Sorry I haven't updated recently, its just...writing's hard, okay, that's my best excuse. And school, that gets in the way.
Thank you to those who left reviews, they mean so much to me. They inspire me to write more and make me feel like I'm doing good when I think I'm not.
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I tried to hurry with this chapter, so it's not as good as I wanted, I apologize for that. I still hope you like it.
Word count: 4,041
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles turn around and come back down the other side," I listen to Daryl, watching Glenn's smile grow as he studies his new weapon. "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."
Catching Glenn's eye, he smiles a little bigger and gestures to his new weapon. I'm not sure what it is, looks like some kind of machete.
Huffing a small laugh, I shake my head and break eye contact to check that I have my own weapons. Knife in its sheath, check. Second knife in boot, check.
"I'm coming with you." Says a small voice, drawing my head over to see Carl looking up at his parents. "You need people right? To cover as much ground as possible." As much as I hate the idea of him being out there, I can't help but feel he would be safer.
"Your call. I can't always be the bad guy." Lori says as she looks to Rick.
"Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands." Dale states as Rick struggles to come to a decision.
"Okay, okay," Rick breaths out after a moment, patting Carl in his shoulder. "But always within our site, no exceptions."
Making a small whistle sound to catch Carl's attention, I smile at him and nod my head to the side, motioning for him to follow.
"You sure you want to go out there? It's dangerous." I tell him as I crouch slightly so I can look him in the eye. I'm not trying to scare him by telling him this, I just want him to know is not just a walk through the forest.
"I want to go. And I know it's dangerous but I'm not a little kid and we need to find Sophia." Listening to Carl's reasoning, I nod my head as he starts speaking again. "And you went out there when she ran."
"I'm older than you, Carl." I tell him, not knowing what else to say.
"Not by much," He quickly argues back. "I should have done something to, should have helped."
"No." I quickly tell him with a firm voice. "You did the right thing staying where you were and don't you go thinking otherwise. Okay?"
"Okay," He mumbles, looking down at his feet.
"Hey," I say, causing Carl to look up at me. "You're brave, you know that?" seeing Carl's lips stretch up into a smile, I let a small one grow on my own face. He is brave, I meant that. He knows the dangers that are out there but he still wants to come with us to help find his friend.
"Hey, Carl sweetie, can you come here for a sec?" Looking over, we both see Lori standing next to the car everyone was gathered around earlier as she motions for Carl to come to her.
"Hey, Carl," I call as he starts to walk away, "Don't try to go up to fast, yeah?" Although he looked slightly confused, Carl gave me a quick nod before going to his mother's side.
Hearing slighting raised voices, I turn my head to the side and see Andrea arguing with Dale. She wants her gun back, I can understand, if anyone took my gun, although I never have it out, I would want it back.
I can also understand why Dale doesn't want to give it to her. Andrea almost killed herself and Dale cares for her, he doesn't want her to try again. And although I don't agree with her choice of suicide and I would also try my hardest to talk someone out of it, she has a point in saying it was her choice. I still don't agree though.
Plus it's probably not best for everyone to have a gun, especially people who don't know how to properly use them. Maybe she should just accept the fact that she's not going to get it back for a little while. I find it's easier if you just accept that the way things are are just the way things are.
Not long later, I find myself, along with the others excluding T-Dog and Dale, trecking through the woods.
I knew I wouldn't be able to stay up front, Daryl needs his space in order to track Sophia, and I'd just get in the way. And there's no way I'm staying in the back, not if Shane stays there.
So, I chose my spot next to Glenn, walking a few paces to his right. We walked for a while, Carl showed me the knife his parents let him keep with a smile on his face. I gave him a smile in return and told him to be careful and not to cut himself before he went back to walking beside his mother.
At this point I have no doubt that I'm probably covered in ticks, it's almost as if I can feel them crawling around on me. Who knows, maybe I can or maybe I'm imagining it. And although I'm not leading the way, the amount of spider-webs I've run into is astounding.
Soon enough later, we all slowed to a stop some feet away from a tent. Rick, Daryl, and Shane slowly approached before Rick came and told Carol to softly call out for Sophia in case she was in there, saying her voice is the first Sophia should hear.
"It ain't her." Daryl said after he emerged from inside the green tent.
"What's in there?" Andrea asked.
"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" As soon as Daryl finished voicing his rhetorical question, everyone's heads shot up at the sound of distant bells. Or at least what sounded like bells.
No one said a word, but after a moment we were all running in a direction.
"What direction?" Shane asks when we come to a stop.
"I think that way, I'm pretty sure."
"Damn, it's hard to tell out here."
"If we hear them, then maybe Sofia did too." Carol puts in, urgency in her voice.
"Someones ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn says, soon being followed as the others put in their own ideas of who's ringing the bells before we all start running again.
"That can't be it, got no steeple, no bells." Shane says when we come out of the trees, seeing a small church not too far away. "Rick." He says again when Rick ignores him in favor of running through the cemetery and towards the church.
Keeping to the back, I watch Daryl, Rick, and Shane go up the steps and through the red doors into the church. Staying back away from everyone, I jump when I hear Rick very loudly calling out for Sophia.
Taking a deep breath to calm my heart, I turn back to the church just in time to hear the loud ringing of bells. Turning, I rush to where I hear the sound coming from, easily beating the others there.
Looking up, I see a speakerphone, a small pole leading down from it to a little box that holds a lot of wires.
Now, I have some experience with wires and technology, I've even hot wired a car before, but I honestly don't think there's a better way to do this. Not that it matters much anyway. So ignoring the possibility of getting electrocuted, I reach my hand into the box and grab as many wires as I can before yanking my hand back, bringing the wires with me, successfully cutting off the bells.
"A timer," Daryl breaths out as he paces a little in front of me. "It was on a timer."
"I'm going to go back inside for a bit." Carol says before turning and making her way into the church.
Throwing the plug of wires, or whatever it is, onto the ground, I walk around the church as everyone goes there separate ways and over to a big tree that's not far, seeking out the shade it offers.
Ignoring the obvious argument going on between Shane and Lori, I rest my head against the tree, rolling my shoulder. It still hurts, but I'll live. Letting myself close my eyes for a few moments, I take a deep breath as I listen to my surroundings. Might as well rest while I can.
"Are you sleeping." Peeking one eye open, I give a smirk to the young boy that stands a few feet in front of me.
"Well if I was, I'm not anymore."
"Sorry," Carl mumbles as he kicks lightly, stirring up some loose dirt.
"Nah, I was just resting. You still got that knife?"
Nodding his head, Carl walks over and hands me his knife. Carefully taking it from his, I turn it over in my hands. "It's nice. I don't know how long you'll get to hang onto it but you got to take care of it. Don't want it to get dirty and wet, it'll rust and become dull."
"I will." He tells me when I hand him back the knife, watching as everyone starts to gather around.
"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge." Shane tells us as he walks over. "Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."
"Splittin' us up. you sure?" Daryl asks them. I would second his question. I've never been one for big groups, but even I know you're not supposed to split up. Bad things always happen when you split up.
"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane responds.
"I wanna stay too." Carl says, drawing my attention to him. "I'm her friend."
"Just be careful, okay?" Lori says after a moment, walking around Carl to give him a hug.
"I will."
"When did you start growing up?" Probably when the world ended.
I know it's not my decision, but I don't think I agree with her choice to let him go. But that may just be the odd feeling I have in my gut talking.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I look around at the group and wonder if they would let me go with them as well. But in order to do that, I'd have to ask. This is Sophia we're talking about, I need to get over myself and just speak up if it means I can help more.
"Hey," I voice says, cutting through my thoughts. "You ain't stayin'." Daryl tells me from where he stands on my left. Is this guy psychic, what the hell?
Deciding it was no use to argue, I turn my attention away from him and towards the others.
"Here take this." Rick says to Lori, offering her his gun. "Remember how to use it?"
"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed."
"Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl says, leaving my side to offer her his own gun instead. Pushing off the tree to follow, I spare a glance at Andrea, not missing the annoyed expression on her face.
Walking more towards the front of the group, I keep a good distance as I stop in order to look over my should at the church, seeing Rick, Shane, and Carl walking in the other direction, that nagging feeling still present in the bottom of my gut.
"So this is it, this the whole plan?" Carol asks from the back of the group. We haven't been walking too long I don't think, but I've never had the best sense of time.
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl says. Let's just hope that doesn't happen though.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea says in annoyance. And I love my knife, thank you very much. "I see you have a gun." She directs at Lori.
"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Lori snaps, holding out the gun to Andrea. "All of you." What? I'm not giving her looks. Why would I give her a look? "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through, and I would do anything to stop it, but you have got to stop blaming Rick and especially that little girl." Lori tells Carol, pointing in my direction. Um, no, no, do not bring me into this. Why am I being brought into this?
Wrapping my arms around my stomach and ducking my head, I turn my back on everyone. Did she really need to say that? I have no doubt Carol blames me, it was my fault after all, but did she need to point it out in front of everyone. If it's one thing I hate, it's attention being on me. And also, "little"? I am not little. Okay, maybe I am small, I'll admit that, but I am not little.
I took a few small steps away from the others, making sure not to wander as Lori continues to talk, not bothering to pay attention to what she's saying.
"Hey, C'mon." A voice says, bringing my attention back to the present. Turning to the others, I catch Daryl's eye long enough for him to give me a small nod before we all start walking again.
"How's your shoulder?" Daryl speaks up from beside me after we've been walking a little while.
"Huh?" I question, glancing over at him.
"Your shoulder." He says again, keeping his eyes forward.
"Um, fine?" I tell him, although it sounded more like a question.
"Don't sound so sure."
"Yeah," I say, clearing my throat. "It's fine."
After that it goes silent for a while, everyone's footsteps and the creatures of the forest the only thing cutting through it, making it bearable to listen to. Until a loud bang sounds through the trees, sending a few birds flying.
A gunshot. Far off, but it was a gunshot. Ever had stopped and looked around. It's not like we could do anything about it, so everyone picked up pace again.
It's a little while later when Andrea decides to break the silence. "You still worried about it?"
"It was a gunshot." Lori responds from the back of the group.
"We all heard it."
"Why one? Why just one gunshot?"
"Maybe they took down a walker?"
"Please don't patronize me, you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane, they'd do it quietly." True, unless they had no other choice. Or maybe it wasn't even them who fired the gun.
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asks the group. Not necessarily, and they haven't, and we can't do anything about it anyway.
"There's nothin' we can do about it anyway." Again, with the psychic thing. "Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."
"So what do you do?" Continue the same we have been? I mean, what else?
"Same as we've been." Okay, I'm officially done. "Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Sighing, I turn back around to continue walking. Honestly, these little breaks are making me more tired than walking.
We stopped, again, before we really even started walking again. The others talked but I didn't listen as I decided to keep walking. I kept my pace slow though, in order to not get too far away.
Like the feeling in the bottom of my gut, a heavy feeling soon started to weigh on my heart. But unlike the one in my gut, I knew what this one was telling me. I was starting to believe we wouldn't find Sophia. I know it hasn't even been a full day, but it's just a feeling. One I plan on ignoring because we will find her. We have too.
"We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it." Daryl announced as we all came to another stop.
"Let's head back." Lori said.
"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Asked Carol with a glace towards Lori.
"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." She told the women before we all started back towards the highway.
"How much farther?" Lori asked a few minutes after we started walking again.
"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies."
"Too bad we're not crows." Yes, too bad. That would be fun.
Shaking my head as my mind wonders, I look down at my feet, watching them crush dead leaves and small sticks under them. No point in trying to be quiet. I'm a pretty quiet person naturally, but it's an effort when walking on dried leaves that sound life someones crunching on chips with their mouths open.
Looking up just in time to sidestep a tree, I slow my pace to look at the other, making sure no one saw that. Talk about embarrassing. Luckily no one did.
I start to turn my head forward again, only to snap it back when I hear a loud scream pierce through the air.
"Andrea!?" Lori calls out, turning to look for said women.
Picking up my feet, I race after the others as they all run in the direction of the noise where I can faintly see a walker in the distance as the screams get louder.
As we near Andrea and the walker, I notice something coming up from behind them. Turning my head, I watch as the horse runs around us, its rider having just knocked the walker off Andrea. Horse? Wait, what?
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" The rider calls out, a thick accent evident in her words.
"I'm Lori." I think it's obvious who said that.
"Rick sent me. You've got to come now." The rider tells her. Rick sent her? Why? Where is he? What's happened?
"What?" Lori asks, voicing some of my thoughts.
"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot." Stumbling back slightly as those words hit me, I feel the breath leave me as my heart falls to my stomach, that heavy feeling that was once there suddenly suffocating me. "He's still alive but you've got to come now. Rick needs you, just come."
Sucking in a breath, I focus on the words "he's still alive." ignoring the fact that it sounds like he won't be for much longer. If he's still alive then that means it's not that bad or there's still something they can do to keep him that way.
"Whoa whoa whoa. We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Daryl says, only to be ignored as Lori throws her bag onto the ground before climbing onto the back of the horse.
"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" The rider asks.
"Uh-huh." I hear Glenn breath out as he watched with a shocked look on his face.
"Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox, the name's Greene." Pulling on the reigns, the girl takes off on the horse with Lori, leaving all of us watching after her, all in different levels of shock. I'm not sure how I expected this day to turn out, but that wasn't it.
"Shut up." Daryl says as he shoots the walker in the head with an arrow, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Shot? What do you mean shot?" What exactly about that needs explaining?
"I don't know Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn explained to Dale, him being the one to ask the former question.
"You let her?" Dale turns and asks Daryl as he climbs over the guard rail.
"Climb out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her. She new Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl says, walking past the man without a glance.
"I heard screams, was that you?" Dale asks Andrea as I watch from behind the guard rail.
"She got attacked by a walker, it was a close call." Glenn says when Andrea walks by without saying anything.
"Andrea, are you all right?" Dale asks in vain as Andrea only sends him a look before climbing into the RV, slamming the door behind her.
After that, I walked over a few cars to catch my breath before joining the others again before my mind had a moment to wonder because I don't think I'd like where it took me if I let it.
"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol was saying.
"Carol, the group is split, we're scattered and weak." Dale told her, trying to get her to see reason.
"What if she comes back and we're not here?" Just thinking about that happening makes me nauseous. "It could happen."
"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea says.
"Okay," Daryl says while nodding his head. "We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold her for the night, stay with the RV." Yeah, me too. But I can just let them know that later.
"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale says.
"Thank you. Thank you both." Says Carol, her voice cracking slightly.
Daryl gives her a nod before his eyes catch mine. Send him a nod of my own, I look away as I hear Andrea say she was in. I hope he knows that nod meant that I was staying. If not, he'll find out soon enough.
"Well if you're all staying then I'm-" Glenn started to say, only to be cut off by Dale.
"Not you Glenn, you're going. Take Carols Cherokee."
"Me?" Glenns asks with a humorless laugh. "Why is it always me?"
"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on, but most importantly, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option." Furrowing my brows, I lean to the side to get a look at T-Dog as he sits on the back of the RV. I knew he got hurt when the walkers came but I didn't know it was that bad.
"That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. get him to that farm, see if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke" I don't see why you would joke about that. I think to myself as I watch Daryl from the corner of my eye as he moves over to his bike. Or his bother's bike I guess.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." Yeah, his brothers. "Why'd you wait 'till now to say anything? Got my brothers stash." Daryls says as he digs through a bag of drugs. That's nice. "Crystle, X. Don't need that." Obviously. "Got some kick-ass painkillers. Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither, it's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion." Yes, Daryl, thank you for that image. I could have died happy not knowing that.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shake my head before turning away from the others.
I guess we're done for the night, nothing more we can really do. It's almost dark, we can't be out looking anymore, as much as that sucks. Glenn's going to take T-Dog to that farm, get him fixed up and check on the others. Nothing we can do for Carl, I just hope he's still okay.
Why is all the bad shit happening to the kids? One goes missing and the other gets shot. Why did Sophia have to get lost in the woods? I ran out there, the others should have found her, not me. And why did Carl have to get shot? I should have gone with them, then maybe he wouldn't have been the one.
They're just kids, they shouldn't have to deal with this stuff. They should worry about homework and chores, not monsters chasing them in the woods and getting shot.
Kids shouldn't have to grow up so fast.
Again, I apologize for this chapter, it's not exactly how I wanted it. Thanks for reading!
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