I was riding with Daryl on the motorcycle as Daryl led the way down to the freeway towards the highway. It's been two days since the CDC blew up and Rick decided to go with Shane's idea and we started to head towards Fort Benning. We had to leave a few cars behind, so as of right now we have Daryl's motorcycle, the RV and a car that Rick was driving.
The reason why Daryl is the one leading everyone right now was because Rick asked him too and he didn't say no. As we were leading the caravan of vehicles I noticed that for some reason there hadn't been any walkers or any survivors anywhere. There is no way this group that I'm in right now was the only ones alive, that was impossible.
" Are you sure we will be safe on the highway?!" I yelled towards Daryl while he kept his eyes on the road.
" I don't know, it can't be any worse than what we've already been through." Daryl says as he slightly jumps to my touch on his back.
I nodded my head in agreement but I noticed that he was starting to slow down and I looked over his shoulder to see what was going on, " What is it?" I asked him.
" Up ahead, check it out." Daryl said as he leaned over to the side a little bit for me to see what was ahead of us. At first I was expecting hundreds of walkers blocking our way, but instead it was hundreds of abandoned cars.
" Let's see what Rick thinks we should do." I suggested to Daryl who nodded his head and we both looked over to Rick pulling up right next to us.
" You see a way through?" Rick asked Daryl and he nodded his head as he started to take the lead again and started to drive in between the cars. Even though I had my crossbow and my knife on me, I still didn't feel safe at all, so not only was I gripping my knife but I also had a grip on Daryl's shirt. I noticed that he didn't shrug me off this time.
' He's being cautious just like me right now. That's a good thing.' I thought as I kept my eyes peeled for anything that tried to attack us.
There were several dead bodies in and on top of the cars and I felt bad for some of them that didn't make it at the beginning of the outbreak. I decided to look away from the sight and buried my face into Daryl's back unable to look any further. Then I jumped when both me and Daryl heard a small explosion from behind us. I turned my head towards the RV to notice white smoke coming from the hood. We all came to a stop and went over to the RV.
" What's wrong with the RV, Dale?" I asked as I looked at Dale with Daryl right behind me.
" I said it, didn't I? A thousand times. Dead in the water." Dale said in frustration.
" Problem Dale?" Shane askes as he comes over to us as well.
I looked around me at the cars and then I looked back at Dale, " Maybe we can find another radiator hose in one of these cars here." I said as I pointed towards one of the cars.
" We could find a bunch'a stuff here." Daryl said as I turned my head to see him searching through a truck for something. Everyone was looking at him til he pulled out a can of food along with two bottles of water. He turned to Rick and tossed them to him.
" See? We can find everything we need here." Daryl said as he looked at us.
" I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog said as he was looking at the cars.
" Maybe more water?" Carol asked.
" Or food." Dale suggested.
" This is a graveyard, I don't know how I feel about this." Lori says arguing all of this.
" The dead no longer need these supplies, we do Lori. If we don't take anything, we'll regret it later." I said to her even though I did agree with her about everything that she said but right now there is no expedition.
" Sam's right. Gather what you can." Shane said as he walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, which sent a chill down my spine and not in a good way.
" Alright, stay close and stay within yelling distance." Rick said as everyone nodded their heads and started to go look around. I shrugged Shane's hand off my shoulder and started to look around. I pulled off my backpack and started to put stuff in there from a truck I was searching in til I felt a small hand touching my while placing a water in my bag. I looked up to see it was Carl and I immediately smiled, " You came to help me?" I asked him.
" Yeah, I thought you could use the company and the help. Sam, can I ask you something?" Carl asked me as we moved to another vehicle.
" Sure, what's up?" I asked him as we stopped searching for a vehicle as I looked at him.
" I know that this is stupid and all but… I wanted to ask you if it was okay, if I could call you big sis?" Carl asks as he looks down to the ground in shame of what he asked me. I looked at him in shock for a moment but then I placed my hand on his shoulder, which made him look back up at me and I gave him a smile.
" Of course you can, I already have considered you as my little brother." I said as I watched a smile appear on his face.
" Now go see if you can find anything else that we could use." I told Carl and he nodded his and took off towards another set of cars. I smiled as I shook my head and continued with my search.
I heard laughter on my left and I turned my head to see that Shane found some water and he was doused in it, which I was grateful for because I was running low in my canten. I walked over to him and pulled out my canten and started to fill it up with water. Once it was full, I closed the lid and put it back in my backpack and started to look for another car with stuff that we could use. For the corner of my eye I saw someone rushing past me down the road from the corner of my eye.
' Wait, was that Rick?' I thought as I turned my head to see him still running past the cars, wondering what he was running from till I turned my head to see what it was.
" Oh my god." I whispered to myself at what I saw, it was a giant horde of walkers that was heading straight towards us and I immediately crouched down low to the ground. I noticed that Carl was walking back towards me and I waved my hand at him to make him stop and he noticed me and stopped in place and I pointed at what was in front of me.
He looked up to see what it was and he dropped what he had in his hands and low to the ground and he looked back at me. I pointed towards one of the cars and he nodded his head and crawled underneath it. I was just about to go underneath one as well with Carl and held onto him hoping to keep the both of us calm as we listened to the moans and groans of the walker's as they came closer and closer to us.
' I hope everyone is okay? This horde has to be the reason why Rick ran back to us. I hope that Dale and Andrea hid somewhere safe in the RV. What about Daryl? I haven't seen him since we split up to look for stuff. I know that he can handle himself but a horde like this has me a little worried about him.' I thought to myself as I watched the horde continue to pass us.
I turned my head to look behind me to see that everyone was hiding and that brought me so much relief and I turned my attention back to the walkers that were still passing by us. There were so many of them, it was hard to count them all. After a while of watching the walkers shuffle past us, I took a deep breath as relief washed over me and I let go of Carl and we both smiled, ' We're alive. Thank go….' My thought was interrupted when I heard a little scream on my left side of me.
I turned my head to see a walker trying to reach for Sophia as she tried to get out from underneath the car and there was another on the other of her so she crawled out from the front of the car.
" Sophia!" I yelled as I pulled myself from out underneath and I ran after Sophia as she ran around the cars and went over the railing as both of the walkers followed her. I followed right behind her while hearing my name being called but I didn't even care at all, all I cared about was getting to Sophia and keeping her safe.
I ran through the forest, ignoring anyone that was calling me from behind. But I was only focused on one thing and one thing only, was saving Sophia.
I realized that I had forgotten my crossbow back at the highway, so I pulled out my knife from my back pocket and I continued towards where I last saw Sophia.
I stopped running and I hid behind a tree and I started to look around, " Sophia, where are you?" I called for her as I was looking at her. I waited for an answer from her and I started to worry til I noticed her blond hair and I ran towards her. When she noticed me, she ran over to me and she wrapped her arms around my waist and I wrapped my arm around her and held on to her tight while I held out my knife in the other.
" Where are the walkers?" I asked her as I let her go and looked at her and then around the area.
She pointed in the direction of where they were and I looked up to see them coming towards us right as I looked up as I saw them coming towards us.
" Are you going to kill them?" She asked me as I was watching the walkers getting closer to us.
I thought about it for a moment till I looked down at her and I knelt down to the ground, " I know that I can kill them but right now I have to keep you safe. We need to run, can you do that for me?" I asked her as I looked at her and she nodded her and I took her hand and we started to run away as the walkers got closer to us.
" Is my mom ok? Is she safe?" Sophia asked me as we continued to run.
" Yes she is safe. She is with the other's on the highway. I'll get you back to her safe and sound, I promise." I said as I gave her a smile. Sophia was about to say something until we heard growls behind us. I looked over my shoulder to see them getting closer to us. I tightened my grip on her hand as we ran faster til a moment later I felt a hand grab me which made me pull away but in the process made me lose my balance and both me and Sophia fell to the ground with my knife falling out of my hands. I got back to my feet and I grabbed my knife from the ground and turned to face whoever grabbed me and kill them til my eyes landed on Rick. I dropped my knife and I ran over to him and braced him with a big hug.
" Thank god you found us." I said as I let go of him and walked over to Sophia and helped her off the ground.
" We need to get out of here. The walkers that are still following you are still coming." Rick said as he glanced over his shoulder.
" It's only you?" I asked him as I walked over to him and picked up my knife and I looked back at him while Sophia came closer to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.
" I went right after you after you took off after her. I was starting to worry when I couldn't find you at first. But now that I found you both, we can get out of here." Rick said as he took my hand while Sophia let go and I took her hand into mine and we started to follow Rick.
The walkers from before caught up to us and we started to run again but this time I wasn't alone, I was with Rick which made me feel safer then I was before. He led the way with me on his heels along with Sophia, then Rick stopped as we came to a ledge that led with a little stream and I looked over at him in confusion, " Why did we stop, Rick?" I asked him.
Rick let's go of my hand and grabs onto Sophia's hand as she let's go of my hand and he brings her over and starts to lower her down into the little stream and let's go of her hand and then he lowers himself down there with her. Then he turns towards me and then offers his hand to me to help me down and I take it, the water rising to my ankles. I looked behind, keeping a lookout for the walkers, hoping that whatever Rick had planned works. I looked back to see Rick bring Sophia over to a small pile of logs that had a small space for Sophia to hide in and that was when I realized what Rick was going to do.
" I want the both of you girls to stay here till I come back for you." Rick said as he looked at us.
" Hell no! You're not going to take those walkers by yourself. What if you run into more out there. You're going to need help." I said to Rick as I looked at him.
" I don't want to leave her alone." Rick whispered as he heard the walkers again.
" As long as she stays here while we take out those walkers and then we come back here, get her and go back to the highway." I said to Rick.
Rick looked at me at first till he nodded his head and looked back at Sophia and knelt down to the ground in front of Sophia, " I need you to stay here." Rick said to her.
" No! Please don't leave me alone!" Sophia begged us with tears going down her face.
" You're going to be fine. Just in case we don't come back, keep the sun on your left shoulder. That'll get you back to the highway and back to your mother." Rick said as he pointed in the direction for her to take and looked back at her. Sophia nodded her head to him and I walked over to her and I hugged her while kissing her on the top of her head. I let her go and she crawled underneath the logs. Once she was safe, Rick grabbed my hand and we started going in the other direction. Rick let go of my hand and started to clap his hands together getting the attention of the walkers and they started to follow us.
As Rick started to run with me following right behind him til Rick tripped over his own feet and into the water, getting us both wet and I pulled him up back onto his feet, " We need to go!" I screamed as we started to splash through the water and back up over the ledge as the walkers got closer to us. Rick grabbed a rock from the ground while I had my knife at the ready.
" Sam, get behind that tree!" Rick said as he pointed towards the tree that was in front of us and I hid behind that one while he hid behind the other one right next to me. I took a deep breath and I looked over at Rick, waiting for his signal to strike. He came out from where he was hiding and took down the walker that was closer to him to the ground, he started slamming the rock into its head till there was no face and then he turned to face me.
" Now Sam!" Rick yelled which gave me the signal and I came from where I was hiding and I tackled the walker to the ground as well and I got onto of it's chest as it tried to reach for me but I kept my distance and I started to slam my knife into its head and it did over and over again.
I could feel its blood getting all over me as my fingers tightened on the knife and I kept stabbing it til it was still. I was panting very hard as I stared at the knife that was in the head of the walker til I pulled it out of its head and started to whip the blood off of it while getting back up on my feet. Once I was done whipping my knife I placed it back in it's sheath. Rick walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, " You okay, Sam?" Rick asked me as he was looking at me.
" I'm okay. Let's get back to Sophia." I said after taking a deep breath. Rick nodded his head and I took led this time back towards Sophia, as we were walking back I was hoping that Sophia either stayed where she was or followed what Rick told her if we took long. When we got back to the pile of logs, Rick went down there to get Sophia while I waited where I was. I was happy that I was able to protect Sophia with Rick's help.
" Sophia, you can come out now. You're safe." I heard Rick as he got close to the pile. After a while waiting for her to come out and she never did. I looked at Rick who turned to look back at me with a worried look on his face and he turned back and bent down to see if she was probably further in the hole. The next thing I know is that when Rick gets up and looks at me, the look on his face told me everything.
" She's gone." Rick told me which confirmed what I was thinking.
" We have to go find her. I'm not leaving her out here." I said as I started to walk away from Rick but he stopped me by grabbing my arm.
" Sam, I know that we need to find her but we have to get back to the others." Rick said as I turned my head towards him.
" What about Carol? How are we going to tell her that Sophia is lost somewhere in the woods? How am I going to tell her that we had Sophia safe and then lose her the next. I'm not leaving till I find her, Rick." I said as I tried to pull my arm away from his grip but he wouldn't let go.
" Sam, you need to stop and think. Sophia could be anywhere in these woods, We need to get back to the other's for help. We can't find her by ourselves." Rick said, trying to calm me down.
" Alright." I said as I nodded my head and I started to follow Rick silently I noticed the blood that was on Rick and then glanced down at me and I realized that I was ten times worse, but I didn't even care anymore. I looked back up to see the highway railing which made me feel even worse for not becoming back with Sophia. As we got closer to the others, I realized that we were this close to them, it made me even feel worse.
" Dad!" Carl yelled as he ran over to Rick as we came over to the railing and Carl ran over to him and Rick opened his arms as Carl ran into them and Rick hugged him while I stayed away in the back looking away.
" We know Sophia's safe but we need help finding her. I want Shane, Glenn and Daryl to come back with me and Sam to where me and Sam had hid her and see if we can find her." Rick said and I noticed that Carol was starting to cry and that made me walk over to her.
" We are going to find her and she's going to be fine. I promise you, we will bring her back safely." I said to Carol who just shook her head and she walked away from me back to the RV wiping her tears. I stood there for a while as the others started to get ready to go find Sophia. I walked over to Rick and along the way I went over to my crossbow and bent down to pick it up from the ground and I was about to get back up til I saw a shadow from behind me and I turned my head to see that it was Daryl.
" What were you thinking? You could've been killed." Daryl said as he glared at me.
" So what. I wasn't going to let Sophia go out there by herself and die, who do you think you I am." I said as I placed the strap of my crossbow over my shoulder and I started to walk over to Rick til Daryl's hand grabbed my arm and I turned to look at him.
" What Daryl?" I asked him as I glared at him.
" You had m...I mean you had the others worried. You need to be more careful. I don't want to find your dead body….you know what, nevermind." Daryl said as he released my arm and walked away from me towards the others.
' He was about to say he was worried about me. I think I'm breaking that wall he had up.' I thought as I began to follow him to the others as well.
" We are not taking her." I heard Shane say to Rick as I got closer to them.
" Look, she's coming whether you like it or not. She's really good at tracking and I trust her with my life." Rick said as he walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder.
" I just don't want to be responsible for her if anything were to happen to her." Shane said which made me glare at him and I removed Rick's hand from my shoulder and I walked over to him.
" Look Shane, I can handle myself. I'm not that scared little girl that cried for help long ago. I bet you that I can drop your ass faster than you can, so don't test me. I'm going with you guys, like it or not." I said as I pointed at his chest and then I pushed him slightly away from me as I walked back over to Rick.
After a while Rick led us back to the pile of logs where we left Sophia. We started to fan out and try to find any clues of where she could have gone. I started to follow Daryl since me and him were the only ones that know how to track and a few moments later both me and Daryl found her trail and we started to follow it. Sophia's tracks went down a few yards until Daryl stopped and knelt down to the ground, " She was doing just fine until right here. All she had to do was keep going, she veered off that way." Daryl said as he pointed at where her tracks were at.
" Why would she do that?" Glenn asked as he looked at Daryl.
" Something probably scared her. If I had just listened to you Rick and stayed with her." I said as I closed my eyes trying to not let any tears fall. I felt arms come around me and I knew who they were as I hugged him back.
" It's okay Sam, you did what you thought was right. Don't worry, we will find her, I promise." Rick said as a few tears fell down my face as I could feel a pair of eyes on me but I even care at that moment.
After a while Rick let's go of me as I finally calmed down a little bit, " You okay now?" Rick asks me as he looks at me.
I nodded my head to him as he nodded his head to me back and then I looked back at the others along with Rick, " Alright, I need you two to go back to the others. They're probably starting to worry and I need you guys to make sure that everything is calm." Rick said to Glenn and Shane and they both nodded their heads and they started back to the others. One thing for sure, we were going to find Sophia one way or another.
Rick, me and Daryl continued our search for Sophia. Me and Daryl started to look around for any sign of disturbance or indication that Sophia had been there, eventually we came across a walker. The one thing that I was hoping for was that this walker didn't get a hold of Sophia at all.
I looked over at Daryl as he raised his bow and fired at the walker's head. We walked over to the walker body to examine it, I knelt down to the ground and I started to look carefully at it's teeth to see if there were any signs that it had eaten. There was blood around it's teeth and there was a chuck of meat in between it's teeth.
" There's flesh caught in it's teeth." I said as I pulled out a piece from its mouth.
" Yeah, but what kind of flesh?" Daryl asked as he looked over my shoulder at the walker.
" That's the million dollar question. " I said as I looked back down at the walker, I got back on my feet and moved out of Daryl's way cause I heard him pull out his knife and he started to cut into the walker flesh and started tearing it apart. Once the innards were exposed, it's nasty stomach with a churning smell that accompanied it. Daryl and Rick put on a pair of gloves.
" Now, here comes the bad part." Daryl said as both Rick and Daryl put their hands inside that walker. I turned my head away cause the smell was just plain awful.
" I got it." Daryl said as he held up something in his hand and placed it on the ground while Rick got back up on his feet and walked away from the smell.
" Bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." Daryl announced after he stabbed the walker in the skull just to make sure. I sighed with relief to know that Sophia was still alive out there somewhere.
" At least we know." Rick said as he took the gloves off and started to brush off the dirt on his pants. We decided that we were going to walk around for a little bit more til we headed back to the others. The sun was already setting as we got close to the highway. When we broke through the forest, I immediately regretted not finding Sophia, cause when I looked over to Carol and I saw her face fall and it broke my heart.
" You didn't find her?" Carol whispered as she looked at us with a sad look on her face.
I couldn't even look at her since I saw so much hurt in her eyes, so Rick came forward, " Her trail went cold. She seemed to know which way to go and then she suddenly veered off track. But don't worry, we're going to start an organized search first thing tomorrow morning." Rick said as he placed his hand onto my shoulder trying to comfort me.
Tears started to go down her face, " Tomorrow morning? What about tonight? You can't expect her to stay in the woods by herself! She's….She's only twelve Rick, she can't take care of herself! My….My little girl is out there in the woods by herself for an entire night? Why aren't we out there looking for her right now?" Carol asked as she looked at us.
" Huntin' in the dark is no good. Me and Sam wouldn't be able to see the tracks and we'd be trippin' over ourselves. Rick's right we've gotta wait til mornin'." Daryl said as he looked at Carol.
" Is that blood?" Carol asks quietly, looking at the blood stains that were on Rick and Daryl's shirt. She begins to breath heavily as Daryl looks down at his shirt.
" We took down a walker." Rick tells her calmly.
" Walker. Oh my god." Carol says not so calmly.
" There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick says, trying to get her to calm down.
" How can you know that?" Andrea asks as she looked at them, I shook my head and looked over at her.
" I watched them cut open the bastard, they gutted it." I answered Andrea as her eyes went wide.
" We made sure of it." Daryl said as he nodded his head.
" Oh god." Carol said as she breathed heavily as she sat down to the ground and I walked over to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.
" We will find her, Carol." I said to her with a small smile on my face but then she shrugged my hand off her shoulder, which shocked me.
" How could you leave her? She's just a child and you left her there!" Carol yelled at Rick and I stepped in between him and her.
" Carol, please understand that there were two walkers. There was no way to protect Sophia while we had walkers on us. He had to make a difficult decision and you have to respect what he chose." I said as she looked from Rick to me.
" You should have stayed with her Sam! Why couldn't you keep her safe? You promised me! She doesn't deserve any of this...If anyone deserves to be alone out there, it should have been you Sam, for not keeping her safe!" Carol yelled as she pointed at me.
I stepped back in shock after hearing Carol's words as she completely disappeared inside the RV. I could feel my heart drop to my stomach as if I was unable to breathe. Rick seemed to notice and he came over to me and grabbed a hold of my arm before I could fall and kept me on my feet, " Sam, Sam calm down. Just give her a moment, she just worried about Sophia. I know that she didn't mean it." Rick said as he tried to calm me down.
" I get it…..Just…..Just give me a moment." I said as I felt tears going down my face as I removed Rick's hand from my arm and I walked away from everybody.
I sat down on the hood of a car away from everybody and I started to cry and I tried to calm myself down by taking a deep breath and I looked up at the sky looking at the stars. After a while I felt the car moving a little bit and I didn't even look to see who it was, cause I knew who it was. It was Daryl, he didn't say anything which gave me relief that he didn't as we just looked up at the sky til I heard him place his crossbow down on the ground next to him, " You alright?" Daryl asked me as he looked over at me.
" What do you think? I just lost Sophia that I was trying to protect. And now Carol hates me, so no I'm not alright." I said as I turned my head away from him to hide more of my tears.
" You didn't do anything wrong. If you hadn't gone after her, she would have been really lost. You actually saved her. You're going to bring her back to Carol and everythin' will be fine, trust me." Daryl said, trying to comfort me in his own way.
" It still was my fault." I said as my voice cracked.
" Stop that." Daryl said as his voice got serious with me.
I got up from the hood of the car and turned to face him, " It is Daryl! If I had just stayed with her, she would be here with us right now! Not lost in the woods! But I was too worried about Rick getting hurt! It should have been me out there, not her! This is all my fault." I said in defeat as more tears started to go down my face like a river as I looked down to the ground.
I didn't hear Daryl say anything for the longest time till I felt his arms wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. At first I didn't know what to do besides cry. Till I wrapped my arms around his waist and I buried my face in his chest and I cried even harder. Daryl rubbed my back gently trying to calm me down and for a while there, this showed me that he doesn't really hate me, like I thought. That made me feel a little better.
Once I calmed down a little bit, I let go of Daryl and I looked up at him and I wiped my eyes of any tears that remained, " Thank you Daryl." I said to Daryl.
He nodded his head to me and then he picked up his crossbow, " Going to take the first watch. Come back when you're ready." Daryl said as he walked away back to where the others were.
I sat back down on the hood of the car and I looked back up at the sky, ' Don't worry Sophia. We'll find you, I promise.' I thought as I sat there for a little while longer and then after a while I got back on my feet and went back to the others to go lay down and try to get some rest for tomorrow.
The next morning me, Rick and Daryl were getting things ready to go to find Sophia while everyone else was finding things that could help us. Carl came over to us and brought over some small weapons for the others to use, since I'll be using my own knife or my crossbow, " Everybody take a weapon." Rick said as the others came over while I placed my crossbow on my shoulder.
" These aren't the type of weapons that we need." Andrea said as she looked down at them in discussion.
" Then what weapons do we need Andrea? Gun? That makes too much noise and that will attract even more walkers to us." I said to her as she glared at me.
" We've already been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are the only ones that can carry. Can't have other people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles or a sound is made." Shane said from the shade of the RV.
" It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea said as she looked around the area.
" And you think that you're better with a gun?" I asked her as she just glared at me again.
" Look, say someone happens to fire at the wrong time, and a herd just happens to be passing by, see cause by them it's game over for all of us, so get over it." Shane said as he put Andrea in check.
' Thank you Shane.' I thought as I watched Andrea back off and stayed quiet for a while.
" The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, then turn around and come back to the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek, it's her only landmark." Daryl said as he told everyone about the plane.
" Stay quiet, stay sharp and keep space between you, but alway stay within sight of each other." Rick said to us as we nodded our heads to him.
" Everyone assemble your packs." Shane says to everyone as they went to get their stuff. I went over to my stuff and checked to see if I had everything and I looked over at Shane and noticed that he was staring at me again and it was making me feel uncomfortable and I looked away from him. I checked my stuff real quick and then I walked back over to Rick, hoping that Shane would stop looking at me, which he did.
The group started to head off into the woods to look for Sophia, while T-Dog and Dale stayed behind to fix the RV. I trailed behind Rick and Daryl while the rest of the group followed right behind us. I looked over to see Carl trying to show something to Shane, but Shane told him to stop. I felt bad for Carl and noticed that all he wanted was to try to be like him. But I noticed something was different when me and Rick showed up, and he was just ignoring him.
We came across a tent and everyone slowed down a bit and crouched down to the ground. I brought up my crossbow and pointed towards the tent, " She could be in there." Shane said as he looked at us.
" There could be a whole bunch of things there." Daryl said as he advanced towards the tent with me following closely behind him. Daryl looks at me, Rick and Shane and signals us to stop as he goes and inspect the tent. I kept my crossbow lined towards the tent, trying to cover Daryl's back as he lowered his crossbow and pulled out his knife. Daryl looked over at Rick and Carol and nodded his head, which made Rick look over at Carol and motioned her over to him.
" Carol. Call out softly, if Sophia's in there, your voice should be the first thing she hears." Rick said to Carol as Daryl stands right next to the tent, ready to attack if it happens to be a walker inside instead.
" Sophia? Sweety are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia, we're all here baby. It's mommy." Carol called for Sophia as she started to break down and I could see her losing hope. When there wasn't a response for a while, Rick and Shane advanced slowly towards Daryl. Daryl carefully unzipped the tent and opened it and he went inside.
" Daryl." Both me and Carol called out to him.
" It ain't her." Daryl said as he came out of the tent, holding a new handgun.
" What's in there?" Lori asked him as she looked over at him.
" Some guy. Did what Jenner said, opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl asked as he picked up his crossbow. Then out of nowhere we all heard a bell ringing, I turned automatically in the direction that I heard it from and I started to run towards it with everyone following right behind me.
As I ran out into a clearing and started to look around trying to find where the sound went as the other's came behind me. They were trying to find the same thing that I was trying to find and also wondering where the bell was coming from. The bell started to ring again, " It's this way!" I said as I pointed in the direction and I took off running towards it again with Daryl right on my tail along with the others.
That was when we all came across a church and I looked around trying to find the bell, but there wasn't one, which didn't make sense. But I wasn't going to give up, soon enough me, Daryl and Rick went up the stairs of the church and Shane joined us and both Rick and Daryl opened the doors and we saw three walkers sitting in the pews. We took out the walkers and both Rick and Shane started to look for Sophia while I looked up at the Jesus statue and I prayed that she was safe.
" Sophia! Yo J.C? Are you taking requests?" Daryl asked as he looked up at the statue as well.
" I know what I heard and it came from this church. I swear it." I said as Shane came back over.
" Just shut up Sam. You don't know anything. You let the big boys handle it." Shane said to me as he rolled his eyes at me and after what he said to me made my blood boil.
" For fuck sake Shane, if you haven't noticed we're in the middle of the damn apocalypse! I was doing just fine on my own without someone questioning or telling me what to do! So I don…" I stopped when we all heard the bell again and it was coming from outside. We went outside to the side of the building and found where the ringin was coming from. It was a little timer with a sound box that was making the bell noise. Glenn went over and cut the wires to make it stop.
" Timer. It's on a timer." Daryl said breathlessly.
" I told you asshole." I told Shane as he rolled his eyes again towards me.
" I'm gonna to go back in for a bit." Carol said as she walked back inside while the rest of us watched her and I decided to follow her. I looked at Carol as she was looking at the statue and I walked closer to her, I stood right beside her, not saying anything to her, but I had a feeling that she knew I was sorry. I turned my head when I heard another pair of feet from behind me and it was Lori, which was my time to leave.
As I got outside I heard Shane say, " Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back okay? Daryl you're in charge. Me, Sam and Rick are just going to hang back, search this area for another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane said as he looked at the others.
" You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asked glaring at Shane but for a second there I saw Daryl looking at me then back at Shane and at that moment, I noticed that he gave me a protective look in his eyes.
" Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Rick said.
" I want to stay too, I'm her friend." Carl said as he looked at Lori and then back at his father.
" Just be careful, okay?" Lori asked Carl as she kisses on top of his head as he nodded his head and walks over to his dad.
" Don't worry Lori, I'll watch him. I'll keep him safe." I said as I walked over to Carl and I placed my hand on his shoulder.
" Thank you Sam." Lori said as she came over to the both of us and gave us both of us a hug and held us for a while til she let go of us. As we started to part ways, I looked over at Daryl as he came over to me while Carl ran over to his dad.
Daryl placed his hand on my shoulder, " Be careful out there." Daryl said as he looked at me.
" Sure but no promises." I said as I gave him a smile and I nodded my head to him and I walked away from him and towards Rick and Shane along with Carl while Daryl led the other back to the highway. It had felt like hours since we split up and both Shane and Rick were talking about old times while Carl was walking with me as I kept a look out for Sophia.
" Sam?" Carl asked me as I turned my head to look at him to notice that he had a smile on his face which made me smile back at him.
" What is it buddy?" I asked him as I looked at him.
" Sophia talked about you a lot." Carl said as he looked down to the ground and looked back at me with a sad look in his eyes.
" Oh really, like what?" I asked as I looked at him.
" She kept telling me that she wanted to be like you. You're brave, nice and fun to be around. Nothing scares you at all." Carl said as he smiled at me as his smile got bigger. It made me feel a little bit better knowing that Sophia said that about me but at the same time my heart shattered when he talked about Sophia.
" I want to be like you too." Carl said as he looked at me while I smiled back at him too.
" That's good to know that you and Sophia want to be like me. Just know one thing, even though I'm brave and it might look like I'm not scared. But here's the thing Carl." I said as I stopped walking and I knelt down right beside Carl.
" But deep down, I'm scared and I'm not as brave as I seem to be and I'm not ashamed of it. Everyone is scared of afraid of something but I'll be strong for this group and for you, okay." I said to Carl and he nodded his head and I got back on my feet and I offered my hand and he took it and I held his hand as we started to walk again following Rick and Shane.
It was quiet for a moment til I felt Carl stop walking and at first I was wondering what was wrong til I looked at Carl to see him looking at something and I followed his line of sight to see a deer on our right side. Not moving an inch it was looking at us, Carl turned his head to look over at Rick and he nodded his head with a smile on his face. Carl started to walk slowly towards the deer with me following right behind him. It amazed me with how innocent Carl was and how smart he is. He will definitely survive this world longer than any of us. I smiled as Carl was slowly sticking his hand out towards the deer trying to touch the deer, but it quickly faded when I saw a glint of light catch my eye. I slightly turned my head to see what it was and my eyes widened, it was a man with a gun that was pointed right towards the deer and along with Carl.
My heart rate started to speed up as the man was about to pull the trigger, " Carl!" I yelled as I turned to Carl. Before Carl could even turn to look at me, I pushed him out of the way and that was when the man pulled to tigger. A piercing pain entered my abdomen as I fell to the floor really hard. The last thing I heard before I blacked out was both Carl and Rick yelling my name and a blurry figure standing over me.
' Sorry Daryl. Looks like I couldn't keep my promise.' I thought as everything went black.
End Of Chapter 11
Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger but you'll just have to wait and see what happens next. Let me know what you think so far and also what do you think Daryl will do when he finds out.