Disclaimer: I do not own TWD. I do own Samantha.
A/N: Welcome to the FIFTH chapter of An Insane World as our group makes their way to Fort Benning after the fall of the CDC but before that I want to make a quick apology about the inaccurate spelling of Savannah in the previous chapters. In my defense, it was how my Word program was spelling it, however, from now on it will be typed the correct way. So, without further ado, I turn it over to Samantha. Enjoy!
Despite the despair we felt and the loss we had experienced at the CDC, I felt strangely at peace with my arms wrapped around Daryl as he steered his motorcycle down a highway. Gazing at the back of his head, I noticed the archer's dark hair was gradually getting longer. I raised one of my hands to play with a few of the strands which were beginning to cover his neck causing Daryl to shiver slightly.
"Ya know, I'm tryin' to drive here," Daryl reminded me unnecessarily as he looked back at me.
"I know," I replied, smiling. "Keep your eyes on the road, Tough Guy."
"Then stop distractin' me," Daryl shot back with a smirk of his own as he returned his attention to the road. "It's good to see ya smilin' again, Savannah."
"It's better than dwelling on the negative," I agreed, lowering my hand and placing my forehead on his back. "We're alive and together. That's good enough, for now anyway."
Daryl put his hand over mine then suddenly brought the bike to a halt making me raise my head. The road in front of us was littered with abandoned cars. "There's no way in hell the old man's gonna be able to get the RV through this."
"Guess we'll have to move them then." I figured as the rest of our convoy joined us. "Maybe we'll be able to find some supplies too."
The men got to work moving some of the cars out of the way while the women carefully checked others for anything we needed or could use. We were slowly making progress when a herd of walkers suddenly materialized.
"Shit," I swore as I grabbed Carol's arm and hid under one of the cars on our bellies.
"Sophia," whispered Carol, staring worriedly at her daughter who was a few cars away as the dead walked by. "My baby."
I hushed her gently as we waited for the herd to pass. Eventually it moved on, or so we thought. A bunch of the walkers appeared around Sophia who had started to come out of her hiding spot. She screamed and ran into the woods with Rick close on her heels. The rest of us got rid of the remaining walkers and waited for Rick and Sophia to return.
I held Carol as she sobbed into my shoulder but when they did finally come back it was only Rick seeking Daryl and Shane's help for he had lost Sophia.
"I'm going to go too," I told my distraught friend. "I promise I'll do everything I can to bring Sophia back."
~ An Insane World ~
Rick led us to the creek bed where he had advised Sophia to hide then make her way back to the highway while he distracted the walkers.
"Sure this is the spot?" inquired Daryl.
Rick nodded. "I left her right here. I drew the walkers off away in that direction up the creek."
"Without a paddle seems where we landed," noted Daryl.
"She was gone by the time I got back here," continued Rick. "I figured she took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder."
"Hey, Short round," said Daryl to Glenn who had tagged along. "Why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail."
"Assuming she knows left from right," muttered Shane.
"She understood me fine," Rick assured him.
Shane sighed. "Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."
I grimaced and joined Daryl. "Any luck?"
"Got clear prints right here," he replied as we followed the trail. "She did like Rick said, headed back to the highway."
"What's wrong?" I asked as the tracker stopped.
"She veered off that way," Daryl informed us.
"Why would she do that?" wondered Glenn aloud.
"Maybe she saw something," suggested Shane. "Spooked her, made her run off."
"Like a walker?" I murmured.
"I don't see any other footprints, just hers," said Daryl.
"Then maybe she's still alive," I remarked hopefully as I strove to ignore the foreboding feeling gnawing at me.
Rick nodded and turned to Shane. "You and Glenn go back to the highway before people start panicking. Let 'em know we're on her trail doing everything we can and, most of all, keep everyone calm."
"I'll keep 'em occupied," Shane agreed as he and Glenn returned to the group while Rick and I followed Daryl.
"Tracks are gone," Rick declared, after a while.
"Nah," argued the tracker. "They're faint. They came through here."
"How can you tell?" inquired Rick. "I don't see anything."
"You want a lesson in tracking or you wanna find that girl?" replied Daryl as we heard rustling and got down after spotting a walker.
We approached it cautiously. Rick distracted the walker and Daryl shot it in the head with an arrow from behind.
"Sophia!" called Daryl as Rick bent down to examine the corpse. "What are you looking for?"
"Skin under the fingernails," Rick explained as he flipped the walker over. "It fed recently. There's flesh caught in its teeth."
"What kind of flesh?" demanded Daryl.
"Only one way to know for sure," said Rick, reaching for a knife.
"Here, I'll do it," offered Daryl, switching with the former sheriff's deputy. "Mine's sharper. How many kills have you skinned and gutted, anyway?"
"I think I'm going to be sick," I muttered as Daryl carved the walker open. The smell was horrible. I forced down bile, resisting the urge to run away. I owed it to Carol to find out if the monster had bitten her little girl.
"Ya might wanna look away for this part, Savannah," Daryl advised, glancing at me before plunging his hand inside the corpse.
Yep, he was right. I should have looked away, I thought as I ran and threw up in a bush.
~ An Insane World ~
"Ya okay, Savannah?" asked Daryl as he came up behind me a few minutes later.
"I've been better," I admitted, straightening up and turning around to face the archer. He was covered in blood. "Was it her?"
Daryl shook his head. "Woodchuck."
"That's good, I suppose," I mused as I reached into one of my back pockets and pulled out a rag. I then wiped the walker's blood off his face and hands. "You've looked better, Tough Guy."
"So have you," the archer shot back making me laugh as I finished cleaning him up. I was lowering my hand when Daryl caught it. He took the rag out of my hand and drew me close to him. "Yer turn, Savannah."
I stood perfectly still as Daryl mopped the sweat from my brow, nose, and cheeks before lingering at my lips. I shivered from the contact and the longing I felt for him to bridge the gap between our mouths as he had the day we headed to the CDC. Unable to wait for the tracker, however, I wrapped my arms around his neck and captured his lips with mine with a ferocity which took both of us by surprise.
Daryl dropped the rag, placed his hands on my hips, and kissed me back equally as passionately. We eventually broke apart to breathe, still holding each other. After a few moments, Daryl smirked. "Ya really are a fiery one, Savannah."
"I wasn't always," I revealed, my cheeks flushed. "You just seem to have that effect on me. Before the world went to Hell, I never would have kissed someone like that. Now it's all I want to do."
"Ya and me both. Guess we'll have to do it more often then," murmured Daryl, running a hand through my hair. "For now, let's head back to the others."
I grimaced, fearing Carol's reaction but I knew he was right. It would be dark soon which would make it impossible to find the trail. We were better off returning to the highway and starting anew in the morning.
~ An Insane World ~
"You didn't find her?" asked Carol as we rejoined the group.
"The trail went cold," Rick informed her as I went to stand by my friend. "We'll pick it up again first light."
"We can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night in the woods," argued Carol, clinging to my arm.
"In the dark, it's no good," Daryl explained. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. People would get lost.'
"But she's twelve,' moaned Carol. "She can't be out there on her own. You couldn't find anything?!"
"I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic," urged Rick. "We know she's out there."
"And we tracked her for a while," added Daryl.
"We have to make this an organized effort," announced Rick. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."
"Is that blood?" interjected Carol, staring at Daryl.
"We took down a walker," Rick told her, causing Carol to frown. "There's no sign he was anywhere near Sophia."
"How can you know that?" demanded Andrea.
Rick glanced at Daryl who related to them what happened with the walker in the woods and the woodchuck he had for lunch.
"God," groaned Carol as we sat down and she placed her head on my shoulder. "How could you leave her out there to be killed? How could you just leave her?"
"Listen," implored Rick, bending down to our level. "The walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."
"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane assured him.
"My little girl got left in the woods," sobbed Carol. I stroked her hair soothingly as Rick bowed his head and walked away.
~ An Insane World ~
I stepped out of the RV and took in a big breath of night air as I headed over to the guardrail. I perched on it with my legs hanging over the side, facing the woods. I turned my head to glance behind me at the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Ya shouldn't be out here by yerself, Savannah," opined Daryl, sitting down next to me. "Especially at night even with the old man keepin' watch."
"I know," I acknowledged, returning my gaze to the trees. "But I couldn't listen to Carol's sobbing anymore. It breaks my heart to see her like this. She's a good person who's been kind to me from the moment we found the group. She's my best friend, my sister, and I broke my promise to her."
"Ya didn't break yer promise to her," argued Daryl, raising a hand to wipe the tears falling from my eyes. "We'll find Sophia."
God, please let her be alive when we do, I prayed as I laid my head on his chest and my eyes closed. The next thing I knew, Daryl was gently shaking me awake. I opened my eyes to see it was first light.
"Time to start lookin' again," murmured the archer.
I nodded. "Let's go find Sophia."
We made our way over to the others who were gathered around weapons which were considerably quieter than guns.
"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick was saying.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we'll need," complained Andrea. "What about the guns?"
Shane sighed. "We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."
"It isn't the trees I'm worried about," Andrea grumbled.
"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd passes by. See, then it's game over for us," Shane pointed out. "So you need to get over it."
"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, then turn around and come back down the other side," Daryl informed us, pointing at a map. "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."
"Stay quiet and stay sharp," advised Rick. "Keep space between you, but always stay within sight of each other."
"Keep an eye on Carol," Daryl told me as we prepared to head out. "Don't forget what I taught ya. Still got my knife?"
I took it out. "Never leave camp without it."
Daryl smirked. "Let's go keep your promise then."
One way or another, I will find you, Sophia. I swear it.
A/N: And there you have it. Until next time, read review and show the love!