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chapter twenty-nine | the broken neck
"THIS IS POINTLESS, you got a light?" Daryl glanced back at Glenn, who clutched a flashlight tightly in one hand while he held a curved machete in the other. The sun set quickly after Rick and Shane split off from the other three. It was pitch black out now.
Laurel was walking behind the Korean and halted when he handed him the flashlight. Daryl clicked it on, shining it on the path he was leading them on. He let out an irritated sigh, "come on." In the beginning, they didn't want to use any light, in fear that Randall would see and run the other way but now they didn't have much choice as they were tripping over themselves and Daryl couldn't even track him if he couldn't see the ground.
Glenn and Laurel followed him deeper without a word. Laurel began to shiver and pulled the sleeves of her hoodie further down her arms, so only the gun that Andrea handed her peeked out.
She wasn't the most comfortable with a gun, but she was grateful Rick taught her how to shoot and she wasn't too bad at it. It would take more practicing and whatnot for her to learn more skills and feel comfortable when shooting it.
"We're just back to square one," Glenn observed, realizing that Daryl led them to the beginning.
"If we're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right," Daryl stated.
"I got a bad feeling about all this..." Laurel whispered, she tried to ignore the shapes that her eyes were finding in the dark. The gut feeling in her stomach growing stronger the more they walked deeper into the forest. She wished she never left Rick and Shane. Shane was acting too unhinged, and she hoped Rick could protect himself.
Daryl glanced back at her, "well we can't go back," his voice was coarse. "Who knows if Randall is already back to his group or dead."
Daryl led them along the treeline before he announced he found some tracks, not where Shane said they should be, and began to follow them into the woods. Laurel stayed as close as she could to Glenn, watching their back just in case of a walker jumping out at them or worse.
Daryl started to walk slower, his flashlight pointed at the ground steadily down one path. "There's two sets of tracks right here. Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said," he announced.
Laurel walked over to his side, looking wherever he pointed his flashlight. When Daryl flicked the light up, Laurel saw something dark on the tree. "Wait," she grabbed his hand that held the light and pointed it back to the tree. "Look, there's blood." She dropped her hold on him, missing his warmth immediately.
The three stepped closer to it, "fresh too," Daryl agreed. Daryl tilted his head down, flickering his light to the left. "There's more tracks. Looks like they're walking in tandem."
"Didn't Shane say he got hit with a rock?" Laurel asked, and Glenn shrugged just as an owl hooted behind them.
Glenn walked backward, his eyes looking for the sound, and ended up bumping into Daryl's back. "Sorry," He whispered guiltily when he saw the look on Daryl's face when he turned around.
