Reaching town they stopped to hand their radio back in, "you found anyone?" Shawn asked to get the attention from Daryl who was pacing up and down angrily he wanted to leave.
"Everyone, apart from a little girl, her mother just reported her missing" Rick explained to them.
"I'll help" Daryl offered, he grabbed his crossbow and followed Rick away from Shawn and Beth.
"Daryl, this is Carol, Sophia's mother" Rick introduced the two.
"What happened, why was she left alone out there?" Daryl questioned looking over the woman in front of him.
Carol shook her head "she was with my husband, but they already found his body she wasn't with him."
Daryl nodded in understanding "take me to where you found him." Daryl inspected the area where they had found the body, a lot of the ground had been trampled by the cops and he cursed them out before finding a trail leading away too small to be an adults, he followed it, having no one else follow him so they wouldn't disturb the tracks anymore than they already had. The little girl had ran, he realized she must have been terrified all alone out there, he picked up his pace following her, he came across a hollowed out tree trunk she had rested there for a while, maybe even as the hurricane hit, it was harder to track her after that she kept changing direction. Daryl had spent the day searching and it was getting dark, he heard his name being called through the radio.
"What?" Daryl growled into the radio.
"It's getting dark, check back in with us we'll start again tomorrow" Rick told him.
"Can't leave now" Daryl turned the radio off and continued following the trail. The sun was starting to rise, and he still hadn't found her, if only he hadn't spent so much time searching for Merle maybe he could've set out sooner, maybe he would've found her already. He wasn't going to give up until she was safe. He heard leaves crunching behind him and swung his crossbow in that direction, he saw her she in front of him "Sophia" he called out gently, she looked at him wide eyed and scared she was sat on the ground leaning against a tree, he lowered his crossbow and took a few steps toward her "it's ok, everybody is looking for you" he crouched down not wanting to scare her more than she already was.
"I want my mom" Sophia cried out.
"And I'm going to take you home to her, are you hurt?" he asked looking over her, she nodded "you're hurt" she nodded again "where?" she pointed to her ankle "I'm just going to check it out" he gently pulled her leg toward him feeling her ankle he saw her wince in pain "it's just a sprain" he sighed in relief that she wasn't badly hurt. He turned the radio back on and called in that he found her and was bringing her back to town. Daryl lifted Sophia from the ground, she wrapped her arms around his neck, she was cold so he shuffled her closer trying to give her as much of his heat as possible. Rick had told him to go straight to Carol's home, he saw a small crowd gathered outside consisting of officers and neighbors, he ignored them and walked through the front door.
"Sophia" Carol cried taking her daughter from Daryl.
"Mom" Sophia held on to Carol like she never wanted to let go.
"I thought I lost you" Carol sighed "I thought I'd never see you again." Daryl backed out of the house this wasn't his place, he handed the radio off to one of the on lookers, ignoring when Rick called after him and headed back in to the woods, that's where he belonged, alone.
