Victoria found herself pressed against Andrea as they slipped into the lavatory and silently groaned - a pack of undead surrounding the camper and she's cornered in a tiny bathroom, of course that's her luck.
"Okay." Andrea trembled, sliding down the tiles. She unfurled the rag in her lap and began piecing together the disassembled gun with gusto. "Okay. Okay. Okay."
Victoria ignored her, pressing her ear against the door with a shuddering inhale. Their unwelcome visitor was shuffling closer to the back of the camper, sniffing out his next meal with a delight hiss.
It was otherwise silent, Victoria hoped that meant the other survivors were okay.
Already bored of the camper, the infected stumbled away from the bathroom. Victoria breathed, relief pouring out of her as she looked over her shoulder.
Andrea was still desperately trying to create a weapon and Dale was trying to break through the mesh vent above them with a screwdriver.
Victoria curled her fingers around the grip of her pistol but she knew better. They couldn't risk making any-
"Shit." The pistol frame fell drop Andrea's shaking hands, clattering loudly against the floor.
Victoria heard the infected stop in the middle of the kitchenette. With a heavy swallow, she braced herself against the door. Andrea followed, slipping her legs between Victoria's and pushing against the door with her feet.
The women were caught off guard as the infected threw itself at the door, nearly taking it off the hinges. Before they could shove back, a gnarly hand slipped through the door frame.
Andrea yelped, which only spurred on the monster. It growled, catching a fistful of Victoria's hair and tugging her forward, smacking her head into the door.
With a bright explosion, stars covered Victoria's vision. Her heart pounded against her rib cage as a sharp, high-pitched ringing deafened her - oh god, not now, not now!
She gritted her teeth and rammed into the door with her shoulder. The infected howled, releasing Victoria as its wrist snapped back with a sickening crack.
Enraged, the undead hurled itself at the door again with enough forced that Victoria stumbled back into Andrea's cowering form.
The door swung open, introducing the infected man to the women.
"Fuck!" Victoria caught the snapping jaw that launched at her and struggled under his impressive strength. "Get off!"
He hissed and Victoria gagged at the dank breath lingering in her nostrils - his latest victim, no doubt.
She pushed the infected against the opposite wall, still clutching his jaw as it gnashed at her.
Out of nowhere, Andrea shouted and launched from the bathroom, reaching over Victoria's shoulder and driving Dale's screwdriver into the infected's eye. The eyeball popped and gushed like a fountain, spraying the women with brilliant red.
As the man flailed, Victoria used the leverage to shove him to the kitchen floor and rip the weapon from his eye. The squirt of blood that painted Victoria's chest didn't slow her down. She stabbed the infected in his other eye again, and again, and again until the blood stopped streaming and the man wasn't thrashing between her legs anymore
"A- are you o- okay?" Andrea whimpered from behind her.
Victoria collapsed back with a strangled gasp, the wind knocked out of her all at once. "I think so." She said, willing away the the darkness lurking at the edges of her vision. Victoria gingerly touched the tender spot on her head. She was okay, there wasn't a hair out of place - just a bitch of a headache. "Are you?"
Andrea released the breath she was holding. "Yeah. Yeah."
Victoria grabbed the kitchen table and heaved herself on the bench with shaky legs. She glanced out the window, relieved that the group of walkers had moved on and their tango with the undead hadn't attracted any of his friends.
"Christ." She muttered as she stood, kicking the dead body for good measure. "What a welcome." Victoria turned to Andrea, who was still kneeling in the bathroom doorway, and offered her a hand. "You've got red on you."
With one crisis averted, another was hot on the heels of the Atlanta survivors.
Andrea, Dale and Victoria caught up with the others just in time to watch Rick hop over the guardrail, tumble down the hill and vanish through the dense trees.
The survivors emerged from under the cars, none as hysteric as Carol as she rolled from under a truck.
"There's two walkers after my baby!" She wailed as she shot forward, running to follow the Sheriff.
Lori caught the woman around the waist, covering Carol's mouth with her other hand.
Without hesitation, Shane and Glenn followed Rick into uncertainty with the bold promise to bring Sophia back.
It was dumb to make promises to a grieving mother - rookie mistake.
"T's bleeding in the RV." Daryl dropped a first aid kit into Victoria's arms before rushing to follow the other men.
She stared at the kit in her arms, dumbfounded, before sprinting back to the camper.
She stumbled across T-dog lying near the trailer, half-lucid, muttering to himself about geeks - another creative name for the infected, Victoria guessed.
It was easy to see what Daryl meant by bleeding. There was a large laceration down the length of T-dog's forearm and despite being messily wrapped in a greasy rag, the large man was bleeding out rapidly.
Victoria knelt down and began cleaning the wound with shaking hands. It was a deep cut, too deep for a few bandages and gauze. He needed stitches, which the first aid kit didn't supply.
Victoria did her best cleaning, wrapping, and bracing his arm with what she was given but even after she helped bring T-dog into the camper, the man was still at risk of bleeding out or getting an infection.
Victoria helped Dale drag the dead body from his kitchen, in desperate need of a shower as she wondered from the camper.
Nowhere was safe, apparently.
Victoria was unsurprised to find Carol keeping vigil by the guardrail while the others were pushing cars out of the way.
"The hell happened to you?" Shane spluttered as she approached.
"Baptism by blood." Victoria explained wryly. "A - what did you call them? - a walker found me and Andrea in the camper. I think we handled it okay." She ignored Dale's soft chuckle from the camper and added, "I did what I could for T-dog but I think the dude's gonna need stitches." She jerked her head towards Carol. "What happened out there?"
"Some walkers spooked Sophia and she took off." Shane ran a hand through his thick curls. "Rick and Daryl are on it. Do me a favor-"
"Why aren't we all out there lookin'?" Carol interrupted, stepping between Shane and Victoria. "Why are we moving cars?"
Dale exited his trailer with his, cleaned off, screwdriver. "Well, we have to clear enough room so I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running." He gestured to the backed-up highway surrounding them. "Now that we have fuel, we can double-back to a bypass Glenn flagged on the map."
Shane surveyed the road with a frown. "Going back's gonna be easier than going through this mess."
Carol shot a glare at Shane that Victoria didn't think was possible from the small woman. "We're not going anywhere 'till my daughter gets back!"
"Hey." Lori warned as she joined in, dropping a laundry basket of canned food near them. "That goes without saying."
"Look. Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay?" Shane tried to appease Carol with a charming smile. "Just a matter of time."
"Can't be soon enough for me." Andrea complained as she and Glenn joined them too. She gave a bottled water to Victoria before cracking another open with an irritated huff. "I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by - or whatever you'd call it."
Glenn nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow with a contemplative frown. "Yeah, what was that? All of them just, marching along like that?"
"A herd." Shane tested. "That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like that night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer."
Victoria scoffed, taking a sip of water. "So, what? They like, travel in groups now?" She rolled her eyes. "Wonderful. Like, who knows what else they're learn next."
Glenn and Andrea shared a look of dread behind Victoria, murmuring their agreements before Shane cut them off by taping the hood of the trailer.
"Okay, come'on people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. You." He pointed to Victoria, his face contorting with disgust. "There's a truck filled with water down the road. Come and find me when you've cleaned up, alright?"
Baptism by lukewarm water was much better then infected blood.
The water truck was a godsend, a little gift in the middle of the shitstorm. Sure, there wasn't any privacy, or a tub, and soap was a luxury long gone, but once she wrung out her clothes and got the blood out of her hair - sitting under the cold water, pressed up against the tiles, watching the blood circle the drain as she scrubbed herself, rubbing the same spot idly until she couldn't feel her consciousness fluttering or the heavy weight on her chest.
Victoria pressed her eyes shut, desperately willing the memory back to the dark, hidden corners of her mind. A breakdown wasn't a luxury she could afford either.
She opened her eyes and looked for Shane instead of wallowing.
Victoria found him under the hood of a tiny, silver car. "So, is everyday as eventful, man?"
Shane set down his wrench on the fender. "Every day since Rick found us." He muttered with a head shake. "Dale told me about the walker." He glanced up with a lopsided grin growing on his lips. "You held it down, huh?"
Victoria leaned next to him, eyebrow raised at the amused tone. "It ain't my first rodeo, buddy." She squinted at the engine, wondering why Shane was bothering with a car in the ditch. "Anything you need help with here, Deputy Sheriff?"
His expression clouded, the teasing grin replaced with pressed lips and furrowed eyebrows. "Actually, there is something I need to talk to you about." He leaned closer, his voice soft as he started. "Listen, I'm-"
"Shane!"
Victoria and Shane bolted apart as Carl shouted, sprinting at them with a leather bound bundle jingling in his arms.
"Carl?" Lori waved around the cars, chasing him with a worried expression. "What happened?"
Carl dropped the bundle at Shane and Victoria's feet. "Mom! I found something cool."
Lori sighed as she stopped behind him, half relieved, half annoyed as her son beamed up at her.
"Shane, check it out." Carl exclaimed, unrolling the bundle.
It was a roll of utility blades - tomahawks, machetes, axes, even little army knifes with compasses and matches built into them.
Victoria couldn't help herself, grabbing a tactical switchblade and flicking it open. She whistled as the curved, serrated blade sprung out. Apocalypse kits weren't uncommon but were frowned upon by the law.
Victoria silently thanked whatever poor, prepared bastard Carl stumbled across.
"It's an arsenal." Carl puffed out his chest proudly.
"That's cool, bud." Shane turned back to the car, muttering, "Go give them to Dale."
"Check this one out." Before Victoria or Lori could stop him, Carl lifted an axe and held it up. "Whoa! It's a hatchet."
The large, dangerous weapon looked ridiculous in his small hands.
Lori cocked her hip, lips pressed into a firm line. "Be careful. Don't play with those."
Victoria leaned back as the boy swung the axe a little too close to her face.
"What did I just say?" Lori barked and opened her hand, impatiently waiting for the weapon.
"Can I keep one?"
Lori scoffed. "Are you crazy?" She wrenched the hatchet from him and crouched down, putting the weapon back where he found it.
Carl whined. "No way." He looked up Shane with big, pleading eyes. "Shane. Shane. Tell her to let me keep one."
Shane looked over his shoulder, a sneer on his lips as he snapped, "Hey, man, go give them all to Dale. Now. Go!"
With tears welling behind his crystal eyes, Carl nodded.
Victoria rolled up the bundle, placing it in the boy's arms. "C'mon, kid. Let's go show them to Dale while Shane works."
Lori gave her dejected son a gentle push to the camper, giving Victoria a thankful, albeit thin, smile.
Victoria didn't know much about being a mother but she knew when a woman was about to lose her cool, and Lori was about to flip shit.
She hurried after the boy, who didn't say a word as he slouched into the RV.
"That's not a mess you want to get in between." Victoria heard Andrea warning her. But she wasn't getting involved, Carl just didn't deserve the shit Shane was throwing at him.
"Alright, little dude. Spill." Victoria followed Carl inside. "Where'd this come from?"
Carl shuffled his sneakers. "I found them in a car." He sized Victoria up, like he was deciding if she was worth it or not. He looked just like his dad, but Victoria could see Shane's influence lingering behind the boy's icy eyes. "There was a dead guy in it." Carl finally added, looking up through shaggy bangs. "He almost fell on me."
Victoria couldn't help but chuckle, the kid was about as brave and stupid as his father. "It's a damn good find."
He lit up with unabashed pride.
Victoria twirled the survival knife between her fingers, adding a little more flare than necessary. "Do I look cool?"
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Carl nodded, "Super cool."
Victoria crouched down to the boy, whispering to him like she had an important secret. "How about this? If you promise to be extra careful, I'll show you how to hold a knife properly. And if you listen and can prove to me you'll be safe, I'll mention it to your parents."
"I'll be extra, extra safe!"
As dusk fell over Georgia, Rick and Daryl had yet to return with little Sophia.
While antsy behind Carol's back, the survivors were nothing but optimistic that Sophia would be returned to her mother. But Victoria knew better and toed the line of pessimism, the odds of finding the girl were becoming slimmer and slimmer as the day came to a close.
Rick wouldn't see it like that, Victoria was sure of it.
In the meantime, she tried to keep Carl busy but he had the attention span of any other 9 year old and returned to his mother for dinner, regaling his mother with tales of Detective Morgan and her Super Cool Job.
As she left the camper, she saw Dale watching her as he fiddled with the RV's engine.
"What?"
"Nothing." Dale promised. "I just heard you humoring him all day. Most of them wouldn't have the patience."
Victoria shrugged. "It can't be easy being a kid in a world like this." Plus, why would she willingly spend any time outside after that goddamn herd?
"I imagine you're right." Dale wiped his hands on a greasy rag. "It's not easy being an adult in this world either, Detective."
Victoria arched a brow.
"I'd hate to bring it up again but, Shane was right. You're not a coward, you're much braver for facing the world, I think."
Victoria opened her mouth, poised to tell him how wrong he was but nothing came out. She sagged, the words caught in her throat, and began nodding as Andrea stormed over to them.
"Where's my gun?" The blonde demanded of Dale. "You have no right to take it."
Dale tilted his head, a suspiciously innocent grin behind his beard. "You don't need that just now, do ya?"
"My father gave it to me. It's mine."
"I can hold onto it for you."
"Or you can give it back to me."
Victoria watched them like a riveting game of tennis, slowly backing away until she hit a solid body - Shane.
He stood next to Victoria with an exhausted sigh. "Everything cool?"
"No." Andrea crossed her arms over her chest. "I want my gun back."
With the stern bend of his stark white eyebrows, Dale looked between Andrea and Shane. "I don't think it's a good idea right now."
Stuck in the middle anyways, Victoria wondered out loud, "Why not?"
"Yes." Andrea agreed, turning on Dale with narrowed eyes. "Why not?"
Dale took a step away from the imposing women as he muttered, "I'm just not comfortable with it." He pointedly gazed at the gun strapped to Victoria.
Victoria took her own step back away from the trio, itching to reach for her pistol - this was about the CDC.
After Shane convinced Victoria to leave, Dale and Andrea emerged from the CDC with seconds to spare. Dale obviously still had his grievances with the women's choices.
"Ah." Shane caught on and looped his fingers through his belt loops. "The truth is, the less guns we have floating around the camp the better."
Andrea raised a challenging eyebrow at him. "You turning over your weapon?"
The Deputy chuckled as he shook his head. "No." He said. "But I'm trained in it's use. That's what the rest of ya'll need is proper training but, until that time I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for."
The glare only darkened as Andrea scoffed before storming away.
Victoria patted Shane on the chest, muttering, "I'll see you later."
"Oh, no you don't. We gotta talk about that gun strapped to you too."
A rush of fear gripped Victoria and this time, she did reach for her gun but Glenn dropped a milk crate of supplies by them and startled her before she could.
"Oh god. They're back!"
Victoria turned, watching as Rick and Daryl emerged from the treeline bloodstained and empty-handed.
Carol bounced alongside the guardrail, wrapping her arms around herself as she waited for Sophia to appear behind them. "You didn't find her."
With a sigh frown, Rick stepped over the railing. "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light."
"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods!"
"Out in the dark's no good."The aloof expression softened on Daryl's face as he approached Carol. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves - more people get lost."
"She's twelve." Carol cried out. "She can't be out there on her own." Her teary eyes flashed to Rick. "You didn't find anything?"
Victoria doubted it.
"I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic." The Sheriff requested with a pleading gaze. "We know she's out there."
"And we tracked her for a while."
"We have to make this an organized effort" Rick announced to the people hovering around Carol. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."
Carol ignored him, finally noticing their crimson stained clothes. "Is that blood?"
Rick sighed. "We took down a walker."
"Walker?" Carol whimpered. "Oh my god." She twisted away from them with a sob.
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia."
Andrea leaned over, her inquisitive eyes bouncing between the men. "How can you know that?"
Victoria almost didn't want to know by the queasy pull of Rick's mouth.
"We cut the sonuvabitch open, made sure." Daryl answered, coaxing the harsh words with a surprising amount of gentleness.
Carol collapsed, sitting on the rail with her eyes squeezed closed. "Oh god." She gasped, ignoring Lori's supportive arm around her shoulders. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She barked at Rick. "How could you just leave her?"
The Sheriff took a step back, grief hardening his handsome features.
Victoria stepped closer. Carol wouldn't hear anything over her distress, and Rick would know that as a police officer but it seemed he was taking this personally.
"There were to walkers on us." Rick crouched down to Carol, trying to meet her eyes. "I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."
Shane backed up Rick with a nod. "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol."
In her distress, the mother shook her head. "How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" She demanded, her voice breaking as she murmured, "She's just a child. She's just a child."
"Children will surprise you." Victoria finally spoke up, surprised by the steel in her voice. "They adapt quicker then the rest of us. She may be lost but she'll figure to out in the meantime."
"You can't know that." Carol hunched forward. "My little girl got left in the woods." She finally wept, leaning into Lori with a pitiful cry. "My daughter got left in the woods."
Rick lifted to his feet with a weak nod to the rest of the group. He brushed through the crowd and ventured deeper into the wreckage until he was out of sight.
As Andrea and Lori tried to console the distraught woman, the rest of the group made themselves scares. Victoria lingered near the station wagon parked behind the camper, keeping the women in her line of sight just in case the apocalypse had anymore surprises for them.
Shane leaned against the car next to her. "What do you think?" He asked her, voice lowered.
Victoria made a non-committing sound from the back of her throat.
"You're a detective, talk to me - what're you thinking right now?"
"I'm thinking that you're going to bury that girl before you find her alive." Victoria rubbed her temples, feeling the headache throb behind her eyes as she watched Carol sob. "Man, look, the first seventy-two hours are the most important but like, that doesn't mean shit anymore." Her fingers lowered, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she murmured, "Christ, five minutes doesn't mean anything anymore either. We find Sophia tomorrow or we accept the fact that we won't."
Shane carded a hand through his hair. "I know. You're right, I know." He grumbled. "This was the last thing we needed right now."
Victoria's shoulders lifted. "Out of the frying pan."
Shane made a sound of agreement before shuffling closer, crossing his arms over his muscular chest. "You gotta give me that gun."
Her hand shot up to the pearly grip of her pistol. "Absolutely not, man."
"It just ain't gonna look good if you have your gun and they don't."
"I am the most qualified person here. My gun licence is in my bag and guess what, dude? It's my badge."
"It don't matter-"
"Dammit, Shane." She snapped, backing away from the man. "I'm not gonna blow my brains out the moment you turn your back on me!"
"It ain't about that." Shane shot back.
Behind him, Victoria saw Lori glance up from the railing with concern. Victoria leaned further behind Shane until the women couldn't see each other anymore.
"Listen. I'll keep it on me, it won't even leave your sight if that's the problem. You have my word."
She smacked her lips, there was no way she was giving up her pistol. It left her defenseless, open to becoming some lucky bastard's happy meal. "I can't - I won't give you my gun. I need something to defend myself with and you're not going to be with me all the time."
"You can take a hatchet or one of the machetes." He ran his hand through his hair again, swiping it down his face after. "I need you on my side, Victoria. Lemme tell you something, my word means a lot to me and you have it. I got your back."
Victoria started to pull her pistol from the holster. "It doesn't leave your sight, do you understand me?"
"I got it."
"And the moment we're in danger - real danger - I want it back, even if I already have a weapon."
"Okay."
Victoria begrudgingly pulled out her pistol and placed it in Shane's palm. "Fine. I'm on your side."
As he sagged with relief, breathing a quiet thank you, Victoria's stomach flipped - she had a feeling she was going to regret that promise.