I woke up early, or what seemed like early. I quietly got up and walked out of the RV. I saw Rick and Daryl already awake and dressed, and they saw me.
"Can I talk to you?" Rick asked me.
"I guess." I replied.
"I didn't appreciate what you said when we came back."
"Well-"
"Let me talk. We're busting our asses out there looking for the little girl, and we don't need you criticizing our efforts."
"Rick, back off." Daryl called.
"No Daryl, he needs to know." Rick called back.
"No, you just want to yell at him. Just give him a break, he just wants to see Sophia again."
Rick looked at me, giving me the look. "Get dressed, we're all searching for Sophia today." He told.
I walked back into the RV to get dressed. After, everybody gathered around Rick and Daryl.
"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick told.
"These aren't the type of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked.
"We've been over that." Shane said. "Daryl, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping of rounds every time a tree rustles."
"It's not the tree I'm worried about." Andrea said.
They continued to blabber, and Carl looked at me. He nodded his head, hinting that we wanted to talk to me. We met up.
"What do you need?" I asked.
"Do you think we'll find her?" He also asked.
"Um… Find her dead or alive?" I whispered.
"Either."
"I hope so."
I walked back to the group, as did Carl.
"Keep an eye on Jake and Carl, will you?" Rick asked Dale.
"We're going too." I affirmed.
"You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible." Carl explained.
Rick looked at Lori.
"Your call, I can't always be the bad guy." She told.
"Well, they have all of you to look after, I'd say he's in good hands." Dale explained.
"…Okay. Okay." Rick said. "But always in our sight, no exceptions."
I nodded and Rick walked away. After a few minutes, we ventured into the woods. It was interested to see fully grown, alive plants around. But, that was besides the point. I was getting distracted. We have to find Sophia dead, alive, or undead. I hope it's alive, but I think it's gonna be one of the other two.
"Shane, look. Dad said I could carry it and Mom said as long as I was-" Carl began.
"Keep it down. We're looking for Sophia." He fired back. "You need to foes on the task."
As much of a dick Shane is, I agreed with him. Carl was getting distracted.
"Got to keep up." Lori told.
"I am." Carl replied.
"You okay?"
"I think Shane's mad at me. Did I do something wrong?"
"No. No honey, I promise you."
Okay, now I'm mad at myself for agreeing with Shane even though he was right. He hurt Carl, and that hurt me. Sometimes I want to punch him in the face.
"He's just worried about Sophia, that's all. Come on."
We came up to a tent. We all wanted to go forward, but Daryl, Rick, and Shane volunteered to go themselves. Carol came over and called for Sophia. She ended up not being in the tent. We all heard bells ringing all of a sudden. That had to be Sophia! We all ran toward this small church building. They all got there before I did, since I couldn't run. Lori stayed behind with me, but the entire walk there was silent. We finally got there and everybody already exited. I assumed there was no Sophia. Dammit! I walked inside of the church and stood next to Carl and Rick who were listening to Carol pray. I don't think praying will help us find Sophia, we have to keep looking! I went outside and carefully down the steps and sat down. We all gathered together after a little while.
"Y'all gonna follow the creek back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back. Search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane told.
"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asked.
"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."
"I want to stay too." Carl said. "…I'm her friend."
"Me… me too." I added.
"…Just be careful, okay?" Lori asked.
"We will." Carl answered.
"When did you start growing up?" Lori asked as she pulled us into a hug.
We ventured off away from everybody else. Rick separated himself from us and me and Carl were sitting on the stairs. We didn't say anything or do anything except exchange smiles.
"Get what you needed?" Shane asked Rick.
"Guess I'll find out."
We both got up and started walking deeper into the woods. No sign of Sophia anywhere. It seemed like we were just walking aimlessly. We suddenly heard some branches snapping and we were very cautious. It ended up being a deer. I couldn't believe it, a deer is actually still alive in this world. It looked so beautiful. Shane was about to shoot it, but Carl started moving toward the deer. I kind of wanted to also, but I hesitated. Rick and Shane nudged me to go and I did. I felt nervous for some reason, I didn't know why. I was next to Carl now, he looked at me and we moved closer. The deer then looked at us. It startled me, but no one noticed thankfully. We kept moving closer, and closer, and closer, until I heard a gunshot. I saw the deer fall to the ground… and so did Carl.
"Oh no. No. No, no, no, no!" Rick shouted.
Rick went over to Carl's lifeless body, or what seemed like lifeless. He looked dead. I couldn't take my eyes off of him, I was still in shock. I dropped down onto my knees and continued to look at Carl. I fell into a seating position and just sat there. First Mom and Dad, Sophia, and now Carl? Everybody's dying and there's nobody left.