We drive down the freeway and see a familiar blue truck up ahead. Daryl picks up the speed and they pull over when they notice who it is "Have you seen Rick, Carl?" Lori asks with pleading eyes and worry in her voice.

"Not yet" Daryl informs her and her head drops down. "But we'll find em'" he adds on seeing her despair. She nods, wiping away a tear and Daryl leads the way further down the road. A little bit more time passes by when we come across Glenn and Maggie. They jump behind T-dog in the truck after we reunite and we make our way towards the spot where we lost Sophia. We all know if they were to have made it out, they would go there.

As we pull closer I see 3 silhouettes and my heart flutters with relief "they're here" I tap him on the shoulder as we pull over.

Rick and Carl reunite with Lori. Hershel, Beth and Maggie come together as well. Rick shakes Daryl's hand "Where'd you find everyone?" He asks.

"Well, those guys' tail lights zigzagging all over the road..." Daryl hops off the bike "figured he had to be Asian, driving like that."

I chuckle at the joke and slap him lightly on the arm. "Good one" Glenn murmurs back with a small smile.

"Where's the rest of us?" Carol asks, standing in the road worried.

"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick informs us all.

"Shane?" Lori asks and Rick shakes his head.

"Andrea?" I ask and another head shake. "She saved me, then I lost her." I tell them.

"We saw her go down." T-dog comments and I look away from the group.

Hershel asks about Patricia. Beth responds "they got her, too. Took her right in front of me. I was... I was holdin' onto her, daddy. She just..." The young girl pushes herself into her father while she cries. "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?" She asks pulling away from her dad's arms momentarily.

"He was in the RV. It got overrun." Rick tells her sadly.

"You definitely saw Andrea?" I ask, hoping they were mistaking.

T-dog tells me again "there were walkers everywhere."

"Did you see her?" Carol pushes.

"I'm gonna go back." Daryl goes to get on his bike.

"Me too!" I go to follow.

Rick stops us "No"

"We can't just leave her." I protest. She saved me, and I have to at least try to find her.

Hershel comments "we don't even know if she's there."

"She isn't there." Rick says "She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her."

"So we're not even gonna look for her?" Carol asks appalled.

"We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here. I say head east. Stay off the main roads." Rick tells us a plan.

Daryl pulls out his bow "the bigger the road, the more walkers, mo assholes like this one." He steps closer to it "I got him." and an arrow pierces it's skull. We all get back into the cars, Daryl & I take the lead on the motorcycle off the littered freeway. We drive for miles before a horn from behind stops us on our journey.

Daryl turns off the engine to the bike and Rick comes over "you out?" He asks

"Running on fumes." Rick informs.

"We can't stay here." Maggie says.

Glenn adds on "we can't all fit in one car."

"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning." Rick says.

"Spend the night here?" I ask, eyes wide looking around.

Carl rubs his arms "I'm freezing."

"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori says putting a jacket around his arms Rick gave to her.

Daryl directs the group "You go out looking for firewood, stay close. Only got so many arrows." He asks Rick "how you doing on ammo?"

"Not enough." He informs.

"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out." Maggie says.

Her father scolds her "watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."

"All right, we'll set up a perimeter." Rick motions around the area we are in "In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."

"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie offers.

"No, we stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car." He denies the idea.

Glenn reminds him "Rick, we're stranded now."

"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other." He stops before saying "I wasn't sure... I really wasn't... but we did. We're together. We keep it that way." He paces the concrete just a bit "We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place.

"Rick, look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." Glenn doesn't agree with staying here for the night.

"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it." Rick keeps trying urge us all.

"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long?" I ask the hard question.

Maggie adds on for emphasis "Look what happened with the farm."

"We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe. We won't make that mistake again." Hershel tries to assure us all.

"We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day." Rick points over a wall with some running water off of it, a creek bed.

Beth gets closer to Rick, worried she asks "what if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?"

Daryl remembered then, what happened when they found Randall "You know I found Randall, right? He had turned, but he wasn't bit."

Beth asks "How's that possible?"

"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asks

"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to." Daryl says.

"And then the herd got him?" Lori questions.

There's silence among us. Rick looks to the ground with something heavy weighing on him. "We're all infected." He finally gets out.

"What?" Daryl asks him through gritted teeth

"What?" Daryl asks him through gritted teeth.

"At the CDC," He explains "Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."

Everyone is shocked, not knowing what to say back to him. Finally, Carol does "and you never said anything?"

"Would it have made a difference?" Rick argues back.

"You knew this whole time?" I ask him angrily!

He looks to him and asks "how could I have known for sure?" He looks to everyone else "you saw how crazy that mo..."

"That is not your call." Glenn interrupts him "Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone."

"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." Rick explains his actions that way. No one happy about it. We all stand their with no words to come back at. Rick storms towards the spot we are camping at for the night.

I sit by myself near the fire. Hershel and his family next to me and Rick and his across. I watch as Carol and Daryl whisper to one another on my side and try not to let the jealousy show on my face. I can't hear what anyone is talking about, so I try to keep my eyes focused on the flames. Something behind me rustles and I jump up, turning my back towards it "What was that?" I ask startled and shaken.

"Could be anything. Could be a raccoon, could be a possum." Daryl says trying to calm me down.

"Walker." Glenn adds.

"We need to leave. I mean what are we waiting for?" Carol comments.

"Which way?" Glenn asks holding a gun.

"It came from over there." Maggie says

"Back from where we came." Beth adds.

Rick looks to us "the last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot. Don't panic."

"I'm not... I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move, now." Maggie asserts her thoughts.

Rick quickly denies them though, his voice high in a low tone "no one is going anywhere." Carol tells him to do something and he snaps "I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!" Everyone is quiet, the news he just broke to us shocking us silent. "You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me." Carl's cries emit through out our fake camp and Lori holds him close as he sobs. "My hands are clean." He comments to everyone. More silence, which just seems to make him more angry "maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe... maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe... maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you... Why don't you go and find out yourself?" No one answers so he continues on his rampage "Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." Nobody moves for what feels like minutes. "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore." After he looks at each one of us in the eye he turns his back away, to keep an eye out from where the sound came from.

" After he looks at each one of us in the eye he turns his back away, to keep an eye out from where the sound came from

The next morning when we go to move I stay behind, wanting to give everybody their space. If we're going to be cramped together in the woods, or cars, or homes for who knows how long, walking may be the only time to spread a part from one another "Let's go Sadie-Mae." Daryl takes the flank of the group. I roll my eyes and begin moving. Everyone gets over a small hill, no one in sight. I turn and wait for him to catch up to me.

His eyes slit at the edges "everythin' okay?" He asks as he comes in front of me. I exhale out the breathe I've been holding in and lean into him. My hands embrace his cheeks and my lips meet his. I keep them there for a few moments before pulling away. I look into his blue eyes and I can't tell but it looks like he's blushing "what was that for?" He asks me taking a step back.

"a thank you for getting me off the farm.. saving my life" I explain sheepishly.

"Ya well.. let's not make that a habit" he snarls back walking past me, brushing my shoulder as he goes.

let's not make that a habit" he snarls back walking past me, brushing my shoulder as he goes

My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach at his reaction. I wasn't always the best at reading people but I thought there was something there. I curse myself silently as I move along with the group for letting myself feel again and letting the walls around me down. I shouldn't have been so foolish to believe he could care for a women like me, someone whose damaged beyond repair, someone who doesn't even want to fix herself.

THE END OF BOOK 1! Please stay tuned for the sequel to this story 3 please like if you liked this story 3!