Hero

n i n e

"Just had to." Daryl spoke with a shrug. Lenora nodded and stayed quiet. Once more the group stopped in a small clearing. It wasn't that big but allowed them to see the sun clearly from their spot in the midst of the woods. 

"I think we should call it." Daryl spoke gently, almost as if he was treading dangerous waters. "Let's head back, we'll lose the light before long." 

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked softly.

"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." Lori reassured the aching mother. 

The small group began on it's way back to the RV, Daryl was of course leading them. He kept a watchful eye on Lenora who was grimacing with every step she took and beginning to fall behind slightly. 

"How much farther?" Lori asked him. 

"Not much, maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies." The hunter stated, continuing his trek through the overgrown leaves they were now entering.

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea whined breathlessly. They were silent for about thirty seconds  before her screams rang out. 

"Andrea?" Lori asked looking around. Somehow Andrea had strayed away from the group. Daryl ran towards the noise, his crossbow raised in the air. The adults all made it farther and faster than Lee but she attempted to keep up nonetheless. She made it about ten feet before collapsing on the ground, the entire group gone. 

She looked around in a panic, attempting to stand up but only falling back down again. Rolling up her jeans and cuffing them, she saw that there were no bones in odd positions so she deduced that her ankle wasn't broken. Or at least she hoped. 

Suddenly, she heard her name. "Lee?" A gruff voice yelled, automatically she recognized it as Daryl. 

"I'm over here." Lee yelled and Daryl came through the clearing along with the rest of the group, minus Lori. 

"You okay?" Daryl asked her kneeling down to her level. 

"My ankle." She whispered feeling stupid for being weak over nothing. Lenora didn't like feeling helpless, but in this moment she felt like an absolute weak link.

"Think you can walk?" He asked and she nodded.

"I can try." She said grabbing his hand that he offered to help her up. She made it a couple steps before starting to collapse again. 

"Get on my back." He said turning around. 

"What?" 

"Just do it Lee, it's gonna be a lot less painful, and the sooner we get to Dale the better." 

Without any further objection, Lenora slowly got on the man's back with the rest of the remaining group watching in awe. They'd never seen Daryl being this gentle or even nice to anyone. 

When they made it back to the RV, Daryl approached Dale. 

"Apparently, Carl was shot." He spoke placing Lee down on the hood of a nearby car as soon as he stepped over the highway barrier. 

This was news to Lenora. But it did explain why Lori didn't come back with the group after Andrea's screams. It even explained the gunshot from earlier. 

"Shot?" Dale questioned. "What do you mean shot?"

"I don't know, Dale." Glenn said panting. "I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

"And you let her?" Dale asked Glenn who was carefully looking at the young girls foot. 

"Climb down out of my asshole old man, Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl said not looking back at the man in the funny hat.

"I heard screams was that you?" Dale asked Andrea. The old man was obviously concerned about the entire group, but for some odd reason he had some sort of overprotectiveness about Andrea. 

"She got Attacked by a walker." Glenn told him. "It was a close call." 

"Andrea, are you alright?" Dale yelled. Andrea looked back at the man briefly before storming into the RV.

Lenora winced as Daryl touched her ankle. "Gotta wrap it." He grunted. He was by far no medical professional, but he experienced a few bumps and scrapes from his childhood. "Lay off of it too. You'll only make it worse, it was a bad idea for me to let you keep walking today." 

"It's not your fault." Lenora said shyly, she felt embarrassed. She hated feeling weak, but she hated that Daryl was blaming himself even more. "I'm just clumsy."

He opened the door to a nearby car, rummaging through it a bit and pulling out an ace bandage. Carefully he wrapped it around Lenora's ankle and helped her into the RV. 

"Stay here alright?" He said before walking out of the RV and back onto the highway to discuss somethings with the group. Lenora was left alone to her own mind. 

How had things changed so drastically over the course of a couple days? She now had people that cared about her, Daryl was acting almost as a parental figure. Sophia was missing, Carl was shot and their entire group was split.

From inside on the bench, Lenora could hear arguing. 

"I won't do it." Carol said. "We can't just leave."

"Carol , the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale reasoned.

"What if she comes back and we're not here?" Carol said countering his statement with a reasonable question. "It could happen."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea stated agreeing with the mother who was hurting. 

"Okay," Lenora heard Daryl speak up. "We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here, stay with the RV."

" If the RV is staying I am too." Dale spoke. Lenora didn't like the idea of leaving Sophia behind, but she also understood that they couldn't stay here forever. 

She heard Carol whimper out words gratefully, and it sounded like the woman was on the verge of tears again. The group began talking once more about the plan before she could no longer hear them. 

Eventually, the sun began to set and the group came into the RV. Lenora was laying down on one of the seats, Carol was crying softly in the bedroom where she thought no one would hear her. Daryl laid on the floor with his arms supporting his head, and Andrea would not stop messing with her gun. 

It was beginning to get on Lenora's nerves. The constant sound of metal clicking into the wrong spots, her frustratedly putting the gun down with a sigh. She thought she might lose her mind. She grabbed a pillow and held it over her ears.

Eventually, Daryl sat up with a grunt, causing Lenora to raise her head. She watched as he stood up, and put his crossbow on his back. 

"I need my clip now." Daryl said to Andrea, she was sitting across the booth from where Lenora was attempting to get some rest. "I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." 

Lenora sat up a little bit, looking towards the redneck man. "Be safe?" 

"Course Lee." Daryl said with a nod before he began to walk out of the door. "Try and get some sleep." 

Lenora watched as Andrea got up slowly, grabbing a flashlight and following Daryl out the door. Gently, Lee lowered herself back to sleep. She was tempted to wait until Daryl got back safely, but knew it'd be better to try and sleep now while it was quiet. 

____

Word Count: 1881

A/n: I'm sorry this one was boring but not much happened during this episiode :/

Leave a like and comment <3