I don't really like this chapter. I'm blaming it on school. It's turning my brain to mush! I hope you all like it, though!
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Glenn knew that he had been one of the last vehicles to leave the overrun farm. He knew he shouldn't have put unnecessary danger on the three young people in the truck with him, but he needed to know if Maggie was all right. However, he had been unable to spot a thing as he made a quick drive around the yard. There had been no sight of Maggie and no sight of any one else from the group. There had been plenty of walkers, though. Hundreds of them.
"We need to go back and see if Daddy and Maggie are still at the farmhouse," Beth's choked up voice spoke from where she was almost pressed against the door of the truck. Since they had driven away, the tears running down Beth's cheeks had not stopped flowing. The girl was frightened. Besides, seeing the walkers stumble out of the barn, she had never seen so many of them before. And she had witnessed firsthand what happened when they finally caught up with you.
"I'm sure they are fine, Beth," Sophia, who was pressed against Glenn's side and peered across Carl to her friend. "I saw Rick by Hershel. I'm sure he got him off the farm safely." She gave her a small reassuring smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"Glenn," Sophia said and turned to him. "Did you see where my mom went after she put me in here?"
"No, I didn't. I'm sorry." He had been too preoccupied with Maggie when she had hopped out of the trunk to pay attention to where Carol had gone after she had dropped the kids with him. Glenn felt guilty. He could have at least made sure she had gotten in another vehicle and got off the farm safely.
"I hope she's okay," Sophia said, softly.
"I bet she's with Daryl," he said, hoping that it would help ease her worry a little bit. "I doubt he would let her go off anywhere on her own."
"Yeah." The way Sophia said that word made Glenn know that she didn't believe him. Instead of saying anymore, he kept his eyes on the road, hoping to see a sign of where the other members of their group had scattered.
Glenn had nothing else to say that would ease any of their worries and continued to keep his eyes on the road. Normally, he was the much needed levity of the group, but now, he couldn't think of one good thing to say to the three others in the vehicle. Beth was still crying, Carl hadn't spoken a word and Sophia was pressed to his side, looking out the windshield with tears glistening in her eyes.
They all had someone out there they cared about a lot, but had no idea if they were still alive. Things couldn't get any worse.
Until they did.
The truck started to make a weird noise and no matter how hard Glenn pushed on the gas, the vehicle was steadily slowing down. Glancing at the dashboard, he saw with a groan that the needle was on E.
Finally, they slowed to a complete stop in the middle of a narrow road. Trees bordered the asphalt and for all they knew, walkers were gathered behind the trees.
Glenn slammed a palm on the steering wheel and three sets of wide eyes looked at him, wanting answers. "We ran out of gas," he said, flopping back in the seat and closing his eyes. "Looks like we're going to stay here for the night."
"But what about Daddy and Maggie?" Beth's voice was bordering on hysterics and it grated on his nerves a little.
"We'll have to wait until the sun comes up to start looking for them. I'm not taking you all out in the dark with only my rifle and Carl's gun as the only weapons."
"My mom gave me a knife," Sophia piped up. "But I think it's a good idea to stay in here for the night, too. We can't really see out there, now, and don't know what's can be lurking around." She looked over at Beth and offered her friend another smile. "We'll look for them the moment the sun is up."
"We will. I promise," Glenn added. "Now, we all should get comfortable. This is where we will be sleeping." The cab was cramped with the four of them smashed into the front bench seat. Carl wordlessly turned and climbed into the back seat. There was barely enough room for him. Beth stayed put and looked out the window and Sophia leaned her head against Glenn's arm.
"Is this okay?" She asked, sounding sleepy already.
"Yeah, it's fine. I said get comfortable," Glenn answered and leaned his head against the window before closing his eyes.
"Why the hell did you come back to the farm?" Daryl asked the young man beside him. "Didn't Rick and Shane say they'd kill you if they say you, again?"
They had been driving in silence for several minutes as they both tried to catch their breaths. Daryl had no idea where the rest of the group were heading. They had all scattered to God knew where, but he figured that the highway was their best bet.
He hoped Carol and Sophia were safe and together.
"Wait!" Daryl nearly stomped on the brakes and Randall looked terrified as he pressed his palms on the dashboard to keep from smashing his face through the windshield. "You didn't lead those sumbitches to the farm, did you?" If the young man had done what he had accused him of, Daryl wouldn't have thought twice about leaving him on the side of the road to die.
"No, I didn't!" Randall cried and pressed his back against the door of the truck, trying to get as far from Daryl as possible.
For some reason, Daryl believed him. "Then, why did you come back?"
"Your brother."
This nearly caused Daryl to drive off the road. "What? You know Merle?"
Randall nodded his head vigorously. "He was in the same group I was in when you found me, but he wasn't there that night. He was still healing from the wound on his hand. When Rick and Shane dropped me off, I ran into him and told him that I had seen you."
"So, Merle was at the farm with you?" He had really heard his brother's voice, then.
"Y-Yeah. He thought a walker took me down and kept running."
So, Daryl hadn't been going crazy when he had thought he'd heard Merle's voice. He had actually heard it. "Wait. How did you know that Merle was my brother?" Daryl knew that he and Merle had some similarities, but they didn't look that much alike.
"Shane said your last name when we were in the...barn, and I knew Merle's. I told them that I knew him, to see how they would react, but they didn't say anything and left."
"You told Rick that you knew Merle?"
Randall nodded. "Yeah."
"And he didn't fuckin' tell me..." Daryl said more to himself than to the young man in the other seat.
"I guess not." Randall shrugged, not sure what else to say.
Daryl gripped the steering wheel tighter and remained silent. He couldn't believe Rick would have kept that from him. Merle was his family, his only family and he deserved to know any information that was found out about him.
"Uh. I'm...sorry."
"Ain't your fault," Daryl muttered and kept his eyes fixed on the road.
For awhile, neither one said a word. Daryl was silently seething and Randall must have sensed the anger in his rescuer and decided not to say a word. The dirt road finally gave way to the paved road of the highway. In the distance, the sun was creeping up on the horizon and Daryl turned in the direction of where they had been stuck on the highway, what seemed like forever ago. Hopefully, other people from their group had the same idea.
He hoped Carol and Sophia were already there. Safe.
"We shouldn't have left them there like that," Maggie spat and stared out the window. The young woman had been reluctant to leave her father while the walkers were swarming them.
"We had to get out of there while we could," Lori tried to sooth. After all, she had left behind her husband.
"We had to my ass! We had weapons, we could have helped."
"Before or after you got bit," Andrea snapped. "I got you out of there. I got both of you out of there and the last thing I wanted to hear from you two is this shit. Some thanks would have been nice."
The woman looked at the blonde woman behind the wheel. Lori was the only one to speak. "Thank you, Andrea," she said, but it didn't really sound like she meant it. Andrea shook her head angrily and just focused on the road.
"Did you see where Glenn went?" Lori asked Maggie.
"No. I just know that he got out of there with Beth, Carl and Sophia. Knowing him, they're going to be safe." There was a hint of pride in Maggie's voice. She refused to look at Lori, though. Since Glenn had nearly died to get her morning after pills, Maggie hadn't wanted anything to do with Rick's wife.
When Lori realized that was all she was going to get out of Maggie, she turned to Andrea, another woman who she wasn't on very good terms with. God must be laughing at her, now. "Do you have any idea where to go? We never discussed where we should meet if we were all to get separated."
"I thought we'd head back to the highway. It's the last big landmark we were all at together."
"That's a good idea," Lori admitted.
"I thought so. Let's just hope everyone else though the same thing."
"Just my fuckin' luck," Merle huffed from the seat he had in the backseat of Hershel's truck. "I'm stuck in this vehicle with the last two people I've ever wanted to be stuck with. Officer Friendly and the piece of shit who dropped the damn key."
The 'piece of shit who dropped the damn key' sat across from Merle and didn't say anything. T-Dog just shook his head and ignored the obnoxious redneck. However, Hershel didn't have the same idea.
"Son, I'd appreciate it, if you didn't use that type of language in front of me," Hershel scolded from the driver's seat.
"I ain't your son, old man. And who the hell are you, anyway, one of them pastors?"
"Merle, can you just shut up?" It was clear Officer Friendly was wound pretty tight. Somewhere out there were his wife and son. Separated.
"You're the last person who can tell me what to do, officer." He thrust the stump at the end of his arm in Rick's face. "Does this ring any bells? Huh?" He sat back down in his seat when he didn't get any further reaction from Rick.
"I can't believe my dumbass brother is still with you lot. Especially after what you did to me. I almost didn't believe it when Randall told me."
That got something from Rick. "You met up with Randall?"
"Yep. We were in the same group and I saw him wanderin' on the road a few days, ago, and he told me about Daryl."
"But how did he know where the farm was?" Rick's brow was furrowed.
"He said he knew some girl named Maggie in school, so he knew where it was. Who's Maggie?"
"That would be one of my daughters. The oldest one," the old man spoke up.
"So, how did Daryl react when you told him Randall knew me? I bet you fought him to not leave the group to look for me," he said, smugly and crossed his arms over his chest.
The front seat was silent. Too silent.
"You didn't fuckin' tell him! That's low, even for you." Merle wished he could reach into the front seat, wrap his hands around Officer Friendly's throat and squeeze the life out of him, but he only had one hand.
"We needed him there. We couldn't have him running off to who knew where and leaving us one man down. Besides, I doubt he would have left Carol, anyway."
"Who the hell is Carol?"
"She's one of the women in the group. Daryl has been getting real close to her ever since he found Sophia, her daughter, when she ran off and got lost while we were on the highway."
Merle gripped the front seat with his one hand. "Are you sayin' my brother would choose a woman over his own brother? Ha. Fuck you, Prick. There ain't nothin' Daryl wouldn't do to find me. Once we meet up with him, again, I'm takin' him and leavin'. I'm sure there's nothin' this Carol can say to make him stay."
Carol felt like her lungs were about to burst, but she kept running. Behind her, half dozen walkers were following her and she only had four bullets left on her little pistol. Not enough to take them down and she had given Sophia her knife.
Sophia.
She prayed that Glenn had been able to get her and Carl and Beth off the farm safely. She trusted the young man, but any number of things could have gone wrong. Shuddering, Carol forced herself not to think of those things and to think of how she would get rid of the walkers stumbling after her.
Maybe she could find a tree to climb? But if the walkers spotted her climbing one, they would just stand underneath until she came down again. Maybe she could stop and use her bullets to get four of them and find out another way to get rid of them. She'd have to be a perfect shot, though. She didn't have any bullets to waste. So, that meant she had to allow them to get close to her, which didn't sound very good to Carol.
Carol stopped running and took a deep breath before turning around. The gun in her hand didn't shake as she held it up and waited for the walkers to come closer. When two of them drew near, she easily out bullets in their heads, but the other four were in a group and once she killed two more, the other two would be too close for comfort.
She was about to use the last two bullets when I flash of steel caught the corner of her eye and two of the walkers fell to the ground, heads split in half. Carol's eyes widened and mouth dropped in shock. Just as quick, the other two met the same fate.
"What...?" She breathed and looked at the dark figure in front of her. It was a woman, she could tell from the figure. On her belt, two jawless and armless walkers were attached by a chain and in the woman's hand, she held a long sword, now dark with the blood of the walkers she had just put down.
"Thank you," Carol didn't know what else to say.
The woman didn't say anything and tugged off her hood to reveal a head full of dreadlocks. "You're welcome."
Just so you all know, I don't ship Glenn and Sophia. *shudder*. I'm just saying it for those who may be lurking on this story just to see what kind of shit they can stir. (I know it's not any of you Caryl shippers.). BUT I do like to write about Sophia's obvious crush on Glenn! :)
Thanks for reading!