Guest: Thanks for tuning in. There's more in store for Lily and the group along the way.

r2j591: I actually thought I had posted this chapter which is why you mentioned tripping, but what made your comment make me smile so much was that she does trip a lot...

I hate to say this guys but this might be the last post I make for a week due to vacation and stuff.

Lily is mine and the episode changes, Frank gets credit for everything else.

Shane and Glenn were laughing hysterically about something which made Lily turn to look at them. Shane was standing under the flow of water which came from one of those giant water bottles commonly found in business offices. At least the group found something they needed.

She moved down the cars finding a sweatshirt she could use later and a few food items which she took to the RV, but not before eating some herself. On her walk back to where she'd just been, she passed something she hadn't noticed before. It was a body. It was old and smelled bad and flies were still hanging around it which was more than her light headedness could handle so she moved on.

The next car was no better. Baby items were strewn around the road before she even got to the car. Children were killed during all of this. She knew it happened but actually seeing the evidence of it up close was overwhelming.

After searching through the next car and finding nothing, Lily sat down on the hood to take a breather. Her arm throbbed and had begun to bleed again, but no matter how hard she tried to ignore the pain, it just wouldn't go away.

"Eat."

"Short, sweet, and to the point," Lily responded to Daryl's request. It was an energy bar or something he handed to her and he brought a pink vitamin water he'd found.

"Look, I feel bad about almost killing ya, so just shut up and eat already so I know you won't pass out."

She ripped a chunk out of the bar with her teeth and washed it down with the vitamin water. It was nice having food.

Lily caught him staring at her arm which was already bleeding through the shirt Carl tied over it.

"It doesn't hurt that bad..." she lied taking another bite. His attention turned to the car ahead of them.

"Don't lie to me," he said sternly. "You can't even lift anything heavy with it. How bad does it hurt?"

"Enough that chopping it off might not sound so bad..." She pushed herself up and continued forward holding her umbrella in one hand and the bar in the other. As she continued forward, she noticed that all chatter from the others had ceased.

Turning she saw they were all completely gone.

"Go," Daryl hissed pushing her forward.

The walkers were coming. Lily sprinted farther down the row of cars crouching behind one of them to find T-Dog and Daryl slid around a truck stabbing a walker in the head before dragging the weak T-Dog on the ground throwing the walker over him. He grabbed Lily and laid her on the ground before dragging a walker over the two of them. His face was less than an inch from hers. In her eyes he saw memories began to surface of being locked in the cabin and the men who raped her. Their lives depended on whether she could keep herself together or not.

If she closed her eyes she would really think that she was in the cabin again so all she could do was lock her eyes on his. To keep sounds from emitting her throat, she covered her mouth and held her breath.

His light blue eyes were locked with her green and blue ones. Lily had never been one to make long eye contact but if it was broken now, she might lose it.

He reached his hand to cover her mouth in case she did give out a cry, but thought better of it and set it next to her head. He figured it might have made things worse rather than better. Daryl dipped his head down next to hers brushing his stubbly cheek against her face and found a way to lift his body up. There was no need for him to tell her that their lives depended on her silence because she was well aware of it.

Feet shuffled by the three of them on the ground. No one breathed. They were too afraid to blink for fear the walkers would hear them.

Minutes felt like hours as the walkers stumbled by one after another. Their numbers died down eventually. The second the coast was clear, Daryl immediately tossed the walker from them and crawled away from her only to find that she'd been clutching to his vest with a stone like grip. He then tore the walker from T-Dog and pulled him to an upright position. She was breathing heavily when he crouched next to her.

"You ok?"

She nodded her head keeping her eyes closed and her hands over her face. Daryl pulled her to her feet.

Sophia screamed. Hearing the scream pulled Lily out of her daze. Sophia screamed again. Lily jumped into action grabbing the umbrella she'd dropped and began to run after her.

"Hey! Over here!" Lily shouted only loud enough for the walkers chasing Sophia to hear. They kept following her. "Over here!" Slowly their heads cocked to the side as they heard her and saw her open the large umbrella which she quickly closed. They began to chase her. Crap. She hadn't thought that far ahead. Turning to the woods, she ran away from where Sophia had gone and was egging the walkers to follow her. "Come on! Come and get me!"

The woods passed by quickly as she ran but suddenly, the ground was gone and she fell into a small stream. The bank was muddy as she scrambled up it.

Mindlessly, the walkers followed her trail and fell into the water too but they got stuck.

Deep breaths of air filled her lungs as she wielded the umbrella. With more force that she thought she could muster, the umbrella collided with the first walkers head throwing it to the river. The end of it passed through the eye socket of the second walker.

Blood dripped down her hands and face when she started running to her left following the stream. If Sophia had kept running, then she would be down stream.

Stopping to breathe, she glanced down at the water and saw the blood. Vigorously she scrubbed it away with a rock. A nervous shriek reached her ears from across the stream. She looked up to find Sophia looking at her.

"Sophia, it's just me."

"Lily?"

She nodded holding her arms out. "Come on. It's safe. I got them."

Sophia jumped into Lily's wet arms and she hugged her tightly.

Proceeding with caution, Lily carried Sophia through the trees toward the highway. Others from the group were running around looking for them.

"Over here!" she shouted.

Footsteps approached but they didn't belong to Rick or Daryl or Shane. It was another walker.

"Sophia stay behind me!" Lily threw her umbrella at the walkers head, knocking him to the ground. Once there she turned around to find Sophia had run off.

"Sophia!"

The walker stood back up coming right at her.

She tried to run away but a tree root caught her foot and she crashed to the ground. Pain shot through her ankle as she tried to stand.

The walker came down but she rolled out of the way before it crushed her. In one final move, she jumped to her feet and stabbed it through the eye.

"Sophia! Sophi-"

A hand over her mouth made her jump as she was pulled into a bush. The other hand grabbed her legs and pulled them into the bush with them.

She froze and was glad she did because another walker stumbled past. Rick ran in behind it and stabbed it through the eye.

"What the hell kind of stunt was that you pulled back there? Ya coulda got yourself killed."

"Where's Sophia?" Lily asked trying to get to her feet using the umbrella.

"Shane, get her back to the RV," Rick ordered. "Daryl, you come with me."

"Come on Wonder Woman," Shane scoffed carrying Lily. "You could have got yourself killed."

"Sophia was in trouble and no one else was running to her rescue. Put me down! We have to get her. You don't even know where she went!"

"You've got a point. Get on my back and hold on."

Shane took off on a brisk jog in the direction of the others.

"Her foot prints end here..." Daryl said.

"Because that's where she was standing when I picked her up," Lily added.

"Why are you back here?" Daryl snapped.

"You can just ask me what happened. Wait where is she? There's no way she could have gotten that far."

"She came this way and must have jumped in the water," Rick suggested.

"Tracks are gone. They end here."

"Sophia!" Shane shouted dropping Lily to the ground where she stumbled before catching her balance on a tree.

"She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere most likely," Shane said. Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Shane began to follow Sophia's trail forcing Lily to hop along behind them due to Shane forgetting her. When she caught up to them, Daryl was crouched looking at something She couldn't see.

"Shane and Glenn go back to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep every body calm."

"The only way to keep people calm is to keep them busy. Now I'll keep them busy, you just gotta get me there."

"Shane, would you?" Rick asked gesturing towards Lily.

"I got her," Glenn said scooping her in his arms. "Lighter than expected."

"Hear that?" she asked. "Glenn says I'm light so there's no excuse for you if you drop me." They managed a small chuckle, but it was gone quickly.

"Maybe that's why Daryl carries you so much," Glenn said only loud enough for her to hear.

"I don't know why he does so, so often. Last time was because he thought I was gonna kill myself and that was his way of talking me out of it."

"You were gonna stay?"

"No, I wasn't. He thought I was."