"Where are they coming from?" I asked, as we came into a small clearing in the trees and paused to find our way.

"I think that way," Rick said, pointing in the direction of one of the echoes.

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here," Shane said, squinting into the trees.

"If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too," Carol said, her voice filled to the brim with hope.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe signaling others," Glenn said adjusting his bag as we started to run again into the direction Rick pointed.

"Signaling that they found her?" Andrea offered.

"Or she could be ringing them herself," Rick said, in front of all of us. "Come on," he said picking up his speed.

We ran through the trees, jumping over logs, dodging around bushes for only a matter of minutes before the sight of a graveyard broke through the trees. On the other side of the grave yard, there was a small church. I kept up with Daryl as we rushed through the trees to stop outside of the graveyard.

"That can't be it," Shane said. "It's got no steeple."

Rick simply wiped the sweat from his face and ran across the graveyard all of us running after him. I kept up with Daryl as I made sure to step around the graves and to not disrespect the dead buried beneath our feet. As we came up the side of the church, Rick ran for the front doors, taking the small stairs in two steps. Daryl and Shane followed up behind him, Rick signaling for us to stay quiet. They pushed open the doors with a quiet squeak. I looked in around them. In the front of the church, there was a large porcelain statue of Jesus on the cross, a crown of thorns around his head. In the pews, there were three people sitting there.

I thought they were alive for a split second, with they way they were sitting there facing the statue. But when they turned around, I heard the clattering of their teeth, and their moans of hunger as their eyes landed on us.

Glenn handed Daryl the weapon that he had, and Daryl handed him the crossbow. Rick took Lori's machete and circled around the pews to bury it into one of the walkers heads. Shane took the center and easily slid his large knife into the eye socket of the walker, as Daryl came around the other side, and made a kissing noise at the last walker to get it's attention. The walker turned to him, and he easily killed it, hacking into it's head and dodging away from it as it fell to his feet.

"Sophia!" Rick yelled, his voice echoing off the walls. He pushed open a side door and called again. I walked up the aisle to Daryl as he looked up to the statue.

"Yo, J.C. Ya takin' requests?" he asked it as I came to his side, and looked up to the statue.

"Rick, I'm telling you, it's the wrong church, it doesn't have a steeple," Shane said briskly to Rick.

Daryl glanced down at me as I stepped forward, still looking up to the statue. The sound of bells rang through the church again, causing everyone to whirl around and rush outside to follow the sound, including Daryl, leaving me alone in the church. I looked away from the statue, and turned around to follow the group outside, but stopped at the last pew. I turned back to the statue and walked back up the aisle.

"Are you even listening anymore?" I asked up to the statue. "During all this, I know there were a lot of prayers that you were given, but.. There aren't as many people anymore," I said, clenching my jaw. "Not as many prayers. Is it so hard to just answer them?" I turned to walk away from it again, but I felt anger bubble up inside me and I stopped short again, and turned to face the statue. "I begged you. I pleaded you. I begged for you not to take him. And with some sick fucking joke, you turned him into a walker," I spat, stomping forward and glaring up at the statue. "What are you going to do now, if I pray? If I pray that I make it through this, are you going to make sure I get bit? If I pray for Daryl to be safe, are you going to kill him? If I pray for Sophia's safety, are you going to make sure we never see her again?"

I wasn't sure where all of this anger was coming from. But it felt good to get it off of my chest. "You have one sick twisted fucking sense of humor, you know that?" I spat, pointing up at the statue. "Answering people's prayers," I scoffed. "Yeah, right. You just fucking lead us along, don't you? You're probably getting some kind of sick enjoyment, watching us suffer, and taking people away from us that we care about, although we've already lost so much. Well you know what? Fuck you. I'll do this alone. I don't need you. You don't do anything. You're just up there, watching us, laughing while we beg and plead for mercy. But this is just some entertainment for you, isn't it? The world wasn't fucked up enough for you already, so you just had to go and fuck it up some more."

I ran my fingers angerly through my hair and glared up at the statue. "We're just your little pawns aren't we? To just toy with, and to drag along through hell. You take my dad away from me, and I try and leave this dead world, and yet you won't even let me do that. You aren't done making me jump through hoops, and get chased down by those dead freaks. You just-"

"Larae?" Carols voice said, causing me to spin around and face her. She stood in the door way, Daryl behind her.

My eyes flickered between them. How much of that did they hear? I gave the statue one last harsh glance and briskly walked down the aisle, and pushed passed them, Daryl turning to follow me. Lori passed us as she walked up the stairs. I turned the corner to the church to sit in the shade of a tree, away from the church.

As I sat against the tree, Daryl approached, his crossbow in his hand and at his side. I squinted up at him as the stood in front of me. "What?" I asked, as he stared down at me.

"Whut was that?" he asked.

"What was what?" I answered, looking away towards the graveyard.

"Don't get smart," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, crossing my legs and placing my hands in my lap.

"Goin' off like that on a damn statue," he said, rubbing his thumb across his lip.

"Heat just got to my head," I said staring down at my hands in my lap. I wasn't sure why I went off like that. But I sure as hell did feel better. I could feel Daryl's eyes on me. I didn't look up from my hands. Daryl finally scoffed and walked away. I let out a sigh as I heard his foot steps grow quieter and quieter. I leaned my head back on the tree and stared up into the leaves.

"You shouldn't take this out on him, you know."

I glanced over to see a familiar shade of red hair. "Out on who, Dad?" I asked, my eyes returning to the leaves.

"Daryl."

"I figured you'd say God," I said, letting my eyes turn back to him.

He crossed his arms, and gave me a disapproving look. "You always have to be angry at someone when bad things happen. It's normal. But Daryl isn't the person you should take it out on."

I chewed the corner of my mouth and looked across the church to see him talking to Shane and Rick about something. I sighed and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. I looked back to my dad, but he wasn't there. Only over grown swaying grass in the wind and trees.

"I'm losing my damn mind," I muttered under my breath. I stood from my sitting position and walked over to the group gathering around another tree. I stood next to Daryl as he watched me approach. I gave him a small smile as Shane approached.

"You all go on ahead and follow the creek bed back. Daryl's in charge. We're going to hand back, search this area for another hour, just to be thorough," He said, his shot gun in his hands as Rick stood next to him.

"Yer slittin' us up," Daryl said, pulling his crossbow over his shoulder. "Ya sure?"

"Yeah," Shane sighed. "We'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay too," Carl said, from under Lori's arm. "I'm her friend."

I looked up to Daryl who rolled his eyes. I shifted the backpack on my shoulders as Lori agreed for him to stay. Rick kissed Lori goodbye and as she started to walk away, Rick stopped her.

"Here, take this," he said holding out his gun. "Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unprotected," she said shaking her head.

Daryl reached behind him and pulled something out of his belt loops, "Here," he said handing it to her. "I got a spair. Take it."

I rolled my eyes and followed after Daryl when Andrea let out a pouty sigh. "Where did you get that?" I asked as I caught up to him.

"The tent. It was in the idiot's hand," he muttered. I nodded and glanced behind us to see Andrea glaring full force at Lori. I rolled my eyes again and matched Daryl step for step as we pushed into the woods once again, the cicada's chirping surrounding us again.

The group traveled in silence for half an hour before Carol finally spoke up.

"So this is it?" she asked, sitting on a fallen tree. "This is the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to break us down in to smaller an' smaller groups," Daryl answered, leaning against the tree. I dug one of the water bottles out of the backpack I was carrying and took a sip of it then handed it to Daryl.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea said spitefully. "I see you have a gun," she sneered at Lori.

"Why, you want it?" Lori said, her face hard with irritation. "Here, take it," she said, shoving it at her. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me," she said, when Andrea hesitated. Andrea snatched it from her, a look of disbelief on her face. "All of you," Lori said, sitting on the fallen log. "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through right now, and I would do anything to stop it, but you have got to stop blaming Rick," she said turning to Carol. "It is in your face everytime you look at him. And when Sophia ran, he didn't even hesitate, did he? Not even for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did," she continued, looking over all of us. "Or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or if any body could have done it any different." Carol didn't look at her as she spoke. She kept her eyes trained on the dirt at her feet. Lori glanced at us all again. "Anybody?" she asked. "You all look to him and blame him when he's not perfect," she said shaking her head. "If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead, no one is stopping you."

Andrea stepped forward after a moment and handed her the gun back. "We should keep moving," she said once Lori took the gun back. I glanced up at Daryl who simply pushed away from the tree he was leaning on. Andrea made eye contact with me as I turned to follow Daryl. I gave her a hard look and followed after him, as the others followed behind.


I guess that wasn't too long of a wait. :) I was itching to get this posted though. This is the first time I've had internet since I moved!

I miss being able to write! It suddenly dawned on me that I'm not going to be able to write until I have access to internet because I was watching and going along with the season two episodes online. So unless I go somewhere with internet I won't be able to write! But I'm going to be at my fiance's house all day today so I'll get a good head start on the next chapter! Please be patient with me! It's looking like I'll have internet in the next two weeks or so!

So, Larae went a little crazy and started talking to a statue. And now hallucinations? What does this say for our little redhead? :)

Thank you to MulishaMaiden, 85, LadyLecter47, Dalonega Noquisi, littlemija69, and jstarr713 for your awesome reviews! Thank you for your ideas! Keep the ideas coming, and I might throw them in!

Leave a review and let me know what you think!