Newly Revised
Daryl and Tea were traveling down the road, following the Winnebago as they began trying to find a safe place to hold up for the night. She was slowly falling asleep, her head falling against his shoulder before the truck swerved harshly to both sides, making her startle and look around, one hand immediately grabbed her knife. He started shouting and laying on the horn as Tea looked around trying to figure out what was going on in the daze while she was replacing her knife. She watched as the RV and Carol's Cherokee pulled to a stop in front of them while the sound of others rang out distantly. Shane was running with a large group of walkers following him as he raced to the largest vehicle they had. Daryl told her that his Jeep had blown a tire and he'd been forced to go down a side road and no one had noticed. The only reason he did was because the damn thing had swerved into his side-mirror view right before it went down the other road. As soon as the man was in the RV, the caravan began moving again, but not fast enough for Tea and Daryl to get away from the group of walkers before they began trying to get at them through the window. The only reason Daryl had even noticed Shane's vehicle behind him was because he'd been keeping track of how deep into the city they were getting and happened to look out his driver's side mirror when the tire blew.
Taking off, Tea stayed alert this time just in case something else happened, even though she had to stifle a couple yawns as they went down the road. They two weren't sure where the convoy was headed for a while until she commented that it looked like they were taking the same route that she had taken when she went to the nursing home. She became quite excited and began chatting his ear off about the people she wanted to check on before they left the city. The excitement in her voice had Daryl smiling small and shaking his head as she went on and on about everything that she had done for the older people in the home as well as the people she had helped there. It stayed that way until they stopped and got out of their vehicles and grabbed the gear they would be taking in. She was practically running when they got to the place, quickly stepping through the window entrance to the courtyard before she came to a sudden halt.
"Where are the lookouts?" she heard Glenn ask the others before they turned the corner and found Tea standing there.
Every single one of the Vatos was either dead or eating the others, even Miguel. Tea couldn't believe her eyes as she took in the scene, Carol and Lori trying to shied the children from seeing the gore. All she could think about was the old ones inside and the fact that if the Vatos were dead, so was everyone else. It was all she could do not to run past the group of walkers to go inside to check, but if she did that she would take away the only silent weapons they had on hand. They were in the middle of the city and they only had the loudest weapons possible when their entire survival was dependent on silence and stealth. Her line of thinking was cut short, however, when Rick said to hell with the noise and started firing on the walkers. Daryl had his own handgun out taking down the walkers as Tea stood frozen in a daze for a moment before regaining her senses and pulling her own gun out and shooting some of the walkers before they could get any closer to the kids. It had mostly been her, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Dale, and Shane admittedly took down most of the walkers in the small courtyard within quick order before Rick shouted at everyone to follow him.
As soon as everyone was in, the men and Tea started fanning out and checking the rooms near them on the bottom floor. The entire facility had been completely wiped out as far as they could tell, and Tea didn't hold out much hope that they would find anything useful in the place. It was pretty clear that whoever had passed through here hadn't meant to keep anyone alive for any reason and simply decided to shoot everyone in the head. She couldn't help but wonder if the people had been that desperate, if they were that insane, or they were that merciful to give the old ones a quick death over a slow one where the medicine they needed was no longer available. She hated that she was thinking like that, having been unable and unwanting to do the same thing so much so that she'd got angry when Daryl had pointed out the obvious in regards to them. The playful slap she'd given him had been something she'd done with Jesse when she was being stupid and had been a reflex while the emotions that lay underneath her reason for doing it were still the same even now. However, looking around at the difference between the outside and the inside, whoever had done this was at least nice enough to kill the people to where they would stay dead rather than turn like they had the Vatos. No matter what angle she looked at it from, they had at least granted the old ones a forever death and she wouldn't have to see them like that.
"Put a sock in it!" Daryl yelled at Sophia as she began to cry with her mother at the sight of the dead bodies inside. "Jesus Christ."
"Don't talk to her like that!" Carol yelled back in as loud a voice as she dared.
"Either shut her up or I will!"
"Back the hell off, now!" Lori told him at the same time as Tea whisper-yelled, "Daryl!"
Turning her back on the men, Tea walked up to Sophia and told her, "Hey, hey, look at me. How do ya make a simple poultice?"
"What?" Sophia asked confused, a bit of a whimper in her voice.
"How do ya make a simple poultice?" she repeated. "If ya can' rememba now, how're ya goin' ta rememba when ya in the thick a it?"
"Uh...umm...You...You m-mix plantain leaves, chickweed leaves, and mud or cal-cal-calendum?"
"Calendula, good, what else?" Tea asked, smiling proudly at the girl as they had their super quiet conversation and she successfully distracted the girl from her fear.
"Calendula and comfrey?"
"Good girl," Tea told her, Daryl looking back at her and scoffed, rolling his eyes at the two of them only for her to flip him off with a smirk. "We'll make an apothecary out a ya yet."
"What do we do? Do we stay or do we go?" Lori asked her husband.
"We don't have the fuel," he responded, Shane turning back to the group.
"We bunker down for the night, okay, Rick?" he told him more than asked. "We sweep the upper levels and basement, make sure we're alone."
"The rest of you barricade those doors," Rick agreed, Tea offering to stay behind to help keep the kids calm.
She couldn't leave them when they were scared, let alone when she had the best weapons in her knives. Tea knew Daryl had his own knives but was still used to using his crossbow or a gun more than the numerous damn knives he had on him most of the time. The man could throw a damn buck knife at fifty paces and hit the target, but it had never had occurred to him that they should be the first thing he grabbed when he was in danger. Tea had gotten used to the knives after she'd first been denied her gun license due to her age. It didn't matter that she worked with the police, it didn't matter that she passed the test with flying colors, but being sixteen made it to where she was too young to legally be able to purchase a gun let alone get the permit. So she had started practicing with throwing knives in order to still be able to defend herself in the field just in case anything happened. While she had been horrible at first, she eventually learned how to throw from videos after trying, and failing, to just use what she'd seen in Naruto. The rant she'd gone on to Jesse at that time had had the older woman laughing her ass off at the fact that she was pouting over not being able to be a ninja. In the end, and after a lot of convincing from Jesse, she happily accepted the fact that even though she wasn't a ninja like Naruto, she was still a badass because she knew martial arts and had figured out how to throw knives.
Rather than helping out with the barricade, she knelt down by the kids and kept them distracted by asking them more questions. What kind of edible plant was the easiest to find? What plants treated burns the best besides aloe? Even more quietly, she asked what was the proper way to hold a knife? What plants do you stay away from? What was the most important ingredient for tonics? How did you make a tincture? How do you shoot a gun? What was the procedure for throwing a knife? What were the target points? What do you do when you come up on a bigger opponent? What were the golden rules about walkers? How do you find your way in the woods? How do you tell non-poisonous and poisonous berries? What was the easiest form of protein if you can't hunt? How do you brace a sprained joint? What were the steps to cauterize a wound? While everyone else was hiding from the walkers coming by, Tea was busy making sure the kids weren't so scared that everything happening around them as the Sophia and Carl held hands and whispered their answers. They huddled down until the things had passed and T-Dog ushered everyone down the hall with the mothers grabbing their kids away from Tea so fast she hadn't even been able to move.
The men came back down as they all convened in the common room, Tea looking around at all the dead before Rick gathered everyone up and explained the situation, "Upstairs is our best bet. We've cleared a few room and we can barricade those if we need to. We'll be alright."
"Do you mean it this time?" Carol asked snidely. "Or are you lying to us like all the other times?"
"That's no fair and no help at all," Lori told her.
"At least 'e tried ta do somethin' 'stead a sittin' on 'is damn hands all the time playin' house," Tea threw out herself.
"Both of you, stop it," Lori told them. "None of this is helping."
"What do you think happened?" Glenn asked.
"What do you think? They got overrun," Andrea answered him, both Daryl and Tea scoffing at her. "Something to say?" she asked condescendingly.
"Yeah how about observant," Daryl answered.
"Observant? Big word from a guy like you," she shot back. "Three whole syllables."
"What the fuck did ya jus' say, bitch?!" Tea hollered out, taking two steps towards the woman before Rick told her to calm down. "Ya tellin' me ta calm down?! Bitch thinks 'e's a dumbass and doesn' even know! None a y'all do! Neva gave 'em the time a fuckin' day! But ya think ya got the right ta fuckin' insult 'is intelligence jus' 'cause ya want ta be a bitch?! Get the fuck on out a here with that bullshite!"
"Walkers didn't do this," Daryl told Andrea, stopping Tea's rant before she could get worked up enough to actually hit the woman. "Geeks didn't show up 'til all this went down. Somebody attacked this place, killed all these people, and then they took whatever they wanted. They're all shot in the head, execution style. Y'all worried about walkers? I'd be much more worried about the people who did all this. Get a dictionary," he told Andrea while adjusting his crossbow and pointing to his head, "look it up. Observant," he reiterated right before stomping out of the room in anger after basically being accused of being stupid.
"Ya assholes think it's easy ta hunt? Ta track? Hell, Shane, ya can' keep up with 'im. None a y'all can. But ya fuckas want ta judge 'im jus' 'cause 'e didn' come from the right side a the tracks? Jus' 'cause 'e ain' like y'all? Fuck ya all but the kids! Ya couldn' be bigga assholes for how ya've always treated him!"
Tea flipped Andrea off after she was done before following Daryl out of the room and down another hallway. She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, even though he threw it off before turning around and seeing her. Daryl just gave her a quick 'sorry' before he continued down the hall, or at least tried to. Tea once again grabbed his arm and then jutted her thumb over her shoulder and down another hallway. Heading down to the end of that hall, they came to a door that lead down into the basement. They started down it, Daryl over taking Tea so he could go first with his crossbow while she pulled out her knives. It was pretty damn dark down in the basement and until they got all the way down and she fumbled in the dark for the matches and lamp, knocking it over and breaking the glass top before she finally got the thing lit.
"Fuck! Be careful if ya step this way. I can' really tell where that glass is," she warned Daryl before carefully stepping over the area as the light didn't really hit the floor. "Come on, I'm goin' ta need ya help movin' this shelf ova here."
"The hell is this?" he asked her as they moved the shelf and another door came into sight.
"It used ta be a nuclear bunka or somethin' like that. I don' really know the whole details," she told him. "Don' know how much is down 'ere, but it might 'ave somethin' worth somethin'. Neva know, but I think they used it for storin' some stuff. Not too many know it's 'ere, just Guillermo and a few otha janitorial staff. Last I knew, there was a few things a gas down 'ere for the genartors, along with an emergency genarator in case the otha one gave out."
"Hey, uh, sorry this happened," Daryl told her awkwardly as she crouched down and used a paperclip she'd found upstairs to pick the lock.
"Is it bad that I don' know how ta feel 'bout it," Tea told him honestly, just looking off into space when Daryl came to a stop beside her. "I knew what was goin' ta happen ta them eventually, but I didn' expect ta see it. And how the bodies are, they've been dead at least two days. This all happened right afta we left, Daryl. Right the fuck afta we left, someone rolled in 'ere and jus' shot everyone up outside 'fore comin' in and killin' everyone inside. I knew they weren' goin' ta make it. I told Guillermo as much, ya said it, too, but I didn' want ta hear it. But seein' it...knowin' it happened within hours...I didn' expect for it all ta go down so fast, let alone return ta see it happened. It's open. Let's go."
"Yeah," he told her, putting his hand on the center of her back and kissing her temple while passing her and entering the room. "Come on, let's see what we see."
They searched the room downstairs only to find some convoluted mattress foam, about ten gallons of gas, which was a score on it's own, and a few cans of old sardines. Beggars couldn't be choosers, though, and they hauled the stuff upstairs, Tea figuring that the kids shouldn't be sleeping on the ground and the women would enjoy the softer matts. Rick and Shane had chosen the library for everyone to hole up in for the night. Logically speaking, it was the best room to use as it would be the easiest to barricade the doors while just outside the windows was the fire escape. They could easily escape to the roof and with how close together the buildings were, it was feasible that the group could make it a fair way towards their vehicles without the need to deal with the walkers. It didn't take too long to cart the stuff upstairs, taking a couple of the oil lamps up after they found a gurney to cart everything up the stairs and into the room with everyone else. The women easily set up the foam for beds for the night and began to cook the food using the heat from the oil lamps. Having the oil lamps upstairs gave them a two for one deal with how they could cook the food while also heating the room for the kids.
"Checked the kitchen," Shane said as he came into the room. "All we found was a can of beans. Where'd this all come from?"
"Hidden room in the basement. Must've not had enough ta be much down there, but we found some more gas," Tea told him. "There wasn' any meds, not a lot a food, no bottled wata."
"They hit the dispensary," Rick told them, following Shane. "Tore the door right off the hinges. They took everything, except this," he said as he threw a packet towards Lori.
"Great," Daryl said in irritation. "So we got cough drops, sardines, and garbanzo beans."
"Do we have any water?" Sophia asked, huddled down by her mom.
"Just one bottle," Shane told her, pulling it out of his bag and opening it as Glenn helped hand out the food. "Best take small sips. Make it last. It's just enough for everybody."
"Ya kids can take my share a the wata," Tea told them, putting some of her food on their plates as well. "I don' need much."
"What else you got in there?" Andrea asked Shane, both the kids but neither of the mothers thanking Tea while he pulled out a box of snacks.
"Funky snacks," T-Dog laughed.
"Courtesy of the CDC," Shane told them. "I thought I'd be havin' midnight snacks in my air conditioned room. You know, there'd be dinner. And a," he said as he pulled a bottle of wine from his pack, "a last item."
"You mind sharin'?" Daryl asked as he ate his share on the floor next to Tea.
Tea leaned her back against his shoulder while Shane passed the bottle over and tried to joke, "Well, seeing as I owe you my life, I'm gonna be nice and share it with you."
"Well, I do think I earned the first swallow," Daryl told him, leaning forward and knocking Tea off his shoulder, smirking back at her when she almost fell over, in order to get the bottle open.
"Best be careful with that stuff," Lori cautioned. "Don't forget where we are."
"Yes ma'am," he answered while Tea rolled her eyes and Dale walked up to Andrea with a plate.
"You alright?" he asked as he handed her a plate.
"Why wouldn't I be?" she answered sarcastically. "I'm spending a night in a building that stinks so badly of rotten bodies I want to vomit up my guts, dining on condiments and hoping I don't get eaten by dead cannibal freaks before dawn. What's not to like? Thank you, Dale," she said rudely.
"What's next?" Lori asked as Dale walked out of the room. "We need to decide."
"Fort Benning, Rick," Shane suggested.
He nodded his head as Lori agreed before turning to Shane and telling him, "I should've listened to you, Shane. It would've saved us a lot of grief if I had. Jacqui would still be alive."
"That was her choice, man," Shane told him. "Don't take that on."
"For once, I agree with Shane," Tea said. "Ya ain' goin' ta be able ta save everyone, and jus' like Jim made 'is choice, Jacqui did, too. Ain' no one's fault."
"They're right," Lori told him while squeezing his shoulder in support.
"All these people," Glenn started, "who would've done something like this? Just...come in here and murder everybody? Even all the old people? How sick is that?"
"Is that something we need to be discussing right now?" Lori asked condescendingly.
"If not now when we're first seein' it, then when the fuck do ya prapose we do, huh? When we're knee deep up shite's creek with nothin' but swimmas on? When are we goin' ta make a plan on if this kind a shite happens ta us some day?" Tea asked.
"We don't need to do this right now," Rick told them. "It's best to try to get some sleep."
Glenn, Shane, Rick, Daryl, and Tea convened outside, Daryl closing the door before Shane spoke up, "The kids in there are terrified, and the women."
"Guys, I'm really sorry," Glenn told them.
"Ain' on ya. We weren' gone more'n a couple a days. It ain' on us," Tea assured him.
"We're all rattled," Rick agreed. "We're all exhausted, no one's thinkin' clearly. But we have to start. Our lives depend on it."
"You're damn right," Shane said as they walked over to Dale and Glenn. "We can't ever let our guard down again. Back at camp, havin' us a fish fry, no one on watch. People died, maybe they didn't need to."
"Fort Benning," Rick said. "That's the consensus."
"Any way there?" T-Dog asked, taking a drink of the wine Shane handed him before handing it to Tea.
"We're wasting gas with so many vehicles," Rick told them. "We need to lose a few. We'll siphon the gas out of any cars we don't take."
"We got ta start fuckin' usin' knives, too," Tea said. "We can' keep usin' up ammo if we don' have ta. Especially since once we're out a the city, we shouldn' run inta so many walkas we eitha can' handle or can' get away from."
"She's right. We need to get us free of the city," Rick agreed.
"Let's just try to get a little shut-eye tonight," Shane said, turning to T-Dog. "I'll ring the first bell in an hour. We'll all take watch throughout the night."
Watch had been completely uneventful for most of them, the rest trying to sleep. Tea barely got her eyes closed when it seemed like she was woken up by Glenn for watch. Daryl had come out after her only for her to stay and take watch with him even after he told her to go get some sleep. She reasoned that it was easier to stay awake when there was someone to talk to and she could get sleep when she died. Once again, she said that she didn't need much, but by the time his watch was over, she was asleep against his shoulder. He woke her up long enough for them to get back to the room when Rick came out to take over before he passed out next to her. When Tea woke up in the morning, he was on his side with his arm draped over her while they were being given the side eye by many of the others. She just cleared her throat as Daryl stirred and began packing away whatever she deemed useful, which honestly wasn't all that much.
When they left the building in the morning, they drove back over to where Shane's Jeep had crashed, finding the area clear of walkers this morning unlike yesterday afternoon. Shane and T-Dog siphoned the gas out of it after they put the gas from the nursing home in the RV and decided to leave Daryl's truck, too. T-Dog willingly left his van behind while they packed the supplies they had in Daryl's truck and the van out and shoved the better part of it into Carol's Cherokee since it took less gas than the van. Daryl took the chopper out of the back and threw his and Tea's packs at Glenn to put in the RV after they split the gas between the two cars and filled up the bike. As they began to split up into the vehicles to head out, Tea moved over to the bike with Daryl only for Shane to grab her a hold of her bicep.
"Where you think you're goin', huh?" he asked her as she tried to rip her bicep away only for him to grab it harder.
Tea was sick of Shane's attitude and grabbed his wrist, breaking his hold on her bicep by moving around him and placing him in a wrist bar, "I've told ya once, jackass, and I've told ya a thousand fuckin' times. Don'. Fuckin'. Touch. Me. Ya ain' nothin' ta me but a pain in the ass bastard," she told him before shoving him towards the RV.
"So you really gonna ride with Daryl, is that it?"
"Fuck yeah, I am. And there ain' a single gods damned thing ya can do about it. Like I said, ya don' mean shite ta me, Shane. The day I let ya be the one ta tell me where ta ride and who ta be around is the day my brain stops fuckin' workin'. So get the fuck away from me 'fore I knock ya ass out a third time," she told the man before storming over to Daryl and getting on the bike.
"You good?" he asked, having watched the interaction and knowing she could handle it on her own, but still impressed to see how she subdued Shane so fast.
"Nah, but I'll be betta knowin' that I'm away from 'im and closa ta ya," she said with a smile, leaning her chest against his back while he started the bike up and walked it towards the head of the convoy.
"Just you hold on," he told her. "And don't get any funny ideas. This ain't a damn car."
"Do I look like an idiot ta ya? I've been on a damn bike before, babe."
"Don't call me that," Daryl growled out. "That just don't sound right."
"Ya don' realize how much that makes me want ta use it more," she laughed, Dale calling Shane into the RV as they started their journey.
They headed out on the empty side of the highway, out of the Atlanta city limits. It had been a long time since she had been on the back of a chopper and she had to admit that she had missed the feeling of the bike rattling between her legs and the wind whipping through her hair. Tea kept her back straight and her hands on her thighs for the most part, though every once in a while she would brush one along his arm to point out a sign to keep them headed in the right direction. At one point, to get the wind out of her face for a while, she leaned in against him and rested her head between his shoulder blades with her hands around his waist. They'd been on the road for a couple hours when they came up on their first real test, Tea trying to calculate the best way to go about getting around it with such a large vehicle as the RV. Ahead of them lay a mess of wrecked and abandoned vehicles blocking the road and making Daryl slowly move his way through before they both realize the other vehicles weren't following them. Turning the bike around as Tea leaned back, leaving her hands on his hips to help keep stable as she looked around at the chaos, Daryl brought the bike back to the side of the RV.
"See a way through?" Dale shouted out the window at them.
Daryl nodded and swung around the RV to take lead again while Tea looked around, unable to keep herself from wondering how and what could have panicked people to the point they abandoned all their stuff and made such a mess. They moved slowly through the cluster of vehicles while trying to make sure there was enough space for their mobile home to make its way through as well. The entire endeavor was for naught, though, as it wasn't long before the sound of squealing came from behind them as the RV's engine started billowing smoke. Coming to a complete stop and bracing the bike, Daryl turned off the ignition before climbing off and offered his hand to Tea, who took it with a kiss to his cheek before getting off himself and grabbing his bow. They both started walking over to the RV as the others were alighting from Carol's Cherokee, Dale being the first and looked towards the front in frustration before he opened the engine door and waved the smoke off.
"I said it. Didn't I say it?" he started. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."
"Problem Dale?"
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of -" losing his train of thought as Daryl walked to the open hatch of a vehicle, beginning to rummage through. "Okay, that was dumb."
"If you can't find a radiator hose here, there's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl said as he began pulling useful items out.
T-Dog walked up offering, "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start."
"Maybe some water?" Carol said.
"Or food," Glenn chimed in.
"This is a graveyard," Lori said making everyone pause and look at her.
"This is a goldmine!" Tea countered. "Food, clothin', fuel, maybe even some medicine. Shite we absolutely need ta savive."
"I don't know how I feel about this," the woman continued.
"Well, how do ya feel about dyin', Lori?" Tea stormed. "'Cause this is the way it is now. Ya eitha scavenge from what ya can, or ya go without and possibly die from starvation, especially when ya don' know how ta hunt and don' even know how ta tell the good 'shrooms from the bad! Ya choice if ya want ta die that slow a a death, but I sure as shite know what mine is goin' ta be if given it."
Apparently, T-Dog agreed with her as he walked back towards the RV for the things needed to siphon fuel. "Alright, alright, here we go."
"Come on, y'all, just look around," Shane said rather dejectedly, not wanting to agree with Tea but knowing she was right. "Just gather what you can."
Daryl continued looking through his vehicle as Tea moved on ahead. She noticed that it was mostly her, Lori, Carol, and the kids looking in the vehicles, and Lori and Carol weren't even doing much looking. Andrea had gone back into the RV, not wanting to deal with anything as she processed her loss. Tea knew she was still grieving and having a hard time dealing with Amy's death, let alone accepting the fact that she was still alive, but that wasn't a situation to breach just yet when she was so angry. It would make things a thousand times worse and make her lose any footing she might have to help her. Instead, she looked around and gathered a sense of where everyone was, noticing as Daryl went on ahead to help T-Dog siphon fuel, before looking through an open hatchback and pulling out a few hoodies that would work for the women and children when the nights got cold. Opening the door to another vehicle, Tea found a carton of cigarettes Daryl would enjoy and a box half full of ammo. She rolled her eyes at Shane and Glenn when they started hollering in joy as she grabbed up a few other items that might be useful in the long run, mostly clothes or rags that could be used for treating wounds. Tea waited until Lori and her were farther behind the rest before she decided to take the chance to talk to her about what happened at the CDC.
"Hey," she said walking up to Lori. "Can we talk?"
Lori looked at her, and then around seeing no one was in hearing distance before asking quite harshly, "What do you want?"
"Are ya okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Do we need ta worry 'bout Shane?"
"It's fine."
"Lori," Tea fixed the older woman with a hard gaze, making it hard for the woman to remain calm. "Did 'e force 'imself on ya at the CDC?"
"No, just..." Lori sighed in frustration. "Nothin' happened, and even if it did, it's none of your business."
She went to open her mouth to retort, but Lori walked off and left Tea standing in her spot, turning to stare back towards where Shane was near a truck looking super excited. Lori's answers had told her everything she needed to know and that Shane had at least tried to force her, whether or not he'd succeeded. She lost track of Daryl as she ventured further down the road to keep an eye on the kids. It didn't bother her that she didn't know where the man was until Rick came running like a bat out of hell and yelling in the loudest whisper he dared for them to get down and under the cars. Although the mothers were within sight range, the children were somewhat separated with Tea being the closest adult to Carl, but Sophia was on the other side of another vehicle. She shoved Carl under the vehicle before crawling underneath it herself and holding him tight against her, shielding him as best she could from whatever was coming. She was practically having to remind herself to breath calmly by the time what had made Rick so scared managed to creep up on them.
She smelled it long before she saw what was coming with the sound of shuffling feet and raspy breathing being the next signs of their presence. Tea felt Carl wrap his arms around her and bury his face in her chest as he shook in fear as the walkers began to pass by where they were laying. She very well couldn't breakdown while she had the child to protect. Tea looked over and saw Rick laying under a car two from her own, Lori and Carol under another a few cars away, and Sophia under the car next to her. Sophia looked rightfully scared, trying not to cry while she was literally alone and surrounded by walkers. It had been one thing to distract the children when they were in the confines of a building and there were only a few walkers; it was a whole other ballgame when it came to being on the open highway, laying under the cars, and hoping none of the walkers tripped or fell and saw them. If one did, it would be game over for whoever it caught under the cars and possibly for everyone else as the walkers became more and more frenzied.
It felt like an eternity, waiting for the walkers to finish passing, even if it had been only made fifteen, twenty minutes tops. There had to be at least a hundred traveling the road together, each of them just shambling along with potentially no where to go. Even if they did have some place to go, Tea couldn't figure out what it would be. Maybe there was a larger group somewhere and they were just drawn to it. Maybe they simply couldn't find food so kept walking with no real destination. Maybe I should quit thinkin' a the maybes, she thought to herself as the walkers began to trickle down until none were walking by them. She let out a silent sigh and took her death grip off of Carl while looking around at the others. Tea had just locked eyes with Sophia as the girl began to crawl out of under the car as Tea was trying to silently motion for her to stay put. It was pure misfortune that there had been some walkers from the group that had passed about five minutes ago that were slower than the rest and saw the little girl as soon as she stuck her head out.
With cries and screams, Sophia crawled backwards under the car again, but the walkers kept trying to get at her. Tea began to crawl out herself to take care of the problem, but Carl was still terrified and had a death grip around her. All she could do was lay there and watch helplessly as the girl crawled under the guard rail and disappeared out of sight down the hill. Rick took off after her not a minute later while Tea told Carl he needed to let her go. While Rick was quite a good man and had probably been a stand-up cop, he still wasn't anywhere near as good of a tracker as she was and even if he managed to catch up to Sophia, she wasn't sure if he would know how to get back. She didn't know how much he knew about being in the woods and didn't expect him to have much knowledge about surviving in them, either. No one in camp other than she and the Dixons had any kind of knowledge about surviving in the woods, and most of it had been self-taught on all accounts, though Merle had been around long enough to teach Daryl a few things from time to time. Carl finally let go over her after she told him she needed to get to Sophia and his mom would be out soon enough, but until she came out, he was to stay under the car at all cost.
Tea took off the second she rolled out from under the car and stood up. It was easy enough to find both sets of tracks, what with Rick having fallen down the hill and making a clear path in the brush and Sophia moving haphazardly through the woods. The first problem was when she came to a stream after Sophia's tracks disappeared while Rick's kept going. She had to take a few minutes to make sure the girl had come out of the stream like she thought or if she had followed Rick, and Rick's tracks took time to find after being in the water. When she couldn't find Sophia's tracks with Rick's, Tea went back to the place she'd originally lost track of the two and looked closer at the tracks. While Rick's tracks were coming in, the smaller tracks that had to be Sophia were heading back towards camp. It confused her because if the girl had actually headed back to camp, she should have seen her and they both would be back already. Since she hadn't and they weren't, that meant that the girl had either gotten lost or came upon trouble while trying to escape the woods and it had thrown her off course. If Sophia was off course, Tea knew she wouldn't be able to find her way back on her own, even if she knew how to tell the direction. The knowledge was one thing, the practice was another entirely.
Honing onto the shape of the tracks, Tea blocked off everything but her ability to see the tracks on the forest floor, some of them becoming faint until she found them again. Every sound echoed in her ears as her eyes focused solely on the tracks, her peripheral vision taking in every movement around her instead. Her breathing was silent as she tread carefully through the underbrush and leaves, leaving enough of a track of her own for Daryl to follow if he needed to. Her vision tunneled as she followed along, very quickly becoming concerned as the tracks suddenly veered away. There was no reason for this change of directions as far as Tea could see when she looked around, but anything could scare a little girl and all she could was take off after her. It seemed to take forever, especially after the sun started getting lower to the ground and Sophia's tracks became harder to follow. There wasn't much more than dirt and fallen leaves on the ground while animal tracks and what she assumed were walker tracks obscured the little girl's trail. If it hadn't been for a frightened scream and begs for help, she might have never been able to find Sophia, let alone save her from a group of walkers as she tried to climb a tree before they managed to reach her.
Tea pulled her knives out as she moved forward with purpose, her mind went blank and all conscious thought went out the window. She acted on instinct as her arm flew in an arc and released the throwing knife into the head of the walker trying to take a bite out of the little girl's shoulder. Grabbing another of her knives, she spun around quickly and plunged her buck knife into the skull of another, pulling it back out with brute force and taking a step forward. Spinning while crouching down, she twisted her body so that she came up between two more walkers and plunged a blade into both of their chins towards where she knew the brainstem to be. Once again pulling her blades out as the walkers fell, she quickly made her way between Sophia and the four remaining walkers. Tea caught one in the eye with her large knife while twisting her body to throw her other knife into the back of the skull of the one closest to Sophia. Twisting again, she pulled her buck knife out with her and down into the skull of the third walker. As the last walker tried to get to Sophia, Tea swept its legs out from underneath it and once again plunged her knife down into its skull. Standing up, she turned to the little girl before being barreled into.
"Ms. Parker?" the little girl said weakly. "You found me!"
"Ya bit? Scratched?"
"No," the girl cried. "I was going to die! They were going to kill me! I couldn't find my way back."
"Hush," Tea said a bit harshly, still in auto-mode. "Why didn' ya use the sun like I taught ya?"
"I forgot."
"Don' forget next time. It's gettin' too dark ta see the trail and while I think I know the way back, ya own trail was too light ta follow towards the end. We're goin' ta have ta spend the night out 'ere."
She really wanted to push the girl away as her skin was crawling and she felt her chest seizing up from the girl clinging to her so tightly, but she couldn't bring herself to deny the little girl what little comfort she could give her. So she gritted her teeth and she kept silent and still, making no move to comfort the girl any further, but also not removing her. Tea kept looking around the woods in case her fight with the walkers and the girl's screams invited any more trouble their way as Sophia did her best to calm down. Assessing their situation, she realized she had left the bag back on the highway as well as her canteen beside the vehicle she'd thrown herself and Carl under. That meant that the only weapons they had between them were the small knife Sophia still had, Tea's buck knife, five throwing knives, a machete, and a Glock with half a clip. The sun was already below the tress making it difficult for Tea to see her own trail and causing her stress. She couldn't build a fire out here and she couldn't risk calling out for the others in case there were more walkers in the area. All she could do was hope that Daryl had caught their trail and was trying to make his way to them in the morning while they made their way back.
~x~
Daryl helped T-Dog back to the group before going and finding Tea's bag and pulling some of the dried herbs she kept in there along with the mortar and pestle. He told Dale to clean the man's arm as best he could and to get some towel or paper or something they could bandage the wound with and duct tape before he headed out. When he got back to the RV, he added the right amount of chickweed, dandelion leaves and burdock root and some of the dirt she'd bagged up to some water before grinding it all together. Once he had the thick paste blended together, he handed it to Dale and told him to press it lightly onto the wound and then wrap it up and make sure it stayed wrapped. T-Dog had cut his arm pretty badly while he was trying to find a place to hide from the dead, prompting Daryl to help the man by laying a corpse on top of him before grabbing one for himself. The two had to stay as still as possible, breathing silently as the walkers passed and hoping they wouldn't be found by the time they were gone. He'd been so caught up in dealing with the man's wound that he hadn't stopped to take notice of the situation outside the RV. Shane was looking out to the woods along with most of the group while holding a distraught Carol as she cried.
"What's goin' on?" Daryl asked Glenn.
"Sophia ran into the woods. Rick and Tea took off after her," he told him.
"What?" he asked again looking to the woods and wondering what his girl had been thinking.
A part of him wanted to go after Tea, but he didn't know if she was on her way back or if she was even going to come back. If Rick was gone, too, all they could do was wait for one or all of them to get back. Daryl didn't know what he would do if she didn't come back now that Merle had disappeared in the city. What if Tea disappeared into the woods and never came back out? He didn't think he could handle losing the only two people he'd ever really cared about in the space of three days. He'd already lost her once when she ran off into the woods after he'd been an ass to her and now she'd run off after a little girl who didn't even have her training wheels off when it came to survival out there. Trying to take the edge off his nerves, he climbed onto the roof of one of the cars and took the position of lookout. Eventually Shane joined him on the roof of another car as he looked out to the woods while the others leaned against or sat on others. It seemed like they had been waiting around forever before Rick called out to Lori and struggled to climb out of the brush of the embankment.
"Where is she?" Carol asked as she broke down.
"She's not back here?" Rick asked.
"What about Tea?" Glenn asked.
"What about her?" came Rick's reply.
"She took off after you two," Dale said as he came out of the RV as well.
"There were two walkers after Sophia," Rick explained. "I went after her. Tea must have come after me. Shane, Glenn, grab a rifle, get me one too. Daryl, I'll need your tracking skills."
"You got 'em."
Rick led the three other men a ways into the woods. Although he wasn't happy about it, Daryl was supposed to focus on finding Sophia before trying to find Tea if the two weren't together. Tea was a grown woman who could take care of herself; she'd be fine and make it back to the group on her own according to Shane. Rick showed them to the spot where he had left Sophia before getting the walkers to follow him and taking care of the problem. It was a small burrow in the bank of a stream, covered by roots and only just big enough for a child to fit in. He and Rick jumped into the water to look at the spot and see if there were any clues that might give them a sign of where Sophia was, and hopefully Tea.
"Sure this is the spot?" he asked the other man.
"I left her right here," Rick insisted. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction, up the creek."
"Without a paddle," Daryl countered. "Seems where we've landed. And Ania's out in this shit thanks to it."
"Sophia was gone by the time I got back here," Rick said. "I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder," he said, pointing towards where Glenn was standing. "Maybe Tea's with her. Maybe they're trying to find their way back to the highway. All we can do is search for them."
"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're muckin' up the trail," Daryl told Glenn when he went back to the bank to find tracks.
"Assuming Sophia knows her left from her right," Shane chided, completely ignoring the fact that Tea was out here, too.
"Shane, she understood me fine."
"Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."
"Got clear prints right here. She did like you said, headed back to the highway. And there's Ania's prints too, fresher by the looks of it. Seems like she caught the same trail and is followin' it. Let's spread out, make our way back," Daryl said as he hefted himself out of the stream.
"They couldn't have gotten far," Shane said while helping the two men out of the stream. As he grabbed Rick's hand, he assured him, "Hey, we're gonna find her. She could be tuckered out hidin' in the bush somewhere."
Daryl walked carefully as he remained hunched over to get better sight of the tracks. The trail was clear as day as he followed along with the others close behind. Everything seemed to be going well with both sets of prints leading in the same direction until they both veered off to the side. He knelt down close to the ground to find out if there was any reason for it but only accomplished finding Tea's tracks going around as she tried to find the cause of Sophia's choice to go off course. And of course, Tea had been stupid enough to run off after the kid without second thought for herself or her own safety.
"They were doin' just fine 'til right here," he told them as he pointed at the ground, then in the direction they had gone in. "All she had to do was keep goin'. Ania followed after her, but Sophia veered off that way first."
"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked.
Shane had bent down next to him and glanced over his shoulder in the direction Daryl pointed, "Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off."
"A walker?" Glenn asked again.
"I don't see any other footprints but hers and Ania's," Daryl said with a shake of his head.
"So what do we do?" Shane asked. "All of us press on?"
"No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway," Rick replied. "People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm."
Shane thought for a moment, "I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on."
As he and Glenn left, Daryl led Rick into the underbrush while keeping a keen eye out for both girls' footprints only for them to get fainter the further they went in. He was irritated as he heard the sheriff's footfalls land heavily behind him, wishing Tea was there instead so they could both track and find the girl. But it was just like her to run off after a kid, especially after how she'd been left to fend for herself so much and even having been left in the woods by her family. Her main bag was still in the RV and the bag she'd been using to put stuff in while scavenging had been left by the car she'd hidden under with Carl, who had been the one to bring it back. If he knew Tea as well as he thought he did, she had probably found the girl or was planning on staying out here until she did. He refused to dwell on the very real fact that they may never find the girls before the worst happened. Daryl pushed the thought of finding Tea as a walker as far back into his mind as possible as they continued to march through the woods until the trail became difficult to follow.
"Tracks are gone," Rick said a few minutes later.
"No, they faint, but they ain't gone," came his reply. "They came through here," he pointed ahead.
"How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass."
"You want a lesson on trackin' or you wanna find the girls and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl asked a little heated.
They continued on for a time before stumbling upon a sight that gave them hope that both of the girls were still alive. Laying in an odd sort of line, eight walkers were lying permanently dead on the forest floor, each and every one of them with wounds made from a knife. There was no outward indication that the walkers had managed to harm either female, but they double checked and found that a few of them had blood under their nails and skin in their gums. They laid each of the walkers on their backs before Daryl started cutting them open and pulling out the gut bags of all of them. One had eaten a woodchuck based on the skull they found but the others didn't have any discernable contents in their stomachs. It gave both Daryl and Rick hope that they would find the missing members of their group sooner rather than later. Heading back to the RV, Daryl kept looking at the ground to see if there was any other trail to follow, but there had been too many footprints by the tree for him to get a good direction of where the girls were headed. All he could think about as they headed back to the interstate was that Tea was out in the woods with nothing but a little girl as backup and would have to stay there for the night.
"We'll search again tomorrow," Rick told the hunter as they broke through the trees.
"We'll find 'em tomorrow," Daryl agreed firmly.
Carol had been waiting at the guard rail the entire time they had been gone, still standing in the same spot she'd been in when they'd left, and as soon as she saw that it was just him and Rick, she started to break down and asked, "You didn't find her?"
"Their trail went cold," Rick said as he stepped over the railing. "We'll pick it up again at first light."
"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own," Carol insisted, "to spend the night alone in the woods."
"We know Ania's's with her, so she's not alone," Daryl said, his mind picking up on the fact that she wasn't here and they were still talking shit about her. "Out in the dark's no good anyway. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people getting' lost. Ania's the only one who's good at night out there; can see as well as a damn cat, I swear."
"But she's twelve. She can't be out there on her own with just one person to look out for her! Especially not Tea! She's not right in the-" the woman started.
"She took down eight walkers by herself when she found your daughter. You couldn't do that," Daryl spat out at the woman. "Ain't nothin' wrong with her but what y'all think of her!"
"I know this is hard," Rick tried in a failed attempt at calming both parties down, "but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there. We know Tea is with her and is keeping her safe."
"We tracked 'em for a while," Daryl cut in.
"We have to make this an organized effort," Rick added. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."
Carol began to calm down until she looked down and saw the red on both of their shirts, her breathing hitching as she once again asked, "Is, is that blood?"
"Like I said, Ania took down a bunch a walkers," Daryl said.
"There was no sign that any harm was done to Sophia, or Tea for that matter," Rick said, trying to reassure the panicking mother.
"How can you know that?" Andrea asked.
Rick and Daryl shared a look before Daryl answered, "We cut the son a bitches open, made sure."
Daryl's annoyance with the woman only increased as she sat down on the rail before looking at Rick with venom in her eyes, asking the man, "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How can you just leave her?!"
"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance," he reasoned softly.
"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Shane said.
"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child," the woman broke down.
"Ania's with her," Daryl said. "They're fine."
Rick knelt on the ground and looked up at the woman and tried to calm her down again, his face wracked with guilt, "It was my only option. The only choice I could make."
"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Lori said from the side.
"My little girl got left in the woods."
Both Rick and Daryl had to walk away after that. Wracked by guilt, Rick walked away into the cars trying to distance himself from the grieving mother. Daryl was beyond pissed at what Carol had been saying about Tea and how she wrote the woman off and her ability to survive. She'd been surviving a hell of a lot longer than the end of the world as they knew it and no one in the camp knew that but him. He walked away himself went over to his bike instead of going off on them all again, seeing her Jewel sitting next to the damn thing and making him cuss. Stupid Ania and her stupid names, he thought to himself. Now she's got me callin' 'em by 'em. She better be safe when I find her or I'm gonna ream her ass.
~x~
Night had fallen and Tea had finally come somewhat out of the hyper-focused auto-pilot she'd been in. They had kept moving until it got too dark for Sophia to travel safely. She had started heading back to the interstate only to be cut off by another, larger, group of walkers. She had know that she could take on the walkers going after Sophia only because their attention was on Sophia and she had the element of surprise as long as their slow speed to work with. If she had to take on the amount in the second group, she would be overtaken even with their sluggish pace. Because of that group, she'd been forced to head a different direction as dusk crept up on them and Sophia started stumbling over her own feet. She had known as soon as they found that second group that they would have to spend the night out in the woods. They didn't have any real shelter, but Tea had found a small alcove in a rocky area the was just big enough for the two to lay in without being exposed to passing walkers and high enough that they wouldn't be seen by anyone else unless they came looking. She had Sophia lay down behind her with the girl's back to the back rock with her front curled around Tea in order to keep herself warm. While Sophia slept, Tea sat on watch as she was running on high adrenaline and trying to make a game plan for the coming day. She needed to find the stream so she could make her way back to the highway but being thrown off course when it was getting dark was not going to be helpful in the matter. Usually she would have the landmarks around her to navigate her way to where she wanted to go; the light had become far too dim, not to mention the distraction of the scared little girl she had to look after, for her to accurately keep track of them this time.
She forced herself into a state of lucidity so that her body was completely relaxed but her senses and mind were still in the present in case anything tried to creep up on them in the middle of the night. She had gone many a night in this state as a child and trusted herself to be able to react as quickly as she normally would to keep Sophia safe. Four times during the night she had been roused only for it to be the hooting of an owl, a deer pass by, and what could have easily been walkers or rabbits twice. Nothing came to bother them as they took shelter in their little shelter but Tea remained lucid nonetheless. It would help her body regain stamina and resist fatigue, but her mental state would definitely decline the longer she had to stay out here. She didn't want to admit it, but she had gotten used to Daryl's presence and knew she would probably be clingier than she already felt that she was when she got back. He'd done a damn good job accepting her thus far in, so she could only hope that he would be the same when she managed to get out of these woods and back to him.
Her mind had come up with several strategies they could use to find the others and as soon as she felt Sophia begin to wake in the morning, Tea sat up and crawled out of the alcove. There was very little she could do for the child as far as drink until they reached the stream, but the two of them could do some foraging for breakfast. If she had been thinking more clearly, she would have grabbed her scavenging bag on the highway before taking off after Rick and Sophia. But instead she had let her emotions get the best of her and taken off without properly thinking things through. She hadn't paid attention to the direction she had gone in, she had no supplies except for what the woods offered her, and the walkers that had come through had mucked the trail all to hell. The only thing she could do now was follow the stream and hope they came to a landmark she could recognize before the end of the day or else they'd be forced to stay out in the woods for a second night. She decided that the best option for both herself and Sophia was to go into her 'survival mode,' where she kept up a constant state of hyper- focus, awareness, and sensitivity. Every noise the girl behind her made, every movement of the forest, every smell; they were all caught by Tea's senses as she tightened her grip on her knives. She didn't even realized so much time had passed by until Sophia spoke up unable to take the silence any longer.
"Ms. Parker?" the girl asked quietly.
"Hm?"
"Why aren't you talking?"
"Not a lot ta say."
"Is it because of that thing you talked about? Autisism?"
"Autism," she corrected. "And partly."
"Are you angry at me?"
"No."
"You seem angry," Sophia insisted.
"I'm not."
"You sure?"
She didn't mean to, she really, really didn't, but she lashed out in irritation she quickly turned to face the girl, "I ain' fuckin' angry so stop fuckin' askin'!" When Sophia flinched and cowered, Tea sighed and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, kneeling in front of the frightened girl to look her in the eye. "Sorry, Phia. But I need ya ta undastand. I can' be thinkin' 'bout nothin', nothin' at all, right now but gettin' ya back ta ya momma and safety."
"Are you scared?" she asked, her vulnerability showing in her voice.
"Nothin' ta be scared a. Daryl's goin' ta be lookin' for us. So's Rick. Ya momma too, I bet," she told the girl before putting her throwing knife up and holding her hand out to the girl. "Now come on, we ought ta get goin'."
~x~
Daryl had a hard night knowing that Tea was out in the woods, possibly in the open, causing him to not get much sleep at all. He couldn't help but wonder if she had gotten any sleep, if she was hurt or exhausted, if she'd managed to find something to eat or drink since she'd left her supplies. What would happen if she fell asleep in the middle of the night and a group of walkers came upon her? What happened if they found the women as walkers? How in the hell were they supposed to find the girls to begin with when they'd lost the trail and had nothing to go on? All the thoughts that swarmed through his head along with the guilt that wracked him still from leaving Merle back at the camp after Tea had choked him out. Morning couldn't come around quick enough, and even then, they didn't ready themselves to leave until the sun was already high overhead.
"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick said as he unrolled a sleeve of blades ranging from a hunting knife all the way up to an ax.
"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea complained, much to Daryl's annoyance. "What about the guns?"
"We've been over that," Shane said. "Daryl, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."
"Tea had a gun and she was allowed to keep it. And it's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea shot back.
"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us," Shane said. "So you need to get over it."
"Tea has a standard issue Glock .22, police force fire weapon," Rick stated. "She's had training and received her concealed carry permit, so there's no point in bringing her up. You didn't even know how the safety works the first time we met. You need training before you get to carry."
Andrea just scoffed and looked away as Shane glared at both Rick and Daryl, the latter telling the group, "The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are, they'll be by the creek. It's their only landmark."
"Stay quiet and stay sharp," Rick added. "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."
"Everybody assemble your packs," Shane said. "Tea might a been a crazy bitch, but she was right about those."
"Stop runnin' your trap 'fore I shove my fist down it," Daryl spat at him as Rick walked up to Dale.
"Hey Dale, keep on those repairs. We've got to get this RV ready to move."
The man in question stood up and said seriously, "Good luck out there. Bring the girls back."
Daryl busied himself with getting his bag ready and taking some extra provisions with him in case they found their missing girls. Three full bottles of water went into the bag, but he took nothing else aside from his crossbow. Listening as Andrea threw another hissy fit over not having her gun to Dale, he couldn't help but think about how selfish the woman was being. The man was just trying to protect the woman from herself and she was acting like a spoiled brat. She'd tried to kill herself at the CDC, Daryl thought, no way in hell should she have a damn gun. Tea had already told her off once and she would probably do it again if the woman didn't get her act together before she got back. She didn't like people who threw pity parties for themselves and if that wasn't what Andrea was trying to do now, he didn't know what the hell the woman was doing.
They moved out after another minute, Dale and T-Dog staying behind. Daryl took the lead with everyone else trailing behind him. Trying to be a productive member of the group was grating on his nerves. He kept telling himself that he was only out here because Tea foolishly ran after the girl, but he knew that he would have been out here even if it had just been Sophia. Tea would never have left the little girl in the woods alone and he couldn't deny that he wouldn't have been able to either. Damn woman would have tried to track her in the dark to find her, he thought to himself with a rueful scoff. He led the group to where the trail ran cold last night before they began their search in earnest. It wasn't a long time later that he spotted what looked to be a campsite in the distance although he couldn't tell if anyone was there or not. Trying to remind himself to stay focused and not get too hopeful that the girls would be there and making their lives easier, Daryl motioned to Rick and the others to follow him as they snuck up slowly towards the camp.
They crouched down behind some brush as Shane said, "She could be in there."
"Could be a whole bunch of things in there," Daryl told him angrily since the man was still only looking for Sophia and not both her and Tea.
The three moved forward cautiously, leaving the group to stay behind the shrubs waiting for them to tell them it was safe. When the guys were just a yard or so away from the tent, Daryl held up his hand and motioned for the two cops to stay put with his hands before he signaled he would go forward himself. Taking out his hunting knife, he slowly stepped up to the tent and peaked inside. He made a point of raising his hands and shrugging his shoulders to Rick as he couldn't tell what, if anything, was in the tent through the closed entrance nor the side. Daryl heard Rick call to Carol right before Carol's voice started calling softly for Sophia. He slowly started unzipping the tent when nothing moved inside as Rick walked up, both on high alert, with Shane standing behind them when Daryl finally opened the flap. The smell was enough to make him gag before he entered the tent while Rick and Shane began to choke and gag themselves. He heard Carol's calls for him as he studied the corpse before grabbing the small six shooter from the dead man's hand.
He tucked the gun in his back pocket before storming out of the tent. "Ain't them," he informed the awaiting mother.
"What's in there?" Andrea asked in curiosity.
"Some guy," he responded. "Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?"
There was a momentary silence as the group took in that knowledge before the sound of bells sounded in the distance. They took off after the group, Shane mentioning how the bells were echoing all over the woods and could be attracting all kinds of attention. In the end, however, they had agreed that it could be Tea or Sophia ringing the bells themselves before group pressed on as quickly and quietly as they could. It didn't take long before they broke through the tree line and into a graveyard with a church off in the distance and bells sounding from it. The only problem was that there was no where on the church that would hold bells even as they were clearly ringing from it. Daryl and Rick ran as fast as they could towards the church and left many of the rest of the group behind with Shane following suit with them before stopping to state the obvious.
"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells, Rick," he told them.
The pair managed to get to the doors to the church and waited to be caught up to before opening the doors quickly with weapons drawn and ready. He entered the church with Rick and Shane, Lori handing Rick her hatchet as Glenn took Daryl's crossbow and exchanged it with the blade the man had with him. Between the three of them, they took out the walkers in quick order. Daryl wasn't sure if it was pent up anger or the hopelessness many of them were feeling because of the situation happening at the moment, but they all kept striking the walkers until their faces weren't even recognizable. The others came in once the walkers were dead and spread out at the back of the church watching the men inside as they wailed on the things. No one said anything to anyone as Rick ran back out of the building and shouted for Sophia and Tea as Daryl walked up to the front of the church and looked at the statue there.
"Yo, JC. You takin' requests?" he said sarcastically.
"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church," Shane was telling everyone. "It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple."
As soon as the words had left his mouth, the bells sounded again and prompted Daryl to go barreling through the others to get out of the church. He ran around the side where the bells were ringing only to look up and find a speaker and a box with a damn timer in it. All he could do was hope that Tea had heard the bells and was coming towards them herself. It would make trying to find her and the little girl a hell of a lot easier if they were all heading in the same direction. Glenn had been right behind him and all but ripped the device off the wall while the others caught up to them and Daryl turned away from the building.
"A timer," he said, sounding winded and slightly defeated. "It's on a timer."
"I'm gonna go back in for a bit," Carol said.
Most of the group followed her back in, including Daryl, who stood in the very back of the church with Glenn as they listened to Carol praying up front. She hadn't even bothered to pray about Tea, just that her kid be safe after everything that had happened to her both before and during the apocalypse. Daryl couldn't help but think that it was her own damn fault that both Sophia and Tea were out in these woods to begin with. If she would have just kept an eye on her kid, taught her to have a bit more of a backbone, hell, have more of one herself, maybe the girl wouldn't have run off. Tea wouldn't have chased after her with no supplies and a total of seven knives on her and who knew how many bullets left in her clip out there to keep them safe as they tried to get back to the group. While he'd seen her teaching the kids a few things in the woods sometimes, they had never had to actually use what they'd learn to keep themselves safe or even deal with their own fear. He and Tea had grown out of a lot of their fear through their childhoods, but Carl and Sophia had lived sheltered lives thus far. With a scared child in tow, Tea was in even more danger with the walkers because Sophia wouldn't be able to help if they ran into a larger group.
"We'll find them," Glenn said, as he handed the man back his crossbow.
"No shit," Daryl scoffed as he gave the boy back his knife.
They stayed in the church for a little while longer until Carol wiped her tears off and headed outside. Rick and Shane had gone off to discuss what their next move was while the rest of them sat under a tree for shade and drank some water. Many of the group were tired as they had been trudging through the woods for the better part of the day. They weren't hunters, for one, and they had all been something more before than the survivors they were being forced to become. He had to admit that they were doing better than he expected them to be and had adjusted to life as it was relatively quickly. But trekking through the woods in the hot Georgia sun? They weren't so used to the life of the wanderer or constantly having to be on the move through tough terrain. It didn't take long for Shane and Rick to finish up their little powwow and come back to the group to let them know what the plan was.
"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay?" he told them with a scowl on his face. "Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back. Check this area another hour or so, just to be thorough."
"You're splittin' us up. You sure?" Daryl questioned, thinking it was a stupid idea considering he could be out all night if he didn't have dead weight holding him back.
"Yeah," Rick told them with a look of doubt on his face. "We'll catch up to you."
"I want to stay too," Carl piped up. "I'm their friend."
The two deputies shared a look before Rick looked back to Lori who contemplated it for a moment before she patted his back and relented, "Just be careful okay?"
"I will."
"When did you start growing up?" she asked him while giving him a hug making Daryl look down and turn his back on them; only his own mother and Tea had ever bothered to hug him while Merle just clapped him on the shoulder.
Rick walked up and gave her a hug and her hand a kiss, reassuring her that they'd be along soon and trying to hand her his Python, "Here, take this. Remember how to use it?"
"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed," she stated in disbelief as he offered her his only real weapon.
"Here, got a spare. Take it," Daryl offered just to get a move on and make Rick feel better.
Andrea scoffed as Lori took the gun, angry that Lori was able to have one but she was denied her own. Her attitude kept up even as they headed back to the trees the same way they'd come out. Daryl followed the trail they'd left with the others behind him making a hell of a lot more noise than he was used to. The noise helped in know if they were following him or not, though, since they didn't really let him know when they were stopping for a moment. Eventually they were going to need to toughen up and get used to moving so much because if things like that group of walkers came through, running would be all they could do. It was even more annoying how Andrea kept complaining about not having her gun and how it was taking so long to get back to the highway, really about anything and everything that she could. He wasn't sure if it was how much the woman was complaining in general or her bad attitude, but he was over the angst and drama over it all. When they stopped once again for a break, however, he ended up quite surprised by how Lori ended up putting Andrea in her place once and for all.
"So this is it? This the whole plan?" asked as she sat down on a log both exhausted from the search and weary from not knowing where Sophia was.
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl answered, leaning against a tree.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea complained. "I see you have a gun," she said to Lori.
"Why? You want it? Here, take it," Lori said as she all but shoved the thing into Andrea's hands. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you." She sat down and looked at Carol then, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blamin' Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did, or even Tea. Or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody?" she asked as she looked around. "Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you. And y'all sit there and bash on Tea, and I know I have my problems with the girl. She's nothin' like any woman I've ever met before and so young I butt heads tryin' to act like a mother hen. But she ran after Sophia without a moment's hesitation. She's still out here, probably keepin' her safe. None of us did that. We sat and watched, but never acted. That was all Rick and Titania."
"Ania's out here with her," Daryl offered Carol. "She'll keep her safe 'til they get back."
"How can you be so sure of that?" Andrea scoffed, effectively stifling the comfort he was trying to give the fearful mother. "Have you seen how she acts around camp? She just walks out whenever she wants to. How can you know she won't just abandon Sophia if things get too rough?"
"It ain't like that," Daryl countered. "She walks outta camp to get herself in check so she doesn't deck someone 'cause they're bein' an ass to her. Sometimes it's 'cause there's too much goin' on. It's just a damn copin' mechanism so she can deal with her head and not bother y'all about it. But you go blamin' her anyway like she's crazy as all hell when she's just wired different! That's all. She's got somethin' to focus on now she's got Sophia. Ania won't have the time to think about what's happenin' 'cause all she'll be doin' is actin' on instinct, survivin' and keepin' that little girl safe."
"How do you know so much about her?" Carol asked.
"I know her a hell of a lot better than y'all," Daryl told them. "Spent all that time with her out in the woods. Got to know her. Got real close. I know she ain't gonna abandon Sophia because shit hit the fan."
"Just how close are you?" Lori asked, wondering how and when the pair had bonded.
"It don't matter, now, does it?" he answered. "I just know she's gonna do everythin' she can to keep Sophia safe. She's been doin' it for a while."
"What do you mean?" Carol asked.
"Teachin' 'er out in them woods, makin' sure she knew what she needed to. She's been watchin' after the kids since the quarry. Y'all just never bothered to notice," he told them all.
"We should keep moving," Andrea told them as she handed Lori back the gun, none of them sure how to take Daryl's outburst nor what it meant.
Lori looked at Daryl, who nodded his head towards his back and the direction they needed to go. They all stood up and picked up their packs before he shoved himself off of the tree and moving through the trees. Tea had told him there was a lot of judgement around how her mind worked and he had seen how she'd been avoided at the quarry, but this was the first time he realized just how little everyone thought of her. It was less than they thought of him and his brother even though the three of them had been the ones keeping the camp fed. None of them could even begin to understand how Tea's mind worked, let alone what she'd been through to make her act like she did. He'd been the one to listen to her, the one to hunt with her, to help her forage and learn more about medicinal herbs in the wild. Once again the thought that she had better be safe when he found her crossed Daryl's mind as he led the others through the woods. If she wasn't, the only one who would even feel that loss would be him, and he didn't know if he could take that on top of Merle. And if she did come back, he was still going to ream her ass for heading after the girl alone and without any supplies. He was going to keep searching for her and Sophia until then, and not a damn thing was going to stop him.