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If any of you have any suggestions on what you might like to see happen, please let me know. I always enjoy hearing from you all! Hope you enjoy this chapter!


As Rylie made her way back toward the RV she ran into Andrea. She watched as Andrea's eyes went to her hip before returning to her gaze. "Your gun suddenly go missing?" she asked.

"Yeah! Strangest thing, huh?" she teased. She couldn't read the look in Andrea's eyes so she figured she'd better play it safe. "You gonna tell anyone? I mean, it's not like I'm gonna be waving it around or anything…"

Andrea stared at her for a while before responding. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Don't make me regret that, though."

Rylie smile appreciatively. "'Course not! Promise." Once Andrea nodded and headed over to Shane, Rylie made her way over to Carol, who was finishing setting up her tent. "Hey, Carol," she greeted. "You need any help with that?"

Carol smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure. That'd be great, thanks."

The two worked together to finish getting the tent up and her belongings inside before Carol excused herself to the RV. Rylie, once again not knowing what else to do, decided she should get her things organized since everyone else seemed to have everything covered.

Once inside her humble abode, she got to business. She spread her sleeping bag out and placed a pillow Carol had given her at the back of the tent at the head of her bag. Dumping all of her pack's contents onto the ground, she decided the heat today was way too much for pants and changed into jean shorts. Taking one of her pocket knives, she slipped it into her front pocket – no way was she going to be completely unarmed. Thinking of her gun, she was careful to hide it in the back corner of the tent, covering it with a large hoodie she didn't think she'd be using anytime soon. Once her other clothes were folded neatly and placed in a pile, she laid her machete down on top of them so it'd always be within arm's reach.

Nodding happily at her work, she exited her tent just in time to see T-Dog run back to the camp from one of the fields. "You good?" she asked him.

"We might have a problem. Help me get the others?" he asked. She nodded and together they grabbed Shane, Glenn, Maggie, Lori, and Andrea before heading off to the well where Dale stood looking down.

Uh oh, she thought, observing his face. They all gathered around the well and looked down to see a severely water logged and bloated walker standing in the water. "Great," she mumbled.

"Looks like we got ourselves a swimmer," Dale stated, shinning a flashlight down in the pit. They all discussed what they thought the next course of action should be. T-Dog suggested shooting it but Maggie and Andrea disagreed and said that if the walker hadn't contaminated the water yet, it surely would by shooting it. Rylie didn't see how it couldn't have already contaminated it yet – with the way this sucker looked, it had to have!

When lowering a canned ham down into the well to try to get its attention didn't work, they realized they needed live bait – something warm, squirmy, and fresh. Yummy. Rylie felt bad when that role fell upon Glenn, but she knew it had to be done. Shane worked on tying Glenn securely while the rest of them held onto the rope that was looped around the well pump. Maggie was pacing back and forth, truly not a fan of the plan.

"Maggie, he'll be okay," Rylie tried to reassure her, though she wasn't quite sure herself. Glenn looked scared as hell, but Rylie felt a whole new huge respect growing for this man.

Maggie looked at Rylie like she didn't believe her. "You people are crazy," she said, worry etched on her face.

"You wanna get it outta your well or not?" Shane barked, grabbing onto the front of the rope.

"Go ahead and give us an eye there, Maggie," Dale suggested. Maggie looked at Rylie, who was in the middle of the lineup, before heading over to the well.

They started to work together, slowly lowering Glenn down – who had another lasso to sling around the walker. Rylie heard Maggie yell down to Glenn asking if he was okay, but she couldn't hear his response. Suddenly, she heard the low whine of metal under pressure. Looking up she realized it was the well pump, and that it wasn't going to hold. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched it give under Glenn's weight. "No!" she shouted, right as the pump broke.

She, Shane, and T-Dog all lunged for the rope as it started to fall into the well, lowering Glenn to his death. She and Shane's hands were the closest, their feet pushing against the lip of the well to give them leverage. Rylie was aware of Glenn screaming for them to pull him up, and was also aware of the sharp bite of the coarse rope against her tender palms.

"Hang on, Glenn!" "Pull!" "Come on!" "Glenn!" "Oh my God!" Everyone seemed to be shouting at once as they all struggled to lift the boy out of the well. They soon found their footing and leverage and were able to start scooting back as a whole, dragging Glenn back up to safety. He was soon crawling out and everyone gathered around him, Lori hugging him, as they all panted and sighed in relief that he was safe.

"Well, guess its back to the drawing board…," Dale said after a moment.

Glenn stood up, a small smile of satisfaction on his lips. "Says you," he panted. They watched as there was a pull on the rope, meaning that during the chaos, Glenn had done his job. Rylie let out a whoop of joy and grabbed Glenn around the neck, kissing the top of his head loudly. He blushed slightly and everyone chuckled before getting back to work. Maggie went and got a horse to help haul the damned thing out of the well.

Before long, they were all helping to pull the heavy walker up. Lori and Maggie were coaxing the horse and T-Dog was being their eyes as everyone else pulled. Rylie could feel the sting of the rope digging into her already cut up hands, but swallowed back the pain. "Come on guys, a little more. Keep pulling," T encouraged.

The disgustingly fat walker finally breached the top of the well as they strained to get him fully out. The more they pulled, the more the rope tightened, and soon, the walker split in half due to all of the water it took in. They all watched in disgust as it's bottom half spilled into the well and its top half continued to reach for them. Rylie had seen a lot of gross things in her day, especially since the zombie apocalypse, but this? This definitely ranked number one. She could feel her insides churning as the intestines, spine, and guts hung out loosely.

"We're going to have to seal the well off," Dale said after a moment.

Rylie looked around and was happy to see she wasn't the only morbidly disgusted by the sight in front of them. "Yeah, might be a good idea," Shane agreed. For some reason, it surprised Rylie to see he, too, was grossed out.

"So what do we do about - "

T-Dog cut Andrea off by smashing it's head in several times. Rylie turned away pressing a hand to her mouth and saw Maggie head off with tears in her eyes. Girl has probably never seen anything even close to this before living out here in the safe haven, she thought. She noticed Glenn looking after her as well and hoped the boy had enough sense to be gentle if he planned on talking to her about it. "Good thing we didn't do anything stupid like shoot it," T-Dog said sarcastically.

Everyone split off to finish their business for the day, but Rylie stayed with Dale and Lori to help seal the well off. As the three of them lifted the wooden board, she winced at the contact to her palms. "You okay, sweetie?" Lori asked once the job was done.

She smiled. "Yeah, no biggie. Just some rope burn is all," Rylie responded, looking down at her bloodied hands.

"Maybe you should go have Hershel take a look," Dale suggested.

She shook her head. "Nah, it's okay. They just need to get washed up is all." She didn't want all the fuss, it was just a little cut. But it felt nice to have people care about her.

Lori came up next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He can at least put something on it to clean it up. I'll take you. Then you can meet Carl," she offered.

The two headed into the house and Rylie tried not to feel intrusive. It was the first time she'd been in a house - with living people - since this thing started and she felt rude tromping around like she owned the place. They found Hershel sitting at the dining table and Lori explained what happened and gently grabbed Rylie's hands to show him the gashes.

"We'll just put some peroxide on 'em and they'll be fine," Hershel said kindly. Lori left them as Hershel took Rylie into another room and fixed her up.

"It's really no big deal. I don't know why they're fussing so much," Rylie said.

Hershel smiled at her. "It never hurts to be safe." He finished cleaning them but when he went to bandage them, she shook her head.

"No need for that. They'll heal on their own. Thank you," she said kindly. When he went to leave, she gently placed a hand on his arm. "Really… thank you. For everything. This place is like a slice of heaven, and I just wanted to say thank you for letting us on your property."

He gave her a tense smile. "I'm sure there are other slices of heaven along the way. But you're welcome." Rylie stared after the man, trying to process what he had just said. Didn't exactly sound like a 'you're welcome to stay' invitation to me… Shrugging it off, she decided not to worry about it. She walked to the front room rubbing her hands – which were significantly less bloody than before – and knocked on the open door. Rick sat next to the bed, looking exhausted, and a young boy with a bandage lay sleeping.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked, smiling gently. Rick returned her smile and nodded and she entered, sitting in a chair opposite Rick. They were silent as she stared at the boy. "He's a tough kid," she chuckled admirably. "I'm glad he's going to pull through."

"We all are," Rick agreed, smiling affectionately at his son. "Thank you for volunteering to help look for Sophia," he said after a moment.

"Of course, it's the least I could do. Like I said earlier, I have some experience tracking. We'll find her, Rick," she comforted. She made sure to avoid saying alive. She fully believed they would find her, but she didn't want to encourage false hope. "Thank you guys for taking me in. I really don't know how much longer I could have lasted out there on my own…"

"You're one of us now, Rylie. We're glad to have you," he said kindly. His words seemed to settle a restless something in her she hadn't known was there, and a comfort took its place. They chatted for a while about small things before Rylie excused herself to leave. It was late in the day and she wanted to see if she could help make dinner. As she walked out of the house, she ran into Shane.

"Thanks for helping out earlier," he said awkwardly.

Rylie, feeling awkward herself, nodded. "Wasn't about to let Glenn become walker food." She rubbed her neck, wincing at the pressure on her still tender wound.

"You good?" Shane asked. Before she could respond, he grabbed her hand to look at it. She looked at him in shook as he just assumed she was okay with him touching her. "Looks okay," he observed, running his fingers over her hand.

It made her skin crawl, the way he was touching her, and she yanked her hand back, cradling it against her chest. "It is, thanks," she insisted before pushing past him. Fuckin' creep, she thought. She just kept getting more and more bad vibes from him, and she didn't like it.

As she made her way into camp, she rounded the back of the RV and halted at hearing Daryl's soft and gruff voice through the screen window.

"…Cherokee mothers were grieving and cryin' so much 'cuz they were loosin' their little ones along the way. Exposure, disease, starvation… a lot of 'em jus' disappeared. So the elders said a prayer, asked for a sign to uplift the mother's spirits and give them strength, hope." Rylie found herself pressing a hand to her heart as she eavesdropped on the story. "The next day this rose started to grow, right where the mother's tears fell… I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers bloomin' for my brother. But uh, I believe this one? It bloomed for your little girl."

Tears stung the back of Rylie's eyes at the beautiful words she just heard, and at the kindness that was quietly lurking in Daryl. She figured he was talking to Carol, and the fact that he would go out of his way to comfort the sad mother spoke volumes to her. It was silent for a moment before there was moving around in the RV. She backed up so she wouldn't be caught listening to their conversation, but watched as Daryl exited the vehicle. As she watched him head to his tent, she felt something touch at her heart strings and smiled after him.