Eventually several hours passed and Daryl found himself bringing Carol to the pond, where he eventually apologized to her for his actions and words. Which he surprised even himself with by doing. He showed her the blooming Cherokee Rose that was there and restored the woman's faith in finding Sophia, which caused the Redneck to feel better himself.

A couple more hours passed, everyone had been hanging out aruond the house when Shane started yelling and screaming. This caught the attention of a majority of the group as they saw in his hands the duffelbag of guns. He was pissed about something and he soon let it be known to everyone that Hershel and his family were keeping walkers in the barn. This highly alarmed all of Rick's group, and Daryl was the first to take a gun from Shane, with no hesitation. Shane was shady and untrustworthy, but even Daryl couldn't deny the seriousness of this situation. Walkers in the barn? That was way too fucking close to where they were camping.

As if on queue, Rick and Hershel came barging out of the woods down the hill by the barn and they were guiding a walker on a pole like it was a dog being taken on a sunday stroll through the park. Now that, even for Rick, was a whole mountain of stupid that words couldn't even begin to describe. The entire group of survivors quickly made their way to the barn where Shane made a giant scene for all to see. He shot the walker several times to prove his point to the ignorant Hershel and then set all the walkers free from the barn. The walkers that came out were disposed of quickly however, Rick's group was left in total shock as the last remaining walker slowly stumbled its way out. Little Sophia.

Carol's voice was the first to break the silence as she hysterically cried out her daughter's name and blindly ran towards her, but Daryl was quick to throw down his weapon and grab ahold of her. The two fell to the ground, where Daryl kept his firm grip on her as Carol sobbed endlessly. Everything that Daryl had worked so hard for...Gone. And now he was left to feel like the world's biggest douchebag for having gotten so pissed at Carol, when she had been right all along. Daryl had made such a fuss over everyone's lack of faith, only to have been shitted on as the reality of Sophia's death now settled itself right before their very eyes.

Shane, though big and macho as he claimed, couldn't even bring himself to do what needed to be done. Rick was the one to put the young child's corpse down and all that could be heard was the crying of the women amongst them as they grieved.

The Redneck turned his attention to Hershel. A sense of anger boiling up inside of him as the question repeated itself in his head. He looked down to Carol as she cried into him and a scowl tugged at his lips before his eyes returned to the old man. "Why the HELL didn't you tell us ya had a little girl in that barn? YA KNEW WE WERE LOOKIN FER HER!" He roared furiously.

Everyone turned to look at Hershel, but he was still sitting there staring at the corpse of his dead wife in shock. Maggie clutched at her Father's shoulders and defensively answered, "We didn't know who all was in there! Otis was the one in charge of rounding up the Walkers!"

At the mention of Otis, Shane's facial muscles seemed to flinch. If only he had not shot the man to be live walker bait, then man would have been able to tell the group that he had rounded up a little girl and they would not have wasted so much time and energy into trying to find- or rather, Daryl woudl not have wasted his efforts in the matter.

Carol broke free of Daryl's hold and quickly fled the scene, being unable to bear with it. Sophia was all she'd had before and now she was gone. If it hadn't been for the soft connection made to Daryl, she wouldn't have made it this long without her little girl.

The scowl deepened on the Redneck's face as Carol left the safety of his arms to be alone. He turned his glaring eyes upon Hershel and Maggie as he nibbled at the inside of his bottom lip while he brought himself slowly to his feet. The frustration and anger that was coiled inside of him was starting to unravel. His walls were threatening to come crashing down. That little dam in the back his mind that held back all of his emotions was cracking, but he had to be strong...

He gritted his teeth, his brows pulled in anger as he quietly turned his back to the lot of them and stalked off after Carol. Daryl had no words for the woman. What could he say to her, after all? He couldn't even begin to apologize for all the times he had gotten her hopes up. Or how upset he had been with her for losing faith, when it was the most logical reasoning. All Daryl could offer was his presence. Go to Carol and sit with her in silence to show her that he was there for her and that he was sorry. That if she needed him, all she had to do was turn and he would be there. So that's what he did. Daryl stationed himself on the counter inside the RV as he sat in silence. Carol acknowledged his presence by looking at him as he came in, but she seemed indifferent as she quickly gazed elsewhere, staring out of the window to the scenery outside. Her cheeks were stained with the tears that had been shed, but she had seemed to silence herself of sobbing by now...

Her breath caught in her chest. It was her. Sophia. Her bright blue eyes narrowed a moment as she lowered her bow and arrow, unable to set her hunter's sites on such a precious child; the very one they'd broken the back of love to find.

Sophia...

Tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away; immediately snapping to attention when she heard Carol's hysterical scream. She winced, watching Daryl take her to the ground and watch in horror from the zombified girl's presence. Sophia had been dead this whole time and for once in Nora's entire life...

She hated being right.

"Christ!" She hissed to herself as Daryl's anger turned on Hershel, mortified from the lack of truth, from the danger the whole group had been put in and from her own stupidity in not snooping around the farm itself when they had first arrived. She could have done so much more... so much more to help protect these people and she had let them down. Most of all, she had chided Daryl and essentially told him not to get his hopes up. She was right! Fuck, she hated being right!

And Daryl's reaction was not helping her situation.

Fuck.

She watched him disappear from the group and into the RV, staring coldly into nothingness as Lori mentioned something about a funeral.

"Nora." Her sensitive ears perked and she looked away from the ground just then, meeting Lori's eyes. "Would you come with me to the RV, please?"

The Galway Archer stood just then and nodded, not bothering to question why she needed her accompaniment. All she knew now was that the group needed her. And after driving weapons into the skulls of the undead for hours, it would be nice to have a little social interaction.

Upon entering the RV, Nora froze. There was Daryl and Carol, sitting in perfect silence. Simply grieving. She cleared her throat and sifted into the shadows slightly, keeping mostly to herself as Lori began to explain the funeral that was to be held in Sophia's honor.

Nora merely fidgeted uncomfortably, trying to remain invisible in the conversation.

"We're ready." Lori had said, but Carol acted as if she had not heard a word. "Come." She persisted.

Carol shook her head before asking, "Why?"

Daryl spoke softly as he answered for Lori, "'Cuz that's yer little girl."

"That's not my little girl..." She paused as she struggled to add, "it's some...thing." Daryl seemed taken back by these words, but remained silent as she averted her eyes from him to gaze out the window again. "My Sophia was alone in the woods..." Her voice quivered slightly as she stated this, and Daryl's heart sank. He lowered his head, his brows pulling together slightly as that horrible feeling of guilt started to twist itself in knots in his stomach again. "All this time I thought...She didn't cry herself to sleep, she didn't go hungry...She didn't try to find her way back..."

Daryl's head lifted, his eyes peering over at Carol as he clenched his jaw shut tight. His brows arched upward ever so slightly as the pain he felt deep inside revealed itself for half a moment upon his features, before quickly vanishing. All of the pain, the loss...the suffering. Every single night. Every single day. Every second. Every waking moment Daryl had spent searching for this child. This innocent little girl that had had so much life ahead of her. And even though it was not even Daryl's fault in the slightest, he still felt completely responsible. Despite having already been mentally kicking himself in the teeth over this, Carol had to add in one last statement that was the final straw.

"Sophia died a long time ago."

Daryl's dam had broken. All of which he had worked so hard to build up came crashing down in a powerful tsunami. All the time and effort he had spent in proving to be a greater man and reaching out to someone had been shot to shit. Wasteful. Pointless. Daryl stared after Carol intensely, his expression stiff as it took everything in him not to completely pop off on her. To thrash and hurl things about. To scream at her and tell her how much of a worthless mother she was! How pathetic and weak she had been!

Instead all Daryl did was turn his head from her, his eyes avoiding any contact from anyone because he did not want them to see the pain that they bore. He quickly slid himself off of the counter and moved towards the door, his head turning to get one last glance of the grieving mother, before bitterly turning his back to her, with no intentions of ever looking upon her face again. He strolled past Lori and Nora, his pace quick as he made his way back to the barn, where he fully intended on being at the funeral that would be given.

Nora's eyes narrowed as the scene unfolded, nibbling on the inside of her cheek absentmindedly. She could almost feel the thickness; the tension in the air that almost choked everyone within the RV's confines. She shifted uncomfortably; the odd feeling that she shouldn't have even been there creeping along her spine and giving her one hell of a shiver, even in this intense Georgia heat.

Sophia died a long time ago.

Ouch.

The young Brannigan watched as the one man she'd so affectionately dubbed "Beastie" opted out of the conversation the second the opportunity presented itself. She could see the emotion building; ready to burst. As much as she secretly wished to will his pain away, she refrained for the moment. Let him feel the way he was feeling for the time being. She would make a point to apologize for her own behavior when the time was right.

The funeral was... grueling, to say the least. Nora's own emotions and inner turmoil was welling to the surface, though she did her best not to let anybody see. This whole scenario reminded her painfully of her father, whom she had only buried a few months prior to this day. She stood apart from the group, keeping as much distance between herself and Daryl for the time. But much to her annoyance, she could hardly peel her eyes from him for a second.

Even with what little time she had known and acknowledged the Beastie's existence, she had come to recognize those little... quirks of emotion he tried so hard to ignore. There was an innocence about him that seemed to tug her in... a mysterious "other side" that she had an overwhelming urge to see more of. Perhaps just to know that someone else who seemed so much like her was... just as human as her.