And here it is - chapter 10! And this is a long one! Hopefully, i managed to keep everyone in character, but if not, feel free to tell me! Read, enjoy and review :)

writergrrrl, i love your reviews! You always confirm that i managed to do what i wanted with the story and that means a LOT, so thank you!

WillowTheMischeifMaker, MAR76, thanks for commenting, i really hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.

Disclaimer:

Sadly, i only own May and Kiba

Chapter 10: Stars and Bells

"It doesn't feel right, leaving her in the woods like this." May said, as the four of them were headed for the interstate. They've spent half a day looking for Sophia and the fact they hadn't found her made May feel like shit. "It's no use lookin' in the dark." Daryl answered simply. "I know… I just…" but she never finished her sentence.

"We're gonna have to make this a group effort – tomorrow, the two of you will each take a group and go look for her. Alright?" Rick said, still holding on to hope that they'll find the girl. Even in regular circumstances, May knew that a 12 year old girls' chances for surviving a night alone in the forest were slim. Add walkers to that equation and… No, I'm not going there. We will find her. "Yeah. We'll cover more ground that way." May agreed and Daryl just nodded.

"Oh, God, they're back!" Glenn's voice got her attention. They've reached the rest of the group all of them covered in mud, walker blood and gore – looking like they've just come back from war. The first person they saw was Carol. Her eyes counted their figures, realizing the cold truth.

"Y… You didn't find her?" she uttered, holding back the tears. "The trail went cold. We'll pick it up again first light." Rick said, trying to sound reassuring. Most of the group have gathered around, looking at the expectantly or looking at Carol with pity. Carol looked utterly broken. "You can't leave my daughter out there on her own, to spend the night alone in the woods." the woman said in a crying voice.

"Trackin' in dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves, people could git lost." Daryl explained as softly as his growling voice would allow. "But she's only twelve. She can't be out there on her own…" the saddened mother's voice was becoming shakier and shakier. "You didn't find anything?"

"I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic." Rick said in his policeman voice. "We know she was out there." he continued, placing a hand on Carol's shoulder. "We tracked her for a while." Daryl added. "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl and May know the woods better than anybody. I've asked them to oversee this." Rick started explaining to the group. Carol looked at Daryl and noticed blood on his pants.

"Is that blood?" she asked shakily. All three of them looked at Daryl's pants and then exchanged looks, realizing it was from the walker they gutted. "We took down a walker. But don't worry, there was no sign that he was anywhere near Sophia." Rick said urgently. "How can you know that?" Andrea asked. The two men exchanged looks, but said nothing for a moment.

"They gutted the bastard. Made sure… He never even touched her." May said, feeling that she needed to contribute something to the gutting. Carol started breathing heavily. She sat on the road fence and Lorry joined her, putting an arm around her. The grieving mother turned to Rick, the look in her eyes full of accusations. "How could you just leave her out there in the first place? How could you just leave her?!" Rick seemed broken by this. His voice started shaking. "There were two walkers on us… I.. I had to draw them off, it was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane said, taking a stand by Rick.

"How was she supposed to find the way back on her own? She's just a child." Carol said, now letting herself cry openly. Rick knelt in front of her, as if he was begging for mercy. "It was my only option… the only choice I could make…"

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane spoke for Rick again.

"My little girl got left in the woods…" Carol sobbed as Lorry held her. May felt tears burn at her eyes but she thought how she doesn't have the right to cry – she was one of the people that didn't find Sophia.

She felt someone take her hand and saw it was Glenn, leading her away from the group. "You look like hell. C'mon, I'll help you clean up." He was leading her to a big truck and she was stunned to see it was filled with water cooler bottles – full of water! Glenn opened on and water came splashing down on her, warm from standing in the sun for God knows how long. She started rubbing at her face and arms, washing the caked blood off. She scrubbed her hair and skin more vigorously than ever, wanting to wash off the entire week of explosions, deaths, walkers and missing children. After a couple of minutes, thought, she was soaking wet but her skin, hair and clothes were blood free. She turned and gulped water until she wasn't thirsty anymore and then she just leaned against the truck. Glenn was standing there the entire time, making sure no walker snuck up. She looked at him gratefully. When she was finished, the night had completely come. Without the street lights, the only light they had was the moon and stars.

"I'm sure you did everything you could to find her." he said, as if reading her mind. "We really did, Glenn… But it wasn't enough. Tomorrow, we have to find her. She can't survive out there alone for too long." To stop herself from thinking further about it, she looked around cars before she found an empty bottle. As luck would have it, she actually found an unopened bottle of water.

The two of them headed back to the group, slowly. "You should put on some dry clothes." Glenn pointed out. "You're probably right…" she answered absently. They walked in silence for a while. "Hey… I know it's not the time for this but… you and Daryl?" She gave him a confused look before she started laughing, covering her mouth to muffle the sound. "You weren't that drunk, right?"

"Nope, I remember everything." her Korean friend replied with a smile. "Well… I don't know." May answered honestly. Before she could say anything else, Daryl came to her line of sight. "Glenn, I have to go and…" she started, pointing in his direction. "Go." Glenn said with a smile, before she could even finish the sentence. She smiled at him softly and went after Daryl.

"Hey, Dixon!" Daryl heard a familiar voice call out. He turned around and saw May, now clean and completely wet. The slightly loose camisole she was wearing was now clinging to her body and her long hair, heavy with water, stuck to her neck and arms. He waited for her to catch up before he continued walking. "I got you this." she said, handing him a bottle of water. He took it and nodded gratefully. They reached his bike and he started unpacking sleeping bag for the night. "What 'appened?" he asked her, pointing at her hair and clothes. "Ah… The end of the world." she answered with a smile, spreading her arms in surrender. He scoffed, zipping his bag up. "Anyway, I just wanted to give you the water so… I gotta go." she said, pointing at her wet clothes that were desperate for her to change them.

May was soon wearing a pair of jeans, a slightly baggy, olive, short sleeved t-shirt and a zip-up black hoody she found in one of the cars. She managed to add all the missing things to her wardrobe and was now sure she was prepared for any and all weather and situation – until winter. She spread he sleeping bag across the between a couple of tipped over cars for privacy and crawled in to it, Kiba curled up by her side and she hugged him, falling in to a restless sleep.

*WDWDWDWD*

May fluttered her eyes open, realizing it was still night. She tossed around in the sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable again and sleep, but soon decided it was useless. She was up. She decided to see who was on guard duty and how soon was it her turn. She climbed atop the RV and found Daryl sitting there, looking the other way. That meant her shift was next. "Ranger-girl."

"Hey Dixon. How'd you know it was me?" Instead of an answer, he just gave her a small grin. "Why ain't ya sleepin'?" he asked, as she sat by him. "Can't." she answered simply lying on her back so she faced the starry sky. "You should git some rest for tomorrow." Daryl said, looking around for any potential threat. When he was satisfied it was safe, he looked at her thin frame, and she shot him a slightly cocky look that reminded him of when he first met her in the woods. He scoffed and shook his head, returning to walker watch.

May lay there for a while, watching the stars, periodically seeing a shooting star fly by. She felt Daryl look at her from time to time and it gave her a tingling sensation in her stomach. It was, however, pushed aside by something much more important and urgent. "We'll find her, right?" she asked, looking at Daryl. He turned to her before replying. "You don't got the look on yer face the rest of 'em do."

"Good to know I'm not the only one who noticed it. What the hell is wrong with them?" she asked, pouting slightly, her eyebrows furrowing. "I dunno… We just started lookin'. It ain't the mountains o' Tibet, it's Georgia. She's probably in a farmhouse somewhere waitin' for us to find 'er."

"I know. God, she's only 12…" May sighed heavily. "I was younger than that when I got lost." Daryl said, more to himself. May gave him a questioning look. "Nine days, alone in the woods, eatin' berries and wipin' my ass with poison oak."

"Didn't anyone look for you?" May asked, her voice turning slightly more serious. "M' old man was off on tha bender with some waitress, Merle was servin' another sentence in juvie, didn' even know I was gone. I made m' way back, though. Went straight in to the kitchen, made m'self a sandwich. No worse for wear… 'Cept my ass, that was just sumthin' awful." May raised her eyebrows, but didn't laugh. "Nobody noticed you were gone for 9 days?" she asked softly, seeming shocked that could happen. He nodded slightly and she turned her gaze back to the sky. However, a small laugh escaped her lips. Daryl gave her a questioning look. "Poison oak." she said, laughing harder this time. Daryl let out a small chuckle himself before they both fell to silence. She felt her eyelids getting heavy."Daryl," she called out in a sleepy voice, "I'd notice if you were gone." she mumbled out and fell asleep.

Daryl felt a strong tug in his gut when the words left her lips. He glanced at her but she had fallen asleep. He took his jacket of and covered her with it. She shuffled to her side and curled in to a ball as soon as he covered her. He felt an uncharacteristic smile creep its way onto his face. Composing himself, he frowned it away. She ain't for me. I didn't do nothing to deserve her.

*WDWDWDWD*

"Everyone, grab a weapon." Rick said, spreading open a set of some seriously large knives and similar deadly items. "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked derisively. "We've been over that – only Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people shooting around every time a tree pops out." Shane said, belting his gun. "It's not the trees I'm worried about…" Andrea gritted through her teeth.

"These are exactly the kind of weapons we should use – they can kill walkers quietly." May said in an end-of-discussion kind of voice. "The idea's we take the creek up 'bout five miles, turn around, come back down the other side." Daryl explained to everyone. "Chances are, she'll be by the creek – it's her only landmark." May added. "Be quiet, stay sharp, keep space between you but always stay within each other." Rick instructed, giving everyone a stern look.

May took Kiba aside, scratching him behind the ears. "It's not just us anymore, boy. We have to find her." She brought Sophia's shirt to his nose and he sniffed at it. Looking at Kiba, her life before the rise of the dead flashed through her mind. This was the first time she let herself think about it. She missed the snowy, untouched nature of Alaska. She missed drinking hot tea with Jake at the ranger station. She missed hunting in the woods with Kiba… and then her eyes fell on Daryl who was walking up to her and all of her thoughts were pushed away. "Ya ready t' go?"

"Yeah… You cover the area very close to the creek, I'll cover the area a bit deeper in the woods?"

"A'right. The mutt can be in b'tween."

"Good." Daryl walked up to her, offering her a hand. She looked at the hand, than at him and finally, took it. He hoisted her up and they headed for the group. They rejoined them in time to see a crying Andrea walk away from Dale angrily. He looked absolutely crushed. May gave Lorry a quizzing look and the skinny brunette just shook her head, her gaze falling to the ground.

Soon, everyone except for Dale and T-Dog who stayed there in case Sophia comes back was in the woods looking for the missing child. Carl somehow managed to convince his parents to let him join the search. May had to admit she liked the kid – he had lots of potential. An owl sound Daryl let out got he attention, a she saw him pointing at a tent. They found someone's camp site. Daryl and May motioned everyone to get down. "She could be in there." she heard Rick's voice. "It could be a whole bunch o' things in there." Daryl replied. True that. May thought. She, Daryl and Rick headed to the tent, a bow and arrow, a crossbow and a gun at a ready. Shane followed closely behind them. Daryl took out his knife and May did the same, both of them sneaking up to the tent. He gave her a look that said 'get the hell back' but she just glared back at him, letting him know she's not backing down. They circled around the tent, but couldn't see inside. Daryl signaled Rick, and the policeman called Carol over.

"Call out softly, if she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." he whispered to the slightly shivering woman. "Sophia, sweety… Are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia! We're all here baby, it's mommy." there was no answer. Rick and Shane exchanged glances before joining May and Daryl by the tent. Daryl gently unzipped the tent entrance and when he pushed back the fabric, the smell of rotting flesh made them all pull back a bit. The hunter crawled in the tent and May feared he might suffocate, as the smell was making all four of them cough and gag.

"Daryl? Daryl?" Carol called out. A moment later, Daryl stepped out, taking a deep breath. "It ain't her."

"Who's in there?" Andrea asked, walking up to them. "Some guy, just like Janner said, opted out. Ain't that what 'e called it?" Daryl answered, giving her a somewhat provokingly. Before anyone said anything else, a loud bell sounded out from somewhere in the woods. May and Daryl exchanged glances before the started running in the direction of the ringing. They came in to a slight clearing and stopped, trying to find the source. "What direction?" Shane asked. "I think it's that way…" Rick said, pointing to far west. "No, Rick, it's that way." May said, heading for the source. "You sure? It's hard to tell here." Shane asked. "I'm sure." she replied confidently.

"If we hear it, maybe Sophia does too." Carol said hopefully. "Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling the others." Glenn said, cautiously. "Maybe they found her?" Andre offered. "She could be ringing them herself." Rick said as May upped her pace to running, followed by the rest of the group.

After about an hour of running through the woods, the group came across an opening. They were on the edge of a cemetery, a church on the other side. "It ain't it. It's got no steeple, no bells." Shane said. Regardless, they all ran for the church as if their lives depended on it. The slowed down at the entrance, pulling out their weapons. Kiba started growling at the door. "Walkers." May said grimly. Rick shushed them all and he and Daryl pushed the church doors open. Inside, four figures were sitting, as if they were praying. They took a step in when the figures started snorting out growling noises and slowly faced them. They were walkers.

Lorry handed Rick a knife. Darryl hung his crossbow on his shoulder and took a hatchet from Glenn. May hung her bow around her torso and pulled out her hunting knife. Glenn handed Shane a machete. The four of them entered the church, each of them attacking one of the walkers. Rick and Shane slashed at their heads and continued bashing them angrily, even after they were dead. Daryl took the bastard out in one swift hit in the head, while May simply walked up to the walker, kicked him in the stomach making him fall to the ground and stabbed him in the eye. Rick delivered his last blow and the church was so silent May could hear his shaky breaths from across the room. The rest of the group slowly spilled inside. "Sophia!" Rick shouted out maniacally. May saw Daryl walk up the cross with a crucified Jesus on it. "Yo, J.C. you takin' requests?" he asked angrily before leaving the church. She scoffed humorlessly.

"I'm telling you it's the wrong church, it's got no steeple Rick, it's got no steeple." Shane said nervously. The ringing sounded out again and all of them ran out to find the source. On the back wall of the church, they found an electronic bell. Glenn jumped at it and turned it off. "Timer… It's on a timer." Daryl said, pointing at the speaker. "I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said in a shaky voice, walking back inside followed by a couple of more people. May saw Andrea walk away and sit on the flour, leaning against the church wall. She walked up to the blond and sat beside her.

"So, what's up with you?" she asked, cutting straight to the point. Andrea gave her an appraising look before answering. "I was denied the right to make a choice." she said in a slightly melodramatic voice. "And now they won't give me my gun back, just because I'm a woman. I can fight as well as them." May fought the urge to roll her eyes at the woman. Before she had a chance to say anything, Lorry's voice reached them.

"Are you leaving?" she asked someone.

"Don't you think that's best for all of us?" Shane asked in reply.

"I think it is. What made you decide?"

"I gotta back away. I'm just trying to be a good guy here Lorry, even if you don't see it. None of this was intended, I hope you know that. Don't matter, as long as I said it."

"You're just gonna disappear? You're not gonna tell Rick…" there was urgency in her voice.

"You don't even try to stop me. Now that's on you! You can tell him what you want, or nothing at all. You're his wife…" Shane was getting angry.

"And Carl? We dragged him in to this." Lorry's voice was low and shaky.

"I love Carl."

"He thinks you hate him."

"I'm trying to put some distance, I'm trying to make this easier… This ain't easy on any of us, least of all me. I'm the one who loses you." May tried to sneak away without being noticed. She didn't want to hear this and was more than willing to forget it if it meant she wouldn't get dragged in to it any deeper. She didn't count on Shane going their way. He saw the both of them and gave May a look of pure hatred and at that moment, she was certain he wouldn't mind hurting her.

And we've reached the end of this chapter as well. I hope you liked it and i'll post another one in a day or two. Reviews are welcome! Peace!