𝐇𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃 │ 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐗𝐎𝐍 ¹ [✔]

[27]: wedding bells

He ran up beside me, holding a weapon from the arsenal. He didn't say much else, just smiled at me. It seemed he just wanted to walk beside me, and closer to his dad.

"What you got there, young sir?" I whispered.

He looked up at me excitedly. "Dad said I could carry it, and Mom said as long as I was careful, I could practice with it later," he whispered.

"I'll practice with you too then," I whispered back, hooking my arm around his shoulder, ruffling his sweaty hair in the process.

It seemed that Daryl had spotted something, because he was slowing down. He put a finger up to Rick, silently ordering us to hold up.

I recognised this silent order from experience... but it wasn't that hard to decipher honestly. I automatically dropped to the ground, hands on the ground. I always did this. It was automatic.

Daryl looked over his shoulder and at me, knowing what I had just done.

His eyes lingered on me as I hastily stood up, brushing the dirt off my jeans.

Rick and Shane came up by him, all now eyeing the what was up ahead. I squinted my eyes, and saw a dirty green tent amidst the foliage.

Shane said the obvious, "She could be in there."

"A whole bunch o' things could be in there," Daryl counteracted. He lifted his crossbow just a bit higher.

Rick gestured for us all the stay put, as the three of them made their way forward. I hoped that Sophia was in there, so we could all go back and rest.

I stood by Carl, my arm back around his shoulders, slightly crouched down to his level.

"I hope she's in there," he whispered in my ear.

"Me too, young sir," I whispered back.

Rick soon called Carol the come forward. Something about Carol's voice being the first Sophia

should hear. We all followed her in curiosity.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" Carol called out. "Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here baby. It's Mommy."

I watched as Daryl was tensing his arms, holding them up. His grip on his knife was deadly. He silently, and surely started to unzip the door to the tent. The three men coughed into their shoulders, and I soon found out why as the stench reached me. I crinkled my nose in disgust.

Despite the stench, Daryl went inside the tent. It was silent again.

"Daryl?" Carol's voice interrupted the silence.

Daryl came back out. "She's not in there."

"What is in there?" I asked, stepping forward. Carl's hand was now grasping mine, as I stood up straight.

"Some guy," he replied. "Did what Jenner said, what'd he call it?"

"Opt out?" I looked him in the eyes and he looked back at mine. He nodded before looking away quickly, like I was the sun or something.

Just as all of our hopes were being crushed, church bells started ringing. I tensed up for a moment, as I think everyone else did.

'she could be ringing them' I thought, 'she could still be alive'.

Rick pointed in the direction, and was off like a rocket, seeming to have the same thought as me. I took no hesitation in following our leader.

Rick and, surprisingly, I were at the front. We tuned in our ears, desperate to follow the chimes.