Just thought I'd let you know that I edited the first chapter, its more or less the same.

For an exceptionally long moment, the mismatched trio just stared at each other.

Carl offered the gun back to Daryl. The simple movement of reaching out his arm, then wrapping his fingers around the barrel put Daryl's mind back into cognitive abilities.

All I have to do is keep them from getting eaten until the rest of the group comes back, which will be at most a few hours. I can do that.

Being the only responsible adult no longer seemed so daunting when Daryl thought about it that way.

The darkness was menacing, threatening them with its secrets of un-presented danger.

"Let's make sure we're alone here," he said.

He said that to a pair of children in an abandoned, boarded up house.

Stay close died somewhere in the back of Daryl's throat when he realized how wrong that came out. Hopefully the creepiness was as lost on them as the Deliverance quote was.

The lighter was held inches from the gun, (the gun being the primary weapon only because he could hold it along with the lighter) the kids were on his heels as they moved their way stealthily down the hallway.

In an instant they were submerged in darkness. Sophia screamed at the suddenness of being fully blind, not full pitch but loud enough.

"Hush" Daryl said harshly.

Sophia was lucky he couldn't see her or he might have just given her a good cuff upside the head.

The faint clicking could hardly be heard over Daryl's string of rather creative curses. He must have run his thumb over the small wheel a hundred times before a stable flame lit up again. They carried on along the house, finding nothing more than shadows and hearing nothing more then their heartbeat in their own ears. The house was as desolate as it promised.

The den on the second floor was the best place for them to wait. The large street ward facing windows were uncovered, allowing the moonlight to make the room slightly visible, allowing Daryl to re-pocket the lighter, conserving its dying last breaths and more importantly giving a vantage point of the street; a clear view of nothing. His eyes swept over every inch of ominous suburbia. Absolute nothing. They were one hundred percent on their own.

"You guys should try and get some sleep," he told them.

They all settled down on the sectional sofa; Carl took the end bit and Sophia lie on the next part so that their heads were huddled together. Daryl sat on top of the couch, looking out the street. At camp he rightfully got out of nightly watch duty because he did all the hunting, (another smaller reason was that no one wanted his hair-trigger temper to be even more unstable with sleep deprivation) tonight however he was the only one available. Its not like Daryl was going to sleep anyway, not when a jumbled mess of thoughts was going to keep him awake.

The most prominent was still the pressure of looking after Carl and Sophia. If anything happened to either of those two, it would be entirely on him. Daryl was not overly fond of anyone in their group but he caught himself wishing for anyone else to be with him right now even if that meant taking orders from Rick or Shane.

Then again if someone else were here he wouldn't need to be. If it weren't for these kids, this could've been the push he needed to break away from the group for good.

When they had headed out to the CDC, Daryl had come so close to throwing his truck around and going back to the quarry even though it would be wait for someone who was never going to come back. Merle should have hands down beaten them back to camp. And that's what had kept him from turning around. Merle had abandoned him.

You don't do that to family.

In keeping with routine, Carl said his prayers. Not to disturb Sophia who could be sleeping for all he knew, he said them in his head. Mom, plus his Sunday school teacher had told him that God could always hear them. He hoped they all were right because Carl really needed God to hear his prayers tonight.

Please God he started that way because it was a desperate situation.

Let my parents be unhurt and safe. And let everyone else be safe and unhurt too.

Exhausted by all the action and nerves and so comforted by his prayers that Carl could feel himself already about to slip off to sleep. Before that happened he did manage to finish with what he always did nowadays:

Keep the dead out.

Sophia would've given anything to be on her hard foamy in her tent with her most prized possession, Eliza's doll hugged right up against her and with her mom within arm's reach.

She didn't know where her mom was or even if she was alive. What if Sophia never got to see her mom again?

Her throat began to close up on her. Sophia tried to stop thinking about her mom. If she started crying, Daryl would get mad at her. That didn't stop her distress. It made it worse. Sophia was scared of Daryl.

She buried her face in the plushy couch cushion to stifle the sound of her cries.

Sophia's sobs did not fall on deaf ears.

The sound grated his nerves. Daryl knew he should try and do something for her but he hadn't a clue as to what. The most experience he had with children was the time he had held his cousin's baby at his uncle's third wedding.

Daryl started biting his index fingernail because his thumbnail had been bitten down to nothing.

Morning could not come soon enough.

Author's note:

Special Thanks to those who reviewed: Willow The Collie, SeekersTF4 Azalia Fox Knightling Lenora and last but not least the mysterious Anonymous. Thank you all so much. You drove me to put up the second chapter as quick as I could. Reviews are always much appreciated.

I have wrote a checklist of responsibilities for Daryl. Be excited for that in upcoming chapters.

Also there is a poll on my page, go and take, I'm playing with a couple of ideas for the story so I decided to see what you guys would like, results are hidden so you'll be surprised.

As always thanks for reading, subscribing and faving