Through the Trees

We had been sitting in silence for a while after that. Everyone thought over the last words to leave my lips.

At one point while we were all sitting together, Andrea was determined to go after the guys- hell I would have been too if my ankle weren't fucked up.

Though, just as Lori convinced her to stay, Daryl and Glenn came rushing back into the house together. I definitely didn't have a good feeling about any of this. "What happened? What's going on?" I couldn't stop myself from immediately asking. Seeing as the room seemed to fill with idle chatter, I could tell that no one else could stop themselves from asking either.

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked looking around the room, his eyes stopping on me. "No." Lori shook her head. "We heard a shot." Daryl pointed out. "Well, maybe they found Randall?" Lori was quick to suggest.

I couldn't help but look up at Daryl with hopeful eyes. "We found him." Daryl cleared at least that much up. But if they found Randall, then why did they hear a gunshot? "Is he back in the shed?" Carol was quick to step forward and ask. "He's a walker." Daryl shook his head. "Did you find the walker that bit him?" This time it was Hershel to speak up.

"No, weird thing is- he wasn't bit." Glenn breathed out, finally joining the conversation. "His neck was broke." Daryl added as a confused look came over Maggie's face. "So he fought back." Patricia tried to clarify. "The thing is, Shane an Randall's tracks were right on top of each other; and Shane ain't no tracker. So he didn't come up behind him- they were together." Daryl explained.

I knew it. I fucking knew Sane was behind all this!

"Will you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane, and find out what's going on please?" Lori asked, approaching Daryl. "You got it." Daryl nodded moving towards the door.

Looking my way, Daryl gave me a small nod before moving towards the door. "Wait!" My shout hushed the room, "What's that sound? I-It sounds like growling." I gasped out. Hearing my words, everyone went out the door to see what was going on. I moved to follow, but only made it a few feet when Lori came rushing back into the room.

I was watching out the window, only to see a herd of walkers heading towards the house.

"Have you seen Carl, I can't find him anywhere!" She shouted, out of breath. "No, he's supposed to be upstairs isn't he?" I could understand her cause for worry- that's her son.

Beth, Patricia, Lori, Carol, and I were left in the house while everyone else was out trying to coral and get the walkers away from the house. That is, until too many walkers got too close to the house and we knew we couldn't stay there.

"Carol, quick! Upstairs in my room, on the bed my jacket and my bag. It's got all my weapons in it, get it please." I urged her. She nodded before running up the stairs at my request.

I did my best to walk towards the door. Outside, Lori was trying to get Hershel to run from the on coming horde. Beth and Patricia stayed together as we all ran off. When Carol got back downstairs, I thanked her before putting my jacket on and throwing my bag over my shoulder. Lori was the one to help me run, while Carol followed along behind us.

I thought we would make it, all of us; but then Patricia got bit. Lori and I had to pull Beth away from the doomed woman. T-Dog pulled up in the familiar blue pick up truck, and Lori and Beth climbed in. "Come on!" Lori said, waving me towards the truck. "You go on, I'll get Hershel!" I called, limping away from the vehicle.

Rick and Carl got to him before I could, and started dragging him away despite his protest. "Carl! Carl, help!" I called after the three of them.

Upon spotting me, Carl ran over and helped me walk over to the car where Rick and Hershel were waiting. "Lori, have you seen Lori?" Rick shouted towards me as he drove us away from the farm. "She's fine. She got out with Beth and T-Dog when I went back for Hershel." As I explained, Rick seemed to calm down a bit and so did Carl.

As he drove, Hershel stared out the back window towards the farm, and I couldn't stop myself from putting my hand comfortingly on his shoulder. He reached up, and placed his own hand on top of my own before flashing me a sad smile. Through the rest of the night, and into the next morning Rick drove away from the farm and found a way back out to the highway where they had been just before coming to the farm.

When we arrived, we were the only ones there. Carl demanded that we go back for Lori, obviously worried about her. When Rick refused, Carl stormed away- so I decided to go after him. "Carl! Wait up, kid." I called out, grabbing onto his wrist. "What?" He snapped, looking up at me.

"Listen, don't be mad at your dad. He's trying to keep us all safe. We can't go back to the farm now, it's overrun." I sighed, leaning up against an abandoned car. "You wouldn't understand." Carl muttered, crossing his arms, "I don't want to lose my mom- you still have your family." I could feel my heart break in my chest as he spoke.

"Carl, you are my family. This whole group is my family." I said to him. "It's not the same!" He snapped at me once more.

"Maybe not, but I know how you feel. I lost my whole family since this began. My mom first, then my father and my sister; so I do know how you're feeling. Just know that I saw your mom get out of there. We'll find her. Don't worry kid." I smiled down at him.

Just about the time I finished my little speech, I heard Daryl's motorcycle and saw multiple cars heading towards us.

Carol climbed off the back of Daryl's bike as I rushed over to them. Carol immediately attacked me in a hug. "I'm so glad you all are alright!" I gasped out. Maggie ran over to Hershel, while Carl and Rick both ran over to Lori. Carol released me and moved on to the rest of the group as Daryl climbed off of his bike. "Are you alright? How's your ankle?" He asked me, giving me a small hug. "Fine. I'm all good." I sighed, breathing in his scent.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked, looking towards Rick. "We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick shook his head. "Shane?" Lori questioned, looking towards her husband.

Rick simply shook hie head and we all instantly knew something happened and he hadn't made it. "Andrea?" Glenn asked next. "She save med, then I lost her." Carol spoke in a soft voice."We saw her go down." T-Dog added. As much as I hated Andrea, I felt bad that we had lost her. She had been a good part of the group. I hate to say it but we needed her.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked. Beth immediately shook her head."They got her too. Took her right from me. I was, I was holding onto her daddy. She just- what about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?" The girl broke down into tears.

"He was in the RV. It got overrun." Rick said, only causing the girl to get even more upset. "You definitely saw Andrea?" Carol asked, stepped towards T-Dog. "There were walkers everywhere." Lori shook her head. "Did you see her?" Carol questioned once more, getting a bit defensive this time.

When no one spoke up, Daryl stepped forward."I'm gonna go back." I went to protest, but Rick beat me to it. "No."

"We can't just leave her!" Daryl spoke loudly. "We don't even know if she's there." Lori pointed out. "She isn't there, she isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find out." Rick spoke in a very strong and stern voice.

"So we're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn spoke up this time. "We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here." Rick shook his head.

"I say go east." T-Dog finally spoke up. "Stay off main roads. The bigger the road, the more assholes like this one. I got him." Daryl spoke, shooting a stray walker in the head. The walker collapsed, and Daryl collected his arrow from the the corpse before we all loaded back up in the cars.

This time I was in with Glenn, Maggie Hershel, and Beth. It was a tight fit but better than nothing.

That night, we camped in the woods, and Rick definitely made it known that he's in charge. That he's our leader. Things were definitely about to change- hopefully for the better.