I sat on the hood of the car with my bow in my land hand as I gazed around the night sky. Dale was ontop of the RV keeping watch. The door to the RV opened and Daryl came out, crossbow on his back, gun in his belt, looking hot as ever.
"I'm going to take a walk." He annouced up to Dale. "Shine some light in the forest. If she's out there, give her something to look out."
"I'll come too." I said, jumping off the car.
"Be careful, Sutton." Dale said.
"I always am." I began to walk down from the highway and into the forest, eager to actually be moving, with Daryl behind me. The forest was black and silent. A little way into it we reached a fork in the earth path and we decided to take the left path. We walked in silence, our eyes on the ground most of the time but occasionally flickered over to one another. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot on the ground. I could hear running water and thought of the creek we were walking along before. I kept looking over my shoulder making sure no walkers were behind us. "You really think we're gonna find Sophia?"
"You got that look on your face same as everybody else." Daryl scoffed and my head snapped in his direction, my blue eyes searching his face for an explanation. "What the hell is wrong with you people? We just started looking."
"Well, do you?"
"It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."
"She's only 12."
"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak."
"They found you?"
"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwhich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful." I couldn't help but laugh through a closed mouth. At least I tried to stop from laughing but I was unsuccessful.
"That is a terrible story." I laughed again and this Daryl joined in with me, letting out a smooth, gravely huff.
"Only difference is Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage." A rustling noise sounded to the right of us and Daryl immediately raised his crossbow and stood in front of me, looking in the direction of the noise. I slowly yanked an arrow from my quiver and placed the end of it to the bow string. He slowly made his way through the forest towards the sound with me behind him, trending softly over the forest floor. We came across a camp site that looked abandoned for quite some time. The tree tops shivered, the leaves whispering to one another and we made our way to the tree in the middle of the camp. "What the hell?" We approached the tree and found a walker dangling from a branch with a rope around its neck, arm extended, snapping its jaws at us. Its legs from the knee down were torn apart to the part where there was nothing left of the legs. Daryl discovered a note on the tree and began to read it. "Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit. Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess." I didn't mind looking at it but I guess the sight of the walker hanging up there and being torn apart triggered a mechanism in my stomach. My stomach tossed and turned, throwing around all the stomach acid in me. I could feel it wanting to escape my stomach as it burned my chest. I groaned and looked down at the ground. "You all right?"
"Trying not to puke."
"Go ahead if you gotta."
"No, I'm fine. Let's just talke about something else for a minute. How did you learn to shoot?"
"How did you learn to shoot?"
"I asked you first."
"Gotta eat. That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Hanging up there like a big pinata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." That did it. The stomach acid scorched my throat and I throw up. I coughed and stood back up.
"I thought we were changing the subject."
"Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass." I glared at him and wiped my mouth.
"There wasn't a lot that came up."
"Huh. Let's head back."
"Wait." Daryl stopped and turned to me. I raised my bow and pulled back the string and fired the arrow into the walker's head.
"Waste of an arrow."
"It wasn't a waste if it was worth it. Come on." I started walking back to the highway and Daryl fell into pace beside me. We walked in silence for a couple of minutes until he spoke up.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Depends on the question."
"Do you believe in love?" I looked over at him in shock. Did Daryl Dixon really ask me if I believe in love? "Just a question." I sighed.
"No. I don't believe in love. It's all chemicals in the brain. The brain decides when you fall for someone, the brain tells you when you want to have sex or when to be jealous. You never really get to decide for yourself."
"But somewhere in all those chemicals, you have some actions to make. Don't you have a choice to make those actions?" I looked over at him, knowing that he was right.
"Come on. I don't like being out here at night."
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We rode out to the farm the next morning. It was on the other side of the forest, secluded from the rest of the world. There were pastures with cows fenced in. A barn off in the distant and stables behind the two story white house. The rest of the group had made camp under some trees when we approached them. We pulled up to the white house and parked in the front lawn. I climbed out of the RV as Rick, Lori and T-Dog came out of the house with a few other people behind them.
"How is he?" Dale asked Rick and Lori, coming out of the RV behind me.
"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people." Lori said.
"And Shane." Rick added. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Dale stepped forward to hug Rick and Carol went over to hug Lori.
"How'd it happen?" Dale asked.
"Hunting accident. That's all-just a stupid accident."
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"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked as we huddled around the Cherokee, looking at a map.
"This'll be day three." Rick said.
"County survey map." Maggie, a name I came to learn, said, pointing to the map. "Shows terrain and elevations.
"This is perfect." Rick said. "We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."
"Not you." Hershel protested. "Not today. You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." He turned and looked at Shane. "And your ankle-push it now, you'll be laid up for a month, no good to anybody."
"Guess it's just me and Sutton." Daryl said. "I say we head up to this creek, work our way from there."
"I can still be useful." Shane said. "I'll drive up to the interstate and see if Sophia wandered back."
"All right, tomorrow then." Rick insisted. "We'll start doing this right."
"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them."
"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property." Hershel said. "We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."
"With all do respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." Rick cut him off.
"Look, we're guests here." Rick butted in. "This is your property and we will respect that." Rick pulled his gun from his holster and laid it down on the hood of the car. Shane sighed and slammed his gun down on the hood too. "First thing's first: Set camp, look for Sophia."
"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we all should be clear on how we handle that."
"You do what has to be done."
"And her mother?" Maggie questioned Rick. "What do you tell her?"
"The truth." Andrea said.
"I'll gather and secure all the weapons." Shane annouced. "Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." We all looked at Hershel for an answer while he pondered the request for a moment.
"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Hershel slowly nodded his head in approval. "Thank you." Daryl softly nudged my arm with his elbow.
"Come on." He muttered and I followed him to get ready to go search for Sophia again.
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Daryl and I started to head off the farm towards the forest when Dale stopped us.
"Daryl!" Dale called out. "Sutton! I need you to come see something." Daryl and I looked at each other and he sighed as we followed Dale off to one of the wells on the property. The rest of the group crowded around the well and we looked down into it to see a fat ass, wrinkling looking walker hissing and growling in the water. "Looks like we've got us a swimmer."
"How long do you think it's been down there?" Glenn asked.
"Long enough to grow gills." Andrea answered.
"We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water." Lori said.
"We got to get it out." Shane annouced.
"Easy. Put a bullet in its head." T-Dog suggested. "I'll get a rope."
"Whoa whoa, guys. No." Maggie protested.
"Why not?" Glenn asked. "It's a good plan."
"It's a stupid plan." Andrea snapped. "If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job."
"She's right." Shane agreed. "Can't risk it."
"What about an arrow?" Daryl asked.
"Brain could still get into the water." I rejected the idea.
"So it has to come out alive?" T-Dog asked.
"So to speak." Shane said.
"How do we do that?" Glenn asked. Everybody looked over at me.
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"Have I mentioned that I really like your new haircut?" I asked Shane as he tightened the roped around me with me sitting on the edge of the well. "You have a nice shaped head."
"Don't worry about it, Sutton." Shane said. "We're gonna get you out of here in one piece."
"Living piece. That living part is important."
"This is insane." Daryl said. "You can't just lower her down in here."
"I agree with you there, Daryl, this is insane but I'm the lightest out of y'all." Everybody lined up and grabbed hold of the rope. Daryl was in the front, gripping the rope so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Nice and slow, please."
"We got you, Sutton." I internally moaned at the way my name slipped off his tongue.
"Oh, you people are crazy." Maggie stated as she stood off to the side, her arms over her chest.
"You want to get it out of your well or not?" Shane questioned her.
"Give us an eye there, Maggie." Dale ordered. I whimpered as I dropped into the well, the rope supporting me. I looked up at the sunlight, my gut telling me that this might be the last time I see it. I looked down and grimaced at the sight of the walker.
"Oh, God, it looks even uglier up close." I moaned.
"Don't look at it." I heard Shane say.
"Kind of have to." The familiar death smell clogged my synuses and I coughed. "It smells even worse too."
"Don't smell it."
"Once again, kind of have to." I held the lasso in my right hand, clinging to the rope that was holding me with my left.
"Doing ok?" Maggie asked me.
"Oh, yeah, I'm doing wonderful. Splendid. Best day of my life. It's not everyday you get lowered into a well to lasso a walker. Lovin' every second of it."
"Little lower. Little more." The walker snarled up at me as I got closer to it and the closer I got to it the more fear I felt and the more I wanted to pull up and curl up into Daryl's arms so he could protect me. Then the worse of the worst happened. The rope jerked and I suddenly fell a foot. The others yelled up top and then I fell to the point where my ass was about an inch above the walker's head. I screamed, fear taking over me as I kicked at the walker to get him away from me. The walker snatched at my legs, its jaws snapping, ready to tear and render my flesh and for a second, I could have sworn I felt teeth graze my leg. I was yelling and shouting and crying and screaming. I had never been so scared in my life.
"Get me out of here!" I frantically kicked my legs around to keep the walker away from me and to get it off of me. "Get it off. Get off. Get off! Get me out!" I gripped the rope tightly with both hands. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Guys, get me out! Daryl!" I felt a little reassurance behind his name but it quickly resided when the walker continued to frantically reach for me. "Come on, you guys. Get me out! Oh god. Oh god. Oh my god! Get me out of here!" I felt myself being lifted up, out of the walkers reach and I continued to cry and whimper to myself. "Get me out. Get me out. Come on. Come on. Get me out of here!"
"Pull her up! Pull her up!" The group yelled to each other.
"Sutton!" Daryl yelled out to me.
"Daryl!" I called back to him.
"Pull her up!" The others continued to yell. "Pull her up!" The edge of the well was finally in my reach and I scrambled to grab onto it and heaved myself over the edge. Daryl was over to my side in a second's notice, pulling me over. I climbed into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and buring my face into the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight against him, planting his face into my blonde hair.
"Are you ok?" Daryl whispered in my ear. I quickly nodded and pulled myself tighter against his chest. I never felt more safe than I did right there in his arms. His arms were like fortess around me.
"Back to the drawing board." Dale muttered. I looked up at him and stood up, leaving my protection down below.
"Says you." I snapped, handing him the rope that was tied around the walker before walking away.