I Am Bulletproof

Chapter Eleven: Missing

We left Atlanta as early as we could, so we would get a head start. It had been decided that we would get rid of some of the vehicles, seeing as we were a much smaller group. Daryl left his truck, and our stuff was in the RV. I would miss the truck; it was similar to the one I had back home. We stopped for lunch and to scavenge some things from nearby cars, and I told Luke to stay close to the kids and Julie. They were the most vulnerable, and I wanted to find a doll for Belle's birthday. Of course Mr Grouch insisted that he go along with me, in case walkers were to come through. Rick had told us to stick in pairs, too, which Daryl used against me. I agreed just to get him to stop annoying me about it, and it didn't take long for us to find a doll.

"We should probably look for shoes, too. She's grown out of the last pair." I mentioned, slipping the bag off my sore shoulders to put the doll away. "Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

"Shh." he pointed up ahead; there was a large group of walkers heading our way and we snuck back to the group slowly, trying to get back before the walkers saw us. Too late; I pulled out my katanas and followed Daryl behind a red SUV. He loaded his crossbow; I watched as he shot one square in the eye. I guess having him come along had been a good idea. We cleared a path and found T-Dog, who had a deep gash in his arm. I heard walkers shuffling over and threw a corpse on T-Dog, telling him to play dead. I crawled under a pile of dead walkers as Daryl grabbed one out of a car and shut my eyes. Waiting for them to pass was the hard part, and I'll admit it. I was scared. Scared they'd find us, scared for the group.

"Come on, they're gone." Daryl said as he pulled the reking walkers off me. We hurried back to the group; Sophia and Rick were nowhere to be seen. Carol was sobbing quietly and Daryl asked Luke what had happened.

"Sophia got scared and ran off, with two walkers after her. Rick went to get her. Poor kid." Dale shook his head and went back to fixing the RV. There wasn't much we could do until Rick came back so I went to have a nap. Luke woke me shortly after, telling me Sophia hadn't been with Rick.

"So now what?" I stretched and got up.

"Well, Rick wants your help. You and Daryl are the best trackers we have. They're waiting outside." Luke told me and turned to leave.

"Tell them I'll be right out." I gave him a small smile and got ready to find Sophia.

_x_x_x_

"I told her to wait right here." Rick led us to a stream, and pointed out a small cavity underneath a tree. "I gave her directions back to the highway."

"She was scared out of her mind. I doubt she was even paying attention to a word you said." I pointed out. If I were her, not having any sense of direction or basic survival knowledge, I'd probably run even deeper into the woods.

"Found a trail. Let's go." Daryl led us across the stream and we walked a good two hours before losing it. "They just stop here. She wasn't attacked, no one took her. It makes no sense."

"Walker." I whispered; it was ahead of us and had fresh blood on its shirt. I snuck up on it and stabbed it in the back of the neck. There was flesh stuck between its teeth.

"Do you think..." Rick asked, not even finishing the sentence. Wel knew what he meant.

"Only one way to find out." Daryl took out his hunting knife and started to gut the thing. It smelled absolutely rancid and it took all my willpower not to run the other way. I had to turn my head when he started pulling out guts, and was glad when he finished. No sign of Sophia being eaten.

"We should head back. It'll be dark soon." Rick stood up, and we cleaned up the mess. Well they did and I tried not to gag.

"What do we tell Carol?" I asked.

"That we found a trail, and she's not bit." Rick looked from me to Daryl, "We'll organize a search tomorrow."

It was nearing sunset when we finally made it back to the highway. Carol, noticing Sophia wasn't with us, broke down and cried. I left for the RV; I can't stand seeing people cry. I usually don't know how to respond and end up either laughing or staring at them awkwardly. Luke and Daryl followed after me and we talked about Sophia.

"There's a 50/50 chance she's even alive. Personally I don't think we're going to find her." Luke shrugged. He did have a point; if she were alive we would've found her by now.

"So essentially we're wasting our time? What if it were Belle?" I asked and Daryl agreed with me. We would do anything we possibly could if it were Belle.

"We can't give up. That lil girl is all Carol has in the world. We need to find 'er, dead or alive." Daryl ended the conversation, and Luke left the RV.

"I need to ask you something." I whispered to Daryl when everyone was asleep; we had another hour of watch duty before Andrea and Glenn would relieve us.

"Ask away." he rolled his eyes.

"It's a huge thing to ask of you. But there's honestly no one in the group who knows survival like we do."

"Spit it out already, geez." Daryl scoffed.

"Ok. If anything happens to me, say I do get bit or anything. Will you watch over them?" Since the whole fish-fry thing, and the CDC, it had become clear to me that anything could happen in a day. "They're all I have. You know what I mean. So what do you think?"

"Nothin's gonna happen to you." He sighed and I waited for him to continue. "But yes, I will. Someone's gotta feed the rugrat, keep your brother in line."

"Swear you will." I looked up at hom, our eyes locking. He coughed and looked away.

"Swear on my Ma's grave." We sat in silence and finally Glenn climbed to the top of the RV.

The next morning, we gathered around a truck and planned a search. Andrea complained that she wanted a gun and made a big deal over it. While she was fighting with Dale, we armed ourselves and waited until she was done. Carl was coming with us and Lori asked me if I would let Carl borrow one of my knives. I agreed, and handed him a switchblade given to me as a graduation gift by my Uncle Ross.

"Be careful. It's really sharp." I warned and we were on our way. About twenty minutes in, we came across a tent. Several dead walkers were lying on the ground and Daryl snuck into the tent. Carol had called for Sophia, but no one had come out.

"No one's in there, 'cept for some body. Guess he just opted out, like that crackhead Jenner said." he came out with a gun, sticking it in the back of his pants. I could never understand why someone would willingly shove a gun in their pants, but that's just me.

"You all heard that, didn't you?" Luke asked, and we heard church bells.

"It could be Sophia!" Carol called out hopefully and we ran towards the noise.

"There's no steeple!" Andrea called and I tried not to laugh. She might have been considered smart before civilization fell, but now she was clueless and a bit ditzy. Then again, she IS a blonde.

"It's on a timer, dipshit." Daryl rolled his eyes as Glenn shut it off so we wouldn't attract walkers.

"Ugh!" Andrea ran inside the church with everyone else, and I waited on the steps. I think churches are dumb. If there is a God, he would be everywhere, all around us. Not in a building made of wood and stone.
Lori and Shane were behind the church fighting; I could hear them. Shane was apologizing for something he'd done at the CDC. I chose to ignore them and looked around to make sure there were no walkers, and Andrea stormed out of the church.

"Hey, your brother is an asshole." she pointed accusingly. Gah, she was getting on my last nerve with all her bitching and moaning.

"Yeah and you're a whiny bitch." I shrugged and I guess I offended her, because she tried to punch me. I had her on the ground, hands behind her back, in a matter of seconds.

"Let me go!" She spat and I only held her down with more force.

"Don't insult my brother." I let her up; Rick had stepped out of the church and was glaring at the back of my head. "Try to hit me again and I'll do much worse than pin you."

"Whatever." she muttered and went off to find Shane, her new BFF.

"What the hell just happened?" Rick pulled me aside.

"I didn't do a thing. She came out and said Luke was an asshole. I said she should stop being such a bitch, and she swung at me. So I pinned her in self defense." I explained. "What did Luke say to her? Do you know?"

"No. But I'm going to find out, and we'll sort this later. Come on." Rick nodded and we gathered by a picnic table to decide on what we would do next. Shane, Rick, and Carl were going to go off in a different direction while Daryl and I led the rest of the group back to the highway. We stopped for a short break, and Lori nearly lost it. I guess everyone had been giving her and Rick nasty looks, namely Andrea. Carol was blaming Rick for Sophia's disappearance, and Lori was stopped short by a lone gunshot.

"Let's go. It'll attract walkers. We can't stay sitting around." Luke pulled himself up off the ground. It took a bit of convincing, mainly for Lori, but she finally agreed and we were halfway there when I spotted a walker not far ahead. I warned everyone to keep quiet and Luke volunteered to go kill it. But of cours, the blonde cow told him to stay behind like a good little boy, and she decided she was going to be the one to do it.

"I hope she gets eaten." Luke glared and out of nowhere, a walker had grabbed her. Daryl was about to shoot it in the head when a horse and rider galloped by. The walker had somehow been killed; we couldn't tell how it happened.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" the rider, a 20-something brunette female, called out.

"That's me." Lori stepped forward and what we heard next shocked us all.

"Carl's been shot."

X x X x

The girl gave us directionso to her father's farm and once we got back to the highway, I started to pack up. Dale asked it he could speak to me in private and I followed him inside the RV. He asked how the search went and we chatted politely for a bit. I told him about Andrea; he'd noticed a change in her. There was seriously something going on with her, and I didn't wasnt to just shrug it off as grief. Death changes you, who you are as a person, and sometimes it's not for the better.

"So what did you really want to talk about?" I asked, "I know it's not Andrea."

"Well there's several things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Julie's pregnant." Dale paused and I explained about Julie's situation.

"What else?"

"Not to be nosy or anything. What's going on between you and Daryl? The two of you are nearly inseperable and people have been talking. I'm just concerned." he asked curiously and I tried not to laugh. People were talking? Yeah, I'd bet it was Carol and Andrea; they were known to gossip. Luke told me Carol had a bit of a crush on Daryl and I noticed she'd glare at me when she thought I wasn't looking.

"We're friends, that's all. He's a great hunting partner; we get along pretty good." I thought about it and I could see how people would think there was something going on between us. Before I could say anything more, Luke found us and said T-Dog's arm was getting worse. Dale made his way to T-Dog and said he needed antibiotics right away.

"Why didn't you say so?" Daryl took somthing out of a sidebag on his bike, "I got my brother's stash."

It was decided that Luke and Glenn would take Julie, Belle, and T-Dog to the farm while the rest of us stayed in the RV. Carol wanted to stay one more night in case Sophia came back; I doubted Sophia would show up now. She was too far in the woods to make it back, especially dehydrated and weak from hunger. It was hard getting to sleep that night; Carol was crying noisily and Andrea was trying to reassemble her gun. With one look, Daryl and I got up and went outside, saying we were going to check the highway. If we couldn't sleep, why not? Luke tagged along and we took down three walkers before I sent Luke back to the RV. He hadn't slept at all in the past three days and looked like he'd fall asleep standing up.

"You'll never guess what Dale asked me earlier." I grinned.

"What's that?"

"Carol and Andrea have been gossiping about the two of us. The whole group thinks we're secretly together." It was no use trying to look at him, seeing as it was the middle of the night, so I stared at the ground. I chose not to tell him about Carol's little crush, though. "we could use this to our advantage."

"And how do you figure that?" Daryl lowered his crossbow, turning to face me.

"Just to mess with him, of course." It was a good thing he couldn't see my face clearly because I"d been blushing ever since I brought it up.

"Yeah, I got that. How?"

"Well..." I told him my ideas, and we returned to the RV. Thankfully everyone was asleep, because I was dead tired.

Well, there you go. Took me a whole week to get that out; I write everything long-hand so it takes twice as long. Like? Don't like? Let me know! :)