I tired getting this out sooner but I re-wrote it three times. I decided to write in in third person instead of writing it in Daryl's POV. I figured I would screw it up that way. It's only going to be this way for at least one more chapter so bare with me. And thanks for the reviews :)


Rick had heard Daryl call out Olivia's name and got up quickly from under the car he was hiding under. He ran over to where he saw Daryl was standing and looked out into the distance. If he hadn't gotten out from under the car as quick as he did he would have missed her running into the woods.

The rest of the group started coming out from under the cars to where Rick and Daryl stood. Carol was sobbing and nobody but Daryl knew why.

"Sophia ran and Olivia went after her," Carol said. She was starting to climb over the barrier when Shane grabbed her by her shoulders. "I have to get my baby back."

"I'll get them," Rick said. He started climbing over the barrier and Daryl followed him. "Y'all stay there and we'll be right back. Nobody else leaves here." Rick and Daryl started running after Olivia and came upon a dead walker they assumed that was chasing Sophia.

"She got it," Daryl said. "They have to be around here somewhere." Daryl had his crossbow aimed out in front of him and Rick was looking at the ground. They both looked at the ground for visible footsteps and only saw a few walking in the opposite direction of the highway. They started getting faint as the continued to follow them. Daryl started looking at branches to see if any of them had been broken but he wasn't finding anything.

"They have to be around here somewhere," Rick said. He was getting anxious. He saw no sign of either one of the girls but he wanted to keep faith that they were together and okay. Daryl and Rick kept moving and soon came to the creek. Looking down Daryl noticed below there were some muddy shoeprints.

"They were here," he said. "Think they went up that way?" The two of them started following the path adjacent to the creek. They followed the creek and saw more shoeprints at the end climbing up to where they were now standing. They followed the muddy boot prints for a few feet until they weren't able to see them anymore.

"The highway is that way," Daryl said pointing to his right. "She ain't dumb enough to go the opposite direction, is she?"

"She doesn't know her left from her right when it comes to directions," Rick said. "She depended too much on her damn GPS." He sighed loudly and continued walking up a small incline looking for any sign of shoeprints. "You would think she would have at least retraced her steps."

"Maybe she couldn't find the girl right away," Daryl said. "The little one got a good head start." Rick started walking not sure what direction he should go in. The two of them were walking for at least fifteen minutes when Daryl stopped. "We're just walking with no clue which way they went. We can't even track them and it's getting late. Maybe they already found their way to the highway."

"And what if they didn't? That's my daughter and Sophia is a little girl. We can't just give up right away. What if they aren't even together? Those boot prints were obviously Olivia's and I didn't see any smaller ones following."

"Well if she isn't a good with her surroundings why did she run after her?" Daryl asked. "She was just askin' for trouble."

"I'm not giving up," Rick argued back. "I'll stay out here all night if I have to."

"You ain't thinkin' straight man. We can keep looking but eventually it's gonna get dark. She's got her gun. She's probably out looking for somewhere to stay. Maybe she's in a tree or somethin'."

Rick heard everything Daryl said but he continued walking. The two of them seemed to have walked in a giant circle but eventually they reached the highway. Rick quickened his pace and reached the top of the hill where the rest of the group was standing where he left them.

"Did they come back?" he asked right away.

"You didn't find them?" Carol asked. Her face was still tear-stained and it was obvious the two girls never came back.

"Shit!" Rick yelled out loud. He kicked the tire of one car nearest to him. Shane walked over to Rick and put his hand on Rick's shoulder.

"We'll find them brother. Something must have spooked them into running the opposite direction."

"What are we going to do?" Carl asked. "We need to get Olivia Dad."

"We can't keep lookin' for them in the dark," Daryl said. "It ain't safe for any of us. We're just going to be trippin' over ourselves in the dark."

"Well why didn't you stop her then?" Shane accused looking right at Daryl. "I'm sure I heard you yell out her name but that was it."

"You expect me to pull her by her arm or throw her over my shoulder to stop her?" Daryl asked. "She got a mind of her own and there was nothing I could do about it. She chose to go after Sophia. I didn't see none of y'all doing the same thing."

"That's bullshit," Shane said. "When it comes to that girl throwing her over your shoulder is the only thing you can do to get her to listen to you."

"Shane, you need to hush up," Rick said. The way he was looking at Shane was different. The two of them were at odds for a few days but the look on Rick's face looked like pure anger. He turned his back to the rest of the group and pinched the bridge of his nose. "First thing tomorrow we're going back out there." He turned around to look at the group. "If I had it my way I'd be out there right now but Daryl's right. It isn't safe for anyone to be out there."

"Dad, what if the walkers come back?" Carl asked. "Are we safe here?"

"We're no safer than they are out there," Rick answered honestly.

"What if we can't find them?" he asked. Rick put his hand on his son's shoulder in a reassuring way but he didn't know what to say. Nobody knew how big that woods was or where it led to. For all he knew Olivia might have ended up on the opposite end of the woods.

"It's still a little light out," Glenn said. "I can go out for a bit."

"Nah, we need to stay here," Rick said. "Tomorrow we'll split up into groups; one group will go out looking and one will stay here in case they come back."

Rick walked past everyone with Carl and stepped into the RV. Carol was still upset and eventually followed Rick. The group all looked at each other not sure what to say or do.

"Are we really going to stay another night out here?" Andrea asked. "That RV isn't safe. If one walker came in and another group of them comes by what chance do we have to survive that one too?"

"We don't really have many options," Dale spoke up. "Sophia's just a small girl and Olivia risked a lot going after her. Just because they're not back yet doesn't mean they're dead. At least we got most of the cars out of the way. Once we find them tomorrow we can continue on to Fort Benning."

"What if we don't find them?" Andrea asked. "Are we going to stay here until we find their dead bodies? This is a graveyard out here. We aren't safe."

The group looked at one another again and all walked back into the RV for another uncomfortable night. As soon as the sun came up Daryl was the first out of the RV. He had been ready to go back hours ago. He was determined to find the two girls today; even more so than Carol and Rick. He felt a small amount of guilt that he hadn't run after them and Rick was the only one who could see it written all over his face.

"You know there wasn't much you could do," Rick said.

"I coulda done a helluva lot more." He slung his crossbow over his shoulder and shrugged. "I shouldn't have just stood around doing nothing."

"We had to have been right behind them," Rick explained. "I don't know where they went but we'll find them. You can't beat yourself up about this. My girl is smart, I know if she's with Sophia she's doing everything she can do keep them both safe."

Daryl scoffed, "You better be talking about yourself 'cuz I ain't beatin' myself up over anything."

Everyone gathered together and loaded themselves up with knives and axes. Andrea was the only one arguing about having a gun but was shut down right away by Shane and Rick. Andrea almost was going to stay behind with Daryl and T-Dog because she wasn't allowed a gun but decided she'd rather be unarmed than to spend more than a minute with Dale.

They all headed out and found no sign of anything after about thirty minutes. They headed around a corner and something caught Daryl's eye. It was a yellow tent. He motioned for Rick to follow him. Carol immediately jumped in front of Rick to see what Daryl was looking at. Half sticking out of the tent was a leg. The owner of the leg was sprawled out on the ground with its upper torso inside of the tent.

Carol started crying and Andrea went to comfort her. Daryl quickly went over to the tent and pushed opened the flap. He looked down to see a dead walker that had been bludgeoned in the head several times. He was always missing his shirt. Inside the tent was a small cooler that was extremely bloody; it was most likely used to kill him.

"It ain't them," he called out. He turned around to see relief wash all over Rick's face. Daryl bent down to examine the single knife wound on the walker's forehead. He looked closer and stood up. "I think this was them."

"How do you know?" Shane asked.

"The knife I gave her was sharp and cut like this, it had no ragged edges," Daryl said. "It's a long shot but it's possible it could be them."

"How the hell did they end up over here?" Shane asked. "We've been walking for at least 20 minutes. This is the complete opposite direction of the highway."

"There are obviously walkers out here," Glenn said, "Maybe they got spooked into running in the opposite direction."

"We still don't know that this kill was them," Andrea said. "Someone was camping here, maybe it was them."

Daryl had enough of listening to Andrea's complaints that he started walking away. Rick did a quick look over of the tent and when he found nothing and caught up with the group.

"Do you think we'll find them soon?" Carl asked. Rick looked down at Carl and flashed him a tiny smile.

"I don't think we should all be together," Shane said. "If we split up we'll get more ground covered. We can't waste more sunlight being together. Y'all head back around the way we just came and Rick and I will go around the other way."

"You splitting us up?" Daryl asked. "Is that the best idea?"

"Can't keep wasting time be all together," Shane said. "Daryl, you know your way around the woods best. Just lead everyone back safely and we'll meet y'all there soon."

Daryl glared at Shane but started walking back towards the way they came with Andrea, Glenn and Carol. Glenn kept shooting looks in Carol's way every time she would slip behind.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Carol had stopped walking and leaned against a tree. She was looking at Daryl with disgust, and then she turned away. "Carol?" Carol shook her head and sighed loudly. "I'm sorry about what you're going through but you're not alone in feeling like crap. Rick's missing Liv you know. At least Sophia isn't alone." Carol looked up at Glenn and then back to Daryl.

"You actually blame me?" Daryl questioned. He walked closer to the two of them and shook his head. "I know I should have ran after them but you can't keep glarin' at me every goddamn minute, woman. At least someone ran after your kid. Where the hell were you?"

"He's right," Glenn said quietly.

"Hell yeah I'm right," Daryl barked. "I didn't see none of y'all running after Sophia. Olivia jumped up without hesitation and she doesn't even know her way around a place that isn't a shopping mall. I don't know her as well as her old man but she doesn't seem the type to be skipping into the woods chasing after a kid who was perfectly fine if she wouldn't have ran off." Carol looked down at the ground while Glenn and Andrea both looked at Daryl. "Now if you're done with your moping can we move on?"

Carol nodded once and started walking after Daryl with Glenn and Andrea behind them. They both shared a look with each other but said nothing. Daryl kept his eyes focused on the ground looking for any footprints but he was coming up with nothing.

"I think it's about time we head back to the highway," Daryl said. "Meet up with Rick and Shane and see what to do next."

"We're going to give up for today?" Carol asked.

"We've been out here for hours," Daryl said. "We've looked everywhere—"

"But we don't know how big these woods are," Carol said. "They could still be out there."

"Exactly!" Daryl shouted. "We don't know how big these woods are. I'm sure as shit they were the ones that took that walker down by the tent. They're still around. They might have found a home nearby and are staying there for a while. We ain't gonna give up so don't go thinking that's what we're doing." Daryl turned back to start walking and within 15 minutes they reached the highway.

"How is it we can find the highway and they can't?" Carol asked. She started silently crying once again while Daryl shook his head and looked at Glenn.

"Anything could have happened," Glenn said. "One wrong turn in there and I'd be lost too. Liv really is that stupid when it comes to directions. She probably still thinks we live on the West coast, so… I don't think she was thinking she'd get lost when she went after Sophia. I just think she went after her because it was the right thing to do."

"No luck?" T-Dog asked. Everyone shook their head and Carol went back into the RV. "What are we gonna do now?"

"Shane, Rick and Carl didn't come back?" Glenn asked. Dale closed the hood of his RV and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "You guys split up?"

"Shane thought it would be better if we split up," Glenn said. "He wanted to cover more ground."

"What do we do now?" Andrea asked. "Did you even finish fixing the RV?"

"It's been finished hours ago," Dale said. "I just wanted to pretend it needed more tinkering. We can't leave without those two girls and if I said it was ready to move someone of you might suggest we leave."

"Nobody said anything about moving on," Daryl said, "Except maybe blondie."

"No, he's right," Andrea said. "We can't just leave them out there."

"I'm gonna go back out there," Daryl announced. "Maybe we missed something."

"Is that the smartest move Daryl?" Dale asked.

"Standing around here is doing them no good," Daryl said. "What if one of 'em got hurt?"

"You didn't find anything?" T-Dog questioned.

"There were some boot prints but they started getting lighter," Glenn said. "And most of the prints we saw were Olivia's. Not sure why there weren't any smaller ones."

"Do you think they're separated?" Dale asked. Glenn shrugged his shoulders. Nobody had any answers.

The group started walking towards the RV when they sound of hooves running down the highway towards them caught them off guard. Daryl quickly got out his crossbow and was aiming it at that woman.

"Are all y'all part of Rick and Shane's group?" she asked.

Daryl still was aiming his crossbow at her, "Who wants to know?"

"There was an accident and they're at my house," she said. "Rick said if you found Olivia to let her know and the rest of y'all can come on up. It's two miles down and the first driveway on your right." Everyone looked at each other and then at the girl.

"What kind of accident?" Dale asked.

"Carl got shot," she said. "Are any of y'all Olivia?"

"Holy shit," Glenn said. He lowered his voice so the woman wouldn't hear him. "We can't tell Rick that Olivia's still missing and now his son is shot. It's going to kill him."

"So what do we do?" Andrea asked. "Do we go or stay?" Carol popped her head out of the RV and looked down at the group.

"We can't leave," she said. "What if they come back and we're not here?"

"She's right," Daryl said. "I'll stay with the RV and y'all take Carol's car to where Rick is at."

"If the RV is staying so am I," Dale said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Okay, so what do I tell Rick?" the girl asked. "Oh, and do any of you have A positive blood type? Carl needs it and Rick can't be the only donor at this point. Carl's losing too much blood."

"I do," Glenn said. "Is Carl going to make it?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "My dad is going to try his best to save him. Shane and Otis went to go get some medical supplies but Rick can't be the only one giving blood. You gotta come with me."

"Just go with her Glenn," Dale said. "If she said Shane isn't with Rick that means he's all alone. He needs someone to be with him right now."

"Why do I have to be the one to give Rick more bad news?" Glenn grumbled.

"I have A positive too," T-Dog said. "I'll go with you. Rick's a good man. He doesn't deserve to be alone with strangers."

"Fine," the girl said. "Just remember first driveway on your left." She took off on her horse leaving the group staring at one another.

"I can't believe Rick's luck," Glenn said. He shook his head. "So are you guys going to just stay here and keep searching for them?"

"Like I said I'm going to go back out there right now," Daryl said. "Might as well try harder to give Rick some good news." Glenn nodded his head at Daryl and him and T-Dog took off down the road.

Daryl went into the RV to fetch a flashlight and came back out.

"I'm going with you," Andrea said. Daryl turned his back and rolled his eyes. He knew there was no point in arguing with her. The two of them headed off again. The only thing he wanted to do was to find the two girls and get the hell off of that highway.

They had both been quiet but Daryl finally broke the silence. "Why do y'all got that same look on your face? Like you really don't think we're going to find them."

"Because it looks like we keep walking around in circles and we keep finding our way back up to the highway," Andrea said. "Why can't they do the same?"

"You say that now but it isn't always easy finding your way around if you don't analyze your surroundings. That girl straight up ran and I'm sure she didn't stop and look at what tree she just ran past; she wanted to find Sophia."

"Do you think they're together? Sophia's only 12. Do you really think she's any better at being able to find us?"

"I've gotten lost before," Daryl said. "I was nine and not one person knew I was missing. They're lucky they have people looking after them."

"You seem to be taking this more personal than anyone else."

"No I ain't."

"No one blames you, you know. I'm sure you just thought Liv would catch her and she'd be right back. No one knew the clusterfuck she'd get herself into." Daryl chose to ignore Andrea and continue walking. They had walked in a different direction than they did earlier and ended up at a small church.

"Maybe they took shelter in there," Daryl said. He had his crossbow in front of him and Andrea was holding out the hatchet Dale had given her in place of a gun. Daryl opened the door to the church and shined his flashlight around. They both called out the girls' names and didn't hear a response back.

Daryl walked closer to the pews and saw a body lying on the floor. He quickly jogged to the body and turned it over. It was only a dead walker.

"There's a dead walker here," Andrea said. "It has a bullet wound." She turned to look at Daryl and sarcastically asked him, "So you think this was them too?" He checked the dead walker in front of him and noticed it was shot too. He continued walking down the aisle of the church and saw two more dead walkers. One of them was shot and the other's head was smashed in.

"That's three that were shot down," Daryl said. "Maybe she had no choice but to use her gun." Daryl called out Olivia's name extremely loud and kept looking around the small church. He was about to give up when he shined his flashlight in the corner in the front; something had caught his eye. He walked closer to it and bent down. Andrea walked right behind him when he picked it up.

"Is that Sophia's doll?" she asked. Daryl stood up and examined the doll that Sophia carried everywhere with her. It was covered it dirt and blood. "They were here. But what does this mean? Did she drop it or what?"

Daryl started shining his flashlight on every inch of the ground. He didn't see anything until he looked at the ground at the entrance of the church. There were small drops of blood.

"Found some blood here," Daryl said. "I think one of them is hurt."

"Do you think one of them got bit?" Andrea asked.

"Hope not." He sighed once and stood up. "At least we know they got this far. They gotta be around here somewhere."

"It's going to be impossible to keep searching for them with just a flashlight," Andrea said. "Maybe we should just head back and check again tomorrow."

"We're right behind them. We can't just give up because it's dark."

"Weren't you the one that said we shouldn't be out here at night? What do you have to prove by finding them?"

"Why wouldn't you want to find them?" Daryl questioned. "Just because your sister died doesn't mean they have to die the same way. You do remember I had a brother and he was going to turn into one of those sons of bitches. It ain't right."

"I didn't know about Merle. I just assumed you found his dead body on the roof. Sorry."

"I know we're close to finding them. Just give me a little more time." Daryl walked around the church looking for another door that would lead somewhere else but found nothing. The two of them left the church shining their lights at the ground.

"Can I ask you something?" Andrea spoke up. Daryl didn't say anything but instead found another spot of blood. He bent down and touched it. "Are you so determined to find them because you and Liv are…well, you know, you two spend so much time together I just…" Daryl turned around and glared at her.

"I don't spend all my time with her."

"I just assumed. Sorry." Andrea smirked when Daryl turned around and stood up. "She's cute. I should tell her how determined you were to find her. You might end up losing her to Glenn."

"So? They can have each other. That girl doesn't want anything to do with me. Man I ain't gonna talk about this with you."

"I know behind that frown of yours that you have actual feelings Daryl. Maybe even for Olivia, who knows? Even criminals have some feelings."

"You calling me a criminal?"

"No," Andrea said with a small laugh, the first time in many days. "I just think you might care for her more than you want others to think."

Daryl shook his head and started walking back towards the highway. "Shut up blondie."

The two of them reached the highway and saw Carol's disappointed face. She went back into the RV and Dale climbed down from the top of his RV. He came out to where Daryl and Andrea were standing.

"We found Sophia's doll," Andrea said in a low voice. "Should we tell Carol?" Dale's eyes widened as he looked at the two of them.

"Did you find anything else? Where did you find the doll?"

"It was in a church," she said. "We found some blood drops. Not a lot but enough to make us think one of them is hurt; that is if it's one of them bleeding."

"Maybe we should go find Rick," Dale said. "He has to hear about this."

"It's not even good news," Daryl said. "He's got a kid that's apparently been shot and we still don't have any actual evidence to tell him that his other kid's alright."

"As much as I want to stay here to find them we can't stay here forever," Dale said. He sighed loudly and looked back into the RV. "Maybe this place where Rick's at is safer than this highway. We could always put up a sign for the girls and come back every day for them. We could leave them some food too."

"Alright then," Daryl said after thinking about it for a while, "Who's going to tell that woman in there?"