Been a few days since I updated but I wanted to get this chapter up. Hopefully I'll be able to update again tomorrow because I'll be gone all weekend. I still can't believe how many more followers this story has gotten!

Galwidanatitud: I'm glad you liked how I did that, I was hoping that wouldn't bother people! I know it was a big gesture for him in the show.

Helliarys: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're really enjoying it! I've been trying to keep to the main story but still make it interesting and add in some scenes not in the show. And I'm glad you like how Daryl is portrayed in here as well! I know the relationship is slow-moving but from his characterization in the show and from interviews that seemed more realistic to me.

I woke up to the sun beating down against my eyelids. I let out a groan and threw a hand over my face, blocking the light. I still felt tired.

Rolling over, I opened my eyes and noticed Sarah wasn't in the bed anymore. I squinted at the window before slowly sitting up in the bed. Maggie and Beth weren't on the floor sleeping, either. I kicked the covers off of me and walked towards the bedroom window, rubbing sleep from my eyes as I went. I could see Lori and Carol hanging up laundry to dry on a clothesline they had made. A small campfire was nearby with a few empty chairs around it. I couldn't spot Rick, Daryl, Shane, or Andrea anywhere.

"Dammit," I mumbled to myself as I glanced up at the sun. It was higher up in the sky than usual when I woke up. "I must have slept in."

I was about to hurry out of the room before I stopped, deciding it wouldn't be polite to leave the sheets in a mess. I spotted a pair of clean clothes on the edge of the bed that must have been meant for me. Quickly, I fixed the bed and changed into the new clothes before I bolted down the stairs and out of the house. When I pushed open the screen door, a voice called out to me.

"What's wrong, Isabell?"

I turned and saw Glenn with an acoustic guitar on his lap seated on a wooden chair next to Maggie. I eyed the two of them before scanning the front yard.

"Where's Rick?" I asked as I continued looking.

"He left," Glenn answered me. "Went out to go find Sophia today. Split everyone up into teams a little while back."

I turned to Glenn, a pained expression on my face. "Why didn't anyone wake me?"

Glenn shrugged. "You were tired. Daryl said you'd had a late night and Rick decided to let you sleep. Your sister wanted to take you to your house in town today. Rick figured we could turn it into another food run."

"Not that there's much left in the houses to scavenge," Maggie added in.

I let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through my matted hair. I had wanted to go back out today and search for Sophia, but I wasn't about to go alone.

"Who's going on the run?" I asked, reluctantly giving up the idea of searching the woods today.

"Sarah, Glenn, and I are going with you," Maggie spoke up. Her voice sounded a little strained and I suddenly found myself wondering if something was going on between her and Glenn. They'd been strange towards each other since their pharmacy run yesterday.

"We were going to take the Jeep part of the way towards town and then walk the rest," Glenn informed me. "We'd stop at your house after we'd cleaned out some of the houses in the neighborhood."

I eyed Maggie. "You think Sarah will be able to handle seeing her neighbors as walkers?"

A strange look crossed Maggie's face. "They're…mostly cleared out from your neighborhood."

I didn't know what she meant by that but instead of asking her further, I turned my attention back to Glenn. "I'm going to find Sarah, can you be ready to leave in a few minutes?"

He shot Maggie an awkward glance before nodding. "Yeah, we can be ready soon. Just make sure you've got a bag to carry supplies and a weapon."

"Sarah's out back in the garden with Beth," Maggie told me.

I nodded before making my way out back to find her.

Behind Uncle Hershel's farmhouse was a fairly decent sized garden that looked as if it had been planted only a few months ago. There were plants of various types growing: tomatoes, carrots, squash, potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers. Most of the plants weren't ready to be harvested just yet, though.

Sarah and Beth were bent over on the ground, pulling weeds from the garden. Beth was humming a song I didn't recognize. She stopped the moment she spotted me and greeted me with a smile, which caught Sarah's attention.

"Mornin' you," Sarah said cheerily. "Guessin' you talked to Maggie about our trip today?"

"Yeah," I told her. "I was hoping to get going soon."

"I'll be up at the house in about five minutes. We're almost done with the weeds," Sarah told me.

"I'll just get my pack then," I told her and then headed back towards the farmhouse.

I had left my bag in the living room when I'd stormed into the house after my day with Daryl yesterday, and that was exactly where I found it now. One look inside proved that I was set on food and water for a quick trip, with space for adding a few extra items. Unfortunately the one pouch of the bag still reeked of dead squirrels.

I headed back outside on the porch to find Maggie and Glenn, both of which immediately became quiet at my presence. My eyes darted curiously between the two, but I said nothing.

"Alright," a cheerful voice came from a few feet away. "I'm ready to go."

I peered around the awkward pair and spotted Sarah standing with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. Her light-washed skinny jeans were covered in dirt at the knees.

We followed Glenn to the Jeep and I watched as Maggie purposefully made a straight shot for the backseat as Glenn headed to the driver's side. My curiosity was definitely peaked now, but this wasn't the time to ask questions. Instead, I took the passenger's seat and Sarah climbed into the back beside Maggie.

Glenn needed few directions from the two girls in the back of the Jeep as he drove towards town because he had made the trip just yesterday. Though after a few minutes, Sarah directed him down a few roads and had him pull over just outside of a neighborhood.

"We should walk from here so we don't draw too much attention with the vehicle," Maggie said.

I thought that sounded like a good idea, so without complaint I exited the Jeep along with everyone else. I grabbed my backpack from the floor of the Jeep, slinging it over my shoulder, before shutting the door and turning to Sarah.

"Which street?" I asked her.

She gestured her head to a street two intersections over. "It's on Locust. The house number is 3375. It's the two story blue one with white shutters and the garden in the front."

It was Sarah and Maggie who led the way to the street, informing us that we would stop through two houses first for anything useful that might still be there to find. After their walker encounter at the pharmacy yesterday, Maggie and Glenn both agreed that splitting up probably wasn't the best idea, even if it would be faster.

"Better safe than sorry," Glenn had affirmed.

The first house we entered was a pale yellow one on the corner. I followed the two girls up the porch steps with Glenn trailing behind me. He seemed incredibly on edge.

"Sarah!" I called out in a harsh whisper when the girl darted off towards the staircase.

She paused and stopped to glance back at me, a questioning look on her face.

Even though Maggie had said that the houses out here were mostly cleared of walkers, I couldn't help but remember my encounter yesterday in the small house in the forest. I had just walked into that bedroom and barely gave it a once-over and was attacked by a walker. If Daryl hadn't have been there, things would have surely gone differently. And not in a good way. I didn't want that happening again.

I pulled the knife from its casing at my side and readied it in my right hand. Glenn caught on and readied the baseball bat he had brought along.

"We need to be cautious. There could be walkers here," I told Sarah. "We shouldn't just wander off from each other and we should check the rooms thoroughly first."

Maggie and Sarah exchanged a look before they both nodded in agreement.

The four of us cleared the first level of the house before I took Sarah upstairs to clear the few rooms above. Maggie and Glenn were searching the first floor for any useful items while we did.

The second floor of the house contained three bedrooms, one of which looked like a nursery and was painted a soft blue color. The white crib was empty. The second bedroom looked to be a young girl's room with its purple walls and the dollhouse in a corner. There were three little figures seated at a dining table in the kitchen, awaiting a meal that would never come. The last bedroom was the master bedroom, which was larger than the previous two. The bed was a mess with sheets strewn this way and that, but there was nothing of use and no walkers present.

By the time I made it back down the stairs with Sarah trailing after me, Maggie and Glenn were already heading out of the kitchen. Glenn's cheeks looked a little red as if from embarrassment.

"Find anything?" I asked the two, trying to keep my voice quiet.

"Some batteries and a flashlight," Glenn responded, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

We headed to the house next door, which looked to be a little worse for wear. I could see the blue house with white shutters just next door. A beautiful garden was in full bloom out front. I felt an unexplainable pull towards it, but Sarah physically pulled me up the steps to this house.

"We'll head there next," Sarah whispered to me.

This house only had a first floor, so the four of us remained together and cleared each room before checking closets, drawers, and cabinets for anything worthwhile. I managed to find nothing more than an extensive stamp collection, but Sarah found a few canned items that she tossed into Glenn's bag.

When we were back outside, I felt butterflies in my stomach as I eyed the house next door. I didn't need Sarah to tell me this was the house we had grown up in. Just like I had known that I knew Uncle Hershel's farmhouse, I knew this house too. That inexplicable tugging sensation was back again, gnawing at the outer corners of my mind. There was some memory trying to surface, I could feel it.

A hand waved in front of my face and I jumped. I glanced to my side to see Sarah staring at me with a curious expression.

"You okay? You just kinda…spaced out for a minute there. I asked if you were ready to go in?"

"Yeah, sorry." I told her, my voice coming out a little breathless.

This time, Sarah alone led the way up the front steps while Maggie and Glenn followed behind me.

The house had a small front porch with a white two-seater swing attached to the overhang above it. I turned my attention to the front door that Sarah was opening, which was the same white as the swing and the shutters on the house. I noticed she seemed to be moving slower as she entered this house than she did the previous two.

Immediately I was standing in the main room. Light wood floors were beneath my boots and the walls were a soft gray. There were two dark gray couches in the center of the room situated around a wooden coffee table. A fairly decent sized TV was mounted on the wall with a bookshelf underneath. I crossed the room in five steps and was standing with a hand on the back of the loveseat. The fabric was soft beneath my fingers.

I saw the archway into the kitchen and made my way slowly towards it, tucking my knife back into the holster at my side. Probably not the smartest move, but the other three were following close behind me.

The kitchen and dining room were open spaced. On the left side was the kitchen, which was clean and looked fairly remodeled. Light wooden cabinets matched the flooring and gray granite countertops shined in the afternoon sunlight. The right side of the room had a long dining table with a total of six chairs—one at each end and two on each side. A floral table runner ran down the center. Dead flowers sat in a glass vase, their wilted and dried petals littering the table's surface in the center.

For some reason I made my way to a chair at the far end of the table and pulled it out, examining the design on the chair's cushion. A sound broke the silence and my head immediately shot up.

Sarah stood a few feet away, her eyes looking ready to tear up. She gestured to the chair I was holding onto the back of, a sad smile adorning her features.

"When you were fifteen you decided you wanted to sit at the head of the table. It wasn't that big of a deal but when Dad asked why, you threw such a fit over it claiming you wanted to 'break the norm.'" Sarah said using air quotes. "Dad gave you his spot. That's where you always sat for dinner ever since."

I glanced back at the chair. My head was really beginning to hurt now.

Glenn awkwardly cleared his throat. "You mind if we look around for anything…?"

Sarah shook her head. "No, go ahead. Though I don't think there's much food left in the cabinets." She turned her attention to me again. "Your room is upstairs. Want to see it?"

I nodded quietly and followed after her as she led me back into the living room and towards the staircase. The second floor opened up to a loft that looked to be an office. There was a desk and a computer with a large, black leather chair in front of it.

"Dad's work area," Sarah said quietly, her eyes lingering on the desk for a moment before she led us further on.

My boots left dirt marks on the plush, off-white carpeting as we walked. Sarah pointed out a bathroom and her bedroom, but she refused to open the door to go inside. She pointed out our parent's bedroom down the hall before pointing to my room.

The uncomfortable feeling in my head that I'd experienced the other day at the church was suddenly back as I stepped into my room. I shut my eyes a moment hoping to dull the sensation, but that didn't help.

"You okay, Isabell?" Sarah asked.

I opened my eyes and nodded my head quickly. The feeling would pass in time, that's what had happened at the church. Trying to ignore the odd feeling, I looked around the room.

There was a closet along the length of the wall to the right, across from the bed. The room was painted a teal color, I noticed. It matched the color of the bed sheets. On the wall to the left of the bed was a small dresser with a full length mirror leaned up against the wall; on the wall to the right of the bed was a long, short bookshelf. I made my way towards the bookcase and began examining some of the books on the shelf.

Grabbing one that caught my eye, I pulled it out and examined the back cover.

"That was one of your favorites," Sarah said as she made her way over and sat on the end of the bed, watching me.

I looked down at the book in my hands. Children of Men by P.D. James.

"Looks creepy," I told her offhand as I eyed the book's cover.

"Usually what you enjoyed," Sarah said with a hint of humor to her voice.

I looked back at the bookshelf and pulled out another book that caught my eye. I held it up to Sarah.

"Also one of my favorites?" I asked her half-serious, half-joking.

"Yeah, actually," Sarah said with a smile as she eyed the large, unabridged version of Stephen King's The Stand.

I eyed the two books for a moment before deciding to keep them. Sarah watched me as I pulled my bag from off my shoulder and placed the paperback books gently on the bottom of the bag. She shot me a questioning look when she caught my eye.

"You said they were one of my favorites. Maybe I'll have time to read them," I told her with a shrug.

I turned back to the bookshelf and my eye stopped on a framed photo. I recognized Sarah and myself with a middle aged couple. I picked up the frame and stood, holding it closer to examine it better. Sarah was wearing a cap and gown and posing with myself and the older couple. Everyone had a huge smile on their face.

White dots began to float around my vision. I shut my eyes to get rid of them, but the white seemed to be overtaking everything. My head was pounding and my hands were sweating.

"Isabell?"

Sarah's voice sounded distant and strange, like it was being stretched down a long tunnel. I opened my eyes but all I saw was white. My knees were buckling under me and I was vaguely aware of dropping the photo and trying to steady myself, but I fell forward, my head in pain.

"What's it like to be a high school grad now?" I teased the short brunette in front of me.

She smiled from ear to ear. "I'm so glad I'll never have to see Mrs. Finch again. Worst. Algebra class. Ever."

I rolled my eyes at my sister. "That's the thing you're most excited about? I would have guessed no more P.E. classes. My shining joy was knowing I never had to run the mile again."

"Aww, my two girls are all so grown up now!"

"Mom stop!" Sarah whined as she was pulled into a tight embrace before Mom began planting kisses on the top of her head. "There are people who can see us!"

Mom pulled back, the large smile still on her face. "Where's your father? He was just right behind me…" Her eyes darted through the throng of families reuniting with their children after the graduation ceremony. Her eyes stopped and she began waving her arms frantically to catch someone's attention. Sarah only frowned at me, looking embarrassed. "Frank!"

Dad appeared suddenly beside us, readjusting his tie with one hand as he held a camera in the other. "People have no manners, just pushing right through everyone like a bunch of animals." He glanced around behind him before three others appeared beside him. "Looks like we're losing everyone today," he joked to them.

"Hershel, would you take Frank and I's picture with the girls?" Mom asked her brother.

"Pictures?" Sarah whined in disbelief. "Can't we just go back and start the party already? I still need to make it to Lisa's tonight. She's got this bonfire party…"

"….I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I was afraid to move her."

The voice was clearer this time. I tried opening my eyes, blinking them a few times. The framed photo was lying just inches from my face, the glass broken. It must have broken when I dropped it. Slowly, I took in my surroundings as the pain in my head ebbed away. I was on the floor by the bookshelf, the entire Harry Potter series lining the bottom shelf beside me. Hesitantly I tried to sit up.

"Isabell!"

I turned and saw a relieved Sarah rushing to my side. Glenn and Maggie both seemed to visibly relax when they noticed I was sitting upright and no longer unconscious.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Sarah asked as she fussed over me.

"I'm fine," I assured her. I picked up the picture in the broken frame and held it up. "I was just looking at this picture and then I had this weird feeling. Then…I don't know…" I paused as I stared at the picture. "I think I remember this photo being taken. By Uncle Hershel just after your graduation."

Sarah couldn't contain the smile on her face. "That's good!" She turned around and beamed at Maggie, who was also smiling. "Isn't that good, Maggie?"

Maggie nodded in response.

"How long was I out for?" I asked as I stood up.

"A few minutes it sounds like," Glenn told me.

I began fiddling with the back of the frame before managing to open it. I pulled the photo out, running my finger across the image. I folded it up and placed it into my pocket.

"Find anything downstairs?" I asked Glenn.

"Few more canned foods. More crackers."

"We decided to grab the two blankets from the couches downstairs. Figure it's getting cold at night sleeping in those tents," Maggie said.

My eyes immediately spotted the folded up blanket on the bottom of my bed. I grabbed it and folded it up further, just barely fitting it into my bag. If I was planning to set up a tent to sleep in, I figured I could use a blanket myself.

"You both should grab some extra clothes. It'll start getting colder out," Glenn suggested.

It was probably a half hour later by the time we had decided we should be heading back to the farmhouse. Sarah and I both grabbed some extra clothes. I had spotted an extra blanket at the bottom of my closet. My bag had already been stuffed full, but I grabbed the blanket anyway, my mind wandering to Daryl sleeping alone in his tent, away from everyone else. I figured I could give it to him. I hadn't even bothered to try to peer into my parent's room before we had left, afraid of another memory literally knocking me on my ass.

I was surprised when we made it back to the Jeep. We had to have been gone for half the day, judging by the sun's current position, yet we hadn't stumbled on a single walker in this neighborhood. It seemed strange.

On the drive back, we had assumed our previous positions in the Jeep. Maggie and Glenn still seemed to be avoiding each other. I was beginning to wonder what else had happened on their run yesterday besides the walker attack.

I was excited when the farm came into view, even moreso when I spotted Andrea and Shane out front. That meant the search party was back and hopefully there would be news about Sophia. I jumped out of the Jeep and grabbed my bag, slinging it over my shoulder. I had to carry the extra blanket I'd grabbed since there hadn't been room for it in my bag. The moment I'd shut the Jeep door and began heading towards the porch though, I could feel the atmosphere among the group was different.

Andrea spotted me and came rushing over at a near jog. She looked distraught and panicked. My brows furrowed in confusion as she blocked my way to the house.

"What's going on?" I asked her cautiously.

"I'm so, so sorry. It was a complete accident. I thought he was a walker," she rushed out in one breath, her face practically pleading with me. "It's all my fault!"

"Calm down, what happened?" I asked her.

"Daryl," she said weakly, "I shot him. I accidentally shot him in the head."

It felt like all of the air had been knocked out of me. Daryl had been shot? In the head?

"When?" I barely choked out. I felt like I couldn't breathe again.

"Maybe an hour ago. Hershel has been taking care of him," Andrea told me.

I didn't stand there a moment longer. I sprinted up the porch steps and flung the screen door open. It slammed shut with a bang behind me.

He's going to be fine. He has to be, I thought desperately. Daryl is too stubborn to die, just like his brother.