Chapter Eleven:

Awkward Searches

I woke up before the sun had risen on the horizon. Sitting up, my ears picked up the soft breathing of Artemis next to me, her face buried in the pillow as she slept. I smiled, removing a strand of her hair from her face before climbing out of the tent.

The cold morning air hit my cheeks and I breathed in deeply, testing my ankle out. It seemed fine now, hopefully fine enough for me to actually go out and look for Sophia.

"Can't sleep either?"

I flinched, looking over and finding Rick leaning against a tree, staring out at the distance.

"Something like that," I replied, walking closer until I was just a metre apart from him. "I'm just hoping to join the search. It breaks my heart seeing Carol this way."

Rick glanced at me, an emotion of understanding in his eyes before turning his attention back to the front. "I know you'd never stop looking for Artemis, same thing with me and Carl."

I just nodded, standing there for a bit before scratching the back of my head. "I'll get breakfast started." I mumbled, walking away and leaving Rick to his thoughts.

oOo

Lori was the last to wake up as Carol started to hang the clothes up. Hershel declared me fit to search, something I was more than happy to do. As I grabbed my hunting gear, Carol called my name.

"Minerva, what do you think about making dinner for Hershel and his family?" she asked as I crouched down, collecting my arrows. I stood up and noticed Lori watching me carefully.

I shrugged my shoulders. "It doesn't bother me." I answered as Rick called us to the car. I walked over, standing in between Andrea and T-Dog, my eyes looking at the map.

"Alright, everyone's getting new search grids today," Rick informed us. "She might've gone far as the farm house Daryl found, might've gone further east."

Daryl looked at me. "Ya goin' on the hunt?" he asked and I smirked, nodding and tightening my grip on my bow.

"I can finally stop playing babysitter," I answered just as Rick turned away from us and I looked over, finding Beth's boyfriend. I couldn't remember his name, it didn't seem to matter to me anyway.

"I know the area pretty well and stuff," he offered and I looked at him skeptically.

"Hershel's fine with this?" I asked him and he nodded. My eyes glanced at Rick's before shrugging, letting him deal with the boy.

"What Daryl found doesn't scream Sophia to me," Shane inputted from sitting in the car. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head and looking at the map. "Anyone could've been holed up in that farm house."

Andrea decided to reply, something I was grateful for. "Anybody includes her right?"

I sighed, rubbing the bridge between my eyes. "Look it doesn't matter, we'll pick up her trail again with the seven of us."

"Imma borrow a horse," Daryl stated and pointed to the map. "Head up this ridge here, bird's eye view of the whole grid."

I yawned tiredly, looking over and tuning the others out. Artemis was helping Lori and Carol with the washing, handing them socks and underwear. I smiled to myself before paying attention when Rick called my name.

"Minerva were you listening?" Rick asked and I shook my head. He sighed, pointing again to a small area on the map. "You're heading west of the farm house, search around that area."

I nodded and walked over towards Daryl. He threw his crossbow over his shoulder and spat on the ground. "I'll drop you off at the farm house."

"Sure," I murmured, walking beside him and grabbing a horse from Hershel. He seemed reluctant at first but after I explained to him why we needed it, he handed the brown stallion over.

"Do yer even know how to ride one of these?" Daryl asked, climbing onto the saddle and watching me from above.

"We don't ride emus or kangaroos for the last time," I rolled my eyes, climbing up behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist. Daryl just chuckled before clicking his tongue, signalling the horse to move. As it began to move, I placed my chin on his shoulder, looking and watching the area.

"It feels good to be back out," I murmured, breathing in the fresh air. "I am not suitable to sit back on my ass and watch Carl sleep all day."

Daryl snorted. "From what I 'ear, you did more than just sit in that damn room all day."

I raised an eyebrow. "What exactly did you hear?" I asked, hoping it wasn't about my embarrassing fall down the stairs, leading to me falling on Rick.

"You bein' live bait instead of the Asian kid."

I fell silent, withdrawing my chin and looking away. Daryl glanced over his shoulder, finding my silence and saw the hard look on my face. "It's not my finest, I'll admit, but it was better than it being Glenn."

"Pretty dumb move if you ask me," he muttered bitterly. "Ya got a kid that needs ya, the group needs ya and…" he broke off suddenly, turning silent but I caught those last few words: I need you.

"Hopefully it won't happen again."

oOo

Rick held out the gun for Shane to take, a hard look on his face as his eyes found Lori standing nearby. Shane snatched it off him, continuing to be silent as Rick walked over to his wife.

"Something wrong?" Lori asked, concern in her voice and Rick eyed Shane as he walked past them before stepping closer and speaking.

"I just had a long talk with Shane," Rick said quietly, noticing the worried look in his wife's eyes. "He wants to call of the search."

There was small relief in Lori's eyes and she blinked. "What do you think?"

"What if it was Carl? Would you want us to keep looking?"

Lori nodded straight away. "If it was Carl, yes I'd rather know one way or another."

Rick licked his lips, his thoughts coming together. "Shane says my good intentions are making this group weaker," he hissed the word as if it were a curse, his anger boiling. "That I can't make the hard decisions for the good of the group."

"They're all hard decisions," Lori shook her head in disbelief.

"Yeah but maybe I'm holding onto a way of thinking that doesn't make sense anymore. You see it's math, basic survival, how much fuel, how much food, how much ammo. Not much room in that equation for being soft," he shrugged his shoulders slightly. "It's pretty simple when you start thinking like that."

Lori cupped his face in between her hands, giving him a hard look. "Hey, none of us were prepared to be living life this way. You are making the best decisions you can with the information you have. I don't see soft in that," she told him firmly and Rick's eyes softened when he thought of something.

"That's something Minerva would say," Rick admitted and Lori withdrew her hands, staring at him. "She knows how to make the tough decisions and still keep her humanity. Maybe…maybe it's better if she leads the group."

Before Lori could object, Beth interrupted them with a message that Hershel wanted to see him. As Rick walked away, following Beth towards the house, he knew he'd have to have a little chat with the Australian when she returned.

oOo

Daryl's whole body was filled with pain. From the arrow in his side, to the cut on his head. He'd even began hallucinating, imagining Merle standing above him with that same smirk the bastard always wore.

"Why don't ya pull that arrow out, dummy," Merle pointed out the obvious. "You can bind your wound better."

Daryl's head pounded like the beat of drums as he looked away. "Merle…"

"What's goin' on here? You takin' a siesta or somethin'?"

"Shitty day bro," Daryl muttered, hating the smirk that was on his brother's face.

"Like me to get you a pill?" Merle sneered, mocking the weakness his brother was showing. "Maybe rub your feet?"

"Screw you…" Daryl breathed out painfully.

Merle smirked. "Someone already beat me to it. That Aussie did, remember?"

Of course he remembered; that night was always burned into the back of his mind. When he woke up, finding the couch empty and no sign of Minerva, he assumed she had gone to fetch her little girl. Then when she avoided him and even flinched, he knew she'd regretted it.

Then again, s'not like he expected anything less.

"Fuck you," Daryl spat but Merle's smirk turned into one that rivalled that cat from the Alice movie, something about her in Wonderland.

"Hit a nerve? Look at you, all dem years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at yer, lying in the dirt like a used rubber. Yer gonna die out here little brother and for what?"

Daryl swallowed, trying to moisten his dry throat. "Carol….lost her little girl."

"So you have a thing for little girls now?" Merle said in disgust and Daryl glared at him weakly, feeling his body grow heavier.

"Shut up," he whispered weakly.

"'Cause I notice you ain't lookin' for Merle no more."

"I tried like hell to find you bro." Daryl defended himself, still pretty weak with his eyes blurring out here and there.

Merle snorted. "Like hell you did, you split man. Let out first chance you got."

The bastard, how could he say something like this to him? Sure, his brother was many things but he was still his brother.

"No, you let out," Daryl muttered. "All you had to do was wait, we went back for you. Rick and I…we did right by ya."

"This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand," Daryl's vision blurred once again, settling on Merle's hand and finding it there, attached to his arm still. "That who we're talkin' here? You his bitch now?"

"I ain't nobody's bitch," Daryl growled lowly, seething with anger but too weak to actually show it.

Merle scoffed. "You're a joke, that's what you are. Nothin' but an errand boy to a bunch of pansy asses, niggas and democrats," he smirked. "You're nothin' but a freak to them."

Maybe….maybe he was right. Nothin' but a red neck trash to the others…

"Merle, shut the fuck up and get your head out of your ass, it's not a hat," a voice snapped at him, a voice that was so familiar that he almost breathed a sigh of relief. Minerva shoved Merle, glaring at him with those brown eyes of hers. Minerva looked down at Daryl, her face filled with concern. "Don't listen to him Daryl."

"They're laughing at ya behind yer back," Merle continued and Minerva slapped him across the face, standing in front of Daryl.

"Get the fuck away," she growled at Merle who snorted before looking at his younger brother.

"One of these days they're gonna scrapped you off of their feet like yer dog shit. They ain't your kin, your blood…ain't nobody gonna care about you 'cept me little brother, ain't nobody ever will," he stated before disappearing into thin air.

Minerva crouched down, placing a strand of her hair behind her ear and looked him over. "Come on, we need to get you back to camp. That wound needs to get fixed up."

"Why you out 'ere? Ya supposed to be lookin' for Sophia," he grunted, not liking the fact that she had wandered this far but secretly, he was happy.

Minerva gave him a strange look. "I am, you called me here, remember?" she paused, looking at his feet and sighed. "You might want to move, you've got bigger problems than hallucinating."

Daryl blinked, finding her gone and instead a walker trying to bite his leg.

Well fuck.

oOo

Disappointment and anger filled me as I trudged back onto the farm, no Sophia trailing after me. It was lucky I found my way back, remembering what Daryl told me after he had dropped me off.

Carol stood up in the distance as I got closer to the camp. Her face was filled with hope and I shook my head, hating that I had to watch it fall from her face.

"Minerva!" Rick called, walking towards me and I stopped. He had a hard look on his face, something telling me he didn't have any luck either. "I need to talk you."

I rolled my eyes, gripping my bow. "Seems like everybody needs to these days. What's on your mind?"

Rick rubbed his chin, something I picked up on that he does when he needs to say something. "I don't know how to say this…"

"Just say it."

"Shane wants to end the search."

I stared at him, blinking once before a look of outrage crossed my face. "Are you serious? Wow, he's finally done it, this is the line and he fucking crossed it!"

"What do you think we should do?"

I stopped and looked at him before frowning. "You want my opinion?" he nodded and I blew out some air, looking at the forest. Carol would be devastated if Sophia was never found. She'd become lifeless…that's something I couldn't take.

But, I chewed on my bottom lip. Then again, we haven't found much besides a shoe and that's not much to go on.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, I sighed and looked at Rick in the eye. "Keep it going but only allow those who want to help can go. If Shane wants to be an asshole and sit on his ass, let him. It just shows how much he actually cares for others."

A look of relief crossed his face and he patted my shoulder. "That's why I want you to lead the group."

"No," I answered in a heartbeat and when he opened his mouth to protest, I put a hand up to silence him. "As much as I would like to, I can't."

"You're the most ideal person."

I crossed my arms over my chest, giving him a soft look. "But I'm not the one carrying the hope on my shoulders," I looked at Carol before turning back to him. "Rick, these people look up to you for guidance. You are the leader," I snorted to myself. "Heck, I know nothing about fucking American geography so I'm pretty much useless in leading."

Rick chuckled, shaking his head just as Andrea started shouting about a walker. Both of us looked over, seeing a limping figure coming out of the forest as Shane, T-Dog and Glenn ran over to us.

Immediately, my instincts kicked in as we ran over before I found it was Daryl who was the limping figure. "Daryl?" I whispered in shock as Rick pointed his gun at him. He had blood covering his chest, parts of his mouth and a cut on his forehead. "No…he can't be…"

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head," Daryl snapped and instantly, I breathed a sigh of relief. "You gonna pull the trigger or what?"

I shook my head, a smile creeping onto my face just as a shot rang out, Daryl's body falling to the ground. "NO!"

Sorry for not updating this sooner, only just gotten back into it so hopefully you all enjoyed it :) I liked the fact that I included a bit of Daryl's and Rick's POV into it, shows more drama that way... And a special thanks to RQNisha for drawing the cover, she does some amazing work you guys so scroll on over to her bio and find out more!

DARYL FUCKING REMEMBERS THAT NIGHT! OH LORDY WHAT SHIT IS GOING TO GO DOWN?!

Anywho, until next time my little Walkers (=^-^=)