After last night's massacre, Zayla was more than happy to get the hell going to someplace new and now that they had Merle to look for, she was eager to get on the road. She didn't know where they were going to find a place as good as the Quarry, but she knew that they couldn't stay outside anymore and had to find a place they could fortify. If they could ransack a few stores beforehand and get more food and supplies, that'd be even better and she was sure that's something along the lines of what Shane could be thinking, but whatever he and Rick spoke about was unknown to her because she was making it clear that she'd knock more of the Sheriff's teeth out if he so much as looked at her for a second, so when they decided to stop, she'd see where the Deputy's head was.
She placed Jim's mechanic hat on the wooden cross marking his grave before standing and saying a final, collective goodbye to all of the other graves, but her eyes lingered on Amy's a few spaces away from Jacqui's. That easily could've been Sophia or Carl or even Andrea for being so careless and getting too close.
When she rejoined everyone, she saw Daryl helping T-Dog load what looked like their sacks of food into the back of his blue 1970's Ford F-100 and Carol was leaning on the side, wiping the sweat off her face. She had to put Ed down this morning and she knew that Carol released all of her anger when she kept driving that pickaxe into his head over and over again; she deserved each and every drop of blood she made him shed and Zayla hoped the woman knew that. Now, she could live in peace with her daughter and new family.
"Zayla, can I ride in the truck with you and Daryl?" The blonde girl asked, bringing Zayla's attention to her; Sophia was smiling at her. "I can braid your hair and you can tell me your hunting stories with your Dad! Please? Carl's riding in the RV with his Mom and Dad."
"It's Daryl's ride, Sophie. Driver picks the passengers, shotgun shuts up." She told her, hearing Daryl approach from behind her. She turned and nodded his way and Sophia went to him with those big blue eyes of hers to plead.
"I'll be real quiet, Daryl, I promise. I won't move around a lot and I won't sing any songs and I won't even have to go to the bathroom for the whole ride. You won't even know I'm there."
Daryl shrugged. "Ask your Ma."
"We're riding with T-Dog in his truck, Sophie." Carol answered, having appeared next to her daughter after their truck was loaded and ready to go.
"Is there room for Zayla?"
"We're already packed tight with the three of us." Sophia frowned at her mother's answer and Carol kissed her on the head, putting her hands on her shoulders. "Sorry, baby. Next trip, I promise we'll ride with Zayla, just the three of us."
"Maybe when we make a pee-stop, somebody will trade spots with me and we can ride together." Zayla offered and tapped the girl's chin with her knuckle, smiling. "Chin up, sweetie. You're the reason why I wake up every mornin'."
"Really?"
"Of course." She beamed, pulling Carol flush against her by the hips. "You and your gorgeous Mama who I love and cherish so dearly."
"Don't confuse her again, Zayla. After what you did at the lake, she was asking me questions nonstop for three hours."
"And did you explain to her how much I adore you?" She asked with the goofiest, most love-stricken grin on her face and Carol went to respond, but was cut off by the Eskimo kiss the redhead initiated that made her giggle. "Alright, I'll see my favorite girls at the next pit stop. Stay beautiful."
Carol knowingly sighed as she turned to her daughter and knew the gears were turning again just by the focused expression on her cute little face. "Mom, if you and Zayla are married now, which one of you is the husband?"
"Zayla is definitely the husband." T-Dog answered with a chuckle.
Almost immediately, Sophia nodded in agreement. "That sounds right."
Zayla got in their car and their carpool began their long journey to a new home. Once they made it out of the city and were a few miles away, she felt she was finally able to relax and enjoy the ride. She decided not to tease Daryl since she wanted him to talk to her for however long they'd be driving, but once she got behind the wheel, she wouldn't be able to help herself. Every time she made him wiggle in his seat or mutter something she just couldn't quite hear, it made her heart flutter and smile because it reminded her that he was still that same shy boy she always knew.
After about seven hours of driving with three stops, it was around high noon and time to stop again. Shane was leading this adventure and he was already coming to meet Daryl and Zayla behind him with news.
"The highway's a little packed with cars, so we gotta move some of them and we can look for supplies in the rest." They nodded and Daryl pulled the keys from the truck, tossing them on the dashboard.
Once everyone stopped, the Sherrif climbed up on the trunk of one of the abandoned cars in the small sea of them littered down the highway with thick woods bordering either side.
"Everybody, start searching the cars for anythin' useful. Food, water, weapons, medical supplies, clothes and so on." Rick announced without being too loud. "Be mindful while you're looking, could be Walkers inside."
"And no guns." Shane added before everyone dispersed. "Last thing we need is some Walkers comin' outta those trees. Keep a sharp eye on your surroundings and everyone pairs up with a partner."
"We shouldn't be taking things from here." Zayla overheard Lori say in disapproval as she looked at the mass of abandoned cars. "This is a graveyard."
"This is more like a thrift store. Everything we find is just secondhand goods."
"How can you say that?"
"Because that's what it is." She shrugged. "If you don't wanna help 'cause you don't want somebody's leftovers, then at least try to keep watch, you High and Mightiness."
Zayla tried to be a glass-half-full kinda person now that she was living at the end of the world, but Lori never seemed to want to see the bright side of things. So they were taking things that didn't belong to them or anybody at this point, big deal. She doesn't complain when they're taking food from abandoned stores to feed her and her son. Zayla understood that they, technically, had to steal to get by, so long as they weren't taking it directly out of someone else's mouth. If Lori wanted to be a hypocritical bitch about it, fine. Zayla wasn't going to let it bother her and Lori wasn't going to complain when she had clothes on her back.
As she went looting, she found Daryl crossing her path every two to three minutes, so she guessed they were partnered up. She killed five Walkers still strapped in the driver's seat on her way, but it seemed like she was finished for now because she was simply finding all sorts of things on her way without a growl to be heard.
"Hey, honey-bunch. You know what this thing is?" She presented an action figure, still secured in its plastic casing, to the brunet boy sitting on the steps of the RV and smirked when his eyes lit up. It seemed like Lori made the kids keep her company as she kept an eye out with the rifle from atop the RV. Sophia was keeping him company and it seemed they were playing cards as they waited for everyone to come back. "And I found some pretty skirts for you, Sophie."
"It's got so many ruffles!" She admired the denim skirt out of the three Zayla found and the redhead squealed in joy with her.
Carl shook his head at the sound. "Girls are so weird."
"You drool over a six-inch plastic man wearin' his boxers on the outside, but it's weird that she likes skirts?" Zayla debated, raising a brow at the boy.
"He's not wearing underwear!" Carl argued.
"But he's still a little toy man that you like to play with."
"Gross!" Carl sneered before laughing.
Zayla went back to looking for more things, this time more focused on food. She was just about to grab one of her knives to pick the lock of the trunk of a red SUV she was sure had a duffle bag of canned goods inside, when someone grabbed her by the arm and shoved her inside a trunk. She got one glance of Shane shushing her before he slammed the trunk shut and plunged her into darkness.
'Okay, relax. He put you in here for a reason. Just. Relax.' She thought, taking a breath, but when she tried, she found it very hard to get a proper lung full and each time she tried to, it felt like an elephant was putting more of its foot on her chest; the last time she tried, she felt her stomach get hot and couldn't keep quiet or still anymore because if she puked, it'd get all over herself and it'd never stop until her stomach was empty.
Daryl watched as the herd of Walkers passed from under the cars, seeing Shane's face through their shuffling feet. They had to wait for what felt like ages before they could no longer hear the dead growling and stammering by. Daryl poked his head out first and saw they were in the clear in both directions, but a few of the dead were lingering about 10-feet away. Shane emerged from under his car and they both nodded, crouching to go take out the two Walkers still remaining. He looked back and saw Lori had the rifle on them and was happy that she didn't blow their cover by using the gun.
"Let me out! I'm gonna puke!" He heard Zayla screaming somewhere and quickly spotted one of the cars rocking.
"Zayla, I'm here!" He yelled to the trunk, trying to pull it open.
"GET ME OUTTA THIS GODDAMN BOX!"
As soon as she heard the lock click, she sent another forceful kick to the trunk and this time, it flung open. Daryl and Shane jumped back as the metal came flying towards them, but were more concerned about the ginger scrambling to get out of the storage space as if the car were on fire. Shane assisted in fully freeing her from the trunk and Daryl gave her the rest of the water in his bottle to drink, but she refused. For a few minutes, Zayla had her hands braced on the road and it seemed like she was dry-heaving, but it also sounded like she was sickly groaning. It was strange seeing her so out of whack, but her reaction seemed to stem from a drastic case of claustrophobia.
"Who put…why'd you…" She sputtered before taking a proper breath for the first time in what felt like hours. "Which one of you stuffed me in that trunk?!"
"I did, there was a herd passing through." Shane spoke up as the rest of the group gathered around her.
"Asshole!" She groaned and sent a weak punch to Shane's chest, surprising the former Deputy. Whenever Zayla hit someone, they'd be in some serious pain for about a week before any chances of mercy came. After she was done trying to assault Shane, she noticed everyone gathered around the trunk and tried to get a head count, but everything was spinning. "Stop movin'!"
"Nobody's moving."
"Either my brain needs more oxygen or this ain't all of us."
"Sophie's missing." Carol sobbed. "She got scared by the herd and ran into the woods with a couple of Walkers chasing her. Rick went after her, but they haven't come back yet and we haven't heard anything."
"Let me see if I understand what's going on here. Y'all lock me in the damn trunk and allow Rick, the same asshole who left Merle handcuffed on a roof in Atlanta for him to die, go after Sophia. The same Rick that was responsible for all those Walkers overrunnin' the quarry and killing Amy, Jacqui and Jim." She wasn't really asking a question, but she saw the look of guilt on most of the adult's faces as she ranted. "Y'all understand how fuckin' stupid that sounds now, don't you?!"
"Zayla!" Lori scolded.
"Lori, do not bitch at me right now! That child's out there fightin' for her life while your husband's runnin' 'round in circles tryna bite his own ass!" Zayla hopped out of the trunk and took her bow off her shoulders, about to jump the rail to run into the woods, but she saw Rick coming to meet them; he was empty-handed and that just made her blood boil even more. "Where's Sophia?"
"You didn't see her coming back?"
"How the hell would she know which way to go, Rick? She's an eleven-year-old girl, she can barely remember her left from her right!" She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to her. "Where is she?"
"I caught up with her at a dam and told her to keep the sun on her shoulder while I killed the Walkers."
"You left her out there." Zayla said and she heard Carol beginning to cry behind her. "You abandoned a scared child in the woods with hopes that she'd miraculously be able to figure out where she's supposed to go by using the sun."
"I tried to-"
"You didn't try to do shit!" She cursed at him and shoved him in the chest away from her. "If it were Carl out there, you would've carried him back to his mother! You didn't try to do a goddamn thing for that little girl 'cause ya' don't give a shit 'bout these people! They ain't family to you and you ain't family to us!"
Dale came from behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Zayla, settle down, sweetheart."
"Settle down?! He left her out there, Dale! That tiny lil' girl is out in them damn woods with Walkers, defenseless, scared half ta' death and you want me ta' settle down?! I ain't gonna do a goddamn thing 'till I find her!" And with that, Zayla hopped the railing and found Rick's tracks in the dirt to follow.
She came across the entrance to a swamp and the water wasn't high or mighty, so she slid down the side and began walking the wet path until she heard a growling Walker. Her sights were aimed above her, but as she continued downstream, she found it in the water trying to get something in the tangled mess of ample roots from a tree growing outside of the dirt. She quickly shot it down and almost fell out when she realized Sophia was hiding inside the mess of radicles. She had her knife out, but she looked too afraid to move until she saw Zayla, then she easily maneuvered out of the roots to run to the redhead woman.
Zayla carried Sophia out of the swamp and put her down once they were at the entrance. She did a once-over of the girl to make sure Sophia didn't injure herself while she was running from Walkers and was relieved to find no new bruises or marks, hugging the child. The little blonde was the one to point out that it was getting very dark and that they should hurry back to the highway before they couldn't see. As quickly as they could, they made their way back to the crowded highway and found one of the cars was marked; the group managed to part the sea of stationary vehicles to make a path through as well. When they got closer, they saw the message on one of the cars and gathered the food on the hood of the car, only to hear honking down the road. They both spotted the RV and Dale was waving at them while Glenn was running toward them.
Glenn informed them that in the hours they were gone, they found a farm with a family that was willing to take them in because Carl had been shot while Shane and Rick went hunting. Before Zayla could speculate who the hell would shoot a child, Glenn filled in the blanks by telling her about the hunting trip Rick, Shane and Carl decided to go on while they waited for news on the girls getting to where they were going to stay at least for the night because Daryl refused to go anywhere until both of they returned were safe and sound.
It took them a little while to drive to the family farm, but when they arrived, Daryl was the first face Zayla saw and they met each other's eyes before he pat Sophia on the head. The rest of the group was gathered on the large porch and everyone looked exhausted.
"So, lemme get this straight. I leave for a few damn hours and y'all allow Ranger Retard and Deputy Dumbass to waste precious ammo on a deer and y'all obviously ain't got the first idea about hunting 'cause got Carl shot in the process." Zayla mocked as she returned a crying Carol's tired child to her mother. The older woman gave Zayla a side hug with her free arm and kissed her cheek, but the redhead didn't bask in the affection because she currently had a bone to pick with the asshat that apparently couldn't be left out of her supervision because bad things happened when the Good Sherrif wasn't under her watchful eye. "Golly-gee, Rick. With those parentin' skills, someone oughta' give you an award for being Dad of the Year."
"Zayla, give him a break, would you? His son's unconscious." Lori tried, sounding more worn than anyone else as nightfall crept up on them.
"And I'm sorry that Carl's hurt, really. That's the last thing I wanna see." She honestly told Lori with all the sympathy in her heart. "However, none of this bullshit would be happenin' if y'all didn't let a stray dog follow you home. Shoulda left his ass in Atlanta where you found him or put him down." She spat that last part at Rick, but he didn't move an inch from his spot next to a bedroom door, his eyes were pinned on the floor, but they slowly moved to hers. "Think this is Karma's way of slappin' you in the face, Rick. You left that little girl all by herself out in those woods, now you get to feel Carol's pain. Maybe now that something you care about is in danger, you'll start actin' like you got some damn sense."