Daryl knew where Rick, Glenn and T-Dog had been headed. There was a small town about six miles away from the house where they'd pitched camp. They had passed it a few times in the last three months, but it had been heavily infested with walkers and they had given it a wide berth.
From what they had been able to see from a distance there were several stores on the main street, and none of the buildings looked damaged. With their food situation getting so desperate Rick had finally decided that it was worth trying to break through the walkers and get to those stores.
It wasn't necessary for Daryl to use his tracking skills, he knew the others would have taken the most direct route. He kept his eyes trained to the ground anyway out of habit as he made his way through the forest now. This part of Georgia was covered in dense forest and the undergrowth here was thick. He could easily spot the path Rick and the others had taken on their way out, but no tracks indicated that anyone alive had come the other way.
About three miles away from the house Daryl heard a noise from the undergrowth just ahead. He'd encountered three walkers so far, noticing them early as they crashed through the forest and dispatching them all easily. He now trained his crossbow on the bushes in front of him.
But it wasn't walkers. Daryl hastily lowered the crossbow when he recognized T-Dog through the leaves. He was supporting Glenn, who was limping heavily. Glenn spotted Daryl first and nudged T-Dog.
"Daryl, it's you. We thought we'd see you soon." Glenn looked pale and didn't put any pressure on his right foot.
"Wha' happened? Where's Rick?"
The initial relief Daryl had felt when he had recognized the two men gave way to dread when he realized that there was no third person following behind.
T-Dog looked miserable. "We lost him."
"Lost him?"
Glenn spoke again. "Yesterday, close to the town. We climbed down this ravine, rounded a bend and found ourselves surrounded by walkers. There were so many, we just had to run for it. Somehow we got separated. I hurt my ankle and T-Dog found me eventually, but we couldn't find Rick. We spent all day looking, and when it got dark we hid in this old logger's cabin. This morning my ankle's worse, so we decided the best thing to do was to come back and get help."
Daryl didn't want to lose any time. Rick was out there somewhere, on his own. "Describe the place you lost him."
T-Dog answered this time. "About two and a half miles south from here, a pretty big ravine. It's not far from the town, you can't miss it. It'll still be swarming with walkers. It's really boggy, so be careful when you go in.
"I think Rick might have gone towards town, but because of Glenn's ankle I couldn't drag him too close. We couldn't have run."
Glenn looked at Daryl with real worry and his voice was urgent. "Daryl, you have to find Rick. We need to get out of here as quickly as we can. There are too many walkers, and they're coming this way."