Papá's Girl

On The Road Again

©JRF2016

We had decided to go with Shane's plan and head to Fort Benning. We stopped to gather some supplies and decided to only take three vehicles from this point so we siphoned gas from the cars we were leaving behind for the ones we were taking. Papá was of course not going to leave his bike so the others were loading up in Carol's Cherokee and Dale's RV. "Come on Bella Rose," Papá smiled at me, "So come sempre amato cavallo con me." {I know how you always loved riding with me} I was staring at Shane who was watching Rick and Lori and he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts until his eyes locked with mine. Then it seemed to free itself. He smiled and I returned that smile. Dale yelled for Shane and he walked over to the RV. "Hmmm, hmmm," Papá cleared his throat as he traced my stare, "Ti piace quello stronzo? Di cosa si tratta che cazzo arrogante che ti piace cosi tanto?" {You do like that asshole huh? What is it about that arrogant prick that you like so much?}

"Sto solo essere gentilePapá. Non e cosi." {I'm just being nice Papá . It's not like that.} He huffed as he patted the seat. I walked over and climbed onto the back of Papá's bike. As he started the bike he yelled back to me, "I'm tellin' ya baby girl, he's trouble." I glanced back at the RV and saw Shane as he disappeared into it. I know Papá was probably right but there was something about him that held my attention. If he could only forget about that scrawny bitch Lori. We pulled out and headed down the road to Fort Benning.

We had been riding for a while when we ran up on a big traffic snarl. Papá circled the bike around to the window of the RV. Dale leaned out and asked, "Can we get through?" Papá nodded and started to turn the bike back around when I stopped him. "Papá," I said in his ear, "I need a little break, Can I ride in the RV for a while?" He stopped the bike and looked at me. "It has nothing to do with Shane, I'm just a little tired and want to lay down for a while. Anyway, Uncle Daryl's ridin' in there too and he can keep an eye out for me." He seemed to loosen up some with the mention of Daryl looking out for me. He kissed me on the forehead as I climbed off the bike and walked over to the RV. I opened the door to the RV and everyone was staring at me. I glared back at them and just kept walking to the back on the RV. I plopped down on the bed and saw that everyone was still looking back at me. "You can roll on any minute now," I yelled back up to Dale. My eyes immediately started getting heavier and I was soon fast asleep.

I was startled awake by someone stroking my hair. I jumped up and swung my fist. He caught it. "Whoa," Daryl said, "You're definitely my brother's daughter. Shoot first, ask questions later." He chuckled.

"Sorry Uncle Daryl," I said as I settled back down and rested my head on his shoulder, "Just got in a habit of bein' a little jumpy all the time." Shane appeared in the doorway and we both looked up at him. Shane walked over to the other bed and lay down without a word. I looked over at him lying there and a smile grew on my face that I could not suppress no matter how hard I tried. Daryl saw that smile and sighed. "I gotta take a piss," he said and then looked over at Shane. I lay back down on the bed and closed my eyes when I felt someone slide into the bed next to me. He put his hand on my stomach and whispered into my ear, "How about another one of those sweet kisses before Daryl gets back." I slowly opened my eyes and stared into his big, twinkling, brown ones. I smiled as I grabbed a handful of his t-shirt and pulled him closer to me. My lips almost touching his and I whispered, "Neanche per sogno, testa di cazzo," {No way dickhead.} Then shoved him back.

"Okay," he said smiling as he moved in again. I pushed him again at the same time that the RV came to a halt and Shane fell onto the floor. We jumped up and ran to see what was going on. As we all got out of the RV Dale was fussing about the radiator hose and us being stranded. He stopped mid-sentence, "Okay that was stupid." He said as he was looking around at all the vehicles piled up on the road. "If you can't find a radiator hose here," Shane started but Daryl finished, "There's a whole lot of things we can find here." He was saying this as he was rummaging through the back of a car.

"This is a graveyard," Lori chimed in, "I don't know how I feel about this." I rolled my eyes as I started looking through another car.

"They ain't usin' it no more," I snarled, "And we need supplies. Food, clothes, whatever." Dale started working on the radiator hose while the rest of us started searching the cars for anything we could use. Dale was on watch on top of the RV now. Rick was on the ground beside the RV when he spotted a walker. He brought his rifle up and took aim. Then all of a sudden he dropped his aim and turned to the group.  He whispered as loud as he dared, "Everyone under the cars!" We all did as he said and waited for the herd to blow pass. The last straggler in this herd staggered by me and I started to crawl out from under the car when I heard Sophia scream. I got up looking for her and saw her run into the woods with two walkers right behind her. Rick jumped over the gaurdrail and followed after them.

Rick came back after a while and took Uncle Daryl, Shane, and Glenn back out to look for the little girl. We were all just standing around at the RV when Shane and Glenn came back up the hill. "You didn't find her?" Carol ran up to them crying. Shane put a hand on her shoulder, "Rick and Daryl on following her trail. They'll find her." Shane gave out orders trying his best to keep everyone busy so they wouldn't start panicking.

It was starting to get dark now. Rick and Uncle Daryl came trudging up the hill and stopped at the gaurdrail when Carol ran up to them. She started crying again. "We followed her trail for a while."

"We'll pick it up again at first light," RIck said.

"You can't leave my little girl out there all alone in the dark." Carol wimpered.

"It's no good in the dark we'd just be trippin' over ourselves." Uncle Daryl told her. She looked down at his boots.

"Is that blood?" She asked.

"We took down a walker. There's no sign it was ever near Sophia." Rick reassured her.

"How do you know?" Andrea asked.

"We cut the sum bitch open," Uncle Daryl told her. Carol was ripping into Rick for leaving Sophia out there by herself. Rick got frustrated and walked off. I watched Rick as he walked away, it was obvious that this was eating away at him. "This is tearin' him up," I jumped as I looked over my shoulder and saw Shane. "Rick's a good guy. He is gonna carry this guilt around till we find that little girl." I nodded to him.

"You two are close huh?" I asked him.

"He's like my brother," Shane responded as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I'd do anything for him."I smiled at him. "You do have a beautiful smile, you know that?"

"Just like her mama," Papá spoke up behind us, "Yer ma could light up any room she walked into with her smile and you got the same exact smile angel." He walked up beside me and hugged me tight. "You need to try and get some sleep. We are gonna get started early tryin' to find this girl." I nodded and kissed his cheek and then headed for the RV. "I don't like it but my daughter likes you. I ain't fool enough to believe otherwise. But you better watch yer ass around her because if you do anything to hurt her, anything at all, I'll kill ya. Ya understand me?" Shane nodded.

"Does that mean I got your blessing to date her?" Merle Dixon huffed and walked away without answering Shane's question. "Dixon!" Shane yelled out at him.

"No," Merle said turning back to Shane, "I ain't ever givin' ya a blessin' for anything but whatever my Bella wants I ain't standin' in her way." Merle gritted his teeth as he watched Shane standing there with a sly grin on his face.