The rain made things more difficult.
Trailing a kid through the woods of Georgia was already a hard task without the rain washing any trace of her away. A light but constant drizzle, slowly and steadily soaking everything.
Daryl wiped one hand across his eyes to clear his vision, and continued his slow push through the trees.
Shit.
Since the girl had disappeared yesterday, things had just gone to hell. The women in a panic, the men (Rick especially, of course Rick) feeling more and more helpless and useless as time went by and they couldn't locate one little girl.
I mean, SHIT. It's not like she coulda gone that far or nothing, a twelve-year-old ain't got that kind of stamina, not scared and cold like she'd be.
And now this damn rain shower. It was like something didn't want them to find Sophia.
Then, just as suddenly as it had began, the rain stopped. The forest was thrown into dead silence again. Daryl stopped in his tracks, and listened. Amazing what you could hear when the world stopped moving- the light dripping sound of rain slipping off the leaves, the rustle of a squirrel flinging itself recklessly through the brush.
All sounds of nature, and none of man (or child).
And so Daryl searched on.