Notes: Two Short chapters ahead! Next two will hopefully be up before tomorrows episode!

Chapter Twenty-Five

(Fin's POV)

I've been walking for far too long; the dull ache that haunted me most of the night is slowly fading to a tingling numbness that's spread through my extremities. A numbness that leaves just a dull thrumming under my skin.

You'd think without the pain as a constant distraction I'd be able to move faster, focus more on the task at hand but curiously I seem to be experiencing the exact opposite.

I caught up with them about halfway through the night. I've kept a careful distance so that my movement through the trees wouldn't be heard. I didn't need them shooting me in the dark thinking I'm one of the dead they left behind on the farm.

Daryl kept them moving through the whole night, and it's now well into midday. They've only stopped for a few minutes every few hours; even with the small kids.

Tyreese was carrying a sleeping Molly the last time I circled close enough to see them. They're obviously concerned that the horde they left back at the farmhouse will follow them; overtake them if they stop to rest.

And how could they not? They have no idea that they're no longer a threat.

I've been flanking them every few hours, alternating sides. A few times I even moved ahead of them—mostly when they stopped to rest, just to make sure that there weren't any Dead moving from the other highway toward the farm.

I'm far too tired to redirect the ones I have found. I resorted to simply shooting them sometime just before sunrise. It's a good thing at least my bow is silent, I seem to be making far too much noise myself.

I trip, catch myself on a tree just before falling to my knees, my breathing a bit too fast.

I stare down at my boots can't figure out what I got caught on; again.

I need to rest, and soon. But I'm afraid that if I do I'll never get up, that the pain will come back and I'll just curl into a ball and stay there. And there's still a small chance that they could run into a large group coming from the road.

I just have to make it a little longer.

:: walking dead ::

(Daryl's POV)

Something is wrong.

Someone must be following them.

He hasn't said anything to Glenn or Tyreese yet; but he's more certain with each hour that passes that they are not alone in the woods. Concern that it might be one of the Peacock brothers keeps him on edge.

And then there's the dead walkers they keep stumbling on. The first one they found just before the sun came up, had been close enough to the farm that he dismissed it as something Fin must have done in the two days they were separated while he was on the farm; or perhaps that evening when the original group of walkers attacked the house and she snuck in through the window.

When they found the second body he was tempted to think the same, but by the third he begin to doubt that possibility.

The fourth body that comes into view between the trees has him slamming to a halt, breath freezing in his throat.

It's not possible…but there it is…

The arrow protruding from the dead man's eye socket makes his heart pound in his chest.

The arrow is his.

It's impossible.

Because he knows they were never on this side of the farm. He's positive they're not traveling in circles and he hasn't fired a single arrow since the night before back on the Peacock farm…

He hasn't needed to he realizes because someone else is killing all the Walkers before they're even within ear shot.

It doesn't make sense, if it was one of the Peacocks still out here with them, there is no reason for them to be killing the Walkers before they encounter them. And it definitely wouldn't explain the arrow he's now bending over to yank from the dead corpse. He kneels there in the cold dirt, stares at it clutched in his fist heart pounding.

The only arrows he left were in the kitchen and upstairs in Eli; he's collected every other arrow he's fired out here in the woods...

He knows it can't be her, tells himself she went off the roof…

Fin fell into the horde…but who else is there?

Especially with a bow…

He gets up, circles them slowly as they continue on, starts inspecting the ground for footprints, any other sign that she might be nearby. Even as he tells himself it's ridiculous to look…it can't possibly be her.

Glenn has noticed him circling them, starts to casually split off from the rest of the group just enough so that their paths cross the next time he moves around. "What is it?" Glenn keeps his voice low so the others don't hear them—which is good.

The kids are already exhausted, they don't need to panic; noise could draw any Walkers still out there while he's trying to deal with whatever this is.

"Not sure. Think someone's follow'd us." He notices a print in the ground, stops to measure it with his hand, it's the right size….

"One of the Peacocks?" Glenn's tone is tight, he looks pale and tired.

"Except that makes no damn sense, that's the fourth dead Walker we've found, Haven't one up and kicking since last night."

"Do you think it could be that girl…"

He stops when he notes Daryl's expression. "She fell off the Damn roof."

"I know," Glenn stares down at his feet. "But when Caleb and Robert talked about her, they were legit spooked. The way those guys talked about her…"

He stops, looks away from Daryl's glare.

"I don't want to know what those fuckers had to say. After what they did to her…" His hands fist at his sides.

"It's just…it sounded like she'd pulled off some crazy shit before, they thought she was dead a couple of times and she kept turning back up."

There were at least 200 walkers in that yard; there was no way she made it out of there with no weapons, no protection. They'd have torn her to pieces the second she fell…

"Just keep you damn eyes open." He moves away again, still looking for tracks.

It's takes time, more than an hour of careful searching as they move. He has to circle wider then he likes from the group but eventually he finds what he's looking for in the soft patches between the leaves.

It's not much, but the size is right, the depression in the dirt right for her weight, and they're fresh.

He moves back towards the group. "Glenn,"

They stop, Daryl waves Tyreese past them. They wait.

"She's out there."

"How is that even possible?"

"Don't know, but it is." It has to be.

"Do you want me to go with you?"

He shakes his head, needs Glenn to stay with the group, the kids are exhausted anyway. They probably should have stopped hours ago for them.

"Be safe man,"

"Yeah, you too."

:: walking dead ::