To Keep You Close to Me

The air was thick with tension. After Lori’s rant, no one talked. I walked side by side with Daryl, who was leading us back to the highway. I was glad that we had him, or else we’d never make it back. Through the quiet wind, I heard a faint gunshot. I stopped and turned my head towards the sound. Lori stopped, too, hearing the shot.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the group.

“Thought it was a gunshot,” Lori responded.

“We all heard it,” Daryl agreed.

“Why only one? Why one gunshot?” Lori questioned.

“Maybe they took down a walker,” Daryl suggested.

“Please don’t patronize me. You know Rick wouldn’t waste a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They’d do it quietly,” Lori lectured.

Carol asked, “Shouldn’t they have caught up with us by now?”

“There’s nothin’ we can do about it anyway,” Daryl said. “We’d run around these woods chasin’ echoes.”

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“Same as we’ve been. Beat the bush with Sophia, make our way back to the highway,” Daryl told us. The four of us started walking again, but Andrea and Carol stayed behind. We noticed that they weren’t following, so we stopped. The two of them had a small conversation before Carol spoke up.

“The thought of her out here by herself. It’s the not knowing that’s killing me. I keep hopin’ and prayin’ that she doesn’t end up like Amy,” Carol said. That was a tough blow. “Oh god, that’s the worst thing I ever said.”

Andrea shook her head. “We’re all hoping and praying with you. For what it’s worth.”

“I’ll tell ya what it’s worth. Not a damn thing. It’s a waste of time, all this hopin’ and prayin’. We’re gonna locate that little girl, and she’s gonna be just fine,” Daryl interrupted. “Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord.”

I chuckled at Daryl’s comment, making sure to hide my smile from Carol. Sophia’s situation wasn’t really a laughing matter, and I didn’t want Carol to suspect that’s what I thought. Though, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lori smiling too. Daryl urged us to follow him, since we’d be losing daylight soon.

“How much farther?” I asked Daryl. My legs hurt, and I’m fairly certain that everyone else was tired as well.

“Not much, maybe a hundred yards,” he replied. “As the crow flies.”

“Too bad we’re not crows,” Andrea joked.

Before we could get any further, we heard Andrea screaming from behind us. We all turned around and ran towards her. A walker was chasing after her, fighting with her until she lost her balance and fell to the ground. The walker struggled to get closer, but Andrea kept kicking at it. But suddenly, I heard the sound of trotting. Then a woman on a horse seemed to come out of nowhere and whipped the walker’s head with a baseball bat.

The woman on the horse asked Andrea if she was Lori Grimes. She had a thick southern accent. Lori informed the woman that she was who she was looking for.

“Rick sent me, you gotta come now,” the strange woman said.

“What?”

“There’s been an accident, Carl’s been shot. He’s still alive, but you gotta come now.” Lori hesitated, but the woman beckoned her again. Lori dropped her bag and climbed on the horse.

“Woah, woah, woah. We don’t know this girl, you can’t get on that horse,” Daryl tried to stop her, but Lori didn’t listen.

“Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?” the woman asked.

“Uh huh,” Glenn responded as if in a trance.

“Back track two miles down. Our farm is there, you’ll see the mailbox, last name is Green.” And just like that, they were off. The rest of us watched as they rode off. Suddenly, the walker that the woman had knocked out with the baseball bat came back to life and started to rise. We watched in horror as it tried to pull himself back up, groaning.

“Shut up,” Daryl said, firing an arrow into its head. “C’mon, let’s go!” Daryl took off back in our original direction. We eventually made it back to the highway. The sun was setting now; the sky was a light pinkish orange. Dale was waiting for us at the top of the ditch, pacing.

“Carl was shot,” I yelled.

“Shot? What do you mean shot?” Dale questioned.

“All we know is that this chick came out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori,” Glenn told him.

“And you let her?” Dale asked Daryl.

“Climb down outta my ass old man. Rick sent her,” Daryl snapped back. “She knew Lori’s name and Carl’s.”



“We need to find this farm, make sure Carl’s alright. I might be able to help,” I said to the group.

“I can’t, I won’t do it,” Carol argued.

“Carol, the group is split. We’re scattered and weak,” Dale stated.

“What if she comes back and we’re not here? It could happen.”

“Carol’s right. If Sophia made her way back here and we weren’t here, that would be awful,” I agreed.

“Okay, we gotta plan for this,” Daryl started. “I say tomorrow mornin’s soon enough to pull up stakes, give us a chance to rig up a big sign, give her some supplies. I’ll hold here tonight, stay with the RV.”

“If you’re staying, I’m staying,” I volunteered.

“And if the RV is staying, I’m staying,” Dale stated.

“Thank you, thank you all of you,” Carol said. Andrea agreed to stay as well, and so did Glenn. But we needed someone to go find the farm and let them know what we were doing. So we gave him Carol’s car and gave him the job of transporting T-Dog. When Dale said that T-Dog needed anti-biotics, Daryl went over to his bike and dug through the side bag. He retrieved a plastic bag with all of Merle’s drugs and tossed it at Dale. As they went through the bag, Daryl told the group of Merle’s occasional Clap infection.

We went into the RV. It was almost dark now, so we had to get somewhere safe for the night. It would be dangerous outside. There wasn’t enough space for us all to sleep, so when I asked about the situation, Daryl said he’d take the floor.

“Daryl, you don’t have to sleep on the floor, we can share the table bed,” I offered.

“It ain’t big enough, you take it,” Daryl said sincerely. He set the bed up for me and then laid on the ground. Yawning, I eagerly laid down. I was tired because of all the walking we did today and I needed rest. I pushed my body up against the wall and begged Daryl to get off of the floor. I could see Daryl’s body rise from the floor as he crawled onto the bed. As he laid on his side, I cuddled up to him.

“See? It is big enough,” I whispered. “And more comfortable than the floor.” Daryl draped an arm over my body and held me close. I closed my eyes and began drifting to sleep. Even though I could hear Carol’s whimpers, I still fell asleep. I was too damn tired.

But I was woken up when Daryl pulled himself away from me and jumped out of bed. I asked what he was doing and he told me that he was going back out there. Andrea, who was still awake, handed him his gun and volunteered to go.

“Are you crazy?” I asked, drowsily. “It’s dark out. You can’t go out there.”

“Val, that little girl could still be out there,” Daryl explained.

I threw the blanket off of me. “Well, let me get my shoes.”

“No,” Daryl fought. “You need ta sleep. Me and Andrea will go look around. We won’t be gone long.”