WHAT LIES AHEAD PART 3

It was the second day of the search with still no sign of Sophia. It was a restless night for everyone, especially Carol who looked more distressed than yesterday. Natasha could gather as much and figured there wasn't a single point in the long night that she went to bed, but then again, neither did she. It was hard to imagine anyone getting sleep knowing that a child was lost in the woods with man-eating people out there.

Everyone was doing their best to keep hope high and not let their thoughts drift into dark places. It was hard though since optimism was all they had at this point in the search.

Rick rolled out a leather case that was filled with different kinds of knives and axes. "Everybody takes a weapon," he said, stepping back and letting Natasha take charge of who got what. She was pretty insightful about what weapons would be better for certain people. She handed out long-handled weapons to people like Lori and Carol, while others who were more capable got shorter ones.

Andrea's face turned up into a scowl when she was handed a knife. "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" she protested.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, Nat, and I are carrying," Shane told her. "We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about. And why does Natasha get to be one of the few that get to carry one?" Andrea brought up, instantly making Natasha stop what she was doing to look up and listen.

Shane clenched his jaw at Andrea's attitude. "Listen. Nat's been out on her own this whole time, way longer than any of us here. I'm pretty sure she knows what she's doing at this point," he said sharply to her.

Natasha spoke up, purposely clearing her throat to grab Andrea's attention. "I also think it's for the best that not everyone carries a gun, at least not for the time being. A lot of things can go wrong if you're not properly trained."

Hearing that only made Andrea roll her eyes and scoff. "Like what? Accidently shooting my foot?"

"No. Accidently letting every Walker in the area know that we're here. If that happens then it's game over for everyone. Do you understand why I'm against it now, Andrea? The key is to be subtle. Not guns blazing." Natasha said with a clenched jaw. She didn't snap nor snarl but made sure she was firm enough to get her point across. She wasn't being biased against her. It was for the safety of everyone in the group. She wasn't going to compromise all because Andrea was showing an attitude towards the idea. "Daryl…what path are we following today," she said, taking a breath to cool off. She was thankful that Andrea didn't argue back with her

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark," Daryl explained to everyone.

"And remember to stay sharp and quiet out there. Keep a watchful eye on your surroundings, put space between you, and always stay within sight of each other." Natasha finished just as everyone separated to get ready. "Go assemble your packs with the time we have. We'll leave in a couple of minutes."

After the meeting was over, Rick headed over to Dale and saw him sitting on the front steps of his RV. "Dale. Keep on those repairs. We've got to get this RV ready to move."

Dale nodded his head and stood up. "We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back." he said to them.

"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone."

Carl blinked and suddenly spoke up. "I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible," he abruptly said, taking Rick by surprise and unsure of how to answer. He looked to Lori but she only shrugged.

"Your call. I can't always be the bad guy," she said.

Dale didn't see much of a problem since everyone else was going out searching. The only ones who weren't were him and T-Dog, who got injured when the herd passed through. "Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands."

Rick thought about it for a moment before sighing. "Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions."

They walked off after that, but not too soon did they do so that Andrea approach Dale. He can tell by the scowl on her face that she was still steaming about not being able to carry a gun.

"Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position," he said but Andrea barely let him finish his sentence before snaping.

"I'm not going out there without my gun. I'll even say please."

"I'm doing this for you."

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop," she said through gritted teeth. "What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?"

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now."

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay."

"You chose suicide."

"So what's that to you? You barely know me," she argued back, drawing the attention of everyone around her.

"I know Amy's death devastated you," Dale was about to bring up but Andrea immediately shut him down.

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"

"I saved your life," Dale argued back, hoping she would see things from his perspective.

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"

"Maybe just a little gratitude," he hoped.

Andrea scoffed. "Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale. But- But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?"

Dale couldn't say anything but just stare at her, mouth agape and completely speechless. "I don't know what to say."

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." Andrea brushed past him and sauntered off towards the rest of the group.

Natasha slowly walked up to him and headed up into the RV to grab her coat. "I know it may be hard to hear this, but…I agree with her."

Dale felt like he got whiplash when he heard her say that. "Natasha…did I make the wrong choice?" he said and followed her inside.

"All people have nowadays is a choice. It's what I said to Jenner back at the CDC. Remember? I wasn't just speaking fancy words to get him to open the door. It's what I actually think. You didn't want Andrea to die, so you made a choice…but so did she." She pulled her coat off the table and began to slip it on. "I'm not gonna say you made the right decision, but I'm also not gonna say you made the wrong one either. In my opinion…there's nothing wrong with not wanting someone to die." She patted Dale on the shoulder and walked out of the RV to join up with everyone, leaving Dale alone to stew in his thoughts.

The woods were no less different than the previous day they searched. The brush was thick and green so their vision was limited, preventing them from seeing anything past the thick grove. There hadn't been any more developments with the tracks either and they were still as faint as ever. Natasha couldn't see anything anymore and Daryl seemed to be the only one who could still follow them. If anything, it told them that Sophia hadn't been in the area since she disappeared the day before.

Natasha drifted a bit away from the group to see if she could spot anything in the woods. Her eyes scanned the never-ending sea of green and brown trees until it landed on a neon yellow object amongst the leaves. Natasha stopped walking for a moment to stare at it, tilting her head to the side until it finally clicked for her. She was staring at a camping tent.

"Hey, guys? Hey!" she called out but not too loudly.

They all stopped at the sound of her voice and looked over to see what she was pointing at. Rick immediately signaled for everyone to lie low since they didn't know who it belonged to, much less what was in it.

"She could be in there," Shane speculated.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl looked over to Natasha and made a motion for her to follow his lead.

The two approached the tent silently to not cause alarm to whatever was inside. They pulled out their knives and walked around to each side of the tent to see if they could peer inside. The front flap was half-open, but it was hard to get an angle to see in. Daryl paused and looked back to Rick, shrugging his shoulders.

Rick nodded and gestured Carol over to him. "Carol. Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear," he said and stayed beside her as they approached the tent.

Carol took a breath and stared at Daryl and Natasha worryingly. "Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy," she called out, but no one answered back. There wasn't even a sound coming from inside the tent.

Natasha looked back to them and shook her head, waving over to them to take a step back. Daryl slowly began to unzip the rest of the flap and waited for a moment before rushing inside. Once he did though, his nose was immediately assaulted by the foul stench of rotten flesh. It was so strong that Natasha could smell it too and had to take a step back to gag from the smell.

"Good…Jesus…" she coughed and looked back to the tent that Daryl was still inside. "Daryl? Hey. You okay?"

Daryl came out a moment later with his face crinkled up in disgust. He shook his head and held up a revolver that he got from inside. "It ain't her."

"Who was it then? It smelled like rot."

"Just some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?"

Natasha cocked a brow and walked over to the tend to look inside, making sure her scarf was tight around her nose so she wouldn't have to smell it. She saw that it was a half-decayed man sitting limply in a chair. His skin was a mucky gray with maggots burrowing underneath. The inner walls of the tent were sprayed with blood too, so it told her that he must've shot himself with the gun Daryl found.

Natasha groaned and backed out of the tent. "Couldn't take the heat, huh? Can't say I blame him." She picked her head up when the wind began to chime with the sound of a church bell going off. It echoed through the woods but didn't sound far. "Is that a church bell?"

They all took off a moment later and ran through the woods to where they believed the sound was coming from. It was hard to tell at first, but they finally came to an opening in the forest that led out into an old graveyard with a white church across the court. It didn't have a steeple though, and they couldn't hear the bells anymore either.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells." Shane said but Rick and Natasha quickly passed him and ran straight for the church. "Rick. Nat!" he called out and ran after them with the survivors following close behind.

They came around to the front of the church and walked up the steps to the door. They waited outside for a bit until Rick gave them the signal, and after that, they all ran inside but were faced with the view of nothing. There was no one in and the pews were empty too. It didn't even look like anyone had been inside since the world died months ago, judging by the collected dust.

Natasha stepped inside and made a quick look through the pews to make sure no one was hiding. "There's no one here," she said and looked back to the baffled survivors. "I'm gonna head around back to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"Yeah. Please." Rick shook his head and stepped to the side to let Natasha outside.

Shane walked up to Rick. "I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." he said just as the same church bell went off again. This time louder than ever and coming from right above them.

Everyone ran out of the church and headed around back to see Natasha standing in front of an outdoor power box. She opened it up and quickly yanked out a fistful of wires, instantly making the bell stop.

"Timer. It was on a timer," she said and looked overhead where there was a speaker. "Sorry guys. It wasn't Sophia."

Carol swallowed hard and tightened her jaw. "I'm gonna go back in for a bit," she said as quietly as a mouse and turned to walk back inside.

"Rick. Nat. Can I talk to you guys for a minute?" Shane asked and gestured them away from the group so they could talk. "Got to move here, man. These people are spent. There's only so many hours of daylight left. We still got a long way back," he said in a hushed whisper.

Natasha could feel her face began to heat up. "And we still have a whole lot of ground to cover. You can't expect us to head back now. Sophia wouldn't be able to survive another night out here by herself. She's just a child," she nearly hissed

"And we still have the other side of the Creek bed to cover. We can't stop now. She could've heard those church bells. She could be nearby," Rick said.

"She could be a lot of things," Shane spoke with a monotone. "Nat, you just said she wouldn't be able to survive another night out here. What makes you think she survived the first?"

His comment made Natasha flinch, and for a moment, she wasn't sure how to respond. In her head, he had a point, a realistic one too. It was harsh but she couldn't bring herself to say that he was wrong. "I get what you're saying. I do…but what kind of people would we be if we gave up before barely even starting. Were we even trying in the first place? We…we shouldn't be so eager to write people off."

Shane bit down on his lips and lowered his head. He ran his hand over his hair as reluctance washed over him like a bucket of cold water. He looked back up but only met with the stubborn faces of both Rick and Natasha that couldn't be swayed.

"Fine. I get it, man. I really do," he groaned and patted Natasha's shoulder. They headed back over to the group that was now exiting the church. "Listen up. Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me, Rick, and Nat, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."

Daryl cocked a brow. "You're splitting us up?" he said and looked over to Natasha. "Tasha, you sure?"

She shrugged. "It's probably best to not have everyone out here past dark. If it's the three of us though, I'm pretty sure we'll catch up later," she said to assure all of them.

"I want to stay too," Carl abruptly said, making everyone turn to him. "I'm her friend."

Lori thought about it for a moment and even got the silent approval from Rick. "Just be careful, okay?" she said and pulled her son in for a hug.

"I will," he promised.

"When did you start growing up?" Lori said with a small smile before looking up at Natasha. "Can you look after him too?"

Natasha nodded and pulled Carl beside her once Lori released him. "All three of us are out there, ok? We'll see you guys soon."

Shane, Rick, Natasha, and Carl carried on through the woods after Daryl left with the other survivors. Natasha kept close to Carl to keep a keen eye on him, as well as their surroundings. It wasn't long after they were alone though that there was a distant sound of a snapping branch. Rick and Shane immediately became alert to the noise, but Natasha quickly put her hand up to signal off towards the distance. They saw what it was, moving just beyond the thick grove. It was a full-grown buck with a tall rack sitting on its head.

Shane took aim with his shotgun, but Rick quickly stopped him when Carl suddenly stepped away from Natasha and slowly went towards the deer. Natasha watched on curiously and tilted her head to the side. It was odd because the scene felt so serene and calm. There was an innocence about everything in front of her that momentarily made her forget the world they were living in.

Natasha stepped off to the side when she noticed something at the corner of her eyes. She turned her head and saw what looked to be an outline of a man in the distance. It was hard to tell but it suddenly alarmed her when she saw a glimmer of silver break through the line of trees. A rifle in his hands taking aim at the deer. Natasha's eyes widen and a sharp cry escaped her lips.

"Carl, get down!" Her screams rippled through the woods like a banshee just as a crackling gunshot rang out.