"Did you find her?"

Hope heard Carol's voice from outside the RV. She poked her head outside and saw Shane and Glenn walking towards Carol.

Shane shook his head. "Rick and Daryl are still looking."

Carol's shoulders shook. The poor woman looked ready to crumble at any minute.

Rick put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they'll find her."

Carol nodded shakily. She remained where she'd been all day, keeping vigil by the side of the road.

Shane put his hands on his hips and sighed. "In the meantime, let's keep looking for supplies. Dale, you keep working on that radiator hose. I want us to be ready to move when Rick comes back. Come on, get to it!"

The group returned to the tasks at hand. Hope yawned. She guessed her break was officially over. Stretching her arms up over her head, she grunted. The release of tension in her tired muscles was a welcome relief. She heard a gasp. She looked over at Glenn. His eyes were glued to the still healing bite and scratch marks that peppered her stomach. She pulled her shirt down. The freshest ones were no longer tender to the touch. Most of them had faded into light pink scars. It was strange, for a moment she'd forgotten they were there.

Hope walked away before he could say anything. When she was a good distance away she slumped next to a car, her hands resting on her knees. She felt a drop of water on her hand. Curious, she glanced up at the sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight. She looked down at her hand again; another drop. She tasted salt on her lips. She touched her cheek and felt the wetness there. Angrily she wiped at her face. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't cry anymore. Lawrence was dead and gone. He couldn't hurt her anymore. Not physically anyway.

"Hope!"

Hope looked up and saw Glenn waving for her to come back. Sighing she walked over to him.

"Is something wrong?"

Glenn shifted nervously. "Shane wants me to load up some of these water bottles we found into the cars. I could use some help."

Hope wiped sweat from her brow. "Okay."

Glenn smiled and trotted towards the water delivery truck. He grabbed one of the water bottles and began to pull it out of its compartment. He grunted with the effort. Hope hurried over to help. They both sighed with relief as they dropped the bottle on the ground with a small thud.

Glenn groaned. "This isn't going to be easy is it?"

Hope glared balefully at the hot sun beaming down on their heads. "Is it ever?"

Hope gripped her stomach. She gasped for air as tears flowed from her eyes. "I can't breathe!"

"What the hell are y'all laughing at?" Hope looked up to see Shane hovering above her and Glenn. The pair's giggles were silenced immediately.

Glenn scrambled up from the ground where he'd fallen down in laughter moments before. "Uh, I was-we were…" he ducked his head. "Nothing?"

Shane arched his eyebrow. "You finish loading up them water bottles?"

"Yes! Yes, we did. Right Hope?" Glenn turned back to face her.

She responded with a sharp nod. Glenn sighed, back to the silent treatment. Shane was such a buzz kill.

"I need your help moving some cars off the road. Come on."

Glenn glanced at Hope as if asking for permission.

Hope shrugged.

Shane pointed at her with his chin. "You too, we need all the help we can get." He walked away.

Glenn reached out a hand to help her up from the ground. Hope smiled but ignored it in favor of the car she'd been sitting next to. Glenn's smile faded a bit.

"It's nothing personal. I just don't like to be touched."

Glenn opened his mouth to ask her about it but then thought better of it.

She smiled to herself. There might be hope for him yet.

"Where's my gun? You have no right to take it."

Hope glanced over at Andrea as she walked towards Dale. Hope was helping Glenn pack up a crate of food a few feet away.

Dale wouldn't meet Andrea's eyes. "You don't need that just now. Do you?"

"My father gave it me. It's mine."

"I can hold on to it for you."

"Or you can give it back to me."

Shane walked over to them. "Everything cool?"

Andrea turned to him. "No, I want my gun back."

Dale glanced back at Shane. "I don't think that is a good idea right now."

Shane looked at Dale. "Why not?"

Dale paused then looked Shane in the eye. "I'm not comfortable with it."

Andrea scoffed. She folded her arms over her chest and looked at Shane.

Shane kept his eyes on Dale. "Truth is, less guns we have floating around camp the better."

Andrea tilted her head. "You turning over your weapon?"

Shane chuckled. "No, but I'm trained, in its use. That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training but until that time I think it's best that Dale keeps them all accounted for."

Andrea rolled her eyes and walked away.

Shane put his fingers through the belt loops on his pants. "You mind telling what that was about?" He whispered to Dale.

"Awkward." Glenn muttered.

Hope chuckled quietly. She felt a little bit guilty. Dale might have gotten his hands on Andrea's gun but he hadn't found hers. In fact, she was sure that no one in the group besides Daryl knew she had a gun. That was just the way things would stay if Daryl had anything to do with it. She knew he was right; the last thing she wanted to be was weaponless in world crawling with walkers.

Glenn put the crate he was carrying on the ground. "Oh God, they're back."

Hope looked over to see Rick and Daryl emerge from the forest. A flutter of relief went through her stomach when she that Daryl wasn't hurt. Her heart sunk a little when she didn't see Sophia.

"You didn't find her." Carol's voice wavered.

Rick stopped in front of Carol. "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light."

Carol was near tears. "You can't leave my daughter out there on her own; to spend the night in the woods alone."

Daryl spoke softly to Carol. "The dark's no good. We'll just be tripping over ourselves. More people will get lost."

"But she's twelve! She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Lori placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Rick spoke calmly to her. "I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."

"We tracked her for a while," Daryl piped up.

Rick spoke to the group. "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

Carol was practically hyperventilating. She spotted blood on Daryl's pants. "Is-is that blood?"

Daryl and Rick shared a look. "We took down a walker," Rick replied.

"Walker…oh my God."

Rick grabbed Carol's shoulder. "There was no sign that it was anywhere near Sophia."

"How can you know that?" Hope looked at Andrea. What was she thinking? They were trying to calm Carol down not rile her up more.

Rick looked at Daryl as if he was unsure of what to say. Daryl spoke for him. "We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure."

Carol's knees buckled and she sat on the guardrail. Lori sat with her. Carol looked at Rick with disgust. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?"

Rick looked confused.

"How could you leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off it was her best chance," Rick pleaded with her; begging her to understand.

Shane moved to stand by Rick. "Sounds like he didn't have a choice Carol."

"How is she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child."

"I-It was my only option. The only choice I could make."

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane said.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol whimpered.

Rick hung his head. Slowly he got up and walked away. Hope swallowed the lump in her throat. Was this life now? A series of fucked up situations in this shitty world?

"Do you mind if I come up?"

Dale looked down from his perch atop the RV. Hope was standing next to the ladder, pillow in hand. He smiled. "Of course."

Hope smiled back and quickly climbed up.

"Are you sleeping up here tonight?"

Hope set her pillow on the opposite end of the roof. She turned and sat with her legs. "Yeah, if you don't mind that is?"

"Not at all."

Silence stretched between them but neither felt the need to fill it. Hope was mildly comfortable around Dale. He'd been the one to help her that first day. He never pushed her boundaries or made her uncomfortable. Overall she liked Dale, he was a good man.

"Goodnight Andrea." Dale called down.

Andrea said nothing as she went inside the RV. Dale sighed and plopped down on his beach chair. Hope laid her head on the pillow. She watched the stars in the sky. Ever since Daryl had showed her some constellations she loved looking at the stars. Even if she was sure he'd made most of them up. She was positive the "weird nipple" wasn't an actual constellation.

"She's angry with me."

"I know."

"Is it that obvious?"

Hope shrugged. "Kind of…what happened back there?"

"At the CDC? Andrea was devastated after Amy died. She'd been struggling and Jenner's offer seemed…appealing. She chose to stay. I told her that if she wanted to stay then so would I. Then we got out of there."

Hope said nothing.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"I can hear you thinking from here."

Hope snorted. "I think she feels cheated. She made a choice to stay and you forced her to go."

"But…I saved her."

"I don't think she sees it that way." Hope rolled onto her side. She punched at the pillow to fluff it up. "She's a grown woman, Dale. She can make her own decisions. Whether or not you agree with them, they're still hers to make."

Dale stayed quiet.

Hope yawned, her eyelids were growing heavy. "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll get over it. Just give her time."

"I just don't understand."

"Do you want to?"

Dale didn't have an answer for that.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick laid out the kit of knives and hatchets Carl had found the day before on the hood of a car. The group was getting ready to search the woods for Sophia. Daryl was leading the search. T-Dog and Dale would stay behind. Dale was still fixing the RV and T-Dog had lost a lot of blood that morning when he cut his arm trying to hide from the herd of walkers that passed by that morning. Hope and Glenn immediately went for the same weapon.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Glenn asked hopefully.

Hope smiled. "Go ahead, take it." She picked up the axe next to it.

Andrea put her hands on her hips. "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?"

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles," Shane said from his spot leaning against the RV.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea muttered.

Shane crossed his arms over his chest. "Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." He snapped back as he walked away.

Andrea said nothing in response. Hope thought that was a good idea.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around, and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark," Daryl addressed the group.

"Stay quiet, stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other," Rick continued.

"Everybody assemble your packs," Shane piped in.

Hope picked up the small book bag she'd packed with food, water and supplies. Slinging over her shoulder, she grunted. Maybe packing so much hadn't been such a good idea. Daryl looked over at her. He lifted the book bag from her back for a moment.

"How much did you pack?"

Hope shrugged. "Enough."

"Enough for what?"

"The end of the world," Hope quipped.

Daryl shook his head in annoyance, a smirk playing on his lips.

"No Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop. I mean, what do you think is gonna happen? That I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?" Hope looked over to Andrea. She shook her head, sighing. Both were so stubborn, they were beating a dead horse.

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear, but if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now."

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay."

"You chose suicide!"

"So, what's that to you?! You barely know me!"

"I know Amy's death devastated you-"

"Keep her out of this," Andrea interjected. "This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"

"I saved your life," Dale said quietly.

"No Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? That I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some sort of life affirming catharsis?"

Hope and Daryl shared a look. Both felt uncomfortable with the painfully awkward scene unfolding in front of them.

"Well, maybe just a little gratitude."

"Gratitude?" Andrea asked incredulously. "I wanted to die my way. Not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me Dale."

"But-"

"But you know better. All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away Dale, and you expect gratitude?"

"I don't know what to say."

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife and I sure as hell am not your problem. That's all there is to say."Andrea walked away, leaving Dale in a stunned silence.

The group quietly filed out of their makeshift camp and into the woods. Sophia was running out of time.