Daryl and Kagome had grown closer after Kagome had told Daryl about her powers and what had happened to her in the past. Daryl could tell that what Kagome had told him was true; he was a great judge of character and could tell when people were lying to him. Kagome made Daryl promise not to say anything to the others about her past.
"I promise, it ain't my story to tell," Daryl said.
After that, it was rare to see one without the other, and that was something that annoyed Rick more than anything. He couldn't stand the thought of Kagome being with Daryl, but Rick had to face the fact that Kagome wasn't his and that he had a wife and son. But he couldn't help that his eyes were always on Kagome and Daryl.
"Kagome, what do you think about us going to Fort Benning," Rick asked out of the blue.
Kagome stood up, straighter, "I think it's a bad idea. We don't know what we're going to find there, and it could only be a waste of time. But if the group decides to go, then I guess we go."
"What about you, Daryl?"
"I'm with Kagome."
"Okay, since most of us agree that Fort Benning is our best option, we'll head out that way," Rick said.
The group dispersed and headed out to pack up and got ready to leave. They broke up into groups, Carol, and Sophia, rode with Rick and his family while the others rode in the RV. To Rick's dismay, Kagome chose to ride with Daryl. The drive to Fort Benning was, for the most part, a peaceful one. Lori tried to keep Rick engaged in conversation, so she started talking about their trip to the Grand Canyon when Carl was a baby. It seemed to work for a time; Rick had a pleasant look on his face as he remembered what happened on that trip. That all changed when Rick saw Daryl pass him with Kagome sitting behind him. Lori followed Rick's gaze and scowled. Her hatred of the raven-haired beauty grew.
Eventually, the group ran into some trouble on the highway. There was a massive traffic jam covering both sides of the road. Dale had no other choice but to stop, "Oh jeez. Aw no. See a way through?"
"Maybe we should go back and take the interstate bypass," Glenn suggested.
"We can't spare the fuel," Dale informed them.
The engine on the RV started sputtering, and eventually, it died, "I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water."
Rick got out of the SUV and walked up to Dale, who had lifted the hood of the RV, a plumb of smoke coming out, "Problem, Dale?"
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-okay, that was dumb," Dale said as he looked around at all the cars.
"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane said.
"There's a lot of other things we can find here," Kagome said, "Stock up on supplies."
Rick looked at Kagome and smiled, "Right, Dale and I will get the hose, while the rest of you look for supplies."
"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this," Lori said.
Kagome rolled her eyes at Lori, "These people can't use these supplies, we can. Grow up, Lori."
"Hey! Watch your mouth," Shane said.
Kagome ignored Shane and walked off. She immediately started going through the cars looking for supplies. Amy looked at the other and nodded, "Kagome's right," She said and joined Kagome in her scrounging.
"Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." T-Dog said. He walked ahead and started looking in the cars. Carol put her hand on Lori's hand and started doing what the others were doing as well.
The group systematically went through each car looking for food, water, clothes, or whatever they could find that could be useful. Kagome also looked for medical supplies to supplement what she already had. She had no problem going through people's belongings as she had seen dead people before and knew what it took to survive.
As they searched through the cars and Glenn helped Dale change the radiator hose, Shane had found a water truck that had dozens of gallons of water still in it. He opened one and let it wash over him. Kagome turned around and thought he was an idiot wasting water like that. As she got further ahead, she noticed a few Walkers heading toward them. Kagome ducked down as more and more Walkers started to appear on the road.
Ducking around cars, Kagome made her way back towards the group and grabbed Rick by the arm, "Come on, there's a shit load of Walkers heading towards us."
Rick ran ahead and told everyone to get under the cars. Lori and Carol slid under a car, while Carl and Sophia slid under two others. The others further back did the same thing. Rick grabbed Kagome, and they hid under a truck waiting for the herd of Walkers to pass by. Kagome and Rick could hear the moans and snarls of the Walkers as they staggered through the maze of vehicles.
It felt like forever before the last Walker made its way past them, Rick signaled for everyone to wait a bit more, just in case. Just as they began to relax, a Walker reached under the car where Sophia was and tried to grab her. Sophia screamed and got out of the other side. She took off running, climbed over the barrier into the forest with the Walker following her.
Without hesitating, Rick rolled out from under the car and took off after Sophia. Kagome was about to follow when Daryl called her, "Kagome, T-Dog's hurt," He yelled.
Kagome quickly ran towards Daryl and T-Dog and saw that he had a large gash from his wrist to his forearm. Kagome looked through her bag and took out some gauze pads and saline to clean the wound. She put pressure on the wound to get it to stop bleeding. Once the bleeding had slowed, she washed it out with the saline and then loaded a syringe with Lidocaine to numb the wound.
Kagome gave T-Dog a local anesthetic, then took out her suture kit and threaded her needle. She then began to stitch up the wound. When Kagome had finished, she wrapped the injury, "I don't suppose you have any antibiotics in that medicine bag of yours," Kagome asked Daryl.
"Yeah, Merle had everything," Daryl said, then went to his bike to get the antibiotics he had and gave them to Kagome.
Kagome read the label and the milligrams; she thought for a moment, "This is pretty strong, only take half every twelve hours, and that will make sure it won't get infected."
T-Dog nodded and took the pill, and the water that Kagome offered him, "Thank you."
"No problem."
After Kagome took care of T-Dog, she sat around with the others waiting for Rick to return with Sophia. The day seemed to drag on, and Kagome started getting more and more frustrated, sitting around doing nothing. Finally, Kagome grabbed her bow and arrows and started walking towards the guardrail. She walked past Shane, and he grabbed her arm, "Where do you think you're going?"
"Rick and Sophia are taking too long; I'm going to go looking for them."
"You can't go after them," Shane said as he harshly pulled Kagome back.
Kagome jerked her arm out of Shane's grasp, "I don't need your permission to go look for a little girl."
Shane glared at Kagome but didn't say anything else when she walked off into the woods. Kagome started walking in the direction that she saw Rick run off chasing Sophia. Kagome watched the ground looking to see if Kagome could pick up Sophia's trail, Kagome wasn't as good of a tracker as Daryl, but Kagome could hold her own. She finally picked up Rick's trail and began to follow it.
As Kagome got deeper into the woods with no trace of Sophia or Rick, she decided to flare her aura and see if she could locate the pair that way. Flaring her aura, Kagome picked up on the two Walkers that were chasing after Rick. Kagome was about to run off in that direction, but she paused when she finally picked up Sophia's aura. The little girl was running in the opposite direction of the highway, and there were three Walkers after her. Kagome didn't hesitate; she took off running towards Sophia before she got too far for her to feel her.
As Kagome got closer to where Sophia was, she heard the little girl scream in pain. One of the Walkers had grabbed her and had bitten her shoulder; instantly, Kagome loosed an arrow. The arrow raced towards the Walker that was about to tear a chunk out of Sophia, it hit the one that bit Sophia, and it turned to ash along with the other two. Kagome quickly ran towards the crying girls and started to soothe her.
"Don't worry, Sophia, you're going to be fine, I promise."
Kagome placed her hand on the bleeding bite mark and pushed her Miko Ki into the wound, purifying the injury of the infection. Sophia watched in fascination as Kagome's hands began to glow pink. Sophia could feel a calming sensation enter body. Once the wound had been purified, Kagome used the sterilizing wipes she had in her pocket to wipe away the blood from Sophia's shoulder. Sophia looked at Kagome, then launched herself into Kagome's arms and started crying.
"Thank you so much for saving me," Sophia cried.
Kagome hugged the little girl back, "You don't have to thank me, Sophia, I'll always protect you," Kagome said and wiped away Sophia's tears.
Kagome looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was starting to set. She decided that it wasn't safe for them to go traipsing through the woods at night, "We need to find shelter for the night," Kagome told Sophia.
"Why can't we go back to the road?"
"It's too dangerous to be wandering around in the dark. Let's see if we can find somewhere to stay for the night and head back in the morning." Sophia nodded and took Kagome's hand. They walked further into the woods to see if they could find shelter.
Meanwhile, back on the road, Carol was getting more and more agitated that neither Rick nor Kagome had returned with Sophia. She kept pacing back and forth, hugging herself. When Carol spotted Rick, she ran towards him, hoping that Sophia was with him, "Did you find her?"
"She didn't come back?"
"No, she didn't. You left my baby out there alone? How could you?"
"I had to lead the Walkers away from her; I told her to head back towards the highway."
"She must have gotten turned around," Daryl said, "Or maybe Kagome found her."
Rick's eyes widened, "What do you mean? Where's Kagome?"
"She took off a little ways after you did to look for Sophia. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen," Shane said.
Rick wanted to turn back around and go back out into the woods and search for the girls, but he knew it was too dangerous, "What are we going to do," Glenn asked.
Rick sighed, "We're going to have to wait until morning to look for them."
"What?! We can't leave Sophia and Kagome out there all night," Carol cried.
"We have no other choice; it's too dangerous to look for them in the dark," Shane said.
"All the more reason to go after them," Amy commented.
"Don't worry; Kagome won't let anything happen to Sophia. She's in good hands." Daryl said.
"Assuming Kagome found Sophia," Dale muttered.
"I do no doubt that Kagome found Sophia," Rick said. "Nevertheless, Dale, why don't you take first watch? We'll start looking for them early tomorrow."
Everyone reluctantly agreed, and Lori led Carol into the RV so she could get some rest. She looked back at Rick to see a worried look on his face. Lori couldn't help but wonder if it was more for Kagome than for Sophia. After Lori put Carol to bed, she came back outside and walked towards Rick. She wrapped her arms around his waist, "We'll find Sophia, I know we will."
"And Kagome."
"What?"
"We'll find Sophia and Kagome," Rick said then looked at Lori.
"Right. That's what I meant, Sophia and…Kagome. Why don't you try to get some rest," Lori suggested.
"I don't think I can, knowing that they're out there alone," Rick commented.
Lori sighed, "You're no good to them if you're worn out, Rick. Come on, try to get some rest." Rick nodded and let Lori lead him back to the SUV, and he settled in the driver's seat to get some sleep.
Meanwhile, Kagome and Sophia were still walking in the woods; Kagome had a tight grip on Sophia's hand to give the little girl some comfort. They came across an abandoned house and made their way towards it. Kagome knocked an arrow in her bow and told Sophia to stay behind her. She slowly opened the door and they walked inside. After inspecting the little house and making sure it was clear of Walkers, Kagome looked around to see if there was any food or water to give Sophia. Luckily, Kagome found some canned peaches and a few bottles of water
Kagome opened the can of peaches and gave it to Sophia, "Aren't you going to have any?"
"No, I'm fine, you eat them," Kagome said and took a drink of water.
After Sophia ate, they settled down in a little alcove high off the ground with some blankets that Kagome found. Kagome made a little nest with the blankets and she and Sophia crawled in and fell asleep. Kagome wasn't worried about a Walker stumbling upon them, she knew that her powers would alert her if one got too close. Kagome settled down with Sophia and got some sleep. Tomorrow they would make their way back towards the others.