Full Time Job

The next morning, I was drinking coffee with Carol in the RV and I noticed a familiar doll resting on the table.

“Is that Sophia’s doll?” I asked. Excitement had raised the tone in my voice.

“Yeah,” Carol answered, “Daryl found that in the woods yesterday. Rick said he cut the search grid in half.” There was a hint of hope in her voice and I smiled at her. I felt a pang of guilt when I hadn’t even asked Daryl or Carol how the search for Sophia had gone yesterday.

“Carol, I’m so sorry. I should be more supportive to you, especially with how you care so much about me and Vinny. I have been selfish. I’m sorry. I do care.” I patted the back of her hand that rested on the table in front of her.

“Nonsense. You two are part of my family now.” She smiled warmly to me. We finished our coffee and trooped out of the camper with Vinny, who smiled largely when he spotted Carl and ran off to play with him.

“Vinny! Stay where I can see you!” I called after him.

Carl had regained his strength and miraculously returned to camp. He was playing with Vinny in the grassy area between our camp and the farmhouse as Carol and I were washing dishes. I noticed how the camp had begun to secretly start whispering to each other all morning, and I picked up the nervous glances towards the barn on the property. Shane began to act like he was losing his mind, staring around at everyone with wide eyes. I shrugged as he paced off into the woods alone.

We were meeting for lunch, save Rick and Hershel, who had left on another mission to the forest together with one of Hershel’s men. Vinny and I were sitting on the steps to the porch of the farm house when Shane appeared from the edge of the woods, holding a shotgun and the bag of guns that we were not supposed to have, per Hershel's request. I scooped Vinny up and started to walk towards the empty clearing near the barn. Even from a distance, I could see Shane had a crazy look in his eyes and I didn’t want Vinny to be around when he arrived.

“Where we going, Zia?” Vinny asked quizzically as we walked farther from the house.

“For a walk,” I said, setting him down next to me and taking his hand.

I turned behind me and saw Shane tossing guns to our people, turning back as Daryl caught a long rifle. I started anxiously walking a little quicker with Vinny. Shane had officially lost his mind.

I stopped walking as I saw Hershel, Rick, and another of Hershel’s men emerging from the woods, leading two walkers with a lead that reminded me of the dog catcher, and I quickly turned around and led Vinny in the opposite direction, to which I saw our group racing towards us and the nearby barn, each carrying guns that were pointed towards the barn’s door. What was going on?

I held Vinny’s hand tight as the scene unfolded in front of me. Hershel and Rick began running ahead of me, towards the group with the guns. Shane was screaming like a wild man and began shooting at the walker woman that Hershel was leading. I covered Vinny’s eyes as he shot her in the head and she fell to the ground.

“Enough risking our lives for a little girl that’s gone!” he yelled, and I looked over to Carol who stared back, terrified. Daryl stepped in between Carol and Shane, his gun raised. My heart started racing as I had no idea what was to happen next.

“Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us!” Shane screamed again and fear invaded my being. My eyes darted from person to person and rested on the door to the barn. I could feel my blood pressure steadily rising in terror.

“Enough! Rick, it ain’t like it was before! Now if y’all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta FIGHT FOR IT. I’m talkin’ FIGHT! Right here, Right now!” Shane screamed profusely and I felt guilt emerge along with the terror. I had already proved what a great fighter I was. In the corner of my eye, I saw Hershel had dropped to his knees.

“TAKE IT NOW!” Rick was pleading to Hershel, trying to pass off the walker that was still snarling on the lead in the center of the group. I watched, frozen to my spot next to Vinny as Shane started to beat on the barn door with a pick axe.

“Shane, BROTHER, DO NOT DO THIS!” I heard Rick exclaim, but the door was already busted open. It was eerily silent, save from the menacing snarls escaping from the barn. Walker after walker started to stumble out and I fell to Vinny’s side and placed my hands over his ears as a string of gun shots rang out, and the walkers from the barn were falling one by one. Nearly every one of our people was shooting.

The gun fire stopped, and we all stood, watching in shock as a small, dirty, scrawny walker child emerged from the barn. She had a mess of short tangled reddish brown hair and was wearing the same rainbow t-shirt that Sophia was wearing when she went missing. My heart sank to the ground as I understood the tragic truth that Sophia had changed. She wasn’t missing anymore.

“Sophia! Sophia!” I heard Vinny yell out and he took off towards her before I could grab him. I started to chase towards him in terror and instant relief washed over me as I saw Daryl scoop him up and take a few steps back. Carol, who was looking at her gnarled daughter next to me, began to run towards Sophia and the barn. I held her back and we both fell to the ground as she wailed her daughter’s name in agony.

It seemed like Rick was moving in slow motion when he walked slowly up to Sophia and pointed his revolver at her head .I hid my eyes as the shot rang out. Sophia was gone, officially. Carol was crying loudly.

I held onto Carol tightly as Daryl, holding my crying nephew walked towards us. He handed him to me and helped Carol to her feet. I walked in silence with Daryl, who placed his arms around a crying Carol’s shoulders as we headed back towards our camp.

When we reached the RV, Carol crept inside and Daryl and I filed in after her. She sat down at the table in the RV, deep in thought. I sat on an empty bed, and pulled Vinny onto my lap, facing me. He rested his head on my shoulder, sniffling slightly.

“Carol, I’m so so sorry,” I said shakily, and she looked up at me. She appeared to still be in deep thought.

“ ‘bout what?” She asked, looking directly at me. I looked at her quizzically.

“ ‘bout your little girl…” Daryl answered in the gentlest voice he could muster.

“My little girl was gone a long time ago,” she whispered. We sat silently together until Rick knocked on the trailer door.

Vinny fell asleep, and I laid him gently on our bed and covered him with a blanket. I walked past Daryl, Carol and Rick and out of the RV and into the clearing. I covered my eyes and began to sob silently. The loss of Sophia was truly heartbreaking.

I heard the door to the RV open and close and I tried to dry my eyes quickly. I felt a strong muscled arm wrap around me and I knew it was Daryl. I tried to push him off and he just held on to me tighter.

“ ‘s gonna be okay,” he said gently and I quit struggling and buried my face into his shoulder, trying to stop the tears that were rolling down my face. A few minutes went by and Rick and Carol stepped out of the RV. I quickly stepped away from Daryl, wiping the tears from my eyes. I looked apologetically towards Carol, who walked with Rick over to the farmhouse. She tried to smile, but the state of shock was in made her forced smile look a little crazy.

After they were out of ear shot, Daryl asked, “Ya gon’ be alright, princess?” I nodded, and stepped away from him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping towards me again and trying to close the space between us.

“You’ve gotta make up your mind,” I said, stepping away again. He looked at me in confusion.

“One minute you hate me, one minute your nice to me and I can’t keep up,” I said, frustrated and his eyebrows knitted together. “It’s not fair to me!” I said, my voice raising in anger. He nodded and walked away towards the farmhouse without another word.

I shook my head in frustration and walked back into the RV. Vinny was still sleeping, so I curled up next to him, trying to forget the events of the day as they burned madly through my mind.

I woke hours later to a setting sun. Carol was shaking me awake and I lifted my head up in a daze.

“Dinner’s ready, dear,” she said quietly and I sat up and stretched. She sat in an empty space on the bed and I pulled her into a hug. Vinny woke from the movement on the bed and when I released Carol, he pulled her into another hug.

“Miss Carol, can I protect you now?” he asked sweetly and Carol chuckled sadly.

“You bet, big guy,” she said and kissed his cheek lightly. I smiled and wiped another tear from my eye. We all three stood up together and filed out of the RV. When I stepped out, everyone was seated around the fire, sharing happy memories about their families and Sophia. Carol smiled at everyone as their faces glowed around the fire.

After dinner, the sun was almost gone from the sky and the group were relaxing and talking idly to each other. I sat with Carol as we watched Vinny and Carl play “guns” in front of the RV.

Daryl approached the two of us, half smiled and sat on the step to the RV that was directly next to me. I looked over at him and he revealed a white daisy that he was extending to hand to me. The nervous bubble in my stomach had returned as I took it out of his hands. I smiled at him, still a little confused.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “…I’ve made up my mind.” He leaned close to me and gently kissed the top of my forehead before standing up again to join the men sitting around the campfire. I could feel a blush growing on my cheeks as everyone’s focus was on me. I tucked the flower into my messy bun and looked over to Carol.

“I’ve never seen Daryl act that way,” she said, allowing a smirk to escape her face.

“Yeah, shut up,” I said, blushing again. Vinny looked at me angrily and said, “Zia, we don’t say shut up!” The group around us that was eavesdropping all chuckled lightly.

“I didn’t say it was a BAD thing,” Carol explained. “It’s nice to see things like that, with the state of humanity today…” I rolled my eyes at her and she chuckled again. My stomach was in knots as I replayed Daryl’s sweet gesture in my head over and over again.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” I started, “He’ll hate me again before the night is over...” Carol smiled again.

“Well, how I remember it, the boys who teased the girls on the playground when we were kids always had secret crushes on them…”Carol mused. I was happy to see her smiling.

“Carol!” I said, blushing again and she chuckled.

“Alright, alright,” she said, “I won’t embarrass you further…”

For the rest of the evening, we gravitated towards Carol. I wanted her to feel like even though Sophia was gone, she still had all of us. I wanted her to feel loved.

As it grew later, Vinny was growing sleepy and had fallen asleep on Carol’s lap, who was dozing off herself. I lifted him off of her lap carefully, and whispered, “C’mon little man, bed time.” to his protests. Carol’s eyes fluttered open and she followed us into the RV. I tucked both of them in, and wished Carol a good night, locking the door behind me. It was dead quiet around the fire, everyone had packed up and gone to bed.

I was folding up the scattered folding chairs when I heard a cat calling whistle ring out around me. I whirled around, searching for the source of the sound when I heard Daryl chuckle from above me.

“Up here, princess,” he called and I looked up to see him sitting on top of the RV, watching for walkers. I smiled to myself and walked around the RV, climbing carefully up the ladder. He had offered his hand to me as I neared the top, to which I took and thanked him.

“What are you doing up here?” I asked shyly.

“Just watchin’,” he said, and set his crossbow down as he took a seat on the edge of the RV. I crept over and sat down next to him, letting my legs dangle from the side.

“It’s quiet up here,” I said, my eyes scanning the dark horizon. We sat quietly for awhile as I heard him rustle and grunt in pain. I turned to see him tightening a bloody t-shirt around his forearm.

“What happened?” I asked, scooting back and looking at the disgusting make-shift bandage wrapped around his arm.

“ ‘s nothing, I scraped it on a pricker bush earlier today when I was huntin’…” he said, looking directly in my eyes. I hesitantly pulled his forearm gently towards me and felt relief when he didn’t yank it away from me. I softly unwrapped the disgusting t-shirt bandage and saw a deep gash embedded in the skin on his forearm. My eyebrows crinkled together in concern.
I stood up and carefully made my way down the ladder to grab the first aid pack that was sitting on the table near the RV.

“Where ya goin’ princess?” he asked and I rolled my eyes at him.

“My name isn’t princess,” I called back to him as I grabbed the first aid kit and made my way back up the ladder. I sat down in the same place next to him and pulled out some gauze pads and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

He looked at me incredulously. I poured some peroxide onto some gauze and let it soak into the cotton. I pulled his arm back into my lap and gently began cleaning the dried blood off of his arm.

“Why‘re you’re hands so soft?” he asked, staring down at the wound on his arm that I was cleaning. I chuckled.

“Uh, I don’t know,” I said, dabbing at the bubbles that were oozing from his wound. I released his arm to pull out a large adhesive bandage from the first aid pack in front of me. He didn’t move his arm, but looked towards the bandage in my hand and shook his head.

“Gia, I ain’t no girl, I don’t need a band-aid…” he tried to pull his hand back from my lap and I pulled it back down and looked over directly into his eyes.

“Daryl! You can take it off in the morning before anyone sees…” He rolled his eyes and relaxed his arm again. I squeezed some Neosporin onto my index finger and dabbed it onto his gash before securing the sticky bandage onto his arm. He left his arm resting on my thigh as I packed back up the first aid kit.

When I had zipped the pack closed, he lifted his arm and looked at the bandage on his arm, admiring my handiwork. “Well, Hellooo nurse!” he said, smirking at me.

“Shut up,” I said roughly shoving his hurt arm that he held up in front of us.

“Ow, hey!” he said lightly, “We don’t say shut up, remember?!” he said smirking as I pushed his arm again. We sat quietly on top of the RV together after that, and his close proximity was making me uneasy.

“Why’d you decide to be nice to me?” I asked nervously, staring into the distance ahead.

“Why’d you decide to fix up my arm?” he asked, smirking at me. I shrugged and said, “I owed you for the times that you watched out for me and Vinny, which was I think what, three? Three times in the past week?”

“It’s becoming a full time job…” he said lightly. I laughed out loud. I hadn’t laughed in a long time.

“Hush, princess,” he said, and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I yawned and looked up towards the stars. They weren’t ever this pretty in the city; the constant glow of electric lights faded their true beauty. I yawned again and Daryl moved to stand up. He made his way to his feet and I watched him standing over me.

“C’mon, time for bed,” he said, extending his hand down to me. “You’re going to learn to kill things tomorrow.” I took his hand and stood on top of the RV next to him, and peered up at his eyes. He was almost a foot taller than me. I shook my head and answered, “I don’t think so.”

He walked towards the ladder and stepped down off the RV and I followed. I felt his hands grasp my waist when I was half way down and he lifted me carefully to the ground.

“I do… Ya need to learn…baby steps,” he said, smirking. I shook my head, opened my mouth to argue, when I felt his finger shush my lips. We were right outside of the camper door, which he quietly opened.

“C’mon, off to bed… You’ll have plenty of time to argue with me in the mornin’,” he
whispered and gently nudged me in the door. I rolled my eyes and hesitated before walking inside. I stepped onto the RV step and leaned forward and lightly kissed him on the cheek. I noticed his body tense as I leaned forward, but he didn’t move away.

“Goodnight,” I whispered, and stepped inside the RV and heard it close and lock behind me. I walked over to Vinny and I’s bed, and pulled the daisy out of my hair. I looked around me and pulled Carol’s bible off the shelf above our heads and pressed the daisy inside and closed the cover. I replaced the book on the shelf and climbed into bed with Vinny. I quickly dozed off, thinking about what the next morning had in store for me.