Second Chance – Chapter 7 – Co-Authored by Remi Savant & Rckyfrk

Rick crawled out from beneath the car and got to his feet. His instinct was to yell for Sophia to stop running, but he changed his mind when he saw two walkers chasing after her into the woods. Dammit, he thought to himself. He really thought he'd be able to protect her, to save her this time, and found he was already proving himself wrong.

He found himself frozen in place, in some combination of shock and self-defeat. He sensed motion beside him and heard Carol's whimper as she drew nearer to where he was standing near the guard rail. Carol looked as if she were about to call out to her daughter, forgetting about the herd of walkers that was still within earshot. Rick saw Lori come up from behind and place a hand over Carol's mouth, preventing her from making any sound. His wife did her best to quiet Carol, whispering words Rick couldn't make out. He scanned over the area where his group was still hiding; he knew Daryl and T-Dog were furthest away, but hadn't seen them reappear from wherever they were hiding yet.

Realizing that he was the closest in the group to where she had disappeared, Rick scrambled over the guard rail and followed Sophia down the slope and into the woods. He heard a scuffle behind him, turned and saw Carol struggling to get out of Lori's grasp. Rick silently held up an outstretched hand toward her, commanding without words for both women to stay where they were.

Rick turned back to the woods, moving at a hurried pace. The walkers following Sophia were moving along at a good clip, which surprised him. He realized these must be fresher bodies and had more agility, making his job of catching up to them harder. Eventually he gained enough ground and caught up to the first walker. Rick reached for his pistol, but before he drew he caught himself, realizing it would make too much noise and could attract the herd to come back toward the group, as well as bring out more walkers to possibly swarm around himself and Sophia. He would have to find an alternative weapon.

Rick directed his focus to the forest floor and searched his surroundings, finally finding a fallen branch. The green leaves still attached to the branch indicated that the wood had not had a chance to deteriorate, making it a suitable weapon. Rick hefted the limb, stalked closer behind the walker then gave a loud whistle. Predictably, the walker turned, stumbling as it changed direction, and started ambling toward Rick. He tightened his grip on his makeshift bat and swung directly at the walker's head. The blow only managed to knock the corpse down to the ground; Rick stood over it and began viciously pummeling its head, sending bits of gray, black and red matter to splatter over his pants; the creature had just stopped moving as the branch broke off against the ground.

A feeling of satisfaction gave way to a sudden sense of dread. Almost too late, Rick heard the second walker approaching from behind him. Finding himself weaponless, Rick turned, racking his brain for his next move. Once he was facing the walker full on, he saw a bolt appear firmly imbedded in its forehead, causing it to slump to the ground.

Rick turned in the opposite direction and saw Daryl, his crossbow still aimed at the space just above Rick's head. They nodded at each other; Rick dropped the remaining piece of wood onto the walker's already caved in skull. "I think ya got it there, Hoss," the redneck quipped with a smirk. Rick chuckled as he worked to catch his breath. Daryl walked over to pull his bolt out of the second walker's head. Wiping it off on the corpse's shirt, he asked, "Which way'd she go?"

Once he had control of his breath, Rick pointed and said, "The walkers were chasing her this way, so I assume that's where she went. I lost sight of her once she crossed the tree line."

"Aight," Daryl replied, "let's go." Rick followed Daryl as he picked up Sophia's trail. They had been following her tracks for quite a distance when Daryl stopped suddenly and lowered himself to a squat to examine the tracks closely. "Huh," he began, "She's been going this way, almost in a straight line, this whole time. She got here and just...took off that way," he pointed to his left.

"Why would she do that?" Rick asked. "More walkers?"

"Naw, there's no other tracks," Daryl countered. "Somethin' spooked her...or caught her attention. Only one way to find out," he explained, then stood back up and followed Sophia's new course.

The footprints led them to the bank of a babbling brook. Daryl lowered his crossbow, almost in defeat. "Damn. There goes the trail," he grumbled, scanning the opposite bank.

Rick met up with him to stand on the edge of the water. "What's wrong? Didn't she just go straight across?"

Daryl shook his head, "Don't see nothin' over there. She must have followed the stream." They waded into the cool, shin-deep water, scanning both sides of the stream for any type of clue as to where the girl had gone. "She had company...looks like another walker," Daryl pointed to the right at a set of obviously sloppy tracks. "Still doesn't tell us which way she went, though. I hate to say it, but this ain't lookin' good."

Rick faced Daryl and asked, "Well, we could keep looking ourselves, or head back, get reinforcements, and split the group to set up a more organized search. What would you do?"

Daryl rubbed the back of his neck, looking deep in thought. He shrugged, "We'd get more ground covered with more people. Plus more protection against any walkers roaming around."

"Guess that settles it," Rick sighed, moving to head back up the bank to return to the highway. Once he reached the top, he realized he had no idea how to find their trail again. He turned to Daryl sheepishly, "Uh...wanna point me in the right direction?" Daryl shook his head and laughed, mumbling something about city boys and another something about a hole in the ground. Rick smiled as he followed his friend back to the RV.

Once they returned to the group, Carol rushed up to them, demanding answers, not giving them time to respond in between her line of questions. Rick placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down before he spoke. "We followed her trail as far as we could. She ran into a stream and there's no way we can track her through the water. There's still plenty of daylight left; I'd like to take a group down to where we lost track of her and start looking from there." Everyone instantly volunteered to help. Rick began to delegate. "Dale, you stay here and finish up with the RV. Carol, Lori, you two stay here too."

Carol pulled away and balked at this, "You can't expect me to just sit and wait when my little girl is lost in the woods!"

Lori placed a calming hand on her shoulder, already reading her husband's mind. "If you're out there looking for her, what if the other group finds her first? Then they have to go and find you. What if she makes her way back here on her own? If you stay here, you'll be the first one she sees." Carol clenched her jaw and reluctantly noddedher head in agreement.

Rick looked over the group, "Alright, I'll take Morgan, Duane and Carl; Daryl, you take Andrea, T-Dog and Glenn. We'll split off at the spot where we lost her trail. I figure we've got a good couple hours of daylight left before we need to head back here." Daryl and Rick lead the teams back into the woods, winding their way to the stream and splitting off.

Morgan, Duane, Carl and Rick walked along both sides of the stream, constantly scanning for tracks. They'd been moving upstream for a good hour, maybe two, when Morgan pointed out a set of staggering footprints and called for Rick and Carl to join him. Neither of the men was very experienced in tracking; they couldn't tell if the footprints were coming or going, nor could they tell if it was a scared and tired little girl or a walker slipping up the bank. Both men were bent low, examining the prints as well as they could, standing and debating whether they should run to get Daryl's expert opinion, when Morgan questioned worriedly, "Where's Duane?"

Rick scanned his surroundings, "Where's Carl?"

Both men quickly searched the immediate area and found both boys standing just outside of a clearing in the woods. In the middle of the clearing was a 12-point buck, grazing contentedly. The boys were taking cautious steps toward the deer, trying to get a better look. Rick knew not to shout to get their attention, and started moving quickly to catch up to them. Rushing toward them, that horrible sense of déjà vu again gripped his mind.

A gunshot pierced the silence of the formerly peaceful clearing. The deer bounded out of sight. Rick's heart leapt into his throat.

"NO!"

We know this was a really short chapter. Originally, this was the ending to Chapter 6, but we do so love our cliffhangers. Leave us a review – what do YOU think just happened?