WHAT LIES AHEAD PART 2
Rick hunched down low and held his breath while weaving around the cars. He quickly spotted Lori and Carol a couple of feet ahead of him with Natasha and the kids to the right, standing by a van. Not a single one of them was aware of the walking dead that was creeping from up the street.
"Lori! Natasha!" Rick hissed but made sure not to make his voice too loud. They all turned to him and saw the distress written on his pale and sweaty face. "Under the cars. Now!"
Natasha turned up a perplexed brow and looked back to where Rick just came from. Her eyes widen and a sharp gasp escaped her throat when she finally took notice of the quickly approaching herd and the sheer size of it. It only took a single moment though for Natasha to grasp the situation and move. She placed her hands down on both Sophia and Carl's shoulders and shoved them down and out of sight. The kids did as they were told and rolled under the van while Natasha crawled over to a nearby truck that had more room underneath. Lori had to physically put her hand over Carol's mouth to keep her down while they got under a car too. Rick soon did the same just as the herd approached.
Everyone took in a deep breath one last time and held it as the herd began to pass by. Their groans and gurgles were on top of them and were practically right up against their eardrums. Natasha did her best to make herself as small as possible as she counted the pairs of feet that passed by her alone. Five, ten, seventeen, twenty, thirty. And that was just how many she could see. On a bigger scale though, the herd was probably knocking on the hundreds, not nearly as much as the ones back in Atlanta…but no less heart-stopping. Natasha glanced around at everyone she could see. Lori was holding Carol down. Carol was burning her eyes into her daughter, and Rick was signaling over to the kids to not move or panic. Too late for that. The kids were already pale and shaking.
The sounds of the dead eventually fade away and Natasha finally let out the breath she was holding back the whole time. She dropped her head into the pavement and just laid there for a moment when her heart suddenly skipped a couple of beats. The blood in her veins turned to ice when she heard Sophia's terrified cries overlap with the groans and grunts of a lone-wolf Walker. Natasha snapped her head up and saw Sophia, still under the car, crawling away from the Walker that was trying to grab her.
Sophia got out from under the car and whipped her head around and realized she was spotted by three more Walkers that didn't wander off with the rest of the herd. She quickly hopped over the guard railing and slid down the deep slope leading off towards the woods with the Walkers trailing behind. Natasha rolled out from under the truck and rushed to her feet. She ran around the mini-van and leaped up onto the railing, tackling at least two of the Walkers and tumbled down the steep hill with them.
"Natasha?" Sophia turned when she heard the impact and saw Natasha struggling with the two Walkers that had landed on top of her and were trying to rip her face off. She had managed to get her leg between one of them and use her other foot to fend the other off.
Natasha shoved her thick sleeve into the jaws of death and looked back to Sophia slowly being approached by the last two Walkers she didn't manage to grab. They didn't care at all about her and were honed in on Sophia. "Get out of here! Go now!" she shouted and watched Sophia turn around and ran off into the woods. "Rick!" she shouted just as he tumbled down the hill after them. "Get Sophia. I'll be out there soon!"
"I got it!" Rick said and ran off in the direction Sophia and the Walkers went.
Natasha pushed the Walker off her while simultaneously reaching for her knife and plunging it straight onto the top of its head. It ceased to struggle at that moment and slumped against her as the other one persisted, reaching its skeletal arms out to try and bite her. She roughly shoved the dead body against the Walker and knocked it off balance long enough to finally kill it.
Carol was nearly in tears and ran up to the railing with Lori and the rest of the survivors. "Oh, Lori. Those Walkers are after my baby," she cried
Lori held Carol back from going down there since she knew it was too dangerous. "Natasha!" she called down to her just as Natasha got up.
Natasha looked up at the survivors and made a gesture for them to not follow. "Stay there! I'm going after them too!" she called back and turned towards the woods and ran off at a full-speed sprint.
Natasha felt her heart up in her throat as she ran through the never-ending sea of trees. All shades of green mixed together and it looked as if every tree she saw was identical from the last. She didn't know where to look or if it was even a good idea to raise her voice or not, since the herd was still nearby. Natasha stopped after a bit to try and breathe back all the oxygen she had lost. The world was shaking, and she couldn't see past the illusionary green blur around her. Fooling her and mocking her with how silent the woods were. Natasha slapped her hands over her eyes to try and calm herself down before looking around once more, not realizing that the silent and green illusion was in fact… a cruel reality. There was no one around but herself. Alone and soundless.
"Sophia…?" she breathed, utterly heartbroken.
"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked. He stood in the middle of a creek with a small group of survivors, checking under some old roots that Rick left Sophia to hide under while he drew the Walkers away.
It's been over thirty minutes since the initial scare they all had with the herd back at the highway. Both Sophia and Natasha never returned though after running into the forest. Rick soon learned this when he made it back himself a couple of minutes after. It was a bit of a baffling situation knowing that Natasha wasn't back either. She wasn't a woodsman like Daryl by any means, but it shouldn't be so hard for an adult to get back to the highway, which is why they assumed that something had happened during the small window they were all separated.
"I left her right here," Rick assured their doubts. Yes, he might've been hyped up on adrenaline when he caught up with Sophia, but he knew for a fact that he left her hiding inside the creek. "I drew the Walkers way off in that direction up the creek."
"And Tasha wasn't with you?" Glenn asked.
"I never saw her after she tackled those last two Walkers back at the highway." Rick shook his head. "Sophia was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group, found Natasha, something. I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder."
Daryl cocked a brow and glanced up at Glenn. "Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail."
Glenn meekly stepped off the trail by moving to the side.
"Assuming she knew her lefts from her right," Shane said but Rick quickly cut him off.
"Shane, she understood me fine."
"Kid's tried and scared, man. She had a close call with four Walkers. Got to wonder how much of that you said stuck." Shane had a point, but Rick was sure Sophia understood him or at least would've ran into Natasha trying to find her way back.
"Got clear prints right here," Daryl spoke up after reading the land and spotting footprints in the thick red clay. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out, make our way back. Those two couldn't have gone far."
They climbed out of the creek and began to follow the trail. Before their eyes were miles upon miles of thick Georgia woods, and it was because of the density of the forest that got them worried. Not much for Natasha but more so for Sophia. Alone and scared, they could easily imagine the young girl getting turned around very quickly if something were to spook her. Luckily though, the trail seemed to be going in the right direction of the highway.
They crept on slowly through the thick brush of greenery when the four of them suddenly heard a sharp snap of a nearby twig breaking. Daryl peered through the bushes to see what it was and saw what looked to be a person hunched over, staring at the ground with their back turned to them. They instantly knew who it was though by the thick, dark green coat and brown hair that glowed red under the fractures of sunlight.
"Tasha?" Daryl called out and walked up behind her with the rest of the group.
Natasha flinched when she heard her name and looked back at them. Her shoulders relaxed and she stood up, taking in a deep breath of relief after seeing friendly faces. "Jesus. You guys scared me," she muttered while rubbing the sweat off her face.
Shane could tell that Natasha was a little winded. She was probably running around the woods the whole time, which is probably why didn't find her until now. "You alright?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." Her face turned up into a grimace. "Sophia though…I don't know."
Rick bit down on his lips. "You didn't found her?"
"I thought I would've ran into her by now, but I never did. I think I must've missed her somehow. You guys are the first ones I've seen since being out here." She gestured down at the trail that Daryl was already looking at. "Found a trail, pretty clear one, too. I'm just…trying to make sense of it."
"Yeah. I see what you mean," Daryl said and inspected the footprints. He could see why Natasha was confused. They were indeed odd. "She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way. " He made a sharp turning gesture with his hand in the direction Sophia went. "This is probably why you never ran into her."
"We couldn't have been more than just a couple minutes apart. If she had stayed on the path then we would've met." Natasha began to feel her stomach turn with guilt. She bit down on her lips and looked up, inspecting her surroundings but couldn't make out a thing because of how thick the woods really were. "What happened? Did something spook her?"
Daryl shook his head. "I don't see any more footprints, aside from the ones you made just now and hers."
"So what do we do then? Think it would be best if we all press on?"
Rick shook off the idea. He knew they all couldn't stay in the woods with the rest of the survivors back at the highway, defenseless and confused. "No. Shane and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm," he ordered.
Shane nodded his head and agreed. "I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." He took Glenn with him and began to head back to the highway.
Daryl, Rick, and Natasha hiked along Sophia's tracks that drifted further and further away from the road, where nothing was ahead but miles of dense woodland. The minutes continued to tick away until it had officially been over an hour since Sophia vanished. The trail they were following was starting to fade too the longer it dragged on. It got to the point that Natasha couldn't keep track of the path anymore.
Natasha stopped right where she lost sight of the tracks and frowned. "Ok…I don't see anything anymore."
"Are the tracks gone?" Rick asked.
"No, they're faint, but they ain't gone," Daryl said. The terrane was getting harder to read but he could still make out Sophia's small footsteps in the mud. "She came through here. See?" he pointed out for Natasha.
Natasha kneeled down close to where he was pointing to see if she could spot it herself. She squinted her eyes hard but could finally make out the footprint pattern of a kid's shoe pressed into the dark brown mud. It wasn't just on the ground either. It trailed over rocks and logs, leaving muddy residue behind. That's probably what Daryl meant by 'faint'.
"Oh, yeah. I see the trail." Natasha scoffed with a smirk itched up to her face. "Good grief. I would've never seen that."
"Well, you see it now," Daryl said. "Try to remember that it ain't all footprints in mud."
"I hear ya."
Rick cocked a brow but still couldn't see what they were looking at. "How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass."
"You want a lesson in tracking, or you want to find that girl and get our ass off that interstate," Daryl cut in and carried on with the search.
Natasha tucked her hair away from her ears and was at attention to all sounds echoing through the trees. There were branches shaking, birds chirping, but also a distinguishing and heart-stopping noise of a twig snapping and leaves crunching under someone's foot. Natasha reacted instantly to the noise and forced both Rick and Daryl down to a crouching position. She silently pointed down the hill where the sound was coming from and spotted a lone Walker aimlessly wandering through the woods, not yet taking notice of them.
Daryl made a motion with his hand with Rick and Natasha to go around while he snuck up behind it. They did as they were told and headed off down the hill, falling in the sight of the Walker. It spotted them quickly and opened his mouth to give a guttural growl, suddenly getting cut off by an arrow puncturing the back of its head.
Natasha reached down and yanked the arrow out. "Nice play," she said and handed it over to him.
He gave her an appreciative wave before looking around the woods. "Sophia!" he shouts out but didn't get an answer back. The forest had become completely silent at this point like it was letting them know that no one else was around to hear them. Daryl huffed and looked down at Rick, noticing that he studying the Walker's hands. "What are you looking for?"
"Skin under the fingernails." He answered and turned the Walker over on its back. Its face was smeared in fresh red blood. "It fed recently. There's flesh caught in its teeth."
Natasha's face turned ashen. "What kind of flesh are we talking about? Animal or human?" she said through gritted teeth, hoping that it didn't get ahold of Sophia. Just thinking about it got her stomach rolling.
Rick pulled out some gloves he had in his back pocket. "Only one way to know for sure." He ripped open the Walker's shirt to expose its bloated stomach.
Natasha went from pale to green in a matter of a second. She took a step back and covered her mouth with her hand. "You can't be serious."
"You got a weak stomach?" Rick asked.
She shook her head. "I always thought I had a strong one. Now I'm not so sure."
Rick brought out a knife but was stopped by Daryl stepping in and over the Walker. "Here, I'll do it. How many kills you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mine's sharper," he said while putting on some gloves and pulling out a large hunting knife.
He got into position with the knife and held it above his head with both hands, plunging it straight down into the Walker's stomach and began cutting it open. Natasha decided to observe from a distance, watching with absolute disgust at the darkly rotten organs inside and the offensive smell that made her gag.
"Its organs are swimming," Natasha mumbled against her scarf.
"Talking about it ain't gonna make this better." Daryl held his breath and reached inside the Walker to try and get a good grasp on…whatever was left inside. "Yeah, Hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." He ripped out the stomach bag and placed it near Rick.
Rick took his knife and inserted it into the thin membrane of the stomach and cut open a big enough hole to see inside. It was hard to make out the Walker's diet since everything was all mushed together and colored into a putrid green and brown. There was a small animal's skull though, and aside from that, there seemed to be nothing that could be human. Still, it was hard to tell because of the awful concoction that was bubbling within its stomach.
Daryl grimaced while holding up the animal's skull with his knife. "This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." He flicked it off.
"At least we know," Rick said and got up to leave, now comforted with the fact that they at least knew for sure.
"At least we know." Daryl got up to follow and waved Natasha to do the same. "Hey, let's go."
Natasha nodded her head and followed after them to continued with the search.
As the sun disappeared behind the wall of trees, the three hunters eventually made it back to the highway with the last amount of light they had left, but much to Carol's distress, they were empty-handed.
Carol was pale with anxiety and couldn't stand still, constantly flapping her arms and unsure of what to do with them if she couldn't hug her own daughter. "You didn't find her?" she said in a short and weak breath.
"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light," Rick told her while climbing over the guard railing.
"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods."
Natasha decided to cut in to help Carol see some reason, though she wasn't sure how that would work on a worried mother. "And being out there ourselves won't do us any good either. I'm used to traveling at night, yeah, but I can't track like Daryl. I wouldn't even know where to start and I'll just get turned around out there. It's best to wait until morning to gather our bearings."
"Tasha's got a point. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost," Daryl said.
"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own," she insisted through her grief and looked at them with desperate eyes that were begging for more answers. "You didn't find anything?"
"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there," Rick said to her.
"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl followed up.
"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."
Carol closed her eyes tightly and felt faint. She opened her eyes back up and soon spotted the dark blood staining Daryl's clothes. "Is that blood?" she asked and began to breathe heavily.
Natasha moved in close and eased Carol to sit on the railing so she wouldn't pass out. "Don't freak out. We just took out a Walker. That's all."
Carol grabbed a hold of Natasha's coat and held on tightly, trembling like a kicked puppy. "Walker? Oh my God."
"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia," Rick said quickly while kneeling down in front of her.
"How can you know that?" Andrea spoke up, looking perplexed.
"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure," Daryl told them but Carol only looked beside herself, dropping her head into her hands.
"Oh, God. How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" Carl said sharply and snapped her eyes up at Rick. "How could you just leave her?"
Rick was taken back by her tone and swallowed hard. "Those two Walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."
"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Shane said.
"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol's voice was starting to leave her. She was gasping to get her words out as everything began to collapse in on her, a hollow coldness and a thought that she might not be able to see her daughter for a long time. "She's just a child…she's just a child…"
Rick could understand her pain as he went through it himself, trying to find his own family. He could feel her pain and take it as his own. "It was my only option. The only choice I could make," he pleaded.
Carol shook her head and dropped it into Natasha's arms, mumbling against the thick fabric of her sleeves. "My little girl got left in the woods," she said with a voice broken from indescribable anguish.
Rick swallowed his guilt down his throat and stood up and walked away from the group. Natasha didn't even know what to say much less do. She just stood there as Carol held her in place, holding her down with her trembling arms and crying in a way out of habit to not make so much noise.
Natasha took in a deep breath and glanced off towards the dark and dense forest that she couldn't see into anymore, feeling her own guilt beginning to creep up on her. It didn't last long though when a small detail that she didn't notice until now swept across her mind. It was a thought that soon turned into an awful gut feeling. The Walker that they killed back in the woods… was walking in the right direction of Sophia's tracks.