Bloodhound

"How come Jamie gets a gun, then?" Andrea asked sharply, the other blonde's head rising up at the sound of her name, turning away from cleaning off her knife as she waited for everyone else to be ready. She looked fatigued after not getting much sleep the night before, sleeping on the floor of the RV providing mostly just back pain.

"Jamie knows how to shoot one, for starters," Shane said, trying to get Andrea to drop the subject on guns before it escaladed any further. Jamie could see the burning hatred that had been in Andrea's eyes whenever she looked at her, it had been the same way since they were back at the CDC and she had yelled at her.

"Fine, you don't think it's fair?" Jamie asked, pulling the strap of her gun off her shoulders and moving over to Dale, holding the gun out to him. He hesitated, not wanting to actually take her gun. "Then I won't take one. Go ahead, fair's fair, right?" She pushed the gun at Dale again, the man still not reaching forward the take it from her. His eyes moved over to look up when Daryl stepped up to Jamie from behind.

"You're taking your gun," Daryl interrupted, snatching the gun from her hand before Dale could even reach forward to take hold of it. "Just because Andrea's being a bitch about it don't mean I'm risking your life," He explained, holding the gun out for her to take. "Take it." Jamie finally slipped the strap around her hand again, looking over to where Andrea scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"That's enough of this," Shane said quickly before a fight could arise, "Everyone, assemble your packs, we're heading out in five minutes." Jamie and Andrea continued to glare at one another before stepping off after a minute, Andrea making a bee line for Dale while Jamie went to get her small bag that carried her and Daryl's things for their hike in the woods.

"I expected more of a fight," Daryl said as he came up behind her and slipped one of the filled water bottles into the bag, looking up at Jamie as she turned her head in his direction as he spoke. She knew exactly what he meant, but she really just didn't want to argue with anyone right now. The best thing to do is just try and drop things quickly.

"Guess things changed when the world ended," she said back softly, feeling the tug when he zipped the bag closed again. They both looked back toward the RV when Andrea started to make a scene again, this time butchering Dale's feelings in the process. Jamie glared fiercely at the blonde before Daryl stepped into her view.

"Let 'em deal with their own problems." Sighing loudly, she nodded her head as she adjusted her bag strap one last time. Andrea soon stormed passed them with a glower on her face, her strides long and holding her anger. Jamie just knew that it was going to be a very long day.

"This should be fun," she whispered as she peaked up at Daryl, watching as he held back a smirk and shook his head, nudging her forward to walk ahead of him. They filed their way down the path and into the forest, following the trail that Daryl and Rick had found the day before that Sophia had left behind. Daryl and Rick brought up the front with Jamie, Andrea and Carol following behind and then Lori and Carl walking in front of Shane, who brought up the rear. Jamie could still feel Andrea's glare, hot on the back of her neck.

It wasn't too long into their hike that they came across what looked like a small camp sight, hidden within the trees. Daryl stepped quietly forward, his crossbow at the ready. He signalled for everyone to lower to the ground, staying quiet. There wasn't any movement inside the tent and it only looked big enough for two people at the most.

"She could be in there," Shane suggested, remaining standing with his shotgun in his hands. He had never once relaxed his hold on the gun as they were walking along the path.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there," Daryl commented, looking back at Jamie and motioning her forward. She nodded her head and pulled her knife from the sheath on her thigh, staying low as she followed after Daryl, Rick and Shane stepping behind them quietly. They slipped up to the tent by themselves, Daryl placing his crossbow down in preference of his own knife. He tried to look inside the small opening in the entrance to the tent, but there wasn't enough space to see much of anything. Jamie slipped over to the side to quietly push aside the rain cover to see if she had any better luck.

Daryl looked back at her for her answer and she shook her head, moving a step back encase there was something inside. Daryl lifted his hands in a type of shrug as he looked over to Rick and Shane, standing back a couple of yards from the tent. Jamie remained crouching on the ground, waiting for someone to give an order on what was to be done. They'd have to look inside.

Rick called Carol forward quietly, motioning her up to him. Jamie couldn't hear what he was saying to her, but she had a feeling that he wanted to use Carol's voice as a lure for if Sophia was inside the tent. Daryl stood at the entrance of the tent with his knife ready, a precaution for if there was a walker inside the tent.

"Sophia," Carol called out softly, looking nervous as she watched the tent for any movement. "Sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia? We're all here baby, it's mommy." Jamie slipped forward and let Daryl move to the right of the tent opening, allowing him to have the perfect view inside the tent as she began to slide the zipped on the bottom of the entrance aside. The material of the tent slackened as she drew the metal along, looking up at where Rick and Shane had stepped over to join them.

Daryl gave her a quick nod when she looked up to him and she reached into the tent to grasp the edge of the material that made up the door, pulling it toward her and opening up a space. The stench that wafted out nearly made her lose her grip as she turned her head away, into her bicep, to try and alleviate the stink. Daryl flinched back for a moment, his own arm moving to cover his mouth. Jamie tried to hold her breath, tried to stay there and hold the door open, but the rank smell that was coming from the tent turned her stomach, made her face flush as she held back the nausea, and she had to turn away and step back a few strides, closing Daryl in the tent after he'd stepped inside.

Shane and Rick didn't seem to be having any better luck, leaning over and coughing as they fought the reflex to throw up. Jamie stepped over to the woods nearby and leaned over as she gagged, but nothing came up. Her stomach was empty, anyway. She coughed once to try and dislodge the smell from her nose and the air in her throat, placing a hand over her mouth.

"Daryl?" Carol called out softly, standing with Lori at her side, an arm around her shoulders in comfort.

Daryl soon pushed from the tent, taking in a breath of the fresher air. "Ain't her," he assured, stepping away from the tent to get the smell away from him. Jamie remained a couple paces away from the tent, not wanting to throw up any stomach acid that day.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked from the back of the group.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said, 'opted out'." He picked up his crossbow and stowed away his knife, looking over to where Jamie was refusing to come close. "Ain't that what he called it?"

The sudden, loud ring of a bell caused everyone to jolt and look in the direction of the sound; or at least where they thought the sound was coming from. With all of the trees, it was hard to tell. Everyone took a moment to look around, listening carefully as they tried to pinpoint the location of the bell. Jamie jogged passed the others when she got a good enough feel on it, the three men outside the tent following after her.

They slowed down after a while when they came to an area where the trees thinned out, dead leaves covering the ground like a blanket. Jamie stopped to listen carefully, placing her hand on a tree to lean against it. The men were talking behind her, trying to figure out what direction they should be going in. Daryl just watched her carefully, knowing that she had always been good at listening to the location of sounds. She prided herself for it whenever he took her to the hunting cabin, he could never sneak up on her.

"Would y'all shut up," Daryl finally hissed, silencing everyone. He kept his eyes on where Jamie was standing, looking around as she turned her head from side to side. She paused at one point, listening for a longer time than she had before. "This way," he said, pointing in the direction that Jamie was beginning to jog in.

"How do you know?" Carol asked softly, walking quickly to get down the small hill they were on.

"Bitch's got bat hearing," Daryl commented, following after his fiancé. The others looked at each other doubtfully, but moved to follow afterword anyway, taking up a jog to get their faster. Jamie was right, however, and they soon rushed from the trees into the sight of a graveyard, the church sitting down at the bottom of another hill.

"That's ma' girl," Daryl said as he placed a hand on top of Jamie's head in a mock pat, like one would praise a dog for sniffing something out. She ducked away and smacked his arm, trying not to laugh because of the morbid mood that still hung around the group.

"This can't be it," Shane said as he came up beside her, "Ain't got no bells."

"That you can see," Jamie said in answer before stepping away from him and moving down the hill, Rick and Daryl following fast behind. The rest of the group were spurred into movement as well, following after them toward the small white church. Rick took lead toward the church, taking off at a dead run with Jamie and Shane not far behind, Daryl and Glenn right behind. They ran their way through the graves and high tomb stones and memorials, running passed a sign that said "Southern Baptist Church."

Rick and Daryl moved to the doorway, standing on either side. Rick made a silent 'shh' motion to everyone else before he moved to push on his door at the same time that Daryl pushed on the side he was standing on. The faded red doors swung open with a squeal of the hinges, revealing three walkers sitting in the pews. They slowly turned to look at the group, growling lowly as they rose to their feet.

"Fuck," Jamie mumbled as she pulled her knife from its place, just in case. Daryl, Rick and Shane moved in first, Lori handing her knife to Rick so he didn't need to use his gun, and made a fast pace toward the walkers. Glenn gave Daryl his hooked knife, his crossbow passed over to Jamie. Rick pounded on the walker that he had approached, even after it was sure to be dead. Daryl backed away from the woman that he had killed before she could fall on him, half of her face torn apart from the blade he was using.

"I thought the damned couldn't enter churches," Glenn mumbled to Jamie, hearing her hum in agreement as her face soured slightly. She moved into the church, looking around for any sign that there were more.

"Sophia!" Rick screamed, checking the doors along the side of the church that only led outside as fire exits. Daryl moved up to the large cross at the front of the church, a wax moulding of Jesus Christ tied up to it.

"Yo, J.C., you takin' requests?"

The disturbing part of it was that there was blood covering the statue.

The bells began to go off again, making them all jump at the loud and abrupt sound. Jamie looked around for any sign of where the bell was coming form as Daryl ran passed to get outside before the sound cut off. She was the last one out the door, heading around the side. Everyone had stopped running at the corner, only enough to see where the sound of the bell was coming from. Jamie stepped around toward Daryl to see what everyone was looking at. Her heart sunk at the sight of a speaker near the roof.

Glenn was the one to rush forward and turn off the bell before it could attract unwanted attention.

"A timer," Daryl panted out, motioning up toward the speaker. "It's on a timer."

Jamie's eyes fell closed with her head bowed down, the hope that had been burrowed in her chest slowly disappearing. She could feel the crossbow being slipped from her hands just before Daryl's chin rested on the top of her crown, his arm coming around her shoulders. She had been able to lead them there, but for what? More disappointment.

"Come on," he encouraged in a low voice, leading her over to where everyone else as starting to return to the church with Carol in the lead. Daryl sat them down at the back of the church, letting her lean against him at the end of the pew closest to the wall. At any other time, Daryl would have made some kind of comment about how she should be careful inside the church, God might take her back up to Heaven. He was silent now, listening to Carol's broken prayer as she stood before the statue of Jesus.

"Maybe if I really was an Angel," Jamie started whispering, "I could put in a word to God and get Sophia back."

"Guess we're doing this on our own."

They were soon clustered outside, the smell of the rotting bodies and the church just too much to bear. Jamie sat on a stone bordering that surrounded a large tree, the shade giving her some peace from the sun. She was probably going to have a light burn on her shoulders, but she'd had so many through the years she barely even felt them anymore.

"Alright, y'all are gonna follow the creek bed back," Shane said as he finally came over from where he had been talking with Rick in hushed voices. "Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour."

"Splitting everyone up," Jamie said evenly, "Are you really sure that's the best idea?" she asked as she looked up to Rick and Shane, squinting her eyes against the light. Her white tank top was already covered in dirt and soaked through with sweat, the jeans that she had changed into covered with dirt on the bottom.

"Yea," Shane answered immediately. "We'll catch up to you."

"I wanna stay to," Carl said as he stepped forward, causing everyone to look down at him. "I'm her friend." Lori, Shane and Rick all looked at one another, trying to think of what to say to the boy. Jamie briefly wondered why it was that Carl seemed to want to get into the walker business so soon, but held her tongue and just listened.

Morgan had wanted to teach Duane how to shoot properly, to take care of himself. It made sense that Carl learn, too.

Daryl offered her his hands, waiting until she had a good grip on them before he pulled her up from where she was sitting, pressing her chest against his in the process. She raised an eyebrow at him in question, only getting an innocent look from him. Well, as innocent of a look as Daryl Dixon could muster up; which was not all that much. She leaned against him more and wrapped her arms around his waist for a moment, leaning her head back to look at him fully. They received a few glances from the people around them, but they mostly kept to themselves and stayed out of it.

"And back to the woods," Jamie mumbled before she pressed a kiss against his lips, his goatee scratching at her chin and upper lip. Daryl bit her lower lip softly before she could pull away, reddening the delicate skin further. She backed away before she got them in trouble, hiding a grin as she collected her bag from the ground. She had a strong feeling that he was eyeing her ass as she did so, as well.

Jamie started off through the tombstones again, glancing back once to watch as Daryl handed over a gun to Lori when she refused to take Rick's. She also didn't miss when Andrea scoffed and rolled her eyes, proving just what an additional pain she was going to be. Now there were two women that got guns and she didn't. They were all relieved for the shade that was provided from the trees when they were walking, but the added bonus of bugs had a very different effect.

"It's almost like old times," Jamie said as she walked softly beside Daryl, her hand holding the strap of her gun as she looked through the brush they were walking passed. "Only difference is that we're looking for a person, not an animal, and there's a parade of people behind us."

"You were quieter then, too."

"Bite me, Dixon."

"Well, if you insist."

"So this is it?" Carol called from behind them, drawing them to a stop. They both turned to see that she had stopped and sat down on a fallen tree, whether she was giving up or just resting wasn't clear. "This the whole plan?"

"Guess the plan is to widdle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl said as he moved to lean against one of the nearby trees, looking over to Carol and the others. Jamie took that moment to pull off the bag on her shoulders, letting them rest by removing the added weight.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea added in, before she looked over to where Lori was starting to rummage through the backpack that she had been carrying. "I see you have a gun."

"Why, you want it?" Lori asked, straightening up with the weapon in her hand. "Here, take it." She held the gun out to the other woman, holding onto the muzzle so that Andrea could take the handle. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me, the looks you're giving Jamie. I'm shocked she hasn't said something about them to you." Andrea looked dumbfounded at being called out before scoffing and taking the gun from Lori, looking away from the mother.

Jamie could feel that something was about to start up, knowing that the dam had cracked and was about to burst. Lori had simply been the last rock thrown to initiate it. Things could get real ugly, and she as not looking forward to it. Her eyes moved over to Daryl, tense and alert for everything that was going on, but remaining leaned against the tree.

"Honey," Lori started, looking up to Carol and gaining the other woman's attention, "I can't imagine what you're going through, and I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. And when Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did. Or make the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently." Lori stopped talking for a moment to look around at everyone, all eyes on her as she finished her speech. Everything was on the table now. "Anybody?"

No one said a thing, unsure of how to react to what she was saying.

"Y'all look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. You think you can do this without him, go right ahead, nobody's stopping you!" She began to shove things back into her bag after taking a drink from her water, her anger showing in her actions.

"Rick helped me save Jamie," Daryl said suddenly, surprising the group. "That's good enough for me." Jamie looked over to him, her hazel eyes softening when they met his blue ones. He looked away in a sheepish gesture, causing her to smile at the randomness of his timidity. Andrea silently held the gun back out to Lori, the regret of her actions visible on her face.

"We should keep moving."