Ever the Survivor

Soundwaves: Thank you soo much! This review means a lot, and don't worry, there's plenty to come! I agree with you about other stories. Everything you said in this comment, especially here;-"There's far too much juvenile, teenager-like drooling, immature stuff out there that doesn't get the severe situation of the survivors' group in which this relationship is developing.--At last a believable development of characters and comprehensible actions towards each other, taking into account the reality of a life threatening catastrophe and trying to cope with loss while at the same time noticing their interest in each other, totally seeming out of place at that moment." - Is exactly what I wanted this story to be. I didn't want, right off the bat, for them to hook up or constantly be all over each other or the whole 'ooo you're hot, ooo stick your tongue in my mouth.' No. I also want Daryl to be like how the lovely Reedus himself has said he wants him to be. Inexperienced with love/emotions and awkward. But as far as the story itself, I'm sort of trying to write it how I would approach the situation. You're more concerned with what's going on around you and what you're losing rather than who's hot and available and what not. But like you said, still showing that interest in each other. I want it to be hard to want that kind of relationship in this world, where every day is life and death, and like I said, you're always worrying about what you could lose. So they will have more of a flirty friendship for some time as they get closer with each other through the seasons I'm following. I want the Daryl that Kat gets to be a little different than the Daryl the survivors get at first, because they knew each other briefly from before. So they have that sense of familiarity with each other that's comforting. BUT, thank you again. Finally another person that wanted to read, what I myself wanted to read! I couldn't find it for a long time through all of the stories I went through so I decided to make my own. This isn't my first fan fiction, but it is my first Walking Dead fic. So I hope other people like it just as much. Subscribe and enjoy. xo

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Sorry if it took a bit longer than usual to update, guys. I kind of work two jobs, I'm hair stylist but also an artist (I do a lot of Norman Reedus work ;) I have a Daryl WIP at the moment.) and I had a couple made-to-order paintings people bought the last couple weeks that took priority since I get paid for doing that. This is just for fun haha. Someone in los angeles actually bought one of my Boondock Saints pieces. Farthest I've had to ship one before so that was kind of exciting. so I wanted to get that done as fast as possible and to him, so those were taking up most of my time. But anyway, here is the next chapter. Picking up right where we left off and the start of season 2.

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“Shane, get in! Shane, get in!” Glenn yelled, as he swung the door to the RV open. “Come on! Come on!”

Shortly after leaving the CDC, Shane's jeep had broken down. Daryl, who was driving his truck in front of him, had luckily glanced in his rear view mirror and saw the man, back in the distance. But that isn't what had him blaring his horn and yelling out the window to the caravan in front of him. Behind Shane, was a large group of Walkers coming up on his Jeep.

Shane grabbed his gear and had started running towards them when Rick turned the RV around after yelling to the others to stay put. They had to have been more than a mile down the open road from where he was.

Shane was starting to tire when he turned around and aimed his shotgun at the few in front that were closest to him. He had 3 rounds in the gun before he would be out and as close as they were to him now, he didn't have time to dig in his bag for more shells. These things didn't slow down, not once. He shot at the first one, sending it to the ground. The loud noise only making the Walkers behind it more agitated. A few of them tripped over the body as Shane started running backwards. He aimed at two more, dropping them, before turning around and putting the rest of his strength in his legs.

The RV was a welcome sight as he heard Glenn yell at him. Shane picked up his bag he had dropped when he went hand to hand with a couple of the Walkers that got close to him. With his empty shotgun in one hand and the bag in the other, he darted to the open door of the RV that had pulled up beside him. Shane ran through the door of the Winnebago as the large group of Walkers that had been closing in on him, surrounded that side of the RV. Glenn pulled the door closed as soon as the man was inside.

“Go! Let’s go!” Glenn turned and yelled to Rick, who was driving.

“Hold on!” He yelled as he turned the wheel of the RV as far as it would go and made a U-turn in the direction of the group he'd left farther up the road, narrowly missing several Walkers as he turned the big vehicle around.

Shane, who had all but launched himself through the door, was on the floor at the feet of Dale and Andrea who were sitting at the small table just inside the RV. Dale reached his hand down to help pull Shane into a sitting position on the floor.

As soon as they were pulling off onto the road again and away from the Walkers, Carl got up from his mom's lap in the passenger seat and ran to the man who was practically his uncle. “Shane!”

“Yeah. Hey. Hey. Hey. ” Shane said between quick breaths and with a smile as Carl fell into his arms. “Come here. Come here.” He said into the boy's shoulder as he held him close.

Rick and Lori both looked back at the two, Rick with a smile on his face, Lori, looking indifferent.

Shane brought his hands to the boy's head as he held his mouth to Carl's forehead, looking at Lori. “Hey.” He said as he pulled Carl back with a reassuring laugh. “Hey, I'm fine, man. I'm really fine, okay.” He laughed. Carl mouthed the word okay and let out a relieved laugh with the older man as he sat back on his knees in front of Shane.

“Hey, why don't you- Why don't you go back to your momma? Go on. Go on, buddy.” Shane said, between trying to catch his breath from the running and fighting he'd just gone through.

“Alright.” Carl said to him as he got up and headed for his mom again. They both looked out the front of the RV.

“Rick...God, they- they may be slow but they just- they don't tire, man, they- they just keep coming.” Shane said as he rested his elbow on his knee and brought his hand to his forehead. He was still trying to get his breathing under control, it had been too close of a call.

Rick looked back at him, before turning his eyes back to the road, back to the group that was coming into view. “Good thing to know.” He said. They hadn't been aware that they didn't need to rest at all at this point. They had thought that maybe their bodies would get exhausted as well.

“Thank you.” Shane said.

“Don't thank us, thank Daryl. He's the one who noticed.” Lori said, not even looking back at him.

“He started honkin and yellin his head off.” Dale laughed to Shane on the floor below him, causing everyone else to join in. They'd all heard Daryl yell at somebody for some reason by now, but they hadn't quite heard him yell that loud before.

Once everyone was quiet again, Shane took a few deep breaths and ran his hand over his forehead. “Rick, you got any moves left?” He asked as he looked in the direction of the driver's seat.

Everyone in the RV looked towards him as he slowed the RV down slightly. “I got one.”

“Is it good?”

“It occurs to me we have friends in this town. Glenn, what do you think?” Rick turned and looked at the young man, standing in the walkway at the back of the RV.

Glenn looked at him for a second before remembering who he was talking about. “Yeah!”

“It will buy us some time. A night or two til we figure out what we're doin.” He said as he pulled up to the rest of the cars. He gave a quick honk to let them know they weren't stopping, and continued on.

Everyone one in the RV looked around at each other, confused. Glenn noticed the looks they were giving each other. “Uh-th-the nursing home. Guillermo and his people.” He said.

“The people who took you hostage?” Dale looked at him. Glenn smiled and nodded his head.

“Hey, we parted on good enough terms.” Rick quickly interjected.

“Good enough doesn't bold me over with confidence.” Dale said, looking between them.

“No no. You weren't there.” Glenn said, shaking his head and holding his hand out towards the man. “Y-you didn't see the way that Rick handled things.” He smiled before nodding his head. “They're our friends. They'll take us in.”

They all looked at Rick. It was the only option they had right now. The only place he could think they would be able to go. So he kept driving.

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Awhile later, they arrived at the nursing home towards the end of the city. They parked their cars in an alley around the backside of the courtyard, outside of the brick wall around it. They all exited their vehicles with their weapons and gathered at the front of the RV before they started walking forward.

“I bet they’re barely hanging on.” Andrea said as they looked around the deserted alley way. “What makes you think they’ll take in strangers?” She asked as she looked to Rick.

“All the guns we gave em, they’ll prolly throw us a party. Good call.” Daryl said walking up next to Rick and looking towards him. “For once.” He finished, as he walked past the man.

The group made their way to the broken out windows that Rick and the small group had climbed through before. They all jumped down into the courtyard.

Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, Daryl and Kat led the group, being that they knew the way around. The five of them looked around as they walked closer to the opening in the brick wall.

Glenn turned around to look at Rick who was behind him. “Where are the lookouts?”

“I don’t like this.” Kat said as she raised her Beretta that was previously at her side, to the space in front of her. Daryl got his handgun out as they rounded the corner that would lead them into the courtyard in front of the garage. It would be faster than his crossbow if they needed to use weapons in a minute.

“Aw, son of a bitch!” Shane quietly exclaimed as he led them around the wall.

The area in front of the building was a mess. There was trash thrown everywhere and bodies littered the ground. And Walkers. There were Walkers all over, feeding.

Lori and Carol grabbed their kids and turned their heads away from the gruesome sight. Kaleb stepped behind Dylan as he peeked around him at the Walkers, several of them finally noticing the group in front of them. They all looked up at the promise of fresh meat and started growling as they got to their feet. They slowly started making their way to the group as everyone looked to Rick. Those with weapons, had them aimed at the oncoming corpses, waiting for Rick to give the word.

“To hell with the noise.” He said as he took a few steps forward, aiming his Python at the Walker in front of him.

Gunfire erupted all around them as shots were fired. Carol, Lori and Andrea huddled with the kids as they ducked down behind the group. They watched as one by one, the bodies fell to the floor, seconds before the gunfire quieted down.

Daryl walked a few steps forward, looking down at one of the bodies a Walker had been feeding on. He recognized him as one of the 'vatos' that helped out around here.

Rick emptied the rounds from his gun, letting them fall to the floor as the 3 women in the back stood up with the children. He quickly reloaded his gun.

“We gotta move.” Kat said as she walked a few steps forward. All of that noise was going to draw in whatever Walkers were still around the building.

“Come on. On me!” Rick said as he looked at the group. He ran to the big wooden doors, Daryl right behind him, and they hauled them open. The locks were undone.

Rick walked into the large garage first, Colt Python raised, followed by Daryl who now had his crossbow up and ready to fire. The rest of the group followed them through the darkened, empty building and out the back. They made their way through the other courtyard and up the steps to the actual nursing home building. The door was cracked open. They walked inside, seeing some papers strewn across the floor and hospital equipment overturned. Carol put he hand over her mouth as soon as she walked in, seeing the legs of a person sticking outside of a door way in the hall. Andrea stopped in her tracks as soon as she made her way inside, seeing the same sight. Sophia started crying.

“Keep your voices down. Let’s keep it moving.” Shane said quietly to the group. The front door had been left open, so they didn’t know if there were more Walkers in here.

“Shh.” Rick said as they made their way down the hallway, checking rooms as they went by. Shane and Daryl led them down the hall. Kat and Rick right behind them with the group following. Kat pushed the door on her side of the hallway open, quickly looking inside. One dead person, propped up against the wall. The woman didn’t appear to have any bite wounds at a glance but she had a gunshot wound in the center of her forehead. Rick raised his gun to the room he was clearing on his side, seeing two more dead people lying on the floor in the room. Carol and Sophia came up behind him and looked inside as the group came to a stop at the closed doors to the cafeteria. Carol still had her hand to her mouth as Sophia started sobbing loudly.

“Quiet.” Kat whispered as loud as she could. She came up behind Daryl, who was aiming his crossbow at the cafeteria doors. Kat looked over his left shoulder into the frosted glass windows on the doors, trying to see any movement.

“Put a sock in it!” Daryl said as he turned around and looked at the crying little girl, who only cried louder at being yelled at. “Jesus Christ.”

Lori put her hand on Sophia's back, trying to calm her down.

“You leave her alone.” Carol whispered to him as she held her daughter closer to her.

“Then shut her up or I will!” Daryl said as he pointed at Sophia.

Lori stepped in front of Sophia and Carol, standing behind Rick as she pointed at the man. “Back the hell off! I mean now!” She quietly scolded him.

“Would everyone shut up!” Kat whispered as she put her free hand on Daryl’s shoulder. She looked around at the group. Daryl lowered his crossbow as he looked next to him at Shane before back to Lori.

“Are we stayin or goin?” She asked, still looking at the Hunter before looking at her husband.

“We don’t have the fuel.” Rick said as he turned his head to the side to answer her.

“We hunker down for the night, okay? Rick- you, me, Kat and Daryl, we’re gonna sweep the building. We make sure we’re alone.” Shane said, looking between them.

“Okay.” Kat breathed, as Lori nodded.

Rick turned around and looked past his wife towards the group behind them. “The rest of you barricade those doors.” He said, pointing at the doors they had came in from.

The rest of the group walked to the front as Lori pointed to a room off to the side they could move equipment from to use as a wall.

Daryl, Kat, Rick and Shane continued forward through the cafeteria doors, Daryl first, aiming his crossbow around the room. The three followed in after him, looking around at all the dead bodies among the trash and overturned tables. The smell of death was heavy in this room, not that all the flies cared at all. The four fanned out and walked around the room. Kat noticed the bodies here were the same. They weren't bit, but someone had shot them anyway. Was this place attacked? They made their way through the room towards the back, where there was a stage with the curtain drawn. Daryl hopped up and walked across the stage. He pulled the curtain back, quickly scanning the area behind it. Nothing.

They went through the door on the other side of the cafeteria that led to the stairs so they could continue their sweep of the building as the others barricaded the doors.

Rick led the group to the second floor, each of them clearing rooms as they walked down the hallway. More rooms with more bodies, but no Walkers inside so far. Kat checked the room next to Daryl as he looked up to read the top of the door in front of him. 'Prayer and Meditation' it said at the top. He pushed the door open with his foot and aimed inside with his bow. It was clear as he looked in at the man, dead on the floor. He looked down at the writing that was engraved into the glass above the door knob. ‘Prayer Changes Things’.

Daryl scoffed. “Guess that didn’t work so well for you did it, hoss?” He said as he looked back at the man. He stopped for a second, the pieces finally clicking together in his head. The bodies he’d seen so far in this building weren’t Walkers, and he hadn't seen any bite wounds. But they all had died the same way. A bullet to the head. He finally realized what Kat had picked up on as soon as she saw the first body. He looked out of the room and down the hall to Kat who was checking the room next to him. She pulled the door shut and stepped back out before turning towards him and starting his way. This floor was clear.

Back downstairs, the group had managed to push a knocked over vending machine in front of the doors and piled various items on top of it. A light bulb that wasn’t screwed into the lamp on top fell to the ground and shattered as they heard a familiar growling noise outside the door. They all ducked down as the Walker came up to the door outside. Sophia started crying again as Lori put her finger to her lip, silently telling her to be quiet. Carl grabbed Sophia’s hand.

The Walker tried pulling on the wooden planks the vatos had used to board up the glass windows on the doors. It growled loudly when it couldn’t pull or push them away.

Carl put his finger to his lips before holding his hand up in front of him. “Shh. Okay? It’s okay.” He mouthed to Sophia. She nodded to him as she held his hand.

The Walker pulled on the boards and pushed against the doors a few more times, but once it figured out they wouldn’t budge, it gave up and walked away.

“Let’s go.” T-Dog mouthed to the group. They all got up and ran to the cafeteria.

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Kat was leaning against the wall next to the door in the cafeteria, Glenn on the other side of it. The group was spread out in front of her, all for Daryl, who was kneeling down by a dead body at the back of the room. Kat watched him as he looked at it, then walked over and kneeled over another, looking it up and down.

“Upstairs is our best bet. We’ve cleared a few rooms. We can barricade those if we have to.” Rick said. “We’ll be alright.”

“You mean it this time? Or are you lyin to us like all the times before?” Carol said from her seat in a chair with Sophia on her lap.

“That’s unfair, and no help at all.” Lori said as she looked down at the woman before looking at her husband.

“The hell happened?” Glenn asked as he looked ahead of him.

“What do you think? They got overrun.” Andrea said, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked out at the dead bodies all over the room.

Daryl, who was making his way back over to the group, scoffed.

“Something to say?” She said as she looked over at him.

“Yeah. How about observant.” Daryl said to her, annoyed.

“Observant.” Andrea nodded her head before looking back in front of her. “Big word from a guy like you. Three whole syllables.”

Kat rolled her eyes as Rick looked from Andrea to Daryl, most of the group doing the same, Rick half expecting for Daryl to blow up again.

“Walkers didn’t do this. Geeks didn’t show up till all this went down.” Daryl said, pointing his hand in a sweeping motion across the room as he looked at the bodies. “Somebody attacked this place. Killed all these people- took whatever they wanted.”

Kat smiled a little, nodding at him, as Rick stepped forward, kneeling down at one of the bodies. She thought she was the only one that noticed. She figured Shane or Rick would’ve picked up on something, being cops.

“They’re all shot in the head. Execution style. Y’all worried about Walkers?” Daryl said as he raised his eyebrows. “I’d be much more worried about the people who came and did all this.” He said, pointing to the bodies again as he came to stand in front of Rick. He slung his crossbow over his shoulder, making it come to rest at his back while he looked at Andrea.

“Get a dictionary.” He said, causing her to look over at him. “Look it up. Observant.” He said as he brought his finger to point at his head. Andrea looked away from him to the ground as he walked away.

Kat crossed her arms over her chest and brought her thumb up to her mouth. She bit down on her thumb nail as she smiled at Daryl when he walked past her. She looked at Rick, before she turned and walked out of the door.

Daryl could hear her coming up behind him, she wasn't trying to be quiet as he headed up the stairs.

“Judgmental bitch.” He said, without turning around.

“Can't judge a book by it's cover.” She said as she laughed, walking a few steps behind him. He was going in the direction of the room they would all be staying in tonight. Kat could hear the group head out of the cafeteria behind them.

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Later that evening, when everybody was situated in the room they would sleep in, Shane and Rick decided they would go look and see if there was anything left for them to have for dinner.

Shane walked through the open door to their room with a 30 ounce can of beans in his hand and Rick walked in with a box of cough drops.

“They ransacked the kitchen.” Shane said, walking into the room, looking at the can. “All we found is one can.” He said as he tossed it to Daryl, who was the only person in the room still standing. Everyone else had taken a seat on the floor at the back of the room. Daryl turned around and leaned his crossbow against the wall as he dug in his pocket before sitting down. Glenn got up from the floor to go and grab their paper plates before coming and sitting back at his spot.

“They hit the dispensary too. Tore the door off it's hinges. Took everything, except this.” Rick said as he handed the box to Lori, who took it in her hands and read the label.

“So we came back for cough drops and-” Daryl said, holding the can up so he could read it. “-Garbanzo beans.” He said as he shook his head. He set the can down between his legs as he flipped the can opener attachment on his Swiss Army knife out. Shane walked over to his bag.

“Is there any water?” Sophia asked from next to Carol, looking up at Rick before looking to Shane. He reached into his bag and pulled out an unopened bottle. He tossed it up in the air and caught it before he walked over to them.

“Just the one bottle I brought.” He said as he opened it and walked over to the girls. “Just a few sips, okay hun? Gotta make it last. Gotta go for everybody, okay?”

Rick peeked out of the blinds that were over the windows, looking out into the night while Shane walked back over to his bag. Kat watched Daryl work open the can as Dale leaned over from next to her and handed her a couple plates to pass down the line on their side of the room. Which consisted of her, Daryl, Dylan, Kaleb, Sam, Shane and Andrea.

“What else you got in there?” Andrea asked from her seat on the floor a few feet from Shane, who began looking through his bag.

He pulled out a snack sized bag of potato chips and shook them as he raised his eyebrows. He'd snatched several bags of them from the CDC.

“Salty snacks.” Glenn said, looking at the man, from his spot next to Dale.

Shane let out a small laugh. “Yep.” He said as he tossed one to the far side of the room to Carol. He began tossing more bags around the room as Daryl poured some beans on the plates around him before coming to his knees and pushing the can over to Glenn. He leaned back, scooting closer to Kat than he was before and sat down. He crossed a leg underneath him as he spread the other out in front of him and got comfortable.

“Courtesy of the CDC. I thought I'd be havin midnight snacks in my air conditioned room. Didn't know it'd be dinner.” Shane said as he looked at Daryl as the man slid him a plate. Glenn began scooping beans onto everyone else's plates on his side of the room, trying to make sure everyone had a little to eat. There weren't enough bags of chips for the whole group, so they were dividing them amongst themselves. Making sure that everyone that wanted some, got a few.

Shane leaned into his bag again. “And, uh...Last item.” He said as he pulled out a bottle of alcohol.

Daryl, who was sitting slightly catty-corner to him was eyeballing it. “Would ya like to share it?” He said to him as he was chewing on the beans in his mouth.

Shane held the bottle out to Daryl. “Seeing as how I owe you my life. Guess I, uh- So I'm gonna go ahead and be nice to you...from now on.” Shane said as Daryl took the bottle.

“I do think I earned the first swallow.” Daryl raised his eyebrows up briefly at Shane, putting the bottle on the floor in front of him as he took his Busse TG from it's sheath and started cutting the seal away from the top of the bottle.

“You guys go easy on that stuff. Let's not forget where we are.” Lori said from the other side of the small room.

Daryl looked over to her for a second. “Yes, ma'am.” He said, before going back to the bottle and working on the cork.

Dale got up from his seat between Dylan and Glenn, walking across the small room to Andrea with a plate of food in his hands. She was sitting on the floor on the opposite wall of everybody, by herself, just staring at the group. She barely looked up at the old man as he made his way to her. She was still angry with him for saving her. She didn't want this anymore.

Dale knelt down in front of her as he got closer. He held out her plate to her with a sad, apologetic smile. She took it from him, rolling her eyes at what would be her's and everyone else's supper for the night.

“You all right?” Dale asked her.

“Why wouldn't I be?” She started. “I'm spending the night in a building that stinks so badly of rotten bodies I wanna vomit up my guts, dining on condiments and hoping I don't get eaten by dead cannibal freaks before dawn. What's not to like?” She picked up one of the garbanzo beans as she finally looked at his face.

The room was small enough that the group heard them talking, most of them trying to ignore it and give them a bit of privacy as they ate their dinner. Rick glanced over his shoulder at them, though.

“Thank you, Dale.” Andrea said, rolling the bean around in her fingers as she brought it to her mouth.

The old man blinked a couple times before standing up and walking to the door. Kat followed him with her eyes. She felt bad for the old man. It may have been Andrea's decision to stay, but he just didn't want to lose anyone else, certainly not someone he cared about. Kat sure as hell wouldn't have let one of her brother's stay had they chose that path. It wasn't like her to just roll over and let death take her. To give up. She was fighter and would keep doing just that as long as she could. She would make sure her family would do the same. They were what kept her going.

Dale walked out into the hallway to the stairs where T-Dog was sitting on watch. He walked to the younger man and handed him another plate as he knelt down with his own supper, Andrea's words playing over in his mind. Was it guilt making his chest hurt?

“What's next?” Lori said as she stood up and walked over to Rick. “We need to decide.”

Rick turned to her from his spot at the window, looking at her fully before turning and looking at Shane, across the room from him. He shrugged his shoulders a bit.

Shane briefly looked around the room like it was obvious. “Fort Benning, Rick.” He said with raised eyebrows and a slight shrug. Rick nodded.

“Fort Benning.” Lori said, nodding at her husband. Rick gave her a small smile and a sigh before turning back to the man.

“I shoulda listened to you, Shane.” Rick said. “Would've saved us a lot of grief if I had...Jacqui would still be alive.”

“It was her choice, man. Do not take that on.” Shane said, shaking his head at his friend. Kat glanced at Andrea, who looked around the room with an annoyed look on her face as she leaned back against the wall she sat in front of.

“It was her choice. It was her decision to make, not yours. No more than it was with Jim.” Lori said, shaking her head at Rick. He stared at the ground as the two of them tried to convince him of that.

“All these people...” Glenn said, “Who'd have done something like this? Just...come in here and murder everybody.” Kaleb looked up at his sister next to him, the same time Sophia looked at Carol with a panicked expression. “Even all the old people. I mean, h-how sick is that?”

Shane looked at Glenn with wide eyes in an attempt to shut up him but he wasn't looking at the man.

Lori turned around and started walking over to Carl. “Is this something we need to be discussing right now?” She said, looking at Glenn with the same look Shane gave him, only he saw hers.

“Better if we, uh..” Shane said as he got up, looking at Rick. He jerked his head to the door. “All got some sleep, huh.”

Daryl looked to his side at Kat as she told Kaleb they would be fine for the night. The young boy crawled behind her to sit with his brothers.

Rick walked to his son, running a hand through his hair before he followed Shane to the door. “Glenn.” He said, jerking his head towards the hall, then nodding to Daryl and Kat to follow as well.

Andrea brought her knees to her chest as she crossed her arms over them. She rested her chin on top of them she watched most of the men and Kat walk outside.

“Hey.” Shane said, turning around in the hall and pointing behind Daryl, who was the last one out of the room. Daryl turned around and reached for the door, closing it behind them. The small group formed a semi-circle outside the door.

“Kids in there are terrified.” Shane said, looking at Glenn as soon as the click of the door shutting was heard in the hallway. “And the women.”

Kat let out a scoffing laugh. “Then what am I?” She said as she looked at Shane. He turned his eyes to her, giving her a bored look before he turned to Rick, who spoke up.

The sheriff gave her a brief smile. “Conditioned.”

“Guys, I'm really sorry.” Glenn said as he shook his head back and forth.

Rick rubbed at his tired eyes with one of his hands while putting the other on his hip before looking at the small group in front of him. “We're all rattled and exhausted. No one's thinkin clearly.” He said. Daryl took a swig from the bottle of alcohol he had before looking to Kat and handing it to her. “But we have to start. Our lives depend on it.” Rick continued. Daryl watched as Kat brought the bottle to her lips as he brought his hand up to wipe at his own. She took a small drink and handed him the bottle back.

“You're damn right.” Shane said, looking at the ground in front of them.. “We can't ever let our guard down again.” He said as he started walking towards the stairs to T-Dog and Dale. “Back at camp- havin us a fish fry- No one on watch...and people died...maybe didn't need to.” He reached the stairs and turned around, kneeling to the ground between T-Dog and Daryl, causing everyone to do the same. Daryl held the bottle out to T-Dog, who was across from him in the small circle that was forming. Dale stood on the stairs behind them as they formed a plan.

“Fort Benning...That's the consensus.” Rick said, looking around the group.

“Anywhere but here.” T-Dog said after taking a drink.

“We'll run out of gas before we even make it out of Atlanta.” Kat said.

Rick nodded to her, she was standing next to him, Glenn on her other side. “We're wastin fuel drivin so many vehicles, we need to lose a few. We'll siphon the gas outta whatever cars we don't take. Should get us free of the city.”

“That'd be a start.” Shane said as he licked his lips, looking towards Kat. He shut his eyes. Why did he still think she was hot after she nearly knocked him out? “Let's just try to get a little shut eye tonight, okay?” Everyone nodded. “T, I'll spell ya in an hour.” He said as he looked at the man, letting him know he'd take over for him soon. T-Dog nodded as everyone got to their feet. He handed the bottle to Daryl as they walked past and back to the room for the night.

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“I guess I'm losin hope that you can hear me. But there's always that chance, isn't there? That slim chance. It's all about slim chances now. I tried to do everything right, keep people safe. I tried, Morgan. ..I tried. Our group's smaller now. We lost another, day before last. It was her choice. I won't say I blame her. She lost faith.” Rick said into his walkie talkie as he stood up. He walked to the edge of the building, resting his hand on the waist-high concrete wall there, that went around the whole rooftop. “The CDC was a dead end. I met a man there...a scientist. He told me somethin...He told me.....It doesn't matter.” Rick said as he turned away. “What matters is we're movin on. Atlanta's done. We're gonna try for Fort Benning...We're facing a long, hard journey, maybe even harder than I can imagine. But it can't be harder than our journey's been so far. Can it? 125 miles- that's what lies ahead. And I'm trying hard not to lose faith. I can't. If I do, the others...my family, my wife, my son...There's just a few of us now. So we've got to stick together, fight for each other...be willin to lay down our lives for each other if it comes to that. It's the only chance we've got...Be careful out there, Morgan. I hope you and Duane are okay. Stay off the road. Keep movin. Keep your eyes open. I don't know, just- just be safe...Maybe we'll see you in Fort Benning someday. Rick, signing off.” He looked out at the city one last time before walking back to the door to the stairs. He'd walked to the roof top of the building they were searching.

He took off his button up sheriff's shirt and laid it in the pile of clothes inside of Carol's Cherokee after deciding they would take that car. He'd given everyone tasks to do as they prepared to move out. Most of the group was searching the building Rick had come down from for food or anything else they could use. The rest of them went about, siphoning the gas out of the cars they were leaving behind. When they were done, they all helped in moving everyone's stuff into the vehicles they were taking. Dylan helped Daryl get Merle's beloved Triumph Bonneville 650 Chopper down from the back of his truck, deciding he would take it instead. His truck was a gas hog and was about to bite it anyway, the bike would be much more fuel efficient.

Everyone gathered around the cars, picking who would ride in what as they started filing in. Daryl looked at Kat and revved the bike's engine as he passed her. She gave him a smirk as she got into the driver's side of her Avenger. She wasn't leaving this baby behind. Dylan nodded to him as he went past and climbed in the passenger side, their two younger brothers getting in the backseat. Daryl pulled his black, sleeveless leather vest out of his bag and put it on over his cut off flannel as he sat on the bike, walking it to the front.

Shane leaned against the back of the RV, looking longingly at Lori as she kissed Rick before she got into Carol's Cherokee. Rick turned and looked at the man, giving him a smile before getting in the driver's seat. Shane returned it with a forced one of his own.

“Son, let's saddle up.” Dale shouted to Shane from the front of the RV, before he climbed up the stairs through the door.

The rest of the group piled into the vehicles. Dale's RV, Carol's Cherokee, Kat's Avenger and Merle's motorcycle.

Dale started the Winnebago's engine as he waited for Daryl to walk the bike the rest of the way to the front, leading the convoy, and they started their way out of the city.

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A couple hours had passed since their bathroom break for the ones not in the RV. Kat had parked her car next to the RV at their last stop. She pulled in front of Dale when they started off again. She smiled to herself, watching the angel wings on the back of Daryl's vest as he weaved all over the road in front of her, crossing from one side of the center line to the other. Obviously enjoying not having to worry about any oncoming traffic from the other side. Kat looked out over the field next to them as she rested her arm on her door and leaned her head against her hand.

Carl was looking out at the same sight she was from the backseat of the Cherokee. Sophia was sitting next to him with her head resting on her mother's shoulder.

“I was just thinkin about our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carl.” Lori said from the passenger seat with a smile on her face.

Rick looked over at her from the driver's seat as he let out a laugh, lightly slapping his hand on the wheel, remembering something just between the two of them.

“I don't remember that.” Carl said, looking up at the two.

“No, you wouldn't. You were just a baby.” Lori said as she turned her head to the side to speak to him. “And besides, we never made it past Fort Worth.”

“No, you got sick. I never knew a baby could throw up so much.” Rick said as he laughed again.

“Ick.” Carl said as Sophia made a face.

“Yeah, ick.” Lori laughed. “The doctor in Texas said you'd live. Then we turned around and drove home.” She said, looking at Rick before returning her eyes to the back of the RV in front of them.

“Well that sucks.” Carl said from the backseat.

“No, it was a good trip.” Lori said as she reached across and patted Rick's thigh.

“The best.” He said as he grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze before putting it back on the wheel. He glanced behind him at Carl with a smile.

“Can we go see it? The Grand Canyon?” He asked. “I'd like to.”

“I would too.” Sophia said. “Can we go?”

“We'd never go without you and your mom.” Rick said, looking behind him. “That's a promise.” Lori reached behind her and put her hand on Carol's knee. The older woman smiled and covered it with her own.

In the RV in front of them, Shane was sitting at the small table behind the driver's seat, cleaning his handgun while Andrea sat in front of him, curiously watching. He looked up, seeing her studying his hands.

“Looks complicated.” She gave him a smile.

“The trick is gettin all these pieces back together the same way.” He smiled. “I could clean yours, show you how.” He looked at her again before leaning over to the gun bag next to him and pulling out her handgun. He pulled the barrel back, making sure the chamber was clear, before letting it slide back into place.

“Oh, yeah.” He said, with a satisfied look on his face as he held it out in front of him, aiming down the small walkway to the back of the RV. He brought it back and looked down at it before looking to Andrea. “It's a sweet piece.”

She put her elbows on the table, resting a hand against her neck and leaned forward. “It was a gift, from my father.” She smiled. “He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves.”

“Smart man, your father.” He said before looking back at the gun. He wasn't sure what else to say to her so he went back to the one thing he knew- guns. “So look, it's a- it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds.” He said as he ejected the magazine and showed it to her.

“Oh, jeez.” Dale said from the front, causing Shane to turn around.

“Aw, no.” Glenn said from the passenger seat. Shane got up and turned around, leaning between the two men as they looked out of the front of the RV.

They had made it to the highway that would take them further through the state towards Fort Benning. But they weren't about to get any farther. Kat slowed to a stop behind Daryl as Dale stopped the RV. The road ahead of them was filled with abandoned cars on either side of the highway. Even the grassy median had cars and trucks in it.

“Shit.” Kat said as she watched Daryl turn the bike around. She put her car in park and looked at him through her open window, sighing as he went by before she looked ahead of her again. There was no way they were getting through there.

Daryl rode the bike past her car and stopped next to the driver's window of the RV.

“See a way through?” Dale shouted over the Triumph’s engine.

Daryl looked behind him over his shoulder before looking back to the old man. He nodded a little and jerked his head in the direction of the jammed cars before riding past him, around the RV, to get back in front of them.

Glenn looked at the map in front of them as Daryl made his way back to the front. “Uh, maybe we should just go back.” He said as he looked at Dale before looking back down. “There's an interstate bypass-”

“We can't spare the fuel.” Dale said.

They all looked on as Daryl helped weave them through the cars they could fit past.

“Jeez.” Glenn said as he looked around. Some of the cars were on their sides or completely flipped over. There were dead bodies in some of the cars they looked into as they drove past. “Can we get through here?”

He was answered when The RV's engine started sputtering and smoking. Just in time, too. Daryl had stopped when the area ahead was too packed with cars for them to fit through. Everyone put their vehicles in park and got out when they all came to a stop.

“I said it. Didn't I say it?” Dale said as he walked out of the door, around to the front of the RV. “A thousand times. Dead in the water.”

“Problem, Dale?” Shane asked as he made his way around the front with the rest of the group. The Carsens and Daryl, who were in the front of the convoy, walked back to the RV and joined them.

“Well the engine's fuckin smoking, so I would assume so.” Kat said as she crossed her arms over her chest. She was irritated and not in the mood. Could anything just go right?

“Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-” He stopped what he was about to say as he looked at where they were...surrounded by cars. “Okay, that was dumb.” Surely they would be able to find what he needed somewhere on this highway. Daryl walked to the back of the car next to them and started picking through what he could from the open hatch.

“If you can't find a radiator hose here...” Shane said.

“There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find.” Daryl said as he pulled a pink backpack out from the car and started looking through it as Kat walked up next to him, looking inside the car. He let it go, letting it fall to the ground when there were only small childrens clothes and baby stuff inside.

“I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start.” T-Dog said, walking to the side of the car Kat and Daryl were at, looking out at all of the abandoned vehicles.

“Maybe some water.” Carol said as she held Sophia at her side, the girl still clutching her doll.

“Food.” Glenn said as he turned and looked at her.

“This is a graveyard.” Lori said, bringing everyone's attention to her. Daryl stopped reaching for another bag inside the car and looked back at her. “I don't know how I feel about this.”

“Yeah...Well I think we need their stuff a little more than they do.” Kat said, tilting her head to the dead couple in the front seat of the car her and Daryl were going through the back of. The two of them just turned around and went back to what they were doing. Most of the group nodded.

“All right, all right. Here we go.” T-Dog said as he walked back towards the RV to grab the fuel cans.

“Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can.” Shane said. Rick nodded to everyone as they disbanded. He put the bag of guns on the trunk of a car and pulled out one of the rifles, deciding he would be on look out while they looked around.

“Kids, don't look.” Carol said as she, Sophia and Carl followed Lori past a few cars, most having rotting corpses still inside.

Glenn walked back to the front of the RV after Dale had sent him inside to grab some screw drivers. “Hey. Which one?” He asked as he held out two to the man.

“The Flathead.” Dale said, picking it up. “Radiator hose clamp is always a Flathead.” He said, pointing to it with the screwdriver. “Here, you do it.” He said, holding the screwdriver back out to Glenn. The young man took it and handed Dale the Phillips. He traded the young man the screwdriver for a dark blue bandana he was using as a rag. “Learn something.” He said as he patted Glenn on the back before walking away. Glenn started unscrewing the clamp with a cough as the hot smoke blew in his face.

Rick looked around them through the binoculars as Dale came to him at the back of the RV. He handed them to Dale as the old man turned and climbed up the ladder to the top of the Winnebago.

Several yards away, Daryl put his bolt in his mouth to hold it while he used a crowbar to open the gas hatch of a truck for T-Dog. He set down one of the fuel cans and a hose as he started siphoning gas from the tank. Daryl loaded his bow and walked off in the direction of Kat as she went through a car with Kaleb. He walked past Lori, Carol and their kids on his way to siphon gas out of the car the two Carsens were next to.

Carol was going through a suitcase in the back of a car when she held up a red sundress, smiling when she saw it was her size. She held it over herself and looked down at the fabric. She looked up to see Lori looking at her before she went back to the tape recorder she was holding, checking it for batteries.

“Ed never let me wear nice things like this.” Carol said as she put the dress back down in the suitcase before closing it. “We're gonna need clothes.” She said as she pulled it out.

Lori picked up a large flashlight she found as she walked past Carol, putting her hand on the woman's shoulder as she went by to get to the back of the car.

“Hey, Carl.” Lori said, causing both kids to look at her. “Always within my sight, okay?” The boy nodded at her.

“You too, Sophia.” Carol said looking at her daughter, earning the same response.

“Ew, gross.” Daryl heard Kaleb say as he got closer. The, now, youngest Carsen was nudging a dead body on the ground with his foot.

Kat looked over her shoulder to see what her brother was ew-ing at behind her. “Kaleb, stop.” She said as she pulled out another book bag from the back seat, setting it on the roof of the car as she unzipped it. Kaleb walked over to the trunk and crawled on it, sitting down. Kat heard footsteps coming up on her right and was greeted by the sight of Daryl as he let a gas can fall to the ground at his feet at the back of the car. He pulled open the gas hatch of the Buick Lacrosse they were at and unscrewed the cap, sticking the hose inside.

He watched as Kat pulled out the articles of clothing from the bag, laying them out on the car's roof while she shook her head, obviously frustrated.

“Ya all right?” Daryl asked after he took the hose from his lips and put it into the can, letting the fuel drain into it.

Kat titled her head and looked at him with a sigh, not even bothering to answer him. He nodded his head as he watched her go back to he bag. She pulled it off the roof and threw it on the ground as she reached back into the car for a suitcase.

Shane had walked off with Glenn, going with him to find a matching radiator hose. Rick walked further in front of the RV, looking out at the group and all the cars as Andrea walked by him. She put her hand on her stomach as she walked back to the RV, feeling sick seeing all the loss of life around her.

Rick looked behind him up to Dale on top of the RV. The man had the binoculars in his hand about to raise them to his eyes again. “It's all good.” The old man said.

Andrea sat down at the table inside the RV, looking at the parts of Shane's gun laying across the table. “Okay.” She breathed as she started picking up the parts. Trying to reassemble a gun would surely take her mind off of the things around her. “All right.”

“Come ooon.” Glenn said as he was trying to unscrew a hose from a moving van he was at. Shane stood to the side of Glenn, facing behind them when he stopped and stared at the large truck in front of him. Lipsey Spring Water. He set his shotgun down, letting it rest against the back of the truck as he walked to the side of it. He grabbed the bottom of the side hatch and lifted it up, unveiling the crates inside that were filled with large, 5 gallon water jugs. Shane stepped back and took in the welcome sight.

“Glenn.” He said as he looked at all of the jugs. The young man looked back at him. “Were we short on water?” He said as he stepped forward, quickly unscrewing the cap from one of the jugs. He pulled it off and threw it behind him as he let the cool water fall onto his head and down his back. Glenn and Shane both laughed.

“Hey, same me some!” Glenn said.

“It's like being baptized, man.” Shane said as the water flowed down. He opened his mouth, drinking down the fresh water.

Dale smiled from the roof of his RV as he looked at the men. He turned around, continuing he and Rick's watch duty. He squinted his eyes a bit when he thought he saw movement off in the distance between the cars back behind the RV. He brought the binoculars to his eyes.

Rick, seeing the man looking, brought the rifle to his shoulder as he looked through the scope in the same direction. His sights landed on a single Walker. He took his eye off the scope as he pulled on the bolt handle, making sure there was a round in the chamber before putting it back down. He brought the scope back to his eye as he steadied the rifle against his shoulder and prepared for the shot. He took aim at the shambling corpse when another stepped out from the overturned van behind it. It's only two. He thought as he put his finger on the trigger. He was about to pull it when he and Dale both looked further behind them, seeing a large group of Walkers making their way through the cars. There had to have been at least 80, if not more.

“Oh, Christ.” Rick said as he lowered the rifle. He spun around and ducked behind the flipped car he was next to as he crouched down and made his way towards the group. Dale dropped to his knees on top of the RV before laying down, getting as low as he could.

Rick ran through the cars towards his wife. When she was within ear shot, he whispered to her as loudly as he could. “Lori, under the cars.”

She spun around, looking at him from the back of the van she was going through.

“Carl, Sophia, get down now.” Rick said, pointing to the ground as he ran to the car next to them. Both kids looked back, seeing the Walkers, and followed him.

“Carl and Sophia. Sophia.” Carol was whispering to the kids, quickly coming up to Lori.

“Shhh, shhh.” Lori said, covering the woman’s mouth with her hand. “Get under.” She said as pushed the woman down and ushered her under the van with her.

Rick got to the ground as he scooted himself under a car. He saw Carl and Sophia crawl under the two vehicles across from him.

Glenn who was still working on unscrewing the radiator hose was stopped when Shane yanked on his arm, pulling him and tossing him to the ground behind the van.

“Ow.” The young man said as he hit the asphalt. He moved underneath the van as Shane knelt to the ground and rolled under the van, pushing himself right up next to him. “What?” Glenn asked.

“Shhh.” Shane said as he looked ahead of him. Glenn finally seeing the dozens and dozens of feet coming at them.

Kat saw movement from the corner of her eye and looked towards the RV past Daryl. “Oh shit. Kaleb!” She whispered, grabbing her brother's arm and shoving him into the backseat of the car they were still at. Daryl turned around, seeing all of the Walkers making their way towards them. Kat looked a few cars down from her and to Dylan and Sam. “Dylan! Down!” She whispered to him, pointing at the ground, signaling him to get low. Kat shut the door to the backseat as quietly as she could before she climbed into the front, shutting hers. “Lock the doors and get on the floor.”

Andrea was still inside the RV messing around with Shane's gun as the smell of death suddenly came wafting through the open windows of the RV. She looked up, seeing all of the Walkers make their way past the Winnebago. “Oh, God.” She gasped as she ducked down, getting off the seat at the table and onto the floor.

Carol looked over to the car her daughter was beneath as Sophia started to cry, bringing on her mother's own tears. Carol put her hand over her mouth.

“Shh, shh.” Lori said as she put her arm over Carol, resting her hands on top of hers. Lori looked straight ahead of her, towards Rick. He was looking back at her with his hand raised, as if to say stay quiet. “It's okay.” He mouthed back to her.

The Walkers were yards away now as T-Dog finally saw them. He was crouching down but not sure which way to go as he made his way to a car in front of him. He wrapped his hands around the open car door as he ducked down, trying to use it as cover as a Walker came closer. The corpse looked in his direction and he panicked, quickly ducking down. In his rush, he sliced his forearm open on the jagged glass of the broken out window of the car door he'd been holding on to. He brought his other hand up to put pressure on the wound as blood squirted out of his arm, onto his shirt. The Walkers were getting closer. He got up, running to a car further away and ducking behind it.

By now, the Walkers were at the cars Rick and the children were under as they walked past, not knowing dinner was just at their feet. Carl scooted more to the middle of the truck he was under as they shambled past. Rick put his hand up as the boy looked at his father across from him. Rick brought his index finger to his lips, looking between his son and the little girl under the car next to Carl's.

Andrea, still on the floor of the RV, was startled when she saw a decomposing hand reach up through the open door of the RV and take a hold of the wall. She quickly grabbed the rag and gun parts she had been fumbling around with and scooted to the Winnebago's bathroom as the Walker pulled itself into the RV. She pulled the flimsy, fold-away door of the bathroom closed as the Walker looked around the front of the RV before turning towards the small walkway.

Dylan and Sam were on the ground under two cars behind Kat and Kaleb, watching the corpses slowly get closer. They all had been farthest from the RV, so had a full view of the what was happening in front of them. The boys could see Lori and Carol on the ground under a van a little ways away from them, and further ahead could see Carl, Sophia and Rick on the ground. Shane and Glenn were obstructed by cars and they didn't know where T-Dog was. Dylan hadn't seen where Daryl had disappeared to in his haste to get Sam under a truck next to him before he slid under a van. The older Carsen mouthed “Quiet.” As he heard Sam moving around, grabbing his Glock from his waistband.

In the RV bathroom, Andrea continued to fumble with the different pieces, trying to put the handgun back together. The Walker was starting to make it's way down the small walkway that separated the front part of the RV to the small room in the back. And bridging the gap, the bathroom Andrea was hiding in. She could hear the Walker right outside the door, snarling and moaning as it crept past, checking the back room for a meal. It looked around, not seeing any promise of food and turned around, starting back down the walkway. It would've quietly made it's way back out of the RV, had Andrea not just dropped a part of the gun on the tile floor of the RV's bathroom.

“Shit.” She whispered as she closed her eyes.

At the sound of the gun metal hitting the floor, the Walker, that was now at the door about to walk back outside, turned back around. It began growling at the sound it had just heard, looking around the RV again.

Outside, T-Dog staggered to another car, trying to escape the Walkers that were slowly coming closer. He was getting woozy from the blood-loss as he made his way around another car, leaving a trail of fresh blood in his wake.

Andrea could hear the Walker outside of the bathroom door again. Sitting on the ground in the tiny bathroom, she put her feet up on the folding door, holding it in place. The Walker looked the door up and down. There had been a noise behind this wall. It brought it's hands up and started banging against the door, pushing it in. Andrea started screaming as the thin material the door was made out of started folding at its joint. She pushed her legs out farther trying to keep the door shut as the Walker kept fighting it's way in. No matter how hard she pushed against the door, it still opened slightly with the force from the undead body trying to get in. And now, with the Walker's arm reaching through the gap, it wasn't going to close again.

Dale, who was still on the top of the RV, heard Andrea's screams. He crawled the couple feet to the small open window that was on the roof of the RV, right above the bathroom. He looked down at her through the screen, seeing the predicament she was in. The window was much too small to pull her up through, it served only as ventilation in the small bathroom. There wouldn't have been time for that anyway with the Walker being so close and the door not having any sort of lock. Andrea looked up at Dale through the window. He dug in his pocket for the screwdriver Glenn had handed back to him earlier. Pulling it out of his pocket, he jabbed at the screen over the window, slicing through it. He held the Phillips out to Andrea, who held her hand up. Dale dropped it the couple inches into her open palm. She quickly adjusted how she was holding it, now as a weapon, while she tried to keep the Walker at bay.

T-Dog made his way around another car but was stopped as a lone Walker cut off his path. Drawn in by the fresh blood the man was covered in, it began shambling towards him. T-Dog was backing up, keeping his eyes on the Walker, though that was a mistake. Not paying attention to where he was stepping, he tripped over a bag behind him and landed on his back. He scooted away from the Walker with the strength he had left, before his back hit the truck behind him. This is it. He thought as he watched the corpse come closer.

Daryl, with his Busse in hand, peeked out around the truck the Walker had just passed on his way to T-Dog. He had seen the bleeding man trying to get away from his position at the back of the group with the Carsens. He crouched down and snuck up behind the Walker. He quickly set his crossbow down on the hood of the car next to them as he wrapped his now free hand around the Walkers neck, holding its head in place. He jammed his Busse into the back of the Walker's skull and fell to the ground with it in front of T-Dog. Daryl looked up at the man across from him as he yanked the blade from the corpse's head. T-Dog looked back at him with wide eyes as he took deep breaths.

In the RV, Andrea decided to stand up at the same time the Walker slammed itself into the door one more time. She quickly got to her feet and put a hand on the Walker's shoulder. She raised the screwdriver and let out a scream as she pushed the corpse back into the wall, sending the point of the Phillips through it's eye socket. Blood splattered on her face and chest. She stabbed it a few more times before letting it fall to the floor of the walkway, her on top of it. She stabbed it again, leaving the screwdriver there as she scooted into the back room and cried, blood dripping down her face and neck.

“Shh.” Daryl said as he put his finger to his lips. The Walkers that were leading the larger group were closer to them now. He got up and grabbed T-Dog by the legs, pulling the man towards him so he was lying down. T-Dog, who was too weak to protest, let the man do whatever he was going to. Daryl let T-Dog's legs go and turned to grab the Walker he had just killed. He picked it up and laid it on top of T, covering his body. He crouched down and walked to the car T-Dog had been propped up against. Leaning into the open driver's side door, he grabbed the dead body that was there and pulled it out of the car, letting it fall on top of his body and he positioned it over himself. And not a moment too soon, as the large group of Walkers approached. They began walking right past the hidden men, not being able to smell them over the stench of the rotting corpses, just like them.

Rick kept his eyes on the children next to him as the last few Walkers at the back of the group made their way past the cars they were under, as they mindlessly followed the ones in front. Everyone stayed where they were for a couple minutes, waiting until they didn't hear or see any more walking corpses.

Daryl threw the rotting body off of himself as he got to his hands and knees. He leaned over and pushed the Walker he'd placed on T-Dog off to the side of the man. He grabbed T by his shirt and pulled him into a sitting position. He grabbed the red handkerchief hanging from his back pocket and threw it in the man's hand, urging him to press it to the wound on his arm, that was trickling blood.

Sophia was about to crawl out from under the truck she was under when a Walker appeared from around the overturned car behind a truck. She let out a shriek as it growled at her and she scooted back under the car. But the Walker had seen her, heard her, and knew where she was. It dropped to the ground and started to crawl under the car as she scooted to the other side.

Carol started to sob under her's and Lori's hands as she watched the Walker get closer and closer to her daughter.

“Shh, shh.” Lori said.

Sophia started to scream as the Walker reached it's hand out toward her.

Rick grabbed the rifle on the ground next to him as he scooted out from under his car.

Sophia made her way out from her hiding spot as her screams drew in another Walker. She scooted under the guard rail and made her way down the steep hill on the other side as the Walker got up from the ground and made it's way around the car with the other. The two corpses crawled over the rail and started after her as she ran into the woods.

Rick, with the rifle in hand, began crouching through the cars as he made his way to the side of the road. He hopped over the guard rail, losing his footing on the steep hill as he rolled down it. He lost the rifle in the tumble, but had no time to look for it as he quickly got to his feet. He took off in the direction the little girl had gone with the two zombies on her heels.

“Lori.” Carol sobbed as she got out from under the van. Lori had made her way to Carl already and was walking towards the guard rail with him when Carol ran to her. “There's two Walkers after my baby.” She sobbed.

“Shh, shh.” Lori said trying to calm her, as the woman ran to the rail. Lori wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders as she came up behind her and covered her mouth, trying to keep her quiet. The rest of the group had come out of their hiding places and were gathering around.

“Are you alright?” Kat said as she put her hand on Sam's shoulder as they made their way to the group. He nodded at her as they came up to the others.

“What happened?” She whispered to Lori as she saw her in her position, wrapped around a crying Carol.

“Sophia. Rick went after her.” She nodded into the woods. Kat looked into the forest along with everyone else.

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Rick was further into the forest now and could hear Sophia's sobs as he came up on them, seeing the two corpses running after her as fast as they could. He could see the direction she was going in and decided he would cut her off as he continued. And he ran.

Weaving through the trees, Rick could see the two Walkers as he ran a few yards away. He looked in the direction they were still going, knowing the little girl wouldn't be far. He pushed himself faster, towards a small open area. Sophia had just reached the area he was aiming for as she turned to look at the Walkers a few yards behind her. She tripped over the root of a tree and fell to the ground. She quickly got to her feet and launched herself into a sprint again, but ran into Rick as he grabbed her. She gasped at the sudden contact.

“Shh, shh!” Rick said as he held her. He knelt down and held her back from him as he quickly looked her over. “Are you all right? Are you okay?”

“Shoot them!” She said, leaning over and reaching for his Colt Python in the holster hanging at his hip.

Rick pushed her back, “No. No! Those walkers on the road would hear it. Then it wouldn't be just two, it'd be hundreds. Come here. Come on.” He said as he put an arm under her legs and lifted her up, cradling her to him. He turned around and ran farther into the trees.

A few minutes later, they came to a creek and he put her down at the embankment. “All right, just hold here. You stay there. Wait.” He said as he jumped down into the shallow water. He turned around and held his arms out to her. “Come on.” She looked around before she came closer, letting him lift her down. He held her to him as he looked around the creek. Off to the side, a few feet away he saw some fallen trees, the branches providing cover in the water. He ran over to them and put her down in front of the small shelter.

“Sophia, you have to do exactly as I say.” He said as he looked at her, bending down to be at her eye level. He held his hand out to the branches. “Hide in there. Squeeze in tight. I'll draw them away from you.”

“No, no, don't leave me.” She started crying.

“Listen, listen, listen, listen.” Rick said, putting his hands on her arms. “They don't get winded. I do. I can only deal with them one at a time. I wouldn't be able to protect you.” He said, she nodded her head at him. He put his hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes. “This is how we both survive. You understand?” She nodded at him again as she held her doll to her chest. “Okay? Go, go, go, go.” He said as he lightly pushed her into the small cover. He looked in the direction the Walkers were, not seeing them yet, as she got as far back as she could. “If I don't make it back, run back to the highway, back to the others straight the way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder.” He said as he pointed to his shoulder and backed away from her hiding spot. She nodded at him once again. He looked up, hearing the Walkers getting closer now as they made their way to him. They stopped at the high embankment, it was a good 4 feet into the creek below at the part he was standing in front of now.

“Come on!” Rick yelled, bending down and splashing water in their direction. “You ugly son of a bitch. Come on!” He said as he stepped closer. One of the Walkers took a step forward, falling into the creek. Rick jumped back as it fell into the water. It started to get up right away. “Come on!” He said as he started running down the creek, leading the Walkers in the other direction. The other, that was still up on the ground at the other side of the creek, ran after him from it's side. “Come on! Come on!” He shouted again, trying to keep them focused on him. He tripped over a rock on the creek bed and fell to his knees in the water. He got to his feet as quick as he could and continued to lead them away, shouting at them again.

After a couple minutes, Sophia, no longer hearing Rick, slowly crawled out from the branches and started walking towards the embankment.

Rick had led the Walkers further into the forest, away from the creek. He was leaning his back against a tree, trying to catch his breath as one of the Walkers slowly made his way towards him, looking around for where it's prey had went. Rick held a large rock in his hands, lifting it up as he heard the Walker getting closer behind him. The second one was slowly starting down the same path, as Rick came out from behind the tree and hit the Walker in the face, sending it to the ground. He knelt down over it and began pounding the rock into it's head until it stopped moving. He got to his feet as the other Walker made it's way towards him. He threw the rock at it, hitting it between the eyes and like the other, it fell to the ground. Rick walked over to it, picking up the rock again. He got down on his knees next to it as he took a deep breath. He raised the rock high above his head and smashed it down onto the Walker's face.

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Lori was sitting on top of the trunk of a car, Carol standing in front of her. She was rubbing her hand across Carol's back, soothing her. Shane and Daryl had both climbed up on a couple cars and were standing atop the higher vantage points keeping watch. Kat sat on the guard rail next to her brothers as they waited for Rick to come back. It felt like it had been almost an hour by now when they heard rustling coming from the trees.

“Lor.” Someone quietly shouted, causing the rest of the group to look over. “Lori!” Rick shouted, louder as he got closer.

“We're here.” She quietly shouted back as everyone got up and walked to the guard rail.

“Thank God.” He said as he scrambled up the steep hill to them. Carol looked at him, pulling her eyebrows together. Where was her daughter?

Lori grabbed Rick's hand as she helped him over the guard rail. He stood up straight and looked around, not seeing the little girl. Carol looked behind him, hoping Sophia would have been coming up the hill after him, but when she looked back at Rick's confused face, she could see that wasn't going to be happening.

“Where's Sophia?” Rick asked. Carol looked at him as she started to cry. “She's not back?”

Carol let out a sob as she fell to her knees. Rick ran his hand through his hair watching the woman. When he had went back to where he left Sophia, she was gone. So he headed back to the highway, thinking she would already be here.

Lori and Andrea knelt down with Carol, holding the woman as more sobs shook her body. Andrea pulled her to her chest and held her as Lori stood back up to grab Carl, who was getting upset at the loss of another friend.

“I'll go back.” Rick said as Lori looked at him.

“I'm coming with you.” Kat said as she stepped forward, putting her hand on the distraught woman's shoulder. Carol reached up and covered Kat's hand with hers as she let out another sob. Kat walked towards Rick as Dylan took over her spot next to Carol.

Daryl hopped down from the car he was on top of. “Doubt any a you know how to track.” His skills were going to come in handy.

“I can.” Kat said as she looked at him when he came closer. “A little.” She shrugged her shoulders, tilting her head. She knew enough to go after somebody if she needed to. And with all her years in the woods with Phil, she'd picked up a few things. But she'd soon find out Daryl's tracking abilities could blow hers right out of the water.

“All right. Kat, Daryl...Glenn and Shane- come with me. The rest of you just keep a look out.” Rick said as he climbed back over the guard rail.

“Hang tight, y'all.” Shane said as he stepped closer, his Mossberg 590A1 shotgun resting on his shoulder.

Kat jumped over the guard rail, followed by Daryl when she came up to Rick's side as they started down the steep hill. “Take us to where you last saw her.”

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“You sure this is the spot?” Daryl asked as he peered into the fallen trees over the creek and embankment.

Rick walked closer to him. “I left her right here.” He said, holding his hand out over the branches. “I drew the Walkers way off in that direction up the creek.” He said as he pointed on the path he had taken.

“Without a paddle- seems where we've landed.” Daryl said as he looked around.

“She was gone by the time I got back here.” Rick said, walking closer to him again. “I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder.” He said as he pointed in the opposite direction of where he'd led the Walkers.

“Daryl.” Kat said from where Rick had pointed, she nodded to the ground where they had jumped into the creek from, pointing out shoe tracks that were smaller than the rest. Daryl walked over to her, splashing the ankle high water as he went. He stood next to her and looked at the ground up the embankment. It was less steep here, it would've been easier for her to crawl up the embankment on her own. And sure enough, there were small footprints in the soft ground and he could see where she had pulled herself up.

“Hey, Short Round, why don't you step off to one side? You're muckin up the trail.” Daryl said with a sweeping motion of his arm to Glenn, who was standing right at the top of the slope they had come down. Glenn looked down at the ground he was referring to and stepped away.

“Assuming she knows her left from her right.” Shane said from a few feet next to the young Asian man.

“Shane, she understood me fine.” Rick said, frustrated, making Shane look back down at him, still in the creek.

“Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two Walkers. Gotta wonder how much of what ya said stuck.”

“Got clear prints right here.” Daryl said from his and Kat's spot. He was slightly bent over, looking at the scuffs in the muddy slope. Shane walked over towards him. “She did like you said, headed back to the highway.” Daryl said as he stood up straight and looked back at Rick, who started over to them. Daryl made a whirling motion with his index finger as he raised his hand in the air. “Let's spread out, make our way back.”

Shane leaned over and stuck out his hand to Daryl as he pulled the man back up the slope. “Let's go, she couldn't have gone far.”

Daryl turned around and stuck his hand out to Kat to help her back up as Shane did the same to Rick. “Hey, we gonna find her.” Shane said to him. “She'll be tuckered out hidin in a bush somewhere.” The five of them turned around and let Daryl lead them on Sophia's trail through the forest.

Several yards later they made their way to a small clearing among all the trees. Fallen leaves littered the ground, making her trail visible. Daryl walked a few more feet until he stopped and knelt down, propping himself up with his crossbow and a hand on his other knee, he looked at the ground. Everyone stopped, gathering around behind him. Kat came up beside him to look at the path. She could see an obvious shuffle in the leaves. The straight path Sophia had been taking, went off to the right, further into the woods again. Shane came up beside her and squatted down next to her, across from Daryl.

“She was doin just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going.” Daryl said. He took his hand off his knee and pointed from the ground in front of him, into the woods. “She veered off that way.” He said as he rested his arm on his knee again. Everyone looked towards the trees.

“Why would she do that?” Glenn asked from behind him.

“Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off.” Shane said, looking from the trees to Daryl.

“Walker?” Glenn asked.

Daryl shook his head a little as he scanned the ground in front of them. “I don't see any other footprints. Just hers.”

“She was already scared. She didn't have to see anything. She could've heard something up ahead she didn't like and didn't wanna go that way.” Kat said as she stood between Shane and Daryl, looking at the ground again.

Shane looked up at her before looking back down at the trail. “So what do we do?” He looked back at Rick. “All of us press on?””

“No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking.” Rick said as he looked between the two men. Shane got to his feet. “Let em know we're on her trail doin everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm.”

“I'll keep em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep em occupied.” Shane said, nodding at Rick. He looked at Glenn. “Come on.”

Daryl got to his feet as Shane and Glenn walked away. He pointed into the woods and started on the little girl's trail again, with Rick and Kat behind him.

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Shane was using Carol's Cherokee to push an SUV out of the way on the road. Andrea had cleaned up and changed into different clothes and was helping him. She had the door to the SUV open and was holding onto the wheel, steering it into the grassy median as Shane pushed. Dale nodded as the SUV came to a stop, hitting another car, and Shane backed the Cherokee up.

Carol who was still standing by the guard rail looking out into the forest, walked over to Dale, who was standing in front of his RV. “Why aren't we all out there lookin? Why are we movin cars?” She asked the old man as he went back to working on the RV's engine.

“We have to clear enough room so I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map.”

“Goin back's going to be easier than tryin to get through this mess.” Shane said as he walked up to them. The rest of the group was returning with more supplies they had found while going through some other cars.

“We're not goin anywhere till my daughter gets back.” Carol said as she looked at Dale.

“Hey, that goes without saying.” Lori said as she came up and lightly patted the woman's back.

“Rick, Kat and Daryl, they're on it, okay?” Shane said. “Just a matter of time.” He said, resting his hand on her arm before letting it fall back to his side.

“Can't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from the herd that passed us by, -or whatever you'd call it.” Andrea said, tossing a water bottle to Glenn and unscrewing the cap of her own before taking a drink.

“Yeah, what was that?” Glenn asked. “All of em just marching along like that.”

“Herd. That sounds about right.” Shane said as he looked at Andrea. “We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Just a wandering pack, only fewer.” He took a deep breath before he raised his voice a little. “Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on.”

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Kat and Rick were still walking behind Daryl at a leisurely pace. His eyes hardly ever leaving the ground. This wasn't a straight path anymore. It was zigzagging all over the wilderness, a confused, scared trail of a little girl alone in the woods.

“Tracks are gone.” Rick said, looking at the ground. Not seeing what Daryl was seeing. Kat couldn't blame him. This was beyond her now, she could hardly make it out anymore. This was all on Daryl from here on out.

“Naw.” Daryl said, bending over a little to get closer to the ground as he kept walking, slowly. “They're faint, but they ain't gone.” He held his arm out, pointing along the path his trained eyes could still see. “She came through here.”

“How can you tell?” Rick asked, stepping slightly in front of Kat as he came up next to Daryl, trying to see where he was pointing as the man kept walking. “I don't see anything. Dirt, grass.”

“You want a lesson in trackin or you wanna find that girl and get our ass of that interstate?” Daryl said, eyes still on the ground in front of him.

“I vote off the interstate.” Kat asked, brushing a bug from her arm as she walked behind them.

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Kaleb and Carl were walking around in the cars, looking for anything useful. Dylan had sent them off on the 'chore' more so to get them out of the way. They weren't being much help with the adults.

The two young boys came up to a truck and looked inside the passenger window. They saw a bag sitting on the seat, tucked under the arm of a dead body. They could see the head of a hatchet sticking out of the bag.

“Whoa, look at that.” Carl said to Kaleb as he tapped on the window. They jumped down from the step on the truck and made their way around to the driver's side. They got to the door and just stared at it for a second.

“Maybe we shouldn't.” Kaleb said, eying the dead body suspiciously.

Carl looked at him before slowly reaching his hand up to the handle of the door. Finding it unlocked, he quickly pulled it open. The dead body's arm, that was propped up against the door, limply hung down. Carl kept his eyes on the body as he slowly walked closer. He reached into the truck, over the body and grabbed at the bag. It was heavier than he expected. He reached his other hand over the body and took the bag in both hands as he yanked against it. Still not enough leverage. He looked at the body again before he stepped up onto the truck. Being in a higher position, he could lift the bag easier now. He reached over the body again, taking the bag with both his hands. He pulled it across the dead man's lap, the heavy bag pulling the body closer to him with every tug. With a final yank, he brought the bag to his chest, at the same time the body nearly came off the seat. With a shriek, Carl jumped, falling from the truck and landing on his back on the ground. At the movement, Kaleb had his Bersa Thunder .380 out in a flash and aimed it at the body. But it wasn't a live one. The force Carl had used, coupled with the heavy bag had pulled the body out of the truck. It was hanging slightly out of the door, but still held in place because of the seat-belt holding it to the seat. Kaleb and Carl both took a few deep breaths, looking up at the dead man.

“Are you okay?” Kaleb asked as he looked down at his friend. Carl nodded and looked down at the bag laying on top of him before he got up. Kaleb put his gun away as they both ran back towards the group.

“Shane!” Carl shouted as he saw the man.

“Carl, what happened?” Lori ran over, hearing her son's scream only seconds before.

“Mom, w-we found something cool.” He said as he ran with Kaleb to the front of the car Shane was working on. Lori shoulder's dropped and she rolled her eyes.

“Shane, check it out.” Carl said as he laid the bag on the floor and opened it up. “It's an arsenal.” He smiled. It was a Gerber Apocalypse Kit. How fitting. Dylan thought as he came over to them. They had sold plenty of them at the Robertson's store and that was literally what the entire tool kit was called.

“That's cool, bud. Go give em to Dale.” Shane said as he continued to work on the Hyundai Tucson's engine.

“Check this one out.” Carl said as he leaned over to pick up the Camp Axe from the bag. “Whoa, it's a hatchet.” He said as he held it up with both hands in front of him.

“Be careful. Don't play with those.” Lori said, walking up to her son.

“They're really sharp.”

“What did I just say?”

“Can I keep one?”

“Are you crazy?” She said as she held out her hand for the weapon.

“No way.” The boy shook his head as she took the axe from him. “Shane. Shane, tell her to let me keep one.” He said as he looked at the man. Lori leaned down to put the axe back into the bag.

Shane looked at him. “Hey, man, go give em all to Dale, now. Go.”

Carl looked at him as Lori handed him the bag. Carl hung his head as he walked towards the RV with Kaleb. Dylan walked away, going back to the mini van he was combing through.

“What was that?” Lori asked as she watched her son walk away, her hands on her hips.

“What was what?” Shane asked as he slammed the hood of the Hyundai down.

“The way you blew him off just now. You crushed him.”

Shane walked to the driver's side of the car as he starting putting a couple bags into the back seat.

“I don't believe you. You're giving me the cold shoulder?” She asked, looking at him for the first time since Carl walked off.

“Isn't that what you want?” He looked at her. “Weren’t you the one who said stay the hell away from him and you?”

Lori took a few steps towards him. “You forget what happened at the CDC? Your little..meltdown in the rec room slip your mind? When you tried to-”

“When I tried to what?” Shane said as he stepped around the car to her. “What do you think that was?”

“I think it is pretty plain what that was.”

“A mistake. One that I admit to. I-I have a few mistakes under my belt, Lori. So do you.” He said as he turned around and walked back over to the driver's door.

“No debate there.” She said, stepping closer again. “But, Shane, we need to stop this.”

“Why do ya think I'm preppin my new ride?” He said, resting one arm on the roof of the car and the other on the open door as he stood behind it. “I'm leavin.”

“Leavin?”

“As in gone for good..Gonna quietly slip away first chance I get.” He said as he got into the car, seeing if it would start this time. He turned the key and was greeted by the engine starting. The radio clicked on.

“The Emergency Alert System has been activated. The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message: Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. This is a civil emergency.” A voice faded in an out as Shane stepped back out of the car and stood outside the door.

“Is that a local signal?” Glenn asked as he walked over with Dale and Andrea. Dylan walked back over from behind Lori as he heard the radio.

“It's gotta be within 50 miles of here.” Dale said as he looked around.

“Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way.” The voice said. “The Emergency Alert System has been activated. The Office of Civil Defense-”

Shane leaned in and shut the radio off. “Asshole...Okay, let's get back to work.” He said as he patted the roof of the car. Everyone turned around and went their separate ways. Shane walked to the back of the Tuscon and opened the hatch. He put a suitcase he'd filled with his stuff in the back.

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The three of them were still walking around as they all heard the sound of leaves rustling. They crouched down immediately, Daryl raised his Horton to his shoulder. They stayed down and quiet for a couple seconds. Rick looked back at Daryl and pointed towards the direction the noise came from. They started walking forward, Rick in the lead. After several steps they all came to a stop and knelt down. They could see a lone Walker, wandering around in the forest beneath the small hill they were on top of.

Rick looked behind him. Daryl pointed to Rick and Kat and to his left, before pointing at himself and to the right. Rick nodded as Daryl winked at him, letting him knew he understood. The three of them got up from the ground and went on their instructed paths. Rick and Kat ran down one side of the hill that would put them a couple yards in front of the Walker as Daryl quietly made his way around the back.

“Hey!” Kat shouted as the Walker looked in their direction. Rick whistled at it. At the noise and movement it started growling loudly at the two, but was quickly silenced as Daryl's bolt came flying through the back of its head. The sharp point coming out right above it's eye.

Rick nodded at Daryl as the three of them made their way towards the downed corpse.

Daryl put his foot on the Walker's back as he yanked his bolt from the thing's head. He stood up and looked around. “Sophia!”

Rick knelt down, grabbing a pair of gloves out of his back pockets and put them on. He grabbed at the hand of the Walker and started looking at it. Cop-trained Rick coming out.

“What are you lookin for?” Daryl asked as he watched what the man was doing.

“Skin under the fingernails.” Rick said, looking back at Daryl before looking at it again. Daryl bent over to get a closer look as Rick grabbed the Walker and turned it onto it's back.

Kat looked at the fresh blood all over it's mouth and her thoughts went back to her little brother. She was having an uneasy feeling of Deja Vu.

“It fed recently.” Rick said, looking at the same thing. He grabbed at it's mouth, pulling it open. He groaned as he started picking at it's teeth, pulling debris from them. “There's flesh caught in its teeth.” He said, looking at Daryl, he held up the piece of skin he'd pulled out.

“Yeah, what kinda flesh?” Daryl asked, looking at it.

“Only one way to know for sure.” Rick said as he reached into his pocket for his switchblade. Daryl set his crossbow down and reached into his pocket and pulled out his own gloves as Rick pulled open the Walker's shirt, sending buttons everywhere. He flipped his knife open.

“Here,” Daryl said, putting his hand on Rick's shoulder to stop him. “I'll do it.” He said, stepping over the Walker. He put one foot on either side of it's waist as he lifted up his shirt over his knife's sheath. He unsnapped the button and pulled his Busse Team Gemini out. “How many kills you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mine's sharper.”

He positioned himself over the body and took his knife in both hands. He raised the knife high and slammed it into the corpse's body. With the sharp blade ripping through the skin of it's stomach, he started sawing at the flesh, running a vertical incision from the bottom of it's ribcage to the waistband of it's pants. Kat watched Daryl work as Rick made faces at the scene in front of him. Daryl raised his knife again and with a grunt, pushed it back into the Walker's abdomen. This time making a horizontal line above his previous one. He cut from side to side before raising his knife again and making the same cut at the bottom. He removed his Busse and laid it next to him as he knelt down.

“Now comes the bad part.” Daryl said as he pushed the flaps of skin he'd made to the side and pushed his hands into the now open abdomen. Kat watched as he reached inside, feeling around the decaying organs as he started pulling some out. The process was making sickening sounds as he fished around inside the body.

Rick leaned back a bit, looking to Kat and groaned as Daryl nonchalantly ripped out pieces of rotting intestines. Rick rested the side of his hand against his mouth as he watched. Daryl put the part of the intestines he'd pulled out into one hand and tossed them to the side before wiping at his nose with his arm. He dove back in with both hands as he bent over the body more, feeling around inside the cavity.

“Yeah, hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there.” Daryl said as he tried to get a good grip around the decaying organ of the stomach. Rick looked away, trying to compose himself as Kat let out a deep breath.

With another grunt, Daryl ripped the stomach from the Walker's abdomen and leaned back. He tossed the stomach on the ground next to him, between Rick and Kat. “Here's the gut back.”

“I got this.” Rick said as he looked at the decaying organ in front of him. Daryl helped him hold it in place as Rick started cutting at the tissue with his knife. Rick let out a groan as Daryl let go and he pulled the stomach open. He pushed around the digested material inside of it with his knife, scooping some out. Daryl reached for the 'bag', pulling it open more and looking inside. Rick flung the sloppy mess from his knife as Daryl picked up a tiny skull with the tip of his Busse, holding it up for them to see as he inspected it.

“This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch.” Daryl said as he twirled the small head around on his knife.

“How the hell did he manage to swallow that?” Kat said, looking at the small skull that still had a little meat on it. Daryl shrugged as he flung the head away from them.

Rick wiped the sweat from his mouth with his arm. “At least we know.”

“At least we know.” Daryl said, standing up. He grabbed his Horton off the ground and started walking as Rick stood up.

Kat looked at the body one last time with Rick before following after Daryl. She came to walk next to him. “Please tell me you're throwing those away.” She said as she watched him take the filthy, goop covered gloves off his hands.

“Why? Just gotta clean em off.” He said, giving the gloves a once over before looking at her. With a look of disgust, she shook her head as she looked ahead of them again. He smirked and held them up, dangling them inches from her pretty face. He knew he was being childish, but he couldn't pass it up. She'd walked right into this one.

“Daryl, I swear to God.” She said as she gripped his arm with her left hand and pushed his arm away.

“Or what?” He said, smirk still in place as he lightly pushed back against her, trying to get the gloves near her again. Rick smiled at the two despite the situation.

“Just stop.” She raised her eyebrows at him, a small smile of her own on her face. There. That's all he wanted to see. She let go of his arm when he wasn't pushing against her hand anymore. “Ew.” She laughed a little, shaking her head as he put the dirty gloves back in his pocket.

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The sun was low in the sky, but Carol was still standing at the guard rail. The same spot she'd been standing for hours now. Andrea walked away from the group, who had set out all of the water and supplies they had found and were sorting through them. She walked over to Carol, putting her hand on the back of her shoulder and giving her a small comforting smile.

Carol looked at her with sad eyes. “It's late. Gonna be dark soon.”

“They'll find her.” Andrea said, giving her shoulder a squeeze before she turned back around and walked to Dale, who was with Glenn at the front of the RV.

“Where's my gun?” She said as she looked at him. He looked back at the RV's engine. “You have no right to take it.”

“You don't need that just now, do you?” He said.

“My father gave it to me. It's mine.”

“I can hold onto it for you.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Or you can give it back to me.”

“Everything cool?” Shane said as he walked up, hands in his pockets.

“No, I want my gun back.” Andrea said, looking at him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I don't think it's a good idea right now.” Dale said as he turned around and looked at Shane before going back to the engine.

“Why not?” Shane asked.

Dale stayed silent for a couple seconds before turning to Shane again. “I'm not comfortable with it.” He quietly said. Andrea scoffed, looking at Shane.

He looked at her before looking back to Dale. “The truth is, less guns we have floating around camp the better.”

“You turning over your weapon? Or the Carsen boys?” She said as she looked at him. She thought he would've been on her side.

Shane laughed. “Naw..But I'm trained in it's use. So are those boys, according to Kat. That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training. But until that time I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for.”

Andrea scoffed again. “Uh huh.” She said as she turned around and walked away from them, back to Carol.

“Mind tellin me what that's about?” Shane said as he looked at Dale.

“Oh, God, they're back.” Glenn said, coming up next to the two men. He put down a crate of supplies he was carrying before they all headed over to the guard rail. Rick was making his way up the hill followed by Kat and Daryl.

Carol was getting visibly upset again, not seeing her daughter with them. “You didn't find her?”

“Her trail went cold.” Rick said, stepping over the rail. “We'll pick it up again at first light.”

“You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods.”

“Out in the dark's no good.” Daryl said softly, shaking his head, as Kat climbed over the rail. “We'd just be trippin over ourselves. More people'd get lost.”

“But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?” Carol said, her voice cracking. Lori came up and put her hands on her shoulders.

“I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic.” Rick said as he held his hands up in front of him. “We know she was out there.”

“And we tracked her for a while.” Daryl said.

“We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this.” Rick said, looking around at the group. Everyone was looking back at him except Carol, who was zoned in on the knees of Daryl's pants.

“Is that- Is that blood?” She asked, breathing heavily.

Everyone looked at Daryl's pants, even him, not realizing the mess all over his knees. He looked at Rick.

Rick nodded as he looked back at Carol. “We took down a Walker.”

“Walker? Oh my God.” Carol said as she started breathing heavy again.

“There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia.” Rick said.

“How can you know that?” Andrea said, shaking her head. Rick looked at Daryl.

“We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure.” Daryl said.

Carol turned around and sat down on the guard rail. “Oh, God.” She breathed. Lori said down next to her. Carol looked up at Rick, her grief turning to anger. “How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?”

“Those two walkers were on us. I-I had to draw em off. It- It was her best chance.” Rick leaned over a little, looking at her face.

“Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol.” Shane said as he walked up next to his friend.

“How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child.” Carol started to sob.

“Carol, he wouldn't have been able to fight off two Walkers and keep her safe at the same time. They were too close.” Kat said in a soft voice.

Rick knelt down in front of her.“It was my only option..The only choice I could make.”

“I'm sure nobody doubts that.” Shane said as he took a seat on the guard rail a few feet from the women. Rick looked back at him and Kat.

“My little girl got left in the woods.” Carol looked at him again before looking away. Rick stared at the ground in front of her before nodding his head. He stood up and looked around at the group before walking away.

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“So we're sleeping in here tonight?” Sam said as he looked at his sister from the backseat. He yawned as he got comfortable.

“Yeah. I'm not getting the tents out. There's nowhere to really set them up here anyway.” Kat said as she got Kaleb into the back as well. Dylan was in the passenger seat, already half asleep, but she wasn't tired enough yet.

She could see Carol standing over by the guard rail, staring out into the trees. She sighed and looked ahead of her, seeing Daryl sitting on the hood of a car. He had a bottle of water next to him and was wiping off his knife with his handkerchief. She shut the backdoor of her car and walked over to him, nodding to Dale and Glenn on top of the RV on watch before walking away.

She noticed he'd changed as she got closer. He had a blue button up flannel with the sleeves ripped off and a different pair of jeans on. His dirty clothes were sitting next to him in a pile. She climbed up on the hood and sat next to him. She crossed her legs, sitting Indian style and leaned back on her hands behind her, looking up at the night sky.

“Ain't tired?” He said after they remained silent for a few minutes.

“A little. I don't really wanna sleep in the car though.”

He nodded his head and continued to get all of the gunk off his knife as Kat watched him. They stayed there for a few more minutes, talking a little about how he'd learned to track like that and what they were going to do the next day.

“Where you gonna put those?” She asked, nodding to his jeans and shirt.

“My bag.” He shrugged his shoulders. “No where else to put em.” He said as he looked at them.

She slid off the hood and picked them up. “I can put them in my trunk. We have a pile of dirty clothes in there.”

He looked at her for a second. “All right.” He nodded his head. He rested his arm on his bent knee as he watched her walk away. He poured water over this handkerchief and rang it out a couple times before he stuffed the end of it in his pocket and sheathed his Busse. She walked to the back of her car and popped the trunk, throwing his clothes on top of theirs before returning to him.

“Were ya careful? Those gloves were in there.” He said, smiling at her.

“Shut up.” She shook her head and smiled at him as she climbed back up on the hood of the car.

She leaned back and laid against the windshield, looking up at the stars. She was sleeping here tonight. Daryl hesitated for a moment before laying back next to her. This is where he planned on staying for the night and he hadn't expected company. He wasn't even touching her but was a little nervous just laying there. He'd still never slept next to a girl all night. Did this count? They weren't actually in a bed. And he doubted there would be any cuddling. Right? He got her talking to distract himself. He'd asked her about her other brother. Scotty, she said his name was, that he hadn't got to meet, learning they were twins. She said if any other people were left alive, he would be one of them. “I always told him it would be us and the cockroaches if an apocalypse ever happened. Guess we'll have to see.” She'd said, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't doubt her brother was okay where ever he was. She just wished she knew where he was. Daryl could relate to that.

He told her he felt bad about snapping at Sophia the night before. “I owe her from yellin at her back at the old folk's home.” Is what he'd said. Kat figured he felt a little guilty, which was why he had more so offered himself to oversee the search, rather than Rick asking him to. Daryl also had a couple demons from his past he thought he could let out if he found the little girl. No one had looked for him when he was lost in the woods as a child. He wanted her to know she had people looking for her.

They looked up at the sky as some of the clouds cleared away. They started pointing out different stars to each other. Kat was surprised he knew as much as he did. She just loved astronomy, but he told her he would use the stars to guide him, to find out which direction he was facing, whenever he was in the woods at night. She smiled at him but he was focused on the tiny lights in the sky as he pointed at the Vulpecula constellation. The fox. They laid beside each other, barely touching, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

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Rick threw the Gerber bag onto the hood of Carol's Cherokee as everyone gathered around. It was early in the morning when he and Shane had woken everyone up and telling them where to meet after they all had a chance to change their clothes and do what they needed to. Rick opened the bag, revealing the different Gerber goodies.

“Everybody takes a weapon.” He said as he looked around, grabbing his sheriff's hat off the hood. He had put his cop's attire back on. Daryl, who was standing next to him looked over the bag.

“These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?” Andrea said as she looked down at the different machetes and knives. Kat, who was standing on the other side of Daryl, sighed, making him turn and look at her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“We've been over that.” Shane said from his spot next to T-Dog, leaning against the side of the RV. He was making sure the safety of Kaleb's Bersa was on before he put it into the gun bag. Daryl looked back at him. “Daryl, Kat, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people poppin off rounds every time a tree rustles.” Shane said as he zipped up the bag. Andrea had thrown another fit when Kat and the others got back last night about how her little 11 and 13 year old brothers were allowed to carry a gun and she wasn't. So before Kat could blow up on her, she took a deep breath and just told Kaleb and Sam to give their guns to Shane the next morning. Lori stepped up and grabbed the Parang machete.

“It's not the trees I'm worried about.” Andrea said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it.” Shane said, swinging the bag over his shoulder.

Andrea looked back down at the weapons as Glenn picked up the Gator Machete Pro with a smile on his face.

“The idea is to take the creek up bout five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark.” Daryl said as he and Kat started walking away from the group, stopping at a truck while they waited for everyone.

“Stay quiet and stay sharp.” Rick said. “Keep space between you but always within sight of each other.”

“Everybody assemble your packs.” Shane said, causing everyone to grab their things.

“Dale, keep on those repairs.” Rick said as he walked over to the old man, who was sitting on the steps of the open door to the Winnebago. “We've gotta get this RV ready to move.”

Dale stood up. “We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back.”

“Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone.” Rick said, patting his son's shoulder.

“I'm goin with you.” The boy said, looking up at his dad. “You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible.”

Rick let out a groan. He didn't want him going out there with them. He planned on him staying here with Dale, T-Dog and the Carsen boys. Rick looked at Lori, hoping she would do the hard job for him and just say no.

“Your call. I can't always be the bad guy.” She said, knowing what he was trying to do. Rick looked back at his son for a minute, not sure what to say.

“Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands.” Dale said.

Rick sighed. “Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions.” He said as he walked past his son to go grab his stuff. Carl looked at his mom and then to Dale, who winked at him with a smile.

Kat was standing at the Dodge truck her and Daryl were standing next to as they waited for everyone to be ready. She rested her elbows on the hatch behind her as she leaned against it. Dylan was standing next to her. He decided he would stay and keep watch at this sight with Dale and T-Dog while keeping Sam and Kaleb behind. Kat didn't want them out there if they weren't allowed to have their guns on them.

“Oh, great.” Kat said, sounding bored, making Daryl turn to look at her. “Here we go.”

“What?” Dylan asked. Kat nodded her head towards the RV. Both men looked in the direction she was referring to, to see Andrea walk up to Dale.

“Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position.” Dale let out small laugh as he put his hands up. Everyone could hear the conversation clearly from where they were all standing.

“I'm not going out there without my gun.” Andrea said, looking towards the trees they would be surrounded by shortly, before looking back at him. “I'll even say please.”

Dale shook his head. “I'm doin this for you.”

“No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop...What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?” Rick and Shane looked over at the two. Now wasn't the time to be arguing about this. They'd all already established who would be carrying a firearm and who wouldn't.

“I know you're angry at me.” Dale said. “That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now.”

“Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay.”

“You chose suicide.”

“So what's that to you?” Andrea said, raising her voice. “You barely know me.”

“I know Amy's death devastated you.”

“Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us.” Andrea said. Everyone was looking at them by now. “And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?”

“I saved your life.”

“No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?”

“Maybe just a little gratitude.”

Andrea raised her eyebrows at the man. “Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale.”

“But-” Dale shook his head.

“But you know better?” Andrea cut him off before he could say anymore. “All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect..gratitude?”

Dale was quiet for a second, looking into her teary eyes. “I don't know what to say.”

“I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say.” She said as she stepped closer to him. She scoffed. "I don't need to be babysat." Andrea said walking past him.

Dale shrank back a little, looking at the ground before he turned around to face them. Kat could see he was upset at the venom in the woman's voice he'd come to care for. Dale was a sweet man and Andrea was pissing her off, seeing the distress she was causing him. She leaned up off the truck making Dylan stand up a little straighter and Daryl look at her.

"You know what? If you wanted to die so damn bad you would've sat there and let that Walker take you down in the RV, so lay off him and suck it up." Kat said while walking closer to her.

Dylan took a few steps and walked up behind his sister, grabbing at her shoulder trying to stop her on her path to the woman. Sure, Andrea was bigger than Kat, but just like when Shane had Daryl in a choke hold, he was more concerned for the other person's safety.

"Kat, come on." He said to his sister as he pulled her shoulder back towards him.

"You got another chance in a world that isn't handing those out anymore, so do something about it instead of crying over a choice being taken away from you. Cause I'm sure as hell there are plenty of other people who don't have any at all." She said as she turned around and almost pushed Dylan over and she walked past him. She walked past the truck they were at and started down the row of cars to the guard rail.

Daryl looked between Andrea and Dylan before turning around and walking after her, everyone else starting to follow. Dylan watched them all walk away before he walked towards the RV. He patted Dale on the shoulder as he walked to the back of the Winnebago and climbed up the ladder.

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The group walked in a line with Daryl at the front, leading them towards the creek where they would start their search. Shane was bringing up the rear with Carl and Lori right ahead of him.

Carl slowed down a bit so he fell in step with Shane. He twirled the small knife in his hands. “Shane, look. Dad said I could carry it and Mom said as long as I was-”

Shane sighed. “Keep it down. We're lookin for Sophia.” He said as he turned, walking backwards. “We need to focus on the task.” He said as he stopped, looking around behind them.

Lori turned around as Carl walked towards her. She put her arm on his shoulder to bring him next to her. “Gotta keep up.”

“I am.” He said as he hung his head.

Lori looked back at Shane as they walked away. “You okay?” She asked her son as she turned around.

“I think Shane's mad at me.” Carl said. “Did I do somethin wrong?”

“No. No, honey, I promise you.” She said as she put her arm around his shoulders. They both looked behind them at Shane as he started walking towards them again. “He's just- he's worried about Sophia, that's all.”

After a few more minutes of walking, a tent came into view in the trees ahead. Daryl held up his hand to Rick and pointed towards the tent as he crouched down. Rick turned around to look at them as he, Kat, Carol and Andrea did the same. Glenn and Shane came up behind them.

“She could be in there.” Shane said as he looked ahead at the tent.

“Could be a whole bunch a things in there.” Daryl whispered as he stood up and started walking towards the tent. Everyone started to follow before Rick turned around, raising his hand to the others, telling them to stay put as he, Kat and Shane followed Daryl.

He had his crossbow raised and scanned the area ahead of them as they got closer to the tent. Kat had both of her Ulaks out in each hand, one slightly raised in front of her, one out to her side.

As they walked even closer to the tent, Daryl held his hand up behind him as they stopped. He pointed to them, then to himself. Telling them to stay put and just look out for him. He reached down to his hip and grabbed his knife.

Rick, Shane and Kat stayed put as he walked closer to the tent. Kat took a few steps closer, tensing up as he got farther away. He set his Horton down a few feet in front of the tent. He had his knife raised as he got closer to the tent flap. He tried to peek inside the small opening the door made but couldn't see anything, so he backed away. Going around to the side of the tent to the window, he tried to do the same, but the flap was covering the window, blocking his view. He walked back around to the front, shrugging his shoulders at them and holding his hands out.

Rick turned around and looked back to the group. “Carol.” He whispered as loud as he could as he made a come here motion with his hand. The woman quickly made her way over to them, followed by the group. Carol came up to Rick's side, putting her hand to her mouth, as Shane held his hand up to everyone else, silently telling them to fall back.

Rick walked Carol a little closer to the tent, to stand where Kat had stepped to. “Call out softly.” He said as he looked back at her. “If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear.” Rick said.

“Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?” Carol quietly said.

Daryl stood at the tent's opening, knife still raised and ready to pounce if anything other than the girl stepped out.

“Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's Mommy.”

Rick held his hand up to her, telling her to stay where she was, as Shane came up next to her, taking Rick's spot. Rick and Kat took a few steps closer as Daryl nodded. He was going in. He reached for the zipper at the bottom of the tent, it was already half undone. Shane stepped forward, in front of Carol and raised his shotgun as Rick raised his Colt. Daryl looked up at Kat and Rick as they got closer and he slowly pulled back the zipper more, making enough room so that he would be able to fit inside. He pulled the flap back as he, Rick and Kat looked inside. Rick and Kat both raised their weapons but lowered them slightly at the horrible stench coming from inside. Daryl, being closest, turned his head and coughed as he brought his hand he held his Busse in to his mouth for a minute. He slowly stepped inside, letting the flap fall closed behind him. Rick pulled it back to look inside before letting it fall and coughing.

Inside, the tent was splattered with dried blood. There was a man sitting in a camp chair, the bottom half of his face completely gone from the revolver he'd put in his mouth. Daryl looked around.

Rick and Shane were standing outside the tent coughing and trying not to puke as Kat stood between them, shaking her head. She wanted to throw up too, but held herself together. This wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with rotting corpses, live or dead. So she was a little more accustomed to the smell. What the hell is he doing in there?

Lori came up behind Carol and put her hands on her shoulders. “Daryl?” Carol softly called out. He didn't answer. “Daryl?”

Inside the tent, Daryl saw the revolver the man had blown his face off with hanging from his hand.

“Dixon!” Kat whispered.

Daryl grabbed the revolver and tucked it into the back of his pants. He stood up and turned around, pulling the tent flap back as he stepped out. “Ain't her.”

“What's in there?” Andrea asked.

Kat stepped out of his way and let Daryl pass. He bent over and picked up his Horton before putting his Busse back in it's sheath. “Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out.” He said as he slung his bow over his shoulder. “Ain't that what he called it?” Daryl turned around and looked at Kat.

They all looked up at the sound of church bells ringing in the distance. The four in the lead took off around the tent, followed by the rest of the group. They all ran through the woods for a few minutes as the bells slowly got louder.

“What direction?” Shane said as they came to a stop in an open area.

“That way.” Kat said, pointing ahead of them.

Rick nodded. “I think that way. I'm pretty sure.” He said, pointing in the same direction.

“Damn, it's hard to tell out here.” Shane said as he stepped up onto a fallen tree, trying to get a better view.

“If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too.” Carol said.

“Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others.” Glen said as they continued walking.

“Or signaling that they found her.” Andrea said.

“She could be ringin them herself. Come on.” Rick said, picking up his pace again as they continued forward.

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Dale stood on top of the RV looking through his binoculars as Dylan sat next to him, hanging one of his legs off the side of the roof as he propped his arm up on the other. He looked over at his little brothers. Kaleb was climbing over the junk in the back of the Dodge truck Daryl had parked Merle's bike next to and Sam was sitting on the motorcycle.

“Sam. You better get off that. Daryl'll kick your ass when he gets back.” Dylan said as he looked down at the boy. Sam nodded and got off. Dale let the binoculars come back to his side as he turned and smiled at the boys.

“Ain't you supposed to be fixing that radiator?” T-Dog said as he walked out up to the RV and looked up at Dale. “What if they come back with Sophia and Rick wants to move on right away?” He said as he took a drink from the water bottle in his hands.

“I had it fixed yesterday.” Dale said as he looked all around them, making sure there were no Walkers.

“What?” T-Dog said. “What was all that rubbin and sandin for then? That just bullshit?”

“Yeah, that's one word. Another word would be..pantomime- just for show...No one else needs to know that.” Dale raised his eyebrows and looked down at the man.

T-Dog just looked back up at him before shaking his head. “Pantomime.” He mumbled. The man was sweating terribly, but not entirely from the heat.

“If the others know we're mobile...they'll want to mobilize and move on.” Dale said, shaking his head as he looked around again.

“So you don't think they're gonna find Sophia, that it?”

“I'm just guarding against the worst. Sooner or later, if she's not found, people will start doing math. I want to hold off the-the needs-of-the-many-versus-the-needs-of-the-few arguments as long as I can.”

T looked at him for a minute. “That is one tricky hose, huh?”

Dale smiled down at him. “Very.”

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They kept running in the direction they thought they bells were in. The ringing had stopped a few minutes before, so were just running forward based on a hunch. But soon, a white church came into view beyond the tree line. Everyone stepped out from the trees looking at the building. They would have to pass through a graveyard on the hill leading down from the woods to get to it.

“That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells.” Shane said as they looked ahead. Rick started going forward. “Rick.”

He started running to the building, making everyone chase after him as he ran through the large graveyard. They all ran until they made their way around the front of the building. Rick ran up the steps to the large, red double doors. He took his Colt Python out of it's holster and stood next to one of the doors as Daryl ran up to the other. Rick held his hand up to his mouth, silencing everyone. He looked at Daryl as they each put one of their hands on a door and slowly pushed them open.

The creaking sound at the back made the four walkers inside turn around. They were all sitting down in the pews that served as their final resting place. Rick, Daryl, Kat and Shane stepped into the building, looking around as the group came up behind them. The four Walkers stood up, snarling and growling at the four people closest to them. Rick holstered his gun and reached behind him. Lori stepped up and handed him the machete she'd been carrying and handed another to Shane. Glenn came up and handed Daryl the machete he had as Daryl held out his crossbow for Glenn to hold. The four of them started walking forward, picking out their targets.

Rick walked to the left of the room as Shane walked forward, while Kat and Daryl went to the right. Rick walked down the pew to the Walker he'd chosen and brought the Parang down on it's head. It fell to the ground, but Rick hit it a couple more times for good measure. Shane walked down the aisle and up to the Walker in front of him. He grabbed a hold of it by it's shirt and pushed the Gator machete through it's eye socket, letting it fall to the ground in front of him. Kat darted past the female Walker that tried to grab her and towards the one at the front of the church. She jumped up on the pew behind her target as it tried reaching over the bench between them to grab her. She took her serrated Ulak and jammed it into it's temple making it fall and hang over the bench it had been trying to crawl across. The female Walker Kat had went past was focused on her as it tried to crawl over the pew to get to her, although she was a good several feet away. Daryl made his way behind it and made a couple kissing noises to get it's attention. It turned around at the noise and Daryl swung the Gator Machete Pro across it's face making it fall towards him. He quickly jumped out of the way of the falling body as Kat turned around, jumping back over the pew and coming into the isle. Rick and Shane were both beating at the Walkers they had hit several more times.

Rick stood up, looking to the Jesus statue at the front of the church. “Sophia!” He yelled.

Daryl walked up to the front, past Kat and came to a stop in front of the statue at the end of the isle and looked up at it. “Yo, JC, you takin requests?”

“I'm tellin you, it's the wrong church.” Shane said as he walked back to the doors the rest of the group were still at. Rick had walked back over and Kat and Daryl were making their way towards them. “It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple.”

“How many churches are there out here in the middle of no where?” Kat said as she came up to them.

Just then, the loud ringing started up again, right outside the building. Daryl was the first out the door, running around to the side of the building where the noise was coming from, everyone following him. As they got to the side of the building, they looked up to where they loud ringing was. There was a speaker positioned at the top of the building. Glenn who had ran out right behind Daryl, put the man's crossbow down on the ground and ran over to the power box that operated the speaker. He opened the box and ripped out the wiring, silencing the loud bells immediately.

“Timer.” Daryl said, pointing the machete in the air towards the speaker, breathing heavily. “It's on a timer.” Daryl leaned over and picked his crossbow back up.

“I'm gonna go back in for a bit.” Carol said and began walking back towards the doors of the church. Most of the group followed her into the building. Andrea went and sat on the side of the building where the speaker box was. She bent her knees in front of her and rested her arms across them. She sighed and looked up into the sky before closing her eyes. She took a couple deep breaths as she sat there.

“Are you really leavin?” She heard Lori say after a few seconds.

“Don't you think it's what's best for all of us?” Shane said. They must've thought everyone had followed Carol inside. Andrea turned her head towards their voices at the front of the building.

“I think it is. What made you decide?”

“Gotta back away. Just tryin to be the good guy here, Lori, even if you don't see it. None of this was intended. I hope you know that...Well..Don't matter. As long as I said it.”

Lori walked closer to him. “You're just gonna disappear? You're not even gonna tell Rick?”

“He'd only try to stop me. No, that's on you. You tell him what you want. Or tell him nothin at all. You're his wife.”

“And Carl? We dragged him into this.”

“I love Carl.”

“He thinks you hate him.”

“I'm tryin to put some distance. I'm tryin to make this easier. This ain't easy on any of us, least of all me. I'm the one who loses you.” Shane said, quietly.

Lori looked at him before turning her eyes to the ground. She turned and walked away, towards the doors of the church. Shane turned around as he watched her go up the steps. Andrea had stood up and walked towards the front of the building from the side. Not being blocked by the wall anymore, Shane finally saw her. He looked at her for a second, before he turned and walked off.

Carol was at the front of the church, standing next to the wooden railing that went around the statue and staring up at it. Lori walked in from outside and took a seat on the first pew behind her.

“Father, forgive me.” Carol softly said. “I don't deserve Your mercy. I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and You provided. I prayed for Ed to be punished for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growin in his soul.” Lori looked up at the woman. Kat was standing at the back, angry. Ed was a tool, she could tell from the moment she had stepped into camp that day. She had seen the bruises on Carol, but hearing it from the sweet woman's mouth made her blood boil. At least he would never touch her or her daughter again. She didn't see Daryl tighten his fists around his crossbow strap at her side.

“I prayed You'd put a stop to it, give me a chance to raise her right, help her not make my mistakes. She's so fearful. She's so young in her way. She hasn't had a chance.” Carol looked up at the stone face with tears in her eyes. “Praying for Ed's death was a sin. Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe...alive and safe. Please, Lord.” She begged as the tears fell down her cheeks. “Punish me however You want, but show mercy on her.” She stared at the statue again before she turned around and looked at Lori on the bench behind her. The younger woman held her arm out. Carol walked over and sat down next to her, placing a hand on Lori's knee as Lori's went around her shoulder. Lori put her hand over Carol's and pulled the woman closer to her as she cried. She placed a kiss on the older woman's head.

Kat stood at the back and shook her head. Daryl glanced down at the movement as she turned to look to her left at one of the stained glass windows. She wasn't religious. None of the Carsens were raised that way. She thought they were wasting time sitting here, sulking, asking for prayers that wouldn't be answered, when they should be out scouting the woods for the little girl.

“I'm coming with you.” Andrea said, as she followed Shane when he started walking away.

“I don't know what the hell you're talkin about.” He said, not slowing down.

“I'm not stupid and I'm certainly not deaf. Look, I don't know the story.”

“There is no story.”

“Fine, I don't care. Don't confuse me with someone who does.” She said as she caught up to him. She put a hand on his bicep, getting him to slow down and look at her. She stepped in front of him. “Look, all I care about is getting out of here as far away as I can, like you.”

“We gonna sail off into the sunset together?” Shane let out a laugh. “W-We gonna hold hands?”

“I'm not asking you to go steady, Shane. I'm asking for a ride, a chance to start over somewhere else. You observe this group lately? I see two people who don't belong. We're the odd men out. Between the two of us, we make a great third wheel.”

“So what? Say we do, we just run off.” He said. “What's in it for me except the extra ass I got to cover?”

“The chance to do something for someone else.”

“Yeah.” That didn't sound very appealing to him.

“And a door that swings both ways. Put a gun in my hand, I'll cover your ass, too.”

Shane scoffed, looking away from her. Andrea looked behind him, seeing Rick walking out of the church, the rest of the group following him. “Think it over.” She said, looking at him before walking past him and over to the group.

Shane sighed, looking across the side of the graveyard he was on before turning around and following her. He walked over to Rick as the rest of the group gathered around a tree in the yard. “Gotta move here, man. These people are spent. There's only so many hours of daylight left. We still got a long way back.”

“I can't stop yet.” Rick said quietly as he looked back out into the trees.

“We still got a lot of ground to cover, whole other side of the creek bed. So we search that on the way back.”

Rick rubbed at his eyes before looking at Shane. “She would have heard those church bells. She could be nearby.”

Shane raised his eyebrows before looking away. “She could be a lot of things.”

“I can't go back. Her being out here is my fault.”

Shane scoffed. “That's great. Now they got you doubting yourself, huh?”

“What about you? You doubt me?”

“Hey, we can assign all kinds of blame.”

“This means something, finding her.” Rick leaned in closer to him, almost pleading.

“Oh, man.” Shane looked away from him.

“It would be the miracle we need. We can't give up.”

Shane sighed and shook his head. “Mmm.” He patted Rick on the shoulder and walked past him towards the group. He cleared his throat as he got closer to them. “Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back. Okay, Daryl, you're in charge.” He said as he came to a stop in front of them. Rick walked up to his side. “Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough.”

“You're splittin us up?” Daryl asked from the back. “You sure?”

“Yeah, we'll catch up to you.” Shane said.

“Do you want me to go with you guys? It's just the two of you, and all of us.” Kat looked at Rick.

He looked at her for a second, debating. “No. Better you go with them.”

“I want to stay, too.” Carl said, looking at his father. He took a few steps towards him, away from Lori's side. “I'm her friend.”

Shane and Rick looked at each other. Rick didn't know what to say again. Shane looked to the ground with a smile.

Lori, seeing her husband struggling with his fatherly duties, stepped forward to Carl. “Just be careful, okay?”

Carl turned around to look up at her. “I will.” He nodded his head.

She put her hands on his cheeks and looked at him before she pulled him to her for a hug. “When did you start growin up?” She kissed the top of his head as Rick walked over. She let go of Carl as Rick got to her and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before hugging him, too.

“I'll be along soon enough.” He said to her before he let go.

Shane watched them before looking at Andrea, who was looking back at him with a knowing expression. He sighed and turned around.

Lori started walking away with the others when Rick stopped her. “Here, take this.” He pulled his Colt Python out of it's holster and held it out to her as she stepped away. “Remember how to use it?”

She looked back at him. “I'm not taking your gun and leavin ya unarmed.”

Daryl walked over to the two, handing her the small revolver he'd snagged from the dead man in the tent. “Here, got a spare. Take it.”

She took it from him as he nodded at Rick before walking to the front of the larger group. Andrea sighed as she rolled her eyes and shook her head. The sheriff's wife is allowed to carry a gun, too, but she wasn't. The group started walking as Lori looked at Rick, Carl and Shane. She tucked the revolver in her back pocket and started after the rest of them.

Rick turned around and walked up to Shane. “Give me a minute?” He said as he passed him, walking back towards the church.

Shane sighed, putting his hand on Carl's head and ruffling his hair. “Come on.” He said as he followed after Rick.

Rick walked into the church and stopped at the same spot Carol had earlier. He looked up at the statue. “I don't know if you're looking at me with what?” He sighed. “Sadness? Scorn? Pity? Love?” He let out another breath in the quiet building. “Maybe it's just indifference.” He looked down, taking off his hat. “I guess you already know I'm not much of a believer. I guess I just chose to put my faith elsewhere. My family, mostly. My friends. My job. The thing is, we- ...I could use a little something to help keep us going. Some kind of...acknowledgment. Some indication I'm doing the right thing. You don't know how hard that is to know.” He said as he looked back up at the statue for a second. “Well, maybe you do.” He let out a laugh, putting his hat back on. He turned around and took a few steps towards the open doors before he turned around and walked back up to the statue. “Hey look, I don't need all the answers.” He said with anger. “Just a little nudge. A sign.” He quietly shouted. He looked down, trying to contain himself. “Any sign will do.” He forced a small smile as he looked at the statue for a few seconds before walking away again.

Shane and Carl were sitting on the steps outside as Rick walked out of the church. Carl turned around at the sound of his father's footsteps on the concrete stairs. Rick put his hand on Carl's head as he walked past them.

“Get what you needed?” Shane asked from his seat.

“Guess I'll find out.” Rick said as he walked away.

“Come on.” Shane said as he grabbed his bag on the ground in front of him. He and Carl both got up and started after Rick.

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The sun was lower in the sky now as Daryl led the larger group back through the forest. They were taking a break for a few minutes since everyone was tired from walking the entire day. He stopped at a spot he thought would be alright as he leaned against a tree. Kat came up beside him and looked around at the group.

“So this is it?” Carol said as she took a seat on a fallen down tree and looked towards the two of them. “This is the whole plan?”

Daryl sighed a little. “I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups.”

“Carrying knives and pointy sticks.” Andrea said, looking at Lori, who had let the Parang fall to the ground as she took her backpack off. She set it on the fallen tree and unzipped it, getting her water out. “I see you have a gun.” Andrea said to her.

“Why, you want it?” Lori said as she looked up at her. She took a few steps forward to Andrea as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out the revolver, handing it to the woman. “Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me.” Andrea took it from her and Lori turned back around. “All of you.” She said as she sat on the tree, she picked her water bottle back up as she looked at Carol. “Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through.” She said as Carol looked over at her. “And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blamin Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second.” Carol looked away. “I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently.” Lori finished as she looked around at the group, waiting for someone to speak up. “Anybody?” She looked at Daryl and Kat and then to Andrea before looking at the ground and shaking her head. “Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stoppin you.” She said as she took a drink from her water. She sealed the lid and put it back in her bag as Andrea walked towards her. She held the gun back out to her. Lori looked at it as she took it from her before looking back at Andrea's face.

“We should keep moving.” Andrea said.

Everyone that had taken a seat, got back up as they walked towards Daryl, who was still leaning against the tree. He jerked his head in the direction he wanted them to walk as the group got closer to him.

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Rick, Shane and Carl were quietly making their way through the forest around the church, looking for any sign of Sophia when they heard a branch snap. Rick raised his hand in the air, causing them to stop as he listened for the direction the noise was coming from. Shane put his hand on Carl's chest as he pulled the boy back a little, wanting him behind him in case something dangerous was up ahead. Rick pointed ahead and slightly to their left through the trees. He held his Python up as Shane did the same with his Mossberg as the two slowly started walking towards the sound of rustling leaves.

They could see a deer through the branches as they got closer. They lowered their weapons. The three of them stopped as they watched the deer walk out of the trees and into the small clearing several yards from them.

Shane raised his Mossberg to his shoulder, ready to aim at the buck's chest. It would've made a good supper when they brought it back to the highway for everyone to eat that night.

“Shane.” Rick whispered to his friend. He nodded his head at Carl who was taking slow steps towards the deer. Shane looked at Carl as he lowered his gun. The two of them smiled as they watched the boy.

Carl walked closer and closer to the buck. He was several feet from it when he turned around, looking back at Rick and Shane with a smile on his face. He couldn't believe he was this close. The deer he'd seen in his life were always so skittish. Shane nodded his head at the boy with a smile as Carl turned back around and started walking further.

The buck raised it's head, looking around the area. Carl's foot broke a twig with another step that caused the deer to turn and look right at him, but he didn't run away. He just stared at the boy, still coming closer. If he kept walking for a few more seconds he would be able to touch it if it didn't take off. Rick and Shane stood back and watched, bewildered at the sight, waiting for the deer to bolt out of there.

It happened so fast, Rick wasn't sure what he was looking at at first. There was a loud bang, then Carl and the deer both fell to the ground at the same time.

“Oh, no. No. No, no, no, no!” Rick yelled as he and Shane both ran to Carl, who was now laying on the ground. Eyes shut and not moving. He ran to his son and knelt down over him, seeing the blood seeping through his shirt. Shane came and stood next to Rick and the boy, Mossberg raised into the forest in front of them.