They ended up riding Daryl's bike slowly along the intermittent hoofprints and other sign, including disturbed brush and walker tracks. He told Carol the walkers had been pursuing the horse, but at one point they gave up and drifted off in another direction, probably when they couldn't see it or hear it anymore. "Walkers don't know how to track." Neither did most men, Carol thought, and was grateful her husband did.
They had to stop and dismount to pull the bike over a fallen tree once. Another time they had to stop to kill several walkers. A third time, Daryl was uncertain about the direction of the trail, and need to walk a little in two directions before he determined which way to go. But mostly, they rode slowly, and Carol was glad they'd thought to refuel on the highway.
They had weaved a long way on a rough trail in the woods when Daryl said, "Think I know where this is going." He revved the bike and shot forward, and Carol tightened her grip on him. It was a bumpy ride over sticks and rocks and other forest debris until they came out on the edge of the forest onto a clearer dirt road, and then Daryl really took off.
Carol didn't question him. She trusted he knew what he was doing, and his muscles were so tense that she thought it was better just to let him push forward without having to explain himself. But soon she began to recognize where they were. They were heading down the back way toward the old, burned-out, Greene family farm.
That herd had long ago moved on from the farm, and Dixon, T-Dog, and Glenn had already been back to pick the place clean for gifts for their beloveds. But Carol hadn't seen the farm since it was abandoned, and her heart sunk at the bleakness of it—the burned-down farmhouse, the trampled fields, the skeletal remains of feasted-upon farm animals in a place that had once held such promise. It was uninhabitable now. Like Fun Kingdom. Like the CDC. Like the quarry camp in Atlanta. Would they ever build anything that endured in this world?
One thing in the desolate landscape made her heart leap, however, with momentary hope and joy. Standing before the rubble of the barn, saddled and snorting, was Maggie's mare Freckles.
Daryl purred to a stop at some distance, so as not to spook the horse, and they dismounted and walked cautiously toward the animal, Carol clicking her tongue. She'd studied under Hershel to learn veterinary medicine, and the horse knew her well enough and eventually came to her. Carol petted its nose, kissed its mane, and whispered, "Please tell me you brought Sophia."
Daryl was already ahead of her, running to what was left of the farmhouse, shouting Sophia's name. Carol tethered the horse to the hitch of a burnt-out pick-up truck near the house and they searched the farm for a good hour, but there was no sign of human life, no sign that the horse had brought its rider here.
"Freckles needs water," Carol said, because that small task was easier than thinking about what they hadn't found. She cupped her hands and Daryl poured water from his canteen into them, which the horse licked up thirstily. He repeated this three times before taking a swig himself and then handing the canteen to Carol. She took two swigs, screwed on the cap, and said, "I don't understand. The horse came here alone, but saddled?"
"Think she lost 'er rider at the fork," Daryl muttered. "Where they split. Now that I think 'bout it, tracks weren't as deep once they split. Freckles was carryin' less weight from that point forward."
"But there was no body at that fork. Or down the other path."
"Nah, and the prints were deep the other way, 'til I lost the trail. Think whoever was riding Freckles got on Magnus when they got attacked by the walkers. Probably dismounted to kill them walkers. Freckles got spooked and ran…eventually started to sense she was near her old home…went home. But the riders both went off the other way on Magnus."
"So only two people got out on the horses?"
"Could have been three, maybe, depending how heavy they were. Ain't no kid can ride Magnus but Sophia, right?"
"Well, Beth. He's her horse. And she's not a kid, exactly, but, I mean, she's light."
"Dixon thought she took his bike."
"Maybe she didn't. It could be Beth, Sophia, and one other kid who escaped on those horses. Mika, maybe. Maybe even Luke! He's small enough they could have crammed him in! Beth could have been riding with Mika, and Sophia with Luke, and then all four got on Magnus!" Carol wants to believe that, desperately. "When you saw the tracks on the shoulder, when both horses had riders, how heavy were they?"
"Hard to tell. One was deep enough for a grown woman maybe. Not a heavy man. Could have been Maggie riding. Freckles is her horse, after all."
"What now?"
He sighed. "Gettin' on sunset. We'll hole up in Dixon's cabin tonight. Ain't far from here by bike on that dirt path. At first light, wanna go try to find that trail that got lost in the creek."
Carol nodded. "I'll ride Freckles after you."
When they got to Dixon's cabin, the trip wire was down, so they just rode over it, bike first, then horse. The military truck Dixon had been driving was parked in the circle. When she saw Dixon's racing bike at the side of the cabin, Carol thundered to the front, vaulted off the horse, and hitched it to a post in the porch railing. Daryl was already clattering up the stairs. When he threw the door open, Carol was right behind him.
As they burst into the living room, Beth and Dixon, who had been kissing before the fireplace, pulled apart. Across Beth's chest, in a sling, the infant Judith slept. Mika lay curled up and asleep on the couch beneath a blanket.
Carol was relieved to see Mika, Beth, and Judith alive, but her eyes kept darting around the living room again and again, as if by doing so they might miraculously land on Sophia. But of course it would have been a tight enough fit for an adult woman, a child, and a baby on that racing bike. There's no way a young teenage girl could have fit as well. Even so, the desperate question - "Sophia?" - escaped her lips.
Dixon, wincing, shook his head. "Not here."
"She get out?" Daryl asked.
Beth opened her mouth, shut it, and swallowed. Then she opened it again. "I don't know."
Beth wasn't able to tell them much more than they had already deduced. The fire had spread quickly as the result of multiple lightning strikes in a dry thunderstorm, and by the time the watchman could raise the alarm, half of Fun Kingdom was already ablaze. The flames drew walkers from the woods into the parking lot. Some people were trapped in the crumbling buildings. In the chaos that unraveled, many were cut off from each other by flaming debris.
A hasty, unorganized evacuation unwound. Getting out had required flinging open the gates to bring in the military truck. That, in turn, let a few walkers inside, while several of the Fun Kingdom soldiers—on foot and in the armored vehicle-cleared a path through the growing herd in the parking lot.
Judith had been in Beth and Hershel's room because Rick was on watch on the slides and Michonne was on perimeter foot patrol. Beth had volunteered to watch the little girl. Hershel got his daughter out of the flaming House of the Future, along with Judith, Sophia, and Mika, through an upstairs window, but he hadn't made it out himself before the second story collapsed. This Beth told them with a shaky breath, and more than a few tears.
The collapse divided Beth and Mika from Sophia, and all of them from the military truck that was loading up escapees from the front. "I couldn't see where Sophia went."
"She have 'er sword?" Daryl asked.
"Yes. But not much else. I only had time to grab my knife and the pack Rick left me with Judith's bottle and formula."
Beth had run from the fire, Judith strapped to her chest and Mika's hand in hers, toward where she knew Dixon's bike was parked, desperate to get the baby and little girl out. A few walkers had by now made their way inside through the open gate, and one was near the vehicle. Beth dropped Mika's hand and took the little girl's knife – which Mika had seized before fleeing – to stab the creature. She must have stepped in its blood before they mounted the bike.
By now the dry thunderstorm had turned to wet. The clouds were unleashing a torrent of rain. The wind howled. It was hard to see anything. Beth shot through the open gate, covered by Rosita and other soldiers who were gunning down walkers. As she did, she heard the military truck roaring toward the gate. "Maybe Sophia was in it," she suggested hopefully to the desperate parents. She didn't know who had been loaded inside. Most of the walkers they'd found within the gates had likely not flooded in from the parking lot until the evacuees fled, leaving the gate open in their haste to depart, and the monsters had ended up feasting on the bodies of the badly burned, the dead, and near-dead who had been reluctantly left behind in an attempt to rescue as many people as possible before flame and walkers overtook them.
"You dunno who got out on the horses?" Daryl asked.
"The horses got out?"
"Think maybe Soph was on one."
Beth came to Dixon's cabin because she wasn't sure where else to go. She thought maybe everyone would think to come here, since this was where they hid the kids during the war with Woodbury.
"Should have had a rendezvous point 'stablished," Daryl muttered, "in case some shit like this ever happened."
They'd planned for war. They'd planned for fences and gates that would withstand walkers—when they were closed. They'd planned for gardens and water and meat and supplies. They'd planned for the future of Fun Kingdom. But they hadn't planned for its instant destruction. They hadn't planned for a catastrophic event that would force them all to flee their home at once.
9:00 PM
Dixon's Cabin
Daryl lay in the bed on his back, his hands on his stomach, looking up at the shadowy wood supports on the ceiling in the glow of the starlight easing through the open blinds of the window. From the next room seeped the soft sounds of Beth and Dixon's lovemaking. The gentle rise and fall of Mika's breath kept rhythm beside him. On the other side of Mika, Carol cried quietly.
That crying was the most painful noise Daryl had ever experienced. Worse than nails on a chalk board. Worse than a fork scraping a metal plate, than the screaming cats that used to live in the trailer park where he and Merle had once lived for six months. Worse than anything, because it didn't irritate him – it cut him straight to the heart.
He swung himself out of bed and shoved his feet into his boots. He hadn't gotten undressed to sleep, so all he had to throw on was his leather vest and his crossbow. From the nightstand, he seized his gear bit by bit. He clipped his holstered gun to his belt, then his two knife sheaths, then his magazine pouch, then his flashlight.
"Daryl?" Carol asked at the noise.
"Gonna walk the road," he said. "Look for our girl."
"Daryl, it's so dark. You—"
"—Ain't goin' to the creek. Just gonna walk the road. 'Case she doubled back on the highway. 'Case she 'membered where the cabin was. Or 'case she's in the truck and it's coming back here. Try n' sleep."
He was gone before she could tell him to stay.
June 26
Daryl got three hours of sleep before he and Carol left at daybreak to try to pick up the lost trail. They took the horse, because it would be easier to get in and out of tough spots in the woods than the motorcycle. Beth, Mika, and Judith stayed at the cabin, while Dixon reset the tripwire and took his racing bike to search the road for the military truck and armored vehicle, and also to try to find some formula for Judith, since Beth only had enough for the morning bottle.
"If Dixon doesn't find formula," Carol told Beth, "we've got apple juice in the truck. Water it down. A lot."
They spent hours trying to pick up the missing trail. Daryl was angry with himself when he couldn't find it. Carol could feel that self-loathing in the tightness of his muscles as they rode home in the hazy, red-orange glow of the sunset filtering through the trees. It would have been a gorgeous, romantic moment, a sunset like that, beheld on horseback, between her husband's legs, if it had been any other day. But now, that sinking sun only heralded an unwanted pause in search.
When they returned to Dixon's cabin, the armored vehicle and second military truck were parked outside. Daryl let out a "Hi-ya!" slapped the horse with the reins, and thundered forward, forgetting, in his excitement, about the tripwire, which sent the loud pop and crackle of firecrackers echoing in the evening air.
Rosita, Rick, and Dixon spilled immediately out of the front door of the cabin, rifles sweeping the circle. They relaxed when they saw who had tripped the wire. Dixon went to reset it while Daryl dismounted and held out his hand to help Carol down.
Carol strode straight to Rick. "Sophia?"
When Rick looked at his shoes, she knew what that meant.
"Then she's on that horse," Carol insisted. "She's still alive and she's on that horse."
Rick looked up and met her eyes, and it was only then that Carol realized he was as desperate as she was. "Maybe Carl is, too."
8:40 PM
Dixon had found the evacuees camped out at an abandoned gas station, where they were resting up, treating burns and minor injuries, and debating where to go from there. He led them back to the cabin, where Rick fell to his knees at the sight of a still-living Judith.
Sleeping bags and blankets now lined the living room before the fireplace, like one giant sleepover for the kids. The Fun Kingdom Governing Board conferred on the front porch. Carol sat in the rocking chair, taking meeting minutes on a pad she'd rustled up from the kitchen. Of course, all their previous meeting minutes were burned up, and she wasn't sure what the point of keeping these were anymore, but it gave her something to do, something to distract herself ever so slightly from the heaviness of the meeting.
Meeting adjourned 8:40 PM on June 26, 2011.
Board members here present:
Rick Grimes
Rosita Espinosa
Glenn Rhee
Carol Dixon
Daryl Dixon
Tara Chandler
Andrea Mamet
Maggie Rhee (newly appointed)
Michonne Hawthorne (newly appointed)
1. Resolved: The Governing Board will now consist of nine members instead of twelve. (Approved 7-0)
2. Resolved: Upon nomination and acceptance of nomination, Michonne Hawthorne and Maggie Rhee will fill the eighth and ninth slots on the board. (Approved 7-0)
3. Henceforth, all resolutions must be confirmed by a vote of at least six of the nine board members. (Approved 9-0).
3. Verified: In addition to the above-mentioned Governing Board members, the following individuals have been successfully evacuated from Fun Kingdom:
Children-
Mika Samuels
Andre Hawthorne
Louis Morales
Eliza Morales
Duane Jones
Luke Donaldson
Savannah Smith
Molly Evans
Owen Marshall
Adults-
Eugene Porter
Father Gabriel Stokes
Theodore (T-Dog) Douglas
Dogs-
Daisy
Merle
Dixie
Horses-
Freckles (here present)
Magnus (believed to have been evacuated and at large)
Carol read the list again and felt her stomach roll. It was too short. Far too short. Andrea had lost Milton. Rosita had lost Oscar. Duane had lost his father Morgan. Tara had lost her sister and niece. Luke had lost his newly found grandmother. T-Dog had lost Patricia. Bob and Sasha had been overtaken clearing walkers. Hershel had perished saving his daughter. Tom and Charlotte had likely perished together. Dixon's dog Daisy had lost her canine mate Max. Three of the puppies had perished, and all of the other animals. And there were far too many other adults and children dead, burned or buried beneath the ashy rubble of Fun Kingdom, their corpses now consumed by the walkers that had slipped in after the evacuation.
At least two people had escaped on horseback, but no one could be certain who. Sophia? Carl? Patrick? Some of the other children? One of the unaccounted-for adults?
3. Resolved: Dixon and Rosita will be sent as supply runners to continue the search for formula tomorrow. (Approved, 9-0)
4. Resolved: Daryl and Carol will continue the search for the horse and its riders tomorrow. (Approved, 9-0)
5. Resolved: Tomorrow, after reloading guns with the ammo looted in northern Virginia, Rick, Maggie, Glenn, and Michonne will return to Fun Kingdom in the armor vehicle to see if the herd remains and if any further survivors can be found in the vicinity. (Approved, 9-0)
6. Resolved: The day after tomorrow, if no additional survivors are found, the Fun Kingdom camp will move on to northern Virginia and see if one or more of the coalition communities will assimilate us.
"Ain't leavin' m' little girl," Daryl insisted. "Staying to track, as long as it takes."
"So am I," Carol averred.
"And I'll stay with you," Rick said. "To look for Carl."
"Judith lost her wet nurse," Michonne told Rick. "The formula in the warehouse likely burned up. Even if the supply runners find a can tomorrow, it will only last so long. She can't survive on juice and water, not without malnourishment. We can probably find a wet nurse for her in the Coalition. Carol says they had a couple babies in the Kingdom and in Alexandria. And I have to think of Andre. He needs to be in a safe community."
"I can't just leave Carl. If he's alive, if he's out there—"
"—then Daryl and Carol will find him. But you have a baby daughter to consider, too."
Rick sighed heavily, but he nodded his agreement.
6. Revised Resolution: The day after tomorrow, if no additional survivors are found, the Fun Kingdom camp will move on, except for Daryl and Carol, who will remain to search for the horse and its riders. (Resolved, 9-0)