been turning up, he thought to himself. He slowly crept up to the snake, but suddenly it turned to him, directing its venomous eyes at him. Carl prayed that its venomous teeth wouldn't sink themselves into him. After a tense moment, Carl heard the rattlesnake's signature warning rattle and eagerly took its offer and backed away.

Lizzie continued to look through the forest floor and up at the trees and then saw, up in a canopy, a barn owl. It was an absolutely magnificent creature, she thought, but she needed its meat, and it had its head turned, so it was fair game. She took out her gun, with the silencer fastened at its tip, and took aim. But in true Murphy's Law form, the owl suddenly did its famous 360o head turn, and pretty much caught Lizzie red handed, startling her. Before she could react though, the owl suddenly started to fly towards her. With a scream, Lizzie fell back to the ground, and then turned over to see the owl on the floor, having grabbed a mouse. Before Lizzie could react, the owl flew away with its kill.

Carl continued looking for something, anything to bring back. He had already defied the "third time's the charm" rule, and was beginning to get desperate. He searched through the woods, and found what looked like a pure godsend: a deer. With complete eagerness, he took out his gun, and made his way toward the grazing creature. But for some ungodly reason, a noise, not Carl's, sounded out and grabbed the deer's attention, startling it and causing it to run away.

"FUCK!" Carl grunted, but he had grown more desperate. While the deer was still in sight, he made the split-second decision to chase after it. He chased it a certain distance, but couldn't keep up, and eventually the deer ran into a rather deep part of the forest. Still desperate, Carl moved to follow it.

"Don't!" Lizzie warned, grabbing his arm. "We don't know what else is out there."

But then, they heard the very last sound they wanted to hear: snarling. Lizzie quickly grabbed Carl and hid them behind a tree. They heard the sounds of the walker's feet hitting the ground, and tried to remain as silent as they could.

But as they hid, Lizzie saw something: a chipmunk. Her eyes blanked out in a way, and her expression looked a little more unhinged. Carl noticed this, and followed her gaze to the chipmunk. He knew why Lizzie was staring at it the way she did, but was hoping she would do anything irrational. That wasn't the case though, and before he knew it, Lizzie began running after it.

"Shit. Lizzie! LIZZIE!" Carl screamed as he ran after her.

But it seemed as if Lizzie was on some kind of adrenaline rush, and she somehow managed to keep pace with the rodent. She was able to scare it off of trees and keep sight of it. Carl did his best to keep up, trying to get to her. God knows what could happen to her if she gets even a tad reckless. Another walker ambushed him, Lizzie might have been too fast for it, but Carl simply pressed his gun against its chin and shot it. Another one made a go at him, but he pinned it to a tree and shot it as well.

"Lizzie!" He continued to call out, but it was as if she was numb. She was going to chase that chipmunk to the ends of the world if she had to. It was dark, and Carl could barely see in the forest, but thankfully it was at least bright enough for him to see Lizzie's fresh footprints. Thank God for that.

Finally, the chipmunk started to make its way up a large tree. Lizzie wouldn't be able to get it out of this one. Carl had managed to catch up to her. At this point, his calling of her name was beginning to get to her. The chipmunk was getting farther up the tree, it was going to be beyond her sight soon, and Lizzie, in one last burst of frustration, threw her knife at the tree.

She breathed heavily and turned to see Carl staring in shock. She had a fierce, almost scary, expression on her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her hair was messy, which made her look even scarier. She walked away, brushing past Carl, who continued to stare forward in shock and awe. He then walked over to the tree. The chipmunk was dead. The knife had stabbed it right through the center of its body.

A/N: So, yeah. Sorry for taking a while to update. You know how exams are... Well in retrospect, it did take me a week, which is kind of how long it takes for Walking Dead episodes to come by...hehe... (excuses, excuses. I know...)
So for the upcoming chapters, I'll be paying tribute to season 3 in a way. But don't worry. This story is very much set in the second half of season 4. You'll find that out for sure soon enough!