Surprisingly, our small, dysfunctional group worked rather well with each other when it came to fending off walkers. Daryl aimed perfectly with his cross bow, Griffin delivered his knife right in between the eyes of the dead, Reanna had a habit of tripping the walkers and stomping her boots into their skulls, and I bashed as hard as I could with the butt of my gun. It seemed that we all were avoiding talking to each other, knowing that the wrong word could cause us to explode into another argument.

Our search was amazingly thorough; we checked nearly every tree we came across, lifted rocks, and even checked the pockets of walkers that we killed along our way. If the supplies were anywhere around, we would find them. After two hours of looking with nothing to show for it, Griffin let out a sigh of irritation.

"We need to split up," he suggested. "Walking around in a group like this isn't doing anything. We'll do better if we go two by two."

"For once, I agree with 'im," Daryl commented, lowering his crossbow in exhaustion. "How're we splintin' up?"

"Its not obvious?" Griffin snapped. "Guys with guys, girls with girls."

Not wanting to make our situation any worse, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I replied, "Um, that is a terrible idea. I think I should go with Daryl, and you two go together."

"So you can go fuck somewhere in the woods while we look for supplies?" Reanna chimed in, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't think so."

"Council members have the final say," I pointed out, "in whatever is up for debate. The last time I checked, Daryl and I were members, not either of you." I turned to Daryl, a cocky smirk playing on my lips. "So, Mr. Council Member, what do you suggest we do?"

"You and me," he said, then pointed toward the other two. "Griffin and Reanna."

Without a word, they rolled their eyes and stomped away from us. Daryl and I waited until they were out of sight to say anything, but once they were gone, he was the first to shake his head. "I know," I mumbled, giving a small shrug. "I know."

o-o-o

Hours passed of searching, finding absolutely nothing, saying we were going to give up, and then starting the search process all over again. Dealing with the hunger and blazing heat was painfully exhausting. My feet and ankles began to ache. Sweat dripped from my hair. I couldn't tell you how many times I lifted my shirt to wipe at my drenched face.

"We're not going to find anything," I finally said, stopping in my tracks. "We need to get back to the prison and eat. We can try again tomorrow."

Daryl was a little more hopeful than I was. "Nah," he said, glancing up at the sun's position. "We still got 'bout five hours of sunlight left."

I sighed in exasperation. "Aren't you hungry? I'm starving." At the most perfect timing, Daryl lifted his crossbow and delivered a bolt right into a tree. I looked closer, realizing that it had pierced the chest of a squirrel, pinning it to the wood. I looked at the archer with an expression of disbelief written on my face. "I'm not eating that, not when there's real food back at the prison."

"Suit yourself," he grumbled, ripping his bolt from the animal and catching the carcass with his other hand. We sat down and I watched in disgust as he tore the belly of the creature open. Soon, I couldn't stand to watch it anymore and had to tear my gaze away, but suddenly, the mass of bloodied fur was presented to my face. "Tastes like chicken," Daryl teased.

"If you don't get that thing out of my face," I warned, turning my nose away, "I won't hesitate to throw up in your lap."

"You're nasty," he mumbled through a mouthful of squirrel meat.

My stomach grumbled loudly, but I quickly reminded myself that before we were found, Adeline and I had once gone a whole three days without anything to eat. Of course, we were so agitated and angry that we nearly killed each other, but we made it through just fine. If I could handle that, I could handle a day without food.

The sound of a distant gunshot caused the both of us to freeze for only a short moment. Before I knew it, we were on our feet and running the fastest we could toward the noise. The half eaten squirrel was soon forgotten as Daryl wiped the blood from his face and readied to fire his crossbow at the drop of a hat. But when we found the source of the gunshot, his crossbow lowered and he turned to look at me.

"Adeline," I whispered, staring at my sister. She stood proudly, a small handgun in her palm. About twenty feet away, Griffin's body laid crumpled in a pool of his own blood. My stomach churned at the sight of him. Adeline, on the other hand, looked perfectly okay – not a scratch on her.

"He attacked me," she said, holding her hands up. Daryl wasn't having it, though. In a split second, he raised his crossbow and aimed at her. My sister looked desperate. "Harper, c'mon, you have to believe me. He came at me first. I was defending myself."

I couldn't think straight. My hands trembled at my sides as I slowly approached Griffin. His lifeless eyes were open wide in surprise. A bullet wound was placed perfectly between his eyes. Tears welled in my eyes as I knelt next to him, running my hands through his blood-crusted hair. "Griff," I whispered. I couldn't even find it in me to be happy that Adeline was alive. It felt as if my insides had been set aflame.

"Where was the girl that was with 'im?!" Daryl demanded to know, his crossbow not wavering an inch.

"What are you talking about?" Adeline asked. "There was no girl! Daryl, put the damn crossbow down! You don't have to shoot me! Harper, tell him to put it down!"

I touched Griffin's forehead. "Wait," I whispered to myself. It wasn't a bullet hole. It was a knife hole. Something wasn't making sense. Without paying Adeline any attention, I did a quick search of Griffin's clothes. "Where's your pocketknife, Griff?"

"Reanna, now!"

I whipped around, watching as Reanna wrapped her arm around Daryl's neck from behind and held Griffin's blade to his throat with her free hand. His crossbow fell to the ground and Reanna wasted no time kicking it toward my sister, who lifted her gun toward Daryl.

"What the fu-" I started, but Adeline turned her head to glare at me.

"Hands up, Harper," she ordered. "Or I'll put a bullet through his skull."

I felt like a statue as I slowly raised my hands into the air. My entire body was rigid with shock. Daryl's angry eyes met mine before drifting over to Adeline. Griffin had never attacked her. He wasn't the kind of person who would strike first, especially against a female. This was a trap and Reanna had been in on it.

"What's going on?" I asked Adeline, my voice shaking with fear.

"I just wanted you safe," she explained. Her eyes darted about rapidly. This wasn't the same woman that I'd known my entire life. "After...After I left with the Governor, I pleaded with him to come back and get you because I was so worried. He always said no, but I...I..." A frantic laugh came from her cracked lips. "I found you anyway with the help of my new friend here." She jutted her chin toward Reanna, who was busy pressing her lips to Daryl's neck while glaring daggers at me.

"We had an agreement," the younger girl said against his skin. "If I gave Adeline our supplies, she'd take you off my hands. And now, I can have this one all to myself." I cringed as I watched her dainty hand trail down to Daryl's pants, gently grabbing the area between his legs. When he began to breathe heavily and writhe away from her, she pressed the blade closer to his throat and whispered in his ear, "Shh, baby, don't do that. I don't want to have to cut your perfect skin."

"You're fucking crazy," I told her. "Both of you. You're both insane."

"No, we're not," Adeline corrected, her voice suddenly childlike. "We both just love someone very much. I love you, Harper. You're my sister. And Reanna loves Daryl more than anyone else. Why not just make this easy and come with me? That way, everyone gets what they want."

I didn't know what to do or what to think. Adeline was mentally gone. Whatever the Governor had put her through had broken her. And Reanna...she must've cracked a long time ago. They both were so fragile that if I made even the slightest wrong move, Daryl would die.

"Shit," I hissed under my breath, my eyes darting from Adeline to Daryl then back to Adeline. The gun on my back suddenly felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds. I wished Griffin was alive. He would back me up, I just knew he would.

"Let's go, Harper," Adeline told me, motioning me over to her with her head. "We're going to go somewhere safe."

"N-No," I told her. I watched Reanna move her lips to Daryl's jawline. He leaned away from her slowly, closing his eyes. The sound of Adeline's gun clicking tore my focus away from them.

"You have until the count of three to get over here," she warned, "before I put him down. One..."

My body trembling, I took a step closer to my sister. A tiny smile began to grow on her face.

"Two..."

"Okay, okay," I said, my hands still high in the air. "I'm coming with you and we're leaving."

"Harp-" Daryl started, but Reanna's lips crashing against his cut him off. I tried to ignore it, but caught sight of the blade falling to the ground as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her chest against his body.

Adeline's arm snaked around my shoulders as she pulled me into her. "I knew you'd come around," she breathed in my ear. I could hear the insane grin on her face as she spoke.

Inhaling sharply, I curled my hand into a tight fist and slammed it into her gut. She let out a choking sound of distress and fell to her knees, her arms covering her abdomen. Reanna gasped as she pushed away from Daryl, who tripped backwards and fell onto his butt, hurrying to find her knife. Everything seemed to move in slow-motion. I grabbed for my gun, but my fingers quivered so much that once I had peered through the sights, the younger girl had already booked it into the woods and out of sight.

Daryl began to crawl toward his crossbow, but stopped short when Adeline fired a bullet at his hand. She barely nicked his thumb, but it was enough to make him stop moving completely. I pressed the barrel of my gun to her head.

"You won't do it," she told me through heavy, struggling breaths, aiming directly at Daryl. "You won't kill me, Harper. I'm your sister, remember?"

"Shut up," I told her, pressing the metal hard against her skull. The tears finally fell from my eyes. "Just shut the fuck up."

She laughed again. A terrible, shrieking, psychotic laugh. Goosebumps rose on my arms and legs as she slowly stood up, keeping an eye on Daryl. "If it weren't for me, you would've never gotten this far in life. You would've never ended up with my family. Do you realize that?"

My chest tightened in pain. "Th-They were just as much my family as they were yours," I defended, trying to sound strong. The cracks in my voice gave me away, though.

"Is that right?" she mocked, standing straight now, her gun still aiming at Daryl. "If it weren't for me begging my parents to adopt you, you would've ended up at an orphanage. "

"Shut up."

"Poor little Harper. All you did was cry when you found out that your parents had been murdered."

"Shut up, Adeline. I was only three."

"I gave you the life of luxury. Would you have rather stayed in that shack you called a home? You owe me, Harper."

"I don't owe you shit."

Adeline's eyes changed then. They were no longer wide with the craziness that ate away at her mind. For a moment, she seemed normal. "You do," she said calmly. Her finger twitched on the trigger. "And I'll start by killing Daryl."

The gunshot rang in my ears as my world fell black.