*Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. The only thing I own is my OC's Ava and Harper. *

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No Rest for the Undead

Chapter Nine: What Lies Ahead; Part One

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Highway, Daryl's Truck

We'd been traveling on the highway for almost two days now, to get to fort Benning. We were running low on gas, but thanks to Merle, Daryl, and I raiding the CDC we had enough food to last us for several more weeks. We'd run into several traffic jams from all the abandoned cars, and had to spend time pushing cars off to the side of the road, which made this trip so much longer than it should be. Merle was currently using his bike to guide the RV through the current traffic snarl we'd come across, that is he was until the radiator hose burst once again and the RV stopped. I sighed as everyone stopped their cars and stepped out to get a look at the RV.

"I said it, didn't I say it? A thousand times, dead in the water," Dale exclaimed, glaring at the RV.

Smoke was pouring out of the front of the RV, and Merle had his head stuck under the hood looking at the damage. After a moment, he stepped away from the RV and glanced around.

"Good thing there's a shit tone of cars around here for us to get the parts we need!" Merle stated.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars," T-Dog offered.

"We can scavenge for supplies to," I muttered, glancing around at all the abandoned cars.

"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this," Lori exclaimed, biting her nail.

I rolled my eyes at that. Is she being serious right now?

"Their dead. They ain't using their stuff no more. I don't think they'd mind us taking their stuff," I replied. Lori scowled at me and looked like she was about to say something when Shane cut her off.

"Come on, ya'll. Just look around, gather what you can," He ordered.

I glanced around at all the cars, and all the dead bodies, then glanced down at Harper. Harper was looking around the area with wide watery eyes. I grabbed Harper's hand and moved over to the RV, were Dale had set up watch on top.

"Dale is it okay if Harper sits up there with ya while I scavenge for supplies?" I asked, glancing up at the man.

"That's fine, she can sit up here and help me keep watch," Dale replied, nodding his head.

I helped Harper up onto the top of the RV, then picked up Pepper and handed her over to Harper.

"Keep an eye on Pepper for me okay. And do what Dale says," I stated, kissing her on the forehead.

I climbed down from the RV, and started searching through the cars. I found a couple protein bars in one car, a can of unopened soup in another, and a pair of sturdy brown hiking boots that looked like they'd fit Sophie. I remember Carol saying something about how old and worn out Sophie's shoes were, so these would be perfect. I glanced around and quickly found Sophie standing by a car near Carl. I quickly made my way over to her.

"Hey, Sophie, I found some boots for ya," I exclaimed, holding them out to her. Sophie smiled brightly at me and took the boots from me.

"Would you help me get them on?" She asked.

"Yeah sure, sit down," I replied, sitting down on the ground in front of her. I pulled off her old worn out sneakers, and put the boots on her feet. I tied them up, then helped Sophie stand up.

"How do they feel?" I asked. Sophie took a couple steps and smiled.

"They're great, they fit perfectly!" She exclaimed, flinging herself at me in a hug.

"Walkers!" Rick whisper shouted.

I glanced up at him, then turned to look behind me. All the blood drained from my face at the sight of the wall of walkers headed towards us. I glanced around and saw everyone crawling under the cars, so I grabbed Sophie and pulled her under one. I held her close to me, as feet started shuffling past us. I could see Lori and Carol lying under a car just across from us. Carol was in tears, and Lori had her hand over Carol's mouth to keep her from making any noise.

The sound of shuffling feet and groaning was all that could be heard, and I felt nervous. I was scared for the group, and I wasn't sure if everyone had managed to find a place to hide. My only consolation was that Harper was safe up on the RV with Dale. Slowly the heard of walkers seemed to thin out, and there were less and less feet shuffling past the car. It seemed like the heard was just going to pass us by.

It looked like the last of the walkers had passed by us, but I didn't want to take a chance on crawling out and there still being walkers. But before I could say anything to her Sophia had crawled out halfway from under the car. She was stopped by a walker lunging at her, and I swiftly grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her back under the car away from the walker. The walker started crawling under the car, joined by another one.

I pulled Sophia out from under the car on the other side, only to see a walker making its way around the car towards us. I shoved Sophia over the guardrail, then climbed over after her. By now we had five walkers moving towards us. There was no way I could take out all five of them and protect Sophia at the same time, so I picked Sophia up and took off running into the woods.

I ran as fast as I could, hoping to lose the walkers that were chasing us. It felt like I was running for hours before I finally slowed down and realized that the walkers were no longer behind us. I feel to my knees, gasping for air. My lungs and legs hurt from running so fast for so long. Sophia was clinging tightly to me and had her head buried in my neck. She was crying hysterically, and I held onto her tighter.

"It's okay Sophia, we've lost 'em," I murmured, glancing around me.

I had absolutely no idea where we were, or where the highway was. I wasn't as good of a tracker as my mom was. It was one of the few skills that she tried to teach me that I just could never pick up. I had no idea how to get back to the highway from here. Damn why didn't I pay more attention to where I was going?

"I want mommy," Sophia cried softly. I rubbed her back to comfort her.

"Don't worry, I'll get ya back to ya mom. Now we have ta start walking and I need both my hands in case we run into any walkers so ya gonna have to walk. I want ya to stay close to me though okay," I instructed.

Sophia sniffed and glanced up at me, then nodded her head.

"All right," I mumbled.

I stood up and pulled out my Sias. I made a quick mark in the tree right next to me before turning back towards the direction I'd come from and started walking. Every now and then I'd leave a mark on a tree so that I'd know where I'd been and what direction we'd gone. We walked and walked and walked for what felt like hours, and still I couldn't see the highway. It was starting to get dark, and I was worried that we'd have to spend the night out here. Suddenly a gun shot rang out and I spun wildly towards the direction it came from.

"Was that a gun?" Sophia asked, clinging to my leg.

"Yeah, it was," I murmured.

Nobody in the group would fire off a gun to take out a walker, they'd use something quitter. Which meant that gun shot came from someone else. With my experience with people since all this happened, and mom's voice in the back of my head, I turned and pulled Sophia off in the opposite direction from the gun shot. I wasn't going to take the chance on running into someone dangerous. I wasn't going to put Sophia in danger like that…

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A short while later

The sun had set, and I'd given up hope of not having to spend the night in the woods. I could tell with each passing second Sophia was becoming more and more terrified. I sighed and kneeled down next to her.

"We're not gonna make it back to the highway tonight. We're gonna have to sleep in one of these trees," I explained, setting my hands on her shoulders.

Tears rolled down her face and she shook in fear.

"We'll be fine. The walkers won't be able to get us in the tree, they can't climb, so we'll be safe for the night," I stated, whipping away some of the tears.

Sophia nodded her head and I quickly picked out a tree for us to sleep in. Once I had one selected I helped Sophia up onto the first branch. We climbed up the tree almost to the top, before picking out a branch to sleep on. Sophia sat in my lap, and I was leaned back against the tree with my arms around Sophia keeping her in place.

Sophia must have been really tired because she fell asleep almost instantly. I sat there staring up at the sky through the tree line. The sky was lit with stars, and a cool breeze blew through the trees. I could hear the sound of animals and walkers moving through the forest around me. Everything seemed so calm and peaceful. I wasn't going to be sleeping tonight, instead I was going to be keeping watch…

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AN: And…Cliffhanger! Well so far Sophia is fine, but that could change at any moment. Review and let me know what ya'll think!