Serendipitous

18.

"Good morning" Lori greets cheerily. I leave the tent, Shane must have not woken me up this morning before he left the tent.

"Good morning. How long have I been asleep for?" I ask, she smiles.

"It's only eleven am, no worries. Your body needs the rest apparently." She responds. My stomach drops. Does she know? No, of course she doesn't I am being ridiculous.

"What?"

"Your headaches, sweetie. When I had migraines they kept me up all night, it's no secret you didn't sleep well last night." She acknowledges while eyeing me.

What I want to tell her is, actually no mother the reason I had trouble sleeping last night is because I am pregnant and I was trying to cry without waking Shane. Speaking of Shane, where is he? It would be good to talk to him right now.

"Right, yeah, the migraines... Hey, where is dad?" I ask trying to change the subject off of me.

"Your father is with Shane and everyone else, I don't know what they are talking about but— Oh, here they come now."

I look over to see Shane approaching us with the rest of the group along with my dad. Shane's eyes light up when he sees me, I immediately want to break down crying but I can't do that right now. It will look suspicious, so I just smile at him and hope my tears stay hidden.

"Morning, guys. Let's get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover." My dad embarks. "All right, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far."

"I'd like to help. I know the area pretty well and stuff." The tall slender man in front of us speaks, he looks no younger than myself if not a couple years older than me.

"Hershel's okay with this?" My dad asks him.

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you."

"All right then. Thanks."

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse..." Shane chimes in.

"What did he find?" I ask him. My eyes look up to meet his gaze.

"Not Sophia." He responds.

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea smoothly interjects.

"So it could have been her?" I ask hopefully.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl informs us. Maybe it was Sophia after all.

"It's a good lead." Andrea agrees with me.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." My dad has hopefulness in his voice.

"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot he.r" Daryl speaks in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Good idea. Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too."  T-Dog chuckles. I'm assuming this is an inside joke between the two of them.

"Chupacabra?" I hear my dad ask them.

"You never heard this? Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra." Dale says with a hint of humor in his voice, I bite my bottom lip to stifle my laughter as the rest of the group laughs.

"What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asks defensively.

"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Jimmy teases him while still trying not to laugh.