Okay here is the begining of season 2! So in order to make it up to you guys for not posting on time I decided that I'm going to do shorter chapters instead of a whole episode, it's also easier for me so it's a win-win.

Reviews

HappyGoLuckyGirl: Glad you liked the chapter and here's the start of season 2! :)

LadyCaysie: I'm glad you like the way she woke up and yeah I did wonder if I let her off too easy after the dream. I tried to do something with that but wasn't happy with my results so I just decided to focus on the rest of the story. As for Daryl's POV I do plan on doing more sections with his point of view so be on the look out for that :)

Sevvus: I laughed really hard at the batmobile comment, I'm such a batman nerd I always try to quote to the Batmoblie whenever I can! :D As for updates I do try to get to the computer whenever I can try to update at least once a week. Thanks for reading and loving it!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Walking Dead...

What lies Ahead

"Okay don't peek!"

"Kind of hard to peek when you're covering my eyes Reese."

"Smartass! Okay keep them closed." She says.

I feel her take my hands off my eyes and walk down the steps to the streets. It was a hot Saturday and I was rudely woken up to her jumping up and down on my bed saying she had a surprise for me. I only had time to use the toilet and splash some water on my face before she dragged me out of the apartment while covering my eyes. This better be something pretty amazing like a unicorn, world peace or Jake Gyllenhaal proposing to me or I'm going to slap her for dragging me out in nothing but short shorts and a tank top with no bra on.

"Damn! Good morning to you girl!" I heard some guy shout. Yep, I want to go back in already.

"Shut up asswipe! You must be this tall or this long if you wanna ride me or my sister!" Reese shouts back.

"Ew! Reese don't bait them!" I say crossing my arms over my chest.

"Don't worry he's gone. Just some douche trying to overcompensate. Okay! Open your eyes!" she shouts happily!

I open my eyes to see my sister acting like she was a showgirl on game show presenting a grand prize. Although she was waving her arms at her crappy car that she bought before she left New York. I hear some guys whistling as they pass us and check out her ass to which I respond by flipping them off.

"So let me get this straight…" I begin my rant once those guys were gone. "You dragged me out of bed half-dressed, half-asleep to show me your car and get catcalled by some douchebags?" She puts her hands on her hips and cocks her eyebrow at me.

"Really? You've been here for almost a month and haven't noticed I didn't have my car?"

"… I guess I didn't really think about it."

"Yeah otherwise you would have known that it was impounded and I finally saved enough money to get it back. But it's not my car anymore… it's yours!"

"Wait why is it mine now? You just got it back don't you want it?" I ask.

"Well… I may have gotten my license suspended… but that's not the point! The point is that I missed a couple of your birthdays and I wasn't there when you got your license so I want to give you your first car. This is your first car right?"

"Yeah, the foster system wouldn't let me get my permit or license so I had to wait till college to get it. And since I always took the subway and saved money for food and clothes a car was that last thing on my mind."

"There we go! This is all yours!" She says and comes up to hug me. "I know it's not new or that great looking but I worked my ass off to get it back for you!"

That does explain why she took extra shifts and would wear even more revealing clothes to work, trying to get more tips from drunk perverts. I hate that she has to resort to that stuff but I can't help but feel touched that she worked that hard so she can give me my first car.

"It is great Reese. I love it." I say with a smile and hug her back.

"That's all I wanted." She says hugging me tighter. "I have a feeling this is our new start. That we can be happy together, starting with this car then we'll move on to getting better jobs and possibly new boyfriends!"

"Why are guys always on your mind? Besides so far it seems like the only options are those catcalling weirdos."

"Hey! You've just met some bad apples. I'm sure there's a charming southern gentleman out there waiting for you… or a certain pizza boy."

"You just won't let that one go will you?"

"Nope. Now promise you you'll take good care of this car."

"I promise. I'll take care of it until I no longer can…"

And now here I am abandoning the very car I promised my sister I'd take care of and siphoning the gas for the RV. For the most part I did keep my promise, I can't take care of it anymore because the engine is about to die and there's no point in trying to fix it.

"Do you want help with your stuff Natalie?" I look up to see Dale hovering over me. He's grateful for the gas but he does feel guilty about how it was all I had left.

"I told you already Dale. I don't need a lot of this stuff. I just need to pick out some useful stuff, maybe a memento or two and travel light."

"Well I just want you to know a box or two won't be a burden. So if you change your mind just bring some stuff to the trailer." He says and he walks off.

I grab my backpack and a duffel bag and start filling it up. I put two t-shirts, two long-sleeved shirts, my leather jacket, a hoodie, two pairs of jeans, extra underwear, a pair of sneakers and my Polaroid camera in the duffel bag. I'm putting some weapons, a copy of The Shining and other essentials in my backpack when a box catches my eye. It's labeled bedroom and there's a familiar looking jewelry box that belonged to my mother and the photo album that the group looked at months ago. I open the jewelry box and see that it's filled with a collection of things Reese and my mom collected over the years. The fancy costume looking jewelry belonged to my mother while the more simple ones belonged to my sister. I don't care about any of those though. What catches my eye is a familiar silver chain with a pendant on it. It belonged to my father before he died. On the front of it is an illustration of Saint Michael the Archangel. His wings were spread out behind him and he was holding a spear to a snake. On the back was a dagger with a snake wrapped around it and the words protect us written above it. I push my braid off my shoulder and hook the chain around my neck.

After seeing that nothing else was important I close the lid of the jewelry box and pick up the photo album. I open it and I'm greeted by the picture of my family. The same one where my mom was holding me, my dad was next to her with Reese standing in front of him and my grandparents where behind them. I gently pull it out of the book and look at it.

"That your family?" I jump at voice behind me and the picture falls out of my hand. I go to grab it but the person behind me snatches it out of the air. I turn around to see its Daryl, I feel flustered that he snuck up on me (That dream really freaked me out and I get embarrassed when something happens that reminds me of it) and I have to regain my composure.

"Since when did you get so jumpy?" he asked me while handing the picture back.

"It's a pretty normal reaction when someone sneaks up on you."

"Well maybe you should be more alert. Have learned nothing while you were out here? Remember the last time you were looking for stuff in your car? Why do you even have all this shit in the back anyway?"

"Oh how can I forget the oh so wonderful day I met you and Merle? At the time I just thought my day was getting shittier when you guys pulled over to harass me. I already dealt with one sleazy asshole that day so I wasn't in the mood to deal with Merle." I see the confusion on his face as I talk. "My landlord wasn't the nicest guy. He was always harassing the girls in the building for rent money or we had to provide… other services. Little did I know that my sister was late with her share of the rent so I had to deal with the consequences."

"So you got kicked out for not putting out."

"How'd you know that? I didn't finish."

"You have half of your apartment crammed in there." He gestures to all the boxes scattered in my trunk and backseat. "Sides, since I've met you you've never taken shit like that from anyone. You probably beat the crap out of that jackass."

"I head-butted him pretty hard when he put his sleazy hands on me. Made his nose bleed. But because I didn't put out I had to get out. Not that it mattered in the end because either way I would have needed to get out of the city."

"But it made things easier didn't it?" he asked me. "Not having a place to call home to leave behind. No one back there you care about to leave behind."

"Huh… I never thought of it like that. I guess you're right."

"Damn straight." He says. I let out a small laugh at that and see a smirk on his face.

"Where did you call home? I know you and Merle said something about North Georgia but it sounded like you guys have been on the road for a while."

He made a face at that. Started biting his thumb nail and was avoiding looking me in the eye. I realize in that moment that other than the drinking story he told me at the CDC I really don't know much about Daryl. He always kept to himself about his past and the only things I knew for certain about him was he had a brother, he was ill tempered, a hunter and there have been some signs that he went through some tough times. But none of us ever really tried to get to know him.

"Doesn't matter." He muttered "Like you I didn't have one when this shitstorm happened."

"And before that?" I ask him.

"I had one. Just didn't like it… left it, met up with Merle when he got out of jail and left his biker gang. Some things are better left in the past."

"Yeah some things are…" I say and quickly flip through the pages of my photo album one last time. I land on the page I was looking for. The one of me and my sister at Coney Island.

"That her?" he asks. "The long lost sister?"

"Yep. That's her."

"She looks like she'd be your sister. Except she's got different hair, tanner skin, and metal in her face. She actually looks like a trashier version of you."

"Hey! She's not trashy and only I can say stuff about my sister like that!" I snap as I put the photo in my bag and throw the photo album back in the trunk. I put my backpack on, close the door to my trunk, sling the duffle bag over my shoulder, grab the gas canister and start walking to the RV. After handing over our canisters and my bag Daryl goes over to his truck and pulls the motorcycle out.

"Need help? I think last time you tried to pull it out someone ended up under it." I smirk remembering Merle pinned under it shouting every swear word in the book at his brother.

"I got it! Don't need some scrawny woman helping me." He says as he pulls it out of the bed of the trunk. "Grab my vest out of the car for me will you?"

I roll my eyes but go to open the cab of the truck anyway. Nothing's on the seat so I have to crawl in and look on the floor; sure enough there it was under the dashboard of the passenger's side. I grab it and hop back out of the truck.

"Catch." I say and toss it to him.

"Do you do everything half-assed?" he says as he catches it. I just shrug as he puts it on, I hate to admit it but he's probably the only guy I've ever met who can pull off a vest over another vest without looking like a major douche.

"Okay everyone move out!" Rick says and everyone starts going back to their cars. Daryl gets on the bike and I head back to the RV.

"Where you going?" he asks me.

"The RV with the others… where else?"

"Well if that's what you want. Have fun in you're hotbox!" He says and starts heading for the front of the line.

I'm confused by what just happened as I walk towards the RV. I climb in and take a seat at the table next to Andrea thinking over what just happened. It isn't until Glenn, T-Dog, Dale and Shane get in the RV that I realize that I probably just blew off riding on the back of Daryl's motorcycle by choosing the RV over him… son of a bitch!

"Looks complicated." Andrea said while watching Shane cleans his gun.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way. I could clean yours, show you how."

Ugh. I think I'm going to be sick from the flirty looks they're giving each other. Well Shane's is more flirty while Andrea still looks depressed but not as bad as usual. But still if I don't move now I'm going to be throwing up in the bathroom in a couple of minutes. I get up and walk towards Dale and Glenn at the front of the RV. I rest my arms on the back of Glenn's headrest and look out the window. I see Daryl driving in front of us on his motorcycle. God how I envy him right now. All free with the wind blowing against him, the adrenaline rush you get when you go a certain speed, and to think I probably could have been on the back of the bike if I had just thought to ask him!

"What's up Natalie?" Glenn asked me.

"Just getting restless."

"It's been a long drive." Dale said from right next to us. "Still have a while to go so I'd recommend finding something to keep you occupied."

"Trying. Believe me I'm trying." I start to fiddle with the pendant around my neck out of boredom. An old habit that I just could never quit.

"Oh Jeez." Dale's voice breaks me out of my trance and I look up to see a lot cars with open doors abandoned on the road and a large cargo truck on it's side.

"Damn. Can we get through?" I ask.

"Not sure… let's ask him." Dale says as we watch Daryl turn around and drive up to the RV. "See a way through?" Daryl nods his head and motions for Dale to follow him, he drives around the back of the RV and starts to lead us through the road. "Any chance there's a shortcut we missed?" I ask.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back." Glenn says while looking at the map "There's an interstate bypass—"

"We can't spare the fuel." Dale interrupts.

I guess he has a point. I just wish there was a scenic route we could have taken, something that looks a whole lot nicer than this. We slowly weave through the abandon cars following Daryl who is keep a close but not too close distance on his bike. This place really gives me the creeps. With all the abandoned cars and trash lying around it gave off an eerie vibe. It almost reminded me of one of those abandoned towns in western movies. All that was missing was some tumble weeds rolling across the road.

"Jeez." Glenn mumbles.

"Yeah." As I say this I see a barricade of cars blocking our way. "I don't think we can get through here."

Suddenly a clanking sound is heard and steam starts coming out of the engine blocking our view of the road. The engine is sputtering as Dale lets out a groan and stops the RV. Well… looks like I spoke too soon. Dale gets out of his seat with an angry look on his face and gets out of the RV with the rest of us following him.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." He says as he walks to the front of it.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asks while holding his gun and looking around.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—"

"Dale! Now is really not the time." I say as I point out where we are.

"Okay, that was dumb." He agrees with me.

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane says.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl said as he was looting the car in front of us with the window of its trunk open.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog said.

"Maybe some water." Carol said "Or food."

"This is a graveyard." Lori spoke up. We all looked at her in silence. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"We may not like it but we don't have any other options Lori." I speak up. "Besides, I think we need this stuff a lot more than they do." She gives me a disgusted look at that but I shrug my shoulders. It was true, she'll just have to get over it.

"Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." Shane says. I let out a sigh and pull out my knife.

"Careful around the bodies." I say as I follow the women.

We start looking through the windows to see which cars had stuff. I lift a tarp off the back of a truck and jump in to look through it. Box of clothes and other junk but no radiator parts or anything useful. I let out a sigh, jump off and check the other cars. I pass Daryl and T-Dog who are checking for gas in cars and check a car near Carol.

"How you guys doing?"

"Ok." Carol says focused on looking around. Sophia's clutching her doll tight and stays close to her mom.

"We're gonna go to the Grand Canyon." She says. I smile at how happy she sounded when she said that.

"Really? When did you decide this?"

"In the car. Do you wanna go with us?"

"Well it sounds like fun… tell you what. I'll think about it once we're done with this." She nods her head and goes to hang out with Carl. I look up at Carol who gives me a small smile. "It's amazing how cheerful kids are isn't it?" I ask.

"Yeah. Sophia has always been my little ball of sunshine. Sorry she put you on the spot like that though."

"It's okay. As long as she's happy I'm willing to say I'll go to the moon with you guys." She smiles at that.

"Thank you. You've been acting like the big sister she always wanted."

"I couldn't be her big sister. I'm too old to be your daughter." She lets out a small laugh at that. "I'm going to check those cars over there. Here take this knife, I can always use one of my throwers if I need to." She nods her head and hesitantly takes it before walking off.

I walk the other way closer to where T-Dog was and check a jeep. Sadly all that's in there is a some sandwich wrappers, an empty soda can and a bottle that had a yellow liquid I did not want to know what it was. I open the gas cap and smell for gas when I see something out of the corner of my eye. Walkers… a lot of walkers coming towards me. I drop to the ground as fast as I could and roll under the Jeep. I look up just in time to see a land right next to me on my left and I bite my lip to stop a gasp from coming out of my mouth. As soon as it goes away more walkers walk by me. I grasp a knife from my belt and pull it out. I hold it really tight in my right hand, readying myself for the worst case scenario. I start counting how many feet I see walking past me. Two, four, six, eight, ten… too many. There's so many… oh please let everyone be okay.

"Aaaah!" I hear scream come from up ahead.

The feet are gone and I feel numb. Oh god please don't let that be who I think it is! I start crawling out from under the car as fast as I could. I scrap my hand in the process but I don't care, once I'm out I look around and see Daryl dragging T-Dog. T-Dog's shirt is covered in blood and his arm is cut up really bad.

"What happened?" I ask going towards them and helping Daryl with T-Dog.

"I got cut… huff… looking for gas." He's gasping and looks like he's in serious pain.

"You okay?" Daryl asked. "I heard a scream."

"It wasn't me…" I see the others gathered around the guard rail. Lori's holding Carol who's crying and everyone is looking out towards the woods.

"Need help over here!" Daryl shouted to the others. They looked over and Glenn came over to take T-Dog off me. I hear Carol sobbing.

"My baby… they're after my baby…"

My throat closes up. I can't breathe. I look out towards the woods hoping to see some sign of her but there's nothing. No… no this can't be happening! Not Sophia! I run over to them. Carol looks at me and starts sobbing harder. She reaches out for me and I catch her in a hug. I look over at Lori.

"What happened?!"

"Rick went after her." Lori said in shock. "She got out too soon, they came and she ran off into the woods. Rick went after her… she'll be okay." Carol sobs harder and I hold her tight, not believing what just happened.

It feels like we've been waiting for hours when really it's probably on been ten to twenty minutes. We were all by the guard rail waiting for Rick to return with Sophia. Daryl and Shane were standing on top of cars as look outs while the rest of us leaning against cars looking out towards the woods. No one was saying anything. We were all just waiting for Rick. We hear rustling coming from the woods and turn to look at the source. I grab one of my throwing knives just in case.

"Lori?" We heard a voice say from the woods. I put my knife back when I recognize Rick's voice.

"We're over hear." She says back and we watch him practically crawl back up the hill to us.

"Oh thank god." He says.

I look behind him but I don't see Sophia anywhere. He gets up the hill, breathing heavily but happy to see us. We're all silent waiting for him to say something but he looks confused about why we're so quiet.

"Where's Sophia?" he asks. "She's not back?" he asks.

"What do you mean she's not back?!" I almost shout at him. Carol starts crying again and drops to the ground. Lori and Andrea comfort her but I just stare Rick down. "What the hell happened?"

"They… they were after us." there is guilt in his eyes. "I grabbed her and ran to the creek. There was a spot for her to hide. I put her there, told her to come back here if I didn't come back and then led them away…" my anger lessens seeing how distraught he is but it's not enough to completely forgive him.

"Where? We got to go back for her!"

"Natalie don't blame Rick!" Lori tells me. "He tried to help."

"I'm not blaming him! I just want to go find her."

"I'll go back now!" he says to us. "But I'll take Shane and Glenn."

"But-"

"Come with me." He says to me and walks me away from the group.

"What are you doing! Sophia-"

"Please listen to me. I know you're upset and you have every reason to be, but I need you to watch the others."

"No I need-"

"Please! I know you care about her but I also know that you care about Carol and she cares about you. You can keep her calm, watch out for the others, and I'll feel more comfortable knowing you're keeping them safe."

I try to argue back but I can't. I see how sincere he is and I know he's right. The other women don't know how to fight and Carol is a wreck. Someone needs to stay behind and look out for them. Beside's I'm not good with the woods. It's not me territory, not like…

"Take Daryl with you and I'll stay. He knows the woods better than anyone and he's an expert at tracking. If she's not where you found her you'll need him with you."

He nods his head and we head back towards the group. I go up to Carol and rub her back while Rick tells the others to come with them. They leave and I tell the others I'm going in the RV for a minute. I go in and it looks like a hurricane hit it. I see the body of the walker Andrea must have killed when she was trapped in here and step over it to look for my bow. I look everywhere but I don't find it… well not everywhere. I let out a sigh and make my way over to the body, rolling it over and checking under it. Sure enough there's my bow… broken beyond repair.

…

…

…

"Aaaaaaah!" I start stomping on the body.

Angry that my bow is gone, angry that I wasn't looking for Sophia, angry that I wasn't there when she needed me. I stop stomping and sit down at the table. Sobbing and letting the tears fall down my face. Letting it all out now so that I can go out there and be strong for everyone. Letting out all the pain and guilt I feel for not being there when the people I care about need me. First Reese… and now Sophia.

"Natalie?" I look up and see Andrea at the door. I wipe my tears and stand up.

"I… came for my bow but it's broken." She looks down and cringes at the body.

"I didn't realize it was out. I just had to stop it. I was trapped in the bathroom and-"

"It's okay really." I interrupt. "You did what you had to do. I'll get rid of the body while you change and check on everyone." I say.

She nods and steps over the body towards the bedroom. Once the door is closed I pick the body up the armpits and drag it out of the RV. Blood drips onto my jeans from the stab wound to the head, it feels weirdly cold through the fabric. Once I drag it down the steps I drag it over to the guard rail and roll it down the hill. I start rubbing my necklace again as I start walking back to the others. This time however it's not out of habit. I'm doing something I haven't done since I was a kid. I was praying to anyone who would listen to let Sophia be safe.

Yay! I got this done! Hope you liked it! Up next is the rest of Chapter 20 which may or may not have some scenes from Daryl's point of view. I'm thinking of doing more scenes from his point of view because season 2 had a lot of good Daryl moments, character development for him and I also realized that we get a decent look at how Natalie views Daryl but we haven't really seen what he thinks of her since before I started season 1.

Anyways if you haven't already feel free to favorite, follow and leave a review :)

Oh and in case you are curious here is a link to the pendant that Natalie has a similar version in the story: st-michael-pewter-medal-24-chain-i30838/

(I have problems putting links in but I checked and it works if you copy and paste that in the google search bar. Should be the first link)