Daryl was, unsurprisingly, up before Harley and moved her arm carefully from his waist before sitting up in the bed of the truck, already feeling the heat of the day even though the sun was barely peaking above the horizon. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to focus his thoughts as he glanced around, seeing no sign that anyone else, besides Glenn who had taken watch for the night, was up.

He looked back at Harley, his eyes still heavy with sleep as they stared intently at her face, which was scrunched up against her makeshift pillow. She looked younger when she slept; she didn't have that hard look to her, the look she accumulated from months of trying to survive by herself.

His calloused fingertips grazed against the sides of her sunburned face and then to her forehead, tracing the faint wrinkle lines that were already forming and he wanted to laugh; barely into her twenties and she was already getting wrinkles, not that he'd tell he that, he didn't think she'd take too kindly to that comment.

Daryl liked her. Sure, he wasn't in love, not yet at least, but he liked her more than anyone else who was left and that must've meant something.

For a moment, he wondered what it would be like if the world hadn't gone to shit, if their paths would've ever crossed and if in some alternate reality they were sitting in the bed of his truck, same as they are now, but instead they were parked out by a lake near his old house. Maybe he'd still be here, stroking her face, which would be free of wrinkles and he'd still be wearing sleeveless shirts, albeit they'd be a bit cleaner and maybe he'd be in love and maybe she would, too.

Daryl snorted to himself, "Ain't no way that'd happen."

"Ain't a good sign to be talkin' to yerself." Harley's one eye was squinting up at him, trying to stay open despite the sleep that was attempting to force it shut, "It time to get up?"

Daryl's hand ran through her bangs which were matted against her forehead and a bit disheveled, "Yeah, gotta start searchin' again soon, don't wanna waste no daylight."

Harley nodded and pushed away the drowsiness that was trying to coax her back into her deep slumber. With much protest from the rest of her body, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and immediately wanted to lay back down, "Anyone else up?"

Daryl shook his head, "No one except the Chinaman." He told her and jerked his thumb in the direction of Glenn who was perched atop the RV with Dale's gun in his hand and the binoculars around his neck.

"He's Korean." Harley corrected him as she yawned and went to rub her face only to immediately recoil her hand as her skin burned to the touch, "Wish I had some fuckin' Aloe right about now." She grumbled as she gingerly touched her face.

"S'yer own fault, shouldn't've stayed out in the sun that long in only a tank top."

Harley gave a roll of her eyes and waved him off, "Yeah, yeah."

The sun was now high in the sky and beating down upon them much to Harley's chagrin. Her skin was on fire and she was forced to wear her jacket as well as one of Dale's spare hats to keep the sun from her already burnt face.

She felt ridiculous.

"I feel ridiculous."

Daryl gave her a pat on her hatted head, "Ya look fine."

"Yer just sayin' that."

Daryl didn't say anything back and settled for a very slight smile and a light tap on the small of her back, nudging her over to where the others were gathered.

Rick spread out the weapons Carl had found the previous day across the hood of a car, "Alright, everyone takes a weapon."

Andrea was quick to speak up upon seeing the array of weapons that were presented to the group, "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?"

"We've been over that." Shane said from behind Harley and Daryl, "Four of us have guns. Daryl, Rick, Harley, and myself. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worrying about." Andrea grumbled.

"What if someone fires at the wrong time and a herd happens to be passing by?" Shane asked, "Then it's game over for everyone, so you need to get over it."

Harley as well as everyone else knew that Shane was right. The knives and hatchets that Carl had found were a lot more useful than Andrea gave them credit for. They were much like Daryl's crossbow in that they were silent and wouldn't attract the attention that gunshots would. It would make it easier for their search party to enter the woods without drawing unwanted attention to themselves.

"Harley, you takin' one?" Rick asked her as everyone else stepped forward to take a weapon.

Harley herself had a hunting knife on her along with her bat so she shook her head, "Nah, got ol' reliable here." She gestured to her bat which had seen better days.

"Keep quiet, keep sharp. Keep space between you, but always keep within eyesight of each other." Rick told everyone.

The search party was trailing through the woods single file, Harley following behind Daryl who was leading the group. It had been about twenty minutes into their search when they spotted what looked like a camping ground not too far away.

Daryl slowed down, his steps becoming light and everyone else followed suit as Rick shushed them, quieting the group into an anxious silence as they all crouched low to the ground.

"What do you suppose could be in there?" Shane asked as he crept up beside Daryl.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl said as he began to creep closer to the campsite, his hunter instincts taking over.

Harley followed closely behind Daryl, her knife in one hand and bat in the other. Her footsteps were light despite her heavy combat boots and even though the circumstances were grim, she felt at home moving through the woods in such a manner, almost as if she were stalking a deer during a hunt.

She could feel her heart in her throat as she, Rick, and Shane stopped a fair distance away from the tent while Daryl continued on, his knife out and ready to attack. He examined the tent from a safe distance before motioning to Rick who called Carol and the others over and then told Carol to call out to Sophia, to see if she was in the tent.

No one moved as Carol gently called out to her daughter. They were all watching the flap of the tent closely for any signs of movement, hoping that at any moment the little girl would emerge from the tent.

But nothing happened.

Daryl slowly unzipped the flap fully and slipped inside, coughing as a gust of a foul stench hit him. He disappeared from the others' sight and Carol called out to him, looking for some sign that her daughter was in there.

When he came out, they all looked at him expectedly, "Some guy," He told them, "He did what Jenner said and 'opted out'." He tossed his crossbow across his shoulders, "Ain't that what he called it?"

Harley felt herself deflate a bit, but immediately stood alert when the sound of church bells echoed through the woods.

Everyone was sent running towards the noise which grew louder and louder and soon they were standing in front of a small church, nothing but their ragged breaths and church bells reverberating around them.

Shane was the first one to speak, "It doesn't have a steeple." He said, "This can't be the right church."

Rick ignored him and took off running, everyone following as they weaved through the headstones that made up the graveyard near the church. They approached the red doors of the entrance, Daryl and Rick taking the lead with their weapons on hand in case they found anything unwanted inside. Pushing the doors open, the group was met with a few walkers sitting in the pews. They turned at the sound of the door opening and began to stagger towards the group. Rick, Daryl, and Shane didn't give them much of a chance to advance too far before they'd implanted their knives into the walkers' skulls. Harley paced around the pews as Rick called out for Sophia before she came to a stop in front of the statue of Jesus on the cross at the head of the church.

She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but recoiled and let out a small huff at her own silly notions; lot of help praying would do nowadays. She wouldn't deny that within the first few weeks of being out on her own, living in fear, she had spent many nights praying, hoping that her prayers would reach the ears of whatever higher power that be, but all she was met with was death and chaos.

Daryl was at her side, breathing heavily after having taken out a walker, "JC, you takin' requests?" He said.

"I'm tellin' y'all, we got the wrong church, it's got no steeple. There's no steeple." Shane told Rick once more, but as soon as he uttered that sentence, church bells began to ring once more causing the entire group to rush out of the church, rounding one of the corners where the bell sound was coming from a speaker on the side of the building.

Glenn rips open the box connected to the speaker and unhooks it, sighing in frustration.

"It's a timer... it's hooked up to a timer." Daryl explains.

There was silence for a moment before Carol announced that she was going to go back in the church. Everyone save for Lori, Shane, and Andrea followed her into the church, staying towards the entrance as she went and knelt before the statue of Jesus where she began to pour her heart out, begging God to punish her and not her daughter.

Harley tried not to let the woman's words tug at her heartstrings, but she couldn't help feeling sympathetic for Carol. Harley couldn't understand how there could be a God when an innocent, little girl like Sophia was lost and possibly dead somewhere and then she was reminded of Anna and her heart stung and throat constricted.

She sucked in a deep breath as Carol finished praying and sat at the front pew with Lori who had rejoined the group.

The air was thick with tension on the way back to the highway. Shane, Carl, and Rick had left the group to continue their search for Sophia, leaving Daryl with the others to guide them back to the highway.

Andrea's constant stink eye didn't go unnoticed by Lori who was giving Harley side glances the entire time, knowing that Harley had picked up on it as well. Harley would just give her a shrug knowing that Andrea wasn't going to let this one go.

It also didn't go unnoticed that Carol was in fact blaming Rick for her daughter missing which was seen in her constant questioning of Rick and the decisions he was making.

"This is it? This is the plan?" Carol asked as they all stopped to rest.

It didn't take long for Andrea to make a snide comment towards Lori about the gun Daryl had given her before they parted from Rick, "You want it?" Lori asked Andrea, handing her the gun, "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Sitting down on the log next to where Carol had sat, she looked at Carol, "Honey, I can't begin to understand what you're going through, but you have got to stop blaming Rick for this. I see it in your face every single time you look at him. When Sophia ran, he didn't hesitate did he? Not for a second! I-I don't know that any of us would have gone after her or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anyone could have done it any differently." She looked to everyone who remained silent, "He is not perfect, but if you think you can do this without him, go ahead. No one is stopping you." With that said she took a long swig from her water bottle only looking up when Andrea went to hand back the gun to her.

"We should keep going." Andrea said.

Harley hung in the back of the group as they continued on, nodding towards Lori when she had looked back at her almost to say she had handled it well.

It wasn't but a couple of minutes later that they heard a gunshot in the distance.

I suck so bad at updating, I'm so sorry. T_T

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