All Screwed Up

"And things go hard
Like a dog gone mad
She can pack some punch
Then you're out to lunch, back at one"

-All Screwed up, AC/DC

It was getting dark and there was still no sign of Sophia. The others had worked at clearing a route through the cars and scavenging what they could. When Tony had gotten Olivia stitched up with some fishing line he had found, she hobbled around—scavenging the best she could. She was hoping to find something to help T-Dog. He was starting to look feverish, despite his protests.

Carol hadn't done much—not that anyone could blame her. She just stared at the trees, sobbing. She was praying that the men would return with her daughter. If there was a God, surely he would have mercy. She was just a child!

Tony was helping Glenn and Dale with the radiator. They had managed to find a similar hose and duct tape and rigged up a half-decent fix. Everything was ready to go as soon as Rick and Daryl got back with Sophia. But Dale was keeping that a secret. He didn't want to leave without the little girl. Or, at least, answers.

Olivia was working with Carl—looking through the nearby cars. He was quiet—Shane had snapped at him earlier and his feelings were hurt. She was trying on getting him to laugh again—ease the tension but he was too worried to joke around.

"They're back!" She heard Glenn exclaim.

Carl and her went rushing over to see. Rick and Daryl were climbing back up towards the highway looking disheartened—no Sophia. Olivia walked up to them and placed a hand on Carol's shoulder. "You didn't find her?" She whimpered.

"Her trail went cold." Rick told Carol. "We'll pick it up again at first light."

Olivia frowned at that—they shouldn't be leaving a little girl alone in Walker-infested woods at night.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods!" Carol sobbed, shrugging off Olivia's hand.

Daryl threw his crossbow over his shoulder. "Out in the dark's no good." He told her in his husky voice. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost."

Olivia knew he had a point—searching at night would be pointless. Daryl was probably the only one with experience in tracking and searching at night would just leave to more problems. But she still felt they should be searching until Sophia was found. Carol seemed to agree with Olivia's thoughts as she instantly protested.

"I know this is hard." Rick said calmly, hands in front of his face. "But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there!"

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl added helpfully.

Rick looked around at everyone. "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

That surprised Olivia. From what she gathered, Daryl was only in it for himself. She guessed that somewhere under that toughened exterior was a good guy.

"I-is that blood?" Carol shook as she caught sight of Daryl's pants. He just looked down at himself and back at Rick—not wanting to explain. He had gotten it on him from when he and Rick had ripped open a Geek. He wasn't sure how to explain that in a way that wouldn't upset the grief-stricken woman.

"We took down a Walker." Rick said.

"Walker? Oh my God." Carol started to panic and Lori placed her hands comfortingly on her shoulders.

"There were no signs it was anywhere near Sophia."

"And how can you know that?" Andrea asked.

Rick and Daryl exchanged looks before Daryl answered. "We cut the sumbitch open. Made sure."

Carol looked like she was going to faint as she sat down on the guardrail. She gathered her breath before snapping at Rick. "How could you just leave her her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

The guilt was evident on Rick's face as he defended himself. "Those two Walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane added.

"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol asked, desperately. "She's just a child."

Olivia couldn't hear anymore. Her own anxieties were getting to her. She stalked off back to the cars in the ditch—hoping there was a map of the area that was overlooked the first time around. Maybe they could use it to organize the search.

She heard grass crunching behind her and looked up to Tony walking towards her. "Y'all alright?" He asked leaning against the car Olivia was rummaging in. She wasn't finding anything. He knew the missing girl was weighing hard on his sister. She had a hero's complex when it came to children.

"I guess. Just worried about Sophia."

"Me too. I'm going to help search in the morning."

"I am too." Olivia told him, jutting out her chin as he began to protest. "I'm better, Tony! I'm stitched up. I just have a little limp! And that's mostly because of the stitches. I can't sit around doing nothing another day."

Tony shook his head. She was being stubborn. He didn't want to risk her injury getting any worse. "No, I don't think so, Liv. You need to focus on getting better."

"I'm fine!" She protested and Tony rolled his eyes. "Tell you what, we'll keep on eye on it. If it looks infected in the morning, I won't go."

Tony looked at her as he debated. "Fine. But if is even the slightest bit red, you're staying back." He had no intention of letting her come but it was easier to comply with her than arguing.

"Fine." She huffed out, pleased.

"Fine!" Olivia stuck her tongue out and him and he just rolled his eyes. He nodded his head back at the group who was beginning to disperse. "C'mon, let's get back up there."

She nodded and began limping up with him. He tried putting an arm around her to help her walk but she just smacked him away. Olivia didn't want to look like a weakling just because she got a little scrape.

Once they reached the top of the hill, Tony went back over to the RV, finishing up with the radiator. Olivia looked around. Rick was stalking off among the cars—probably feeling guilty. Daryl was by his bike, fiddling with his crossbow. She decided to hobble over to him. She should apologize for snapping at him back at the CDC.

"What happened out there?" She asked when she was near enough. Daryl had watched her approach with a glare and didn't say anything. He just went back to his business—ignoring her. He was still pissed off at her. Olivia rolled her eyes at his childishness. "Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you before. I was stressed and you were there."

He just looked up at her expectantly. It wasn't much of an apology. "Nobody insults Tony but me." She explained to him with a shrug. "I get a little defensive sometimes. He's the same way."

"Okay." He said gruffly, not elaborating. He was still a little hurt, but at least she had the galls to admit she was wrong—even if she was just shrugging it off.

Olivia went to a truck near him and leaned against it—taking the weight off of her injured leg. He took the moment to look over her. She had cleaned up since he last seen her. Her brown hair was sleek and clean, her face clear of grime. She looked gorgeous to him. Tired and anxious—but gorgeous. "So, what happened out there?" She tried again.

He sighed. "We tracked her down. She was headed here but somethin' veered her off course. We found a Walker, cut the sumbitch open. Nasty thing ate a woodchuck. Not much after that."

"Ew." She crinkled my nose at the thought of digging through a Walker's stomach. "Wish I was out there with them. Maybe there was something I could of done." I muttered.

"Like what? Bleed all over the place? You wouldn't of made a difference." He grunted, placing his bow on the ground and peering at her though the corner of his eye. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." Olivia snapped, sick of people asking her. "Tony stitched me up with fishing line. It looks pretty good." She shifted her leg so he could get a look at my wound. "All better now."

"That's what you needed the glue for?" He asked and she nodded. "Sorry I didn't find none."

"Doesn't matter." She waved him off. She was touched by his interest. Slowly, underneath all the grime and dirt Daryl was showing her that he was a man who cared. Despite his actions to prove otherwise. "Sophia is more important."

He nodded and shifted his attention back to his bike. "I'm going to come with y'all in the morning." She told him, not wanting the conversation to be over for some reason. He was rough around the edges but she truly enjoyed talking to him. It didn't help that she liked the 'bad boy' vibe he had going on. She had always been attracted to the lumberjack look in the past.

"Like hell ye are." He grunted, not even looking at her. "You'll only slow us down."

Olivia glared at him, getting angry again. She hated when people thought she was weak. "Tony said I could." She protested childishly.

"Then your brother is staying back too." Olivia huffed and crossed her arms—turning away from him. She knew she was being a brat, but she just wanted to help. She couldn't do that here. She needed to be out in the woods.

Daryl shifted around and took in the pouting woman. "Fuckin' woman." He muttered his breath, but found it endearing nonetheless. Olivia turned to glare at him when she heard him complain and he just glared back. "Listen here, Oakley, I know you can take care of yourself. Splendid job you're doing of that." He gestured to her leg sarcastically and she mouth popped open to protest but he continued. "If we're going to get to Sophia as fast as we can, we can't have injured people slowing us down. I saw that limp of yer's."

Olivia stared at him. He did have a point but that didn't mean she was happy. "We'll see how it is in the morning." She bargained, same as she had told Tony.

"You're staying here." Daryl said, not budging. Olivia grumbled, pushing her weight off of the truck and began heading over to the RV. As she passed Daryl, she grabbed the rag he had in his hands and threw it on the ground before storming away. "Real fuckin' mature!" He yelled as she walked angrily up to her brother, Dale, and Glenn.

"Dixon's a jerk." Olivia told them as they looked at her questioningly. "Dick-son." She added thoughtfully.

They laughed. "He's not letting you come, is he? Good man." Tony taunted and she punched his arm. He preferred her thinking Daryl a jerk, though. Easier to protect her that way.

"I'm fine." Olivia hissed at him.

He rolled his eyes. "I know you're acting like it's just a splinter but you sliced your leg pretty fuckin' bad. You need to let it heal."

"Your brother is right, Olivia. Trudging through the woods isn't going to do you any favors." Dale reasoned, wiping his dirty hands on a rag. "You may not like it, but you'll probably be of more use here. We'll find something for you to do."

"I'm going to bed." Olivia huffed out at them, not wanting to agree. She turned on her heel and began heading back to the Caprice. "And know I hate each and every one of you."

They laughed but she was fuming. How the hell was she supposed to help out here? The cars had all been moved today and she didn't see anything left that needed to be done. Olivia thought should be out there helping search for that poor little girl. She'd ask Rick in the morning to let her come. Maybe he'd have a different answer.

"How's your leg doing, Olivia? Do you really think you should be coming?" Rick asked the next morning as she pleaded her case to him. Tony had warned him that Olivia might try something like this.

She had thrown on a pair of jeans in an attempt to hide her injury but the truth was it was starting to get irritated. It was nowhere near as bad as T-Dog's but it was starting to get red around the makeshift stitches.

"I'm fine." She tried to reassure him as Tony walked up to us carrying a rifle.

"Don't listen to a word she says, Rick." He said nudging her in the shoulder. "She's not fine and she is staying here."

Rick looked at her brother and nodded, shrugging at Olivia. "I'm sorry, Olivia, but it's probably for the best if you stay here. We can't risk you getting worse. T-Dog has to stay too and isn't too pleased about it neither."

At least she had a companion in her misery. She shuffled over to the RV where T-Dog was leaning and he sent her a weary smile. The others were gathered in front of them making a plan. Rick was handing out weapons—but not guns much to Andrea's displeasure. Dale had taken her gun and she was none to happy. It was probably for the best, though. She probably didn't know how to use the thing.

Most of the group didn't know how to use guns, actually. It was good that Shane wasn't handing them out like candy—they would probably end up wasting all of the bullets on every twig that snapped. Besides, it would just attract unwanted attention.

The group moved and got ready to go. Olivia stayed with T-Dog and watched them resentfully. Even Carl was allowed to go. She stalked off over to Tony who was shouldering his rifle. He was one of the few allowed to carry a weapon—herself included. She took her knife from her waist and handed it to him—silently giving him her support.

Andrea and Dale were making a scene and everyone stopped to watch. It seems Dale had forced her in escaping the CDC and she wasn't too happy. Personally, Olivia thought she was being a whiny bitch. Sure, she guessed Andrea had some kind of death wish now since her sister died but that didn't mean she should go around firing a gun she didn't know how to use, endangering everyone else. She needed to face reality. She wasn't dead. Build a bridge and get over it.

Once Andrea said her piece she stormed off—the others following. Olivia limped over to sit on the hood of the car T-Dog was on and watched them with a frown on her freckled face.

"For what its worth, Dale, I think you did the right thing." She told the older man, glaring at Daryl's back as he disappeared into the woods. Dale just nodded sadly at the younger woman. He truly did care for Andrea. "C'mon Theodore, let me take a look at that."

The man groaned as he shuffled over to Olivia. Dale was returning to look at the RV—seeing what more could be done. "Tony told you my name?" He asked as they traded places—him jumping on the hood and holding out his arm.

"With a name like Theodore Douglas?" She laughed as she picked up the first aid kit Tony had brought her earlier. "Course he did."

Olivia looked at his cut. It was showing the first signs of infection. It was swollen, slightly red, and looked like it was causing him lots of pain. He was sweating and weak. It didn't look good for the poor man. "You scraped it on a car door?" She asked as he nodded. "You don't happen to remember the last time you got a tetanus shot, do you?"

"Tetanus? No." He shook his head as she pulled out antiseptic wipes from the kit. "But I did go to the doctor a couple of months ago and he gave me a couple of shots."

"Probably good for tetanus then." Olivia mumbled, trying to figure out the best way to approach cleaning the cut. "This is probably going to hurt but I need to do it. It's looking infected."

He hissed out as she began to roughly dab at his cut. It felt like she was jamming hot pinpricks of burning coals into his arm. It was pretty deep and it started bleeding again. "How's your leg doing?" He asked through clenched teeth.

"Don't tell Tony this, but it's not looking so good. Don't think it's infected though." Olivia frowned as she dabbed at his arm. "Let's think of something to distract you. Which celebs do you think made it?"

"Chuck Norris." He said with a weak laugh. "He just had to."

"That's a given. Man's unstoppable." She scrubbed harder and he hissed out in pain. The coals felt more like actual flames now. "Betty White. She may be old but she's feisty."

"Harrison Ford."

"Samuel L. Jackson."

"Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Olivia finished cleaning the cut and looked closely at it—deciding what to do. It was bleeding again and would need something on it. "I don't think I want to give you stitches—mine aren't turning out so great. I'll wrap it up for now—stop the bleeding."

He nodded weakly—sweat pouring down his brow as she began to put gauze on the wound and brace it with an arm brace they had found. "Oh. I hope Bill Murray made it." She said with a sigh.

"All the celebrities probably made it." T-Dog grunted as Olivia tightened the brace. "They're probably having a good laugh from inside their hilltop mansions."

Olivia finished with the brace and put the supplies back into the bag. "Maybe that's where we should go next. Hollywood."

He laughed, jumping down from the hood and stretching his arm out. It was burning like crazy but now that Olivia had stopped cleaning it, it felt a little better. "We have a hard time even just getting enough gas to get to the next city let alone across the country."

"One can dream, Theodore, one can dream." She laughed with him before turning back to go to the Caprice. "I'm going to go change into shorts. It's going to be a scorcher."

"Thank you." He gestured to his arm before heading over to give Dale a hand. Olivia smiled and took the bag back to the Caprice. When she returned a couple of minutes later, Dale had climbed onto the top of the RV and was keeping watch. He revealed that the RV had been repaired yesterday. He was just giving everyone another reason to stick around until Sophia was found. Olivia thought he was one of the kindest people she had ever met.

T-Dog and her mulled around the rest of the day—casually looking through cars and playing cards. It was eating away at Olivia, she should be helping, but she was currently a member of the 'disabled club'. She felt like an idiot for being so clumsy.

The sun was high in the sky when they heard a gun shot go off in the distance. Only one shot. They all exchanged worried looks and nervously went back to what they doing. Praying that it was nothing.

Later, Dale had come down from the RV and was scavenging what he could from engines. Olivia was napping on the hood of car a little bit not far from them. T-Dog suddenly yet out a cry of pain and she shot up, looking over at the two men. Dale was holding his arm in concern while T-Dog braced himself against a car. He was getting worse. Sweat was poring from his brow and he looked even sicker—if possible.

"I got some painkillers." Olivia offered. "Those might help. Tony and I have a bunch of drugs too. But I don't know what the names mean."

T-Dog nodded weakly and she tossed him the bottle. She had taken a few herself, her own leg was beginning to throb dully. It didn't look near as bad as T-Dog's, more like irritation from the stitches that she kept pulling at every time she took a step. And the sweltering heat didn't help at all.

By the time the sun was starting to set, the others still weren't back and Olivia was starting to get worried. T-Dog and Dale had moved to the ground and were having a discussion, but she didn't care to join. She was hot, sweaty, and impatient. She wanted to get up and pace until the others got back. What was taking them so long? The sun was setting for god's sake! How hard was it to find one little girl? How far could she have gotten? Olivia thought about the gunshot she had heard earlier and her stomach clenched painfully.

Suddenly she heard a commotion from the woods and she jumped to her feet—her leg protesting. Glenn, Daryl, Carol, and Andrea all came trudging up the ditch—exhausted. Tony, Rick, Shane, Lori, and Carl not with them. And no Sophia.

"What happened?" Olivia shouted anxiously as she caught a glimpse of their grim faces, panicking when she didn't see her brother.

"Carl was shot!" Glenn cried as he climbed over the guardrail. Olivia felt her blood run cold. First Sophia and now Carl. This was some sort of bad dream. It had to be.

"Shot! What do you mean shot?" Dale asked, walking over.

"I don't know Dale. I wasn't there! All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

Dale's mouth flapped as he turned his gaze to Daryl. "And you let her?"

"Climb down out of my ass, old man!" Daryl snarled throwing his crossbow down and walking past Olivia towards his bike. He avoided her anxious gaze. Her eyes were asking questions he didn't know the answers to. "Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name. And Carl's."

Olivia quickly followed him. "Where's Tony?" She asked him frantically and he groaned.

"Relax woman. He was with Rick. Probably went to the farm with 'em." He told her gruffly as he placed his crossbow down and wiped at his neck with a handkerchief. Like everyone else, he was sweaty and covered in dirt.

Olivia let out a shaky breath, praying he was right. "Carl really was shot?"

"That's what that chick said."

"Oh god. I hope he's okay. Jesus." She bit her lip, trying to get control over herself. She could feel hysteric sobs working up her throat. "No Sophia, either?" Her voice was small and broken.

"No." Daryl turned to look at her at the sound of her broken voice and his gaze softened. She looked heartbroken. "How's that leg of yours?"

"It's fine." She mumbled, not looking at him. Olivia put her face in her hands, breathing slowly. "Everything's turning to shit."

"Relax, Oakley. Ain't no sense in getting worked up. They'll be fine." He walked over to her, a hand in the air as if he wanted to comfort her. "Let me see that leg of yer's. Don't want your brother comin' after me cuz you died of blood poisoning."

As he said that Olivia let out a watery laugh—thinking of T-dog. "T-Dog's got an infection." She told him as he poked at her stitches—making her flinch away from him. "He's not doing too well."

"Yours is a bit irritated." He observed, ignoring what she said. "But I don't think it's infected."

"I told you. I'm fine." She snapped. "I'm not the one anyone should be worrying about."

"If you say so." He snapped back and stalked off to the rest of the group who were arguing. If she was going to snap at him for trying to help than she could forget it. Olivia quickly hobbled after him—not wanting to be alone with her thoughts.

"She gave us directions to her farm." Glenn was saying. "It's not far from here."

"What if she comes back and we're not here?" Carol protested, shaking her head. She looked around at the others' doubtful looks. Carol wasn't about to give up on her little girl. "It could happen."

Andrea sent her a small smile. "If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful."

"At least some of us should stay." Olivia agreed as everyone turned their gaze to Daryl. He had become the unofficial leader now that Rick and Shane were gone.

"Okay." He nodded. "We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale said sending a nod to Carol who gave her appreciation. Olivia didn't think one day more was going to cut it. Personally, she didn't want to leave until they found the little girl. Leaving any time sooner wasn't fair to Sophia.

"I'm staying, too." Olivia told Daryl who just shook his head at the stubborn woman. "I can deal with my leg. Carl and T-Dog need attention more than me. I can be of more use here than I would there. Tony's the universal donor, not me." Oh, that was why Tony went with Rick, she realized. Tony could help out by donating his blood. And he would. He'd probably give up every last drop of his own blood before letting that boy die.

Daryl shrugged. "Whatever."

"I'm in, too." Andrea said raising her hand.

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm—" Glenn began.

"Not you, Glenn. You're going." Dale cut him off. "Take Carol's Cherokee."

Glenn shook his head. "Me? Why is it always me?"

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on." Dale told him sternly, acting like the father figure. "But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option."

"His cut has gone from bad to worse." Olivia told Glenn, backing Dale up. "Lookin' like a bad blood infection."

"You need to get him to that farm and see if they have any antibiotics." Dale spoke again as Daryl walked over to his bike. "If not, T-Dog will die. No joke."

"Tony and I grabbed some prescription stuff back in Pennsylvania." Olivia told the group. "Anybody speak science?" They shook their heads.

Daryl grabbed a cloth off of his bike and dragged out a bag full of pills. He came back over and chucked the cloth at Dale. "Keep your oily rags off of my brother's motorcycle. Why'd you wait till now to say anything?" He ripped open the bag and searched through the pills.

"I did say somethin'!" Olivia protested. "I told you ten minutes ago!"

He shot her a dirty look before turning back to the bag of drugs. "I got my brother's stash. Crystal, X. Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers." He said, tossing Olivia a bottle of vicodin. "Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

Olivia scrunched her eyes, not wanting to think of his brother's (who she imagined was identical to Daryl) personal problems. Daryl went walking off, looking for some work to do and Dale took the pills over to T-Dog.

"We might have some of that, too." She realized, looking at the label of the Oxycycline, before heading over to the Caprice to search through Tony and her's stash of drugs. She kept an eye on Daryl. He was proving to be just full of surprises. He was really growing on her—not that she would ever admit. This world wasn't made for emotions such as affection anymore. And she wasn't going to turn into a weak, sopping mess just because the handsome, rugged hunter gave her the time of day. No chance in hell.

Here's some sweet, sweet jams I rock out to when writing about the Walking Dead (Or jogging)... I call it... The APOCOLYST (haha, get it?)

1. Back in Black - AC/DC

2. Come With me Now - Kongos

3. Skulls - Bastille

4. Hair of the Dog - Nazareth

5. Ready Aim Fire - Imagine Dragons

Enjoy!

-Delaney :)