Tears cascaded down my face. My chest was being torn open and I could barely breathe. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the, now blurry, car crash scene before me. The bloody pulp that was in front of me was my friend. The next mutilated figure was her mom.
I was almost ten and had seen more death than most people my age should see. I'd watched my nannie die a slow, painful death at the hands of cancer. My papa, my nannie's husband, died just a few months ago.
Now, I was being carried away from the corpses of my friend and her mother. We'd been going to the skating ring. Some idiot ran a light and hit us head on. Kaiylee, my friend, had almost a whole window of glass shoved into her skull. She died a day after the accident.
Her mother ended up dying only minutes after the crash. Her seatbelt cut into her neck, severing an artery.
And me—Lyla Jayne Mathers was the soul survivor. I don't know how, but I ended up with only a few cuts, some bruises, and enough emotional trauma to kill someone three times over.
As we kept walking, Lori lagged behind and looked around the woods we had walked through.
"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked, making us all stop.
"It was a gunshot." The woman stated.
"We all heard it." Daryl reminded her.
"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Lori pressed.
"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl suggested.
"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker; or Shane. They'd do it quietly."
"Maybe it wasn't them shooting." I offered.
"Maybe there are other survivors." Glenn said optimistically.
"Shouldn't they have caught up to us by now?" Carol asked.
"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl spoke authoritatively.
"So what do we do?" Lori asked.
"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sena and Sophia, work our way back to the highway." He said quickly.
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea assured Lori who was worried sick over her husband.
Andrea then spoke to Carol about losing Sophia. "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."
Daryl then got all riled up.
"I'll tell you what it's worth—not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hoping and praying. Cause we're gonna locate those little girls—."
He then looked to me. "Both of them."
"And they're gonna be just fine." He said with finality.
As we trudged on, I felt my heart weigh me down. Sena was still out there. She was a scared nine year old that got lost in the woods in a walker filled world.
I replayed Daryl's words in my mind. He'd been so adamant that we'd find the girls and they'd be okay…but I wasn't stupid, and I wasn't clinging to foolish hope.
In the world before all this, those two had a fair chance at surviving. Now, their chances had dropped to almost zero.
Those damn tears sprang to my eyes as I tried to shake the thoughts of losing my only family in this horrible world.
"It can't rain all the time." I mumbled to myself, thinking of a movie I'd seen before the world ended.
"I wish it'd rain, right now." Lori huffed.
I chuckled, thankful for a distraction. "It'd be a welcome change."
After our little chuckles died down, the brunette looked at me. "How you holding up?"
I began counting the trees to keep from crying. "Been better."
"You heard Daryl, we'll find them." She said solemnly.
"He better be good at predicting the future." I said, gritting my teeth.
I wasn't giving up on finding my baby girl; not as long as people were willing to help me look for her.
"We'll loose the light before too long. I think we should call it." Daryl told us.
We'd been walking almost all day. My limbs were ready to fall off and my feet were on fire.
I looked at my best friend. Her red cheeks and sweaty brow showed how long this day had been.
"Let's head back." Lori agreed.
"We'll pick it up tomorrow?" Carol asked, mirroring my same question.
"Yeah, we'll find them tomorrow." Lori told her and me hastily.
Daryl whistled out, signaling us to follow him.
As we walked on, we grew more and more fatigued. The sun was almost setting.
"How much farther?" Lori questioned.
"Bout a hundred yards; as the crow flies." He said, absentmindedly.
"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea scoffed, plowing her way along with us.
I chuckled a bit, and stopped to sip on some water.
That's when someone decided to scream.
"Andrea?" Lori asked, trying to figure out who was yelling.
We all ran towards the source of the noise.
Sure enough it was Andrea crawling away from a walker. Daryl raised his crossbow to take it out, but some horse came through. The rider knocked the fucking dead thing on it's ass with a baseball bat.
"Fucking hell!" I exclaimed.
The rider slowed their horse and called out. "Lori, Lori Grimes?"
Lori freaked and responded.
"Rick sent me. You gotta come now!" the woman rider told Lori.
"What?"
"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive, but you've got to come now." She told Lori, as well as everyone else.
Lori just stared in disbelief.
"Rick needs you. Just come!"
Lori snapped out of her trance and took off her backpack and handed it to me.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa we don't know this girl!" Daryl shouted out. "You can't get on that horse!"
"She can if she damn well pleases!" I retorted.
"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" The woman asked, ignoring me and Daryl.
She then spewed directions to wherever she was taking Lori to Glenn. Hopefully he caught them.
And in a second, they were off, galloping away, leaving us speechless.
Daryl was the first to break the tension by growling at the walker who tried to attack Andrea. He put a bolt through its head and we continued walking.
I went to Andrea to try and help her up. She just glared at me.
"I don't need any help." She spat, walking on.
"Well fuck you too." I thought.
Glenn was the first person to reach the highway. Since that lady came and took Lori, he'd been leading the group.
Dale met up with us, shocked by what had transpired.
"All I know, is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn informed him.
"You let her?" He accused.
"Climb down out of my ass old man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl said, walking away.
"And I heard screams. Was that you?" Dale asked Andrea.
I just glared at the bitch as she brushed him off like pond scum.
"She got attacked by a walker. It was a close call." Glenn said, breathless.
"Andrea, are you alright?" The old guy asked in worry.
She stared back at Dale in disgust.
Dumb bitch should've got bitten.
"Lil bitch." I heard Autumn mutter.
I nodded as I walked to the spot me, Auutmn, and Austin had staked out.
It was like our own little campsite, away from the others. We were still the odd men out to them.
Austin opened up some corned beef hash and dug in.
"What could be better?" He asked sarcastically, passing the food around.
"I'm not hungry." I told him, staring out at the woods.
He smirked. "Come on Ly, don't be like that."
Before I could say anything else, we heard the rest of the group arguing.
I rose up and joined in, wondering what was going on.
"What the hell ya'll arguing about now?" I asked.
"They wanna stop looking for the girls." Carol looked at me with heartbroken eyes.
She then looked to her group. "We can't just leave."
"I'm with Carol on this. I ain't leaving my cousin and her daughter out there." I said, growing upset.
"The group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale said, stating the facts.
"What if they come back and we're not here? It could happen." Carol retorted.
"Damn right it could." I agreed.
"If the girls found their way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea said, actually earning some brownie points with me. At least she was on mine and Carol's side.
Everyone was silent. The 'mini group' was torn between going or staying.
Quietly, I looked around, pleading with everyone who met my eyes. We had to stay.
Finally I looked at Daryl.
He averted his eyes from side to side before nodding his head.
"Okay. We gotta plan for this." He said, looking at me. "I say tomorrow's soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us time to rig a big sign, leave them some supplies. I'll hold here tonight; stay with the RV."
"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale chimed in.
"Thank you. Thank you both." Carol uttered gratefully.
Daryl bowed his head, acknowledging her thanks.
"No question here. I'm staying." I said calmly.
"I'm in too." Andrea added.
"Well if you're all staying, then I'm—."
"Not you Glenn. You're going." Dale told Glenn. "Take Carol's Cherokee."
"Me? Why is it always me?" Glenn asked, agitated.
"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people, and see what's going on."
Glenn just rolled his eyes.
"But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection." The old man stressed. "Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics…because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke."
I turned to Autumn and Austin. "Ya'll should go too."
"We ain't leaving you." Autumn told me.
I sighed. "You don't have to do this. Glenn might need your help and I think I'll be alright. Go get you some rest. I'll meet back up with you and Austin tomorrow."
Reluctantly, the siblings consented and decided to go with Glenn.
I looked to poor T. He didn't look good at all. And I felt worse since I didn't have anything other than ibuprofen, vicodin, and some allergy meds to give the injured guy.
Daryl stalked off to his motorcycle, taking a rag off the handle and digging through the side pouch.
My eyes widened when he brought out a whole bag of drugs.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." He said, throwing the rag at Dale.
"Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother's stash; Crystal, X, don't need that." Daryl mumbled, going through the bag.
"Got some kick ass painkillers." He mentioned, tossing a bottle to Glenn.
"Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class." Daryl continued, giving Dale the second bottle. "Merle got the clap on occasion."
I bit my lip to keep from laughing at Daryl's nonchalant-ness about his brother's dick problems.