Hey everybody! Thank you for the kind reviews! So happy to hear you are enjoying the fic. It might get a little slow since I'm taking classes, working, and interning. It's going to be a little hard but I'll always try and update as often as possible. Writing will be a nice outlet this summerJ Anyways, here's the new update! We learn a little bit more about a character and revisit another. Review! I do not own any of The Walking Dead!

Chapter 22

Shane, Andrea, Rick and Blake had been following the small prints for about thirty minutes with Blake taking the lead.

"For a little guy he sure did haul ass," Blake muttered under her breath.

Rick chuckled softly, "Yeah, when he was just a toddler me and Lori would have such a hard time tryin' to get him inside from the yard whether it was for dinner…school….anythin'," Rick paused at the memory while Shane put a hand on his friends shoulder, reminiscing in the memories himself.

"He's a smart kid, brother. We're gonna find him. He's a Grimes," Shane spoke aloud.

Blake continued leading the way before they stopped for a few minutes for a water break. The sun wasn't shining on them due to the foliage of the tress but the day was still a scorcher. Everyone's shirts were soaking through with sweat. It seemed stupid that they were all wearing pants in this god-awful heat but it gave them that extra layer of protection and that comfort was totally worth it.

"Take five and we keep on movin'" Rick said as he paced back and forth. Shane gave his partner another pat on the back before approaching Blake.

"So, where you learn to track like this?"Shane asked

"My brothers and cousins… whenever we visited family in the South we'd go hunting," Blake said as she took huge gulps of her water, regretting it the moment the bottle left her lips.

"So are you even from here?," he asked as he stared as Blake licked the liquid from her pink lips.

"No. But I'm familiar with the area and the people. I'm from New York City," she spoke as she took a seat on the ground with her frayed brown sack between her legs.

"Wow. Pretty far from home. Nice though that your brother was close by when this happened," Shane spoke, leaning on the tree next to Blake looking down. He unintentionally got a great view of her brown breasts as she sat on the floor. Blake was speaking but he didn't catch a word of it; coughing embarrassingly he said, "Sorry. Missed that," as he removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair; looking off elsewhere. Blake finally turned to look at him, catching his eyes leaving her chest.

"I said," she spoke, eyeing him suspiciously as she lifted her top up a little more, "he stayed in Georgia after he graduated college," turning back to face her bag.

"More college kids in your family. Ya'll must be really smart, could tell ya seemed more mature for your age…grown," Shane said deeply as he eyed Blake up and down then took a few gulps of his water bottle. Blake was taken aback by Shane's obvious flirting and stole a glance at Rick. He wasn't even close to paying attention to her and Shane. Shane took a few steps closer to her, his eyes boring into hers and it made her extremely uncomfortable.

"Yes, you're right Shane," Blake said as she stood from her spot on the ground. "I think my maturity shows in my ability to stay on track and focus on what has to be done to save two young children," she snapped as she took a step back from the former sheriffs deputy. Shane tore his eyes away and smirked slightly, averting his eyes to other areas of the woods. Blake stole a glance to Andrea and noticed the conversation had peaked the blondes interest.

Thank god someone's witnessing this awkwardness, Blake thought to herself.

"Well you're right there, girly," Shane spoke as he slapped his police cap back onto his sweaty black hair. "Let's get back to it, Rick!" he called, getting the attention of his friend.

"Let's go," Rick nodded ready to move on.

Daryl was already super aggravated and it wasn't the walkers, the heat, the fact that they still haven't found one of the damn kids, but the damn women and the Chinese kid….Japanese….Korean….whatever the fuck he is.

Carol and Lori were squeaking and sniffling the whole damn journey so far, almost echoing in Daryl's head when all he really wanted to hear was the natural sound of the forest and its inhabitants. Glenn seemed to step on a thick branch or the driest patch of leaves every twenty seconds.

SNAP!

"Dammit, Short Round! Can you stop makin' all that damn noise? Christ, ya'll scarin' away all the game away," he snapped finally, turning to face the people behind him.

"We aren't out here looking for food, Daryl. We are looking for the children!" Lori spoke with anger and horror at Daryl's words.

"We're gonna find the damn kids, lady. I'm certain of that. But I ain't certain we can feed their asses when we all get back to camp. Think about that?" he yelled back at her. Lori kept her mouth shut in a firm line and averted her gaze. Daryl just shook his head and kept moving forward, following the trail of broken twigs and small footprints.

Everyone seemed to get a little quieter, scared to piss off the already grumpy redneck as he led them further into the walker-infested trees. Daryl was finally finding some peace in their mission, except for the occasional snap of a twig due to the clumsy feet of Glenn.

Eventually said noisemaker reluctantly walked his way up to Daryl's side and spoke, "Hey Daryl. I think we should take a break in a few, Lori and Carol look like they could take a seat and have some water." Daryl didn't turn his head but shifted his eyes to glance at Glenn.

"Fine," was all he said as he halted his movement. Glenn breathed a sigh of relief for not being reamed out by the moody hunter.

"Hey, we are just gonna take a quick water break then we are gonna keep moving forward," Glenn spoke to the ladies. The two mom's sat down heavily onto some tree stumps and shared a bottle of water. Daryl was sipping on his own as well when Glenn began to approach him. Glenn was standing a few feet away, looking extremely nervous to say whatever he had to say to him,

"Spit it out, kid," he snapped.

"Well," Glenn began before inching a bit closer, "You've been talking to Blake a lot and I was just wondering if she like," he paused and his cheeks began to turn even redder to Daryl's surprise. The Asian's face was already rosey from the heat of the day.

"What?" Daryl said with agitation

"Well, does Blake talk about me at all?," Daryl paused mid-chug of his water and looked at the uneasy kid.

"I don' talk to her like that," Daryl said as he screwed the cap back on the bottle.

"I don't believe that," Glenn scoffed and immediately regretted it when Daryl shot him a glare.

"I mean, she always talks to you and stuff and you guys went on the hunt for Merle the other day…." He spoke. "I don't know, she's really pretty and really nice," he spoke shyly. Daryl agreed to a point with the kid but would never admit that. He had no idea why the idea of the Asian kid liking Blake bothered him a little.

"She hasn't talked about it all to me. Now stop worryin' about gettin' your dick wet and lets move on. We got two kids we gotta find and some fucking dinner," he snapped, alerting the two women with his aggressive tone that it was time to move on.

Glenn covered his blushing cheeks by tilting his head down with his hat covering his eyes and grabbed his bag from the ground, staying behind Daryl and the ladies the rest of the journey.

Back on the highway three loan men were on the top of the RV, watching the forest edge for any signs of their groups return.

"This can't be a good sign if they're taking this long," Tanyon spoke as he paced on the metal roof of the vehicle.

"They're probably just being thorough," Dale spoke as he rested in his lawn chair, rifle sitting across his lap. "You need to relax, son. You're already woozy as it is, you lost a lot of blood yesterday," the old man reasoned in hopes of getting the young man to take a seat.

"I'm fine, Dale," Tanyon said, continuing to pace up and down the RV as he scanned the forest edge.

"Tell me a little about yourself," Dale spoke, hoping to distract the man from the whereabouts of his little sister.

"Whataya wanna know?" Tanyon asked

"I don't know…anything about your life?" Dale began, "I mean, what did you do for a living?" he said as he stood up a little straighter in his lawn chair.

"I was a teacher in an elementary school. Taught the 4th grade," Tanyon spoke.

"Really?" Dale said.

"Yeah, for about four years now," Tanyon spoke somewhat sadly, thinking of all his little rugrats that he he used to see every morning.

At that they heard a car door slam shut. Dale, T-Dog, and Tanyon perked up at the noise. Finally coming out from his hide out in a blue Toyota was Kris Dowd.

"Christ, nearly forgot about that guy," Tanyon spoke under his breath.

"He's been hiding in there every since that herd came onto the highway yesterday," T-Dog spoke, eyeing Tanyon from his position with a look that said "what a pussy".

"You can't blame that guy, he's been trapped in an underground safe zone and never even saw how brutal it can be," Dale spoke, defending the actions of the former doctor.

"Would've been nice if he didn't go into shock so he could've done these stitches. Daryl showed no mercy," Tanyon said as he lightly grazed the bandages on his arm.

"The way he was shakin' you should be happy Daryl did them," T-Dog said with a small grin.

Tanyon shielded his eyes and got a better look at the wide build of the doctor. "He can be an asset once he starts learning how to protect himself and the people around him. He's a big guy," he said.

"Wonder if he knows where his family went or had a lady at home," T-Dog wondered aloud.

"He never brought it up. He probably don't wanna talk about it anyways," Tanyon said.

The three men watched the strange doctor as he walked to the truck of gallon water jugs. The young doctor stripped himself of his white t-shirt and took off his slacks from the CDC along with his shoes and socks. Once his clothes were put to the side the doctor opened a jug and let it wash over him. Once the finals drops of water had run down his toned abdomen he snatched up his clothes and made his way to the door of the RV.

"How you doin', son," Dale asked the dark haired man. Kris only gave Dale a annoyed look with his grey eyes. His light brown hair plastered to his forehead and he carried his folded clothes back into the RV.

The three men all glanced at each other and shrugged Kris' behavior off. They continued their watch in silence as they scanned the woods, Tanyon once again pacing back and forth.