Death like a door,
To a place we've never been before -
Would you live forever, never die?
While everything around passes?
When the going gets tough, survival isn't always easy. Sometimes the easiest thing you could do is lay down and die. Espec...
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2x01 | long road ahead ——————————————-
The once peaceful day took an ugly turn with the herd passing through, and Sophia having run off into the woods, now missing. Even as the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting its fiery hues of orange and yellow upon the Quarry survivors, the girl remained lost... a terrible fate once the sun fully set, and darkness encompassed the sky. Every shadow cast upon the abandoned cars of the highway, every moment where Lucy turned to tell the younger girl something, a cruel reminder of her absence. An absence Lucy's family felt as painfully as if she was one of their own. An honorary Grimes by all accounts.
Yet no one loved her as ferociously and lost her as terribly as her mother, as Carol did. The woman on her knees, shaking violently as a puddle of her tears rose around her, drowning her in that very grief. Nobody, including Lori, could coax the woman from her state. No promises of finding her daughter unharmed steadying her roaring mind in the face of the day. The one thing that could stop the tears, was the daughter she lost, which they hadn't had any luck finding yet.
With her disappearance in mind and no way to quiet the demons plaguing his mind, Rick volunteered to go search for the girl and bring her back to her mother. A promise that Carol couldn't believe coming from him. Daryl, having surprisingly stepped up, offered to help the cop, his tracking skills dementia to the timely location of Sophia Peletier. The rest of the group, being subjected to manual labor by Shane, who announced they'd spend the afternoon moving cars and gathering more supplies for their departure once Sophia was found.
Oh how Lucy wished she was able to go with her father — to do something to help, other than sit on the fence leading to the woods where Rick left only three hours prior. The setting sun mocking her, and her fear of Sophia having to spend a night alone, in the woods. Could the twelve-year-old survive? The temperature often dipped to thirty degrees in late September nights in Georgia, freezing to a young girl without any layers or jacket to keep her warm.
Could she die? Would it be Lucy's fault? Maybe if she hadn't been fighting with Carl, she could have been close enough to Sophia to push her under the car with them — maybe if Sophia had an older sibling to look out for her, she'd still be here laughing at another game Carl made up.
Maybe... Lucy prayed for this very outcome as she watched the highway with thin lips. Awaiting the return of the search party, and Sophia. Too nervous to do anything other than wait for her father, despite Shane hassling her to 'get back to work' multiple times since she parked herself here. But what was the point? If Sophia wasn't found they wouldn't be leaving that evening. They'd stay, and look for her in the morning as well. She had to be the group's priority, not their individual wants.
The sun had almost set, casting a warm glow over the highway by the time the men returned; empty-handed and empty-hearted. Carl perked up, having previously taken up residence on the ground as he awaited his friend's return. With a guilty nod from Rick, Carl's face fell, the hope of finding her before dark vanished. Without saying another word, Carl spun on his heels, taking off toward the RV.
