THIS CHAPTER: Rick and Daryl searching for Sophia in the forest in the first episode of season two, "What Lies Ahead."
"You sure this is the spot?" Daryl peers under the brush that Rick had left Sophia underneath. Standing calf-deep in muddy, slow-moving water, he looks back at Rick curiously.
"I left her right here," Rick insists, voice tight with worry. They're losing daylight, and they haven't found Sophia. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek."
"Without a paddle," Daryl says dryly. "Seems where we've landed."
"She was gone by the time I got back here," Rick tells him. "I figured she just took off and ran back to the group." He points in the direction of the highway from the creek, sloshing in the water. "I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder."
"Hey, short round," Daryl barks at Glenn, standing up on the bank of the creek with Shane. "Why don't you step off to one side? You're muckin' up the trail!"
"Assumin' she knows her left from her right," Shane points out doubtfully to Rick.
"Shane, she understood me fine!" Rick says impatiently.
"Kid's tired and scared, man," Shane says grimly. "She had her a close call with two walkers. Gotta wonder how much of what you said stuck."
Daryl pulls their attention back to looking for signs. "Got clear prints right here. She did like you said, headed back to the highway. We spread out, make our way back," he directs the group. He reaches up and grabs Shane's hand, hefting himself up out of the water and onto the bank.
"Let's go," says Shane, "she couldn't've gotten far." He helps Rick up the bank. "Hey, we're gonna find her. She'll be tuckered out, hidin' in a bush somewhere." They follow Daryl through the trees until he slows, staring firmly at the ground, and stops to kneel.
"She was doin' just fine till right here," he mutters, perplexed. "All she had to do was keep goin'." He points off to the right. "Veered off that way."
"Why would she do that?" Glenn asks uneasily.
"Maybe she saw somethin'," Shane suggests, looking to Daryl for confirmation. "Spooked her. Made her run off."
"Walker," Glenn says with quiet dread.
Daryl shakes his head, unconvinced. "Don't see any other footprints, just hers."
"So what do we do?" asks Shane. "All of us press on?"
"No," Rick says. "Better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let 'em know we're on her trail doing everything we can, but most of all, keep everybody calm."
"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars," Shane agrees, "think up a few other chores. I can keep 'em occupied." He waves for Glenn to join him. "C'mon."
They set off for the highway, leaving Rick with Daryl. Daryl stands and follows Sophia's trail in the new direction, Rick tailing close behind. Soon enough, the tracks get harder to follow.
"The tracks are gone," says Rick in dismay.
"Nah," Daryl assures him, "they're faint, they ain't gone." He points. "She came through here."
"How can you tell?" asks the sheriff. "I don't see anything. Dirt, grass…"
"You want a lesson in tracking or you wanna find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl says tersely. He has no time to play teacher with Rick. They press on.
The sound of heavy footsteps on leaves has them dropping to a crouch. They move forward carefully, keeping low, as they get a walker in their sights. Daryl silently instructs Rick to distract it. Rick darts away and whistles at the walker like he would a dog. The walker turns to him, snarling, and Daryl shoots an arrow through its head from behind.
They come together over its body, Daryl yanking his arrow free and looking around at the forest. He sighs and calls for Sophia while Rick kneels by the corpse, donning a pair of work gloves and picking up one of the walker's hands.
"What're you lookin' for?" Daryl wonders.
"Skin under the fingernails."
Troubled, Daryl stoops to look closer with him. Rick turns the body over onto its back, observing its face. Fresh blood coats its mouth and teeth.
"It fed recently," Rick says. He pries the walker's mouth open further and tries to pull something from its teeth. He looks away as he does it, disgusted. "There's flesh caught in its teeth." He tugs the flesh free and holds it up to look at it.
"Yeah, what kind of flesh?" Daryl asks, leaning closer for a better look at Rick's find. Rick pauses, and takes a moment to look thoroughly unhappy with what has to happen next.
"Only one way to know for sure," he says. He takes out his knife and pulls the walker's shirt open.
Daryl touches his shoulder, stopping him. "Here, I'll do it." He rises to his feet and stands astride the body, pulling out his own knife and donning his own gloves. "How many kills you skinned and gutted in your life, anyway? Mine's sharper."
He takes a firm stance, gripping his knife in both hands, and stabs it deep into the walker's stomach. Rick watches, trying his hardest to keep an impassive expression as Daryl saws down the abdomen; the sound of a blade ripping through dead, wet flesh is repulsive. He flinches as Daryl thrusts his knife back in a second time, cutting deeper and yanking down harder, and again a third time.
After the third, Daryl sits back a bit, taking a breath and glancing at Rick. "That was the bad part." And he plunges his hands deep into the walker's abdomen, coating his gloves in thick, slick brown sludge. He roots around inside determinedly and pulls out—something. He tosses it aside. Rick forces himself to watch, but has to look away nauseously and take a breath when Daryl pulls out something long and stringy, squishing it and throwing it down. He gags as Daryl pokes and prods at the stomach, concentrating.
"Yeah," Daryl grunts, completely unconcerned with the wet squelches and the smell. "Hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." He pulls the organ out whole and drops it in the leaves at Rick's knees. "Here's the gut bag."
"I got this," Rick says, feeling like he has to prove himself. He cuts into the stomach with some difficulty, ripping it open and revealing the contents. He picks at the gunk inside with the tip of his knife and groans, revolted. Daryl hooks the tip of his knife into the skull of some animal and holds it up for them to see.
"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch," he says. He stands up.
"At least we know," Rick admits.
Daryl agrees. "At least we know."
It's getting dark. They have to head back. When they reach the highway, everyone runs to meet them. The group's faces fall when they see Sophia is not with them.
"You didn't find her?" Carol says weakly, heartbroken.
"Her trail went cold," Rick explains, stepping over the guardrail. "We'll 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," Carol protests tearfully, fidgeting restlessly before him.
"Out in the dark's no good," Daryl says gently. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves, more people get lost."
"But she's twelve, you can't leave her out there on her own!" Carol cries, her voice breaking in a panic. "You didn't find anything?"
"I know this is hard," Rick says, raising his hands to placate her, "but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."
"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl adds, hoping to soothe her.
"We have to make this an organized effort," Rick says to the group. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."
Carol stares breathlessly at Daryl's feet and asks, "Is that blood?"
Daryl looks down at his legs and then at Rick, anxious. Rick tells Carol, "We took down a walker." Carol looks faint, repeating the word. "There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia."
"How can you know that?" Andrea asks. Rick looks uncomfortable, and turns to Daryl. Daryl looks earnestly at Carol.
"We cut the sumbitch open," he assures her. "Made sure."
Carol eases herself unsteadily down to sit on the guardrail, and Lori goes to her side. Carol looks up at Rick, her eyes brimming with tears. "How could you just...leave her out there to begin with?" Rick steps back guiltily. "How could just leave her?"
"Those two walkers were on us," Rick says, desperate for Carol's understanding. "I-I had to draw 'em off, it was her best chance."
Shane comes to Rick's defense. Reasonably, he says, "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."
"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol sobs, rocking back and forth. Lori puts her arm around her shoulders. "She's just a child, she's just a child…"
Rick crouches in front of her. "It—it—it was my only option, the only choice I could make."
"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane insists.
"My little girl got left in the woods," Carol whimpers.