The next day we were on the outskirts of Atlanta when Rick went off on his own with the walkie to call to Morgan again. He'd told me he hadn't heard anything from our friend yet but he still tried. I couldn't help but think about what Jenner told us Rick had told him and waited for him to come back before approaching him.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Hey." He said stopping before he made it back to the group.

"You really lose that much hope since you woke up?" I asked him and he sighed. "When we found you had so much hope and knew your family was alive. What happened?"

"You saw what it was like in Atlanta. How could I have had hope after that?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"I had hope I'd find my family and I did. I had even more hope once we found them that we'd find somewhere safe to be and we will." I told him. "How bout this, the next time you feel like you're losing faith just talk to me. I'm sure I can free some up." He smiled at me and nodded before we walked back to the rest of the group. We joined our families before deciding which cars to leave behind for gas reasons. We took the gas from the disguarded vehicles: Shane's jeep, Daryl's truck, T-Dog's car and my dad's truck. Dad, Michael, James, Shane Andrea and T-Dog would ride with Dale in the RV, Carol and Sophia would ride with Rick and his family and Daryl would be on Merle's motorcycle.

"Son, let's saddle up." Dale called to Shane who was staring at Rick and his wife. They all loaded up when Daryl walked up to me.

"Ready?" he asked me and I smiled before nodding to him. We walked to his motorcycle and hoped on before he started the engine. We all headed out. First Daryl and I, then the RV with Rick's car bringing up the rear.


In the RV, Shane was taking apart and cleaning his gun as Andrea watched him and Jack thought back to their last day at the camp they'd called home since they'd met. How could he aim a gun at a man who called him brother? Both men were obviously close in before this world began, so what happened?

"Looks complicated." Andrea said to the ex cop.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way. I could clean yours, show you how." He offered to her. He and everyone else who carried a weapon in the group knew they'd be needing more help soon. He pulled her gun out of the pack they were storing the guns in and looked it over as James joined Glenn and Dale up front. "Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece."

"It was a gift from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves." Andrea told him.

"Smart man, your father. Look, it's a- it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds." Shane explained to her.

"Oh jeez." Jack, Andrea and Shane all looked out of the windshield to see a large nightmare.

"Aw no." Glenn said as Dale stopped the RV.


"Oh my god." I said staring at all the abandoned vehicles. An 18-wheeler was on its side as other cars had been pulled off to the side and left alone. I could only imagine how many people had been in these cars, how many might have survived, and how many died. Daryl turned and pulled up next to the RV driver's side window.

"See a way through?" Dale asked us. Daryl looked back at the road block before signaling for him to follow us. He then turned around again and we moved through the vehicles making sure there was enough room for RV and Rick's car to get through.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass-" Glenn almost begged as he looked over the map.

"We can't spare the fuel." Dale reminded him. Inside the cars around us were the unmoving dead; men, women and children just lying in their cars.

"Jeez." Glenn said looking around.

"And that's the polite version of what I want to say." Jack told him. Suddenly we heard something clank and smoke rose from the hood of the engine as it sputtered loudly. I turned to see the RV stopped and patted Daryl's shoulder for him go back.


"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." Dale said as we pulled up to the RV everyone had started to crowd around.

"Problem, Dale?" Rick asked him.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—" We looked around at the dozens of cars around us. "Okay, that was dumb." Dale corrected as Daryl started going through a van.

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane started saying.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl said starting to go through a car.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog suggested moving to one of the cars.

"Maybe some water." Carol said.

"Or food." Glenn added.

"Both if we're lucky." I said.

"This is a graveyard." Lori said drawing everyone's attention to her. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"If it matters at all to you, they don't need it and we do." I told her.

"How can you think like that?" she asked me, a horrified look on her face.

"I can think this way cause this group has people who are alive and need to eat and stay hydrated." I told her. "Staying out in this heat with no water could kill someone, even in the shade of your car. The only thing we can think about right now is how to live through this, not die because of our morals."

"Is this how you raised your children? To have no respect for the dead?" Lori asked my dad and I rolled my eyes.

"No. I taught them how to survive." He told Lori smiling at me.

"All right, all right, here we go." T-Dog said moving to get what he needed.

"Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." Shane told us. Glenn was helping Dale fix the RV, Rick was keeping watch, as the rest of us looked inside the cars. I opened a car to find a rotting corpse in the driver's seat and opened the glove compartment to find cigarettes, matches, and random papers. I pocketed the matches and cigarettes before looking at the backseat and freezing. There were three more corpses, two children laying on the woman who was holding them. They looked peaceful, almost like they had been posed or something. I glanced around to see if I really needed to grab something before leaving. I went to the trunk and found clothes but not much else. I left it open for Carol and Lori to look through for their kids before moving to the next car.

"I know how much this is affecting you." My dad said next to me as the three of us moved to another car.

"This is affecting everyone." I told him plainly.

"You're right, it is. But that little speech you gave Lori..." he started saying.

"Was me telling the truth. Nothing more." I told him, stopping his words from leaving his mouth.

"You can't lie to me." He told me before stopping me from disappearing inside the car. "Going through these people's belongings is bothering you."

"Of course it is, but like I said we need to look after our own first." I said as I continued going through the cars. He left me alone and walked to the two mothers who were going through two other cars as I moved closer to Rick and Dale. I heard splashing and saw Shane wasting water by standing in a waterfall of fresh cool water. Suddenly someone grabbed me by the waist and pulled me under a car. Before I could scream a hand covered my mouth and I turned my head to see Rick. He pointed ahead of us where the RV was sitting and I could see the shuffling feet coming closer to us. There were dozens of Walkers shuffling. As they grew closer we could hear the groans of the Walkers as we tried being as quiet as possible. The Walkers moaned and groaned as they shuffled past us for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. Jack was hiding close to Sophia who was under a car alone. Carl was under the next car over from her with his me and Rick under the next car. The mothers were under a car across from us. James had managed to hide under one of the cars he'd been going through alone hoping his family was safe from the dozens of Walkers who shuffled their way through the cars. He watched as T-Dog dropped down to hide slicing his forearm in the process. T-Dog then ran quietly from the coming herd holding his arm trying to stop the bleeding. The group waited until it seemed the herd was gone before Sophia tried getting out from under her car. She poked her head out before screaming at the snarling Walker trying to get to her. She quickly moved away from it and scrambled under the road guard with not one but two Walkers now chasing her. Jack and Rick immediately ran after the little girl and the Walkers into the forest along the road. Once they couldn't be scene everyone else scrambled out from under the cars and Carol tried running to follow her daughter and the two men.

"Lori. There's two Walkers are after my baby. " Carol said as Lori held her back from trying to follow the two men.

"Shh shh. " Lori tried calming her down.


Both men were following her trail when Jack stopped Rick from moving and they listened for her. They didn't have to wait long before they heard her scream and they ran to get to her before the Walkers did. They saw her fall down and quickly stand up and she tried to run away before Rick stopped her.

"Shh shh! Are you all right? Are you okay?" Rick asked her.

"Shoot them!" Sophia said reaching for his gun.

"No. No! Those walkers on the road would hear it. Then it wouldn't be just two, it'd be hundreds. Come here." Rick picked up the little girl and the two men ran away from the Walkers. They ran until they hit a river. Rick put the child down and climbed into the river after Jack. "Come on." Rick picked the little girl up again and they made their way into the water as the growling grew closer to them. Both fathers knew they wouldn't be able to protect the little girl and get back to their families alive. "Come on. Sophia, you have to do exactly as we say. Hide in there. Squeeze in tight. Jack and I'll draw them away from you." Rick told the little girl.

"No no, don't leave me." She begged both men.

"Listen listen listen listen. They don't get winded. We do. We can only deal with them one at a time. We wouldn't be able to protect you. This is how we all survive. You understand? Okay? Go go go go. If we don't make it back, run back to the highway, back to the others straight the way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." Rick told her.

"I'll stay with her." Jack offered. "Just in case."

"Okay." Rick looked up and saw the two Walkers. "Come on! You ugly son of a bitch. Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!" He called out as he moved away from the pair. "Come on! " he ran away with the two Walkers hot on his trail before Jack and Sophia left the safety of the hutch they'd found and started back towards the rest of the group. They suddenly heard something in the bushes and Jack ushered the little girl in another direction and they quickly ran away from the noise.


"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked Rick as he, Glenn, Rick and I all looked around for my dad and Sophia.

"I left them right here. I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." Rick explained again.

"Without a paddle- seems where we've landed." Daryl said to no one.

"They were gone by the time I got back here. I figured they just took off and ran back to the group. I told them go that way and keep the sun on their left shoulder." Rick said.

"Don't worry Rick. My dad will be able to cover them both and he will wither go back to the convoy." I told him.

"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Daryl told Glenn and the Korean boy quickly moved out of his way.

"Assuming they know their left from their right." Shane said and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Shane, she understood me fine and he's a grown man." Rick said.

"They're tired and scared, man. They had a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." Shane said.

"Will you shut up?!" I asked him angrily. "My dad knows the woods better than most men know their own houses. He will bring both him and Sophia back to us safely."

"Got clear prints right here. They did like you said, headed back to the highway." Daryl said backing my words. I gave a small look to Shane before joining him.

"Let's spread out, make our way back. They couldn't have gone far. Hey, we gonna find them. She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere." Shane said to Rick and I just wanted to hit him square in the jaw.

"They were doing just fine till right here. All they had to do was keep going. They veered off that way." Daryl said pointing in another direction all together.

"Why would they do that?" Glenn asked.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Daryl suggested.

"A Walker?" Glenn asked worried.

"My dad would be able to handle one or two Walkers alone." I reminded him.

"I don't see any other footprints. Just theirs." Daryl said.

"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asked Rick.

"No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." Rick told him.

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied." Shane reassured him.

"Come on." Daryl said to Rick.

"What are you going to do?" Rick asked me.

"I'm going with you and Daryl. Two trackers are better than one and it's my dad." I said and Rick nodded before the three of us followed their trail.


Once Glenn and Shane made their way back to the highway Shane did as he said he would do and kept people busy by having them move cars off the road and some dug through the cars finding things they would need in the near future. They couldn't really afford the extra weight even with winter creeping up on them.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" Carol asked Dale.

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the R.V. turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map." Dale explained to her.

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess." Shane said.

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter and Jack get back." Carol told them.

"Hey, that goes without saying." Lori agreed with her.

"Rick, Jackie and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time." Shane said trying to console her.

"Can't be soon enough for me." Andrea said tossing a bottle of water to Glenn. "I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it."

"Yeah, what was that? All of them just marching along like that." Glenn asked.

"A herd." Shane said. "That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." He exhaled sharply before looking around again. "Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on." Carol and James were the only two not working. Carol stood by the guard rail staring out into the forest and James was on watch with a shotgun across his lap praying to whatever god would listen to him to bring both his father and the young girl he was protecting back safely.


Rick, Daryl and I walked through the woods silently following the tracks Sophia and my father left for a while hoping to find another clue.

"Tracks are gone." Rick said. Daryl bent down closer to the ground to check to see if the tracks were indeed gone.

"No, they're faint, but they ain't gone. They came through here." Daryl said pointing in the right direction.

"How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass." Rick said.

"You want a lesson in tracking or you want to find the missing members of our group and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl asked him. Rick silenced himself as we continued walking.


Back with the group, they hadn't really changed their positions or what they were doing. Carol and James were still watching the woods hoping for their missing families to return to them. When Rick had come back and asked where his dad and Sophia were Carol began to cry again and watched the woods. James had gotten angry with his missing father and noticed his sister's grip on her weapon get tighter as she took deep breaths. How could their father leave them? James didn't know if Jackie could handle another death in their family, neither could he. He could see Jackie blamed herself for the fact that their mom was dead and that stopped her from rising again as one of the dead. What would she do if she had to do the same with the last relative they had alive?


Jack and Sophia just kept running for hours. Jack ended up picking her up and putting her on his back as they ran. He knew it probably wasn't a good idea because carrying extra weight would tire him out faster, but he also knew they needed to find something to cover them during the night if they were still out in the woods when it hit them. If he couldn't get her back to her mother, which was always a first choice, then he had to be ready.


Rick, Daryl and I heard leaves rustling as we walked and we all immediately crouched down and had any silent weapons on us at the ready. Rick pointed to where it had come from and we moved closer silently to see a Walker not far from us. We both looked to Daryl who signaled Rick and me to go one way while he went another. Rick and I nodded before we all moved to our determined areas. When Rick and I were in eyesight of the Walker Rick whistled for Daryl to shot it as it growled at us before an arrow stuck with him. We quickly moved to the Walker and Daryl and I looked around for the little girl and my father as Rick knelt down.

"Sophia!"

"Dad!" we called out for them but heard nothing.

"What are you looking for?" Daryl asked Rick and I saw him looking at the Walker's hands.

"Skin under the fingernails. It fed recently." Rick said before turning the dead man over. "There's flesh caught in its teeth."

"Yeah, what kind of flesh?" Daryl asked.

"Only one way to know for sure." Rick said before forcing the Walker's shirt open and pulling out a knife to gut it with. He opened the knife to cut him open but Daryl stopped him.

"Here, I'll do it. How many kills you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mine is sharper." Daryl explained before pulling out his knife. He positioned himself over the Walker with his knife at the ready before slamming it down in its flesh. Once. Twice. Three times he sawed into the Walker before the boys could see its insides. "Now comes the bad part." Daryl said before ripping out its organs, or what remained of them.

"That's rank." I said covering my nose.

"We have to know." Rick reminded me.

"I didn't forget Rick, but damn." I said.

"Yeah, Hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." Daryl said before ripping out its stomach and laying it on the ground. "Here's the gut bag."

"I got this." Rick said cutting the stomach open making the smell a hundred times worse. I groaned before standing up straight and moving away from them slightly.

"What you ain't gunna help?" Daryl asked me.

"No. My daddy taught me women raise the babies and men eviscerate the dead." I joked with him making him chuckle at me.

"Where's your baby then and why do you get the nice shiny weapons?" Daryl asked me.

"Sorry no baby from this woman and I get the shiny weapons cause we used to live in an equal society." I said. "Besides, you two have the gloves not me."

"Remind me to get you some." He told me.

"Your first gift to me." I said as Rick finished. Rick and Daryl both dug in the contents with their knives to see the pieces.

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." Daryl said examining a large chunk.

"At least we know." Rick said getting up.

"At least we know." Daryl repeated as we made our way back to where we last saw the trail.


Back at the interstate the others were finishing their small chores for the day as Andrea walked to Carol and James crawled down from the top of the RV.

"It's late. Gonna be dark soon." Carol said staring at the woods.

"They'll find her." Andrea said trying to comfort her before turning and walking to Dale, Glenn and James. "Where's my gun? You have no right to take it."

"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asked her.

"My father gave it to me. It's mine." Andrea reminded him.

"I can hold onto it for you." Dale suggested.

"Or you can give it back to me." Andrea demanded.

"Everything cool?" Shane asked walking up to the small party.

"No, I want my gun back." Andrea said.

"I don't think it's a good idea right now." Dale said looking to Shane.

"Why not?" Shane asked and Dale sighed."

"I'm not comfortable with it." Dale finally admitted and Andrea scoffed at him.

"The truth is, less guns we have floating around camp the better." Shane said, defending Dale.

"You turning over your weapon or James his?" Andrea asked him and he chuckled at her.

"No. But we're trained in its use. That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training. But until that time I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for." Shane admitted and she scoffed again.

"Uh-huh." She said before walking away.

"Mind telling me what that's about?" Shane asked.

"Oh God, they're back." Glenn said before going back to the small search party with the rest of the group.

"You didn't find her?" Carol asked close to tears.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick said.

"You can't leave my daughter out there to spend the night in the woods." Carol said starting to cry again.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl told her.

"But she's 12. You didn't find anything?" she asked us.

"Don't worry. My dad will look after her until either they find us or we find them." I said trying to comfort the mother as well as myself and James.

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know they were out there." Rick reminded her.

"And we tracked them for a while." Daryl pitched in trying to help.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl, Jackie and James know the woods better than anybody. I've asked Daryl and Jackie to oversee this." Rick told the group.

"Is that blood?" Carol asked looking at the blood on Daryl's pants before she started breathing heavily.

"We took down a walker." Rick told her.

"Walker?" Carol whispered going frantic. "Oh my God."

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia or Jack." Rick told her.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked him. He was silent for a while, not knowing if he really wanted to answer that question.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl explained to them.

"Oh God." Carol slowly sat down on the guard rail with Lori comforting her. "How could you just leave them out there to begin with? How could you just leave them?"

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick explained to her going down on his knees to look her in the eyes.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane said defending his friend.

"How were they supposed to find her way back on their own?" Carol asked him.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick told her.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane told him.

"My little girl and their father got left in the woods." Carol said before crying again.

"My dad taught my brother and I everything he knows about tracking." I told her. "He'll find us or he will make sure we find them. I promise." I told her. Andrea sat on her other side as the rest of the group walked away from the grieving mother and her support group. I stood up and watched Rick walk off from the rest of the group before following him.

"It's not your fault." I called to him making him stop and turn to me.

"How is it not my fault?" he asked me angrily.

"There was nothing else you could do Rick. There was no way you and my dad could have won that without the possibility of leaving her alone in the woods." I told him. "You did the right thing."

"I should have stayed with them. Your dad and I could have killed them then come back and we would have moved on." He said.

"Yeah, that could have happened. And someone could have gotten bit in the process. Or more Walkers could have shown up." I said. "There are a lot of what if questions around every choice we make. What if Sophia hadn't moved? What if you or my dad hadn't gone after her?"

"What ifs won't change what happened." He said and I nodded.

"So quit dwelling on them." I said sitting on the hood of a car. He thought about my words for a minute before leaning on the same car.

"How can you be so calm right now?" he asked me and I almost laughed.

"Oh, I'm not. I'm freaking out just like Carol." I told him. "But why blame you for my dad deciding to run after Sophia? He would have run after anyone who was being attacked like that."

"You're almost like an unmovable rock, you know that?" he asked me and I laughed at him.

"Nah, I just bottle everything up inside. Someone really pisses me off they're going to get all that anger and rage, even if they don't deserve it." I told him.

"That's your one weakness huh?" he asked with a smile.

"I probably have more. But since when do people notice their own weaknesses?" I asked him. We sat in silence after that and watched the sun set before joining the rest of the group for some sleep.


In the woods, Jack and Sophia they were both very tired and panting as they moved. Jack picked her up and held her close to the closest tree limb.

"Climb." He told her. She gave him a confused look before doing as he said. He followed soon after and then held her so she wouldn't fall off.

"Why are we up here?" she asked him.

"That way if a Walker passes close to us we'll be safe from it." He told her smiling at the little girl. He didn't know if a Walker smelt them it wouldn't climb but he didn't need to frighten the young girl. It only took minutes for the young girl to fall asleep in his arms as he stayed awake to keep watch before falling asleep hours later.


The next morning we all gathered around a car as Rick opened up the rolled up weapons his son had found the day before.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick instructed.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked.

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

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea said.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Shane told 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. Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Daryl told everyone.

"Dale should stay to fix up the RV and Michael should stay with T-Dog to keep an eye on his arm. James, you stay and stand watch for them." I said and everyone agreed, except my blonde friend.

"Why don't I go with you?" Michael asked me.

"Someone with training needs to stay with T-Dog. You know that as well as I do." I told him and he just stared at me.

"Everybody assemble your packs. Keep on those repairs. We've got to get this R.V. ready to move." Rick told Dale as Michael and I stared each other down.

"You need me out there." Michael told me quietly.

"Do you not see how many people I have coming with me. Deal with staying." I said.

"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back." Dale said as I finished prepping my pack.

"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone?" Rick asked Dale.

"I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible." Carl said and I smiled as his parents groaned.

"Your call. I can't always be the bad guy." Lori told her husband.

"Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands." Dale said.

"Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions." Rick told him and the family of three moved away from the older man as Andrea walked up to him.

"Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position." Dale told her.

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

"I'm doing this for you." He told her.

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop. 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?" she asked him.

"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." Dale reminded her.

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay." She reminded him.

"You chose suicide." He corrected.

"So what's that to you? You barely know me." She said.

"I know Amy's death devastated you." He said.

"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?" she asked him angrily.

"I saved your life." He told her.

"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?" she asked him.

"Maybe just a little gratitude." He told her and she looked at him shocked.

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale." She told him.

"But—" he started saying but she stopped him.

"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?" she asked him. By this time the entire group was staring at the pair as they argued loudly.

"I don't know what to say." Dale told her.

"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 told him before walking away from the heartbroken man. It was obvious to tell he thought of her as the daughter he either no longer or never had. I turned with the others to go out to the woods leaving Dale, James, T-Dog and an angry Michael behind as we went.


Jack and Sophia climbed down the tree carefully and continued on foot. They needed to find something to eat for the two of them or they would slow down even more and that could mean the difference between life and death for the pair.


In the woods we walked with Daryl in front, then me, Rick, Andrea, Carol, Glenn, Carl, Lori, and finally Shane. We all walked quietly to where the trail ended yesterday then continued the way Daryl had suggested. We walked for hours until we found a tent with nothing sitting outside of it.

"She could be in there." Shane said as we gathered around the tent slowly and quietly.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl corrected as he, Shane, Rick and I watched it for movement. Shane, Daryl and I moved closer as Rick told the others to stay put before joining us. Daryl told us to stay put with a hand motion before pulling out his knife and putting his crossbow down and carefully checked to try and see the inside of the tent next to the zipper then again at the corner.

"Carol." Rick said motioning to Carol and ushering her to us. "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." Daryl was at the ready with his knife just in case a Walker came stumbling out.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" Carol called into the tent. We waited for either her or my dad to answer. Nothing. "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy." We waited for a spell before Rick, Shane and I moved closer to the tent as Daryl unzipped it slowly. He opened the tent and we all gagged at the smell. Daryl moved into the tent as Shane, Rick and I coughed and gagged on the smell.

"Daryl?" Carol called to him. "Daryl?" we hadn't heard any fighting from inside so no Walker, yet I still sighed in relief when he walked out of the tent.

"It ain't her." He told us.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked him.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl asked.

"The very words." I said. Suddenly we heard church bells and we looked around for the source of the sound before we all ran towards it.


Jack quickly turned on his feet at the distant sounds of bells. If the others were looking for them, and he had no doubt they were, they'd go towards the sound thinking the missing duo might be hunting for them. But he also knew that every Walker in the area would head towards that bell sounds. Pros: They'd be found and their might not be many Walkers in the area. Cons: The church could be extremely far away and there could be hundreds of Walkers between the duo and the search group. What direction was it coming from?


"What direction?" Shane asked.

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick told him.

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here." Shane said.

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia and Jack did too." Carol said hopeful.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn suggested.

"Or signaling they found her." Andrea said.

"She could be ringing them herself." Rick said before we took off in the direction he thought they were ringing from.


"Ain't you supposed to be fixing that radiator? What if they come back with Sophia and Rick wants to move on right away?" T-Dog asked Dale who was standing watch better then James was. Michael was sitting in front of the RV watching the woods, waiting for his friend to come through them again.

"I had it fixed yesterday." Dale told him.

"What? What was all that rubbing and sanding for then? That just bullshit?" T-Dog asked him.

"Yeah, that's one word. Another word would be pantomime- just for show. No one else needs to know that." Dale told him.

"Pantomime." T-Dog repeated.

"If the others know we're mobile, they'll want to mobilize and move on." Dale told him.

"So you don't think they're gonna find Sophia, that it?" T-Dog asked him.

"I'm just guarding against the worst. Sooner or later, if she's not found, people will start doing math. I want to hold off the needs-of-the-many- versus-the-needs-of-the-few arguments as long as I can." Dale explained.

"Jackie, James and Carol won't leave without their families back together." Michael said drawing the other two men's attention. "And in the long run having James would be better for the many and the one."

"That is one tricky hose, huh?" T-Dog asked and Dale looked down on him with a smile.

"Very."


We ran out of the forest to find a small church with graves littered around it.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick." We followed Rick as he ran past the graves towards the church. We got to the red door of the church and anyone who had a weapon drew one before the door was opened revealing three Walkers. They stood up slowly and any weapon that would draw more was put away in exchange for a silent one. Rick went to the one in overalls and quickly jammed a knife in its head before making sure he'd never rise again. Shane stabbed the other man in the eye as Daryl made his way silently to the woman. He made kissing sounds to make her look at him before killing her in one swing as the other two turned the heads into soup.

"I think they're dead boys." I told them as we all piled into the church.

"Sophia!" Rick called out.

"Yo, J.C., you taking requests?" Daryl asked the statue in the front of the room.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane reminded Rick. Suddenly we heard the bells again and rushed outside to find a loud speaker attached to a small box. Glenn opened the box and ripped the electronics out of it.

"A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl said.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said and the rest of us followed her. Carol kneeled in the front of the church as we all stood in the back except for Lori who sat behind her.

"Father, forgive me. I don't deserve your mercy. I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and you provided. I prayed for Ed to be punished for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul. I prayed you'd put a stop to it, give me a chance to raise her right, help her not make my mistakes. She's so fearful. She's so young in her way. She hasn't had a chance. Praying for Ed's death was a sin. Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe, alive and safe. Please, lord. Punish me however you want, but show mercy on her." Carol prayed. Once she was done she went to Lori and the brunette held her as she silently cried. We piled out of the church after Carol's prayer.

"You ain't gunna pray for your dad?" Daryl asked me.

"No. My dad can handle himself with or without celestial help. Besides if there is a God, why did he do this to us? To watch us run around life ants getting rained on?" I asked him. I'd never been much of a believer and what was happening in the world only strengthened that.

"You never know. You could be the one person he listens to." He said before joining the others under a tree.

"I wouldn't." I said quietly before joining them myself. In the short distance I could see Rick and Shane talking, deciding what to do with what light we had left. No one talked in the small group until we heard Shane come up to us clearing his throat.

"Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane instructed.

"You're splitting us up." Daryl said looking at the two men in charge. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane replied.

"I want to stay too. I'm Sophia's friend." Carl said. Both men didn't say anything before Lori walked up to her son.

"Just be careful, okay?" she told him.

"I will." He told her.

"When did you start growing up?" she asked him before kissing the top of his head and hugging him before we started moving. Rick and Lori said their brief goodbye to each other before he pulled out his gun and handed it to her.

"I'll be along soon enough. Here, take this. Remember how to use it?" he asked her.

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Lori told him.

"Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl said making Rick feel better about leaving his wife figuratively alone. We walked back to the impromptu camp we'd set up on the other side of the woods in silence for about an hour before the silence was broken.

"Why didn't you go?" Andrea asked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"Why didn't you go with them to find your dad and Sophia?" she elaborated.

"I figure if my dad didn't go towards the bells then they might be headed back. We might run into them or they may already be back at the interstate right now chowing down on something canned." I said giving hope to the mother walking behind me. "Besides three people are easier to keep quiet than four." My words sent us into another silent walk.

"So this is it?" Carol asked braking the second bout of silence. "This the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl said.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun." Andrea said looking at me and Lori.

"You have got to be kidding me." I nearly laughed at the stupidity of this woman.

"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Lori told Andrea handing her the gun Daryl had given her. "All of you. 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. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he and Jack didn't hesitate, did they? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori told us before taking a drink of water. Andrea walked up to her and handed her the gun back.

"We should keep moving." She said.

"One more thing Andrea." I said as the others started to walk away. "Dale, for whatever reason, loves you as a daughter. The only thing I've seen you do to that man is make him worry his ass off. You were right, he shouldn't have taken your choice cause in this world that's all we've got. But you should also know that he doesn't want to lose the only family he's had this entire time." I said before joining the others with her following me. Suddenly we all froze at the sound of a gunshot that ran through all three groups of people in the woods.