WHITE FLAG
chapter eighteen : chupacabra
{ season two - episode five }
JUST LIKE THE day before, some of the group all stood around the same car for a small meeting. The people surrounding the car were the strongest ones in the group, although Kloe didn't believe them when they said she was one of the strongest.
This time, it was Rick, Shane, Andrea, Daryl, T-Dog and Kloe standing around the car. The younger Schmidt glanced over her shoulder, noticing Lori and Carol were doing the laundry. She guessed Zayn was still sleeping, he told them that he couldn't get much sleep. Dale was most likely in his RV and Glenn was nowhere to be seen.
It was the next morning, a new day, and Kloe still had embarrassment rowing through her veins every time she stumbled past Maggie.
Rick pointed to a specific location on the map as she turned back around, "All right, everyone's getting new search grids today," he informed, his eyes switching between the five of them, "If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far."
Just as Shane opened the door to the passenger side of a car, the youngest Greene's boyfriend approached them, "I'd like to help." Simultaneously, they all looked up at the boy. He had his hands in his pockets. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."
"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick inquired quietly. It was quite plainly obvious that the boy had snuck out, but it wasn't the group's problem.
"Yeah, yeah," Jimmy replied instantly, lying through his teeth, "uh, he said I should ask you." Kloe stared at the boy unconvincingly, she only noticed that she was staring when the boy avoided eye contact with her, as if once he would look at her, something bad would happen.
Rick nodded, "All right then. Thanks." Jimmy nodded in response.
"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me," Shane spoke up, adjusting his shoes on his injured foot. "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."
"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea commented, shifting weight onto her other leg.
"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yea-high," Daryl stated, buttoning up his shirt.
"It's a good lead," Kloe added, nodding her head at what Daryl had said.
"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again," Rick suggested optimistically.
"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse," Daryl leaned forward, pressing his index finger against the map, "head up this ridge right here, get a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."
"Good idea," T-Dog nodded, impressed at the man. "Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."
The biggest silly grin formed onto the youngest Schmidt's lips as she held back a laugh, getting the memory of when Daryl told them a story the day Zayn, Glenn and her shortly arrived at the camp.
"Chupacabra?" Rick queried, his eyebrows raising with confusion.
"You never heard this?" Dale suddenly spoke up, placing a duffel full of guns on the hood. "The first night the three big kids arrived in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and saw a chupacabra," he handed a gun over to Rick as he finished his sentence.
Unexpectedly, Jimmy let out a small laugh, causing the attention to fall onto him. "What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asked, narrowing his eyes at the boy.
"So you believe in a blood-sucking dog?"
Daryl then became defensive, sticking out his chest and shoving his shoulders back, "Do you believe dead people walking around?" Jimmy just shrugged, unsure on what to respond with and reached out for the gun Rick had placed down.
"Hey, hey," Rick stopped him, "Ever fire one before?"
"Well, if I'm going out, I want one," he defended.
Daryl threw his crossbow over his shoulder and scoffed, "Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees."
Just as Daryl began to walk away, Kloe turned around at him, "Hey," he stopped and faced the girl over his shoulder. "Good luck," she quickly smiled.
Like always, he grunted as a response and continued to walk away. The rest of the group started to talk about gun training. As much as Kloe never wanted to use a gun in her life, despite the fact she used one the night the camp got overrun, she knew sooner or later she'd have to.
She departed from the group and tread away. She wanted to be far from the discussions, she wanted to be alone, she wanted to look up at the sky and have someone tell her it would be okay. So that's what she did. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared up at the cloudy sky.
It had some patches of clear blue sky, but most of it was just clouds unfortunately. Her shoulders dropped with disappointment, but she still continued to look at the sky. It still calmed her, even if it was just blank.
Kloe's ears suddenly got blessed with the sound of guitar strings strumming. Her head shot over to the direction it was coming from, and it was coming from Glenn. He had a guitar, one that was similar to her old one, an acoustic guitar, when she was fifteen, and was sitting on the porch steps.
A smile etched her lips and her body began to make its way over to the boy. As she came to a stop, it seemed he didn't notice the girl and he continued to strum his fingers against the guitar. Her face grimaced as she heard the guitar was out of tune.
"Want me to fix the tuning?" Kloe questioned, catching Glenn's attention which made him stop playing.
Glenn's eyes flickered between the guitar and Kloe's dark brown eyes, "It's out of tune? I thought it was just me playing it badly."
"Nah, I think you're quite good," she corrected, stepping up the few steps where Glenn sat. He was sitting near the top, so she sat a step behind him, "The guitar is ruining it though."
She extended out her arm, gesturing to the boy to hand the guitar over, which he did. Kloe softly smiled since it felt amazing to hold a guitar again. She hadn't held one in seven years, and all the memories came flooding back as she felt the shape in her palms.
Mindlessly, the same smile plastered onto her lips as she twisted the pegs. She repeatedly strummed one string at a time as she tuned the instrument, Glenn carefully watching while she did it. "How did you get this?" she asked as she continued to find the correct tune.
"Uh, Dale found it on the highway. Pretty cool," he answered, staring at the musical instrument. "It, uh, instantly reminded me of you."
A teasing grin formed on Kloe's lips as she looked up at him in the corner of my eyes, "How so?"
He shrugged, "Well, Zayn told me how much you liked playing the guitar when you were younger, so it reminded me of you."
The teased grin only grew bigger as the youngest Schmidt nudged his shoulder with her leg since she was on a higher step, "Saying that this beautiful instrument reminded you of me is the best compliment someone could give me. Thanks, Glenn."
A small smile tugged at his lips as he looked down at his connected hands in his lap. Clueless, Kloe watched him instead of fixing his new guitar. As if he could see that she was watching him, he lifted his chin up and faced her.
Trying not to look suspicious, she pursed her lips into a smile and shook away my stare. "Sorry," she apologized, "I don't know why I was staring. I was admiring your features, I guess?"
He nodded, a small smile plastering onto his lips. In the corner of the girl's eye, she could see that he was now watching her. She wondered if he was admiring her just how she was with him. Or maybe she was overthinking and he was just watching his wonderful guitar.
Okay, pull it together, Kloe. He's just some guy— wait, what? she thought to herself, grimacing at how cringy she was. She immediately shook away that thought and placed her attention back onto the guitar. Once she'd finished tuning the guitar, she politely handed it back to him, "Here."
Glenn took it out of Kloe's hand and strummed the strings. The calming sound calmed her. It seemed a lot of things calmed her down recently.
"Thanks," Glenn smiled brightly, "It sounds a lot better now."
As he mindlessly strummed the strings, creating a soothing sound, the pair stayed in complete silence. Silence, silence, silence. Everything was always silent. Not that Kloe minded of course. Silence is the best sound there was.
The second she noticed Glenn stopped playing the guitar, her head snapped upwards to face him and he was already looking at her. She stared back like a deer staring at the driver in the road, not bothering to move.
Glenn was thinking something, she could see it in his eyes. A playful grin plastered her lips as she nudged him on the arm with the back of her hand. "What're you thinking about?" she asked.
Glenn, brought out of his trance, stared at his best friend with his memorizing, chocolate brown eyes. Glenn's lips parted as words began to build up. "I- I wasn't thinking anything, I was just uh... admiring your features like you said before! Wait, that sounded weird-" The tease in the girl's face was taking over her whole expression at Glenn's scramble of words and waited for him to say more. "I- I don't know what to say. I'm lost."
Unable to hold back the laughter, a snort escaped Kloe's lips and her body froze. Her eyes drifted over to Glenn, who now had a wide smile. "Did you just snort?" he asked, biting his cheek to contain the laughter.
Reluctantly, she nodded, "We'll pretend that didn't happen," she told him firmly in a joking way. Her eyelids opened up a little more as she finally realized what had happened. "Oh wow, why am I always snorting now? Is that embarrassing or?" she questioned, rushing her words with worry.
Glenn shook his head as he chuckled, "No. I used to snort all the time with my friends."
Kloe nodded in acknowledgment. After that short, weird chat, Glenn went back to strumming the strings and Kloe watched him while he did it. They sat there for approximately twenty minutes, and Kloe still listened to Glenn's strumming. He wasn't even using chords, he was just strumming open strings. But she didn't mind it, she actually enjoyed it. It was peaceful and no one else was around.
Maggie had come out of her house at one point and Kloe had to move to let her though, but after that, she continued to listen to Glenn's strumming.
She even showed him some chords to make it sound like you're playing a song, but he still didn't do it and called it 'complicated'. So she let him do what was best for him.
They both knew that they probably should've helped out the others, but instead they were messing around with a guitar. She didn't mind though, and Glenn didn't either. They were happy. It was the emotion that hadn't been in the girl for what felt like years. Even before the whole apocalypse began, she wasn't this happy.
Yes, there were times when she was happy, but this was a different happiness that she couldn't comprehend. She was confused as to why it felt differently. She was only with Glenn. A best friend that was once her brother's but still is. Kloe hadn't ever felt that type of happiness. It was strange to her. But she liked it.
She was happy to have that happiness sitting within her.
...
"You're finally awake," Kloe said, watching her older brother exit his tent. It was afternoon, and he was now only leaving his tent. "Daryl's gone out to look for Sophia with a horse."
Zayn squinted his eyes at the bright light. "I've been awake for ages. I've had things running through my mind, that's all," he informed.
The younger Schmidt's eyebrows knitted together. "What's wrong?" she asked with concern in her tone.
He shook his head, "Don't worry. It's nothing for you to worry about."
Not wanting to leave him, he walked away and left his younger sister by herself. Everyone had been doing something, even Glenn. He'd left the guitar on the porch steps and walked around the field. Everything was going through people's minds. As much as Kloe's curious self wanted to figure out what it was, she needed to respect their privacy and left them to it.
The mood that was lapping between Glenn and Kloe when he was attempting to play the guitar quickly changed and he no longer had a smile on his face. Instead, it was a frown and she didn't know why.
That's when he left, not saying a word. No matter how many times she called out to him, he didn't listen and walked away. Who knew why her brother and her best friend had been acting like that. But like before, she needed to respect their privacy and let them get on with it.
Since she had nothing to do, Kloe's eyes drifted over to the camping seats underneath a big tree. Subconsciously, her body began to make its way over. She plopped herself down in the chair as she looked over to the side and spotted Andrea. She was on top of the RV on watch, and Dale had just entered it.
She sent the blonde woman a quick smile, which she returned and went back to looking out into the distance. As Kloe looked down at her palms, she unexpectedly heard muffles coming from the RV. Her head slowly moved towards it and her first instinct was to move closer to it. So that's what she did.
She scooted to the seat beside her so she could hear, and it worked. Her eyes widened slightly to the sound of Glenn's voice, "Sorry. Just returning your book."
"Oh, no. I'm sorry," Dale breathed, pausing for a moment and grabbed hold of the book, "If I had known the world was ending, I'd have brought better books."
There was then nothing but quietness, and Kloe only heard the sound of movement until Glenn spoke up again, "Uh, Dale, do you think Andrea's on her period?" Kloe's face scrunched up and continued to stare at the ground. "I- I'm only asking 'cause it's like all the women are acting really weird. Well, maybe except Kloe, but everyone else. And- and I read somewhere that when women spend a lot of time together, their cycles line up and they all get super crazy and hormonal at the same time."
With shock, Kloe's lips parted and her brows furrowed. There was no way Glenn actually believed that, right? "I'm gonna advise you to keep that theory to yourself," Dale stated quietly.
Glenn chuckled, "Yeah."
"Who else is acting weird?" Dale then asked.
"I- I don't know. I've just seen that nearly all the women had been acting weird, even Maggie," he answered, stuttering on his words slightly.
"Ah, Maggie."
"Yeah, she came over to speak with me this morning, then started talking to me about Kloe, then her mood just changed instantly and started being weird," he explained, causing the youngest Schmidt to be more invested in the conversation. "I don't even know what's going on with Lori."
"What's going on with Lori?" Dale questioned.
Kloe's teeth dug into her bottom lip and her eyes squinted shut and the same words repeated in her mind, don't tell him, Glenn. Don't tell him, Glenn. Don't tell him, Glenn.
"Nothing. I don't know." Kloe let out a silent breath with relief.
Dale chuckled, "All right, let's take this back a step. You keep mentioning Kloe and it's running through my mind consistently. Was everything all right between you two? I saw you both were very nervous when you looked at each other at the CDC. Did anything happen?"
Kloe's heart then fell into the pit of her stomach and hoped that Glenn didn't say anything. Although, it wouldn't be too bad if he told Dale. It wouldn't have been better if he went ahead and told Rick or someone.
Glenn didn't reply for a few moments, that's when Kloe knew he was gonna tell him. "Um, we, uh, we got drunk..." he trailed off, not saying the next part because it was clear that Dale would've easily guessed.
"Oh, son, you didn't." There it was, Dale now knew what had happened between Glenn and Kloe and embarrassment ran through her veins. "Did it ever occur to you how Zayn might feel about this? All he does is protect her and I'm not exactly sure how he would react if he found out his best friend had sex with his younger sister."
"She's twenty-one," Glenn defended. "Twenty-two," he corrected, knowing that her birthday was in September and it would've definitely passed.
"He's still very protective of her."
"He doesn't know."
Kloe's heart was practically thumping out of her ribcage at the tension. "Well, see that it stays that way," Dale paused, "What were you thinking? Look, it has nothing to do with me what you and Kloe do, I'm just trying to ask why, knowing well what the boy would do."
"I was thinking... that I might be dead when he finds out."
"Shit," she mouthed, completely forgetting what her brother's reaction would be if the pair ever told him. The sound of movement in the RV caused her to shoot up from her seat and scurry over to do something a bit further away.
She crouched down, pulling out her knife and picked up a twig. She began scraping the twig against the blade, making a swoosh sound. In the corner of her eye, she spotted Glenn stepping out of the RV.
She glanced upwards at him, forcing a smile as she continued to scrape the twig against her knife. He stared solemnly for a few seconds, then smiled in return. Her heart was still thumping out of her chest as she looked at the ground, only to have her head snap back up to Andrea's shouts, "Walker. Walker!"
The youngest Schmidt quickly stood up and trod over to the side of the RV, trying to get the view of the walker. "Just the one?" Rick inquired as he stepped closer, bringing his hand to his eyebrows to cover the sun.
Andrea, who had binoculars brought up to her eyes, stared at the walker approaching the group. "I bet I can nail it from here," she placed the binoculars on the surface and picked up her gun.
"No, no, Andrea," Rick shook his head, "Put the gun down."
Kloe peered over her shoulder, her hand gripping tightly onto her knife, and looked at T-Dog, Shane, Zayn and Glenn grab a weapon. They all stepped towards them, coming into the light.
"You'd best let us handle this," Shane told firmly, a pickaxe in his hand, his cap in the other. T-Dog was beside him with a metal baseball bat in his hand. Completely dumbstruck by the situation since the thoughts of what happened with Dale and Glenn running through her mind, Kloe stared at everyone.
Rick raised his hand at Shane and took a few steps closer to him, "Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with the walkers." Kloe's eyebrows furrowed deeply, what would Hershel do to them other than kill them? The only way to deal with them is to kill them, there wasn't another way.
"What for, man?" Shane brushed past him, harshly stepping a meter closer to the walker in a millisecond. "We got it covered."
Kloe felt a hand hold her shoulder, making her jolt and look at the person. "Stay here, okay?" Zayn stared into his sister's eyes briefly before following the others. She nodded instantly, not in the mood to argue back with him.
Dale stood on the ladder that was connected to the back of the RV, getting a better view into the distance. Rick ran into the RV and grabbed his gun, muttering out 'damn it' in the process as he sprinted past Kloe.
She heard the gun Andrea was holding click, meaning she was going to try and shoot at it. Her head shot up to the blonde woman as she peered through the sight, aiming the rifle into the distance. "Andrea, don't," Kloe stated firmly, but she only ignored the girl. She knelt down so she could aim better. "Seriously, Andrea. Stop."
"Andrea, listen to her, don't," Dale shook his head, not taking his eyes off the walker.
"Back off, the both of you," she snapped back. Kloe's hands began to shake beside her waist with worry. Her brows then furrowed when everyone lowered their weapon and the walker came to a stop.
She exhaled with relief when she saw the figure clearly. It was Daryl, he just had some sort of blood around his chin. She knew he wasn't a walker, since everyone would've attacked him by now.
"Phew, it's only Daryl-" she instantly got cut off by Andrea releasing the trigger, the bullet flying across the field, sending Daryl backwards. He fell to the ground and Rick frantically yelled the word 'no.'
Kloe's head snapped up to her, and she smiled triumphantly. "Andrea!" she snarled, catching her full attention, but she still had the proud smile across her face. "That was Daryl!" Andrea's once proud smile flipped over to worry, Rick's repetitive yells in the distance.
"Rick!" a scream, most likely Lori's came from the direction of the farmhouse. Kloe's head whipped around and she saw everyone who was inside now rushing out.
"What on earth's going on out here?" Hershel's eyes darted between Kloe, Dale and Andrea, waiting for an answer.
None of them answered, instead, Dale and Andrea hopped off the RV and began sprinting towards the field, Kloe following behind them. The long grass hit against their lower half of their legs as they ran as fast as they could.
"Oh my God," Andrea panted, "Oh my God, is he dead?" There were soft whimpers in her voice, and Kloe couldn't imagine how much guilt was in her emotion, but it seemed there was a lot.
Kloe stopped to take a few breaths and looked up at Glenn and Zayn, who were surprisingly both looking at her. She broke away the stare and looked at Daryl and examined his appearance. He had blood and dirt practically all over him and... ears wrapped around his neck?
"Unconscious," Rick answered, his arm wrapped around Daryl's shoulder and Shane on the other side, both dragging him across the lengthy grass, "You just grazed him."
"But look at him," Glenn pointed, "What the hell happened? What- He's wearing ears."
Rick hesitated for a second before ripping them off of the unconscious man's neck and stuffed it in his t-shirt, "Let's keep that to ourselves."
"Guys," the group all stopped dead in their tracks as they all turned around to face T-Dog, who was holding up a dirtied up doll, "isn't this Sophia's?"
Kloe began holding onto her breath, shocked that Daryl actually managed to find something that belonged to the young girl out there. But how did Daryl manage to find her doll but not her? Kloe would've thought Sophia would've never let go of the only thing she had.
Sophia was still out there. Daryl almost got himself killed trying to look for her, but he still came back by himself.
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Words: 3787
- 11th February 2022
i wouldn't exactly call this a filler chapter, but i wouldn't call it an important one either lol