Chapter 3: Faith

Telling Carol what had happened was difficult. She was frantic and hurt and no one stopped her nor blamed her. She yelled at Rick who held his head down the entire time, guilt completely apparent on his face.

"She's just a child!" Carol sobbed, her whole body was shaking and she was getting paler by the second, "My-my little girl got left in the woods," Andrea went to sit on her right while Lori held her from the other side.
"We will find her," Rick walked away from the group. Aaerie looked at the sunset, it would be too dark soon to see even their hands in front of their faces let alone finding their way back to camp.

After they had found Rick in the swamp, they decided to split up, Daryl, Rick and she decided to continue tracking Sophia while the others headed back to camp. She couldn't see herself bringing the bad news to Sophia's mother and avoided that encounter.

Daryl was able to track the footprints until it got blurred out amongst other steps, they had even ripped open a stomach of one of the walkers to ensure there was no recent...feedings. As the sun began setting they had no lead anymore and knew they had to head back to the camp.

Aaerie made a beeline for Glenn, ignoring the questioning looks from the others. That's when Carol swept the surroundings and noticed her daughter was not amongst the returnees.

She sighed remembering that moment, the pained howl of a mother losing her child. She sat inside a minivan with Glenn and ate a bag of chips with him, they had reclined the back seats completely and faced each other.
"What do we do next?"
"I don't know...first time we lost a child in this mess..." Glenn responded reaching his hand into the bag,
"We probably shouldn't eat these...packed with empty calories,"
"We might never get to eat these again,"

'Never,' it hadn't crossed her mind that things might never be the same...or that there was no help on its way. She sighed, accepting the chip that Glenn placed in her mouth.

"T-Dog, you think he'll be okay?" T-Dog had cut himself during the herd on a car door, by the looks of it, it was really deep.
"Yeah, he's lucky Daryl's not like his brother,"
"Daryl had a brother? What happened to him?"

Glenn explained what had happened and she felt sad, unlike her brother who had died to protect her, he lost his brother thinking he'd been abandoned by his own group...ass or not, she suddenly had a new form of respect for the hunter, to stick with the group after that, there was no doubt Daryl Dixon could survive on his own, he must've stayed behind to help the group.

Glenn also talked about there being more tension while the three were gone, that Andrea and Dale were fighting about a gun and he thinks Lori and Shane were fighting again, but he didn't hear about what. He said he didn't feel like the group was quite together.

"We don't need to be, as long as we stick together we can get through this," Aaerie smiled reassuring her friend. They devoured every last bit of the bag together, made plans of using this minivan as a meet spot incase shit hit the fan and soon fell asleep beside each other. It was the first real good night's rest either one of them had had in a really long time despite everything that was going on.

When sunlight beamed at the pair through the window, they began moving, trying to avoid the rays of heat, when Aaerie began to sit up right she heard a loud bell. Within moments Glenn and her could hear the others outside and after fixing themselves up quickly they made their way out to join the rest of the group, curious and anxious about the loud noise.

"Glad to see ya' join us princess," Shane snarled at her, she rested her hand on Glenn's arm to stop the young man from arguing back. She couldn't understand why the other cop was dead set on making sure she knew she wasn't welcomed by him. She had tried time and time again to prove that she would be anything but dead weight but she could see that he would not recognize her efforts no matter how hard she tried.

She glared at the man until he turned away. It was no use arguing, they needed to stop the bell before it attracted all the walkers in the area- that was their priority.

"It could be Sophia, it sounds like a church bell, maybe she found herself there, we could all go together to check it out, T-Dog can stay here with Dale, we can all meet back here if anything goes array," they all agreed with the plan Rick put into motion and packed a few items and headed out as a group.

Daryl walked ahead and appeared to be looking for tracks. There were a few walkers in the way but nothing they couldn't handle. After about an hour of walking through the sticks and dirt, they finally reached a small white chapel. She thought it was a weird place for it to be located, no main roads leading up to it.

They heard the bell again and they all went sprinting towards the chapel,
"Sophia!"
"Sophia!"

She didn't follow however, her heart sank when she looked up, the bell was not attached to anything manual, she had originally had a bad feeling when she realized the bell was ringing in very precise intervals. She didn't tell anyone about her findings hoping that even if her suspicions were true, maybe just maybe Sophia would hear the bell and try to get to it too.

When Rick came back out he seemed to realize her fears as he paled looking up.
"Dammit!" He slammed his fists on the wall and grabbed his pistol aiming it at a small gray box on the side. The ringing stopped simultaneously with the firing of the gun.

"She could still come here, she might have heard it too, she might think it's us trying to call out to her," Aaerie suggested, Carol smiled sadly and walked into the chapel followed by some of the others.

Aaerie sighed waking towards a nearby bench, Glenn sat down beside her,

"It's really scary,"

"What?"

"Everything."

"Oh." Glenn put his arm around his friend and squeezed her close to him,

"Sometimes, don't you wonder, what the hell happened?"

"All the time Aaerie, all the time…"

"This crap…it's not supposed to be real, sure…a few crazy people here and there, but strong country fallen apart by some bioweapon,"

"What's a bioweapon?" Aaerie jumped at the sudden question not coming from Glenn, she turned and saw Daryl standing awkwardly nearby. She was unsure of whether he was kidding or not and hesitated to answer. She felt Glenn jab her side, she hadn't realized she was quiet for so long and noticed the redneck turning well…red.

"Uh bioweapons are short for biological weapons. People for centuries and centuries used things like bacteria and viruses to attack one another…especially now, well before, or maybe still now," She shook her head as she confused herself, "kind of sick but it would explain how all this happened…this isn't a normal mutated strand of anything that I can think of…"

"Are ye' some kinda scientist or somethin'?"

"No, I just read…a lot, you know spare time,"

Daryl lifted an eyebrow at her and Glenn snorted, "I don't think anyone in their right mind would include a hobby list of studying and reading on Biological Warfare."

"Shut up," She shoved him playfully, "I have other hobbies."

"Shooting range is not a normal hobby," Glenn laughed, "Or spending all your free time at the animal shelter begging them to let you play with the dogs-"

"You three! We're gon' split up. Me and Shane will keep scoutin' the area in case Sophia comes by and you guys should head back to camp, Sophia might go there," Rick yelled. The three acknowledged the sheriff. It took a while to get Carol moving with them, however eventually everyone got ready to separate. Carl had somehow convinced Lori to let him stay with the pair. They all said their byes and headed into the forest.

She stared ahead as they walked, Daryl led the group and Glenn and she held the rear, "Hear that?"

"No?"

"Exactly," There was clear tension in the air, mainly from Andrea who didn't take her eyes off of Lori.

"Here, just take it!" Lori suddenly came to a stop and flung her backpack off, she reached in and grabbed a small handgun and held it out to Andrea,

"What?"

"I can feel you glaring at me, this is ridiculous, this is why right? Well just take it!"

Andrea quietly took the handgun from Lori who was fuming.

Aaerie couldn't believe how petty the group seemed to be, with the world going to shit, all she had discovered about the group were small insignificant arguments and scandals. She suddenly wasn't so sure about her decision to stick it out with them, feeling that her odds may have been better in her dorm with just Glenn and her.

BANG!

"What the hell?"

A/N Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. I didn't get any feedback on the last chapter and lost a little motivation. I know this chapter seems rushed. I'm just trying to find a little momentum, especially with the new season giving me some ideas. Please please give me some feedback, what would you like to see? What kind of character personalities can you see meshing with Daryl? Anything!