Would It Matter // Rick Grimes

Chapter 19

"Rick let me come with you to help look for her." I said.

"What about Emma?" Rick asked.

"Dale said he'll watch her." I said.

"Okay." Rick said.

I had a knife on my leg and a handgun on my hip. Not all of us has a gun but I was taught how to use one. My dad taught me and Rick taught me as well.

"Me, Daryl, Rick and Sydney are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane said.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea said. She was starting to get on my nerves.

"Say somebody shoots at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. It'll be game over for all of us. So you just need to get over it." Shane said.

"The idea is to take the creek up five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be at the creek. That's her only landmark." Daryl said.

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay in sight of each other." Shane said.

Carl wanted to come and so he is. We were walking to the creek in a line so we don't lose each other.

"Mom, I think Shane's mad at me." Carl said. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked.

"No. He's just worried about Sophia." I said.

We continued walking until we came across a tent.

"She could be in there." Shane said.

"Could be anything in there." Daryl said, going to the entrance and waited.

"Carol, call out softly. If she's in there, she should hear your voice first." Rick said.

"Sophia. Sophia sweetie, it's mommy. We're all here baby. It's mommy." Carol said.

Nothing came out and Daryl went inside.

"Daryl?" Carol said, when he came out.

"She's not in there." Daryl said.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out." Daryl said, when we started hearing a bell ringing in the distance.

"What direction?" Rick said.

"Maybe that way." Daryl said.

"It's hard to tell out here." Shane said.

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia heard them too." Glenn said.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." I said.

"Or signaling they found her." Shane said.

"She could be ringing them herself." Rick said.

We started running where the bell came from and came up to a church.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bell." Shane said.

We continued running to it until we got to the door. Daryl, Shane and Rick went inside to check it out while the rest of us stayed outside. Me and Glenn walked around the church and found a box. Glenn opened it then pulled the wires out and bell shut off.

"It ran on a timer." Glenn said.

"Damnit." I said.

We walked back to the front and gathered with the others.

"We have to move, man. These people are spent. There's only so many hours left of sunlight left. And it's a long way back." Shane said.

"I can't stop yet." Rick said.

"We still got a whole ground to cover, the other side of the creek bed. So we search on the way back." Shane said.

"She would have heard those bells. She could be nearby." Rick said.

"She could be a lot of things." Shane said.

"I can't go back. Her being out here is my fault." Rick said.

"That's great. Now they got you doubting yourself?" Shane said.

"What about you? Do you doubt me?" Rick asked.

"We can assign all kinds of blame." Shane said.

"This means something, finding her." Rick said. "It would be the miracle we need. We can't give up." He said.

"Y'all follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge." Shane said. "Me and Rick, we're just going to hang back and search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." He said.

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl said.

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

"I want to stay too. I'm her friend too." Carl said.

"Just be careful, okay?" I said, crouching down.

"I will." He said, hugging me.

"When did you start growing up Carl?" I said, hugging back.

We then pulled away and Carl walked to Shane and Rick.

"I'll be along soon enough." Rick said, coming closer to me.

"Just please be safe. I can't lose you Rick." I said.

Rick hugged me then pulled away and pecked my lips. We then started walking back to the highway.

"So this is it?" Carol asked. "This is the whole plan?" She asked.

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down to smaller and smaller groups." Daryl said.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea said. I stopped walking and turned to her.

"You want a gun, here then. I'm tired of the looks you're giving me." I said, before turning to Carol. "Carol, I can't imagine what you're going through and I would do anything to stop it. But you have to stop blaming 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. I don't know if any of us would've ran after her like he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it differently. You all look at him and you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. No one's stopping you." I said.

We then heard a gunshot while we were walking back. I was worrying about it and it was evident on my face.

"You still worrying about it?" Carol asked.

"It was a gunshot. We all heard it. But why just one?" I said.

"Maybe he took down a walker." Andrea said.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker neither will Shane. They'd do it quietly." I said.

"Shouldn't they have caught up to us by now?" Carol asked.

"There's nothing we can do about it now." Daryl said. "We can't go around chasing echoes. I'm sure they'll hook back up with us on the highway." He said.

We continued walking until we heard screaming. We ran and saw a walker on top of Andrea but soon a woman on a horse came and killed it.

"Sydney Grimes?" The woman asked.

"I'm Sydney. What's going on?" I asked.

"Rick sent me, you've got to come now." The woman said. "There's been an accident. Carl's been shot." She told me.

I then climbed onto the horse quickly and held onto the woman so I don't fall off.

"Whoa! We don't know this girl!" Daryl shouted.

"Rick said there's more of you on the highway. That big traffic snarl?" The woman said.

"Uh-huh." Daryl said.

"Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox, named Greene." She said, before riding back to the farm.