Daryl had to confess, he was more confused rather than shocked that the former civil lawyer would come all this way and he knew it was not just to say 'hi'. He adjusted the strap on his crossbow before looking at Andrea.

"Can I help you?" he asked roughly, after what happened in the driveway Daryl wasn't really in for kindness.

"What are you going to do now?" Andrea asked.

Daryl raised an eyebrow. "What the fuck does that supposed to mean?"

"After what happened with Rick just now, you think that the others will be okay with that?"

Daryl scowled. "I don't give a damn what those people think, nor what you think either so why don't you piss off?"

Andrea huffed and placed her hands on her hips. "See that's the kind of attitude that people don't like."

"And when the fuck did you become a psychologist huh? Just let me do what I want."

"I'm just saying if you need help wi-."

"I don't need help!"

Daryl purposely shouldered past Andrea. He wanted to walk into the forest to start searching but then he stopped, it would be dangerous; but Daryl was used to danger. Even though he wanted to go out into the forest the real purpose was to just get away from this – from everyone, from the events that were taking place. Well it would be anywhere but here. Before he started to walk off Andrea quickly moved around and stood in front of Daryl blocking his way.

"What?!" snapped Daryl furious.

"If Carl was able to contact with minimal static then we should wait until morning to try and find them."

Daryl rolled his eyes, as if he didn't know that but then something came into mind. "And what if they've moved? Merle found out that Carl has been sending messages back and forth without his noticing – that's a bad move with my brother."

"Well you can't just go gallivanting off into the night!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's just plain stupid, you'll die out there."

"Ppff," Daryl said easily pushing Andrea out of the way, "you and I went out at night and came back alive."

"I'm just-."

"Just because you're miserable means you want everyone else to be don't you?"

Andrea opened and closed her mouth trying to say something but nothing came out. She never thought that Daryl would shoot her down like that.

"I'm just trying to be careful," Andrea spoke quietly gaining some ground.

"Careful? You mean tucking tail and run? Because of my brother? No, that is not happening."

Angrily Daryl set down his crossbow and sent an angry glare in Andrea's direction.

"Just…fuck off – leave me alone."

Andrea opened her mouth wanting to say something else but decided against it and left. Daryl watched her go satisfied that for once Andrea listened to him.

XXXXXX

Morgan sat across from Carl he was changing the gauze on Carl's cheek as well as inspecting the bruise on his cheek.

"Why?" Morgan asked eyeing the boy as Carl shifted uncomfortably.

"He's the only one I can rely on," Carl responded weakly, as much as he hated to admit it, it was true.

"You can stay with me."

Carl first started to reply but stopped himself, he couldn't. The group was still alive, that was proved and that meant his parents or at least one of them was alive too. He needed to find them even if both were dead Carl needed to find someone that he knew. That and something else in the back of his mind bugged him. Was he ready to go back? Morgan seemed that he was going to go back to the neighbourhood but Carl wasn't sure if he wanted to go back yet. He knew that it had changed but what frightened Carl was how much? Was anything standing or was it all burned to the ground? Carl tried to keep the sadness out of his eyes but failed and Morgan saw.

"You can't think about the past anymore," Morgan spoke gently and carefully. "It's a different world."

Carl nodded mirthlessly, it was a new world but Carl wasn't sure if he was ready to see the changes on his past.

"My parents…they might be alive," Carl whispered, "I have to think that, I want to go to the farm and see if they are still there."

Morgan nodded then looked over to the closed off spare room.

"What about Merle?"

Carl felt the bruise on his cheek pulse a little he looked over to see the radio laying at an odd angle in a box. When Merle found out he had tossed it angrily into the box cracking the outer shell before angrily marching (and slightly staggering) back to the spare room. Morgan followed his gaze and sighed.

"You just think about what I have to offer," Morgan said. He stood and walked over to the satchel filled with the stolen vegetables, it pained Carl to see the bag now knowing that he was so close.

"Come on, I'll make us some supper."

XXXXXX

The next morning Daryl woke up with the sun, he packed up and headed out unable to wait any more especially with three live members out there out there. As he stomped through the thick brush Daryl began to think about Merle's returning presence to the group. A lot of people hated Merle, that much was clear as soon as they had met the group from day one and now that he had gone and kidnapped Carl as a revenge plot against Rick everyone would be inching to grab the nearest gun and blow his head off if he came ten feet within the farm.

As hard as it was for Daryl to admit it, he loved his brother, sure he was the definition of an asshole but Merle was the one who saved Daryl from their father's wrath. Something that many others didn't have the balls to do. He rolled his shoulders as he tried to think of something logical to say to the others if he came back with Merle but you wouldn't call Daryl logical. All he could think of was borderline the phrase 'my way or the highway.' Sure it sounded a little selfish, but they wouldn't understand, Merle practically saved Daryl's life something that the hunter wasn't quite sure the others would step up to the plate to do.

Daryl looked back to see the farm slightly visible through the criss-crossing tree branches, adjusting the strap on his crossbow Daryl headed deeper into the forest.

XXXXXX

Carl walked through the thick covered area pushing branches out of the way. He found it quite annoying but it was the best way to hide Morgan's traps. Morgan had asked Carl to do it while he went off into the town to find some more medical supplies to try and clean the rest of the poison out of Merle's stump. It was obvious that Morgan didn't want to but the pain had returned and after Carl told him what happened in the town with Atrox he gave in.

Carl carefully walked through the trap filled grounds a majority of the traps were still up except for one that had only one Walker munching away at a squirrel. Immediately Carl thought about the squirrel that he caught and tied with the torn string of cuff. It as his way of telling the others that he was alive knowing that the message would be clear especially to Daryl since his specialty was killing the small woodland creatures. The youth let out a small breath and dropped his knife right on the Walker's head. It stopped in a mid-way chew and fell forward. Carl moved around to the wall that the dead Walker was leaned against he bent over the hole and drew up his knife. Standing up Carl looked around to see that no other traps had been triggered and the boy walked back to the shack.

XXXXXX

Carol looked down, her breath quickened and her heart leapt to her throat as more hands stretched upward as if in a mock prayer. She looked down at the seven Walker surrounding the tree each practically climbing on top of each other to get to the living flesh stuck up in the tree. Carol let out a short pitched scream as one hand brushed against her pants making shivers run up and down her spine.

"No…no," Carol whispered over as she looked at the branch up above her but that would mean having to balance herself on the branch she was already grasping for dear life and jump – yes jump – to the other and hoist herself up. Carol couldn't do that not with her sprained wrist and her fear of falling over and being devoured alive was too great making her almost freeze up with panic.

During the night Carol had encountered a few Walkers but managed to kill them however in the process having to drop her gun in order to get away with her skin still attached to her body leaving her with the knife.

A Walker swung at her, its finger caught in the hole at the bottom of Carol's jeans and pulled. Carol who had been preoccupied felt her body jerk downward making her breath catch in her breath. The woman looked down to see the Walker using the hold in her pants as a sort of handle and tried to pull her down. Carol tugged in the opposite direction hearing the cloth tear, she pulled harder hoping it would just rip completely but a gnarled hand grabbed her ankle and yanked. Carol screamed again, her nails digging small furrows into the bark as Carol found grip but she wasn't sure how long she was able to keep it up. More hands grabbed her ankle and tugged trying to get the living flesh to fall but Carol adjusted accordingly, wrapping her arms around her arms around the thick branch as much as possible. However her strength was starting to fade, after a long night with only a bottle of water and nothing to eat Carol was amazed that her body held out this long but she wasn't sure how much longer she could last. She used her free leg to try and kick at the hands while moving the other around.

Twang!

A bolt shot through a Walkers' skull, then another and another. Carol looked around knowing who was around but wondering where it came from. A sudden pain shot up her arm making her loose grip and she automatically let go of the branch. For a brief instant Carol weightless and then crack. A slab of darkness blinded her temporarily but when Carol snapped out she found that she couldn't move. A Walker immediately sauntered over to the fallen woman but an arrow stabbed through its head and it fell on Carol who gasped under the deadweight. She looked over to see Daryl coming out of his hiding place with his blade in hand slicing and stabbing at the remaining three Walkers. She listened as they fell and then craned her head to see Daryl coming towards her and he wasn't happy.

"What the hell is your problem?" he snapped angrily, Daryl was glad he found Carol but also pissed off that she would do something so stupid as to go off on her own. "You could've died!"

Carol felt tears form and trickle down the side of her face. The hunter sighed and pushed the dead Walker off the mother and helped her to her feet. Both looked down at the Walker she landed on and saw that its neck was broken and its jaw was at an odd angle but it was very much alive as its eyes slowly moved to the two living people towering over it. Daryl slammed his boot onto the Walker's head making its brains ooze out of the cracks.

The two were silent for a few moments looking at the seven Walkers splayed around them. Daryl turned to Carol giving her a small scowl.

"That was a real dumbass thing ya did," Daryl said mirthlessly, "ya could've died then what do we tell Sophia?"

Carol sniffed feeling the sorrow in her gut grow by the second. Daryl looked down at Carol seeing her caress her wounded wrist. He gently took it in his hands and then scowled when he saw dark bruises nearly encircling the limb.

"What happened?"

"Um…I tripped when I was…was trying to get away from Walkers."

Daryl sighed inwardly.

"Listen I don't have any medicine on me so we have to go back to the farm."

Carol nodded knowing that her mission to find the dead child corpse was over.

"Come on now," Daryl said nudging Carol forward.

Giving another defeated sigh, Carol walked with Daryl back towards the farm.

XXXXXX

Carl shouldered the stiff door and it popped open. He walked in and immediately knew something was wrong. Carl walked over to the items that Morgan had brought from the neighbourhood and shuffled through them, nothing was out of place – nothing gone. He looked around and saw that the spare room door was open. A lump formed in Carl's throat as he cautiously walked over.

"Merle?" the youth said walking over, his voice cracked slightly, "Hey Merle, you there?"

Carl peeked into the room but saw no one there. He rubbed the back of his neck, he wouldn't think that Morgan had Merle walk to the town, it was possibly over five hour walk even more Carl had no idea but he knew that it was extremely long. Then Carl thought of something else, when he was explaining to Morgan what had happened from the beginning until now Carl noticed that a strange look formed on Morgan's face. Of course Morgan was angry at what Merle had done, because as a former father he understood the fear that Rick was going through.

Former father…

Carl dashed out of the shack.

XXXXXX

Dale was the first to see Daryl and Carol come through the thick brush. He shouted the good news to the others and some ran down unable to contain their giddiness that Carol was alive. Daryl watched as Rick and the others led Carol back to their camp, he saw Sophia in the distance running to meet her mother. While everyone was in high spirits Daryl was not exactly feeling it, sure he was glad that he found Carol alive, might not have been in the best situation however he still found her. All that remained was Carl and his brother. He looked back towards the forest wondering what he was missing, just something to give him a hint of where they were, who they were with.

"Hey," Daryl turned to see Rick coming up to him.

"Hi."

"I'd just like to say thanks."

Daryl shifted from foot to foot, from what happened last night the tension was still there but it wasn't as strong. The hunter nodded his thanks and watched Rick head back to the house. He was ready to head back to his own private camp when he saw Glenn coming out of the Grimes tent. Usually Daryl would be uninterested but there was something on the young man's face that crossed between fear and panic. Watching Glenn rush off Daryl looked around before heading up to the tents to see what the kid had done. He pulled back the flap and saw a white package on the folded card table. Daryl looked around, he knew that sneaking into the man's tent you had just made a truce with was a terrible idea but from the look on Glenn's face it was very, very important. Could it be a clue for finding Merle and Carl? If so then what would Glenn have to hide? Daryl dumped the contents onto the table and read the package. His heart leapt into his throat cutting off his air, the shock was fast but an angered expression replaced it ever quicker. Daryl wanted to chuck the damn things away but he knew that if he did that Lori would know that someone had been going through her things. He slammed the package down on the table and marched outside.

Daryl looked over to see no one around except for Dale who was keeping watch everyone was inside tending to Carol. He had to find Lori – now. Daryl was about to head over when he saw another source of information. Glenn.

He ran over to the Asian and tapped him on the shoulder. Glenn jumped slightly and whipped around only to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Uh…hi Daryl," Glenn said once he recovered.

"That white package that you put in the Grimes tent."

Glenn visibly started to panic and Daryl knew that he cornered him.

"Yeah…," Glenn answered however his voice was cracked, "and?"

"Is Lori pregnant?"

Glenn folded.

"You cannot tell anyone."

Daryl's jaw literally dropped. Then he recovered and Daryl nodded to Glenn showing him that he wasn't going to tell anyone. Both walked to the house and entered.

Inside everyone was crammed in the living room the door to the spare bedroom was closed.

"How's she doing?" Glenn asked.

"Sprained wrist," Beth answered, "couple cuts and bruises here and there but she'll be alright."

Daryl looked around and his eyes landed on Shane.