Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Her Angel, His Strength

7 What Lies Ahead

They did not talk much. Sometimes, Lily could feel Daryl's eyes on her, but she did not acknowledge him. The sun was blaring down at them, mocking their loss. Jacqui chose to stay; it was her decision and no one had the right to force her, Lily kept repeating those words on her head trying to convince herself that there was nothing she could have done.

A little while ahead, the caravan stopped. They were in front of what used to be a hospital. Apparently, Daryl, Glenn, T-Dog and Rick had stopped there on their search for Merle.

"I'm telling you, man. Look at this place, they got overrun." T-Dog said pointing at the building. The doors were opened and there was no one in sight.

"We'll be careful. Keep your eyes open, stay close." Rick commanded and walked ahead, his gun at ready. The sight that greeted them was enough to make Lily gag; the stench of dead bodies made her eyes water. Glenn's face was green, and Daryl had a weird expression on his face. She did not know these people, but obviously, they did.

When the group walked upstairs, Lily heard her own gasp mix with the ones of the others. There were so many old people there, some attached to wheel chairs. The sight was heart breaking.

"They got overrun." Rick said, confirming T-Dog's word, after taking in the sight in front of him. "The Vatos… They wouldn't do this." His voice was thick with emotion as he looked at his wife's face.

"Whoever did this got their supplies too." Daryl said.

"We won't stay here, we keep moving." Rick nodded to himself, turned around and left without waiting for anyone's opinion. The others who had been there with him and had met the Vatos people followed him without question. The rest of the group looked at each other and, when Shane sighed and nodded, left as well.

They kept going until they found an empty gas station. After making certain it was secure and finding a few non-perishable food, the group dinned and got ready to rest. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

Deciding to ditch his truck in favour of saving gas, Lily's bag was thrown in the RV. She herself followed it before Daryl pulled her aside.

"C'mon, ya're riding with me." He said, pushing her towards his motorcycle. Lily glanced at it nervously. It seemed excessively big for Daryl to ride. He pulled her hair to her shoulder and pressed his lips lightly on her neck. "Git on." He said before gently biting her. Shivering, she did as he said knowing her face was red. She could only hope no one saw that, though considering Daryl didn't seem one for public display of attention, she was almost sure theirs had no audience.

Despite her fear, the ride was nice, with the caravan stopping once for lunch. Glenn sat near her, pestering Lily about what was going on between her and Daryl. Lily couldn't answer, not knowing what that was herself. He proceeded to talk how lucky she was, and how he wished to ride the bike himself. Joking, she said he could take her place behind Daryl the next time they were on the road.

"Yeah, I think the moment he sees me walking towards it; he'll kill me with that arrow of his." He said, making a face. Lily smiled and said it was a bolt. They had just begun to talk about the differences between arrows and bolts when Rick started talking about their plan. It was not something they did not know. Head to Fort Benning, being careful about stray walkers on their way, horning if a problem arouse.

The next day, they approached a highway, with a pile of cars blocking their way. Lily knew the Winnebago wouldn't be able to pass through. Carefully manoeuvring between the cars, the caravan tried to keep on path, when smoke started to come out of the hood of Dale's vehicle. Stopping, Lily got out the bike first and headed towards the RV.

It was decided they would gather as much supplies as they could. Lily found a few shirts her size and a pretty dress that she thought was about Andrea's, but she couldn't be sure and she didn't think the woman would appreciate something as unpractical as a dress. Shrugging, she left it where she found and continued towards the next car, praying there'd be water or food. It was what they needed the most.

Lily had just found a promising suitcase when Daryl appeared out of nowhere and pressed his hand on her mouth. She tried to ask him what was going on but his eyes were focussed on something ahead; when Lily turned her head to see what it was, she noticed them. There was so many she knew they couldn't fight and win. Daryl pushed her under the car she was previously looking and walked away a few steps to hide himself. She could still see his shoes, but it didn't seem like he was getting under a car. Lily tried to hold her breath and control her heartbeat for it was beating wildly on her chest and she was sure the walkers could hear it. She tried to keep Daryl's shoes in her sight, however, after a few minutes Daryl started to walk away. Panicking, Lily rotated her body to try to see where had he gone but the horde passing by her car blocked her view. It seemed like an eternity had passed when she finally thought it was safe to get out from under the car. Searching for the rest of the group, she saw Daryl helping T-Dog towards the caravan where the rest was also heading.

"What happened?" Glenn asked when he saw T-Dog bleeding profusely. "You bit?" He asked in panic.

"No, no, no…" T-Dog said; his face sweating and pale. A cry sounded and they looked at Carol who was being restrained by Lori.

"Sophia got out too soon. Walkers were on her trail. Rick went after her." Lori said when Shane asked what happened. Lily eyes widened.

"Do you have something to help T-Dog?" Dale asked her after talking to Andrea who was covered in blood. "He's bleeding pretty badly." Lily nodded and went in to gather her bag. There was a walker on the floor and she gasped.

"He's dead." Andrea told her after following after her.

"Are you ok?" Andrea nodded without looking at her and got the walker by his feat to take him away. Lily frowned but decided against commenting on it, the event had obviously shaken Andrea up.

Back outside, she tried her best to clean T-Dog's arm, making a tourniquet of a belt Glenn handed her. She applied a homemade antibiotic, but she knew it would not be enough if he got an infection. She had just finished dressing his wound when Rick returned alone. Upon realising Sophia was not there, he asked Shane, Daryl and Glenn to go back with him in search for her.

Lily stayed near T-Dog, explaining to him what he needed to do for the time being.

"If starts to hurt really bad, you apply this one here, see? And try to, at every three hours, to reapply this one. We should also redress your arm when you do that."

"Were you a doc before?" He asked.

"No… But my dad and my uncles were. My cousin was also studying to become one. When you have so many doctors in your family, you're bound to know a thing or two. It also didn't hurt that every time I misbehaved, my father's idea of a punishment was to take me to the hospital to spend the day there." She answered with a smile. T-Dog knew she didn't talk much, especially about herself, so he smiled in return and nodded, thanking her. "Drink as much water as you can, ok? And stay out of the sun."

She walked over to Glenn, who had returned with Shane, and helped him sort through what they had found. It wasn't much, but Lily was glad, it was more than they had before.

"Do you think she's ok?" She asked him.

"Daryl knows how to track. You should know better than anyone, what, being on the woods with him before." He smiled at her but his face fell at the worried look on her face. "Hey, she'll be fine. Don't worry." Nodding, she got back to her task.

Lily tried to help the others while keeping an eye on T-Dog. She wished she could talk to Carol, but had no idea what to say. She walked over to her, and pressed her hand to the woman's shoulder but couldn't say a word. Carol nodded to her and returned her attention to where Sophia was last seen. With a sigh, she let go, and started to walk back when Rick and Daryl returned alone.

"You haven't found her?" Carol asked in despair.

It was decided that they would look for her in the morning. Carol wasn't happy with that.

"Daryl knows the woods better than anyone. I asked him to oversee everything."

Carol blamed Rick for what happened and couldn't stop crying. Deciding to leave her in the hands of Lori and Andrea, Lily walked away with Glenn. Not much was said that night, except for Rick's plan to continue the search for Sophia. This time, with more people to cover more ground.

"Be discreet, stay tuned, keep the space between you but always stay in sight of each other." Rick said while everyone started to grab a weapon. Lily looked at them, but decided not to take one. She already had her bow and Daryl's spare knife he had given to her their first time in the woods, back at the camp in Atlanta.

They watched as Dale and Andrea discussed about what happened at the C.D.C., where Andrea wanted to stay with Jacqui and Jenner. Dale asking for gratitude, Andrea saying she was the one that saved his life, not the other way. No one interfered. Lily could understand Dale; he had loved Andrea the moment he saw her, her and her sister being his reason to go on. Of course he would try to change her mind. Nevertheless, when it came down to it, it was Andrea's choice. She had the right to do what she wanted, and it was not fair to her to keep going for someone else other than her own. She had to want to live; she had to want to do it for herself, and no one else.

They entered the forest, with Lily by Glenn's side. The atmosphere was tense, and even Glenn had not tried to make conversation. When they reached a campsite, Rick motioned for them to stop.

"She could be in there."

"There can be a whole lot of stuff in there." Daryl replied.

"Carol, call her softly. If she's there, yours should be the first voice she hears."

"Sophia? Sweetie, you there? Sophia, is mommy. Sophia? We're all here, sweetheart. It's mommy." No one answered. Daryl entered the tent, and came back empty handed.

"It's not her." Carol sighed. Suddenly a bell started to ring and they ran towards a cemetery and, just past it, a church.

"It cannot be there. This is not good, it has no steeple." Shane said, though Rick started to run towards the church, ignoring him. "Rick!"

Opening the doors, they saw not Sophia, but three walkers inside. After killing them, Rick screamed:

"Sophia!"

"Yo, J.C., ya takin' any requests?" Lily would have laughed if the situation were not so grim. When the bells started again, they all rushed towards the source. "A timer." Daryl explained, after Glenn stopped it.

Carol walked back inside the church, and the others followed her. Lily sat on the steps, not thinking it her place to hear the woman's praying. Besides, it wasn't as if Lily was a believer. After a while, the group walked out the church and she went with Glenn towards the shadow of a tree.

Shane walked over and said they should get back to the highway whereas he and Rick would stay and look over the area in case Sophia heard the bells.

On their way back, Carol stopped to sit on a log.

"So that's it? That's the plan?" When Daryl answered that the plan was to separate them to smaller groups, Andrea let out her frustrations:

"Armed with sticks and knives." Looking at Lori, she said, "I see you have a gun."

"Why? You want it?" She asked, handing her gun towards Andrea, who looked shocked. "Here, take it. I'm tired of the looks you throw me. Everyone. Carol, I can only imagine what you are going through, and I would do anything to stop it, but you need to stop blaming Rick. It's on your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran, he did not hesitate, not for a moment! And I'm not sure if any of us would do the same as he did, or taken the difficult decisions he had to take, knowing that it was impossible to do otherwise." She said, while everyone else looked at the ground. Lily admired Lori for speaking her mind. Before, she was like her, never being afraid to voice her opinions. Her captors took that away from her.

Andrea, embarrassed of her behaviour, gave Lori her gun back, telling they had better get back on the road, so off they went, until a gunshot was heard.


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English is not my mother tongue, if you find a mistake, please let me know.

Thank you,

Mel.