Daryl looked up when he saw me walking over.
"Hey, little one?" He said. "I was just about to come lookin' fer ya."
"Sorry." I said.
I helped Daryl carry the gas cans to the RV. I saw Carol and Lori talking to each other. They looked at us when we walked by.
"I'm gonna say something." I heard Lori say and start walking towards us.
"How could you let that little girl ride on your bike like that?" She said. "That's so dangerous."
"Why don't ya mind yer own business, lady!" Daryl snapped.
"Yeah, mind yer own business!" I said.
She paused. "And can you tell your sister not give my son anymore weapons?"
My face paled.
"What the hell are ya talkin' about?" Daryl said.
She handed him the knife. "She gave this to Carl."
Daryl looked from the knife, to me and then to Lori. He just glared at her.
She started to walk away but turned back around. "I don't want my kid hanging around with your kid if you let her play with knives."
I sadly looked at the ground. Daryl noticed and glared at Lori.
"Come on, Le." He put his hand on my back. "Let's stay away from people like her." We walked away from everyone else. The only one we could see was T-Dog across the way.
"I didn't mean any harm by it." I said. "He thought it was cool so I let him have it."
"It's okay, kiddo." Daryl tried to reassure me. "You didn't do anythin' wrong. Don't worry about her."
I nodded.
"Sumbitch." I heard Daryl say. "Get down!" He told me. I quickly slid under a car. I didn't know what was going on, I just did what he said. He slid in next to me.
"There's walkers." He said.
We could see T-Dog up ahead. He cut his arm on a car door.
"Stay here." Daryl whispered to me.
Daryl quickly and quietly pulled him to the ground, told him to be quiet and put a dead body on top of him. He put one on top of himself too.
I watched as feet walked by. I heard the moans of all the walkers. It was pretty scary. My heart was pounding. Daryl looked over at me to make sure I was okay.
He must have been able to see the fear on my face because he put his hand up as if to say, "it's okay."
I nodded.
Eventually, I stopped seeing feet pass by. I was about to roll out from under the car but Daryl saw me and shook his head so I stayed under a bit longer.
We heard screaming not long after. Daryl threw the body off him and got up to see what happened. I followed him.
Apparently, that little Sophia girl ran away because walkers were chasing her. Rick ran after them.
Carol was sitting there crying and Lori was comforting her.
Daryl was sitting on the guard rail and I was on his lap. We were all waiting for Rick to come back with Sophia.
Suddenly we heard footsteps running up the hill. It was Rick.
"Where's Sophia?" He asked when he reached the top.
Carol started crying harder.
"I'm gonna go back out." Rick told Carol.
"I'll back you up." Shane said.
"Me too." Said Glenn
"None of y'all can track fer shit." Daryl said.
Everyone paused and looked at him. He started walking towards them.
"Come on, Le." Daryl called me.
"You sure about that?" Shane said to him.
"We're a packaged deal." He said putting a hand on my back. "Sides, she's better off with me and not up here." He glared in Lori's direction.
They shrugged. Rick took us to where he left Sophia.
"You sure this is where ya left her?" Daryl asked Rick.
"Positive." Rick said. "I told her to head back to the highway and keep the sun on her left shoulder."
"Sure she knows her right from her left?" Shane said.
"She understood." Rick said.
Shane looked at me. "How old are you?"
"Thirteen." I said quietly.
"Do you know your right from your left?"
I was about to answer him when Rick said, "She understood."
"Wait." Daryl said. "There's tracks here. She headed back to the highway like ya said."
We went back up the hill. Daryl followed the tracks.
"Looks like she stopped and went the other way." He said.
"Maybe she saw something that spooked her." Shane suggested.
"Nah, there's no other tracks."
"We should keep looking." Glenn said.
"No." Rick said. "You and Shane get back to the highway. The others are probably worried. Daryl and I will keep looking."
"And Le." Daryl said.
"Wouldn't you rather her be safe back with the others?"
"Le stays with me." Daryl said roughly. "No exceptions."
The three of us searched the area for Sophia. We weren't having much luck. We found a walker in the woods and cut it open to see if it had any human flesh inside. It ended up being a woodchuck, or so Daryl said.
"We should get back." Rick suggested.
"How far from the highway, Le?" Daryl asked.
"480 yards." I said. "And we came from that direction." I pointed.
"Good girl." Daryl patted my back.
We made our way back to the highway.
"You didn't find her?" Carol immediately said.
"Her trail went cold." Rick said.
"Is that blood?" Carol pointed to Rick's shirt.
"We took down a walker." Daryl said.
"A walker?" Carol looked faint.
"But there wasn't any sign that it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick said.
"How could you know that?" Andrea asked.
They paused. "We cut the sumbitch open." Daryl stated.
Carol took a deep breath.
"We're gonna start again tomorrow." Rick said.
"She can't be out there on her own. She's just a child." Carol cried.
"Huntin' in the dark's no good." Daryl said.
"Daryl knows the woods better than anyone." Rick said. "I've asked him to oversee this."
"How could you leave her out there in the first place?" Carol said to Rick. "How could you just leave her out there?"
Uh oh. She looks really upset. That's my cue to leave. I started walking back to the RV.
"Where ya goin?" Daryl was right behind me.
"I wanted to get away from…that."
"Me too." He said.
The next day, we all went out on a search party to look for Sophia. Dale and T-Dog stayed behind.
We heard church bells and thought maybe she was ringing them to signal for us. When we got there, we discovered that the bells were on a timer. It was like every time we thought we had a lead, something happened to change that.
Rick, Shane and Carl decided to look some more. The rest of us were supposed to go back to the highway.
"I see you have a gun." Andrea said to Lori.
"Why you want it?" Lori snapped. "Take it." She gave it to her. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you."
She gave some speech to Carol about blaming Rick. I don't blame Rick. He seems like an alright guy. I hate his wife though.
Andrea gave Lori the gun back. "We should keep moving."
We continued walking.
We heard a gunshot and started to worry.
I looked at Daryl. "Stay close." He said.
I nodded.
We didn't hear anymore so we just continued walking.
At one point Lori stopped and turned around.
"Are you still worrying about it?" Andrea asked.
"Yeah, it was a gunshot." Lori said.
"We all heard it." I said.
"Why one?" Lori said. "Why just one gunshot?"
"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl said.
"You know Rick wouldn't waste a gunshot for just one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol said.
"There's nothin' we can do about it anyway." Daryl said. "Cain't run around in these woods chasin' echoes."
"So what do we do?" Lori asked.
"Same as we been." Daryl said. "Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll catch up with us soon." I said just to be saying something.
Andrea and Carol were talking. I only caught the end of their conversation.
"I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Carol said.
Andrea gave her a look.
"Oh God." Carol said. "That's the worst thing I ever said."
"We're all hoping and praying with you." Andrea said. "For what it's worth."
"I'll tell ya what it's worth. Not a damn thing." Daryl said. "It's a waste of time all this hopin' and prayin'."
Hmm. I thought. Hoping and praying a waste of time. Got it.
"Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine." Daryl said. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."
I heard Lori snicker. I glared at her. She's not allowed to laugh at anything we say or do because of what she said.
"We'll lose light before too long." Daryl said. "We should call it."
I nodded.
"Let's head back." Lori said.
"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked.
"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." Lori said.
It didn't sound too convincing.
Daryl whistled and we started making our way back to the highway.
Suddenly we heard Andrea scream. There was a walker after her. Some girl came out of nowhere on a horse and hit the walker in the head with a baseball bat.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" She asked.
"I'm Lori."
"Rick sent me." The girl on the horse said. "You gotta come now. There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you gotta come now."
Lori hesitated.
"Rick needs you! Just come." The girl said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Daryl said. "We don't this girl. You can't get on that horse." He tried to stop Lori.
"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" The girl said. "Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. Names Greene." She said. They took off on the horse.
We heard wheezing and the walker that the girl hit got back up.
"Shut up." Daryl said and shot it.
I giggled.
We finally got back to the highway. Glenn told Dale what happened.
"You let her?" He said to Daryl.
"Climb down outta my ass, old man." Daryl said. "Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's."
Daryl walked away and I followed close behind.
We were talking about going to that farm that the girl on the horse said to come to.
"I won't do it." Carol said. "We can't just leave."
"Carol, the group is split." Dale said. "We're scattered and weak."
"What if she comes back and we're not here?"
"Okay." Daryl said. "We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us some time to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. Le and I will hold here tonight, stay with the RV."
"If the RV is staying then I am too." Dale said.
"Thank you. All of you." Carol said.
"Glenn you have to get T-Dog to this farm. I take it they have medicine and he has a serious blood infection."
Daryl went over to Merle's bike. "Keep yer oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." He threw them at Dale. "Why'd ya wait til now to say anythin'? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, X, Don't need that. Got some kickass painkillers." He threw them to Glenn.
I had no idea my brother had so many pills.
"Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class." Daryl continued. "Merle got the clap on occasion."
What's the clap?
I followed Daryl as he walked away.
"Daryl, what's the clap?"
"Ya don't need to know." He said.
"Please just tell me." I begged.
He looked at me and sighed. "It's an STD."
"What's STD?"
"Diseases ya get from sex, alright?"
"You can get sick from that?"
"Yeah. Now hush." He said.
"Why did Merle have so many pills?"
"Cause he liked to get high."
"Why?"
"Cause he liked it. What don't ya understand?"
"Have you ever been high?"
"Yeah."
"A lot?"
He glared at me.
"I just wanna know. I ain't never been high."
"Yeah and ya never will be."
"Why?"
"Cause I'll kill ya! That's why."
I giggled.
"Now would ya stop asking these questions?"
I was silent for a moment.
"Hey, Daryl?"
"What?"
"Why's it called the clap?"
He stopped what he was doing and just looked at me.
I laughed.
