I followed Daryl through the woods and he hadn't said a word to me and I was really happy that he hadn't said a word to me. Sure it was awkward, ever since what happened in the room we never talked or even looked at each other, but on occasion I could feel his eyes on me and when I looked back at him he would look away from me. After a while I noticed that he had stopped and I peered over his shoulder to see why he stopped to see a beautiful pond that was surrounded by Cherokee roses.

' This place hasn't been touched, like everything in the world. It's so pretty.' I thought as I looked around the area. I walked over to the dock, just looking at everything as I heard Daryl's footsteps coming from right behind me.

I looked over to Daryl as he motioned his head for me to follow him. I just followed him without any question and followed him off the dock. We walked halfway around the pond when Daryl stopped walking and stood in front of tall grass with Cherokee roses around it. I smiled when I remembered about when Daryl had brought me one, when I got hurt.

" You see it?" Daryl asked as he turned to look at me.

" See what?" I asked as I looked back at him.

" I'll find her." Daryl said as he looked back at the flowers and then back at me. I started to feel tears go down my face and I smiled at him and looked back at the roses.

" Hey, look. About what happened early today, I'm sorry." Daryl said quietly as he looked away from me and looked towards the pond.

I looked at him in shock at what he said, " I know that you want to look for her, I understand and by the way. We're ok." I said as I gave him a small smile.

" That doesn't make it right for what I said." Daryl said as he looked over at me while nervously chewing his thumb.

" It's not like I haven't heard that before." I said with a smile on my face.

" You still shouldn't have too." Daryl said to me and all I did was shrugged my shoulders at him.

" I have a question, why are you so persistent in finding Sophia? I wanted to ask you about it but never got a chance to ask you." I asked as I looked at him.

" Cause I still know that she is out there, Truth is, what else can I do?" He grunted as he looked down to the ground.

" I know we will find her, for sure." I said as I looked away from him and walked towards the pond.

I stood in front of the pond for a while till I started to take off my shoes and my pants and I started to walk into the water. As I got into the water, I turned my head to see Daryl giving me a confused look.

" What are you doing?" Daryl asked me as he looked at me.

" I'm taking a dip in the water. You want to join me?" I asked him with a kind look on my face. I saw his eyes go wide for a moment and then went back to normal and he took his shoes off and walked right in the water. As he was coming into the water, I went under and I stayed under for a while till I heard Daryl calling my name from underneath the water and I swam back up.

I whipped my eyes and I turned in the direction where I heard Daryl's voice and once I got all the water out of my eyes and I looked up to see Daryl very close to me. I froze in place as I just looked at him, I couldn't comprehend what he was going to do next till his lips landed on mine. His arms wrapped around my waist and held me close as I wrapped my arms around his neck. Daryl's lips were very warm against mine as I pressed into the kiss and he returned the gesture. Of all the boyfriend's I've had in my life, I never felt this way about anyone until now. Daryl was different from any of the guys, just like I was different. I smiled as he broke the kiss and he pulled back to look at me.

" We are just a mess aren't we?" I asked him as I looked at him with the smile still on my face.

" We certainly are." Daryl agreed, before he pressed his lips against mine again. I kissed him a little bit longer till broke apart from him to catch my breath and I looked up at him.

" We should get back before anyone starts to worry about us." I said as I walked out of the water with Daryl following right behind me. I grabbed my pants and started to put them on while Daryl grabbed his shoes and put them on. Once I ringed out whatever water was in my hair, I turned to look at Daryl to see him pick up his crossbow and he started to head in the direction back to camp, but he stopped when he realized I wasn't following him. I smiled and I walked over to him and I grabbed a hold of his hand and headed towards the camp.

As we got closer to the camp I stopped which made Daryl stop as well and he turned to look at me, " What?" He asked me as I looked at him.

As we got closer to the camp, I stopped which made Daryl stop as well and he turned to look at me, " What?" Daryl asked me as I looked up at him.

" I don't want anyone to know about us yet. Think we can keep this between us, till we're ready to tell them?" I asked Daryl. It took him a bit to give me an answer till he nodded his head yes to me. I smiled back at him and I went up to him and kissed him on the cheek and I saw his eyes go wide from shock. I smiled again and walked away from him towards the camp with Daryl following after me.

A few hours have passed after what happened between me and Daryl and do I regret it, no. No I don't. It has even made me even more happy than I've been in awhile. I looked around the area and I needed to go take a walk, so I looked over at Lorri, " Hey Lori, I'm going to walk around for a bit. I'll be back." I said as I grabbed my crossbow and Lori nodded her head as she was helping Carl with his school work. Which didn't make sense to me but I didn't worry about it, I grabbed my crossbow and headed towards the woods.

As I got into the woods I was looking around to make sure that there were no walkers anywhere till I heard two familiar voices not far from where I was at, I followed towards the voices and that was when I saw both Shane and Dale standing near a swamp. But I could tell that something was wrong though as I was making my way towards them slowly. I saw Shane standing close to Dale and I could see just how terrified Dale was of him. I quickly hid behind the tree close to them and I watched and listened to what they were saying.

" Man, this is a good hiding place. We ain't been in the swamps much, huh?" Shane said as he looked around the area and then looked back at Dale.

" Imagine if you applied your tracking skills to finding Sophia." Dale said as calmly as he could as he looked at Shane.

" How about you just give me that bag, huh?" Shane said as he tried to reach for the bag that was in Dale's hand.

" I'm not going to do that." Dale said as he held on tighter grip on the bag.

" Yeah you are, Dale." Shane growled as he stepped towards Dale.

" You gonna shoot me like you did Otis? Tell another story?" Dale questioned as he glared at him. My eyes widened. Shane killed Otis? He was the man that left to go save my life and Shane killed him. I started to feel anger pulsing through my body as I watched Shane getting very close to Dale. I looked at Dale like a grandfather to me and I was damned if I let Shane do anything to him and then I turned to look at Shane when I heard him laugh maniacally.

" No, man. Hell, when you really look at it in the cold light of day, you're pretty much dead already. Just give me the guns. Do it now." Shane said as he took another step forward towards Dale.

" You think this is gonna keep us safe? Mm-hmm. I know it is. Rick is trying to get Hershel…" Dale tried to reason with Shane.

" Dale, shut up. Just shut up and give me the guns." Shane yelled at Dale.

Dale started to shake in fear as he took his rifle off his shoulder and pointed it towards Shane, " Am I gonna have to shoot you? Do I have to kill you? Is that what it's gonna take?" Dale asked Shane. Shane just chuckled an evil laugh again and stood close to the gun that was touching his chest.

" Eh, yeah. That's what it's gonna take."Shane said with a cocky smile on his face.

I had enough with what was going on that I stepped out from the tree and pointed my crossbow at Shane, " Back away from him, Shane. Slowly." I said as I glared at him.

Both men looked at me and Dale's eyes widened in shock, " S….Sam."He said.

I started to walk over to them and once I got close to Dale, my crossbow was still pointing at Shane, " Don't worry Dale. I hear everything."

" Oh yea? What are you gonna do about it!" Shane yelled as he glared at me and for some reason I felt the hairs in the back of my neck starting to stand on end.

" Shane, you know that I can kick your ass! So please do me and Dale a favor and shut the fuck up." I growled at him as I lowered my eyes at him into a glare.

" You know what Sam, let's elaborate a little bit here, shall we? When you were getting beaten alive, was there anyone to protect you? No, you just let it happen. When your dad tried to kill you, did you fight back? No. When your dad…." Shane continued, but at this time I was shaking in anger to the point that tears were starting to come down my face.

" Shane stop." I said as I looked at him as my grip on my crossbow tightened as he got closer to my face.

" Just face it Sam. You're a weak, defenseless, unwanted little whor…" Shane started to say but was cut off when my fit connected with his nose.

" You fucking bitch!" Shane yelled as he grabbed for his nose. I was breathing heavily as I was looking at him.

" I'm not the same little girl from long ago! You don't know me, but I'm a lot stronger than I ever….." I started to say till I saw Shane smirking at me and then seconds later he charged right at me and I didn't have any time to think and he punched me right in the face.

" Ahh!" I screamed as I went down on my knees and held my eye. Before Shane could do anything else to me, Dale got in front of me.

" This is where you belong, Shane." Dale said as he looked at him.

" How's that, Dale?" Shane asked Dale as he kept looking between me and Dale.

" This world, what it is now, this is where you belong. And I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that's okay. 'Cause at least I can say when the world goes to shit I didn't let it take me down with it." Dale snapped as he glared at him.

" Fair enough." Shane growled as he took the bag from Dale and stormed off. I held onto my eye for a little bit til Dale came down to my level and placed his hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him.

" Sam, here let me see it." Dale said as he placed his hand over my hand and moved my hand from right eye and I watched his shocked expression appear on his face. I placed a smile on my face as I looked at him.

" It's already blackening. Your whole eye is bloodshot Sam." Dale said as he looked at my eye and turned my head to get a better look of my eye.

I nodded my head understanding what it does look like, I've had plenty of blackeyes in my lifetime. What surprised me next was Dale wrapping his arms around me and he just held me in a tight hug and I just broke down crying. It's been awhile since I was held like this, " Shhh. It's okay." Dale said as he released his grip on me so he could look at me.

I started to calm down a little bit and I looked back at Dale and I was able to get the vision back in my eye, " We need to get back." I said as I got to my feet.

" I just don't know how I'm going to explain this to Rick or everyone else." Dale said as he looked at my eye.

I was about to say something till I remembered one thing. How was I going to hide my eye from Daryl. Everyone was always worried about what Daryl would do. Without another word, Dale placed his hand on my shoulder and I looked at him and gave him a smile and I nodded my head to him and Dale led the way back to the farm. As we were walking Dale turned his head to me, " Hey, whatever Shane said was not true," Dale said with a small smile on his face.

I nodded my head to him as we got back very quickly to the farm. And both me and Dale saw Shane handing guns out to everyone which made me and Dale start running towards them.

" Oh god!" Lorri yelled which made everyone look towards our direction as we were getting closer to them.

Lorri started to run towards us with Daryl following behind her and I could hear her gasp along with the others from behind her when her eyes landed on my face. Lorri immediately pulled me into her arms and I hugged her back.

" What is Shane doing?" I asked her, even though I already knew what he was going to do.

" Shane wants us to attack the barn." Lorri said as she released me from her hold till I felt a hand grab my chin and my head was turned and I looked in the eyes of Daryl Dixon and I stiffened when I saw his eyes narrowed.

" What the hell happened to your face, Sam?" Daryl asked me in a low angry tone.

" It's nothing, Daryl." I said as I tried to look away from him, but he turned my head back towards him.

" Sam, tell me the truth." Daryl said as he looked deep in my eyes. I looked down to the ground and didn't say anything at all till I looked up and my eyes went towards Shane and his eyes followed my line of sight. He let go of my chin and started to walk towards him but I grabbed his arm and he turned to look at me and all I did was shake my head no to him and he looked back at Shane with a glare. I could hear Carl telling Shane that we can't leave not without Sophia and Shane got down to his knees and had a gun in his hand.

" We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He…Well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right? Huh? Now I want to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother and sister safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Shane said as he tried to give him the gun and I walked over to Shane and took the gun away from him and glared at him.

" Dad said no guns. This is not your call. Not your decision. Now back off." I said as I pushed him away from Carl. Shane stumbled away from me after I pushed him and he looked right back at me and growled at me and started to come towards me and I was ready for anything that he was going to do to me.

Before Shane could do anything to me Daryl stood in between us, " Sam said back off." Daryl said as he growled at him.

Shane just kept looking at me the whole time till I saw something that caught my eye. I see Rick walking back with Hershel, but they both had walkers on sticks. Shane looked over to see what I was looking at and after that he took off running towards them with everyone following right behind him.

" What the hell are you doing?" Shane yelled at Rick.

" Shane, just back off!" Rick yelled back at Shane as he was trying to control the walker that he was holding.

" Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked Rick as he looked at us while holding his walker.

" Are you kidding me?" You see? You see what they're holding onto!?" Shane yelled at Hershel and then looked at us.

" I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel said as he glared at Shane.

" No, man. You don't!" Shane yelled at him.

" Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk about this." Rick tried to reason with Shane.

" What are you talking about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us!" Shane yelled like a mad man.

" Shane, you need to stop!" I yelled at him but he just ignored me.

" Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked as he raised his gun and started to shoot at the female walker that Hershel had in the chest.

" No! Stop it!" Rick yelled at Shane.

" That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming," Shane asked as he continued to shoot at the walker, " That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?," Shane asked again and Hershel never answered him.

" Shane, enough." Rick demanded.

" Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough!" Shane yelled as he turned to the walker and shot the walker in the head in Hershel's grapes in the head and it fell over to the ground, as Hershel fell to his knees.

" Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!" Shane yelled as he ran up to the barn.

I ran after him and I tackled him to the ground. He turns towards me and punches me in the face, which knocks me off him as he gets back on his feet and he starts busting the barn door. I tried to clear my vision as I kept hearing Rick yelling at Hershel to take his pole from him and also yelling at Shane to stop. I felt someone help me up to my feet and I looked up to see Daryl as he was keeping me steady.

" You okay?" Daryl whispered to me as he kept looking at Shane. I nodded my head to him and then I felt something being handed to my left hand and I looked down to see my crossbow and as I was about to say something, then the barn door was busted open and I turned to look in time to shoot the first walker that came out and then the others started to shooting down the rest of the walkers as they rushed out towards us.

I could hear the cries from the Greene family from behind me as we continued to shoot down the people they called family. It felt like forever till every walker that was in the barn and then it went very quiet. No one said anything till we heard a little small growl coming from inside the barn. All of us looked towards the barn as another walker was slowly coming out of the barn. It was really hard to see the walker thanks to the sun. Once the walker fully came out of the barn, I froze in place and my crossbow fell out of my hand as tears started to go down my face.

' No…. God please no.' I thought as I heard Carl crying. I started to back away from everyone as I saw Carol starting to cry and run towards her daughter.

" Sophia? Sophia! Oh no, Sophia. Sophia no." Carol said as she cried and Daryl stopped her from getting closer to her daughter and they both fell to the ground. My eyes never left Sophia's face, the little girl I promised Carol that I would bring her back was now gone. I saw Rick walking over to Sophia and I knew what was about to happen, so I slowly picked up my crossbow and I started to walk far away from what was about to happen. As I got half way, Rick's guns shot rang which made me stop in my tracks and I turned my head to look back at the barn and then I looked down to the ground.

' I'm a failure. I couldn't even keep a little girl alive. My step father was right, I can't do anything right.' I thought as more tears started to go down my face again and I walked over to my tent and just laid down on the ground and just shut my eyes, praying, hoping that this was all just a dream.

DARYL'S P.O.V

Carol pushes herself off of me and runs back to her tent. Sophia was here the entire time, as I was looking at her lifeless body. I started to get really angry at myself as I watched the blonde Greene girl make her way over to one of the walkers that was on the ground crying, ' Stupid girl, they're dead.' I thought to myself as one of the walkers grabbed her hair and she started to scream in terror as we all ran over to her. Andrea got over to her and grabbed the girl and killed the walker. I looked around and that was when I noticed that Sam was nowhere to be seen and I looked over at Rick, " Ya seen Sam?" I asked him.

He nodded his head yes, " She went to her tent." Rick said as he looked towards me.

I nodded my head and started to make my way over to her tent. Sam really wanted to find that little girl as much as I did. The way I saw how her and that little girl talked among themselves. I could tell that they were really close to each other and I had a feeling that she was really taking this just as hard as Carol. As I reached Sam's tent, I was about to say something till I heard Sam starting to sing.

You're not alone

There's no doubt

Your gift

Isn't futile to be

If we'll be united

We're stronger together

We always have the high hope

Not all for one but one for all

Don't worry 'bout a thing

We'll reach out to you

Even if it's a harder way

It's plain to see the reason why

Oh, that's all because of the mighty heart

Remember it's just natural that we'll be there if you need help

Far across the distance, rest assured that our faith just won't die

You know we apt to sacrifice ourselves

Whatever they may say

It's plain to see the reason why

Oh, that's all because of the mighty heart

Remember it's just natural that we'll be there if you need help

Far across the distance

Rest assured the our faith just won't die

I stood there in silence for a little bit till I lightly touched her tent, " Sam?" I asked her.

I heard movement from inside but she never answered me, " Look, I know yer upset but don't mean ya just ignore me." I said as I waited for her to answer me but she didn't answer me again which was starting to frustrate me.

" I'm comin in." I said as I opened her flap and walked right inside and I saw her with her back turned to me and I could see her shoulders were shaking, which told me that she was crying.

" Sam?" I asked her as I looked at her and she didn't answer me.

" Sam." I said again with a growl in my tune, which made her flinch a little bit and that was when she turned to look towards me and I saw her blood shot eyes as tears were still going down her stained face.

I got up closer to her and I offered my hand to her, which put a confused look on her face as she looked at me.

" Come on." I said as I looked at her and at first she didn't move to reach for my hand till she slowly started to sit up and then she grabbed my hand and I helped her out of the tent and once we got out of her tent, we started to head towards the woods. As we were walking I looked at her over my shoulder and all I saw was regret in her eyes.

End Of Chapter

I hoped you guys loved this chapter. Sorry for the long delay but here it is and I have other chapters ready and I'll try to post it as soon as I can. Let me know what you guys think.