"All right everyone's getting' new search grids today." Rick unfolded the map. "If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far."
"I'd like to help." One of Hershel's group members, Jimmy, said walking up. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."
"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick eyed him suspiciously.
"Yeah. Yeah." The boy nodded. "He said I should ask you."
Rick hesitantly moved his head up and down. "All right then thanks."
"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me." Shane said. "Anyone could have been hold up in that farmhouse."
"Anybody includes her right?" Andrea looked at him.
Daryl held his arm at his hip. "Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high."
"It's a good lead." Andrea agreed.
"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Rick pointed out.
"No maybe about it." Daryl said. "I'm gonna borrow a horse. Head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there I'll spot her."
"Good idea." T-Dog smirked, "Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."
"Chupacabra?" Rick questioned.
"You never heard this?" Dale asked. "Our first night in camp Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra."
Jimmy laughed lightly earning a glare from Daryl. "What are you braying at, Jackass?"
"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Rick asked.
"Do you believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl shot right back.
Jimmy reached for the gun on top of the car but Rick grabbed it from him. "Hey. Hey. You ever fire one before?"
"Well if I'm going out I want one." He stated.
"Yeah and people in hell want Slurpee's." Daryl swung his crossbow on his back and walked off.
"Why don't you come train tomorrow?" Shane asked Jimmy getting out of the car. "If you're serious I'm a certified instructor."
"For now he can come with us." Andrea said.
Shane looked at her. "He's yours to babysit then."
"All right. Andrea, T-dog. I want you guys…" Rick trailed off looking at the map.
Rose suddenly appeared at the scene. "I'm coming with. I want to help find Sophia."
"No, no, no I ain't babysittin' another one." Andrea put her hands up backing away.
"That's fine Andrea. I'll take her with me." Rick said. "Tomorrow you can train and everyone will want you coming with them." He smiled.
Shane nailed a piece of red cloth to a tree in a moment Sophia were to come along. "You remember that name of the waitress at the Dairy Queen when we were in high school?" Rick asked him as they walked through the forest. "I know you, Shane, well enough to know there is only one sure-fire way of engaging you in a conversation, and that is to start askin' you about the girls you did in high school. I don't want to, but I'm willing to do it if that's what it takes."
"Maryanne." Shane finally said. "I told you about her?"
"In excruciating detail." Rick replied.
"Excruciating, my ass." Shane said. "You used to live for those details back in the day.
Rick smiled. "Yeah I was impressionable." Shane laughed. "And I may have been living vicariously through you."
"Why wouldn't you, with my impressive list of accomplishments? I was artist in his prime. A protégé." Shane smirked
"You mean prodigy." Rose corrected him.
Shane shrugged. "Maybe. Is prodigy what you call a young high school stud that bangs thirty year-olds on the regular?"
"What thirty year old were you banging in high school?" Rick asked a small smile on his face as the three trudged through the forest.
"The P.E. teacher." Shane replied.
Rick turned to look at him. "Mr. Daniels?"
"Mrs. Kelly." He smirked.
Rick laughed. "The girls' volleyball coach. Wasn't she married? You know what I just remembered-!"
"Can we please stop with this remembering bullshit?" Rose cut in her mind aggravated by their sentimental conversation. "There's no point in it now, everyone's dead."
"Now, now little missy I do believe you weren't in this conversation." Shane smiled sarcastically at her.
Rose glared at him. "Piss off Shane I still haven't forgiven you for almost gettin' me bit."
"Oh so you grew a pair?" Shane's eyebrows rose as he looked at her. "Last I remember you was cowerin' half the damn time."
"That was before I became food for the dead." She spat. "And plus, I hate you."
"Fellin' mutual darlin'." He smirked back at her.
"It's blue," Rick huffed staring at the tree by them. "It's Andrea and T-Dog. Looks like we wandered into their grid."
"Does anyone know how to play guitar?" Glenn broke the awkward tension hanging thick in in the dining room. "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's got to know how to play."
"Otis did." Patricia whispered.
Hershel nodded. "Yes, and he was very good too."
That was the end of their conversation but down the table Rose couldn't take the silence. ""My brother used to play. That's how he got me to sleep. Every night he come up to my room with his guitar strumming a little tune singing one of his songs for his MP3 player." She smiled at the memory. "Easiest way to knock me out eh?" she laughed.
"Do you?" Lori asked.
"No." Rose shook her head. "Never had the time and when I did I got too frustrated with the strings."
The room plunged into awkward silence once more and all was heard was the scraping of forks against the glass plates. Rose pushed away from the table. "That was great." She motioned to Daryl's room. "Someone should um-er get him some food."
When she heard a mumbled of approval she started gathering up some things and putting them on a tray to carry them off to Daryl's bedside. "How are you feeling?" she asked closing his bedroom door behind her and placing the tray on the nightstand next to his bed.
"As good as I look," he replied wrapping the sheets tighter around himself.
"I brought you some dinner." She nodded towards the tray. "You must be starving."
He looked at the tray and then back to her. "Eatin' squirrel all day."
Rose chuckled lightly taking a seat on the bed. "It's so tense out there. Nobody is talking."
"I bet." He agreed. "I could hear a pin drop from in here."
Rose fiddled with the bed sheet. "I-I wanted to tell you how brave you are being. For going out on your own to look for that little girl." She sighed looking up at him finding him staring right back at her. "I don't want to say it's hopeless and that it's a waste of time, but in all honesty I think it is. But I mean anything could happen. For all we know she could be back on that highway or something." she laughed. "I don' know her or this group very well so my opinion doesn't really matter."
"Don't worry about them." Daryl gave a small smile. "I've been here awhile and look I got shot."
"Yeah." She laughed lightly. "I just wanted to say that little girl is lucky having someone like you to look for her." Rose leaned down and pressed her lips to his cheek then fled the room.