WHITE FLAG
chapter thirteen : into the woods
{ season two - episode one }
KLOE LIKED THE woods. It was always peaceful and somewhere to chill out. This time, though, was a lot different. Instead of running away into the forest and resting on the ground and admiring the scenery, they were on the search for Carol's daughter, Sophia.
Daryl was in the lead and behind was Rick, Andrea, Carol, Zayn, Glenn, Kloe, Carl, Lori and Shane. They all stayed very quiet, trying their best not to make any sound at all. It felt very abnormal going through the woods with practically the whole group.
Kloe's eyes were stuck onto the ground as she synced her steps with Glenn's in front of her. They were all walking singular and not in groups, just like Rick had ordered back on the highway.
The sweat that continuously ran down the brunette's forehead got on her nerves. The temperature and humidity was raging high. It was at least September, yet it felt like summer. She didn't think she could've survived if they weren't exploring in the woods. She firmly wiped away the sweat with the back of her hand.
She realized the group slowly came to a stop and Rick signaled them to crouch down. Kloe tightened her grip on her bow as she placed her other hand on the ground so she couldn't fall. If there was anything she was bad at, it would be balancing. As a kid, she could never play freeze tag because she couldn't stand still, let alone standing on one foot.
"She could be in there," Shane suggested. Kloe still couldn't see where everybody was looking until Zayn pointed in the direction for her and there was a tent.
"Could be a whole bunch of things in there,'' Daryl noted, rising up and taking slow steps towards it with his crossbow aimed.
Rick began to follow as did everybody else, but he quickly raised a hand to stop them all from doing so. Kloe furrowed her eyebrows with confusion but didn't say anything since it was a stupid thing to get annoyed about.
Daryl raised his knife and stepped closer to the tent, Rick and Shane on his heels. Kloe watched as Daryl released his crossbow and peeked inside the little crack of the tent's entrance.
"Carol," Rick whisper-shouted. Without hesitation, the woman ran over to his side as the rest of the group began to follow. The two adults walked forward; Carol having her hand over her mouth and Rick with his hands tightened around his gun, "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."
Carol slowly nodded her head, staring at the tent Daryl stood beside, "Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" she called out softly as they anxiously waited for someone, a little girl, to exit the tent. "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy."
There was no sound coming from anybody or anything, there was nothing. Kloe's chest slightly heaved with tension as she slowly stepped forward. Rick began to walk closer to the tent, Shane followed. Daryl hesitantly unzipped the tent flap, trying to not make too much sound. As Daryl lifted the tent flap, the familiar smell of putrid corpses filled replaced the fresh air.
The three men all coughed at the smell, and even from a distance Kloe felt her face grimace from the smell and covered her nose with her hand. She watched carefully as the Dixon man entered the tent, the knife staying in his hand. The two men that waited for the man began to repetitively cough and gag.
"Daryl?" Carol called out, but there was no answer, "Daryl?"
The man inside the tent lifted the flap and stepped out, "It ain't her," he informed. Carol turned to Lori with sadness as she rubbed the woman's shoulder to comfort her.
"What's in there? It stinks," Kloe asked, turning her head around with a scrunched up face. Some eyes were set on her, but others were set on Rick, Shane and Daryl.
Andrea stood the furthest, in the same shoulderless black and white shirt. She had a duffel filled with supplies. Carl stood beside Andrea with his hand covering his nose, he was wearing a bronze colored jacket. Lori was comforting Carol, who was wearing a beige fishnet cardigan and an indigo flower print blouse underneath. Lastly, stood Zayn and Glenn. Zayn had a hatchet in one of his hands, and the other hand holding onto his hip. He was wearing a buttoned up sacramento green shirt. Glenn had the same machete pro he had grabbed onto back on the highway, and he was wearing a multicolored t-shirt: sky blue, a darker blue, persian red and white.
"Some guy," Daryl answered, causing Kloe to spin her head back around, still clutching onto her nostrils. "Did what Jenner said. Opted out," he threw his crossbow over his shoulder, "ain't that what he called it?"
Unexpectedly, bells rang out in the distance, causing the group to pause on the spot to figure out which direction it was coming from.
"Where's that coming from? It could be from anywhere," Zayn asked, darting his head in every direction. Everybody else looked around, trying to locate the sound.
Kloe stood still, focusing onto the sound that was blaring out in the distance. Simultaneously, the Grimes man and the younger Schmidt pointed into a direction and instantly began to sprint. Rick and Kloe were taking the lead. It may have been a bit tricky for Rick to pinpoint the sound, but for the girl; it was a piece of cake.
She watched Rick swing his head side to side. "What direction?" Shane asked, gasping for air. His eyes looked into the two adults' eyes for an answer. Kloe looked at Rick, but he didn't have an answer. She did.
"I think that way," Rick stated, pointing to the side. "I'm pretty sure. Klo, can you correct me if I'm wrong?" She quickly nodded and raised her finger in a completely different direction to where Rick was pointing to.
"No offense, Rick, but when we were on the highway Kloe noticed the herd coming before any of us did. She has like this super hearing thing," Zayn stated, standing by his sister's side. Rick nodded his head, sending a small smile.
"It's hard to tell out here. How can you know?" Shane inquired, gripping onto his gun as he looked around at the beautiful scenery.
"If we hear them, then maybe Sophia does too," Carol breathed, sharing a few glances with members of the group. Kloe knew exactly where the bells were coming from. Just as she parted her dry lips to speak, Glenn beat her to it.
"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others," Glenn suggested as everybody's attention fell onto him.
"Or signaling that they found her," Andrea added, a slight look of happiness on her lips, quickening her pace.
"She could be ringing them herself. Come on. Klo, lead the way," Rick demanded and she nodded as she spun around to the sound and began to run. She heard everybody's presence behind her from all the dried leaves crunching and twigs snapping.
...
They were running for approximately five minutes or less, but it was a lot in the raging hot heat that was radiating off of the sun and onto earth's surface. The bells chiming grew louder and louder as they got closer. A small smile plastered Kloe's face as she began to make out concrete headstones.
She moderately crouched down the overgrown leaves, exiting the woods. There was a small white building; a church. The only thing was, it didn't have a steeple where usually the bell was placed.
"That can't be it," Rick stated, who was standing beside a confused Kloe, "got no steeple, no bells."
"It's gotta be," she denied, shaking her head, "This is directly where the sound was coming from." Not waiting for any retorts, she abruptly moved her legs and worked her way towards the church.
"Kloe, wait," Shane called out, but stopped himself when he saw his best friend stay by her side and began to follow as everyone else did. She slowed her pace to allow Rick, Shane and Daryl take the lead. She was now only around a meter in front of Glenn and her brother.
Once they got to the front entrance to the building, Rick stepped up the staircase, skipping a few steps. He leaned his side against a scarlet red door and Daryl leaned on the other. Shane, Glenn and Kloe waited at the bottom step as Rick lifted a finger to his lips, signaling Daryl to be quiet and gestured to open the door in a three-second countdown.
The scarlet red double doors creaked and screeched open, presenting the inside. The three of them stepped up the staircase and looked inside. There was a currant red carpet leading down to the end of the room. The cross with Jesus on it was at the very end of the room, in front of it stood a lectern. In rows, there were the pews that had a few walkers sitting on them.
Faint snarls came from inside as the three walkers slowly turned around at the group. Kloe lifted her bow that already had an arrow connected to it and aimed at the walkers. The sound of a blade scraping entered her ears, Lori carefully handed over a machete to her husband as he wrapped his fingers around the handle.
Shane gripped onto his machete and Daryl grabbed onto Glenn's machete pro. The three men began to harshly step towards the three walkers. Rick repeatedly bashed his machete against a walker's skull with force while gritting his teeth. Shane placed his hand onto a walker's shoulder and drove his machete through the center of a walker's head and Daryl snuck up behind the last standing walker in the room and whipped the machete pro across its head.
The three now dead walkers fell to the floor lifelessly as Rick and Shane continued to beat the crap out of them, even though they were for sure already dead. Quickly, Kloe stepped into the room and searched down the pews in hope to find the little girl, but no one else was here.
"Sophia!" Rick screamed, bursting open a side door and briefly checked outside. Kloe felt the all too familiar lump in her throat and tried her best to swallow it down. Sophia was definitely not here, even if they checked over and over, there was no chance.
"Yo, J.C," Daryl spoke up, making Kloe snap her head upwards away from the currant red carpet and saw Daryl eyeing the cross, "you taking requests?"
Shane promptly walked over to his best friend, who was breathing heavily with frustration, "I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple," he turned his hazel eyes to my dark brown ones, "Klo, you must've gone in the wrong direction. You lead us all to the wrong church-"
The man was interrupted by the bells ringing, and they weren't from a different church, it was for sure that one. But how could it be possible? Shane was right, there was no steeple. Daryl instantly rushed outside, budging past the group that was herded around the entrance.
Kloe immediately followed him, her curiosity getting the better of her. The rest of the group followed as they hurried down the steps and made their way to the side of the building. A hole formed inside her chest at the sight of a blaring speaker. In the depths of the tension, Kloe watched Glenn speed over to the circuit breaker panel, pulled it open and yanked out a wire, causing the ringing to suddenly stop.
Daryl unhurriedly turned around, raising the machete pro that was still in his grasp and pointed to the speaker, "A timer. It's on a timer," he panted in between his words. Glenn and Kloe stared into each other's eyes for a moment before his gaze switched to the wiring in his palm.
"I'm gonna go back in for a bit," Carol's voice cracked as she hesitantly departed from the group and inside the church. Everybody else began to follow the woman except Glenn, Zayn, Kloe and Andrea.
Zayn stepped over to stand by his sister's side as she crossed her arms over her chest, that same hole still there. "I'm sure we will find her soon," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder for comfort.
...
Andrea decided to sit outside, so the Schmidt siblings walked away to let her have some alone time. The siblings noticed Glenn in the distance, his back pressed up against the bark of the tree. He had his machete pro back and was stabbing it into the dirt.
Without hesitation, the siblings made their way over to him to see why he wasn't in the church with everybody else. Glenn, who heard their presence, whipped his head over to them and gently waved, "Hey, guys," he called out.
"Hey," Zayn replied, crouching down and sitting next to his best friend. "Why are you out here and not inside?"
"I could ask the same thing," Glenn noted, his eyes transferring between theirs. His forehead was damp from the heat and humidity and the skin on his arms was covered in dirt. The elder Schmidt didn't reply since it wasn't a question. "It's calming and it's away from everyone, you know?" Glenn answered.
"Oops, did we disturb your alone time too?" Kloe asked, feeling slightly guilty for invading everyone's peace and quiet.
"No, no. When it's you guys, it's good. I know you guys. But the others, I still don't know much about them. We've only known them for what? A month and a half?" Glenn explained, sending a small smile between the siblings.
"Damn, I'm flattered," Zayn stated, a teasing side smile on his face. "It's so peaceful out here, but I'd do anything to hear the traffic go past on the highway again," he admitted, bringing his knees up to his chest.
Her legs beginning to grow tired, Kloe placed herself onto the grass opposite the two boys. "Of course you would," she chuckled, looking up at the sky. "Man, I forgot my friend and I booked a vacation for Spain."
"Oh shit, yeah. That must be a bummer," Zayn exhaled. They all stayed in a comfortable silence for a short moment before Glenn spoke up.
"My turn to ask why you guys aren't inside," Glenn stated, his eyes continuing to dart between Zayn and Kloe.
"Long story short, we're atheists," she answered simply. "We don't find it stupid that others believe in it though. We just don't believe it." Glenn nodded his head, acknowledging my short explanation. "If anyone God blesses us, we'll still take it to heart because it's a kind thing to do."
There was that same silence again; nothing but the birds singing in the tall trees and bugs flying in the air. To get in a more comfortable position, Kloe pressed her back against the ground and stared up at the leaves and branches.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Zayn spoke up, causing Kloe and Glenn's eyes to fall onto him. Zayn looked at his sister as if he knew, but her memory was blank so her brows furrowed, "You really don't remember the things you used to do at our old house in Florida?" Her memory still didn't blurt out the specific memory Zayn was looking for. "Oh, c'mon," he sighed, "Well, this reminds me of when we lived in Florida, we had this small cottage in the middle of nowhere. I remember looking out of my bedroom window seeing Kloe sitting underneath a tree with her guitar in her arms."
"Oh, now I remember," his younger sister muttered, a wide smile plastering on all of their faces. "Say more. I want all the memories back. I miss Florida."
"Okay. I remember seeing Kloe having her guitar book in front of her, teaching her the ways of strumming the strings. At the time, she was going through this huge hair braiding phase. Her hair was long, touching the ground. Then at the top, you just see these braids that were connected to her head and would sway down from the curls. She had her favorite flower wrapped in between the braids too: a dandelion. She was obsessed with dandelions. Every time our family would go on walks, the second she saw one she would make this squealing noise and would; take it, wrap it in her hair or behind her ear, show it off then cry when it died."
"God, I miss being fifteen. But the way you explained that all made me seem eight," she snickered, sealing her eyes and imagined the now forever lasting memory.
"I forgot to add something: she would make the dandelions a funeral and bury it-"
"Okay, that's enough information," she instantly cut off her brother, knowing that much info sounded childish.
"Embarrassed now, are we?" Zayn teased, making his sister shoot him a quick glare, but it immediately turned into a small laugh. He laughed through his nose at her reaction before eyeing the ground and began thinking more. "What were you like at fifteen, Glenn?"
Glenn, who was smiling the whole way through the conversation, looked off into the distance and began to think, "Most of the time, I'd play video games on my dad's computer when I got home from high school. I only had a few friends in Michigan, so I wouldn't really go out with them or anything. My sisters would always barge into my room and annoy the crap out of me."
"You had sisters?" she asked, watching Glenn carefully as he nodded in reply. "Okay, sorry for interrupting, carry on."
"No, it's okay. My mom would always make this one meal I liked a lot. I can even imagine the taste now. I can't remember what it was called though, but it had chicken in it, which was the best part."
"If only our mom wasn't such a bad chef, we would understand what that feeling's like," Kloe chuckled, causing Zayn to nod in agreement. "Our mom almost set our cottage on fire once because I let a robin inside and it scared her. She spent around twenty minutes chasing the bird that she completely forgot about cooking food and by the time she remembered, the whole kitchen was on fire. It wasn't fun at the time, but if you turned it into a story and removed the part of the fire, I'm sure it would've sold millions of copies and be top for comedy."
"Uh-huh, I agree. Mom was really funny, but then once our dad died... Okay, let's not talk about that," Zayn breathed, thinking of something to change the subject. Kloe's teeth dug into her bottom lip with sadness. It was that easy to simply replace a good, funny mood to a really awkward one with just a few words.
"Dad would always chase Zayn around with a mask on and he screamed like a little girl-" Kloe cut herself off with a snort at the memory. "I was seven, Zayn was nine. When our dad cleaned out our drawer from a few years back, he found a really creepy mask that he wore for halloween when I was a toddler and it scared Zayn a little. So dad would chase him around and scream saying, 'mom! Help! There's a monster-' He would cut himself off with a scream when he looked over his shoulder and saw dad basically on his ass."
Zayn's hand flew to his face in embarrassment, "This is so unfair. I tell Glenn all the nice things about you, and then you tell him everything embarrassing about me-" he was cut off by his younger sister's snorts again as a laugh escaped her lips. "What's funny now?"
"Sorry, I just have all the funny memories in my head," she laughed again, causing her older brother and Glenn to smile.
The three of them continued to share more humorous memories until they noticed the group making their way towards them. In an instant, the three best friends stood up and turned their laughs into serious looks since they all knew that there wasn't going to be anything funny going on.
The sun was getting low, meaning it would be dark in the next few hours. Once the group got to the tree Zayn, Glenn and Kloe were sitting at, they told them to get ready because they were going to start moving again.
Kloe threw her quiver full of arrows over her shoulder and held tightly onto her bow. She lifted her head, noticing Shane walking over to Rick, who was pacing back and forth and stared into the woods. The two only took around thirty seconds before Shane made his way back to us.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat, causing everyone's attention to settle onto him. "Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back. Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."
"You're splittin' us up. You sure?" Daryl questioned, his hand gripped tightly onto the strap of his crossbow.
"Yeah," Shane exhaled, "we'll catch up to you."
"I want to stay too," Carl spoke up, who stepped away from his mother and towards the two men, one of them being his father, "I'm her friend."
The two men looked at each other for a moment, but weren't gonna answer since it wasn't their call, it was his mother's. Lori stepped forward, tapping her son on his shoulder with a gentle smile, "Just be careful, okay?"
"I will," Carl replied.
Lori cupped her hands around Carl's young cheeks and stared into his blue eyes, "When did you start growing up?" she placed her hand onto his head and wrapped her other around his back, pulling him into an embrace.
Rick stepped over to his wife and pecked her lips quickly before wrapping his arms around her, "I'll be along soon enough," he softly said.
Glenn, Zayn and Kloe began to move ahead, but stopped as Kloe watched Rick hand Lori his gun, "Here, take this. Remember how to use it?"
"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed," she shook her head. Rick brought the gun to his waist at his wife's decline. Daryl stepped forward with a smaller gun.
"Here, got a spare. Take it," Lori took the gun from Daryl's hand. It wasn't long after that the group all started departing, entering the woods they were previously in.
...
They had been walking for around five minutes and no one said anything. Daryl was taking the lead, and Lori was at the back, checking often behind her. Glenn, Zayn and Kloe were only a few meters behind Daryl.
Kloe stepped over endless amounts of fallen branches and other things that were bound to be in the midst of the woods. "So this is it?" Carol spoke, sitting herself on the branch that we all stepped over, "This the whole plan?" They all turned around to face the woman as Daryl leaned his shoulder against a tree.
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl answered, adjusting his crossbow.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea added before turning her stoic face to Lori, who was unzipping her backpack for her water bottle, "I see you have a gun."
"Why, you want it?" she asked, stepping over the branch to get closer to Andrea. "Here, take it," she extended her hand that held the gun, "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Andrea rolled her eyes, which annoyed Kloe moderately, and took it. "All of you," Lori added before sitting on the same branch Carol was sitting on, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us except for maybe Kloe would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody?" She looked at the group for an answer, but none of them had that and stayed in silence. "Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you."
Everybody stayed dead silent. Some of them couldn't even take their eyes off the ground because of the amount of guilt that was growing in them. Lori drank a mouthful of her water before placing it back into her backpack.
Andrea stepped forward, returning the gun she was just given. Lori looked at Andrea's extended arm and took the gun from her hand. "We should keep moving," Andrea suggested, in a low, soft tone as everybody did as she said: move.
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Words: 4160
- 17th January 2022
I'm so sorry this took a week to release, but I've had a family member get COVID, so I've had to be there for them and everything! I promise the next chapter will be out within this new week.
Thanks for reading!