I tried really hard to post this before my spring break last week but I ran out of time. I wanted to change the POV at the very end but decided to scrap it for now. A new POV is most likely going to happen though. I just have to make it work instead of just throwing it in there and completely ruining the story.


The entire group was crammed inside of Dale's RV for the night. Since I did nothing but sleep for the last few days, I volunteered to take watch. It was pretty dark outside so it was going to be hard to keep a good look out for the walkers. An hour into my watch Daryl came up to where I was sitting and handed me a blanket.

"That jacket ain't going to be enough," he told me. I smiled up at him as he unfolded a chair and sat next to me. I put down the rifle I was holding and wrapped the blanket around me. "You also need something quieter than that."

"You know you're going to run out of arrows one day," I told him. "You think you're so cute with your crossbow now but just wait a few weeks."

The two of us talked for a while. I tried getting more out of Daryl about his past but he always talked his way out of answering my questions. I tried to bore him with a few stories of my own but he still wouldn't open up. Finally, almost an hour later he told me he was raised mostly by Merle, when he wasn't in juvie, and was always neglected a lot by his alcoholic father.

"I'm sorry about Merle." Daryl shrugged but I knew he was upset. "It doesn't make you weak if you cry over him."

"Merle's not worth cryin' over," he said. "What about you? I don't see you cryin' over that boyfriend of yours."

I shrugged my shoulders this time. "He's not worth crying over either. I used to care for him but I don't know what happened. I think everything that happened with my dad numbed me or something. I just sat around his bed until Carl got out of school."

"You should be nicer to your dad," Daryl said. I furrowed my eyebrows and turned my head to Daryl. "You're always off with the Chinaman or something."

"Or running off with you?" I asked. "I think if I remember correctly you wanted me to come with you to find Merle."

"That was one time. I'm talking about you sleepin' in the Chinama—"

"Glenn."

"Whatever. You were sleeping in his room and your old man was looking everywhere for you. For some reason he thought you were in my room. He even checked under the bed."

I was about to say something when the door that led down opened up and my dad popped his head up. "I can take over from here Daryl."

"Whatever hoss. I gotta take a leak anyways." Daryl stood up, took his crossbow and walked down the steps. My dad closed the lid and sat down where Daryl was.

"How you doing?" he asked.

"Fine." I scooted my chair closer and put half the blanket over his legs. "Aren't you tired?"

I saw him rub his eyes. "Not really. Nobody can sleep down there anyways." He sighed loudly and I saw his leg bouncing up and down. "Are you sure you're alright? I've been talking to Dale. He said you been different."

"It's kinda hard to be happy with all of this going on."

"Not happy," he said shaking his head, "Different."

"We've been over this," I told him.

"You're telling me all this anger towards Shane is because he lied to you? This seems more personal. There's something that's missing. What aren't you telling me?"

"You're smart enough to know that's the only reason." I shined a flashlight quickly out into the distance and turned it off when I saw nothing. "We need to find some night vision binoculars or something. It's not safe out here being in the dark."

He leaned closer and reached for my hand. "What were you trying to tell me before? Before you found Dean? You started saying something about you and Shane."

"Nothing Dad."

"Did you and Shane…" He stopped midsentence and let go of my hand. "Did he—"

"Dad, just stop. It's nothing to worry about."

"Olivia, please tell me you didn't."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. I started fingering circle into the blanket completely avoiding my dad's gaze.

"Jesus Christ." From the corner of my eye I saw him lean back in his chair. I looked over at him as he leaned forwards and put his head in his hands. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"This isn't funny," he said. He leaned forward and turned my head so I was looking him in his eyes. "Why would you do that?"

"Well at least I won't get pregnant. Aren't you glad to hear about that?"

"Stop making jokes. Did he force himself on you?"

I let out a laugh but quickly stopped when I realized he was glaring at me. "Not really." He leaned back in disbelief. "No, he didn't."

"Why would you do this? How long has this been happening?"

I shrugged. "Like a month? Look I'm sorry you found out like this. I wanted to tell you but then I didn't know how to tell you." I shrugged again. "I just… I let this happen but after you came back it stopped. I know it was wrong but… I really don't know what to say." He was looking out into the distance now. "Sorry I'm an even bigger disappointment to you now."

"I would tell you to go down and get some sleep but I don't want you anywhere near Shane."

"What are you going to do to Shane?" I questioned. I looked over at him and he was still looking straight ahead. We both sat in silence for a while. "So why did Jenner keep you locked in that room for so long? Did he tell you anything?"

He continued to ignore me. I really didn't know what to say but I was sure that nothing would help. My dad probably thinks I'm a whore and there was nothing I could do to change that. I wondered what exactly Dale said to him that made him jump to his conclusions. Had Dale seen us? I was sure we were always careful but now I'm not so sure.

Once the sun started rising some of the group started coming out of the RV. I quickly stood up and started climbing down inside. Andrea was sitting at the table staring at her gun. I wondered if she was still on suicide watch but since Dale was nowhere to be seen I assumed he gave up trying to get through to her. I walked past her and walked outside where some of the group had already started moving cars.

Some of the cars had the keys in them which made it easier to move but a majority of the cars were completely dead. Glenn suggested we got the brake lines to some of the cars but nobody else thought that was a good idea.

"Dean's dad was a mechanic." I said. "When a car is completely dead they go underneath a flip a switch." Most of the guys looked at me like I was crazy. I didn't know the exact terms that mechanics used but I learned a good amount from Dean's dad. "If you disconnect the shift thingy underneath your car can shift to neutral and you can push it easier."

"That doesn't even sound safe," Glenn said. "Unless we block off the tires? But with what?"

"I can try it with one car and if works then you're welcome."

"Do you even know what you're doing under there?" Glenn asked. "You just said shift thingy. That doesn't sound like you know what you're doing."

"Find me something that will hold the tires in place," I said. T-Dog quickly ran off while I got underneath one of the dead cars. Glenn crotched down and peaked his head under.

"Did you find the thingy?" he asked. I rolled my eyes and found exactly what I was looking for. Sure it wasn't exactly safe but it was a better idea than cutting the brake lines. At least this way we were able to control the brakes if we needed to.

I saw boots walk up to Glenn and realized they were Daryl's.

"You know what you're doing?" he asked. I rolled out from under the car and looked up at him.

"Sure I do. Did you find me something to hold the tires?"

"Me and the kid here will watch the car," Daryl said. "It's not much of an incline out here; it's pretty flat."

"So you're saying I have to trust you two with my life?" I asked.

"I already saved your life once," Daryl said. "Now come on. Let's see if your little plan will work."

"If you two are going to be in the front, I want at least two others in the back to make sure it doesn't roll that way." T-Dog who finally came back empty handed stood in the back and Carol who was the closest body to us volunteered to help.

I went back under the car and hesitantly flipped the switch. When I heard the click I saw the car jerk a little. I quickly got out from under it but noticed it didn't roll. T-Dog and Carol started pushing the car and it moved.

"See, I told you I could do it," I told Daryl who had a small grin look on his face. "I don't have just a pretty face."

"Well look at you. Now do the rest of them," he said. I looked up the road and noticed there were a lot of cars that still needed to be moved. It was going to be a long day.

A few hours later I was lying under a truck. The shade felt great since it was another extremely hot day. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, imaging I was back at home in my bed in my air conditioned room. My eyes opened when I heard shuffling of feet and someone said out loud "Oh shit."

I was about to roll over from under the car to stand up when I noticed Sophia quickly get down under the car to my right.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked. I rolled to my stomach and popped my head out to my right. I saw Daryl was running towards the car I was under and nearly stepped on my hand as he bent down. He told me to move over and pushed himself so he no part of him was sticking out.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked again.

"Walkers," he said. "Hundreds of them."

"Where's Carl?" I asked. I was about to leave my spot when he pulled my arm.

"They're all under cars," he whispered. "Don't move or say a word." After a minute I heard the shuffling of feet. Slowly the feet became visible and it was clearly obvious they were walkers. Most of the bottoms of their legs were discolored and they were limping. I pushed myself as far as I could from the edge and bumped into Daryl. "Stop moving." I heard Sophia whimper and I motioned to her to keep quiet.

I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders but I didn't feel safe. This was absolutely the worst way to die. How long could we stay under here? And how many of them were out there? We really stood no chance if they kept coming.

"You better not start crying," he whispered into my ear.

"I'm not going to cry," I whispered back to him. "I'm really claustrophobic and I feel like I'm in a box and can't get out." I leaned my head down on the gravel and felt Daryl shift his weight. He moved my head so it was lying on his arm instead of the hard cement.

"They're going to move on," he said. "We just need to stay here for now." I looked over at Sophia again and she was crying into her doll.

"I don't want to die like this," I said. I heard Daryl click his tongue.

"We ain't gonna die. We just need to wait it out."

"What if we do though?" I asked. "What's one last thing you'd want to do?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just asking," I said.

"I don't know what I want but I know we're going to be alright. Those things are idiots. They haven't found us yet. What about—" I cut him off by pressing my lips against his. I really don't know what I would do if this were really my last few minutes but it seemed right. I really didn't even care if I embarrassed myself and he pushed me off, but so far he hadn't moved me off him. His free arm moved so it was on my hip.

I was starting to get uncomfortable from craning my neck to reach Daryl's lips that I stopped kissing him. I went back to lying on my back and turned my head. A few stragglers continued to walk on by and I was hoping they were the last ones. I saw Sophia peek her head out from under the car. I saw her try to get up by quickly went back underneath and started inching away. A walker was standing between our two cars and immediately started reaching for Sophia.

She was moving further away from the walker that I was afraid she was going to run away just to get away from it. I reached down for the knife Daryl gave me and quickly got out from the protection of the car and kicked the walker so its attention was now on me. When it turned to face me I stabbed it in its eye. The walker dropped dead and I removed the knife from its eye.

"Sophia, you're okay," I said bending down. I realized she wasn't under the car and stood up. I saw her starting to climb over the barrier with a walker right behind her. "Oh shit." I started walking around the car when Daryl popped out.

"Don't go after her," he said. He stood up to his feet but I was already at the barrier. "Olivia, goddamn it, stop." I ignored him and climbed over the barrier and started running after Sophia who was being chased down by the walker. He was slower than her but he was still way ahead of me.

By the time I reached the wooded area I was closer to the walker. I wasn't the fastest runner but I picked up my speed with my knife in hand. I jumped on its back and before it could get up I rammed the knife right through its skull. I pulled the knife out and stabbed it again just to make sure it was dead.

I stood up and started running after Sophia again. I called her name out a few times in a low voice but heard nothing but birds twittering. I had no idea where I was going and had no idea how I was going to get back. I was pretty sure I just kept running straight but everything looked the same out here.

I kept walking straight looking for any signs of small foot prints but I saw nothing. I reached the end and below was a small creek.

"Sophia? Are you down there?" I looked around and heard nothing still. "Sophia, don't be afraid. It's just me. Those walkers are dead but we need to get back." I was about to turn around to keep walking when I heard a branch snap below. I turned my head and looked down at the creek. "Sophia?" I walked closer towards the edge and since I couldn't see anything I climbed down into the water. I slipped on a rock and fell when I heard another branch crack.

Sophia came out of her hiding spot right as I reached for my gun. I let out a breath and stood up.

"You're a fast runner," I told her. I put my gun back on my waist and wiped my muddy hands on my jeans. "You're okay now." Sophia hugged me and I felt her reaching for my gun. "No hon. No guns." I wiped mud off her cheek and took her hand. "Come on. We need to find a way back to the highway."

She squeezed my hand and we started walking up the creek. The top part where I was standing a few minutes ago was too high for me to climb. I could easily hoist Sophia up but there was no way I could climb that by myself. I didn't want to risk splitting up so I thought finding higher ground was better.

"We should wait for someone," Sophia said. "Right?"

I shook my head. I had no idea what to do. I've never spent a single day in a forest and I was horrible at directions. We could be out here for hours if we waited for someone to find us. But if we kept moving we might end up in an even worse position; heading further and further away from our group. Either way, we were completely fucked unless we found our way to the highway.

"I don't know Sophia. As long as you don't leave my side we'll be safe," I told her.

"But what if there are more of those things? I can't run anymore."

I squeezed her hand and smiled down at her. I had no idea what to say to her. I only had six bullets in my gun and Daryl's knife. If there were more than two walkers at one time we were definitely screwed.

"Let's just try to find the highway, okay? I'm sure they're not going to send everyone looking for us." We continued walking up the creek and eventually were able to get out of the water. We kept walking straight up from where we thought we ran in. It made the most sense that eventually we would find the highway, but an hour later we were still in the woods.

"We ran straight," I said more to myself than to Sophia. "How can we not find the highway?" Sophia was sitting down catching her breath. I decided to sit next to her. It was still extremely hot and there was no shade anywhere to cool down. I was sure she was as thirsty as I was.

"What if we don't get out of here?" she asked. "I want my mom."

"We'll find them." I wiped the sweat off my forehead and fanned myself with my hand. If we couldn't find our group we had to at least find a place that had running water. "Does any of this look familiar? We might be walking in circles."

"We haven't turned though. We just keep walking straight." Sophia wiped her head too and looked at me. "What if we walked in the opposite direction?"

"I don't know. Shit. I'm sorry Sophia. I'm the last person you should be stuck out here with. I'm just getting us deeper into this place and I have no idea how long we'll be out here." Sophia leaned over to hug me.

"You killed those walkers though. I just ran from them. This is my fault."

"No hon. Don't think like that." I stood up and grabbed her hand. "Come on. Let's keep walking. Maybe there's a house out here or something. I know you're probably thirsty."

I looked up at the sky to look at the sun. We were heading South when we were driving and the sun sets on the West, right? So we needed to head North? I scrunched up my nose thinking of all these directions. I wish I knew what direction I was headed by looking at the sun or the way a bird was flying. This was completely ridiculous. I looked down at my watch. It was almost 4:30 in the afternoon. The sun was going to set in a few hours and we were still in the middle of the forest completely unprotected.

If we were to actually survive this end of the world bullshit I was definitely going to turn a new leaf. I was going to stop relying so much on technology and actually go outside more. I hated being so defenseless and vulnerable. It was the worst feeling in the world.

"There's something up there," Sophia said. I saw her pointing to something out in the distance. It looked like a tent. She started pulling me towards it but I was more hesitant. What if there were dead bodies in there or what if there were people but they weren't good people? I pulled Sophia so she was standing behind me. I pulled out my gun and pointed it straight out.

It was a small campground with only one tent and camping supplies. I told Sophia to stand away from the tent while I walked closer to it. I opened the tent and saw it was empty.

"They have water," Sophia said. She walked closer and bent down to pick up a half empty bottle of water. She took one big sip and passed the bottle to me. I grabbed the bottle and started searching for more water. I wanted to be sure we could find more before we finished this bottle. Inside the tent I found another half-filled bottle a full one.

"Well we're good for at least tonight and tomorrow," I told her. I took a sip of the bottle she gave me and handed it back. "Do you see any food?" She started digging through the campsite but all she found were empty wrappers. I wondered if the people who camped out here were alive or not. Either way it didn't feel 100% safe being here but it was better than walking around.

"Are we staying here?" Sophia asked.

"Either here or a tree," I told her. We both walked into the tent and I zipped it closed. "Why don't you get some sleep? I'll stay awake and keep an eye on our surroundings."

"Don't leave me alone," Sophia said.

"I'm not leaving." I sat down and Sophia went to lie down with her head on my lap. I ran my fingers through her hair. I felt so bad for her. She lost her father less than a week ago and now she was away from her mom. But despite running off the way she had she was a pretty tough little girl.

"Tell me a story," she asked. I continued to run my fingers through her hair and laughed.

"I'm not a very good story teller."

"Did you ever tell Carl any stories?"

"I haven't read Carl a story in years," I said.

"Are you and Glenn going out?"

I laughed really loud that I ended up snorting. "No, Sophia. He's my friend."

"Do you find anyone cute then?"

"Do you?"

She turned her head and looked up at me. "Your dad is kinda cute."

I laughed again. "Oh. He's okay."

"I like his uniform. I know he'll find us. Carl told me stories about him. I wish he was my dad."

"Don't say that," I told her. "I'm sure your dad was… well, I'm sure he had some redeeming qualities." The only thing I knew about Sophia's dad was that he was a bigger prick then Shane and Daryl combined. I was sure he hit his wife a few times. I may hate Shane but he never hit a woman or forced me to do anything I didn't want to.

"Your dad's a cop though and he's nice. I know he'll find us or Shane."

"Yeah, they will, but tomorrow when the sun comes up we need to find the highway. They won't leave without us but we can't stay here hoping they're going to find us."

"You won't let anything bad happen to us, will you?"

"I'll try not to," I said not making any promises.