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- Daryl -
"Sure this the spot?" I asked Rick while looking into the brush that Sophia was supposed to be hidin' in. Rick lead us here while updating me on what happened. Told me that he went down the ditch a little after Jules did. When he saw her she was bleedin' and holdin' her leg. That she made him go after Sophia. He thought she would've gotten up and gone back to the road. He thought she would've done the smart thing to do. He didn't know her like I did. Hell, I barely knew her. All I knew was that woman was as stubborn as a mule. Pissed me off to no end when I learned that Rick just left her there.
"I left her right here." Rick forced me to focus on the task with his words. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." He lifted his hand to gesture in the area. Shane and Glenn decided to come with even though they sure as shit were no use for tracking. Glenn was a voice of reason and I didn't mind the kid. Shane, he will just mess up the search and fuck it up like he does everything else.
"Without a paddle.. seems where we've landed." I scoffed while bent down to examine the mud, trying to look for anything that could help. "She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder. " Rick was doing that thing where he raises his eyebrows into his hairline to try and explain himself. "Hey, short round, why don't ya step off to one side? Yer mucking up the trail." Shane and his heavy ass footing did no good here. He tags along to feel important.
"Assuming she knows her left from her right." I don't know why Shane and Rick were constantly butting heads, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Lori banging anyone who held the title of an officer. "Shane, she understood me fine." "Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." I rolled my eyes. Shane is just about as smart as a bag of rocks, and that's giving him a compliment. "Got clear prints right here. She did like ya said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out, make our way back." I suggested.
"She couldn't have gone far. Hey, we're gonna find her." Rick leaned in to talk to Glenn. "She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere." "She was doin' just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep goin'. She veered off that way." I spoke to Shane, we were both crouched down with Rick and Glenn standing behind us. He didn't see her footprints. Dumbass. "Why would she do that?" Okay I take it back. Glenn is stupid too. Sometimes I wonder if this whole group is secretly slow in the head. "Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." I wish Jules were here, she'd have some smartass remark to give Shane and his overfed ego.
"A walker?" "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers." I shook my head at Glenn. My hair was getting longer and it swung into the frame of my vision. "So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane stood with his hands on his hips. Merle used to do that. It's something them pricks do to look powerful. "No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." Although Rick had a bad habit of constantly being a pain in the ass, he was right about this. I could almost sense his hands moving as he spoke.
