Rylee wasn't there for Sophia's service. After it was over, Dean made his way back to their camp to find her sitting there, making arrows out of some twigs she had gathered. He approached her, then stopped and just looked her. She didn't look up or say anything. "Ya missed tha service," he told her. Rylee didn't respond, just kept carving away. Dean watched the chips of wood fell to the ground in the middle of the silence. "This ain't yer fault, Rylee." "Who said I was blamin' myself?" she snapped as she looked up, almost cutting him off. Dean looked into her eyes before she went back to what she was doing and he sighed. "Well, whoever yer blamin', it ain't their fault neither." That's when he heard Rylee scoff. "Wha' makes you so sure 'bout that?" "It ain't nobody's fault," he responded. "The hell it ain't," she mumbled as she felt the tip of the arrow, testing it's sharpness and setting it aside. He walked over and sat down beside her. Reaching over, he picked up one of the sticks in the pile and pulled out his pocket knife. "I tried ta stop you," he said as he went to work. She shook her head. "I don't regret wha' I did. If ya ask me, I think Shane did tha righ' thing. If he hadn't done tha', we woulda never found 'er. I don't like ta admit it. I hate tha bastard." "Yeah, I'm not too fond of 'im myself," Dean replied as he scrapped the chunks of wood off of the twig. "I noticed you have another 'spell' while we were down at tha barn. Wha' is goin' on with you today, anyway?" She didn't answer him. She felt the tip of the arrow, but then went back to working on it. His eyes were on her, she could feel it. "You gonna tell me anything?" Rylee stood up and threw her arrow down. "What, Dean? What tha fuck do you want me ta say?" she shouted. He stood up also. "I want you to jus' talk! I'm tryna help you, goddamnit!" Then she got in his face. "Help me with what? You can't help me with nothin'! Hell, you couldn't even help me find yer momma!" "Aye, you watch it," Dean sneered as he pointed a finger at her. "All ya had ta do was go with 'er. But, no. Ya let her wonder off by herself. Some son you are." Dean's nose twitched in anger and his eyes filled with rage. "What about you, huh?" he said with a shaky voice. "You coulda went with her, too." Rylee looked away for a brief moment. "I wouldn't her kid." He just turned away from her and looked down. Suddenly, his knife went flying and slammed against a tree, then fell to the ground. "We found 'er…but it was too late…same with Sophia…" Rylee said as her face softened and she lowered her voice. "I'm tired of it always bein' too late." Dean turned back to her, but the anger in his face was gone. He just looked at her as her eyes remained on the ground. The silence between them was almost unbearable. "Yer righ'," he finally said. "It was my fault. I let her go off on 'er own." Rylee sighed then looked up at him. "I didn't mean it, Dean," she mumbled. "But you were righ'. It's my fault she's dead." His voice cracked a little and Rylee looked over. He was crying. "She…she told me she'd be alrigh'…" She didn't say anything. She just walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him as he cried on her shoulder. "She's dead because of me…" "It's not yer fault," Rylee said to him as she patted him on the back. Dean then pulled away from her after a few moments and wiped his eyes. "I'm gonna head back…figure out what happens next. Hershel's obviously pissed. He probably wants all of us gone." And with that, he turned and headed back.
It was later on that day when Dean came back. Apparently, Rick was nowhere to be found, so Dean just decided to go hunting. Rylee figured he wanted to be alone, so she let him be and didn't offer to go with, just told him to be careful. She was sitting there next to her tent, cleaning her nails when she heard footsteps approaching. It wasn't in the direction of the woods, so she knew it wasn't Dean. She looked up to see Lori coming her way. "Ya needin' somethin', I ain't got it," she mumbled as she looked back down. She heard Lori give a frustrated sigh. "Something's wrong with Beth. Hershel's gone and Rick and Glenn went after him. I already tried to get Daryl to go, but he refuses." "How's tha' ma problem?" Rylee asked harshly. Lori put a hand on her hip. "Where's Dean? I'll ask him." Rylee looked back up to her. "Good luck findin' 'im. Went out huntin'." "Well, can you find him for me?" Lori asked. Rylee folded her arms. "Dean ain't gonna do it neither. If he was goin' to, I wouldn't let him. I ain't about to let them two dumbasses get him killed." Lori looked slightly surprised. Rylee just shook her head and sat back down. "We jus' found Sophia today and now yer husband's off God knows where. He's a damn moron if ya ask me. Why don't ya get back ta your camp?" She went back to cleaning her nails, but Lori still stood there. Rylee turned to her. "Go on," she said, shooing her away. Lori finally turned and stormed away.
Almost as soon as she was gone, Dean came walking out of the woods watching Lori walk away. "What'd she want?" he asked, causing Rylee to jump slightly and turn around to look at him. "Damn, you scared tha shit outta me." Then she turned back to Lori. "And nothin'. Jus' lookin' for an errand boy." Her eyes went back to Dean for a moment, noticing he only had Rylee's bow in his hand. "No game, huh?" He sighed, then made his way over and sat next to her. "It's like the animals are fuckin' extinct." Rylee laughed slightly and pointed off in the direction of Daryl's camp with her knife. "Well, we got ourselves some competition out yonder. Ain't no tellin' how many squirrels he's got hangin' out there." Dean laughed a little as well. "That sumbitch." Her smiled slowly faded and she reached for her backpack. "I think I got somethin' in here." She then pulled out a couple cans and sat them on the ground. "Chicken noodle soup?" Dean asked, an eyebrow shooting up his face. "Beggars can't be choosers," Rylee replied. He sighed and grabbed them. "Start a fire so we can warm it up." She went to do as she was told, but then she thought about her encounter with Lori earlier. "Y'know what's wrong with Beth?" she asked Dean over her shoulder. "I didn't know anythin' was wrong with Beth," he answered, so Rylee decided to drop it. She then went to work on the fire so she an Dean could eat and call it a day.
The two went to bed after dark. Well, Dean did. Rylee tried to sleep, but she couldn't stop thinking about Sophia. She sat outside her tent and watch the sun rise over the woods. While doing this, she realized how tired she was. It was the same routine every day: get up, help Rick's group, go back to camp, eat, and sit up all night. It was getting tiring, but when the world ends, there isn't much else to do. She felt out of place here, like everyone was against her. Rylee looked over at her backpack sitting in her open tent, then looked over at Dean's tent. He was still asleep. The sunrise shone on his tent just right, allowing her to see inside. His body laid in there still, and his breathing was slow. Quietly getting up, she went into her tent and started picking up her things and filling in what space was left in the bag. She grabbed her knife, her pistol, and anything else she had sitting there. Rylee made sure to keep some food sitting out for Dean. Then she put the bow over her shoulder and started to walk off. She didn't want to be here anymore. Nothing good seemed to come out of this, but she knew if she waited until Dean was awake, he wouldn't let her go.
After starting to make her way across the pasture, she looked over to see movement over at Rick's camp. Everyone was loading up the trunk of the car. Then she saw Daryl and thought about the other night when she went into his room. She stopped right there in the middle of the field and looked back to her camp before her eyes went back to Daryl. "What tha hell am I doin'?" she asked herself. Rylee turned and made her way back, but as soon as she got back to her tent, she heard movement in Dean's tent. Before she knew it, he came up out of it. "Wha' are ya doin'?" he asked. She didn't answer. Rylee sat her backpack down along with her bow. "Wait, were you…were you leavin'?" "Yes, Dean. I was leavin'," she replied without looking up. She expected him to say something, but he didn't. He just sighed and turned back to his tent. "Rick left." There was a silent moment. "What?" "He left…yesterday. That's wha' Lori wanted. She wanted me ta go out n' get him. She had already asked Daryl n' he didn't do it." "You didn't think ta tell me?" Dean asked. Rylee looked down. "I didn't want you riskin' your life for this group again." "But that's Rick," he replied, raising his voice slightly. "I know," Rylee said softly. "I was wrong ta not tell you." "Damnit, Rylee." He turned, then reached for his bag, put it on, and stormed away towards the camp. Rylee hesitated for a moment before doing the same.
They both walked up as everyone was filling the back of the car. "Where tha hell ya'll been?" Daryl asked, looking up. "Same place as you. Somewhere else," Rylee replied harshly as she passed him. She didn't look at him, but she could feel his glare. But they all looked up when they heard a vehicle approaching. "Is tha' Rick?" Dean asked her. She didn't reply, instead watched the vehicle pull up in front of the house. Once the car stopped, Rick stepped out and shut the car door behind him. His son, Carl, ran over into his arms. Then Hershel and Glenn stepped out and Hershel made his way inside. "Patricia," he called. "Prepare the shed for surgery." "Surgery?" Rylee asked. "But everyone looks fine." She looked over after T-Dog pointed and asked, "Who tha hell is that?" "That's Randall," Glenn answered. It was what appeared to be a young man sitting in the backseat with a red rag over his eyes and he seemed to be unconscious.
Eventually, they all went inside into the dining room. "We couldn't just leave him behind," Rick explained. "He woulda bled out, if he lived that long." "What do we do with him?" Andrea asked him. Rylee didn't even stay for the rest of the conversation. She turned and stormed out onto the porch. She couldn't believe Rick had picked this guy up. It was just another mouth to feed. Who was this guy anyway? Did he just appear out of nowhere? Rylee didn't really care much. They just lost Sophia and here Rick is bringing another guy to camp that they can't trust. No one knows who he is. It wasn't long after she thought this that Shane stormed out. He walked passed her, but she called out to him. "What tha hell's goin' on in there?" she asked. "I don't…" He stopped. "I don't know." "He one of us now?" He turned and looked at her. "Tha boy," she clarified. Shane looked back at the house. "Sure as hell better not. That's all I gotta say 'bout it." He stood there for a moment, then Rylee got up and made her way over to him. "Look, I got somethin' I wanna say." He raised an eyebrow as she approached. "I may not particularly like you very much, but I never got a chance ta thank ya for what ya did back at tha highway. You had tha option ta either shoot us or send us packin'…but you didn't do tha'." Shane just looked at her and waited for her to finish. Rylee didn't like doing this very much, but she swallowed her pride. "And wha' you did at tha barn…I ain't sayin' ya did anything wrong, but there was a better way you coulda handled it. That was Hershel's family." Shane nodded and looked at her. "Glad someone here agrees with me." Rylee shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, I still don't like you, but that don't really matter." He looked down and rubbed his head, seeming to hold back something he wanted to say. "You wantin' to say somethin'?" He looked up and his eyes met her. "Look here, little girl. I didn't ask if you liked me or not. I was protectin' the group." She gritted her teeth and looked down for a brief moment. "Well," she said. "At least we agree on one thing: tha group should be protected. So, let's jus' leave it at that." Shane nodded once more. "Alrigh' then." And with that, Shane walked away.
As soon as Shane stormed away, Dean came out of the house and stepped down off of the porch. Rylee turned to him. "Well?" she asked him. Dean looked down and put his handed on his hips. "I reckon they're takin' him a few miles out n' lettin' him go." Rylee raised an eyebrow. "Tha' ain't a good idea. It migh' come back n' bite us in tha ass." Dean didn't reply. "What'd you say they should do?" "It's their farm. My input don't mean much." He then sat down on the steps and ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. "Well, what do you think they should do?" He looked up at her. "If I was Rick," he said. "I'd put a bullet in 'is head n' be done with it." She nodded. "I agree," she simply said.
