Safe and Sound

Chapter 7: Into the Woods

"Hey, uh, how are you holding up?"

Glenn's voice came from around Grace's shoulder as she dug through the trunk of the abandoned car in front of her. She paused for a moment, letting out a long sigh. It had been a rough day and a half...the explosion was repeatedly playing in her mind as she envisioned Jacqui inside with the Doctor...just sitting...just waiting. She couldn't bear the thought of it. She turned to face the boy who was staring at her with concern in his deep brown eyes.

"I'm okay." Grace said, but she didn't believe her own words.

Glenn didn't look like he believed them either, but he didn't have any condolences to give the girl. He was barely hanging on himself.

"Just gotta' keep moving." Glenn shrugged and Grace gave him a small nod in return.

She turned back around to the car she was currently digging through.

"Have you found anything?" Glenn asked, walking up to peer inside the trunk with her.

Grace handed him the comic book she had found, Spiderman on the cover. Glenn looked at her in question.

"Didn't figure you to be a comic book reader." He laughed.

"I'm not." Grace said, "But Carl is."

Glenn smiled and handed the comic back to her, "I'm sure he'll be happy to have something else to read."

"Yeah, Dale's books are kinda'..." Grace laughed, "Well, boring."

"You could say that again." Glenn agreed, shifting his baseball cap up so he could flatten his hair underneath.

Grace slipped the comic book into the forest green backpack she had found in one of the other cars she had dug through his morning and had claimed for herself. She shrugged the backpack on her shoulder and began making her way to the next car.

"I'm going to go check in with Dale." Glenn said, "See if there's any updates on the RV."

Grace nodded at him as she opened the front door of the car before leaning in to pop open the trunk.

"Stay close!" Glenn called out to her as he made his way back to the area the RV had stopped.

Now that she was alone once again, Grace's own thoughts came crumbling down. It had only been a day since their stay at the CDC had ended in a catastrophe. She could still feel the heat of the flames licking her skin as she had laid crumbled in the passenger side of Daryl's truck. It had been a miracle that they had escaped, one Grace had thanked God for. They all barely had time to process what had happened before they were back on the road. The explosion had drawn in too many Walkers and it had no longer been safe to stay in the area.

They hadn't made it very far before they had gotten themselves stuck in this sea of cars and the RV had broken down for the one hundredth time. But this in itself seemed to be another miracle. With plenty of cars around, Dale was able to find the necessary parts to start working on getting the RV up and moving. In the meantime, they had all spread out to search through the cars for supplies.

Grace took a second to look inside the car, not noting anything of importance, before she moved to the trunk she had opened. Inside were two large, black suitcases. She slowly unzipped the first one, cautious of making too much noise. While the highway seemed relatively empty of people, it didn't mean there were not Walkers nearby in any of the cars.

She almost laughed when she was met with the sight of a full bottle of Southern Comfort. She picked it up and slowly ran her fingers over the label. She wished for a second she could go back to that night at the CDC, just to enjoy it for a bit longer now that she knew what was to come of the next day. Wished she had spent longer laughing and playing dumb card games with T-Dog and Glenn, wished she could of lingered more in that room with Daryl when he had finally said more than three words to her, wished she could of known about Jacqui's decision...maybe she could of helped talk her out of staying.

"Looking for part two already, girl?" T-Dog's laughing voice startled her and she dropped the bottle of whiskey back into the suitcase.

"Not in a million years." Grace groaned.

While being drunk had been fun at first, the morning after had nearly driven her mad. She was not prepared for the massive hangover and she had vowed again to never have a sip of alcohol after that.

"Well, I'll take that if you're not going to." T-Dog said, reaching over her to snatch the bottle of whiskey laying in the suitcase.

Grace held her hands up, "It's all yours."

T-Dog shook the bottle in a small victory and continued on ahead of her to look in other cars.

Grace continued to dig through the suitcase. It appeared this one belonged to a man. It was mostly clothes, much like her findings previously. She pushed it aside and opened up the second suitcase. She let out a tiny sigh as she released it was just another pack full of clothes.

It wasn't surprising. It didn't seem like many people actually knew what was happening when this all started. Many seemed to think it was a temporary thing and had only thought to pack some clothes, probably assuming they'd be home in a week or two. Grace pulled out a brown jacket from within the suitcase. She held it up against herself; it seemed about her size. She folded it in her hands but just as she was about to tuck it away in her new backpack, she felt something hard in one of the front pockets. She stuck her hand in and pulled out a small compass. It was silver on the outside, but the face of the compass was a dark, shiny blue. She twirled it around in her hands, the pointer shooting off in every direction she pointed it in. She smiled to herself and tucked it into the front zipper of her backpack, that might come in handy one day.

With that, she closed the trunk of the car and moved forward next to the car T-Dog was currently digging through.

"Find anything?" Grace asked, peering in the car she was about to look through to make sure it was empty.

T-Dog held up a bottle of Advil, rattling it with a smile, "This might come in handy next time we decide to party."

Grace snorted, "I think we might find better uses for that."

Once she saw the car was clear, she opened up the front door and leaned down to pop open the trunk. Before she went to stand back up, something from under the seat caught her eye. She reached forward and pulled a bag of chips out from under the seat. She let out a noise of delight as she turned to face T-Dog to show him her findings. She frowned when she didn't see him beside her anymore.

"Grace." His voice called out to her in a whisper, "Grace, get down."

She looked around, suddenly fearful due to the tone of his voice. She spotted him a little up ahead, bent down as he walked back towards the RV. She also crouched down and began making her way towards him, confused. That was when she heard it...the familiar sounds of groaning. She stood up just a bit to see over the cars and almost screamed in fright before slamming her hand over her mouth. A herd of Walkers were coming their way.

T-Dog letting out a noise of pain drew her attention away from the Walkers. He was pressing himself up against a car, blood pouring from a wound on his arm. Grace hurried over to him, grabbing the new jacket she had just found from her bag as she did.

"Hold on." She whispered to him, wrapping the jacket around his wound as tight as she could to try and stop the bleeding as he let out a noise of pain again as she did so.

"We gotta get out of here." T-Dog hissed, grabbing her hand with his good arm and pulling her forward. They rushed a bit ahead and knelt behind a car, giving them some distance between the herd.

Grace peered over the hood of the car, eyes wide in fear as she took in the sight of the approaching herd.

"They're getting closer." She cried, "What do we do?"

"We gotta keep moving." T-Dog breathed out, clutching his arm.

Blood was already leaking out from the jacket and dropping a trail on the pavement beneath them. T-Dog rushed forward again, Grace trailing behind him. They didn't make it very far before T-Dog stopped, dropping to the floor in pain. Grace rushed to him, wrapping her hands around the jacket to try and stop the bleeding from his arm. He was losing a lot of blood and fast, it was probably only a matter of time before he passed out unless they could wrap his arm better.

"Shit." T-Dog cursed, causing Grace to look at him.

He was looking at something behind her, eyes fearful. She twisted around to see that the herd had started to catch up to them and a lone walker had noticed the pair. It thrashed its teeth as it began to slowly make its way towards them. Grace fumbled with her backpack, digging through it to see if she had anything to kill the walker. Before she could find out, suddenly Daryl appeared from behind a turned over car. He rushed forward in a crouch and slammed a knife into the back of the Walker's head, causing both of them to drop to the floor.

He held his finger up to his lips, shushing T-Dog and Grace. He crouched over to the pair and pulled T-Dog into a lying position. Grace watched in confusion before he pulled the dead walker over T-Dog. She understood his plan and followed as he rushed to the nearest car. There was already a dead walker in the front seat. He pulled out the Walker before turning back to face Grace.

"Get in the car." He whispered to her and she nodded.

As quickly as she could, she fit herself through the door and Daryl closed the door quietly behind her. He gestured at her to get down before he himself disappeared from view, pulling the Walker over his body. Grace could feel the tears pouring down her face as she laid back in the car. She squeezed her hand over her mouth and shut her eyes as she began to hear the dead roaming through the area.

The seconds dragged on to feel like hours as Grace laid in the car. She cried in fear as she could feel the dead bumping up against the car as they passed but she was too scared to open her eyes and see if any had taken notice of her. She prayed over and over again in her head for both T-Dog and Daryl, who were lying on the floor outside. She prayed that Daryl's plan had worked and that the Walkers hadn't noticed the two men.

Just as quickly as they came, they were gone. The silence was almost as unnerving as the sound of their moans. Still, Grace was far too afraid to move from her position. The door to the car creaked open.

"Grace, come on." Daryl's rough voice called out to her.

She sat up in the seat and looked around, not noticing any Walkers. She breathed a sigh of relief before sliding out of the car.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking over the man in front of her.

Daryl nodded at her before turning his attention to T-Dog. He pulled the walker off of him and Grace took note of T-Dog's labored breathing. Even with the jacket around his arm, he had lost a lot of blood and he appeared to be in bad shape. Before she could assist them, a tiny scream caught her attention.

She stood all the way up, trying to peer over the cars.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I don't know." Daryl shrugged, "But com' on, you gotta' help me get him back to the RV."

As much as she wanted to go make sure everyone was okay, Daryl was right. T-Dog needed to get back to the RV so they could probably deal with his wound or else he would lose too much blood and pass out. She nodded at the older man and knelt down to them again. She helped Daryl pull the other man to his feet. They leaned him up against a car.

"Here." Daryl grunted, "Take these."

He thrusted two bags in her hand. She assumed this was the stuff he had found during his looting. He grabbed at the crossbow that was strung around his back and lifted it off of himself before handing it over to Grace. She reached out to grab it and almost nearly dropped it as he handed it over. It was a lot heavier than she thought it was going to be and she struggled to lift it herself. By the way Daryl had always handled it, she had figured it was relatively light

"Got it?" Daryl whispered as he watched the girl fumble with all the new stuff in her hands.

She finally was able to wrap the holder around her shoulder, easing some of the weight off her arms. She nodded at him, her face flushed red and tear streaks along her cheek. With her assurance, Daryl turned back to T-Dog and yanked the man's arm over his shoulder. Now using Daryl as a crutch, T-Dog was able to move forward.

The trio slowly made their way back to the RV.

Once they were within eyeshot of everyone, Glenn rushed forward. He was about to pull Grace into a hug before he noticed her appearance. He grabbed onto her shoulder as he looked her over.

"Are you okay?" He asked, "What happened?"

Grace looked at him in confusion before she glanced down at herself. It was then she noticed she was covered in blood, T-Dog's blood.

"I'm okay." She reassured the boy, "It's not my blood. T-Dog cut himself up pretty bad."

Glenn looked behind her to see the two men slowly approaching.

"You should go help Daryl." Grace said and Glenn nodded, rushing to the pair to help Daryl assist T-Dog the rest of the way to the RV.

Grace dumped the bags near the door of the RV and unstrung Daryl's crossbow from around her neck. As she was doing so, she heard hushed crying nearby. She looked up, taking in the scene. Carol and Lori were hunched over on the side of the RV. Carol was frantically whispering to Lori with tears in her eyes as Lori rubbed circles in her back. Carl was crying, his tiny body curled in itself as he leaned against the RV. She could hear Andrea and Dale talking from inside in the RV; it sounded like Andrea was in distress. Rick was nowhere in sight and Shane was at the other end of the RV, away from the two crying women, his head held in his hands.

Daryl and Glenn finally caught up and helped T-Dog sit on the ground, his back resting against the RV. It didn't take long for the trio to catch the attention of everyone around them.

"What happened?" Shane barked as he strode over, hovering over T-Dog, "You bit?"

"Nah, man." T-Dog glared at the man above him, "I cut my arm on one of the cars."

"He did, I saw it." Grace said, standing up for her friend. She didn't like the way Shane was staring at him. "I have some first aid training. If we have bandages, I can try and fix him up", Grace added.

Dale, having heard the commotion outside, made his way to observe the group from the RV steps, "I have some bandages in here, Grace", He called out. The blonde girl nodded at him in appreciation.

Grace knelt down next to T-Dog and glanced at his arm. Her jacket was entirely soaked in blood at this point and she grimaced at the state of it. "Let me take a look", She said as she reached out for his arm. T-Dog let her take his arm in her hands and she slowly unwrapped the jacket. The cut was long, almost the entirety of his forearm. As soon as she unraveled the jacket, blood started slipping out of the wound. Grace was relieved that it didn't seem to be pouring out as heavy as it had been just a few moments ago.

"Sorry 'bout your jacket", T-Dog mumbled.

Grace shrugged lightly, "It's okay, I just found it today. I'll find another."

She turned her head up to see Daryl standing over them still.

"Hey, can you go grab us a water bottle or something?", Grace asked.

He nodded and the pair on the floor watched as he went off to fetch what Grace had asked for.

"Was surprised he helped me", T-Dog said, causing Grace to turn back to look at him, "After everything with Merle, you know. Figured he coulda' just left me to die."

"Well, lucky for us, Daryl isn't Merle." Grace said, "He's got a good heart, I think, buried deep underneath the redneck exterior."

T-Dog snorted in laughter, "Not sure about that, sister, but you won't see me questioning him when he decides to help. Just gonna' keep my mouth shut."

"Best not to poke the bear." Grace joked, "Anyways, the bleeding is slowing down so that's a good sign. The important part now is just going to be making sure this wound stays clean, okay?"

T-Dog nodded at her, "Where did ya' learn this stuff anyways?"

Before Grace could answer, Daryl was back.

"Here." He grunted, thrusting the bottle of water out at her.

"Thanks." She smiled as she grabbed the bottle, but Daryl merely looked at her with a neutral expression.

She turned her attention back to T-Dog. She grabbed the discarded jacket, finding a clean spot on one of the sleeves that wasn't covered in blood. She wet it with the water bottle and then began to dab at T-Dog's arm, trying to clean around the skin near his wound. She also poured a bit of water from the bottle over his arm to wash away some of the blood.

"I had to take first aid classes in order to help teach the kids at my church." Grace finally answered T-Dog, "It was required for all the teachers. Just some basic stuff."

"Well, I guess I'll thank God for that." T-Dog joked and Grace let out a laugh.

"Hey, I've got those bandages you need." Dale suddenly appeared, hovering over the pair on the ground.

"Thanks, Dale." Grace said, "You can just set them on the ground, I've gotta' finish cleaning this first."

Dale nodded and did as she said. Once he stood back up, he let out a long sigh, wiping at his brow.

"What happened to you guys?" T-Dog asked, wincing as Grace began to dab at the actual wound this time.

"Sophia took off, chased by a pair of Walkers." Dale sighed, "Rick went after her so I'm sure she's fine. Probably making their way back to us now."

"Jesus." T-Dog hissed, "That herd came out of nowhere. What was that anyways? Them grouping up like that? We've never seen them do that before."

Dale shrugged, "No we haven't. We're lucky nothing worse happened today."

"Is Andrea okay?" Grace asked as she finally started to wrap T-Dog's arm up. She could still hear the older woman sniffling in the RV.

"One of them got inside." Dale answered, "She took it out but not without a bit of a struggle."

Grace looked at him in surprise, "I'm glad she's okay."

"Me too." Dale said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Grace went back to focusing on her current tasks as the group began to disperse again. Lori and Carol had taken up residency by the edge of the highway, looking out over the railing for any signs of Rick and Sophia. Shane had started digging through cars again, his face twisted in several different emotions. Dale went back inside the RV to make sure Andrea was okay and to help with cleaning out the walker blood that still remained in the hallway. Carl was still sitting on the other side of the RV. Grace finished wrapping T-Dog's arm.

"Alright, all done." She said, standing up, "We're probably going to have to change those again later today. You should go sit inside the RV for now, you lost quite a bit of blood."

T-Dog nodded before standing up himself to make his way into the RV. Grace turned around and was surprised as she nearly bumped straight into Glenn. She hadn't realised that he had stuck around the whole time as she fixed up T-Dog.

"Are you okay?" She asked him, realizing she hadn't gotten the chance to do so already.

Glenn shrugged, "I'm okay. Spent a bit too much time in close quarters with Shane, but otherwise, I'm fine."

Grace nodded at him before peering down at herself. She groaned as she realized her shirt was basically ruined, covered in T-Dog's blood.

"Yeah, you should probably go clean up." Glenn laughed, "Might want to throw that shirt away. Don't think those stains are coming out...ever."

"I keep getting and losing clothes at the same rate." Grace joked as she walked inside the RV with Glenn trailing behind her.

She located her bag from the CDC and went to grab another shirt. She turned to make her way to the bathroom but saw Dale still scrubbing at the walker guts on the floor.

"Guess the bathroom is still out of commission." Grace sighed to Glenn.

"Come on." Glenn said, yanking her by the arm out of the RV, "Shane found a truck filled with water, you can clean up there."

She followed behind him as he led her to the place him and Shane had hid from the herd of walkers.

"If you open one of those, it'll pour out kinda like a shower." Glenn explained.

"Thanks." Grace said, "Do you mind keeping watch?"

Her face turned a light red as she realized she would have to take off her shirt outside. When Glenn realized what she was insinuating, his face turned bright red and he whipped around so quickly it was as if Grace had already started removing her clothes. She smiled at his wholesome reaction.

"I'll just be around the side of the truck." Glenn muttered and then took off before she could even say anything.

Now with some semblance of privacy, Grace removed her shirt and twisted the cap to one of the water jugs. The water poured out in a steady stream and she ran her shirt under it, ringing it until the water ran clear. She then began to use it as a rag, slowly washing off the blood that was coating her arms and chest. She had thought to use the water jugs as Glenn had suggested, like a shower, but she didn't want to remove her bra and be in a far more compromising state of attire out here. She also didn't want to leave her bra on and have to deal with a wet, soggy bra under her clothes. So this was the best option she had at the moment.

Once all the blood was off of her, she twisted the cap on the water jug to stop the flow of water before bending down to her bag to grab the extra shirt she had brought to change into. She held it in her hands for a moment, hoping to air dry a little more before putting it on. The sun was beating down on her now, the air hot and dry. It wouldn't take long. She closed her eyes for a brief second, enjoying the way the heat felt on her skin. This was the best time of the year in Georgia. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right in the middle. It was October still, she figured, though it felt like a year had passed since the beginning of everything. In reality, it had only been two months. She let out a tiny sigh at that thought.

The sound of someone stepping on broken glass ripped her out of her thoughts. Her eyes shot open and she let out a small scream of surprise when they connected with a set of deep blue ones. Daryl was standing in front of her, three cars away. His face was frozen in the same amount of shock. The tips of his ears turning red as he noticed the state of undress the girl was in though his eye contact never faltered with her's.

Grace's own face turned bright red and she threw on the gray tank top she was holding in her hands, quickly pulling it down over her torso. Glenn came sprinting from around the side of the truck.

"What? What happened?" He asked in alarm, having heard her scream.

Daryl quickly turned his back to the pair, making a show of digging through the car he was standing next to and purposefully refusing to turn their way. Grace shoved Glenn, her face morphing into irritation.

"I asked you to keep watch!" She snapped in embarrassment.

"Huh?" Glenn replied before he turned around and noticed the hunter behind him, "Shit, Grace, I'm sorry. I didn't hear him."

Grace scoffed at him before storming away; Glenn trailing behind her, his own face now red as well.

"Seriously Grace, he's like some redneck ninja, I swear I didn't hear him." Glenn explained, "You know that."

Grace couldn't help but laugh at Glenn's description of Daryl, though she was still cringing internally at the fact that Daryl had once again seen her in a state of undress.

"Hey, Rick's back!" Glenn pointed out as the pair began to get closer to the RV, "I don't see Sophia, though."

Grace and Glenn shared a look of dread before making their way to the formulating group.

It had been at least half an hour since Rick had left with Shane, Glenn, and Daryl in tow. Sophia was supposed to return back to the highway when Rick had drawn the walkers away from her, but she had never come back. Grace let out a sigh as she leaned against the highway railing, looking off into the spot the four men had disappeared into the woods at. Dale was with the RV, tending to T-Dog who was still a bit out of it from losing so much blood. Andrea was in the RV with Carol and Lori who were both in a state of distress from Sophia still missing.

Grace felt her heart in her stomach as she thought about the small girl in the woods all alone.

Her thoughts drifted to the weeks she had spent alone in the forest herself, starving and barely surviving. Sophia was years younger than her and if Grace had barely made it herself...she gulped at that thought. Her thoughts were entirely consumed by the small girl who hadn't even had a life of her own yet. She was far too small and weak to be out there alone. She sat against the railing, gripping her cross necklace in her hand as she repeated prayer and prayer for Sophia.

But that wasn't enough, was it? At least, that's all Daryl had been saying to her in those small moments he had talked to her. Grace's face twisted in anguish at the two conflicting thoughts. On one hand, she had to hope that God would watch over Sophia, to keep her safe. A small part of her on the other hand, agreed with Daryl. It wasn't enough to just hope for the best. That little voice in the back of her head was the entire reason she had even ran after Eliza that night when the walkers attacked the camp.

It wasn't enough to just hope for things to turn out okay. It was still important to believe in God but perhaps this was part of his plans? Not Sophia missing, but the group the little girl had ended up in. Daryl was the best tracker. If anyone was going to find her, it would be him. Rick was a good man, the only who had taken after the little girl in the first place. And here was Grace. A girl who had spent weeks alone in the forest by herself and had survived. Perhaps she was the most important person here right at this moment. Because while Daryl was the best at tracking and knew the woods like the back of his hands, he couldn't even put himself in Sophia's shoes...in the mind of a frightened young, naive girl...but Grace, Grace could do that.

She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the sun bare down on her skin. She could feel the wind pulsating around her, as if it were calling out to her, giving her instructions. She looked out into the treeline again. The sight looked welcoming, as if it were about to embrace her with open arms. She felt it then. This is what she was meant to do, this was his way of guiding her, she was sure of it.

She spared one last look towards the RV, making sure no one was glancing her way. When she knew the coast was clear, she hopped over the railing and began her descent into the woods.

She wasn't sure how long she had been running for. She knew she had already escaped from the vicious claws of a lone walker, who had tumbled over a branch on the ground and struggled to get up to chase after her. Yet still, she ran. It was as if her legs had a mind of their own right now. She didn't know where she was going but for some reason, a chill in the back of her spine told her it was in the right direction.

She didn't let the feelings of her lungs burning stop her as she continued past tree after tree. It was quiet here, the sound of her own breathing the only noise surrounding her. She had only seen that one walker since she had entered the woods, making her hopeful that Sophia hadn't encountered anymore herself.

She continued running until her legs gave out, causing her to stumble to the ground. She let out a noise of frustration before she pushed herself up and over onto her back. She let out some heavy breathing as she relaxed for a moment. She looked up, noticing that she had clear sight of the blue sky above her. She was in some sort of clearing now. The grass was soft underneath her and she relished in that for a moment before jousting herself up to her feet. It was a small meadow, she realized. The grass was overgrown and small white flowers were twisted inbetween the long strands. She couldn't help but pause for a moment, soaking in how beautiful the flowers looked in the light of the sun.

She turned around, facing the woods that had laid in the direction she had been running.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat at what the sight in front of her held.

"Sophia?"

Author's Note: Hey, sorry this chapter took awhile to get out. I've been toying very long with the decision to save Sophia or not. It was an important plot point for Daryl's character and his involvement with the group so I wasn't sure if I wanted to change it or not but ultimately decided I can still get Daryl to the point of feeling like he was part of the group while still changing the story! Anyways, hope you guys like this chapter! :)