Jack and James were sitting in the truck on the way to Atlanta unable to turn around and go back home because of the severe traffic jam. They'd passed out what food they still to the elderly and children first before spreading it beyond them as far as it could go. That was hours ago when the sun was up shining bright above their heads.
"What do you think is going on up there?" James asked his dad.
"I don't know," Jack looked around at the miles of cars on either side of the truck.
"You think Mom and Jackie are in here somewhere?"
"Not even a little," Jack told him with a smile. "Your sister will have your mom safe back home. When we're able to turn around, we'll join them. We'll be safe from those things."
"What were those things?" James asked thinking about the creatures that had attacked them the previous day in King's County.
"I don't know," Jack told him before the radio started to go out. Jack messed with it, trying to get the broadcast back, but it was gone. The two shared a look before hearing the helicopters overhead. Jack got out of the truck and watched them fly to the city. "Stay here." He ordered his son before going onto the highway and moving up the cars, closer to the city. He bobbed and weaved through the people and vehicles until he was able to reach a part of the forest overlooking Atlanta. He'd gotten there just in time to see the bombs hitting the city. It looked like a scene from a horror movie. The people who were supposed to protect them, offer them shelter and a safe place to stay, were bombing the city they'd told them all would be safe.
"What the hell...?" Jack whispered looking down at what was once the city of Atlanta.
James was sitting on the RV keeping watch over the camp when I joined him. He'd kept watch overnight so Dale and Glenn could sleep. Lori'd asked me to help her and Carol with laundry, and I'd agreed. I'd rather be out looking for my dad and Sophia, but we needed help in the vamp just as much as we needed help with the chores just as much as we needed to find our missing people. I sat on the Rv next to James and looked out over the field in front of us. James hadn't talked to me much since Dad went missing.
"Hey," I greeted, but he kept silent. "What's wrong?"
"What makes you think something's wrong?" he asked me.
"Cause I know you," I reminded him. He stayed silent for a moment, and I sighed. "Is it about Dad?"
"Why would it be about Dad?" he snapped.
"Because I couldn't track him and Sophia which is why we're all stuck here."
"You're not the only tracker in the group." I shook my head at him. That was the problem? I didn't let him help track Dad and Sophia?
"You want to help," I didn't have to ask.
"I have to do more than just sitting on my ass on top of this RV," he complained. "You're not my mom; you can't tell me not to."
"You're right; I'm not mom. But I am the boss of you simply because I'm your older sister. And Rick's the leader of our group, so you do as he says and he'll look to me when it comes to you," I reminded him. "I'm not ready to lose anyone else just because you want to play hero."
"Unlike you?" he asked me with a glare.
"This isn't a game, James. Dad could be dead, or worse. I have every hope that we'll find the two of them, but I'm not about to risk your life for it."
"But you'll risk yours?" he nearly yelled at me. "When you came back and told us mom was dead..." he shook his head. "Dad had hoped the two of you would find us together. And look what happened with that."
"This isn't the same thing," I told him. "Sophia's small. Dad can hide her easily compared to an adult."
"Whatever." He turned away from me and stared at the field. I just sighed before climbing down from the RV and going to join Carol.
"Where's Lori?" I asked her grabbing a basket of clothes and following her to the washbins.
"Still sleeping," she told me.
"Should we wake her?"
"No, she would let us sleep. We should let her sleep." I nodded before sitting down next to her and washing the wild away from our clothes.
Carol and I spent a good portion of the morning washing and drying clothes before Lori finally joined us.
"Morning sleeping beauty," I greeted her with a smile.
"I can't believe I slept in," she said stretching her back.
"You must have needed it," Carol commented as Lori grabbed some clothes to hang for drying. "Feeling all right?"
"Next time wake me, all right?" Lori asked us. "Especially on laundry day."
"We had it covered," I told her.
"I had an idea I wanted to run by you," Carol told her.
"What's that?" Lori asked her.
"That big kitchen of theirs got me thinking. I wouldn't mind cooking in a real kitchen again. Maybe we all pitch in and cook dinner for Hershel and his family," Carol suggested. Lori and I just glanced at each other without saying a word. "Kind of looking for things to keep my mind occupied."
"After everything they've done for us seems like the least we could do," Lori told her.
"You mind extending the invitation?" Carol asked her.
"It's your idea. Why don't you do it?" I asked.
"Would feel more right coming from you," Carol told Lori.
"How so?"
"You're Rick's wife. It sort of makes you our unofficial First Lady," Carol told her, and I laughed.
"I've never thought about it that way."
"Morning guys, let's get going," Rick called from the group with Shane right behind him. "We've got a lot of ground to cover."
"You two gonna be okay without me?" I asked the women.
"Of course," Carol offered me a smile, and I joined the group to go looking for our missing family members. We all crowded around the hood of a car.
"All right, everyone's getting new search grids today," Rick told us. "If they made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, they might have gone further east than we've been so far."
"I'd like to help." We turned to see the young boy from the house, Jimmy, walk up to us. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."
"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked him.
"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you," Jimmy told us.
"We should still ask," I said. "Just to be sure."
"Another minute we're here is another minute they're out there," Jimmy reminded me, and I looked at Rick.
"We could use all the hands we can get," he told me before turning to Jimmy. "Thanks."
"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia or Jack to me," Shane said, and I sighed. "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."
"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea asked him.
"Whoever slept in the cupboard was no bigger than yay-high," Daryl said holding his hand up about Sophia's height.
"Dad would have made sure she was completely safe before finding himself a good place to keep watch," I told them. "Was their room for two in there?"
"No."
"It's a good lead," Andrea told him.
"Maybe we'll pick up her tail again," Rick suggested.
"No maybe about it," Daryl told him, and I smiled. "I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."
"That's a good idea," T-Dog told him. "Maybe you'll see you Chupacabra up there too." I started laughing before Daryl gave me a look and I tried to hide it.
"Chupacabra?" Rick asked him.
"You never heard this?" Dale asked us. "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting, and he saw a Chupacabra." I bit the inside of my cheeks to stop from laughing as Jimmy started.
"What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asked the boy who immediately stopped laughing.
"Your dumb ass. Obviously," I joked with a smile.
"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Rick asked him.
"Do you believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl asked back, and I nodded my head to the side.
"You might have a point."
"Bet your ass I do." Jimmy reached for the gun Dale had just placed on the map, and Rick quickly pulled it out of his reach.
"Hey, hey. Ever fire one before?" Rick asked him.
"Well, if I'm going out I want one," Jimmy told him.
"Yeah, and people in hell want Slurpees," Daryl told him.
"Why don't you come train tomorrow?" Shane asked him as he started to walk away. "If you're serious I'm a certified instructor."
"For now he can come with us," Andrea suggested.
"He's yours to babysit then," Shane called out as we loaded up with guns.
"All right," Rick said pulling our attention back to him. "Andrea, T-Dog, I want you guys..."
After a day of finding nothing, I made my way back to camp to see Andrea on the RV talking to Dale.
"You guys see James?" I asked them.
"He's resting in his tent before dinner," Dale told me.
"Thanks." I turned and made my way back to my tent when I heard the magic word.
"Walker. Walker!" I ran back to the RV and tried to see what she saw. In the far distance, I could barely see a figure limping our way.
"Just the one?" Rick asked her. Andrea looked through the binoculars before putting them back down and picking up the gun.
"I bet I can nail it from here."
"No, no, Andrea. Put the gun down," Rick ordered as the rest of us grabbed weapons.
"You'd best let us handle this," Shane told her.
"Shane, hold up," Rick ordered. "Hershel wants to deal with walkers."
"What for, man?" Shane asked him. "We got it covered." Shane, T-Dog, Glenn, and I ran towards the walker, and I could hear Rick running up behind us a ways back. We got in the walker's face, and I felt my heartbeat pause for a moment.
"Is that Daryl?" Glenn asked.
"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head," Daryl said, and I sighed with a smile on my face. He was alive. "You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Suddenly, a gun went off, and Daryl went down. I rushed to his side and tried to help him up and to Hershel
"No!" Rick called back to the camp. "No! No!"
"Rick!" We heard Lori call out before Hershel's voice picked up.
"What on Earth's going on out here?" Daryl's hand moved to his head to rub the wound and see the blood.
"I was kidding," Daryl said as we picked him up supporting him between Shane and Rick. Andrea and Dale ran out to meet us as the guys supported Daryl to the house.
"Oh my god!" Andrea said. "Oh my God is he dead?"
"Unconscious. You just grazed him," Rick told her.
"Next time let us handle it," I told her.
"But look at him," Glenn said pointing at him with his gun. "What the hell happened? He's wearing ears." Rick quickly ripped the ears off Daryl's neck and stuffed them in his pocket.
"Let's keep that to ourselves."
"Guys." We turned to see T-Dog holding Sophia's doll in his hand. "Isn't this Sophia's?"
"I found it washed up on a creek bed right there," Daryl told Rick while Hershel stitched him up. "She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere."
"Cuts the grid almost in half," Rick told Shane and me.
"Yeah, you're welcome," Daryl said sarcastically.
"How's he looking?" Rick asked Hershel.
"I had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly," Hershel complained. "Any idea what happened to my horse?"
"Yeah, the one who almost killed me? Is it's smart it left the country," Daryl told him.
"We call that one Nelly, as in Nervous Nelly," Hershel said. "I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. It's a wonder you people have survived this long."
"Beginning to get that feeling myself," I sighed. Rick, Shane, and Hershel all left the room, and I sat on the chair Shane had occupied earlier. "How you feeling?"
"I was shot," he reminded me. "How'd you think I feel?"
"Shot and stabbed all in one day. This a normal Tuesday for you?" I joked with him. "Did you find anything from my dad while you were out there?" He just stared at me for a moment.
"No, but he wouldn't leave her."
"Yeah, I know," I said. "And he wouldn't let her turn. Or himself." We sat in silence for a moment. "I'm sorry I wasn't out there with you."
"That wasn't the plan," he reminded me.
"No, but none of us should go out there alone anymore. Maybe if you'd had someone with you, you wouldn't have been shot."
"Or you'd be another body. You think your brother would want that news?"
"At this point, I don't think he cares much about what happens to me," I told him looking down at my feet.
"He does," Daryl told me, and I looked back up at him. "He's just angry. Give him time." I nodded before standing up.
"Carol and Lori are cooking with Patricia and Beth. I'll make sure you get something to eat." I left the room and went to go find James.
"James?" I called into his tent but didn't get a response. "James? I'm coming in." I opened our tent to see him reading. "Why didn't you answer me?"
"Didn't want to."
"Dinner's almost ready. You coming?"
"Yea," he sighed.
"Daryl came back. Found evidence of Sophia being out there."
"And Dad?"
"He just found Sophia's doll, but that a good thing James. Means they're still out there."
"Or they're dead and Sophia the walker doesn't need a doll." I sighed before sitting next to the sleeping bag he was laying on.
"Why do you think they're dead?"
"Why wouldn't they be?"
"I didn't die out there. Dad may have taught us everything we know, but I bet he didn't teach us everything he knows. Not yet. But he will. And he'll teach the rest of this group too. That way we'll all survive this."
"We won't all survive," he said finally turning to me.
"Maybe. But we'll give hell to whoever takes our people away from us."
"Family," he said, and I looked down at him confused. "You can't go through a thing like this and not be family." I smiled.
"Family."
That night at dinner was quiet. I helped Carol and Lori place plates of food on the table before everyone sat down. Jimmy, Beth, Maggie, Glenn all sat at one table while the rest of us sat at the larger table.
"Does anyone know how to play guitar?" Glenn asked, and everyone turned to him. "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's got to know how to play."
"Otis did," Patricia said, and everyone went quiet again.
"Yes, and he was very good too," Hershel said.
After dinner, I made a plate for Daryl and took it back to him with Carol right behind me. I opened the door and he turned his head towards us before grabbing the blanket and covering up. He didn't cover up in time for me not to see the scars on his back. I waited until he was comfortable before letting Carol walk in behind me.
"How are you feeling?" Carol asked him.
"As good as I look," he told her as I placed the plate down next to him.
"We brought you dinner," I told him and he turned to us.
"You must be starving." He turned more toward the plate and she leaned down to kiss him on the side of his head.
"Watch out. I got stitches," he reminded her before looking back at the other wall. She gave me a small look before I turned and left them alone.
"Get better," I told him with a smile before walking out the door.
"Hey," I looked up and smiled at Michael.
"Hey. What's up?" I asked him.
"Just wanted to talk to you about something."
"Shoot."
"What do you see in him?" he asked me and I looked at him confused. "Daryl."
"He's a member of the group and he's trying to help me find my dad and Sophia."
"You never really liked me did you?" he asked me.
"You're my friend," I reminded me. "Of course I like you."
"Not like the way I love you though," he said and I licked my suddenly dry lips. I'd known he'd had a thing for me for a long time. One of the reasons I put so much distance between us, but I'd hoped he'd never try and act on it.
"No. Not like that." I tried to leave but his arm blocked my path.
"But you like him." We both knew it wasn't a question, but I turned to answer him.
"He's doing more for me than you are. Without us, you'd be dead."
"I was with a group in Atlanta."
"Who ended up dead," I reminded him. "This is a good group who've stopped to find a missing man and child. What have you done since we've been here?"
"I helped save Carl's life."
"Helped being the keyword. You could help around camp if you're not going to help us find Dad and Sophia. Be the little bitch that you seem to want to be." I forced his hand away from me and walked back out to my tent.
