The sun pours in through my truck's windows, stirring me from my sleep. Normally I would cover the windows, but not today. The earlier we get up and start looking for Sophia the better. I pull my boots on, strap on my gun and knife, and grab my crowbar. I stretch as I step out of my truck. Damn I miss that couch at the CDC.
"You know you don't gotta sleep in a truck, dontcha?" I jump at the sound of Daryl's voice. The little kiss yesterday flashes in my mind and I immediately want to hide in my truck. No, it's ok. It wasn't a big deal. Just a kiss on the cheek.
"I'm used to it already, I guess." The RV probably has some space in it, but I don't want to crowd anyone. I stretch again and a loud crack comes from my back.
"Your spine doesn't seem to used to it," he retorts, walking toward the RV. A blush creeps its way onto my face as I watch him go. I mentally slap myself for staring at his arms but I don't look away. After talking to Andrea, I've been way too conscious of him. Christ, it's way too early for this. Speaking of which, I notice we're the only ones up this early. Although I'm sure Carol's awake too, she probably never fell asleep.
I walk after Daryl, not really sure what else to do before the others wake up. I want to head out now, but I don't think going out on my own is the best idea after last night. It looks like Daryl's getting ready to start the search, leaning over a car, staring at a map.
"So what's the plan?" I ask, remembering Rick made Daryl in charge of all this.
"The plan is to find that little girl and get her back to her mom," Daryl says with so much conviction, I really believe he's going to do it. He goes back to looking at the map, tracing paths with his finger.
"Are we splitting into groups or staying together?" He looks at me sideways.
"Why? Want to run off on your own again?" I'm surprised when I don't hear an edge to his voice.
To be honest, I would much rather go solo, but I don't feel like that's the best thing to say right now. "Just wondering, Captain."
He snorts at the title, "I ain't no fuckin' captain."
"Sir, yes, sir!" I respond, army saluting him.
He stares back at me for a moment, his eyebrows quirked. He turns back to the map, but I swear I can see the corners of his mouth twitch up, just barely. Did he almost just smile? Not like a smirk, but a real smile? I stare at him, my mouth open, not sure if I imagined it or not.
"What's goin' on over here?" Shane's voice approaches from behind us. I snap out of my amazement and turn to see him. Does he think the same thing Andrea thought? That there's something going on between Daryl and I? I look at his face, but can't figure it out.
"Figurin' out a gameplan," Daryl replies. "Anyone else up yet?"
"Yeah, just rallied the troops. They'll be ready to go soon." His head tilts to the side, looking at me. I don't like the way he does it though. He's not blatantly checking me out or anything, but he puffs out his chest, like an alpha dog or something. "You're not plannin' on slippin' away again, are you? Don't need more girls lost in the woods."
I do my best to suppress an eye roll. "Don't worry. This girl can find her way in the woods just fine."
He scoffs, seeming mostly amused but a bit annoyed too. "Just tryin' to look out for you is all." Daryl looks between us but doesn't say anything. I walk away, not interested in dealing with that much testosterone right now.
I do my best to help Lori prepare breakfast, trying to take some of the strain off Carol. She seems to like the work though, keeps her busy.
After we eat, the group convenes at the car Daryl was at. Rick rolls out a sheath filled with various hatchet like weapons.
"Everybody takes a weapon," he commands.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea retorts. She seems annoyed—I wonder if something happened. "What about the guns?"
"We've been over that," Shane speaks up from behind Rick. "Daryl, Rick, and I are carrying. Can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."
"It's not the trees I'm worried about."
"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be walking by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."
Whoa, whoa, whoa. No one is taking my gun from me. I take a quiet step back, hoping nobody realizes my gun's on me. Andrea looks to me, probably for support. I understand how she feels. Shane has a point, but it sounds more like an excuse to take their guns. She catches sight of my gun; however, and all my sympathy for her flies out the door. "What about Ashlyn, huh? This isn't about gun safety, is it? It's about everyone afraid I'm going to blow my brains out."
Everyone's eyes go to me, then to my hip. So much for that.
"Now hold up," Shane says, trying to calm her down. "Didn't know she was packing." He nods his head to the side, indicating for me to give up my gun. I stare back at him confused. Is he serious? The whole group looks at me, waiting to see what I'll do.
"No, you hold on. I've had this gun for years. I took all the classes. I know how to use it."
"Rules are rules. Hand it over."
Shocked, I look to the group, but no one speaks up. Being on my own for so long, it feels strange having to play by someone else's rules. Every part of me wants to tell Shane to fuck off but the last thing I want to do is start something. Not when we should be looking for Sophia. Swallowing my anger, I unholster my gun. I ignore Shane's outstretched hand and say "I'll lock it up in my truck, thanks." Shane holds his hands up defensively, noticing my tone.
Recognizing the conflict is over, Daryl starts explaining his plan. "The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Everything he says sounds well thought out—I'm not surprised—he seemed to take this very seriously from the beginning.
"Stay quiet, stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick concludes. He instructs Dale to stay behind to keep working on the repairing the RV. T-Dog is also staying behind, on account of his wound. Carl convinces his parents to let him come, eager to help find Sophia.
I head back to my truck, ignoring the weapons Rick offered, and lock up my gun. I don't like not having it with me, but this beats handing it over to Shane.
"Hey." Speak of the devil. Shane walks over to me, but I keep myself busy getting my backpack together. "Hey," he says again, louder this time. I look over to acknowledge him but keep doing what I'm doing. He sighs but keeps going. "Look, I'm sure you're good with your gun, but I did what I had to do to keep the peace. Don't need people thinkin' I'm playing favorites."
I'm surprised for a moment at his sort-of-apology, but I nod at him and say, "I understand. I just don't want to be treated as a liability. I can handle myself just fine and the sooner people realize that the better."
He chuckles under his breath and leans against my truck with a smirk on his face. "You're a lot of talk, we'll see how you well you handle them walkers soon enough, Dr. Turner."
I scrunch up my face at 'Doctor' as I slam my truck door. "Ugh, no, never call me that."
"Whatever you say, Doc." He lightly hits my shoulder and walks back to the group. He still isn't my favorite person here, but maybe he isn't as much of a shithead as I pegged him for. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
DARYL
Looks like we're all about set to head out. I'm doing a mental head count when I notice Red's not here. Or Shane. I walk around the RV to see if she's by her truck. Sure enough, there she is. I'd be relieved if Shane wasn't there too, leaning up against her truck, smirkin' about somethin'. The fuck's he want with her? I shake it off—this ain't the time to be thinking about that. Or what happened last night. Not with Sophia out there.
When they join the rest of us, we start the search. Everyone falls in line behind me, Shane covering the rear. Red somewhere towards the back with Glenn.
After a while of trackin', I spot a tent. I creep up on it, real quiet, to check it out. Rick gets Carol to call out for Sophia but no response. Pulling the tent flap back, I catch a whiff of something foul. I walk in, knife ready. All I find is some real nasty bastard that blew his brains all over the tent. I grab the gun, tucking it in the back of my pants, and step out.
"It ain't her." Carol's face falls at the news.
"What's in there?" Lori asks.
"Some guy. Did what Jenner said, opted out." I look at Red for any kind of reaction. "Ain't that what he called it?" It's barely noticeable but I see her body stiffen, just for a second. Her face goes blank though, so I can't tell what she's thinkin'. I keep remembering her standing in the CDC, not moving as everyone's runnin' for their lives.
Suddenly, a noise rings through the forest. Everyone's heads perk up at the sound. The fuck is that? Church bells? We all run in the direction the sound's coming from.
Sure enough we find a church. We run through a graveyard, toward the chapel. Rick signals to be quiet as he pushes the doors open. Four geeks sitting in the pews turn around and get up. Rick and I move to take 'em out and Glenn hands me a hatchet. I catch Shane gesture for Red to go in too, and she nods back, stepping into the church. The fuck is he playin' at? Taking her gun then sending her to take out walkers?
I don't get what he's doin' but I go after one of the walkers, burying the hatchet in its skull. I watch Red as she approaches a big geek in overalls and takes a powerful swing at its head. It's definitely a one hit K.O but she smashes it one more time for good measure. Shane watches her closely, like he's seeing how well fights, but there's more to it than that.
Rick starts calling for Sophia, but Shane stops him, saying it's the wrong church—got no steeple, no bell. He's interrupted though, by loud ringing. We all run outside to check it out. Glenn finds an electrical box outside and flips the switch off, stopping the noise.
"A timer. It's on a timer," I say.
Exhausted, the group splits up, but stays near the church. I watch as Shane puts his hand on Red's shoulder and says, "Good job in there." She doesn't look particularly flattered, but she nods her head and walks off, to the back of the church. I'm not really sure why, but I follow after her.
ASHLYN
I check out the back of church, looking for any sign of Sophia. Nothing sticks out though. Maybe if I had Daryl's tracking skills, I'd have a better idea of what I'm looking for.
"Not the prayin' type, are ya?" Daryl's voice calls from behind me.
I turn around, wandering what he's doing here. "Not really." I suppose that's where the others are, some of them at least. "We should keep moving. Doesn't look like she's here."
He nods but it looks like something's bothering him so I ask, "What's wrong? Besides the dead rising and all that." Ever since what happened at the CDC, I've been worried Daryl knows what I almost did back there—"opt out". After he found the dead guy in the tent today, he looked right at me when he said it was a suicide.
He hesitates for a moment, but then asks, "You trying to impress Shane or something?"
Not the question I was expecting, I'm thrown off guard for a moment. I suppose he talking about me killing the walker back in the church. "It's not just Shane. I need the whole group to understand I can take care of myself." He looks at me, as if unconvinced, so I continue. "I want people to be able to rely on me instead of worry about me."
Nothing else to say, I start heading back around the church. He walks passed me and without turning around, says, "You've got a helluva swing at least." I can't help but grin. A smile and compliment from Daryl Dixon, all in one day? Never thought that would happen.
The search party meets up under a big tree in front of the chapel. Shane walks over, Rick in his wake, and says "Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge." I look at him confused. Since when did this become his mission? We all know Daryl's in charge, he has been since the beginning. "Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area for another hour or so, just to be thorough."
Daryl doesn't seem too bothered by it, he just asks, "You're splitting us up. You sure?"
"Yeah, we'll catch up with you."
Carl wants to stay with his dad though and surprisingly Lori lets him. Before the group splits, Rick offers his gun to Lori, but she says she doesn't want to leave him unarmed. Overhearing this, Daryl pulls out a small revolver and gives it to her, saying he picked up a spare. Andrea looks pissed, and I understand why. The gun rule was stupid in the first place though and now that the group's splitting up, Daryl would be the only one armed with a gun.
We go our separate ways, with everyone except Rick, Shane, and Carl circling back to the creek.
The heat is intense and aside from Daryl, known of us really know what we're doing. With all the effort going into this with no results, everyone seems a bit tense. After a couple hours, Carol starts to break down. "So this is it? This is the whole plan?"
Everyone stops walking and turns to her as she sits down on a log. Leaning against a tree, Daryl tells her, "I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups."
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea seethes. She turns on Lori, "I see you have a gun."
"Why, you want it?" Lori responds, without hesitation. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." She extends the gun to Andrea and after a moment, she takes it. "All of you." Lori sits down on the log, obviously annoyed. She turns to Carol, "Honey, 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. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would've gone after her the way he did. Or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently." She looks up to the rest of us, "Anybody?" We all remain silent, half shocked at her outburst, half in agreement with what she's saying. "Y'all look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you."
Andrea hands Lori back the gun, and says, "We should keep moving." Just like that, the pressure that was building between us dies down. I can't help but respect Lori in a whole new way. Calling out a group of people on their bullshit takes serious balls.
I follow the others, still thinking about all the things Lori said. Although I doubt no one else would've tried saving Sophia, she did make a lot of good points. Everyone puts so much pressure on Rick, it's amazing he hasn't lost it yet. Amazing that he keeps trying to do the right thing.
We continue walking for some time when a gunshot echoes through the trees, stopping us all in our tracks. Lori seems the most concerned, however, considering her husband and boy are out there. "What was that?" She asks, panicked.
"You know what it was. Just gotta keep moving," Daryl tells her.
She nods and we keep going, but it only take a couple minutes for her to stop again, worried.
"We can't go running after gunshots Lori. I know you're worried, but our only option right now is to keep going." I try convincing her to let it be, but it doesn't sink in.
"It was a gunshot," she says, concern all over her face.
"We all heard it," Daryl says.
"Why one? Why just one gunshot?"
It is a little strange, I'll give her that. It doesn't change anything though.
"Maybe they put down a walker."
"Please don't patronize me, you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane, they do it quietly."
"Shouldn't they of caught up to us by now?" Carol asks.
"Red's right. There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl says.
"So what do we do?" Lori demands, not getting the picture.
"Same as we've been. Beat the bust for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV," Andrea tries to reassure her.
We start picking up the trail again, but Andrea says to Carol, "I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel."
"I suppose you do. Thank you." She turns to the rest of us, her voice trembling. "The thought of her out here by herself… It's the not knowing that's killing me. I keep hoping and praying she doesn't end up like Amy—" A pained look passes over Andrea's face at the mention of her sister. Carol realizes her mistake and grabs Andrea's hands. "Oh God. That's the worst thing I ever said."
Shaking it off, Andrea tells her, "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."
"I'll tell you what it's worth—not a damn thing." Daryl asserts, walking up to the two women. Both shocked at his words. It takes me off guard too. "It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying. Cause we're gonna locate that little girl and she's gonna be just fine." He turns back around, leading the way again. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."
It may not of been the most conventional pep talk, but it did the trick. We continue on but with a new found energy. It's amazing, seeing Daryl like this. His personality seemed so harsh when I first met him, I never expected this kind of warmth from him.
Several hours pass and despite our vigor, we haven't found any sign of Sophia. With the sun about to set, we decide to call it, promising Carol an early start tomorrow.
The hike back to the highway wears us out fast, exhausted from our day of searching. I know we must be getting close though, maybe just ten more minutes of walking. It's so difficult picturing Sophia out here, all alone. Would she be hiding somewhere? Or wandering around trying to find her way back? I push the other possibilities out of my mind, not prepared to face them.
My thoughts are interrupted by screams up ahead. Andrea. She must've been walking ahead of us. We all run toward the noise. I see a large walker staggering forward, rotting arms outstretched, lumbering over a fallen Andrea. I grab my knife and rush toward it, prepared to take it down, when I hear a loud galloping sound coming at me from my left. I catch a glimpse of a horse rushing toward me and throw myself out of its path. The loud cracking of a skull resonates through the woods and I see the walker fall to the ground.
I start getting back on my feet when large hands grab my arms and pull me up. "You alright?" Daryl huffs in my ear, breathing heavy from the sprint over. I nod, sheathing my knife.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" A female voice with a southern drawl calls. I turn to see a girl, probably in her twenties, riding horseback with a baseball bat.
"I'm Lori."
"Rick sent me, you've gotta come now," the women speaks urgently, not wasting anytime.
"What?" Lori asks, still in shock.
"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've got to come now." Lori freezes, mouth hanging open. "Rick needs you, just come."
Lori throws off her backpack, getting on the horse. "Whoa whoa whoa, we don't know this girl!" Daryl calls, stepping forward. "You can't get on that horse!"
I grab his arm, holding him back. "She knows their names Daryl!"
Ignoring him, the woman continues speaking rapidly, "Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. The name's Greene. Hyah!" She snaps the reins and the horse takes off with Lori on back.
I drop my hands from Daryl's arm. We all stare after the horse, absorbing what just happened. Carl's been shot?
This chapter is really late, sorry. Season 2 is so slow, it's hard figuring out where I want to cut corners so it's not too boring. Next chapter they'll be at the farm though!
Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad everyone seemed to like the kiss at the end I'm going to try fitting more things like that in while they're at the farm to move along their relationship