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Chapter 10

That was very unpleasant. Patricia's warning hadn't helped. As a precaution I made sure I had something to sink my teeth in, so I wouldn't scream out loud when the needle would pierce my skin. Patricia had called in Andrea and Maggie to hold my leg in place, in case my reflexes decided to kick in. Patricia first cleaned my wound, and then she stitched it as quickly as possible, though it felt too long to my liking. Once she was done, she left the room together with Maggie to attend to Beth, who was in a state of shock. The only thing I could do after they had left, and all that I really wanted to do, especially after the previous night, was fall asleep.

It was morning when I woke up. I rubbed the sleep out my eyes and glanced around the room. My eyes stopped as soon as they landed on the left corner. There was no chair there, and she wasn't there either. I checked the other side of the bed, maybe she was there, but she wasn't. I checked the floor and underneath the bed, nothing there either. Sophia wasn't in the room. This was getting ridiculous. Even the littlest of time I spend away from that little girl was getting to me. I sat up straight, and flinched as I moved my right leg. The door to the room opened up, and I was expecting it to be Sophia, I was even a second away of saying her name when it turned out to be Rick. He closed the door behind him, before motioning to the edge of the bed.

"May I?"

I nodded and he sat down.

"When did you get back?" I asked," are Glenn and Hershel,-"

"An hour ago, with Glenn and Hershel," He replied staring at the wall in front of him.

An hour ago, they had been gone for a long time. I was glad to hear they had all made it back safe and sound. I wondered what had happened. But I didn't get the chance to ask him, he hadn't come into the room to inform me about yesterday's events, he was here for something else.

"I heard about the car accident." Rick started. He moved his eyes away from the wall and looked at me," Lori told me you saved her life from a Walker."

An image of the gun jamming popped up in my mind. Yes, it was only a matter of inches or she would have been on the asphalt instead of the Walker," We saved each other."

"Did you know she was pregnant?" Rick asked me.

"Not until we were back at the farm." I told him. She had also forgotten to mention that she lied, about asking other people to accompany her.

"Lori is a stubborn person." Rick sighed.

"She is." I agreed, stupid too.

He averted his gaze again," Well, I'm glad she wasn't alone."

"I didn't agree with her choice, Rick. She was already in the car, and it didn't feel right to let her go off alone. If I had known she was pregnant, I would have knocked her out." I told him," No mother should be that reckless, that's your baby she's carrying." All Rick gave as a respond was a sigh followed by a simple nod. This confused me, had I said something wrong?

"I should inform you of what happened." And then he began to tell me about the events of yesterday and last night. How they had found Hershel, drinking his emotions and thoughts away, at one of the local bars. A shootout happened between them and two other guys, followed by an ambush, and then they took a wounded boy back with them. Rick kept the story short, but I got a pretty good idea of what a stressful and dangerous time they'd had.

"Now we have to make a decision of what to do with this young man." He continued.

"And have you?"

Rick ran a hand through his hair," the opinions are rather divided… I want to patch him up and send him back out there, give him a chance to get back to his group."

"And the other options are to either kill him or let him stay here?" I suggested.

"Another mouth to feed…" He immediately replied.

I frowned and stared at Rick, who shook his head.

"You've earned your place." He said with a determined look on his face," You saved Sophia, you took care of her. You took care of my wife,-"

"So I passed all of the checks on the list?" I scoffed.

"That's not fair." Rick countered," Trust isn't a given these days."

"It isn't, and I appreciate it." I extended my hand to him and he grabbed hold of it," Thank you."

"Welcome to the group."

::::::…::::::

A bit wobbly and rather ungracefully, I made my way down the stairs. Hershel had told me it was alright for me to get out of the bed. Patricia had stitched the wound nicely, I only had to make sure to keep it clean and apply a tad bit of antiseptic ointment once a day. Within a couple of days everything should be fine. There was no one in the living room. In fact the entire house was empty, except for Hershel and his youngest daughter Beth. I had asked him how she was doing, he wasn't too sure. The barn incident had left quite the impact on her and on him as well. If it hadn't been for Rick, he would have stayed in his delusional state regarding the Walkers.

"Beth has no hope at the moment," Hershel had said to me before leaving the room," we need to show her there is hope, even though…I still have doubts myself."

I stepped outside on the porch and let the warm sun greet me. Andrea waved at me from the top of the RV. I guess she took watch just like Dale. I was anxious to see Sophia and tell her the news that I would stay with the group from now on. Only I had no idea where to look for her. I headed over to Andrea. Perhaps she knew where Sophia was.

"Andrea, have you seen Sophia?" I asked her. Luckily she nodded and she pointed her weapon to the left.

"I saw her not too long ago heading over to Daryl's tent. I reckon she is still there." She threw me a smile," how's your leg?"

"Annoying, but it will heal." I answered as I looked into the direction of Daryl's tent.

"She went on her own." Andrea said to me and I turned my head.

"Carol is with Lori, doing laundry." She added.

"I didn't, I mean I wasn't…I." I sighed," Never mind. Thank you, Andrea."

Slowly, because I really had no other choice at the moment, I headed towards Daryl's tent.

The location of his tent was quite secluded from the others. I remembered it being closer to the farmhouse when I had left two days ago. Apparently Daryl had decided to move away. I could already see the shape of Sophia in the distance, together with Daryl who was down on his knees beside her. Sophia moved her arm back and then flung it forward into the direction of the large tree which stood in front of them. She was throwing a knife. I could tell because of the light which was reflected by the blade when it flew across. Daryl noticed me approaching and he tapped Sophia on the shoulder. She turned her head and waved when she saw me. She ran over to me, slowly this time instead of running into me like a freight train.

"Maddy, you're up." She said with a big smile," Mom told me not to disturb you while you were sleeping. She said you needed to rest."

"I did, and I feel much better now." I smiled back at her.

"You're still limping," Sophia noted as we walked towards Daryl, who had just pulled the knife out of the tree, and another one. Apparently Sophia had taken more than one of my knives.

"It will take a few days to heal, but after that it will be as good as new." I told her. She stopped in her tracks.

"Sophia?" I turned my head and saw the same little girl I had met almost a week ago, standing alone, frightened, and uncertain of what to do.

"Does that mean you will leave again?" She asked and there was a slight tremble in her voice. Not a tremble you have when you're about to cry, but a slight shiver indicating worry that something is going to happen, which you don't want to happen.

I had two people looking at me at that moment, Sophia in front of me and Daryl on my right side, leaning against the bark of the tree, observing the interaction between me and her.

"Sophia," I started," I am going to stay, right here." And with that said, I sat down on the ground, to emphasize my point and also because my leg had started to annoy me. She took a few steps and sat down next to me.

"No more running?" She questioned.

"I came back, didn't I?" and she nodded.

Daryl walked over and handed her the two knives," Why don't you show her?"

Immediately Sophia jumped up and took position a few feet away.

I now noticed the self made target that was taped on the bark. Sophia pointed at it," watch this Maddy!" and she stretched her arm, flung it forward and the knife hit the target right in the centre. She had improved. I clapped, as did she.

"Did you teach her?" I asked Daryl who was standing beside me.

"Just a few pointers, she already had a very good aim." He replied.

"She has," I agreed," saved my life…We were staying in this large house, and checked the upper floors just to make sure no Walkers were there." I looked up at Sophia for a moment, but she was busy retrieving the knife.

"Female Walker? Missing her bottom jaw, knife in her left eye?" Daryl suddenly said, pointing to his left eye. I looked up at him, my eyes widened with surprise.

"How did you,-"

"I've been there, the day before you and Sophia found me. There was no one inside, except for that dead Walker upstairs and the one locked up in the room next to it. I found a pillow and a blanket in the kitchen pantry."

My eyes shifted to Sophia again. He followed my gaze.

"You were that close to us…" I whispered.

Something was off. I told Sophia to stay close to me as we approached the house we had spent the night before. The front door was open, and I know it was closed when we left for the highway. We moved around to the back. That door was open too," Someone has been here," I whispered to Sophia.

"You…You let the Walker out of the upstairs room." I said to Daryl.

The door to the room where the Walker was locked in had been opened. It turned out to be a woman, with grey hair, an elderly lady.

"I checked every room in that house, looking for her." He nodded at Sophia.

"You found her, eventually."

"You found her first."

I stared up at Daryl. He almost sounded…disappointed. With slight difficulty I stood up from the ground.

"She deserved to be found, even though she can be rather loud." That last part I whispered.

Daryl snorted. The sound came as such a surprised that even I emitted a similar sound.

"I am not that loud…" Sophia exclaimed with her back turned to us.

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