Chapter ten: The sun can fuck right off.

"Soft skin may be fragile, but it's easier to mend."

We spent the rest of the day milling about and gathering little bits and pieces, working under the white hot sun until it began to go down again; Sophia was quickly becoming bored with waiting around on the highway but she wasn't too eager to return to the forest either. We sat in the empty space where the RV had been playing Checkers that evening, basking in the cooling air and warding off the bad thoughts. I was surprised we hadn't had more Walkers run across us yet, but the night was still early and neither of us wanted to sleep just yet; as I met Sophia's eye, we both nodded and packed away the board, trekking back into the forest to find somewhere sheltered to sleep that didn't stink of rotting corpse.

We went back to the hunting shack we'd spent yesterday getting away from, it was a long walk but it was worth it to have food and water as well as shelter for another night; I knew we should have stayed on the highway, but at least we knew where we were going now and had a better shot, especially having found the map. As Sophia slept that night, I poured over the roads marked, seeing a farm not far from us, I guessed it would only be a few hours walking and even less if we jogged some of the way; the place we were in currently had been marked in black pen as Otis' shed, I wondered where this Otis guy was that he hadn't come back and ousted us yet.

I decided that we would make for the farm in the morning, I only needed somewhere safe for Sophia to wait while I searched for the others, surely whoever owned the 'Greene Farm' could do that at least? I wished then that I'd taken my bag with me from the RV and had the radio Rick gave me before he went to Atlanta, I could have reached him then or tried to as he'd never answered before. I pottered around the cabin and gathered supplies to take with us in the morning; water bottles and granola bars were in plenty and not the kind or bars that had been cheap before, they were fancy ones with shit like pecans and golden sultanas or whatever.

Sophia was whimpering in her sleep, I sat down beside her and used a pen from the desk to mark our route, rubbing the girl's back and hushing her soothingly when she stirred. She woke properly a few hours later and we got going, eating as we walked.

"Where are we going?" She croaked before sipping at her water and I frowned at the map, trying to figure out where we were exactly.

"I think we should be goin' in that direction." I muttered, holding my arm out to the north east and then setting off, I kept Sophia right beside me, holding the hand that wasn't carrying the map. "I found a farm nearby last night and I thought that if there were people, they might watch you while I look for ours." She nodded and then broke into tears.

"You can't leave me, Rick left us and we've been out here for ages." She sobbed and I nodded, picking her up and walking in the direction I'd readjusted. I had carried gone a fair distance before having to put her down and make her walk the rest of the way and we were both exhausted and aching when we finally reached the edge of a field; ahead of us was a house and parked a little distance from it was an RV, one that looked awfully familiar.

"Hey, look at that, farms just up ahead." I whispered and Sophia lit up, bolting into the open and across the field as fast as her little legs could carry her. I jogged lightly and caught her up in no time. "Hey, don't be runnin' might trip over a rock and hurt yourself." I panted, sweat beading up on my forehead; I heard a growl as we got on the flat grass of the field and behind us was a group of maybe six Walkers and my face drained of blood. "Move it, you gotta run Shrimp, run." I gave her a light push and she turned her head before screaming, clutching her doll and backing away.

"They're coming!" She howled, stepping back again and tripping over something, falling on her butt as the Walkers got closer. Sophia got herself back up and set off haring up the field, screaming for someone to help; I couldn't tear my eyes from the snarling faces as I swallowed hard, drawing and raising my knife ready. The first was easy, I pushed it away and dealt with the second, finishing the first afterwards, leaving four; I could hear Sophia screaming but only faintly, meaning she was safe…unless the farm was overrun and then she was as fucked as I was.

The third Walker was shoved aside by the fifth and forth, the sixth tripped over the second dead Walker and went sprawling in the grass. Taking out the forth, the fifth tried to grab me and the third was now back in the race; I backed away swiftly and tried to put more distance between me and the mouths. I continued to back away, tripping over the same stone Sophia had and falling on my back and smacking my head into a tree stump, black dots danced across my vision as an arrow became lodged in the third Walker's head and then another in fifth's. I blinked hard and stayed down as a bullet took out the next Walker and another arrow hit the third; I sat up and rubbed the back of my head, feeling a lump already blooming there, a little sticky patch came away on my fingers, the smallest amount of blood.

"Are you alright?" I blinked again, my ears were ringing loudly, the sun was far too hot and I couldn't make the ground stay still, no matter how hard I tried. "Ellie, are you alright?" Flipping over, I got to my knees and then shakily to my feet, my head was spinning but I straightened out and saw Daryl stood a few feet from me. "You get bit?"

"No, no I didn't." I answered and he nodded and came closer, inspecting the blood on my fingers. "I just hit my head pretty hard though; guess that's better than a bite…Sophia?" I took a step, pitching towards the poor man like a falling stack of Jenga bricks. To his credit, Daryl did a great job of flinging his crossbow at the person coming up behind him and catching me by the shoulders; he was warm and smelled like smoke, dirt and sweat.

I don't remember much about the next couple of minutes, but I remember that someone shouted for Hershel, whoever that was and I thought I could hear someone else crying. I only remember seeing little flashes before everything went dark.