Adi tip toed through the woods, holding her knife close to her side, her sense's were on high alert. In a twisted way, she found this to be nostalgic. In Minnesota, before the start of her divorce and Mitchell was having a drunk episode, Adi would pretend to be asleep in their king-size bed, hiding underneath the thin sheets until she was certain he had finished his temper tantrum and passed out drunk. When the moment was right, she would slip out of bed, tip toe pass his passed out body on the arm chair and into Gabe's room across the hall. Her beloved child slept restlessly nearly every night, no doubt terrified that he didn't do his chores right or didn't greet his father right away. Gabe was so far underneath the cover's that Adi could only see his mop of blond hair above a Batman blanket. As quietly as she could, she slid under the covers and rested her hand on his back. The warmth from her hand, the presence next to him, and with the plastic Flash laying underneath his pillow, the little boy knew he was safe. And his mother would sleep in his room until she heard Mitchell's fat body fall off the arm chair and slam onto the floor. That would be her cue to wake up and start the seemingly endless day.
Seem's like I was getting ready for this, she thought to herself as she came to a halt. A few feet from where she stood was a makeshift den. In the den, she noticed a pair of muddy boots laying absolutely still. With her knife at eye level, Adi slid her feet across the leaves to the nearly broken down primeval home of a random stranger. She eyed a small stick between her and the body, and gently stepped on it. The twig snapped mid way, a loud crack seemed to echo in the trees.
But the body did not twitch.
She waited a moment longer, listening in for a moan. The deafening silence of the trees added to the tension, Adi feared to even take the smallest breath or take her eyes off the boots. She waited for what felt like a life time of intense silence, Adi dared another step on the nearest stick. But, still, nothing else made a sound.
"Phew." Adi sighed, lowering her guard and walked up to it. Her stomach quenched at the smell of rotting flesh and hot blood, a body sprawled in the center of the tent. The body was a naked man, his skin a combination of white and green and about to melt off the man's body like a wax figure underneath the sun. Just to be cautious, Adi grabbed the man's legs, keeping her head focused on his yellow, broken toe nails and dragged the man out of the tent.
"Oh my-" Adi gagged, dropping his legs, her fingers leaving imprints on his moldy skin. She grasped the nearest tree, fighting back the vomit in her throat. The reeking smell escalated when she lifted the man's legs; his skin began to melt off like melted cheese, the hair on the back of his head and the skin on his back, somehow, stuck to the ground. Next thing Adi saw was skin being peeled, and red mushy tissue was left behind.
"That is something found in a Stephen King novel." She mumbled, covering her nose. "But I can't go back empty handed."
She braved the rancid stench and began digging though piles of clothes and other miscellaneous items around the shaded part of the den. She tossed out empty food cans and food that had perished in the heated sun. With heavy disgust, she threw underwear and shirts into her bag and zipped it shut. Her eyes caught the glint off of a bottle.
"Well, well, what have we here?" An joyous smile crossed her chapped lips at the sight of the brown and red bottles. The brand was all too familiar, but it was something she hadn't seen it since the divorce. The dark bottle next to the six brown bottles was, also, familiar, but in a much better sense. With glee, she grabbed the red bottle and slid it into her bag. She looked back the brown six pack, wondering how long these would be here before someone would claim them.
"Maybe I'll get into someone's good graces." She wondered out loud, shoving a couple of bottles in her bag. Then, she realized she was stepping on something blue with bits of paper sticking out of the top. In She knelt down, picked up a journal and skimmed through it. The first few pages were already written in with various colors.
"Must've ran out of ink." She said out loud, sitting down to read the pages. Her heart sank when she discovered she was reading the first few pages of the corpse's memoir; the family traditions, what happened on this day the year before, how much this person missed the simple things such as toothpaste.
She sat down, reflecting on a couple of things in her past. It was on this day a year prior that she was, at long last, officially divorced from Mitchell and, although she had lost the king-size bed and the soft sheets, she had gained full custody of their son. Her parents offered to her their place in down town Atlanta with a promising job at her brother's law firm. Before she even moved in, everything was already set such as which school Gabe was going to attend, Adi's availability, and Mitchell was on his way to the Minnesota State Prison.
This time, last year, was one of the best of her life.
"I wonder if Gabriel remembers that day." That's when she got an idea. She began digging around again, searching for other less significant materials. Although the corpse had eaten all the food, before death, there were still half drank water bottles, some family photos, a couple of mystery novels, and more crayons than a Crayola box. Smiling excitedly, she shoved in all these items into her bag, zipped it up again, and went to stand.
"Oof!" She grunted, not realizing that with the additions, her bag had gotten much heavier. "Smart move, Ad's. Brilliant."
A couple of snarl's caught her attention. She froze and looked around, in the distance were five walker's approaching her with hungry mouth's. Wielding the knife in her hand and taking a deep breath, she dashed back to the camp.
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The trees disappeared behind her at a slow pace, the moans were growing louder and closer, the sun pounded heatedly onto her head, her feet were moist from the sweat of her socks, she could almost feel their hands tearing at her back. She imagined the Walker's over powering her, her feet slipping out of her shoes, or her bag getting caught in a stray branch, their rotting finger nails of the flesh eating creatures digging into her flesh, tearing it away at every tendon and muscle, devouring every morsel until she was left as a bloody mess like in some cheesy horror film.
And she was alone.
No one knew she was out here.
All she could think of was Gabe; would the group keep him? Who would keep him safe? How would that poor boy grow up in this world without his mother?
"Hey, I'm sorry about what happened this morning."
"You wanted to look for her." Carol looked away from him, turning her attention to the white flowers, thinking about her little girl and the Cherokee Rose. Daryl was so angry at her earlier because she prevented him from going out to look for her little girl. She wondered, at times, if he was doing it just to get into everyone's good graces due to his older brother. Then she wondered if Daryl had much more compassion in his heart than he was letting on. Every moment of his day was spent looking for Sophia or finding some kind of clue. "Why? This whole time, I've wanted to ask you."
"'Cause I think she's still out there." Daryl answered right away. "Truth is, what else I got to do?"
"DARYL!"
Both Daryl and Carol jumped at the shrieking voice. Off to the side, where they had arrived, was Gabe running as fast as his little legs in baggy shorts could carry. Daryl glanced behind him, searching for a Walker or a random stranger still trying to abduct a child. Gabe ran past Carol and grabbed Daryl's hand. His round cheeks were bright red, his blue eyes watering, sweat dripped from his bangs.
"Ow! Hey! The hell kid?"
"I can't find mommy!" Gabe screamed over and over, pulling on Daryl, tears pouring down his red cheeks. "Help me! I want mommy!"
"Gabe, calm down honey, you're gonna get over heated." Carol lowered down to his height and brushed his bangs to the side, wiping the sweat off on her red tank top. She was debating on putting the sweating doll-like child into the pond, give him a chance to cool off before they have to deal with a heat stroke among other things. Daryl searched around the open fields and trees. "Where did you last see your mom?"
"S-she was talking to Rick."
"Which way she go?" Daryl asked, wondering where she would run off and why.
Gabe pointed to the woods, wiping his tears and snot with his other arm.
"Damn, I'll go get her." Daryl dropped Gabe's hand and made his way back to camp for his cross bow, thinking of how far she would be at this point. He stopped when he heard snarls and moans in the distance.
"Daryl!"
He spun around to see Carol carrying Gabe and running, quickly, away from their spot. Adi was behind them, and a Walker closing in behind her.
"Shit." Daryl ran over to Adi and shoved the Walker into the pond. He looked over just as Adi stopped, breathing heavy, her tank top drenched in sweat, and again, almost too revealing. Daryl shook his head, the moans returned as more Walker's appeared. He ran to Adi and shoved her forward. "The hell's wrong with you?!"
"My bag!" She screamed, running in a more sluggish way. Daryl forced the bag off her back, flung it over his shoulder. "Run!"
Suddenly, they heard loud gun shots. Everyone continued to run and ducked or covered their heads with their hands, that's when Carol noticed Shane standing on a hill in front of them, holding up a rifle. One by one, he fired a slug into the brain of any Walker in his sight. The three of them came to a stop when they came upon the white farm house, breathing heavy and dying of thirst.
"The hell where you thinkin'!?" Daryl shouted at Adi, anger heavy in his dirty face.
"You could've gotten yourself killed." Carol added, putting Gabe down. Whimpering, he ran over and wrapped his arms around his mother's legs.
"I did …..what I know... is right." She panted, her heart beating hard in her chest, her lungs burn and her throat was as dry as desert. "Rick is with Hershel... Andrea is guarding the barn...no one is out looking for Sophia."
"So you decided to just run off into the woods by yourself?" Carol asked, her eyes darting down to Gabe. Adi rolled her eyes at Carol's attempt to tell her what she would have left behind.
"I have done it God knows how many times, and survived." Adi argued, resting a hand on Gabe's wet head. "Look, I'm doing this because if Gabe were missing, I sure as hell would want someone to go out there and look for him at every chance they get. Even if it's just one, solitary person, at least I would still have hope of seeing my child's face again." Then, she looked over at Carol. "You may be ready to bid your daughter farewell, but I can't. I won't sit by while a little girl is out there, waiting to be saved."
"Daryl." Shane walked over to Daryl, holding another rifle out to Daryl. "You with me, man?"
Without hesitating, Daryl took the gun. Adi's eyes followed Shane, realizing their commotion had disturbed the entire household. Shane, then grabbed two hand guns and knelt down. He grabbed and pulled Carl and Gabe in front of him, then he held the guns out. "You two take these guns, we'll teach him how to shoot." Shane gestured to Gabe. "The two of you gotta protect your mom's. Hear me?"
"Give me that gun, Gabriel." Adi demanded as she took the gun from his hands. "You cannot teach my son to shoot. He's not even ten years old, he's more than likely to shoot one of you before he learns how to shoot a Walker."
Lori shoved Carl behind her and stared Shane down.
"You cannot do this, Shane." She stated with a firm and angry tone. "This is not your decision to make."
"Oh, shit."