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Chapter 4:

Dawn came early that day, or so it seemed to Esmeralda. After a night of restless sleep, she was no closer to a decision than she was last night. Throwing the covers away from her body she rose from her bed to get dressed. Riding jeans and a black wife beater was her outfit of choice that day. Her skinny jeans had enough flexibility to make riding down the mountain comfortable. Putting on her paddock boots and then the half chaps over top, Esmeralda grabbed her leather jacket before heading down to the barn for morning feeding as well as to pick out the horses to take down the mountain.

Her beloved Dodge would come for sure. He was her war horse. Nelly would need to come to be returned to Hershel, Lopez would be good for Sophia, a bombproof horse for beginners, and Tetley for Daryl. She couldn't risk having anyone on Nelly is she were to spook again.

Once all the horses had eaten she grabbed her 3 horses and brought them into the arena with Nelly to be tied up, groomed and tacked. She could hear slight movement behind her; Esmeralda cursed herself for not bringing any kind of weapon with her. She silently and quickly removed the stirrup iron from the saddle and turned around with it raised in her hand.

"Going to bludgeon me to death girlie?"

It was Daryl, sneaking up on her with a smirk on his face.

"I better not be on that nag that threw me."

"Nope. You'll be on Tetley, the tall dark bay beside the nag."

"Any good?"

"He was used in parades and by the police for years. He's as good as you can get...besides Dodge. But he'd rather kill you than let you on him."

"Dodge?"

Esmeralda smiled.

"Yup, Dodge." She walked over to her horse. "This...is Dodge. He's my baby, I started to train him to be a riot control horse, but I couldn't part with him, nor would he let anyone on him, he took a good few chunks out of anyone who tried. He's a Percheron, they were originally bred as war horses. Makes him perfect for the world now, don't you think?"

Daryl was busy looking up at the horse.

"Uhh yeah, Christ woman, how bloody big is that monster?"

Esmeralda laughed.

"He's a whopping 19 hands. About as big as they get. Now come on, help me take up some of these horses so we can head down the mountain."

Daryl didn't answer, just nodded and started to tack up Tetley while Esmeralda tacked up Nelly, then They moved on to Lopez and Dodge. Once they were finished Daryl headed up to the house to grab his cross bow and Sophia, while Esmeralda walked into the office of the barn. In there she grabbed her scimitar and strapped it to her back, a hatchet which was to be attached to her saddle as well as a suppressed Beretta 92FS pistol in case of emergency. Once she felt she was properly armed to descend the mountain, she walked out of the office and into the arena, mounting Dodge and leading him to Nelly so that she could grab Nelly's lead line. Dodge wasn't impressed by this and he made sure to let Esmeralda know by giving a few kicks.

Daryl and Sophia came into the barn and Daryl helped her onto Lopez, giving her a quick instruction.

"Don't worry Sophia, Lopez is a good boy. He'll do all the work; you just stay on him and look forward to seeing your mom." Esmeralda called out to her.

Sophia beamed with joy.

"Okay."

Daryl mounted Tetley and they headed out the arena doors to go meet with Daryl and Sophia's group at Hershel's farm.

It was a beautiful fall day, the only sound you could hear was the wind blowing through the trees, water running through the river bed that Daryl fell in, the horses' hooves on the ground and rocks. Esmeralda took a deep breath of air and slowly let it out, enjoying the smell of impending greenery death. Picking leaves, buds, flowers, or anything she could get her hands on as she rode past bushes and trees. Enjoying the simple things again for a little while, before she no longer could. She could see that Sophia was doing the same thing, looking around herself in awe. The world suddenly in a new perspective. Esmeralda turned to look at Daryl as his head turned. Esmeralda couldn't help but to blush at the thought of Daryl watching her.

"Why do you have a sword?"

Ahh...so Sophia finally speaks.

"Silent, deadly, and when I'm on Dodge...even more lethal. It's a scimitar, a middle eastern type of sword, and it was generally used for mounted warfare. So, it's designed to be used from horseback. Light weight, good for beheading, which won't kill these walking things...but it sure will stop them."

Sophia sat atop Lopez for a minute thinking.

"Sounds good to me."

Ahh to be young. Hear an answer and simply accept it at face value.

Suddenly Dodge started prancing, his ears flicking back and forth trying to pin point the location of a sound only he can hear, snorting and pawing at the ground. Esmeralda knew and trusted Dodge. She handed Nelly's rope over to Daryl before withdrawing her scimitar.

Daryl and Sophia looked at her with wide eyes. When Dodge's ears were pointed forward she quietly urged him forward, past Daryl and Sophia. Out from behind a tree a couple yards away stumbled one of those things. It was clearly once a man, a big man. Now wasted away to next to nothing, lips rotted off his face, teeth gnashing, one large gaping wound over an eye, arm missing and what were once his clothes now hanging on in tatters.

Esmeralda got the scimitar in her hand into position and Dodge charged forward towards the once living man. He made a gargling moan before the metal of Esmeralda's weapon sliced through his skull and brain like a knife through butter. Esmeralda was a good couple feet away and turning around when the man's body stopped swaying and fell to the ground. When Daryl and Sophia caught up with Esmeralda Sophia was chattering away at warp speed about how awesome that was and how much she wanted to see it again. Daryl handed Esmeralda a cloth to wipe down her blade.

"Well...sure is effective. I'll give yeh that."

Esmeralda moved Dodge so she was beside Daryl.

"C'mon Daryl. It was awesome. Zombie kill of the week or what?" Esmeralda said while nudging him with her elbow.

Daryl just grunted, but Esmeralda could see the laughter in his eyes, and the tight hold he seemed to hold on his face to prevent him from smiling or actually laughing.

Sophia piped up. "Zombies? Ewwww. I like 'Walker's' better."

Esmeralda laughed.

"I've never given them a name. Well...besides a few choice words."

"Rick calls them 'Walkers'. Glenn calls them 'Geeks'."

Esmeralda could see Daryl roll his eyes.

"So, Joe Dirt. What do you call them."

"Joe Dirt? Nice car, dumb as bricks. Given' trailer park types a bad name."

Esmeralda couldn't help but to smirk.

"Stop tha' 'Daisy Duke'."

"Daisy Duke? Who's that?" Sophia asked.

"Dukes of Hazzard. Have you heard of it? It's clear Mr. Moonshine beside me has."

"Mistah' Moonshine? Yeh, okay."

"Is anyone going to explain this to me?" Sophia questioned.

"It's an old TV show about two brothers who live with their uncle and their cousin and get up to shenanigans around town in their car upsetting Boss Hog. Was a good show, cute guys too." Esmeralda replied with a wink.

Daryl huffed while Sophia laughed.

The trail they were on opened up to open fields and a white farm house.

"Sophia...you see that house there."

"Yeah..."

"That's where we are going. That's where your group is."

Sophia started shaking with anticipation and excitement.

"Do you want to go faster?"

Sophia's head snapped and looked at her, nodding up and down.

Esmeralda leaned over and snapped the extra lead she had with her onto Lopez.

"Okay, when we go faster, hold onto that horn in front of you, make sure your heels stay down, and just roll your hips with the movement. It's going to feel like a rocking horse. You ready?"

"Yes!"

Esmeralda asked Dodge to break into a slow rocking lope so that Lopez could keep up. The wind flew through Sophia's hair, and she had a huge smiled on her face. Daryl and Nelly were right behind them, Daryl was holding onto his side with a grimace on his face trying to hide it when he noticed Esmeralda looked at him.

When they neared the barbed wire fence at the road Esmeralda turned them to reach the gate. Dismounting from Dodge she unlatched the gate, ushering Sophia, Daryl and Nelly through. Once she led Dodge through she closed and latched the gate again, walked across the road and did the same with the gate at the end of Hershel's drive.

She told Sophia and Daryl to go ahead and she slowly walked up the drive with Dodge by her side.

"Well boy, this adventure is half over. I think I owe you some goodies. What do you think?"

Dodge threw his head up and down with a snort.

"SOPHIA!"

"MOMMY!"

Esmeralda could only smile as a lady with close cropped grey hair ran sobbing to Sophia. Sophia jumped off Lopez and ran into the woman's arms. A bunch of people from different spots of the front acreage came out of hiding to inspect what was going on. She could see the relief in their eyes at first when they saw Sophia back, the distain in their eyes that came when they saw Daryl with her, and then the eyes turned on her with distrust as she walked up. When she saw the way they looked at Daryl, she could feel herself grow hot with the anger that shook through her, she looked up at him and his head hung low as he dismounted and walked over to Esmeralda with the horses to hand her Tetley's reigns while he took Nelly back to Hershel's barn.

"Hurry up Daryl, I want you here before the witch hunt starts." She quietly muttered to him before he walked away with Nelly.

He gave a little nod and led Nelly off.

The whole group that Sophia and Daryl belonged too took turns hugging and inspecting Sophia asking hundreds of questions that Sophia will never answer.

The way that these people looked at Daryl, especially the one man with dark eyes and hair. There was something about him that made Esmeralda want to hop back on Dodge and run far away from here. He was a man who thrived once the animalistic side of people came out, like a rabid dog.

One of the men pulled away from the group and started heading towards Esmeralda.

"Fuck Daryl, I said hurry up, not weave a fucking basket and make molasses cookies." Esmeralda muttered to herself.

"Well, I don't know about cookies...but I brought myself." Came a voice over Esmeralda's shoulder.

"Daryl." Said the man as he reached them in acknowledgement.

"Rick." Daryl grunted in response.

"Esmeralda." Esmeralda piped up. The man grinned and shook his head as Daryl rolled his eyes.