Chapter 9

It was either the smell of breakfast or a bad dream that woke her up. She jerked awake, momentarily confused that she was in a house sleeping on a couch. During the night someone had put a light blanket over her but now it was too hot for it so she pushed it aside as she groggily sat up. She stretched and wondered if anybody had ibuprofen or aspirin. The few hours of sleep had done wonders but, unsurprisingly, her head still hurt.

After being offered breakfast and eating it, she helped clean up the plates and the kitchen. It was the least she could do after their hospitality.

Against Hershel's advice, she stubbornly helped collect rocks for Otis' funeral with Hershel's people, T-Dog, Glenn, and Shane. T-Dog would only let her pick up small rocks. When she reached for a big one he always beat her to it. She finally managed to pick one up when she heard the roar of a motorcycle.

They looked up to watch the rest of the group drive up the house. Marianne dropped her rock in a wheelbarrow and smiled at the sight of her brother. After Merle's errand gone wrong, she had been a little anxious to be separated from him.

Everyone gathered in front of the house, the general mood being they were happy to be back together. A few people exchanged hugs. Brother and sister, unaccustomed to physical displays of affection, simply stood next to each other.

"You look worse than when you left the highway. How is that even possible?" Daryl looked frustrated.

"Carl needed blood so I gave him some."

"With you hurt?"

"I'm an adult, Daryl. I needed to do something. I couldn't help…" Marianne trailed off. She couldn't bring herself say it out loud but Daryl seemed to understand.

"Let me see your head." She turned around and she could feel Daryl gently pulling aside some hair. He grunted in approval.

"Too bad you won't be able'ta show off your kickass new scar," he joked.

"That's exactly what I was worried about."

It wasn't long before it was time for Otis' funeral. Hershel's people and the group stood in a half circle next to a large pile of rocks that stood in place of Otis' grave since his body couldn't be retrieved. One by one, they each put a rock on top of the pile. Hershel began a prayer for Otis.

Marianne wondered what her mother's funeral had been like. She couldn't even remember if she had attended. Her grandparents were dead. Her mother was an only child and didn't have any family as far as she knew. It's how she had ended up with her dad, the awful man.

"We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in grace." Hershel finished his speech.

Her mom hadn't lived in grace. In fact, from what she was told, and by some people's standards, she'd lived in sin. It was how she came to exist. Marianne felt sorry for her, a single mother working two jobs but barely making ends meet, who couldn't even afford to go to the hospital and ended up dead because of it.

Hershel asked Shane to say a few words about Otis, but Shane declined looking uncomfortable with the idea.

"You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning," Patricia pleaded.

Shane looked tragically comical, in Otis' overalls and shirt that were far too big for him, trying to find the words to talk about a man's gruesome end but, after a short pause, he managed to start. It was a nice speech, a little too nice. Marianne didn't know whether to contribute that to the tendency for people to not speak ill of the dead or that there was something more to his story, but it seemed to give some comfort to Patricia and she decided that that was what counted.

"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked.

"This'll be day three," Rick answered.

Maggie walked up to the car that the two men plus Marianne, Daryl, Andrea, and Shane were standing around. She unrolled a large map on the hood and placed rocks on it to hold it down. "County survey map. Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized," Rick said. "We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you. Not today. You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out," Hershel said and then looked across the hood at Shane. "And your ankle, push it now, you'll be laid up a month. No good to anybody." He looked at Marianne. "And you not only gave blood, you've got stitches in your head. And against my recommendation, you haven't been resting." He was right but Marianne looked at him like she'd done nothing wrong.

"Guess it's just me," Daryl said. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there."

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back," Shane said.

"I'll go with you." Marianne ignored the stern look Hershel gave her. She didn't want to be around Shane but since she couldn't trek through the woods looking for Sophia, this was almost the next best thing.

"Alright, tomorrow then. We'll start doin' this right," Rick said.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them," Shane said and Rick nodded.

"I prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."

"With all due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." Shane made a good point. The farm had survived up to this point in time but the large group of walkers on the highway proved it was only a matter of time before a herd passed by and possibly through the farm.

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we will respect that." Rick gave a pointed look at Shane. He placed his Colt on the hood of the car and Shane followed suit with his own gun but didn't look too pleased about it. "First things first— set camp, find Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to." Shane was getting pissy. That was Marianne's cue to leave. She walked away but was still able to hear what Shane asked. What if Sophia was bit? The thought had crossed her mind a couple of times only to be stamped out of existence. They'd find Sophia and she would be just fine.

She walked over to Glenn, who was messing around with a tent pole.

"Need help?"

"No, I got it," Glenn said, looking slightly perplexed at the tent pole in his hand.

"Let me rephrase that. I'm goin' to help."

"Are you sure you're okay to—"

"I'm not made of glass. Besides, if I don't do anything useful I'm goin' to go crazy. You don't want to see that, do you?" Marianne joked.

"No, uh, that sounds unpleasant." Sometimes he took things too literally.

"Glenn?"

"Yeah?"

"That was a joke," she explained. "I do tend to make one every now and then."

Both of them were putting the rest of poles together when Lori called Glenn over. She was wrangling with a larger tent and needed help. Marianne was working on pushing a second pole into place when Carol came over and held the tent steady for her.

"Me and Shane are goin' to the highway later. I'm guessin' you wanna come."

"I do. I really do."

Marianne gave Carol half a smile and moved onto the next tent and then to another. She was hammering stakes into the ground when she looked up to see Glenn spying on someone or something with Shane's binoculars. Her best bet was on Maggie. She chuckled when she saw Lori startle him.

"Here's your list. And, um, there's one other item. I wrote it down separately. It's personal. If we could be real discreet about that, okay?"

Marianne thought Lori had seen her nearby but apparently not. So much for being discreet.

"Uh, what is it?" Marianne hammered a little faster and louder.

"Kind of missing the point of the whole discreet thing, Glenn."

"Oh, right. Um… I just need to know where to find it." Marianne stood up; maybe they'd see her now. Nope. Didn't work.

"Try the feminine hygiene section." Marianne sighed and went to put the hammer away. Lori smiled at her as she walked by.

They had finished setting up all of the tents and were moving on to setting up the rest of the camp when T-Dog and Dale came over to tell them there was a walker stuck in a well.

Dale kept the flashlight pointed into the well as Andrea, T-Dog, Glenn, Marianne, Lori, Maggie and Shane stood around it, looking down at the slimy walker clawing fruitlessly at the stone wall.

"We got to get it out," Shane said.

"Easy. Put a bullet in its head," T-Dog suggested. "I'll get a rope."

"Whoa, whoa, guys. No," Maggie said.

"Why not?" Glenn asked. "It's a good plan."

"It's a stupid plan. If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job," Andrea said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's already contaminated. Look at it, it's not just bloated, there's blood leakin' out of its face." Marianne looked distastefully down at the walker.

Shane nodded. "Andrea's right. Can't risk contaminating it even more."

"So it has to come out alive?" T-Dog asked.

"How do we do that?" Glenn asked.

Marianne crossed her arms. "I think ya'll are missing the point here. Even if we manage to get it out we're still not drinkin' that water."

"She's right," Lori said. "We can't risk it."

"But we can't just leave it there. Can we?" Glenn took his hat off and rubbed his forehead.

Shane looked at Maggie. "You decide. This is your family's farm."

"I say we try to get out."

"Alright then. So here's how we're gonna do this," Shane said.

Marianne didn't think it was the greatest plan. She thought it'd be better just to shoot the thing. Rope, fishing line, and a canned ham that no one was eager to eat were retrieved. They tied the ham up at the end of the fishing line, used fishing hooks to secure it, and tied a lasso knot at one end of the rope. Dale dangled the ham in front of the walker while Shane waited to slip the rope around it. The walker acted like the ham didn't exist.

"He's not going for it," Dale said.

T-Dog was pointing the flashlight down the well. "Maybe 'cause a canned ham don't kick and scream when you try to eat it."

"We need live bait." Andrea looked at Glenn who was standing next to her and his face fell when he realized what she was implying.

"No. He's not doin' it," Marianne said. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She glared at Andrea, but no one stepped up to agree with her. "Am I the only sane one around here?" She looked around at them all. "We're on a farm people. Can't you spare a chicken and a basket?" she asked Maggie. Glenn looked gratefully at Marianne.

"Now that's not a bad idea," Dale said.

"It's better than putting Glenn's life on the line, literally," Lori said.

Maggie commandeered a chicken, which they ended up tying up in a net so the walker could not only hear it, but see it too. They lowered the chicken into the well and the walker excitedly reached up for it. It took some maneuvering but Shane managed to slip the rope onto it and they slowly started to pull it up.

"Almost there. Come on, pull. Keep it coming," T-Dog directed. The walker's head appeared from out of the well. "Nice and easy. Just a little more." Half of its body was soon out. "Come on, almost there." T-Dog took a step back, covering his nose. "It's stuck! Come on."

Andrea, Shane, Dale, and Glenn pulled even harder. The walker was snarling and incensed. All of a sudden, it ripped in two, guts spilled onto the ground and the bottom half fell back into the well. The walker, undeterred by its weight loss, flailed on the ground reaching out for the nearest human.

"Good thing we didn't do anything stupid like shoot it," T-Dog said.

Marianne was grateful Andrea volunteered to come to the highway too. She sat in the front with Shane, who was driving, and Marianne sat in the back with Carol. The car ride was silent and as soon as they arrived Carol went straight to the car that had the sign and supplies.

She stood on the hood of a nearby car, giving Carol some space and keeping an eye out for walkers and Sophia, although deep down she knew it was unlikely. It was easy for a kid to get lost when all the trees looked the same to them. She'd be huddled in the woods somewhere or, with any luck, in a farmhouse or barn.

Shane and Andrea loitered by the car they had come in and held a brief conversation in low voices, something about guns and shooting practice, before leaning on a car across from Carol.

A little over an hour had passed when Andrea stood next to the grieving mother and put a hand on her back, trying to comfort her.

"We'll come again tomorrow. You know there's always the chance—"

"Don't. I really don't need to hear it anymore, Andrea. Save the thoughts and prayers," Carol said and Andrea walked away.

"You never—" Shane started but Marianne cut him off.

"Leave it Shane." He shot her look before following after Andrea.

"You want me to take a walk?" Marianne asked but Carol shook her head, a few tears running down her face.

"I haven't thanked you yet, for what you did."

"There's nothin' to thank me for." Marianne turned her back on Carol under the pretense of looking down the other direction of the highway.

"Me and you have more in common than people might think," Carol said suddenly. Marianne didn't like where this was headed. There was a long pause. "Who was it?"

"No one," she lied, but then she realized, just by already knowing what Carol was talking about, she had given herself away. Marianne shifted her weight between her legs looking everywhere but at Carol and began to chew her bottom lip. She was relieved when Carol decided not to take the conversation any further.

Andrea and Shane returned from who knows where and they drove back to the farm. Marianne watched the tree as they whizzed by. The drive was silent again and a dismal mood hung over them.

When they got back to the farm, she sat in camping chair by the fire. Everyone was busy around her. Her head hurt more than it would have if she had rested like Hershel told her to, but she didn't regret not laying down all day.

When Daryl came back he walked right by everyone without a glance and went into the RV. She was relieved to see him. She waited for him to come out and after a couple of minutes he walked out of the RV and over to Marianne, who stood up ready to hear any news.

"Find anything?"

"Yeah, a rundown old house. Someone was sleeping in the pantry, someone Sophia's size. And there was a can of sardines opened not too long ago."

She nodded. "That's something then. She's alive."

Night descended on them and Marianne had a quick dinner around the main campfire with Daryl and Glenn. Daryl didn't talk. Glenn wouldn't stop talking but when Marianne asked him how the pharmacy run went he got nervous and gave her a vague answer and she wondered if something had happened between him and Maggie.

She was going to her tent to turn in for the night when, in the distance, she saw a woman walking away from the camp and into the dark. It took her a few seconds to recognize her and it took her less than a second to come to a decision. She followed Lori. Marianne didn't care that they were on a farm surrounded by fences, it still wasn't safe.

Lori was crouched on the ground with her head down and she was able to sneak up on her without even trying. "You can't wander off in the dark. It's a good way to get yourself killed." Lori nearly jumped out of her skin. "See? I could've been a walker."

"There are fences everywhere."

"Fences break. Do you even have a knife?" Lori shook her head and Marianne let out a sound of frustrated disbelief. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"I came out here for some privacy." Lori was starting to sound aggravated.

"Privacy isn't worth your life. But I'll turn around, watch your back for ya, and you can do whatever it is that's so secret." Marianne saw Lori trying to hide something long, skinny and white in her hand. It suddenly clicked. She had wanted something from the feminine hygiene section Glenn hadn't recognized. She quickly turned around, pretending she hadn't seen it but it was too late.

"Don't tell Rick."

A/N:Thank you for continuing to read and thank you to Guest for the review. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Progress on those pesky chapters are slow but it's happening. It's been a little ridiculous. My brain keeps focusing on later seasons and I've been writing a few scenes here and there for chapters I won't get to in awhile.