I was perched on the bonnet of one of the vehicles. Away from the group but still in sight. My mind was racing with all of the possibilities of where Sophia could be.
Hopefully, she had found an empty house and was holed up away from the wind and the walkers that lurked outside. Even better yet, she had found another group of survivors that were kind and took her in and fed her.
Any other outcome made a shiver run through my spine. Carl had been noticeably down since Sophia's disappearance, she was, after all, the only other child in the group and her and Carl had got along particularly well.
"We'll find her, y'know?" Glenn's voice pulled me out of the reverie, I looked up to see him watching me with a look I knew was supposed to be reassuring.
"Is it exhausting being so positive all the time?" I half smiled back to him, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards. "I hope we do."
"Thinking about your Dad too?" My gaze dropped to Glenn's shoes at this. When we came back from the search without Sophia, Carol had blamed my Dad for leaving her and not protecting her properly when he previously found her in the woods. No one had seen Dad since he wandered off between the abandoned vehicles, away from the group. "No one blames your Dad for any of this, Carol doesn't either, she's just upset."
I nodded, not lifting my head, Glenn's arms were placed around my shoulders as he buried my head into his neck, squeezing me tightly. After a while I pulled away patting his sides as I leaned back.
"Think I'm gonna go find Dad." I muttered, giving him a small smile.
It wasn't hard to figure out where Dad had gone. The car we had arrived in was parked in the direction he had headed after Carols accusations.
Pulling the door open, I dropped into the passenger seat beside him. Picking up the Sheriffs hat from the console between us, I placed it on my head.
"I know that you protected Sophia the best that anyone could have possibly protected her." My words came out slowly and carefully, making sure they sank in.
"I don't know if I did, Nic." He muttered, still not looking at me.
"Do you remember when I was fifteen and I had a massive crush on Billy White?" I couldn't help but grin at the memory and I was happy to see a grin tugging at the corner of Dads mouth.
"He was a jerk, and he was too old." He shook his head, sighing deeply. "You hated me for that."
"Yeah I did," I shrugged, causing both of us to laugh. "But you were right, he was a jerk, how many girls has he got pregnant and abandoned since then? I hated you at the time but I love you so much more for it now." Dad sighed deeply before turning his head towards me. "I know you protected Sophia just as well as you would have protected me or Carl out there."
I leaned across the console and gave him a kiss on the cheek, squeezing his hand briefly.
"You should keep the hat." He grinned glancing to the top of my head. I smirked before taking it off and placing it back on his head.
"Think it's yours for another while, give it to Carl when it's time to pass it on."
The next morning, at sun rise, we called a group meeting. Everyone was going to have to pitch in in the search for Sophia.
Dad placed a roll of weapons across the nearest car bonnet before announcing that everyone should take one.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need." Andrea spoke up, glancing at the roll distastefully. "What about the guns?"
"We've been over that," Shane said somewhat impatiently. "Daryl, Rick, Nikki and I are carrying, we can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."
"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea sighed.
"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment," Shane carried on. "A herd happens to be passing by, that's game over for all of us."
"But yet the kid gets one?" I narrowed my eyes as she gestured in my direction.
"I'm trained." I snarled back at her.
"Nikki's been around us and guns since she could walk, that's not up for discussion." Dad shook his head.
"So you need to get over it." Shane said pointedly to Andrea as she huffed in frustration.
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles," Daryl began explaining the route, the tension defusing slightly as the others focused on what Daryl was telling them. I narrowed my eyes one last time at Andrea as she glared back at me. Shooting her a look before turning my attention to Daryl. "Turn around and come back down again the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek."
"Stay quiet and stay sharp." Dad warned everyone. "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."
"I'm going with you." Carl spoke up as we began assembling our packs. "You need people right? To cover as much ground as possible."
Carl and I both watched as Dad sighed loudly before looking in Moms direction.
"Your call," She shrugged. "I can't always be the bad guy."
"Okay, but always within our sight, no exceptions." Dad sighed, patting Carl on the shoulder, I watched as Mom shook her head in slight disbelief.
"So that's both of my kids wandering around the woods." She sighed, raising her eyes to the sky.
"We're not wandering we'll be with everyone else." I muttered reassuringly, bumping my shoulder off hers.
I glanced back as I heard Carl talking loudly to Shane. We were now deep in the woods, I tried to concentrate on my footing as Carl's words drifted to my ears.
"Keep it down," I heard Shane snap at him. "We're looking for Sophia."
I grit my teeth, Carl loved Shane, always has, I knew how much it would hurt Carl to hear Shane talking to him so impatiently.
"C'mon squirt." I grinned at my little brother, pulling him in front of me.
"I think Shane's mad at me." He muttered, looking towards the ground as we walked.
"Shane's just worried about Sophia, that's all." Mom spoke up from in front of us. I rolled my eyes before crouching down to Carl's ear.
"Shane can be an ass." I muttered, my little brother smirked before moving to walk alongside Mom, looking a lot more cheerful.
After another while of walking I felt Glenn's arm against my stomach, bringing me to a stop. I frowned to him in confusion, he answered me by pointing ahead.
Daryl, Dad and the others were all crouched low in the bush, watching something intently. Glenn and I followed their lead, bending until I could just barely see over Shane's shoulder.
I realized what they were looking at was a grey tent set up in a small clearing between a few trees.
"Could she be in there?" I whispered to no one in particular. It was Daryl that answered.
"There could be a whole bunch of things in there."
I raised my gun and aimed, allowing my eyes to search the surrounding area as we followed Daryl and began to sneak towards the tent.
Dad, Shane, Daryl and I crept towards the bush, somehow I had found myself in front of Dad in the advance, it was short lived though as he grabbed my elbow and pulled me behind him so I was between him and Shane.
I held my breath as Daryl advanced towards the tent alone, Dad and Shane each placing a hand either in front of me or on my shoulder to stop me from going any further.
Daryl threw his hands in the air, shrugging slightly as he glanced back to us, not being able to make out what was in the tent.
I winced as Dad called Carol to come towards us.
"Call out softly," He told her. "If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."
"Sophia, sweetie." Carol began to call in her timid voice. I found my eyes scanning the area around Daryl, getting ready to spring in to action if anything should try and harm him. "Sophia, it's Mommy."
"Stay with the others." Dad growled to me as he and Shane moved closer to the tent. I didn't try to argue as I realized everyone else was left unprotected if I moved with them.
My breath hitched as Daryl stepped into the tent. Coughing and covering his nose, I realized it was because of the smell emitting from the old tent. Clearly a bad sign.
"It ain't her." My breath came out as one when Daryl appeared from the tent unscathed.
"What's in there?" Carol asked, almost not wanting to know the answer.
"Some guy, did what Jenner said." Daryl sighed. "Opted out."
I felt my shoulders relax slightly as a wave of disappointment washed over me due to the fact that we hadn't found Sophia.
Turning to ask Daryl which direction we were going next, my words got cut off by the sounding of church bells nearby.
The sound was almost haunting in the deserted woods and caused panic in every one of us as we looked to each other. Where were they coming from?
