The truck had zero gas so we had to leave it. Daryl grabbed his motorcycle and asked me to ride on the back. I thought, why not. We drove in the direction of Fort Benning. Daryl was quiet most of the drive there. Course, how can you talk when your on a motorcycle without screaming right?
Just then, we had to slow up. The highway was all backed up. We circled around and came back to Dale and his RV. "See a way through?!" Dale hollered. Daryl looked at me and then to Dale and nodded his head to follow him. We got through alittle bit, but then Dales belt in his RV gave in, again. We got off the bike and headed towards the RV to see what was up. "Just a matter of being in the middle of no where with-" Dale started, but looked at Daryl who was ramaging through a car.
"Okay, that was dumb." Dale commented. I giggled. "Can find a radiater hose here!" Shane exclaimed. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl commented, finding slim jims in a car. He looked at me with them and grinned. I grinned and then he said "Shhh. Our secret." and winked. I giggled.
"We can steal some fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog said. "Maybe some water?" Carol also suggested. "Food?" Glenn suggested.
"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Lori chimed in. Daryl and I looked at her. I know she had a point, but we needed to survive. I went up to her. "Lori… I know how you feel about this. But we need to survive." She just looked at me. I half smiled and went back with Daryl.
"Alright here we go." T-dog said, grabbing a gas can. "C'mon ya'll, look around, gather what-cha can." Shane commanded. Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia went together searching through a section of cars. Me and Daryl, and T-dog went off on our own. Rick stayed back keeping watch. Dale and Glenn stayed back and started fixing the RV.
Daryl knocked open a gas switch so that T-dog could syphen out some gas. While they did that, Daryl made it my job it search the car they took gas from. So far, I had found half a bottle of water, some melted candy bars, some TUMS, and a lot of dead people. Me and Daryl walked past Shane who had just opened up a water truck. "Glenn...Were we short on water?" Shane said, opening up a bottle and letting it pour on him. I widened my eyes and looked at Daryl. We smiled and nodded.
Daryl went up ahead, and I stayed back with T-dog. "Holy shit." T-dog said, in horror. I looked up and said, "What?" And looked to where he was looking. A huge herd of walkers were coming our way. I widened my eyes and started to panic. "O-oh my God…." I stuttered. "Just stay down, Bellefaire." he said quietly, but as soon as he was about to crawl under a vehicle, he cut his arm on a sharp peice of metal. Blood squirted everywhere. I gasped. "T-dog!" I grabbed his arm and tried to cover the cut with my hands to stop the bleeding but blood just squirted through my hands. He groaned as quietly as he could in pain. But the walkers were getting closer.
"C'mon!" I said, grabbing him and pulling him with me. I didn't know where I was going, but I had to get him away from the walkers. But the more I made him walk, the more the blood gushed out of his arm. He was loosing his consiousnous and the blood was just leading a trail. Just then I felt a hand over my mouth. I left a tiny shreik out but seen it was Daryl. He shushed T-dog and put a dead walker on top of him.
He then grabbed another dead walker and quickly grabbed me and pulled me to the ground, laying the walker on top of us. The body reaked so bad and it made me groan in horror. Daryl put his hand over my mouth and whispered. "Close your eyes, Bellefaire."
Right then, the herd of walkers had done reached us and started walking past. I closed my eyes tightly and thought bout' Daryls warmth as they walked by. After about ten minutes, the walkers had all past. Or so we thought. Daryl had quickly shoved the dead walker off of us and got up. He shoved the dead walker off of T-dog breathlessly and helped him up. T-dog lost a shit ton'a blood. I ain't even know how he's awake right now.
Just then we heard Sophia screaming. I got up and looked to my left. The herd of walkers were about a mile away but they could easily hear Sophia if she screamed any louder. I looked to my right and a saw a walker crawling under a vehicle after Sophia. "Oh my God, Soph-" I went to squeal but I felt a warm bloody hand over my mouth before I could finish. "Rick's got'er, Belle." he soothed as I watched Rick run after Sophia as she headed into the woods.
After Daryl tied T-dogs cut up with a cloth to stop the bleeding, he headed over to the scene. Carol was crying into Lori's arms. "They ran after my daughter!" she cried. Rick came back after an hour without Sophia. "W-where's my daughter!" Carol cried.
"I told her to stay in a cave until I got her. Daryl, Shane, Glenn, Bellefaire? Come along?" Rick asked. We all nodded and went back to where the cave in the creek was. "Your sure this is spot?" Daryl asked, looking for tracks.
"I left her right here. I threw the walkers off in that direction up the creek." Rick explained, worriedly. "Oughta paddle, seems where we landed." Daryl sarcastically noted. "She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her, go that way, and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Rick admitted, panicing.
"Stay on the other side, your muckin' up the water!" Daryl scolded Glenn. "You so sure she knows her left from her right?" Shane asked sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.
"Shane, she understood me fine!" Rick said hopelessly. I patted Rick's chest. "We'll find her, Rick." I soothed.
"She's tired and scared man. She had her close call, two walkers. Gotta wonder how much what you said stuck." Shane said.
"Daryl, look!" I exclaimed, seeing a small childs foot print. "There's a small foot print here." Daryl mumbled. "Nice, Belle." He smiled. I grinned.
"She did like you said, headed back to the highway. We spread out!" Daryl shouted. I stayed with Daryl. "Were gon' find her. She prolly' hindin' in a bush somewhere." Shane said with hope to Rick.
"We were doin' just fine, till right here." Daryl suggested, confused, kneeling to the ground. "What she did was kept goin'. Scurried off that way." He mumbled. "Why would she do that?" Glenn asked. "Maybe she saw somethin'. Spooked'er, made'er run off." Shane suggested .
"Walker?" Glenn asked worriedly.
Daryl looked at the ground. "I don't see any other foot prints. Just her."
"So what do we do?" Shane asked. "Search sum'more?" "No, it'd be better if you and Glenn headed back to the highway. People are gonna start panicing. Let'm know were on our trail, were doin' everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." Rick commanded.
"I'll keep'm busy, scavanging cars. Pick up a few other chores. I'll keep'm occupied. Mon', Glenn." Shane assured, walking away with Glenn.
Aftere about an hour, it was almost gone. "Tracks are gone." Rick said, without hope. "Nah, their faint. But they ain't gone. She came through here." Daryl reassured. "How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass." Rick explained. "Wanna lesson in trackin' or you wanna find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl asked. I lightly smacked is' thigh fer bein' sarcastic. He just looked at me.
Another hour went by. We heard a russle in the leaves and Daryl ducked me down. We walked towards the sound. It was a walker walking. Daryl motioned me to stay behind him, and for Rick to call it near us. Rick ran in front of it and whistled. The walker roared, scarily. Fuck, this shit is like a movie… How is this real? I asked myself.
Daryl shot the walker in the brain with his crossbow. It dropped to the ground and we walked over to it. Daryl ripped his arrow back out. "Sophia!" Daryl hollered. Rick got down and started putting gloves on. He opened up the walkers mouth. "What are you lookin' for?" Daryl asked.
"Skin under the fingernails. … It fed recently. There's flesh caught in it's teeth." Rick said. "Oh, God!" I exclaimed. Daryl looked at me and then to Rick. "Yeah, but what kind of flesh?" "Only one way to know for sure." Rick said, disgusted, grabbing his knife.
He ripped open the dead walkers shirt, to see it's bloated stomach. Right when he was about to stab the walker, Daryl stopped him. "Here, I'll do it. How many killin's you skin and gutted anyway? Mine's sharper." Daryl asked, grabbin' his knife. I widened my eyes. "Look away, Belle." Daryl forced.
Just then, he stuck the walker and gutted it open. The stench was awful. After he had gotten to the stomach, he reached his hand in it's guts. "Here comes the bad part." Daryl commented. He pulled out more guts and then felt the stomach. "Yeah, Hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there. Here's the stuff bag." He said, taking out the stomach.
"I got this." Rick assured. As they took things out the stomach, Daryl found a skull to a woodchuck. "Looks like Hoss had a woodchuck for lunch."
"Least we know." Rick said. "At least we know." Daryl said, unammused.
It was about a half hour until dark, when we decided to head back because Daryl recommended I get rest. As we walked up to Carol, she broke down. "You didn't find her?"
"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again first light." Rick soothed, nervously. "You can't leave my daughter out there on her own. To spend the night, alone, in the woods?" Carol fought.
"Out in the darks no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people'd get lost." Daryl tried. "But she's twelve, she can't be out there on her own! You didn't find anything!?" She screamed.
"I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick helplessly said. "And we tracked her for awhile." Daryl commented.
"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody, I've asked him to oversee this." Rick assured.
Carol looked at Daryl. "Is that blood?" She asked. "We took down a walker." Rick reassured her. "Walker." She whispered. "Oh my God."
"There's no sign it was anywhere near Sophia." Rick said as Lori hugged her. "How can you know that?" Andrea chimed in.
Rick didn't know how to answer that and looked to Daryl. "We gut the sum'bitch open. Made sure." Daryl admitted.
Carol sat down with Lori. "How could you? Just leave her out there. To begin with. How can you just leave her!? " Carol accused.
"There was two walkers, they were on us… I had to draw'm off, it was her best chance." Rick tried saying. "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane helped out.
"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child…. She's just a child…." Carol sobbed.
"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick tried to reason with her.
"I'm sure nobody doubt's that." Shane assured Rick.
"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol cried hard. I went up to her and hugged with Lori. Rick walked away in doubt. "You can't blame him, Carol. He tried relentlessly to find her. We all did. And we WILL find her." I swore, before getting up and walking away with Daryl. Andrea took my spot and comforted Carol.
"Aye, Bellefaire. Wait up." Daryl called after me as I was taking a walk that night. I turned around. "What, Daryl?" I said, half agitated. I was so tired, but couldn't sleep if it killed me. "You need sleep, girl. Don't even test me. Get'chur skinny lil' ass in the RV and rest." he commanded.
I half chuckled. "I wan' wait for Sophia. She'll need someone if she shows up tonight." He shook his head. "She won't be out walkin' in the dark. Guarranteed. Now, c'mon. I'll be right beside you." he comforted. I smiled and we went inside the RV. We rested in the middle of the floor. "How old are you? I whispered.
"Twenty eight." he said, in his low voice. After that, I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Rick called role call. "Everybody takes a weapon." Rick commanded.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need." Andrea chimed in. "What about the guns?"
I rolled my eyes.
"We've been over that. Daryl, Bellefaire, Rick and I are carryin'. We don't need people poppin' off rounds everytime a tree rustles." Shane commented.
"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea said, sarcastically.
"Say someone fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passin' by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you needa' get over it." Shane said, finally.
"The idea is to take the creek up, bout five miles turn around, come back the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek." Daryl went on, feelin' good to be in charge for once. "It's her only landmark."
"Stay quiet, stay sharp. Keep space between you, but always be in sight on eachother." Rick said lastly.
"Everybody assemble your packs." Shane ordered.
"Dale, can you keep on those repairs? We gotta get this RV ready to move." Rick asked.
"I won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back. " Dale replied.
"Keep an eye on Carl while your gone?" Rick asked. "I'll go with you. You need people right? To cover as much ground as possible." Carl suggested.
Rick and I both looked to Lori who was smiling. "It's cool, I can't always be the bad guy." She said.
"Well he has all of you to look after, I'd say he's in good hands." Dale helped. "Okay, okay. But always within our sight no exceptions." Rick said.
Dale winked at Carl before we left. After Andrea and Dale had words about giving her her gun back, we left. We ended seeing a tent.
"She could be in there." Shane said. "Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl said, moving forward.
Daryl went up to the tent and looked around it. Rick told Carol to holler for Sohpia, that if she was in there, her voice she be the first one to be heard.
"Sohpia? Sweetie? Are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia, were all here baby. It's mommy..." Carol cooed.
After no response, Daryl unzipped the tent and went inside. I stiffened and Lori felt that. She put her arm around me with comfort.
Rick and Shane started gagging at the smell of whatever was inside. "Daryl? Daryl?" Carol called.
Finally Daryl came out. "Aint her."
"What's in there?" Andrea asked. "Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. A'nt that what he called it?" Daryl replied sarcastically.
Just then we heard church bells. "What direction?" Shane asked. "That way, I'm pretty sure." Rick anwsered. "Damn it's hard to tell out here." Shane said. "Maybe Sophia's doing it!" Carol said with hope. "Maybe she's calling for others." Glenn added. "Someone could have found her." Andrea said. "She could be ringin' them herself. C'mon!" Rick said finally. We all ran towards the sound.
Finally we found an old white church and a graveyard. This place was familiar… I knew it somehow. "That can't be it. Ain't got no steeple, no bells." Shane said. But Rick ran towards it. "Rick!" he protested. We all ran towards it.
We ran up the stairs and Rick opened the doors. Inside, there was three walkers sitting in the chairs. They got up and started walking towards us. Rick and Daryl and Glenn grabbed their weapons and headed towards them.
Rick killed an old farmer. Shane killed another old man. Daryl clucked at the old woman like a dog and it turned around. I gasped. But I shouldn't have underestimated him because he killed her, no problem.
Rick went outside with stress and screamed "SOPHIA!"
"Hey JC." Daryl said, sarcastically, to a Jesus Christ on a Cross statue. "Taken any requests?"
I looked at him with disgust and just stood there. Tears started to form. I knew this place. I was close to home. I started cryin'. Daryl tilted his head in confusion. Lori came up to me. "Honey…" she cooed.
"I'm close to home." I sobbed. "This was the church I used to come to as a lil' girl."
Daryl put his head down in shame of himself. Lori hugged me.
"I told you this was the wrong church, it ain't got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane said. But then, we heard a loud bell ringin'. The same bell we heard a mile away or so.
Daryl ran out of the church first, and ran towards the side of church where there was a speaker, ringing. Glenn went up to the electricity box and turned off the sound.
"Time….It's only time…" Daryl said with out his breath.
"I'm gonna go back in fer' a bit." Carol suggested. Carol, Rick and Carl and Lori went in back into the church. I stayed outside with Daryl and the others.
After awhile we all gathered up out side. "Ya'll gotta follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, your in charge of that. Me and Rick, were just gon' hang back. Search this area another hour or so, to be thorough."
"Your splittin' us up. You sure?" Daryl asked. "Yeah, we'll catch up to ya." Shane said.
"I wanna stay too." Carl chimed in. "I'm her friend." "Just be careful okay?" Lori said. "I will." "When did you start growing up?" She said, kissing him on the head.
"I'd like it if Bellefaire stayed too, if you're up for it? Keep Carl company?" Rick asked. I looked to Daryl who grimaced. "I'll be fine, Daryl." I said.
"Here, take this." Rick said. "Remember how to use it?" he said, handing her the gun. "I'm not taking your gun, and letting you unarmed." Lori said.
"Here, I gotta spare, take it." Daryl said, helping.
She took it, and Andrea sighed. We took off on our own. "Give me a minute?" Rick asked Shane, going into the church. Me, Shane, and Carl sat on the step of Church. Shane and I looked at eachother in awkwardness.
Finally Rick came out. "Get what'chu needed?" Shane asked with sarcasm. "Guess I'll find out." Rick answered without hope.
Shane and Rick walked together, and I took Carl under my wing.
After about a half hour. We heard a rustle in the woods. Rick motioned us to stop.
I grabbed Carl and held him close. We looked, and saw a huge buck. It was the biggest deer I ever saw.
Rick grinned. Shane went to shoot it, but Rick said "Shane…" Carl started walking towards the buck, grinning. Shane grinned. I smiled.
The deer stayed put, watching Carl. Carl was about five feet away from the deer, when POW.
The deer had went down instantly, and so did Carl. "No...No no no, CARL!" Rick screamed, running towards Carls body. I ran to his aide.