The group decided to spend one more night on the highway. Andrea broke the news to Carol about leaving in the morning but promised they would come back every day to check if the girls ever came back. Carol shut herself out from everyone and stayed in the back room staring at Sophia's doll.

Daryl kept watch the rest of the night. As much as he wanted to get off that highway he wanted more to go back into the woods. He had a gut feeling that he and Andrea were right on top of them. If they only found that church in the daytime, it would have been easier to see if the tiny amount of blood drops he found and they could have been easier to track. The sun starting coming up and Daryl noticed Dale and Andrea coming out of the RV. He climbed down to join them.

Andrea found something that she could use to write a note on a windshield of a car. She wrote O&S Stay Here. We'll come back for you. Carol placed some food and water on the hood of the car and stared at the note.

"So we leaving now or what?" Daryl asked.

"We can continue our search from the house," Dale said. "If that young lady said it was two miles from here it's not that far. The girls could always end up finding it or start walking in that direction."

"Guess so," Daryl said. He walked to his bike, Dale went back into the RV and Andrea got into one of the few working cars the group found. Daryl started his bike and maneuvered his way through the cars. The group had moved enough cars that it made it easier for Dale to drive through the highway but he still had to bump into a few cars to move them.

Daryl easily found the driveway and when he reached the gate he walked up to it and unlocked it. He opened it to allow Dale and Andrea to drive through it and when they did he locked it again. They drove up the long driveway and soon reached a house. They knew it was the right place when they saw most of the people from their group come out of the small house.

Glenn was the first one to reach Daryl and he immediately frowned. "You couldn't find them?" Daryl turned his bike off and shook his head. "Shit. You think we can continue the search from here?"

"How's the kid?" Daryl asked.

"He's good," Glenn said. "He probably won't die." Dale, Andrea, T-Dog and Carol all came to join Daryl and Glenn.

"How's Rick?" Dale asked. Glenn shook his head and looked down. "Carl's going to be okay though, right?"

"He should be," Glenn repeated again. "Shane and the guy that shot him went to get some supplies for Carl. Hershel, the dude that lives here, saved him." Daryl looked over a Shane who was standing away from everyone else. He looked different. His hair was completely shaved off and he wasn't wearing his usual khaki pants and black shirt.

"Where's Rick at?" Andrea asked. "We found Sophia's doll and we figured he should know."

"You found her doll?" Glenn asked. "How far from the highway?"

"It was a good walk from there," Daryl said. "Found it in a church with a few dead walkers." By this time Rick finally exited the house and he was with an older man, a woman, and the same woman that came on the highway.

Dale went over and embraced Rick quickly. "How you doing? We have all been thinking about Carl."

"Appreciate it," Rick said. "He's going to be okay." Rick looked broken and the usual smile he forced on occasions was no longer seen. He had it worse than Carol now but he wasn't blaming anyone or shutting everyone out. "Any of you find anything after Glenn and T-Dog left?"

"We found Sophia's doll," Daryl spoke up after everyone averted their eyes from Rick. "Some church about a mile or so from the highway. Found three dead walkers shot down. If it was her she's running out of bullets."

"The gun she owns holds 16 rounds. She should still be good if that was them."

"Actually," Glenn spoke up. He cleared his throat and pulled a gun out from the back of his jeans, "She gave me that gun and she had another one."

"She gave you that?" Rick asked. "What the hell does she have then?"

"She has my old Beretta," Shane said as he walked closer to the group. "It had six rounds when I gave it to her. She liked it better than the one you gave her."

"Why would she give that up?" Rick asked. "We need to find her now if that's the case."

"I can go out and look for her," Glenn suggested. "I haven't tried hard enough."

"Yeah, I'm going too," Rick said. He was about to walk inside when Hershel stopped him.

"Rick, you've given too much blood," he said, "Way more than the other two men. You can't go out there in this weather. You'll pass out in five minutes."

"Carl needs you Rick," Shane said. "He's going to want to see your face when he wakes up again. I'll go out with Glenn and Daryl and we'll find them."

"I can't keep sitting on my ass doing nothing," Rick said. "I love both of my kids but Olivia's out there and she's in danger. Carl's going to pull through and we won't be gone long. He's going to want to wake up to her face too. I can't keep lying to him that she's alright."

"Rick, please," Hershel said, "As much as I want you to find your daughter you need to stay inside. After today I won't stop you anymore."

"Listen to the man Rick," Shane said. "We'll get your girl back."

"Daryl and Glenn can go. I don't want you going Shane," Rick said. "You need to rest that leg of yours anyways."

"What happened to your leg?" Andrea asked.

Shane shoved his hands into the large overalls he was wearing. "Had an accident when I went out to get things for Carl. It ain't that bad though, Rick. I can put more pressure on it."

"Just listen to me for once Shane," Rick said.

"I got some pain meds if you need them for your kid," Daryl said. He reached into his bag on the back of his bike and pulled out a bag of pill bottles. He dug around and handed Rick a couple of bottles.

"Appreciate it man. Thank you." He grabbed the bottles, turned away from the group and walked back into the house.

"Guess me and the boy are gonna head out then," Daryl said.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Dale asked. "You haven't gotten much rest and you were out all night."

"Nah, I'm good," Daryl said. "I ain't got anything better to do."

"If y'all are going out then the rest of the group needs to learn how to properly shoot a gun," Shane said. "We got plenty of guns for everyone but only a few of us actually know how to use one. If I have to stay here I want to drive up somewhere quiet to teach everyone."

"I would like to limit the amount of guns lying around my farm," Hershel said. "If you must do what you feel is right than I want the guns to at least be in one spot at all times. Keep them locked up or something." Nobody said a word and Daryl decided it was time to leave. He nodded his head at Glenn and the two of them headed out towards the woods.

"So how are we going to track them from out here?" Glenn asked. "Do you think they made it this far?"

"The church was at least two miles from the highway. And this place is two miles in the other direction. Anything's possible, man."

"I hope they're still alive," Glenn said which caused Daryl to scoff. "What? I love Liv. She's my best friend but I don't know if she can last that long out there with no food, no water and four bullets, or three, whatever it was." He sighed to himself as he gripped the gun Liv had given him a week after they met up. She loved the gun her dad gave her for her 18th birthday but the way Shane's old Beretta shot she preferred it way more. Glenn regretted taking it from her since it currently had all 16 rounds in it while Olivia was left with less than that.

"Y'all are all the same. You got no faith. We're going to find them girls and they are going to be just fine. Everyone needs an adventure like this once in a while."

Glenn laughed, "You call being lost with walkers all over the place an adventure? It's more like a horrible nightmare. I can't even imagine what they're going through."

"Man! Are you going to be whining like this the entire time? They're going to be fine."

"I thought you said you found some blood," Glenn said. He swallowed once and followed Daryl who kept walking deeper into the woods. "Blood is always a bad sign, right?"

"It was a little bit. It wasn't a lot."

"Yeah but if they're bleeding a little bit and haven't had actual food in two days that's even worse, right?"

"You need to relax," Daryl said. Glenn finally stopped asking questions and followed Daryl quietly. The way Daryl had been acting these last few days was different than the Daryl he had met when all of this started. Everyone was different, even Olivia had changed. This end of the world definitely had an effect on everyone.

"You know Rick appreciates you doing this. I told him how hard you've looking for her."

"Not just her."

"It's nice to see you have feelings for people that aren't Merle."

"Shut up. You and the blond one are the same; Annoying as hell."

Glenn laughed, "What do you mean?" Daryl ignored Glenn and kept on walking. Within minutes they found a small cabin. Daryl motioned for Glenn to be quiet and walked closer to the cabin. He opened the door and took in his surroundings. The cabin was completely empty and it looked like it hadn't been lived in for a long time.

"Check the upstairs," Daryl said. Glenn nodded his head and walked upstairs. Daryl stood on the lower level and checked everywhere, inside cabinets, inside a small closet and found nothing. He was about to walk upstairs when Glenn came running and almost bumped into him.

"Dude, you gotta check this out," his eyes were big and he ran back up the stairs two at a time with Daryl right behind him. Daryl didn't know what he should be expecting but what Glenn showed him wasn't at all what he was thinking. In front of him was a walker that was hanging by its neck but it was still alive and snarling at the two of them.

"What the fuck?" Daryl said. "Dumbass got infected and didn't even know to shoot himself in the head."

"He doesn't look like he's got any visible bites," Glenn said. He was going to lift the hanging walker's shirt to examine him more when it starting wriggling violently and Glenn was afraid it was going to get loose. "What should we do? Leave it or kill it?"

"Kill the bastard." Daryl got his crossbow, aimed it and shot right at the walker. "Don't want him getting loose and coming after us." Daryl got the chair the walker must have used to stand on and retrieved the arrow from his skull. "Dumb prick." He shook his head and got off the chair. "Guess they ain't here."

"So do we go back or what?" Glenn asked. Daryl did a quick check on the upper floor and started walking down the stairs. "Do you think Hershel's going to let us stay at his place after we find them?"

"Would you let a bunch of strangers stay at your house?"

Glenn shrugged, "Maybe if it was a few of them but there are 11 of us. That's a lot of people."

"Yeah, well we don't need those people. We just need to find Sophia and Olivia and get off of that farm."

"What if Fort Benning's a waste of time? One of Hershel's daughters told me so far no walkers showed up on their land. It seems pretty safe."

"Nowhere is safe," Daryl said. He walked out of the cabin and something caught his eye. He walked over to a bush and noticed a few white roses growing out of it. He fingered the white petal and Glenn stared at him.

"Hey, that's nice," Glenn said. "Maybe I should give that to Liv for her birthday. It's today you know. I wonder what she's doing."

"You should tell her the story behind it," Daryl said, "And she might like it more."

"There's a story behind a flower?" Glenn chuckled thinking what kind of story could be told about a flower. Some man planted it in the ground and it grew, wasn't that it?

"It's a Cherokee Rose," Daryl said. He reached for the stem and cut it at the bottom. He handed that to Glenn and cut another one. "You want to give this to Carol too?"

"Are you going to tell me the story?" Glenn asked. "I just thought it was a pretty flower. Liv always hated getting flowers but I think she'd appreciate this one after everything."

"Let's walk back the other way and see if we find anything," Daryl said.

"Don't you think we should send someone to the highway?" Glenn asked. "Aren't we going to check if they find their way back?"

"We left a note. We'll check it out tomorrow."

They continued their search and right before they reached the farmhouse Glenn decided to ask the question that was most likely on everyone's minds. "What are we going to do if one of them is bit?" Daryl glared down at the ground and look at the rose he held in his hand. "Rick shouldn't take that responsibility of putting down his own kid."

"You volunteering?"

Glenn swallowed and he too looked at the rose he was holding. "I don't think I could do it. I couldn't even kill my own family when I found them. They almost killed me and I did nothing but run from them." He shook his head and continued walking with Daryl who didn't look the slightest bit happy about having this conversation. "She's the closet thing I have to family now and just to imagine her either lying somewhere half dead or already dead…" He gripped the rose tighter and tried to hold back from crying in front of Daryl.

"They're going to be just fine," Daryl repeated for the fourth time. After searching for most of the day, the two of them went back to the farmhouse. Glenn went to his tent and Daryl noticed Rick was sitting by himself on the porch. He went over and sat next to him.

"Didn't find anything, man." Rick nodded his head and kept his eyes on the ground. Daryl wasn't sure what else to say to him.

"Carl's been more alert. He's been asking about the girls." Rick shook his head and let out an unhappy laugh. "I can't even tell him we haven't found them yet. What kind of father am I? I can't even keep my kids safe. They were fine until I came back. Hell, my own kid didn't even listen to me. I told her we can't separate again and what's the first thing she does? She runs."

"You've been fine in my eyes. You're a good person and you raised that girl fine. I don't know a single person who'd risk their life for another person the way she did. I spent some time with her, before you came back, she talked about you a lot."

Rick looked at Daryl finally, "You're kidding right?"

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" Rick laughed. "Sure she admitted at times she wanted tell you to go fuck yourself but she looked up to you."

"Did she say anything else?" Rick asked. "Does she… Is she alright? After what happened with your brother? Nobody can kill someone and just be okay with it."

"Of course she ain't alright," Daryl said. "We don't really talk about it but you could always bring it up with her. She cares more about how I feel about it than what she's going through." Daryl cleared his throat and stood up. "I'll, uh, see you around then. Gotta set up camp all over again I guess."

Daryl walked over to where the RV was parked. He saw Carol, Glenn and Dale setting up tents. He saw the one he was using back at their old campground was already set. Carol was standing in front of it.

"I decided to help out more," Carol said. "And the only thing I was useful for was setting up our camp. I wanted it to look just like our old one for when they come back." She smiled quickly at Daryl and was about to walk away when he cleared his throat.

"Thanks," he said quickly. He rolled the stem of the rose between his fingers and looked at it, then up at Carol. He handed her the rose and she took it.

"What's this for?"

"It's a Cherokee Rose. There's a story that when American soldiers were moving Indians off their land on the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much 'cause they were losing their little ones along the way from exposure, disease and starvation. A lot of them just disappeared. So the elders said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mothers' spirits, give them strength and hope. The next day this rose started to grow where the mothers' tears fell."

Carol started crying again except it wasn't the same weeping she had been doing for the past two days; they seemed to be tears of relief. The small rose proved to her now more than ever that she was going to see her daughter once again. She wiped her face and smiled at Daryl again. "Thank you." She took the rose and smiled at Daryl again.

He was glad she didn't lean in for a hug. Daryl walked inside his tent and went to lie down on his sleeping bag. He was going to take a quick nap when Glenn walked in.

"I heard your story about the rose." Daryl rolled his eyes as he continued to lie there. "I think you should tell that story to Liv when she comes back. She'd like it. She might like flowers again if they all had a cool story like that."

"Why are you still here?" Daryl asked when he realized Glenn was still standing in his tent. Glenn quickly left Daryl's tent which allowed Daryl to finally fall asleep. The quick nap he wanted to take went through the night and when he opened his eyes the sun was shining brighter than it was yesterday and he felt the heat.

He sat up and left his tent. Some of the group was sitting around their makeshift table eating breakfast. Andrea was standing on top of the RV with a rifle in her hand.

Daryl grabbed a piece of bacon. He hadn't seen bacon since before all of this started. So far being at this new place was okay as long as he was able to get bacon everyone once in a while.

"Whose idea was it to allow blondie to hold a gun?" he asked.

"She was good yesterday with a gun," Shane said. "I figured she could keep look out today while the rest of us go out. I told her specially not to pop off though if she sees something. We need to use as little ammo as possible especially if we can overtake the walkers."

"Are you sure your leg is alright?" Rick questioned. "It might not hurt to stay back another day."

"It's fine."

"So what's the plan?" Daryl asked. "Partnering up, taking different courses?"

"Yep. I didn't know whether or not to wake you up," Rick said. "You've been out helping so much I was going to give you a break."

"Like I said yesterday, got nothing better to do."

"Alright then, we discussed this while you were in your tent," Rick said, "Me and Shane will take one direction, you can join T-Dog and Glenn."

"I feel like we're walking in circles," Daryl said, "Can't we use something to tag that we've checked in that area?"

"Hershel gave us some of Otis' clothes," Dale said. "I cut most of them up so you guys can tie them around trees or something."

"Uh, guys," Andrea said. She looked through the scope of the rifle out by the driveway. "I think we got a couple walkers."

"Are you sure it ain't Hershel's kids? Saw them head that way a while ago," Shane said.

"They're by the barn," Glenn said. "I think."

"They're coming closer," Andrea said. She was squinting but couldn't get a clear view of who was coming.

"I'll check it out," Daryl volunteered. He had his crossbow and started walking towards where the walkers were.

"Do not shoot," Rick called out to Andrea, "Remember what Shane said." Rick and Shane both started following Daryl.

Daryl was two feet in front of Shane and Rick and when he got closer to the walkers he froze. His crossbow was still aimed at them but he didn't know whether or not he should lower it.

Shane had his gun in hand and walked up to Daryl. "What are you stopping for?" Shane had his gun raised just in case and he too didn't know what to do.

Rick was the last one to realize what was happening. He put his hand to his mouth and bit down on his finger. "Liv?"

The three men looked at the two girls that were in front of them. They were completely dirty, bloody and almost unrecognizable. Sophia was dirty and had a few scrapes on her arms and face but Olivia looked worse. Her clothes were ripped. The bottom of her shirt seemed to have been ripped off and was tied at the bottom of her leg. She was wearing a long flannel shirt used to cover up her bare stomach but it too was ripped and bloody. She was staring back at them breathing raggedly. Nobody knew if they were walkers or not.

Rick was stifling a cry and looked at his daughter. "Baby, please say something."