Keep Holding On

"Angela, can I go with Glen and T-Dog?" Layla asked hesitantly as they were about to leave.

"Layla, sweetie, I don't know about that." Angela said, she had just gotten her sister back, being away from her for a few hours while searching was one thing, but this was different.

"Please Angie, I wanna be there for Carl, and I wanna make sure T-Dog's alright. Layla begged, she always seemed to care too much.

"It's alright if she comes." Glen stated shyly. "I mean, I understand if you don't want her to, but I know she won't be any trouble and I'll keep a close eye on her."

"Alright, you can go, but you do everything Glen tells you too okay?" Angela said, bringing her into a hug before allowing her and Samantha to get in the car with Glen and T-Dog as they drove off to find the Greene farm.

"She'll be okay." Dale said placing a hand on Angela's shoulder while she watched the car go down the road. "You know, you could have gone with them."

"No, I told Carol I'd stay and that's what I'm gonna do." Angela said heading into the RV, but stopped as the door opened and Daryl brushed past her.

"Thanks Dale." She called over her shoulder trying to ignore the fact that Daryl being mad at her upset her. She had just met the man, why would she care if he hated her or not. Sure, her big mouth was what caused it, but she shouldn't be so bothered by it. Why was Daryl different than any other guy?

The question lingered throughout the night. Sleep was pointless; not only because Daryl plagued her mind, but because of the fact that Sophia was lost, Carol was failing to stifle her cries, and Andrea was trying to fix her gun.

Angela looked up at Daryl as he stood and grabbed his crossbow and asking Andrea for his clip, placing it in his gun.

"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." He said before heading out the door, Andrea following. Angela grabbed her things while she heard Daryl spoke to Dale and rushed out the door.

"Daryl, Andrea wait." Angela said catching up to them.

"What?" Daryl asked rudely, proving he was still mad at her.

"I'm coming too." Angela stated firmly so he couldn't argue.

"Whatever, but if you get lost it’s not my problem." He said walking down the road.

"Trust me I won't, besides I can find my way back if I do."
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Glen had finally found the mailbox with the name Greene on it and pulled up in front of the gate.

"Looks like this is it." He said hoping out to open the gate before going back to the car, then doing the same to close it. They drove silently up to the house, parked and got out of the car. Glen opened the back door to see Layla asleep in the backseat.

"Layla, you've got to get up, we're here." He said gently shaking her. Her eyes fluttered open and sitting up she looked at him.

"Is it safe?" She asked rubbing her eyes.

"Seems like it, come on." He said taking her hand in his and they walked to the porch with T-Dog. "So do we ring the bell?"

"I think we're past this kinda stuff, courtesy and all." T-Dog said walking up the steps.

"Y'all close the gate?" A voice called out.

"Uh yeah, we did." Glen said before rambling on once he noticed it was the girl from earlier.

"Look we're here to help out." T-Dog said ending Glen's mindless babbling.

"Is Carl okay?" Layla asked leaning into Glen's side, shying away from the new person.

"My dad's doing all he can to help him. What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Layla, I'm a friend of Carl's."

"It's nice to meet you Layla, my name's Maggie." She said holding out her hand and Layla shook it quickly before pulling away. "Who's is she?" Maggie asked next, looking back at T-Dog and Glen.

"She's the little sister of one of our friends back on the highway. She wanted to come and check on Carl. I'm Glen and that's T-Dog." Glen said

"Why happened to your arm?" Maggie asked

"Cut it, now it's infected." T-Dog answered

"Come on in, I'll make y'all something to eat and we can have a look at that arm of yours. Also the dog has to stay outside." Maggie said walking to the door.

"Food?" Layla questioned realizing how hungry she was. "And why does Samantha have to stay outside, she's trained."

"Yeah, and I’m sorry sweetie, we just don't want animals in the house, it's not good for Carl." Maggie said smiling at the ten year old as they went to walk in the house.

"Stay here Samantha" Layla ordered following after Maggie. After eating something, they looked at T-Dog's arm and Glen gave then the medicine he got from Daryl and awkwardly explained what happened. Layla ran in to see Carl.

"Is he gonna be okay?" She asked from the doorway, startling both Rick and Lori.

"Layla?" Lori asked as she reached out to the girl, she hadn't realized came with Glen and T-Dog. Layla walked carefully to Lori and welcomed the hug, but her eyes never left Carl's face.

"He'll be alright." Rick said reassuringly even if he wasn't so sure himself.

"He better be, he's my friend, and I don't want to lose him too." Layla said as tears fell down her cheeks. Lori hugged her tightly again; for only being ten, she had been through so much and lost so many, she couldn't bear to lose another person close to her.

"Why don't you go back to Glen now, okay?" Lori said softly, wiping a few tears from Layla's face.

"Okay." Layla said sadly, taking one last glance at her friend before leaving the room.
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The walk down the highway, turned out to be a walk through the woods. The trio didn't wander too far in, but they still were taking a risk. It had been silent for the most part, until Andrea spoke up.

"Do you really think we're going to find Sophia?"

"Yeah." Angela said without hesitation

"You got the same look as everyone else Andrea." Daryl said. "The hell is wrong with you people, we just started lookin'. Seems like the only person b'sides me that's not given up yet is Angela." He finished, the way he said Angela's name wasn't as cold as she expected it to be.

"Well, do you?" Andrea asked again.

"It ain't the mountains, it's Georgia. She's probably held up in a barn somewhere. When people get lost, they survive, it happens all the time."

"She's only twelve."

"What? Do you think she's gone for good then Andrea?" Angela asked

"I don't know, she's a kid and she's lost." Andrea stated.

"Hell, I was younger than her when I got lost." Daryl said telling Angela and Andrea the story about him getting lost and no one came looking for him, and causing the girls to laugh a little when he talked about the poison ivy. "The only difference is Sophia's got people lookin' for her. I call that an advantage."

"Hey Daryl." Angela said quietly, when he mentioned his brother during his story, she realized she needed to speak up.

"What?"

"I'm sorry about what I said about your brother earlier today."

"Don' worry 'bout it, unless you decide to say somethin' else bad 'bout him. Other than that, drop it."

"Right, I really am sorry though, I know how it would be if it was my brother."

"You have a brother?" Andrea asked.

"Did, I'd rather not talk about it." Angela replied looking away from the two, her eyes filling with tears.

It was silent then on until they came across a tent. As they drew closer too it they noticed the leaves of the tree above it shaking.

"What the hell?" Daryl said upon seeing the walker hanging by a rope in the tree.

"Think he was dumb enough to do that or did someone tie him up there?" Angela asked looking up at the creature, before Daryl read the note on the trunk of the tree.

"He was dumb enough, turned himself into a swinging piece of bait." Andrea made a noise after he finished.

"You alright Andrea?" Angela asked

"Trying not to puke."

"Go ahead if you gotta." Daryl said

"No I'm fine, let’s just change the subject. How'd you learn to shoot?"

"Gotta eat, one thing we have in common with these guys, the other geeks already cleaned off his legs." That did it for Andrea.

"Changing the subject, Angela how about you?"

"Dad would take me huntin' taught me how to shoot a gun, and as for the bow, the zombie apocalypse happened and I wasn't gonna leave my gramp's bow behind." Angela replied tearing her eyes from the piñata walker to look at Andrea. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Then lets head back." Daryl said and Angela began to follow, forgetting about the walker.

"Wait aren't you going to." Andrea began referring to the walker dangling from the tree.

"Nah, waste of an arrow." Daryl said but Andrea just looked back at the walker. "Guess the question is do you want to live?"

"An answer for an arrow."

"Fair 'nough"

"I don't know if I want to or if I just need to." Andrea said, Angela just stood back from the two not completely sure what they were going on about

"Not much of an answer," Daryl said shooting the walker dead. "Waste of an arrow."

Daryl and Andrea walked past Angela heading back to camp; she began to follow at first, but then turned around, going back towards the tree.

Looking for low branches, Angela managed to climb up the tree and over to where the walker hung. Just. As she pulled the arrow front the thing's head, she slipped and fell from the tree. She landed hard on her side and laid there for a moment from the pain and once she made sure nothing was broken, rose to her feet.

"Where's Angela?" Andrea asked when she noticed their brunette friend was no longer with them."

"Damn, I told her not to get lost." Daryl cursed as he looked around them.

"And I told you I wouldn't." Angela called leaning up against a tree.

"Where were you?" Andrea asked

"Making sure your answer wasn't a waste of an arrow."

"What?" Andrea asked and Angela pulled the arrow into view.

"You went and got my arrow?" Daryl asked, seeing but hardly believing as he walks towards her.

"Yeah, there's only so many arrows, no need to waste any." Angela said pushing away from the tree only to have pain shoot through her leg and hip. She closed her eyes from the pain, stumbled and felt the wind blow past her as she began to fall, but was caught before she could hit the ground.

"Exactly how did you get my arrow?" Daryl asked when she looked up at him.

"Climbed the tree and onto the branch the walker was tied to." Angela said like it was nothing while she let Daryl help her stand correctly.

"How'd you get down?" he asked next knowing what happened.

"Oh well, I, umm."

"Fell?" Andrea asked catching on.

"Sort of, landed on my side. Nothing's broken but it hurts like hell to put a lot of weight on my right leg." Angela explained sheepishly.

"Figures, you'd go an' get yourself hurt. Let’s just get back to the RV." Daryl said putting the arrow away and helping Angela walk back to camp.