I just want to say thank you to each and every person who has followed, Favorited and reviewed this story, those of you who read every chapter or even just read one, thank you so much for the support of my little fanfiction.

I'm hoping you all love Nikki just as much as I do and the bond between her and Rick is quickly becoming my favorite.

Keep the reviews coming as I love to hear your opinions!


The sound of heavy breathing and pounding footsteps bounced off the trees around us as we sprinted towards the source of the ringing bells.

My lungs were protesting heavily against the speed my legs were carrying me but the thought of finding Sophia kept me running through the sharp pains stabbing at my chest as my lungs begged for air.

"It's done." I shouted as the longest silence yet sounded through the forest after the last bell. Dad was pretty sure he knew where the sound was coming from so we carried on none the less.

After a while we came to a large clearing in the woods, a small white chapel sat in the middle of the clearing with a graveyard scattered around it.

I quickly climbed the small set of steps up to the chapel, falling in line behind Dad, Shane and Daryl. I pulled my sickle from my belt as Dad signaled to us to keep quiet.

My breath caught in my throat as the doors of the chapel were pushed open. A small number of people were sat inside the church, facing the alter. It was almost as if we had just interrupted morning mass.

At the sound of the doors creaking open each walker turned in their respective pews. Groaning soon met my ears as they each stood, jaws snapping at the first bit of food they've seen in god knows how long.

Snapping myself from my reverie and I walked forward with the others, sickle at the ready. A walker came towards me that looked like he could have been an old farm hand. He was dressed in an old, dirty brown t-shirt with dungarees pulled over it.

His unhinged jaw snapped at the sight of me in front of him, bracing myself I clenched my fist tight around the handle of the sickle and jumped forward, swinging my weapon at the same time.

I tried to not think about what I was doing as the sickle stuck in the side of the walkers head, causing him to fall limply to the floor, finally free of all animation.

Looking around I could see each walker laying now lifeless on the floor of the church, bludgeoned in their own way from whichever one of us took it down.

"Yo J.C, you taking requests?" Daryl mumbled up to the statue of Jesus watching over us from the alter.

I turned back to the corpses laying on the floor, wondering how long they had been here. How long did it take for them to die? These were clearly people who had come down for a routine morning mass and had been left to this fate.

"We'll get used to it." Daryl mumbled from beside me, he was watching me as I stared at the corpses on the floor.

"I really hope we don't." I muttered back to him, tearing my eyes away from the walkers.

"There's no steeple, Rick!" Shane was doing his best to convince Dad that this chapel was not the source of the ringing bells. Dad had opened his mouth to argue back but before the words left his lips a loud ringing sounded once more.

Daryl reacted the quickest, leaving my side to sprint out of the doors we had entered and make his way around the chapel. The rest of us were quick to follow.

"It's on a timer." He panted, pointing up to the speaker hooked up to the wall of the chapel. I watched in hopelessness as Glenn rushed forward to a control box and dislodged some wires, bringing the ringing sound to a stop.

"I'm gonna go back inside for a bit." Carol whispered before climbing the steps to the chapel once more. I focused on my shoes as I told myself repeatedly not to cry. It had felt like we had come so close to finding Sophia. My Dads arm was around my shoulder, squeezing me to him as I buried my head in his chest, his other arm around Carl.

I didn't remove my focus from my Dads comforting warmth as he led Carl and I into the chapel.


The tears fell hot and fast down my cheeks as Carol pleaded for the mercy of her daughter. I turned my body into Dad, circling my arms around his waist as he squeezed me back with one arm, his other resting on Carl's shoulder.

After we were all finished in the chapel we filed outside to figure out our next move. I stood with my back to the group, wiping the tears from my cheeks quickly, not wanting anyone else to see that I had been crying.

A red cloth appeared in front of me as I sniffled loudly, I looked up to see Daryl passing by, the red rag held out at arm's length.

He didn't say anything, just looked to the red rag in his hand pointedly before thrusting it in my direction one last time. I gave him a small smile before taking it, dabbing my eyes quickly.

Arms encircled me once more and I knew from the scent that it was Glenn who was hugging me to his chest.

"Why did the world have to go to shit like this?" I mumbled into his shirt. "Everything was okay, we were happy. No one asked for any of this."

"We'll be okay." Glenn muttered into my hair, rubbing my back repeatedly. I took a moment to pull myself together, drying my eyes with the rag that Daryl had given me and shoving my hair from my face.

"Ya'll gotta follow the creek bed back, okay?" Shane announced to the group, causing everyone to turn to him. "Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area for another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up?" Daryl spoke up. "You sure?"

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

"I want to stay." Carl announced, looking to Dad pleadingly. "I'm her friend."

"Just be careful, okay?" Mom patted Carl's shoulder.

"I'll look after him." I told her sincerely.

"No you won't, you're staying with your mother." Dad told me, sternly.

"You've got to be kidding me." I sighed deeply. "Why do you insist on having this argument every single time? I'm going with you."

"Nicole, I need you to stay and protect your mother." Dad had now walked until he was stood directly in front of me, I didn't miss the use of my full name. "You can fight, I know you can. So I know Daryl and Glenn need your help more than Shane and I do."

I sighed once more before nodding, maybe leaving Mom on her own with the group wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Here, take this," Dad told Mom, holding out his Colt Python to her. "Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed, I've got Nikki." Mom laughed slightly, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"Here, I've got a spare." Daryl walked forward, holding out a small handgun. "Take it."

My eyes narrowed at the sound of Andrea huffing impatiently, shaking her head and glaring at Mom as she stomped past us after the rest of the group.

I rolled my eyes, causing Mom to smile gently before pushing me forward, falling in step with the others.


"So this is it?" Carol asked as we stepped over fallen branches and leaves, weaving between the trees. "This is the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl answered her from the front of the group as we all stopped to take a break.

"Carryon knives and pointy sticks." Andrea said, smirking sarcastically. "I see the Grimes' have guns though."

"Did either of us try to blow our brains out with one?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes and setting my jaw as I stood tall in front of her.

"If you want it, take it." Mom stepped in front of me, holding her gun out to Andrea. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me and Nikki. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through," Mom continued, turning her attention to Carol. "I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It's in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way that he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently."

Pride swelled in my stomach at Moms words, it was nice to hear her sticking up for Dad. He was eating himself up too much over Sophia without having Carols glare on him every time he had to address the group. Everyone stood in silence, not daring to argue with Mom on this.

"My Dad is a protector." I spoke up, forcing myself to make eye contact with everyone in the circle. "It's what he's always done. In his job, with me and Carl, even with Mom. He looks after the people he cares about to the best of his abilities and if he doesn't think he can do that, he will step down." Everyone met my gaze as they took in my words, knowing them to be true. Glenn and Andrea had experienced it first hand in Atlanta. "I can guarantee you that if Dad hadn't found us when he did, most of us wouldn't be standing here right now. Probably even none of us."

"If you think you can do this without him then go ahead, nobody is stopping you." Mom finished my speech before taking a mouthful from her water bottle.

Andrea slowly advanced towards Mom, holding the gun out to her as she went. Offering it back.

Once Mom took it she looked between the two of us. "We should keep moving."

I nodded slightly towards her, understanding her words as the closest to an apology I was going to get. We didn't need to be fighting in a world like this one. It was the last thing we needed to be doing.

We continued our way through the forest, weaving between the trees and looking around to make sure there was no walkers close by.

I was just about to ask how long more we had left when a gunshot rang out through the woods. Mom and I looked to each other at the same time. Panic mirrored on the others face. Something was wrong.