It had been a while since they all sat together around the campfire eating breakfast together. Ever since the thing with Sophia, everyone was either too busy or didn't have the patience to just sit around when they could be out doing something about Sophia. So it was nice, everyone just enjoying each other's company. It was almost enough to make Caterina forget about all of the shit that had been happening lately. Of course, that probably had something to do with Carl now having joined them for the first time since he got shot. And maybe the fact that Daryl had decided to sit so close to her.

…Okay, so maybe it had more to do with Daryl than anything else.

Anyway, Caterina couldn't help feeling like this peace would be short lived. Call her pessimistic, but she didn't think any of them were so lucky that everything would just work themselves out smoothly. She felt like this was just the calm before the storm. And once that storm hit… Well, she just hoped that they were all strong enough to deal with whatever it brought.

Speaking of storms, Caterina glanced over at where Glenn was sitting outside of the group, staring out at the barn. She had noticed that he had been staring at it practically non-stop the past day or so. Even Dale would throw the occasional glance its way, as if he were waiting for something to happen. She couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that there was something wrong with the barn and Glenn had found out about it. It would explain why Maggie had suddenly felt the need to shower them with food, and why Glenn had gotten nervous when Caterina asked him what the occasion was.

She frowned as Glenn suddenly got to his feet and started pacing, wringing his hands together.

"Um, guys?" Glenn spoke up.

Here comes the storm, Caterina thought as she set her plate down on the grass next to her and leaned forward, giving Glenn her undivided attention while everyone else just glanced up at him curiously. None of them apparently had been feeling the same way that Caterina had been. Then again, none of them had been through the things that Caterina had been through. They weren't used to all this chaos, so they haven't developed her ability to sense the storm.

"So…" Glenn muttered before blurting out, "The barn's full of walkers."

Everyone froze and stared up at Glenn in shock, none of them quite sure how to take it. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl before she looked over at Rick. He was probably the only one who didn't seem shocked; instead, he was just staring at Glenn as if he wasn't surprised, more like he was disappointed. Though, to be honest, Caterina supposed that she shouldn't be surprised either. After the argument that Rick and Hershel had over whether or not this…disease, or whatever it was, had a cure. Hershel had seemed firm in his belief that those who had gotten infected were just sick and that someone would find a cure and bring back those who had fallen victim to the plague, that it was all just nature's way of correcting itself somehow.

Since it appeared that no one else was going to be snap out of their shock any time soon, Caterina stood up. "Show us," she ordered.

This worked to effectively pull everyone from their stupor, and they all started putting down their own plates so they could stand up as well. Glenn nodded and started leading the way down to the bar. Caterina followed him, with the rest of the group close at her heels.

Once they had reached the barn, they all paused a few feet away while Shane went to peer into the barn through a small gap in the wall. He stepped away after a moment to approach Rick.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this," Shane scoffed.

"No, I'm not," Rick said. "But we're guests here. This isn't our land."

"Oh God…" he muttered before yelling, "This is our lives, man!"

"Lower your voice," Glenn pleaded.

"We can't just weep this under the rug," Andrea said.

"It ain't right," T-Dog added. "Not remotely."

Shane paced behind everyone before stepping around Caterina to address the group. "Okay, we've either gotta go in there, we gotta make things right, or we've just gotta go. Now, we've been talkin' 'bout Fort Benning for a long time now."

"We can't go," Rick said forcefully.

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"'Cause my daughter's still out there," Carol spoke up, pulling everyone's gaze to her.

"Okay…" Shane ran his hands over his face with a heavy sigh. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Shane!" Rick warned. "We're not leavin' Sophia behind."

"We're close to findin' this girl," Daryl agreed. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl," Shane said. "That's what you did. You found a doll."

"You don't know what the hell you're talkni' about!" he barked, tossing his hands at him like he usually did when he was irritated.

"Hey, now, I'm just sayin' what needs to be said! Now, you get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours!"

"Shane!" Rick snapped. "Shane, stop!"

"Now, let me tell you sumthin' else, man!" Shane continued, completely ignoring Rick. "If she was alive out there and saw you comin' all methed out with your buck knife and your Geek ears 'round your neck, she would run in the other direction, man!"

Daryl and Shane started trying to yell over each other threateningly, and Rick and Caterina had to step between them to try to keep them separated while, at the same time, trying to calm them both down. Caterina was able to lead Daryl back a few steps, although he hadn't calmed down any, but Shane kept trying to come at him, so Lori hurried over to try to hell Rick pull Shane away.

"Back off!" Rick ordered.

Shane stopped struggling, but he just turned his anger on Lori. "Keep your hands off me," he snapped before he started to walk away from the group.

"Now, just let me talk to Hershel," Rick called after him. "Let me figure it out."

Shane stopped to yell at him again. "What're you gonna figure out?" he asked as started to move towards Rick like he'd done with Daryl, but Lori stepped forward to intercept him.

"Knock it off!"

"If we're gonna stay," Rick continued, "if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

"Hershel sees those things in there as people—sick people," Dale informed him. "His wife, his step son…"

"You knew?" Rick asked, almost sounding hurt that Dale had kept such important information from him as well.

"Yesterday. I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked.

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

Shane scoffed at him before turning on his partner again. "The man is crazy, Rick. If Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!"

Rick started to try to calm Shane down again, but everyone froze when the chains on the barn door started to rattle as the walkers pushed against it, trying to get to the food that they could hear fighting outside. The women—apart from Caterina—hurried away with Carl while the others stood their ground, staring at the barn with apprehension. Daryl stepped forward slightly so that he was standing in front of Caterina, as if trying to protect her while still trying to be subtle about it.

Caterina reached out and placed her hand on Daryl's arm. "If we're going to continue to argue, we should at least move away from the barn," she suggested.

The others seemed to see the logic in this, so they all followed Caterina back up to the campsite.

"Now, I understand that we need to deal with this barn situation," she said, mostly towards Shane, "but Rick's right. This is Hershel's land. We're just guests. We need to have his blessing before we go in guns blazing. Like Dale said, his son and wife are in that barn."

"There's no way you're gonna be able to talk that man into lettin' us deal with 'em," Shane scoffed.

"At least let Rick try before you go jumping to conclusions, all right?" Caterina asked exasperatedly.

Shane didn't look convinced, but he didn't say anything more. Instead, he just walked off.

"Thank you," Rick expressed.

"Do you want me to go with you to talk to Hershel?" Caterina asked, deciding to ignore his thanks. After all, she hadn't really done it only for him. She really did agree that talking things over with Hershel was the right thing to do. It was his land, and his family. At any rate, she couldn't bring herself to agree with anything Shane said. Although there was some logic in it, she didn't like how he went about things. Not to mention she wouldn't trust him as far as she could throw him, which admittedly would be very satisfying for her to do. Maybe, after she got her proof about Otis, she could talk Rick into letting her take Shane out into the woods and tie him to a tree and leave him for the walkers.

…So this thing with Shane was making her into a bit of a sadist.

"No, I think it's best if I do it on my own," Rick said, pulling Caterina away from her vicious thoughts. "Besides, you wanted to go out today, didn't you?"

Caterina nodded.

"Then you can get goin'. I'll come join you later on."

She nodded again and watched as Rick slowly made his way up to the farmhouse, probably thinking about how he was going to talk Hershel into seeing things for how they really are. She did not envy him his task. But, if anyone could do it, it was Rick.

Caterina glanced at Dale and Daryl before turning and disappearing into her tent.

Once Caterina had all of her weapons in place, she tied her hair back into a high ponytail while she went over her mental check-list. She had spent the entire time last night thinking about how she was going to do this run. She was pretty sure that, while the high school might not be as overrun as it had been when Shane and Otis went, it would have cleared out by now. She had noticed before that walkers tended to be a bit ADD. They never really stayed in one place for too long, and there wasn't much that could hold their attention for more than a few seconds (apart from food, of course).

She'd had to come up with a game plan that would get her in and out without much trouble while still giving her time to properly examine Otis' body, wherever she may find it. While she was sure that she'd come up with a suitable plan, she still had to worry about whether or not any of it would really work. After all, there was a lot of information missing that she'd needed to come up with a sure-fire way of getting this done. First, she didn't now where Otis' body was. Second, she didn't know how many walkers there would be around his body. Third, she didn't know the layout of the high school so, if she got overrun, she didn't know the best place to treat to.

Caterina sighed heavily and slid the strap of her crossbow over her shoulder before walking out her tent. She glanced around the camp in search of Daryl before going over to his tent. The flap was open, so she peeked inside only to find that Daryl wasn't there. She pulled the flap to the side and slid into his tent, glancing around at all of his stuff. Finally, her gaze fell on his night stand, and she spotted the necklace of walker's ears that Daryl had made sitting there. She grabbed them and tucked them into her front pocket before grabbing an extra rag that she had spotted sitting on the empty camper bed.

She ducked back out of his tent and walked over to where Carol was hanging up laundry. "Have you seen Daryl?" she asked as she took a long-sleeved, black plaid shirt from the clothesline. It was still a bit damp, but that didn't matter. Georgia was hot as hell, so she was sure that she'd end up sweating it in anyway.

"Yeah," Carol said. "He went to the stables."

Caterina sighed, already knowing what he was probably doing. It had only been a day, so she was more than positive that he hadn't even started to heal from his day out yesterday. But Daryl was stubborn, and he seemed determined to find Sophia. So, of course, he was going to try to go out and continue the search as soon as he possibly could, regardless of his own injuries.

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he just walked off," Carol tried to apologize, apparently thinking that Caterina was upset that she hadn't tried to stop him.

"It's fine," she assured her. "I'll go talk to him." She slipped into the over shirt and started to walk towards the stables. She was stopped, however, when Carol called after her. She turned back to look at her curiously.

"I don't want anyone else getting hurt because of me," she said. "I mean, we don't even know if we're going to find her. I don't."

Caterina stared at her, not saying anything.

"I can't lose any more people that I care about. I know you don't want to lose him either."

Caterina just continued to stare at her for a moment before nodding in understanding. She was right. She didn't want to lose Daryl. She cared for him way too much. While she still wasn't one hundred percent sure what she felt for Daryl, she knew that it went well beyond just attraction or a crush. Not that she would ever admit that to him, of course. Or to anyone really. She'd had trouble admitting it to herself; she could only imagine how difficult it would be to tell someone else about her feelings for Daryl.

When she got to the stables, Caterina saw Daryl hauling a riding saddle out of the equipment area. She leaned against the frame of the stables with her arms crossed in front her and just watched as he dropped it onto the saddle rack with a pained grunt. He paused over it, panting—not from exertion but from pain.

"You okay?" Caterina asked, although the answer was more than obvious.

"I'm fine," he grunted, not even bothering to glance at her as he grabbed the reins from their hooks.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Daryl's stubbornness. He was worse than her father. "Hershel said you need to heal," she reminded him.

"Yeah? I don't care."

"I know you don't. But I do."

Daryl paused, but he didn't say anything. He just glanced at her before he went in one of the horse stables.

Caterina pushed away from the wall and walked over to where he was. "I'm going out to search the ridge," she said. "And Rick said he'll join me later today."

"I heard," he reminded her. "I ain't gonna sit around and do nothin'."

"So you'd rather go out there and get yourself hurt even worse?"

Daryl didn't say anything. He just continued to ready the horse to take it out.

Cat looked down at her feet and shuffled them, thinking about how she could convince him to stay. She was being hypocritical, she knew. If she were in his situation, she would be doing the same thing. The only reason that she had allowed herself a bit of rest when her arm was infected was because Rick and Hershel had been so adamant about it. If she hadn't known that they would be upset if she ignored their worry and went out anyway, she would have. But she cared too much about Rick, and she was growing to care about Hershel, so she did what they wanted and waited for her arm to start healing before she went out again.

"I know that you probably don't care about me in the sense that I care about you…" she started.

Daryl stopped and looked at her, but she didn't dare look up from her feet.

"But if you did…" she continued slowly. "If it were me that was injured and I wanted to go out on my own…" She finally looked up, wanting Daryl to see the distress on her face. "Would you let me?" she asked.

Daryl stared at her, not letting anything show on his face. But she could see the conflict in his eyes. He was being pulled between his apparent desire to find Sophia and the truth in Caterina's words. She didn't know what his feelings for her were, or even if he had any, but it was obvious that he at least cared about her. Ever since the beginning, Daryl had gone out of his way to protect and defend her. He'd tried to be subtle about it at first and, if it weren't for Caterina's ability to notice even the tiniest of details, she wouldn't have noticed it. But she had, and she felt bad about using that knowledge now to try to force him into submission. It was necessary if she wanted to make sure that he stayed alive.

After what felt like hours, Daryl removed the reins from the horse and walked back out of the stables to put them up on the hook. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief that she'd managed to convince him.

"You'd best be careful, understand?" Daryl pretty much demanded.

Caterina looked at him in slight surprise but nodded. Daryl stepped up to her, and the two stared at each other for a long moment. He took another hesitant step forward, staring at her searchingly. She noticed his eyes fall to her lips before moving back up to her eyes, and she saw him swallow, like he was nervous. Her throat jumped into her throat as she realized that Daryl was about to kiss her. But, instead of actually doing, Daryl nodded his farewell and brushed past her.

She was left staring at where Daryl had been standing. She blinked and turned to watch as Daryl stalked out of the stables. She let out a disappointed sigh and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. What the hell was with him? Did he like messing with her mind like that? Confusing her?

Caterina shook those thoughts from her head and went to follow back Daryl to camp. Now wasn't the time to worry about him and his mixed signals. She needed to focus on the task at hand. She paused to watch as Daryl disappeared into his tent after throwing her one last look before turning to Carol, who was staring at her curiously. She adjusted her crossbow and walked over to her again.

"I take it that it went well?" Carol asked.

"About as well as it could," Caterina muttered.

Carol nodded in understanding. She was probably the one person that understood Daryl about as well that Caterina did.

"Listen, could I borrow your car for a bit?" she asked. "I want to go back up to the housing development and take another look around while Rick is talking to Hershel."

"Of course. Just…be careful, all right?"

"I will be." She paused to look over her shoulder at Daryl's tent before turning back to Carol. "Keep an eye on him while I'm gone?" she asked in a low voice.

Carol smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Caterina smiled slightly in return and started over to where Carol's station wagon was parked. She paused when she spotted Dale by the RV and altered her course to meet him. Dale noticed her walking towards him, and a look of understanding passed over his face and he hurried forward to meet her.

"Could I borrow some gloves?" Caterina asked.

"Sure," Dale said before he disappeared into his RV. He returned a moment later with a pair of gardening gloves.

As she reached out to take them from him, Caterina moved forward so that she was standing almost face-to-face with Dale. "Keep an eye on Shane while I'm gone," she whispered, ever mindful of Glenn's perch just above them on the roof of the RV.

When she pulled out of his personal space, Dale nodded, looking as if she'd just given him the most important mission ever—and, in essence, she supposed she had.

Caterina parked half a mile away from the high school, deciding again that it wouldn't be safe to drive directly up to the school and risk any walkers hearing the car. She killed the engine and just sat in the car, going over her plan in her head. She would approach from the forest so that she could scope the high school before she went in looking for Otis. Once she found him, if there were no walkers around him, she would examine him as quickly as possible and then bolt back into the forest. If any walkers spotted her before she could leave, making her way through the forest would give her the chance to ditch them before she got back to the car.

She took in a steadying breath and reached into her front pocket for the ear necklace that she had taken from Daryl, slipping it around her neck. While they wouldn't mask her smell for long, they would at least work to confuse any walkers just long enough for her to get everything done before she had to leave.

Checking once more than all of her weapons were in place, Caterina climbed out of the car and started her trek into the forest.

It took her ten minutes to reach the high school. The only reason it had taken so long was because she was being careful not to make too much noise. There was no telling how many walkers had left the school to wander the forest. While she hadn't run into yet, she wasn't about to let herself think that she was safe. She paused at the tree line and scanned as much of the campus as she could. From her position, she couldn't see very many walkers, and the one that she could see were closer to the school. If Shane had taken Otis down while they were making their escape, it would stand to reason that Otis had fallen in the parking lot. It didn't appear that there were many walkers there, so it should be relatively easy for her to complete her mission.

Then again, things were rarely as easy as they seemed. And even if they did, there was usually a horrendous ending that followed.

Caterina shook those thoughts away and started making her way to the parking lot.

As luck would have it, Caterina found Otis' body lying in the middle of the parking lot, a safe distance away from the walkers. The only reason that she knew it was Otis's was because she recognized the clothes that he'd been wearing. Their backs had been ripped to shreds, but she still recognized him. As for the body…well, the walkers had done a real number on him, that was for sure. He was pretty much just bone and muscle and tendons. At least, with how much had been taken out of him, he hadn't been able to come back as a walker.

Caterina snuck over to the body and knelt down next to it. She checked the distance between her and the walkers once more before taking Dale's gardening gloves from her pocket and sliding them on so that she could roll Otis's body onto its back. She glanced over the corpse, refusing to look at his face. She was already having trouble looking at his body as she was; she didn't think she would be able to handle seeing the damage that had been done to his face.

She moved her gave carefully over Otis's torso before allowing her eyes to trail down his legs. She paused as she noticed what looked like a bullet wound on his knee. She took her switchblade from its holster on her thigh and used it to carefully split the remaining skin on his knee, just enough to let her see the kneecap. It had been completely shattered. She could just barely see the end of the bullet that had caused the cap to break like that, embedded in the back of knee. So Shane had shot out his knee to keep him from running, to use Otis as a distraction for the walkers so that he could got away, like what happened with the horse that Caterina and Rick had ridden into Atlanta.

She glanced down at Otis's partially eaten hand and noticed a few strands of short brown hair tangled in the shredded flesh. She removed one of the gloves and tucked it into her pocket so she could grab Daryl's rag. She placed it on the ground next to the body and pulled a few of the hairs from the hand, careful to use her nails so that she didn't get any of Otis's blood on her. She placed the hairs in the rag and folded the material around them so she could slip it back into her pocket.

Caterina's head snapped up as she heard a gaggle of hungry growls. It seemed that the walkers had finally noticed her and were making their way towards her now. She quickly tucked her switchblade back into its holster and pulled her crossbow from her shoulder as she took off back to the forest. She ran as quickly as her feet could carry her, jumping over roots and dodging beneath low hanging branches. She paused once she felt that she was far enough away from the walkers and tossed her crossbow down for a moment so that she could remove her overshirt. She tossed it on the ground with her crossbow and grabbed her buck knife, swiping it across her palm quickly, wincing as the sharpened blade cut through her skin. She grabbed her overshirt and smeared her blood over as much of it as she could in the short amount of time she had. Once she was satisfied that it had been soaked in enough blood, she dropped it back on the ground and grabbed her crossbow before taking off again.

She wasn't sure it would work, but she hoped that the smell of her blood would distract the walkers enough to prevent them from seeing where she went. It was just a theory, something that she had observed ever since these things took over. The walkers only went after fresh meat, meat that was still wet and nourished. Once the blood was no longer running and the meat began to dry out, the walkers appeared to loose interest. So her thought was that maybe it wasn't the scent of fresh meat that they were drawn to; it was the scent of fresh blood.

As much as she wanted to see her theory proven correct, she didn't dare pause even a second to see if the walkers were still following her. She could still hear their feral moans and, although they were fainter now, that was enough to keep her running.

She managed to get back to car within three minutes, much less time that it had taken to get to the high school. By the time she'd gotten in the car, it appeared that she had long since lost the walkers, so she didn't bother going the long way back. Instead, she drove straight through town on her way back to the farm. While she knew that, if they heard the car, the walkers would go off in search of the sound, she didn't let herself care about that. At any rate, she was driving much too fast for them to be able to pinpoint which direction the sound was coming from before she was gone.

Caterina gave a sigh of relief when she finally pulled back into camp. After that run, as soon as they found Sophia, she was going to give herself a day, maybe two. It had been too long since she'd been without company. She was no longer any more used to being so close to a horde without backup than the others were.

As she was stepping out of the station wagon, she heard gunshots coming from the direction of the barn. Her head snapped to the side so fast that she almost gave herself whiplash. She could see the others gathered near the barn. While she could only just barely make out their figures, she was able to see enough that she got worried. It looked like there were two people struggling to keep two walkers in place using snare poles while someone stood in front of them, shooting at one of the walkers. She didn't need to be able to see them to know that it was Shane.

She grabbed her Beretta from the back of her pants and took off towards the barn.

"Enough riskin' our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane was shouting as Caterina reached the group. "Enough livin' next to a barn full o' things that are tryin' to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now, if ya'll wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talkin' 'bout fightin'! Right here, right now!" He turned and started running to the barn.

Rick made to go after him before remembering that he was the only thing standing between the walker that he was holding on to and the rest of the group. He turned to where Hershel was knelt on the ground, staring at the second corpse as it laid in front of him, riddled with bullets. "Take the snare pole!" Rick instructed. "Hershel!" he shouted when the old man didn't move. "Hershel, take the snare pole!"

Hershel just continued to stare down at the corpse.

"Hershel, listen to me, man, please," Rick begged. "Take it now! Hershel! Take it!"

Still, he didn't move. But, even if he had snapped out of his shock at that point, it was too late. Shane was already beating on the padlock on the barn door with a pickax.

"No, Shane! Do not do this, brother! Wait!"

Shane didn't listen. Instead, he flipped the pickax in his hands to use the head to pry off the lock.

"Don't do it!" Glenn pleaded.

"Please!" Rick added.

Once the lock had come off, Shane tossed the pickax aside and, instead of removing the chains, he removed the board that had been placed in the handles to keep the doors closed. The walkers were pushing on the doors, but not hard enough to open it fully. So Shane started banging on them to try to rile them up enough to press against the door and open it themselves.

"Come on!" Shane shouted. "Come on, we're out here!"

"This is not the way!" Rick continued. "Please!"

Lori pushed Carl behind her, realizing that there was no way that Shane was going to stop at this point. "Get behind me."

Shane backed away from the barn and pulled out his handgun, aiming at the doors, waiting. Finally, the walkers were able to push the doors open, and they started piling out one-by-one. Andrea was the first to join Shane at his side, with T-Dog right behind her, and then Daryl. As if on cue, they all started firing at the same time, taking down each walker as it made its way out of the barn.

Caterina cursed to herself before running forward to stand with the group, but she didn't join in the shooting. As much as she agreed that having a barn full of walkers wasn't safe, this was not the way to go about getting rid of them.

Glenn stepped up next to Maggie, who was trying to console her father. "Maggie?" he said, silently asking her permission to join in.

"It's okay," Maggie said.

Glenn nodded in thanks and stepped forward to help put down the walkers.

Caterina saw Shane stop to look back at Rick, and her heart leapt nervously in her chest. But he just shot the walker that Rick was still trying to keep in place before turning back on the barn walkers.

"Stay back!" Rick shouted as Carl tried to run forward, only to be stopped by Lori. "Stop!" he yelled to the others, but they didn't listen. They just continued to fire.

Finally, the last of the walkers stepped out of the barn and was put down. Everyone lowered their weapons and stared at the pile of corpses. Daryl looked back at the group and paused when he saw Caterina standing there. His jaw tensed when he saw the disappointment on her face, and he looked away, apparently unable to see her looking at him like that.

It was silent as everyone tried to soak in what had just happened, even the people that had been the ones shooting.

Then, there was another growl from the barn. They waited anxiously for the last walker to step out, but no one shot as it stepped out into the light. It was a young girl with shoulder-length, curly blonde hair. There was a chunk of flesh missing from her left shoulder, and her face was dirty and her eyes were pale, but they were all able to recognized her. It was Sophia.

Caterina's heart dropped into her stomach like a rock.

"Sophia?" Carol sobbed from the back of the group. "Sophia!"

She tried to run for her daughter, but Caterina stepped out and grabbed her around the waist to keep her from going any further. She struggled against her hold, but Caterina just tightened her grip. She understood Carol's desire to hold her daughter, even if it was for the last time, but she couldn't allow her to. Sophia was gone, nothing now but a walking corpse.

Carol's knees seemed to give out and Caterina slowly lowered the both of them to the group, Carol all the while reaching for her daughter helplessly.

"Sophia…" she continued to sob. "Sophia… Sophia…"

Caterina watched with a blank stare as the little girl carefully made her way through the bodies, never taking her dead eyes off of the group, growing hungrily. She could feel some kind of pain in her chest, a burning like she wanted to cry but wasn't able to. But she couldn't feel any tears, at least not yet. She knew that it was soon to come, but for now she would pretend that she wasn't bothered by the scene in front of her. For now, she would keep her mask on a little longer.

She looked over to Rick as he started to move forward, a determined and dispirited look on his face. He pulled his Python from its holster at his side and raised it, aiming at the girl's head. He hesitated for a brief moment before pulling the trigger, and the girl fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.