"You really think we're going to find Sophia?" Andrea's question shocked Daryl and me both.
It pissed off Daryl more than shocked, though. "You got that look on your face same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with you people? We just started lookin'."
"Well, do you?"
"We wouldn't be out here if we thought we weren't going to find her." I was slightly offended at what Andrea was thinking. How come everyone is starting to doubt that this girl is going to be found?
"It ain't the mountains if Tibet. It's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."
"She's only twelve." Andrea did have a point, but still, we can't give up on looking.
"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the forset eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak." This surprised me. This would be the first time Daryl had ever mentioned anything about his past. Even though it was small, it was something.
"They found you?" Andrea asked.
"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doin' another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich." That would be something Daryl would do. The first thing would be making himself a sandwich. "No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful."
At the same time, Andrea and I let out a bit of laughter. I felt horrible for laughing, but that is funny as hell.
He looked at both of us, slightly offended. We both apologized, but still kept laughing.
Andrea tried to wave it off. "I'm sorry, that is a terrible story."
Even Daryl let out a small chuckle. He was finally feeling comfortable here. "Only difference is Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage."
Daryl was right. We were all searching these woods for that little girl. She's got some help at least.
A small camp came into view in the far distance. We thought that this could be something, so we stopped to check it out. She may be here or may have been. It doesn't hurt to look.
There was a rustling sound coming from our left and Daryl immediately was ready for the worst. His crossbow was up and his arms were tense. His hands were ready to pull the trigger if need be.
Andrea and I followed closely followed behind Daryl as he went to go investigate. All of us had our flashlights pointed to the sound of the rustling. Even though we walked slowly, my heart was pounding.
We came upon another camp site. This one had more of a home feel to it. Someone lived here for awhile, but then bailed.
The rustling continued and we discovered it to be coming from the tree next to the small camp. Daryl looked up. "What the hell?"
A man decided to put an end to this life. He had tied himself a rope and hung himself from it. This, however, didn't prevent him from turning. His legs were entirely chewed off. All that's left was the bones. He had been picked clean.
The walker, or hanger, caught sight of us and reached with all of his might. We must have been the first living things he had seen in a long time and to him, we looked delicious.
Before he hung himself, he nailed a suicide note to the tree. Daryl flashed the light on it and read it aloud. "Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit." Well at least it was creative. "Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess."
It was probably the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. My stomach did flips ten times over and I believed that I was ready to pass out. He didn't smell too pretty either.
I wasn't the only one getting a little queezy over this. Andrea was bent over and gagging. This was a sight for sore eyes.
"You alright?" Daryl asked us. He seemed to direct the question more towards Andrea considering she wasn't looking too hot.
"Trying not to puke," she answered.
"Go ahead if you gotta."
"No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a moment." I was all for that idea. "How'd you learn to shoot?"
"Gotta eat," Daryl answered. "That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Look at him, hanging up there like a big pinata." His eyes never left the hanging walker. Daryl seemed interested in it for some reason.
He took a step toward it and the walker fidgeted even more, doing its best to have a piece of Daryl. "The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs."
And that was the end of it for Andrea. The little that was in her stomach came up just like that. I had to turn away. I didn't want to lose whatever food I had left in me.
"I thought we were changing the subject," Andrea complained.
"Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass." Daryl seemed to find a bit of humor in the woman's misfortunes.
"There wasn't a lot that came up." She somehow managed to get some of it on her hands. She was wiping it on her pants when I chose to face her once again.
After taking another look at the walker, he turned to Andrea and me. "Let's head back.
Andrea pointed at the walker with her flashlight. "Aren't you gonna..." Her words stopped him and made him look back.
"No. He ain't hurtin' nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang."
Andrea was fascinated with the hanging squirmer. Daryl just wanted to go, but I had to agree with Andrea. We couldn't just leave him up there. The right thing to do is to just let the guy rest.
Daryl did ask one question that caught us both off guard. I believe this one was directed to both of us. "You want to live now or not? It's just a question."
Before I could even give my answer any thought, Andrea went first. "An answer for an arrow. Fair?"
"Mm-hmm," Daryl mumbled.
She took a deep breath and began to speak. "I don't know if I want to live or if I have to or it's just a habit." Andrea's answer hit me deep. Living doesn't seem like it's much of a choice nowadays.
"That's not much of an answer." Daryl wasn't happy, but a deal's a deal. An arrow was shot into the skull of the walker and he went limp. Now he can finally rest. "Waste of an arrow."
He turned and started walking. Andrea just stared at the walker. I tugged Andrea's sleeve to let her know that it was time to go.
As we started walking, Andrea decided not to let me off the hook. "So what about you?"
Daryl was a few steps ahead of us, but still was able to hear. I saw his head turn back to see my face.
"What about me?" I asked, playing dumb.
"Do you want to live?"
I inhaled deeply, taking in all of the air that I could possibly take in. This was a question that I didn't want to answer, but looking at my options, I didn't have much of a choice.
I never really gave it much thought, so I really didn't have anything to say. I decided to joke about it a little. "Well, someone didn't give me much of a choice."
Daryl scoffed. This way I knew for sure that he was listening.
But everyone was expecting a serious answer. Do I want to live? It's not an answer you can give on the spot, especially in this world.
I stayed silent. What was I to say? "Well?" asked Andrea.
"Um, well, I... I don't know." I was beyond nervous. My stuttering was only partial to not having an answer. I really didn't know what I was to say and that was making my voice shake. "I guess I, um, do if I have something to live for. Right now, people are telling me that I do, but I don't see it. If my life ended, then would the suffering of an unborn child. On the other hand, if my life ended, there wouldn't be a chance for the child to live. Does that make sense?" I notice that my words were running together and not making sense, but how else was I to explain it?
"Yeah, actually, it does." I saw understanding in Andrea's eyes. She knew exactly what I was talking about.
"I guess as long as I have people to help me through this, I should be fine and the baby, too. This group that we're in, they seem to get it. For them, I want to live."
Andrea put her arm around my shoulder. She didn't say anything, but this was all I needed. I just needed to know that someone, besides Daryl, cares about me and not the fact that I have a bun in the oven.
Daryl didn't say anything as we approached the guard rail. In fact, we were all silent. The only sound to be heard was our footsteps and the crinkling of grass beneath our feet.