Wake the Dead

I was walking back and forth at the tree line, waiting for any sign from Rick or Sophia. Everybody was thinking the worst about what happened to Sophia, but I knew Rick wouldn't let anything happen to her.

I heard movement coming from the trees, so I stepped closer, with my knife ready. Soon enough, I saw Rick emerge from the trees with blood all over his shirt, but no Sophia.

I ran over to him and he was out of breath. "Sophia, is she okay.?"

"Rick, she never came back. You didn't find her?"

He bent over and put his hand over his mouth, in guilt and shock. "I found her, I told her to hide and then to run back while I distracted the walkers. She didn't come back?" He wheezed. I helped him back over to the group and ran to get him some water while he explained what happened to the rest of the group.

Carol put her hand over her mouth and fell into Lori's arms, sobbing. Shane quickly came up and reassured her, "Rick said he took care of the two walkers, so she just must have lost her way, she can't be far. More of us will head back out and follow her trail."

Shane looked at Daryl knowing he was the best tracker here. Rick, Shane, Glenn, and Daryl were going back out to look for her. "I'm coming, too." I told them.

"No, you need to stay here, we don't need ya getting lost in the woods, too." Shane barked at me.

"You don't have to worry about me, I have more experience in tracking than you do so shut it and lets go." I snapped back at him and started to walk into the forest, the guys hesitated, but then followed after me.

*

We quietly made our way through the forest, following Rick to where he last saw Sophia.

"Ya sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked, looking into a small hiding place in the creek.

"I left her right here. I took the walkers way up in that direction, up the creek." Rick said pointing ahead of us. "She wasn't here when I got back, 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 pointed to the way back to the road.

Daryl walked through the creek, looking around. "Hey short round, would ya step off to one side, ya muckin up the trail." He said to Glenn.

"Your assuming she knows her left to her right." Shane put in, being negative.

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick harshly responded to him.

"She was tired and scared man, she had her a close call, two walkers. Ya have to wonder how much of what ya said stuck." Shane told him, making Rick look more guilty.

I walked over to the edge of the creek and saw little foot prints. "Got clear prints, right here. She did what you said, headed back to the highway." I told everyone, but was directing it towards Rick.

Daryl walked over and gave me what looked like an impressed look, then looked over my shoulder at the tracks. Shane helped us all out step out of the creek. "Spread out, she couldn't have gotten far." Daryl told the group.

"We're gona find her, she probably tuckered out, hidin in a bush somewhere." Shane reassured us.

Daryl slowly and quietly lead the way, following her tracks. I was close behind him, adding another set of eyes on the trail. The trail was clear and good for a while, but then all of the sudden it was going in the wrong direction.

Daryl crouched down to get a better look, "She veered off that way." He said pointing to out right.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked.

"She saw somethin? Spooked her, ran off?" Shane added.

"Walker?" Glenn asked with fear in his voice.

I crouched down to get a better look at the trail, "na, I don't see any other foot prints." I added.

"So what do we do, just press on?" Shane asked.

"No, it's better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway, people are going to start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail and do everything you can to keep everybody calm." Rick said trying to keep his voice calm. Shane nodded and him and Glenn walked off.

Daryl and I stood up, and then all three of us started to follow her trail some more. As we walked along I thought about what the hell must have been going through Sophia's head, or what is going through Rick's. Shane did his best to keep him calm and keep Rick's hopes up. I guess Shane knew Rick needed hope, too. Shane had some leader in him, but not like Rick. Shane wasn't always calm, he let his anger and own problems blur his decisions. He seems like he once was a good man, but the apocalypse changed him. It changed us all.

I tried to focus on the trail as we quietly marched through the forest, but it got harder to follow.

"The tracks are gone?" Rick said in a worried voice.

I stepped farther up , and hunched down to get a better look. "They faint, but they ain't gone." Daryl said as if reading my mind.

"She came through here." I said and pointed in front of us.

"How can you tell? I don't see anything, dirt, grass." Rick said, this was obviously his first try at tracking.

"Ya want a lesson in tracking, or do ya wana find that girl and get our ass off the interstate?" Daryl said, not taking his eyes off the trail. Rick didn't respond as we continued forward.

*

I was starting to sweat a lot now. The Georgia heat not being too kind as we trekked along in the woods. The trail was getting harder to follow and I was getting tired, we had to have been out here for hours. A rustle of leaves in the distance caught my attention, causing all of us to immediately crouch down with our weapons ready. Rick pointed towards the way the noise came from, and we silently made our way over, only to find a walker wandering around.

Before any of us allowed our selves to worry about it, Daryl signaled for me and Rick to run around and distract the walker while he went behind it.

Rick and I took off, running silently until we stood in the walkers line of vision. Man, he was an ugly bastard, kinda looked like a hippie, too. The walker turned his head, and we both whistled at it, getting its attention.

It let out a groan that I will never get used too, but I snorted a little, "it kinda sounds like Chewbacca." I quietly told Rick as Daryl put an arrow through the walkers head. The side of Rick's mouth perked up in a little smile hearing what I said as we walked over to Daryl. "What'cha smilin about?" Daryl asked Rick, with an expression I couldn't quite read.

Rick just snorted a little and looked back at me. "It sounded like Chewbacca." I told Daryl.
I saw Daryl try not to smirk, but when we looked down at the dead walker, all smiles faded.

I kicked the walker so it rolled over on its back while Daryl looked around and called out for Sophia. I pulled out the rag that was hanging out of Daryl's back pocket and crouched down.

He spun around, giving me a look, but then saw me looking for something on the walker. He looked down at me, "what'cha lookin for?"

I looked up at him. "Skin, under the finger nails." I moved up to the walkers face and made sure the rag was wrapped all the way over my hand as I picked something out of its teeth. "It fed recently, there's flesh caught in it's teeth." I held up the flesh that was stuck all over its mouth and showed it to them.

Daryl and Rick crouched down next to me and inspected what I was holding. "Ya, but what kind of flesh?"

I looked at both of them and threw the rag down so I could grab my knife. "Only one way to know for sure." I told them as I ripped open the walkers shirt, revealing its stomach. I looked down at it in disgust, but before I could do anything Daryl put his hand on my shoulder and stood over the walker.

"I'll do it." He told me as he put gloves on and took his knife out. "How many kills have you skinned and gutted in your life anyway? Plus, mines sharper."

I scooted back, giving him some room, as he crouched over the walker and started slicing it up, like it was one of his kills he needed to gut. The sounds of the flesh ripping and guts go everywhere made me cringe and look over at Rick, who was trying hard to be strong, but would flinch at the grossness of the situation.

Daryl finished cutting the stomach open and looked at us, "here comes the bad part." He reached his hand inside of the walker and dug around for the gut bag. He took out a lot of intestines and threw them to the side. The smell was revolting, so I put my hand over my nose and focused on Daryl's face, trying not to let it get to me. Rick was next to me having an equally as hard time.

Daryl dug his hand in more, finding something. "Yeah, hoss had him self a big meal not to long ago." He dug his hand in more. "I feel it in there."

He finally pulled it out and layed the gut bag down next to us. "I got this." Rick said, opening it up. I was trying so hard to keep my cool, but this was absolutely disgusting.

They both pulled something out on their knives, which looked a lot like the body of a small animal. "This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." Daryl said and then flung it off his knife.

I was relieved it wasn't human flesh, but I was a little too grossed out to be happy about what we found. "At least we know." Rick said taking his gloves off.

We all got up and walked away, not even looking back at the demolished bastard behind us. It was going to be dark soon so we decided we would head back, and pick it up in the morning.

*

We walked out of the tree line, seeing Carol didn't move from the spot she was in earlier. She saw that we came back with no Sophia and started to freak out.

"We'll pick it up at first light." Rick informed her.

"You-You can't leave my daughter out there at night, alone in the woods." Carol pleaded.

"Huntin in the dark is no good, just be trippin over ourselves, more people gettin lost." Daryl told her.

"She's twelve, she can't be out there on her own." She cried. "You didn't find anything?"

Rick stepped up trying to calm her down, "I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic, we know shes out there."

"We tracked her for a while." I added, feeling bad for Carol as she started to become out of breath.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl and Fiona know the woods better than anybody and I've asked them to oversee this." Rick told the group that was now circled around us.

Carol looked very interested at my pant leg, "Is-is that blood?" She asked pointing at it. I looked down at it and then back up at her. "We took down a walker." Carol started to wheeze and look like she was about to fall over.
"There is no sign that it was anywhere near Sophia." Rick told her.

"How can you know that?" Andrea butted in. Rick hesitated, then looked back at Daryl and I.

"We cut the sum' bitch open, made sure." Daryl said for Rick.

Carol just breathed out and sat down on the railing and looked at Rick with anger. "How could you? How could you just leave her out there in the first place?"

Rick eyes filled with guilt as he tried to explain to Carol why, but she didn't believe it. "How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? Shes just a child. Just a child." Carol cried.

Rick got down on one knee in front of her and tried so hard to make her believe he did what was best. I believe Rick did the only thing he could, and I also didn't see anyone else run out after them either. Carol just had disbelief in her eyes as she cried, "my little girl got left in the woods." Rick' head fell in shame as Lori hugged Carol, and I swear I even saw some doubt in her eyes, Rick's own wife.

Rick stood up and looked around at everyone, who's eyes were filled with blame and pity, then walked off. I couldn't believe these people. I went to my bag and grabbed a water bottle, then started to walk the way Rick went off at.

I spotted him a few cars down, leaning on a van with his hands on his knees gripping his knife, and looking at the ground. I walked over and leaned on the back of the car across from him. I knew he heard me, but didn't look up. I reached over and pried the knife from his hand, that had a very tight grip on it, and replaced it with the water bottle.

He finally looked up at me and took a drink. He looked like he had been crying, but it could have just been the light reflecting off his eyes. He handed me the water back and I drank the rest of it as we sat silently.

"Why are you here?" He said breaking the silence.

I sighed and looked up at him, but he was just looking at something on the ground. "You helped me out when I had my embarrassing melt down, so I thought I'd return the favor. But don't worry yours is much, much less embarrassing."

He looked up at me and gave me a smile. He had sadness and guilt written all over his face, but his smile seemed real enough.

His smile eventually faded, "is this my fault?"

I looked right into his eyes, "no, Rick. You ran right after that little girl, no one else went after her, but you. And if they did I doubt they could have done anything better in that situation."

He nodded at me, then stood up and started to pace back and forth while running his hand over his face. Out of nowhere he came up and kicked the car he was sitting on out of anger at himself, grabbed his knife and then started to walk back.

I waited a little, but then started to walk back after him.