Jenny struck her head and starts burst in front of her eyes. She instinctively curled, rolling off to the side. Her momentum, redirected by the fall, sent her over the side of the road and down into the muddy river. By the pure luck of happenstance, Jenny's trajectory took her directly into the path of a log, floating downstream. Held aloft by this makeshift raft, she floated out into the middle of the brackish river. This would be her salvation. The water, polluted with the bodies that, like Jenny, had rolled down the embankment, reeked of death. The herd paused slightly, a few scenting the air, looking for something, though not sure what. Most kept following the running man. food.

Sofia plucked another dandelion, adding it to her growing handful, behind her, Carl scuffed the gravel with his shoes. Carol shouted to them, telling them not to go to far. Carl waved as Sofia scanned the barren ground for more of the elusive yellow flowers, she wanted to give them to Andrea. Sofia didn't understand what had happened at the CDC, not really, but even she could see the defeated slump in Andrea's shoulders. When her Mom had looked like that, Sofia had always tried to cheer her up, to varying degrees of success. Flowers, she had learned, helped. So did cards or notes, but she didn't have any paper and her Crayons were worn down anyway. The others had stopped, trying to fix the motor home, which had given out after only thirty of forty miles. Sofia edged down the side of the road. There was a muddy ditch and growing along the side, several fat yellow flowers. She moved like she'd seen Daryl move, slowly, following through on each individual action.

"Sofia!" Carl sounded shrill and panicky.

She brought a finger to her lips, looking up at him,

"What Carl?"

He pointed with a shaking finger at a corpse lying half in half out of the water. It was flecked with mud and blood, one pale arm extended towards her. Sofia crept closer. The body remained still. She looked, Sofia thought, not at all like the walkers. She looked like Sleeping Beauty from her story book, just wetter and muddy. She poked it with her foot. Nothing. Finally she rose up on her haunches, rolling the dead weight over. The woman, for that's what the body was, didn't moan, or lurch, or do anything a walker should. Still, it's, her, chest rose and fell. Sofia ignored Carl's sharp intake of breath and pried open one of the woman's eyes. The iris was not the odd grey blue of the dead, but a dark forest green.

"Mom, Mom there's a woman here. She's alive!"

Sofia grabbed the woman's arm, pulling it up and out of the ditch. Carl, after a moment of indecision, joined in, heaving on the dead weight in the ditch. Carol, who never more than a hundred paces from her daughter's side, was there in moments.

"Sofia," her voice shook and Carl could see that Carol's face, under the dirt and grime of the road, was as white as bone.

"Sofia, sweetheart, get away from that." Carol was edging down the side of the ditch, wobbling with every step. Sofia, intent on the body she had now extricated from the mud, ignored her mother. Lori, the second to arrive on the scene, had none of the hesitance of Carol.

"Carl Grimes get your butt over here right now. I will count to three." She took a step down, hand extended, face hard.

"One..."

Sofia looked up, her face bright, split by a toothy smile.

"Mom, she's alive. I found her, and we can save her. Help me pull her up."

Carol looked over at Lori. Lori's mouth was a hard line, her eyes wide with fear and indecision. She worried that Carl and the group were growing cold, immune to the suffering of others. Even back at the camp sight, the group had been ready to burn the bodies, even those that had once been their friends. They were still human, and their humanity was precious. Lori slid the rest of the way down the embankment and grabbed the body under the arms, pulling it up and towards the road. Carol joined in, tugging ineffectively as Carl and Sofia alternately pushed and pulled.

The four would be rescuers gathered around the body, now laying on the tarmac.

"Is she breathing?" Carl asked, whispering as he lent inward.

Lori placed her ear over the woman's mouth, feeling the ghosting of breath.

"She's still breathing."

Lori sat up on her haunches.

"Carl, take Carol, run and get your father. Don't stop, don't shoot, don't make any noise. We'll wait here." All of this was delivered in a hushed, urgent whisper. Carl looked from Sofia to his mother, then back again. Sofia smiled.

"Mom, please, hurry and get Rick." Carol nodded, still looking a bit shellshocked. She grabbed Carl's hand and the two set of towards the RV, and presumably Rick.

Sofia and Lori lent over the prostrate body on the ground. Lori looked at the woman properly for the first time. She was young, maybe in her mid twenties, sickly pale, with a mess of hair. She was wearing a black leather vest, her ribs bound with strips of shirt. She had scratches down her arms, bruises around her neck and a rapidly swelling wrist. Her bag, the shoulder strap still looped over her arm and lying across her chest, was pushed under her head. Lori wondered what this girl had been through. She had an idea of what the outside world must be like. It was hard enough living in a group of good people. The end of the world changed people's values, changed them. She'd hate to think what it would be like for a single girl, on the road, without a group.

As Lori thought, Sofia sat silently, blinking soulfully down at the woman.

"She looks like my Mom." Sofia whispered, half to her self.

Lori's head shot up. She'd seen Ed and his wife, and she could draw conclusions as well as the next person. Lori wondered if maybe Sofia just found something about the woman familiar. Maybe it wasn't the bruises or the cuts, alas Sofia continued.

"Sometimes, when she did something wrong, Mom and Dad would go in their room. Then Mom would look like that." She gestured at the woman.

"Did" Sofia stopped, "Do you think she'll be okay?" Lori wasn't sure if Sofia meant her Mom or the woman, bur either way, she nodded.

"She'll be fine honey." Sofia opened her mouth as if to speak again, but before she said anything Glen and Rick arrived at the top of the embankment.

"Lori" Rick sounded as scared as Carol had only minutes before.

"Lori what are you doing?"

"She's alive Rick, Sofia and Carl found her in the ditch." Lori gestured at the prone body on the ground. Rick knelt, feeling gingerly for a pulse. The woman stiffened as Rick's fingers came in contact with her neck, sitting bolt upright she lurched back down, coughing river water and trying to push herself away from the little group that had gathered around her. She looked from Rick to Glenn then Lori and Carol, finally taking in the two children. She coughed again, licking her lips.

"Are you the do-gooders?" She asked, her voice horse

Rick cocked his head.

"The do-gooders?"

She chuckled. Rick, used to dealing with victims in shock, could see faint tremors starting, her hands, curled in her lap, shook almost incessantly. Here eyes were very wide and her skin had lost any of the color it had had. Rick rocked back on his heels, watching as she seemed to weigh her options. Finally, wrapping her arms around her torso she leant back, her breathing slowing. "Does the name Merle mean anything to you.?"

Glenn stiffened, Rick's eyebrows shot up and Carol gasped. The older woman's eyes went to the bruising around Jenny's neck.

"He told me about you. We, um, we ran into each other. Anyway, I didn't think I'd find you, in fact, I didn't think I'd ever be doing much of anything ever again. Merle is looking for Daryl, his brother? Is he here?" Her voice was wispy and hoarse but she seemed sane enough.

Rick ignored her question. He extended his hand, offering both a greeting and, as he rose to his feet, and a hand up.

"My name is Rick, I'm a policeman. This is my wife Lori and our son Carl. That's Carol and her daughter Sofia, she found you, and Glenn." Glenn waved awkwardly, Carl stood close to his parents and Carol stared intently at the young woman's face.

Taking Rick's proffered hand, the woman rose to her feet, slightly unsteadily.

"My name is Jeannette, Jenny." Her voice wavered. Rick smiled, unsure where this woman was from or why she was here. She looked harmless enough, but as the gang in Atlanta had proved, looks could be deceiving. He wasn't eager to have her close to his family quite yet.

Sofia, it appeared, had other ideas. She took Jenny's hand, leading her towards the cars.

"Mom, can she stay with us?" Carol looked to Rick, who looked back down at Sofia.

"Sofia I need to talk to Jeannette first, okay?" Sofia shrugged, but acquiesce.

Rick looked Jenny in the eye. Normally he would assume she was a victim, treat her accordingly. These days, everyone was a victim. Rick nodded, deciding.

"So, Jenny, what's your story?"